Da'at Tevunot Reader

And we find that in truth with these two characteristics the Master may He be blessed always affects, and He set these two in his rules the foundations of the world, 1 - the character of reward and punishment, it is the manner of the Good and negativity in one balance of merit and liability, and called this behavior the manner of justice, that the Holy One blessed is he sits and judges all the world according to their actions - the good and the bad.

And it comes with His justice - the character of his goodness which is according to the rule of His perfection, according to the manner of His rulership, for with his power he wishes to rectify all of his creations. And behold, according to the character of reward and punishment - the Holy One blessed is he, (as if it were possible), makes his actions subject to the actions of man, that if they are good He also does good for them, and if they are bad he is compelled, (as if that were possible), to punish them; and like the topic of the text (Psalms 68:35) "Give strength to G-d..."; and its opposite (Deuteronomy 32:18) "You neglect the Rock that bore you..."; and as they said may they be blessed (Eichah Rabbah 1:33), "At the time that Israel does the will of heaven - they add power to the strength above, and when they do not do the will of heaven - they weaken the strength above", G-d forbid, and according to his character of governance and rulership it says (Zechariah 3:9), "...and I will remove the transgression of that land in one day"; (Jeremiah 50:20), "The transgression of Israel shall be sought and not be and the sin of Judah and not be found".

And behold according to the character of Good and negativity - The justice of G-d is true to give to man according to his ways quid pro quo, and there are many ways for haShem to pay man according to his actions, and by his manner will he be made, whether to kindness or to His rod. But according to the wisdom of His goodness in the rule of his perfection may He be blessed - the common aspect to them, is to return everything - to complete goodness, to a complete rectification which will be in the end.

And regarding this it says (Malachi 3:6) I am G-d I have not changed". And in the madras of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai they said (Zohar ki Tetzei 281. and see there), "I shall not change in any place". And indeed the manner of reward and punishment is that which is revealed and always seen by the eyes of all, but the revolving that he revolves all towards the good is very very deep, and does not serve to be revealed except at the end, but it revolves and progresses in all periods and in every hour with certainty, and does not stop:

And we find, that certainly the Master blessed is He conquered, as if that were possible, the rule of his perfection in the creation of these creations, and created them deficient and not complete, and gave them a way of behavior and type of influence which none other than darkness of His concealment may he be blessed, from which comes the existence of equivalence of good and negative, and there is existence for sins and their defects and for punishment and their damages.

And even so He returned in looked into the goodness of his rule upon these creations to rectify them in a general and complete rectification in the future, for upon it does he revolve the globe day after day, and perpetuates the matters of good and negativity himself, to complete the perfect rectification with the power of the singularity of His rulership may His name be blessed:

Said the Soul - Summarize that which explained up to now:

Said the Intellect - The Holy One blessed is He put in place two characteristics with which to guide His world, One is the character of justice, and one - the character of rulership and singular governance. The character of justice is the character of Good and Negativity, upon which are dependent all of the matter of goodness and negativity with all of their consequences; and the source of this character is the hiding of the countenance of His goodness, and the concealment of its completeness.

The character of singular governance is the character of rectification of all of his creations with his power may he be blessed, even though from the aspect of themselves they are not deserving of this, and it continues with the concealment of all the ways of justice itself, to advance everything to its perfection alone; and its source is the rule of his straightforward goodness may He be blessed, for even though it is concealed, it is not moved from observing us towards the good.

The character of justice is the revealed one and seen, the character of governance is the concealed and hidden at times:

Said the Soul - I still need to be settled somewhat on the matter of this characteristic of governance that you mentioned, because I don't understand well the action of HaShem's straightforward completeness, may He be blessed, because according to that which is apparent even it isn't from his rule of completeness, for you already said that the true completeness cannot be grasped:

Said the Intellect - You did well to be precise. And now I will set up the clarification of these matters. His straightforward completeness may He be blessed cannot be grasped at all, this is the true perfection which is not known by us at all, and behold this is intrinsically elevated and exalted from all matters of creations. For as soon as He wanted to interact with his creations, he set and wanted these behaviors which are completely matters relevant to creations, and not according to his value; and we discover, that His straightforward essential character is removed from all these matters entirely.

