The View from the Other Side
On Parshas Va'eschanan, Moshe's prayer, and the controversial life of the Ramchal
The accompanying shiur is available on the Orthodox Union's parsha learning app: All Parsha.
Moshe has already been told he will not enter the Land of Israel. Now, in the final year of his life, he and the Jewish People stand on the brink of entering the land. The People will cross over without their beloved leader.
But Moshe is not willing to accept his fate.
He pleads to God, "Please let me cross the Jordan River and enter the Land of Israel!"
It is one of the most heartbreaking scenes in the entire Torah—an urgent prayer after fate has already been sealed. God even demands that Moshe stop praying.
“Enough!” God tells Moshe. “Never speak to Me of this matter again!”
Moshe is allowed to see the land, even though he is forbidden from entering. Yehoshua is charged with leading the Jewish People into the land.
If Moshe already knew he would not be able to enter the Land of Israel, why did he insist on praying anyway?
And what exactly is God’s answer? “Please stop praying”? It doesn’t seem like Moshe’s prayer accomplished much. So what is the significance of recording these unanswered prayers in the Torah?
To understand the significance of Moshe’s prayers, let’s explore the life and controversy surrounding Rav Moshe Chaim Luzzato, known by the acronym Ramchal.
Rav Moshe Chaim Luzzato, the Ramchal, is a figure of many dimensions—his legacy is remembered in diverse ways throughout Jewish history. For most, within the traditional Jewish community, he is remembered as the author of Mesilas Yesharim, a classic work of mussar (traditional Jewish ethics) studied in batei medrashim (houses of Torah study) throughout the world.
In fact, the Ramchal cannot be pigeonholed into any discipline—he wrote poetry, mysticism, mussar, ethics, philosophy, and logic. His work transcended any particular community—his legacy was embraced deeply by many leaders of the Jewish Enlightenment. The fact that his work Mesilas Yesharim has become so associated with the mussar movement and the traditional Yeshiva world is almost comical given that his original vision for the work was very anti-establishment. And, as we shall explore, his works and writing attracted a tremendous amount of controversy and criticism within his lifetime. In many ways, the Ramchal as his memory is preserved today was only created many years after his untimely passing at the age of 39 in the year 1747.
The central controversy surrounding the Ramchal began on Rosh Chodesh Sivan, which corresponds to the date May 21, 1727, when the Ramchal claimed he was visited by a divine maggid, a spiritual guide of sorts. He recorded the following in his diary:
It occurred on ... [May 21, 1727] as I was immersed in one yihud. I fell into a slumber, and upon awaking I heard a voice saying 'I am descending to reveal the hidden secrets of the Holy King.' For a short while, I stood trembling, then I revived myself. The voice did not cease, but revealed a secret to me. The next day, at the same time, I tried to be alone in the room, and the voice returned with another secret, until it revealed to me that it was a maggid sent from Heaven. He taught me private yihudim upon which to meditate in order to procure his presence. I could not see him, only his voice spoke through my mouth, and later he gave me permission to ask things of him. After three months, he gave me private 'tikkunim' to perform each day in order to merit the revelation of Elijah. Then Elijah appeared and announced ... that [Metatron] the grand minister [of Heaven] would appear ... From that time, I recognized each one, although sometimes souls revealed themselves to me whose names I did not know.
A mystical fraternity began to form around the Ramchal. As a young teenager, he had been a part of a mystical fraternity led by his teacher Rav Yeshaya Mordechai Bassan, called Mevakshei Hashem, Seekers of God. Now that the Ramchal was privy to a divine maggid, many gathered around him, each member signing a Shetar Hiskashrus (שטר התקשרות), a contract of unity.
Rav Luzzato felt the Torah he disseminated within his mystical fraternity would help usher in the redemption. Far beyond just sharing the same first name, the Ramchal identified very deeply with the character of Moshe. When he got married in August of 1731, mystical significance was attributed to his wife Tzippora, who shared the same name as the wife of the Biblical Moshe. For entertainment at the wedding, members of his fraternity performed a skit about the apocalyptic war of Gog and Magog. His Ketuba, which is reproduced and translated by Isaiah Tishby in his book, Messianic Mysticism: Moses Hayim Luzzatto and the Padua School, was deeply mystical and included allusions to a wedding with the Shechina (the Divine Presence) so to speak.
The Ramchal’s cosmic messianic ambitions did not ingratiate him to the rabbinic establishment. In fact, the Ramchal was openly critical of the rabbinic establishment, which he saw as prioritizing their own Torah studies over the redemption of the Shechina. He was critical of his own rebbe, Rav Bassan, for abandoning the more mystical approach to Torah study. “What pleasure can we give our Creator,” the Ramchal asks his rebbe, “with great pilpulim and many codes?” Simply put, the Ramchal looked at most rabbis as simply not getting it. As Professor Elisheva Carlebach, whom I personally merited to study with, describes in her article, “Redemption and Persecution in the Eyes of Moses Hayim Luzzato and his Circle:”
Luzzatto stated his belief that the pedantic rabbis had become peripheral to the effort of securing redemption.
