אות-יב

Our Sages of blessed memory said in the Midrash on the verse: "And I, through Your abundant kindness, will come to Your house", etc. — which follows the verse about "those who speak falsehood," etc. — that David said this about Doeg and Achitofel and those who disputed him. And he concludes: "And I — as they did, so did I." Yet: "Through Your abundant kindness I will come to Your house." And likewise must every person say about himself — particularly when he truly knows in his soul the pain of his transgressions. Then he must revive himself and greatly strengthen his soul through the kindnesses that Hashem, may He be blessed, has done with him — that he merited to draw close to the true Tzadik, and at any rate he is not one of those who dispute him, and he merits to be included within the holy gathering and the holy house of study of the holy assembly of the true Tzadik. And he should say to himself: "And I — as those who dispute did, so have I done — yet through Your abundant kindness I will come to Your house" — meaning to the abovementioned house of study. Through this all my hopes are forever. For truly in every generation there is found a yeshivah [academy] of students with a true Rebbe who engage in their house of study with genuine Torah novellae — capable of drawing close to Hashem all the very distant souls who are difficult to grasp and bring to holiness. And some have fallen into the valley of weeping, into the depths of Gehinnom and the lowest depths, through their evil deeds — and principally through the impurity of their evil thoughts, particularly through licentiousness, which is the essential evil inclination, as is explained in the holy Zohar. About this our Sages of blessed memory said: "If that disgusting one [the evil inclination] encounters you — drag him to the House of Study!" For this is the essential tikun — to draw one's thought into the abovementioned holy House of Study — for through the very fact that he remembers himself as part of this gathering: if he is stone it will be melted. For from this House of Study flows such a holy and pure spring that can purify all the very fallen souls through the deep and holy advice flowing from it, and raise them from the valley of weeping and restore them to Hashem, may He be blessed. Therefore whoever merits to be included within this House of Study must strongly strengthen himself and believe and know that every good point and every arousal of holiness that he arouses at any time to sever himself from evil thoughts and draw holy thoughts upon himself — and whatever he strives with all his ability to do some good, even though between himself and his Maker what happened happened, and this has already occurred thousands of times — even so, no good point is ever lost. For the true Tzadik — the head of the academy, the head of the holy House of Study — raises and gathers and assembles everything into the house of holiness and builds wonderful structures from them, by elevating the aspect of arousal from below from such low places — for this is the essential tikun of all worlds that depends on the arousal from below of the free-choosing human being specifically. And the lower the level, the more precious and valuable it is when some holy awakening rises from there. And through this the true Tzadikim build in each generation the Mishkan and the Holy Temple — until through this the final house will truly and completely be built, which will endure forever. (ibid., Ois 65–69, 82–83, 87) One must be a great akshan in the service of Hashem — and understand this well. For upon every person who wishes to enter into the service of Hashem, even the smallest of the small, inevitably there must pass innumerable ascents and descents and many kinds of falls and calamities. For sometimes a person is deliberately knocked down from the service of Hashem. And for all this one needs immeasurable great strengthening, as is somewhat explained above. And many times he must hold and seize himself only in the way of stubbornness, and one needs very, very great stubbornness in this. Remember this matter well, for you will greatly need it. (ibid., Ois 8)