And not only this, but even these actions of His themselves are according to the value of the creations - that which he could do he didn't do; and just the opposite He restrained, as if it were possible, His Goodness to not do that which was appropriate for him to do according to the goodness of His rule. And this, that even though he wanted to interact with the creations and to be revealed to them only through their value, and not according to His value, it was possible nevertheless to be revealed to them and to interact with them at least according to their value, but with perfection without deficiencies, and the way that it will be in the end in the future.

And from the the rule of His goodness and His kindness it would have been to reveal himself to them with great goodness and with broad flowing sustenance, and from the rule of His perfection He should have done his actions perfectly without deficiencies; and he restrained all this, and wanted to act with deficiencies, and an absence of illumination as they are:

And indeed, He did not want nevertheless to leave His world like this, that is should always go on and storm with the partnership of the good and the negative, rather from the reason of His great goodness he placed one interaction and deep wisdom to revolve all of the matters from good and negative themselves to the complete rectification which is to be found within them; and this is to be done from the rule of His perfection for nevertheless his actions will be complete and will not remain in their deficiencies.

Indeed this is not the action of His straightforward perfection itself which cannot be grasped, for its straightness is not applicable to our matters in any manner. Rather it is the matter that I mentioned, for in any event it is from the rule of his perfection even if he wants to act only according to his creations - he will still act with them in perfection. And this is the source of the interaction - the deep wisdom that I said, which revolves and causes all to continue towards the final rectification:

And nevertheless his actions are certainly through restraint of His mercy, as if it were possible, that we mentioned, that he did not act according to the rule of his perfection such that his creations would be complete from their inception, rather there inception is deficient, and their end will be complete, from the reason of His great goodness as we explained. for if here were to leave the world only in the character of justice, humankind would not emerge from their pages every, for there always would be found righteous ones and evildoers, good and negative, blessing and curse.

But now, even though it is so at the beginning, it will not be like this at the end. And therefore the character of justice remains revealed and the character of general rectification remains in hiding, for its actions are hidden, until the end when all existence will be rectified completely in the future:

Said the Soul - Now I am settled, because certainly the way of general rectification comes from the rule of His goodness may he be blessed, but in any event it was His will to act with us only according to our value and not according to His value:

Said the Intellect - I will also tell you in regard to this matter an additional detail, and it is - that certainly in every characteristic that He may His name be blessed measures out for us, we can discern two matters, the apparent and the hidden; which means, the apparent is reward and punishment, for whom this characteristic is measured out for according to what it is, the good or the negative; and the hidden is the deep wisdom which is always present in all characteristics, through which to bring all of the creations to the general rectification.

For with certainty, this is the character, that there is no action small or large whose essential character of intent is not for the complete rectification, lake the matter that they said (Berachot 60, according to the Ein Yaakov version), "All that is done from the heavens - is good". And these are the words of the prophet (Isaiah 12:1) "...your anger turned back and you consoled me", for the ways of the Holy One blessed is He will be known in the future to the eyes of all Israel how even the rebukes and the tribulations were not other than invitations to goodness, and actual preparation for blessing.

For the Holy One blessed is He does not want other than the rectification of his creation, and he does not push away the evildoers with two hands; rather just the opposite, he refines them in the kiln to be rectified, and to emerge cleansed of all slag. And this intent is one for Him may he be blessed in all of his actions that he does with us, to the right or to the left, and we explained above:

And indeed it is necessary for you to know that all acts of haShem are awesome, and wide and deep without limit, as the matter that is said (Psalms 92:6) "How great are your actions haShem..."; and the smallest of his actions has within it so much of the plentiful wisdom and depth, that it is impossible to descend to its depth ever, and this is the matter that is written (Psalms ibid), "...how deep are your thoughts".

