QUESTION:
What is the concept of “choosing to have yediah” (choosing to believe that Hashem knows everything already)?
ANSWER:
A: There is a well-known issue discussed in the Rishonim: Did Hashem “pre-set” everything that will happen, since He does everything and will do everything without exception? Or is this limited by the choices that we make with our free will (bechirah), and Hashem doesn’t interfere with our free choice and He lets people do as they wish (being that He created a novelty, Creation, in which He allows man to also be in control, as it were)? There are 2 parts to free will – a lower part and a higher part. The lower aspect of free will is that Hashem left over an area for man to choose. There is also a higher aspect of free will, in which man choose the foreknowledge (yediah) that Hashem knows and does everything, and in this way, bechirah serves as a bridging point to yediah. Hashem gave man free will to “choose” who will be in control: “Do I choose for Hashem to be in control, or am I choosing that I will be in control?”
Now let’s explain this in deeper terms. In the future, Hashem will be One and His Name will be one, and there will be no more free will. The yediah, which is above bechirah, will be revealed. The simple understanding of this matter is that from then onward, man will no longer have free will. But the deeper way to understand it is that it will become revealed “retroactively” that Hashem was in control, and not man. Therefore, one can choose right now to have that revelation in which Hashem is completely in control from now and onward, and also retroactively.
These are really 2 stages of choosing. According to the first way that we explained, our free will is to choose either bechirah (free will) or to choose to have yediah (foreknowledge of Hashem). According to the second way mentioned, our choice is if we will choose to connect ourselves to the revelation of the future, in which it becomes from then onward and also retroactively that only Hashem is in control of everything, and therefore we are choosing right now to let Hashem take over “retroactively.”
Q: Does that mean that one has to choose to live in such a way [in which he lets Hashem run his life and he is not the one choosing anything]?
A: It means to choose to connect yourself to that level, and then be default you will be living like that. Meaning to say, this is not a way to act in the active sense. It just means that you connect yourself, truly, to that level, and that is exactly the bechirah that we have. The word “choose” is בחר (bachar), from the word חבר )chibur), connection. We can “connect” ourselves through our bechirah, to the level of the future in which there is no bechirah. It is not a decision of how you will “act”, it is rather a decision of becoming inwardly connected to the state of the future [where Hashem is running everything].
Q: What about if a person has gained the light of yediah and being that he knows that Hashem is running everything, he doesn’t daven as much and he doesn’t get emotional anymore when he davens, he’s just calm and serene all the time because he knows that Hashem is running everything? Is such a person acting in the wrong way?
A: There is always a concern that when a person gains a high level of light (in this case, the light of yediah), his “container”, his body and his animal soul which are meant to house the light, will misinterpret the light. In this case, the body and animal soul can misinterpret the concept of yediah as “Since Hashem is running everything anyway, I can be lazy”, and he allows his emotions and heart to become hardened like a stone. This is not because he has emunah, it comes from turning his heart into a heart of stone that doesn’t feel. The danger of using a high level of light when the container isn’t yet pure (whether his body or animal soul isn’t purified) is not a problem at the root (the high level of light) but a problem with the branches that are below on the world (the person’s body and animal soul), which will use the high level of light for its own self-serving purposes.
Here is a simple, clear example. On Shabbos, there is menuchah (serenity), a person doesn’t work on Shabbos, so he rests. From the inner perspective, a person rests on Shabbos because he is connected to the fact that Hashem rested on Shabbos. But it’s clear and simple that most people aren’t on this level, and they sleep on Shabos simply because it’s pleasant for them to sleep. The animal soul of a person enjoys sleeping on Shabbos, and this is no different than if a person would be sleeping during the weekday, except that now he’s sleeping on Shabbos. Now, if a person is in touch with the G-dly spark in him, he is serene on Shabbos because Hashem rested on Shabbos. But a person isn’t found at this level entirely. A big part of his motivation is coming from his body and animal soul which use the serenity of Shabbos for self-serving purposes. This is an example of a high level of light – in this case, the serenity of Shabbos – which is misused by the “containers” that are below on the world – the body and animal soul – and using the light for the exact opposite of its intended purpose, to gratify the body instead of the soul.
Q: So what is the solution to this problem?
A: To give a general definition, a person has to be engaged at such a time with “opposite movements” at once, to make sure that he gives up some small percentage of his self-serving motivations. If he doesn’t do this, he will completely misuse the intended purpose of the light. He has to go a little bit “against” the reality of the body and animal soul. So for example, when sleeping on Shabbos which he enjoys to do, he should try to minimize a bit of his sleep on Shabbos with the conscious intention that he wants to uproot the pleasure of the animal soul in this act.
Q: And how can a person get himself to daven with more feeling when he feels very relaxed that everything’s okay because Hashem is running everything – how can he push himself to daven more, and with feeling?
A: The same idea. He should daven about something he needs, even though he knows that from the perspective of emunah he doesn’t need to daven for it. He should daven, so that his “animal soul” will be able to get what it needs. So the rule is that whenever a person is making use of a high level of light (i.e. the serenity of Shabbos, or a very high level of emunah) and his body or animal soul isn’t purified enough, the higher the light is, the more of a danger there is, and his body or animal soul will misuse the light for its own purposes.
Q: And that will make him become a lazy person?
A: Yes, because he is being aided by a high level of light and his lower aspects are misinterpreting the light and using it for its own convenient purposes.
Now, there are also people who do not have any light at all, but they imagine that they do have a lot of light. This is a deeper issue – they are delusional about what level they are on. But even if a person does have light and he’s making use of it, in most cases, the person hasn’t purified himself enough so he’s not able to use the light properly. And this is a common error which is found by ovdei Hashem (those who serve Hashem with great devotion), where they do have a connection to inner perceptions and high levels of light, which is good – but they are making heavy use of the light and they don’t restrict it, and it becomes to their detriment. It ruins their lower aspects. We can sometimes see people who are on a very high level, but then they fall into bad middos or they stumble in areas where it’s difficult to grasp how such a thing could happen to a person on such a high level – after all, this is a person who has higher perceptions. The answer to this is because they are using the high level light but they didn’t yet purify their baser aspects, and they had thought that they were aligned with the high level of light while in reality it was only “surrounding light” (ohr makif) to them which didn’t yet enter them. Their lower aspects use the high level of light for self-serving purposes. A high level of light is only permissible to “see them alone” [just as it is said of the Menorah lights] and not to use them for personal benefit.
Q: What is the way for people who have gained high levels of light but it hasn’t yet penetrated into them – how can they absorb the light properly? A person can be learning all kinds of topics of a very high level, and suddenly he falls into bad middos like when he’s home with his family, or he falls into all kinds of unbefitting behavior for him. So what can a person do to allow the light to get fully and properly absorbed into him, to affect him at his deepest levels?
A: Raboseinu have a term, “There will always be a part that remains which is not pure.” Whenever we discuss growth, we are always discussing how we can minimize this impure part that remains. We can’t explain how to reach a state where there are no traces of impurity in us at all. But part of the difficulty is – here’s an example – people will make use of certain concepts that are of a very, very high level of avodah, and this awakens even their baser aspects to reach these high levels. This is either because they reach higher levels of “recognition”, or because their emotions were deeply touched by the concept they learn about and make use of, and then it seems to the person that even his lower, baser aspects are also aligned with these high level concepts. But he is fooling himself.
What the person really needs to do is to take on small resolutions in order to go against his nature. He should not be only making use of high level concepts that are from higher worlds. “The older ones must warn the younger ones” – the word “warn” is from the word zohar, which also means to “shine”, meaning that the radiance of a high level of light, which is like the ‘adult’, can be shined onto a lower level, but as for the lower level itself, which is like a ‘child’, the lower level (the person himself, who is below on this world and receiving the light from above) has to take on very simple resolutions, as if he is a simple person who doesn’t know of any of these higher perceptions. Of course, the higher perceptions can help a person effectively take on these small resolutions. But practically speaking, he must continue to keep to these small resolutions that he will take on, so that he can purify his lower aspects (his animal soul).
