Da'as Tevunos - Section 40

Said the Intellect - More than that which you said, shall I tell you with regard to this matter. Because the truth is certain that the Holy One blessed is he could have created his world in an all encompassing way - with his capability that we cannot understand, his unlimited actions and without a past, without reason and without revolution; and if he created like this - he would have closed the mouths of all of his creations, that they would not open their mouths at all about his actions, for it would not be possible for us to understand his way at all, because an all encompassing way - his capability cannot be grasped by our intellect, and cannot be understood by man whose knowledge is limited by its specific rules. But because the Heavenly will wanted man to be able to understand a small part of His ways and actions, and just the opposite, wanted them [man] to try to do this and to chase after this a great deal, therefor he chose to action in opposite fashion in the ways of man, meaning, in a graspable and understandable order. And the general rule is - that he wanted to act according to the measure of the creations and not according to his measure, therefore he gave us room to contemplate them, and to understand at least a tiny part, if not the enormous [whole]. And the proof of the matter - the act of creation as it is written in our Torah, for there he testifies about Himself that he created his world in divided time periods, and differentiated utterences, and in an order that he wanted, and not all of it in one moment, and not in one utterance with which He could have created. And from now we need to differentiate all his actions and their reasons, and more so their consequences, all the classes and types and details, according to the order which is maintained in the ways of mankind:

And let us return to our subject. Behold, when we say - Singularity, you already heard that we want to say - the negation of all but Him, and we find that this matter is generalized to all characteristics of His perfection which have no limitation at all, because all that involves him is elevated and perfect - we always need to understand there is nothing but Him in this character, that there is no opposite to it, there is nothing that restricts it; for all of this is from the generalization of singularity, as we explained. And we find that we learn two things from this introduction, 1) - that which we explained already, there there is no applicability at all to any other characteristic that He would create that which is opposite to his perfection, except for the character of His singularity, meaning, that when when he wants to reveal the character of His singularity may He be blessed and to clarify it well in complete explanation as we explained earlier with regard to all parts of his parameters. 2) that with regard to this complete singularity - all other characteristics are like details, and it is a generalization, for it influences all of the characteristics, as we have shown for us to know, that all which is within His perfection which has no end or measure, among all of them it is unique in the character of singularity, there is none other like it, there is opposite to it, there is nothing that holds it back, as we explained. And we will root this truth in the truth of is necessary existence, for it is the center for all that we can say about His perfection, and to all that we cannot articulate as well; and this is that which we know that He alone is obligated to exist and it is required the he is, and that there not be other than He, and this is simple to all those with the holy faith. And further within you will find the value which emerges from this proposition:

From now you have already seen that which I already said to you above, what distinguishes the power of this characteristic of singularity from all other characteristics of perfection - for this is what gives space for this path of deficiency and completeness, effort and the receipt of reward. For indeed if the Heavenly Will didn't want other than the revelation of the characteristics from his perfection, he wouldn't act other than through perfect actions according to this perfection that he wants to reveal, and it would not be appropriate that there be in them any deficiency at all, as we already introduced, for to explain any other characteristic except for the characteristic of singularity - it does not apply to demonstrate deficiencies. And if there were no deficiency - there would be no place for the work of man, and no place that he receive reward. But when He chose to reveal from his perfection, His singularity will be blessed, then it emerges from this that there will be deficiency in his creations, for he needs to show the deficiency in order to show His perfection.

But this is not yet the end of the explanation of the singularity; rather in the end from the power of his perfection the deficiency will in truth be absent, and everything will remain repaired through the power of the governance of his goodness which will rule alone, then it will occur that it will be actively revealed. And indeed see what emerges from this - for behold this will certainly cause that even though the creations were created with their deficiencies, nevertheless the deficiency will not be a set blemish in them, rather just the opposite, a temporary blemish, a blemish that must in all circumstances be removed, but that there are many ways to be found in which to cause it to be removed:...

And understand the root of all of this, for behold this deficiency did not come to exist other than from the concealment of the countenance of the Master may he be blessed, for he did not want to illuminate his countenance before his creations immediately from the beginning, such that they would be complete from the beginning, rather just the opposite, He concealed his countenance from them and left them deficient, for behold the light of the countenance of the King - is certain life, and the concealment of it is the source of all negativity, and we will discuss this later with the help of heaven. But since the purposeful intention in this concealment was not be hidden, rather just the opposite, to be revealed later on, and to remove all of the bad that comes into existence only from this concealment, behold he therefore placed for Himself a rule and law to reveal the countenance of his goodness which is concealed; and this will either be through the acts performed by mankind, these are the laws and Torahs which he gave to us His Torah, the Torah of truth, which if man shall do them and live through them in perpetual life, for the reward of a commandment - is a commandment, it is the illumination of his countenance may His name be blessed, for He concealed them from may in the beginning of his creation; for behold that therefore for effort was he created, for when the inclination rules over him, and his evildoing is multiple through all kinds of deficiencies, and the distance which he has from the light of life; and the actions of the commandments illuminate upon him the hidden light, until such time that he completes the law of His commandments, he completes himself with them to light with this light of life:

Indeed if he does not do good, behold even so the heavenly singularity will want to be revealed, for not forever did He conceal his countenance from His world, with his wrath poured out will He rule over these sinners in their souls, and they will bear their sins until sin is removed from the world, or when their uncircumcised hearts will surrender and they will repent and live:

And not only this, rather the intention of the concealment of His countenance that we mentioned, is only so that He return and reveal it[his countenance] and they repent with his mercy, behold even this choice that he leaves us now, and the matter is dependent and stands either to the good or the bad G-d forbid according to the majority of action, its end is not to continue to exist like this, rather the time that the heavenly thought left is needed and adequate for all the souls which he made, that through this they shall be rectified - who through their righteousness, and who through their repentance, and who through the receipt of afflictions; and this is the time that he set of six thousand years, like the words of our Rabbis may their memory be blessed (Rosh haShanah 31a; Sanhedrin 97a). And afterwards he will renew his world for man to be like angels and not like asses, but they will be removed from this coarse material, and from the its negative consequences, which is the evil inclination and all that is derived from it. And even in the time of the Messiah the text is written (Ezekiel 36:26-27), "And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh..." "...and I will cause you to follow my laws..." And the sages may their memory be blessed said (Shabbos 151b, Midrash Rabbah Ecclesiastes 12:2), "And the years will arrive where you will say I have no desire for them (Ecclesiastes 12:12) - these are the days of the Messiah, which have no merit and no obligation" and this is clear, for when man is purified from the evil inclination, behold his service is only through enforced impetus, and praise does not reach him at all:

Indeed, behold this is from the construct of the heavenly singularity alone may he be blessed - to demonstrate the greatness of His complete governance; for at any time that He wants, He leaves the world to blow in the wind and continue in the passage of time, a time when negative rules in the world; and not only this, but He does not prevent everything that is in the power of the negative to do, and even for his creations to reach the lowest level. Absent his world being destroyed because of this, because the governance is His alone, and He made it, and He tolerates, and He crushes, and He heals, and there is none other than He alone. And behold this is a strong stake for the faith of the children of Israel, where not through the tenderness of their hearts or from the length of the exile or its difficult bitterness, for just the opposite, the Holy One blessed is he permitted the negative to do all that is in its power to do, as we explained. And at the end of all - all the more that the negative makes the yoke more difficult for mankind to tolerate, all the more will HaShem reveal the power of his singularity may He be blessed and his great governance which is unlimited, and from the depth of the many terrible distresses will blossom salvation through his certain great power:

For it is true, that mankind could have be worthy in their actions, and recognize the truth, and abandon the ways of falsehood of this world in a desire to come close to their creator; and this would be with them knowing and understanding already that everything which is the opposite of the way that HaShem commanded is nothing other than derived from a type of negativity that the Heavenly Will wanted, and created through the concealment of his goodness. And therefore, they will be disgusted by this deceit of their eyes, and they will choose the hidden light - the light of the countenance of the living King. And if they were to do so, behold His blessed Singularity would be revealed to them through themselves, and they would find the hastening for themselves of the salvation; and the Holy One Blessed is He would not need to show them the difficult path of exile and its length, for because the truth became clear to them from their own intention - this is enough, and when it becomes clear - it will become clear. For once they already saw the negative and recognized it, and abandoned it and attached themselves to the truth of his singularity - they have done that which is needed, for all the intent is only that the truth of this matter be known to them, in order that from there and onward they act with the truth that was revealed to the, if os then when it is revealed - it is revealed:

Will you not see - this occurred to the first man himself, and understand well this matter. For if the Holy One blessed is hear had created the world only from the side of good without a side of negative at all, then thought could not have described negative at all, in order to understand the singularity in His perfection, as we explained early. But since he already created the negative, then certainly thought could describe it, and to recognize from its power the Singularity in truth. And indeed, tbe first man had already seen negativity, for was it not the tree of knowledge of good and negative that the Holy One blessed is he had forbidden to him, and even so his eyes caused him to err to contemplate this as desirous to the eyes, and and good for food, and pleasant to study like the words of the text (Genesis 3:6), "And the woman saw...". And you find, that she saw immediately that there was room to for error G-d forbid, and to say either there are two domains G-d forbid, or all the other bad ideas that were placed before them by the snake:

