Chasidut do Psalmów 119:331

4. And this is the nature of the Chanukah candles. For Chanukah is a time of prayer and praise of the Blessed God, as it is written, “they established these eight days of Chanukah to give thanks and praise etc.” For at that time, great miracles occurred and we say [the prayer] Al Hanissim (for all of the miracles) etc. And miracles are the quality of prayer which is beyond nature, as was explained above, and the main essence of prayer is truth, which is a light that shines to bring a person out of darkness, as explained above. And this is the quality of the Chanukah candles, which is the quality of “send Your light and Your truth etc.” (Psalms 43:3). For it is known that the miracle of Chanukah, and likewise all miracles that similarly occur in all periods and each and every year - that is, when the “wicked kingdom grew in power to cause them to forget Your Torah and to turn them away from Your desired laws.” And likewise in each and every individual in every time, when the Other Side grows in power and spreads itself out upon the individual, seeking to overcome them and prevent them from serving God in any which way, God forbid, and they said “write for yourselves on the horn of an ox that ‘you have no portion [with the God of Israel]’ etc.” then, there is no advice or strategy to save one’s soul other than [turning to] the truth. Meaning, that one ensures, according to their own level, to draw themselves only toward the truth of truth, and to look only to truth - in truth. And likewise in prayer, even if it is impossible for someone to pray at all, even so they may nonetheless seek to speak an utterance of prayer truthfully. And then the truth will illuminate a way for this person to lead them out of their darkness, as explained above. And this is the quality of the Chanukah candles, which is the quality of the light of truth, in the manner of “send Your light and Your truth etc.” (Psalms 43:3), as explained above. For by means of this one can step out of the darkness and be able to pray, which is the aspect of the days of Chanukah that were established [as days of] prayer, “to give thanks and praise” etc. And for this reason, the Chanukah candles [are positioned] lower than ten handbreadths, for the Shechina [Divine Presence] never lowered itself beneath ten [handbreadths], and therefore that is the place where they grab hold. And it is there specifically that we light the Chanukah candles close to the doorway, in the manner of “the opening of your words will shine, etc.” (Psalms 119:130) to show that it is specifically below ten handbreadths - in the very place that the Other Side grabs hold - that there too we can find the doorway to draw close to holiness through the light of truth. That we can draw the truth to there as well, and through the light of truth - which is the Chanukah candles - we can come close to the Blessed God in every place, even below ten handbreadths where there is no presence of the Shechina; there too we can find the opening by means of the light of truth...

And this is what King David of blessed memory prayed (Ps. 119:38) 'Confirm Your word through Your servant', meaning that the One Whose Name is Blessed helps one to come to the level of Love, which is hinted by the language of 'saying'; 'that fears You' means love like this: that from love one will come to fear, which is the higher awe. And this si easy to understand.

For you are resident strangers with Me It is possible to speak about this in the manner of allusion. I will explain it according to what I have heard from a certain wise person regarding the verse "I am only a stranger in the land; do not hide Your commandments from me." (Psalms 119:19). This is known from the quality of the nature of the world; a stranger is without a people to cleave to, they are without one to be close to and to tell all their happenings and all their heart to, since they have no friend neither Jew nor Gentile. But when the stranger sees a friend, then they tell all of these to their friend, all their happenings. And know that the Holy Blessed One is Themself like a stranger in this world(!) for They have no-one with whom to imbue Their presence and Their glory, may They be blessed, and we are infinitesimally small, etc. And this is what King David, peace be upon him, prayed: "I am a stranger in this land" (ibid.) -- this is to say, I too do not want to be resident in this world(!) And I am only like a stranger in this world. And therefore, do not hide from me Your mitzvot -- like a stranger who tells all their heart to their friend. And this is that which can be said about the allusion in the verse "For [you are] resident strangers", that you are in the aspect of a stranger in this world, and in that of a resident in the world to come. Then you are with Me, for I also am a stranger in this world (as explained above) and obviously, I will not hide from them My mitzvot (as explained above, and understand).

