Seeing HKBH’s Wisdom in Our Physical, Psychological, and Spiritual Makeup

Okay, let's look at Chovot HaLevavos. We had already begun the Perek He. I just want to come back to one line in Perek Dalet here of Sha'ar HaBechina just to call your attention to and comment on briefly. Again, in the seven areas in Perek Dalet where Rabbeinu Bachya says that we see traces of the Chochmas Hashem, so he says that hayesod hasheni, I think in the Ibn Tibbon translation it's hapina hasheinis. That's about towards the beginning of the perek. Hayesod hasheni, עקבות החכמה הגלויה במין האדם, the traces of Chochmas Hashem which are evident bemin ha'adam in the species of man, shehu ha'olam hakatan. He's a microcosm. So if you look, both if you look in the notes in the Kapach notes, if you look in the notes in the Lev Tov edition, so they both tell you that this notion that a person is an olam katan, a microcosm, and that the way man was created parallels the way the macrocosm, the way the world was created. So you find the Rambam has it, then you find the Ibn Ezra, you find amongst the Rishonim it's a common theme. And they say, for instance, that one of the parallels they give is that the veins in a person, the way the blood flows through the vein is the way you find in the world water flowing in rivers and in oceans, and they have a whole series of parallels that the person was created in a way that parallels the creation of the world, of the universe. What's the significance of that? What's the significance of that parallel? So Rabbeinu Bachya seems to imply that there are two points of interest here. Number one, by implication, it means that all the chochma of Hakadosh Baruch Hu which can be gleaned through studying the macrocosm, the universe, that same chochma will be evident in the microcosm of a person. That since, again, it's the same blueprint for creation for the olam hagadol, for the universe, and for a person who's an olam katan, so therefore by extension the chochma will be evident, all the chochma will also be evident within briat ha'adam. Number two, Rabbeinu Bachya here also seems to be implying, he continues after he says במין האדם שהוא העולם הקטן, so Rabbeinu Bachya continues

אשר בו גמר סדר העולם הזה ויפיו ונויו ושלמותו כמו שביאר החסיד עליו השלום במזמור ה' אדונינו.

