Bilvavi Part 6 - Chapter 01 Three Levels of the Soul

These opening words will give you the proper outlook on everything to come in this sefer; and if the foundations of our “tree” are strong, only then can we see strong branches and good fruits from our “tree”. So don’t skip this introduction.

Nefesh, Ruach and Neshamah

We will learn a concept mentioned in the words of Rav Dessler zt”l (see Michtav M’Eliyahu Vol. V, p. 13), which formulate everything we are about to say. He writes: “We have written that there are three lower forms of the soul of a person, which the holy seforim term as “Neshamah, Ruach, and Nefesh (“life-force”, or lower part of the soul) *. There are various ways of serving Hashem through these three levels…” In other words, there are three general formulas for serving Hashem, and we will soon explain them.

Nefesh - Action

Rav Dessler continues: “Serving Hashem though the “Nefesh” means to serve Him with only our outside actions.”

This means that we carry out our obligations. It is indisputable that we need this, because even though the “main thing that the Torah wants from us is our heart”, still, it is important for us to achieve this elementary level – doing the right actions, keeping the mitzvos. We must “learn in order to do”, and this serves as the basis of everything. If we aren’t carrying out the actions we are supposed to do – the mitzvos - we are totally disconnected, chas v’shalom.

This is an important rule in serving Hashem: “Today is for action”. There is also a rule, “Learn in order to do.” Everything is based on a foundation, and the foundation of everything is that we do the actions required us. That is Nefesh: doing the mitzvos and acting properly.

Ruach - Inspiration

Rav Dessler continues: “Serving Hashem though the “Ruach” is to do actions with enthusiasm. This is the power of self-awakening (hisorerus) and being amazed (hispaalus). This mode of serving Hashem is done by entering further into a matter, when one awakens himself and feels a wonder from something.”

That is how we use our Ruach: inspiring ourselves.

Neshamah - Internalization

Rav Dessler continues: “Serving Hashem through the “Neshamah” is by placing a matter on the heart, which is like a “soft, subtle voice”. It is a firm realization of the truth in one’s heart.”

This means when one clarifies the inner depth of a matter; that is Neshamah.

So far, we have explained the basic outline of what we need to know here.

Improving the Nefesh

Rav Dessler continues to explain how to improve each of these three levels of Nefesh, Ruach and Neshamah: “For one who wants to improve his service to Hashem on the level of “Nefesh”, he must be proved his mistakes, by being told stories that will help him improve, and by growing more accustomed to do good actions.”

In other words, if someone isn’t keeping the Torah, and he wants to better himself, he is at the level of Nefesh. He needs to be taught Torah and the mitzvos; how to carry out the Torah.

Even if someone generally keeps the Torah, still, it is necessary for anyone as well to work on himself in this area, because there is no such thing as even a righteous person who doesn’t sin (sometimes), from lack of proper knowledge in the Torah and mitzvos.

This is how one who is on a level of “Nefesh” improves: by clarifying his actions to himself, to see if they are in line with the Torah.

Improving the Ruach

Rav Dessler continues: “For one who is serving Hashem on a level of “Ruach”, he can improve himself by being infused with enthusiasm in learning the Torah and in the mitzvos.”

In other words, the level of “Ruach” is to infuse ourselves with enthusiasm for spiritual matters. If a person is doing everything he is supposed to, but he is lethargic and sleep-like, he needs to be woken up, like it is written, “Awaken and then strongly awaken the love, until there is desire.” (Even when someone is spiritually awake, he needs to be awakened even more.)

Improving the Neshamah

Rav Dessler continues: “For one who is serving Hashem on the level of “Neshamah”, he can improve himself by working to reveal the innermost points of truth in the heart.”

From Which Part of Our Soul Are We Talking From?

Rav Dessler finishes by saying, “Anyone who switches around these levels will not be improved.”

We need to understand that these are three unique ways of serving Hashem, and there is no way to switch around what works with one for another. We need to know in what way we are serving Hashem in.

For example: when we talk, are we talking from the Nefesh, or from the Ruach, or from the Neshamah?

Talking from the Nefesh means that we are describing a certain action to do. If one is talking about carrying out a Halachah (the laws of the Torah), or he is giving practical advice on how to carry out the Torah and the mitzvos – he is talking on the level of Nefesh.

