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Chapter 17
And with this, what is written will be understood (Deuteronomy 30:14): “For the matter is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it.” For at first sight, “in your heart” goes against our sense [and the Torah is eternal], since the matter is not very near, to turn his heart from the desires of this world to a true love of Hashem (God). And as they said in the Gemara (Berakhot 33b; Megillah 25a): “Is awe then a small matter?” And all the more so, love. And the sages of blessed memory also said (Ecclesiastes Rabbah 5:1) that tzaddikim (righteous people), specifically, have their heart in their own power.
Rather, “to do it” means only the love that brings one to the doing of the mitzvot (commanded deeds), which is the wish of the heart in the hidden places of the heart, even though it is not in the revelation of his heart like flames of fire. And this matter is very near, and easy, for every person who has a brain in his skull. For his brain is in his power, and he can contemplate with it whatever he wishes. And when he contemplates with it the greatness of the Ein Sof (the Endless), blessed be He, he will of himself bring forth in his brain, at the least, the love for Hashem, to cling to Him by fulfilling His mitzvot and His Torah. And this is the whole of a person. For it is written, “this day, to do them” (Deuteronomy 7:11; and see Eruvin 22a), for this day is specifically the world of deed, and tomorrow, and so on, as has been explained in another place.
And the brain, by its nature and by its inborn character, rules the left cavity of the heart, and his mouth, and all the limbs, which are the vessels of the deed. The exception is one who is truly a rasha (a wicked person), as the sages of blessed memory said (Ecclesiastes Rabbah 5:1), that the reshaim are in the power of their heart, and their heart is not in their power at all. And this is a punishment for the size and the force of their sins. And the Torah did not speak about these dead, who even in their lifetime are called dead. For in truth it is impossible for the reshaim to begin to serve Hashem unless they first make a return for the past, to break the kelipot (husks that hide holiness), which are a dividing screen and a wall of iron that separates between them and their Father in heaven, by the breaking of his heart and the bitterness of his soul over his sins, as it is written in the Zohar on the verse (Psalms 51:19), “The offerings of Elohim are a broken spirit, a broken heart,” and so on, that by a broken heart the impure spirit of the sitra achra (the other side) is broken [see there, the portion Pinchas, page 240, and the portion Vayikra, page 8 and page 5a, and in the commentary of the Ramaz there].
And this is the aspect of the lower return, to raise the lower hei and to set her up from her fall, for she fell among the outer ones, which is the mystery of the exile of the Shekhinah (the divine presence), as the sages of blessed memory said (Mekhilta on Exodus 12:40): “They were exiled to Edom, the Shekhinah is with them.” That is, when a person does a deed of Edom, he brings down and draws there an aspect and a spark of divinity that gives life to his nefesh (the lowest level of the soul), ruach, and neshamah, which are clothed in him in the nefesh bahamit (the life-soul of the body) from the kelipah in his heart, in the left cavity, which reigns in him while he is still a rasha and rules his small city, and his nefesh, his ruach, and his neshamah are subdued in exile beside her. And when his heart is broken within him, and the impure spirit and the sitra achra are broken, and they scatter, and so on, she rises from her fall and she also stands firm, as will be explained in another place.
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