Da'at Tevunot Reader

Said the Intellect - Where does your face stumble? Behold, the Essentials are 13, and which of them do you wish to examine?

Said the Soul - Behold all the 13 Essentials are believed by me without any doubt at all; but there are those among them that are believed by me and also understood, and there are those among them that are believed by me with faith, but not clear through understanding and knowledge.

Said the Intellect - Which are believed [on faith] and which are clear to you?

Said the Soul - Behold: HaShem's existence, his singularity, his eternal nature, his existence without a body or any physical form, the innovation of the Universe, prophecy, the prophecy of Moshe, that Torah is from the heavens and is eternal and will not change - all of these matters I believe in and I understand them, and I do not need explanation of them; but [HaShem's] Providence, Reward and Punishment, the Coming of the Savior [Mashiach], and Resurrection of the Dead - I believe in them with certainty because of the obligation of religion, but I want to explain them with an logical explanation that will settle me:

Said the Intellect - What is it that is difficult for you in this?

Said the Soul - The great revolutions that overturn the world have the constant seeming appearance of the opposite of [HaShem's] providence G-d forbid. More so because the logical conclusion never sees the end of matters to where they arrive, what does the master may he be blessed want with his creations, and why he manages them, and what will be the end of all this; because the actions of HaShem may he be blessed have the appearance of such breadth that no heart can grasp them. And I wanted you to teach me the straight path to understand the integrity of these matters, without leaning right or left.

Said the Intellect - But in here there are difficult and very deep items, like, The Righteous whom negative befalls, the Evildoer to whom goodness comes, which were difficult to the great sages and prophets, and even to Moshe our teacher may he rest in peace, and are impossible to grasp.

Said the Soul - The details which I will be unable to understand - I will leave. But at least the principles will be straight in my hands, that I should know at least straight reason and logical conclusions in the breadth of these items. And then that which my knowledge cannot grasp - I will say to myself, "It is not for to complete the work.":

Said the Intellect - This is certain, that the Holy One blessed is he raised his world on justice, and guides it with straight and trustworthy justice; and this matter you will see clearly without any doubt, and as the trustworthy shepard testified (Deuteronomy 32:4), "The Rock his actions are pure because all his ways are just, a G-d of faith and without injustice, righteous and straight is he":

Said the Soul - The straightness of this justice and the depth of this complete reason that you mentioned, is what I want to hear from you with a precise explanation, detail by detail.

Said the Intellect - But that which must be explained first is the matter of the existence of man and the work which devolves upon him, to know what is the purpose which is desired in all of this:

Said the Soul - This is certainly a matter that begs much study to understand it in its details and parts:

Said the Intellect - The first foundation upon which the entire construct stands is, that the Heavenly Will wanted that man should complete himself and all that was created for him, and this itself shall be his merit and reward. His merit - because it will be found that he occupies himself and will achieve this completeness, and when he he reaches it - he will gain benefit only from the achievement of his hands and his portion from all of his effort. His reward - for in the end he will be that which is completed, and will enjoy goodness forever and ever:

Said the Intellect - The reason is simple, and it is dependent on the answer to another question, which is, why did the Creator blessed is He, want to create creations?

Said the Soul - Respond for you and for me something that equal to [answering] both of them:

Said the Intellect - What we can grasp in this matter is, that HaShem may his name be blessed is certainly the perfection of good. And indeed it is the rule of good to do good, and this is what He may his name be blessed wanted - to create creations in order the he could do good for them, for if there is no one to receive the good then there is no giving of good.

And indeed, in order that the giving of good be complete, He knew in his sublime wisdom that it is appropriate that those who receive it [the good] receive it with the work of their hands, because then they will be masters of this good, and they will not have residual embarrassment in the receipt of the good, like one who receives charity from another. And upon this did they say (Yerushalmi Orlah 1:3 11a- [paraphrase or variant text]), "One who eats not from his own, is ashamed to look at his [benefactor's] face":

Said the Soul - The reason is settled in my heart. Now complete your words:

Said the Intellect - From the introduction that we have introduced has emerged a great root for us to contemplate, and this is the matter of deficiency and its completion. Because now we need to know what is the deficiency, and what are its consequences, and what is its rectification through which the creation will be completed, and through what path does this rectification occur, and its consequences:

Said the Soul - But I think one needs to understand what is the completeness that a person will achieve when he completes his work and rests from his effort, because then we will understand retroactively all that which we mentioned. And the reason for this is simple and clear, for is it not that in the end man will achieve that which he was lacking in him from the beginning, and since it was lacking in him he needs to make effort and acquire it:

Said the Intellect - So you said. Indeed we can understand the completeness now generally, and not in detail, but with our general knowledge of it, we will will understand retroactively the deficiencies in detail, because in any event any deficiency is the absence of this completeness:

Said the Soul - Say what you will about this completeness:

Said the Intellect - This completeness is clear from written sources and logical conclusions; and this is, that man should cleave to His holiness may he be blessed, and he will comprehend his glory without any detraction, separation or obstruction.

