אות - עז

In every place there is righteousness — even one who does all manner of wickedness, even so he must of necessity have some righteousness within him. Only there is a distinction between people: when does the righteousness begin? For there are people with whom the righteousness begins immediately, and there are those with whom righteousness only begins afterward — after doing wickedness. And there are those with whom the beginning of righteousness is even more delayed — after committing several wicked acts. And similarly there are those with whom it begins even later and later. But even so, righteousness will be found in him too — only it is greatly delayed.

For example — there was a case I saw in a village: a soldier came and commanded that the post horses be given to him. And they bribed him with money. And afterward a second soldier came, and the first enticed him also to take the horses as mentioned. And they bribed him as well. And afterward a third came who truly needed horses for the postal route and wished to take the horses. And the village owner went and pleaded before the first, who was the commanding officer, that he should let him be. And then that first soldier showed him favor and commanded them to let him go and not take horses from him. It is found that with this robber soldier, the first one mentioned, righteousness began after committing two wicked acts as mentioned — and then righteousness began with him and he commanded to let him go. For even though he was a robber and did such wicked acts, even so on the third time righteousness began with him and he was compelled to let him go. It is found that in every place there is righteousness — only the distinction is when the righteousness begins, as mentioned above. And understand.

And this is the aspect of what is written in the holy Zohar — that even in the sitra d'smala [the left side] there is right and left. Only their right is far from even the left of holiness — it is found that even in the sitra achra there is a right, in the aspect of righteousness, only their right and righteousness begins very late — even later than the left of holiness. Understand.