If You Have An Aptitude for Spirituality

If you have an aptitude for spirituality, for clinging to God, and for elevated, abstract, spiritual wisdoms, you must know: it is for this that you were created. If you slacken in your supernal work, something that only a rare few can do, who will fill that great cavity?

So be happy in your portion and do not look at it in a negative way.

And do not look down on the portion of others, even if they are very far from this, because they certainly have other fields of goodness and usefulness, which are far from you.

Always be wealthy in your mind, with a good eye. Honor others. Love them all. And strive for their good and their elevation.

**

Even if you have no more than a small inclination for supernal spiritual sights, even if you do not really have intelligence and wisdom, but your imagination is elevated somewhat more than the usual, you are entirely responsibility to act in a supernally holy way.

You must proceed on your own, on your holy path. With good traits and elevated qualities, rise beyond the masses. And make an effort to learn from everyone—in particular from the simple-hearted masses, and from every individual who has any good quality.

If you will attempt to go on the usual path of the masses with their usual leaders, you will by no means be able to do so. Instead, make an effort to acquire excellent traits and a clear reckoning of the world.

And do not set aside the constant yearning to be close to God, which is deep in your soul, for any obstacle in the world.

Do not chase after honor—nor should you be confused when you find people heaping honors on you. And of course, do not be upset if people insult you or are disrespectful to you.

Orot Hakodesh III, p. 207

Joyfully

We must perform all of the commandments joyfully, because they develop our feeling of pleasure and of divine love, which is hidden in the very nature of our soul.

And separating ourselves from all sin is also good for helping us connect with this holy goal. Sin dims the illumination of the soul because of the turbidity of the sinful deed, which mixes into our spiritual lucidity, which blocks expansion of the light of the divine pleasantness.

And our consciousness has to expand—in its connections to deed and in its spiritual connections—until the power of our soul will expands so greatly that it will find the strength to organize all of life, in general and in detail, into a fitting form, so that the supernal blossom of life, which is the universal delight (which contains all ever-lasting delights and from which all time-bound delights flow), which is the delight of the pleasure of Hashem, will constantly blossom with success and greatness.

Orot Hakodesh III, p. 186

To Burrow Into The Smallest Details

The greatness of soul that yearns for supernal holiness and for great and exalted things must necessarily also deal with the rectification of traits and deeds, and at times descend into the depths of the life of deed and burrow into the smallest details, in order to rectify them and direct them in accordance with righteousness and straightness, in accordance with the Torah and halachah, and to penetrate into the depths of the traits of the spirit so as to remove from them all evil and all perversion.

But if the heart is directed only an elevated reality and not to the lower plain of purification and holiness, then all of that supernal light can shatter and turn into a stumbling block. The greatness of the soul can be transformed into an alien egotism, and the yearning for knowledge of the mighty mysteries into an illusion characterized a wealth of hues.

The might of the spirit, which elevates the phenomenon of life, can also bring to the fore stormy physical desires. The desire for illicit gain, for honor, and for sensory delights can break through all of their boundaries. And from the height of a powerful angelic, supernal yearning can come the most terrible fall.

And the hidden world is the trait of Leah, whose eyes are weak. She sits at the crossroads and prays not to fall into the hands of Esau. And because of her greatness and her weeping, she attained the foundation of prophecy and royalty, and the portion of Israel.

Orot Hakodesh III, p. 125

People Who Do Not Believe In Themselves

How much goodness do some people hold back with their own hands because of their lowly consciousness—people in whose heart the spirit of Hashem is fit to beat, but who grasp smallness and do not believe in themselves, in the greatness of their soul.

Neither environment nor [one’s] actions in particular are the foundations upon which the happiness of the soul is built in its inner treasury. Rather, the foundations are greatness of the spirit, inner holiness and purity, strength of will and might of thought. A person’s environment and deeds are subjugated as he grows more intense, as his spiritual might rises.

Therefore, great, righteous people involve themselves in particular in their inner greatness. Of course, they are very careful in their deeds, they make an effort in regard to the purity of the environment—but all of this comes from the inner factor of the supernal light, which streams in their souls with its entire unique splendor, from the greatest and most fully-flowing conduit. And they do not lower themselves to cling constantly to the reality within the smallness of individual details with no end, which fill the spirit that rises upward.

And in general it is not the sensory world with the details of its actions that takes the greatest place in the eternal soul of life, which appears in the light of its greatness in supernal souls. It is rather the exalted splendor of the beauty of the Life of worlds, in which everything is incorporated—all ideational good, ethical and deed-oriented—an expansion of perfection across [one’s] deeds entirely comes of itself, when the great will for divine good with its immense purity acts with all of its power.

And at any rate the righteous turn at times from their immense greatness and look at their deeds in great detail. After they have already been satiated with the radiance of delights from the supernal pleasantness, after their spirit filled with strength has been encouraged and strengthened and the desire of good and purity, filled with the light of life, lives within their heart, then a self-reckoning comes with greatness and harmony regarding details and the details within details. Then there comes as well a spiritual and physical dolefulness, like a flowing stream and an awesome thunder, fear and greatness, hope and trust, confidence, and a hope of rectification for every flaw, and a supernal repentance that includes all repentances.