As an example of this, the sefarim of Raboseinu teach that even if a person has the higher level of fear of Hashem, which is called yiras haromemus (awe of His exaltedness), one should still not let go of his fear of punishment. Although the higher and more desired level is to be in awe of Hashem’s exaltedness, this doesn’t have as much as an influence on the “animal soul” as the simple fear of punishment does. This is a very clear example of the concept here. We can use this fundamental concept when it comes to any area of avodah. A person always has to take on very small points of practical improvement, anything that’s within his reach right now to start working on, so that he can reach the more immature parts of his soul and improve them.
There are those who feel, “I’m involved with such high matters, I don’t need to work on these small little things.” But this is like a person is involved with doing great chessed for people, so he feels that giving someone a little cup of water is not called doing chessed. There has to always be the little things that we do that we’re able to start with, and we must always be doing these little acts of improvement which anyone on any level can do. This point is very, very, very fundamental. People who skip this point and try to get around it, they’ll fall into behavior that’s beneath their stature, even if they’re on a very high level and they understand very deep things.
There was a well-known story where the Netziv was showing his yeshivah in Volozhin to the Alter of Kelm, and suddenly the Netziv started to cry out of deep emotion for his yeshiva that was so dear to him. The Alter of Kelm quipped at him, “If this was someone else’s yeshiva, would you also be crying?” I am not chas v’shalom saying the Netziv did anything wrong, I am just saying this story to bring out the point that the Alter of Kelm was saying to him. It is relevant to any person who benefits many people. He has to always suspect himself that maybe all the pleasure he’s getting from the Torah being learned in the yeshivah that he runs, maybe it’s all coming from some negios [a personal self-serving interest that’s subtle and hard to be conscious of].
In order to counter this problem, one needs to take on small resolutions so that he can go against any subtle negios that he may have. An example which Raboseinu bring is that if a person writes a sefer and then he publishes it and he receives his first copy, he should wait a few days so that he doesn’t quickly give in to his enjoyment of seeing his new sefer. Why? Because maybe when he’s enjoying the sefer, he’s not enjoying the truthfulness of the words of the sefer, rather he’s enjoying the pleasant feeling that it was him who published and printed this sefer. Although he knows that the sefer is good, he should suspect himself that maybe his lower and baser aspects, his “animal soul”, is somehow misusing his enjoyment for self-serving purposes. So he has to do one small thing to go against that possible fallacy of human nature. There are so many more examples that we can give of this, but the idea of it is very clear.
Q: Is it really enough for this to just to do one small little action of improvement…?
A: One small little action, by itself, is of course not enough. But if we keep repeating that one small little action, again and again, from a deep awareness that we want to uproot the baser aspects in our animal soul (nefesh habehaimis), this will gradually purify our animal soul. Even if a person is the greatest person in the world, he must never stop doing these small little acts of improvement, and he must do it on a regular basis. To emphasize – this is not something to do every here and there, it has to be done consistently.
As an example, the Alter of Kelm, on the day of his death, wanted to get out of bed to drink a cup of water. He was very weak, but he forced himself to get out of bed. He said, “I suspect that that the reason I’m not getting up to get the cup of water is because I’m being lazy.” He said that this on his day of death, where he was certainly very weak, and not only that, but it’s known that he had always been physically weak, even before that. Even on his day of death, he suspected that his lack of strength is coming from laziness, so he went against it. Any other person in such a situation would say to himself “I’m not that thirsty”, or “I’m so immersed in my avodah that I don’t need to drink right now” – who would suspect himself on his day of death that he’s being lazy? After a person has reached all his high levels, he still has to keep doing small things to go against any unrefined aspects that he may still have.
However, there’s also another error that people make. People may think that they should just remain with small little points to work on, and they don’t aim to go higher. They remain with a low level of improvement and they’re satisfied with that. This is the opposite kind of problem than what we’ve been describing until now. On one hand, a person has to aim for the Heavens, to be like the ladder footed on earth that reached into the Heavens, but after one’s head is in the Heavens, he must make sure that he is keeping his small acts of improvement, and he must continue doing this until his last day on earth. No matter how high a person reaches, he must always remain with his small resolutions of improvement that he takes upon himself – they should be very small, practical acts of improvement, and he must do them consistently, and it must be an inseparable part of his life.
Q: Is this because the nefesh habehaimis (animal soul) is always unrefined?
