Ralbag al ha-torah

Hakdama Part 1

Blessed and most revered be God, foundation of all existence, whose “insight” (T'vunaso) , “wisdom” (chochmaso) and “knowledge” (Da’ato) bring into being, a system of existing things, whose existence exhibits a wisdom and grace which none but He can completely apprehend.

Praised be the creator, who, because of the desire to benefit the creations and facilitate their maturation, directed His hashgacha upon these lowly beings, developing them through the appropriate stages climaxing with the emergence of mankind.

This hashgacha is not limited to the magnificence of man’s anatomy and physical abilities by which his physical existence is maintained, but rather extends to guiding man along the path of mental development- the one true fruit of human existence for whose sake alone lowly material reality is endowed with tzura to the extent that it is. We refer of course to the divine Torah, which is a regimen that orders those who practice it properly to true success.

Biur D'varim:

Questions:

1) What is the logical objective of the first part of the hakdama to peyrush ha-Ralbag?

Answer:

As we established in the introduction to "Derech tevunot" the trained thinker's strategy is to seek principles that are beyond the obvious, in a model of the world other than that of experience. There are specifically two types of principles that he seeks:

a) First principles that are prior to the subject- those needed to formulate the potential for the subject itself.

b) Proximate principles that are needed to see how the first principles relate to the inyanim of the subject as it actually exists.

The first subject of the Chumash is the fully realized or the excellent man. The hakdama sets up the first principles of Torah needed for there to be such a thing as the excellent man. The rest of the Ralbag moves toward establishing the proximate principles needed to apply the first principles to the various inyanim of the fully realized man.

According to Ralbag, the first principle needed for the excellent man is the of the lawful Creation for the prior Chochma of its Creator. This prior Chochma is musag by in the musagim in two dimensions:

a) As a highest "principle" insofar as the musagim combine into the highest uber system of a unified "universe".

b) As the "hashgacha" underlying the development of excellence of organization of each individual musag.

c) Man as a part of the creations has an excellence in his own human framework IE the minds hasaga of the Chochma expressed in the musagim.

In the world of our experience we compartmentalize Chochma as being expressed in the world "out there" in physics, chemistry and biology. We do not think of it as applying to us-the human world. If we did believe in the full extension of Chochma why would we not seek our natural excellence? How could we possibly believe in the foolishness of pursuit of our own chosen ends? The first principle of Ralbag then de-compartmentalizes Chochma. He formulates a sense of Chochma as it extends to the totality of nimtzaim- man included. It is only in a real world with this extended sense of Chochma that a potential inyan of excellence for instruments of Torah to facilitate.

The first principle of mitzvot then is not something about the inyanim of the subject of mitzvot. Rather the first principle is about something prior to mitzvos from which the potential for inyanim of mitzvos could arise- an extended chochmas hashem..

Questions for comment

1) Based upon this first principle what would the purpose of mekomos be?
2) Based upon this first principle what would the purpose of stories up to Sinai be?
3) Based upon this first principle what would the function of the aseres hadibros be?