Moshe Chaim Luzzatto

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Life: 1701-1746

Home: Italy

Works: Derech Hashem (& 40+ other books)

Buried: Tiberias, Israel

            Luzzatto was a master of biblical Hebrew, as well as art, music, poetry, and the sciences.

            Penned major works of poetry and plays while still in his teens.

            Was born soon after Shabtai Tzvi’s life and the chaos he caused.

            At age 20, Luzzatto claimed to have been visited by an angel, which created great controversy among the leading rabbis of his day.

            Due to persecution from these rabbis, Luzzatto moved to Amsterdam to continue his studies and writing.

             500+ would attend his teachings.

            Luzzatto moved to Israel three years before he and his family died in a plague.

Excerpt from Derech Hashem (“The Way of God”):

The rule that the Community of the Future World be restricted only to those who attained perfection in their own right is therefore not absolute. For it was also decreed that an individual can reach a level where he can partake of perfection and be included in this Community as the result of his association with a more worthy individual…Because of this, the number who are saved from annihilation and allowed the ultimate bliss is maximized…Suffering and pain may be imposed on a tzaddik as an atonement for his entire generation. This tzaddik must then accept this suffering with love for the benefit of his generation, just as he accepts the suffering imposed upon him for his own sake. In doing so, he benefits his generation by atoning for it, and at the same time is himself elevated to a very great degree…Such suffering also includes cases where a tzaddik suffers because his entire generation deserves great punishments, bordering on annihilation, but is spared via the tzaddik’s suffering. In atoning for his generation thorough his suffering, this tzaddiksaves these people in this world and also greatly benefits them in the World-to-Come…God arranged matters, however, so that select perfect individuals could rectify things for others, as discussed earlier…Individuals such as these, however, are themselves perfect, and are therefore worthy only of good. The only reason they suffer is because of others… They can therefore not only rectify their own generation, but can also correct all the spiritual damage done from the beginning, from the time of the very first sinners.

1 John 2:1  My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Yeshua HaMashiach – the  Tzaddik. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

(See also Romans 5:14-21)