When we talk from the Ruach, we are speaking on even higher level. This is when we are talking with enthusiasm, and we are trying to cause in ourselves an awakening for something spiritual. This usually occurs at certain events or times that require this awakening (hisorerus). All of creation actually tries to awaken all people from their sleep: “Awaken, sleepers, from your slumber…”

As an example, people forget the truth when they indulge in frivolous things, and they need to be awakened with the shofar blast in order to return to the Creator.

This is the level of Ruach. The function of Ruach is not merely to describe mere details of something, but the opposite – it is to enlarge the matter in order for it to cause in us a feeling of amazement and awaken us from our lethargy to our spiritual situation. To talk to someone on the level of Ruach is to try to instill in him something he is not used to, because something a person is used to doing will not awaken him. This is how to talk from the Ruach: talking in a manner that inspires others and getting them to awaken themselves.

Serving Hashem from the Neshamah is an even higher level. It is to realize the truth in everything, the “truth of the truth” – and it is very subtle. A person serves Hashem with his Neshamah when he probes into the more subtle aspects of every matter.

Serving Hashem through the “Ruach”

Rav Dessler continues to explain that these three levels are also different ways to influence the public.

He writes: “To influence others from our Nefesh is to give external influence – like by giving lectures or writing books to inspire people to improve. Serving Hashem through the Ruach is to speak with enthusiasm to others, causing them to be uplifted, and “Words that come from the heart enter the heart.” However, even these words come from the Ruach are still not from the most truthful point of our heart, the level of Neshamah. To influence others through the Neshamah is when a great person places a matter into his very heart, and he nullifies himself to the truth. He can then shine his spiritual light outward to the public. Even if he doesn’t talk to them, they can feel his words, even without using their senses.”

These words of Rav Dessler need to be understood. If one is being influenced through the level of Nefesh, then that means he needs to be clear exactly what to do in practical terms. This is understandable, but what we need to understand is Ruach. If he is being influenced through another’s Ruach, the Ruach will not always be enough to improve him, because it can just be to him like a wind that comes and goes; after all, “Ruach” means wind.

Let us explain what we mean. There are different kinds of wind – in other words, there are different levels of inspiration. Sometimes wind is moving toward the right or left. Sometimes it is strong and sometimes weak, and sometimes it can barely be felt.  The wind is always different, and it always moves in a different direction. The same is with the wind\Ruach of the soul. If one is serving Hashem from his Ruach, there are constant ups and downs. There is always movement, just like with real wind; there is no such thing as serving Hashem without movement.

We pray, “Do not bring us to have trials.” Every person has trials. All of life is full of trials. When a person lives on a level of Ruach, he draws inspiration from hearing a good lecture and gets enthusiasm to learn Torah better and do mitzvos better, but if the rabbi is absent one week and he doesn’t hear the lecture, he is missing the spirit of his life. He is only going with the “wind” that is blowing on him and awakens him. If someone G-d forbid dies, he feels an awakening. But if nothing happens, he stays unmoved…

With the level of Ruach, the main thing is the enthusiasm, but not the actual contents of what is being conveyed. Someone who is on the level of Ruach needs to hear words of awakening every week in order to be stirred; such awakening won’t be here forever - it eventually dies down.

We experience this all the time when we get something new – a new house or a new type of food. In the beginning, we are excited to have it, but then we slowly get accustomed to it. It doesn’t have the taste of being new anymore.

The same is when we hear things that improve our Avodas Hashem. There is a rule that “There is no piety as much as in the beginning.” When a person begins his Avodas Hashem, he is receiving new concepts. But after half a year of hearing inspiration, or after a year or two, there aren’t many new things to give him enthusiasm.

Generally speaking, anyone with even a little understanding knows that if someone only goes with enthusiasm alone, it won’t be enough to build him up for life – because as soon as the reason for the enthusiasm is taken away, he stops.  But if he is being obligated by a more subtle point, this can cause him to feel more motivated.

A judge has to judge every case by the truth, and everyone is a judge on himself as well. A person can thus judge himself more and more on the subtle points of every trait. This subtlety is the level of Neshamah ­– a lasting inspiration, unlike the temporary inspiration of Ruach.

