Rabbi Michoel Frank - Dvar Mussar

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. 

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.

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.

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.