We all grasp the idea of experiencing wellness or discomfort,

positivity, or negativity.

It’s a fundamental understanding we have.

These have been shaped

by the education and experience

accumulated until that point.

Through this correction, the individual acquires equivalence of form with the upper degree and will later experience the delight and pleasure that are inherently present in the thought of creation.

that is one’s judgment, which ultimately

-and even without the consent of the lower-

is directly related to the Upper One, 

Who operates, and governs every detail in all reality,

revealed and hidden,

and whose purpose is to do good to created beings. 

Our sages have indicated that the Creator

created the world

to delight His creatures.

For nothing can be understood in the middle of its process,

but only at its end.

It’s like a child who is ill.

He is still small and does not understand many things,

he does not want to take his medicine.

watches closely and finally comprehends;

that the parents’ love

was merely concealed

due to his suffering.

Although a man’s degree is still far off,

even during his preparatory period,

he must constantly establish himself

in relation to true reality.

According to the extent of his desire

to transcend his animalistic nature,

and the degree of his suffering

due to the judgment of the Good and benevolent,

 he will receive assistance from

the reforming light,

that is, from the Torah.

From here, he will go from strength to strength

The work on the heart

is about to begin.

However,

something he has never experienced before requires developing new senses,

new organs, a second nature,

a reality that will renew itself in him with each new state.

Therefore, in order to surpass his present reality,

he must adhere to his instructors’ guidance

just as he once did with his parents during his inception.

The new education

is about the man and the life force

hidden in the process of development.

Everyone,

after being born into this world,

must attain the revelation of the Life Force,

The Life of Lives

At the level of man, they finally merge.

There are two forces that contradict one another,

an upper force

and a lower force. 

The lower force is the will to receive,

which claims that everything was created for it

—both corporeal things and spiritual things—

all is for self-love.

this is called

“the path of suffering,”

and it is called “a long way.” 

This is called “I will hasten it.”

There are two states in the world:

1) In the first state the world is called “pain.”

2) In the second state, it is called “Shechina [Divinity].”

However, afterward,

he is rewarded with seeing that the Shechina

is clothed in the whole world,

and then the Creator is considered to be filling the world.

This is called

“The Unification of the Creator and His Shechina,”

for as the Creator gives,

so the world is now occupied solely in bestowal.

We must understand these words

in our work.

Accordingly, the question is,

Why do we do things that we do not like?

Who forces us to exert?

And since they cannot tolerate the suffering,

it causes them to leave the rest and

go to work. 

Otherwise, when a person is born, he would lie in his place and there would be no development at all,

both physically and emotionally. 

Hence, this cane in the hand of the appointee, who beats the creatures,

causes the development of the creatures.

 It follows that people in the world are like blades of grass,

and each blade must grow.

It follows that the whole drive

for the work

is only that the suffering caused it.

This is the second discernment we must make in our roots.

In other words,

the Creator, who is our root,

is full of pleasure. 

Therefore,

the fact that the creatures yearn for pleasure and it is impossible to live without

it is because pleasure is at the root;

this is the appointee who strikes and says,

“Grow!”

This matter applies in corporeal matters as well as in spiritual matters.

The difference is that in corporeal matters,

there is no concealment,

meaning that in corporeal pleasures there is the matter of

“The eye sees and the heart covets.”

The suffering is measured

by the yearning

for the matter. 

This was done on purpose,

so as to have room for work

for the sake of the Creator. 

But now that he must do everything with faith

above reason

and say that the Torah and Mitzvot are in the manner of

“for they are our lives,”

 and as it is written,

But since in order to be rewarded with Dvekut [adhesion]

with the Creator,

we must work in order to bestow,

there are concealment and hiding

on the Torah and Mitzvot. 

It follows that in spirituality, where we first need to work on faith,

meaning believe in reward and punishment,

it cannot be said,

“You have not a blade of grass below that does not have an appointee above that strikes and tells it,

‘Grow!’”

It, therefore, follows that since it is impossible for man to suffer

because of something that he craves,

except according to the importance of the matter,

the question is, 

meaning

yearning to bring contentment to the Creator,

that he will suffer

if he sees that he cannot bring contentment

to the Creator.

Gain and loss

are measured according to the

pleasure and suffering.

The measure of the distance

depends on the measure of the suffering,

since it is human nature

to escape from suffering. 

In other words,

the torments cause hatred

for the thing that induces torments,

and to that extent,

he moves away.

It is known from books and from authors

that the Creator is benevolent. 

Therefore,

when one examines the conduct of the world and begins to examine himself or others,

how they suffer under Providence instead of delighting,

as is fitting for His Name

in that state,

it is hard for him to say that

Providence is behaving in a manner of good and doing good

and imparts them with abundance.

Only when they see that the Creator imparts them with pleasures

do they justify the Creator.

 It is as our sages said, “Who is righteous? He who justifies his Maker,”

meaning he who says that the Creator

leads the world in a manner of righteousness.

