בית

A house that is uninhabited – beware of entering it, for it is a place of demons. One who has negative experiences in one place should go to another. If there is an uneducated hassid (-one who is overly pious), do not dwell in his neighborhood. Any house in which words of Torah are heard will not be destroyed.

When a house is fit to be blessed, then when the Tzaddik comes to the house, the blessing comes as well. If wine is poured out like water in a house, there is blessing. Do not enter a house with idols in it. Someone who wants to enter a house to live in it, he should recite the Torah in it's entirety, and afterwards he can enter to live in it.

In such a case, the house is as if it were destroyed, even though it is standing.

There are places that are conducive to good fortune, and the opposite is true as well. Relating to the issue of the good and bad that comes to a person in a fashion proximate to natural events, it is all according to the time and place. This destruction comes and harms the woman, and she does not conceive. At the entrance to a man's house it is discernible if his ancestral merit has finished, or if his ancestral merit is effective.

One needs to be careful, in the building of a house, that it should not have in its construction, wood from trees that produce fruit.

The lumber that is in a structure, if a man merits, it will be in the aspect of “fiery angels standing” (Isaiah 6:2), and the structure will stand for a long time.

If he does not merit – the fiery angels are burned, and thus, the fires that abound.

When a man builds a wall, and its capstone falls, he should know that this is an evil omen for his progeny.

One who takes revenge out of jealousy destroys his house. The place from where a man exited, he does not have desire for that place - to get from it pleasure. A man does not find satisfaction (lit.

A city which has major ascents and descents (in its topography), its inhabitants grow old halfway through their lives. enjoy or benefit) unless he dwells in a place where his forefathers dwelled. It is a segulah (-auspicious), when one moves into a new house to live, to bring in a sword, knife, or other weapon.

Someone without land is not a man. There are places which cause one to commit transgressions. A sign for this: "With wisdom the house will be built. (Mishlei - Proverbs 24:3)" "Wisdom" is the acronym for the passage, "Extorted trade are their weapons.” (Bereshit 49:5)." The word "their trade" from this passage shares two definitions, "their swords" and "their dwellings" (-as both variations are explained in Rashi there, t.n.).

153. RAK: See Chayai Moharan, The Greatness of the Wonders of His Attainment, entry 25.

Anger and adultery of a woman destroy the house. When the threshold of a house, or its entrances are destroyed, it is an evil omen for the house. 154. RAK: See Avodah Zarah 19a.

Living on the upper floor of a house is more conducive to serving G-d than living in the bottom floor. The cap of a house is a sign for the group or family, concerning what will happen to them.

156. RAK: Zohar Part I, 59b; Nitzotzei Oros there, entries 5-6. See below 211.

Sometimes the construction of the house prevents a woman from conceiving, as when the beams are not placed according to their order from the Six Days of Creation. The entire world is filled with disputes — both among the nations of the world, and so in every city and every city. And so in every house: between neighbors and between each one with his wife and household members and servants and children. And no one takes to heart the ultimate purpose — that every single day a person dies, for the day that has passed will never be again, and every day he draws closer to death.

And know that it is all one. For the dispute that occurs in the particular — between a man and his household and the like as mentioned — is precisely the same as the dispute between kings and nations. For each one of the household members is in the aspect of a distinct nation, and they contend with one another as there are wars between nations. And it is also possible to identify in each person from which national aspect he derives — for the characters of the nations are known: this one is wrathful and murderous and the like. And similarly one can find these in the particulars of household members. And even if one person does not wish to quarrel and wishes to sit in quiet and tranquility — even so he is compelled to be within the dispute and the wars. Just as we find among the wars between kings and nations: sometimes there is found a nation that wishes to sit in tranquility and wants no war at all — on the contrary, it would have been pleased to prostrate itself before its neighbor many times — even so it is dragged by force into the war, for this one says it should be on its side and this one says the opposite, until they wage war against it as well. So too is it precisely in the particular, in the household wars mentioned above. For the human being himself is a small world (157) and comprises within himself the entire world and its fullness — all the more so the person together with his household, who comprise all the nations within them and contend and clash as mentioned. And therefore sometimes when a person sits alone in the forest he can become insane — for this comes from being alone, since all the nations are comprised within him alone, and they clash one against the other, and he is compelled to transform at every moment into the aspect of another nation according to whichever nation prevails — since they are all comprised within him alone. And because of this he can go completely insane from the reversal of views within him through the contention of the nations that are all comprised in him alone. But when he is among people in a settled place, the war has room to spread out among each of the household members or among the neighbors as mentioned.