According to the Talmud, when God began the creation of the universe, He first created a middle point and that center then expanded until the entire universe was formed. According to the deeper wisdom of Torah, that starting point contained within itself the entire world in a form of latent potential. Mystics add that the creation process is constantly occurring anew. King David wrote that the Divine words that formed the Heavens still hover in the ether, since God renews the entire creative process every moment (see Ps. 119:89). Thus, even today, thousands of years after the happenings in the Book of Genesis, the central starting place contains within it a microcosm of the entire universe that emerged and will re-emerge from it. That point is Jerusalem.

1. And now, our long, bitter, exile, is even more difficult than the exile in Egypt and all the other exiles, as brought in the Lesson - for about this exile it is written (Lamentations 1:9) "She has sunk appallingly". And thus in every place where the verses and Sages speak of this exile, all of them wonder at the nature of the length and bitterness of this exile, as is brought in the Midrashim. And because of the length and bitterness of the exile it was not possible to tolerate it had it not been for Hashem who was with us, who provided healing for the blow, in that we already merited to receive the Torah on Mt. Sinai. And nowadays, there is generation of orphans and Hashem Yisbarach sent us great and wonderous tzaddikim who brought success upon us in the aspect of seeing the Light of the Ein Sof, and who taught us to nullify ourselves within His Blessed Self in every time and instance of trouble, may G-d save us. And the essence is for us to continue with many new and wonderous Torah insights, that through them we enliven ourselves and strength is given to us to stand against them and to nullify them when they increase and are aroused afterwards greater and greater. Because at all times, we can nullify them through the holy Torah that we already merited to receive through Moshe Rabbeinu, A"H. And through the new and wonderous Torah insights that are brought by all the great tzaddikim that are in every generation, corresponding to (Psalms 119:50) "This is my comfort in my affliction, that Your promise has preserved me."

Even though not everyone can fathom everything with a complete understanding, nonetheless, everyone can understand according to his level even the secrets of the Torah. As it is summed up in the Zohar (Yitro, 83b): If you were to contend: it reveals mysteries that are not relevant to everyone, to this it is written, ‘Anochi – I am Hashem you God.’ Just as I am hidden and concealed, so too will these words be hidden and concealed in you hearts. Hinted in the Torah is God’s divine conduct of all generations down to the end of all generations. Everything that is gleaned from the Torah is advice designed for every person. It is written in the Zohar (Beha’alotcha, 152a): Rabbi Shimon said, “Woe is the man who says that the Torah is just a collection of stories and mundane information. The story of the Torah is the garment of the Torah. To the one who says that the garment is the actual Torah, I say, may he breath his last! He has no share in the world-to-come. For this, David said (Tehillim, 119), ‘open my eyes, that I may behold the wonders of Your Torah.’ Meaning, may I see that which is beneath the garment.” A person needs to contemplate the Torah in its entirety, for it is the life of the world and the life of every man. The entire Torah is essential for everyone in order to serve God, may He be blessed. A person needs to consider how every story found in the Torah teaches a path in the service of God.

This is also the meaning of psalms ‎‎119,98 ‎מאויבי תחכמני מצותך כי לעולם היא לי‎, “Your commandments ‎made me wiser than my enemies; they always stand by me.” The ‎letter ‎מ‎ in the word ‎מאויבי‎ must be understood in the sense of ‎‎“more than.” When read thus, the word is a reference to the evil ‎urge, which is not only David’s enemy, but the enemy of every ‎human being, implanting within us the powerful desires to taste ‎the gratifications advertised. However, the psalmist, upon ‎reflecting that what is eternal must be far more worthwhile than ‎that which is merely transient, redoubles his resolve to serve only ‎the Creator, rejecting the deceptive allure of physical delights. ‎