Consequently,

where one should have loved the Creator,

he now becomes the opposite, 

for he has come to hate the Creator.

This means that everything points to another,

and by the opposite of something,

the existence of its opposite

can be perceived.

For example, it is impossible to estimate and say that something is good, if its opposite, pointing to the bad, is missing.

It is the same with bitterness and sweetness, love and hate, hunger and satiation, thirst and saturation, separation and adhesion.

To be rewarded with the degree of hating separation,

one must first know

what is separation,

In other words,

one should examine from what and from whom

he has become separated.

If, for example,

he understands that he will benefit from joining with Him,

then he can assume and know what is the loss

if he remains separated.

It is known that the order of the work on the way

to achieve the goal of Dvekut [adhesion]

with the Creator is to work in order

to bestow. 

Until they gain knowledge and acquire much wisdom,

they are taught this secret bit by bit,

and they are accustomed to this matter peacefully

Therefore, when a person wants to walk on the way to the goal of Dvekut with the Creator,

which means to aim that everything will be in order to bestow,

he must first have a deficiency,

At that time he begins to look for another order in the work,

since the engagement in Torah and Mitzvot [commandments]

to which he was accustomed

was on the basis of the will to receive,

called for its own sake.

However,

who is making him feel, while in the state of self-love,

that this is still not the right way

and he is still far from Dvekut with the Creator? 

But they settle for the order of the work they had received when they were little

when the instructors taught them to work

only for self-love.

At that time comes the question:

“If I am really less talented and less capable in the work,

where did I get this restlessness in the state of Self-love?”

That is,

the Creator has given him this deficiency

so he will not be able to continue on this path. 

Rather, the Creator says,

“I am the first,” meaning “I have given you the first push,

so you will begin

to walk on the path of truth.

Then begins the work that

he begins to wait for a state where he repels self-love,

and all his works are only to bestow. 

Afterward,

when he is rewarded with Dvekut with the Creator,

he thinks that it is through his labor in Torah and Mitzvot,

and by overcoming his self-love. 

The verse says about that:

“And I am the last”. 

The deficiency is called the Kli [vessel],

and the filling

is called “the light.”

This is why the Creator first gives the Kli,

which is called “I am the first,” 

and then He gives the abundance,

called “I am the last.”

On the contrary, it is assistance

—he is being pushed toward

happiness and bounty.

 that is,

the Creator does not behave toward a person

according to His Name

—The Good Who Does Good. 

His whole day

is filled with troubles and worries. 

Or, one suffers from poor health and disrespect from people. 

Every plan he begins,

he fails to complete,

and he is constantly dissatisfied.

In this manner, of course, one does not see the Creator’s Good Face,

that is if he believes that the Creator is the one who does these things to him,

either as a punishment for transgressions he committed

or to reward him in the end. 

This follows the verse: “Whom the Lord loves, He reproves”, and thus, one is strengthened in believing that the Creator, with His guidance, caused all this.

This is nonetheless considered

seeing the Creator’s back.

The contradictory terms in our world

are contained in Him, in the form of

“He is One and His Name is One”.

There is no differentiation at all between them,

as in the concept

“One, Unique and Unified”.

“One” indicates a simple uniformity.

“One” implies that all that extends from Him,

all these multiplicities are in Him as One. 

“Unified” shows that although He performs multiple acts,

there is one force that performs all

and that all return and

unite as One. 

In fact, this one form absorbs all the forms that appear in His operations.

This is a very subtle matter and not every mind can tolerate it.

The Ramban has explained to us the question of His oneness,

expressing it in these words:

“One, Unique and Unified”.

When He unites to act with One Force,

He is called “Unified.” 

When He divides to act His act,

each part of Him is called Unique,

and when He is in simple uniformity,

He is called One, so far His pure words.

By saying “unites to act with One Force,”

He means that He works to give,

as is worthy of His Unity,

and His operations are immutable. 

When He “divides to act His act”,

it means that when His operations differ,

and He seems to be doing good and evil,

then He is called “Unique”

because all His different operations have one simple result:

good.

We find that He is unique in each individual act and that

He does not change through His various operations. 

When He is in simple uniformity,

He is called “One.” 

“One” points to His Atzmut, where all opposites are in simple uniformity.

It is as the Rambam wrote:

“In Him, knower, known, and knowledge are one,

because His thoughts are so far above our thoughts,

and His ways superior to ours.”

According to our way, the meaning is that we have two ways

—either to follow the path of those who come to the Creator, whose way is the path of bestowal,

or a path that leads to people, which is reception

since the creatures are called “creatures” only concerning reception and self-love,

which comes to us from the core of creation.

There was a Tzimtzum [restriction] and concealment on that aspect,

for in this place, it is not evident that the whole earth is full of His glory,

as it is possible to attain that the whole earth is full of His glory

only when one exits the place of reception. 

But before exiting reception,

one can only believe that this is so.

To be able to feel this,

we are advised to exit the place of reception,

which is the place of darkness and death. 