The antagonism escalated to outright contempt, once a letter describing the activities of the Ramchal fell into the hands of the rabbinic establishment, the very leaders he was so openly critical of. The description is otherworldly:
The angel revealed to him the secret of causing the Academy on High to descend to him. It ordered him, with the approval of the Holy One, Blessed Be He, and the Shekhinah, to compose a book of splendor entitled Zohar Tinyana [New Zohar] for the great restoration [Tikkun] which is known among us ... At his command, Elijah appears immediately and reveals his secrets, as well as Metatron, [Moses] the Faithful Shepherd, grandfather Abraham, Rabbi Hamnuna the Elder, and the known Elder, and often, the King Messiah and primordial Adam. He has already completed a work on Ecclesiastes, marvelous indeed, and now he is commanded to compose seventy tikkunim on the verse 'and all the mighty arm,' the last verse in the Torah ... He has also composed three volumes on the Torah, all in the language of the Zohar. He knows the 'gilgulim' [transmigrations] and tikkunim [restorations] of every soul ... nothing is hidden from him ... No one knows of this except our group ... Moses and Metatron have shown that many verses that have been expounded to apply to R. Simon bar Yohai, author of the Zohar, can apply to him as well. They [Luzzatto and Bar Yohai] are comparable in every respect, as has become apparent to all, and no one has merited this distinction since the time of Bar Yohai.
When the contents of this letter fell into the hands of Rav Moshe Hagiz, one of the fiercest Sabbatean hunters in history, he was convinced that the Ramchal was under Sabbatean influences. The Ramchal almost welcomed the challenge. He was quite brazen when he first learned of the rabbinic opposition, proclaiming that he was privy to divine illumination that made whatever rabbinic power his critics possessed just beside the point.
At the heart of the rabbinic skepticism was the Ramchal’s claims of receiving divine illumination—speaking directly to the Divine Spirit. What gave this clean-shaven poet and mystic, the right to present himself as a leader of the Jewish People?
Are we to believe that the ancient sublime wisdom that has been hidden from all mankind has been restored through the Lord's illumination and influence? Or are we to assign him to the category of those who hold back the footsteps of the Messiah with their audacity? ... We will assume that all his actions and ways are misguided and we will deal harshly with him.
In their eyes, the Ramchal seemed to be claiming nearly a form of prophetic revelation. How could he achieve such a lofty experience? And, as they pedantically pointed out, prophecy can only be achieved in the Land of Israel, not in Italy. If it wasn’t divine prophecy, they reasoned, perhaps it was more sinister associations.
Rav Bassan hesitantly came to his student, the Ramchal’s defense. He knew the unique capacity of Rav Luzzato ever since he was a teenager and certainly, Rav Bassan did not dismiss out of hand the possibility that the Ramchal did, indeed, merit some sort of divine revelation. Even outside of Israel, Rav Bassan noted, there was precedent for such divine experiences. Rav Bassan writes:
וכבר היו לעולמים מלאכי צבאות מגידים ליחידי סגולה השרידים, הן זכרון לראשון וגם לאחרונים … ורבינו הגדול מוהריק”א [מורינו הרב יוסף קרא] ז”ל בחוץ לארץ היה עומד כשנגלה אליו המגיד העיר ניקוס”ל … והגאון הרמ”ע מפאנו פה העיר היה באמנה, כאשר ספרו לנו אנשי אמונה … והרב ‘מגלה עמוקות’ בעיר קראקא היה איתן מושבו כאשר כוח ה’ דבר בו
Daniel was not considered a prophet because he lived in Babylonia, yet his visions were accepted by tradition; Elijah appeared to the Amoraite R. Anan and taught him Seder Elijah Rabbah and Seder Elijah Zuta; he appeared in the Yeshivot of the Geonim as well. The Hasidim of Provence - R. Abraham ibn David and his disciples - also claimed to have had visitations from Elijah, on alien soil. R. Joseph Karo received his first maggidic revelation in Nicopolis, and R. Menahem Azariah Fano received it in this very city ... The author of Megalleh 'Amukot [Nathan Nata Shapira] lived in Cracow when the spirit of the Lord appeared to him, and AR"I was in Egypt when he received his call to the inner sanctum. Thus, the possibility existed in every time and place.
