an excerpt from Netivot Shalom on Pirkei Avot, Ch.1
"...as our Rabbis of blessed memory said in the baraita of Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair, 'Saintliness leads to holy inspiration.' Thus, their words make it clear that putting into practice the teachings of [Pirkei Avot] leads one to prophecy." ...Thus someone who "fulfills the precepts of Avot" attains the highest level a person can reach, that of holy inspiration and prophecy. And the Holy Rabbi Chaiym Vital wrote to the effect that the Torah does not mention the middot because the Torah was given after the rectification of the middot. The middot themselves are the vehicle by which the Torah is instilled since the Torah can only dwell in a person who has refined his middot...
"...as our Rabbis of blessed memory said in the baraita of Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair, 'Saintliness leads to holy inspiration.' Thus, their words make it clear that putting into practice the teachings of [Pirkei Avot] leads one to prophecy." ...Thus someone who "fulfills the precepts of Avot" attains the highest level a person can reach, that of holy inspiration and prophecy. And the Holy Rabbi Chaiym Vital wrote to the effect that the Torah does not mention the middot because the Torah was given after the rectification of the middot. The middot themselves are the vehicle by which the Torah is instilled since the Torah can only dwell in a person who has refined his middot...
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The work involved in refining one's middot is harder than the entire Torah. It requires a fundamental change in the cast and character of one's soul, this change being the purpose for which a Jew descends into the world. For example, our sages have said: "Envy, desire and (the pursuit of) honor remove a person from the world." Thus a person who pursues envy, desire or honor excessively needs to change in a fundamental way in order to be able to uproot these pursuits... Indeed, the matter of middot is at such a high level that only someone who has refined and purified his middot can be a vehicle for instilling the Torah."
The work involved in refining one's middot is harder than the entire Torah. It requires a fundamental change in the cast and character of one's soul, this change being the purpose for which a Jew descends into the world. For example, our sages have said: "Envy, desire and (the pursuit of) honor remove a person from the world." Thus a person who pursues envy, desire or honor excessively needs to change in a fundamental way in order to be able to uproot these pursuits... Indeed, the matter of middot is at such a high level that only someone who has refined and purified his middot can be a vehicle for instilling the Torah."
