Be’ure ha-midot (Clarification of the Virtues)

In Midrash Genesis Rabbah, section 5 (Gen. Rabbah 5:7), it is stated: “Rav Huna said: ‘He stood them up between the two staves of the Ark.’ Said R. Aḥa, son of Ḥanina: ‘He caused them to lean between the two staves of the Ark.’ The rabbis said: ‘He compressed them between the two staves of the Ark.’ Joshua said to them: ‘From the fact that the two staves of the Ark have supported you, you know that the Presence of the Holy One, blessed be He, is amongst you!’ That is the meaning of that which is written there: And Joshua said: ‘By this you shall know that the Living God is in your midst!’”

Before we start imbibing an inner spiritual meaning within the above statement (even if its authors did not have this in mind, and it is, perhaps, simply a case of the spiritual wind blowing in a straightforward direction, along the surface of the plateau), let us now express, in just a few words, the characteristics of the ways of human beings, as these differ from one another. There is a certain type of individual who is of good character and whose qualities are, by nature, desirable, and there is another type, whose character is the very reverse of this. Likewise, even in the case of a private individual, the various forces within his soul will, on occasion, not proceed along in an identical fashion; some of them will proceed on the correct path (without anyone pulling and directing them), while others will proceed on a crooked path; they will press on toward destruction unless one assists them with the power of one’s understanding.

Let a man not say: “One cannot alter what God has made, and the blessed One has implanted the power of evil within me, so how can I hope to eradicate it?” This is not the case: the powers possessed by man are capable of being subdued, as well as altered, as we ourselves perceive in the nature of animals, in that mankind expends much of his energy in subduing them through his will, so as to prevent them from doing harm and causing destruction, and also in order to domesticate them—to alter their nature and to uproot their harmful traits. Similarly with man himself—he has the power to subdue his evil nature so that he does not implement it in practice; and also to alter his nature for the good through training and the force of habit (see Ḥeshbon ha-nefesh)—and this is in accordance with the statement of our rabbis of blessed memory (Pirke avot 4:1): “Who is mighty? He who can subdue his evil inclination, as it says: ‘He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he that rules over his spirit is better than he who captures a city’” (Proverbs 16:32). For the hallmark of might is to rise up against one’s adversary with strength and power, to subdue him, and the hallmark of the conquest of a city is where the inhabitants of the city become inclined to obey their conqueror with love and esteem, where it is not burdensome for them to fulfill his orders, and where they rejoice in gladness and jubilation in the upholding of his desires. In this way, he who subdues his evil inclination is a mighty man simply by virtue of his fortifying himself so as to become one who restrains his lusts; this is the test for one who is “slow to anger”—that he does indeed possess anger, but restrains his temper so as to prevent it exploding; and from this stage he will slowly, slowly attain the level of “one who rules over his spirit”—where the disposition of his lusts is well and truly subjected to his intellect—to love justice and not to harbor a desire for its opposite. This is the whole purpose of man—to eradicate from his heart every harmful characteristic and trait; for so long as he is not cleansed from the ailments they create, albeit an individual prevails over his evil inclination on numerous occasions, he will eventually fall into their net (see Sha‘are kedushah, part I: 303). This was the supreme virtue of our father Abraham—peace be upon him—that he perfected all the forces of his soul which were conjoined to his body, as our Sages of blessed memory have stated (Gen. Rabbah 46:1): “Said the Holy One, blessed be He, to Abraham: ‘There is no worthless element within you, except for your foreskin—remove it and eliminate the blemish!’ ‘Walk before Me and be perfect’ (Genesis 17:1). See ad loc.—and in accordance with the Sages’ statement (11:6): ‘Everything that was created during the six days of creation requires some additional thing to be done with it; for instance, mustard requires a sweetener,’ etc.—even man requires perfection.” (And it is in this vein that the following Midrash (ibid., 30:10) may be explained: “Noah walked with God,” etc. “R. Judah says: This may be compared to a king who had two sons, one big and one small. He said to the small one: “Walk with me!” and he said to the big one: “Come and walk in front of me!” Such was the case with Abraham, whose strength was of a worthy nature (Genesis 17)—hence he was told: ‘Walk in front of Me and be perfect!’ But in regard to Noah, whose strength was of a wobbly, infirm nature, scripture employs the phrase ‘Noah walked with God.’) For Noah (in accordance with his worth), because he was not commanded to circumcise himself, did not have it within his power to arrive at a level of genuine perfection, but could only attain the level of one capable of subduing his evil inclination—that being with the assistance of the Almighty, blessed be He, as our Sages of blessed memory have stated: ‘The evil inclination of man prevails over him every day, and were it not for the fact that the Holy One, blessed be He, assists him, he would not be able to resist it’ (Sukkah 52b). Accordingly, this is what is meant by the words ‘With God,’ etc. But as for Abraham, after removal of the blemish of his foreskin, all the powers within his soul were perfected, and of his own accord, he became as one who goes about singing and dancing merrily—happy to observe the way of the Lord. This is meant by the words ‘Walk in front of Me!’ (Genesis 17:1), and a similar notion is expressed in the Tana’ deve-Eliyahu, chap. 25: ‘Therefore, I used to say that every single individual within Israel is obliged to say: “When will my deeds attain the level of the deeds of my ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?’” And it is in this manner that one can explain the Midrash (Gen. Rabbah 46:1) on the verse (Hosea 9:10): “I saw your fathers as the first-ripe in the fig tree at her first season,” on which R. Yudan observed: ‘Just as the fig tree contains nothing valueless save for its stalk—so remove it and eliminate the blemish—in the same vein did the Holy One, blessed be He, say to Abraham: “You have no unworthy element within you,” etc.”’

