Musar su Salmi 84:78

And from this, we will understand very well what has disappeared from the eyes of researchers in what they have examined regarding, heaven forbid, a change in God's will. The Almighty decrees a decree and then repentance, prayer and charity can change that to the better; and sometimes it changes from good to bad. But they walk in darkness because there can be no change, heaven forbid. Rather all is one and is only a matter of one desire. That is to say this inquiry is a matter of faith. I will also copy what I wrote as a child in my pamphlet, even though it is a little different. In any event, it all goes together in one place. These are my words. Written in section of Godliness in the gate of unity. And the whole faith of unity is complete; as there is no body nor strength of the body, nor a separate mind, and will not change from thought to thought or from action to action or from one leader to another. It is a complete intellect and simple and unique in all parts of His names and in all attributes. And a change in actions on the part of the leadership only exists from the side of the recipients. Because the one who walks in innocence and straightness, and keeps a good home, receives goodness derived from God Almighty. And he who perverts his path and distances himself, is distanced from the good derived from God and the opposite is derived from Him.

You already know that what is most desired in the service of G-d, may His Name be blessed, is desire of the heart and longing of the soul. It is concerning this that King David praised his portion saying: "As a deer yearns longingly for the water brooks, so does my soul yearn longingly to You, O G-d; My soul thirsts for G-d..." (Tehilim 42:1-2), "My soul longs, and goes out for the courtyards of G-d" (Tehilim 84:2). "My soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs for You [in an arid and thirsty land (Rashi-desert), without water]"(Tehilim 63:2).

This looking into will cause him to not grow lazy or lax in His service. For since it is impossible for him to repay G-d, blessed be His Name, for His goodness, he will feel that at least he can thank His Name and fulfill His commandments.

And if a man wishes to cleave to this trait of savlanuth, let him reflect always on the punishment for sins in Gehinnom and through gilgul [metempsychosis]. As Chazal have said (Eruvin 19a) on Psalms 84:7: "ovrei be'emek habacha mayan yeshituhu": "Ovrei" — these are the transgressors [ovrim] of the L-rd's will; "emek" — Gehinnom is deepened [ma'amikim] for them; "habacha" — they cry [bochim] and shed tears as the well of Shitin [mayan shel shitin (into which the remainder of the alter libations was poured)]." And it is known that the fire of the first level of Gehinnom is sixty times more intense than ours; of the second level, sixty times more intense than that of the first level. And thus the punishment redoubles itself in all the [succeeding] levels. And Ramban has already written in Sha'ar Hagmul that one moment in Gehinnom is more excruciating than all the afflictions of Iyyov all of his days. And it is also known that the punishment of gilgul is more excruciating than the punishment of Gehinnom.

We read in Psalms 27,8: לך אמר לבי בקשו פני את פניך ה' אבקש, "In your behalf my heart says: 'Seek My face! O Lord, I seek Your face'." The subject matter in this verse is the previous verse (4) where David had expressed the wish: לחזות בנועם ה' ולבקר בהיכלו, "to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord, to frequent His Temple." David says to G–d: "My heart says to You that there is no need for You to look at the lines in my face because my heart sends the message: "I am with You." David means that since G–d looks into all our hearts, why would He need to gauge from David's face whether he was loyal to Him. David claims לבי ובשרי "my heart and my flesh are one." Both my heart and my flesh shout for joy to the living G–d" (Psalms 84,3). Human beings, however, who cannot see what goes on in my heart must look at my flesh, i.e. at the lines in my face to gauge whether I am loyal and true to You. In verse 8 the words בקשו פני are in the plural because they are addressed to human beings, as if David were saying: "You mortal people seek out my face to determine if I am true and loyal to G–d. When did I want you to test me, says David? At the time when I expressed the wish to gaze upon the beauty of G–d, etc."

You should know that zeal is the very beginning of all ethics. For no man can be perpetually bent over his book. He must eat, sleep and perform his bodily functions. Therefore, it requires eagerness and care to return to one's book and to study. One should not muse "the day is still long and the year is still long." Concerning this our Sages, of blessed memory, said : "Do not say, 'when I have some free time, I will study' — perhaps you will never be free" (Aboth 2:4). Nor should a man say, : "It is already evening — if I start studying now, I will have to stop in a little while to pray," for it is better to spend one hour in study even if only to learn one saying, than to do any other thing in the world. Concerning this it is said, "He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination" (Prov. 28:9). And thus it is written : "The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver" (Ps. 119:72). And thus it is also written, "For a day in Thy courts is better than a thousand" (Ps. 84:11), on which the Talmud comments : The Holy One, Blessed be He, said, "I prize one day of your studying Torah more than the thousand sacrifices which your son Solomon will offer upon the altar" (Shabbath 30a).

Behold, this is the precious trait which the Pious men of old, the lofty holy ones had merited to attain. As king David said: "As a hart cries longingly for the water brooks, so does my soul cry longingly to You, O G-d; My soul thirsts for G-d, for the living G-d; when shall I come and appear before G-d?" (Tehilim 42:2-3), and "My soul yearns, yes, faints for the courts of the L-rd" (Tehilim 84:3), "My soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs for You..." (Tehilim 63:2). All this due to his powerful yearning to the blessed G-d.

That which will help greatly in acquiring Chasidut is great observation and much contemplation. For when a person contemplates much on G-d's great exaltedness, blessed be He, and His absolute perfection, and the immeasurably great distance between His greatness and our lowliness, he will be filled with fear and trembling before Him.

For that which his nature hinders this, the blessed G-d will help him and give him assistance. This is as the verse states: "G-d will not withhold good from those who walk wholeheartedly" (Tehilim 84:12).

The Torah writes: (4,33-5,20) הקול מתוך החשך וההר בוער באש." Seeing that fire and darkness are almost exact opposites, how do we explain that the Israelites heard the voice of G–d both from out of darkness and from out of fire? Clearly there is a mystical dimension to this. Another word for fire is שלהבת. This word divides into הבל and שת, the names of the two people reincarnated in Moses. The word חשך, darkness, on the other hand, refers to Cain who ended up in darkness. The Arizal explains the relationship between אדם, חוה, קין, והבל still better. אדם is perceived as having emerged from the second highest emanation חכמה which in turn is equivalent to כח מ"ה. This means the combination of the soul, נשמה plus the "junior" power symbolized by the number 45, the numerical value of אדם, the concept of Man. חוה emerged from the next lower emanation בינה. She was אם כל חי, "the mother" of all subsequent human beings. קין והבל originated in the domain of דעת, [an emanation in the center line of the diagram, below כתר but above תפארת. Ed.] הבל had received input from the emanation חסד, as suggested by his name (as we demonstrated before) whereas קין had received 5 units of input from the emanation גבורה, which is fed by the emanation בינה. This גבורה is sort of a קן, i.e. nest, receptacle for the חכמה. The combined units of input from the emanations בינה and חכמה are 10; they account for the letter י in the middle of his name. This is the deeper meaning of Psalms 84,4: ודרור קל לה, where the letter ק is written larger and which separates between דרוד and the letter ן. This is to alert us to the fact that דרור, freedom is equated with בינה, i.e. יובל =50. קין was predominantly part of חוה, who represented בינה; this is why she said קניתי איש את ה' when she bore him. By this she meant to say: "I have acquired a man with G–d, i.e. as distinct from "with Adam." Having said that קין was the "receptacle" of input from both חכמה and בינה, and in view of the letter ן at the end of his name alluding to the fifty gates of בינה, we can understand what G–d meant when He asked Cain אי הבל אחיך, "Where is your brother Abel?" G–d criticized Cain who should have remembered that he was the שומר, the receptacle for his brother. Cain represented the female, Abel the male. The female is the receptacle for the male. The word אי may be understood as an acronym of אינך יודע "Don't you know?" Furthermore, the letter א alludes to בינה, whereas the letter י alludes to חכמה. When G–d's name is spelled א-ה-י-ה, this symbolizes His manifestation in the emanation בינה, whereas when it is spelled י-ה-ו-ה it symbolizes His being manifest in the emanation חכמה. Seeing that the reference to אחיך most definitely refers to someone male, G–d made it clear that Cain represented the female in that pair, i.e. the sister, אחות. When G–d had told Cain previously -when the latter was upset that his offering had been rejected- (Genesis 4,5-7), הלא אם תיטיב שאת, "Surely if you do right there is uplift (forgiveness)!" the word שאת could be read as אשת, "wife of." In the future the אשת חיל, woman of valor, will be described as the crown of her husband, and at that time G–d will govern the world using the emanation גבורה i.e. דין, seeing that mankind will be on such a high level that G–d does not have to make allowances for man's weakness and employ the attribute of רחמים as He does in this present world.