That with the creation of man, Hakadosh Baruch Hu completed, consummated, and perfected creation. So what's the link between the two halves of the sentence, that an adam is an olam katan and that through his creation Hakadosh Baruch Hu perfected the world? So it's clear Rabbeinu Bachya means, he says this again later in Perek He as well, that the entire creation was for the purpose of man. That was symbolically represented by concentrating, as it were, within man the entire bria, by creating man as an olam katan again with the same model of the entire bria, so what that represented was. And represents symbolically is that the entire Briya was for the purpose of man. The entire Briya was for the purpose of man. Orchos Tzadikim logically it follows. He doesn't refer to Rabbeinu Bechaye, but he goes a step further also when discussing this analogy, this characterization of Adam as an Olam Katan, as a microcosm. So he says that the Sod HaDavar, this is the very end of Orchos Tzadikim, is the same way a person can exercise self-control, the same way a person rules over himself. He does what he wants, he's able to channel his energies in whichever direction he desires. So too Hakadosh Baruch Hu is telling him the same way you rule over your Olam Katan, the way you rule over your Olam Katan, so too a person living according to Torah, who perfects himself according to Torah, can exercise control over the whole world, can exercise control over the whole world. And he quotes from Tanakh, from Chazal, מי שאמר לשמן וידלוק יאמר לחומץ וידלוק, whoever decreed that oil should burn will decree that vinegar should burn. And Elisha with the Shunamit with the Shemen. That that message is contained also within this symbolism of a person ruling over the Olam himself, he can also rule over the Olam Hagadol, the macrocosm. Very important, all of this, what it, what it tells us is very important. The Torah has a very optimistic, potentially optimistic view of man. There is lots of discussion both in Jewish and Lehavdil Gentile sources whether man is basically good, he's basically evil, he's... the Torah certainly sees every one of us, every one of us, בלי יוצא מן הכלל, without exception, without exception as having virtually unlimited potential and of having capacity for greatness. And that's the message of being an Olam Katan, that every person who rules over himself has a capacity for greatness, has a capacity for greatness. Of course the greatness is achieved through submission to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, through submission to the Ratzon of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. But with that submission every person, whatever his or her abilities, temperament, background, inclinations, everyone has potential for greatness. So the Rav wrote in Ish HaHalacha, I think in the letter posted in the Beit Midrash from Rav Schachter, this part is referred to, that the at the beginnings of the Mussar movement there were certain strands, strands of the movement which had very extreme and pessimistic Felt that extreme measures were taken to control and break those tendencies. And the Rav writes that that never was really accepted, that form of Mussar. The form of reminding a person, the form of Mussar of preventing hesach hadaas, דע לפני מי אתה עומד, שויתי ה' לנגדי תמיד. So that never was controversial, that wasn't, that was never controversial, it was never challenged. The extreme form of Mussar, which had such a pessimistic approach and perspective, so that was controversial and by and large was not accepted. So if the Torah has this fundamentally optimistic view of our potential and of our capacity for greatness, so we have to have it also. We have to have it also. And we can't be content with mediocrity. We always have to strive to achieve that greatness. Let's continue in Perek Hey. In the first paragraph here in Perek Hey, so Rabbeinu Bachya says that of the seven areas in which Chachmas Hashem is evident, so of the seven, the one which is closest to us, most immediate and easiest for us to analyze is the Chachma which is evident in man. He says Lefichach, therefore חייבים אנחנו להתבונן בראשית האדם וגידולו, the creation and growth of man, וחיבור חלקיו והרכבת איבריו, his physical constitution. V'acharkach, he says, nisbonen, after having studied the divine wisdom in the anatomy of man, נתבונן בתועליותיו בכל מדה ממדותיו וכחות נפשו ואור שכלו. We should also reflect upon the purposefulness of every middah he has, of every character trait he has, intellectual, emotional, psychological. So Rabbeinu Bachya goes on, and if you read through the Perek you'll see that he explains that every human character trait has its purpose. Even those which seem negative also have their purpose. He discusses for instance the fact that we have zikaron, we have memory, but there's also shichchah, there's also forgetfulness. He explains without shichchah, if a person couldn't forget bad experiences, traumatic experiences, so a person wouldn't be able to function. A person would always be in the grips of depression if a person could never free himself from painful memories. A person would be constantly depressed because no one goes through life without painful, embarrassing or humiliating or trying experiences. So shichchah is also necessary. To remember of course is necessary, otherwise you can't, you can't function, you can't accumulate Torah knowledge. And he goes on kahenah v'chahenah. If you extend what he's saying a little further, again that every middah, every human character trait יש לו מקום ויש לו זמן, has its place and its time. So that's not only true generically, it's also true specifically. In other words, it's not just true in those character traits which we all share. Everyone has a zikaron and everyone has shichchah, everyone has lapses in memory. But it's also true, the same rationale that Hakadosh Baruch Hu didn't create anything in vain, which dictates that every generic character trait has its purpose. So that same rationale also dictates that every specific character trait we have has its purpose as well. The same way in the berias min ha'enoshi, in creating the species of man, so Hakadosh Baruch Hu if he implanted within us a teva... The same true within every individual's psychological and emotional makeup also, everything has its place. Everything has its place. Every koach a person has can be and should be utilized in his avodas Hashem. And it's very important for everyone to find within Torah his own mold whereby his middos, that the purpose to which for which Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave him his specific middos, his specific kochos hanefesh where they will be most productive, a person has to find that, that niche. At the end of this paragraph Rabbeinu Bachya says that if we look inward אז יכיר את הבורא יתרומם ויתהדר we will recognize and become acquainted with Hakadosh Baruch Hu על ידי עקבות החכמה שבו through the traces of Hakadosh Baruch Hu's chochmah which are evident within us כמו שאמר איוב ומבשרי אחזה אלוקה literally from my flesh I perceive Hakadosh Baruch Hu. So this mivsari echezeh eloka already within Rabbeinu Bachya and certainly in other sources, so number one mivsari echezeh eloka means on one level, it's most literal, Rabbeinu Bachya says it just the guf ha'adam, the human anatomy is such a wondrous and miraculous creation that we perceive Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Perhaps more importantly for us experientially is that mivsari echezeh eloka also means that if you look at a person's psychological constitution and his emotional makeup you also perceive Hakadosh Baruch Hu. For instance, Orchos Tzaddikim in that same last chapter in Orchos Tzaddikim comments as follows. We all know that it's a virtually universal trait, people are never content. People are never content. People who have billions of dollars speculate to make more money. If they wouldn't make another business deal in their lives, so for twenty generations they'd be very, very affluent. But they keep on, they want to earn more and more and more and more. Rulers of countries always looking to widen their borders. If it's osher that a person is seeking, so

אין אדם מת וחצי תאוותו בידו יש לו מנה רוצה מאתיים.