Privately, in correspondence with the Ramchal, Rav Bassan was more concerned about his mystical activities. “What differentiates you,” Rav Bassan asked his student, “from Nathan of Gaza, the prophet of Shabtai Zvi, how are rabbis supposed to know the difference?”
The Ramchal was frustrated—even his rebbe didn’t seem to fully understand his work. "All classical Kabbalah must deal with messianism,” the Ramchal responded to his rebbe, “it begins with the sin of Adam, then looks toward the restoration, the Messiah."
Rav Hagiz was not convinced. Even if the Ramchal did experience divine inspiration, such innovations were inherently dangerous for the Jewish community, especially in the wake of Sabbateanism, which continued to have clandestine influences within the Jewish community. On July 17, 1730, rabbinic leaders demanded that the Ramchal sign an oath disavowing the earlier teachings he heard from the maggid and promising to desist from sharing such ideas in the future.
The entire ordeal pained the Ramchal greatly. He decided to leave his hometown of Padua and move to Amsterdam near his brother. Once in Amsterdam, the Ramchal reassumed his mystical activities with increased fervor. He disregarded the oath he was forced to sign—the rabbinic establishment, in the eyes of the Ramchal, simply did not understand what he was trying to accomplish. The image of Moshe continued to recur in the Ramchal’s teaching and self-conception—just as Moshe had to flee to Midyan, so did the Ramchal. And just as Moshe received his mandate to redeem the Jewish people while Moshe was in exile, so too, once again, was it so in the life of the Ramchal.
In 1740, the Ramchal published his work Mesilas Yesharim, a classic work of mussar that continues to be studied today in yeshivos throughout the world. The broad acceptance of Mesilas Yesharim helped neutralize the controversies that brewed during the Ramchal’s lifetime. The fact that it is seen as a classic work of mussar, rather than an anti-establishment polemic advocating for a more individualistic approach to Jewish piety may be the greatest accomplishment of the Ramchal. As David Sclar argues in his incredible dissertation, “‘Like Iron to Magnet’: Moses Hayim Luzzato Quest for Providence,” the original manuscript for Mesilas Yesharim, which was structured as a dialogue, is far more critical of the rabbinic establishment than the beloved work studied in yeshivos. Sclar explains:
Luzzatto’s vision emphasized the individual’s relationship with God and respect for all facets of society, and he argued that members of the rabbinic elite were required to serve God by uplifting their surroundings and community with palpable spirituality. The book’s most biting and overt critiques of the rabbinate were excised from the printed edition…
Still, a careful read of Mesilas Yesharim betrays its iconoclastic goals. My rebbe, Rav Yisroel Kaminetsky, who first introduced me to the work in 9th grade, was fond of saying, “The greatest chiddush (innovation) of Mesilas Yesharim is its final paragraph.” There, at the very end of the 26th chapter of the book, the Ramchal insists that true religious piety can be apprehended by anyone regardless of their profession, status, or station in life. The Ramchal writes in the closing of Mesilas Yesharim:
וְזֶה פָּשׁוּט כִּי כָּל אָדָם לְפִי הָאֻמָּנוּת אֲשֶׁר בְּיָדוֹ, וְהָעֵסֶק אֲשֶׁר הוּא עוֹסֵק, כָּךְ צָרִיךְ לוֹ הַיְשָׁרָה וְהַדְרָכָה, כִּי דֶּרֶךְ הַחֲסִידוּת הָרָאוּי לְמִי שֶׁתּוֹרָתוֹ אֻמָּנוּתוֹ אֵינוֹ דֶּרֶךְ הַחֲסִידוּת הָרָאוּי לְמִי שֶׁצָּרִיךְ לְהַשְׂכִּיר עַצְמוֹ לִמְלֶאכֶת חֲבֵרוֹ, וְלֹא זֶה וָזֶה דֶּרֶךְ הַחֲסִידוּת הָרָאוּי לְמִי שֶׁעוֹסֵק בִּסְחוֹרָתוֹ, וְכֵן כָּל שְׁאָר הַפְּרָטִים אֲשֶׁר בְּעִסְקֵי הָאָדָם בָּעוֹלָם, כָּל אֶחָד וְאֶחָד לְפִי מָה שֶׁהוּא רְאוּיִים לוֹ דַּרְכֵי הַחֲסִידוּת, לֹא לְפִי שֶׁהַחֲסִידוּת מִשְׁתַּנֶּה, כִּי הִנֵּה הוּא שָׁוֶה לְכָל נֶפֶשׁ וַדַּאי, הוֹאִיל וְאֵינֶנּוּ אֶלָּא לַעֲשׂוֹת מָה שֶׁיֵּשׁ נַחַת רוּחַ לְיוֹצְרוֹ בּוֹ.
