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Chapter 29
But one thing more: counsel must be set for the souls of the beinoni (the in-between person), who at times, and at many times, have a dullness of the heart, so that it becomes like a stone, and he cannot open his heart in any way for the service that is in the heart, this being prayer. And also at times he will not be able to fight with the yetzer (the urge), to sanctify himself in what is permitted to him, because of the heaviness that is in his heart.
And this is the counsel that is counseled in the holy Zohar (Zohar III 168a), that the master of the academy in the Garden of Eden said: A wood in which light does not rise, they beat it, and so on. A body in which the light of the soul does not rise, they beat it, and so on. The meaning of the light of the soul is that the light of the soul and of the intellect does not shine so much as to rule over the materiality that is in the body. And even though he understands and contemplates with his intellect the greatness of Hashem (God), it is not caught and does not cleave in his brain so much that he can rule over the materiality of the heart, because of their materiality and their coarseness. And the cause is the coarseness of the kelipah (a husk that hides holiness), which lifts itself over the light of the holiness of the nefesh elokit (the soul from God), and hides and darkens its light.
And therefore one must beat it and bring it down to the dust. That is, to fix times to lower himself, so as to be despised in his own eyes, loathsome, as it is written: “a heart that is broken” (Psalms 51:19), “a spirit that is broken” (there). That is the sitra achra (the other side), which is itself the person himself among the beinonim, for the vital soul that enlivens the body is in its full strength, as in its native state, in his heart. So it is found that it is itself the person himself.
And of the nefesh elokit that is in him it is said (the blessing “My God, the soul” in the morning blessings): “The soul that You have given in me, it is pure.” “That You have given in me,” precisely, which implies that the person himself is not the pure soul. But only in the tzaddik (a righteous person). In tzaddikim it is the reverse: the pure soul, which is the nefesh elokit, is the person, and their body is called the flesh of a person. And as in the saying of Hillel the Elder to his students (Leviticus Rabbah 34:3), when he was going to eat, he would say that he was going to do a kindness with the lowly and poor one, that is, his body. For it was reckoned like a stranger beside him, and therefore he said that he does a kindness with it in that he feeds it. For he himself is only the nefesh elokit alone, for it alone enlivens his body and his flesh. For the evil that had been in the vital soul clothed in his blood and his flesh was turned to good, and was included in the holiness of the nefesh elokit itself, in the tzaddikim.
But in the beinoni, since the essence and the very being of the vital nefesh bahamit (the life-soul of the body) that is from the sitra achra, which is clothed in his blood and his flesh, has not been turned to good, it is itself the person himself. And if so, he is far from Hashem with the utmost distance. For the power of desire that is in his nefesh bahamit can also desire forbidden things that are against His will, blessed be He, even though he does not desire to do them in actual deed, God spare us, only that they are not truly loathsome to him as they are to the tzaddikim, as was explained above (chapter 12).
And in this he is worse, and more detestable and more abhorrent, than the unclean living beings and the loathsome creatures and the creeping things, as mentioned above, and as it is written (Psalms 22:7): “And I am a worm and not a man,” and the rest. [And also when his nefesh elokit gains strength in him to arouse the love for Hashem at the time of prayer, it is not wholly true in its full truth, since it passes and goes away after the prayer, as mentioned above at the end of chapter 13.]
And especially when he recalls the impurity of his soul through the sin of youth, and the damage that he did in the upper realms, and there it is above time, and it is as if he did damage and was defiled today, God spare us, actually. And even though he has already made a fitting return, the root of the return is in the heart, and the heart has in it many aspects and many levels, and all is according to what the person is, and according to the time and the place, as is known to those who know. And therefore now, at this hour, when he sees in himself that the light of the soul does not rise in him, it follows that today his return has not been accepted, and his iniquities separate. Or they wish to raise him to a higher return, from a still greater depth of the heart. And therefore David said (Psalms 51:5): “And my sin is opposite me at all times.”
And also one who is clean of the severe sins of youth should set it upon his heart to fulfill the saying of the holy Zohar, to be among the masters of reckoning. That is, to make an accounting with his soul of all the thoughts and the words and the deeds that have passed and gone from the day he came to be until this day, whether they were all from the side of holiness or from the side of impurity, may the Merciful One save us. That is, all the thoughts and the words and the deeds that are not for Hashem, nor for His will and His service, for this is the meaning of the expression “sitra achra,” as mentioned above (in chapter 6). And this is known, that every time a person thinks holy thoughts, he becomes at that time a chariot for the halls of holiness, from which these thoughts flow. And so in reverse, he becomes at that time an impure chariot for the halls of impurity, from which all evil thoughts flow. And so in speech and in deed.
Further, he should set upon his heart the great number of his dreams, which are a breath and a chasing of wind, because his soul does not go up above. And as it is written (Psalms 24:3): “Who will go up on the mountain of Hashem… clean of palms,” and the rest. And those evil sides come and cling to him, and they tell him in the dream matters of the world, and so on. And at times they laugh at him, and they show him words of falsehood, and they pain him in his dream, and so on, as it is written in the Zohar, Leviticus (25a-b). See there at length.
