Welcome Adam!

On behalf of our readership, I would like to welcome Adam, a new contributor to our blog.

We look forward to reading his insights.

Pharaoh Lives

In chapter 2 we learn that the Yetzer HaRa is not merely a negative drive that encourages us to sin. The Yetzer HaRa also uses Pharaoh's tactics, keeping us constantly busy and distracting us, so we won't have the time or the presence of mind to examine our lives. 

Question: How desperate is the Yetzer HaRa? If all else fails, would the Yetzer HaRa keep us busy with mitzvos and Torah learning? I was taught that Yetzer HaRa tries to distract us from learning Torah. It seems that sometimes quite the opposite may be true.    

Welcome LK!

On behalf of our readership, I would like to thank LK for accepting the invitation to become a contributer to this blog.

We eagerly await his first post!

The Unexamined Life

I know Luzzatto doesn't need my accolades, but I must say that I found this chapter to be a gorgeous piece of writing.

Officially, the book begins here with Luzzatto's commentary on the first of the ten levels of spiritual growth. However, it can also be read as a continuation of his argument for the study of Mussar which began with the introduction. Whereas in the previous chapter he elevated the study of Mussar to the only way to achieve d'veikus, now he describes the downside. Failure to analyze our behavior and lifestyle reduces man to a being inferior to the animal who instinctively avoids danger.

For Luzzatto, spiritual danger is no less significant than physical danger, nay - it is worse. For, as we learned in the previous chapter, the purpose of existence is not mortal life but d'veikus, our relationship with Hashem. True suicide is thus not blindly falling into a raging river, but the unexamined life and the negligent endangerment of our d'veikus.

The Purpose of Life

Although he called it "The Author's Introduction," we have already seen that that was more an indictment than an introduction. There the author implored his readers to take Mussar seriously. But here, in chapter one, Luzzatto raises the stakes.

Life has a single purpose and that is to gain an intimate relationship with Hashem. "D'veikus." The primary location for this relationship is in the next world - but the only way to get there is through the mitzvos performed in this world. The higher the quality of the mitzvos and the more we break down the barriers of physicality and materialism that separate us from Hashem, the more we will succeed in fulfilling life's purpose.

Achieving this goal obviously requires training and that is where this guidebook comes in. The study of Mussar has now become the only way to make life meaningful.

But is d'veikus attainable in this world? If yes, why does Luzzatto emphasize the world to come?

An Indictment

The author's introduction is a work unto itself and it provides a rare picture of Jews in the 18th century. A "State of the Union" of sorts, it describes the state of affairs of religious life as the Ramchal saw it and he is fiercely critical. Keep in mind that the Ramchal lived in Padua, Italy and Amsterdam, Holland - both major centers of Jewish life at the time.

The Ramchal argues that "Mussar," ethics and piety, is not simply a matter of religiosity, but is a mandatory course of study - one which demands the full intellectual rigour of the best Jewish minds. How can we invest so much time in the analysis of Halachos that are not even in practice today, he asks, and leave such basic principles as love and awe of Hashem and the refining of our character to habit? In this he appears to be challenging not the man on the street, but the rabbinic leadership and the traditional Jewish curriculum.

I leave it to you to consider if things have changed.