Understanding Your Middos - 02 Laziness 1

The Middos That Result From Earth: Laziness and Sadness

We will begin, with the help of Hashem, by learning about the lowest element in the soul – earth.

Before, we mentioned the words of Rav Chaim Vital, that the middos which result from earth are: 1) Laziness and 2) Sadness.

We need to understand here how exactly earth causes these two middos.

In earth, there are many various natures. First we will try to understand the two general middos which come from earth – laziness and sadness – and with the help of Hashem, we will continue to explain more of the natures of earth.

Movement – the Essence of Creation

In order to understand what the element of earth is, we need a general introduction before this.

We brought before the words of our rabbis that Hashem created the elements in the following order: wind, water, fire, and earth. Why did wind come first? The nature of wind is movement, and movement essentially defines all of Creation. Creation began from one point and will eventually return to that source it was created from; there is a beginning, and an end, to the Creation.

To illustrate, “Hashem looked into the Torah and created the world.” The Torah begins with the word “Beraishis”, (“In the beginning”) and ends with the word “Yisrael” – the first letter of the Torah is beis, and the last letter of the Torah is lamed, forming the word lev (heart).

The concept is that there is a beginning and end to everything, and the end point always returns to the beginning point.

Hashem is endless (His endlessness is called the Ein Sof), and thus we have no comprehension of Him. His Creation, however, is something we can conceptualize, since it has a certain structure: it has a beginning and end. The beginning of Creation was the beginning of all movement, and the end of Creation will be an end to all movement.

Our avodah (mission) is to come to the end point – the true End of Days. In order to get to this end point, we need to move towards it in the right way, and we must avoid movements that further us away from the goal. (This is a reference to sin, which is evil movement.)

Creation is moving. It is all about a path toward a certain goal (tahalich). Hashem didn’t create it all at once, but as a process spread out over six days, until the process of Creation was brought to rest on the seventh day; this reflects how all of Creation is all a tahalich of movement.

That is the Creation which Hashem has created, and from that point on, He has given us the mission to complete the journey. Had Adam not sinned, he would have completed the tahalich of Creation and he would have gone straight into an eternal Shabbos – the World to Come. But he succumbed to the sin, and from then on, the tahalich of Creation lengthened into a 6,000 year journey.

It’s not happenstance that Creation moves. Movement is the essence of Creation – it defines how we start from the beginning point at Creation and get to the end point, our goal. In order to get to the end goal of Creation (human perfection and thus, the complete connection with Hashem), we need to move toward it in the right way; and we must choose not to have incorrect movements (sin).

This is the concept – that movement is the essence of Creation, and without it, we cannot get to our goal.

Earth - The Unmoving Element

Let’s think about the four elements – fire, wind, water and earth. Which of them move, and which of them don’t move?

Fire naturally moves. Wind moves, and in essence, wind is essentially a moving force by definition. Water also can move – although it is naturally still, Chazal remark about water that “it leaves its high place (the sky) and comes to a lower place (the waters of the world)”,[1] so we see some concept of movement also by water.

Earth is the only element which does not move. “The earth stands forever.”[2] The truth is that earth is the most novel thing in Creation!

There are four kinds of organisms in Creation: doimem (non-living), tzomeach (growing), chai (life-forms), and medaber (social creatures\humans). All of these organisms correspond to one of the four elements. Non-living things correspond to the element of earth. Things that grow correspond to water, which nourishes and allows for growth. Living things correspond to wind, because even animals are called “ruach chaim” – “a spirit of life”.

(Humans correspond to fire, because fire is the highest from all the elements, and so are humans in the highest status from any creature. We will not get into this point now, though, and perhaps later we will discuss it.)

Plants, animals and people all move. Plants move the least from all of these things, but they still move a little as they grow; a root underground which sprouted into a tree is a movement. By contrast, non-living objects are still, and they never move.

Earth is thus different in this aspect from the other three elements, and that it does not move. That is its novelty concept.

The fact that the non-living\earth doesn’t move is a very big novelty in Creation. Everything else in Creation starts from a certain point and then moves toward an end point, but non-living things\earth are still and unmoving, totally defying everything that Creation is. (On a subtle note, even earth moves, because the planets revolve around the sun, so they are all always moving. However, we cannot consider this to be movement, because the earth is being sustained by air, water and fire, thus all its movements depend on the other elements; earth by itself cannot move at all).

