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Chapter 31
And behold, even if, when he lengthens much and goes deep into the matters mentioned above, for an hour and for two hours, so as to be in lowness of spirit and a broken heart, he comes to a great sadness, he should not mind. And even though sadness is from the side of the kelipah (a husk that hides holiness) of nogah, and not from the side of holiness, for on the side of holiness it is written (1 Chronicles 16:27): “Might and joy are in His place,” and the Shekhinah (the divine presence) rests only from within joy, and so too for a word of law, and so on (Shabbat 30b). Only that if the sadness is from matters of Heaven, it is from the aspect of the good that is in nogah [and therefore the Ari, of blessed memory, wrote that even worry over the sins is fitting only at the time of the confession, and not at the time of prayer and of Torah study, which need to be in joy that is from the side of holiness, specifically]. Even so, such is the way: to subdue the sitra achra (the other side) by its own kind and its own likeness. As in the saying of our rabbis, of blessed memory (Sanhedrin 39b): From it and in it, one comes to hurl the axe into it, and its like struck it. And of this it is said (Proverbs 14:23): “In all grief there will be a surplus”; and the surplus is the joy that comes after the grief, as further on.
But in truth, a broken heart, and bitterness of the soul over its distance from the light of the face of Hashem (God), and over its being clothed in the sitra achra, are not called by the name sadness at all in the holy tongue. For sadness is that his heart is stopped up like a stone, and there is no life in his heart. But bitterness and a broken heart, on the contrary, there is life in his heart, to be moved and to grow bitter. Only that it is a life from the aspect of holy severities, and the joy is from the aspect of kindnesses, for the heart includes both of them.
And behold, at times one needs to arouse the aspect of the holy severities, in order to sweeten the judgments, which are the aspect of the nefesh bahamit (the life-soul of the body) and the evil yetzer (the urge) when it rules, God spare us, over the person, for the judgments are sweetened only in their root. And therefore our rabbis, of blessed memory, said (Berakhot 5a): A person should always stir up the good yetzer. And this is at every time that he sees in his soul that he needs this. But the fitting hour, which is the hour set apart and right for this for most people, is an hour when he is sad in any case from matters of the world, or just so, without any cause. Then it is the fitting hour to turn the sadness about, to be of the masters of reckoning mentioned above, and to fulfill the saying of our rabbis, of blessed memory (Berakhot 5a), a person should always stir up, and so on, as mentioned above.
And by this he will be rid of the sadness that comes from matters of the world, and afterward he will come to true joy. That is, he should set this back upon his heart, to comfort himself twofold, after these words and this truth mentioned above, to say to his heart: It is true, so it is, without doubt, that I am very far from Hashem, to the utmost, and detestable and abhorrent, and so on. But all this is I alone. It is the body with the vital soul that is in it. But nevertheless there is within me an actual portion of Hashem, which is found even in the lightest of the light, and that is the nefesh elokit (the soul from God), with an actual spark of Godhood clothed in it to give it life. Only that it is in the aspect of exile. And if so, on the contrary, the more I am at the utmost distance from Hashem, and in abhorrence and detestation, the nefesh elokit that is in me is in a greater exile, and the pity upon it is very great. And for this I will set all my aim and my desire to bring it out and to raise it up from this exile, to return it to its father’s house as in its youth (Leviticus 22:13), before it was clothed in my body, when it was included in His light, blessed be He, and united with Him to the utmost. And now too, so shall it be included and united in Him, blessed be He, when I set all my aim in the Torah and in every mitzvah (a commanded deed), to clothe in them all ten of its aspects, as mentioned above. And especially in the mitzvah of prayer, to cry out to Hashem in the distress it has from its exile in my detestable body, to bring it out of the prison and to bind it to Him, blessed be He. And this is the aspect of return and good deeds. They are good deeds that one does in order to return the portion of Hashem to the source and the root of all worlds.
And this shall be his service all his days, in great joy. It is the joy of the soul as it goes out from the abhorrent body and returns to its father’s house as in its youth, at the time of the Torah and the service. And as in the saying of the sages of blessed memory, that one be all his days in return. And you have no joy as great as going out from the exile and the captivity. As in the parable of a king’s son who was in captivity and was grinding in the prison house, and was degraded in the refuse heap, and went out to freedom, to the house of his father the king. And even though the body stands in its detestation and its abhorrence, and as it is written in the Zohar that it is called the skin of the serpent, for the essence and the very being of the nefesh bahamit has not been turned to good so as to be included in holiness, nevertheless his soul should be precious in his eyes, to rejoice in its joy more than in the despised body, so as not to mix and confuse the joy of the soul with the sorrow of the body.
And behold, this aspect is the aspect of the going out from Egypt, of which it is said (Exodus 14:5): “for the people had fled.” For at first glance it is puzzling. Why was it so? If they had said to Pharaoh to send them free forever, would he not have been compelled to send them? Rather, because the evil that is in the souls of Israel was still in its strength in the left cavity, for their filth did not cease until the giving of the Torah. Only their aim and their desire was that their nefesh elokit go out from the exile of the sitra achra, which is the impurity of Egypt, and cling to Him, blessed be He. And as it is written: “Hashem is my might and my stronghold and my refuge on a day of distress,” and the rest (Jeremiah 16:19), “my secure height and my refuge,” and the rest (2 Samuel 22:3), and “He is a refuge for me,” and the rest (the prayer “Master of the world,” which is said in the morning). And therefore, in the time to come, when Hashem causes the spirit of impurity to pass from the earth, it is written (Isaiah 52:12): “And by flight you shall not go, for Hashem goes before you,” and the rest.
And so that this aspect of return be with greater height and greater strength, from the depth of the heart, and also so that the joy of the soul be with added light and joy, when he sets back upon his heart knowledge and understanding, to comfort himself from his grief and his sorrow, to say as mentioned above: Indeed it is true, and so on, but I did not make myself. And why did Hashem do thus, to bring down a portion of His light, blessed be He, which fills and encircles all worlds, and all before Him is reckoned as nothing, and to clothe it in a serpent’s skin and a putrid drop? This is only that this descent is for the sake of an ascent, to raise to Hashem all of the vital nefesh bahamit that comes from the kelipah of nogah, and all its garments, these being the aspect of its thought, speech, and deed, by their being clothed in the deed, the speech, and the thought of the Torah [and as the matter of this raising will be explained further on at length, how it is the purpose of the creation of the world]. If so, then, this I will do, and this shall be my aim all the days of my lifetime, that the life of my spirit and my soul be wholly in them, and as it is written (Psalms 25:1): “To You, Hashem, I raise my soul.” That is, to bind my thought and my speech to His thought and His speech, blessed be He, and these are the very bodies of the laws set out before us, and likewise deed in the deed of the mitzvot. Therefore the Torah is called “that which turns the soul back” (Psalms 19:8), meaning, to its source and its root. And of this it is said (there, there, 9): “The charges of Hashem are straight, gladdening the heart”:
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