He has a million he wants two million, if he has a billion he wants two billion. If it's power that a person wants, so he's not content with with his sphere of influence, he wants to increase that sphere. If it's kavod a person wants, so kavod is certainly דברים שאין להם שיעור. Certainly דברים שאין להם שיעור. A person wants kavod he never gets enough kavod. What's the real pshat? It's it's irrational, it's irrational. A person has a billion dollars, what difference, it makes no difference in your lifestyle, either way you can afford to take a cab. Once you have a billion dollars or two billion dollars, either way you can afford to take a cab, either way you don't have to wait for sales. It's irrational, irrational to take your money, speculate, and risk getting wiped out as countless people did in the past few years. Totally irrational. Totally irrational. So what's the source of this netiya, this inclination never to be content even when you're risking everything for nothing? The difference between one billion and two billion is nothing. Nothing. Orchos Tzaddikim says a teretz is as follows. The neshama within a person chelek eloka mima'al, right? All the seforim quote what it says, ויפח באפיו נשמת חיים, so that the Torah gives the imagery, it's only imagery, right? That Hakadosh Baruch Hu breathed a soul into man, so everyone, all the seforim quote מאן דנפח מדיליה נפח, that when you, when you exhale, it's coming from within you. Teretz. It's coming from within you. מאן דנפח מדיליה נפח from within himself in the mashal with a small h, in the nimshal with a capital H. So a person has a neshama in him. The neshama's not content with anything finite. The neshama's not content. The neshama can never find menucha, can never find rest with anything finite. The neshama longs to come closer to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, to come as close as possible to Hakadosh Baruch Hu because that's, that's its natural place. That's where it belongs. No matter how much gashmius a person has, he still senses incomplete. He's got tennis courts and he's got swimming pools and he's got maids and he's got butlers. But he wants more because he's not content, so it must be maybe more of the same will give him that contentment that he's looking for. What the person doesn't realize is that the root of that netiya, of that inclination, is that a person was created, a person was created subconsciously, instinctively, knowing that he, she wants to come closer to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. And it's that desire for infinity, for nitzchiyus, for eternity, which is why people can never be content with what they have in Olam Hazeh. Whatever they amass in terms of accomplishments in Olam Hazeh, be it osher, be it kavod, be it power, be it all three, people aren't content. The source of that discontent, the source of that restlessness, is that the neshama wants to come closer to Hakadosh Baruch Hu and that's why the neshama is never going to be satisfied. That's also mibesari echezeh eloka, meaning if you look into a person's emotions, a person's instincts, even the most secular person unknowingly his instincts are religious. The most secular person who's looking to amass more and more money, who wants his name up in lights, is really, the reason he's discontent with everything he has is because what he really wants, he wants to come closer to infinity, to eternity, he wants to come closer to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Another expression of mibesari echezeh eloka. The Baal Shem Tov says in the Gemara in Berachos on דף כח עמוד ב, when רבי יוחנן בן זכאי was sick in his final illness, nichnesu talmidav levakro. So they said to him, rabbeinu barecheinu. Amar lahem, he said to them, יהי רצון שתהא מורא שמים עליכם כמורא בשר ודם. You should fear your yiras shamayim should be comparable to your yiras basar vadam. So amru lo talmidav, ad kan? Ad kan? Amar lahem, u'levai. Halevai you should achieve this madreiga. Teda, k'she'adam over aveira, when a person bachadrei chadarim with the shades pulled down is over aveira, אומר שלא יראני אדם. So the simple pshat in the gemara is that we're constantly afraid of, we're constantly mindful of what people will think, what people will say, and we're always looking over our shoulders. So the same way we look over our shoulders at people, so we should really look over our shoulders at Hakadosh Baruch Hu. That's the simple pshat in the gemara. The simple pshat in the gemara leaves, still leaves some problems unanswered. Reb Yochanan wasn't giving them any bracha for yiras haromemus according to that, he was just giving a bracha for yiras ha'onesh, for fear of punishment, for fear of, when you're afraid of fellow man, when you're afraid of social humiliation, it's not because you have any yiras haromemus for people, it's more comparable to yiras ha'onesh. So Reb Yochanan still wasn't giving them enough of a bracha. So the Baal Shem Tov says the pshat as follows: He said שתהא מורא שמים עליכם כמורא בשר ודם. So they takka understood him to say and you should fear Hakadosh Baruch Hu the way you fear man. And they said to him, ad kan? Here you are, you're about to leave us and that's the extent of your bracha? So he told them, u'levai. Tedu, but he had to bring a raya that we're afraid of people? Everyone knows we're afraid of people. Everyone knows. They didn't need a raya for that. All they had to do is say look in the mirror, right? Why did he have to say tedu? So the Baal Shem Tov says it's a psychological