Small tidbits and Sparks of wisdom

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1.26 Obstacles
והנה שמו הקדוש ברוך הוא לאדם במקום שרבים בו המרחקים אותו ממנו —
The Holy One blessed is He put man in a place where there are many things that distance him from Hashem.
Hashem put man into this world, which is especially made to contain many obstacles that prevent thinking about Him, in order that man should have to labor to overcome those obstacles. That is the idea of nisayon, of a test.
והם הם התאווֹת החמריות —
And these obstacles are the physical inclinations.
Taavos, as used here, doesn’t mean what people normally think: the inclination to desire certain things. Here, it refers to the way the body naturally wants to behave. The body naturally wants to see, hear, smell, and taste; the body wants to perceive everything in its surrounding environment.
As man perceives this world, he is then confronted with the reality that the world is planned and designed in such a way that all of the objects in the world are intended to deceive him into thinking that the world operates by cause and effect. This is the obstacle being described here. This is implied by the verse in the Torah: אשר ברא אלקים לעשות — “which G-d created to do.”⁷² Hashem made the world so that it should appear to function on its own. In reality, the world does not function by itself at all. Every moment, Hashem is causing the world to exist and to operate, but He made it look like it’s working by itself. From then on, man has to search and discover that it’s Hashem who is constantly making the creation.
1.27 Two Functions of the World
Actually, the world has two functions. One function is, as we just said, to deceive mankind into believing that the world works through a system of cause and effect. But there is another function, which is to teach mankind. Because if one looks a little more closely, he will see in everything evidence of the miracles of plan and purpose. For example, the fact that something can grow out of the ground and provide sustenance to people is a miracle. The Gemara compares that miracle to the splitting of the sea,⁷³ and just like the Pesach Haggadah says that there were 250 miracles at the splitting of the sea, so too there are no less than 250 miracles to bring forth bread from the earth. The world contains wisdom that is so complicated that only the greatest Designer’s mind could conceive of it. This is what David Hamelech tells us:⁷⁴
יודוך ה׳ כל מעשיך — “All of Your works praise You,”
וכבוד מלכותך יאמרו — “they all speak of the glory of Your kingdom,”
להודיע לבני האדם גבורתיו — “to let people know about the mightiness of Hashem.”
Sources
Bereishis 2:3
See Pesachim 118a.
Tehillim 145:10–12.
Earlier, the author explained that our most important function in life is to get close to Hashem — deveikus. Here, however, the Mesillas Yesharim explains:
והנה שמו הקדוש ברוך הוא לאדם במקום שרבים בו המרחקים אותו ממנו —
“The Holy One blessed is He put man in a place where there are many things that distance him from Hashem.”
This is a paradox. Our chief function is to get as close as possible to Hashem, but He intentionally planned this world such that many things in the world are intended to keep us as far away as possible from Him.
This highlights for us the important principle that this world is not what it seems. The world is a place full of snares and traps which are planned by the Master Intelligence of Hashem, and if He makes a trap, it’s an efficient trap. This is what the Mesillas Yesharim means when he says below:⁷⁶
כי כל עניני העולם — “Everything in the world,”
בין לטוב — “whether things that are happy for him,”
בין להפך — “or the opposite,”
הנה הם נסיונות לאדם — “they are all for the purpose of testing man.”
Everything in this world is a test. The ultimate purpose of all these tests is to keep our minds occupied so that we are prevented from thinking about Hashem. Not only do the tests keep us occupied, but they can even steer us in the wrong direction.
However, it’s important to know another principle that is connected with these principles: everything in the world has two sides. There is falsehood, which is planned to divert our minds away from the truth, but those very things are also planned to teach us the truth. That is the genius of Hashem, if we can say such a thing. He knows how to plan a test. The same test which is a peril for the mind and can lead someone into darkness; it can be a golden opportunity to illuminate the mind and to acquire closeness to Hashem. The very things that distance us from Hashem, if they are utilized properly, can be the means to bring us closer to Him.
It is important to clarify this matter, and be convinced that it’s so. The book of Koheles starts out:
הבל הבלים אמר קהלת הכל הבל
Sources
Section 1.21. The following elaboration is adapted from before §8.2, “Return to Hashem.”
Section 1.29.
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