And behold now the acts of haShem are not comprehensible to us at all, rather their coverage is apparent, but their true internal essence is hidden, for this inside is equivalent in all of them - for all of them are only good and not negative at all, and this is not evident and understood now for certain. But in the future this will at least be seen and grasped - how all the revolutions of His strategies may He be blessed are deep for the purpose of bringing us goodness in our end.

But it does not appear because of this that we shall grasp the end of the great wisdom which is encompassed in these actions, for all that which man will grasp every from the actions of the Creator is none other than a drop from the great sea. And therefore we know that when it is that the Master wanted to observe his creations through the rule of His goodness that we mentioned, behold all the actions which reach us now are through the way of reward and punishment, have within them that which is certainly not dissociated - that which revolves and progresses through His goodness always to complete our rectification And there is in this internal that which will be revealed in the future immediately, as it says (Isaiah 35:5) "Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened...", this is the intent, the thought that is seen and recognized from within the actions themselves, for immediately when our eyes are enlightened with the light of knowledge we will understand from the action itself that was done.

Indeed, there is certainly from the deep wisdom in these actions, that which is not recognized and grasped from the power of the actions themselves; for the heavenly wisdom is lofty, in that it is not recognized even from it actions. And these are not other than the actions of His goodness may he be blessed which oversees us for the good, but always according to our value and not according to his value, like we explained; that this is none other than that which extends from the rule of his perfection, but when he acts through his actions it is only according to that which is relevant for us:

Said the Intellect - This is the general rule, His perfection may he be blessed from the perspective of Himself cannot be grasped at all, but when He wants to act through the rule of His goodness, at least with the actions which are according to our values and not more, he places wisdom and wheels of interaction to bring all of the creation towards completion and rectification, and this is that which is hidden in all of his actions, the common aspect which is within them. And their concealment - a small part from a small part of it is revealed and recognized from within the actions themselves, when the Holy One blessed is He wants to open our eyes. Naught from the majority of His deep and wondrous wisdom may He be blessed can be grasped as it remains lofty and exalted:

And you need to know that the behavior relevant to the Master may He be blessed is the behavior of perfection, for He is perfect, and acts according to His perfection. And once he already ordered and set in place the rules and organization for that which would reach the creations according to the way of good and negative, behold they will be considered consequences of these rules and characteristics like something that comes about from it, according to that which was etched and prepared in every characteristic:

And indeed, as long as the behavior of good and negative need to be used, from the action of Perfection itself shall be derived the actions which come from the rules of good and negative; and this, for in any event the source of all is the perfection, and even that which is done according to the good and the negative, revolves towards the point of perfection, rather that so long as there is a concealment of [haShem's] singularity these matters need to go according to this order.

Therefore from the Singularity itself emerge these actions, since according to the heavenly will and wisdom these matters need to emerge from the source of the perfection itself as long as the Singularity is concealed. And in the end, the fruit of the action of the Perfection will be the redirection of all behavior towards it entirely...And behold this is a third issue to differentiate among each characteristic from his characteristics may he be blessed, and it is, the continuation of the consequences of this characteristic from the strength of the action of the Perfection itself, and behold this is like a intermediate matter between the Perfection and between the characteristic according to its issue, and it changes for every characteristic according the the changes in the matter of that characteristic, for according to its matter so does is it activated from the Perfection.

And one can differentiate also in this intermediacy its independent matter and the method of its action, as it is explained further on:

And indeed there is more for us to know, that all these matters are all dependent exclusively on His will may He be blessed, for they have no existence or being and continued presence at all except through His will may He be blessed, who rules with his abilities which are without limit, for his spoke and it came into being He commands and they continue to stand. And therefore the power of His will may He be blessed is known in all of them, for he alone causes them continued existence in all of their matters, in all their parts and details just like all the creations themselves he alone causes their continued existence in all their qualities and all that is within them, for they and nothing within them has any matter of existence without Him:

Said the Soul - this is clear for me and I have no doubt about it:

Said the Intellect - I will explain to you more in this introduction, and you will understand a deep idea; and similarly you will understand their saying may they be blessed (Breisheet Rabbah 68:9), "He is the place of the world and the world is not his place":

Behold, there is nothing that necessitates existence except for His existence may He be blessed, and everything that exists except for that has no existence except through His desire may He be blessed, and we find that it is dependent and stands only through His will may He be blessed. And therefore we read, that all existence which is found is dependent on His word may He be blessed, like the matter which they said with regard to the upper waters (Breisheet Rabbah 4:3, Taanit 10a) and like the matter that they said may their memory be for a blessing (Chaggigah 12b), "The land upon what does it stand - upon the pillars...", "... and the wind hangs upon the arm of the Holy One blessed is He".

And similarly did they say further (Yalkut Shimoni section 1, 964), "...flesh and blood are under their load, but the Holy One blessed is He is above his load as it says (Deuteronomy 33:27), and the world is beneath his arms". He compared it as if he supports all that exists in all its details, and he stands upon them from above:

And it is a general rule and the matter is that of which I spoke, that because existence which is innovated from Him may He be blessed, is necessitated by him in general, therefore it is supported only by that which His straight will wants of it. And understand well that only His will and his decree is the place for all that exist, and without it there would not be a place at all. And therefore He may His name be blessed certainly precedes but His creation is not preexistent, to exclude that which the heretics say, that since he is preexistent then the universe must also be preexistent.

For until he willed and decreed this, there was not place for creations to exist; just the opposite, according to His existence may He be blessed, they have no argument, for they are not according to the that which is engraved in the rule of the nature of man, rather He alone may He be blessed must exist out of necessity and nothing other than Him, and this is straightforward. But rather since He willed them, and decreed this that the creations should exist, therefore they have a place and not without this. And we find, that when he decreed this - He gave a place for all of the constructions that he made after that:

And you will understand further, that even though now we know that the Holy One blessed is He is pleased by all of his actions, and they are an honor to him, like it says (Psalms 104:31), "HaShem's honor will be forever HaShem is pleased with his actions", don't think that because of this that at a time when these were not present, that there was something deficient from Him may He be blessed pleasure or honor G-d forbid.

Rather we already said, the Master may His name be blessed in his straightforward existence - there is no place for creations along with Him at all, because they are not relevant to His essence. But with his will for them, then because of the desire and this will they exist for him for pleasure, as if it were possible, and for honor. For certainly this desire is what give existence to these entities which exist, and calls out that it is not complete, if their existence would not be made.

And behold this is like a place which stands to have buildings built upon it, that it is a void as long as it is not filled with those buildings. And not only the creations alone, rather even all of the manners of interaction and the rules, the types of flowing influence that we mentioned, that are according to our value and not according to his value, they have no relevance at all except with his will for the existence of the entities which exist.

Therefore only through this desire did He innovate all of them, and they are not necessary for him; but they are also in the rubric of the constructs which fill this place, because these and those are needed to complete this desire, and this is clear. And behold we have explained that which is adequate for us in this matter:

Said the Soul - In this matter I am already completely settled. Now, I want to understand the existence of man, for according to my opinion this is what needs to be understood properly, for upon him revolves all that is essential, and the load or service is upon him:

Said the Intellect - Behold you are correct in your words, man is the intended purpose of all of His actions may His name be blessed. Therefore, only he who understands this and that in clarity, understands the content of all that preceded it, for the purpose of all is only to come to this aim:

Said the Soul - Even here there will be much to explain:

Said the Intellect - Regarding three things we need to speak, regarding the existence of man, his actions and the fruit of his actions:

Said the Soul - If so, the explanation is extremely broad:

Said the Intellect - But we will say the header words, and will leave the explanation to another for a wise man and he will become wiser still:

Said the Intellect - Here we need to come to the matter of resurrection of the dead, which we believe in with certainty without any doubt:

Said the Soul - Is this not one of the things that I aroused you to explain, for I want to be firmly based on the content of their subjects:

Said the Intellect - Here is the matter of resurrection of the dead in short and generally it is simple. For when the Holy One blessed is He created man as body and soul to do service and bear burden, both as one, all of the holy service, the Torah and the commandments which he gave to them, here it is appropriate that also in the receipt of the eternal reward that they be together, for it would not be proper that the body work and it not be for it, and behold the Holy One blessed is He does not deprive any creation of reward (Baba Kamma 38a).