 That is,

the light of life cannot appear although it is present,

but it is covered from man,

and one who comes to that place

becomes separated from the source of life.

Hence,

that place is called “Darkness and Death,”

and every kind of calamity is present there.

This is called the Sitra Achra [other side],

meaning it is the opposite of Kedusha [holiness/sanctity].

A place of Kedusha called a “place of bestowal,”

is a place of equivalence of form.

This is why in that place

appear all the delight and pleasure,

as it is a place of blessing and holiness.

It is known that when a person works in order to receive when his direction is only self-love,

that work is called “sweet work.”

This is why the dove said,

“Let my food be as bitter as an olive

but be given by the Creator.”

This refers to his sustenance,

on which one sustains oneself,

the sustenance on which one lives. 

If his work is intended for the Creator,

even though it is bitter because the body does not agree with his nourishment,

it will be dependent on the measure of his ability to aim to bestow,

since it is against the nature in which the body was born.

The body was born with a desire to receive.

It craves only that which can sustain self-love. 

This is regarded as a provision that comes from “flesh and blood.”

The body enjoys this provision and finds it sweet.

It is regarded as Orev [raven]

because the only provision of flesh and blood is Arev [pleasant] to it.

But it runs from the provision that is given from above

—meaning from being able to work for the Creator—

since it feels bitterness in acts of bestowal.

Then comes the time of prayer,

since the man sees the measures of the work that he has

in matters of “mind and heart,”

and how he has not progressed in the work of bestowal. 

 He also sees how his body is weak,

that he does not have great powers

to be able to overcome his nature. 

From those two, meaning from wholeness and deficiency,

which are the “father and mother,”

it turns out that the Creator is the one who helps him,

giving him a soul,

which is the spirit of life. 

And then the newborn

is born. 

For this reason,

he sees that if the Creator does not help him, he is lost,

as it is written,

“If the Lord does not build the house, t

hey who build it labor in it in vain.”

We must know that the Creator wants to give,

as it is explained in several places,

that “the superior light does not cease to illuminate”,

but we need Kelim (vessels) that are fit to receive.

Therefore,

when a person begins to come into the work of the Creator,

we must thank and praise the Creator,

for this is the beginning of man’s entrance

into the work. 

The order of the work begins as our sages said,

“One should always establish the praise of the Creator

and subsequently pray”.

From where do we know this?

From Moses, as it is written,

‘And I pleaded with the Lord at that time,’

and as it is written, ‘God, You have begun,’

and ‘afterward is written,

‘Let me go over, I pray Thee and see the good land’’” 

Therefore, when he begins to thank the Creator,

he first needs to thank the Creator for creating the world,

as we say during the prayer,

“Blessed are You who said,

‘Let there be the world.’” 

And then begins the work,

meaning the extent to which he can thank the Creator for creating the world.

In other words,

the extent of the gratitude is as the extent of the pleasure.

Here begins the scrutiny of true and false,

and here lies the difference between the work

of the individual and the work of the public,

meaning between one whose Torah is his craft OR NOT.

 The meaning is as Baal HaSulam explained:

His Torah is his craft means that through the Torah

he wants to be rewarded with faith. 

Or, according to people who belong to the general public,

it means that they study Torah in order to be rewarded with the next world,

meaning in order to receive,

and not to people who belong to the individual,

namely, engage in order to bestow.

When a person begins to praise the Creator, there is a scrutiny of true and false.

That is, usually, when one needs to thank another person for helping him,

the measure of gratitude is according to the measure of feeling that he has helped him. 

Therefore, when a person begins to thank the Creator for what He has given him,

the body begins to think of the benefits He has done to him,

and to the extent that he is impressed with the benefit that He has done to him,

so is the measure of the gratitude.

Therefore, when a person says,

“Blessed is He who said, ‘Let there be the world,’”

it also depends on the extent to which he is enjoying the world.

At that time the body begins to show him that he lacks corporeality and lacks spirituality,

and does not let him establish the praises of the Creator.

At that time there was a lot of work because he needed to go above reason

and believe that the Creator is doing only good to him,

and there is also a scrutiny of true and false.

Since the general name of the Creator

is Good Who Does Good,

there is a lot of work to believe above reason

that the Creator is good and does good. 

It therefore follows that

when a person begins to establish the praise of the Creator,

he has what to pray

for so he can go above reason.

Beforehand,

there was not such a great lack of faith in the Creator above reason,

but now he feels his lack of faith and needs to learn Torah

so that the light in it will reform him.

It turns out that his desire to establish the praise of the Creator causes him a deficiency.

When he has a deficiency, called a Kli,

to the extent of his impression of being far from wholeness

he has room for work and a need for prayer

and Torah.

It turns out that the descents,

which are the times of separation,

create the importance of adhesion in the ascents,

while the ascents make him hate the descents that the separation causes him.

In other words,

he cannot assess how bad the descents are,

when he slanders Providence

and does not even feel whom he slanders,

to know that he must repent for such a grave sin.

