Da'at Tevunot Reader

And indeed the essence of this knowledge is the opposite of various bad logical conclusions which befall the hearts of man, some which befell the hearts of idol worshipers, and some in the hearts of the majority of the many ordinary simple people, some in the hearts of non-Jews and some in the heart of the early transgressors of Israel who acted to corrupt:...

Behold, the idol worshipers were of two types, the first type thought that the Holy One blessed is He is elevated from lowly things and does not look upon them; and there are others under him, they are the stars in the heavens and the constellations, their officers and their hosts, that they are the supervisors of the world. And therefore they began to worship them, made them altars to sacrifice to them and offer incense to them, in order to continue their influence to save them:

The second type said, G-d forbid, there are two domains, one acts for the good and the other acts for evil, in saying there is nothing without its opposite, and with G-d may his name be blessed the absolute good, there would be G-d forbid opposite him one who is absolute evil; and from these two sources, they said, arise the actions in this world, some of them for the good and some for the bad. And this is the matter (Sanhedrin 39a) "From your midpoint and up is in the domain of Hurmiz, and from your midpoint and down is in the domain of Ahurmiz", which was said by a certain apostate to Ameimar:

The third belief, is the belief of many people, that think that the matters of this world follow rules of nature that were established by the creator in the lower worlds, and it is their efforts and pressure that helps and their laziness that does harm as in (Deuteronomy 8:17) "My strength and vigor of my hand achieved this success" and they say further, all is dependent on luck, and it is happenstance for everyone equally, and there is nothing other than the natural way, no more, whether for the good or for the bad:

The fourth belief is the belief of the peoples of the world who say, Israel sinned, there is no salvation for them in haShem, G-d forbid, " despised silver" were they called. Because the Holy One blessed is he chose them and gave them the choice in their hands to be righteous or evil, and they chose to do evil, and the Blessed One was prevented, as if that could occur, for him to do good for them anymore, as in (Deuteronomy 32:18) "You neglected the Rock that gave birth to you"; and he was forced to abandon them and to exchange them for another people G-d forbid, because it was impossible to save them. And the length of the exile teaches this, and frightens the hearts that are not strong in the true faith:...

The fifth belief, is a belief of sinners of Israel, those who recognized their master and intend to rebel against him, like Amon who said (Sanhedrin 103b) "I only act to anger [my creator]", and anything like this. And the text says (Isaiah 3:8), "to provoke the eyes of His glory", that they think they can act agains his will G-d forbid, and that they will anger him with their evil deeds, like one who angers their fellow against their will. And other thought to strengthen themselves with witchcraft and sorcery, and others through knowledge of the angels and their guardians, and as it says in the Midrash (Eichah Rabbah 2:5) that they said to Jeremiah, "I will surround it with water, I will surround it with fire...":

And indeed the believer in singularity and understander of its subject, need to believe that the Holy One blessed is he is one solitary and unique, who has no one who prevents or withholds him at all in any aspect or side, rather he alone rules over all. Needless to say there is no domain that opposes him G-d forbid, rather he himself created good and negative forces, as it says (Isaiah 45:7), "The maker of light and creator of darkness, maker of peace and creator of negative, I am haShem them maker of all these"; that there is no other beneath him who will have control in the world, meaning that there is no officer or second power, like the idol worshipers thought.

And not only this, rather that he alone is the supervisor of all his creations with individual supervision, and nothing is born into the world except from his will and from his hand, and not through happenstance, and not through nature, and not through luck; rather he is the Judge of all the earth and all that is upon it, and decrees all that shall be done in the high places and below, until the end of all the levels throughout all of creation.

And from the the greatness of his singular rulership, it is that he has nothing that compels or forces him at all and all the laws that he decreed - they are all dependent on his will, and it is not that he is compelled in them at all. Behold if he wanted - he can subjugate his will, as if that were possible, to the actions of man, as in the matter we learned (Avot 3:15), "And all is according to the majority of the action..."; And when he wants - he isn't concerned about all the actions, and gives his goodness to whom he wishes, and like he said to Moshe our teacher may he rest in peace (Brachot 7a) "And I give grace to whom I give grace - even though they are not deserving".

And it has also been said (Job 35:6), "If you sin what action does it have on him, and if your transgressions multiply what does it do to him"; and then it says (Jeremiah 50:20), "...the sin of Israel shall be sought and there will be none and the sins of Judah and they will not be found for I will forgive those whom I permit to remain."; and similarly it says (Isaiah 48:11), "For myself for myself I shall do for me, for how shall it be profaned.."; (Isaiah 43:25) "It is I, It is I who erases your transgressions for my own sake and your sins shall I not remember".