But if a person’s whole Avodas Hashem is through self-awakening (hisorerus), he limits himself, because the awakening can only last for a certain amount of time.

Also, if a person is being influenced only from Ruach, he isn’t being influenced as much as he really should when it comes to practical terms. It’s like the saying “Grab and eat something today because tomorrow you will die.”

In spiritual terms, it means that a person should grab another page of Gemara, another act of not speaking slander, another mitzvah, etc. – as long as the person does something now as a result. 

If a person is influencing others through his Ruach, any successful results he has in others can be called success, but he never reaches the true outcome of what needs to be done. Instead, the one who is influenced just “grabs” onto some new, temporary improvement in a specific area: either the listener is indeed awakened to learn more Torah, while another is awakened to daven better, and another feels inspired to do more kindness.

All this “grabbing” doesn’t last.

When a person talks from his Ruach to others, although he inspires them, he is only awakening the listener to an area his own heart is drawn toward, and this will not accomplish the ultimate goal.

Talking on a level of Neshamah

But serving Hashem through the Neshamah is a different level altogether.

Let us use an example – the Alter of Kelm. Anyone looking for self-awakening will not find much in his words. The Alter’s words did not stem from being amazed at something and then writing down his original thoughts; this was not his way. The Alter had a certain way of life. He saw life in a certain way, and anything he wrote reflects this way of life that he viewed. It is well known that the Alter kept his original thoughts to himself for sometimes twenty years before telling them to anyone.

Why did he do this? On a simple level, we can understand that this means that he worked a lot on his character traits, but there is a deeper point in this.

Most people who see something and get amazed will immediately tell someone what they saw. This is talking from the Ruach, and the talking here does not stem from a matter that settled in his heart. But if he tells it over to someone only after he has had a long time to digest it, it becomes a simple matter to him. When he tells it over now, it is from his very essence – he is telling it over from his Neshamah.

This is the difference between a true Baal Mussar (disciplined person) and those who lack inner improvement. A true Baal Mussar doesn’t immediately tell over to others something he is amazed at. If he gets a spiritual awakening for something, he doesn’t yet speak of it.

He only speaks of matters that are simple to him, after he has worked to understand it – and not before he understands.

The Mashgiach, R’ Yechezkel Levenstein zt”l, never spoke of a matter that wasn’t ingrained in his inner being and soul. He never spoke from his Ruach, from mere enthusiasm about something – he only spoke of things that he acquired an understanding of, a matter internalized in his Neshamah.

This is really the inner aspect of Mussar. Of course there is hisorerus\self-awakening found in Mussar, but that is only a part of it. The inner point of Mussar is an inner grasp on life itself.

The son-in-law of the Alter of Kelm said that there are three things necessary to learn Mussar, and he said this in front of R’ Yechezkel Levenstein zt”l. One of them was that a person needs a “straight head.” This is referring to the ability of reflection (hisbonenus), which is thinking that comes from the Neshamah, and not enthusiasm, which is hisorerus that comes from the Ruach.

A person needs a lev tahor (pure heart) for this, as well as the ability of hisbonenus (reflection). Without a “pure heart”, the mind is bribed, and it cannot properly reflect on matters. If a person has just a pure heart, though, but he doesn’t know how to reflect on the inner aspects of life – although he will get rewarded by Hashem for his efforts, he is still lacking the inner Avodas Hashem.

We have to understand that Mussar is not here merely to awaken us. It is here to give us a way of life, which are the ways of Mussar. It is the way life should look – and it is not just “inspiration.”

Only A Few Truly Serve Hashem

If we understand these words – we can turn around our life. Otherwise, we turn everything into just “inspiration” that doesn’t last.

We need to understand: there aren’t many people in the world who are truly serving Hashem, and there never were too many in the first place.

When Moshiach comes, only then “The world will be filled with knowledge”. But until the Redemption, there was and will only be few people who really serve Hashem. There were only rare individuals who served Hashem: Avrohom in his generation, Noach in his generation – every generation has a unique individual. There were only individuals who served Hashem on such an amazing level.

When we stood at Har Sinai, for a moment we all rose to an exalted level, but immediately we fell. True service of Hashem is only reached by individuals, and not by everyone. This is the way it always was and will be, until we are redeemed with Moshiach.

