אות-ח

The essential strengthening and the proficiency in the halacha of teshuvah mentioned above — the essential thing is through complete faith [emunah sh'laymah]: to believe that Hashem is one, first and last, and His dominion is in all places. And whatever passes over him and over the entire world — light and darkness, night and day, destruction and building — he should bind everything to Hashem, may He be blessed. This is the aspect of binding the lowest point to the highest point. And through this he will merit that no day of his life will be lost, and each day he will merit to find the lost things belonging to the root of his soul. (ibid., Ois 15) One who is mixed in among non-Jews — that is, who has dealings and commerce with them — must guard himself very carefully so that this will not harm, G-d forbid, the holiness of his Jewishness. For it is easy to be caught in their net, G-d forbid. He must strengthen greatly and remind himself each time of the holiness of his Jewishness, and ask much from Hashem, may He be blessed, not to learn from their deeds and ways. (ibid., Ois 244)