You are a yeshivish rabbi and scholar. Please edit the following text for a yeshivish book in a natural tone while maintaining the original author’s voice:

I want to try to think about what is called middos. And I tell people that I want to work on middos in a general way; perhaps also particular things, we’ll see. So people say, yeah, that's a very good idea, because it is like, Derech Eretz Kadmah La’Torah. First, work on your middos, to be a nice person, well educated, and only afterwards can you be shayach to Torah. 

So this is real nonsense. Because middos have such a depth, which is far beyond everything we could imagine. And not only because they are complicated, because they are reaching a depth, which other things don't reach. 

We see that in the Cheit HaEgel. It was after Matan Torah, so they had Torah, they had mitzvos, they had Limud Torah, whatever you want. The matzev was that they were shayach to תריג. 

And then they made the Golden Calf, and everything was gone. And the main issue in the Torah after this is how to make the Sh'chineh should be with them after the transgression caused the Sh'chineh to be mistalek. How can you do that, you know? How is that shayach? 

Because Aharon said, now I get a busheh, because I made the Cheit HaEgel. And Am Yisroel said, but the Sh'chineh didn't come out, said, now we see that nothing helps, because the Sh'chineh is gone. But they had Torah, they had Mitzvos, but that wasn't enough. So what did the Borei Olam do? 

The Borei Olam brought down Yud-Gimmel Middos of Rachamim. And it says:
כל זמן שישראל חוטאין – יעשו לפני כסדר הזה, ואני מוחל להם. 
So the Rishonim already say, that it doesn't mean that you say the words, only you are doing the Middos. עושין, you are Rachum, Chanun, Erech Apayim, Rav Chesed, Emes. That's the way you should behave, and then the Borei Olam will be mechaper the avoinos. 

That means that Middos are reaching beyond where mitzvos reach. Mitzvos were gone, Maten Torah was gone, Hashroas HaSh’chineh was gone; The purpose didn't occur, but Middos will do the job. So we see that Middos are much deeper, much deeper than everything you could imagine. Much deeper. 

This is our problem; we think Middos are a way of behavior. It's like a little bit of psychology, you know. You have to be a nice guy and you have to interact nicely with your neighbor, and you smile, and you have good Middos. And it's like Derech Eretz Kadmah Le’Torah. This is far from the truth. All the Middos, not only these Thirteen Middos, have an aspect which is way beyond where everything else is reaching. Middos are much, much deeper, and they reach a much deeper realm than what you think. That's what Middos do. 

If we want to have a shaychus with our avoideh to Middos, we have to relate to the Middos the way a Jew relates to Middos. That means it has to have a source, we have to have a makor where to draw that thing from; as these are things which are way beyond our seichel, way beyond our understanding. 

You see it explicitly in the Tomer Devorah, which says you have Middos, like the Borei Olam, and immediately begins with the Yud-Gimmel Middos of Rachamim. He doesn't begin with that you have to be a nice man, a good person, behave nicely, speak the truth, Be responsible. He doesn't say that. 

He says Rachum, Chanun, and things that are nearly indigestible in their enormity. In that sefer you see that those are Middos that you wouldn't think that you are obligated to do that. No one would think like this. But those are the Jewish Middos, and there he begins his sefer that you have to go in the ways of the Borei Olam, and this is the makor of our middos tovos. 

So I believe the Sha’arei Kedushah by R’ Chaim Vital, also says that middos are way beyond your seichel. Only that by the Tomer Devorah you see that explicitly, as he begins Middos in a realm where your seichel is not really holding there, it's way beyond.  Because that's what Middos are; they are rooted in a place way beyond the seichel. We have to work on that.