This is called

“slandering the Creator.”

It follows that precisely when one has both forms

he can discern the distance between one and the other,

“As the advantage of the light from within the darkness.” 

Only then can he assess and appreciate the matter of adhesion

by which the delight and pleasure in the thought of creation can be acquired,

being “His desire to do good to His creations.”

Everything that appears to our eyes

is but what the Creator wants us to attain the way we do,

since they are ways by which to achieve the complete goal.

Yet,

it is not so simple to merit

adhesion with the Creator.

It requires great effort

and exertion to acquire the sensation

and feeling of delight and pleasure.

Before this, one must justify Providence,

believe above reason that the Creator behaves with the creatures

in a manner of good and doing good, and say,

“They have eyes but they see not.”

Therefore,

when he practices Torah and Mitzvot,

he wants to extend the light of the Creator not for his own benefit,

but since he cannot bear not being able to justify His guidance,

that it is in a manner of good and doing good.

It pains him that he desecrates the name of the Creator,

whose name is

The Good Who Does Good,

and his body claims otherwise.

This is all that pains him

since by being in a state of separation,

he cannot justify His guidance. 

This is considered hating the state of separation.

And when he feels this suffering,

the Creator hears his prayer, brings him near Him,

and he is rewarded with Dvekut

for the pain that he feels from the separation

make him be rewarded with Dvekut,

and then it is said,

“As the advantage of the light from within the darkness.”

This is the meaning of

“The advantage of a land

in everything.”

Land is creation;

“in everything” means that by the advantage,

meaning when we see the difference between

the state of separation and the state of Dvekut,

through it we are granted

Dvekut with the everything

since the Creator is called

“the root of everything.”

Nonetheless,

we should believe that

the punishments we suffer

for not observing the Mitzvot [commandments/good deeds]

of the Creator,

which the Creator has commanded us,

these punishments are not due to vengeance,

as it occurs among flesh and blood,

who punish because their honor was tarnished

when their orders were disobeyed. 

Instead,

here there is a matter of

correction.

That is, the torments a person suffers

for not observing the Creator’s commandments

is because the giving of Torah and Mitzvot

was for man’s sake. 

Through them,

he is to receive Kelim [vessels]

that can receive the delight and pleasure

that the Creator has prepared for the creatures. 

We see that all of the Guidance

is in the form of corrections. 

Although it is difficult to understand this,

we must take upon ourselves faith in the sages,

which is called “oral Torah [law].

” That is, we must believe what they are telling us about what to do and what to believe,

and we must follow their views blindly and without criticism

because our reason cannot understand the ways of His Providence,

the delight and pleasure that the Creator has prepared for the creatures.

Thus, everything must be in faith above reason,

and specifically by this, we are then rewarded with the delight and pleasure

since we are following the ways of the sages,

who have determined for us in which way and manner to go,

and not the way our intellect understands.

Specifically in this way of

above reason,

we are later rewarded with feeling in the organs

hat the Creator leads the world in a manner of

good and doing good. 

At that time we do not have to believe because we can already feel this,

and then we ourselves testify that the creation of the world

was with the intention

to do good to His creations.

We must believe that the Creator leads the world as Elokim [God],

which is called Teva [nature], as it is written,

the Gematria of “nature” is “God,”

which is the quality of judgment.

God is the quality of judgment,

and HaVaYaH [the Lord]

is the quality of mercy. 

Hence, for the world in general,

who do not believe in the Creator,

they say that the guidance of the world follows the quality of nature,

that nature determines the guidance of the world. 

However,

they do not say that nature is God,

but that it is nature, without any leader. 

We see that this nature,

which the Creator created with the quality of judgment,

has no mercy in the judgment,

since nature has no intellect

from which to ask for mercy so it does not punish us so harshly

because we are so weak that

we cannot follow its commandments.

The answer to this is

“There is no mercy

in the judgment.” 

For example,

if someone throws his friend in the water,

and the water wants to drown him, he says to the water,

“Is it my fault that my friend threw me into your domain? 

Therefore,

I’m asking you to please have mercy on me

since I have a big family with many children and no one to take care of them.

So please forgive me for entering your domain.” 

The answer is

“There is no mercy in the judgment”

to those who break nature’s laws, which is God, who is the quality of judgment. 

This is as it is written,

“Judgment will puncture the mountain [justice should be done at all costs].” 

Only those who believe that nature is God,

meaning that there is a leader in nature,

through prayer, they can induce change in nature,

since there is a landlord to nature,

and therefore He can change nature.

It is written that

when Rabbi Hanina Ben Dosa

saw on the eve of Shabbat [Sabbath] that his daughter was sad,

he told her:

 “‘My daughter, why are you sad?’ She said to him:

‘I swapped the jar of oil with the jar of vinegar, and I placed the vinegar in the candle. 

The candle will quench and it will be dark on Shabbat.’

