The essence of learning Torah “for its own sake” can only come about via this preparation of understanding accompanied by feeling of how all of the details of the Torah are beloved with a holy love, and how the universal light, which is filled with life and which brings life to the world, penetrates all of [the Torah’s] details.
Orot Hatorah 2:7
The foundation of learning Torah “for its own sake” depends upon the enhancement of the strength of the Congregation of Israel, which is concealed within us.
The more we draw forth from [the Congregation of Israel and] into actuality branches of perceptions and breadth of feelings, the more do we enhance its power and cause it to shine.
And in so doing, we enhance the Torah itself, which is the spiritual aspect of the true life of the Congregation of Israel, which is concealed within us and hidden within the entire Torah and in each of its details.
Orot Hatorah 2:6
There are some tzaddikim who are so great and mighty that they are unable to restrict themselves to the Congregation of Israel, but are constantly worried and concerned about the good of the entire world.
Nevertheless, they too are connected at their inner core to the Congregation of Israel, because the Congregation of Israel is the essence of the good and the most elevated of the entire world. And when the Congregation of Israel receives love and goodness, it surrounds all creation.
Such tzaddikim cannot be “nationalistic” in the external sense of the world, for they cannot tolerate any hatred and any injustice, any constriction or limitation of goodness and kindness. Instead, they are good to all, in accordance with the traits of the Holy One, blessed be He, Who is good to all and Whose compassion extends to all of His creatures.
Nevertheless they are mighty as they gaze toward salvation, for they know clearly and believe with the entirety of their pure being that the salvation of
And these supernal tzaddikim, these supernal pious people, who are connected to the ropes of lovingkindness and the light of truly supernal love, hold onto their great trait, the trait of a supernal lovingkindness, and they seek constantly the good of every individual and all creation.
And in the midst of that drive, they involve themselves devotedly and with a wondrous soul connection to the needs of
And it is they who tend toward lovingkindness, who love to justify people and have no desire to condemn them, who love justice and hate evil, who cling to the trait of our patriarch Abraham.
And in the midst of a broad love of all creation, a wondrous love of
Their soul streams forth a wondrous love of
And in the concealed place of their spirit, the seeds of ideals grow. And from their aristocratic spirit these spread in every direction. And each seed takes root in its proper place, where it sprouts. “And the sprout of Hashem will be a thing of pride and beauty for the remainder of His nation.”
Orot Hakodesh III pp. 349-350
I am filled with love for God. I know that what I seek, what I love, is called by no name. How can that which is greater than everything, greater than goodness, greater than quality, greater than being, be called by any name?
And I love, and I say: I love God.
The light of the Infinite One dwells within the expression of the Name, in the expression of the divine, and in all of the names and cognomens that the heart of a man teaches and expresses when his soul is lifted ever upwards.
I cannot satisfy my soul with the love that comes from chains of logic, from the search for the light of God via the world, via an existence that penetrates into the eyes.
In our soul are born divine lights—from the perspective of our spirit, many gods.
There is one true God—and higher than one, in the depth of His truth.
God is revealed, He rules over us, He conquers all of our spirits, the spirit of all existence.
Wherever there is idea, feeling, thought and will, wherever there is noble, spiritual life, the divine light rules, governs, conquers, scintillates, is magnificent, gives forth splendor and beauty, vivifies, elevates—all of it out of a clarity of the light of being. It rules—and it dies.
That rule is limited as long as it comes from the world, from being.
At times the light waxes. One desires a light that is more refined, more inward, more true, which is in its very essence more energetic.
The light overwhelms the vessel, thought overwhelms being. The structure cannot hold, the inner content is not congruent, the vessels shatter, the kings die, the gods die, their soul rises, soars to the heavens. The bodies descend to the world of separation, existence stands bare, isolated, torn away, scattered.
It contains within itself, hidden and concealed, an eternal desire for the supernal light.
The eternal love has placed within the shattered vessels its light, its sparks.
In every movement, in every content of life, in every quality is being. There is a spark, a spark of a spark, faint, exceedingly faint, the inner light, the light of the supernal God, building and setting a foundation, gathering the scattered, rectifying forever, organizing and joining together.
The eternal sovereignty is revealed from the light of the Infinite One that is within the soul. From God to the world a new light is born: the light of the radiance of the glory of the face of God.
Chadarav
Is this great distress that I am not permitted to pronounce God’s Name as it is written an empty thing? Is it not a holy fire, burning and blazing in my soul, which indicates the depth of the hidden longings within it for the light of the true God, the God of Israel, Who makes the precious light of the truth of His manifestation shine only with the holy Name as it is written?
All the holy Names are general— they express a concept of divinity that anyone with intelligence in his mind and with feeling in his heart can express and yearn: to desire Him and to be connected to His being.