If you wish, [learn it from the] text (Isaiah 58:14), "Then shall you enjoy with HaShem..."; (Psalms 140:14), "...the upright shall dwell in your presence" (Psalms 16:11), "...experiencing joy is your presence..." etc, and very many others like these, are these not in all the corners of the words of the prophets and writings revealed to all the nations, seek from the texts of HaShem and read them. And in the words of our Rabbis may their memory be for a blessing (Brachos 17a), "The world to come has neither eating nor drinking...rather the righteous sit and their crowns are upon their heads, and they benefit in the splendor of HaShem's presence".

Or if you prefer to say it from a logical conclusion, the soul is a part of the Lord above, behold isn't its desire certainly to return and cleave to its source and to grasp it, as is the nature of everything of heavenly source to desire it return to the heights [of heaven], and it does not achieve its rest until it achieves this.

But what is this cleaving, and what is this achievement - we don't have the capacity to understand it as we exist within the state of deficiencies. But from this we discern our deficiencies, because like we knew that completeness is this cleaving, similarly we know that the deficiencies are all distancing from this, and that which obstructs and lays between us and Him may his name be blessed, for because of this it is impossible to cleave to him as it is possible to cleave to him after the obstruction is removed, and this is the deficiency which we need to try to remove, and to acquire the completeness that we mentioned. And indeed here we need a very fundamental introduction:

Said the Intellect - For G-d blessed is he could certainly have created man and all of creation with absolute completeness; and not only this, rather from his rules it would have been appropriate that it be so, because for Him to be complete in all aspects of completeness - it would be appropriate for his acts to be complete in all completeness. Rather when his wisdom decreed to leave it to man to complete himself, He created these creations deficient in completeness.

And behold this is as if he held back his character of completeness and great goodness, to not act by his rule of greatness in these creations, rather to make them with the attribute that he wanted according to the purpose he intended with his sublime thought. And here we will generalize another point, and it is, that which the Rabbis said, may their memory be blessed (Chagigah 13a) "Sha-dai - that he said to his world enough (Dai)"; and the heavens extended and went on until they were castigated as it is written in the Midrash (Tanchuma Breishit - end of Parshat Miketz).

And this means, that certainly He could have created more creations then those he created, and the creations themselves could have been bigger than that which He created; and if he wanted to created his creations according to the measure of the Maker, they would have had no limiting measure, just like there is no measure to Him and to his potential. But he created them according to the measure of the subject, meaning that He measured out for them the characteristics and attributes which are fitting for them according to what He intended for them.

And we find, that in any event, He hindered, as if it were possible, His great ability, without his absolute essential nature, that He not act with his creations according to its measure but rather the measure of his creations upon which it [his ability] was acted upon:

Said the Soul - All this is certainly necessary, for it is from faith that HaShem may his name be blessed is unlimited in all aspects, and it is impossible to place any boundary or measure to his ability at all. any anything that we see that was created from it with a specific measure and limitation - is not according to his measure G-d forbid, rather according to that which he decreed from his will to do:

Said the Intellect - let us define this general rule, and afterward proceed to another very fundamental introduction. This is the rule, HaShem may his name be blessed, held back, as if it were possible, Himself, meaning, that he withheld his ability, with the creation of his creations to not make them according to his power, rather according to that which he wished and intended in them; and he created them deficient so that they would complete themselves, and their completion would be their reward in the merit of that which the exerted effort in order to achieve. And this was only from His desire to make complete goodness:

Said the Soul - Now let us hear this introduction that you mentioned:

Said the Intellect - We now need to understand from where man finds the power to complete his deficiencies, because he was created deficient. Indeed, we are now entering into a great and wide sea, for many great suggestions will we need before we arrive at the completion of our matter. And we need to go in measured steps, to understand these things is the proper order, because this is the path of wisdom - to acquire knowledge one point after another, until in the end everything emerges as one complete matter into the light, for which we need all these introductions:

Said the Soul - Say your words according to the right order and I am listening with all the patience and settled mind that is required:...

, "Will you succeed in examining haShem, will you discover the limits of Shad-dai?". And we will find, that everything that the creations can grasp, will not be even a droplet from the great sea of the Creator's completeness and his name be blessed.

Said the Soul - This is simple before any who are wise of heart, and it already says (Psalms 106:2), "Who will tell the great actions of haShem...":

Said the Intellect - Now that we have returned to your hearts the order of HaShem's actions may he be blessed, All of the great actions He has done since placing man upon the earth (Job 20:4), and everything that her promised us to do through the holy prophets, behold that which is clear to us from this with complete clarity - is the might of His singularity may He be blessed. And you will see that all of the other characteristics of his completeness which is without limitation, are not clear to us at all, because we do not have the strength to grasp them.

