Chasidut su Salmi 19:8

Now, through the act of Zimri at Shittim, Israel began to whore after the daughters of Moab; and they seized the Blessed Creator’s characteristic, the characteristic of love, and through this distanced themselves from Blessed [God] – whereas on the contrary, through this they could have drawn themselves closer. But they remained in contraction, a place where the Upper Love was contracted, and they drew it down to a place of the judgments and the contraction; and therefore the punishment, God save us, came upon them, wherein twenty-four thousand Israelites died. But Pinhas, on account of his holding onto the Omnipresent’s zealousness, upheld and established the characteristic of mercy [hesed], which the wicked had cast down; and therefore he deserved to be a priest. And that is [the meaning of] settled my wrath – from the idiom of settling the soul (Psalm 19:8), [meaning] that Pinhas settled [God’s] spirit, as if it were possible, as we have stated above, through the beloved child at whose hands the judgments are sweetened and absorbed into mercy. And therefore it shall be to him and to his descendants after him the covenant of a perpetual priesthood (Num 25:13), and therefore Pinhas only became a priest after he killed Zimri, for then he held onto and established the characteristic of mercy; and understand this, blessed is God forever, amen and amen.

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.

"The one who walks alone on a path and studies and makes a break from their study..." (Pirkei Avot 3:4 [in Sefaria's version, Avot 3:7]). A problem: "and makes a break from their study" alone would tell us that they were studying [i.e. and we don't need "and studies"]. A further problem: "the verse is applied to them... [as though they were liable for death]" (ibid.) -- and it doesn't explain which verse! And it's possible to explain as follows: "the one who walks on a straight path" -- and even if they are alone, which is to say that they are not fused to the Name may it be Blessed -- "and studies and makes a break in their study", here the text wants to say "makes a break" [between] the person themself and the Name may it be blessed. They do this by means of their study, since greatness and glory come to them by means of their study, and they think that they own their study. "They say 'how beautiful is this tree'" (ibid.) -- and regarding themself they say the same in their heart, as it is written "for is a man a tree of the field" (Deuteronomy 20:19). And they further say that "this tree [that you saw] grow and become mighty" (Daniel 4:17) [c.f. use of the verse in Zohar 3:53b in reference to tree of life/Torah]. "How beautiful is this newly ploughed field" (Avot 3:7) -- as it is written "Break up your fallow ground" (Jeremiah 4:3). Meaning, that they say they are preparing for themself a portion in the world to come by means of their study. "The verse is applied to them" (Avot 3:7) -- meaning, the verse "You shall be wholehearted with the Lord your God" (Deuteronomy 18:13) -- meaning, even when you are engaged with Torah! As it says of Torah, "the Torah of God is whole" (Psalms 19:8) -- and that which it says "You shall be wholehearted" -- even in engagement with Torah, "you should be with the Lord your God." And do not say "Isn't the Torah itself called 'Torah of God'?" [and that this suffices for one's relationship with God]. And that is what it says this "verse is applied to them" -- that it includes all the Torah, "as though they were liable for death."