Thus, in order for the matters of this sefer to be actualized, we have to understand one thing: since we are trying to influence a public here, most people will not hear the inner point of what it being conveyed.

They can only hear it as a self-awakening, as inspiration, which is fine and praiseworthy; in fact, if only we could all be even like this level. So the public as a whole will not gain much from this sefer, just some temporary hisorerus.

But if this sefer is being given over to an individual, then it must not be given over on the level of Ruach. It needs to be given over on the level of Neshamah. When we speak to people on the street, we need to talk to them only from the Nefesh.

We need to tell them what to do: this is prohibited, this we must do, and so forth.  When we speak to a Ben Torah (generally speaking), though, we need to speak in a form of Ruach. We are trying to awaken him – each according to his situation.

But if we are speaking to a group of individuals whose only desire is to serve Hashem, we do not express to them words of mere self-awakening. Self-awakening doesn’t last forever; those who are truly seeking Hashem need the higher level than self-awakening. The words of the Sages are not based on self-awakening. The Sages spoke from the Neshamah – and they spoke words of the Neshamah too.

 When hearing the words of the Sages, the words are meant to bring us to the Neshamah of the matter, not the Ruach of the matter. The mode of Ruach is fine for the public in general, but the mode of Neshamah is meant only for certain individuals, who have come to hear the matters of this sefer.

A Life of Growth

The inner aspect of our Avodah is not something we hear as self-awakening, and thus these matters should not be mere self-awakening to us. They must cause in us a change more than mere temporary inspiration. When we hear something, it is really supposed to change us completely. If a person listens well to what he is hearing and clarifies for himself the inner aspects of Avodas Hashem, he is the not same person as before (just as a person who repents “becomes a new person”, as the Rambam writes). Clarifying a matter to yourself is the level of Neshamah.

The Sages say, “I have seen those who are going higher, and they are few” (Sukkah 45b). The explanation of this is that if there is a house with an attic, there are two kinds of people living in it; one stays on the first floor and sometimes goes up to the attic, while another can live in the attic. The ones who are “going higher” are like the ones who “live in the attic”; it is where they reside permanently. It is not like self-awakening, which is done by sometimes visiting the attic. Someone who “always lives in the attic” is living a whole different kind of life – a life of growth!

There exists a kind of life that is internal, and there is a kind of life that is external. An external kind of life can have in it self-awakening, and it can also even have quite fiery enthusiasm in it. But it is not yet a life of a “soft, subtle voice” (kol demamah dakkah)– there is no calm, and there is no inner grasp of matters. It lacks clarity of the inner meaning of everything.

It is a simple fact that in order to really grasp something, we need a lot of zechusim (merits). The Mashgiach, R’ Yechezkel Levenstein zt”l one time said, “There are people who are sitting in front of me for the last 20 years, but they have yet not even begun to understand what I am saying!”

This is not an exaggeration. He was not being haughty in saying so. There were people that heard him speak and listened intently, with a great desire to work on themselves. But they lacked proper understanding in what they wanted. The Mashgiach zt”l did not come every week and say, “I thought of a new, profound thought regarding Avrohom or Yitzchok, or a new thought about a character trait.” That was never his point. He lived a certain way of life, and he was trying to explain this when he spoke. Whoever grasped it, grasped it! There were only individuals who did.

The words we will say in this sefer are internal matters regarding our Avodas Hashem. They are only meant for those who want to build their life in their souls by these words. If someone just thinks these words are an “Avodah”, he is already lacking grasp of these matters. It is not an Avodah; it is life itself. But in order to bring these words into our internal life, we need an Avodah to actualize it.

On a deeper note, however, there is really no “Avodah” here! It is our grasp on where we are standing in life, what we truly want.

The Chazon Ish writes that Torah and Tefillah\prayer are dependent on each other. We will explain at length that Torah, prayer and faith are all part of one structure in the soul of a person, just like we understand that Torah is not just a mere self-awakening.

If a teacher of a Ben Torah is speaking to him about the importance of learning Torah, he is not merely trying to awaken him. A Ben Torah needs a higher level of spirituality to help him grow more – he is beyond mere inspiration, and we are trying to get him to realize the truth of “For Torah is our life and the length of our days” – that the world stands on Torah, as the sefer Nefesh HaChaim writes. Someone who isn’t a Ben Torah needs the lower, basic level – hisorerus\inspiration - in order to grow; someone who is already a Ben Torah needs more than hisorerus.

