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48. And in the holy Zohar, Biraishis (folio 56a): Rabbi Yitzchak said: All those righteous people who were among them afterward, in that generation, all tried to rebuke them, such as Yered, Mesushelach, and Chanoch, and could not. And Rabbi Noson, of blessed memory, wrote in the Laws of the First Fleece (Halacha 3, item 15): All the generations before the giving of the Torah blemished this by opposing the righteous men in those generations, such as Noach and Mesushelach. For then, in those generations all learning was exclusively oral; they studied in the academy of Shem and Ever. And anyone whose heart was touched by fear of God received from them, even then, straight paths for drawing close to Him, blessed be He. But they were very, very few, and most of the world opposed them, because they twisted the words of the living God until they gained a mouth with which to speak against the righteous. End of quotation.

49. In Gates of Intentions (the first discourse on Passover): What the sages, of blessed memory, said is known: those first generations, the generation of Enosh and the generation of the Dispersion, drove the Divine Presence above the seventh firmament through their sins. And know that Israel in the generation of Egyptian bondage were the aspect of those sparks of seminal emission that the first man emitted during the 130 years before Seth was born, as the sages, of blessed memory, said. And they afterward reincarnated in the generation of the Flood. And they too therefore wasted their seed upon the earth, like the root from which they were formed and hewn, until they were dissolved. And this is the meaning of the verse, “And God saw that man’s evil was great upon the earth.” And it is known that seminal emission is called evil, and one who emits it is called evil, etc. And thus that generation was literally the evil of the known man, the first man. And this is the meaning of the verse, “I will erase the man whom I created”: the first man himself, created by God Himself, and these were his sparks, and He wished to erase them. And they themselves afterward returned and reincarnated in the generation of the Dispersion. And concerning them it is written, “And God descended to see the city and the tower which the sons of man built”—the sons of the primordial man; and understand this. And they are therefore called “sons of man,” alluding to their being drops of seminal emission, and therefore they are sons of man: male without female. And then too they added further sin by rebelling against the Most High, but they did not commit that first sin of wasting seed, as the generation of the Flood did. And you need to know that souls are like gold formed within the earth. And when it is extracted, it is filled with filth and dross beyond reckoning, and without the appearance of gold and without beauty, until the refiner wisely removes dross from silver, time after time, refinement after refinement, each unlike the other. And with each refinement it is purified little by little until all the dross is separated from the gold; and afterward it is recognizable as gold. And so it is with souls: through the first man’s sin, good became mixed with evil, particularly in these sparks of seminal emission that he produced during the 130 years. And we have already explained in the discourse on lying down at night and the recitation of the Shema upon the bed that the sparks of seminal emission are very important and holy. But they emerge and become mixed with the shells, and require clarification after clarification to repair them. And in this way these sparks underwent repair little by little until they began to be repaired and reveal the aspect of gold within them; and this occurred in the generation in Egypt. And from this you will understand the proper reason why that unparalleled harsh bondage was decreed upon them. For, corresponding to their sin in the generation of the Flood in wasting their seed, it was decreed upon them, “Every son who is born you shall cast into the Nile,” corresponding to the punishment of the Flood itself. And corresponding to their sin in the generation of the Dispersion, “Come, let us make bricks,” etc., it was said, “They embittered their lives with mortar and bricks.” End of quotation.

50. What is explained there from Likutay Moharan, teaching 65.

51. It says there as follows: Rabbi Yehoshua said, “Rabbi, what did Noach see that he did not ask for mercy for his generation?” He said to him, “Even he did not think in his heart that he would escape. A parable of one who finds a cluster of grapes that are not ripe among the unripe grapes, for had it been among ripe grapes, it would have been nothing.” This is implied by what is written: “For I have seen you righteous before Me in this generation.” It should have said, “righteous before Me”; what does “in this generation” mean? That is, relative to the generation. And therefore he did not ask for mercy. He said in his heart, “If only I ask for mercy for myself and escape—and all the more so [how could I] pray for others?” End of quotation.

52. In Baal Shem Tov on the Torah, in the portion of Noach, this matter is brought from the books of his holy disciples in the name of the holy Baal Shem Tov, who explained it in this manner.

53. See Berachos (folio 29b), regarding the short prayer in which one prays, “Do Your will in the heavens above.” Rashi explains there: “Do Your will in the heavens, where there is no sin, and Your will regarding them is only for good; and, for those below, pass over Your will [by overlooking their offenses].” End of quotation.

