Da'as Tevunos - Section 78

Said the intellect - See, there are physical essences and spiritual essences. And behold how much difference there is between them, for physicality is certainly lesser relative to spirituality, whose matters are glorified and elevated. And behold how much illumination there is in the spiritual ones and how much darkness and deficiency in the physical ones. Therefore there are for us here two types of creations, creation with great illumination and widespread G-dly emanation and a creation with minimized illumination and minimized G-dly emanation. And these two characteristics, the character of the creation with illumination and the character of the creation without illumination, the character of the illumination is from the consequences of the construct of His goodness, and the character of the creation without illumination - is from the consequences of the absence of His goodness. And you will see, that the spiritual ones - all of the occupation is with matters of holiness; but the physical ones - their matters are secular matters and lowly and loathsome things. And we find, that all of the work of man under the sun is nothing but vanity of vanities, and the superiority of man over the beast is not to eat and to drink, and to do business in the world, these are all certainly lesser and insignificant. The general rule is, all matters of physicality and of nature are darkness and not light, in that the Master may He be blessed hides his countenance from the world and does not illuminate it with the light of His holiness, just the opposite, he leaves them in disorder without direction, in these lowly ways. But the matters of the spiritual ones - this is the path where the light of His countenance resides may He be blessed, for He lights them with His holiness, and this is straightforward. And now you should know, that these two are the foundations of his interaction may He be blessed and its root with all his creations - the character of hiding of countenance, that He is hidden and concealed and does not reveal the splendor of his glory, and the character of the illumination of the countenance:

And that which applies to His behavior - applies to the creation because the course and murky creations were not created other than through hiding of His countenance, for the face of His holiness was not illuminated for them, and the honorable spiritual ones were created through the illumination of His countenance. And according to these fundamental principles was this connection between the body and the soul; that the soul, its matters in all their ways, come and continue through hiding of his countenance; and the soul and all of its matters - through the illumination of His countenance. And behold that man himself is the rectifier and the rectified, for he himself does he rectify through his service, and this is the subject (Sanhedrin 99b), "And you shall do them.." - it is written and you shall do you (Atem), that was explicated by the sages may their memory be for a blessing, and it is in his power [man's] to strengthen the physical and its ways himself or the spiritual and its ways. For if he goes after the vision of his eyes and the physical path of his heart, behold his soul, in place of that which was appropriate for it to be, to help the body, in order to refine it as we explained, just the opposite, causes loss and great damage to itself, for it is immersed in darkness. And the opposite of this, if he strengthens himself against his inclination and turns away from the path of vanity, in order to travel in the path of the Torah and Mitzvah - the soul will dominate over the body and refine it:

And now you will see the revolving of the world, and the difference between those who lived earlier and those who live later, for in truth, one who sets upon their heart the matter which G-d gave to be answered, will be quite amazed by the desire for man to see it running to and fro, day and night without rest, fatigued and tired. And for what are they working - for food and drink, for vanities of vanities which are nothing, for a world of emptiness of the darkness, here today and in the grave tomorrow. But one who is fortunate to see, sees and understands that not for this was man created, rather it would be appropriate that his occupation be only with the grasping of the glory of his master, for it was for this that he was created, and he was given a great deal of knowledge and wisdom, and not to multiply business dealings, or any other immaterial maters. But it is man who spoiled his actions, and caused these for himself today. And in every generation the world is deficient and continues in this matter. For the early ones were closer to the wisdom, and directed towards the intellect, and the later ones are more distant from the intellect and submerged in physical matters and ordinary nature, in business and all works of art, where afterwards man has nothing as we explained earlier. And all this is possible as we said, because the body was created by the singular master may He be blessed through hiding of His countenance, and not through illumination of his countenance, therefore his existence is dark and murky; which is not the case for the soul, for it is just the opposite, created through illumination of his countenance and a view towards the good, therefore it exists and is eternal, and its creation is pure. And indeed, if man strengthened his body and it dominates him, the master may His name be blessed, will measure him in the character with which he measures - to interact with him only through hiding of his countenance. And from this we find that he will be very far from the light of life, from wisdom and knowledge, and submerged in filthy material rubbish and the vanities of this world:

And you will see that this is what happened to man from the beginning, and to his progeny afterward to this day; for when it was that they followed their eyes and the body rules and not the soul, therefore the Holy One blessed is He also went with them in hiding of his countenance. And to Adam was said from the beginning "...by the sweat of your brow shall you eat bread" (Genesis 3:9), and from then and onward "all of the work of man is for his mouth, and also the soul shall not be filled" (Ecclesiastes 6:7). And behold wisdom became excluded and was removed from mankind:

And this is a great principle, with the boundary that is set by his mind - so are the thoughts of man and his desires. Do you not see - a young child does not recognize what is wisdom, and will not have desire for it at all, rather just the opposite, for a child will flee from school, and will not think there is goodness other than the vanities which which he is occupied; and when his knowledge expands and his boundaries expand, he returns to desire things which are more proper, and on this path according to all of his elevations. So it is generally for humanity - when it was that all were receiving G-dly emanation from the great illumination, they did not find personal satisfaction other than from wisdom, and from that which is truly good; and when it its the case that all are not receiving G-dly emanation, they don't recognize as good other than the vanities of this world. And this is the negativity which was made after the sin of Adam, that removed the G-dly emanation and the illumination from humanity, and they remained sunken still in coarse physical matters. However when the Holy One blessed is He rectified things for Israel through the giving of the Torah, they damaged themselves with the calf and the rmainder of their transgressions with all their sins, and the world remained in darkness in the apparent ways of nature:

It is not like this when man rules his soul, for then the Holy One blessed is He will also illuminate his countenance upon him, and will elevate him to a great level to be like one of the Seraphs, for the righteous are greater than the ministering angels, and it is like it was for the generation of knowledge at Mount Sinai, and like it will be in the future at the time that it says (Joel 3:1) "I shall pour my spirit upon all flesh...":

And here also this good has gradations that Israel and the world merited in different generations, sometimes more and sometimes less; as for example, the generation of Moses, the generation of David, the generation of Solomon, and like that all the generations which merited good, it all was the illumination of the countenance of the Blessed One upon them according to the elevation of their souls, which were elevated by the power of their deeds:

And see, that when we understand the details of the existence of the body and the soul, and their situations in the hiding of haShem's countenance and illumination of his countenance, as they were created in al the parts of their details in this matter, we will understand from itself the general rules of the organization of His behavior may He be blessed in the way that he guided and guides his world, at times towards the good and at times towards the negative G-d forbid; and we will see how much great wisdom we find in this behavior; and we will see also what a great principle it is in man, that with him - in his matters and upon his actions - are dependent the entire world, and all that is done with it from the beginning until the end: