Reaching Your Essence - 013 Nothing Stands In The Way of The Will

The Five Parts of the Soul Are Always Present In An Action

There is a well-known statement: “Nothing stands in the way of the will.” We will try to understand the root of this concept.

The Yechidah in our soul, which we have begun to describe, is really the deeper aspect that takes place in all our actions we do. Either we act from our Nefesh, or our Ruach, or our Neshamah, or our Chayah, or our Yechidah. In addition to this, in every act we do, we can find these five aspects of the soul.

If every act contains the five parts of the soul, what is the difference between each act? The difference is which part of the soul is being revealed more openly in the act. All of the parts of the soul are present in every action, and the only question is which part of the soul is more revealed in the act.

To illustrate, we know about our conscious and our subconscious. In every act we do, we are consciously aware of certain things, and there are parts that we aren’t experiencing consciously, but our subconscious knows.

Therefore, every act has in it the Yechidah somehow. Not only are there are certain actions we do which emanate from our Yechidah, but in every act, there is also a degree of Yechidah. Thus, we can reveal the Yechidah in anything we do, not just in certain actions. Anything we do can be an expression of the Yechidah. The only question is how much the Yechidah is revealed. It is always functioning, but if it’s not consciously revealed, we don’t access it. If we become consciously aware of the Yechidah in our actions, we access it.

Many Angles Of One Concept

Let’s see situations in which the Yechidah is more revealed, and where it is usually hidden.

In our sefarim hakedoshim we can find that some of our earlier Rabbis did not speak from their Yechidah, while there are others who would speak from their Yechidah.

One of those who spoke from his Yechidah was Reb Nachman of Breslev. There were actually those who opposed him because of this. You can see his revelation of Yechidah apparent from many of his statements.

One of the statements which Rebbi Nachman of Breslev said was, “There is no such thing has despair in the world.” This is not because he held that you have to always be happy. Rather, such a statement was uttered from his Yechidah – he had a revelation of Yechidah in his words. Since he had the Yechidah revealed in how he spoke, it follows that there is no such thing as despair in the world, and it follows then that “nothing stands in the way of the will.” This follows with another statement he said: “The eternity of Yisrael does not lie.” He also said, “A Jew, even if he sins, is still a Jew.”

Are these all a bunch of random statements? They are all different angles of the same concept. They are all saying: There is a point in the Jew’s soul which is never destroyed. “Nothing stands in the way of the will” – the inner will of a Jew’s soul never ceases. “There is no despair in the world” – a Jew never ceases. “A Jew, even when he sins is still a Jew.” A Jew is always a Jew and that point never ceases. “The eternity of a Jew does not lie”. All of these statements are connected through the Yechidah. They are all saying how there is a point in us that cannot be destroyed.

If the Yechidah remains concealed within our actions and it doesn’t become openly revealed from its hidden state, then a person in this state will exist, but he places himself in a state that eventually ceases. However, if a person reveals the Yechidah in his actions, he is living in a state in which he cannot cease.

The revelation of the Yechidah gives a person a point that is constant and unceasing.

Unfulfilled Wants

“Nothing stands in the way of the will.” This is very hard to understand. Don’t we have many desires which don’t get fulfilled?

Some people answer to this that if a person wanted something and he didn’t get it, then that shows he didn’t really want it. That makes sense, though, is he had a weak desire for something, but what is there to say if a person really wanted something very much, and he didn’t get what he wanted?

A similar answer to our question is as the Ibn Ezra says, that “the pauper is never jealous of marrying the princess”. He has no dream for such a thing because he knows it’s impossible. Some people have dreams of becoming a millionaire. Why don’t these people ever become millionaires? Don’t they really want to be? What happened to the rule of “Nothing stands in the way of the will”?  Why don’t all our dreams happen? Maybe it’s because they really don’t want it, because deep down, a person knows that it’s unrealistic, so that means he doesn’t really want it, even though he says that he does.

If so, however, why don’t people just increase their ratzon for it, and then it will happen? Why don’t we train people to develop their ratzon and then everyone will become millionaires?