When we understand that Torah, prayer and faith are dependent on each other in the internal sense, then our view on prayer or faith becomes part of our take on life itself, not just as a means for self-awakening. It becomes life to us.

It is well known that the Chazon Ish would put more effort into his prayers than his learning. This doesn’t mean that his learning was detached from his praying, or the other way around; it means that his learning was so bound up with his praying, and his praying with his learning – in a way that he was able to expend more into his praying. Obviously, after putting all his effort into praying, he merited more understanding in his learning. All of his actions were intertwined, and there was no separation between the two matters.

Holiness is to be Constant

What exactly are we referring to?

We have until this point been accustomed to hearing a shmuess (inspirational lecture) every here and there: first in yeshiva, then somewhere else. We go to hear words of truth from truthful people…

But this is not really a plan for us to improve. There is no order here; there is no structure. Words of inspiration are only there to make sure people don’t fall asleep, or to give us a profound thought. There is no inner aspect of life contained in this way of Avodas Hashem.

The Chazon Ish writes (Igros, Vol. I: 3), “Holiness is to be constant.” We can understand this as we explained: “Ruach”\self-awakening is not constant. If self-awakening isn’t constant, then it can be understood that there is no real holiness when we receive inspiration in the form of Ruach.

In order for a person to enter into holiness, to enter what is called “You are holy and Your name is holy, and holy ones praise You every day, Selah”, we need to enter the point of consistency in our Avodas Hashem. Being “constant” will not come from self-awakening; it can only come from developing the structure of life in the soul – the level of Neshamah. We have to go beyond inspiration and build our souls through these matters.

Finding the Point of Renewal in All Matters

One of the points in Avodas Hashem that was introduced by the Alter of Kelm (which applies both in learning Torah and Mussar) is that we should grow accustomed to think into anything new we hear. We should think, “What did I hold before I heard this, and what do I hold now? What changed in my thinking?”

When the soul becomes accustomed to thinking like this, a person can build in himself an inner world in which he clarifies everything new that he hears.

For example, if one reads a sefer, he can think, “Is there something new in here?” If he can’t come up with anything new he found in the sefer, he should try to think why it’s not new to him. Maybe he knows it already, or maybe he saw the same thought in a different sefer. Either way, he should reflect if there is something new here or not, and if it is new to him, he should think: “What did I think before I saw this, and what do I think now?”

A person should get accustomed to this form of Avodah in a way that his life is changed. A person never changes his life (or at least parts of his life) because he never really thought about the depth of a profound thought that he hears. He sees that the thought is giving him a new idea, and he understands that it is new, but the actual point of the new thought stays hidden in his soul, because he just hears it and then runs away from it.

Everything needs thought. Everything has a plan and structure to how to go about it. When a person goes over the same point – not once or twice, but four times – as is necessary for learning Torah – and he clarifies for himself if there is nothing new here or if there is something new here – he is actually building himself. He is not working to merely awaken a matter. He is beginning to build a way of life of Avodah.

This is the level of Neshamah. It is to clarify for oneself more and more subtle points, until he reaches a total clarity in the most inner point of the soul – each according to his own level.

Living for Life itself, Not Mere Self-Awakening

This way of Avodas Hashem is, without a shadow of a doubt, not for everyone. It is only for individuals, perhaps even only for rare individuals.

But we need to understand: these words here are not supposed to be just fiery words of enthusiasm or self-awakening. They all focus on the same point: to brings us clarity of life, and the purpose of life; “What Hashem asks of you.”

When a person realizes that his soul needs more internal work – more subtlety, more calm, more clarity – he should know that this fact needs to be transformed into a very inner kind of life.

It is impossible to grasp a very inner point of a matter once a month or once a week just by doing a little thinking during the day. We need to be totally “immersed” in these matters (as the Kotzker Rebbe would say).

To illustrate, when a person is immersed in forty se’ah of water, even if one hair is not inside the water he is still impure. We do not apply here the rule “The majority is like the entirety”, because we need to be totally immersed in order to be considered “immersed.” To enter into a matter is to be inside it, to live in it, to breathe it, to clarify it. Clarity in a matter is not only sometimes. Holiness is to be constant, and to enter the inner world, we need to bring our life itself into our internal self.