The power to be non-moving can be used either for good or evil. As we said in the beginning chapter, a good middah means that the middah is staying within its proper limits, while a bad middah is any middah which has gone over the limits.

So far, we have seen the concept that earth is in essence a force of non-movement, something that stays in its place. Now we will list some examples of how see non-movement throughout different areas of Creation.

The Ability to Remain Unchanged

Our rabbis teach that earth\dirt, “afar” in Hebrew, can be rearranged in its letters to form the word “oref”, “neck.”

We find oref in the word “keshei oref” – “stiff-necked.” When we want to get someone to change his ways and he doesn’t want to change, this is called keshei oref – he’s stubbornly staying where he is, with no interest to change. Being stiff-necked is thus all about being unchanging.

Where can we find such a concept in Creation?

If something moves, then its movement is really changing it by getting it to move. When something moves, it is either moving up or down; in spiritual terms, the Vilna Gaon states that a person is never still, because he is either rising or falling in his spirituality. If he rises, he has changed for the better, and if he is falling in his spirituality, he has changed for the worse. All movements cause a change.

The power of free will (bechirah) in a person is also about movement. A person has a choice to either choose good, which is to move in the right direction, or to choose sin, which is to move in the wrong direction. Whichever way he moves, there will in either case be a change.

Non-living things in Creation – the element of earth – do not move; when non-movement is used to be unchanging, this is evil, like we see from the person who is a keshei oref, stiff-necked and stubborn in his evil ways. It is a power rooted in the element of earth.

This is one example of how we see earth is non-moving: when non-movement is used a way to be unchanging.

Laziness – No Movement

Now, let us return to the words of Rav Chaim Vital we brought in the beginning of this chapter, that the middah of laziness is rooted in the element of earth.

Why is laziness rooted in earth? The simple answer would be obvious: because earth has a nature to be heavy and weigh things down (earth is the heaviest from all of the four elements), so laziness is related to earth, because a lazy person feels too heavy to want to perform. This is true, simple, and clear.

But there is a deeper reason. As we explained, earth is non-moving. This is really the depth behind laziness. Laziness is rooted in earth because earth is non-moving. When a person’s element of earth becomes too dominant, resulting in an imbalance of his four elements[3], he becomes used to being non-moving, and this breeds on laziness.

Earth itself doesn’t move, but if it is combined with the other elements – in an unbalanced way – it causes in a person to be slow-moving, which is laziness.

Thus, laziness is really a garment of the element of earth. When the earth in the soul is unbalanced by the other elements, it is not only pulled down by the heavy nature of earth – it is pulled toward the non-moving nature of earth. The non-movement of earth (when the earth is imbalanced by the other elements) affects one’s other elements (fire, water and wind) as well to function improperly, which results in laziness.

A lazy person therefore has two problems. He does things slowly – that is one problem. There is another part to his problem, and it is deeper: he doesn’t move at all.

When a person only moves slowly, this is called atzaltayim. This is a kind of laziness in which the person performs, but with heaviness - very slowly.

When Yaakov Avinu heard good news (that he was to be protected from harm by a miracle), he ran. Rashi explains that this is because “when a person feels light, he runs.” Chazal say to “run like a deer” – a deer is light, and that is why it runs. Feeling heavy, by contrast, makes a person move slowly.

Moving slowly is a kind of laziness, but it’s not yet the epitome of laziness, because the person is still performing.

The non-movement in earth is what is responsible for total laziness, in which a person’s element of earth becomes so dominant that he doesn’t move at all.

Laziness has an external layer and an inner layer to it. The external layer of it is slow movement. The inner layer of laziness, its essence, is to be non-moving.

Let us reflect into the words of our Rabbis regarding this topic, in order for us to sharpen our understanding of this matter. We will try, with the help of Hashem, to explain words of our Sages regarding this matter, so that we can have the source of the information here; and so that we will be able to see how everything is actually rooted in the wisdom of the holy Torah. After this, we will be able to see how to make this practical in our life, with the help of Hashem.

Man Was Fashioned Out Of All Four Directions

When Hashem created Adam, He created his body from the earth; man’s soul was blown into him from the mouth of Hashem, as it were. Why was man created from dirt? What is the depth behind this?

The Gemara says that the dirt used by Hashem to fashion Adam’s body was taken from all over the earth.[4]  Why did Hashem have to take the dirt from all over the world? Did He not have enough dirt to make Adam with that He had to go all over the world to get it?!

The depth to this is that people are all about movement. Hashem thus created man out of earth, which doesn’t move – and our purpose is to reveal how even earth can be non-moving!

Earthy by itself cannot move at all. But if it is combined with the other elements in a balanced way, it can move. As an example, wind is the moving force in Creation, when we combine wind with earth, the dust can be lifted by the wind and move from place to place.

Wind moves fast, while earth doesn’t move at all. Both are extremes. But when we combine them, the wind’s movements become more balanced due to the lack of movement coming from the earth, while at the same the earth gains from the wind in that is can now move. From this we can see that earth can balance out wind.

A person is created from two elements – wind and earth. The element of wind which we are created from is our soul, which is called “nishmas chaim” – a “breathe of life” that Hashem blew into Adam. Man also has a body, which was created from the earth. When there is proper balance between the body and the soul, the body is able to “move” properly.

For this reason, Adam’s body was taken from all ends of the earth, to show us that earth can be given movement, and in this way, we come to fix up our element of earth. The fact that man’s body was taken from all four directions shows that “wind” can come and fix “earth”.

When Adam sinned, he was cursed, “For you are earth, and to earth you shall return.” When a person dies as well, he is buried in the ground and returns to the earth. Why? The depth behind this is because a sin causes a person to lose the proper movements of his soul. On a more subtle note, sin causes a person to lose his very movements; the sefer Nefesh HaChaim writes that as soon as a person entertains a thought to sin, his soul leaves him! The movements of his body are then ruined, and he reflects the non-moving element of earth when it is imbalanced.

Fixing Earth By Giving It Movement

Let us think into another example of this concept that we see in the words of Chazal.

The second sin in Creation (after the sin of Adam) was the sin of the Golden Calf. At Har Sinai, the souls of the Jewish people were cleansed from the impurity caused by the first sin, and they returned to their original purity that existed before the sin of Adam. Their element of earth became fixed. But by the sin of the Calf, death once again was pronounced upon the world.

At Har Sinai, the Jewish people reached a state of G-dliness. After they sinned with the Calf, they returned to the curse of death placed upon mankind. Just as Adam after the sin was cursed with “Dirt you are, and to dirt you shall return”, so did the sin with the Calf result in that curse of “To dirt you shall return.”

When Moshe Rabbeinu came down from Har Sinai with the Luchos (Tablets) and he saw what was going on, he broke them, and he shattered it so much until it became fine dust, which he then threw upon water.[5] Why did he do this?

Moshe Rabbeinu wanted to show that even when we are in a situation of “Dirt you are, and to dirt you shall return” (because of the sin), that it is still possible to fix up our impaired element of earth. He showed this by grounding the Tablets up until it became dust, which then became spread out after he threw it – the spreading out of the dust symbolized how we need to fix the element of earth by “moving” it.

Our element of earth is impaired when it is non-moving. When it begins to become fixed up, it moves. When it is completely fixed, it moves in the right direction. This is the general concept of how fix our impaired element of earth – giving our earth some movement.

Earth Gains Importance Only When Combined With the Other Elements

Now, we can understand the following.

When the Sages wanted to describe something that has no importance, they define it as “like the dust of the earth”. When we nullify the chametz on Erev Pesach, we say: “Let it be nullified and given up, like the dust of the earth.” When something isn’t important, we consider it to be like dirt\earth.

Why is dirt\earth the epitome of something unimportant? In today’s times, people will pay a lot of money to purchase mounds of dirt! Dirt might be worthless in small amounts, but piles of it have a lot of value and will cost you money to buy it. Drops of water are also not worth much. So why is earth seen by the Sages as unimportant, “like the dust of the earth”?