It is evident, that each individual needs correction and guidance according to his particular trade and occupation. For the way of Piety appropriate for one whose occupation is [full-time] Torah study is not the way of Piety for one who needs to hire himself out to work for his fellow. Nor are these two the way of Piety appropriate for one occupied in business. Similarly for all other various affairs of human beings in the world. Each person according to who he is, will be the ways of piety suitable for him. This is not because Piety varies, for it is certainly equal for everyone, since piety is nothing more than doing what is pleasing to one's Maker.
Rav Eliezer Katzman, a consultant and appraiser of rare Jewish books, wrote an overview of the life of Rav Nosson Nata Shapira, the Megaleh Amukos (1585-1633) that elaborates on the influence of his mystical works on the thought of the Ramchal. Interestingly, he notes that a poem that was appended to the work Megaleh Amukos was actually incorrectly attributed to the Ramchal, when in fact it was written by the son of the Megaleh Amukos. The Ramchal looked towards Rav Shapira, the Megaleh Amukos, as a model for someone who had achieved divine revelation even in exile. As mentioned, when the Ramchal was being persecuted for his claims, Rav Bassan specifically invoked the legacy of the Megaleh Amukos as a defense for his student. On the grave of Rav Shapira, it is written that it is said about him that he spoke to Eliyahu the Prophet face to face. If the Megaleh Amukos experienced such divine revelations in exile, who is to say the Ramchal did not as well?
In 1743 Rav Moshe Chaim Luzzato left Amsterdam for the Land of Israel. He died there 3 years later in 1746 from a Cholera outbreak at the age of 39. On his gravestone is the verse, “For your salvation I await, O Lord.”
And this brings us back to our parsha.
Rav Nosson Nata Shapira’s work Megaleh Amukos is a collection of 252 mystical interpretations of Moshe’s prayer to enter the Land of Israel. The number 252 is derived from the numerical value of God’s response “רב לך” demanding that Moshe stop praying.
Why spend so much time interpreting a prayer that was not fulfilled?
In a sense, the underlying purpose of all of Moshe’s prayers is embodied in the very life and legacy of the Megaleh Amukos and his influence on the Ramchal. Moshe wanted to show the Jewish People that even in exile, even on the other side of the border from the Promised Land, even when you don’t receive the life you so desperately pray for, connecting to the divine is still possible. Even in exile, even without revealed prophecy, we can still experience divine revelation.
And perhaps this is why this parsha is always read the week of Shabbos Nachamu. The Shabbos that follows Tisha B’av is called Shabbos Nachamu, the Shabbos of comfort, and the parsha of Va’eschanan is always read. What comfort can be found in a story where Moshe’s prayer is not answered?
The comfort is not in God’s answer but in the possibility of prayer even in exile.
Rav Yonason Eybeschutz asks, what is the need for the prophet to comfort the Jewish People if we have already been redeemed from exile? The comfort of נחמו נחמו עמי is not for the time of redemption, Rav Eybeschutz explains, but for our pains in exile.
נחמו נחמו עמי. אמ"ו פירשו דודאי אם יבא הגואל צדק ב"ב אין צריך להתנחם לישראל כי הם מתנחמים בביאת הגואל. ואולם זו הנחמה האמורה. נאמרה על הגלות המר הזה שינחמו ישראל בגלותם.
Our distance from God in exile does not mean we cannot discover divine presence. Even on the other side of a closed door, we can continue to speak to one another.
Shabbos Reads — Books/Articles Mentioned
The Pursuit of Heresy: Rabbi Moshe Hagiz and the Sabbatian Controversies, Elisheva Carlebach
Redemption and Persecution in the Eyes of Moses Hayim Luzzato and his Circle, Elisheva Carlebach
‘Like Iron to Magnet’: Moses Hayim Luzzato Quest for Providence, David Sclar
The Alleged Sabbateanism of Rabbi Moshe Hayyim Luzzatto, Batya Gallant
Ramchal: Ethicist, Poet, Philosopher, Mystic, Renaissance Man, Josh Rosenfeld
Messianic Mysticism: Moses Hayim Luzzatto and the Padua School, Isaiah Tishby
The Rise of the ‘Ramhal’: Printing and Traditional Jewish Historiography in the ‘After-Life’ of Moses Hayyim Luzzatto, David Sclar
הגאון הקדוש מאור הגולה, המקובל האלקי, מוהר”ר נתן נטע שפירא זצ”ל— בעל מגלה עמוקות, Eliezer Katzman
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Reading Jewish History in the Parsha has been generously sponsored by my dearest friends Janet and Lior Hod and family with immense gratitude to Hashem.
Just listened and printed this out to look over again on Shabbos. This was fascinating and there was a real discernible passion in the audio. Thank you.
Hot off the press, heal with prayer book reading and commentary:
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