And similarly it says (Zechariah 3:9), "...and I will remove the sin of this land in one day". This is our comfort in our subject, for he will not count our actions, nor for our merits will he wait, nor due to our deficient actions exchange us [for another people], rather because of the oath that he swore to our forefathers and the covenant which he made. Behold even if there were no merit in Israel - When them set time arrives, the day blocked in his heart, behold in any event he will certainly save us, for he is the master of all and can do so if he wants:

And that which one needs to believe, is close to that which we mentioned now, which is that while He may his name be blessed is not forced in his actions, therefore no creation can be strengthened and act against him, even if he uses the rules and orders themselves which He may he be blessed established, because He made them, and He can change them and nullify them according to his will; as in (Sanhedrin 67b), "There is nothing other than Him - even in regard to sorcery" that we mentioned above.

That even though according to the order of the array of the heavens that the Holy One blessed is he wanted and arranged, behold sorcerers contradict the entourage of the heavens (Sanhedrin 67b), behold when he wants - he rules with his power and nullifies them, and they are as if they never existed, and not as the naive thought, that ye could use His utensils themselves against Him G-d forbid. They see that their inspiration is falsehood, which will not help or be useful to them, He is the master of all, and there is none other than Him:

And indeed this is what we want to believe with faith. But the clarity of this truth is revealed in all actions, for all creations and for all the assurances like all that we explained earlier. And we find, that the revelation of His singularity is that which the heavenly will wanted, and through this intent did he make the rules of his creations; and all the events that revolve and turn, they are what are required to arrive at this purpose.

And behold we can say that all the world and that which fills it, and all that we can examine in it, everything is dependent and exists on the matter of the completeness of His singularity may He be blessed, that he wanted to reveal through action to the eyes of these creations. And borne from this is that when we understand the revelation of His singularity and upon that which it depends, we will also understand the rules of these creations, how they are arranged, and upon what they exist:

And you will see more within, with the help of heaven, how when the heavenly will wished to make his world and to guide it through this principle - from this emerges, and this entire path we mentioned is created, which is the deficits of man, and the completion of his service, and the receipt of his reward, which does not emerge from any other order:

Said the Soul - This I await with great desire, to hear how all this emerges from the revelation of the singularity.

Said the Intellect - Behold, that which we need to understand well, is the matter of these deficiencies which are found in the creation, the matter of the evils found in them, which are matters that are not according to the rule of His perfection may He be blessed, and like we explained, because of these the sinners stumbled, each according to their bad path, and as we explained to you above; it is certain that according to his perfection may He be blessed, he wouldn't have made anything other than goodness alone.

Indeed now I will cause you to understand everything according to its creation with the help of heaven. Behold, when we say that the Holy One blessed is He is singular, do we not understand that there is nothing other than Him, that there is no opposite to him, that there is nothing preventing him, to exclude all the opinions that we mentioned. We find, that is tis not enough for haShem may he be blessed to cause Goodness to exist, rather to negate from it the opposite.

But all the other characteristics [of haShem] that we might contemplate - no opposite is relevant to them at all. Meaning, by way of example, within the boundary of wisdom foolishness is not relevant, for would wisdom not encompass that which knowledge is filled from the image of these items in their correctness. In the path of piousness evil is not relevant, because its boundary is - to do good with all.

But in the boundary of singularity, the opposite is relevant, because its boundary is - singularity which has no other with it. Therefore, the boundary of other characteristics is a fulfillment of goodness from itself, and the boundary of singularity is the negation of evil:

Now you see, that if the Holy One blessed is he wanted to reveal all of his other characteristics of perfection, since they are all only characteristics of good - there is nothing in their boundaries other than the fulfillment of good, and there is nothing relevant in their revelation any action of evil. But in his will to reveal the Singularity, which in its boundary is the negation of evil, it is relegation to make evil, and to negate it from the necessary existence and rulership, in order that all of the parts of the boundary are fully revealed.

And don't error in saying that also in order to give explanation to wisdom you need to show foolishness, and similarly in order to explain piousness you need to show cruelty, for one cannot recognize an opposite except from its opposite; for we need to understand that all characteristics of good cannot be understood except in their characteristic of good according to that which makes them good, and the negation of the opposite of these characteristics is not in the the boundaries of these good characteristics, rather they all enter under the boundary of singularity, which is the negation of all other than it alone, and they should all be thought of as all kinds of this type. And one who wants to understand needs to not mix kinds of one type with kinds of another type.

