Rabbi Michoel Frank

When we examine an individual person, and his combination of ruchniyos and gashmiyos, of guf and neshamah, of spiritual and physical, we see an interesting thing. A person begins life mostly guf, almost completely a physical being. His mind is hardly developed, and certainly doesn’t determine his actions. His guf calls the shots totally for a while. As he grows older, his mind develops and becomes stronger and more complex, each person according to their growth, but his physical self still rules for the most part and sways most of his choices.

But if a person starts to learn wisdom, meaning the Torah, and begins incorporating his learning into action and deeds and character traits, then he can begin to overpower his physical self and he can stop giving free reign to his every desire. He can become a spiritual, thinking person.

But the fact is, that at its core, we are physical people, and our physical self is inordinately powerful. The guf is dark, unenlightened, of a nature which is very far from Hashem, and very unprepared to connect to holiness. The neshamah itself, although it is pure and elevated from a spiritual world, once it is placed within a guf, it forms an eternal connection with that guf, and it is distanced from its essence, to become an integral part of the human being, who is mostly physical. It can only escape the overwhelming physicality with tremendous effort, enough power to overcome the energy that is natural to the physical self.

Hashem decreed that the connection between neshamah and guf is eternal, even after a person dies, the neshamah is still connected to the guf and will return to it upon techiyas hameisim. Being that they have this relationship, the neshamah is forced to struggle and weaken the power of the physical self, to diminish the darkness of ‘chomer’, and enlighten and elevate the guf. With that, the neshamah can rise and be enlightened by the ‘ohr ha’elyon,’ the sublime light of Hashem, although it started out so dark and imperfect being connected to the guf.

Not only is the person himself primarily physical, but we live in a very physical world. Everything around us is ultimately a physical and earthly thing, and we are bound to it and by it. We have to eat and drink, we have to work and make money and be involved in all aspects of nature. The neshamah is not only struggling against the guf, it is struggling against everything in the world, and everything that the guf has no choice but to be involved with.

The amazing wisdom of Hashem that is inherent in our creation and the whole world, allows for a paradoxical outcome of this struggle!

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Derech Hashem

Chapter 3 – 05

The neshamah as we explained, needs time to recuperate and grow and become elevated. It needs to recognize its own full potential to shine and connect with Hashem and reach perfection. This is one purpose that the Olam Haneshamos serves. Through becoming stronger and greater, it will be able to fully recognize its purpose upon the advent of techiyas hameisim.

The neshamah even now, even in its reduced state on this world, even being connected to a physical body, is still tremendous and bright. It would naturally elevate man to such a great and elevated level, that we wouldn’t be people anymore – we would be spiritual beings. The only thing that prevents this from happening is Hashem, who decreed that the neshamah should be held back and not allowed to fully affect its host the physical body. It can only affect the guf, exactly as much as Hashem allows it to. Through doing mitzvos and maasim tovim, the neshamah brightens and elevates a man, to the level which Hashem decreed it could. Eventually a person dies, and the neshamah goes on to the world of the neshamos, which we call Gan Eden, to recuperate and await rejoining the rebuilt and rejuvenated guf in the world-to-come by techiyas hameisim.

This is an amazing concept to think about. We have no idea, no inkling of how powerful and great our neshamos are. I was asked by a child this past Shabbos to explain the concept of a gilgul, are our neshamos really ours, or someone else’s – will they go into a different person or not. I’m not sure what exactly the child expected to understand, and I know that I don’t understand. But I explained to him this concept. Our neshamos are much, much, greater than our bodies. The seforim explain that the body is just like a shoe for the neshamah, the majority can’t even be contained by the body. This is what is hinted when Hashem commands Moshe ‘Shal ne’alechah me’al raglechah,’ remove your shoes from your feet, He really meant, shed your physical self and allow your neshamah to dominate. When we get extra neshamah on Shabbos, neshamah yesairah, it just means that a drop more of the neshamah is allowed to enter the body, and look how much that elevates us! We don’t understand what it means this neshamah is in this person or that, but we have to understand that the neshamah is a lot more than we can begin to imagine!