A: The nefesh habehaimis is never completely refined, and if we sometimes let it remain completely unrefined and we don’t try to improve it all, its unrefined aspects will fester and gets worse.
Q: Is it only resolutions of improvement that help us overcome our unrefined aspects? Or can a person just learn mussar for this or use other ways?
A: Learning mussar is helpful either if a person learns it calmly and he is arriving at certain recognitions of matters from it, or, if he is learning it aloud and with passion, as Reb Yisrael Salanter introduced, and this is a method that can awaken one’s feelings. However, if we just remain with inspiration alone, the animal soul loses its inspiration eventually. Reb Yisrael Salanter said that every time a person learns mussar with excitement, it is penetrating more and more into his soul, like water dripping on a rock which can eventually shatter the rock. But, this is not enough. A person also needs to do actions of improvement. Just like we can’t suffice with our intellectual insights alone, and just like we can’t remain with inspiration alone. We need to be enlightened, we need to be inspired, and we also need to act in the practical sense. Only actions of improvement will uproot negative behaviors. An enlightening thought or ideal isn’t able to uproot a negative behavior, and even a powerful emotion cannot totally uproot a negative behavior. In order to uproot a negative behavior, we need to do an actual action, even if it’s something very small. And in fact, this is the depth of all wisdom, when it’s able to penetrate into even the tiniest action. A person is the entire spectrum, from the highest level down to the lowest level. Certainly one has to place his head in the Heavens [to enlighten his mind with Torah insights and learning about all the high levels described in the sefarim], but one also has to have his ladder footed on the earth, where it will reach all the way down to the tiniest details. Of course, the main thing is not these tiny little details, the main thing is the greatness [that we learn about and which we try to reach], but within all of this striving for greatness, we must never leave behind the small little acts of improvement that we have to keep doing regularly.
Q: Why can’t learning mussar with emotion and passion be enough for this? Why does a person need to also do actual acts of improvement?
A: Action is a power of the body, and emotions and thoughts aren’t able to counter actions. Actions have to be countered with actions. Even learning mussar passionately will not be enough to do it, though it will certainly affect a person for the better and inspire him to act better. But the ‘final-hammer blow’ of really being improved can only happen when one is engaging in acts/behaviors of improvement in order to counter his acts/behaviors that are negative. Passionate emotions and inspiration is not enough to improve one’s actions/behavior.
Q: So [in order for a person to improve his negative behaviors] a person has to act in a way that goes against his personal natures and dominant elements?
A: Exactly. That’s as true as can be.
Now let’s explain this in deeper terms. In the future, Hashem will be One and His Name will be one, and there will be no more free will. The yediah, which is above bechirah, will be revealed. The simple understanding of this matter is that from then onward, man will no longer have free will. But the deeper way to understand it is that it will become revealed “retroactively” that Hashem was in control, and not man. Therefore, one can choose right now to have that revelation in which Hashem is completely in control from now and onward, and also retroactively.
These are really 2 stages of choosing. According to the first way that we explained, our free will is to choose either bechirah (free will) or to choose to have yediah (foreknowledge of Hashem). According to the second way mentioned, our choice is if we will choose to connect ourselves to the revelation of the future, in which it becomes from then onward and also retroactively that only Hashem is in control of everything, and therefore we are choosing right now to let Hashem take over “retroactively.”
Q: Does that mean that one has to choose to live in such a way [in which he lets Hashem run his life and he is not the one choosing anything]?
A: It means to choose to connect yourself to that level, and then be default you will be living like that. Meaning to say, this is not a way to act in the active sense. It just means that you connect yourself, truly, to that level, and that is exactly the bechirah that we have. The word “choose” is בחר (bachar), from the word חבר )chibur), connection. We can “connect” ourselves through our bechirah, to the level of the future in which there is no bechirah. It is not a decision of how you will “act”, it is rather a decision of becoming inwardly connected to the state of the future [where Hashem is running everything].
Q: What about if a person has gained the light of yediah and being that he knows that Hashem is running everything, he doesn’t daven as much and he doesn’t get emotional anymore when he davens, he’s just calm and serene all the time because he knows that Hashem is running everything? Is such a person acting in the wrong way?