Numbers 13,17. “ascend from here in the south and ‎climb the mountain from which you will be able judge the ‎nature of the land.”
The rule is that when engaging in the ‎attempt to elevate “sparks”, i.e. spiritually fallen people, one ‎must first attach oneself firmly to G’d’s attribute of ‎חסד‎, loving ‎kindness. The location of that attribute traditionally is the south, ‎דרום‎, another word for ‎נגב‎, south, means ‎חסד‎, i.e. breaking the ‎hold of the evil urge over one’s various ‎תאוות‎, lust and cravings. ‎We have already explained this elsewhere in connection with ‎psalms 119,98 ‎מאויבי תחכימני מצותיך כי לעולם היא‎, “Your ‎commandments make me wiser than my enemies, they always ‎stand by me.” The “enemy” in this verse is the evil urge, Satan, a ‎force that G’d employs to test man’s ability to resist temptation. ‎Man’s basic error in relating to the satisfying of his cravings is ‎that he imagines that by indulging his cravings he attains true ‎satisfaction, well being without more cravings. He does not realize ‎that the only craving that will result in such satisfaction is his ‎desire to provide pleasure for his Creator. This is what the ‎psalmist means when he describes the fulfillment of his craving ‎for the service of the Lord as one that is enduring.
This idea is also alluded to when Moses said to the men ‎‎“touring” the land of Canaan ‎ועליתם את ההר‎, “you will ascend the ‎Mountain,” the “mountain” being the evil urge.
We have a statement in Sukkah 52 in which the evil ‎urge is referred to as ‎הר‎, “mountain.” The Talmud there refers to ‎the post-messianic era during which G’d is presented as ‎‎“slaughtering” the evil urge in the presence of both the righteous ‎and the wicked. The evil urge in that story appears to the ‎righteous as a mountain, whereas to the wicked he appears as a ‎thin hair. Both the righteous and the wicked weep when looking ‎at the evil urge. The wicked weep as they cannot believe that ‎they had been unable to overcome such a weak adversary, ‎whereas the righteous weep as in retrospect they marvel at ‎having conquered such a high mountain. According to the report ‎in the Talmud, G’d agrees with the wicked having reason to berate ‎themselves for failing to have conquered their cravings. The ‎righteous’ amazement was due to their realizing that they had ‎used the very efforts by Satan to indulge their material cravings ‎as a tool to serve the Lord with the kind of overpowering desire ‎that had enabled them to completely dehumanize, i.e. turning ‎the ego, ‎אני‎ into an ‎אין‎, a creature devoid of material desires, by ‎concentrating on the source from which all the divine souls ‎originate. There is an additional allusion to this subject when ‎Moses added that the “tourists” are also to evaluate the cities in ‎the land of Canaan i.e. ‎ומה הערים‎? In the words of the Talmud in ‎‎Pessachim 88, when discussing the difference between Moses ‎and Avraham, the Talmud distinguishes between an early stage in ‎serving the Lord, when to Avraham G’d appeared to have His ‎residence on top of the mountain, i.e. (Isaiah 2,3) whereas to ‎Yaakov He had already appeared as a “house-guest” (in the same ‎verse). Moses had attained a level where he could completely ‎divest himself of ego, as when he said of both himself and his ‎brother Aaron: ‎ונחנו מה‎, “what do we as personalities amount ‎to?,” making sure that he omitted the letter ‎א‎ in the wordאנחנו ‏‎, ‎when referring to himself and Aaron. (Exodus 16,7-8). When the ‎‎tzaddik is aware of all the three nuances in serving the Lord, ‎he will succeed in elevating the “sparks” together with him and as ‎a result subject Satan to a humbling experience.‎

Sermon on Parashat Bereshit
In Midrash Tehillim, it says, “’The beginning of Your words gives light’ (Psalms 119:130) – the beginning of Your words in the Creation was (Genesis 1:3), ‘Let there be light’; From there, ‘You make the fools understand,’ and they will begin with words of Torah” – and Rashi on Psalms cites this midrash. And it appears that his words can be elucidated according to the Mishnah (Avot 5:1), “With ten utterances the world was created, etc.” And see the book, Orchot Tzaddikim, as he explains that the teacher [of this mishnah] had two questions: One is, what was the benefit of having informed us that the world was created with ten utterances? And also, why was it created with ten utterances? And he answered about the first question, that an evildoer should know to be careful not to sin – for his punishment will be great, since he is destroying the world that was created with ten utterances. And about the second question, he answered that it is to give a goodly reward to the righteous. But that itself is difficult – why should the evildoer be punished with a severe punishment? As what does it matter that it was created with ten utterances, was He not able to have created it with one utterance? For if a craftsman makes a utensil in ten days that he could have made in a day, is his payment any greater as a result; and does one who breaks it have to pay any more? Likewise is it difficult – why should the righteous receive any more reward [as a result of this]? And see what he writes.

Another approach to the verse: ‎ובצלאל בן אורי....עשה את כל ‏אשר צוה ה' את משה‎, a look at Rashi who emphasizes the ‎word ‎כל‎ in this verse as an allusion to Exodus 35,32 where ‎Betzalel’s function is not only described as executive, i.e. someone ‎meticulously carrying out instructions, but as ‎לחשוב מחשבות‎, ‎‎“contributing original ideas of his own.” This is explained even ‎better when we look at psalms 119,59 ‎חשבתי דרכי וגו'‏‎, “I have ‎considered my ways, etc.” On psalms 121,5 ‎‏ ה' צלך‎, “the Lord is ‎your shadow,” a most difficult statement, the Midrash Shocher ‎Tov explains that just as man’s actions are reflected by his ‎shadow, so G’d also acts in a manner that reflects what man had ‎done. For example; G’d says that “when you (the collective soul of ‎the Jewish people) cry, I too join in your cries.” Therefore, as long ‎as we (the collective soul of the Jewish people) do not forget ‎Jerusalem (while we are in exile), we can be assured that G’d will ‎not forget Jerusalem either. (psalms 137,5). Keeping this in mind ‎we learn how important it is that we carefully consider every step ‎we take in life, as if it is in the wrong direction, G’d may follow ‎our footsteps to our detriment. This is not only a warning but ‎also a compliment, so that we do not consider our actions as ‎insignificant in this great universe, believing that what we do or ‎do not do, does not matter to G’d anyways.‎
When these considerations are applied to Betzalel, whose ‎very name meant that he had been in G’d’s shadow, he would ‎certainly have to have in mind the appropriate thoughts when ‎fashioning each one of the many vessels used in the Tabernacle. ‎The word ‎בצלאל‎ can just as easily be translated as ‎א-ל הוא הצל שלו‎, ‎‎“G’d is his shadow.”‎
Man’s body, according to our sages, consists of 248 limbs, an ‎allusion to the 248 positive commandments in the Torah, as well ‎as of 365 tendons, corresponding to the 365 negative ‎commandments in the Torah. This has been explained in ‎‎Kohelet Rabbah (Kohelet 1,3) on the words: ‎והארץ ‏לעולם עומדת‎, “but the earth endures forever,” as an allusion to the ‎structure of the celestial regions, i.e. just as man has 248 limbs ‎and 365 tendons there are parallel phenomena in heaven. Both ‎the inhabitants of heaven and those of earth share components ‎that correspond to the positive and negative commandments ‎found in the Torah, [and enumerated as such by our sages. ‎Ed.] Seeing that the Tabernacle was designed as the home ‎of the Shechinah on earth, it is natural that it contained ‎components that are parallel, [otherwise how would G’d ‎feel “at home,” in it? Ed.] This is what is meant when the ‎Torah wrote that Betzalel constructed all the components in ‎strict compliance with what G’d had commanded Moses. All the ‎individual components of the Tabernacle conformed to the ‎commandments of the Torah.‎
When understood along these lines, Rashi’s query how ‎this was possible, seeing that at the time Moses was given these ‎instructions most of the commandments in the Torah had not ‎yet been revealed and communicated to the people; in fact they ‎were only communicated to Moses when the latter was in the ‎Tabernacle. (Compare Leviticus 1,1 ‎ויקרא אל משה וידבר ה' אליו מאהל ‏מועד לאמור‎, “He called (invited) to Moses, and spoke to him from ‎the Tabernacle saying, etc.” (instructing him to communicate ‎G’d’s commandments to the people.) Betzalel’s having stood in ‎G’d’s shadow at the time when Moses had heard the instructions ‎while on Mount Sinai, was aware of what G’d had told Moses at ‎the time, so that he was able to query what he thought was a ‎lapse of memory on the part of his great leader. The laws of the ‎Torah were first communicated to Moses as a potential, whereas ‎once the Tabernacle had been erected (also called Tent of ‎Testimony), G’d repeated His instructions as an actual, i.e. as ‎applicable as and when capable of being performed.‎