When techiyas hameisim happens and the neshamah rejoins the guf, it will be unfettered and its full power and brightness will illuminate the person. Every person will be immediately transformed and purified and perfected by the power of the neshamah. It will take place in each person according to the level of effort and Avodah he completed in this world. But the level will be far above and beyond anything we can imagine.

This won’t be a slow process, like a child growing up – it will happen immediately. But this won’t be the end. After the initial purification and holiness, then there will be a constant state of growth and improvement for every single person, as they grow closer and closer to Hashem. They will attain level upon level, and this is the true joy and accomplishment in the world-to-come.

This is the end of Chapter Three, and iy”H we will now begin Chapter Four.

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Derech Hashem

Chapter 3 – 04

These are the famous words of the Mesilas Yesharim as well, in his introduction:

וכפי השיעור אשר כבש את יצרו ותאוותיו ונתרחק מן המרחיקים אותו מן הטוב ונשתדל לדבק בו כן ישיגהו וישמח בו

According to the amount that he controlled his yetzer and his desires, and distanced himself from the things which distance him from the good (Hashem,) and he tried to connect to what is good, to that measure will he be granted the ultimate good and enjoy it!

Being that Hashem decreed that the physical self and the neshamah need to separate and part ways for a while, so that the guf can be destroyed and eventually rebuilt in the world of techiyas hameisim, there is a time-lapse where the neshamah and guf are separate. During this time each one has their place. The guf’s place is in the earth, so that is can decompose and rebuild, as Hashem decreed, כי עפר אתה ואל עפר תשוב. The neshamah has a place in the ‘olam haneshamos,’ the world of the neshamos, (which we colloquially call Gan Eden,) during which time the neshamah basks in the presence of Hashem and enjoys a ‘me’ein’, a fraction of what it will eventually enjoy after techiyas hameisim in ‘Olam Habah.’

Of course, during this time as well, each neshamah enjoys the connection to ‘tov’ and the presence of Hashem according to the level which they prepared themselves on this world. If a person worked to connect to Hashem in this world, in the world of the neshamos as well, they will benefit according to their effort. But the final and true shelaimus, perfection and connection to Hashem, is only achieved in Olam Habah, the world-to-come, after techiyas hamaisim.

The neshamah and eventually the guf, have a great benefit from this time in the ‘olam haneshamos.’ What the Ramchal explains here is fascinating. Gan Eden, which is the place for the neshamos, is like a ‘beit hachlamah,’ for the neshamah, a rehabilitation clinic. He explains as follows. Once Hashem decreed that death is inevitable, and it is impossible for the neshamah to do its part in perfecting the guf, this caused damage to the neshamah itself. There are three aspects to this. One, the neshamah is connected to the guf which is physical and lacking, and far from spirituality – this affects the neshamah negatively. Second, the neshamah is prevented from truly shining and expressing its beauty and kedushah, as long as it is connected to the guf. Although when we do mitzvos and good deeds, this brings more light into our souls and elevates us greatly, nonetheless, the neshamah is still largely held back by the guf from truly expanding and growing with the holiness it possesses. It is repressed and bottled-up, fully inhibited by the limitations of the guf. The guf itself loses because of this, since the true purpose of the neshamah was to purify and perfect the guf, but after the ‘chait’ this isn’t possible without the death process. Third, the neshamah loses out by not being able to perfect the guf, because perfecting something or someone else is the only true shelaimus!

This is a fascinating application of a known concept. We understand and the Ramchal has explained to us that true ‘good’ and perfection is by giving to others. This concept is being applied to the relationship between the guf and the neshamah – the neshamah reaches its own personal perfection by perfecting the guf! It can’t do that in this world, and therefore it is negatively affected by that. Essentially, the nature of the neshamah is to perfect the guf, and when it is prevented from doing what is intrinsic to its nature, it is affected as well.