But “who is like Your nation
The verse, “This is My name forever,” is actually written, “This is My name: to be concealed.”
It is impossible for us to pronounce it within this darkened world as long as the light of Israel has not manifested itself in its holy location, in the House of its life: in the eternal Temple.
A thirst for truth flares up, and the longing for that essential expression to be impressed into this world is great. “I have been silenced, quiet. I have been silent, lacking good, and my pain is stirred up.”
Chadarav
My spirit yearns passionately for the supreme light, the infinite light, the light of the God of truth, the God of my life, the living God, the Life-force of all universes.
This passionate yearning consumes my physical and spiritual strength. I have neither the ability nor the proper training to satisfy the totality of this great, passionate yearning.
I am filled with utter self-abnegation before the Monarch of all universes, Who opens His hand and satisfies the desire of every living being.
Satiate my desire. Satiate me in the light of Your manifestation, and fill my thirst for Your light.
“Make Your face shine, and we will be saved.”
Chadarav
I Myself Do Not Know Myself
Who can know me, who knows the fervor of my heart, which burns in truth with the fire of a supernal love of God?
“My spirit expires for You; my heart and my flesh sing to the living God.”
Who can realize that I am unable to take interest in any limited matter because of my great yearning for the eternal delight of the infinite expanses—that I am sick with love?
And not only do others not know me, but I myself do not know myself.
How much must I battle against myself, to keep hold of an inner faith in the greatness of my soul? And that greatness has nothing to do with deeds; it is intrinsically great, because of what it is. It is a supernal freedom, and all teachings and mitzvot only serve to make a measure of its worth clear to it.
Chadarav
I must recognize the holy fire that blazes in my heart—my yearning that burns ceaselessly within it for the living God—as a great and mighty ability.
I am obligated to honor that holy illumination, which constantly appears to me and at times gains in strength, all in accordance with the amount of deed and learning and in accordance with the amount of the depth of thought, freedom of mind and health of body—and the joy of the heart that is dependent on all of these.
Chadarav
Is it possible that I will not find what I seek, at the time that my search wells from the depths of truth?
And what do I seek if not myself, my true essence—not my physical or spiritual garments, all of which are acquisitions, which come and serve the essence? If my essence, my essential being, is beyond me, how will any of these devices help?
That is the crucial point of the inner quest, which requires true might so that a person may be strong as he engages in it.
And that constant endeavor to find my essence is also at the root of finding the existence of the entire Jewish people and of humanity in its broad sense, and of finding all existence in its inner sense and in its breadth.
And that is the gate of Hashem to finding the eternally sought: the God of the universe, the Source of all quests, for Whom every spirit yearns, and without Whom there is nothing to seek.
Behold, that search is the purest and most wholehearted quality. It harasses the spirit and seizes all inner spiritual proclivities, making them unable to find their path as long as the fundamental position of what one is essentially seeking is not based upon the spiritual foundation that incorporates all the movements of life.
To this end comes the entire wealth of Torah learning, all intelligent activity, and all spiritual awakening in its multitudinous movements in life—in a human being and in the world.
“Fortunate are all those who wait for Him.”
I have subjugated myself to teachings, to deeds, to relationships, to a variety of different obligations—and as a result, no thought of mine is finished and mature.
Supernal illuminations fall away like blossoms that drop after having appeared, before their time to ripen has arrived, because of a storm wind.
And so the time has come to break the chains that my own hands placed upon all the limbs of my soul, upon all the parts of my spirit. I have no obligation to focus on obstacles outside myself. Salvation is firmly placed within me, within my heart.
The wellspring of tranquility pours forth and flows unceasingly. The kindness of Hashem fills the world.
All that I have to do is to attend to that autonomous awareness, to listen to the secret of the speech of creation in its inner chambers.
I will hear, and my spirit will live.
Chadarav
I have no need to reject my inner demand to gaze at everything from the essence of my spirit.
At the same time, I am summoned to strengthen myself and broaden my perspectives, expressed in spirit and in deed, in accordance with the understanding that comes from outside myself: from friendship, mingling with others, reading books and other life experiences.
And afterwards, everything returns so as to be mixed into my very spirit, and I return to my inner gaze.
Chadarav
My spirit yearns to burrow into its inner chambers.
I struggle to draw matters forth from the light of the Torah and from the light of the world.
But I find that all the roots of these pure objects that I seek must be found in the depths of my own spirit, whose light is taken from the light of the Torah and from the radiance of the world.
If I return from the midst of Torah and from the midst of the world to my spirit, I increase my life-force when I then re-enter the chambers of the Torah and the chambers of the treasuries of the world.
And so every bright revelation is divided into three: that of the spirit, that of the Torah and that of the world.
