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Chapter 30
This too he should set upon his heart, to fulfill the saying of the sages of blessed memory (Mishnah Avot 4:10): “And be low of spirit before every person.” And be so in truth, in its very truth, before every person actually, even before the lightest of the light. And this is according to the saying of the sages of blessed memory (Mishnah Avot 2:4): “Do not judge your fellow until you arrive at his place.” For his place causes him to sin, in that his livelihood is to walk in the market all the day, and to be of those who sit at the corners, and his eyes see all the cravings, and the eye sees and the heart lusts, and his yetzer (the urge) burns like a burning oven of a baker, as it is written in Hosea (Hosea 7:6): “it burns like a fire of flame,” and the rest. Which is not so with one who walks in the market little, and most of the day sits in his house. And even if he walks all the day in the market, it may be that he is not so heated in his nature. For the yetzer is not alike in every soul. There is one whose yetzer, and so on, as was explained in another place.
And behold, in truth, even one who is very heated in his nature, and his livelihood is to be of those who sit at the corners all the day, has no excuse at all for his sins, and he is called a complete rasha (a wicked person), because the fear of Elohim is not before his eyes. For he ought to have restrained himself and ruled over the spirit of his craving that is in his heart, because of the fear of Hashem (God), who sees all his deeds, as was explained above, for the brain rules over the heart in its inborn nature.
And behold, in truth it is a great and mighty war, to break the yetzer that burns like a fire of flame, on account of the fear of Hashem, and it is like an actual trial. And therefore every person, according to what his place and his level are in the service of Hashem, needs to weigh and to examine himself, whether he serves Hashem in the measure and the aspect of so mighty a war, and such a trial, in the aspect of “and do good.” For example, in the service of prayer with intention, to pour out his soul before Hashem with all his strength, actually, to the very being of the soul, and to fight with his body and the nefesh bahamit (the life-soul of the body) that is in him, which hold back the intention, in a mighty war, and to beat them and to pound them like dust before the morning prayer and the evening prayer, day by day, and also at the time of the prayer, to weary himself with weariness of soul and weariness of flesh, as will be explained further on at length. And anyone who has not come to this measure, to fight with his body such a mighty war, has not yet come to the aspect and the measure of the war with the yetzer that burns like a fire of flame, so as to be subdued and broken on account of the fear of Hashem.
And so in the matter of the blessing after the meal, and all the blessings over things enjoyed and over the mitzvah (a commanded deed), with intention, and it is needless to say the intention of the mitzvot for their own sake. And so in the matter of occupying oneself with study of the Torah, to study much more than his wish and his will according to his nature and his habit, by a mighty war with his body. For one who studies a little more than his nature, that is a small war, and it has no measure and no likeness to the war with the yetzer that burns like fire, for one is called a complete rasha if he does not conquer his yetzer so as to be subdued and broken before Hashem. And what is it to me, the aspect of “turn from evil,” and what is it to me, the aspect of “and do good”? All of it is the mitzvah of the holy King, the One and the unique, blessed is He. And so with the other mitzvot, and especially in a matter of money, such as the service of charity, and the like.
And even in the aspect of “turn from evil,” every person of understanding can find in his soul that he does not turn wholly away from evil, in all, from all, all, in a place where a mighty war is needed, of the measure mentioned above, and even less than the measure mentioned above. For example, to break off in the middle of a pleasant talk, or a telling of his fellow’s disgrace, and even a disgrace very small and very slight, even though it is true, and even in order to clear himself, as is known from that which Rabbi Shimon said to his father, our holy teacher: “It was not I who wrote it, but Yehudah the tailor wrote it,” and he said to him: “Away with you, from evil speech” [see there in the Gemara, the beginning of chapter 10 of Bava Batra (Bava Batra 164b)]. And of this kind, how many matters there are that are found very often. And especially in the matter of sanctifying himself in what is permitted to him, which is from the Torah, as it is written: “Holy shall you be,” and the rest (Leviticus 19:2), “And you shall sanctify yourselves,” and the rest (Leviticus 11:44; there, 20:7). And also the words of the scribes are weightier than the words of the Torah (see Eruvin 21b; Sanhedrin 88b), and so on. Only that all these, and what is like them, are of the iniquities that a person treads down with his heels, and they have also come to be as something permitted, because he transgressed and did it again (Yoma 86b), and so on.
But in truth, if he knows the Book and holds fast to the Torah of Hashem, and the nearness of Elohim is what he desires, his iniquity is too great to bear, and his guilt has grown double upon double, in that he does not fight and overcome his yetzer in the measure and the aspect of the mighty war mentioned above, beyond the guilt of the lightest of the light among those who sit at the corners, who are far from Hashem and His Torah, and their guilt is not so great in that they do not subdue their yetzer that burns like a fire of flame, on account of the fear of Hashem, who understands and looks at all their deeds, as is the guilt of everyone who draws near, who draws near to Hashem and to His Torah and His service. And as the sages of blessed memory said concerning Acher, that he knew My honor, and so on (Ein Yaakov, Hagigah 15a). And therefore the sages of blessed memory said (Bava Metzia 33b) about the people of the land, that their deliberate sins are made for them like inadvertent ones.
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