The Soul – Internal Flame Desires The Spiritual
In the beginning of Parshas Behaloscha, Rashi brings the statement of Chazal that “the flame should rise on its own.” The Gemara compares the neshamah (the Divine soul of a Jew) to a ner, a flame, for it is written, “The flame of G-d, is the soul of man.” Just as the menorah was kindled in the Beis HaMikdash, where the flame would then rise on its own after it was lit, so must the soul of man, which is compared to a flame, rise on its own.
In the early stage of life, the soul is for the most part concealed, covered over, and hidden. Man has the task to inspire himself and awaken the passionate spiritual desires of his soul, to reveal his neshamah. At first, one must exert himself to acquire this spiritual passion, but eventually, his “flame must rise on its own” – it should come to him as natural. The soul of man is an inner flame, and just as a fire gets bigger and bigger, so must a person increase his spiritual desire.
As long as the soul\inner flame of man isn’t yet revealed, and it remains in its concealed state - either totally or for the most part – the deep spiritual desire in man will remain dormant.
The Five Levels
There is a sharp statement of the Chofetz Chaim, who said that this world is not at all like the heavenly world. In this world, there are all kinds of people with different opinions and tastes and mannerisms, which all make up this world of falsity. But in the upper worlds, in heaven, in Gan Eden, there are only five levels - those who had a heart that was either spiritually:
- Frozen [completely callous and indifferent].
- Cold [mostly callous and indifferent].
- Lukewarm [a bit of feeling].
- Warm\Hot [enthusiastic].
- Boiling [very passionate].
Those are the five levels – a person either has a heart that is frozen, cold, lukewarm, hot, or boiling.
Frozen and Cold
The frozen or cold heart is what is known as a “heart of stone”. In the future, Hashem will erase the “heart of stone” amidst people and introduce a new heart. When the heart has become spiritually frozen, it is like when water freezes. It becomes hard as stone. The element of earth, according to one opinion of Chazal, was formed from frozen water [snow]. A frozen heart is like frozen water, which has become a “heart of stone” [callous to the spiritual].
A level that is a little better than the above, but still cold to spirituality nonetheless, is when the heart of a person is simply cold. This is also called “Amalek”, the paradigm of being cold and callous to the spiritual; Chazal compared the nation Amalek to a person who jumps into a scalding hot bath and cools it off, hence, Amalek is personified as the cold.
In the generation we are in, there is not only Amalek, but there is also the Erev Rav, who are worse than cold souls – they are totally frozen, so their hearts are “hearts of stone”.