And indeed the first man was in truth a great wise person, and he should have contemplated this with his wisdom as appropriate; and he already knew the truth of this matter from the perspective of his wisdom, for all that he saw opposite that which was told to him by the Blessed One from the truth of the rectification - is nothing other than a fabricated lie, from the construct of the negative that He created may His name be blessed to proclaim the truth of His singularity, and with which to test man himself to give him merit. And had he remained in his faith, and had not turned after the evil inclination, but just the opposite, had strengthened his his heart this faith, then he would have been called he who grasped the singularity of the Heavenly One, for he already saw and described with his mind that which is the negativity, and also grasped with his wisdom that all which is negative - is not other than that which was created from Him may He be blessed for his own honor. And behold, it would have sufficed that he be strengthened with this faith to not transgress the word of G-d, and this until the night of the holy Sabbath, when the Rabbis say, that then the Holy One blessed is He would have done in one day that which he is doing now in six thousand years; And it would be that in the end it would show him in action that his belief in His singularity may He be blessed is true, and this, that he would have nullified in one moment all the negativity in the world:

But the first man was enticed by desire and his lust, and then he returned and thought up bad logical arguments in order to make it easier for himself. And therefore this is like that which our Rabbis of blessed memory said (Sanhedrin 63b), "Israel did not worship Idol worship other than to permit themselves illicit relations in public"; and the Rabbis of blessed memory said (Sanhedrin 38a), "The first man was a heretic". And here, then it was necessary to show him through wonder what he did not want to grasp from the aspect of knowledge, and this was to show him what negativity is truly; and how, even though he is given such a large space, in the end everything has to come to the rulership of the singular good; and this is the difficult path of this world that was decreed upon him, in order that in the end he come to the faith that he did not want to stand by from the beginning, rather that it will be made clear to him through wonder in detail, that which he could have grasped from the beginning, and to make clear to him everything in one moment:

And it is the same for his children after him as well, for if they want to grasp this, and to establish this idea in their souls from the approach of wisdom - that would be enough, for they only need only to know it, and they do know it, and when it becomes clear - it becomes clear. But since man is not meritorious through his acts, and just the opposite, follow after the deceit that is apparent to their face with all the poor ideas that we mentioned above, behold the Holy One blessed is he needs to reveal to them that which they were unable to grasp. And this is only through the way that he does in this exile, where he has hidden his countenance in concealment after concealment, until negativity has been strengthened in the world - the purpose of great strengthening; and as the Rabbis may their memory be blessed (Sotah 49a, see there), "There is no day whose blessing is not greater than another". And behold, in the end of it all - suddenly he will come to his sanctuary, of the singular master blessed is he, and the glory of G-d will be revealed and will be seen by all together:

And that which is now because of the significant concealment of His countenance, wisdom has been diminished and actions have been damaged, and as s consequence to this all of the creations themselves have been damaged and diminished, as they said (Sotah 48a), "...the taste of the fruit has been taken...", and all the other negative things that our Rabbis may their memory be blessed have told us, and which we see with our own eyes - behold the land is chaos, and like their saying may they be blessed (Sotah 49b), [in the time before Mashiach], brazenness will increase and prices will increase...", for all of this is the strengthening of great negativity, behold when the glory of HaShem will be revealed - all wisdom will return to the straight path, and all actions will be restored as at the beginning, and people will cleave to their creator, as it says in the text (Joel 3:1) "I shall pour out my spirit on all flesh..."; and similarly (Jeremiah 31:33), "And man will no longer teach is fellow...to say know HaShem, for all will know me from the small among them to the great"; and it will be that the general passion for the whole world will be to made holy with His holiness may He be blessed, and like the matter that says (Isaiah 2:3), " And the many peoples will travel and say let us go and ascend to the mount of HaShem...and he will instruct us in his path and we will follow after him...". And born from this will be all the successes of the creations, as the matter that is said (Psalms 72:16), "Let abundant grain be in the land on the tops of the mountains...."; (Isaiah 11:6) "and the wolf will dwell with the lamb...":

In the end, you shall see that when the Heavenly Will chose to go in this path, he gave space for all that he is needed for the lower [creations] for their true perfection. For when he is concealing his countenance, behold he gives space for deficiencies, and when he gives space for deficiencies - he gives space for service in order to complete them. And since the concealment was done only in order to reveal, behold this gives space to rectify those deficiencies with the power of the revelation of the perfection. And as the concealment was done for revelation to all to occur even from itself, behold he gave a set time for the days of choice, for in the end all of the world will be rectified in complete rectification, and from then and onwards will be the time of receipt of the reward for the service, which passed already, like their saying may they be blessed (Eruvin 22a), "Today to do them and tomorrow to receive reward":