We need to enter the internal mode, the mode of “kol demamah dakkah”, a “soft, subtle voice.” These matters need to fill all aspects of our life. Of course, this doesn’t mean to take away from learning Torah, but when we are learning these matters, we must be immersed and devoted to the topic. (This we can see in the words of Rabbeinu Yonah in Shaarei Teshuvah).

We must know that these words are not for everyone. They are relevant for some, but for the rest who hear them, it would be like entering a world that isn’t theirs. Someone who has relevance to these matters can be successful here, but someone who doesn’t have relevance to these matters is not being possessed by a good will; it is rather just breaking a fence (poretz geder).

Someone who does have relevance to these matters, however, must live in them. He shouldn’t just apply these words for a certain amount of time and then move on, satisfied. He needs to exist with them. He needs to live in it and be absorbed in it, breathing these words. It is the life he is going by.

Generally speaking, when there is a lecture that can be said on any topic of Avodah, people come to hear it. However, not of all of them have to come to hear a lecture. Some people need to only come to a lecture sometimes if they are to grow from it and internalize the words very strongly. Others need to come more often to hear something. But in either situation, there should never be a break in between the lectures – there should never be a halt to a person’s growth. The inner point of what the lecture conveyed must never be lost in the interim until the next time there is a lecture.

Our words here are arranged in a way that whoever wants to enter must live there internally and breathe it. One who feels that these words apply to him should know that he must go through an overhaul on his whole structure of life, and that it is a constant process of clarification.

There is a well-known expression that was said by R’ Boruch Ber Levovitz zt”l, when he was sitting by a speech one time and he heard someone lecture that “Torah is air that we breathe.” R’ Boruch Ber trembled when he heard this; he got up and exclaimed, “Torah is not the air we breather; it is life itself!” Air is still an outer entity when compared to the Torah’s worth to us.

When we understand the internal aspect of Torah, that “All your commandments are faith”, and that connection to Hashem is the essence of life, for “Torah brings one to be cognizant”, we can grasp everything as a way of building our life, and not just merely as an Avodah that we work on. Avodas Hashem is really shaping our structure of life.

If these matters are understood well, and they are clear, they must cause a change in a person’s priorities as well. It is not just another step in a process. It is the thought that accompanies one when he puts on Tefillin, when he wears a Tallis, or when he learns Torah. Torah is intertwined with being connected to Hashem, and so is wearing Tefillin! Just as we cannot stop learning Torah or ever stop putting on Tefillin, so can’t we ever stop trying to be connected to Hashem, for it is the purpose of all our Torah and prayer.

Therefore, everyone must clarify for himself what exactly he is looking for. One must clarify this through his ability of inner recognition, as well as with praying and crying to Hashem that he should clarify his soul. A person has to know exactly what he is looking for in this life.

One who is looking for self-awakening needs to receive self-awakening from time to time. One who is looking for inner, subtle matters must receive them in a way in which subtle points are clarified. But if someone mixes up the two – self-awakening, with clarifying subtle points – he will never be successful, as Rav Dessler zt”l explained. This is because one who is looking for “self-awakening” and instead hears internal matters will just use them to awaken himself, but he will not accept them in the proper way. The same is for one who is looking for internal matters and hears it as self-awakening; he is bringing it down from a level of internal matters to the level of what he is looking for, which is a mere level of self-awakening.

We must try to be clear from which point our words stem from, and to where we want to be brought. One who accepts these words and is searching for these words from within himself must understand that it is or job to enter the inner part of the matter – from beginning to end. Anyone who doesn’t must look for the source in the way he is searching.

But one who has relevance to the internal points of these matters knows that this is the only way of life. It is not a bonus; it is life itself. It obligates one to enter into that world.

Anyone who sees great people can see that they are deeply absorbed in their thoughts. This doesn’t mean that they are self-absorbed; it means that they are delving deeply into matters of Torah, Avodah or connection to Hashem. They are there – it is their life. They have constant thought about the most subtle points of the inner mission of mankind.

Therefore, all these words need to be utterly clear. When one realizes from where we are coming from with these words, with Hashem’s help, he will be given a way how to enter the inner world of Avodas Hashem.