But that which needs to be examined are the details of this connection of body and soul, in their connection, in their separation, and in their return to be connected with a complete connection; for all of these are done by G-d with all of mankind, and it is certainly not an empty thing. Therefore these are the details which need explanation, and a broad and adequate explanation....

Said the Soul - Certainly this matter needs explanation, why is it that G-d made the body and the soul in two creations and not as one, that man should be one creation, without being assembled as he is now; for certainly He may He be blessed is not prevented through intrigue to make him intrinsically living, without this division into body and soul. And indeed I think, that when we understand this, there will be a doorway open before us to enter into the other details:

Said the Intellect - The heavenly intent, you have already heard, is only to give goodness to man, that he should gain merit through his actions with that which he rectifies in himself and completes his creation. And here is the matter of deficiency and completion which we mentioned above. For the Lord made this body dense clay and dark, not appropriate for the light of His holiness may He be blessed because of his lowly demeanor, for one cannot come to the gate of the King and visit in his sanctuary except those who are complete in their preparation, then certainly from the kingdom of the earth.

And this is the darkness's which is impressed into the rules of this body, He placed within it all of the negative desires which rule over it, and make it liable to all of the negative occurrences which find it. And this is second - He made the pure soul, carved from beneath the throne of glory, and he lowered it an breathed it into this body to purify it and to make it holy. And this is what you need to understand, that the end intent of the soul entering the body is not to give it life in this life of vanity, but the essence of this entry is to refine it in an actual refinement, to elevate it from the lowliness of its clay-like and darkened level to the elevated level, to be like the heavenly angels.

And thes matter we already found by Moshe our teacher may he rest in peace, who achieved and refine his clay, until he returned to the level of an actual angel, and all of Israel already saw that the face of Moshe was radiant. and Enoch and Elijah rose to the heavens with their bodies intact, after they had refined their clay a great refinement. But the pain through which the soul can refine the body, is it not through the acts of the commandment and the fulfillment of the Torah, for a commandment is a lamp and the Torah is light.

And the more it is able to acquire Torah and commandments - it multiplies refinement to the body, and merit for itself - for it fulfills the will of its owner:

Said the Soul - We find a complete benefit for the body, and merit for the soul, but not complete benefit for the soul:

Said the Intellect - we will discuss this further with the help of heaven. Now let us complete our subject. Behold this refining is the essential action for the soul in this world, and after this it has other matters, and this is not the place to explain them. And on this matter they said (Zohar, section 1, Midrash haNeelam[the concealed Midrash], 115a), "Rav Chiya said "Come see - until the body stands in this world it is deficient in the payment from after it is righteous and went in the straight paths and died in its straight state - it is called Sarah in its payment".

And behold this is the entire fruit of its righteousness - the elevation of the glory of G-d may He be blessed, which is elevated in the perfection of His creations, for all was created for his glory, and this is all that is born from the act of good relative to the heavens, for which reward was established from above, for it is like serenity which was made before Him may He be blessed, so shall it be done for him:

But Sin causes - the sin of Adam, to pass the cup of death upon all creations, and there is no hope. Therefore the power of the soul does not stop doing this refinement before death, and this is the matter of the righteous who died only due to the advice of the snake, per their saying, may their memory be blessed (Bava Batra 17a), that they couldn't be perfected even through the plethora of their actions without this.

But after the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the filth which the snake imposed upon Eve is removed from it entirely, until it returns and is rebuilt - will descend into it the soul with all the strength of its good deeds and the radiance of the heavenly light from which it derived benefit in Gan Eden according to its actions, and will illuminate within its body a great light, through which it will be refined entirely, and will return and heal it from all of the negativities that were made a liability for them from the beginning.