A: There is always a concern that when a person gains a high level of light (in this case, the light of yediah), his “container”, his body and his animal soul which are meant to house the light, will misinterpret the light. In this case, the body and animal soul can misinterpret the concept of yediah as “Since Hashem is running everything anyway, I can be lazy”, and he allows his emotions and heart to become hardened like a stone. This is not because he has emunah, it comes from turning his heart into a heart of stone that doesn’t feel. The danger of using a high level of light when the container isn’t yet pure (whether his body or animal soul isn’t purified) is not a problem at the root (the high level of light) but a problem with the branches that are below on the world (the person’s body and animal soul), which will use the high level of light for its own self-serving purposes.
Here is a simple, clear example. On Shabbos, there is menuchah (serenity), a person doesn’t work on Shabbos, so he rests. From the inner perspective, a person rests on Shabbos because he is connected to the fact that Hashem rested on Shabbos. But it’s clear and simple that most people aren’t on this level, and they sleep on Shabos simply because it’s pleasant for them to sleep. The animal soul of a person enjoys sleeping on Shabbos, and this is no different than if a person would be sleeping during the weekday, except that now he’s sleeping on Shabbos. Now, if a person is in touch with the G-dly spark in him, he is serene on Shabbos because Hashem rested on Shabbos. But a person isn’t found at this level entirely. A big part of his motivation is coming from his body and animal soul which use the serenity of Shabbos for self-serving purposes. This is an example of a high level of light – in this case, the serenity of Shabbos – which is misused by the “containers” that are below on the world – the body and animal soul – and using the light for the exact opposite of its intended purpose, to gratify the body instead of the soul.
Q: So what is the solution to this problem?
A: To give a general definition, a person has to be engaged at such a time with “opposite movements” at once, to make sure that he gives up some small percentage of his self-serving motivations. If he doesn’t do this, he will completely misuse the intended purpose of the light. He has to go a little bit “against” the reality of the body and animal soul. So for example, when sleeping on Shabbos which he enjoys to do, he should try to minimize a bit of his sleep on Shabbos with the conscious intention that he wants to uproot the pleasure of the animal soul in this act.
Q: And how can a person get himself to daven with more feeling when he feels very relaxed that everything’s okay because Hashem is running everything – how can he push himself to daven more, and with feeling?
A: The same idea. He should daven about something he needs, even though he knows that from the perspective of emunah he doesn’t need to daven for it. He should daven, so that his “animal soul” will be able to get what it needs. So the rule is that whenever a person is making use of a high level of light (i.e. the serenity of Shabbos, or a very high level of emunah) and his body or animal soul isn’t purified enough, the higher the light is, the more of a danger there is, and his body or animal soul will misuse the light for its own purposes.
Q: And that will make him become a lazy person?
A: Yes, because he is being aided by a high level of light and his lower aspects are misinterpreting the light and using it for its own convenient purposes.
Now, there are also people who do not have any light at all, but they imagine that they do have a lot of light. This is a deeper issue – they are delusional about what level they are on. But even if a person does have light and he’s making use of it, in most cases, the person hasn’t purified himself enough so he’s not able to use the light properly. And this is a common error which is found by ovdei Hashem (those who serve Hashem with great devotion), where they do have a connection to inner perceptions and high levels of light, which is good – but they are making heavy use of the light and they don’t restrict it, and it becomes to their detriment. It ruins their lower aspects. We can sometimes see people who are on a very high level, but then they fall into bad middos or they stumble in areas where it’s difficult to grasp how such a thing could happen to a person on such a high level – after all, this is a person who has higher perceptions. The answer to this is because they are using the high level light but they didn’t yet purify their baser aspects, and they had thought that they were aligned with the high level of light while in reality it was only “surrounding light” (ohr makif) to them which didn’t yet enter them. Their lower aspects use the high level of light for self-serving purposes. A high level of light is only permissible to “see them alone” [just as it is said of the Menorah lights] and not to use them for personal benefit.
Q: What is the way for people who have gained high levels of light but it hasn’t yet penetrated into them – how can they absorb the light properly? A person can be learning all kinds of topics of a very high level, and suddenly he falls into bad middos like when he’s home with his family, or he falls into all kinds of unbefitting behavior for him. So what can a person do to allow the light to get fully and properly absorbed into him, to affect him at his deepest levels?
A: Raboseinu have a term, “There will always be a part that remains which is not pure.” Whenever we discuss growth, we are always discussing how we can minimize this impure part that remains. We can’t explain how to reach a state where there are no traces of impurity in us at all. But part of the difficulty is – here’s an example – people will make use of certain concepts that are of a very, very high level of avodah, and this awakens even their baser aspects to reach these high levels. This is either because they reach higher levels of “recognition”, or because their emotions were deeply touched by the concept they learn about and make use of, and then it seems to the person that even his lower, baser aspects are also aligned with these high level concepts. But he is fooling himself.
What the person really needs to do is to take on small resolutions in order to go against his nature. He should not be only making use of high level concepts that are from higher worlds. “The older ones must warn the younger ones” – the word “warn” is from the word zohar, which also means to “shine”, meaning that the radiance of a high level of light, which is like the ‘adult’, can be shined onto a lower level, but as for the lower level itself, which is like a ‘child’, the lower level (the person himself, who is below on this world and receiving the light from above) has to take on very simple resolutions, as if he is a simple person who doesn’t know of any of these higher perceptions. Of course, the higher perceptions can help a person effectively take on these small resolutions. But practically speaking, he must continue to keep to these small resolutions that he will take on, so that he can purify his lower aspects (his animal soul).
As an example of this, the sefarim of Raboseinu teach that even if a person has the higher level of fear of Hashem, which is called yiras haromemus (awe of His exaltedness), one should still not let go of his fear of punishment. Although the higher and more desired level is to be in awe of Hashem’s exaltedness, this doesn’t have as much as an influence on the “animal soul” as the simple fear of punishment does. This is a very clear example of the concept here. We can use this fundamental concept when it comes to any area of avodah. A person always has to take on very small points of practical improvement, anything that’s within his reach right now to start working on, so that he can reach the more immature parts of his soul and improve them.
There are those who feel, “I’m involved with such high matters, I don’t need to work on these small little things.” But this is like a person is involved with doing great chessed for people, so he feels that giving someone a little cup of water is not called doing chessed. There has to always be the little things that we do that we’re able to start with, and we must always be doing these little acts of improvement which anyone on any level can do. This point is very, very, very fundamental. People who skip this point and try to get around it, they’ll fall into behavior that’s beneath their stature, even if they’re on a very high level and they understand very deep things.
There was a well-known story where the Netziv was showing his yeshivah in Volozhin to the Alter of Kelm, and suddenly the Netziv started to cry out of deep emotion for his yeshiva that was so dear to him. The Alter of Kelm quipped at him, “If this was someone else’s yeshiva, would you also be crying?” I am not chas v’shalom saying the Netziv did anything wrong, I am just saying this story to bring out the point that the Alter of Kelm was saying to him. It is relevant to any person who benefits many people. He has to always suspect himself that maybe all the pleasure he’s getting from the Torah being learned in the yeshivah that he runs, maybe it’s all coming from some negios [a personal self-serving interest that’s subtle and hard to be conscious of].
In order to counter this problem, one needs to take on small resolutions so that he can go against any subtle negios that he may have. An example which Raboseinu bring is that if a person writes a sefer and then he publishes it and he receives his first copy, he should wait a few days so that he doesn’t quickly give in to his enjoyment of seeing his new sefer. Why? Because maybe when he’s enjoying the sefer, he’s not enjoying the truthfulness of the words of the sefer, rather he’s enjoying the pleasant feeling that it was him who published and printed this sefer. Although he knows that the sefer is good, he should suspect himself that maybe his lower and baser aspects, his “animal soul”, is somehow misusing his enjoyment for self-serving purposes. So he has to do one small thing to go against that possible fallacy of human nature. There are so many more examples that we can give of this, but the idea of it is very clear.
Q: Is it really enough for this to just to do one small little action of improvement…?