The principal components of our food are bread, meat, and wine. The Torah's legislation concerning these foods is comprehensive, and when one has observed all the various observances necessary to ensure that one consumes only what has been approved by the Torah, one may consider the act of eating as similar to the altar consuming a sacrifice. One's body will acquire varying degrees of sanctity in accordance with the care taken in selecting what one eats. When the Psalmist (Psalms 84,3) speaks about: לבי ובשרי ירננו אל-אל חי, "My body and soul shout for joy to the living G–d," the לב, heart, is perceived as the home, משכן, of the soul, as I have already explained. The soul has seen much חכמה. The body, בשרי is described as being on a par with the soul in this Psalm by the sons of Korach.

King Dovid said, “Even the bird has found a house, and the swallow, a nest for itself” (Tehillim 84:4). Surely Dovid did not write these words in vain, nor was he referring to an ordinary bird. For what would be novel in the fact that a bird found a home and a swallow, a nest? Rather, the true meaning of this verse is explained in the Zohar, Parashas Balak (196b): The worlds and chambers On High in Gan Eden where the righteous dwell are arranged in three rows. In these rows are numerous chambers and palaces filled with the souls of righteous and concerning them it is stated, “No eye has beheld it, O God, other than You” (Yeshayahu 64:3). The righteous dwell there in honor and distinction, their crowns upon their heads. Between the rows stroll those righteous souls with less merit than the ones who dwell in a fixed place. But strolling among the rows is also a delight from which they derive great satisfaction. Concerning them was it stated, “Even the bird has found a home.” That is, although they remain between the rows, even there they are able to find a home and a place of rest in which to enjoy the delight they are experiencing. Dovid refers to them as “birds” because in the month of Nissan the birds begin chirping. Similarly, in the month of Nissan the souls in Gan Eden don the form of birds and each and each morning they chirp like birds. This chirping consists of the praises of the Holy One Blessed is He and prayers for the living, because at this time of year all Israel are engaged in mitzvos and the fulfillment of the instructions of the Master of the Universe. Those righteous souls who dwell within hidden palaces, concerning which it is stated, “No eye has beheld it,” are called dror [which means a “swallow” but also “freedom”] because they have attained freedom and liberty from everything. It is also said of them that they have “a nest,” that is, a unique dwelling place, resembling a well fashioned and well prepared nest.

You may ask, In what way were those who dwell within the concealed palaces more deserving than those between the rows? The answer is that it states, “Where she places her fledglings on the ruins of Your altars, Hashem of Hosts” (Tehillim 84:4). That is to say, those dwelling in the concealed palaces merited this because they raised their sons to be Torah scholars, toiling in both the Written and the Oral Torah, corresponding to the two altars in the Beis HaMikdosh. Three times a year the Holy One Blessed is He desires to take delight in these righteous ones. Therefore He opens for them a certain palace in which crowns are fashioned, and they will be placed upon the head of our righteous Moshiach in the time to come.