Nefesh Hachaim: Shaar 1, Perek 4-5

I'm beginning here in Perek Daled:

וזהו תכלית האדם כל איש ישראל אל יאמר ובלבו חס ושלום כי מה אני ומה כחי לפעול במעשי השפלים שום ענין בעולם אמנם יבין וידע ויקבע במחשבת לבו שכל פרטי מעשיו ודיבוריו ומחשבותיו כל עת ורגע לא אבודין חס ושלום ומה רבו מעשיו ומאד גדלו ורמו שכל אחת עולה כפי שרשה לפעול פעולתה בגבהי מרומים בעולמות וצחצחות האורות העליונים.

The first two lines here summarize, encapsulate one of the major yesodos that emerge from Shaar Alef of Nefesh Hachaim, and that's gadlus haadam. On the one hand, as Chaim Volozhiner is about to elaborate and apply, gadlus haadam imposes an incredible degree of achrayus upon us. The more consequential and the more repercussive one's thoughts, speech, and action are, so the greater responsibility one has to exercise care. But me'idach gisa, it's also a very powerful defense in many situations against a sense of yei'ush. Sometimes a person can be in a situation, rachmana litzlan, this isn't the only example, there are sort of less dramatic examples, but rachmana litzlan, a person is sick and sufficiently sick that basically his daily life consists of trying to cope with the illness. So what ordinarily the natural reaction would be that a person's been reduced to a rachmana litzlan, to a situation where he can't live productively. He's not able to interact with people, he's not able to do, not able again to what we would generally describe as to be productive. Nefesh Hachaim says a person can be, even if circumstances, kach gazra chochmaso, sort of constrain a person to his own daled amos, מה גדלו ורמו מחשבותיו דיבוריו ומעשיו within his daled amos. Since we naturally enough are inclined to measure impact by tangible and visible standards... So we think a person's giving a drasha to an auditorium packed with 2,000 people and giving them hadracha and being marbitz torah and inspiring them, say he's he's having an impact. Let's say a person rachmana litzlan is in a hospital room, not a hospital room, let's say a person's in a matzav where because his parnassa rachmana litzlan is so dechuka, he's just incredibly long hours preoccupied with the trying to have enough for לחם לאכל ובגד ללבש. So says the Nefesh Hachayim, even when a person is is limited to what what we would classify as maisim hashpalam, so the person is in a position where his his impact is is almost unimaginable. In the hagah here, he gives his famous pshat in the Mishna in Avos of

וכוונתו שגם זה בכל כוונתם ז"ל באבות דע מה למעלה ממך,

rotze lomar כי אם אינך רואה בעיניך העניינים הנוראים הנעשים ממעשיך, aval teda ne'emana

כי כל מה שנעשה למעלה בעולמות עליונים גבוהי גבוהים הכל ממך הוא על פי מעשיך לאן אותם על פיהם יצאו ויבואו.

The punctuation is not דע מה למעלה ממך, know what is above you, meaning עין רואה ואוזן שומעת etc., but in addition there's another intent in the mishna that דע מה למעלה, colon or hyphen better, ממך. That what's in all the olamos elyonim comes from you. It's a result of of your actions. Ube'emes כי האיש החכם ויבין זאת לאמיתו, now the Nefesh Hachayim continues with the achrayus side, the achrayus dimension which this understanding of gadlus ha'adam generates.

כי האיש החכם ויבין זאת לאמיתו לבו יחל בקרבו ויחרד חרדה גדולה בשומו על לבו על מעשיו שאינם טובים חס ושלום עד היכן המה מגיעים לקלקל ולהרוס בחטא קל חס ושלום הרבה יותר ממה שהחריבו נבוכדנצר וטיטוס כי אלו נבוכדנצר וטיטוס לא עשו במעשיהם שום פגם וקלקול כלל למעלה כי לא להם חלק ושרש בעולמות עליונים שיהיו יכולים לנגוע שם כלל במעשיהם רק בחטאינו נשמד ותש כביכול כח גבורה של מעלה ובית מקדש השם טימאו כביכול המקדש העליון ועל ידי כך היה כח לנבוכדנצר וטיטוס להחריב המקדש שלמטה המכוון כנגד המקדש שלמעלה כמו שאמרו רבותינו ז"ל קמחא טחינא טחינת. הרי כי עוונותינו החריבו נוה מעלה עולמות עליונים הקדושים והמה החריבו רק נוה מטה.