A: One small little action, by itself, is of course not enough. But if we keep repeating that one small little action, again and again, from a deep awareness that we want to uproot the baser aspects in our animal soul (nefesh habehaimis), this will gradually purify our animal soul. Even if a person is the greatest person in the world, he must never stop doing these small little acts of improvement, and he must do it on a regular basis. To emphasize – this is not something to do every here and there, it has to be done consistently.
As an example, the Alter of Kelm, on the day of his death, wanted to get out of bed to drink a cup of water. He was very weak, but he forced himself to get out of bed. He said, “I suspect that that the reason I’m not getting up to get the cup of water is because I’m being lazy.” He said that this on his day of death, where he was certainly very weak, and not only that, but it’s known that he had always been physically weak, even before that. Even on his day of death, he suspected that his lack of strength is coming from laziness, so he went against it. Any other person in such a situation would say to himself “I’m not that thirsty”, or “I’m so immersed in my avodah that I don’t need to drink right now” – who would suspect himself on his day of death that he’s being lazy? After a person has reached all his high levels, he still has to keep doing small things to go against any unrefined aspects that he may still have.
However, there’s also another error that people make. People may think that they should just remain with small little points to work on, and they don’t aim to go higher. They remain with a low level of improvement and they’re satisfied with that. This is the opposite kind of problem than what we’ve been describing until now. On one hand, a person has to aim for the Heavens, to be like the ladder footed on earth that reached into the Heavens, but after one’s head is in the Heavens, he must make sure that he is keeping his small acts of improvement, and he must continue doing this until his last day on earth. No matter how high a person reaches, he must always remain with his small resolutions of improvement that he takes upon himself – they should be very small, practical acts of improvement, and he must do them consistently, and it must be an inseparable part of his life.
Q: Is this because the nefesh habehaimis (animal soul) is always unrefined?
A: The nefesh habehaimis is never completely refined, and if we sometimes let it remain completely unrefined and we don’t try to improve it all, its unrefined aspects will fester and gets worse.
Q: Is it only resolutions of improvement that help us overcome our unrefined aspects? Or can a person just learn mussar for this or use other ways?
A: Learning mussar is helpful either if a person learns it calmly and he is arriving at certain recognitions of matters from it, or, if he is learning it aloud and with passion, as Reb Yisrael Salanter introduced, and this is a method that can awaken one’s feelings. However, if we just remain with inspiration alone, the animal soul loses its inspiration eventually. Reb Yisrael Salanter said that every time a person learns mussar with excitement, it is penetrating more and more into his soul, like water dripping on a rock which can eventually shatter the rock. But, this is not enough. A person also needs to do actions of improvement. Just like we can’t suffice with our intellectual insights alone, and just like we can’t remain with inspiration alone. We need to be enlightened, we need to be inspired, and we also need to act in the practical sense. Only actions of improvement will uproot negative behaviors. An enlightening thought or ideal isn’t able to uproot a negative behavior, and even a powerful emotion cannot totally uproot a negative behavior. In order to uproot a negative behavior, we need to do an actual action, even if it’s something very small. And in fact, this is the depth of all wisdom, when it’s able to penetrate into even the tiniest action. A person is the entire spectrum, from the highest level down to the lowest level. Certainly one has to place his head in the Heavens [to enlighten his mind with Torah insights and learning about all the high levels described in the sefarim], but one also has to have his ladder footed on the earth, where it will reach all the way down to the tiniest details. Of course, the main thing is not these tiny little details, the main thing is the greatness [that we learn about and which we try to reach], but within all of this striving for greatness, we must never leave behind the small little acts of improvement that we have to keep doing regularly.
Q: Why can’t learning mussar with emotion and passion be enough for this? Why does a person need to also do actual acts of improvement?
A: Action is a power of the body, and emotions and thoughts aren’t able to counter actions. Actions have to be countered with actions. Even learning mussar passionately will not be enough to do it, though it will certainly affect a person for the better and inspire him to act better. But the ‘final-hammer blow’ of really being improved can only happen when one is engaging in acts/behaviors of improvement in order to counter his acts/behaviors that are negative. Passionate emotions and inspiration is not enough to improve one’s actions/behavior.
Q: So [in order for a person to improve his negative behaviors] a person has to act in a way that goes against his personal natures and dominant elements?
A: Exactly. That’s as true as can be.
Categories
