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Chapter 16
And this is a great rule in the service of Hashem (God) for the beinoni (the in-between person). The main thing is to govern and to rule the nature in the left cavity, by the light of Hashem that shines for the nefesh elokit (the soul from God) in the brain, and to rule the heart, when he contemplates in his brain the greatness of the Ein Sof (the Endless), blessed be He. This is in order to bring forth from his understanding a spirit of knowledge and awe of Hashem in his brain, so as to turn from what is bad, whether of the Torah or of the rabbis, and even a light prohibition of their words, God spare us, and love of Hashem in his heart, in the right cavity, with longing and with desire, to cling to Him by fulfilling the mitzvot (commanded deeds) of the Torah and of the rabbis, and Torah study, which equals all of them.
And beyond this, one needs to know a great rule in the service for the beinoni. Even if the power of his intellect and the spirit of his understanding do not reach so as to bring forth love of Hashem in the revelation of his heart, so that his heart would burn like flames of fire, and so that he would want, with desire and longing and a yearning felt in the heart, to cling to Him, but the love is only concealed in his brain and in the hidden places of his heart, [Gloss: The reason for this is that his intellects, and his nefesh (the lowest level of the soul), ruach, and neshamah, are of the aspect of gestation and concealment within the understanding, and not of the aspect of birth and revelation, as is known to those who know the hidden wisdom.] That is, the heart understands, through the spirit of wisdom and understanding in his brain, the greatness of the Ein Sof, blessed be He, for everything before Him counts as absolutely nothing. Therefore it is fitting for Him, blessed be He, that the nefesh of every living being should expire toward Him, to cling and to be included in His light. And his own nefesh and his ruach that are within him, it is likewise fitting for them to be expiring toward Him with longing and desire, to go out of their sheath, which is the body, in order to cling to Him. Only, against their will, they live here inside the body, and they are bound up in it as in a widowhood during life. And no thought of theirs grasps Him at all, except when it grasps and clothes itself in the Torah and in its mitzvot, as in the parable of the one who embraces the king, mentioned above. And for this reason it is fitting for them to embrace Him with all the heart and the nefesh and the might. That is the fulfillment of the 613 mitzvot in deed, in speech, and in thought, which is the grasp and the knowledge of the Torah, as mentioned above.
Now, when he goes deep into this matter, in the hidden understandings of his heart and his brain, and his mouth and his heart agree, so that he carries this out with his mouth according to what has been concluded in the understanding of his heart and his brain, that is, that his desire is in the Torah of Hashem and he recites it day and night with his mouth, and likewise the hands and the other limbs fulfill the mitzvot according to what has been concluded in the understanding of his heart and his brain, then this understanding clothes itself in the deed, the speech, and the thought of the Torah and its mitzvot, so as to be for them an aspect of intellects and life, and wings with which to fly upward, as if he had occupied himself in them with actual awe and love in the revelation of his heart [with desire and longing and a yearning felt in his heart and in his nefesh, which thirsts for Hashem because of the flames of fire of his love in his heart, as mentioned above], since this understanding in his brain and in the hidden places of his heart is what brings him to occupy himself in them, and had he not contemplated in this understanding he would not have occupied himself in them at all, but only in the needs of his body. [And even if he is constant in his learning by his nature, even so, by his nature he loves his body more.]
And this is what the sages of blessed memory hinted in their saying (Kiddushin 40a): “A good thought, the Holy One, blessed be He, joins it to the deed.” And it should have said: “Scripture counts it for him as if he had done it.” But the matter is this. The awe and the love that are in the revelation of his heart are what clothe themselves in the deed of the mitzvot, to give them life so that they fly upward. For the heart too is material, like the other limbs, which are the vessels of the deed. Only, it is inward, and it is life for them, and therefore it can clothe itself in them, to be wings for them so as to raise them. But the awe and the love in the understandings of his brain and in the hidden places of his heart, mentioned above, their ways are high above, far above the aspect of deed, and they cannot clothe themselves in the aspect of the deed of the mitzvot, so as to be for them an aspect of intellects and life, to raise them so that they fly upward, unless the Holy One, blessed be He, joins them and binds them to the aspect of the deed. And they are called by the name “a good thought,” for they are not actual awe and love in the revelation of his heart, but only in the understanding of his brain and in the hidden places of his heart, as mentioned above. [Gloss: And as it is written in the Zohar (Zohar, part 3, 291a) and in Etz Chaim (Gate of the General Principles, chapter 11; Gate 4, chapter 5), understanding is the letters ben (son) and bat (daughter), which are awe and love, and sometimes the understanding comes down to be intellects in the feminine of Ze’ir Anpin (the smaller face), and these are the letters of the Torah and the mitzvot, and the person of insight will understand.]
But this joining, the Holy One, blessed be He, joins so as to raise the deed of the mitzvot and the occupation with Torah that are done by means of the good thought mentioned above, up to the world of Beriah (creation), the place to which the Torah and the mitzvot ascend when they are done by means of intellectual awe and love that are in the actual revelation of his heart. But even without this, they still ascend to the world of Yetzirah (formation), by means of the natural awe and love concealed in the heart of every one of Israel from their birth, as will be explained further on at length.
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