Da'as Tevunos - Section 48

Said the Intellect - The first time period which we need to explain now, is the time of concealment of His singularity may He be blessed like today, it includes the time of service of man, as we explained. And behold in accordance with his perfection, we already said, He could certainly do all of His actions perfectly, and there would not be in His actions other than total goodness and completion, without any deficiency or negativity at all. Indeed with His will to interact with his creations with this manner of behavior that we already mentioned, behold He caused a truly new order to exist, which is not according to the law of the heavenly perfection may He be blessed, rather that which is needed for the creations to give them the merit and good reward in their end, and this is the way of the Good and the Negative, the reward and the punishment; for according to this way, behold the good and the negative are equivalent and both come in this world, and so he prepares the good for the good ones like the negative for the evildoers; and according to this way we find the creations damaged at times, and rectified at times, and permission is given to the accuser to accuse, and to the destroyer to damage those whom the Lord condemns, and we find the peoples of the world and idol worshipers, and similarly all of the other iniquities in the world, that upon them the promises of the prophets may they rest in peace, that they will be removed from the world in the future, like the matter that is said (Isaiah 2:18), "And the idols will completely vanish"; (Zechariah 13:2), "...and the spirit of impurity shall I remove from the land"; (Isaiah 25:8), "Death shall be destroyed forever..."; (Isaiah 11:9, 65:25), "No iniquity and no corruption in all my holy mountain...", (Berakhot 33b), "All is in the hands of heaven except for fear of heaven" - For the Holy One blessed is he does not want to withold anything from the hand of mankind if they want to corrupt their actions. And from this was born all the great corruptions that have been in the world from the day that the Lord created man, and there is is no rest for the righteous in this world, for the inquiry of man is great upon him, and the accuser testifies against him at all times, and the Holy One blessed is He is exacting with his pious ones like a strand of hair. This is generally the way in which the Heavenly Will innovated according to the manner of concealment of His influence and singularity, and this way is not dependent other than on the concealment of His countenance of goodness may He be blessed, for if he had wanted to reveal the truth of His rulership, he would have removed all of these iniquities, and would not have left other than the good and rectification alone, as he will do in the future to come:

And know as well, that certainly now as well, even though He has hidden His goodness and withheld the rule of His perfection from the creations, even so it is certain that He sustains them, for from where else would their being and existence and maintenance come if not from His sustenance. If so certainly He is the sustainer, but this sustenance of His that he provides now - in comparison to that which would be appropriate for him to provide if He were sustaining according to the rule of his perfection he wished to provide sustenance - is not other than a shadow for man, or like a small mark that remains from writing on paper after the letters have been removed from it. And we would call the general type of this sustenance - darkness and not light, with regard to the complete sustenance which could come if through the rule of His perfection he were to provide sustenance. Indeed with regard to ours this is all of our lives, for with this sustenance we live and exist, and not without it. And we find, when we mention the type of this sustenance which is innovated in the hiding of the countenance of His goodness may He be blessed, we call them with one generalization - like the shadow of the heavenly power alone, not more; and when we dissect it to its details - we find within it all the rules and laws which we discern in the heavenly behavior, for all of them together are a very small thing relative to the heavenly power if He were to act in his completeness, as I mentioned:

And indeed when the ultimate purpose is only revelation of the Singularity, and not its concealment, and like we explained before, that this concealment is only intermediate in order to come to this end of revelation; therefore, even though the concealment of His countenance is to innovate with it this manner of behavior of good and negative, He returns nevertheless and oversees with the characteristic of goodness and according to the law of his rulership, to complete bringing about all of this behavior in the general rectification. And this is a simple matter, since ou have already heard how He set a time limit to the this darkness of the good and negative all the time of the six thousand years; and He already decreed from the beginning the end which is the purpose of all of this, and His Singularity will remain revealed, and the goodness of the world will be established forever and ever. If so, every day that passes, we find the world coming closer to its perfection; and not only this, rather that the Holy One blessed is He brings about overturning through the depths of his wisdom, and continuously revolves transformations, to bring the world towards this perfection. And this is what the text said (Tehilim 40:6), "Many things have you done HaShem my Lord, your miracles and thoughts are towards us..."; and similarly said the prophet (Isaiah 25:1) "...Counsel from the past is faith for the faithful"; and similarly it is said (Samuel II 14:14) "...and he plans so that the exiled will not remain exiled". For certainly the Holy One blessed is He does not want to hold to the way of Good and negative for such a long time, and afterward to abandon it and to grasp the way of rulership and Singularity in one moment, like a person who regrets and is consoled; rather from the depths of His wisdom may He be blessed he revolves the events from the depths of his wisdom such that, from within the Good and negative itself in the end we reach this point, that all will be completed, and He may His name be blessed will reveal His Singularity. And more will be explained from this later with the help of heaven:

And we find that in truth with these two characteristics the Master may He be blessed always affects, and He set these two in his rules the foundations of the world, 1 - the character of reward and punishment, it is the manner of the Good and negativity in one balance of merit and liability, and called this behavior the manner of justice, that the Holy One blessed is he sits and judges all the world according to their actions - the good and the bad. And it comes with His justice - the character of his goodness which is according to the rule of His perfection, according to the manner of His rulership, for with his power he wishes to rectify all of his creations. And behold, according to the character of reward and punishment - the Holy One blessed is he, (as if it were possible), makes his actions subject to the actions of man, that if they are good He also does good for them, and if they are bad he is compelled, (as if that were possible), to punish them; and like the topic of the text (Psalms 68:35) "Give strength to G-d..."; and its opposite (Deuteronomy 32:18) "You neglect the Rock that bore you..."; and as they said may they be blessed (Eichah Rabbah 1:33), "At the time that Israel does the will of heaven - they add power to the strength above, and when they do not do the will of heaven - they weaken the strength above", G-d forbid, and according to his character of governance and rulership it says (Zechariah 3:9), "...and I will remove the transgression of that land in one day"; (Jeremiah 50:20), "The transgression of Israel shall be sought and not be and the sin of Judah and not be found". And behold according to the character of Good and negativity - The justice of G-d is true to give to man according to his ways quid pro quo, and there are many ways for haShem to pay man according to his actions, and by his manner will he be made, whether to kindness or to His rod. But according to the wisdom of His goodness in the rule of his perfection may He be blessed - the common aspect to them, is to return everything - to complete goodness, to a complete rectification which will be in the end. And regarding this it says (Malachi 3:6) I am G-d I have not changed". And in the madras of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai they said (Zohar ki Tetzei 281. and see there), "I shall not change in any place". And indeed the manner of reward and punishment is that which is revealed and always seen by the eyes of all, but the revolving that he revolves all towards the good is very very deep, and does not serve to be revealed except at the end, but it revolves and progresses in all periods and in every hour with certainty, and does not stop:

And we find, that certainly the Master blessed is He conquered, as if that were possible, the rule of his perfection in the creation of these creations, and created them deficient and not complete, and gave them a way of behavior and type of influence which none other than darkness of His concealment may he be blessed, from which comes the existence of equivalence of good and negative, and there is existence for sins and their defects and for punishment and their damages. And even so He returned in looked into the goodness of his rule upon these creations to rectify them in a general and complete rectification in the future, for upon it does he revolve the globe day after day, and perpetuates the matters of good and negativity himself, to complete the perfect rectification with the power of the singularity of His rulership may His name be blessed: