אמתטריקס

Pleasure "And serve Him" – for in truth da'at (knowledge) is the principal thing that brings one to complete fear and love. For once a person knows and believes that "the whole earth is full of His glory" (Isaiah 6:3) and "there is no place empty of Him" (Tikkunei Zohar 57), and that He is the Pleasure of all pleasures, blessed be He and blessed be His Name, the Life of all life – then in all pleasures, were one to imagine, God forbid, the absence of the flow of His light and vitality, blessed be He, in the created things, the created beings would return to tohu vavohu (formlessness and void). And so too in all the worlds, upper and lower: were one to imagine, God forbid, the absence of His vitality from them, they would be as though they had never been. If so, He is the essence in all things. And if so, when one believes this, he will surely not desire any pleasure in the world, since its essence is the Creator, blessed be He. If so, it is better to cleave oneself to the true pleasure and not to separate, God forbid, [as in] "a grumbler separates the Master (aluf)" (Proverbs 16:28) – separating the Master of the world from His Shechinah (Divine Presence). For all things are called by the name Shechinah, that is, the vitality of Hashem, blessed be He, which dwells in all things. And if one does the thing as the common folk do, then he separates, God forbid. Therefore, surely one who has this knowledge will see in every thing the inwardness that sustains it, which is His Shechinah, blessed be He, and will cleave to it, and will come to fear and love. For the Torah is the Name of the Holy One, blessed be He, and "He and His Name are one"; and just as He was, is, and will be, so is the Torah. And let us explain this. For we were commanded, "And you shall love Hashem" (Deuteronomy 6:5); for love is chesed (kindness), as it is said, "and to love kindness" (Micah 6:8); "the earth is full of the kindness of Hashem" (Psalms 33:5). For, for example, all the pleasures of the world are the loves, in that a person loves pleasures. And we were commanded through the Torah to love Hashem, and not external love. For the physical loves are those that descended from the highest heights until they came here to the earth; and "whoever descends from his level, of him it is said 'and he died'" (cf. Zohar III, 135b) – that the beloved things became physical. But before they came to the earth, when they were in their root, before they were created and descended to the earth – that is, when they were within the Creator, blessed be He – then they were the finest of the fine in spirituality. And this is "How beautiful you are and how pleasant, love, in delights" (Song of Songs 7:7) – that is, within the pleasures of this world there is the love of the Creator, blessed be He. And the greatest love among the pleasures of this world is the love of women; and Hashem has warned us, "See life with the woman whom you love" (Ecclesiastes 9:9) – that is, not to cleave to the dead love, in the manner of "whoever descends from his level… and he died," but rather "see life": that you should look and see the vitality, that is, Hashem, blessed be He, who gives life to all, [as it is said,] "and You give life to them all" (Nehemiah 9:6). And one must look and see the living love, and not the dead love. (Me'or Einayim – Shemini) "And you shall love Hashem your God with all your heart (levavcha)," etc. (Deuteronomy 6:5). And our Sages, of blessed memory, expounded: "with both your inclinations – with the good inclination and with the evil inclination" (Berachot 54a). And one must understand how it is possible to love Hashem, blessed be He, with the evil inclination. But the matter is that Hashem, blessed be He, commanded us to love Him, blessed be He – and how is it possible to love a thing whose essence is not known? Therefore the Torah advised us: "with the evil inclination." That is, Hashem, blessed be He, created in the world a parable (mashal) from which we can understand the thing it represents (nimshal) – namely, all the pleasures in the world, such as eating and drinking and marital relations – so that one will understand: why do I love this thing? Is it not only a fallen love from the World of Love, as we have mentioned several times? How much more so, then, must I love the Creator, blessed be He, who is the source of all pleasures. And this is what King David, peace be upon him, said: "And I became a parable (mashal) to them" (Psalms 69:12) – meaning, they think that I take hold of the parable alone and do not take the thing it represents; but in truth it is not so. But there is an evil inclination that blinds his eyes so that he does not see to take the thing represented, but only to take hold of the parable alone. The remedy for this is engaging in Torah, as our Sages, of blessed memory, said: "If this repulsive one (menuval) meets you, drag him to the house of study," etc. (Kiddushin 30b; Sukkah 52b). And to understand why he is called here precisely by the name "repulsive one" – the matter is that all the pleasures are broken pleasures and not whole, for they are only for the moment and afterwards are void; thus it is broken and not whole. And their end is something loathsome; as with eating, which afterwards becomes something loathsome, and so with all the other desires. And this is "If this repulsive one meets you" – who distracts you toward loathsome things – "drag him to the house of study." For the Torah is the spice (tavlin) for the evil inclination, as it is said: "I created the evil inclination; I created the Torah as its spice" (Kiddushin 30b). And this is called teshuvah me'ahavah (repentance out of love): that one turns oneself back from the desires themselves to love Hashem, blessed be He; and "deliberate sins become for him as merits" (Yoma 86b), for out of every transgression there comes about a mitzvah of love, in that he takes from them the thing represented, to love Hashem, blessed be He. And therefore the Torah is called "spice": just as spices sweeten the dish itself, so through the Torah the deliberate sins themselves become merits. Understand this. (Me'or Einayim – Va'etchanan) Translated from the Hebrew sources page "מקורות-פרק ד’- סייפר" by Roni Ayalon-Hirsch.

Sources – Chapter D – Cypher