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When the righteous find flaws in their deeds, even when they see that it is impossible to rectify them, they do not as a result fall from their supernal level, for they know that the reason for their inability to rectify every imperfection is that the light of the soul, which is the true strength of life upon all the branches of the passages of life, has still not shone.

Therefore, they make an effort to rise to more supernal heights, with attainment and with clearness of the spirit, so that the soul will be stronger, and this phenomenon will appear upon them. And they are confident that with the greatness of the appearance of the soul, their strength will grow so much that they will be able to rectify all twistedness, in spirit and in deed, near and far—between man and God, and between man and man, two areas between which they find no intrinsic difference.

Orot Hakodesh III, pp. 123-124

The Mirror of Self-Examination

The movement of the spirit, in regard to [its] self-recognition, rolls forward, passes before the mirror of self-examination.

Sometimes the fresh aspects of the spirit pass by, and then a person is filled with greatness and might.

But sometimes the desolate aspects pass, and then he clothes himself in trembling, with a melting spirit within him.

The entirety of the circle demands that when the full and settled aspects pass by, a person not grow conceited but remain aware that only one aspect is passing by and that after this vision, which is full and fresh, an impoverished and painful vision will come. And when he is encompassed by the dark, he must know that very soon a joyful and uplifting vision will appear.

And in this way, a person’s traits will be perfected, and he will never be under the rule of a coarse egotism, which destroys all abundance, nor will his spirit be depressed by a dark melancholy.

Instead, he will keep hold of the fortress of goodness, wisdom and righteousness, and the name of Hashem will be at all times the tower of his strength.

Orot Hakodesh III, p. 121

Two Types of Personality

There are people whom God has made straight, whose character is quiet. And honest guidance and inner tranquility is their constant fate.

If they toil in Torah, in ethics and wisdom, they will rise to great levels, but they are at any rate people who are straightness, good and worthy.

The fate of these people is to be involved in areas of active deed or in wisdoms that involve deed. Their ethical aspect stands in inherent independence, on its own and in tranquility. It is possible that it will not rise to an elevated level—but neither will it descend to a lowly level.

But there is a second type of person, one who does not have tranquility.

Such people always stand in the balance—either to rise to the heights of heaven or to descend to the depths of the deeps.

These people need to rectify their spiritual individuality every day. When they choose for themselves the path that they need, they will rise ever higher, but if they abandon it, they are liable to fall and fall.

These are people who must be constantly involved in Torah and worship, in ethics and feelings of holiness. And heaven forbid that they turn aside to engage in this-worldly matters and in wisdoms involving deeds.

**

In the course of the generations in general, there are at times found generations whose general nature is of the first type—who are tranquil, with a fixed character. And their education should be similar to those individuals with a fixed nature.

But there are also generations with a wandering nature, whose spiritual income must be constant, with an on-going flow.

And sometimes we find that in some particular part a person or a generation has an aspect of tranquility, and in another part an aspect of movement.

And the leaders, those who are concerned for the good of the entirety, must to bring to heart how to educate the generation in regard to each part by itself.

Orot Hakodesh III, pp. 126-127

Righteous People Who Do Not Penetrate Their Inner Greatness

There are very righteous people, people who possess supernal characters, who are crushed within, within their soul[s], because they do not penetrate into the inner greatness within them, and [because] they do not have a perfect faith in the holiness of their yearnings.

Thus, they do not truly recognize the foundation of light in the breadth of their ideas. And so they go about stooped over beneath the burden of the mundane—of universal foolishness, of “the agitation of fools”—which weighs heavily upon them. And as a result they are placed in a sea of spiritual sufferings. The narrow ideas of the masses oppress their spirit, so that they lack the power to rise to the full height of their own thought, to the tremendous nature of their will.

They must in the end awaken from their slumber, and [despite] all of the peace and respect with which they relate to guidance for the masses, they [must go on their own path in order to] return to God, Who is revealed to them always from their unique windows and crevices.

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If you yearn for the Source of the Torah, elevate yourself and gird your loins to meet that supernal [state of being], which pulses deep in your spirit, together with all of your thoughts and speech, with all of the spiritual and physical obligation that has been placed upon you.

Be a warrior and look directly at the light that is revealed to you from between the crevices.

Orot Hakodesh III, p. 122

When a Great Soul Rises

When a great soul rises, it impresses a seal of an exalted reality, of purity and supernal greatness upon all being. That is the foundation of the concept of “the righteous person is the foundation of the world.” The pure and elevated soul is the inner core; all souls and all of their deeds, all the powers of existence and all the revelations of life proceed solely to perfect its being.

The world lacks a goal as long as the supernal soul does not shine upon it. And when it comes and shine with the light of its preciousness, the world is perfected, and the heavens and earth rejoice, like the joy at the time of their creation.

**

Those who are straight of heart, and supernal righteous people, know that it is they who are the conduits of the richness of life to all of reality. They feel the waves of the flow of goodness that descends onto them, and through them onto the world. And this feeling of theirs clothes them in humility and awe, and brings them to rise ceaselessly with a brilliance of mind, and with a preciousness of character traits.

Orot Hakodesh III, p. 156