Nefesh HaChayim, Gate I

And man’s soul-Neffesh, soul-Ruakh and soul-Neshama are unable to interconnect the worlds until they descend below into man’s body, as we discussed above in Chapter 10, for to rectify the World of Action it was absolutely necessary that they clothe themselves in the body in the World of Action. And we found this in several sources that discuss the three divisions of the soul we mentioned above. Regarding the matter of arousal in the worlds above via the quality of action226There are three ways for Man to affect the worlds: action, speech and thought. R. Chayyim addresses each of these in turn., King Dovid (peace is upon him) said (Tehillim 33): “He who forms together their hearts/minds and understands the direction of all their actions...227Heb.: Ho-yotzeir ya-khad leebam ha-mei-veen el kall ma-ah-seihem.” According to the plain meaning it would have been appropriate to say “understands all their actions.” And he said “the direction of all their actions,” as if to say all the things that are relevant to their actions, to say that He who formed them (blessed be His name) is the One who knows and understands to where [the results of ] their actions228I.e., the effects of their actions reach and relate to in rectifying the worlds, or the opposite (heaven forefend).

And as Kohelet stated (12:14): “For every action, God-Elohi”m will bring to judgment, relative to all that is hidden... .” And it doesn’t say: “For God-Elohi”m will bring to judgment every...”. The reason for this is that the definition of “Elohi”m” is “Master of All Powers”, and when a man stands in judgment before Him (blessed be His name), the specific action won’t be judged in isolation; rather all the effects and results of his actions will be taken into account, be they good or bad, in all the powers and worlds. This is why he states: “...action, God-Elohi”m... .”

And he said: “for every action”229Heb.: kee et call ha-ma-ah-seh and not “relative to every action”230Heb.: kee al call ha-ma-ah-seh. It is as was stated (Iyyov 34): “For a man’s action will he be recompensed.” And it is as was explained above (in chapter 6, in the notes), that from the instant it enters into the purity of a man’s thoughts to perform a commandment, immediately its impression is made above, in its lofty root, to build and to plant a number of worlds and lofty powers, as is written (Yeshayahu 51): “And I will place my words in your mouth...” and “to plant the heavens...”. And as they (OBM) stated (at the end of tractate Berakhot): “Don’t read it as ‘your children’231Heb.: ba-nahyikh but rather as ‘your builders’232Heb.: bo-nahyikh” as we mentioned above.

And of itself, it arouses and draws upon itself too an encompassing light from the lofty holiness, and it assists him to complete it. And after he finishes the commandment, the holiness and the light withdraws to its root. And this is the matter of reward in the world-to-come, it being man’s own actions. When after the soul-Neffesh separates from the body, he ascends to delight and satiate his soul-Neffesh in the glow of the holy lights, powers and worlds that were increased and multiplied as a result of his good works.

And that the sages (OBM) said (in Mishna Avot): “All Israel, there is for them, a portion for the world-to-come,” and didn’t say “in the world-to-come,” whose meaning would be that the world-to-come is prepared from the time of creation, a subject and a thing by itself, and if a person is pious he will be given a portion from it as his reward. Rather, the truth is that the world-tocome is [emphatically] a result of a person’s own actions, that a portion is expanded and added to and refined for himself via his actions. And therefore they said that all Israel, there is for them, for each one, a portion of the holiness and the lights and the brightness that he refined and to which he added for the world-to-come, via his good actions.

And so too the punishment of Gehinnom233Gehinnom (lit.: Valley of Hinnom) is a name used for the spiritual location used for repentance via a kind of suffering or intense embarrassment. Colloquially it is called Hell., its explanation is the same: that the sin itself is his punishment, and as is written (Mishlei 5:22): “His sins will trap him and in the ropes of his sins will he be held,” and (Yirmiyahu 2:19): “Your own wickedness will afflict you,” as will be explained, that when a person performs one of God’s commandments that shouldn’t be done, the defect and the destruction is recorded (heaven forefend) immediately above, at its root.

And in contrast to this (Yechezkel 26:2) “I will be filled for it has been destroyed,” [when a person sins] he sets upright and emboldens powers and legions of the defiled and the kleepote234The kleepote (“shells” or “husks”) are the remnants of the kei-leem (containers, vessels) that were broken at the time of creation, when they could not contain the “light” that was placed within them. They are associated with the world of impurity, and derive their sustenance by drawing light from sources of holiness, acting as a kind of parasite on the holiness in the world., may the Merciful (blessed be His name) save us.