He replied, ‘He who said to the oil, ‘Burn!’ will tell the vinegar, ‘Burn!’’”

We see that

one who believes that nature

has a landlord can change nature.

 For this reason,

those righteous for whom nature is regarded as God,

meaning that the Creator is nature’s landlord, through their prayer,

the Creator changes nature because of them.

This is why

we pray to the Creator

to help us change nature

Although from the perspective of nature,
there is a judgment, a Jew believes that there is a nature’s leader

and that He has mercy,

which is called HaVaYaH. 

Therefore, they said,

“he should not deny himself mercy.”

This is the meaning of the words,

“HaVaYaH is Elokim”

[the Lord is God].

Conversely,

those who say that nature is without a landlord

and there is no one to lead it

have no mercy in the judgment. 

It is written 

 “Even if a sharp sword is placed on his neck,

he should not deny himself mercy.” 

Therefore,

they have no complaints about nature

because there is no one to be angry with

since it has no mind that you can speak to or ask for mercy.

This is similar to an old custom:

Before the invention of road signs as a means to put order in traffic,

police officers would stand and streamline traffic. 

At that time,

many people were angry and had grievances against the officers for not doing their job right,

and that they were not noticing the line of cars.

Sometimes,

a person would approach the officer and ask for a favor,

since he has a sick person at home, etc., or asks for some special treatment,

and the officer would act on his own judgment. 

At that time everyone thought that the officers were not working properly. 

Many people were happy, and many were not.

But today, the streamliner of traffic has become inanimate, mindless. 

So, now each one accepts the verdict of the road sign,

and no one gets angry with it or asks it for favors.

Accordingly,

where we want the Creator Himself to be revealed to a person in the form of Dvekut,

the reward and punishment

are in concealed guidance. 

Otherwise,

he will have no need to connect to Him. 

Instead, they would observe Torah and Mitzvot for his own benefit,

and from this,

they will derive satisfaction in their lives.

But where it is impossible that they would be interested to know if there is a leader or not,

which means that the world is governed only by corporeal things,

it follows that the Creator is concealed there because they have no need to know

if there is a landlord and a leader in the world.

 Instead,

they say that the leader is nature,

as though inanimate.

And what did the Creator do in order not to spoil nature’s order? 

He placed a correction on nature,

and that correction is called

“revealed reward and punishment.” 

This is a strict guarding

that they will not spoil the nature

that the Creator has created.

For this reason,

we should say that where the Creator remains concealed,

the reward and punishment

are revealed. 

And where the Creator

must be felt among the lower ones,

the reward and punishment

must be concealed from the lower ones

It therefore follows that

in all the descents that a person suffers in the work,

he must believe in reward and punishment

although he does not see. 

Instead,

he must believe

that the Creator

will not leave him

even when he is in descent.

Although it is a punishment when t

he Creator removes him from the work

since the fact that he feels no flavor in the work is only because

the Creator has thrown him out,

so that a person will not think that now

he does not want to be a worker of the Creator,

but it is the Creator who does not want him. 

He must believe that this is a punishment,

but he must also believe that it is not out of vengeance,

but that it is corrections

by which he will be rewarded with ascending and achieving the desired goal.

“However, one should not trust and say,

The Creator will save me

or

‘The Creator will do this and that for me.’ 

Rather,

one should place one’s trust in the Creator to help him,

as it should be when he exerts in the Mitzvot [commandments] of the Torah

and exerts to walk in the path of truth. 

And

when one comes to purify,

he is aided.

In that, he should trust the Creator to help him.

He should place his trust in Him

and trust none other than Him.

It is written about this,

‘His strength is in You.’

‘Rails in their hearts’

means that one should establish one’s heart properly,

so no foreign thought may come into it. 

Rather,

his heart will be as that rail that is built to pass through it

to every place that is needed,

to the right and to the left. ‘

And his heart shall be sincere,’

meaning whether the Creator does good to him or to the contrary,

his heart will be ready

and corrected never to question the Creator

under any circumstances.

This brings up the question:

“If he sees that his prayer is not heard, meaning that it is not granted as he understands it should be granted

—that he is given what he is asking because the Creator is merciful and gracious, and if He heard He would certainly give what one is asking—

then why is his prayer not answered? 

Doesn’t the Creator hear the prayer?

Can this be said?”

However,

one should believe that the Creator does hear the prayer,

as we say in the Eighteen Prayer,

“For You hear the prayer of every mouth of Your people, Israel, with mercy.” 

However,

we should believe what is written, that

“My thoughts are not your thoughts.”

That is,

the Creator knows what is best for man,

meaning for his wholeness,

and what can obstruct his wholeness.

Therefore,

we should say that the Creator

always hears and answers according to man’s best interest,

and this is what He gives us. 

Thus,

one should believe that the states that a person feels

are what the Creator wants us to feel

because it is in our favor.

It follows that

the confidence that we should have in the Creator

is that the Creator certainly hears our prayers and answers them, 

but not according to our understanding,

but according to the Creator’s understanding

of what we should be given.

