Chasidut su Proverbi 2:28

So too, are we cautioned (Devarim, 32:47), “And he said to them, take to your hearts all that I testify to you today, that you shall command your children to guard all the words of this Torah in order to do them. It is not an empty thing for you, for it is your life.¹⁴The verse tells us that the Torah is not an empty thing. To R. Gershon Henokh, studying the simple meaning of the Torah, without also delving into its esoteric dimension, makes the Torah “an empty thing” – a body without a soul. It is interesting to note a comment of Rabbi Elyahu, the Gaon of Vilna, on Proverbs (2:9): “When one understands the secret clearly, he will understand everything clearly – including the simple meaning, the hint, and the allegory. Yet all the while he does not know the secret, he can not yet understand even the simple meaning with total clarity.” R. Gershon Henokh would clearly concur with this opinion. And in this you may increase your days …”

This book elucidates all the traits and conduct arranged according to the aleph-bet/alphabet. It is divided into two sections which are known to us by the names "Aleph-Bet of Old" and "Aleph-Bet of New." The first part is a wondrous collection, collected by our pure and holy master in his childhood, all that his huge intellect perceived by understanding one matter from another; and he gathered from all the holy books, everything that he found in them pertaining to morals, conduct, and upright behavior -- which he recorded to have by him for memory's sake. Whatever he found elucidated in the words of Our Sages of blessed memory, whether it be a virtue of a good trait, or the opposite -- derision of a bad trait -- everything in its entirety he would gather little by little and copy them by him in the order of the Aleph Bet by each and every trait, so that he should have them for remembrance, to see with his eyes the significance of each and every trait and its converse, in order to go in the ways of the good and guard the ways of the tzaddikim (based on Prov. 2:20). Moreover, his powerful intellect perceived many precious and wondrous matters which are not explicitly elucidated in the words of Our Sages OB”M; just by the sheer magnitude of his perception he understood one matter from another, and conceived precious novelty in the concepts of the traits from within the Scriptures and from within the words of Our Sages OB”M, which are not explicitly elucidated in their words, just hinted to -- for a genius of his caliber.

This is the aspect of washing the hands in the morning when you rise from sleep. Day and night correspond to Adam and Eve, to order and disorder. The light of the day corresponds to Adam, who represents Wisdom, for light corresponds to wisdom and knowledge, as Rabbeinu z"l says elsewhere (Likutei Moharan I 37), and as is written (Proverbs 2:13) "As thr advantage of light over darkness, so is the advantage of wisdom". Night corresponds to Eve-Malchut, as in "night to night יְחַוֶּה, will tell" as mentioned in the holy Zohar and brought in the laws of awakening Halachah 3. At night, the gates of the Garden of Eden are sealed, which is the aspect of the disappearance of knowledge, and the world is then ruled by the Matron, which is Malchut. Therefore, judgments are empowered during the night, as stated in the holy Zohar I 92b, for all judgments arise from disorder, which corresponds to judgments, the source of all suffering, G-d forbid, which is against human will, corresponding to disorder. And disorder is the aspect of the darkness of night, as a person walking in the dark will walk in a disorderly way, because he cannot find the right path, and he may stumble on a rock, or something similar. However, during the daylight, one sees the path and walks in order. Therefore day and night correspond to order and disorder, to Adam and Eve, etc. Therefore, at night, when disorder rules, and order, wisdom, the light of day have disappeared, then is the time to sleep, and sleep is the aspect of nullification. For when a person sees that his intellect is confused and his mind is not settled, judgments that are attached to disorder are empowered. For when holy knowledge is perfect, disorder comes into order, for 'Where there is masculine, the feminine is not mentioed'. But at night, when knowledge disappears, and disorder, to which judgments are attached, G-d forbid, is empowered, G-d forbid, one must relinquish one's knowledge altogether, as if one had no knowledge at all, and completely nullify oneself into sleep. We must sleep at night when knowledge is not perfect, for otherwise, disorder may overrule, G-d forbid. Therefore we sleep at night to completely banish our knowledge and nullify ourselves, showing that disorder, which corresponds to the body, has no sustenance at all other than via the intellect. Therefore, we completely relinquish the intellect and the body remains like an inanimate stone with only the bare minimum of life. During sleep, the intellect is refreshed and strengthened, so that when we wake from our sleep, renewed mental forces return to us and the body is also strengthened. This is because the body is sustained mainly by the soul and the soul and the body themselves correspond to order and disorder. The body and the soul represent a man and a woman, as is known, Adam and Eve, light and darkness, wisdom and foolishness as mentioned elsewhere in the lesson entitled "דִּרְשׁוּ ה' וְעֻזּוֹ" (Likutei Moharan I 37). The body has no sustenance at all other than the soul, so at night, when knowledge is not whole/perfect, we must completely relinquish knowledge and literally nullify ourselves in sleep, so that disorder will not overpower us.

Behold, there came up out of the Nile seven cows, healthy and good (Gen. 41:2). For man and beast you save, O LORD (Psalm 36:7), “These are people who are mentally crafty but consider themselves as animals” (Hullin 5b). For a person, of his own account, has nothing; and the fact that he does have some good thing or quality comes from God, since the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth [come knowledge and understanding] (Proverbs 2:6). Now, the seven characteristics are: (1) Love [Hesed], to love God; (2) Awe [associated with the Kabbalistic sefirah of Gevurah (Strength)], to be in awe of [God]; (3) Beauty [Tiferet], to glorify God; (4) Victory [Netzah], to triumph over the Evil Inclination – “A person should always incite his Good Inclination against his Evil Inclination” (Berakhot 5a); (5) Splendor [Hode], to praise God; (6) Foundation [Yesod], so he will be connected to all these attributes; (7) And Majesty [Malkhut], to give dominion and power to God and to declare [God] King over all the world. Therefore the characteristics are called cows, because a person must consider himself as an animal. And they fed in the reed grass (Gen. 41:2), which is translated as “in fellowship;” for to the extent that a person hates his fellow, it is on account of arrogance, and it appears to him that he deserves the honor and the greatness and envies his fellow. But one who considers himself as an animal, then he loves all the world and he bears no hatred against his fellow.

And now, for the sake of our brothers and friends, who tremble at the word of God, seeking the Torah and loving its wisdom, I will now say, “Peace unto the lovers of God’s Torah!” Come, House of Yaakov, and you will walk in the light of God,⁴⁸¹Yeshayahu, 2:5. may God be with us as He was with our forefathers, He shall not forsake us and He shall not forget us.⁴⁸²Melachim 1, 8:57 He shall forever lead us by peaceful waters, our rest shall be in our very progression from strength to strength, to ascend the ladder fixed in the ground which rises to Heaven! As for our revilers, who ask why we bother to invest so much contemplation into the Torah until our strength is exhausted? Who claim that the simple explanations of the written and oral Torah is enough. To them, I will offer noble words⁴⁸³See Mishlei, 8:6. which draw the heart of man. Come and consider, see and behold! Taste and see that God is good⁴⁸⁴Tehillim, 34:9 to those who yearn for their souls to be restored by His perfect Torah.⁴⁸⁵See Tehillim, 19:8. Those who contemplate it in the depths of their hearts will see and understand that those who taste its depths will merit life. These are the things that man will do and through them he shall live for eternity. Do you not see now that the house of Yaakov is faithful and the house of Yosef is your provider?⁴⁸⁶Bereshit, 42:6. From the time the house was established, he has been faithful to sustain Israel with every word that comes out of the mouth of God upon which man lives.⁴⁸⁷“…he would make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but rather by all that comes forth from the mouth of G-d” (Devarim, 8:3). Interpreted in hasidic terms, this means that it is not physical sustenance that gives life, but the Divine essence within the food that enlivens. So, too, the author rails against those who neglect or deny the deeper meaning of the Torah, which is like being concerned only with the body and not the soul. On a more personal level, he seems to be attacking those who deny the validity of the unique (and controversial) interpretative approach of his grandfather, R. Mordechai Yosef of Izhbitz, and of his father, R. Yaakov. Those who reject it have “no portion in Yaakov and no inheritance in the house of Yosef.” This shall cast away those who say that they have no portion in Yaakov and no inheritance in the house of Yosef. Their ways are crooked⁴⁸⁸Mishlei, 2:15 and they pervert the explanations of the Torah, hanging their misunderstandings like a lyre, preaching all of their logic which has no basis in God’s Torah, not in the words of the Tanaaim and Amoraim of the oral law, and all that they imagine they hang on a great tree⁴⁸⁹That is, claim that they can based their false interpretation on valid, earlier sources. Here, too, the author may be critiquing those who claim that Maimonides was a rationalist, who did not deal with the secrets of the Torah. The author proved that claim wrong in the first half of this work. asserting, “This is the meaning of the Torah.” For these, the House of Yaakov will be a fire and the House of Yosef like a flame!⁴⁹⁰Ovadia, 1:18. They will see and learn. They will see how to reveal the Torah of God from the plain meaning of the words, for are not His words like fire,⁴⁹¹Yirmiyahu, 23:29. and all who desire its light with truth and faith can come and warm themselves? And likewise, as a flame it will burn all those who learn Torah in order to vex the scholars of the mysteries, and who wear it as a crown and wield it as an axe.⁴⁹²See the Talmud, Pirke Avot, 4:5 And now, House of Yaakov, walk in the light of God and come home. See and understand that all the words of the Torah written in this book are needed for every man of Israel, in every place and every time. And how all of the events recorded in the Torah can illuminate every soul and instruct him how to sustain his life and all that he goes through with justice.⁴⁹³Tehillim 112:5. For the words of the Torah are living and enduring for all eternity. All who contemplate the Torah grasp onto the tree of life, and it is life for those who hold onto it.⁴⁹⁴Mishlei, 3:18. May God illuminate our eyes to His Torah, and place His love and fear in our hearts, in order to do His will, and to serve Him with a whole heart.⁴⁹⁵From the liturgy of the morning prayer, in the blessing before the reading of the Shema Yisrael.