Chasidut su Cantico dei cantici 2:19

2. At night, Malchut is in exile. The essence of the perfection of Malchut is through length of days. In other words, the aspect of Da'at/Knowledge, the aspect of benevolences. At night, judgment(s) are strengthened {they have the upper hand, so to speak}. Therefore, at that time. Da'at is hidden and Malchut is dimished and descends among the lower {worlds}. The essence of Da'at is received from the hands, in the aspect of an argument for the sake of heaven, the aspect of (Lamentations 3:41) "Let us lift up our hearts to our hands", etc. And at night, the spirit in the pulse does not flow as much {literally, 'the spirit which beats'} and the movement of the limbs are heavier at night. Because of this, the melancholy spirit is then strengthened, in the aspect of (Psalms 30:6) "in the evening, weeping may tarry". The essence of this strengthening is on the hands, as is explained there in the aspect of 'melancholy hands', etc. Therefore, in the morning, when the spirit renews and returns and animates all the limbs, then the melancholy spirit is nullified, in the aspect of (Id.) "but in the morning there is joyful singing". The spirit in the pulse returns to flow through all the limbs, especially the hands. Therefore, one must specifically purify his hands, for there the melancholy spirit is especially strong, as explained above. And the opposite is also true - at that time even more holiness is drawn down there {to the hands} and therefore they must be sanctified and purified. Purification is through water, which is the aspect of benevolences, the aspect of Da'at. Then, through this, one may build the Malchut. For the essence of the building of Malchut is from the hands, in the aspect of (Song of Songs 2:6) "His left hand was under my head, and his right hand...", etc. In other words, through the spirit of the pulse that is in the heart, it is drawn on the hands until they can reach heavenward. And from there, one can receive words in the aspect of arguments for the sake of heaven, as explained above. This is the aspect of Da'at, through which is the essence of the perfection of Malchut, as explained above. This is the meaning of (Berakhot 15a) "Anyone who relieves himself, washes his hands, dons phylacteries and recites Shema is as if he received the perfect yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven. For the essence of the perfection of Malchut is through subduing the evil and the kelipot which have hold of holiness. This is what our Rabbi {Rebbe Nachman z"l} wrote there, that the essence of the perfection of Malchut is to rebuke and to chastise the people in order to chase away the evil and the kelipot. This is the aspect of (Proverbs 25:4-5) "Remove dross from silver", etc. "Remove the wicked man before the king, and his throne will be established with righteousness". With chesed/loving-kindness specifically. For through this da'at is evoked, which is the aspect of chesed, as explained above. This is why it is necessary to wash the hands twice - before using the bathroom and afterwards. Because it is impossible to chase away the evil except through da'at, as is explained there. Therefore, one must first purify the hands in order to evoke da'at, in the aspect of 'length of days'. Through this one is able to reveal the hidden; in other words, to banish and nullify the kelipot which cover and hide the holiness. From there itself one is able to evoke length of days, the aspect of da'at, as is explained there. This is the aspect of washing the hands a second time aftewards, in order to evoke da'at and length of days, to merit by banishing the evil, as explained above. This is the aspect of then putting on tefillin. Because one purified his hands, he can then use them, in the aspect of (Deuteronomy 32:40) "For I raise up My hand to heaven", the aspect of (Psalms 134:2) "Lift your hands in the holy place" and evoke da'at through the hands into the mind, as explained above. The aspect of tefillin comes from this, which are mentalities, and are the aspect of life and length of days. As our Rabbis of Blessed Memory stated (Menachot 44a) "Whoever lays tefillin attains life". This is the meaning of (Psalms 24:3) "Who will ascend upon the Lord's mount and who will stand in His Holy place?". In other words, who is able to merit da'at, which is the aspect of Hashem's mount and His holy place, i.e. the Beit Hamikdash, which is the aspect of da'at. "He who has clean hands and a pure heart" (Id.), because through a pure heart comes clean hands, the aspect of (Lamentations 3:41) "Let us lift up our hearts to our hands". Through this one may ascend Hashem's mountain to obtain da'at, the aspect of (Deuteronomy 32:40) "For I raise up My hand to heaven", the aspect of argument for the sake of heaven, as explained above. This is the aspect of Chesed/Loving-kindness, Gevurah, Tif'eret, which ascends