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Derech Hashem

Chapter 3 – 03

Once Adam Harishon committed the ‘chait’ of the Eitz Hadaas, his intrinsic nature changed. The world was created with imperfections, and Adam Harishon’s job always was to complete the world, and all things were equal so that he could benefit from his own work. But now those imperfections increased considerably, and not only did Adam Harishon become much less perfect, the whole world was affected. The job of perfection both on himself and on the world, became much more difficult.

Initially, it was much simpler for him to avoid evil and the imperfections in the world, and to connect to what was good, and through that achieve perfection. The reason was because he wasn’t the cause of the imperfection – he hadn’t ruined the world. It was just what Hashem had naturally imbued the world that needed perfection, and it wasn’t difficult. As soon as he would avoid those pitfalls, he would achieve perfection. But now through his own actions he distanced the world from Hashem, created a barrier between the world and Hashem. He fell in his own level greatly. The ‘chisaron’, those imperfections became a part of him. His work was not only harder, it was double. He had to first purify himself, to revert back to the stage he was before the ‘chait’ of the eitz haddas. Only after he had accomplished that could he begin to do the job he was assigned at creation, to choose perfection, ‘tov’ over ‘rah’.

In addition, Hashem decreed, that it is impossible for the body to achieve perfection as it is. Initially, when Adam would achieve his goal, both the physical body and the neshamah would join in total connection to Hashem. Now that isn’t possible anymore, and the physical body must undergo destruction before it can be rebuilt to once again serve Hashem with perfection. That is why Hashem decreed death upon mankind, because that was the only way their bodies could achieve the level of Adam Harishon before his ‘chait.’ The world has to undergo this process as well, like Chazal say, the world will last 6000 years and then a 1000-years of chorbon. The years of destruction are equivalent to the death and decomposition of a person. After this time the man will be rebuilt with techiyas hamaisim, as will the world.

According to this, the true time that we will receive the reward, is in this rebuilt world. Only then can we truly enjoy the connection to Hashem with our purified guf and neshamah together. However, at that point there will be a marked difference between people. Those who put in the effort to perfect themselves in our world, who worked hard on purifying their neshamah, will reap the reward of those efforts. According to the amount they worked, that is the level of purity and perfection their neshamah will have reached, and thereby be able to impact the physical body as well, and bring it to perfection and purity. They both will become precious and great, and be able to connect and enjoy the presence of Hashem in a much larger fashion than others who did not.

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Derech Hashem

Chapter 3 – 02

As we have explained, Hashem created two worlds, two eras, for the struggle that mankind has to fight through. This world is where the struggle takes place, and the world-to-come is where we receive the reward, the final connection to Hashem, and the struggle ends. Therefore, each world was created with rules that make sense for that world. This world is designed so that the struggle is balanced and fair. ‘Chomer’ the physical part of us is given full ability to achieve what it would want, and has the potential to overcome the ‘Sechel’, the spiritual part of us. All the different parts of this world will support ‘Chomer’ in it’s struggle to dominate the person. ‘Sechel’, the intelligent, thinking, and spiritual part of us, is given all that it needs to dominate over the physical, and the world can equally be utilized towards that goal.

But once a person moves over into the next world, there the playing field is no longer level, and the sides aren’t equal, because the point of the next world is that the ‘Sechel’, the spiritual should dominate and draw the ‘Chomer’ after it. Every power granted to the ‘Chomer’ was only there to block and weaken the ‘Sechel,’ and in the next world, all those powers are stripped from ‘Chomer.’ The purpose of the next world is that we can connect to Hashem with nothing blocking and holding us back, and our physical-self subjugates itself entirely to our spiritual self.

