HIS LIFE
After seeing the Mesilas Yeshorim, the Vilna Gaon said that if the Ramchal were still alive he would travel across Europe by foot to learn from his wisdom. Unfortunately, the Ramchal, who lived a short life, filled with persecution and suspicion, was niftar when the Vilna Gaon was just seventeen and the two never met. About Mesilas Yeshorim, he said, “This book is witness to the greatness of its author, and his extraordinary vision of the human potential for elevation...”
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There are certain lives that are inherently captivating, and Rav Moshe Chaim Luzzatto’s was certainly that. Born in Padua, Italy in 1707 to wealthy parents, he took to literature and Torah studies early on. In fact, that early interest in literature served his writing style well throughout his life, and his Torah studies formed the basis of his literary output.
He obviously mastered all of Tanach, Talmud and all sorts of rabbinical commentaries and halachic codes, as one can see by his profuse and authoritative quotations from traditional sources throughout his writings. And he also acquired a profound command of Kabbola since he was known to have memorized all the writings of the Ari when he was fourteen.
Rav Moshe Chaim Luzzatto was a talmid of one of the greatest Rabbonim and Mekubolim in Italy at the time, Rav Yeshaya Bassan, from early on to age fifteen, when Rav Bassan left Padua to fill his father- in-law’s rabbinical position. Rav Bassan’s father-in-law was the great Mekubol Rav Binyomin HaKohen, who was himself a talmid of the famous Mekubol, Rav Moshe Zacuto. So Ramchal’s teachings clearly followed the path of a well-known kabbalistic tradition. Ramchal himself some profound meetings with Rav HaKohen at the end of the latter’s life in which he discussed his own kabbalistic insights. We will cite one of Ramchal’s revealing letters to the elder Mekubol shortly.
At age seventeen, Ramchal joined a small, clandestine group of pietists known as Mevakshei Hashem (“Seekers of Hashem”). Among the things they demanded of their members, aside from devout and altruistic allegiance to Torah study and mitzva observance, was that each member commit himself to a set and inviolable study schedule that was solely dedicated to the well-being of the Jewish Nation and to Tikkun HaShechina (the rectification of the Divine Presence in the world). The entire group especially concentrated on an around-the-clock study of the Zohar, with each member taking his turn, and the next in line starting his course of study some fifteen minutes before the previous member ended his (as the one following him started his study session fifteen minutes beforehand) to ensure a smooth flow of study. Ramchal received semicha (formal ordination) at age nineteen, while yet a member of Mevakshei Hashem.
The phenomenon that most especially defined his life was the series of occasions that a Maggid (a Heavenly Agent) appeared to him and provided him with direct instruction, starting at age twenty. While the experience itself was personally uplifting and enlightening, and allowed Ramchal the sort of profound insights that affected his works (and even provided the very wording in several instances), it also led to the great and terrible polemic that plagued him for years and nearly closed off his works from us.
We will now quote from the remarks of a talmid of Ramchal, Rav Yekusiel Gordon, made in a letter about some of these appearances to a leading Italian Rav, when the Ramchal was twenty-two:
“There is a young man here, tender in years, (who) is a holy man: my master and teacher...Rav Moshe Chaim Luzzatto. For these past two and a half years a Maggid has appeared to him...who reveals wondrous mysteries to him... With the approval of the Holy One, blessed be He and His Shechina, the Maggid ordered him to compose a Book of the Zohar, called in Heaven ‘The Second Zohar’...
“This is what happens (when the Maggid, referred to here as “the angel”, appears): The angel speaks out of Ramchal’s mouth but we, his talmidim, hear nothing. The angel begins to uncover great mysteries to him. Then my master orders Eliyohu to come to him, and he comes to uncover mysteries of his own. Sometimes, Metatron, the great prince, also comes to him, as well as the Faithful Shepherd (Moshe), our forefather Avrohom, Rav Hamnuna the Elder,...the Moshiach, and Odom...
“To sum up, nothing is hidden from him. At first, permission was only granted (from Heaven) to reveal to him the mysteries of the Torah, but now all sorts of things are revealed to him. But no one outside our circle knows of it... As he has demonstrated to all, no one before him has had this kind of merit since the time of Rav Shimon bar Yochai (the mechaber of the Zohar).”
Ramchal himself spoke of the revelations, among other things about himself, in one of his letters to Rav Binyomin HaKohen, whom we cited above.
“Hashem, who is righteous and who searches all hearts, is my witness in Heaven and my testimony on high as to why I have kept (my revelations) secret from your honor... But now that the matter is public knowledge... I am very pleased to hear that you know of it... (and) I am especially glad to know that your honor, in his goodness and integrity, accepts it as true and reliable... “G-d-fearing people come to me every day to hear the new things that Hashem tells me. Many young men who had once walked in the vain ways of young people have now, thank Hashem...returned to Hashem, and come to me to receive Tikkunim (rectifications) for their (past) deeds.
“At this time Hashem...wished to reveal a new light (to the world) in the category of the Zohar... He chose me for this in His mercy. If you were to ask me about the kind of preparations (I engage in to deserve this), what could I say? The truth is that it has come about through Hashem’s love alone and has little to do with my preparations for it. Nonetheless, it is also true that I have been zealous for years about reciting Yichudim
