Description: Chapter 3 - 02
Derech Hashem
Chapter 3 – 02
As we have explained, Hashem created two worlds, two eras, for the struggle that mankind has to fight through. This world is where the struggle takes place, and the world-to-come is where we receive the reward, the final connection to Hashem, and the struggle ends. Therefore, each world was created with rules that make sense for that world. This world is designed so that the struggle is balanced and fair. ‘Chomer’ the physical part of us is given full ability to achieve what it would want, and has the potential to overcome the ‘Sechel’, the spiritual part of us. All the different parts of this world will support ‘Chomer’ in it’s struggle to dominate the person. ‘Sechel’, the intelligent, thinking, and spiritual part of us, is given all that it needs to dominate over the physical, and the world can equally be utilized towards that goal.
But once a person moves over into the next world, there the playing field is no longer level, and the sides aren’t equal, because the point of the next world is that the ‘Sechel’, the spiritual should dominate and draw the ‘Chomer’ after it. Every power granted to the ‘Chomer’ was only there to block and weaken the ‘Sechel,’ and in the next world, all those powers are stripped from ‘Chomer.’ The purpose of the next world is that we can connect to Hashem with nothing blocking and holding us back, and our physical-self subjugates itself entirely to our spiritual self.
However, when we are discussing mankind, it’s important to understand that there are two different forms of humans. The original man, the way mankind was meant to be, was Adam Harishon before he sinned, kodem hachait. But after the sin, mankind developed into something vastly different, almost a different species, which affected the whole world, and had many different repercussions. We will discuss more about the difference in the coming chapters iy”H. Therefore, we have to always address how man was meant to live before the sin, and how he is meant to live now after the ‘Chait of Eitz Hadaas.’
When Adam Harishon was created, he existed in the manner that we described, he had the potential to have his spiritual-self dominate, or his physical-self dominate, both ‘tov’ and ‘rah’ were equally placed before him, and he could have chosen either. Would he have chosen ‘tov’, the good, he would have perfected himself permanently, and lived forever connecting to Hashem and receiving his reward.
Another important thing to realize, is that although we don’t feel much about our neshamah, other than its our life-force, and our innate intelligence, in reality it is much more. The neshamah has the potential power to transform the physical body, the ‘Chomer’. It can and would change the nature of the physical body, little by little, purifying it more and more, until our own bodies would become perfectly aligned with spirituality, and be so perfect and pure, that it wouldn’t be a barrier at all for connecting with Hashem. It would have accompanied us into the world-to-come. This was the kind of existence Adam Harishon had before the sin, the neshamah on its own would have transformed his physical self, and purified it more and more, until he would have been perfect and holy, and able to live forever connecting to Hashem.
Derech Hashem
Chapter 3 – 02
As we have explained, Hashem created two worlds, two eras, for the struggle that mankind has to fight through. This world is where the struggle takes place, and the world-to-come is where we receive the reward, the final connection to Hashem, and the struggle ends. Therefore, each world was created with rules that make sense for that world. This world is designed so that the struggle is balanced and fair. ‘Chomer’ the physical part of us is given full ability to achieve what it would want, and has the potential to overcome the ‘Sechel’, the spiritual part of us. All the different parts of this world will support ‘Chomer’ in it’s struggle to dominate the person. ‘Sechel’, the intelligent, thinking, and spiritual part of us, is given all that it needs to dominate over the physical, and the world can equally be utilized towards that goal.
But once a person moves over into the next world, there the playing field is no longer level, and the sides aren’t equal, because the point of the next world is that the ‘Sechel’, the spiritual should dominate and draw the ‘Chomer’ after it. Every power granted to the ‘Chomer’ was only there to block and weaken the ‘Sechel,’ and in the next world, all those powers are stripped from ‘Chomer.’ The purpose of the next world is that we can connect to Hashem with nothing blocking and holding us back, and our physical-self subjugates itself entirely to our spiritual self.
However, when we are discussing mankind, it’s important to understand that there are two different forms of humans. The original man, the way mankind was meant to be, was Adam Harishon before he sinned, kodem hachait. But after the sin, mankind developed into something vastly different, almost a different species, which affected the whole world, and had many different repercussions. We will discuss more about the difference in the coming chapters iy”H. Therefore, we have to always address how man was meant to live before the sin, and how he is meant to live now after the ‘Chait of Eitz Hadaas.’
When Adam Harishon was created, he existed in the manner that we described, he had the potential to have his spiritual-self dominate, or his physical-self dominate, both ‘tov’ and ‘rah’ were equally placed before him, and he could have chosen either. Would he have chosen ‘tov’, the good, he would have perfected himself permanently, and lived forever connecting to Hashem and receiving his reward.
Another important thing to realize, is that although we don’t feel much about our neshamah, other than its our life-force, and our innate intelligence, in reality it is much more. The neshamah has the potential power to transform the physical body, the ‘Chomer’. It can and would change the nature of the physical body, little by little, purifying it more and more, until our own bodies would become perfectly aligned with spirituality, and be so perfect and pure, that it wouldn’t be a barrier at all for connecting with Hashem. It would have accompanied us into the world-to-come. This was the kind of existence Adam Harishon had before the sin, the neshamah on its own would have transformed his physical self, and purified it more and more, until he would have been perfect and holy, and able to live forever connecting to Hashem.