We are told by Rabbi
Mordechai Swiatycki that according to the Chazon Ish, Emunah is an expression
of a soul that is delicate/refined, and one has to be a Baal Nefesh to be zoche
to it.
Rabbi Swiatycki
explains that the Baal Nefesh oozes anavah from every pore in addition to being
makker tov for any good he has received.
On this point he may even be secular but nevertheless he has a sensitive
soul.
It is also
necessary for a Baal Nefesh’s soul to be holding by a certain tranquility. And finally, a Baal Nefesh is not driven by
an intense hunger for taiva.
He then says
that if any of these three elements are missing, a person’s road to proper
emunah, by way of being a Baal Nefesh, will be washed away because he will forever
be without the requisite capacity to hit the high note emunah wise.
As should be
obvious, we’re not hard wired for these elements, and as a consequence they’re not
our default position.
It’s all in the
software.
And as such, it’s
incumbent upon us to program ourselves accordingly so as to be as one with
these three elements in order to enable us to reach the madreiga of the Baal
Nefesh.
And a Baal Nefesh
on such a trajectory is a man of science.
Given the
complexity of this world, it’s nothing less than amazing how the supposedly
scientific oriented secular world has obliterated what one would expect to be
natural curiosity as to what life and the world around us are all about.
That’s at first
glance. If we take a second peek it
becomes a little less amazing, if not down right understandable.
In one of life’s
ironies, ironical enough to have made it into the Irony Hall of Fame, if there
would be such a place, the players in the game of Faith vs. Science are in
actuality wearing the uniform of the opposing team.
Truth be told,
there’s absolutely nothing that one can see with the naked eye, the most powerful
telescope, or the most advanced electron microscope that will contravene in the
slightest detail Toras Hashem.
That’s science.
And as we bring
the second peek that was referenced above into proper focus we see that the
truncated curiosity of secular society is driven, not by apprehension as to the
unknown, but rather by a fear of the known. In spite of their protestations to the
contrary, the denizens of that world know,
be it consciously in some quarters or sub-consciously in others, and because they
know they avert their eyes from what should
consume even a moderately inquisitive mind.
They eschew
scientific inquiry for Ani Maamin.
They are the
ones who live by a corrupted faith which, in essence, holds that despite the
fact that every aspect of the physical world, without exception, scientifically
testifies that it was created with plan and purpose, they believe with a
perfect faith that all of it simply just happened.
The all encompassing
force of their denial is such that even a sensitive soul who is astounded by
the perplexity of this world is incapable of asking questions about this
perplexity unless he is a Baal Nefesh.
It’s as if he were frozen into inaction by the modern day equivalent of
the tumult of Rome.
In
contradistinction to a secular world that sees no truth, hears no truth, and most
certainly speaks no truth, the Baal Nefesh will go through fire and water to
get the answers to what this world is all about because the Baal Nefesh, who is
not imprisoned by his taiva and gaiva, can see far enough past himself so as to
able to discern that there is a Hand guiding the world.
