Nefesh haChayim Gate 1 - 005 Greatness of Man

 נפש החיים 005 שער א פרק ד-ה

 
1] The Nefesh HaChaim [Shaar 1 Perek 4] continues that since our heart is our personal Beis HaMikdash, someone who has improper thoughts has basically brought a harlot into the Beis HaMikdash.

Here the Nefesh HaChaim tells us what is taking place when a person sins. When a person commits a sin, it’s really because he isn’t aware that he is a tzelem elokim. The same is true for someone who embarrasses another person; he doesn’t realize that another person is a tzelem elokim. When a person sins, it’s because he cheapens his own self-worth. The sinner feels, “I’m like an animal” (as the possuk indeed says concerning sinners, “And they resembled animals”) and he comes to forget his true self; “What am I worth anyway…Who am I…?”

A person only sins when he has this misconception: when he doesn’t view himself as a tzelem elokim.

This affects our own avodah as follows. Let’s say a person wants to improve on his learning or in his davening, so he accepts upon himself certain resolutions to improve. He needs to understand that he’s not just trying to inspire himself; rather, that he is trying to reveal the inner reason of why he learns and davens, which is that he is a tzelem elokim.

This is the meaning of the concept, “gadlus h’adam” (greatness of man), which was taught in Slobodka. We have inherent greatness in us.

Although we all have many difficult tests, if we view ourselves as being a tzelem elokim, we will elevate our difficulties. Every person is tested, according to the level he is at. But when a person understands that he is a tzelem elokim, many of his base desires to sin will fall away on their own, and the kinds of difficulties he instead will face will be deeper. He won’t have desires for sin, because since he understands that he is a tzelem elokim, and that his entire body serves to reveal his tzelem elokim, he will not allow himself to be degraded by sin.

A person should therefore look at his hand or feet and see them as a way to reveal his tzelem elokim, and not just as a part of the body. If a person doesn’t view himself as a tzelem elokim, he will have an animalistic perspective of himself, and that is how he comes to sin. A person only sinks to his animalistic desires when he isn’t aware that he is a tzelem elokim, and thus he [subconsciously] sinks to the level of animal.

It is written, “For they resembled animals.” A sinner’s actions resemble that of an animal, for he has sunken to the perspective of an animal. If only he would be aware that he is a tzelem elokim, he wouldn’t come to sin!

2] The Nefesh HaChaim continues that the purpose of the Beis HaMikdash was not just to have the beautiful edifice which was the Beis HaMikdash; the purpose of the Beis HaMikdash was to show us how we must build ourselves internally, that we ourselves should develop our internal world and thus become a receptacle for Hashem to reside in us.

The Beis HaMikdash shows us how we need to work on ourselves. If a person donates a million-dollar shul or beis midrash, let’s say, but he doesn’t become more purified internally because of this, his building is worthless. The purpose of all “buildings”, the Nefesh HaChaim tells us, is a hint to us that we should “build” ourselves.

3] On Tisha B’Av, many people want to feel the pain over the destruction; they read through sefarim and the various collections of stories on the topic, hoping in this way to inspire themselves. But this doesn’t cause us to feel pain over the destruction, and people complain: “How do you feel pain over something you never saw, which happened thousands of years ago??”

Reading about the destruction is just the superficial approach; it is focusing on the physical aspects of the destruction – that the physical Beis HaMikdash was destroyed. This isn’t real mourning! This isn’t getting to the root of the destruction. When we mourn the Beis HaMikdash on Tisha B’Av, we have to mourn over the root of the destruction, not what resulted and branched from the destruction.

Of course, we also have to mourn the physical aspect of the destruction, but this isn’t the main point of Tisha B’Av. The main aspect of the destruction was that our hearts were destroyed! It was a destruction that took place to our spiritual situation, our hearts. Ever since the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash, our hearts are not able to [fully] contain the Shechinah’s presence; our Beis HaMikdash within ourselves was destroyed. That is what we should mainly be mourning about.