However, when we are discussing mankind, it’s important to understand that there are two different forms of humans. The original man, the way mankind was meant to be, was Adam Harishon before he sinned, kodem hachait. But after the sin, mankind developed into something vastly different, almost a different species, which affected the whole world, and had many different repercussions. We will discuss more about the difference in the coming chapters iy”H. Therefore, we have to always address how man was meant to live before the sin, and how he is meant to live now after the ‘Chait of Eitz Hadaas.’

When Adam Harishon was created, he existed in the manner that we described, he had the potential to have his spiritual-self dominate, or his physical-self dominate, both ‘tov’ and ‘rah’ were equally placed before him, and he could have chosen either. Would he have chosen ‘tov’, the good, he would have perfected himself permanently, and lived forever connecting to Hashem and receiving his reward.

Another important thing to realize, is that although we don’t feel much about our neshamah, other than its our life-force, and our innate intelligence, in reality it is much more. The neshamah has the potential power to transform the physical body, the ‘Chomer’. It can and would change the nature of the physical body, little by little, purifying it more and more, until our own bodies would become perfectly aligned with spirituality, and be so perfect and pure, that it wouldn’t be a barrier at all for connecting with Hashem. It would have accompanied us into the world-to-come. This was the kind of existence Adam Harishon had before the sin, the neshamah on its own would have transformed his physical self, and purified it more and more, until he would have been perfect and holy, and able to live forever connecting to Hashem.

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Derech Hashem

Chapter 3 – 01

As we have explained, the human is the single creation which was created uniquely to be able to connect with Hashem. He is positioned between the options of choosing perfection or choosing imperfection, and was granted the ability to become perfect.

However, it was imperative that this choice be truly a choice, bechirah, and his own free will. If there would be no choice and we would be forced to do good and chase after perfection, then we would not become the masters of perfection, we wouldn’t own it, it would be something imposed upon us by the one who had achieved perfection, and whatever we did would merely reflect his perfection but have nothing to do with us.

In modern day language, we would be robots, whose programming forces them to follow the commands of their designers, but they have no free will or choice. Whatever the robot does is merely the creator of the robot doing through their invention. It’s not attributed to the robot at all. Likewise, were Hashem to create us without free-will, just built into our psyche to choose good, the good we would achieve would have nothing to do with us – it would be Hashem doing good, and Hashem already is perfect! It wouldn’t bring us to perfection, and wouldn’t achieve the purpose of creation, where Hashem wanted to share His perfection with His creations.

Therefore, Hashem had to create us as ‘baalei bechirah,’ people with free-choice. We were created so that we have an equal inclination to choose good as we do to choose bad, and we are not forced either way. We have the ability to choose what we want and to acquire whatever trait we’d like to. That’s why a man is created with both a yetzer tov and yetzer horah, and we can choose whichever one we want.

In order that this choice be truly free and unbiased either way, Hashem additionally incorporated the two aspects into our very being. We have two opposite forces within us. On one hand we have a neshamah which is spiritual, logical, and pure, and we have a body which is physical and muddled, and each one pulls us towards its side. The body draws us towards physicality, and the neshamah draws us towards spirituality. There is a war taking place between them, which has the quality of a war in that, whichever side triumphs, it claims the other side as well. Meaning, if the neshamah overcomes the body, it elevates itself, and the body too! The body becomes more spiritual. If the opposite happens, if the person allows his body to win, then the body becomes degraded, and the neshamah is dragged down with it. This causes that a true distance be put between a person and perfection, whereas if the intellect and neshamah win, he can achieve full perfection in every aspect of his being.

However, Hashem put a limit on this struggle. We have to work hard, be mishtadel, to achieve perfection, but after we have completed the work Hashem intended for us in this war, we will then achieve full perfection and we will enjoy it forever. That is why the world was created with two eras: One the era of labor, when we work to achieve perfection, and two the era of receiving reward.

