Mesilas Yeshorim: The Path of the Just

Rabbi Pineḥas ben Ya’ir says: Torah study leads to care in the performance of mitzvot. Care in the performance of mitzvot leads to diligence in their observance. Diligence leads to cleanliness of the soul. Cleanliness of the soul leads to abstention from all evil. Abstention from evil leads to purity and the elimination of all base desires. Purity leads to piety. Piety leads to humility. Humility leads to fear of sin. Fear of sin leads to holiness. Holiness leads to the Divine Spirit. The Divine Spirit leads to the resurrection of the dead.
-Mishna Sota 9:15

Going through Mesilas Yeshorim over the years, I noticed the book's deeply nested structure, and thought it might be nice to summarise that in a web page. The result is below.

Introduction Chapter 1 Hasidus isn't something people don't consider important, they just consider it easy. But it isn't. It requires study. It has become the property of fools, and thus missing from both foolish and wise. Quotes sources showing that it does require hard work to acquire.
Deuteronomy 10:12-13 spells out all sections of our work in this world:
  1. Fear of his grandeur
  2. Walk in his ways, ie perfection of midot
  3. Love - always looking to do things that are in line with His will
  4. Whole-heartedness - no ulterior motives
  5. Keeping all the mitzvot
Zehirus (Care) Chapter 2 You need to constantly think about your actions. Just going through life without thinking it's impossible to grow.
Chapter 3 Zehirus consists of two parts:
  1. Thinking about actions in general, deciding which are good or bad
  2. Thinking about one's own actions and what category they fall into, which is divided into:
    • At the time of the action
    • Not at the time of the action: thinking about your life in general, which acts are good or bad or could be improved. And this is divided into two parts:
      • Pishpush: sorting through your deeds and judging each to be either good or bad
      • Mishmush: examining even the good deeds for traces of bad intentions.
      That is why it is critical to do a daily accounting of your deeds (חשבון), one of the most crucial techniques in spiritual development. Otherwise you are walking in the dark, unable to distinguish between good and bad. Life can be compared to a maze. The spiritual masters are like those who stand above the maze, able to see the path the others are lost in. The advice they give is to do this continual accounting.
Chapter 4 The methods of acquiring broadly, as R' Pinehas says, through Torah study. But there are other methods, which differ based on the audience:
  1. For the most wise, it is the desire to be as spiritually perfect as possible. The end point of this is יראת חטא, fear of sin.
  2. For the less wise, it is the disappointment and jealousy they'll feel in the next world at what they didn't achieve. (Some, with false humility, might say, "I don't need to be important!" But we see in this world they do care obsessively about status, so this is just an excuse of the evil inclination.)
  3. For the common people, the motivation is fear of divine judgement, which is exacting to the smallest detail.
    The author then cites proofs and examples from scripture about God not overlooking even the smallest sins. If so, what is Divine mercy? It consists of three things:
    • Punishment is delayed and not instantaneous
    • Punishment is not meted out in anger
    • The possibility of repentance
    But after all of these, divine justice is exact.
Chapter 5 Three things hinder the acquisition of Zehirus:
  1. Excessive involvement in worldly pursuits The main point here is to spend time studying Torah, it is what brings one to Zehirut. Also important is spending time on spiritual accounting.
  2. Light-heartedness
  3. Bad friends
Zerizus (Dilligence) Chapter 6 Zerizus is the mirror image of Zehirus: where Zehirus is for do-nots, Zerizus is for dos. Here, too, you know what you should do, but are too lazy or fearful to do it.
Chapter 7 Zerizus is divided into two parts:
  1. before the act Making sure to actually do the mitzvah, and not succumbing to excuses of the body, such as "it is too hot, or too cold, or too early"
  2. after the act To make sure to finish the mitzvah
All the actions of the righteous are with Zerizus. And performing the external action can lead to inner inspiration as well.
Chapter 8 The methods of acquiring Zerizus are the same as those for acquiring Zehirus. Additionally, one may meditate on how indebted one is to the Creator. And this can be applied to the three categories mentioned in Zehirus, i.e. to the elite, by their desire for perfection; the intermediate, by their desire not to be embarrassed in world to come; and for the simple, by their desire for worldly peace.
Chapter 9 That which hinders the acquisition of Zerizus is the desire for comfort and leisure. One must be like a soldier or day-worker in order to be able to fulfill mitzvot properly. Excessive fear is sinful. Question: don't Chazal say one should worry about safety? Answer: worrying about reasonable risk is fine and even necessary. But not unreasonable risks.
It is clear why Zerizus comes after Zehirus: first one has to avoid evil, only then can one chase after good.
Nekiyus (Cleanliness) Chapter 10 Nekiyus, like Zehirus, is about avoiding sin, but while Zehirus is about overcoming one's desire for well-known sins, Nekiyus is about eliminating residual sins by eliminating one's desire altogether.
Chapter 11 The details of Nekiyus are as many as the details of all 365 negative commandments. But there are some that are more complex and leave more room for temptation than others. Chapter 12 The methods of acquiring Nekiyus are studying lots of halacha and musar in order to know all of the details of the halachic and ethical issues, which are easy to forget. That which hinders the acquisition of Nekiyus, on top of the previous hindrances, is simply lack of knowledge.
Perishus (Abstention) Chapter 13 Perishus is the beginning of chasidus (saintliness): perishus refers to the negative and chasidus to the positive, so perishus is to chasidus as zehirus is to zerizus. It means adding additional restrictions beyond what the Law forbids.
Chapter 14 Perishus consists of
  1. Refraining from unnecessary pleasures
  2. Keeping the stricter opinion in halacha, when there is a doubt
  3. Keeping away from company. One should not take this to the extreme of becoming a hermit, but just keep interaction with others minimal and restricted to people who are good influences