Said the Soul - this is certain, that understanding is dependent only on examination, and all the kinds and types must be differentiated one from the other, in order to understand their matter and the matters which are born from them. And even though the heavenly thought does not have a path like the ways of people, such that these separations are relevant, but we humans need to speak in the way of people:

Said the Intellect - More than that which you said, shall I tell you with regard to this matter. Because the truth is certain that the Holy One blessed is he could have created his world in an all encompassing way - with his capability that we cannot understand, his unlimited actions and without a past, without reason and without revolution; and if he created like this - he would have closed the mouths of all of his creations, that they would not open their mouths at all about his actions, for it would not be possible for us to understand his way at all, because an all encompassing way - his capability cannot be grasped by our intellect, and cannot be understood by man whose knowledge is limited by its specific rules.

But because the Heavenly will wanted man to be able to understand a small part of His ways and actions, and just the opposite, wanted them [man] to try to do this and to chase after this a great deal, therefor he chose to action in opposite fashion in the ways of man, meaning, in a graspable and understandable order. And the general rule is - that he wanted to act according to the measure of the creations and not according to his measure, therefore he gave us room to contemplate them, and to understand at least a tiny part, if not the enormous [whole].

And the proof of the matter - the act of creation as it is written in our Torah, for there he testifies about Himself that he created his world in divided time periods, and differentiated utterences, and in an order that he wanted, and not all of it in one moment, and not in one utterance with which He could have created. And from now we need to differentiate all his actions and their reasons, and more so their consequences, all the classes and types and details, according to the order which is maintained in the ways of mankind:

And let us return to our subject. Behold, when we say - Singularity, you already heard that we want to say - the negation of all but Him, and we find that this matter is generalized to all characteristics of His perfection which have no limitation at all, because all that involves him is elevated and perfect - we always need to understand there is nothing but Him in this character, that there is no opposite to it, there is nothing that restricts it; for all of this is from the generalization of singularity, as we explained.

And we find that we learn two things from this introduction, 1) - that which we explained already, there there is no applicability at all to any other characteristic that He would create that which is opposite to his perfection, except for the character of His singularity, meaning, that when when he wants to reveal the character of His singularity may He be blessed and to clarify it well in complete explanation as we explained earlier with regard to all parts of his parameters. 2) that with regard to this complete singularity - all other characteristics are like details, and it is a generalization, for it influences all of the characteristics, as we have shown for us to know, that all which is within His perfection which has no end or measure, among all of them it is unique in the character of singularity, there is none other like it, there is opposite to it, there is nothing that holds it back, as we explained.

And we will root this truth in the truth of is necessary existence, for it is the center for all that we can say about His perfection, and to all that we cannot articulate as well; and this is that which we know that He alone is obligated to exist and it is required the he is, and that there not be other than He, and this is simple to all those with the holy faith. And further within you will find the value which emerges from this proposition:

From now you have already seen that which I already said to you above, what distinguishes the power of this characteristic of singularity from all other characteristics of perfection - for this is what gives space for this path of deficiency and completeness, effort and the receipt of reward. For indeed if the Heavenly Will didn't want other than the revelation of the characteristics from his perfection, he wouldn't act other than through perfect actions according to this perfection that he wants to reveal, and it would not be appropriate that there be in them any deficiency at all, as we already introduced, for to explain any other characteristic except for the characteristic of singularity - it does not apply to demonstrate deficiencies.

And if there were no deficiency - there would be no place for the work of man, and no place that he receive reward. But when He chose to reveal from his perfection, His singularity will be blessed, then it emerges from this that there will be deficiency in his creations, for he needs to show the deficiency in order to show His perfection.

But this is not yet the end of the explanation of the singularity; rather in the end from the power of his perfection the deficiency will in truth be absent, and everything will remain repaired through the power of the governance of his goodness which will rule alone, then it will occur that it will be actively revealed. And indeed see what emerges from this - for behold this will certainly cause that even though the creations were created with their deficiencies, nevertheless the deficiency will not be a set blemish in them, rather just the opposite, a temporary blemish, a blemish that must in all circumstances be removed, but that there are many ways to be found in which to cause it to be removed:...

And understand the root of all of this, for behold this deficiency did not come to exist other than from the concealment of the countenance of the Master may he be blessed, for he did not want to illuminate his countenance before his creations immediately from the beginning, such that they would be complete from the beginning, rather just the opposite, He concealed his countenance from them and left them deficient, for behold the light of the countenance of the King - is certain life, and the concealment of it is the source of all negativity, and we will discuss this later with the help of heaven.