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Derech Hashem

Chapter 2 – 03

Hashem created a whole world, with an unfathomable amount of varied and unique creations. There are myriads of living creatures, millions of insects, millions of plants. There are countless kinds of rocks, earth, sand, minerals and other lifeless parts of the world. All these are in the world for the purpose of reaching shelaimus – to achieve perfection! That was the purpose of creation, and everything was created to reach that goal. How does a rock achieve perfection? What does an insect do to become close to Hashem?

There is only one creation in the world which contains within it the natural ability to either become close to Hashem or to distance itself from Hashem. This creation is the human being. Every person was created with intellect and a soul, the ability to recognize and appreciate Hashem and become close to Him. Every person also contains a multitude of character traits which drag them down, and is clothed with a physical form which pulls them away from spirituality and perfection, and distances them from Hashem. The challenge we all face as people is to find our way between these two aspects of ourselves, and connect to Hashem.

All the creations in the world, are here to become part of that struggle. Either they play a role in bringing us closer to Hashem, or they play a role in distancing us from Hashem. If we as humans utilize the world for the purpose of finding Hashem within it, and connecting to Hashem, then that part of the world has realized its perfection, and has achieved a connection with Hashem. That is the purpose why it was created. If a person makes use of the different parts of this world for self-gratification and distances themselves from Hashem, they are also distancing that part of the world from Hashem, and condemning it to chisaron, to darkness, and imperfection.

The prime purpose of the world is mankind – everything else, whether they are greater creations than man or lesser creations than man, are there only for his benefit, to assist in his battle towards perfection. They are all secondary to mankind.

This is the end of the second chapter of Derech Hashem. This concept is developed famously in the first perek of Mesilas Yesharim as well, and there he quotes a source from Chazal, the famous Rashi that says that when Yaakov Avinu wanted to rest his head on the rocks he had assembled, each one was arguing, ‘alay yaniach hatzaddik es rosho,’ The tzaddik should rest his head on me! He also quotes a medrash in Koheles, that says that when Hashem created the world, he took Adam Harishon and gave him a tour of all the beautiful trees in Gan Eden, and said, ‘Do you see My creations, how beautiful and praiseworthy they are? See to it that you don’t ruin and destroy My world!’

To quote the language of the Mesilas Yesharim:

כי אם האדם נמשך אחר העולם ומתרחק מבוראו הנה הוא מתקלקל ומקלקל העולם עמו. ואם הוא שולט בעצמו ונדבק בבוראו ומשתמש מן העולם רק להיות לו לסיוע לעבודת בוראו הוא מתעלה והעולם מתעלה עמו.

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Derech Hashem

Chapter 2 – 02

Hashem designed this world with both chesronos and shelaimus, perfection and failings. The way Hashem designed it is, that any aspect of perfection that can be found in this world has its root in connecting to Hashem. Every aspect of failing in this world, of chisaron, is equivalent to it’s measure of being disconnected from Hashem, hester panim. Everything we see in the world as wonderous and perfect and amazing, both in a physical sense and a spiritual sense, is a reflection, or better, a branch of the totality of perfection of Hashem.

Think of it this way. In terms of a man-made structure, if we see a beautiful building, with awesome architecture, and are amazed by it, overcome with awe, it connects us to the building. The building has made an imprint upon us. In truth, the building isn’t a thing for itself, but it is an expression of the designer and the builders of the structure. Their ideas, their inspiration, their imagination and vision, are all incorporated into the beautiful work of art you are witnessing. You are connecting to them through their work. Now, if their work doesn’t represent anything in particular, then that connection won’t amount to much, other than you will feel a certain respect and awe for the designers. When you meet them, you will appreciate them, and feel connected in a limited way. But if their design has a deeper meaning, and connects you to something spiritual or emotional, you will feel a much deeper connection to them. That might happen when someone reads a book, which is a man-made creation, and it invokes powerful emotions in the reader – that reader will feel deeply connected to the author – because he has connected through a part of the author – his book.

