Chasidut sur Les Proverbes 31:23

I will now quote the holy words of the Avodas Yisrael (Parshas Chayei Sarah). “Veyih’yu – and they were⁷⁵Bereshis, 13:1 the first word of the parsha. – is the numerical equivalent of ‘zol,’ which means, ‘of little value.’ When a person is broken hearted and embittered over his transgressions, and feels his life is of little value, in particular on the long nights of winter after midnight when he rises and is alone before his Creator, and admits before God that he leads a vain and worthless life, his years passing by like clipper ships on a windy sea,⁷⁶See Iyov, 9:26. that he has not done anything to please God, to the contrary, his actions have been destructive and blemished from head to toe. And the day is short; he can almost feel his encroaching departure from the world, and he has come to stand in judgment for all the moments of his life. In this way he consoles himself, regretting his actions, and cries with a broken heart before his Father in Heaven. Through this he sees himself as worthless and miserable. “Zol – זל” or “of little worth,” is the numerical value of 37, the milui of the name Sa’g.⁷⁷One of the expansions of the Tetragrammaton is יוד הי ואו הי , called Sa”g (ס"ג) as the sum of the ten letters equals 63. The four root letters of God’s name are Yud Hei Vav Hei, but the rest of the letters of Sa”g (such as the vav and dalet after the first Yud) are called the milui, or filling letters. If you take all the filling letters from the name Sa”g and add them up, you get זל, 37. That is to say, he says that his heart is full of impurities.⁷⁸This is a play on words, as impurities, “sigim,” has the letters for “sag,” which is the name of God representing the world of Beriah, which is the genesis of the separation of good and evil. Above Beriyah, in the world of Atsilut, there is no evil and no impuiries, as in Atsilut, “He and his life are one, He and His causations are one.” This is a kabbalistic representation of the idea that the Avodas Yisrael is presenting, namely that the worthlessness (זל) is coming from the beginning of evil and impurity in the world of Beriyah. Indeed, the main purpose of the confession before God (viduy, also equaling 37) is the abandoning of sin and the acceptance of the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven from that day onward. In this way he will not be counted among the wicked who are considered dead while they are alive, but among the righteous who are considered alive even after their body dies. That is to say, for the Tsaddik, every moment of his life he is prepared for that moment when he will depart from this worldly existence in a state of kedushah and purity. This is as the Zohar says, “the Tsaddik always thinks in his heart that today he may be leaving the world.” Indeed, people who led meaningless lives still have a chance to rectify their lot by waking up and doing teshuvah before the sun goes down. And the real sign of teshuvah and earnest regret is when a man remembers his many transgressions and feels his own worthlessness. In this way he receives a resurgence of life energy on account of the coming days when he will sin no more. For this reason Veyih’yu – and these were – is the numerical equivalent of ‘zol,’ of little value. (The verse continues) ‘Chayei Sarah – the lives of Sarah,’ The juxtaposition of the words Veyih’yu (representing worthlessness) and Chayei Sarah, is to show us how one who truly recognizes the meaningless vanity of his life is the one who is called alive. (The verse continues) ‘A hundred years,’ is the mystery of the Crown – (Keser). This follows because after the teshuvah he feels a renewed and revitalized will to serve God, and this new will is called, ‘Keser.’⁷⁹The sefirah of Keser (Crown) signifies God’s will. It is also the tenth sefirah from below to above, thus, “a hundred,” as each sefirah contains ten. (The verse continues) ‘And Twenty years.” Meaning, when it is carved into his mochin⁸⁰Mochin – the intellectual-spiritual life force. to serve God on the level of Chochmah (wisdom) and Binah (understanding),⁸¹Chochmah and Binah each include ten sefiros, hence “twenty years.” which are called gates based on the estimation of the heart.⁸²This is alluding to the passage in the Zohar (Vayeira, 103b): "Yet certainly, 'her husband is known in the gates.' (Mishlei 31:23) 'Her husband,' is the Holy One, blessed be He. He is 'known' and connected to every one according to how much a person estimates God in his heart. (The word for 'gate – sha'ar' is the same letters as the word for estimation – sha'er.) God is known in a man's heart in direct correspondence to how much he cleaves himself to God in the spirit of wisdom." For this (Chochmah) provides guidelines for fixing that which he had corrupted in its way, and this (Binah) provided guidelines to fix in other ways. And then (once it is fixed in his mind) he comes to the aspect of (the continuation of the verse), “seven years,” which are the seven middos. These are the seven lower sefiros which he uses to crown God as the Sovereign King, through love (chesed), fear (gevurah), glory (tiferet), victory (netsach) thanks (hod) and connection (yesod).”

Chapter 6⁴⁰⁴In Chapter 6, R. Shapiro distinguishes between the Zohar and the sacred works of Kabbalah which came after it. The nature and level of the Zohar’s revelation and text is sui generis, as explained below.
As we said above, pre-Beshtian Kabbalah ‘bent’ the world of Atzilut down to the Atzilut within a person, that is to his Hokhmah, while the revelation of the Besht had an effect on the vessels and the bodies, [in the sense of] “and all of the community are holy.”⁴⁰⁵Numbers 16:3. The citation is from Korah and his associates, in their rebellious charge against Moses. Some hasidic masters were sympathetic to this position of Korah, and perhaps R. Shapiro here alludes to this position. Through this, the Kabbalah and all its sacred systems inhered not only Above but also within the Israelite. [In all this,] we have not spoken of the essence of Kabbalah, which is above our grasp—for what am I and my lowly life to speak about and explain such sacred matters? We have merely spoken of our understanding in explicating these matters, as it says in the Zohar on the verse ‘and her husband is known in the gates [shearim],”⁴⁰⁶Proverbs 31:23. “each according to how his heart surmises [mishaer]…”⁴⁰⁷See Zohar I: 103b. Now we wish to clarify why we have primarily spoken of those kabbalistic works authored by the holy angels of God besides the Zohar. [In what follows, we delineate] the difference, as we understand it, between the Zohar and the sacred works of Kabbalah which came after it.

We need not dwell at length on this subject in order to show that the Rambam’s opponents did not understand his intentions. In the third section of the Guide (Ch. 17) he provides the five prevailing views on the subject of Divine providence. The fifth is the view of the Torah. There he says that he does not believe that a leaf falls from a tree under the watch of God’s providence, or that when the spider catches a fly in its web it is a result of the Divine decree. When these statements are read in haste it seems that the Rambam does not believe in individual Divine providence. Yet in that which he says after these statements the Rambam provides us with a hint at the nature of Divine providence. There he continues, “In my opinion, and according to what I see, Divine providence is drawn after Divine effluence, and the same beings that are benefited to the latter so as to become intellectual, and to comprehend things comprehensible to rational beings, are also under the control of Divine providence, which examines all their deeds in order to reward or punish them.”¹⁰²This statement is from M. Friedlander’s translation of the Guide. In these words he hints at his conclusions in Chapter 52 of the third section, where he reveals his true views on the subject of Divine providence. There he writes, “I have arrived at an understanding of Divine providence that will remove all doubts concerning the subject, and reveal the Godly secrets. This is as we have explained in the Chapters on Divine providence (mentioned above), that God’s meets out His providence according to the intellectual level of the individual. For one who possesses a perfect understanding and does not remove his consciousness from God, God’s providence will be with him continually. The man of perfect understanding who occasionally turns his mind away from God, will experience God’s providence only when his mind is concentrated on God. Yet when he is occupied with other things, the providence will depart from him. Yet it will not depart from him in the same way as one who has no intellectual ability to contemplate God whatsoever. It will only be decreased from the intensity of the providence he had previously attained when he was actively concentrating on God.” In this way he explains the entire subject. The Rambam’s words are suited to the words of the Zohar (Vayeira, 103b): “Yet certainly, ‘her husband is known in the gates.’ (Mishlei 31:23) ‘Her husband,’ is the Holy One, blessed be He. He is ‘known’ and connected to every one according to how much a person estimates God in his heart. (The word for ‘gate – sha’ar’ is the same letters as the word for estimation – sha’er.) God is known in a man’s heart in direct correspondence to how much he cleaves himself to God in the spirit of wisdom.” This will be explained later in our introduction. There it will be explained that everything happens according to Divine providence only based on the extent to which one believes in and serves God, and this includes the leaf which falls from the tree. The Rambam himself expresses this view in his introduction to the Mishnah (Seder Zera’im, part six). There he describes a man who pays some builders to build a stone wall on a certain piece of land that will last many years. He knows, of course, that if the same foundation and wall were to be made of straw, it would not last very long. Is there any nonsense greater than this (building something that will not last)? … He commands his builders to make him a beautiful palace, and to plant a substantial vineyard beside it. … Later, in the end of days, long after the man had died and his palace left empty, a righteous man passed by during a storm, and took refuge in the building, whereby saving his life. Another time, another man passed by the vineyard and prepared a medicine from the wine to save the life of another honest and whole individual. … The point is, the whole purpose of this building lasting so many years, with God’s Providence watching over it all the while, was for the benefit of God’s beloved friend in years to come. So too, the whole purpose of God directing His providence over the vineyard was for the specific purpose of saving the honest fellow when the time would come.” In this way, it is written in the Gemara (Avoda Zara, 40b), “Rabbi suffered from gastroenteritis. He then found a flask of apple wine aged seventy years in the deep delved earth. He drank it and recovered. Whereupon he exclaimed, ‘Blessed is God who entrusts his world to watchers!’ “God’s Providence was upon this wine from the moment it the apple tree sprouted, and through the entire span of its preparation and aging. It was God’s Providence that its owners did not drink it all those years, considering that after seventy years it was no longer in the possession of its original owners. It was all a result of God’s individual providence.