Question:
It is written in sefarim hakedoshim that the main task of a person on this world is to work on middos (character improvement). Why is this so? If Hashem has made this the main part of our task, why is it so far from reach of most people? For many years a person can go through all kinds of difficult tests in serving Hashem, as in the verse “Because I have fallen, I have risen”, and only after falling so many times does a person merit becoming close to true tzaddikim, where he can then learn the ways of avodah and he begins to do inner work. Fixing our middos is our main obligation on this world, as the Gra says, that if a person doesn’t break his negative character traits, there is no purpose in living. So if it is our main purpose on this world, why is it made so difficult? Why is it so difficult to understand the middos, and why is it difficult to actually change them?
Answer:
The world is called “olam”, from the word “he’elam”, “concealment”, which has the same letters as the word amal, exertion. There is a verse, “For this is all of a person, for exertion he was born.” The more inner a matter is, the more concealed it is. The innermost point of the truth is concealed. This is a person’s entire exertion on this world, in his avodah – to reach this point of truth. Only those who really seek the truth will reach it. That is why it is so concealed from people, because “Not everyone who wants to take the name [the honor] can take it” – only those who truly seek truth.
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