fact that when a person is doing something that he knows is wrong, he's in the innermost recesses of his castle and he has armed guards all around and he has the shutters pulled down tight, he has this irrational fear that someone's watching him. When a person does something wrong, no matter how much security he has to ensure privacy and confidentiality, he has a sense that someone's watching him. He's very jumpy. He's very jumpy. It's a psychological fact. He thinks someone's about to come in. What do you mean someone's about to come in? He's got a hundred armed guards around the castle. The shutters are pulled down. No one has X-ray vision. He's very jumpy. He thinks someone's gonna, he thinks someone's gonna, gonna interrupt. Reb Yochanan Zakai said to them, u'levai. If only you would realize that that sense you have of being watched, that irrational sense you have of being watched, of being discovered, is really your innate sense that Hakadosh Baruch Hu sees you. If only you'd be aware and understand that what you think is mora basar vadam, what you think that this irrational fear that grips you, which you try to free yourself from, which you try to dismiss, is not really mora basar vadam. U'levai you should know יהי רצון שתהא מורא שמים עליכם כמורא בשר ודם. You should realize that what you misdiagnose as mora basar vadam, this irrational fear of being seen and being watched when you know there's no way you can be seen, there's no way you can be seen, it's totally blacked out, you should know that's really mora shamayim. You should realize it the same way you sense so immediately the mora basar vadam or the notion of being watched, you should realize that in truth that innate what seems to you irrational sense, really the pshat in that is that a person senses that he's being watched by Hakadosh Baruch Hu. He senses innately. כל מעשיו בספר נכתבים and דע מה למעלה ממך עין רואה. This is also mibsari echezeh eloka. It's also mibsari echezeh eloka. Another example in his essay of Vikashtem Misham, so the Rav talks about this also. I think what he says can be best illustrated as follows. This is very similar to the Orchos Tzadikim. Very similar to Orchos Tzadikim. People do the craziest things. People do the craziest things. People go skydiving. People jump a hundred, two hundred yards down into subterranean caves. Apparently one of the latest meshugasim is to go hang gliding. Mamash suicidal. Mamash suicidal. What are they doing it for? They're not really sure. They're doing it to get a, I don't know, something attracts them. Something attracts them. Something impels them. Crazy. Here you have, again, people, they might be affluent. They have everything money can buy. Everything money can buy. From a secular perspective, and they're secular people, they have everything to look for, everything to live for. Any pleasure that money can buy, they have the wherewithal to buy. And they go up to go skydiving. And what happens if the string gets stuck or something? So they tell you, life without risks isn't worthwhile. What happens with the hang gliding if the angle is off half a degree and you crash into a tree and you're... So they take their chances. What's the pshat? What's the pshat? So the pshat there also, similar to what the Orchos Tzadikim said, but here on a different, it has a different outlet. People aren't content with being finite and limited and regulated. People want to have a sense of having no boundaries, no limitations. That's the sense these people have when they're skydiving. That's the thrill these people have when they're jumping 200 yards down into some subterranean cave when they go hang gliding. But again, it's misdiagnosed, misdiagnosed. The real pshat again, is that a person, part of how we were created is the same way we were created with an innate sense for our physical needs. One of the biggest miracles is that a baby knows how to nurse. In hospitals, so they give mothers who are expecting their first child, so they teach them how to hold the baby, how to nurse the baby. Mothers don't have as much of an innate sense of how to nurse the child. But the baby comes out, he doesn't come out with a tutor. Nothing, anywhere that the malach, the malach is busy with the shisha sidrei mishna, he doesn't have time for this. The malach, and besides, he forgets what the malach taught. So the malach didn't teach him. The baby comes out and the baby knows. The baby knows how to nurse. The baby instinctively sucks and instinctively nurses. So we're created instinctively to know, this baby who doesn't know anything, baby doesn't know anything, has an instinctive sense of what he needs to do to address his physical needs. So the emes is that he has the same instinctive sense for his spiritual needs. We're not content with anything finite. We have a sense of being watched and all these inclinations and midlife crisis and all the discontent, halevai tedu, that the source of it all is that we have an instinctive sense that we won't have any menuchas hanefesh unless we come close. to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. All that is within mib'sari echezche elokah. I have several other things I wanted to comment on in Perek Hey, but we'll see how much we have time for, not going in proper sequence. Rabbeinu Bachya again describing the chochma which is evident at every stage in human development and describing infancy and childhood, he says that וכן באים עליו מחלות ומקרים מצערים. Children get sick. What's more, they're more inclined to that than adults.

