Chasidut for Proverbs 3:16

The Talmud in Shabbat 63 interprets the words of ‎Solomon, speaking of the Torah in Proverbs 3,16 by describing it ‎as follows: ‎ארך ימים בימינה בשמאלה עשר וכבוד‎, “lengthy days is her ‎right hand; in her left hand riches and honour,“ anyone reading ‎this forms the impression that Solomon assures people keeping ‎the Torah of worldly rewards, and at least when the reward hoped ‎for is material, i.e. worldly riches etc., it is considered as belonging ‎to the left side of the emanations, i.e. is a negative. This would ‎contradict our statement that even though one keeps the ‎Sabbath for such reasons, it is a positive accomplishment, though ‎of a lower order, i.e. is not the kind of service that the Creator ‎would prefer from His creatures, and that optimally, G’d prefers ‎for His creatures not to serve Him for physical material rewards. ‎Some righteous people completely eschew any recognition of ‎their service to G’d as long as they have attained a more profound ‎understanding of the essence of G’d while on this earth. Some go ‎so far as to renounce the claim to a “name” in the world to come ‎so as not to appear as looking for personal recognition of their ‎accomplishments. This is what the Talmud in B’rachot 64 ‎and in Moed Katan 29 had in mind when it stated that the ‎Torah scholars have no “rest”, ‎מנוחה‎, either in this world or in the ‎world to come, but they keep progressing spiritually from one ‎level to another. [“Rest” in this context is clearly ‎considered as a negative, instead of as a positive quality as in ‎connection with the Sabbath rest. Ed.] According to the ‎way our author understands the prayer quoted, the repeated ‎insistence that in all sections of the universe there is no One that ‎has a name bar the Creator, reflects his view that the perfect ‎‎tzaddik feels that being singled out (by a name) would ‎detract from his selfless service of the Lord. When the author ‎refers to the world to come in that prayer, he means that he does ‎not desire “to rest on his laurels,” even after he (his soul) has ‎been admitted to the celestial regions. The author of that prayer ‎continues by stating that even if one serves G’d with the objective ‎of experiencing the arrival of the messiah and the additional ‎insights we will all be granted concerning the nature of G’d at ‎that time, this too is not the ultimate optimal kind of service of ‎the Lord.
‎[I must confess that I have difficulty in understanding ‎the above prayer as anything but having G’d as its subject, not ‎the author himself or his yearnings for a ‎דבקות ה'‏‎ at the expense ‎of any individuality of his personality. Surely, G’d does not wish ‎to be worshipped anonymously, but wishes to point out to us ‎lesser mortals how great men such as Avraham, Yitzchok, ‎Yaakov, etc, whose names matter, can serve as models for us. ‎Ed.]‎‎

And this is what our sages of blessed memory said: whoever averts their eyes from tzedakah is as if they serve idols (Ketubot 68a), "avert eyes" specifically, since the essence of tzedakah is the aspect of eyes, to continue the Providence of God's eyes on us, as it is written regarding gifts to the poor "look down from Your holy abode, from heaven, and bless Your people Israel" (Deut. 26:15). This is because the essence of poverty is a continuation of the hurt to the Moon, which is the aspect of darkness, "and his eyes were weak of seeing" (Genesis 27:1), which is the aspect of decrease and concealment of Providence. This is because all income and wealth is the aspect of eyes, as it is written "what good is there to their owner, saving the beholding of them with his eyes" (Eccl. 5:10). And as it is written "The eyes of all wait upon You; and You give them their food in due season"(Ps. 145:15). This is because wealth is a continuation of the aspect of Left, as it is written "on her left is wealth and honor" (Prov. 3:16), and the left is the aspect of after creation, as it is explained in the preceding Torah. And every time that the left is not included in the right, God forbid, meaning, when it is not included in the entirety of creation, which is the aspect of left, before creation, which is the aspect of complete right, then obviously it is impossible to receive the Flow and income, given that we are far away from the root which is the One Who Makes All Live.