It is because earth, by itself, has no value. This is understood according to what we have explained until now: our purpose is to move in Creation from its beginning point until the end point, which will be the ultimate connection with Hashem. If something does not come to its goal, it is considered worthless, because it has not lived up to the goal. When we cannot produce anything from something, that is the definition of something that has no value.

(Later we will mention another reason why earth\dirt is unimportant: because earth is a non-active element, unlike the elements of fire, wind and water which cause activity. Earth, by itself, is worthless).

The truth is that you can do a lot with dirt. We plant things in it, we grow things in it, and most of our nourishment depends on the vegetables which grow from the earth. But that is only because the earth is working together with the other elements. When dirt is by itself (without rain\water, sunlight\fire, and air\wind), it cannot produce any plants, and it’s worthless.

Earth only gains importance when it moves – meaning, when it combines properly with the other elements. Otherwise, earth has no value – “like the dust of the earth.”

We can give even more examples to this from Chazal, but let it suffice with the three examples alone we have brought. From these examples, we see the general concept.

Good Laziness

On the other hand, we find in the words of Chazal a total opposite of what we brought until now.

Chazal state that the women did not sin with the Golden Calf, and they refused to give their jewelry towards it when their men asked them to. Chazal remarked on this that the laziness of the women prevented them from sinning. Tosafos[6] also states in the name of the Yerushalmi that “women are lazy, and they cannot be relied upon to nullify the chametz.” Women have a tendency toward laziness.

If not for this statement of our Sages, we would have said that the women didn’t sin with the Calf either because they feared Hashem or loved Hashem so much. This is true, but the Sages say something else - that the reason they didn’t sin was because they were lazy, and this helped them avoid the sin.

How can laziness be a reason to prevent one from sin? If laziness is bad trait, how does it help a person avoid sin?!

Let us compare this to a person who did something that was wrong, and this resulted in something that was good and beneficial. Something good came from the evil he did. It seems that now his laziness is good, because even though he acted evil by being lazy, in the end this caused something good to happen from it.

Let’s say, for example, that a person was lazy and didn’t run to catch the bus, and then he hears in the news that there was a terrible accident with that bus and everybody on the bus was tragically killed. What a relief he feels that he didn’t run to catch the bus! It might seem that his laziness was a good thing, because his laziness actually saved his life.

Any person with an able-thinking mind understands that just because his life was saved, this does not justify his laziness. So we still need to understand how laziness can ever be a good thing.

When Chazal said that the women were lazy not to sin with the Golden Calf, this was a praise of the women. In this statement, Chazal have revealed to us how laziness can be positive. It is the concept of holy laziness (atzlus d’kedushah).

More Examples of Positive Laziness

There are more instances in Chazal in which we find a concept of “holy laziness.”

The Gemara[7] brings a statement from one of the Sages: “I praise the lazy ones, who do not leave their houses in order to travel (to Jerusalem for Yom Tov)[8], for it is written, “And you shall rejoice, you and your family.” Rashi explains this statement to mean, “I praise the lazy ones – even though it is not because of the festival that they are remaining where they are, because during the rest of the year they do ever not leave their homes, since they are lazy – even so, I praise them.”

In other words, these lazy people are happier on Yom Tov by staying home rather than having to travel, and even though they are just acting lazy as usual, their laziness becomes holy, since it allows them to enjoy Yom Tov better by remaining home.

If not for this statement of Chazal, we would never praise a lazy person. We would say that if a lazy person didn’t travel to Jerusalem for Yom Tov, it’s not because he wants to fulfill the mitzvah of Simchas Yom Tov, but because he’s just being like his usual self. We would have said that it doesn’t matter that he’s happier on Yom Tov and fulfilling the mitzvah better – he’s just being lazy! But Chazal look at this differently: that there are times in which a person’s natural laziness is holy.

We also find similarly in the Midrash[9] that “A wise person is lazy in his eyes [he is lazy sometimes], such as Shlomo Hamelech, who held back his mouth from speaking in front of one who was greater than him.”

We can ask, what does holding back from talking have to do with laziness? Isn’t it just acting respectful, that you shouldn’t speak in front of someone who’s greater? Yet, Chazal say that it has to do with utilizing laziness for a holy reason.