But since the purposeful intention in this concealment was not be hidden, rather just the opposite, to be revealed later on, and to remove all of the bad that comes into existence only from this concealment, behold he therefore placed for Himself a rule and law to reveal the countenance of his goodness which is concealed; and this will either be through the acts performed by mankind, these are the laws and Torahs which he gave to us His Torah, the Torah of truth, which if man shall do them and live through them in perpetual life, for the reward of a commandment - is a commandment, it is the illumination of his countenance may His name be blessed, for He concealed them from may in the beginning of his creation; for behold that therefore for effort was he created, for when the inclination rules over him, and his evildoing is multiple through all kinds of deficiencies, and the distance which he has from the light of life; and the actions of the commandments illuminate upon him the hidden light, until such time that he completes the law of His commandments, he completes himself with them to light with this light of life:

Indeed if he does not do good, behold even so the heavenly singularity will want to be revealed, for not forever did He conceal his countenance from His world, with his wrath poured out will He rule over these sinners in their souls, and they will bear their sins until sin is removed from the world, or when their uncircumcised hearts will surrender and they will repent and live:

And not only this, rather the intention of the concealment of His countenance that we mentioned, is only so that He return and reveal it[his countenance] and they repent with his mercy, behold even this choice that he leaves us now, and the matter is dependent and stands either to the good or the bad G-d forbid according to the majority of action, its end is not to continue to exist like this, rather the time that the heavenly thought left is needed and adequate for all the souls which he made, that through this they shall be rectified - who through their righteousness, and who through their repentance, and who through the receipt of afflictions; and this is the time that he set of six thousand years, like the words of our Rabbis may their memory be blessed (Rosh haShanah 31a; Sanhedrin 97a). And afterwards he will renew his world for man to be like angels and not like asses, but they will be removed from this coarse material, and from the its negative consequences, which is the evil inclination and all that is derived from it. And even in the time of the Messiah the text is written (Ezekiel 36:26-27), "And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh..." "...and I will cause you to follow my laws..." And the sages may their memory be blessed said (Shabbos 151b, Midrash Rabbah Ecclesiastes 12:2), "And the years will arrive where you will say I have no desire for them (Ecclesiastes 12:12) - these are the days of the Messiah, which have no merit and no obligation" and this is clear, for when man is purified from the evil inclination, behold his service is only through enforced impetus, and praise does not reach him at all:

Indeed, behold this is from the construct of the heavenly singularity alone may he be blessed - to demonstrate the greatness of His complete governance; for at any time that He wants, He leaves the world to blow in the wind and continue in the passage of time, a time when negative rules in the world; and not only this, but He does not prevent everything that is in the power of the negative to do, and even for his creations to reach the lowest level.

Absent his world being destroyed because of this, because the governance is His alone, and He made it, and He tolerates, and He crushes, and He heals, and there is none other than He alone. And behold this is a strong stake for the faith of the children of Israel, where not through the tenderness of their hearts or from the length of the exile or its difficult bitterness, for just the opposite, the Holy One blessed is he permitted the negative to do all that is in its power to do, as we explained.

And at the end of all - all the more that the negative makes the yoke more difficult for mankind to tolerate, all the more will haShem reveal the power of his singularity may He be blessed and his great governance which is unlimited, and from the depth of the many terrible distresses will blossom salvation through his certain great power:

For it is true, that mankind could have be worthy in their actions, and recognize the truth, and abandon the ways of falsehood of this world in a desire to come close to their creator; and this would be with them knowing and understanding already that everything which is the opposite of the way that haShem commanded is nothing other than derived from a type of negativity that the Heavenly Will wanted, and created through the concealment of his goodness.

And therefore they will be disgusted by this deceit of their eyes, and they will choose the hidden light - the light of the countenance of the living King. And if they were to do so, behold His blessed Singularity would be revealed to them through themselves, and they they would find the hastening for themselves of the salvation; and the Holy One Blessed is He would not need to show them the difficult path of exile and its length, for because the truth became clear to them from their own intention - this is enough, and when it becomes clear - it will become clear.

For once they already saw the negative and recognized it, and abandoned it and attached themselves to the truth of his singularity - they have done that which is needed, for all the intent is only that the truth of this matter be known to them, in order that from there and onward they act with the truth that was revealed to the, if os then when it is revealed - it is revealed:

Will you not see - this occurred to the first man himself, and understand well this matter. For if the Holy One blessed is hear had created the world only from the side of good without a side of negative at all, then thought could not have described negative at all, in order to understand the singularity in His perfection, as we explained early. But since he already created the negative, then certainly thought could describe it, and to recognize from its power the Singularity in truth.

And indeed, tbe first man had already seen negativity, for was it not the tree of knowledge of good and negative that the Holy One blessed is he had forbidden to him, and even so his eyes caused him to err to contemplate this as desirous to the eyes, and and good for food, and pleasant to study like the words of the text (Genesis 3:6), "And the woman saw...". And you find, that she saw immediately that there was room to for error G-d forbid, and to say either there are two domains G-d forbid, or all the other bad ideas that were placed before them by the snake:

And indeed the first man was in truth a great wise person, and he should have contemplated this with his wisdom as appropriate; and he already knew the truth of this matter from the perspective of his wisdom, for all that he saw opposite that which was told to him by the Blessed One from the truth of the rectification - is nothing other than a fabricated lie, from the construct of the negative that He created may His name be blessed to proclaim the truth of His singularity, and with which to test man himself to give him merit.

And had he remained in his faith, and had not turned after the evil inclination, but just the opposite, had strengthened his his heart this faith, then he would have been called he who grasped the singularity of the Heavenly One, for he already saw and described with his mind that which is the negativity, and also grasped with his wisdom that all which is negative - is not other than that which was created from Him may He be blessed for his own honor.

And behold, it would have sufficed that he be strengthened with this faith to not transgress the word of G-d, and this until the night of the holy Sabbath, when the Rabbis say, that then the Holy One blessed is He would have done in one day that which he is doing now in six thousand years; And it would be that in the end it would show him in action that his belief in His singularity may He be blessed is true, and this, that he would have nullified in one moment all the negativity in the world:

But the first man was enticed by desire and his lust, and then he returned and thought up bad logical arguments in order to make it easier for himself. And therefore this is like that which our Rabbis of blessed memory said (Sanhedrin 63b), "Israel did not worship Idol worship other than to permit themselves illicit relations in public"; and the Rabbis of blessed memory said (Sanhedrin 38a), "The first man was a heretic".

And here, then it was necessary to show him through wonder what he did not want to grasp from the aspect of knowledge, and this was to show him what negativity is truly; and how, even though he is given such a large space, in the end everything has to come to the rulership of the singular good; and this is the difficult path of this world that was decreed upon him, in order that in the end he come to the faith that he did not want to stand by from the beginning, rather that it will be made clear to him through wonder in detail, that which he could have grasped from the beginning, and to make clear to hime everything in one moment:

And it is the same for his children after him as well, for if they want to grasp this, and to establish this idea in their souls from the approach of wisdom - that would be enough, for they only need only to know it, and they do know it, and when it becomes clear - it becomes clear. But since man is not meritorious through his acts, and just the opposite, follow after the deceit that is apparent to their face with all the poor ideas that we mentioned above, behold the Holy One blessed is he needs to reveal to them that which they were unable to grasp.

And this is only through the way that he does in this exile, where he has hidden his countenance in concealment after concealment, until negativity has been strengthened in the world - the purpose of great strengthening; and as the Rabbis may their memory be blessed (Sotah 49a, see there), "There is no day whose blessing is not greater than another". And behold, in the end of it all - suddenly he will come to his sanctuary, of the singular master blessed is he, and the glory of G-d will be revealed and will be seen by all together:

And that which is now because of the significant concealment of His countenance, wisdom has been diminished and actions have been damaged, and as s consequence to this all of the creations themselves have been damaged and diminished, as they said (Sotah 48a), "...the taste of the fruit has been taken...", and all the the other negative things that our Rabbis may their memory be blessed have told us, and which we see with our own eyes - behold the land is chaos, and like their saying may they be blessed (Sotah 49b), [in the time before Mashiach], brazenness will increase and prices will increase...", for all of this is the strengthening of great negativity, behold when the glory of haShem will be revealed - all wisdom will return to the straight path, and all actions will be restored as at the beginning, and people will cleave to their creator, as it says in the text (Joel 3:1) "I shall pour out my spirit on all flesh..."; and similarly (Jeremiah 31:33), "And man will no longer teach is fellow...to say know haShem, for all will know me from the small among them to the great"; and it will be that the general passion for the whole world will be to made holy with His holiness may He be blessed, and like the matter that says (Isaiah 2:3), " And the many peoples will travel and say let ups go and ascend to the mount of HaShem...and he will instruct us in his path and we will follow after him...".

And born from this will be all the successes of the creations, as the matter that is said (Psalms 72:16), "Let abundant grain be in the land on the tops of the mountains...."; (Isaiah 11:6) "and the wolf will dwell with the lamb...":

In the end, you shall see that when the Heavenly Will chose to go in this path, he gave space for all that he is needed for the lower [creations] for their true perfection. For when he is concealing his countenance, behold he gives space for deficiencies, and when he gives space for deficiencies - he gives space for service in order to complete them. And since the concealment was done only in order to reveal, behold this gives space to rectify those deficiencies with the power of the revelation of the perfection.

