"The Duties of the Heart" Gate Ten, Intro.

"In Search of Spiritual Excellence"

-- A Reworking of Classical Mussar Texts

Rabbi Yaakov Feldman's series on www.torah.org
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"The Duties of the Heart" Gate Ten, Intro.

We're about to enter the very last gate of our book, entitled "Loving G-d Wholeheartedly”. It's comprised of some very precious, fervent notions that have transported sensitive souls to higher and higher planes of Divine service.

Ibn Pakudah offered it at this point, he tells us, because he'd already cited the idea of loving G-d in the previous gate (see Ch's 3-4 there) so he thought he'd finish off the book itself with insights into how to come to love G-d in fact. After all, as he put it, "it's the greatest skill to have" to achieve spiritual excellence, "and the highest level of service to G–d humanly possible".

Loving G-d wholeheartedly is also absolutely central to the subject of this entire book, he also says. Since everything mentioned in it "about (fulfilling) the duties of the heart, about achieving good personal qualities and being benevolent is but a rung and a step up to the great level we intend to explain in this gate". And besides, "every single obligation and good quality required of us ... is an aspect of and a step up to the love of G–d, which is their aim and purpose. For there is no higher, more advanced level than it."

Now, we're taught there's another way to react devoutly to G-d aside from loving Him. And that's by fearing or, better said, *revering* Him. But the two are fundamentally different. After all, when we revere G-d, we stand apart from Him in utter awe and trepidation, respectfully; while when we love Him we draw close to Him, Intimately. So, given that both are important, though each is unique unto itself, which should we concentrate on first?

The Torah itself often places reverence for G–d before the love of Him, as in "And now, Israel, what does G–d your L–rd ask of you but to revere G–d your L–rd... and to (then) love Him" (Deuteronomy 10:12); and, "You will revere G–d your L–rd ... and (then) cling to Him" (Ibid. 10:20). Hence it seems important to learn to revere G-d before learning how to love Him. And Ibn Pakudah agrees, since "reverence is ... the most accessible step to the love of G–d, and the first gate to it". In fact, it's actually "impossible to come to the love of G–d without having come to revere Him first".

We're also told, incidentally, that "one of the greatest deterrents to the love of G–d ... is the love of *the world*", and that's another reason why Ibn Pakudah placed the Gate of Abstinence before this one. We're thus counseled to "empty our heart of the love of the world", and that "the love of G–d will fix itself in our heart, and establish itself in our soul" as a consequence.

We'll be focusing on these seven things in the course of this final gate: just what the love of G–d is; the various kinds of love of G–d; how we come to love G–d; whether it's actually humanly possible to love G–d, seeing how sublime a phenomenon it is; what prevents us from loving G–d; the various signs of the love of G–d; and finally, on the practices of those who do indeed love G–d.

(c) 2005 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman and Torah.org

(Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org )

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AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman's translation of "The Gates of Repentance" has been reissued at *at a discount*! You can order it right now by logging onto www.tinyurl.com/49s8t (or by going to www.rowman.com and searching for it). Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".