Straight Path to Heaven

There are two types of spiritual impurity. One is the poison of the Snake. From that nobody is spared except for Hanoch, Elijah, and a few the others who entered the spiritual Gan Eden alive. (Derech Eretz Zuta) That impurity is very "thin" and doesn't damage the soul, rather it makes the separation of body and soul difficult, each person in accordance with his strengths and merits.

The second impurity, is the type that chases after a person after death. It is a "thick" impurity, which encourages a person to pursue the fulfillment of his materialistic desires, even in a permissible way. Such as indulgence in food, sleeping late in the morning, and excessive intimate relations all of the above being done to satisfy his physical desires. They all turn to the venom of the Primordial Snake in addition to the poison that was incurred from the sin of Adam. The more a person adds to those pursuits the stronger the power of the kelipa. Subsequently his flesh will pain him greatly. That is the secret of those who avoided that type of impurity such as Rebbe, who held up his ten fingers and declared that he hadn't derived pleasure [with the intent of physical for the sake of physical] from this world even the amount of his small finger. (Ketubot 104a) And also Rebbe Elazar, who declared of himself the verse, "Even my flesh shall rest in security" (Psalms 16:9). (Baba Metzia 83b)

It is known that regarding all those who die in Eretz Yisrael, their souls ascend in a straight path; there the thin veil accepts them. Yet even those who died abroad also pass through this veil, yet tremendous pains accompany them. The circuitous route they must take in order to reach Eretz Yisrael causes that. That route entails being cast about by the kelipot and [spiritual] rulers of each country, until they finally reach the place of the holiness.

Behold, in the same fashion that Eretz Yisrael vomits out and expels the non-Jews, (as is stated in the Zohar parashat Teruma 141a, "And it pushes them out, and they float about and are recycled until they leave the Holy Land and are led in circles by there evilness") so, too, the lands outside of Israel expel those souls of the Jews, for lands outside of Israel don't have the strength to tolerate their holiness. Therefore those souls must travail until it reaches the entrance of Eretz Yisrael and then it ascends. The intention of the above is to teach us that the kelipot cannot push the Jew from Eretz Yisrael, only physically - not spiritually.

Furthermore, Eretz Yisrael is compared to Gan Eden, whereas the lands outside Israel are likened to Gehinom. This is why our Rabbis of Blessed memory taught: In the future, Gan Eden will say, "I have no desire for the evildoers" as the verse says, "And I shall shake the evildoers from her" (Job 38:13), which implies even the physical bodies of the evildoers. And Gehinom says, "I have no desire for the tzadikim", which implies even their physical bodies, for those bodies have been purified and Gehinom (i.e. the lands outside Israel) can not tolerate the holiness in its midst. Therefore all those Jews who died outside the Land of Israel just roll in subterranean tunnels till they reach Eretz Yisrael. Only then can they stand up for Resurrection of the Dead.

Once I clarified this concept, and I must apply it to understanding a statement of the Talmud: "The Holy One, Blessed Be He, grabbed Jeroboam by his garments, and told him, 'Return to yourself.'" (Sanhedrin 102a)

The first question is why is G‑d conversing with, and holding the clothes of Jeroboam (who was not only a sinner, but one who causes others to sin)? The answer lies in the following concept: Aside from the different levels of soul (Neshama, Ruach, Nefesh) each person has a garment for his Nefesh. This exists in between his Nefesh and his body. This is the concept of Adam's realization of his nakedness after his sin; before the sin he was in Gan Eden, where their souls were enclothed with these special garments.

Behold it is the custom of the Snake to encircle the walls of Gan Eden a few times a week. This is done to show his greatness, as well as to entice those who dwell therein. Nonetheless, those that recognize him for what he is pay no heed to him at all. Yet those who follow his temptations end up losing their special garments to the Snake where they continue naively in his wake. This is what had happened to Adam and Eve; their special garments left them and pursued the Snake. That is what is meant when the Torah states, "And they knew that they were naked." (Gen. 3:7) For before the Sin, those garments adorned them. That was the garment [not the material garment] of Jeroboam that G‑d grabbed while imploring him to repent. This is the deeper meaning of the verse: "The garments of the treasonous have been dealt with treacherously". A more lengthy discourse can be found in the "Sefer Gilgulim" chapter 70.

[An interjection from my beloved RaMaZ, Rabbi Moshe Zaccutto:]

Based on the above, we can understand a teaching from our sages about Moses. He was an Hebrew, yet his garments were of an Egyptian. This was from the mystery of the ark [in Hebrew, "teiva"] in which he was placed, which was the secret of "Batya" [which has the same letters as "teiva"]. And the enlightened shall comprehend.

Further we must know that the soul when it departs from this world, it must pass through and be dunked into the Dinor [fire] river1. For behold, even the angels when they must descend to this world to perform their duties, upon their return they must also be dunked in the Dinor River. What happens to the soul during the dunking is dependent on each one's level. In regards to this verse (apparently Daniel 7:10), that when a completely righteous person from the highest caliber passes through the river, needless to say he is not damaged in any way, so much so that he wouldn't feel the heat from those burning flames. Rather on the contrary, for him the river is transformed into a flowing spring of living waters, from which this righteous person derives pleasure. This is what is meant by the verse "They who pass in the valley of weeping" (Psalms 84:7), the valley refers to the river or even to Gehinom itself. "Into a spring they shall transform it" (ibid.). Not only that, but even, "Also the blessings shall be encloaked by the 'moreh'" (ibid.). That is understood to mean that the blessings and gifts will enclothe one that passes through if he is a "moreh", an instructor of the Torah laws. From this we can understand a statement of the Sages that stipulates that a righteous person passing through Gehinom can take out some souls with himself. After the righteous person enclothes himself with these souls, then "they shall go from strength to strength" (ibid.), the numerical value of which equals "Etz HaChaim" [Hebrew for "Tree of Life" = 233]. To the Tree of Life goes the soul of the righteous with these clothes. He travels from one yeshiva to another, in a fashion that gives merits to those souls because of him. They are thus (as the garments of the tzadik) able to enter realms that on their own merit they wouldn't gain admittance. That is why the verse "they shall go" (ibid.) is in the plural form. This is also the understanding of the verse "the fruit of the righteous is the Tree of Life" (Proverbs 11:30). In other words, through the good deeds he had performed he has the merit to "go from strength to strength" (Psalms 84:8), with the Tree of Life.

Yet, "The wise man acquires souls" (Proverbs 11:30). In other words "He who passes through the valley of tears" (Psalms 84:7), in order to take souls, he must be a wise man as in the verse, "the blessings shall encloak the moreh'" (ibid.) The verse continues, "…and will appear before the Lord in Zion" this is in singular form. That indicates that when the righteous soul ascends to a higher level, as in "to appear before G‑d in Zion", then he must remove that garment. For it is known, "One mustn't appear before the King in a garment of sackcloth" (Esther 4:2). That is why the phrase "will appear" is in the singular form. (Thus far is from Rabbi Chaim Vital, of blessed memory.)

From this we can gain a very clear understanding of the statement of the Sages: "In the future Gehinom will scream, 'I have no desire for the completely righteous.'" The reason is quite obvious, for the completely righteous enter Gehinom the take out with them the souls of many evil-doers. And Gan Eden screams, "I have no desire for the evildoers," who are the angel Sama'el and the Snake, for they encircle the walls of Gan Eden twice a week, in an attempt to entice and lure away those garments of the souls.