By example, We know that he is wise, but we cannot grasp the ends of his wisdom; we know that he is knowing, but we cannot grasp his knowledge. And therefore the Rabbis may their memory be blessed said (Prayer of Eliyahu, Tikunei Zohar, second introduction), "You are wise, and not with knowable wisdom, you are understanding and not with knowable insight", and since we are unable to understand these characteristics, a forbidding of examination of these emerges for us, for in regard to all like this it says (Chaggigah 13a in the name of Ben Sirah 3:21) "In that which is beyond your comprehension do not seek, in that which is hidden from you do not examine"; and similarly they said (Sefer Yetzira chapter 1), "If your heart runs - return to your place":

But His singularity, is just the opposite, it is revealed and clarified focus in complete clarity. And it emerges for us from this that it is not enough that it be clear to us, but that we are obligated to return this knowledge to our hearts, to embed it in our hearts completely settled without any doubt. And this is what we were commanded by Moshe our teacher may he rest in peace from the mouth of The Mighty One (Deuteronomy 4:39), "And you shall know today and return to your hearts that HaShem He is the G-d in the heavens above and on the earth below, there is no other".

And the mouth of the One on high himself testifies and informs us that everything that is gathered from all the great occurrences that He overturns in his world, is it not the complete revelation of this - His singularity; as it says (Deuteronomy 32:39) "See now that I, I am He and there is no other G-d with me", and this passage is said after He included all the future revolutions of the globe that are planned to occur in the universe, that include everything in the words of this song of HaAzinu, and like the straightforward meaning of these writings themselves prove, and behold the ending of His vision ends with this language, "See now that I, I am He" etc. And in the words of the prophet Isaiah it is described explicitly (Isaiah 43:10-11), "In order that you know and believe me and understand that I am He, before me no G-d was created and there will be no other after me.

I, I am hashed and there is no savior other than me"; and as it is written (Isaiah 44:6), "I am first and I am last and there is no G-d other than me"; and as it says (Isaiah 45:6-7), "In order that you know from the the east and the west that there is nothing other than me, I am HaShem and there is no other. The maker of light and creator of darkness making peace and creating the negative, I am hashed the maker of all of these".

And behold, it is written "In order that you know", In order that you know and understand", meaning that He wants us to know with knowledge and understanding. And the purpose of all of the success that He promises to Israel is the explanation of His singularity to the eyes of all. And this matter is mentioned innumerable times in the words of the prophets may they rest in peace, (Isaiah 2:11), "...and haShem will be exalted on that day."; (Zechariah 14:9) "And haShem will be king [on all the earth] haShem will be one and His name will be one"; (Zephania 3:9) "For then I will overturn the peoples to all call in the the name of haShem and to worship him as one accord".

And in the end, is this not always our testimony every day (Deuteronomy 6:4) "Hear O' Israel HaShem our G-d HaShem is One":

We find, that all that has been explained to use in truth from the greatness of his perfection which is without measure is only his complete singularity. For when we look with in depth examination at all of the actions which are done under the heavens, we see one path that revolves and continues, and its rest is only in the revelation of this truth. Now we need to understand this singularity, and that which is intended through it, and this is what was commanded to us in the text (Deuteronomy 4:39) "And you shall return to your heart because haShem he is the Lord...", meaning that one needs a settled mind and proper reason in this matter. And I already said, this is a great sea and wide of hands is it, and we need to sail upon it as our souls can be filled:

Said the Soul - What understanding is needed in this? Behold Singularity - the intent is to say that the Holy One blessed is he is one with certainty, and there is no other than Him:

Said the Intellect - Yes, Certainly this is the matter in generality. But this think needs deeper examination. This this is exactly what is said in the text (Deuteronomy 4:38), "You have been shown to know [that HaShem is the G-d] there is none other than He alone", that in explanation [the Rabbis] may their memory be blessed (Sanhedrin 67:), "Even for a matter of sorcery". And this is the same as when we say that the Holy One blessed is he is one, it is not sufficient to understand the he is singular in his existence, which is the same as saying that there is no required existence other than He, and there is no Creator other than He, but we need to understand more, that there is no leader or ruler other than he; and there is no guide to his world or to any creation in his world other than He; And there is nothing that holds back his hand, or prevents his will, and this is that his rule is singular and complete.

And this is the matter that is explained in the text (Deuteronomy 32:39), "See now that I, [I am He and there is no G-d with me], I bring death and give life, [I wound and I heal] and none can be saved from my hand"; and similarly it says (Job 23:13) "And he is Singular and who can turn him back [that which he wants he does]; and similarly we testify before him (Job 9:12) "[When He suddenly takes away, who can turn him back] who would say to him what shall He do".

And know that his is a great fundamental principle for our certain faith, like we will write further inside with the help of heaven: