Occasionally a person will go to an extreme and think that his "I" is just something that is evil and must be erased. He chooses to live a life of asceticism and despises his God-given abilities. He thinks that more he crushes himself the better person and servant of God he is.
This is a great mistake. God did not give us great abilities so that we should waste them, but that we should use them in His service. We cannot destroy the abilities and aptitudes which God instilled within us, on the contrary, they should be used in divine service. If God gave someone strength or intelligence or other skills it is a sign that God wants the person to serve Him with those abilities and not to push them aside or erase them.
Occasionally a person must push aside his abilities if they are leading him on an evil path, but that is no reason to completely destroy them. He should push them aside for a short period of time until he can cleanse them of the evil which has grabbed onto them. Subsequently, he should return to them and use them to serve God for which purpose they were created.
The "I" is the entry point to "you." If there is no "I" to stand before Hashem, then there can be no "you" directed towards Hashem.
תפלה ק"ע
This is a great mistake. God did not give us great abilities so that we should waste them, but that we should use them in His service. We cannot destroy the abilities and aptitudes which God instilled within us, on the contrary, they should be used in divine service. If God gave someone strength or intelligence or other skills it is a sign that God wants the person to serve Him with those abilities and not to push them aside or erase them.
Occasionally a person must push aside his abilities if they are leading him on an evil path, but that is no reason to completely destroy them. He should push them aside for a short period of time until he can cleanse them of the evil which has grabbed onto them. Subsequently, he should return to them and use them to serve God for which purpose they were created.
The "I" is the entry point to "you." If there is no "I" to stand before Hashem, then there can be no "you" directed towards Hashem.
תפלה ק"ע
When Rav Shimon Shkop writes something similar in his haqdamah, I noted that this implies a rejection of the Chassidic notion of bitul. Primarily, see here, but really the whole "Shaarei Yosher, sec. 3: Self-Interest" series may be necessary to see just how deeply Rav Shimon emphasizes this point. (Caveat: Section divisions are mine, never mind the division into pieces for individual blog posts.)
ReplyDeleteFor example, from part 4:
ולדעתי, הנה מלבד כל הרעות והחטאים שהעולם מלא מהם לרגלי מדה זו של אהבת עצמו, הנה גס לנסיון העושר תצטרף מדה זו להכשילו עד התהום כמה שכתב “פן אשבע וכחשתי”, שלרגלי גודל תשוקת האדם בקב שלו, הנה אם חננו ה׳ בעושר ויהיה מאמין באמונת האמת שהכל של הקב״ה הרי הוא עני באמת, ומה שיש לו אינו שלו, אבל אם יכפור בה׳ אז הכל שלו והוא עשיר ממש לפי דעתו, ועל כן למלא תשוקתו לזכות בעשרו, הוא מתרגל לכפור בה׳ ואז ממלא תאותו בשלמות,
In my opinion, this is true despite all the evil and sin that the world is full of because of this middah of self-love. Added to the challenge of wealth, this middah will cause him to stumble until the depths, as it is written, “Lest I grow full and deny[, and say, ‘Who is Hashem?’” (Proverbs 30:9)] Because of the greatness of a person’s attachment to his own qav, if Hashem graced him with wealth, and he believes with complete true faith that everything is the Holy One’s, he is in truth poor. What he has isn’t his. However, if he denies G-d, then it is all his and he is in his own mind truly wealthy. Therefore, to satisfy his desire to enjoy his wealth, he will habituate himself to deny G-d, and then his error is complete.
But I am curious to hear if you would reach the same conclusion? Is haChalban's approach consistent with Chassidus on this point?