Genesis ‎21,1. “Hashem took note of Sarah as He had ‎promised, and He did for Sarah as He had said.” Bereshit ‎Rabbah 53,4 understands this verse as reflecting the truth of ‎what the psalmist said in psalms 119,89 ‎לעולם ה', דברך נצב בשמים‎, ‎‎“The Lord exists forever; Your word stands firm in heaven.” The ‎author of the Midrash queries, rhetorically, if David meant ‎that G’d’s word does not stand firm on earth? He explains that ‎what the psalmist had in mind was that the promise G’d made to ‎Avraham He had made in heaven, i.e. when the angel announced ‎that Yitzchok’s birth would occur at a time prearranged in ‎heaven. (In Genesis 15,5, long before the angel announced ‎Yitzchok’s impending birth, G’d had take Avram outside his tent ‎and had make him look at the heaven telling him that he would ‎father children and that the would be as numerous as the stars in ‎the heaven.) For our sages in B’rachot 7 the verse is ‎understood to make the point that even when G’d makes a ‎conditional promise, He will keep it. The Talmud there uses as its ‎proof Deuteronomy 9,14 where G’d had suggested that He would ‎trade the Jewish people who had made the golden calf for a new ‎Jewish people founded by Moses.‎

Even when a person suffers great ordeals and afflictions, God can make amends and console him, to the point that he is appeased and consoled over everything he has gone through. Our passage in the Zohar continues: Concerning this, David HaMelech said (Tehillim, 119), “Your mercies are great, O God, give me life according to Your law.” If God is merciful with the wicked, then all the more so with the righteous. Who needs the greatest healing? The ones who are in pain. Who is in pain? The wicked. They need God’s mercy and healing, so as not to be left abandoned… Come and see! It is written (Yeshayahu, 57:17), “He went rebelliously in the way of his heart.” Afterward, it says, “I have seen his ways, and I will heal him, and I will lead him, and I will console to make him and his mourners whole.” “He went rebelliously,” that is to say, even though the wicked do all kinds of intentional sins, pursuing their desires, with others warning them time and again, and the wicked not heeding them, nonetheless, upon returning to the path of God in penance, they will find the healing ready for them to receive. Here we see that God can comfort them over all their suffering. He can return everything to the good, and look forward for the good. This is as our passage in the Zohar concludes: Now that it has come back to him, we clearly see consolation on all sides. Now he is certainly alive – alive in all aspects, grasping onto the Tree of Life. By virtue of grasping onto the Tree of Life, he is called a Master of Repentance (Baal Teshuva). For indeed, Knesset Yisrael⁴³⁹Literally, the entire community of Israel. Symbolically, the Shekhina, and the sefirah of Malkhut. is called teshuva. And he is the “Master of Teshuva.” The ancients said, “[he is] an actual master of Teshuva.” For this reason the sages said, “A perfectly righteous man cannot even stand in the place of greatness where the Baal Teshuva stands.” Even an inkling thought of repentance is not lost from God, as the Zohar says (Terumah, 150b): No good intention is ever lost from before the Holy King. For this reason, fortunate is the man who entertains good thoughts for the sake of his Master! For even if he cannot bring his them to fruition, God considers his intentions as if they had actually been accomplished. This is as it is said in the Zohar (Mishpatim, 99b): Everything in the world, no matter how small, has a place where it can stand and hide, a refuge to enter into and never be lost … These are the great powers of the Holy Supernal King, and nothing is lost. Even a fleeting breath has a place, and the God does with it that which He will. Even man’s slightest word is not in vain, for everything has a place. Even all of the pain that man suffers will not be ignored by God. God will comfort every soul that suffers. Since God knows the final purpose of everything, and that it is better for the creation to have been created than not. He shows this understanding to a person’s soul while he is still in potential, before he enters the world. Then the soul agrees that it is better for him to be created, as it is written in the Zohar (Vayehi, 233b): But come and see! Before they descend into the world, all the souls that exist from the very first day of creation stand before God, in the very form that they will take on after they come into the world. They stand above in a body that looks just like the body they will enter. When the time comes for this soul to descend into the world, the soul stands before the Holy One, blessed be He, in the exact form it will take on when it enters the world. At this time, God has the soul swear that it will keep the commandments of the Torah, and not transgress the statutes of the Torah. From where do we derive that the soul stands in this way before God? As it is written (Melachim 1, 17:1), “I swear by the Living God, whom I stood before…” God shows the soul its entire structure, his characteristics, abilities, and even its physical attributes. The soul agrees to it all, down to the last detail. From man’s point of view, it is difficult to understand how the soul could agree to all of the pain it will have to endure in this world. Before the soul descends into this world it has not yet sinned, so why doesn’t it stay safely where it is, before it has to incur punishment? Why would it intentionally enter a world where it has no choice but to suffer?