and becomes Chochmah, Binah and Da'at. This is what is written in the Shulchan Aruch Orach Chayim Siman 4 Seif 3), that it is forbidden to touch the mouth, nose, eyes and ears before washing the hands; these are the aspects of the 'Seven Candles' which receive the Light of the Face, i.e. the Intellect. The reception is through the hands. When the hands are impure one can receive the opposite, G-d forbid, since the other {the evil forces} also receive from the hands, as explained above. Afterwards, we read the Shema which is the acceptance of the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven, which one merits through relieving oneself, washing the hands, and putting on tefillin, as explained above. This is he aspect of uncovering the hidden, as it is written "Hashem is our G-d, Hashem is One". Even in all the hidden {things}, we receive vitality from Him. As it says in the Zohar (III, Eikev page 273) "One should prolong the pronunciation of the dalet in Echad, as in (Deuteronomy 17:20) 'so that he will have length of days over his kingdom'". In other words, as explained above, the essence of the reading of the Shema is the letter dalet of the word Echad (One), the aspect of evoking length of days, which is Da'at, into Malchut. This is what our Rabbis of Blessed Memory wrote (Berakhot 15a), all who relieve themselves, wash their hands, put on tefillin, and read the Shema are as if they accepted the perfect yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven. All of this is the aspect of the perfection of Malchut, as explained above. This is as our Rabbis of Blessed Memory said 'and immersed oneself', for this is considered like he immersed. This is the aspect of immersion, the aspect of Mikvah, the aspect of Da'at Elyon (Supernal Wisdom) and great benevolences. For this is the essence of the perfection of Malchut, as explained above and as brought there. See there, study the lesson "And on the day of the first fruits" well, as seen above, and understand the words. For all of this {I} wrote in brief and it is impossible to understand these words well until you study the lesson, as seen above.

One has to work hard at prayer in order to reach the point when he is truly praying from the depth of his heart and nefesh. We quoted the Zohar earlier on which tells us that awakening also comes from the nefesh, but not all awakenings are the same. There is the beginning of awakening, and there is more than this, up to the point where one is worthy of reaching an awakening that is accompanied with true desire from the depths of the heart. But it does not come easily. The Stoliner Rebbe tells us that it repeats “until you desire,” in the Shir HaShirim twice⁹¹In Shir HaShirim, 2:7 and 3:5. It actually says it a third time in 8:4. in order to tell us that everyone needs to desire over and over again until the desire comes on its own. In particular, strive to be able to wake up and desire by choice at a time when you need to arouse your soul.

But the Besht, in the path of hasidism and through his drawing-down, sanctified the body itself alongside worldly things. Therefore, eating itself is holy and a form of avodah, and a person should not afflict himself. Rather, he should strengthen himself little by little to break the power of desire etc... until he arrives at the essential foundation and root of holiness in every physical thing. As cited above from the Noam Elimelekh, an Israelite, when standing in holy service, in prayer or Torah study and the like, becomes so unified with God, reaching even the light of God’s essence, that is, that which is enclothed, not the clothing. Therefore, the awakening of his self, of the impassioned love and fear within him, is the very foundation and instantiation of the kavannot, as said above. It is also the soul of the words of prayer, the words (tevah) he speaks being the body,⁵³⁶In a common hasidic interpretive move, R. Shapiro puns off the dual meaning of the Hebrew tevah, meaning both word and container. and his passion—which is God’s illumination—giving it a soul. A person gives the soul to the word. “Make a window [tzohar] make for the ark [tevah],”⁵³⁷Genesis 6:16.—that is, put brightness and light into it [the word], says the Besht. He also says that when one reads the Torah and see the light of its letters, even if he does not chant correctly, since he reads with great love and passion etc, though he swallows the words...God loves him greatly. “His banner of love [diglo] was upon me⁵³⁸Song of Songs 2:4. —his skipping [dilgo] upon Me is loved.” Furthermore, one who inserts kavannot into his prayer only does so with the kavannot he knows. But when he says the word with great connection, all the kavannot enter into the words on their own. (Likutim Yekarim).⁵³⁹An anthology of teachings attributed to the Besht and other early masters.

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.

