{
    "title": "Da'at Tevunoth",
    "language": "en",
    "versionTitle": "merged",
    "versionSource": "https://www.sefaria.org/Da'at_Tevunoth",
    "text": [
        [
            "Said the Soul - My desire and will is to become settled regarding some items from among those about which it is said (Deuteronomy 4:39) \"...and lay upon your heart that HaShem is the G-d...\", behold they are among the essentials of our faith that every man must seek after knowing them, to the degree that he can grasp:ּ"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Intellect - Where does your face stumble? Behold, the Essentials are 13, and which of them do you wish to examine?"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Soul - Behold all the 13 Essentials are believed by me without any doubt at all; but there are those among them that are believed by me and also understood, and there are those among them that are believed by me with faith, but not clear through understanding and knowledge."
        ],
        [
            "Said the Intellect - Which are believed [on faith] and which are clear to you?"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Soul - Behold: HaShem's existence, his singularity, his eternal nature, his existence without a body or any physical form, the innovation of the Universe, prophecy, the prophecy of Moshe, that Torah is from the heavens and is eternal and will not change - all of these matters I believe in and I understand them, and I do not need explanation of them; but [HaShem's] Providence, Reward and Punishment, the Coming of the Savior [Mashiach], and Resurrection of the Dead - I believe in them with certainty because of the obligation of religion, but I want to explain them with an logical explanation that will settle me:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Intellect - What is it that is difficult for you in this?"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Soul - The great revolutions that overturn the world have the constant seeming appearance of the opposite of [HaShem's] providence G-d forbid. More so because the logical conclusion never sees the end of matters to where they arrive, what does the master may he be blessed want with his creations, and why he manages them, and what will be the end of all this; because the actions of HaShem may he be blessed have the appearance of such breadth that no heart can grasp them. And I wanted you to teach me the straight path to understand the integrity of these matters, without leaning right or left."
        ],
        [
            "Said the Intellect - But in here there are difficult and very deep items, like, The Righteous whom negative befalls, the Evildoer to whom goodness comes, which were difficult to the great sages and prophets, and even to Moshe our teacher may he rest in peace, and are impossible to grasp."
        ],
        [
            "Said the Soul - The details which I will be unable to understand - I will leave. But at least the principles will be straight in my hands, that I should know at least straight reason and logical conclusions in the breadth of these items. And then that which my knowledge cannot grasp - I will say to myself, \"It is not for to complete the work.\":"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Intellect - This is certain, that the Holy One blessed is he raised his world on justice, and guides it with straight and trustworthy justice; and this matter you will see clearly without any doubt, and as the trustworthy shepard testified (Deuteronomy 32:4), \"The Rock his actions are pure because all his ways are just, a G-d of faith and without injustice, righteous and straight is he\":"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Soul - The straightness of this justice and the depth of this complete reason that you mentioned, is what I want to hear from you with a precise explanation, detail by detail."
        ],
        [
            "Said the Intellect - But that which must be explained first is the matter of the existence of man and the work which devolves upon him, to know what is the purpose which is desired in all of this:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Soul - This is certainly a matter that begs much study to understand it in its details and parts:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Intellect - The first foundation upon which the entire construct stands is, that the Heavenly Will wanted that man should complete himself and all that was created for him, and this itself shall be his merit and reward. His merit - because it will be found that he occupies himself and will achieve this completeness, and when he he reaches it - he will gain benefit only from the achievement of his hands and his portion from all of his effort. His reward - for in the end he will be that which is completed, and will enjoy goodness forever and ever:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Soul - This is a foundation that includes many corners, and I am given over to hear what you will build on this foundation, ּbecause then I will differentiate retroactively what is included in this foundation. But one matter will I ask first in general, is there a reason why the Heavenly Will wanted it like this?"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Intellect - The reason is simple, and it is dependent on the answer to another question, which is, why did the Creator blessed is He, want to create creations?"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Soul - Respond for you and for me something that equal to [answering] both of them:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Intellect - What we can grasp in this matter is, that HaShem may his name be blessed is certainly the perfection of good. And indeed it is the rule of good to do good, and this is what He may his name be blessed wanted - to create creations in order the he could do good for them, for if there is no one to receive the good then there is no giving of good. ",
            "And indeed, in order that the giving of good be complete, He knew in his sublime wisdom that it is appropriate that those who receive it [the good] receive it with the work of their hands, because then they will be masters of this good, and they will not have residual embarrassment in the receipt of the good, like one who receives charity from another. And upon this did they say (Yerushalmi Orlah 1:3 11a- [paraphrase or variant text]), \"One who eats not from his own, is ashamed to look at his [benefactor's] face\":"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Soul - The reason is settled in my heart. Now complete your words:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Intellect - From the introduction that we have introduced has emerged a great root for us to contemplate, and this is the matter of deficiency and its completion. Because now we need to know what is the deficiency, and what are its consequences, and what is its rectification through which the creation will be completed, and through what path does this rectification occur, and its consequences:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Soul - But I think one needs to understand what is the completeness that a person will achieve when he completes his work and rests from his effort, because then we will understand retroactively all that which we mentioned. And the reason for this is simple and clear, for is it not that in the end man will achieve that which he was lacking in him from the beginning, and since it was lacking in him he needs to make effort and acquire it:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Intellect - So you said. Indeed we can understand the completeness now generally, and not in detail, but with our general knowledge of it, we will will understand retroactively the deficiencies in detail, because in any event any deficiency is the absence of this completeness:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Soul - Say what you will about this completeness:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Intellect - This completeness is clear from written sources and logical conclusions; and this is, that man should cleave to His holiness may he be blessed, and he will comprehend his glory without any detraction, separation or obstruction. ",
            "If you wish, [learn it from the] text (Isaiah 58:14), \"Then shall you enjoy with HaShem...\"; (Psalms 140:14), \"...the upright shall dwell in your presence\" (Psalms 16:11), \"...experiencing joy is your presence...\" etc, and very many others like these, are these not in all the corners of the words of the prophets and writings revealed to all the nations, seek from the texts of HaShem and read them. And in the words of our Rabbis may their memory be for a blessing (Brachos 17a), \"The world to come has neither eating nor drinking...rather the righteous sit and their crowns are upon their heads, and they benefit in the splendor of HaShem's presence\". ",
            "Or if you prefer to say it from a logical conclusion, the soul is a part of the Lord above, behold isn't its desire certainly to return and cleave to its source and to grasp it, as is the nature of everything of heavenly source to desire it return to the heights [of heaven], and it does not achieve its rest until it achieves this. ",
            "But what is this cleaving, and what is this achievement - we don't have the capacity to understand it as we exist within the state of deficiencies. But from this we discern our deficiencies, because like we knew that completeness is this cleaving, similarly we know that the deficiencies are all distancing from this, and that which obstructs and lays between us and Him may his name be blessed, for because of this it is impossible to cleave to him as it is possible to cleave to him after the obstruction is removed, and this is the deficiency which we need to try to remove, and to acquire the completeness that we mentioned. And indeed here we need a very fundamental introduction:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Soul - And what is it?"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Intellect - For G-d blessed is he could certainly have created man and all of creation with absolute completeness; and not only this, rather from his rules it would have been appropriate that it be so, because for Him to be complete in all aspects of completeness - it would be appropriate for his acts to be complete in all completeness. Rather when his wisdom decreed to leave it to man to complete himself, He created these creations deficient in completeness. And behold this is as if he held back his character of completeness and great goodness, to not act by his rule of greatness in these creations, rather to make them with the attribute that he wanted according to the purpose he intended with his sublime thought. An here we will generalize another point, and it is, that which the Rabbis said, may their memory be blessed (Chaggigah 13a) \"Sha-dai - that he said to his world enough (Dai)\"; and the heavens extended and went on until they were castigated as it is written in the Midrash (Tanchuma Breishit - end of Parshat Miketz). Ant this means, that certainly He could have created more creations then those he created, and the creations themselves could have been bigger than that which He created; and if he wanted to created his creations according to the measure of the Maker, they would have had no limiting measure, just like there is no measure to Him and to his potential. But he created them according to the measure of the subject, meaning that He measured out for them the characteristics and attributes which are fitting for them according to what He intended for them. And we find, that in any event, He hindered, as if it were possible, His great ability, without his absolute essential nature, that He not act with his creations according to its measure but rather the measure of his creations upon which it [his ability] was acted upon:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Soul - All this is certainly necessary, for it is from faith that HaShem may his name be blessed is unlimited in all aspects, and it is impossible to place any boundary or measure to his ability at all. any anything that we see that was created from it with a specific measure and limitation - is not according to his measure G-d forbid, rather according to that which he decreed from his will to do:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Intellect - let us define this general rule, and afterward proceed to another very fundamental introduction. This is the rule, HaShem may his name be blessed, held back, as if it were possible, Himself, meaning, that he withheld his ability, with the creation of his creations to not make them according to his power, rather according to that which he wished and intended in them; and he created them deficient so that they would complete themselves, and their completion would be their reward in the merit of that which the exerted effort in order to achieve. And this was only from His desire to make complete goodness:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Soul - Now let us hear this introduction that you mentioned:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Intellect - We now need to understand from where man finds the power to complete his deficiencies, because he was created deficient. Indeed, we are now entering into a great and wide sea, for many great suggestions will we need before we arrive at the completion of our matter. And we need to go in measured steps, to understand these things is the proper order, because this is the path of wisdom - to acquire knowledge one point after another, until in the end everything emerges as one complete matter into the light, for which we need all these introductions:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Soul - Say your words according to the right order and I am listening with all the patience and settled mind that is required:..."
        ],
        [
            ", \"Will you succeed in examining haShem, will you discover the limits of Shad-dai?\". And we will find, that everything that the creations can grasp, will not be even a droplet from the great sea of the Creator's completeness and his name be blessed."
        ],
        [
            "Said the Soul - This is simple before any who are wise of heart, and it already says (Psalms 106:2), \"Who will tell the great actions of haShem...\":"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Intellect - Now that we have returned to your hearts the order of HaShem's actions may he be blessed, All of the great actions He has done since placing man upon the earth (Job 20:4), and everything that her promised us to do through the holy prophets, behold that which is clear to us from this with complete clarity - is the might of His singularity may He be blessed. And you will see that all of the other characteristics of his completeness which is without limitation, are not clear to us at all, because we do not have the strength to grasp them. By example, We know that he is wise, but we cannot grasp the ends of his wisdom; we know that he is knowing, but we cannot grasp his knowledge. And therefore the Rabbis may their memory be blessed said (Prayer of Eliyahu, Tikunei Zohar, second introduction), \"You are wise, and not with knowable wisdom, you are understanding and not with knowable insight\", and since we are unable to understand these characteristics, a forbidding of examination of these emerges for us, for in regard to all like this it says (Chaggigah 13a in the name of Ben Sirah 3:21) \"In that which is beyond your comprehension do not seek, in that which is hidden from you do not examine\"; and similarly they said (Sefer Yetzira chapter 1), \"If your heart runs - return to your place\":",
