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Chapter 34
Now this is known, that the fathers are themselves the chariot. Through all their days they never stopped, not even for one hour, from binding their mind and their soul to the Master of the worlds, in the nullification spoken of above, toward His oneness, blessed be He. After them, all the prophets, each one according to the level of his soul and of his grasp. The level of Moses our teacher, peace be upon him, is the level that rises above every one of them. Of him they said: the Shekhinah (the divine presence) speaks out of the throat of Moses. Something of this same kind was granted to Israel at the standing at Mount Sinai, only they were not able to bear it, as in the saying of the sages of blessed memory (Exodus Rabbah 29:4; Song of Songs Rabbah 6:3), that at every utterance their soul flew out, and so on. That is the matter of nullification in existence spoken of above. Therefore he told them at once to make a dwelling for Him, and in it the Holy of Holies, for the resting of His Shekhinah, which is the revealing of His oneness, blessed be He, as will be explained further on.
From the time the Temple was destroyed, the Holy One, blessed be He, has in His world no dwelling and no place for His abode, which is His oneness, blessed be He, except the four cubits of halakhah (Berakhot 8a). That is His will, blessed be He, and His wisdom, clothed in the laws that lie arranged before us. Therefore, after a person has sunk his thought deep into the matter of the nullification spoken of above, as far as he is able, let him bring this back to his heart. Because my intellect and the root of my soul are too small to contain it, too small to be a chariot and a dwelling for His oneness, blessed be He, in the truth of its very truth, since no thought of mine grasps Him or reaches Him, blessed be He, at all, with any grasp whatsoever in the world, and not even a trace of it from the grasp of the fathers and the prophets, for this reason I will make for Him a dwelling and a place for His abode. That place is the work of Torah study, according to the free time that is mine, at set times by day and by night, according to the rule given to each and every person in the laws of Torah study, and as in the saying of the sages of blessed memory (Menachot 99b): even one chapter in the morning, and so on. In this his heart will be glad and will rejoice, and he will give thanks for his portion, in joy and in goodness of heart, because he has merited to be a host to the Mighty One twice in every day, according to his time and his free time, according to the reach of his hand that Hashem (God) has widened for him.
And if Hashem widens it for him still more, then the one clean of hands will add strength, and a good thought, and so on (the Holy One, blessed be He, joins it to the deed, Kiddushin 40a). The whole rest of the day as well, while he is busy with trade, will be a place for His abode, blessed be He, through the giving of charity that he gives from his toil. For charity is one of the traits of the Holy One, blessed be He. As He is compassionate, and so on (you too, be compassionate, Jerusalem Talmud Peah 1:1), and as they wrote in the Tikkunim (Opening of Elijah, Tikkunei Zohar, folio 17, column a): kindness is the right arm. And although he gives no more than a fifth, that fifth carries up with it all the four portions to Hashem, so that they become a place for His abode, blessed be He. As the saying of the sages of blessed memory is known (Bava Batra 9a, corresponding to all the offerings), the mitzvah (a commanded deed) of charity weighs equal to all the offerings. In the offerings, all that lives would go up to Hashem by means of one animal, and all that grows, by means of one tenth-measure of fine flour mixed with oil, and so on. Besides this, at the hour of Torah and of prayer, everything he has eaten and drunk and enjoyed from the four portions, for the health of his body, goes up to Hashem, as will be explained further on.
Now, in all the particular kinds of joys of the nefesh (the lowest level of the soul) spoken of above, none of them is a barrier to his being despised in his own eyes and loathsome, with a broken heart and a lowly spirit, at the very hour of the joy. For his being despised in his own eyes, and so on, comes from the side of the body and the nefesh bahamit (the life-soul of the body), and his being in joy comes from the side of the nefesh elokit (the soul from God) and the spark of divinity clothed in it so as to give it life, as spoken of above (in chapter 31). And in this same manner it is found in the Zohar (Zohar, part 3, 75a): weeping is fixed in my heart from this side, and joy is fixed in my heart from this side.
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