When David in psalm 119,89 says: he means that G’d’s word, ‎promising to do good things for Israel, refers to the period during ‎which the “promise” is in limbo in heaven awaiting being ‎converted into reality. [The word ‎עולם‎, derived from ‎נעלם‎ does ‎not only mean “forever,” but primarily “hidden,” seeing the ‎distant future is hidden from us. Ed.] When used as “forever,” by ‎David, it means that our faith in G’d fulfilling His promise is ‎unlimited, our patience inexhaustible. When David, in verse 90 ‎adds the words ‎כוננת ארץ ותעמוד‎, “You have established the earth ‎and it stands,” he refers to G’d having created the appropriate ‎vessel designed to reveal this principle in the person of Avraham.‎
When we find the Torah using the expressions ‎פקד‎ and ‎זכר‎ ‎respectively to describe different nuances of remembering, we ‎find the expressions ‎דבור‎ and ‎אמר‎, as similar nuances of ‎‎“speaking,” or “saying.” The word ‎אמירה, אמר‎ is used when the ‎statement made by one’s mouth was made discreetly, not ‎publicly, whereas the word ‎דבור,דבר‎ is used when the spoken ‎word was said in public. Rashi already refers to the fact that ‎the expression ‎אמר‎ when used in the verse above refers to Sarah’s ‎being pregnant, something private not seen by everybody, ‎whereas the word ‎דבר‎ applies to Sarah having given birth, ‎something very public. By that time Sarah had become the ‎instrument used by G’d to show to one and all that He fulfills His ‎promise.‎