Truly, from God’s perspective, natural governance is actually miraculous governance, in that God’s providence and governance extends to every detail of creation. The recognition of this governance is from man’s understanding, so that he sees only how the world runs according to nature. However, God relates to the man of perfect faith with individual providence. According to this, if one believes that all of creation runs miraculously, then hidden miracles will be revealed before him, for he views even nature’s law as miraculous. Whereas for a person who does not believe, the miracles will remain hidden. With this in mind, we can see that it was easy for Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa to pray, “May the One who makes the oil burn make the vinegar burn.” He saw how the natural phenomenon of the combustion of oil only happens due to God’s command, and for this reason his prayer was effective. Through faith, man can even arouse the supernal governance to reveal itself in this world. This is as the Zohar states,³⁸⁸I n the previous quote from Parshat Beshalach. that since Israel believed in God, they managed to awaken revealed miracles before the Egyptians. When a person witnesses such miracles, he then sees how two complete opposites can happen at once, as was explained previously. When man is confronted with the impossibility of the simultaneous occurrence of opposites, it is due to the concealment of nature. In fact, God established creation’s normative perception to be through natural governance. However, God fixed permanent faith within the innermost heart of Knesset Yisrael – the Community of Israel – so by means of this faith they may connect to God even above natural governance. This is as it is written in the Zohar (Tikkun 21, 57b): “He is her nurse (oman), and she is His faith (emunah).”³⁸⁹אומן, artist, is the same letters as אמונה, faith. This is explained in the Mei HaShiloach, Parshat Bereshit, on the passage in the Midrash Rabbah: Rabbi Hoshayah began and said (Mishlei, 8:30), “I was a nurse (amon) for him, and I was his delight every day.” Amon means a teacher, amon means covered, amon means hidden. There are those who say, amon means the capitol, amon means artist. According to Rav Mordechai Yosef, this Midrash tells of the development of man’s form from its very first root, hidden in God’s essence, until its revelation in a complete and mature state, signified by man’s ability to reproduce and bring forth a new generation. This process precisely follows the way God created the world. The world was initially hidden in God’s essence, and then emerged in a revealed form where the supernal light breaks forth in every new being. The Zohar says (Terumah, 170b), “This is why man finding a mate is as difficult as the splitting of the Red Sea.” Both cases entail the simultaneous occurrence of opposites.³⁹⁰In both cases the miraculous governance is happening within the natural order. All this occurs at the root of faith, for from God’s perspective, He is the “nurse” of creation, yet from the side of Knesset Yisrael, the matter depends upon faith. A nurse must provide for everything the child needs at all times. For the nurse, everything must be ready, even though the child, with his limited knowledge, does not really know what he will need. For this reason, he must always have faith that the nurse will provide him with whatever he will need. This kind of faith is the connection between the nurse and the infant. For the infant, it is a kind of connection above his ability to comprehend. In this way, we see that emunah in the heart can reach beyond man’s intellectual comprehension and awaken God’s will to open the supernal light, which is beyond time or any border in nature. This relates to the teaching that the redemption from Egypt happened before its proscribed time. God, so to speak, caused His power of redemption act, even though the Children of Israel were not yet ready, as it is written (Shir HaShirim 2:8), “The voice of my beloved! Behold, He comes, leaping over the mountains, skipping over the hills.”³⁹¹Meaning to say, the redemption “skipped” over the natural unfolding of events, which would have demanded the Jewish people to stay slaves in Egypt for two centuries more. The Zohar (Parshat Noah, 61b) also says that the redemption from Egypt happened before its time. So too, the wars fought by Israel in the days of Yehoshafat were also miraculously before their time. We find that the miracle in Egypt was brought about by a cry from the depth of the heart. The Zohar (Shemot, 20b) says that the when the Hebrew word “za’aka – cry” is used, it means that it is coming directly from the heart, as it says in Eicha (2:18), “Their hearts cried out to God.” Such cries are closer to God than prayers. Purely by means of emunah in the heart, as explained above, a person can come before God through the heart’s cries, even though he cannot offer any intelligible prayer. He cannot dress the sorrow of his heart in the letters and words of the prayer, as he cannot find the strength to pray. In this way he can wake up God’s highest will, solely through faith flowing from the depth of his heart. We find it written of Yehoshafat (Divrei HaYamim 2, 20:3), “And Yehoshafat was afraid, and he went to ask God, and called upon all the inhabitants of Yehuda to fast.” He said to God, “we have no power before this great multitude which has set upon us, we do not know what to do, our eyes are only upon You.” And indeed, he was answered by Yahaziel’s prophecy (ibid 20:15), “Do not be afraid of this great multitude, for this battle is not yours, but God’s. You shall not need to fight this battle. Stand still, and witness the salvation of God with you.” And after this, “Yehoshafat stood and said, Hear me, inhabitants of Yehuda and Jerusalem, Believe in Hashem your God. So shall you be established. Believe in His prophets and you shall prosper.” Here we see that the miracle happened due to a great overpowering of emunah. It was then that they saw above nature, as the story continues, “And the people of Yehuda went to the lookout over the desert and turned to the multitude of their enemies, and behold, their carcasses were falling to the ground and they had none to rescue them.” When man prepares faith in his heart, he can effect miracles through his service of God, for the power to make miracles comes from a great surge of service in the depths of the heart. This is as it is said in the Gemara (Megillah, 27a), “All of the wonders that Elisha accomplished, were done through prayer.”³⁹²Note that earlier, in chapter 13, the author said that it is forbidden to pray for miracles, inasmuch as prayer can only reach the dimension that we can grasp, whereas miracles originate from a higher place. Perhaps he means here that it was not the prayers themselves that produced the miracle, but the faith in G-d underlying the prayers; for faith, emunah, transcends the borders of our limited perception. Alternatively (as we will shortly see), Elisha’s prayers did not effect a total transformation of nature, since his perception of G-d was not as clear as that of Moshe or certain other prophets. Thus, G-d performed miracles for him through the nature order, and not above it.

Exodus 19,21.“lest some of the people will break through ‎in their intense desire to see and many of the people will fall ‎victim.”This was the negative commandment G’d had ‎uttered in connection with the giving of the Torah. In his ‎comments on Song of Songs 2,7 ‎אם תעירו ואם תעוררו את האהבה עד ‏שתחפץ‎, ”do not wake or arouse love until it please!,”
According to our author, Nachmanides comments that when ‎man attains the level of loving the Creator, or being in awe of ‎Him, he will feel the need to immediately express this by ‎performing a commandment. [None of the sources at my ‎disposal have this comment by Nachmanides, especially not in his ‎commentary on Song of Songs, annotated by Rav Chavell and ‎published by Mossad Harav Kook. Ed.]‎
As a result of this mitzvah performance by the person in ‎the grip of religious enthusiasm either through love for G’d or ‎through awe of Him and reverence for Him, G’d will practice ‎צמצום‎, a form of condensation of G’d’s Omnipresence to allow for ‎the creatures in the physical world to develop without ‎experiencing constant tension between the good and the evil ‎urge. The commandment performed by the person who had ‎experienced an overwhelming religious impetus may then be seen ‎as a vessel within which the awakening love for G’d reposes. The ‎Talmud in Kidushin 39 states that anyone sitting idle, ‎reposing, and not being guilty of committing a transgression of a ‎law in the Torah is considered as if he had performed a positive ‎commandment. What is meant is not idleness per se, but ‎idleness in face of the evil urge trying to get him to commit a ‎transgression. Seeing that during the days preceding the giving of ‎the Torah the Israelites all restrained themselves by not trying to ‎break down the fence, they acquired the merit of having ‎performed a positive commandment. This is also the reason why ‎one of the names of the Shavuot festival is ‎עצרת‎, “festival of ‎restraint.” The root of that word, i.e. ‎עצור‎, means to stop, restrain ‎oneself) (intransitively), There are two types of ‎כבוד‎, honour, ‎glory. One type is original, i.e. the honour bestowed on His worlds ‎by the Creator, and the reflected glory, ‎כבוד נאצל‎ the reflected ‎glory. The creatures, i.e. the universes who have had bestowed ‎glory on them by the Creator had received this from the Creator ‎in His capacity of limiting Himself, “downsizing” Himself in order ‎to give more “freedom” to them.
כבוד‎, “honour or glory, exists on two levels. 1) It can be ‎‎“original” i.e. emanating from the Creator directly, or it can be ‎secondary, ‎נאצל‎, in the parlance of the Kabbalists. Original ‎‎“honour” is what the various “worlds” have received from the ‎Creator Who has already downsized Himself in order to give more ‎‎“freedom” to His creatures. This “downsizing” of G’d vis a ‎vis His creatures occurs both in the celestial spheres as well as ‎in the terrestrial regions. In the celestial spheres G’d did not ‎‎“downsize” Himself as much relative to the ‎חיות‎, the highest ‎ranking group of angels, as He did vis a vis the ‎שרפים‎, a ‎lower raking group of angels. Similarly, on earth, G’d’s ‎‎“downsizing” is more pronounced vis a vis the common ‎people, and least pronounced vis a vis Moses. This is why ‎we find the Torah (verse 24) allowing Moses to ascend the ‎mountain, the elders and Aaron to accompany him all the way to ‎the base of the mountain, whereas the people at large had to ‎stop a greater distance away from the mountain. Any “honour” ‎shown by His creatures to G’d during the weekdays is perceived as ‎directed at the part of the Creator which has voluntarily ‎‎“downsized” itself. Secondary “honour,” is the honour bestowed ‎by G’d’s creatures on Him on the Sabbath days or on the festivals ‎when it is aimed at the Creator in His more manifest glory prior ‎to His having downsized Himself. Due to our preoccupations on ‎weekdays with mundane tasks, unavoidably, we cannot bestow ‎the kind of “honour” or “glory” on the Creator that we are able to ‎on days when we are predominantly preoccupied with the needs ‎of ours souls, with spiritual concerns. On the day when G’d gave ‎us the Torah, we were able to give Him this “glory” more so than ‎on any previous or subsequent day, as through the three days of ‎preparation for that revelation we had been transported to a ‎higher spiritual level. This is the meaning of the opening line in ‎the section known as zichronot in the Mussaph prayer ‎on Rosh Hashanah, ‎אתה נגלית בענן כבודך‎, “You have been ‎revealed in the cloud of Your glory, etc.” The term ‎ענן‎, “cloud,” ‎describes something that cannot be found, as one cannot locate ‎something shrouded in darkness.
‎[At this point the author refers to a concept known ‎Iss ‎כ'ד קישוטי כלה‎, “24 bridal decorations.” (the “bride” alluding to ‎Israel as G’d’s bride when it received the Torah) The subject has ‎been written up by Rabbi Moshe Chayim Luzzato, Pdua, Italy, ‎‎(1707-to Acco, 1747) author of the world famous mussar ‎‎sefer ‎מסילת ישרים‎, “the path of the Just,” and many other ‎books. It appears that the well known book Tikkun leyl ‎Shavuot, read on the night of Shavuot, by many people ‎who spend the whole night studying in preparation for a re-‎enactment of the day the Torah was given, is patterned on this ‎concept. Briefly, it is a text comprising the first three verses of ‎any of the 24 books of the Bible, as well as the last three verses, ‎also the first and last Mishnah of each tract of the Talmud. ‎It also contains portions of the sefer yetzirah and the ‎‎Zohar. The number “24” does not only refer to the 24 books ‎of the Bible, but also to the Hebrew alphabet (22 letters) and two ‎vowels that are spelled in different ways, and accordingly may be ‎added as part of the alphabet. (if I understand correctly.) By ‎devoting that whole night to Torah study we are bestowing glory ‎on Hashem in the most appropriate and profound manner, ‎a ‎כבוד‎ that is comparable in quality to the ‎כבוד נברא‎, “the ‎original” glory bestowed by G’d on His creatures. For more on the ‎subject of these vowels and their deeper significance, see: ‎http://ramhal.net/]‎
Our author draws our attention to Zecharyah 10,8 ‎where he understands the words ¬‎אשרקה להם‎ as a derivative of the ‎vowel ‎שורוק‎, meaning calling out loudly to someone, whereas the ‎vowel kametz, would indicate the reverse, i.e. something ‎withheld, hidden, locked in.? Be that as it may, on the festival of ‎Shavuot, symbolizing the giving of the Torah the Jewish people ‎are on an abnormally high spiritual level, and they demonstrate ‎this by studying the entire holy texts in an abbreviated version.‎ ‎ ‎

The Talmud in Shabbat 133 urges each one of us to ‎‎“attach” ourselves to the virtues manifested by Hashem, by ‎emulating them whenever possible, giving as an example: “just as ‎He is merciful, you are to be merciful also.”‎
The problem with this “moral imperative” posited by the ‎Talmud is that one of the attributes G’d has revealed to Moses in ‎our portion is called ‎א-ל‎, usually understood as a reference to G’d ‎being omnipotent, ‎תקיף‎; (compare Shulchan Aruch Orach Chayim ‎‎ 5) how are we to emulate such an attribute? We need to ‎understand this slightly differently, i.e. that G’d has given the ‎‎tzaddik the power to “compel” Him to carry out the ‎‎tzaddik’s wishes. This is what the Talmud in Megillah ‎‎18 had in mind when it posed the rhetorical question of “how do ‎we know that G’d called Yaakov by the attribute ‎א-ל‎?” What ‎possible “omnipotence” did Yaakov possess, seeing that all he ‎could do was to abide by rules established in the Torah? Our sages ‎in the Talmud in Ketuvot 111 alluded to this problem when ‎they taught us that G’d made the Jewish people swear three oaths ‎at the time of the destruction of the Temple. One of them was: ‎‎“do not pressure Me to postpone the date of the coming of the ‎messiah.” [Our author prefers an alternate version of that ‎oath with the word ‎ירחקו‎ being replaced by the word ‎ידחקו‎, i.e. ‎pressuring G’d to advance the date of the coming of the messiah. ‎Ed.] The root ‎דחק‎ is well known as referring to someone ‎‎“hastening an event,” the best known example being the saying ‎in B’rachot 64: ‎כל הדוחק את השעה השעה דוחק אותו‎, “whosoever ‎tries to advance the timetable for events destined to occur later, ‎will find that it proves to have been counterproductive.”
Concerning the appropriate time for the coming of the ‎messiah, the prophet Isaiah had predicted in Isaiah 51,4 ‎כי תורה ‏מאתי תצא ‏‎, “for a teaching will come forth from Me, etc.” The ‎prophet refers to a teaching which prior to that era could not ‎have been understood at all by man, [as his spiritual ‎horizons had not been sufficiently expanded. Ed.] This ‎‎“Torah” will be called superior to all.
Besides, how is it possible to hasten the end of the exile, ‎seeing that if all of Israel‘s virtues are the result of emulating ‎G’d’s attributes, it follows that everything the Israelites do is ‎pattered on the Torah, so how could they possibly be able to ‎influence G’d’s timetable for the coming of the Messiah then? The ‎answer is that by conferring on Yaakov the title ‎א-ל‎, (Genesis ‎‎35,10, 33,20), He had conferred on him (and subsequent ‎‎tzaddikim) some of His powers so that He had to warn them ‎not to abuse these powers by making them take an oath. This ‎complimentary title that G’d bestowed on Yaakov and other ‎‎zaddikim after him was conditioned on his regarding the ‎Torah and its laws inviolate. G’d had decided on His timetable for ‎the coming of the messiah either at the same time as when He ‎bestowed the title ‎א-ל‎ on Yaakov, or even earlier, so that his ‎‎“powers” did not extend to overriding this. How could man then ‎interfere with G’d’s decree? If man, i.e. the tzaddik could ‎not interfere, why would the ‎בנות ישראל‎, “chronologically later ‎generations of Israelites,” have to swear an oath concerning ‎something that was beyond their power to do anyways?‎
The apparent contradiction is resolved by an interesting ‎commentary on Song of Songs 2,10, (a few verses after the verse ‎in which G’d beseeches the “daughters of Jerusalem” to swear the ‎abovementioned oath); we read there, concerning G’d: ‎הנה זה עומד ‏אחר כתלנו משגיח מן החלונות מציץ מחרקים‎, “here He is standing ‎behind our walls looking down through the windows, peering ‎through the blinds.” This verse describes G’d, Who, on the one ‎hand is ‎לעילא מן כל‎, “towering high above all,” as also on occasion ‎retreating so far into the background that He only peers through ‎the lattices. The verse alludes to the varying degrees of light that ‎emanates from Him, tailored to what the situation requires. On ‎occasion, if warranted, the tzaddik can override G’d’s plan; ‎seeing that this is so, G’d had to protect His ultimate program for ‎mankind by making the ‎בנות ירושלים‎ swear that they would not ‎interfere with certain of His plans. ‎ ‎ ‎

The Baal Shem Tov said that one who reads from the Torah and sees the light of the letters in the Torah -- if even they didn't understand the cantillation correctly, since they had read with great love and passion, the Holy One is not exacting with the reader, even though the words weren't read correctly. This can be compared to a young child beloved by her father. When she asks for something from her father, even if she stutters and makes mistakes, the father has great joy. Therefore, when one says words of Torah with love, the Holy One has much love towards them and isn't exacting as to whether they spoke correctly, as our rabbis of blessed memory taught (Song of Songs 2:4) "His banner (diglo) of love is over me." - don't read this word as diglo, but as ligluglo, His mockery of love is over me.

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.