Хасидус к Хавакук 2:4

I heard from my master an explanation of the Talmud (Berakhot 35b): Many did like Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai, and they did not succeed, etc. And that idea is that there are two types of people — there is one who behaves according to nature, he plows at plowing time, he harvests at harvest time, etc.; the second one acts above nature to trust God, that He will bring sufficient sustenance from his few business dealings, such that he can devote himself to being occupied in the service of God, may He be blessed, all of his days. And then his work will be done by others. And this is [the idea of] But the righteous person shall live by his faith (Habakkuk 2:4) that they expounded in Makkot (24a:27), "Habakkuk came and established [all of the commandments] upon one [statement], etc." This is not the case with one is not on the level of trust, but wants to act like R. Shimon ben Yochai. For he leaves his level of nature but has not reached the elevated level. So he ends up shorn here and shorn there. And this is the meaning of what they said, "Many did like R. Shimon ben Yochai," even those who are not in this category; hence "they did not succeed." And the words from the mouth of a sage are graceful [hidden wisdom]. And this is with my own expansion to explain it. Although I also heard that it was because many did like R. Shimon ben Yochai, that is why they did not succeed. And the words from the mouth of a sage are graceful [hidden wisdom]. (Toledot Yaakov Yitzchak, Parashat Miketz 35b)

Indeed, regarding what is explained in the Talmud, “A person does not commit a sin unless a spirit of nonsense has entered him” (Sotah 3a), relates to another matter. For is it not known what is stated in the verse, the tzaddik shall live through his faith (Habakuk 2:4)? For sometimes a person falls from Awareness, and it is by way of a trial from the Blessed Creator, by taking from him the Awareness in order to see if he will stand by God’s ways. Nevertheless the righteous holds to his way through his faith; and even though they take the Awareness from him, nevertheless he walks and strengthens himself in God’s ways. But this is not true if he does not have the faith; then when he falls from Awareness and “a spirit of nonsense enters him” he might commit a sin, God forbid. And this is what our Sages of Blessed Memory intended in their saying, “A person does not commit a sin unless a spirit of nonsense has entered him,” which is to say that he fell from Awareness by way of a trial. But in the Egyptian exile they did not have Awareness at all, and then there was no relevance for Choice as we have stated. And that is because the Awareness was in smallness, which is to say that they were in Awareness like a minor who has no [legal] awareness; and therefore it was stated in the Talmud, “A minor has no [legal] intention” (Hullin 13a). And that is [the meaning of] the verse’s further statement, that you may tell … how I have toyed [hit’allalti] with the Egyptians (Ex. 10:2), from the idiom of child [ollel] and infant (Jeremiah 44:7) – as if [God was saying] “Like I have made myself small in Egypt,” which is to say that the Awareness was in smallness in Egypt. And after this it says that you may know that I am the LORD (Ex. 10:2), which is to say that they will have the whole Awareness in their Exodus from Egypt, to know God with Awareness.

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.