This is in accordance with the statement of the Midrash (Gen. Rabbah 1:4) “Six things preceded the creation of the world; some of them were actually created, while as to others, it merely entered the Divine mind to create them,” etc. The Almighty entertained the thought of creating the Patriarchs. From where do we know this? From that which is stated (Hosea 9:10): “Like grapes in the wilderness” (the end of the verse being: “Like the first-ripe in the fig tree,” as cited above). Now this matter may be explained as follows: it is acknowledged that the cause precedes the result, and the result (that is to say, the ultimate objective) follows in the wake of the causes preceding it. However, in regard to intent, the reverse is the case: the ultimate objective comes first, and in accordance with this (to establish it upon its foundation), the preparations for the causes are set in order for the sake of the essential ultimate objective. Now consider: in regard to the creation of the world (the earth and all that is upon it—see what distinguished authors have said about this) its ultimate purpose was to produce the perfect human being, who fears the Almighty and observes His commandments, as our rabbis of blessed memory have stated: “What is the meaning of the phrase: ‘For this is the whole purpose of man’ (Ecclesiastes 12:13)? Said R. Eliezer: The Holy One, blessed be He, declared: “The entire world was created only for this one” (Shabbat 30b)—see ibid. In accordance with the statement of the Tana de-ve-Eliyahu (cited above), it is manifestly evident that the essence of the creation is for the sake of mankind, that elevated species, who fulfills his obligation to ascend to the level of the Patriarchs.

This then is the meaning of the statement in the Midrash: “The Almighty entertained the thought of creating the Patriarchs”; namely, the ultimate purpose of the creation of the world in the thought of the Blessed One (which preceded the “cause”; i.e., the creation of the world) was the attainment of the spiritual level of the Patriarchs.

Accordingly, this is the meaning of the Midrash cited above (Gen. Rabbah 46:1) on the verse: “I saw your fathers as the first-ripe in the fig tree at her first season”—namely, that man was created for this ultimate purpose. And every man has it in his power to perfect all the forces within his soul that are conjoined with his corporeal matter, save for that part of him which Abraham was commanded to cut off.

Indeed, where the perfection of the evil inclination is concerned—and even within the context of merely subduing one’s evil inclination, one ought not to relax one’s efforts in pursuit of this goal, for even though the evil is eradicated from within an individual, nonetheless a font of mire remains concealed in his bosom to pour forth its waters, a phenomenon that will occur when prompted by a substantive cause that arouses them to reveal themselves from their hiding places, to extend themselves to go forth and cause destruction—like a man who has trained himself in regard to the character trait of patience, in that he will display no anger whatsoever in relation to anything done against his wishes and that is not to his benefit; notwithstanding all this, he is not guaranteed against developing a bout of anger in regard to some matter of great moment which, like the cumulative weight of sand, will become too burdensome to endure unless he delves into the depths of the great matter in question, even if this entails the demolition of his solid edifice, which he has acquired by virtue of his labor; and for such purpose he will require an extraordinary level of strength, to which he is not accustomed, to subdue his desires (since the habit of subduing in regard to this particular character trait of anger, which he previously acquired at a time when it was, from his perspective, within the context of mere subduing, has already been abandoned and eradicated by him, as he has made no use of it for a very lengthy period, ever since the time when he acquired it within the context of attaining “perfection”). And who knows whether, at a time like this, he will have the ability to attain the trait of “might,” which is hard to acquire, without the prior force of habit?

To this end, how good it is for an individual possessed of worthy character traits to elevate them to lofty heights within the context of “subduing”; to acclimate himself to reverse his evil traits by force, to have a light shining in front of him for guidance in bad times—the time of trial, during which his solid pillars will be shaken—Heaven forbid! And how honorable it is for a man to deploy the trait of might to endure iniquity and incessant pain! To this end, an individual should seek out counsel and appropriate strategies as to how to perfect the character traits and the forces within his soul—whether in small or in large measure—so that, at the very least, the corruption of his traits will be kept at a safe distance, and he will have no need to invoke the trait of might, save at infrequent intervals—at times of trial—in a manner commensurate with his situation, and his circumstances, and the qualities of his soul.