There is one simple reason why this doesn’t happen. It is because the rule of “Nothing stands in the way of the will” doesn’t apply to every kind of ratzon. Most people’s retzonos do not become fulfilled, so obviously, there are things that can prevent our ratzon.

We must know how to apply this statement of “Nothing stands in the way of the will”. It is only referring to a will coming from our Yechidah. (The inner point of the Yechidah is above ratzon, while the outer layer of the Yechidah is the ratzon). The things which we usually want are only coming from the outside layers of the soul; when our ratzon is coming from the other four parts of the soul, such a ratzon doesn’t necessarily get fulfilled. There are things which can get in the way of such a ratzon and prevent us from getting what we want.

But if the ratzon a person has is coming from his Yechidah, such a ratzon will always get fulfilled. Only of such a ratzon is it true that “Nothing stands in the way of the will”, because the Yechidah is the point that cannot cease, and therefore nothing can get in the way of this ratzon.

So when a person only lives through the prism of the other four parts of his soul (Nefesh, Ruach, Neshamah, or Chayah), his willpower isn’t necessarily going to last. His will weakens over time. But when one lives with his Yechidah, he lives an everlasting kind of existence, and thus his ratzon will never cease.

Yechidah – The Power of Consistency

If we reveal the Yechidah, we reveal an everlasting ratzon which nothing can stop. If it remains unrevealed, then this ratzon can get prevented. (If our material retzonos don’t happen, this is good – the world would be a better place if all these retzonos wouldn’t happen. But we are referring to a ratzon for holiness). Without revealing the Yechidah, then even if we have a ratzon for something holy, the ratzon can get prevented.

Every person has times in which they experience holiness, holy thoughts, and a will for holiness. But with one little fall, a person can lose all his holiness in one second. How can we come to a state in which we always have a ratzon for the holiness? How can we keep ourselves inspired forever?

The Chazon Ish said that “The secret to holiness is consistency.” That describes the Yechidah – it is the power of consistency in the soul, the ability to be constant. When a person reveals his Yechidah, he will have a will for constant holiness.  

“The eternity of Yisrael does not lie.” The Jewish people are eternal and unceasing, while the nation of Amalek is called mikreh, happenstance, because Amalek is not eternal. “Mikreh” happens and sometimes doesn’t happen. The opposite of mikreh is yetzivus, stability. The Jew has a point in his soul which is eternal.

Amalek will be destroyed in the future, when Moshiach comes. Why can’t he be destroyed now? It is because nowadays, we do not have our own power of eternity revealed. But in the future, our inner point of the soul will be revealed in all of us, and it will counter all the mikreh in the world. Holiness will be constant, something that is stable and not happenstance, and this will destroy all mikreh. Not only will this destroy the kelipah (evil forces) on the world, but it will affect each of our own souls.

When a person forgets something that shows he only has it temporarily. When a person remembers something that shows that he has it always. Of Amalek we are commanded to never forget what they did to us. The depth of this is because if a person forgets about Amalek, that gives strength to Amalek! Amalek thrives on our forgetfulness, when we forget about remembering what they did to us. It thrives on our lack of consistency.

The power of good in us is forever, and it cannot cease. The power of evil in us is only temporary, and it will one day be destroyed. That is what we need to realize.

Rebbi Nachman said that forgetfulness was created so that we can forget about our troubles, so that we can remind ourselves that evil can go away.

There are actually two abilities in our soul – the power to feel eternal, and the power to feel temporary. The Yechidah is our eternal point, while the outer four layers of our soul can cease.

Evil Consistency

However, the Yechidah is not all that we need to make use of. The power of eternity\consistency [the Yechidah] needs to be used in the right place, and the power of forgetfulness\temporariness [which exists in the outer four layers of the soul] also needs to be used in its right place.

For example, Chazal say that there are four kinds of anger. One kind of anger is when a person doesn’t get angry so fast and is easy to appease; another kind of person angers easily and is hard to appease. Is there anyone who never gets angry at all? No, there is no such person. Even Moshe Rabbeinu got angry once. We all get angry, but the question is how much. If someone is getting angry on a constant basis, though, he is using the power of consistency for evil.

