Musar para sa Awit ng mga Awit 8:7

And as we’ve stated, the attainment of love and fear is entirely proportional to how great your actions and study of torah and mussar books [(i.e. books that discuss concepts pertaining to morality, such as this one)]. Likewise, you will grow in torah and mitzvot proportional to [your] love and fear. For love is etched from doing the will of one’s beloved with all one’s heart, soul, and might. Great waters are not able to extinguish love (Song of Songs 8:7). And proportional to the greatness of love, one bothers himself even with great trouble, and inclines his shoulder to bear upon [the] heaviness for many days, and it will seem in his eyes as if it were only a few days due to his love for the creator, just as [it is] for love of money and other loves. And if a person were to love the Torah and the commandments [just as much as] he loves money, his wife, children, and the like, it would be sufficient. If only the priest’s wife would be like the innkeeper’s! And by this he knows whether he has reached the level of one who loves his creator — if he rejoices over His word like if he found a great spoil (Psalms 119:162). And he will be careful not to waste even one moment by not engaging in Torah and mitzvot, even more so than he would distress himself over the loss of a massive fortune, for it is more precious than pearls, and all desirable things cannot compare to it (Proverbs 3:15). And in truth they say (Avot 6:2): “Woe to them, the creations, from the insult of the Torah!” For there is no greater insult than this: one who can reap a massive profit and bring joy to his creator, but does not care. And if he engages in laughter and idle talk, about him the verse says (Jeremiah 2:13): “The have abandoned me, the fountain of living waters, and made for themselves broken cisterns”. Happy is the man who hears and thinks about the reward of a mitzvah, that doing it brings joy to his creator, because one hour of Torah and good deeds in this world is more beautiful than all of the life in the world to come. And one must increase his strength where there is financial loss so that he will not love money more than the Creator. And whoever neglects the love of their creator by not engaging in torah or performing a mitzvah that he has at hand for any reason, finds that his love of that thing is greater than his love of the Creator, and there is enough contempt and anger [in this]. And in all that he performs in this world he should think about the ultimate purpose — that doing so will give him strength in his service of G-d, blessed be His name. And all acts should be for the sake of heaven in line with what is written (Proverbs 3:6): “In all your ways acknowledge [G-d], and your paths will be smooth”. This is a core principle of the Torah, because through this he will not deviate from the path, and all his actions will be weighed with a balance, by measure, weight, and volume, and it was found that all his days he was only occupied with Torah.

The fifth quality: The pious man considers every labor and trouble a pleasure and a joy in serving God, blessed be He. For our father, Abraham, peace be upon him, was afflicted with wanderings and was tried by many trials, yet he endured them and accepted everything graciously. For from his very youth, the Creator, blessed be He, tried him by journeys, and afterwards by having Sarah taken from him twice, and after that by circumcision, and after that by directing him to send Ishmael away, and after that by instructing him to slaughter Isaac. If his service had been out of fear and not out of love, it could not have endured all those trials. But because of his love for God, blessed be He, everything was sweet in his eyes. As it is said (Song of Songs 8:7), “Many waters cannot quench love.”

Remember that Abraham's principal attribute was his characteristic of חסד. The mystical element of חסד is found in the מים העליונים, pure unpolluted waters of the Celestial Regions. The attribute of חסד is also the mystical domain of אהבה, love, as we shall explain. Once Abraham had acquired the virtue of חסד he could enter the domain of אהבה, love, and that is why G–d called him אוהבי. We are told in Song of Songs 8,7 that even מים רבים, many waters, cannot extinguish love. The waters referred to are the מקור מים חיים, the source of truly life-giving waters. There are, however, many cisterns, broken and yet filled, which cannot retain the waters in them. In Kabbalistic jargon these are called קליפות; they are alluded to in Genesis 37,24 as והבור רק אין בו מים, "the pit was empty it did not contain any water." We know from Psalms 52,3: חסד אל כל היום, that "G–d's חסד lasts all day long," though we also have a verse in Psalms 7,12 which appears to contradict this, namely א-ל זועם בכל יום, "G–d pronounces doom each day." The answer is simply that G–d pronounces doom over these קליפות, negative forces, reducing them to impotence. This is the חסד G–d performs all day long. Ezekiel 36,25 may have alluded to this when he says: וזרקתי עליכם מים טהורים וטהרתם מכל טמאותיכם, "I shall sprinkle on you pure waters and you will be cleansed from all your impurities. These waters wash off the accumulated pollution known as קליפות, the result of sins. It is these waters which are called מעטים, little. The reason that "a little water" is sufficient is that קליפות do not increase or multiply naturally, as opposed to קדושה, which increases and multiplies naturally; that is why מים רבים, many waters, are unable to extinguish the "fire" of love, and love continues forever. The principal aspect of the virtue of kindness is deeply rooted in the mystical domain of those מים רבים discussed above On occasion some of these waters have to be used in order to rinse off the קליפות and to "humble" such outgrowths due to sins. This is why Abraham spoke about "a little water to be taken."