And as the concealment was done for revelation to all to occur even from itself, behold he gave a set time for the days of choice, for in the end all of the world will be rectified in complete rectification, and from then and onwards will be the time of receipt of the reward for the service, which passed already, like their saying may they be blessed (Eruvin 22a), "Today to do them and tomorrow to receive reward":

Said the Soul - let us summarize all that we said until now on this matter, for it is voluminous:

Said the Intellect - the summary is short and easy to understand. The Heavenly Will wanted to reveal and clarify the truth of His singularity - for there is no capacity in opposition to his capacity at all, and on this foundation he built his world with all of its rules. And the summary is, that which he conceals his countenance and gives space for negativity to exist, until he returns and reveals his goodness, and negativity will no longer exist, and the rule of his Singularity will be apparent. And either way he gave space for service to man as long as the deficiency is in existence, and the perfections remains to be revealed; and after it is revealed - this is the time of receipt of the reward for the service that has been done already:

Said the Soul - I still have a small place for a question, why do we need to say that everything is dependent on this Singularity? Is the first explanation that I heard from you at the beginning of your words better, that the Holy One blessed is he wanted to bestow complete goodness upon his creations, and saw that it was need for this that they receive it through merit and not in charity, therefore he placed reward and punishment in the world, in order that they received the goodness through their merit, and in contrast to this he only placed free choice in order to give space for reward and punishment:

Said the Intellect - But the action will prove that the Singularity sands to be revealed. For we see the promises of the prophets that we brought above already, where they promise that the Holy One blessed is he will redeem Israel in all scenarios, even without merit, and that he shall remove the evil inclination from man and will compel them to worship him; and behold all of this is in contrary to reward and punishment and contrary to free will.

If if the intent was in truth to continue the matter of free choice and reward and punishment, meaning that the world would always be constructed through free choice, for people to be righteous or evildoers according to their will, and it would always be good for the righteous or bad for the evildoers, it would be required that it be like this always, and there there be no interruption to it; And this was - that the Holy One blessed is he wants to strengthen the character of justice, to support all of His creations forever.

But we know that it is not so, as we proved from the sources, and is explained to us in the words of our sages may their memory be blessed, that in the end free will will be removed from man, and there won't be negativity in the world,, and they have already said (Berakhot 10a), "sinners shall cease from the earth" it says. If so, the final intention is not upon reward and punishment, but rather on the general rectification.

Rather the Holy One blessed is he put together two items as one, and this is from the depths of his wisdom to bring about all through the complete rectification. And we will discuss this further within with the help of heaven when we reach the details of his behavior, for it is a deep and very fundamental matter:

Until now we have spoken in generalities, and from now need to come to the details, for behold we have placed one foundation upon which all of the matters of the creation and its rules are dependent - on the matter of revelation of His singularity may He be blessed, and with regard to this matter we found two periods, the first - when he is hidden and yet to be revealed in the future, and the second - after he is reveled; and these two periods we saw are dependent on the service of man and receipt of his reward.

Now, with each one of these periods we need to understand all of the details in them which we can grasp, and these are the details of the concealment of His singularity by itself and the details of His revelation by itself. And we also ned to understand the connection between these two periods, there needs to be a place for their connection, which is the passageway between the two extremes:

We will begin now in order, and this comes first - to understand the details of the concealment of the singularity, because it is the first period, and the laws of His behavior may He be blessed in this period...and here it will be for us to explain all the matters of the service in all its derivitives, and the preparation for man to do it, and all the other aspects that we need to understand in this matter:

Said the Intellect - I need to tell you a great and essential introduction, before we enter into the the matter of these ways of His may He be blessed, and His laws with which we are occupied:

Said the Intellect - Behold we see rules and laws, the He may His name be blessed uses to interact with us, we His creations, characteristics and ways of righteousness as he decreed though the depth of His wisdom, until because of these characteristics we attribute to Him many descriptions like all the words of the prophets may they rest in peace, and we call Him, merciful, gracious, powerful and all the other many nicknames which we attribute to Him.

Indeed here we need to understand and understand the certain faith with which we need to believe in all this, for all of these descriptions and nicknames are not befitting Him may He be blessed according to his essential self at all, in that all of these actions are not actions that He may He be blessed does like a person does according to his nature and power, rather they are all matters that were willed from His will to do according to the value of the creations that he wanted to create and according to their power alone.