There are also people who will use this power of eternity for evil, by bearing a grudge forever against someone, and they will never forgive, no matter what. There have been stories of brothers who did not get along well, and at the funeral of one of the brothers, the other one is still seething and cursing. Such a person might go to the burial and throw stones as they are lowering the body into the grave; they want one last act of revenge. People act like this – they won’t forgive, no matter what. A person who does this is really taking this power of eternity and he using it for evil, using it to be eternally unforgiving,

For everything good that Hashem created, something else that is evil was created to challenge it. Just like there is a power of eternity in the soul which is good, so is there a power of eternity in the soul that is evil, and this is called Yechidah d’kelipah.

If someone is always getting angry and hating people and he never forgives, this comes from the evil side of his Yechidah. Such a person takes the power of eternity and brings it down to the lowest possible level.

By contrast, when someone is angry but he forgives, he uses the power of mikreh for good. He looks at the insult as mikreh, and this is the holy way to use the power of mikreh.

Knowing How To Use Eternity and Forgetfulness

We must know how to use our power of consistency\eternity and our power of mikreh\happenstance.

Many people have aspirations to grow spiritually, but they don’t fulfill their aspirations. Why don’t their aspirations become realized? It is because their willpower doesn’t come from the deeper part of their soul. Their willpower comes from the outer four layers of the soul, which can cease. If their willpower would be coming from the power of eternity in the soul, such willpower would never cease, and they would be able to fulfill what they want.

The Mishnahin Avos says that “jealousy, honor and desire remove a person from the world.” Simply, this is because when a person is running after honor, he suffers from this desire, and he can’t take it when he doesn’t receive honor. But the depth to this matter is because the desire for honor is a constant desire that never ceases. It comes from the evil side of the Yechidah; it a power of eternity that is evil. Such a person uses a G-dly power in the wrong place. If it’s a desire he happens to have, it’s not so bad, but if he desires it eternally, this takes him out of the world.

Some people feel that they cannot uproot a certain nature. “This is how I am”, the person feels. He’s really using the power of eternity of evil.

The power of eternity in us is the essential “I”. “I” cannot cease; “I” am forever. But we also have another ability in us, which is the ability to feel “temporary”. How should we use it? The evil in us is temporary, thus, it can be destroyed. But if a person feels that his “I” as his four outer layers in the soul, he places his “I” in that place - and then his “I” can indeed be destroyed. When a person realizes that he is good in his essence and all evil is happenstance, then his “I” is constant and eternal.

So we must realize these two abilities in our soul. Our Yechidah is constant and intrinsic, while everything else in our soul is mikreh and it can cease.

Identifying Yourself As Eternally Good

The words here are not ideas or definitions. First think about them intellectually and then internalize them with your soul, and if you do this, you can uproot all evil in yourself.

The worst evil in a person is when a person feels that he cannot change. As long as a person believes he can change, he has hope.

Rebbi Nachman said “There is no such thing as despair in the world.” Why? It is because you must realize what you are made out of. If you would really know what you are, you would never give up. Realize who you are – that you are intrinsically good. You need to awaken this from within yourself, and it is not enough to be told about it.

The more you believe in something, the more you access it. “There is no despair in the world” – do we believe this because we have emunah in the tzaddik who said it? This would be nice, but what is the depth of what he was saying? He must have been coming from somewhere in the Torah, which we need to know. How are we to understand this?

Would we be able to understand these words if Rebbi Nachman wouldn’t have said it? You can understand the concept when you reveal the “I”, and then you will understand this concept from within yourself.

Becoming Aware of the Source of Your Desires

So one must know he identifies himself and become aware of where his ratzon is coming from, if it is an eternal kind of ratzon or a temporary ratzon.

For example, a person wants to eat pizza. Why does a person have a ratzon to eat pizza? 

