Chapter 26 (Part 4)

At bottom, holiness is the exalted state in which one “remains so attached to G-d” both emotionally, viscerally, and on all levels, “that he never separates nor even moves from His presence no matter what he’s doing”, Ramchal offers. Live on that level, he goes on to say, “and (even) the physical things you make use of will have had a greater spiritual elevation for your having used them than whatever spiritual descent you might have suffered for having used physical things” as referred to in the previous chapter.

“But such a state can only come upon you when your mind is constantly fixed on G-d's greatness, exaltedness and holiness”. Only then “will you be like those who have joined the ranks of the angels while yet in the world” and in human form.

Recall though “that you cannot manage to do this on your own. You can only be expected to be attracted to it and to attempt it”, which is to say, you’d need to be the sort of person who’d love to achieve this more than anything else, and who’d actually set out to achieve it with all his heart. But that’s not all. You can also only achieve it “after having attained all of the traits we’ve mentioned thus far” in this work.

In any event, the next step is to “detach yourself from material matters, step by step, and direct all of your movements and actions to the truly hidden aspects of attachment to G-d” which Ramchal thus only alludes to and will not spell out here. Do that in fact, and “a spirit from on high will descend upon you, and the Creator will dwell upon you as He does for all of His holy ones”.

Text Copyright © 2010 by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman and Torah.org Rabbi Feldman's new book, Bachya Ibn Pakuda's The Duties of the Heart, is now available! Order Now