Chapter 15 The methods of acquiring Perishus are contemplating how little value physical pleasures have. They are at best fleeting, and often have negative after-effects. One should also stay away from the company of pleasure-loving people. But it is important to take on these changes gradually, and not suddenly.
Tahara (Purity) Chapter 16 Tahara means that even in the permitted actions one does, one should remove every trace of egoistic pleasure, and only do it out of necessity. And with the good deeds one does, one should remove every ulterior motivation, and only do them for their own sake. But some ulterior motives are worse than others. Doing a good deed out of desire for the praise or admiration of others is not the worst motive, but this action is not yet a pure one.
Chapter 17 The methods of acquiring Tahara are
Chasidus (Piety) Chapter 18 Chasidus requires some explanation, since many are confused as to what it is. They think it is about extreme acts of self-mortification such as taking ice baths and endless recitation of Psalms. In fact this is not correct; such actions are at most a small part of what might be required for some. The main idea is simply to try think of what would please God and try to do it, just as in any loving relationship between two people one would try to find ways to please the other. One tries to expand the mitzvos where possible. So this is the mirror image of prishus.
Chapter 19 Chasidus is divided into
  1. One's actions, divided into
    1. Actions between man and God
    2. Actions between man and man, which consists of seeking the good of others in
      1. their person (not to cause it harm)
      2. their possessions (not to cause them harm)
      3. their minds, namely causing them happiness
  2. The way the actions are performed, which is divided into many subcategories, the primary of which are
    1. fear of God. This refers to true fear of God's majesty (yiras haromemus), which comes very close to love. This is distinct from the less worthy fear of punishment. It entails a constant awareness that one is in God's presence. This is not easy! It is divided into
      1. submission before God
      2. a sense of shame when approaching His worship (being aware of one's sinful nature)
      3. honouring God and His worship
    2. love, which means loving God unconditionally even when things are difficult. When faced with challenges in life, a way for ordinary people to feel love for God is to bear in mind that "all that the Merciful One does, he does for the best". But for the spiritually great, the higher approach is to desire the greater challenges, like warriors who volunteer for the most challenging missions in order to show their bravery. This love includes
      1. joy (being happy in worshipping God)
      2. devotion (desiring God's closeness)
      3. zeal (protesting those who go against God's ways)
  3. One's intentions. This means that the ultimate desire of one's worship should not be for one's own spiritural development, but for the greater honour of God. One shouldn't think, "who am I to pray on behalf of God's honour?" One does not need to be perfectly righteous in order to do this. Also part of this is praying for the welfare of one's generation.

Chapter 20 The weighing up of piety is very difficult. It has three necessary conditions:
  1. no ulterior motives except pleasing God
  2. careful analysis
  3. putting one's trust in God
The question one has to consider is when it is better to desist from an act of piety. Examples include being stricter in a case which could lead to harm (such as the case of Rabbi Zekharya ben Avkolas), being strict in a case which could lead to greater discord (such as Rabbi Tarfon holding like Beit Shammai), rebuking people when it will only cause them to double down on their sin, taking on strictures which will bring people to mockery.
Chapter 21 The methods of acquiring Chasidus are meditating on God's greatness, staying away from company, and reading the Psalms and agadot of the Rabbis. The hindrances are excessive involvement in the concerns and bothers of the world. To acquire chasidus it is best to work the minimum needed to earn a living, not excessively hard.
Anava (Humility) Chapter 22 Humility is
  1. thoughts, i.e. contemplating
    • what one lacks
    • what one has (ie sin)
    Only afterwards come
  2. actions, divided into four categories:
    1. acting lowly, divided into
      • speech (speaking respectfully to all)
      • walking (head down, etc)
      • sitting (in a lower place)
      • all motion
    2. tolerating insult
    3. fleeing from leadership
    4. bestowing honour on all
If the order is reversed it's hypocrisy.
Chapter 23 The methods of acquiring humility are The hindrances are
Yiras Chet (Fear of Sin) Chapter 24 Fear of sin is very generally composed of Chapter 25 The methods of acquiring fear of sin are thinking about . It takes a lot of work to acquire this - one has to think about it a lot and acquire it thus. The hindrances are correspondingly the lack of attention and meditation.
Kedusha (Holiness) Chapter 26 Holiness begins with work, and ends with a gift. The idea is that one is always thinking about God, and even one's ordinary daily activities become elevated. But one can only do so much, which is why it needs to be given as a gift, once one makes the necessary effort. The difference from purity is that purity means that one's physical consumption is not for pleasure but only out of necessity, and one would be better off without it. Holiness means that one elevates the physicality and makes it holy. Everything one does in the world elevates it, since one is continually connected to God. It's a really high level. The methods of acquiring holiness are being far from company and from earthly pleasures. The hindrances are the lack of knowledge and too much company.

One who has acquired the trait of holiness has achieved such closeness with the Divine at all times that he is able to achieve
Tchiyas HaMesim - resurrection of the dead


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