4] The Nefesh HaChaim then returns to discussing the concept of gadlus h’adam, that we all have inherent greatness, because the heart of a person is all-inclusive.

From the words of the Nefesh HaChaim, we see that gadlus h’adam is not just that man is the most important kind of creation. It is rather because man is all-inclusive – he contains everything inside of himself.

There are generally two ways to serve Hashem. One way is through working on our middos, which is the path of the Mesillas Yesharim. The other path is through gaining daas – “Hilchos De’os”, the laws of our understanding – and it is the method of both the Vilna Gaon and the Arizal; this second way is the path of sefer Nefesh HaChaim.

Hilchos De’os – the path taken by sefer Nefesh HaChaim – is essentially about how we view life.

What does it matter how we view life? How does this affect us? It’s not about “what to do” and how to act. It is about understanding that our entire avodah is Torah, which is the holy intellect – in other words, that we have to connect ourselves to what we know. This is the meaning of gadlus h’adam. If a person isn’t connected to his knowledge of Torah, he hasn’t reached his greatness – he’s minimizing his self-worth.

The meaning of “Hilchos De’os” thus means for a person to connect himself to daas, to connect oneself to his learning. We aren’t interested in gathering knowledge; what we want here is to connect ourselves to our knowledge. The Torah serves to shape us into our true form.

Our avodah is not to gain more inspiring feelings. When we base our avodah on feelings, then as the expression goes, “Today he’s a malach (angel), tomorrow he’s a galach (priest).” Nor are we interested here in “nice ideas”.

It is very possible that a person is learning Torah his whole life, yet he isn’t connecting to his learning. How could this be? It is when a person doesn’t realize that Torah builds him. We must have the understanding that Torah builds our form and develops us.

5] The Nefesh HaChaim [Shaar 1 Perek 5] begins the next chapter with the concept that all which takes place on the lower realms is really a garment of the upper realms.

According to this concept, our “I” is really a manifestation of the entire Creation! Man is a garment of the entire Creation, and this is the meaning of gadlus h’adam. Thus, when a person does a mitzvah, he is positively affecting all of Creation, because a person’s “I” contains all of Creation.

Usually we think of our mitzvos as having importance due to the fact that we live in a lowly generation, and therefore our mitzvos are very precious. This is true, and it is written by Rav Chaim Vital as well. But there is more to the value of our mitzvos. Our mitzvos affect the entire Creation, as the Nefesh HaChaim here writes – and this is because the entire Creation is clothed by man.

6] The Nefesh HaChaim [Shaar 1 Perek 5] continues that there are four spiritual realms. The lowest realm contains the angels called Ofanim; higher than this is the realm of the Chayos; higher than this is the realm of the Kisei HaKavod, while the highest realm is called Atzilus.

If the lowest realm contains the Ofanim, where are we?? Isn’t man contained in the lowest realm? The simple answer to this would be that man is found somewhere underneath the realm of the Ofanim. But this isn’t the answer. The Nefesh HaChaim writes later that our neshamah (soul) is taken from the Kisei HaKavod, which is the root of every Jew’s soul – and not only this, but that the neshamah is on a higher spiritual level than even the Kisei HaKavod.

Our neshamah is thus on a higher level than even the Kisei HaKavod; so we are not lower than the Ofanim – we are much higher than the realm of the Ofanim. We are higher than the Chayos and we are higher than the Kisei HaKavod! This is really the meaning behind the concept of gadlus h’adam. The greatness of man lays in the fact that he comes from a place that is even higher than the Kisei HaKavod.

Most people are unaware of this, and they feel a low self-worth. People think, “Who am I…?” The sefer Nefesh HaChaim tells us, however, that man comes from the highest realm, the realm that is closest to Hashem. The entire sefer Nefesh HaChaim is based upon this fundamental concept: man comes from the highest realm. This is the way we have to view ourselves – that we come from a place that is above even the angels.