And this matter is explained by the sages in many places in broad explanation. And in general that which we need to believe in this is, that He may His name be blessed, his existence is known to us with certainty as intrinsically compelled, but his essence is impossible for us to grasp at all; and not only that, but it is already forbidden to us as eternal prohibition to enter into this examination, and the sages already said (Chagigah 11b, "One who looks at four things, it would be appropriate that he had never come to the world"; and similarly they said (Chagigah 13a), "With that which is mysterious to you do not inquire...you should have no dealings with hidden matters".

And it is a generalization, all that the mind of man can grasp and describe - is certainly not His essence may he be blessed, for he is lofty and exalted from any thought or reasoning, and he has none of the matters that are in his creations, not from the great or from the lowly, for that which is the greatest perfection in his creation - would be deficiency with regard to Him may he be blessed, and they are not like him in his rule at all.

For all that is found in creations - the good and the negative the deficiency and the perfection - all of it is new that was caused to exist by Him may his name be blessed through his will, and they are things that are only according to our value and our matters, and not according to His value and His matter may He be blessed. And on this the text is filled with crying out and says (Isaiah 40:25), "And to whom shall you compare me and find me equal says the Holy One":

In general, the Master is certain bereft of all that we find in his creations, whether deficiency or completeness, and only he alone is the perfect with true perfection, to which there is no applicability of deficiency in any manner at all; and this is not comprehensible to us at all, and none of our matters are applicable to him. And indeed, in his will to create creations, and to direct the, and to distribute to them from His good, to shower them with blessings, and to give them some revelation from his heavenly honor upon every blessing and splendor, that they should benefit from his light, therefore He set for Himself, as if it could be, a rule and law of straight interaction, like all of this guidance which we see and hear, for he caused to exist, as if it could be, types of influence and characteristics of interaction, to grasp them and to utilize them towards a choice and good intended purpose for all his creations.

And now, the characteristics - certainly His characteristics and the descriptives - are connected to Him, for he does all of this, even if they are not things that are compulsory to him at all, rather all are intended from him, and there existence is dependent only on his interest and will, for without all these he certainly could act and but for this, even now he could change them per his will:

In the end, the rule of His will is complete rule, which has nothing withholding it at all, at any time; and I already explained this matter above as necessary. And behold it is as if G-d hides himself from the aspect of His existence and his essence, which is not grasped or known at all to any creation, so the revelation of His glory and knowledge of Him is a small part from the aspect of His actions. And anything that is grasped by any creation in the world - can only be from the aspect of His actions, alone:

And indeed you also need to know, that even those of His actions which are grasped by us, are only grasped through their consequences; meaning, That which is acted upon by Him may he be blessed, indeed not through the manner of action - how He may he be blessed causes it to act. For all that which is intrinsic to Him may he be blessed - there is no comprehension that could be grasped, and it is impossible to grasp other than that which is in us, his creations.

And therefore, even though the characteristics that are ascribed to Him may he be blessed, as for example, knowledge, memory, thought, compassion, anger, will - are not mentioned because these ways of His knowledge are like our knowledge, and the ways of his memory are like our memories, and His thought like our thought and His compassion like our compassion, and his anger like our anger, and His will like our will, and so for all of them; rather these actions he does in a manner that is incomprehensible or known to us at all, but what reaches us in a matter and construct is that which He wants [to perceive].

And not only this, but even the actions achieved through deficiency do not need to be done through this deficiency, in the way that may would need to do them if he wanted to do them, rather He says "let it be", in the manner that his way is hidden and not grasped by us at all, And to us the actions reach us in the measure that they reach. Go and learn from His voice may he be blessed in the Tent of Meeting, that the sages said, may their memory be for a blessing (Torat Cohanim, parshat vaYikra, Dibura d'Nedavah, chapter 2:10) "The voice of haShem in power...", and even so Moshe heard and all of Israel did not hear [in the tent of meeting].

And all of the comes about from Him may his name be blessed being omnipotent, and he can do anything that he wishes, for the is no rule that would stop Him, or any law or boundary that would prevent Him. Therefore we cannot compare his actions to the actions of his creations at all, as they are limited and stretched while He may he be blessed is entirely omnipotent:

And behold up to now I have provided you with an introduction, which is needed for all that we will be involved with in our discussion, now we will come to our subject:

Said the Soul - I heard, and the words are settled upon me, for it is impossible to be calmed regarding the matters of the creation and its events, if we did not know that there is so plainly a heavenly cause and supervisor, omnipotent and without any compulsion or coercion, and without this there is no solution or explanation to the majority of the doubts and wonders that occur in it:

Said the Intellect - The first time period which we need to explain now, is the time of concealment of His singularity may He be blessed like today, it includes the time of service of man, as we explained. And behold in accordance with his perfection, we already said, He could certainly do all of His actions perfectly, and there would not be in His actions other than total goodness and completion, without any deficiency or negativity at all.