Materialistic desires are one of the three things that take a person out of the world. If a person never thinks while he’s eating his pizza, then he isn’t aware that such desires take you out of the world. But if a person does think, he is aware that his desire to eat pizza really comes from a materialistic kind of desire, just it’s a temporary kind of desire, because it’s fleeting. (Some people think that the desire for pizza is forever). He is aware of the desire, but he knows it’s not his real desire. He knows that such a desire doesn’t come from his true essence.

When a person thinks about this more, he can uproot his desire to eat the pizza. Identify the ratzon as being non-eternal, and now you have uprooted the root of the desire. When a person feels that his desire is forever, it takes him out of the world. When a person realizes that it is not forever, he has uprooted the desire at its root. It helps a person become consciously aware as he’s eating the pizza.

At first a person just thinks about this, and then he identifies the ratzon as being non-eternal, and his awareness to this deepens on a more conscious level. First, realize that your ratzon for pizza is not coming from your innermost desire; it is not “you.” You now have the key to carrying over this awareness more and more into your consciousness.

Your Evil Desires Are Not Your Essence

So there is a part in us that is eternal and a part in us that ceases. When we identify our “I” as being eternally good, and that all evil in us is mikreh\happenstance and not a part of sins -  even sins, as the Maharal said - this is the root of fixing our entire soul.

This is the depth of the words of the Nefesh HaChaim that after the sin, evil entered man. Before the sin, evil was considered to be on our outside. After the sin, evil entered man, in other words, now man thinks he is evil: “I” am a glutton, “I” am an ill-tempered person, etc. Our avodah is to change our initial perspective and instead identify our “I” as completely good.

Everything in the Creation is a mixture of good and evil. This came as a result from the sin of eating from the eitz hadaas, which was a mix of good and evil. In our soul as well, there is a mixture of good and evil. What can we do about this?

We are a mixture. Therefore, we must sift out the good in us from the evil in us, just like filtering a sink from dirty water. We must believe that any evil which we notice in ourselves is just happenstance, and it is not part of your actual “I”. This is by giving inner order to all the points in the soul – how to use each power correctly. This can fix most of the evil that you see in yourself – most of it, but not all of it. If a person would believe in this, he would fix most of the evil in his soul.

The root of problems stems from a lack of proper identification. If I identify my “I” with the outer layers of my soul, then my “I” can cease, for it awakens that perspective. If I am aware that “I” am eternally good and that all evil is only happenstance, and not my essence, I awaken that perspective and shine it more and more onto my soul.

So we need to realize that evil is a garment, temporary and happenstance - and that is the root of how we destroy it. Along with this, we need to also realize that our “I” is good and eternal, and that is how we reveal it.

Separating Ourselves From Evil

People think that tzaddikim are stronger in their souls and that is why they can always overcome evil. But this is a superficial outlook. The real reason why tzaddikim succeed is because they believe in their essence, in their Yechidah. Most people do not identify their Yechidah and that is why they fall and fall further into despair, unable to rise from their spiritual failures.

Rebbi Nachman said something very deep: that even if he were to commit the worst sin, chas v’shalom, he would not be able to disconnect from his essence.

The average person, after he sins, feels impure when he tries to do teshuvah; He feels a blockage on his heart (timtum halev) and he can’t feel the depth of his sin. He despairs and feels closed up inside.

What is the correct approach a person should take when he wants to do teshuvah? The Slominer Rebbe zt”l said (in Toras Avos) that if a person can’t daven for the amud because he feels bad that he sinned, he has never begun Chassidus.

This does not mean chas v’shalom that a person shouldn’t do teshuvah, nor does it mean chas v’shalom that a person should feel indifferent after he sins and be conceited. Rather, it means that a person must feel bitter over his sins, but he must not identify the bitterness with his actual essence.

We must certainly do teshuvah for our sins, but we must remember that our actual essence, the “I” itself, is pure. We cannot come to the King with dirty “garments” on us, so we must certainly remove them – but at the same time, we must not attribute evil with our very essence, or else we are taking the point of eternity in our soul and destroying it.

This is how we can open up the power to constantly connect to the Creator and remove ourselves from evil. May we merit that all of Creation see this in its full revelation.