Musar for Yoma 77:9

And from this, we will understand very well what has disappeared from the eyes of researchers in what they have examined regarding, heaven forbid, a change in God's will. The Almighty decrees a decree and then repentance, prayer and charity can change that to the better; and sometimes it changes from good to bad. But they walk in darkness because there can be no change, heaven forbid. Rather all is one and is only a matter of one desire. That is to say this inquiry is a matter of faith. I will also copy what I wrote as a child in my pamphlet, even though it is a little different. In any event, it all goes together in one place. These are my words. Written in section of Godliness in the gate of unity. And the whole faith of unity is complete; as there is no body nor strength of the body, nor a separate mind, and will not change from thought to thought or from action to action or from one leader to another. It is a complete intellect and simple and unique in all parts of His names and in all attributes. And a change in actions on the part of the leadership only exists from the side of the recipients. Because the one who walks in innocence and straightness, and keeps a good home, receives goodness derived from God Almighty. And he who perverts his path and distances himself, is distanced from the good derived from God and the opposite is derived from Him.

And Scripture states (Ibid. 49): "And you shall make yourselves holy, and you shall be holy, concerning which Chazal say (Yoma 39a): "If a man sanctifies himself a little, they sanctify him a lot; from below, they sanctify him from above; in this world, they sanctify him in the world to come." And now, everything is plainly understood. The Holy One Blessed be He, being the source of the good and of chesed— when a man suppresses his yetzer and draws himself a little to the side of holiness— the Holy One Blessed be He confers upon him "a lot" of holiness, a "full handful." As Chazal say (Shir Hashirim Rabbah 5): "The Holy One Blessed be He said: "Open before Me an opening like that of a [fine] needle, and I will open for you an opening like that of an entrance hall." "from below, they sanctify him from above." That is, holiness is drawn down from above upon the source of his soul. "in this world, he is sanctified in the world to come." That is, when he ascends above and has to stand before the throne of the L-rd, he is clothed in vestments of the majesty and glory of sanctity (as it is written of Yehoshua ben Yehotzadak (Zechariah 3:4): "And I have dressed you with festive garments.")

Since it is clear that Rabbi Yochanan and Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish do not disagree, but describe different people, we can understand that there was no need for Rabbi Berechyah to identify with the viewpoint of either scholar.

This is because the forbidden foods bring in Tuma (spiritual contamination) in a person's heart and soul so that the holiness of G-d, blessed be He, departs and withdraws from him. This is also what they stated (Yoma 39a): "'becoming defiled with them' (Vayikra 11:43) - read not ve-nitmetem [that you will be defiled], but ve-nitamtem [that you will become dull-hearted]".

ועשית פרוכת והיה מבדיל בין הקודש ובין קודש הקדשים, "You shall make a curtain which will divide between the Sanctuary and the Holy of Holies." We have a lesson here on how man must proceed in order to advance towards higher levels of sanctity. When physical man on earth begins to sanctify himself, G–d will assist by helping him to perfect himself and contribute twice as much as man had already contributed towards this goal. One must never be satisfied and think that one has achieved as much as possible in this respect, but forever strive to advance towards still higher levels of sanctity.

In order to understand why the Talmud feels that self-evident gifts need not be announced by the giver beforehand, we may simply say that the nature of such gifts makes it clear who the donor is as soon as the gift is received. When the reward for observing the Sabbath will be received, the party concerned will also immediately realise what that particular reward is for. In our case the principal reward G–d spoke about as something He keeps in His treasure chamber is that in the World to Come a total Sabbath atmosphere will prevail. In order that the Jewish people may have a glimpse of this reward for Torah observance, G–d gave us the gift of a נשמה יתירה, additional spiritual perceptive powers, so that we could appreciate that the Sabbath was indeed a most precious gift. Moses had to prepare the people for the receipt of this gift; it was not something that fell into the lap of people who had not made advance preparations for the Sabbath, had not sanctified themselves, etc. There is little doubt that he who does prepare himself to receive the Sabbath will benefit from the נשמה יתירה; not only that, but anyone who sanctifies himself even a little on an ordinary weekday will find that he will enjoy a Heavenly assist and reach a much higher level of sanctity than is possible merely by his own unassisted efforts. The Sabbath is particularly suited for the attainment of such higher spiritual levels. It is a fact that the person who has made some preparation for the Sabbath and as a result experiences a tremendous spiritual uplift thinks it is all due to his own efforts. Little does he realise that if it were not for the Heavenly assist received, his spiritual accomplishment would have been far more modest. The reward for the effort to observe the Sabbath in the proper spirit then is this additional spiritual power granted him by G–d which the Talmud describes as a reward that is not self-evident!

The matter of holiness is dual. Its beginning is service [of G-d] while its end is reward; its beginning is exertion while its end is a [divine] gift. That is, its beginning is that which a man sanctifies himself, while its end is his being sanctified. This is what our sages, of blessed memory, said: "if a man sanctifies himself a little, he becomes much sanctified. If he sanctifies himself below, he becomes sanctified from above" (Yomah 39a).

[see Chapter II on Vayikra 11:43]

Concerning the other method of sanctifying the body, the method described in the Torah by the words: והייתם קדושים, Rabbi Shimon said that when one indulges too much in words, דברים, one is bound to commit a sin sooner or later. Rabbi Meir says in Avot 6,1 that כל העוסק בתורה לשמה זוכה לדברים הרבה "Whosoever studies Torah for its own sake will merit many דברים." In view of Rabbi Shimon's statement about the potential problems arising out of דברים הרבה, we seem to have a contradiction between the statements of these two sages. We also wonder what these דברים הרבה can possibly be in view of the long list of benefits listed in that same Mishnah as accruing to people whose preoccupation with Torah is totally altruistic. It seems that the answer may be found in something the Rivash (Rabbi Yitzchak ben Sheshet) wrote in a responsum about prayer. Concerning the ability to understand mystical dimensions as alluded to in Psalms 37,5: גול על ה' דרכך ובטח עליו והוא יעשה, "Leave all to the Lord, trust in Him; He will do it," the Rivash explains that G–d will arrange and reveal, יגלה, these hidden aspects of Torah to you. These hidden aspects are called דברים הרבה. The reason they are called this is that whatever is revealed in our world is only a little, whereas the ramifications of these hidden dimensions of Torah in the Celestial Regions are many. This is why the sages said: מקדש עצמו מלמטה מעט, מקדשין אותו מלמעלה הרבה, "If someone sanctifies himself a little in our world one will add a great deal more sanctity to him in the "higher" world." These are the דברים הרבה which Rabbi Meir referred to in Avot 6,1. This is also what Rabbi Shimon referred to when he said that if one is involved in such דברים הרבה it will lead to one's soul being out of step with the development of the body. One's soul will cleave to G–d whereas one's body will cease to function normally and one will have caused its death. Since we believe that there is no death without sin of some kind, the sin in such a case would be the unbalanced progress toward דבקות ה'. It is also possible that when Rabbi Shimon mentioned the word חטא, he equated it with חסרון, a deficiency. A biblical example of this would be אני ושלמה בני חטאים, in Kings I 1,21 where Bat Sheva reminds king David of his oath that Solomon would be his successor. She tells the king that unless arrangements for Solomon's succession to the throne are made prior to his death, both she and her son will be deprived of his promise. The word חטאים in that context can certainly not mean that Bat Sheva and Solomon would be sinners because David died. It means rather that the "physical aspect,” i.e. גופנית, of the promise that Solomon would rule would go unfulfilled. The word may also allude to the fact that when the revealed and the hidden do not go hand in hand, when the משכן and מקדש aspects of the Tabernacle do not work in unison, something will go awry. Man was created בצלם אלוקים, a combination of the physical and the spiritual; the two parts must work in tandem.

G–d hinted to Moses that He would select the Levites at a future date in order that they could prepare themselves spiritually for that task and become purified. It is also in line with what our sages have said, that if a person takes some steps to sanctify himself while here on earth, then much more sanctity is added to him from the Heavenly Regions (Yuma 39). The Levites needed this preparation even though they had been predestined for their task from the day they had been born, as we know from the statement of Jacob when he forbade Levi to be among his pallbearers (compare Rashi on Genesis 50,13). If nonetheless they needed to prepare themselves for their task, this shows how much a person always has to sanctify himself in order that sanctity should be added for him from Heaven.

The Torah (19,26-29) continues with legislation not to imitate the "cultural" standards of the Gentile nations. All their so-called culture is based on idol worship, a form of being ערל לב, of uncircumcised heart. When a human being initiates the process of defiling himself, other forces will defile him even more (Yuma 39). This is why the process of rehabilitation has to begin immediately, before one becomes progressively more defiled, more impure. We can interpret the Torah's demand מפני שיבה תקום "arise in the presence of an aged person" (19,32) as a warning not to wait until one's evil urge has become so old that it does not tempt one anymore. Compare the comment of the Zohar on this verse (Sullam edition page 45). The word מפני then is read as לפני.