“Speak, my tongue, your words, for all of [God’s] commandments are righteousness.”
Chadarav
I must speak of myself a great deal.
Matters of my essential being must become extremely clear to me.
When I understand myself, I will understand everything—the world and life—until my understanding will reach the Source of life.
I constantly seek that which is in the midst of my soul.
Outer servitude distracts my mind from that inner search, bringing me to seek in vain at the far-flung corners of the earth for that which has not been found in the depths of my spirit.
From within myself, from my wellsprings, I must always take the hidden treasures.
I am always connected to a holy suffering that results from my search for supernal perfection.
That search is never fulfilled. Indeed, it has no need to be fulfilled.
This is the nature of such ever-lasting yearning: its foundation is divine thirst. Nothing in the world can slake that thirst except that which it seeks: the on-going revelation and ever-growing experience of the thirst itself.
That itself is transformed into the source of all pleasure, into the platform for all spiritual delights, into the radiance of the Almighty.
Chadarav
At its inception, a profound and great hatred of evil must involve a hatred of evil people.
Afterwards, it is mitigated by the power of one’s intellect and it is clarified, until it attains a rarefied state of purity: until it becomes solely a hatred of evil.
And as for those people who possess evil—i.e., evil people—one is filled with compassion for them. “May sins be wiped out, not sinners” (Talmud).
But if from its inception this attitude is already in its ideal form, so that it is directed solely into a hatred of abstract evil, it will never truly become a hatred of evil. The lack of hatred for evil people will weaken that hatred against evil. And then the entire treasury of goodness is placed in great danger.
This has been the stumbling block of many great people. They fell because from the very beginning they made use of hatred of evil in its rarefied state. As a result, their lack of hatred for evil people was afterwards transformed into a love for them. And then, as a result of loving evil people, they fell into loving evil itself.
Thus, a person’s initial thought must possess the content of the trait of judgment. Only afterwards may the trait of compassion come and mitigate it by becoming its partner.
Otzrot Harayah, pp. 1240-1241
The righteous toil with a spiritual toil when their faith in themselves is diminished, and then they believe that they are like the masses of people.
And even if they imagine themselves to be the most refined and learned of them, they will not escape an inner lowliness.
But they must know that the quality of their soul is an entirely different, supernal quality, that yearning for the light of holiness and clinging to the divine is demanded of them at every moment.
And they must constantly influence all souls that draw sustenance from their great and encompassing soul.
Included in the definition of such righteous people are all those whose inner yearning for the secrets of Torah and for the reasoning of holy wisdom in its totality clings to them by their nature.
At times their light is diminished and at times they fall into all sorts of trivial pursuits. But regarding that, the verse states that “the righteous person falls seven times but rises” (Ecclesiastes).
After whatever such a person may go through, he may not remove his faith in the essence of he holiness of his soul, but say with complete conviction, “Know that Hashem has set aside the pious one for Him, Hashem will listen to those who call Him.”
**
A person who is fit for true fear of heaven, for piety and holiness, must know that it is utterly impossible to be like the average man.
Instead, he must toil to keep hold of his unique character.
Orot Hakodesh III p. 214
A person has to begin with purity of deed, then purify his feelings and personality traits, and then rise from that to purify his mind. In that case, matters proceed in proper order. Fortunate is the person who can attain that.
But sometimes it isn’t possible for a person to bring about these rectifications in the proper order. And in such a case, he is forbidden to consider proceeding in this order.
Rather, he must grab whatever comes to hand. When his spirit is ready for an elevation of awareness, he must rise, purify it and broaden it—“make the Torah great and more mighty.”
Even though he may have many demands on himself [for self-improvement] from matters that have not yet been rectified and clarified in regard to the nature of his feelings and deeds (even if these are of the most serious kind—i.e., matters between man and man), he should not abandon his self-elevation and his activity to attain goodness and rise upward in anything that he can achieve.
And that is the case even if there exists an impediment in any area, whether due to a lack of ability or, even, to a lack of desire—for at times a lack of a desire is itself close to being something that is beyond a person’s ability to change.
It is true that we should never use the heretics’ self-rationalization [minimizing] free will, for that is a degenerate viewpoint. Still and all, at times there are purifications that come from that viewpoint, that bring healing to difficult illnesses of the soul. This is related to the principle expressed in three biblical verses [that imply our helplessness in the presence of the evil inclination and mitigate the sins of the Jews, without which] “the feet of
And so the general principle is that in accordance with a person’s greatness in attainment and in his desire for the increase of good, he must increase and broaden his deeds, and not be upset or frightened by any impediment, whether spiritual or physical.
And when people are strengthened and filled with might, the holy power from above begins to pulse in their soul, which proceeds successfully upon all its path.
Orot Hakodesh III, p. 238
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