A person must not kill himself by judging himself unfavorably, for he does not even know his own place. "And indeed, your blood, for your lives, I shall require." (9:5) One must judge oneself favorably as well. Even though he knows the pains of his soul and the multitude of his transgressions, for they are too numerous to recount, etc.—may the Merciful One deliver us—nevertheless, he must also fulfill in himself, "Do not judge until you reach your place," just as one must fulfill toward his fellow, "Do not judge," etc. For he certainly does not even know his own place, since he certainly does not know from which place he is drawn, and all that has happened to him throughout all his reincarnations, and from which place the evil inclinations and his evil thoughts, etc., etc., are drawn upon him. Therefore, it is forbidden ever to bring oneself to despair, as our master, teacher, and Rebbe, of blessed memory, warned us innumerable times. For one must also fulfill in oneself, 'Do not despise any person,' so as not to transgress the prohibition of bloodshed, Heaven forbid, as explained there in the above-mentioned teaching: the prohibition, "Do not despise any person," is the prohibition of bloodshed; see there. Therefore, to despise oneself excessively, to the point that one might fall through this, Heaven forbid, is certainly also a grave prohibition, for it is the prohibition of bloodshed, which is forbidden even against oneself, as it is written, 'One who sheds the blood of man, etc. And indeed, your blood, for your lives.' And our Sages of blessed memory expounded—and it is brought in Rashi's commentary—that this includes one who sheds his own blood. For one must judge oneself favorably, as explained in the teaching "I shall sing to my God with what remains of me" (in item 282). For who knows his own place? And the essential thing is never to give up crying out. (Likutay Halachos, Laws of Orlah, Halacha 4, item 16)

54. As our holy Rebbe wrote in Likutay Moharan (item 282): And a person must likewise find this in himself, for it is known that a person must be very careful to be joyful always, and to distance sadness very, very much (as explained among us several times). And even when he begins to examine himself and sees that there is no good in him at all and he is full of sins, and the adversary wants thereby to cast him into sadness and melancholy, Heaven forbid, nevertheless he must not fall because of this. Rather, he must search and find some little good in himself, for how is it possible that he has never in his life performed some commandment or good deed? And even though, when he begins to examine that good thing, he sees that it too is full of wounds and has no soundness in it—that is, he sees that even the commandment and the sacred deed that he merited to perform are also full of ulterior motives and alien thoughts and many defects—nevertheless, how is it possible that there should not be some little good in that commandment and sacred deed? For in any event, however it may be, in any event there was some good point in the commandment and good deed he performed. For a person must search and seek to find some little good in himself, in order to give himself life and to come to joy, as above. And through searching and finding a little good still in himself, through this he truly passes from the scale of guilt to the scale of merit and can return in repentance, in the aspect of "And a little more, and there is no wicked one; and you shall consider his place, and he is not there," as above. That is, just as one must judge others favorably—even the wicked—and find some good points in them, and through this truly bring them from the scale of guilt to the scale of merit, in the aspect of "And a little more," etc., "and you shall consider," etc., as above, so it is with the person himself. He must judge himself favorably and still find some good point in himself, in order to strengthen himself so that he does not fall completely, Heaven forbid. Rather, on the contrary, he should give himself life and gladden his soul with the little good he finds in himself, namely, that he merited in his life to perform some commandment or some good deed. And likewise he must search further, to find still another good thing in himself. And although that good thing too is mixed with much refuse, nevertheless he shall draw out from there too some good point. End of quotation.

55. The Ari, of blessed memory, wrote in Likutay Torah (at the beginning of the Book of Iyov): We have already explained that all the souls fell into the depths of the husk through the sin of the first man, Adam. And behold, when there is one precious soul within the husk, they do not permit that soul to emerge from under their hand, for they are nourished through [it]. When there is a precious soul among them there, they are nourished through it and do not permit it to emerge from there at all. Indeed, their intention is to defile it by everything within their power, so that it will always remain in their hand, for they fear that perhaps some person will have the merit to draw it out from there at the time of his marital union. Therefore, when they see some very greatly defective place, they put that soul there and permit it to emerge, so that it will become more corrupted than it was and return to them more defective than at first, so that it will remain in their hands for many days. And behold, guard this secret, for "It is the glory of God to conceal a matter." And know that Terach had intercourse with Amatlai while she was impure in her menstrual state. And then, when the husk saw this place of filth—that Terach worshipped idols and his wife likewise worshipped idols as he did, and not only this, but that she was then a woman in her menstrual state—the husk said, Certainly I shall not find a filthier place than this. And then it permitted the soul of Avraham to emerge from them, and it entered there, for the soul of Avraham had been among them, etc. And [he] found a place to draw out the soul of Avraham from the external forces, for the external forces would not be concerned about this matter, for, since it was entering such a filthy place. End of quotation.