Chazal also state[10] that if someone is lazy not to sin, his laziness is a positive trait.

How exactly can holiness be lazy? If it is laziness in the simple sense, how can it ever be a positive thing? What exactly can turn it holy?

To answer this, we will intensify the point we have said until now, and then we will be able to understand how indeed laziness can be used either for evil or for good.

Connecting the Elements By First Separating Them

We explained before that there are two kinds of laziness.

One kind of laziness is atzaltayim, when a person acts slowly. This is not a total imbalance in one’s element of earth, but it is rather coming from a partial dominance in the element of earth over one’s other elements. When the earth in the soul begins to dominate over the other elements, a person’s movements are slowed, and he becomes unbalanced. He moves, but only slowly.

The second kind of laziness is when one’s element of earth is totally dominant, and earth all by itself is non-moving, which causes a person to become totally non-moving. This is real laziness.

As we explained in the beginning of this chapter, non-movement goes against our purpose in Creation, for we are supposed to get moving towards our goal. If so, how can laziness ever be a good thing, if it is all about non-movement – the antithesis to what all of Creation stands for?

Yet, herein lies a subtle, deep point.

We understand simply that the way we fix up our elements is though combining them and balancing them with the other elements, and thus it follows that if each element remains separate and unto itself, it remains impaired, and nothing good can be said of this.

But on a deeper understanding, really everything that Hashem created can be used for holiness (if it is permissible according to Halacha, that is). This is because it is written, “Know Him in all your ways.” Sometimes, a person is able to make use of any one of the elements even if they are independent of the other elements!

Combining each element with the other elements is the usual scenario we must work with, but combining isn’t everything. Sometimes we need to take things apart. Hashem created night and day, to show that first there must be night in order for there to be day. Regarding our discussion, first we need to study each of the elements separately and gain from that knowledge – so that we can eventually know how to combine it with the other elements.

We can compare this to knocking down a building in order to build another one its place. Knocking down the building here is not seen as a destruction to the building, but as a necessary prerequisite in the process to what we want to build. The demolishing of the building is actually the beginning. The same way we can understand our elements – in order to be able to combine them, we first need to take them apart and know them each on an individualistic level.

Let us explain what we mean.

In the beginning of the Chapter One, we brought that the inner layer to our middos is our da’as. There are three parts to our da’as.

The first part of our da’as is called da’as hamavdeles. This is when we take apart all the information, the first step in the process of understanding. The second part of da’as is da’as hamachraas. This is when we come to a certain point in which we have to decide between the possibilities contained in the information. Or, we come to the point of da’as hamechaberes, which is when we combine the information together.

If we don’t at first take apart the information, we won’t know how to combine all the facts together.

We can see such a concept from the creation of man and woman, who were at first created together, then separated, and then connected back together. First comes a separation, and then comes unification.

Our understanding, our da’as, first involves taking apart the information, and then we connect all the facts together.

The only way we can possibly connect the elements together is by first studying each middah separately. We cannot attempt to connect the elements before we first understand each of them on an individual level. Yet if we remain with just this knowledge and we don’t come to combine the elements afterwards, we miss the goal. We need to study each element first and learn how to use them, with the intention that we eventually want to combine the elements with each other. This is the method of tikkun hamiddos.

The Rambam[11] states that if we want to change a middah, we have to go to its opposite extreme for a while until we improve, which is when we get to the middle level of each middah.

In these words of the Rambam lays the exact fundamental we have described: first we need to go in an extreme path, which is by taking apart the information. Then we need to get to the “middle” path, which is to eventually combine all the elements together. First, we use our da’as d’havdalah by separating the information into two different sides, seeing the two extremes, and then we need to use our da’as hamechaberes – to see the middle point in between the two extremes, which combines them.

But if a person first wants to get that middle point without having first seen the two extremes, he has nothing to work with in order to combine the information. He won’t be able to get to the middle point, the point of balance between all the elements.

The elements need to be balanced, but before we attempt to balance them all out, we need to first take apart the information about each of the elements and study them each separately. Then, we can connect them together.

We have now emphasized this point more – it is not just that we have to know about each element separately; we have to also know how to use each element separately, before we attempt to balance them out.