And behold, the more he lengthens these matters in his thought, and also in his study in the books, so that his heart be broken within him, and “despised in his eyes, loathsome,” as it is written (Psalms 15:4), in the utmost loathing, and so as to loathe his very life, by this he makes the sitra achra loathsome and despised and brings it down to the dust, and he brings it down from its greatness and the coarseness of its spirit and its haughtiness, by which it lifts itself over the light of the holiness of the nefesh elokit in order to darken its light.
And he should also thunder against it with a voice of noise and rage, to bring it low, as in the saying of the sages of blessed memory (Berakhot 5a): “A person should always stir up the good yetzer against the evil yetzer, for it is said (Psalms 4:5): Be agitated,” and the rest. That is, to rage against the nefesh bahamit, which is his evil yetzer, with a voice of noise and rage in his thought, saying to it: You are evil, and a rasha (a wicked person), and detestable, and abhorrent, and degraded, and so on, like all the names that our sages, of blessed memory, called it. In truth, until when will you hide before the light of Ein Sof (the Endless), blessed is He, who fills all worlds, who was, is, and will be in the same way, also in this place upon which I stand, as the light of Ein Sof, blessed is He, was alone before the world was created, without any change, as it is written (Malachi 3:6): “I, Hashem, have not changed,” for He is above time, and so on. And you, degraded, and so on, deny the truth that is seen by the eyes, that all before Him is as actual nothing, in truth, in the aspect of sensory sight.
And behold, through this it will help his nefesh elokit, to light up its eyes, in truth, with the unity of the light of Ein Sof in sensory sight, and not the aspect of hearing and understanding alone, as was explained in another place, for this is the root of all the service. And the reason is that in truth there is no substance at all in the sitra achra, and therefore it is likened to darkness, in which there is no substance at all, and of itself it is pushed back before the light. And so the sitra achra, even though there is in it much life-force, to give life to all the unclean living beings, and to the souls of the nations of the world, and also to the nefesh bahamit of Israel, as mentioned above. Nevertheless all its life-force is not from its own side, God spare us, but from the side of holiness, as mentioned above. And therefore it is wholly null before the holiness, like the nullification of darkness before physical light.
Only that, relative to the holiness of the nefesh elokit in a person, the Holy One, blessed be He, gave it leave and power to lift itself up against it, so that the person be aroused to overpower it, to bring it low by lowliness and by a lowered spirit, and by being despised in his eyes, loathsome, and with an arousal from below there is an arousal from above, to fulfill what is said (Jeremiah 49:16; Obadiah 1:4): “From there I will bring you down, the utterance of Hashem.” That is, that He removes it from its rule and its power, and takes away from it the force and the leave that He gave it to lift itself against the light of the holiness of the nefesh elokit, and then of itself it is null and driven off, like the nullification of darkness before physical light.
And as we find this matter stated outright in the Torah concerning the spies. At first they said (Numbers 13:31): “for he is stronger than we.” Do not read “than we,” and so on, for they did not believe in the power of Hashem. And afterward they turned and said (Numbers 14:40): “Here we are, and we will go up,” and the rest. And from where did the faith in the power of Hashem turn back and come to them? For Moses our teacher, peace be upon him, did not show them any sign or wonder about this in the meantime, only that he told them how Hashem was angry against them and swore not to bring them to the land. And of what use was this to them, if they had not believed in the power of Hashem, God spare us, to conquer thirty-one kings, and because of this they did not want at all to enter the land? Rather, surely, because Israel themselves are believers, children of believers, only that the sitra achra clothed in their body lifted itself over the light of the holiness of their nefesh elokit, in the coarseness of its spirit and its haughtiness, in insolence, without reason and without knowledge. And therefore, as soon as Hashem was angry against them and thundered with a voice of noise and rage, “How long, for this evil congregation,” and the rest (Numbers 14:27), “In this wilderness your corpses shall fall,” and the rest (Numbers 14:29), “I, Hashem, have spoken: if I do not do this to all this evil congregation,” and the rest (Numbers 14:35). And when they heard these hard words, their heart was subdued and broken within them, as it is written (Numbers 14:39): “And the people mourned very much.” And of itself the sitra achra fell from its rule and its haughtiness and the coarseness of its spirit, and Israel themselves are believers.
And from this every person can learn, when doubts about faith fall into his thought, that they are words of the spirit of the sitra achra alone, which lifts itself over his soul. But Israel themselves are believers, and so on. And also the sitra achra itself has no doubts at all about faith, only that it was given leave to confuse the person with words of falsehood and deceit, in order to increase his reward, like the enticements of the harlot to the son of the king, in falsehood and deceit, by leave of the king, as it is written in the holy Zohar (ריווח=50}}).
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