 It therefore follows that

confidence

is primarily  about trusting the Creator

that He helps everyone, 

 as it is written,

“His mercy is over all His works.”

However, the confidence should not be that the Creator will help us

according to our understanding,

but according to the Creator’s understanding.

It is written

“And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats:

one lot for the Lord, and the other lot for Azazel.”

Concerning Haman, it is written,

“they cast a pur, that is, the lot.”

A lot

applies where there cannot be a scrutiny in the mind

because the mind does not reach there

so they can sort out which is

good and which is evil. 

 In that state,

a pur is cast,

when they rely not on the mind

but on what the lot tells them.

It follows that when using the word

“lot,”

it comes to tell us

that now

we are going above reason.

Here there is a matter of overcoming them.

Although he sees

many contradictions

in His guidance, 

he should still overcome them

through faith above reason and say

that they are guidance in the manner of

“The Good Who Does Good.” 

This is the meaning of what is written about Moses,

“And Moses hid his face.”

This means that he saw all the contradictions and held them through exertion

by the power of faith above reason.

It is as our sages said,

“In return for ‘and Moses hid his face for he was afraid to look,’

he was rewarded with

‘and the image of the Lord does he behold.’”

This is the meaning of the verse,

“Who is as blind as My servant,

and who is as deaf as My angel?”

It is known that Eynaim [eyes]

are called “reason,” “mind,”

meaning the mind’s eyes. 

This is because something

that we perceive in the mind, we say,

“But we see that the mind and

the reason require that we say so.”

Hence,

one who goes above reason is

as one who has no eyes,

and he is called “blind,”

meaning pretends to be blind. 

 Also, one who does not want to hear what the spies tell him

and pretends to be deaf is called “deaf.

” This is the meaning of

“Who is as blind as My servant, and who is as deaf as My angel?”

However, when one says,

“They have eyes but they see not; they have ears but they hear not,”

it means that he does not want to obey what the reason asserts and what the ears hear,

as it is written about Joshua the son of Nun, that a bad thing never entered his ears.

This is the meaning of Aderet Se’ar,

that he had many contradictions and judgments.

Each contradiction is called Se’ar [hair],

and under each Se’ar there is a dent.

This means that one makes a dent in the head,

meaning the foreign thought fissures and punctures one’s head.

When one has many foreign thoughts,

it is considered to have many Se’arot,

and this is called Aderet Se’ar.

When one has many extraneous thoughts,

he is considered to have many Searot;

and this is called Aderet Se’ar.

This means

that one already has all the discernments of Se’arot

that can be in the world,

and then an Aderet Se’ar is made from the Se’arot.

And with that one is rewarded rewarded

with the light that rests over these contradictions,

since through the contradictions, called criticism,

when wanting to overpower them,

it is by drawing light on them.

It is as it is written,

“He who comes to purify

is aided.”

Regarding the “everything,” called “above reason,”

one should try to work with gladness

since through gladness, the true measure of

the everything appears. 

If one has no gladness,

then one should feel sorry that he has no gladness,

since this is the primary place of the work,

to discover the gladness that he is working above reason.

Hence,

when one has no gladness from this work,

he should afflict himself for it. 

This is the meaning of what is written,

“whose heart makes him willing,”

which means being sick and tormented

over not having gladness from this work.

This is the meaning of

“Because you did not serve

the Lord your God with gladness

because of the abundance of all things.” 

Instead, you left the everything and took only the enough.

Hence, in the end,

you will be far below and without anything,

meaning you will lose the enough, too.

However,

to the extent that one has the “everything,”

and he is glad,

to that extent he is imparted

the “enough.”

Accordingly, we should interpret the words,

“women weeping for Tammuz”

RASHI interprets that

“They had idolatry, that he had lead inside his eyes,

and they were heating it to melt the lead out of the eyes.”

We should interpret the matter of crying,

as meaning that they have no gladness because there is dust in their eyes.

Dust is Behina Dalet, meaning the kingdom of heaven, which is faith above reason.

This discernment bears the form of dust,

meaning it is unimportant.

And this work has the taste of dust,

meaning it is only as important as dust. 

The allegory about the women weeping for Tammuz

is that they burn this idolatry so that by heating

the dust will come out from the lead.

It implies that they are crying over the work

that they were given to believe above reason that His guidance is good and does good,

while within reason they see only

contradictions in His guidance. 

This work is the work of Kedusha,

and they want to remove the dust,

meaning the work of above reason,

called “dust.”

However,

the eyes, called “sight,”

imply seeing His guidance, being within reason;

this is called “idolatry.”

This resembles a person whose craft is to make pots and vessels from earth,

and whose work is to make clay pots.

The order is that first, he makes round balls of clay,

and then cuts and makes holes in the balls.

And when the young son sees what his father is doing, he cries, “Father, why are you ruining the balls?” 

The son does not understand that the father’s primary goal is the holes,

since only the holes can become receptacles,

and the son wants to close the holes that the father made in the balls.

So it is here.

This dust inside the eyes,

which blocks his vision, so that wherever he looks

he finds contradictions in Providence,

this is the whole Kli by which

he can discover the sparks of unconditional love,

called “a joy of Mitzva.”

It is said about this, “

If the Creator does not help him,

he cannot overcome it.”

This means that if the Creator

had not given him these thoughts,

he would have been unable to receive any ascension.

It is written in The Zohar, Noah:

“There was a flood and the saboteur was sitting inside.”

Baal HaSulam asked what is the difference

between the saboteur putting to death and the flood putting to death.

 He said that the flood caused corporeal suffering, and the saboteur caused spiritual suffering.

In other words, within the corporeal suffering, there is a saboteur who kills a person’s spirituality,

meaning that the torments of the body bring him foreign thoughts until these thoughts

sabotage and kill the spirituality.

We should interpret his words.

The flood and the rain are called “revealed,”

meaning that which is visible to our eyes,

that the saboteur was killing the people.

That is, what a person thinks, that if the will to receive had what it demands,

meaning knowledge and not faith,

if it could understand everything about His guidance,

as the will to receive requires,

he would serve the Creator properly. 

However, this is not so, and as a result,

because it is difficult for a person to suffer,

he moves away from the Life of Lives

and wants the Creator to impart upon him only pleasures.

This is why he moves away.

However,

within the corporeal suffering,

meaning a person’s inability to understand His guidance,

why the Creator does not give him what the will to receive understands

that He should give, and he suffers, 

 from this extends death in spirituality,

meaning spiritual suffering that causes death in spirituality.

In other words,

he falls into heresy.

That is,

the fact that he suffered the corporeal suffering

because the Creator did not give him what he thought,

and it pained him, these sufferings cause death in corporeality

as it is written,

“The dead is as important as the dead,

and one who has no sons is as important as the dead.”

However, afterward, he comes to spiritual suffering,

meaning that he cannot overcome the faith and believe in the Creator,

that He leads the world with the guidance of good and doing good.

At that time, he comes to heresy.

This is called “spiritual death,”

when a person falls into the vacant space

of the Sitra Achra [other side]. 

Later,

when a person reenters the work,

it is considered

“the revival of the dead.”

 At that time a person must believe that the fact that now he has begun the work once more is not by his own strength,

but he rather received from above the “dew of resurrection.”

This is considered “the revival of the dead,

” with which he has been rewarded because he received an awakening from above. 

For this reason,

a person must say each day,

“Blessed are You, Lord,

who returns souls to dead corpses.”

Thus, there are two things here concerning suffering:

Corporeal suffering is when a person suffers in corporeal matters because of what he needs, and he suffers death because of it, as in “The dead is as important as the dead, and one who has no sons is as important as the dead,” etc. It follows that this death is not related to spirituality.

However, afterward,

it causes him spiritual death

because he cannot believe that the Creator leads the world

in a manner of good and doing good.

It follows

that this is spiritual death

and not corporeal death. 

This is the meaning of saying that within the flood of rain,

which is corporal suffering,

he later comes to spiritual suffering,

when he cannot justify Providence,

and therefore falls into spiritual death.

This is as it is written in the “Introduction of The Book of Zohar” (Item 138),

“Prior to the end of correction, Malchut is called ‘the tree of knowledge of good and evil,’

since Malchut is the guidance of the Creator in this world. 

As long as the receivers have not been completed so they can receive His whole benevolence,

the guidance must be in the form of good and bad, reward and punishment.

It is so because our vessels of reception are still tainted with self-reception. 

 Hence, when one feels bad,

denial of the Creator’s guidance lies upon him

and the superior Operator is concealed from him to that same extent.

This is the worst punishment in the world.”

Thus, we necessarily sense evil in the operations of Providence in relation to us.

It is a law that the creature cannot receive disclosed evil from the Creator,

for it is a flaw in the glory of the Creator for the creature to perceive Him as an evildoer,

for this is unbecoming of the complete Operator. 

It therefore follows that when a person receives

bad from Him,

it makes the operator become

concealed from him. 

This is called “death” in spirituality.

And who caused him to receive bad from Him?

Why did he receive badly?

It is because those Kelim [vessels] were still dirty with self-reception.

Hence, there must be guidance in a manner of concealment and hiding.

For this reason,

suffering causes death in spirituality.

Because of this,

a person must go above reason and not be impressed by the reason he sees and on which he builds his work in holiness, so he may be rewarded with entering the Kedusha [holiness], since this reason came because he received ills, and according to reason, if the Creator is good and does good, why does He not give a person what the person thinks he needs, and instead, the Creator does what He wants?

It follows that

reason

is built on the basis of

a guidance of good and evil. 

Hence, a person’s only choice

is to say that what reason tells him is incorrect,

as was said about this:

 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts,

nor are your ways My ways.”

Instead,

he should not be alarmed by the reason

and say that he is going

above reason.

Hence,

every time he begins to correct

the flaw of slandering Providence,

he receives hatred for the separation. 

Through the hatred he feels in the separation,

he comes to love Dvekut.

In other words, to the extent that he suffers during the separation,

so he draws nearer to Dvekut with the Creator.

Similarly,

to the extent that he feels the darkness as bad,

he comes to feel that Dvekut is good.

Then he knows how to value it

when he receives some Dvekut,

for the time being,

and then knows how to appreciate it.

Now we can see that all the torments

that exist in the world

are but preparation

for the real torments. 

These are the torments that one must reach,

or he will not be able to acquire anything spiritual,

as there is no light without a Kli [vessel]. 

 This is what one prays for,

to not slander Providence,

and these are the torments

that the Creator accepts.

This is the meaning

of the Creator hearing

the prayer of every mouth.

The reason the Creator responds to these torments

is that then one does not ask for help for his own vessels of reception,

since we can say that if the Creator grants him everything he wishes,

it might make him farther from the Creator due to the disparity of form that he would thus acquire. 

Rather, it is to the contrary:

One asks for faith,

for the Creator to give him the strength to prevail so he can be awarded equivalence of form,

for he sees that by not having permanent faith, 

 meaning

when faith does not shine for him,

he comes to doubt Providence,

and he comes to a state called “wicked,”

that he condemns his Maker.

It turns out that

 all the suffering he feels

is because he slanders

Providence.

It therefore follows that what hurts him

is that where he should have been praising the Creator,

saying “Blessed is He who has created us in His Glory,”

meaning that the creatures respect the Creator,

he sees that the world’s conduct is unfitting for His glory,

since everyone complains and demands that first

it should be open Providence that the Creator leads the world in a manner of good and doing good. 

Since it is not revealed,

they are saying that this Providence does not glorify Him,

and that pains him.

Thus,

by the torment, one feels,

he is compelled to slander. 

Hence, when he asks of the Creator to impart him the power of faith

and to be rewarded with the quality of good and doing good,

it is not because he wants to receive good

so as to delight himself. 

 Rather,

it is so he will not slander;

this is what pains him. 

Then he is told,

“I am the First”.

As we learn about the two forces,

the good angel and the evil angel,

good is called “right”, with which one approaches to serve the Creator.

This is called “the right approach”.

 And the bad angel is considered “left,”

pushing away.

This means that it brings him foreign thoughts,

whether in mind or heart.

When one prevails over the bad and brings himself closer to the Creator,

meaning that each time, he overcomes the evil and attaches himself to the Creator,

it follows that through the two of them, he has come closer to Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator. 

This means that

both performed a single task

—they have caused him to adhere to the Creator.

In the beginning,

we see that the land is “unformed and void,

and darkness,”

but then, when they correct themselves to bestow, 

they are rewarded with

“and God said, let there be light,”

until the light appears

“before the eyes of all of Israel.”

However,

in between is a long

and threatening exile.

The main problem is that when one sees some wrong action,

he FALLS from his degree

(and adheres to the famous lie and forgets that he, is like an axe in the hand of the cutter).

Instead,

one thinks of oneself that he is the master of this act

and forgets the reason

of all consequences,

from whom everything comes

and that there is NO OTHER OPERATOR in the whole world,

BUT HIM.

However,

we must understand why they have reached such a state.

After all,

with or without one’s consent,

there is no change in the Creator of heaven and earth.

He behaves in the manner

of Good that does good.

Therefore, what will result from this state?

We must say that He comes to announce

His greatness.

One does not need to act

as if one does not want it.

 Rather,

one should behave in the manner of fearing His Majesty,

to know the merit of the distance between

himself and the Creator.

It is difficult to understand this with a superficial mind,

or to have any possibility of a connection

between the Creator and the Creation.

And in that moment of descent,

he feels that it is impossible to perceive any kind of connection or

belonging to the Creator by way of Dvekut (“adhesion”).

 This is so because he feels that servitude

is a foreign thing to the whole world.

In truth,

this is indeed so,

But “In the place where you find His greatness,

there you find His humility”.

This means that it is a matter above nature,

that the Creator gives this gift to the creation,

to enable them to be connected

and adhere to Him.

Therefore, when one reconnects,

he MUST always REMEMBER the time of the descent,

to know and appreciate the value of the time

of Dvekut.

Then he will know that

he now has salvation

above the natural way.

Come and See

It is written,

“There is none else besides Him.”

This means that there is no other force

in the world that has the ability to do anything

against Him.

And what one sees,

that there are things in the world that deny the upper household,

the reason is that this is His will.

This is deemed a correction called

“the left rejects and the right pulls closer,”

meaning that what the left rejects

is considered a correction.

This means that there are things in the world that, to begin with,

aim to divert a person from the right way,

and by which he is rejected from Kedusha [holiness].

The benefit from the rejections

is that through them a person receives a complete need and desire

for the Creator to help him