Kabbalah sa Mga Awit 34:9: Kuntres Mattan Torah & Idra Zuta

7. Many people make the mistake of comparing our holy Torah to the discipline of ethics. This is because they have never tasted the taste of religion. I recite the verse as applying to them, “O taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalms 34:9). Both ethics and religion are true; they are directed toward the same thing, which is raising man from the filth of narrow self-love and bring him to the peak of the love for one another. But they are still as far from each other as the Creator’s thought is far from people’s thoughts.

King David, following the verse, “More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter” that alludes to the three columns’ outpour of sweetness and preciousness, concludes with, “Moreover by them is your servant warned…” (Ibid.), that is, he was careful not to receive from the left column without the right. Rabbi Shimon concludes with, I testify that all my life I have been careful by them, the three columns, not to make the mistake of receiving from the left column on its own, except on one day. I was making crowns for the king in the cave of Meron, he did not make sure the left would be incorporated with the right, and I saw a flame of burning fire across the cave. That is, he saw the judgments of the left column without the right, which is burning fire, and I was shaken. Since that day I am consciously careful by them, to receive only from the three columns together, and I have not abandoned them all my life. Blessed is the portion of he who is warned by the king’s sweetmeats and properly tastes them. It is written of this, “O taste and see that Hashem is good” (Tehillim 34:9) and “Come, eat of my bread…” (Mishlei 9:5).