So it's clear the Nefesh Hachayim says this koach, this tzelem elokim to affect all the olamos, again by the time Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov appear, so at this point it's limited to to klal yisrael, limited to to זרע אברהם יצחק ויעקב. And as a result, a nochri can't and doesn't affect olamos elyonim. Since what happens in this world is ultimately determined by what happens in the olamos elyonim, I don't know sort of a משל למה הדבר דומה, when when you get a bruise, so it's because there was bleeding underneath the skin. So the what happens right in the hidden part, so that's what's responsible for the manifestation on the surface. So too what what we see, what we perceive, what we experience in this world is a reflection of either of good or הן לטוב הן למוטב of of consequences that have happened in the olamos elyonim that trickle down here. So it's only after our maisim rachmana litzlan were metamei the mikdash ha'elyon that the Nevuchadnezzar and Titus could destroy the physical Beis Hamikdash. This Medrash in Eicha that the Nefesh HaChaim quotes, one of the first Kinnos that we say on Tisha B'Av, I think it's from Elazar HaKalir, also refers to this Medrash. I forget the exact lines, but one phrase that he has in there is Kir Natuy, something like Geder HaDichuya, that the description of the Churban is that the wall has already, the wall had already fallen and reflecting this Medrash that the Churban in terms of the ultimate cause and in terms of the Olamos Elyonim had already happened when it was again physically manifested in Olam HaZeh. You wonder, and I don't know whether this is, it's probably difficult to over-interpret anything the Nefesh HaChaim says. But the phrase כי האיש החכם ויבין את זאת, right, so everyone's immediate reaction to that is it comes from the Haftarah of Tisha B'Av morning, from Yirmiyahu. So the Pasuk in Kapitel Tes,

מי האיש החכם ויבין את זאת ואשר דבר פי ה' אליו ויגדה על מה אבדה הארץ נצתה כמדבר מבלי עבר.

Sitachen that what Rav Chaim Volozhin has in mind is that to say that the real answer to the Mi HaChacham מי האיש החכם ויבין את זאת is that we have to understand Yavin, right, Binah, להבין דבר מתוך דבר, to understand just how repercussive and just how consequential. In order to really understand על מה אבדה הארץ, so a person has to understand עד היכן מגיע מעשי, not just to know the sort of the simple factual description of the Maasim which the Navi is about to recount, but exactly how far-reaching their impact and influence is.

גם על זאת יחרד לב האדם מעם הקודש שהוא כלול בתבניתו כל הכוחות והעולמות כולם כמו שיתבאר אם ירצה השם להלן פרק ו ובשער ב פרק ה שהן המה הקודש והמקדש העליון והלב של האדם אמצעיתו דגופו הוא כלליות הכל נגד בית בית קדש קדשים אמצע הישוב אבן שתייה כולל כל ששון מכוח הקדושה כמוהו.

