Chasydyzm do Psalmów 51:17

This shall be the Torah concerning the one struck with skin blanch [metzora] on the day he becomes clean. He shall be brought to the priest (Lev. 14:2), and our Sages of Blessed Memory interpreted metzora as one who speaks evil [motzi ra], for afflictions come through the sin of evil speech. But the matter is according to what is written, When God began to create etc. (Gen. 1:1), and our Sages of Blessed Memory interpreted: “For the sake of Torah and for the sake of Israel” (cf. Rashi, ad. loc.); so we find that Israel is something very important to Blessed God, since for their sake all of the Worlds and all the Creations were created. And Blessed God takes pleasure from each one of Israel, even from a greatly wicked person: “Your temples [rakatekh] are like a pomegranate (Song of Songs 6:7) – even the empty ones [reykanim] among you are as full of mitzvot as a pomegranate” (Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 57a). And when a person speaks evil about one of Israel, even if he speaks truth, he nullifies the Blessed Creator’s pleasure (if it were possible) and causes Him sadness (if it were possible) as is stated, [And the Lord …] was saddened in to His heart (Gen. 6:6), and inverts the pleasure [oneg] into affliction [nega]; therefore his “wage” is measure for measure, affliction comes upon him. And our Sages of Blessed Memory said: “Evil speech is as great as idolatry, sexual immorality, and murder” (Babylonian Talmud, Arakhin 15b). But we must be precise: what connection does idolatry have to evil speech? But the matter is according to what is written, By the word of ADONAI were the heavens made (Psalm 33:6), that all of the Worlds and all of the Creations were created through speech comprised of the 22 letters of the Torah, which is called Heavenly Sovereignty. For when the Sovereign does not speak, no one knows how to do His Will; and when he speaks His Will is revealed, and that is Heavenly Sovereignty whose Sovereignty is in all jurisdictions. And we find in Sefer Yetzirah that [the letters] are established in the mouth, that Blessed God established the 22 letters: the World of Speech, Heavenly Sovereignty, the Attribute of ADONAI-ness, ADONAI, open my lips (Psalm 51:17), were established in the human mouth.

And to understand: what kind of Da’at draws into the world of delight? It is known from what the prophet said (Isaiah 58:14): "For the mouth of God has spoken"—that everyone who speaks words of Torah or prayer, after entering the gate of fear and accepting upon himself the yoke of His fear, must know and believe that his own mouth speaking the words is truly the mouth of God, which is a portion of God Himself—the Divine Name of Adnut (Master), which dwells within every complete Jew, is what speaks these words with the power of the Divine portion. As it is said (Psalms 51:17): "My Master, open my lips," which refers to the world of speech compressed into the human mouth, as explained elsewhere. And once he knows this with complete faith, then immediately a great delight comes upon him—for this knowledge is the complete Da’at, which brings him to spiritual delight and his intellect becomes expanded, and he unites through that Da’at the fear he accepted earlier into the world of delight. Through this, he exits the Meitzar Yam—as Da’at increases and exits from the narrowness and smallness, and through this unification, all harsh judgments (dinim) are sweetened, because judgments reside in constriction and smallness—like in Egypt, where the Da’at was in Meitzar and Katnut (constriction and smallness) and so there was exile, which is judgment. Through an increase of Da’at, they exited poverty in general. And so it is with every person and at all times. That is what they meant when they said, "In every generation a person is obligated to see himself as if he exited Egypt"—in particular, when a person casts himself and his Da’at into Meitzar Yam and smallness, he is in a place of judgment. When he accepts upon himself fear—the gate, which is the place of judgment—and through Da’at, as mentioned, he believes that the mouth of God speaks through him, then he comes to the supreme delight, the world of delight, the world of freedom, which is the world of Binah (understanding)—from which judgments are aroused. Then he connects fear into the world of delight, and judgments are sweetened at their root, for judgments can only be sweetened at their root, as is known. And this is the meaning of "in the place of joy, there shall be trembling"—that trembling, which is fear, must be in the place of joy, connecting it into the world of delight through the above-mentioned Da’at, and lifting it to a place where there is no effect of judgment. Because even though from Binah judgments are aroused, nonetheless, it is compassionate, since it is the world of joy, and in the place of joy, there are no judgments. And this is the saying of our Sages on the verse (II Samuel 23:3): "A righteous one rules in the fear of God." And our Sages said: "Who rules over Me? The righteous person— for the Holy One, blessed be He, decrees a decree, and he (the righteous) nullifies it." The Zohar asked: Can there be an accuser (kitruga) of the Master Himself, that would change the will of the Creator, as it were? But according to what was said above, the truth is that everything