Da’at Tevunot 1:10 (# 40 [end] – 42)
1.
Let’s reiterate the secrets of the universe we’ve been privy to so far since they’re so wide-ranging and challenging, and go so far to explain how things work. And besides, seeing this all laid out plain will remind us of just who we are at bottom and what’s expected of us.
In general it comes to this: G-d “wanted from the first to reveal His Yichud” (His utter sovereignty), as Ramchal puts it, which is to say, to demonstrate that nothing whatsoever can thwart His wishes. And He established that as the underpinning of all of reality 1.
He first purposefully concealed His Yichud, though, which then allowed for wrong and injustice to exist; but once He will have revealed it, all wrong and injustice will be undone 2. G-d thus presented us with the mission of perfecting ourselves 3 within the period of time between the concealment and revelation of His Yichud.
2.
Now, all this not only has countless ramifications for our day-to-day, to say nothing for our eternal lives, it also affects all of reality. For, “once G-d decided to follow this path”, i.e., of first hiding His Yichud and allowing for wrong and injustice, then revealing it and undoing all of that, “He then provided the space”, i.e., the environment and wherewithal, for all of us “to achieve true perfection” Ramchal asserts.
That means to say that now that this dynamic has been set in place it follows that everything functions in accordance with it, that this is the essential universal pattern, and that it offers us the means to grow and reach our full potential as G-d wants us to.
In any event, knowing this, we can now understand how the world is at once deeply flawed, chaotic, and puzzling by all appearances, yet it was made to be perfect, structured and comprehensible.
At bottom, though, we’re assured that G-d will indeed reveal His sovereignty in the end either with or without human intervention 4, we’ll eventually no longer need free will, and that we’ll have earned our eternal reward 5 and the universe will have achieved perfection.
Footnotes:
1 See 1:3,4,6,7.
2 See 1:6,7,8.
3 See 1:1,2.
4 See 1:8,9.
5 See 1:1,7.
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon “The Gates of Repentance”, “The Path of the Just”, and “The Duties of the Heart” (Jason Aronson Publishers). His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.