Hello Everyone,
Today we had our last shiur of the z’man on Chovot Halevavot, and we completed the chapter on חשבון הנפש.
In his conclusion to חשבון הנפש Rabbeinu Bachya takes an unusually poetic turn. Rabbeinu Bachya describes the spiritual state which can be reached after completing the process of חשבון הנפש . Rabbeinu Bachya writes that the person who changes his life by performing חשבון הנפש will earn clarity of vision and Divine enlightenment. Mundane affairs that cause confusion in other people won’t have that effect on the person who has completed חשבון הנפש . A person who possesses this Divinely bestowed clarity will perform mitzvoth with alacrity because he or she will realize that performing Hashem’s will is the right thing to do. He or she will even be aided by God to perform mizvot. Mitzvot won’t seem like work or a burden anymore, and this hard-earned insight is the source of the wisdom which provides joy.
Perhaps I did not convey the poetry in Rabbeinu Bachya’s words, but I found his language strikingly different from what he wrote in earlier passages. Rabbeinu Bachya repeatedly uses words like “light” and joy” which are hard to come by in the book’s earlier chapters. Rabbeinu Bachya is clearly enthralled by the promise of חשבון הנפש.
The state of enlightenment achieved through חשבון הנפש is curious. What does Rabbeinu Bachya mean when he writes that Hashem will “help” a person to do mitzvoth? What does the Divine light provide? How does this “enlightenment” mesh with the principle of free-will which the Rambam lists as one of the cornerstones of Jewish belief?
I think the explanation of the spiritual ideal which can be reached via חשבון הנפש can be understood by studying the Rambam’s and Rav Dessler’s explanation of the story of Adam before his sin.
In the beginning of מורה נבוכים tells us about a question which he was asked. A person told the Rambam that he could not understand the story of Adam and Eve. It seemed to him that before they ate from the עץ הדעת they were little better than animals. It was only after they sinned that they acquired the ability to distinguish between good and bad; in other words, they acquired intellect. Isn’t it preposterous that by sinning Adam and Eve acquired the greatest of human abilities?
The Rambam explained that this person completely misunderstood the story of Adam and Eve. Adam was God’s creation and he was created perfectly, so of course he possessed an intellect. However his intellect functioned in a way which cannot understand without difficulty. Before his sin Adam approached all questions and situations as if they required an analysis of their truth or falsehood. All questions were questions of “fact.” Adam did not recognize subjective values such as “good” or “bad.” [1] Adam was capable of choosing between possible actions but he would make his choice on the basis of deciding which action would be a fulfillment of Hashem’s will. The proper choice then would be, in our language, not the “good” choice but the “correct” choice. The concept of “good” contains within it the preferences of the person who describes the action (or object) as “good.” But the word “correct” reflects a truth independent of the person who describes the action (or object) as correct. As the Rambam writes, to describe the Earth as round is not “good,” it is “true.” The standard of truth which Adam applied to his choices was Hashem’s will.
As long as Adam would have used only Hashem’s will to make choices, he would have remained in his state of pure intellect. However, he, along with Eve, allowed himself to be beguiled by the fruit of the עץ הדעת. The Torah emphasizes that the fruit was טוב- good, and by allowing himself to be seduced by “good” he lost the ability to make decisions based solely on the truth of the matters under examination.
Rav Dessler wrote that we think that our ability to choose is the highest expression of our intellectual capability, but we are fooling ourselves. The fact that we need to choose is a sign of our moral blindness. We need to strive to reach the level of Adam before his sin. If someone would ask us the solution to the problem 2+2=? we would not feel any “temptation” to answer, “5.” Likewise if someone would ask us our opinion regarding robbing old-ladies, we would say it is “wrong” and not that it is “bad.” We should similarly feel that it is “right” when we perform a mitzvah without any of the self-satisfaction implied in saying we did a “good” act.
So how did Adam get the “wrong” answer to the question about עץ הדעת? Rav Dessler, explained that, as the Rambam wrote, Adam was attracted by the “good” of the tree. The pasuk of the sin is as follows:
בראשית פרק ג
(ו) וַתֵּרֶא הָאִשָּׁה כִּי טוֹב הָעֵץ לְמַאֲכָל וְכִי תַאֲוָה הוּא לָעֵינַיִם וְנֶחְמָד הָעֵץ לְהַשְׂכִּיל וַתִּקַּח מִפִּרְיוֹ וַתֹּאכַל וַתִּתֵּן גַּם לְאִישָׁהּ עִמָּהּ וַיֹּאכַל:
The pasuk has a progression of words which describe a steadily growing fascination with the forbidden fruit before it is actually eaten. Originally Adam had no desire whatsoever to eat the forbidden fruit. He did permit himself to be intrigued by the concept of “good.” His curiosity was piqued by this unexplored aspect of both the world around him and of his personality. But that was the crack that he allowed to develop in his soul. Instead of viewing the world only as a means of performing Hashem’s will, he chose to treat the world as a source of gratification. And even though the only gratification which he sought was intellectual, it was nonetheless a pursuit which could not lead to a greater ability to serve Hashem. So from the original attraction to “good” as a concept to be explored “good” became a desire which needed to be fulfilled and so Adam sinned.
חשבון הנפש and the study of musar are not meant to turn us into robots. What they are meant to do is to teach us how to understand our roles in the world as Jews who serve Hashem. Gradually we will make better choices and meet greater challenges successfully. Ultimately, after much hard work, our ability to discern good from bad will de so refined that we will recoil automatically from bad and then we will have reached the ideal described by Rabbeinu Bachya.
Thanks to everyone who attended these shiurim and making them a success.
Have wonderful and peaceful summer. Stuart Fischman
[1] Many people have written about this Rambam and I am presenting this passage as I understand I think Rav Dessler zt”l explains it in the second volume of מכתב מאליהו.