is by the Holy One, blessed be He, because the wicked, whose Da’at has not come out of Egypt, cast the world into smallness and narrowness, which is the place of judgments, because their service is not in delight, which is the expansion of Da’at. But the righteous connects the world and unifies himself with all creations, as Onkelos translated (I Chronicles 29:11): "For all is in the heavens and the earth"—meaning, he who is unified in the heavens and the earth, for the righteous connects the lower levels upward, and serves with abundant Da’at and broad delight, and raises the world of fear into the world of delight, which is the heritage without boundaries, where there are no judgments. And all this is through the Da’at, through which he knows with faithful knowledge that "the mouth of God speaks in him", and through this he raises the world of speech and fear above, and removes the world from judgments. And it turns out that it is by Him, blessed be He, for truly, He is the One who acts through the divine portion within the righteous, which speaks the words, and through this, the decree is nullified, for the righteous believes that the mouth of God speaks through him, and through this, he elevates the world of speech and fear, as explained. Understand this.

And for your understanding, the matter is known that there are twenty-eight times that King Solomon, peace be upon him, considered in Ecclesiastes chapter 3 — fourteen times for good and fourteen times for bad — upon which all the events of the world depend, both for good and for betterment; and these represent the secret of the left and right hands, called thus for kindnesses and severities as is well known. Therefore, every servant of the Lord must include the left within the right, so that the severities may be encompassed by kindnesses — fourteen bad times within the good times — and all becomes good by the sweetening of the severities. Moreover, all this is due to the fact that in the creation of man there is the aspect of left and right, which is the good inclination and the evil inclination, as is well known. The dwelling of the good inclination is in the heart of man in the right chamber, while the dwelling of the evil inclination is in the left chamber; and a person’s tendency is to direct himself to the left side, thereby bringing himself into the fourteen bad times which are the Lord of hosts, the severities and judgments. Hence, one must overcome and incline himself, along with all the traits engraved within him from the superior traits, to guide them to the right, so that all his actions will be for the sake of Heaven and to fulfill “In all your ways know Him” (Proverbs 3:6), as mentioned elsewhere, and also “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart” — that is, with the two inclinations, the good inclination and the evil inclination — to subdue the servant under his master, so that no trait among the traits falls outside the service of His blessed name. For the wise will understand and set his heart, recognizing that the whole earth is full of His glory, and there is no vacant place at all, even in physical matters and business dealings; all is His service and refinement of holiness, from the place of breaking, which is the language of dealings upwards to the place of the root from which the matter fell; that which comes to his hand belongs to the root of his soul that uplifts him upwards, and not through it is he drawn, God forbid, after the evil which is the garment of holiness that clothed it in its fall and caused it, God forbid, to fall even further downward. Only “In all your ways know Him” — which is the language of connection, to join and bind the vitality in every thing with the vitality imparted to it for the life of lives — and he should look at the vitality in every thing and not at the material that clothes that thing. And all this is due to the fact that even when it is within him, he is not drawn after the material, only that the overcoming vitality is always with him over the material, and therefore he sees thus in all things that the main thing is vitality; and through this it is likewise done above, with the lower arousal being the upper arousal, and all the severities and judgments are sweetened by kindnesses, so that all becomes complete kindness through his cleaving to the root of all; He pours kindness into all things and into the whole world and its fullness, and the left is included in the right, and all twenty-eight times become equal for good through the sweetening mentioned above, which is the power of the Lord. Regarding this, Moses our teacher prayed and said, “And now, please let the power of the Lord be great,” for when Israel sinned with the spies and fell from faith, which is the principal foundation, as it is said (Habakkuk 2:4), “The righteous shall live by his faith,” they fell into the place of judgments and death, and the twenty-eight times separated, and the severities were not encompassed by kindness, and through this judgments came upon them as is known. Therefore, Moses prayed and said, “And now, please let the power of the Lord be great,” so that the twenty-eight times may grow in the Lord, who is mercy and kindness, that they be included together, and the power will increase, as is known that the main power is in the right hand, “And from my flesh I shall see