Hasidut untuk Kidung Agung 2:9

When, with God’s help, we are worthy of doing the avodah of Chassidus, and allow a slight revelation of our souls, then in states of elevated consciousness, when our souls burn beyond the constrictions or our shadows and the confines of our bodies, it will be possible at times to see the majestic brilliant, shining light of the world flash before us. We will not just know through the mind’s meditations, nor will we only know and see what is lacking in our perception, namely knowing that our material existence is like a baseless shadow. Yet we will actually see through the eyes of your soul, on the level of, “peering through the cracks,”²²⁰Shir HaShirim, 2:9 Like looking through slight cracks in a wall, we may be privileged to see the Divine essence that is largely concealed by the wall of the physical world and the senses. seeing both the Divine essence and the source of the shadow. According to my limited human understanding, we will not be able to intellectually identify what it was that flashed before us, because such is the nature of the limitations of the human intellect, and can only understand mortal and finite matters. But we will know with the soul, and we will be sure that we glimpsed the shining of the world cast from the illumination that the Master of the world.

In the section on tzitzit, "Look at it ... do not follow ...." (Num. 15:38-39). The mitzva of tzitzit is a corrective for seeing, as Rashi commented [that the word] is from the expression of (Song of Songs 2:9), "Peering [metzitz] from the lattice." And through this mitzva, one can perceive and grasp God's wonders. And therefore, in Sh'ma, there are the mitzvot of t'fillin and tzitzit And it says (Ber. 14b), "Anyone who recites Sh'ma without t'fillin, it is as if he has borne false testimony against himself." And in Ra'aya Mehemna, it says that also [one reciting Sh'ma] without tzitzit is like one who bears false witness; see there in the Zohar on this parasha. And the idea where it is written (Lev. 5:1), "able to testify as one who has either seen or known" is that there can be testimony from seeing or from knowing, for the testimony that the Jews testify is not oral, but every Jew can grasp, and see, and know Him, may He be blessed, as it is said (Deut. 4:35), "You were shown in order to know [that Adonai is God]." And so through these mitzvot, these aspects of seeing and knowing are brought from potential to actual. Through the sin [in the Garden of Eden], good and evil became mingled, and so the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil requires clarification, and the Torah gives the Jews counsel on how to correct these matters. And the Sh'ma itself is the Tree of Life, and one must combine it with the aspect of knowledge. And therefore, they [HaZaL] said (Ber. 14b), "[reciting Sh'ma without t'fillin] is as if he has offered a burnt-offering without a meal-offering or a peace-offering without libations." For the mitzva of libations and of meal-offering that was given to the Israelites on their entering the Land was an indication that the aspects of the Tree of Knowledge had been corrected, as Hazal said (Ber. 40a), "The tree from which Adam ate was wheat" [and] he pressed grapes for himself. And when the Tree of Knowledge was clarified, the Holy One, blessed be He, commanded offering meal-offerings [from wheat] and libations [of grape wine] with the sacrifice. And similarly with Sh'ma, to juxtapose to it the clarification of knowledge, which is done with the power of t'fillin. And this is why one does not need t'fillin, because regarding them it is written about it (Exod. 31:13), "[Shabbat is a sign] that you may know that I Adonai have consecrated you." And tzitzit is the aspect of seeing, as it is written (Gen. 3:7), "And the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked." ...

When you begin to pray, as soon as you utter the words "Adonai Sefatai Tiftach, God, open my lips" - in this moment the Shechina adorns you and speaks through you. If you truly trust that it is the Shechina speaking these words, surely great dread and fear will fall upon you. Even the Holy One, in a way, constricts God's being and dwells with you. This is as it says (Song of Songs 2:9) "Peeking through the lattice," - these are the letters, which are chambers, and you journey from one chamber to the other, and in each chamber you are judged whether you are worthy to enter. If you would notice that you are being judged at every instance when a foreign thought enters your mind, you would certainly pray with fierce attunement. But sometime you forget that you are being judged.