How to Gain Simplicity, Part 2

Translated from Rabbi Arush’s feature article in the weekly Chut shel Chessed newsletter. The articles focus on his main message: “Loving others as yourself” and emuna. 

 

Continued from Part 1 

 

When the Arizal Laughed 

A contemporary of the Arizal, also residing in Tzfas, was the master darshan (teacher or preacher) Harav Moshe Alshich. One year on Shabbat of parashat Vayeitzei, the Arizal went to listen to Rav Alshich’s drashah. During the drashah (sermon), Rav Alshich described in living color the hundred different schemes Lavan employed in his attempt to cheat Yaakov Avinu. 

 

At one point the Arizal began chuckling, which was totally out of character for him. When questioned about it, he explained that he saw that Lavan himself had been brought from his place in the netherworld to listen to the drashah. Each time Rav Alshich described one of his nefarious schemes, Lavan nodded in agreement, to the Arizal’s utter delight. 

 

Lavan was brought back after thousands of years for our amusement, and the Torah’s description of Bilam is likewise filled with ridicule and debasement. Incidentally,  Chazal  debated the identity of Bilam – one opinion is that he was Lavan’s son, another that he was Lavan’s grandson, and another that he was Lavan himself. 

 

The Torah Laughs 

I myself find it hard to hold myself back from laughing out loud each time I listen to the Torah’s description of the thick-headed Bilam, whose self-description is “He who knows Hashem’s  thoughts,”¹  and who prided himself in being “a prophet equal to Moshe Rabbeinu, a”h.”² And yet, when  Hashem  speaks to him and tells him specifically what Hashem wants from him, Bilam ignores Him altogether. Instead, Bilam tries to persuade Hashem to change His Mind. There are two forces that drive Bilam forward – his hatred for the people of Yisrael and his love for money. 

 

The most amusing part of the story is when Hashem sends an angel to dissuade Bilam from following through with his plans, to no avail. The climax of the joke is that Bilam’s donkey sees the angel threatening them, while Bilam cannot see it. The self-proclaimed “world-class genius” knows less than his own donkey. Even when the donkey begins speaking to him in human language, Bilam remains locked onto his goal and continues forward on his wayward path, which ultimately leads to total failure and ridicule. Despite his eagerness to do the opposite, he expresses the most beautiful blessings for the people of Yisrael. 

 

Who Are We Laughing At? 

What was the main issue here? What was Bilam’s problem? It was that Bilam wanted what he wanted. He wanted to go and curse the people of Yisrael. He wanted “a houseful of gold and silver.” Even after  Hashem told him, “Don’t go with them. Don’t curse the people, because they are blessed,” he didn’t care. He still wanted to go and curse them. 

 

Anyone with an iota of respect for Hashem who would have heard Him say this would have jumped out of bed and begun to bless the people of Yisrael with every fiber of his being. Now you know – this is Hashem’s nation and He wants them to be honored, so the natural thing is to say, “All I want to do now is to bless this nation.” 

 

After hearing Hashem say this, Bilam should have run over to Balak’s delegation and kicked them out of the house. And while they were running out he should have shouted to them, “Don’t you dare come back again to ask me for such a thing. There is no way I would curse the nation that Hashem wants to be blessed!” 

 

Why didn’t Bilam react this way? It’s because he didn’t care one bit what Hashem wanted. The only thing Bilam cared about was what he wanted, but he was always careful to speak in a cunning manner that hid this from others. 

 

We could continue to ridicule Bilam and disparage him, but that’s not what the Torah wants to teach us.  Actually, the Torah wants us to laugh at ourselves! We also have millions of seemingly plausible  excuses for still being so distant from Hashem, but in reality there is only one reason: We want something else! 

 

Just Want to Please Hashem 

Last week, in Part 1, we began speaking about the trait of temimut (simplicity). We explained that it begins with simply following the halachah, without insisting on understanding why it has to be the way it is. Your “common sense” will only confuse you and send you in the wrong direction instead of bringing you closer to Hashem. You have to switch channels and concentrate totally on finding out what Hashem wants, and that is all written plainly in the sifrei halachah (books of Jewish law – in Breslev Chassidut, the  Shulchan Aruch); any doubts can be clarified through a competent Rav. 

 

With Bilam, these words hold an additional, deeper concept. Bilam knew exactly what Hashem wanted. Nobody had to tell him – he heard Hashem telling him what he should do, in the clearest terms possible.  He saw the angel, and his donkey spoke to him in his own language. There was nothing to misunderstand. Despite everything, Bilam did everything he could to disobey Hashem’s Will. That is the very opposite of temimut. 

 

Why was he like this? It was because his personal desires overcame his desire to serve Hashem. To serve Hashem with temimut means that you don’t need to understand. Not only that, but you won’t gain anything by understanding. It means simply to ignore your own desires in favor of Hashem’s Will. 

 

This gives us a wonderfully enlightened view of the core of temimut. It begins with working on your desires. Genuine temimut means working on your desires. It means investing all your power into developing the desire to fulfill Hashem’s Will. It means acquiring it, increasing it, and building it until you no longer have any personal desires. Temimut means to ignore any personal desire that is contrary to Hashem’s Will. 

 

My Only Desire Is to Fulfill Your Will 

Let me explain myself. When it comes to your desires, you have two choices. You can either place your personal desires front and center while bending Hashem’s Will to satisfy them, or you can place  Hashem’s Will front and center, refashioning your own desires to match His Will. Temimut means that  Hashem’s Will is your focus, and your personal desires are totally ignored. 

 

As long as your focus is on your own desires, you will never be able to grow close to Hashem. Even if Hashem were to reveal Himself to you and tell you what He wants in the clearest terms, it wouldn’t help. You would still be going in the wrong direction, sometimes in the opposite direction. By moving your focus to Hashem’s Will, you open the real gateway to becoming close to Hashem. 

 

The only thing that you can do to really change yourself is to change your desires. Last week we spoke about being loyal to obeying the halachah by learning halachah and committing to fulfill every detail. It is impossible to do this properly, however, unless you first develop the deep desire to fulfill Hashem’s Will instead of satisfying your personal desires. This is crucial for anyone who hopes to study halachah with the goal of fulfilling it. 

 

When Wisdom Is Only Tomfoolery 

Why does the Torah ridicule Bilam? It is because a person who is trapped by his own fantasies of grandeur will never be able to act with real wisdom. He believes that he is smart, but he is using this as an excuse. It is a cover-up to enable him to continue fulfilling his own wicked desires. Even the gift of prophecy or a clear revelation of Hashem won’t help him. 

 

When such a person employs his “wisdom,” it is no more than a joke. As the simpleton in Rebbe Nachman’s story The Sophisticate and the Simpleton says, “Just do it without making it a joke.” The only thing we can really do with such a person is to laugh at him, to make him a laughingstock, just as Rebbe Nachman mocked the wise man in his story. 

 

Everything comes from your desires, and so it is impossible to argue logic with the wise man. The only answer is temimut, and temimut comes from one’s deep desire to fulfill Hashem’s will in the way that He dictated it. For the holy simpleton, only one thing matters – whatever Hashem wants. 

 

When your pathway in life is guided by what Hashem wants, you can go forward with confidence, rising  higher and higher on the ladder of spiritual greatness. 

 

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Editor’s Notes 

¹  Bamidbar (Numbers) 24:16 

² Comment in the Sifrei (Deuteronomy 357) on the verse “And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses” (Deuteronomy 34:10).