So there is an idea which I'm not sure if, that comes up later in the Nefesh HaChaim that apparently in the, just very, very superficially and very roughly, apparently there is an idea in the Sifrei Kabbalah that the Olamos Elyonim, specifically the ten Sefiros which constitute each of the Olamos, can be depicted corresponding to the Guf Adam. So you can depict the Tiferes corresponds to this part of the Guf, and Yesod corresponds to this part of the Guf, etc. And the significance of that correspondence, the Nefesh HaChaim is saying, it's not just, I don't know what we would think it is, but the significance of that correspondence is that all those Kochos of the Olamos Elyonim are concentrated in a person. And that's how it is that when a person acts, thinks, talks, you have these cosmic repercussions to what he's doing. Subsequently Nefesh HaChaim will explain that's the idea of Yaakov Chevel Nachalaso. The reason that we think of, we use the imagery of a rope. The imagery of a rope is that you can be all the way down here and holding onto the rope, and by tugging on the rope, so then you're causing some kind of effect and reaction all the way at the top of the rope, no matter... how high and far removed the head of the rope is from the bottom of the rope. So when we sort of depict all the olamos with the imagery of the guf ha’adam, so what it represents is that an adam yisrael has concentrated within him again all those kochos of the olamos. And that's what he says so beautifully,

ורמזוהו ז"ל במשנה פרק תמיד של שחר יכוון את ליבו כנגד בית קדשי הקדשים,

that this is what chazal have in mind. Again, so the pshutam shel dvarim in the mishna is if a person doesn't know or can't turn towards the Beis haMikdash, so then at least that should be his intent. That should be his focus. And the Nefesh haChaim says, no, but the tanna in the mishna is also hinting at this yesod as well, that a person should recognize that there is a correspondence, there is a correlation between his heart and the Beis Kodshei haKodashim. The same way the Beis Kodshei haKodashim is the source of the beriah, so too a person, and in particular the heart, has this central occupies this central position in the beriah. And next he goes on, he quotes a passage from the Zohar haKadosh to illustrate this. Im kein, continues the Nefesh haChaim, בעת שיעז האדם לחשוב בלבבו מחשבה שלא טהורה, rachmana litzlan,

הרי הוא מכניס זונה וסמל הקינה בבית קדשי הקדשים העליון נורא בעולמות העליונים הקדושים,

chas v’shalom, ומגביר, rachmana litzlan,

כוחות הטומאה והסטרא אחרא בבית קדשי הקדשים העליון הרבה יותר ויותר ממה שנגרם התגברות כוח הטומאה על ידי טיטוס בהציעו זונה בבית קדשי הקדשים במקדש מטה. וכן כל חטא אשר כל איש ישראל מכניס בלבו,

chas v’shalom, אש זרה בכעס או שאר תאוות ורעות, rachmana litzlan,

הלא הוא ממש כעניין הכתוב בית קדשנו ותפארתנו אשר וגו' היה לשריפת אש, ורחמנא ישתבח שמו יצילנו.

Once one recognizes this correspondence, this correlation between the leiv ha’adam and the Mikdash, again in terms of their centrality as the source of vitality for all the olamos, so then a person can appreciate just what's involved when he allows his mind to be preoccupied with machshavos she’einan tehoros. Here too, what the Nefesh haChaim says is two-sided. Again, as he's explicitly saying, it certainly imposes an achrayus that we should do our best to at least not to we should do our best in terms of shmiras hamachshava. But m’idach gisa, it's also a tremendous chizuk for a person. One of the most effective and true sources of chizuk is when a person knows that something is beneath him. The issur of nekama and the netira so the Rambam writes that that a bar da'as should know that such things as einan the things that most people are inclined to be notei and nokem are things שאינן כדאי לנקום עליהם. They are all דברים של מה בכך. If a person recognizes that es past nisht that I should that I should be involved with with such behavior, so that gives him a tremendous again that a tremendous chizuk. Right when the Gemara in Sotah, the famous Gemara in Sotah says that when when Yosef HaTzaddik sees דמות דיוקנו של אביו and Yaakov Avinu tells him that all the Shivtei Koh their names are going to be inscribed on on the Choshen and and do you want your name to be to be omitted? If a person has has a a sense of not in a rachmana litzlan ga'avadike sense but a person has a sense of of the neshama shenasata bi so that in itself pushes a person to maintain standards of of behavior standards of of speech and and even to to strive to to maintain standards of shmiras hamachshava as well. We'll skip to the hagaha.