Holy Laziness

Let us return to the topic of this chapter: laziness.

Rav Chaim Vital wrote that laziness is rooted in the element of earth. It seems simply from his words that laziness is an evil trait, that it is always negative.

However, there is a rule that for everything Hashem created that is evil, there is something else good that is equal in strength to it. If something can be used for evil, then there is somehow a way to use it for good. Using laziness for a good reason is the concept known as atzlus d’kedushah.

How should we utilize laziness? How can the power to be non-moving ever be a positive thing?

The time to act lazy is when a person is faced with a temptation to sin. He can be lazy about it – and then his laziness becomes holy.

We understand simply (and if only we could indeed reach it) that a person must fear the punishment of sin, which is called yirah. Fear of punishment helps a person avoid sin. Yirah is a middah, and it is rooted in the element of fire. Fire destroys, and a person is afraid to get destroyed by the fire of Gehinnom.

This is a true definition of yirah, but there is a deeper kind of yirah, and it is rooted in our element of earth. When a person is afraid, he stays put where he is. That is yirah. By contrast, ahavah\love is the opposite; when a person feels a love for something, he will break all boundaries to get it. “Love pushes the flesh.”[12]

Yirah is when a person stays where he is, and he resolves that he is not changing even for any impulse. Ahavah is when a person leaves from where he is.

Yirah – staying where one is – is rooted in the element of earth. Chazal have taught us that when a person is faced with a temptation to sin, one of the ways how he can deal with this is to return to his root of earth – to be unmoving and unchanging, and restrain from the impulse to commit the evil act. This indifference will help a person control his impulse to sin.

This is how we fix up our impaired element of earth – by using laziness for holiness. This was the kind of laziness that the women exercised in not sinning with the Calf. It was the kind of element of earth which Moshe Rabbeinu ground up the Luchos to become fine dust, to show us that we can fix our impaired earth. “Women are lazy” – but it’s a holy laziness.

Holy laziness is that when a person feels an impulse to do something improper, he brings forth his element of earth – the power to be unmoving and unchanging – and then calms the impulse.

Using the Power to Be “Unmoving” For Good Purposes

We find holy laziness in another statement of Chazal[13] as well: “The world does not exist except due to the merit of one who restrains his mouth during a time of strife, for it is written, “The world hangs on silence.”

From where does a person get the strength to silence his mouth during an argument?

Simply, it is because Chazal[14] say, “Who is strong? The one who conquers his inclination.” A person restrains himself from opening up his mouth to argue. True.

But from the words of Chazal, we can see that there is more depth to the matter. A person is called medaber, a “social creature.” Humans have the unique power of speech. By contrast, non-living things do not move, and thus they do not speak. The opposite of speech is silence; “And Aharon was silent.”[15]

What is the power of silence? Where does a person get the strength from to be silent?

It comes from our ability to act non-moving – the doimem in the soul. Silence is demamah in Hebrew, which is related to the word doimem, because being silent an being “non-moving” have a connection.

The power to remain silent during an argument is an ability of holy laziness, which is the power to act non-moving, doimem – the non-moving earth which we were created from.

Although the power of speech defines a human being, who is called medaber - and although we must speak words of Torah - sometimes we need to silence our speech. For example, before one makes the blessing over Torah, he is not allowed to learn (according to most authorities), and on Tisha B’av as well it is forbidden to learn Torah.

Man is called medaber, but we also have in us an opposite ability, the ability to be doimem. It is a power to silence our speech, by awakening our element of earth.

“The world hangs on silence.” When there is separation and strife going on, now is not a time to try to make a connection with the other side; trying to connect to the other side of the argument now will only make things worse and cause even more separation. What should a person do then? He should “sit alone, and be silent”,[16]  - he can awaken his element of earth, the power to be unmoving, and then he will find that he has the strength to be silent.

What does it mean to “sit alone”? It does not mean simply to be alone in the physical sense, but to be silent in your own soul. It is a power in the soul to be “alone”, levad. It is when we use our power to be non-moving – the state of our element of earth, when it is independent of the other elements. By using our power to be non-moving, we can reach silence – a complete silence.