מוסר אויף ירמיהו 2:13

And behold, the love of The Holy One, blessed be He, is one of the 613 commandments. It is an ongoing commandment, which every person can fulfill at all times and at every moment through remembrance: it is fulfilled through thought and meditation alone, for when he brings into his heart that it is proper to love Hashem with a great love, he fulfills a great mitzvah. And behold, these commandments that are fulfilled by thought alone are easy to fulfill, for after all, a man is not able to exist without thinking for even one moment. And if he thinks foreign thoughts or evil contemplations instead of thoughts of love of G-d, blessed be He, and fear of Him, and the like, this is nothing but an evil heart — one which "abandons the fountain of the waters of life and hews broken cisterns" (Jeremiah 2:13). And in place of being able to do a mitzvah, which would give him reward, "the fools passed by and were punished". And therefore, it is proper for every man to strengthen himself with determination and fortitude to distance all foreign thoughts and evil contemplations, and implant holy thoughts even “running and returning”. And immediately upon realizing that they are not doing good by thinking foreign thoughts, they should feel regret, flee from them, and cleave to their Creator as much as they are able.

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.