ובזה יובן הכתוב וייצר ה׳ אלוקים את האדם עפר ויפח באפיו נשמת חיים ויהי האדם לנפש חיה פשוטו של מקרא ודאי הוא כתרגומו והוות באדם לרוח ממללא. ורצה לומר שכאשר היה הגוף לבדו היה עדיין עפר ממש בלא שום חיות ותנועה וכאשר נפח באפיו נשמת חיים נעשו איש חי להתנועע ולדבר אמנם מקרא ויהי באדם ובאדם לא כתיב אלא ויהי האדם לזאת יש מקום לפורשו על פי שנתבאר שהאדם מנשמת החיים שבתוכו נעשה נפש חיה לריבוי עולמות אין מספר שכמו שכל פרטי הנהגות הגוף ותנועותיו הוא על ידי כח הנפש שבקרבו כן האדם הוא כח ונפש החיה של עולמות עליונים ותחתונים לאין שיעור שכולם מתנהגים על ידו כאמור.

That ויהי האדם לנפש חיה means that the neshama not only converted adam into a living and moving and and speaking creature but the neshama of adam is the neshama for the whole briya. In the same way within every yachid we recognize that the that the body is nothing without the neshama that it's the neshama it's the nefesh which animates which vitalizes the body so so too ויהי האדם לנפש חיה that that adam with his nefesh with his nishmas chayim becomes the the neshama of the briya. Just one one word that throughout the here the Nefesh HaChayim is refers to tens of thousands of innumerable olamos elyonim that are beyond our certainly our sensory perception and and many of them even beyond any kind of even intellectual comprehension but very again everything very roughly and superficially what I guess just the little bit that that we need to understand just to. be able to read and try to digest what he's talking about is the following. The idea is that when Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world, so we live in a world that in a physical world we live beguf veneshama and our existence we exist in in a physical world. That as it were physicality is is about as far removed from Hakadosh Baruch Hu as as is imaginable as is conceivable because Hakadosh Baruch Hu is eino guf and Hakadosh Baruch Hu who is the source of all metzius is eino guf so this is about as conceptually spiritually about as far removed as one can imagine. So the idea is that that transition happened gradually as it were and that Hakadosh Baruch Hu that there was a a gradual hishtalshelus a gradual transition until Hakadosh Baruch Hu created as it were world after world after world each one a little bit less spiritual and a little bit closer to the physical until we come to the world which we inhabit. It's again hard to know what when talking about things that we really have no no understanding of but one wonders if if there isn't a mussar haskel intended here as well that when again lehavdil that we too when we look to effect change have to realize that change is going to be change is going to be gradual. Kavyachol the way Hakadosh Baruch Hu again made transitions he made them gradually kavyachol in terms of the creation of worlds so maybe there's a mussar haskel even when we a person is learning whether it's a sefer like Nefesh Hachaim or whatever it is and clearly there's a lot of there's a lot to take home and and try to implement but it's going to have to be it's going to have to be gradual. A person's not going to jump from one world all the way to the to the highest of of the worlds. It's going to be it's going to be gradual transition gradual growth.

וממה שגם כן היה רצונו יתברך שמו בתחילת פרק ה להרכיב את האדם התחתון לראשי העולמות העליונים שיתנהגו על ידו.

So again Hakadosh Baruch Hu willed that as it were a person rides in the sense that that he conducts the same way the rider on the horse Nefesh Hachaim talks later about the pasuk of sus verochvo. The same way the rider on the horse directs the horse so too metaphorically so everything that happens throughout the beriah is through as a result of our actions.

כיודוע בזוהר ובכתבי האריז"ל בסדר השתלשלות והתקשרות העולמות שכל עולם הוא מתנהג בסידור מצבו וכל פרטי ענייניו כפי נטיעת כח העולם שעליו המנהיגו כנשמה לגוף וכן הולך על זה הסדר עולם על גבי עולם עד הוא יתברך שמו נשמת כולם.