וכן באים עליו מחלות ומקרים מצערים כדי שיבחין את העולם ולא יסכל את מצבו ויורגל לכך ויכבשוהו תאוותיו בו ואז יהיה כבהמה לא ישכיל ולא יבין.

That he should be discerning about the world. He shouldn't be foolish about his position in the world. He would become accustomed to it and then his desires would conquer him. Then he would be like an animal who doesn't comprehend, who doesn't understand. So what did Rabbeinu Bachya say? That even as children we get sick, that a person shouldn't take good health for granted. If as children we would grow up always feeling that berius haguf, that health were a given, so then we would take it for granted. So listen to what Rabbeinu Bachya is saying. Rabbeinu Bachya is saying that it's from מטובות הקדוש ברוך הוא, it's from the chassadim of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, from the kindness of Hakadosh Baruch Hu that we get sick and that we get sick as children. What does it mean? It means like this: this too is an idea which is recurrent in Rabbeinu Bachya. It goes back to the third of the reasons which he outlined at the beginning of the sha'ar for why we are ignorant or insensitive to the chasdei Hashem which surround us. We think that self-sufficiency is the biggest bracha. We think that total independence and total self-sufficiency is the biggest bracha. And Rabbeinu Bachya tells us that that's true but only to a point. To the point of

אל תצריכנו לא לידי מתנת בשר ודם ולא לידי הלוואתם.

So yeah, so then independence and self-sufficiency is a big bracha. Is a big bracha. One of the biggest brachos. However, when it comes to a person's sense and perception of his relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu, so then if Hakadosh Baruch Hu would give us this sense of self-sufficiency and independence, so that wouldn't be a bracha but it would be, if anything, close to a klalah. It would be a big nisayon. The more fragile a person feels, the more dependent a person feels upon Hakadosh Baruch Hu, so the more aware he'll be of Hakadosh Baruch Hu in his lifetime. Says Rabbeinu Bachya, that's the pshat. If a child would feel totally self-sufficient, totally independent, if from the day מיום עמדנו על דעתנו when you become aware of the world around you, if we would feel totally self-sufficient and totally independent, our task of being mindful of שויתי השם לנגדי תמיד would be all the more difficult. And it's michasdei Hashem that we have a sense And you do, everyone knows if you have a have some kind you get a terrible headache, a pounding headache in any, any, any of the Evarei HaGuf, really debilitating pain. So right away you feel totally helpless. And what's the first thing you say? Ribono Shel Olam, help me. So that's Me'chasdei Hashem that we have constant reminders of how fragile and how dependent and how we're really not at all self-sufficient. And that's mamash Me'chasdei Hashem. It's not, it's not, chas v'shalom, the opposite, but on the contrary. The fact that Hakadosh Baruch Hu not only from within, mibshari echezeh eloka, gives us constant reminders that we should be looking for Him, but from without as well by giving us constant reminders of our dependence and our fragility, so that too is mechachmas Hashem and Me'chasdei Hashem. Okay, there's more. We'll end it. Next time we discuss Chovos HaLevavos, we'll continue.