This is just a superficial example to the world and Hashem. When we witness an amazing part of creation, we see a waterfall or an awe-inspiring mountain, we are witnessing Hashem’s creation. But it’s more than that. Hashem relates to us, He connects to us through His creation. He is actively creating, mechadesh bichol yom tuvo. It’s as if Hashem is broadcasting an image directly to you when you see that part of the world. The more we are inspired and understand what we are really looking at, the greater connection we form with Hashem.

This is part of what the Ramchal means that every aspect of this world, every iota of perfection that exists, is a branch of the root perfection, the ultimate perfection, which is Hashem Himself. Connecting to it, appreciating it, is benefitting from Hashem’s shelaimus.

Every opportunity to connect to Hashem in this world is an aspect of Hashem’s lighting up this world. Every instance where a person chooses not to see Hashem’s hand, is a moment of hester panim, of chisaron. This takes us farther away from perfection. Every person is always between two choices. He can utilize the world around him to connect to Hashem, to move from the outward display of perfection closer to the true inner meaning of it, which is Hashem’s presence. Or he can choose to ignore Hashem’s presence, to attribute what he sees to chance, and thereby ‘turn off the light’ of creation, and by doing so, he is actively distancing himself from Hashem, and from his chance to achieve perfection, and enjoy the only good thing there is to enjoy in the world.

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We now begin the second chapter, which is titled, ‘Tachlis Habriah,’ the point of creation.

The point of creation was so that Hashem could share His goodness with the world. It’s important to understand, that typically, the concept of ‘shelaimus’, perfection, is used in a relative manner. We deem something to be perfect and complete in relation to something which is incomplete. This item has been perfected further than another item, so we call it perfect. In truth, it isn’t the end of the line in perfection, and it can be perfected further. If we were to use modern technology as an example, one could say, that in 1985, the DOS operating system, or whatever other operating system was in use, was perfected to the best possible level. However, that year, Windows was introduced, and DOS quickly became obsolete. It was perfect when compared to what preceded it, but it in no way defined perfection.

However, when talking about Hashem, His perfection and completeness is total. It is the ultimate perfection, and nothing or no one else can possibly be as perfect or even compare to Hashem’s shelaimus. Hashem has no chisaron – there is nothing missing at all. When Hashem chose to create the world so that He could give and grant kindness to His creations, He would only give the greatest and most perfect good possible. A little goodness and kindness wouldn’t be sufficient. The greatest good is only the ability to connect with Hashem. In this way Hashem was sharing the greatest good there can possibly be with His creations, because Hashem is the perfection of goodness.

By affording His creations the ability to connect with Hashem, He was giving them access to the greatest good, which will then depend on the level they choose to connect with. According to the amount of effort they invest in connecting to Hashem, that is how much of His goodness they will enjoy.

However, Hashem determined that it’s impossible to truly appreciate anything good if it comes without effort as a gift. It has to be earned. If a person earns his reward, he owns the goodness, he owns the reward, and it can become a part of him. If he is granted it as a gift, it is merely something he can access, but is not defined by this. Hashem desired that we should have the ability to resemble His perfection as much as possible. Hashem is intrinsically good, it is what we do understand about Hashem, and Hashem wanted to afford us the ability to recreate ourselves as perfect and good, in the same manner, and that is only possible if we create ourselves through hard work and effort to achieve that goal. Through our service of Hashem, we iron out all our failings, and perfect ourselves, and then become connected and related to Hashem through a process that is totally integrated into the fiber of our being!

That is why Hashem created this world both with aspects of perfection and beauty, and aspects of imperfection and failings. All of Hashem’s creations also have this opportunity equally, whether to perfect themselves or to allow themselves to fail. We can become perfect and achieve shalaimus, or we can live with ‘chesronos.’ If we do put in the effort, we will have achieved the greatest resemblance - dimyon, to Hashem that we can possibly do.

Rabbi Michoel Frank - Dvar Mussar: Recent Episodes