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Chapter 45
There is yet a straight path before a man, to occupy himself in the Torah and the mitzvot, a mitzvah (a commanded deed), for their own sake, by the trait of Jacob our father, peace be upon him, which is the trait of mercy: to arouse in his thought, first, great mercies before Hashem (God) upon the spark of divinity that gives life to his nefesh (the lowest level of the soul), which came down from its source, the life of all life, Ein Sof (the Endless), blessed be He, who fills all worlds and surrounds all worlds, and all is counted as nothing before Him, and it clothed itself in the skin of the serpent, distant from the light of the King’s face to the utmost distance. For this world is the furthest reach of the coarse kelipot, a kelipah (a husk that hides holiness), and so on. And especially when he calls to mind all his deeds and his words and his thoughts from the day he came to be, that they are not good, and “a king is bound in the tresses” (Song of Songs 7:6), in the tresses of the brain. For Jacob is the cord of His inheritance, and as in the parable of one who pulls on a cord, and so on, and this is the secret of the exile of the Shekhinah (the divine presence). And of this it is said (Isaiah 55:7): “Let him return to Hashem, and He will have mercy on him,” so as to arouse great mercies upon the name of Hashem that dwells with us, as it is written: “who dwells with them in the midst of their uncleanness” (Leviticus 16:16).
And this is what the verse said (Genesis 29:11): “And Jacob kissed Rachel, and he lifted up his voice and wept.” For Rachel is the Community of Israel, the source of all the souls. And Jacob, in his upper trait, which is the trait of mercy in Atzilut (Emanation), is the one who arouses great mercies upon her. “And he lifted up his voice,” upward, to the source of the mercies on high, which is called “Father of mercies,” and their source. “And he wept,” to arouse and to draw from there great mercies upon all the souls and upon the source, the Community of Israel, to raise them from their exile and to join them in the upper union of the light of Ein Sof, blessed be He, in the manner of kisses, which is the cleaving of spirit to spirit, as it is written (Song of Songs 1:1): “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.” That is, the binding of a man’s speech with the word of Hashem, this being the halakhah. And so thought with thought, and deed with deed, which is the doing of the mitzvot. And in particular the doing of charity and kindness, for kindness is the right arm, and it is the manner of an actual embrace, as it is written (according to Isaiah 29:22), “and His right hand embraces me.” And occupation in the Torah, in speech and in the thought of study, is the manner of actual kisses.
Now by this he can come to the aspect of a great love in the revelation of his heart, as it is written (Isaiah 29:22), “To Jacob, who redeemed Abraham,” as has been explained in another place.
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