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Chapter 27
And if the sadness is not from worry over wrongs, but from bad thoughts and bad desires that fall into his thought: if they fall to him not at the time of the service, but at the time of his occupation with his business and the way of the world, and the like, on the contrary he ought to rejoice in his portion. For even though they fall into his thought, he turns his mind away from them, to fulfill what is said (Numbers 15:39), “And you shall not scout after your heart and after your eyes, after which you go straying.” And the verse is not speaking of tzaddikim (righteous people), to call them strayers, God spare us, but of beinonim (in-between people) such as he is, to whom thoughts of adultery fall in his thought, whether in what is permitted, and so on. And when he turns his mind away, he fulfills this prohibition. And the sages of blessed memory said (Makkot 23b; Mishnah Makkot 3:15), “If one sat and did not commit a transgression, they give him a reward as if he had done a mitzvah (a commanded deed).” And therefore he ought to rejoice in keeping the prohibition, just as in keeping a positive command, actually. And on the contrary, the sadness is from haughtiness of spirit, for he does not recognize his place, and therefore his heart is sore that he is not on the level of a tzaddik. For upon tzaddikim, surely, foolish thoughts such as these do not fall. For if he recognized his place, that he is very far from the level of a tzaddik, and would that he were a beinoni and not a rasha (a wicked person) all his days, even for a single hour, then this itself is the quality of the beinonim and their service: to conquer the yetzer (the urge) and the thought that rises from the heart to the brain, and to turn his mind away from it completely, and to push it off with both hands, as stated above. And with each and every thrust by which he thrusts it from his thought, the sitra achra (the other side) is subdued below. And by an awakening from below there comes an awakening from above, and the sitra achra above is subdued, the one that lifts itself high like an eagle, so as to fulfill what is said (Obadiah 1:4), “If you lift yourself high like the eagle,” and so on, “from there I will bring you down, declares Hashem (God).” And as the Zohar goes on at length, in the portion Terumah [folio 128], about the greatness of the delight before Him, blessed be He, when the sitra achra is subdued below: that the glory of the Holy One, blessed be He, rises above over all, more than any other praise, and this rising is greater than all, and so on.
Therefore let a person’s heart not fall upon him, and let his heart not be very sore, even if he be so all his days in this war. For perhaps for this he was created, and this is his service, to subdue the sitra achra always. And of this Job said (Bava Batra 16a), “You have created wicked people.” Not that they should be wicked in truth, God spare us, but that there should reach them the like of the deeds of the wicked, in their thought and their musing alone, and they will be fighting always to turn their minds away from them, in order to subdue the sitra achra. And they will not be able to abolish it altogether, for that is done by the tzaddikim.
And there are two kinds of delight before Him, blessed be He, above. One, from the complete nullification of the sitra achra, and its being turned from bitter to sweet and from darkness to light, by the tzaddikim. And the second, when the sitra achra is subdued while it is still in its force and its might, and it lifts itself high like an eagle, and from there Hashem brings it down, by an awakening from below, through the beinonim.
And this is what the verse said (Genesis 27:4), “And make me tasty dishes, such as I have loved.” “Tasty dishes” is a plural wording: two kinds of delight. And this is the speech of the Shekhinah (the divine presence) to her children, the whole of Israel, as they explained in the Tikkunim. And as with bodily tasty dishes, by way of a comparison, there are two kinds of dainties. One is of foods that are pleasant and sweet, and the second is of things that are sharp or sour, only they are seasoned and well prepared, until they become dainties to restore the nefesh (the lowest level of the soul).
And this is what the verse said (Proverbs 16:4), “All that Hashem has wrought is for His own sake, and a wicked person too, for a day of evil.” The meaning is that he will turn back from his wickedness, and he will make his own evil into day and into light above, when the sitra achra is subdued and the glory of the Holy One, blessed be He, rises above.
And not only this, but even in matters that are wholly permitted, whenever a person sacrifices his yetzer, even for a short hour, and he intends to subdue the sitra achra that is in the left cavity. For example, he wants to eat, and he delays his meal until after an hour, or less, and he occupies himself in the Torah during that hour. As it is stated in the Gemara (Pesachim 12b): the fourth hour is the meal of every person; the sixth hour is the meal of students of the wise. And they would keep themselves hungry for two hours for this intention, even though after the meal as well they would study all day long.
And likewise if he bars his mouth from speaking things that his heart desires very much to speak, of the matters of the world, and likewise in the musings of his thought, even in a minute amount: when the sitra achra is subdued below, the glory of the Holy One, blessed be He, and His holiness, rise above greatly. And from this holiness a higher holiness is drawn upon the person below, to help him with a help great and mighty in his service, blessed be He.
And this is what the sages of blessed memory said (Yoma 39a), “A person who makes himself holy a little, below, they make him holy much from above.” Apart from his fulfilling a positive command of the Torah (Leviticus 20:7), “And you shall make yourselves holy,” and so on, when he makes himself holy in what is permitted to him. And the meaning of “And you shall make yourselves holy” is that you shall make yourselves holy. That is to say, even though in truth he is not holy and set apart from the sitra achra, for it is in its force and its might as its nature is from birth, in the left cavity, only he conquers his yetzer and makes himself holy. “And you shall be holy,” that is to say, in the end he is to be truly holy and set apart from the sitra achra, by their making him holy much from above, and helping him to drive it out of his heart little by little.
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