Genesis 31,13. “I am the G’d of Betel to Whom you have ‎vowed, etc.” The spelling of the word ‎ביתאל‎ both here and in ‎‎35,1 suggests that a house may serve more than one function. It ‎may serve a person to dwell in, just as clothing serves the body as ‎a “house” to surround him with a feeling of security and ‎familiarity. When you see the clothes a person wears, this serves ‎as a preparation to making the acquaintance of the personality ‎behind these clothes. When you see the house a person lives in, ‎you get an initial impression of what kind of a person lives in ‎such a house.
‎When a person prepares to “meet” his Creator, in prayer, etc., ‎he also has to prepare himself for what to expect, by performing ‎certain commandments that serve his soul, much as his clothing ‎serves his body. One of the most appropriate “introductions” ‎prior to addressing G’d is to do so in a house designated for this ‎purpose, i.e. a synagogue. The type of “preparations” used, ‎depend on the importance of the “interview” one expects to have ‎with one’s Creator. Issues involving life and death, obviously ‎deserve a more careful preparation.‎
In psalms 84,2 and 84,3 respectively, the authors (sons of ‎Korach) describe their yearning for entering either the dwellings ‎of G’d on earth, or at least to be allowed to enter the courtyards ‎of these dwellings. They speak of both their body (flesh) and their ‎‎“heart,” (spirit) yearning for this. They hope that admission to ‎these sites will enable them to shout for joy to the living G’d. ‎Their yearnings reflect the fact that they are in exile, and they ‎pray that they not be treated worse than birds that always can ‎return to their nest. They are aware that in order to really come ‎close to G’d, they must first make the appropriate preparations, ‎i.e. build a Temple with the courtyards surrounding it. The ‎psalmist clearly suggests, at the end of verse 3, that only after ‎these preparations have been made can his heart and body rejoice ‎having come closer to His Creator. He can then approach G’d ‎being certain that he, on his part, has made the appropriate ‎preparations.‎
Our author sees in the word ‎נכספה‎ at the beginning of verse 3 ‎an additional spiritual plus of the psalmist, as he made plain that ‎he had made the necessary preparations that would entitle him to ‎have the desired “interview” with Hashem, but he ‎emphasizes, that contrary to performing such a commandment ‎as putting on phylacteries, an act that does not involve ‎pleasurable sensations of his body, what he did when building a ‎courtyard and temple for G’d involved him emotionally on the ‎highest level. He was literally yearning for the spiritual ‎experience no less than the body on occasion yearns for satiating ‎physical urges.‎
On folio 40 in Kidushin 40, where the Talmud deals with ‎the relative moral/ethical value of appropriate intentions when ‎compared to performance, but not necessarily with appropriate ‎intentions, we are told that if someone planned sincerely to ‎perform a certain commandment but was prevented from ‎carrying out his intention by forces beyond his control, he is ‎credited with having performed the commandment. In ‎emphasizing the value of a constructive attitude, the Talmud ‎adds that planning to commit a transgression, and carrying it ‎out, brings in its wake a penalty only for the execution, not for ‎the planning that preceded carrying out the foul deed. ‎‎[The planning of idolatry is the only exception to this ‎rule. ibid. Ed.]‎
This is also the meaning of Deuteronomy 6,6: ‎והיו הדברים האלה ‏אשר אני מצוך היום על לבבך‎, “these matters that I command you this ‎day shall be on your heart.” Even commandments that are not ‎capable of being fulfilled in exile should remain part of our ‎constant consciousness through discussion between father and ‎son, pupil and teacher, so that we are not deprived of receiving a ‎reward for them as if we had actually performed them. The desire ‎to be able to perform the respective commandments in reality is ‎the principal criterion used by G’d to judge our mitzvah ‎performance. Even King David in Chronicles I 22,14 already ‎referred to this when he said (concerning his desire to build a ‎Temple) ‎והנה בעניי הכינותי לבית ה' זהב ככרים מאה אלף כסף וגו'‏‎, “and ‎here through denying myself, I have set aside for the house of the ‎Lord one hundred thousands talents of gold, and one million ‎talents of silver, etc;” what David meant was that the ‎commandment of charity cannot only be fulfilled by the actual ‎handing out of sums of money, but can also be carried out by ‎preparing such monies to be ready when the need arises. David ‎adds that even while he was not able to hand out sums that were ‎needed because he was temporarily short of even bare essentials ‎for himself, i.e. ‎בעניי‎, his sincere desire to be of help would be ‎accounted for him as if he had actually carried out his desire, as ‎we know from psalms 119,106 ‎נשבעתי ואקימה לשמור משפטי צדקך‎, “I ‎have sworn to keep Your just rules.” [As soon as the ‎opportunity will arise. Ed.] Yaakov had similar thoughts ‎when he vowed that if G’d would be with him and grant him even ‎minimal comforts he would turn what is now merely a stone into ‎a building designed to serve G’d. G’d reminds him (31,13) of this ‎vow by describing Himself as ‎אנכי הא-ל ביתאל‎, saying that His ‎presence will not only be with him in his heart, but that he can ‎now carry out his desire to convert the stone he had anointed ‎into a house of G’d.‎