And this matter is explained in the Midrash haNe'elam[concealed Midrash], Parshat v'yera, and this is its language "said our Rabbis may their memory be blessed - the soul, while it is still in its heights is sustained by the light from above, and is garbed in it, and when it enters into the body in the future to come - with this light itself shall it enter...etc.", see there. And in addition there (117a), "the Holy One blessed is He inserts this body under the ground until it decays completely and removes from it all of the bad filth", see there:

And behold we now have the matter of the service of man and the matter of receipt of his reward, they are two periods which comprise all of his existence. For now in this world behold the body is coarse and dark with deficiencies, and it is for the Soul to strengthen it enlightenment and sanctification to refine it and to illuminate it. And when this refinement is completed - this is the time of receipt of the reward, for they will be together to receive good reward for all days:

And indeed, what needs to be understood now is the measure of the strength of the soul which is given to it to and within this body. And this, for if its strength was great and its light very powerful - certainly it would give so much great illumination to the body that it would elevate it in its existence, and its deficiencies would be completed in one moment, and the evil inclination - it is essential in the deficiencies which the Master may he be blessed wanted for the purpose of free will and reward and punishment - behold would not rule over man at all, as it does not rule over angels because of the abundance of their illumination and the perfection of their knowledge and importance. You should know that in the future it says (Isaiah 11:9), "They shall not do evil nor corrupt throughout my holy mountain for the land will be filled with knowledge"; and at that same time it says (Ezekiel 36:26), "and I shall remove the heart of stone from their flesh...", to the greatness of the elevation of the soul which will be greater in that time. And indeed from another aspect, behold if the soul were in its essential existence of lowliness and not greatness, it would not be able to stand in the face of the glory and greatness which will be done to it in the future, to be greater than the angels of service:

There is a practical difference to it - that the soul needs a great root from its aspect of self and its source needs to be honorable to a great degree, such that it will be deserving of all the preciousness which it will have in the future. but it is lowered, to strengthen it and for its own good in the end, when the Master blessed is He puts upon it his rule, "go and diminish yourself, in order to enter this murky body, and to be in it all of the days of its life of vanity.

And there he placed for it rule and law - all of this Torah to serve it and to guard it, these are the things which are relevant to it while it is in the body. But indeed, because its strength and abundant light were already weakened with this diminution, the body remains murky as it is today, even though it [the soul] is within it. But according to the righteousness of its actions is it judged in the future, in its elevation in the levels of its steps, where when it comes a second time into the body in this new light, behold that which it is unable to do now will be done to it, and this is that it shall refine it a complete refinement, to return it to essential honor and illumination as we explained.

For that which is from the beginning, in order that it come into the body, it was necessary to diminish its light, behold that in coming this second time, it is just the opposite, it will come with all light, in order to do the complete refinement as is appropriate

And here now is a benefit for the soul itself in the completion of the body - to elevate it from height to height, and to add strength on strength and glory to glory. And not this alone, rather even at the time that it is in this world within the body - it has elevation and advantage according to its actions, for the soul of a man who is occupied with Torah and Mitzvot and obtains knowledge of the glory of its owner is not similar to a soul absent from man.

But its elevation cannot reach a point where it can change the body, such that it would be refined in a way visible to the eye, except for the few in number, the remnant chosen by G-d, like Moshe our teacher may he rest in peace, Enoch and Elijah. Excepting them, even though it [the soul] achieves advantage from its actions, it will not achieve so much that it would be seen also in the body. However goodness will not be withheld from their owners in the future, each according to their actions:

Said the Soul - Gather the summary of all that you have said:

Said the Intellect - This is the generalization, the body - its creation is dark and it has deficiencies, and it has refinement by the soul. The soul - its source is great, however it diminishes itself when it comes into the body, in order not to refine it excessively in one moment and not to change it from its manner of creation; rather little by little it acts upon it as it needs through good acts. And afterwards is elevated according to its actions, and its strength is made greater according to its elevation, and the refinement is multiplied in the body according to the greatness of its strength, until it become appropriate to stand with it together to look upon the beauty of haShem and to visit his sanctuary, for ever and ever.