God” (Job 19:26). Conversely, when they are not included in the right, but separated, it is said, “And they went without strength before the pursuer.” This is what is written, “In your midst holiness, and I will not enter the city” — the Holy One, blessed be He, swore that He would not enter the upper Jerusalem until He entered the lower Jerusalem, which is the intention above. For it is known that Jerusalem is the middle point of the world, for in it is the foundation stone from which the world was established, and the heart is called by the name Jerusalem because it is the middle point from the main body to the feet, and the heart is the dwelling of the divine portion imparted within man from above, as it is written (Exodus 25:8), “And I will dwell among them.” The Creator, blessed be He, does not place His presence in the heart of man until his service is as it is said, “with all your heart” — with the two inclinations — so that the evil inclination, which is the left chamber, will be included and sweetened by the right for the service of the Blessed One, so that his whole heart with the two chambers will be entirely good. Through this, his heart becomes the dwelling place of the Lord, as it is said, “The temple of the Lord they are indeed.” Whereas if the left chamber is not sweetened, God says, “I and he cannot dwell together,” and a person cannot walk with a snake in one basket. And this is “In your midst holiness,” because the Holy One, blessed be He, places His presence in your midst; therefore, see that no foreign god be in your heart, God forbid. He will not enter the upper Jerusalem until He enters the lower Jerusalem, which is the heart, the dwelling of His presence; then He will enter the upper Jerusalem, for in the lower arousal, which is the unification and sweetening of severities in the heart, it will be so above, that His mercy will be drawn into the lower worlds and the severities will be included in His Infinite Light, blessed be He, from which mercy comes. All the above only comes through knowledge, that one should have the knowledge that all the power one has, both to act and to speak — any speech — is all by the vitality given to him from above, without which he cannot move any limb from his limbs; and the words are poured to him from above from the World of Speech, and are concentrated in the mouth of man, as it is said, “O Lord, open my lips” (Psalms 51:17), and as the Arizal, of blessed memory, said, the intention is that the dominion which is the World of Speech speaks inside the mouth of man. As is explained at length elsewhere, this is the aspect of His presence which dwells within us, as it is said, “Wherever the Shechinah went out with them,” that the power of the higher speech is always with them in all their exile, and all this is their consolation in the bitterness of this exile. For immediately when a person wills, he can draw near himself by good knowledge and cleaving to the Blessed Creator through the speech fixed in his mouth, when he unites his heart with the speech so that there be no separation within his heart, as mentioned, that the two inclinations, the good and the evil, be arranged so that the heart turns away from evil, and the sweetening of severities by kindness be as above. Through this, he can nullify all bad decrees and judgments, God forbid, that come upon the world. As it is said, “A righteous person rules through the fear of God, who rules over me? The righteous in Israel,” specifically by the infusion of the Creator, blessed be He, within him, that the severities are sweetened; accordingly his speech is rectified, which brings in the Infinite Light, blessed be He, into the words, and it is made above likewise, so that the judgments in the World of Judgment, which is “Adonai Dina D’Malchuta Dina,” the law of the kingdom, are sweetened, and the World of Speech is unified. As is known, the Creator, blessed be He, contracts Himself from Above to Below through ten intellects and supernal lights down to the World of Speech, which is dominion that governs His world with kindness, so that the children of the world are not separated in their speech and all their deeds, from which blessed be He spreads mercy from Above to Below in a chain from world to world through ten intellects, as said about the World of Speech which is “Adonai Eretz,” and governance is by mercy. All this is through the lower arousal of faith and knowledge, for “The mouth of the Lord has spoken,” as said, one can receive mercy and it is done and drawn through this. As is known, the world was created by ten utterances, and “Bereishit” is also an utterance, which is why no “He said” is mentioned in it, because it is a supernal world called “Ayin,” where there is no aspect of speech until the chain from world to world reaches the tenth utterance, which is “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made” (Psalms 33:6), through which world His kingdom is revealed and grasped by the lower world, as is explained elsewhere, that it must be unified with the Infinite Root so that His mercy’s outpouring will not separate from this tenth world. And through the good deed of the lower ones with Israel, this unification is made, as said, and the power of the Lord grows, the left hand is included in the right, so that all fourteen bad times are included and sweetened with good.