Right? The same way again the mashal is the same way we know that for the body to be alive to be able to move so it depends upon the neshama right? Once you have the the moment of yetzias haneshama rachmana litzlan so then the guf is like an even domeim. So every everything physical depends upon a spiritual source because ultimate metzius is spiritual ultimate metzius isn't physical so everything physical is really dependent upon a higher spiritual source so that's the relationship between each world and the world above it. Again thinking obviously not in a physical sense but just using that as a metaphor so the lowest the world is like a guf and the world above it is like the neshama to that guf but then. and in turn that world is the guf to the world above it which is its neshama and so on and so forth until again using the metaphor of a ladder, of a pyramid, whatever, until one reaches HaKadosh Baruch Hu who is the neshama of the briyah, that's all HaKadosh Baruch Hu's existence. He quotes sources which express that. וכל העולמות נכללים ונחלקים לד' כידוע. Again these innumerable worlds that exist can be classified into four areas, four categories, kayadua שהן האופנים והחיות וכיסא כבוד ואצילות קודשו יתברך from lowest to highest. ונשמת כל אחד הוא העולם שעליו. Kemo shene'emar as it says by Yechezkel in ma'aseh merkava ובהינשא החיות יינשאו האופנים. So when the chayot which are above the ofanim in this Seder ha-Briyah in this sort of chain of the briyah, so when they're elevated, so again since they're the neshama which animates the world underneath it, so yinisu ha-ofanim le'umatam. Why? כי רוח החיה באופנים because the spirit in the sense of neshama of the chaya is the neshama of the ofanim because the ofanim are underneath. בלכתם ילכו ובעמדם יעמדו. והחיות גם כן מתנהגים but the chayot in turn

מתנהגים על ידי עולם הכיסא שעליהם כמו שאמרו רבותינו זכרונם לברכה

she-hakise noseit nos'eiha. ונשמת החיים של הכיסא so who underneath HaKadosh Baruch Hu is at the top of this chain that again that everything is affected by it, by its behavior, by its movements, etc. ונשמת החיים של הכיסא is the sod shoresh ha-elyon of כללות נשמות ישראל יחד. That's where the neshamot of klal Yisrael come from

שהוא יותר גבוה ומאוד נעלה גם מהכיסא שהוא האדם שעל הכיסא

and this is the pshat in again in Yechezkel's vision that he sees a demut adam on the throne kemo shene'emar v'al d'mut hakise. וזהו שאמרו בזהר יתרו בעניין הפסוק אחור וקדם צרתני. What does that mean? אחור לעובדא דבראשית וקדם לעובדא דמרכבה that adam was created first and last. שמצד הגוף הוא אחור למעשה בראשית. In terms of the guf ha-adam, the guf ha-adam was created at the end of the briyah

ומצד שורש העליון של נשמת חיים שלו הוא קודם לעובדא דמרכבה גם מעולם הכיסא.

In terms of the source of the neshamot and source of the neshama is the first thing that's created because that's right underneath HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Velachen says the Nefesh HaChaim העולמות מתנהגים על ידי מעשה האדם. And that's how HaKadosh Baruch Hu set up this effect that the olamot are all conducted by the actions, by our actions. כי המה כפי נטייתם מעוררים שורש נשמתם העליונה שמעליהם. Again if you imagine the imagery of the rope, the guf even as it functions and acts down here in this world is connected to its shoresh neshama l'ma'ila שהוא הנפש חיה שלהם בהתנועעו ינועו ובעמדו תרפינה. And that's how it is

זהו שאמר כאשר נופח באפיו ונשמת חיים שהיא גבוהה מהעולמות ופנימיותם אז ויהי האדם לנפש חיה לעולמות. וכן כתב רבי חיים ויטאל שנשמת האדם היא הפנימי שבכולם.

Okay, so maybe then we'll begin page 104 next week.