תּוֹרָה סב - וַיַּסֵּב אֱלֹהִים

Torah 226

Through the eating of Israel — the unification of the Holy One, blessed be He, and His "Shechinah" face to face is made. But the eating must be food that has been clarified from the hold of the husks that became mixed into foods through the eating of the Tree of Knowledge. For through food that has the above-mentioned admixture — the person can come to sin. And through the sins — a separation is made between the Holy One, blessed be He, and His "Shechinah".

The clarification of foods is through faith. And when one has complete faith — one can through one's eating make the unification of the Holy One, blessed be He, and His "Shechinah" as above — in the aspect of: ""graze in faithfulness"" [Psalms 37:3] — the aspect of eating through faith.

Regarding what Hashem Yisborach has limited to the human intellect to be able to understand — it is a great commandment to sharpen the intellect to understand the matter fully. And about this it is said: ""know what to answer the heretic"" [Avos ch. 2]. But there are questions that it is not possible for the human intellect to find an answer — for only in the future will the answer be revealed. It is forbidden for a person to investigate these. And all who rely on their intellect and investigate and enquire into these — about them it is said: ""all who come into her do not return"" [Proverbs 2:19]. For regarding such questions it is forbidden to rely on one's intellect — only to rest on faith.

Even regarding those questions for which there is an answer — sometimes the pathways of the intellect are blocked and one does not know how to respond to the heresy [apikorsus] in one's heart. And this is the aspect of: ""their heart is divided"" [Hoshea 10:2] — that there is conflict in the heart between the two impulses. For the knowledge is from the good impulse in the heart — and the concealment of the knowledge is from the evil impulse in the heart. And this is itself the heresy and the questions through which the evil impulse hardens his heart to fall into evil. And the rectification for this is study of the halachic decisors [poskin]. For the root of this conflict is from the conflict in holiness — which is the conflict of the Tannaim and Amoraim in the Gemara. And from their descent downward — the conflict of the evil impulse is formed from it. And through studying the decisors — decided halachos — one connects to the peace in holiness. And then the conflict of the evil impulse in the heart is nullified. And the gates of the intellect are opened — so that one knows how to respond to the heresy in one's heart. And as long as one does not merit to sharpen and open one's intellect — one must rely only on faith even regarding these questions — for the primary matter is faith.

"Shalom" [שָׁלוֹ"ם] has initial letters: "V'da mah sh'tashiv l'apikoros" ["V"'da "M"ah "Sh"'tashiv "L"'apikoros — know what to answer the heretic]. For through studying decided halachah — which is the ruling and the peace — one merits to know how to answer the heresy in one's heart.

Also through studying the decisors one merits to pray properly with all one's heart. For the primary obstacle to prayer — that one does not pray with proper devotion — comes only from the fact that faith is not complete — and one's heart is divided from Hashem Yisborach. For in truth — if a person truly knew and believed with a complete heart that the entire earth is full of His glory — and He, may He be blessed, stands over him during prayer — and hears and listens and attends to every single word of the prayer — certainly he would be very careful to direct his words — and would pray with great blazing. But because his heart is divided and he is not strong in this knowledge with a complete heart — because of this he is not so careful — and does not direct his heart well in his prayer. And all this flows from the questions and denials in the heart as above — which are the aspect of the conflict of the evil impulse in the heart. And therefore through studying the decisors — through which the conflict of the evil impulse in the heart is nullified at its root as above — through this one merits to pray properly with all one's heart in truth. And this is: ""I will thank You with an upright heart"" [Psalms 119:7] — ""levav"" [heart with two "beis"] specifically — with both impulses — when? — ""when I learn Your righteous rulings"" — as above.

The primary completeness and adornment of faith is through drawing the distant close to Hashem Yisborach. And to complete faith — which is to draw the distant close — one must first raise up the sparks of the letters of speech. And the rectification for this is fasting. For all desires are aspects of husks and surplus — for without the desires the body can sustain itself. And when the desires overpower the person — this is the overpowering of the husks over the holiness. And the primary desires are the desire for food and drink — from which all desires follow. And when they are overpowered — they draw speech into exile to the straits of the throat toward the nape — so that one cannot speak any word before Hashem Yisborach — in the aspect of: ""my throat is parched"" [Psalms 69:4]. And through the fast — that one starves oneself — the straits of the throat are moistened — so that it should be fulfilled: ""cry out in the throat — do not hold back"" [Isaiah 58:1] — that one be able to speak before Hashem Yisborach and pray with devotion. And then speech itself turns and gathers the holy sparks from among the husks — and they remain without vitality. And then the nations — whose nurture is from the husks — when they see that there is no vitality in them — they cast off their faith and turn all to the faith of Israel. And through this he completes the faith — and merits complete faith. And merits to clarify the foods. And then through his eating the unification of the Holy One, blessed be He, and His "Shechinah" face to face is made.

Faith only applies to a matter whose reason one does not know. And even so — for the believer the matter is revealed as if seeing with one's own eyes the thing one believes in — because of the greatness of one's complete faith.

Faith is renewed for a person each morning — in the aspect of: ""new each morning"" [Lamentations 3:23]. And during the day — because of the distractions of worldly affairs — faith is covered over.

Because faith is not complete — through this many stumble in error — and make causes [sivos] into intermediaries between themselves and Hashem Yisborach. That is, they believe in Hashem Yisborach — but also believe in an intermediary — and say that causes are necessary. That is, they believe for example in the cause of livelihood — which is commerce — and say that the cause of commerce is the primary matter — as if G-d forbid without the cause of commerce Hashem Yisborach has no power to give them livelihood. And the cause of healing — which is medicines — they make the primary matter — as if G-d forbid without medicines Hashem Yisborach has no power to heal. But this is not so. For Hashem Yisborach is the cause of all causes and the reason of all reasons — and requires no cause. And while we engage in these causes — we must believe in Hashem Yisborach alone — and not make causes into the primary matter.

The primary thing of all things is the beginning [ha-haschalah]. For all beginnings are hard — because one goes from one opposite to another. But after the beginning one enters gradually into habit and it is not so difficult. And therefore the service and fear of the person each day is according to the beginning. For each day one must turn back to receive strength from the beginning — where it was hardest as above. Therefore one must begin anew each time. For perhaps one's beginning was not as it should be — and if so — all one's service is also not complete as it should be — for everything is according to the beginning as above. Therefore one must strengthen oneself to rouse one's heart to begin anew each time — with great power of blazing and new strengthening in the service of Hashem Yisborach — as if one had never begun at all — so that one's service be as it should be according to the power of the beginning as above. And likewise each time one must worry this worry — lest one has not yet begun properly — and strengthen oneself to begin now anew as above.

Each time one comes to the Tzadik — one must also see to come each time anew. Not as if one has already been with the Tzadik and is now coming a second time — but as if one is coming now for the first time anew. For one must begin each time anew — for the primary is the beginning as above.

Through conflict — denials [kfirous] come. And through this one also cannot pray with devotion as above. But when there is peace — the denials and heresy in every person's heart are nullified. For when there is peace and people convene together — each one can respond to his fellow's evil opinions — and draw the denials and heresy out of his heart. But through conflict — they do not convene together to speak one with another — to turn his opinion to the truth. And even when they speak together — no one listens to his fellow's words because of the victory-desire of the conflict. It is found that the primary faith depends on peace.

To merit to peace — is through studying the decisors [poskin].