Indeed with His will to interact with his creations with this manner of behavior that we already mentioned, behold He caused a truly new order to exist, which is not according to the law of the heavenly perfection may He be blessed, rather that which is needed for the creations to give them the merit and good reward in their end, and this is the way of the Good and the Negative, the reward and the punishment; for according to this way, behold the good and the negative are equivalent and both come in this world, and so he prepares the good for the good ones like the negative for the evildoers; and according to this way we find the creations damaged at times, and rectified at times, and permission is given to the accuser to accuse, and to the destroyer to damage those whom the Lord condemns, and we find the peoples of the world and idol worshipers, and similarly all of the other iniquities in the world, that upon them the promises of the prophets may they rest in peace, that they will be removed from the world in the future, like the matter that is said (Isaiah 2:18), "And the idols will completely vanish"; (Zechariah 13:2), "...and the spirit of impurity shall I remove from the land"; (Isaiah 25:8), "Death shall be destroyed forever..."; (Isaiah 11:9, 65:25), "No iniquity and no corruption in all my holy mountain...", (Berakhot 33b), "All is in the hands of heaven except for fear of heaven" - For the Holy One blessed is he does not want to withold anything from the hand of mankind if they want to corrupt their actions.

And from this was born all the great corruptions that have been in the world from the day that the Lord created man, and there is is no rest for the righteous in this world, for the inquiry of man is great upon him, and the accuser testifies against him at all times, and the Holy One blessed is He is exacting with his pious ones like a strand of hair. This is generally the way in which the Heavenly Will innovated according to the manner of concealment of His influence and singularity, and this way is not dependent other than on the concealment of His countenance of goodness may He be blessed, for if he had wanted to reveal the truth of His rulership, he would have removed all of these iniquities, and would not have left other than the good and rectification alone, as he will do in the future to come:

And know as well, that certainly now as well, even though He has hidden His goodness and withheld the rule of His perfection from the creations, even so it is certain that He sustains them, for from where else would their being and existence and maintenance come if not from His sustenance. If so certainly He is the sustainer, but this sustenance of His that he provides now - in comparison to that which would be appropriate for him to provide if He were sustaining according to the rule of his perfection he wished to provide sustenance - is not other than a shadow for man, or like a small mark that remains from writing on paper after the letters have been removed from it.

And we would call the general type of this sustenance - darkness and not light, with regard to the complete sustenance which could come if through the rule of His perfection he were to provide sustenance. Indeed with regard to ours this is all of our lives, for with this sustenance we live and exist, and not without it. And we find, when we mention the type of this sustenance which is innovated in the hiding of the countenance of His goodness may He be blessed, we call them with one generalization - like the shadow of the heavenly power alone, not more; and when we dissect it to its details - we find within it all the rules and laws which we discern in the heavenly behavior, for all of them together are a very small thing relative to the heavenly power if He were to act in his completeness, as I mentioned:

And indeed when the ultimate purpose is only revelation of the Singularity, and not its concealment, and like we explained before, that this concealment is only intermediate in order to come to this end of revelation; therefore, even though the concealment of His countenance is to innovate with it this manner of behavior of good and negative, He returns nevertheless and oversees with the characteristic of goodness and according to the law of his rulership, to complete bringing about all of this behavior in the general rectification.

And this is a simple matter, since ou have already heard how He set a time limit to the this darkness of the good and negative all the time of the six thousand years; and He already decreed from the beginning the end which is the purpose of all of this, and His Singularity will remain revealed, and the goodness of the world will be established forever and ever. If so, every day that passes, we find the world coming closer to its perfection; and not only this, rather that the Holy One blessed is He brings about overturning through the depths of his wisdom, and continuously revolves transformations, to bring the world towards this perfection.

And this is what the text said (Tehilim 40:6), "Many things have you done HaShem my Lord, your miracles and thoughts are towards us..."; and similarly said the prophet (Isaiah 25:1) "...Counsel from the past is faith for the faithful"; and similarly it is said (Samuel II 14:14) "...and he plans so that the exiled will not remain exiled". For certainly the Holy One blessed is He does not want to hold to the way of Good and negative for such a long time, and afterward to abandon it and to grasp the way of rulership and Singularity in one moment, like a person who regrets and is consoled; rather from the depths of His wisdom may He be blessed he revolves the events from the depths of his wisdom such that, from within the Good and negative itself in the end we reach this point, that all will be completed, and He may His name be blessed will reveal His Singularity. And more will be explained from this later with the help of heaven: