Kabbalah Amsal 12:9: Sha'arei Kedusha & Zohar

This is the meaning of the statement,²⁷Berachot 18b; Zohar III 123a “The wicked are considered to be dead during their lifetime.”²⁸Similarly, it states (Proverbs 12:9), “Better is the lowly one who is His servant, than a pompous one who lacks bread (Lechem-לחם),” referring the the aforementioned spiritual sustenance. (See Tzava’at HaRivash (HaRav Yisroel Ba’al Shem Tov) translated as The Way of The Baal Shem Tov, Section 114.) This is because the holy soul from the Living God has withdrawn from them. Rather, death, which is called, “The ultimate source of impurities,”²⁹Rashi to Numbers 19:22 and elsewhere. (אבי אבות הטומאה) rests upon them.³⁰That is, their life is not a life. Conversely, regarding a Jew who desists from transgressing the 365 negative mitzvot, the sages stated,³¹Talmud Bavli, Kiddushin 39a “A person who desists from transgressing a negative mitzvah is rewarded as if he performed a positive mitzvah.” In other words, by not transgressing, he empowers the spiritual sustenance that is drawn through the positive mitzvot, as mentioned above, to flow through the “pipes,” which are the 365 veins of the soul, thus enlivening its 248 organs. However, if he transgresses any of them, the pipe specific to that transgression becomes blocked due to the contamination of the sustenance from the Kelipah, which adheres to the walls of the pipe. When the pipe withers, the organ that receives from it withers with it. This is so, even if the life-force is not totally withdrawn from it, similar to one who lacks a positive mitzvah. Nonetheless, it becomes blemished.

R. Simeon opened a discourse on the verse: Better is he that is lightly esteemed, and hath a servant, than he that playeth the man of rank, and lacketh bread (Prov. 12, 9). ‘This verse’, he said, ‘speaks of the evil prompter, who lays plots and unceasingly brings up accusations against a man. He puffs up a man’s heart, encouraging him to arrogance and conceit, and induces him to twirl his hair and carry his head high, until he obtains an ascendancy over him and drags him down to Gehinnom.