Description: Derech Hashem Chapter 3 - 01
Derech Hashem
Chapter 3 – 01
As we have explained, the human is the single creation which was created uniquely to be able to connect with Hashem. He is positioned between the options of choosing perfection or choosing imperfection, and was granted the ability to become perfect.
However, it was imperative that this choice be truly a choice, bechirah, and his own free will. If there would be no choice and we would be forced to do good and chase after perfection, then we would not become the masters of perfection, we wouldn’t own it, it would be something imposed upon us by the one who had achieved perfection, and whatever we did would merely reflect his perfection but have nothing to do with us.
In modern day language, we would be robots, whose programming forces them to follow the commands of their designers, but they have no free will or choice. Whatever the robot does is merely the creator of the robot doing through their invention. It’s not attributed to the robot at all. Likewise, were Hashem to create us without free-will, just built into our psyche to choose good, the good we would achieve would have nothing to do with us – it would be Hashem doing good, and Hashem already is perfect! It wouldn’t bring us to perfection, and wouldn’t achieve the purpose of creation, where Hashem wanted to share His perfection with His creations.
Therefore, Hashem had to create us as ‘baalei bechirah,’ people with free-choice. We were created so that we have an equal inclination to choose good as we do to choose bad, and we are not forced either way. We have the ability to choose what we want and to acquire whatever trait we’d like to. That’s why a man is created with both a yetzer tov and yetzer horah, and we can choose whichever one we want.
In order that this choice be truly free and unbiased either way, Hashem additionally incorporated the two aspects into our very being. We have two opposite forces within us. On one hand we have a neshamah which is spiritual, logical, and pure, and we have a body which is physical and muddled, and each one pulls us towards its side. The body draws us towards physicality, and the neshamah draws us towards spirituality. There is a war taking place between them, which has the quality of a war in that, whichever side triumphs, it claims the other side as well. Meaning, if the neshamah overcomes the body, it elevates itself, and the body too! The body becomes more spiritual. If the opposite happens, if the person allows his body to win, then the body becomes degraded, and the neshamah is dragged down with it. This causes that a true distance be put between a person and perfection, whereas if the intellect and neshamah win, he can achieve full perfection in every aspect of his being.
However, Hashem put a limit on this struggle. We have to work hard, be mishtadel, to achieve perfection, but after we have completed the work Hashem intended for us in this war, we will then achieve full perfection and we will enjoy it forever. That is why the world was created with two eras: One the era of labor, when we work to achieve perfection, and two the era of receiving reward.
Derech Hashem
Chapter 3 – 01
As we have explained, the human is the single creation which was created uniquely to be able to connect with Hashem. He is positioned between the options of choosing perfection or choosing imperfection, and was granted the ability to become perfect.
However, it was imperative that this choice be truly a choice, bechirah, and his own free will. If there would be no choice and we would be forced to do good and chase after perfection, then we would not become the masters of perfection, we wouldn’t own it, it would be something imposed upon us by the one who had achieved perfection, and whatever we did would merely reflect his perfection but have nothing to do with us.
In modern day language, we would be robots, whose programming forces them to follow the commands of their designers, but they have no free will or choice. Whatever the robot does is merely the creator of the robot doing through their invention. It’s not attributed to the robot at all. Likewise, were Hashem to create us without free-will, just built into our psyche to choose good, the good we would achieve would have nothing to do with us – it would be Hashem doing good, and Hashem already is perfect! It wouldn’t bring us to perfection, and wouldn’t achieve the purpose of creation, where Hashem wanted to share His perfection with His creations.
Therefore, Hashem had to create us as ‘baalei bechirah,’ people with free-choice. We were created so that we have an equal inclination to choose good as we do to choose bad, and we are not forced either way. We have the ability to choose what we want and to acquire whatever trait we’d like to. That’s why a man is created with both a yetzer tov and yetzer horah, and we can choose whichever one we want.
In order that this choice be truly free and unbiased either way, Hashem additionally incorporated the two aspects into our very being. We have two opposite forces within us. On one hand we have a neshamah which is spiritual, logical, and pure, and we have a body which is physical and muddled, and each one pulls us towards its side. The body draws us towards physicality, and the neshamah draws us towards spirituality. There is a war taking place between them, which has the quality of a war in that, whichever side triumphs, it claims the other side as well. Meaning, if the neshamah overcomes the body, it elevates itself, and the body too! The body becomes more spiritual. If the opposite happens, if the person allows his body to win, then the body becomes degraded, and the neshamah is dragged down with it. This causes that a true distance be put between a person and perfection, whereas if the intellect and neshamah win, he can achieve full perfection in every aspect of his being.
However, Hashem put a limit on this struggle. We have to work hard, be mishtadel, to achieve perfection, but after we have completed the work Hashem intended for us in this war, we will then achieve full perfection and we will enjoy it forever. That is why the world was created with two eras: One the era of labor, when we work to achieve perfection, and two the era of receiving reward.