And from there he draws also upon himself the spirit-Ruakh of impurity that wraps itself around him at the moment he performs the offense. And after performing it, the spirit-Ruakh of impurity withdraws to its place. And he, during his life, is literally in the Gehinnom that surrounds him at the moment he performs the sin, only that he doesn’t sense it until after he dies, and is then trapped in the net that he prepared, they being the powers of impurity and the destructive forces that were created from his actions.

Annotation: However, virtues outweigh…, with a major difference and degree of benefit. For the brilliance and increase in holiness that was added by his good deeds are eternal and exist forever, and his soul-Neffesh delights in them an everlasting pleasure. But the powers of impurity and the harmful entities that were created and multiplied as a result of his sins, after he receives the complete punishment decreed for him, by their nature they die and perish by themselves.

For the essence of their existence is only from the sin’s blemish and the damage that it caused in the holy powers and the worlds, that from this is drawn to them a minimal amount of vital energy and sparks of light via long, crooked pipes, as in the context of “I will be filled for it has been destroyed” (Megilah 6a), and because he received his judgment from them, “he swallowed wealth and vomited it out235Iyyov 20:15”, and the flow of life was stopped and in this case, naturally perish. This is the context in which Gehinnom is called “leech236Heb.: ah-loo-ka. Leeches were used in medical treatments to suck out the bad humors responsible for illness.” (Eiruvin 19a), for the leech sucks out the bad bloods and as a result it [fem.] dies immediately; so it is with Gehinnom as mentioned above.

And this is what our sages (OBM) said (Eiruvin 19:1): “The evil deepen Gehinnom for themselves,” conveying that they themselves deepen Gehinnom for themselves, and expand it and ignite it with their sins, and as is written (Yeshayahu 50:11): “Behold all you who kindle a fire... be gone in the flames of your fire and among the sparks that you kindled—from my hand shall this be for you... .” Therefore when the Notables of the Great Assembly seized the evil inclination, then Gehinnom was thereby quenched, as it is written in Zohar (T’rooma 109b, top): “as the evil ones warm themselves by the fire of the evil inclination... in every warming and warming... this is the degree to which the fire burns in Gehinnom, when once the evil inclination was absent from the world..., and all during that period the fire of Gehinnom was extinguished and didn’t burn at all. When the evil inclination returned to its place and the evil in the world began to warm themselves from it, the fire of Gehinnom began to burn, for Gehinnom doesn’t burn except fueled by the power of the evil one’s evil inclination.”

This is what the text said (Iyyov 34:11): “for a man shall be paid for his actions”—that the action itself, whether it be good or evil (heaven forefend) it [emphatic] itself is his compensation, as we explained (and refer to Zohar Korakh 177a). And this is what is said in Mishna Avot (4:2): “The reward of [fulfilling] a commandment is another commandment, and the reward of a transgression is another transgression,” and this is what is written (Kohelet 12:14): “For every action, God-Elohi”m will bring to judgment,” to say it is the action itself that endures and is recorded as it is, as was explained above.

Therefore our sages (OBM) said (Bava Kamma 50a): “All who say that the Holy One (blessed be He) makes concessions237Heb.: vaht-rahn, his life will be conceded238Heb.: yee-va-troo khay-yahv”. And so it is in the Yerushalmi (the fifth chapter of Sh’kalim), and in Bereshit Rabba (chapter 67), and in Tahn-khooma (parshat Teesah), and the Shokhar Tov (T’hillim). And on the face of it this seems surprising, for a kind person acts according to the characteristic of leniency.

However, it is as we wrote above, that this is not a method of punishment or revenge (heaven forefend), only that (Mishlei 13:21): “Evil pursues sinners,” that the sin itself is the punishment. For from the moment of creation, He (blessed be His name) fixed the order of how the worlds behave, that they should be dependent on what a person’s actions arouse, whether good or evil (heaven forefend), that all of his actions and situations create their own effects, each one in its source and root.

And he necessarily receives judgment via the powers of impurity that he empowered with his actions, according to the degree and severity of the defect. And by this, of itself, will be rectified the defect in the worlds and his soul-Neffesh.

Or, via the power of repentance that reaches to its very highest root—the world of repentance—a world of complete freedom and light: from there the additional supernal holiness and brilliant light emanates and makes its impression, to finish and obliterate all impurity and to rectify the worlds back to their earlier state via the benefit of the new light from the world of repentance239Heb.: olahm ha-t’shoova that appears over them.

For that reason, leniency doesn’t enter into it. And this is what they said in Avot (2:41): “and all of your actions are written in a book,” that they are written by themselves and recorded above.