Chasidut para sa Isaias 57:17

But this is not true of the Nations of the World, who remain in smallness and materiality; and therefore our Sages of Blessed Memory said about Balaam, “He does not even know how to divine the mind of his animal!” (Berakhot 7a), and it is understood. A person is created small — in small mind — and yet the Holy Blessed One’s intention in creating humanity was to serve [God], so why did [God] create him initially without mind, without awareness to serve [God]? But this is also for the previously stated reason, for wisdom has the advantage over folly (Ecclesiastes 2:13), and darkness yearns to merge into light (Zohar 1:17a). For smallness is considered “feminine” with respect to greatness, Your desire shall be for your husband (Gen. 3:16). The feminine awakens longing in the groom; the person is initially in the aspect of smallness and afterward, when he comes into great mind, he attaches everything — even the smallness — to greatness and he has the aspect of “coupling.” And that is [the meaning of the verse], as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you (Isaiah 62:5), and it will be clarified elsewhere. And it is impossible to come to the light of greatness immediately, therefore smallness comes first. And that is the second interpretation [of the question], “Why do goats [izzim],” which means a person’s arrogance [azzut], “walk in front.” That is to say, smallness comes to a person first; and the answer is “According to the creation of the world, which at first was dark” etc. as was stated. And that is [the meaning of the verse] And God called the light Day etc. — just as there is no day without night, just so there was evening, which is the smallness first, and afterward there was morning, the great mind that inspects his deeds. One day: they are made into a single unity. And this is the general order according to which every person should walk, that upon arriving at thirteen years awareness should enter him. “Awareness” connotes attachment from the lower level to the upper; and that is complete awareness along the lines of Return, wayward children (Jeremiah 3:22), which is to say things that have been made wayward as in he went wayward in the way of his heart (Isaiah 57:17), return and attach together. However, there are those who do not merit awareness even at thirteen years, and they are called “small.” And a person who has no awareness is seduced after his Inclination; and that is the meaning of the seduction that is written in the Torah, in the incident of Potiphar and Joseph. And one must save oneself as Joseph saved himself. And my Teacher, may he be remembered for life in the World to Come, commented on what [our Sages] of Blessed Memory said, that he saw a vision of his father’s image (Sotah 36b) and the clothes that she wore for him in the morning she did not wear for him in the evening (Yoma 35b): but Joseph gazed at the source of beauty and glorification — from where does it come? For the essence of glorification is God’s life-force, which is the characteristic of Jacob, Splendor. And that is [the meaning of] “a vision of his father’s image;” and we find that each person needs to do so.

And this is the quality of Shovavi”m, when those who are fit have the custom of fasting and crying out to blessed God with prayers and penitential liturgy. For in this season, we read in the Torah about the exile in Egypt, and their redemption, which came through their crying out, as written above. And we need to do the same now in this exile, as written above. And so: “Return, wayward children – shuvu banim shovavim” (Jeremiah 3:14, 22), for the essence of troubles and exiles – may the Compassionate One save us from them – is in a lack of knowing, which is the quality of the wayward, when everyone goes around in the world like a literally crazy wayward person, as it is said (Isaiah 57:17), “The went wayward on their [own] heart’s path.” And when a person understands all this about themselves, how they are wayward and literally crazy, because they follow the stubbornness [or: imagination] of their heart and don’t pay attention to the eternal end-point, they will certainly have pity on themselves and do a lot of crying out to blessed God, and in that way will merit, in accord with their own qualities, to understanding and knowledge, which are the essence of the means to redemption generally and specifically, for each person and each time, as is written above.

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?