(Mystical recitations of particular Divine Names). I perform a different Yichud practically every fifteen minutes, and I do this even now, thank Hashem... And the Creator now uses me as the instrument for the fulfillment of His purpose.”
He then went into further detail as follows:
“On the first of Sivan in the year 5487 (1727), as I was reciting a certain Yichud, I fell into a trance. When I awoke, I heard a voice saying, ‘I have descended in order to reveal the hidden secrets of the Holy King.’ For a while I stood there trembling, but I soon took hold of myself. The voice kept on speaking and revealed a particular secret to me.
“At the same time on the second day I made sure to be alone in the room, and the voice reappeared to reveal another secret to me. One day he revealed to me that he was a Maggid sent from Heaven and he gave me certain Yichuddim that I was to recite in order for him to appear again.
“I never saw him but I did hear his voice as it spoke through my own mouth. He then allowed me to ask him questions. After about three months he revealed to me the Yichuddim I would have to recite to be worthy of having Eliyohu reveal himself to me. He then charged me to compose a work on Koheles on the basis of the mystical meaning of its pesukim that he had revealed to me, and Eliyohu came and imparted his own secrets to me. (The Maggid) said that Metatron, the great prince, would be coming to me and that I would know that it is he because of what Eliyohu had said. From then on I came to recognize each of my visitors. Souls whose identity I know are also revealed to me. Each day I write down the new ideas each of them imparts to me. All these things happen while I lie prostrate, with my face to the ground, and I see the holy souls in human form as in a dream.”
Word of these revelations came to the Rabbonim of the time, and while many of them were effulgent in their praise of the young Mekubol, some others (of great prominence) were flabbergasted by the idea of so young a person being privy to such revelations, and they did all they could to stifle him.
As dumbfounding as the thought of denying Ramchal’s brilliance and the level of his revelations appear to us now, it was rooted in something quite rational. For only some hundred years previously, the false Messiah, Shabbesai Tzvi (d.1676) had wreaked havoc throughout the Jewish world, and nearly undid the foundations of Yiddishkeit, G-d forbid. The entire Jewish community was still reeling from the experience in Ramchal’s time and beyond. The whole matter is a subject unto itself, but suffice it to say that the leaders of Ramchal’s generation were rightly leery about a new false Messiah and any more subsequent threats to our people.
Some rather unkind things were said about Ramchal, though his defenders did laud his trustworthiness as well as his piety. A great deal of Ramchal’s correspondences from that time and later have survived, and it is thus evident that despite and throughout it all, he defended his experiences stoutly while maintaining his lofty perch. In any event, threatened with excommunication, Ramchal swore not to transmit the Maggid’s revelations or teach Kabbola.
He left Italy for Amsterdam in 1735, and while passing through Germany he appealed to the rabbinical authorities there to advocate for him to the Italian Rabbonim. They refused and instead forced him to sign a statement denouncing his own experiences. Most of his writings were burned, though some did survive.
He was able to pursue his studies of Kabbola relatively unhindered while in Amsterdam, and was accepted as a great man there. Earning a living as a diamond cutter, he continued writing but refused to teach. It was in this period that he wrote his magnum opus, Mesilas Yeshorim (Path of the Just), as well as Derech Hashem (the Way of Hashem), Da’as Tevunos (Knowing the Reasons) and more.
A major rabbinic near-contemporary, who praised Ramchal’s writing was Rav Eliyohu of Vilna, the Vilna Gaon (1720-1797), the most authoritative Torah sage of the time who was also a great Mekubol. He is reported to have said after reading Mesilas Yeshorim, that were Ramchal still alive, he (the Gaon) would have walked from Vilna to learn at his feet.
The holy Maggid of Mezritch (Dov Ber, the successor to the Ba’al Shem Tov) also praised the “Chassid of Padua” and his works to the Chassidim. And to this day, Ramchal is praised from all corners of the Jewish world as a great mystic, moralist, teacher, Tzaddik and writer.
He left Amsterdam for Eretz Yisrael in 1743 and settled in Acco. A few years later, he and his family died tragically in a plague, and he was buried near Rav Akiva in Teverya.
May the memory of the righteous be a blessing for us all!
Text Copyright © 2007 by Rav Yaakov Feldman and Torah.org.