            "But His singularity, is just the opposite, it is revealed and clarified focus in complete clarity. And it emerges for us from this that it is not enough that it be clear to us, but that we are obligated to return this knowledge to our hearts, to embed it in our hearts completely settled without any doubt. And this is what we were commanded by Moshe our teacher may he rest in peace from the mouth of The Mighty One (Deuteronomy 4:39), \"And you shall know today and return to your hearts that HaShem He is the G-d in the heavens above and on the earth below, there is no other\". And the mouth of the One on high himself testifies and informs us that everything that is gathered from all the great occurrences that He overturns in his world, is it not the complete revelation of this - His singularity; as it says (Deuteronomy 32:39) \"See now that I, I am He and there is no other G-d with me\", and this passage is said after He included all the future revolutions of the globe that are planned to occur in the universe, that include everything in the words of this song of HaAzinu, and like the straightforward meaning of these writings themselves prove, and behold the ending of His vision ends with this language, \"See now that I, I am He\" etc. And in the words of the prophet Isaiah it is described explicitly (Isaiah 43:10-11), \"In order that you know and believe me and understand that I am He, before me no G-d was created and there will be no other after me. I, I am hashed and there is no savior other than me\"; and as it is written (Isaiah 44:6), \"I am first and I am last and there is no G-d other than me\"; and as it says (Isaiah 45:6-7), \"In order that you know from the the east and the west that there is nothing other than me, I am HaShem and there is no other. The maker of light and creator of darkness making peace and creating the negative, I am hashed the maker of all of these\". And behold, it is written \"In order that you know\", In order that you know and understand\", meaning that He wants us to know with knowledge and understanding. And the purpose of all of the success that He promises to Israel is the explanation of His singularity to the eyes of all. And this matter is mentioned innumerable times in the words of the prophets may they rest in peace, (Isaiah 2:11), \"...and haShem will be exalted on that day.\"; (Zechariah 14:9) \"And haShem will be king [on all the earth] haShem will be one and His name will be one\"; (Zephania 3:9) \"For then I will overturn the peoples to all call in the the name of haShem and to worship him as one accord\". And in the end, is this not always our testimony every day (Deuteronomy 6:4) \"Hear O' Israel HaShem our G-d HaShem is One\":",
            "We find, that all that has been explained to use in truth from the greatness of his perfection which is without measure is only his complete singularity. For when we look with in depth examination at all of the actions which are done under the heavens, we see one path that revolves and continues, and its rest is only in the revelation of this truth. Now we need to understand this singularity, and that which is intended through it, and this is what was commanded to us in the text (Deuteronomy 4:39) \"And you shall return to your heart because haShem he is the Lord...\", meaning that one needs a settled mind and proper reason in this matter. And I already said, this is a great sea and wide of hands is it, and we need to sail upon it as our souls can be filled:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Soul - What understanding is needed in this? Behold Singularity - the intent is to say that the Holy One blessed is he is one with certainty, and there is no other than Him:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Intellect - Yes, Certainly this is the matter in generality. But this think needs deeper examination. This this is exactly what is said in the text (Deuteronomy 4:38), \"You have been shown to know [that HaShem is the G-d] there is none other than He alone\", that in explanation [the Rabbis] may their memory be blessed (Sanhedrin 67:), \"Even for a matter of sorcery\". And this is the same as when we say that the Holy One blessed is he is one, it is not sufficient to understand the he is singular in his existence, which is the same as saying that there is no required existence other than He, and there is no Creator other than He, but we need to understand more, that there is no leader or ruler other than he; and there is no guide to his world or to any creation in his world other than He; And there is nothing that holds back his hand, or prevents his will, and this is that his rule is singular and complete. And this is the matter that is explained in the text (Deuteronomy 32:39), \"See now that I, [I am He and there is no G-d with me], I bring death and give life, [I wound and I heal] and none can be saved from my hand\"; and similarly it says (Job 23:13) \"And he is Singular and who can turn him back [that which he wants he does]; and similarly we testify before him (Job 9:12) \"[When He suddenly takes away, who can turn him back] who would say to him what shall He do\". And know that his is a great fundamental principle for our certain faith, like we will write further inside with the help of heaven: ",
            "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 3:19), \"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 Soul - and what is that?"
        ],
        [
            "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:",
            "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 Soul - Summarize this subject also:"
        ],
        [
            "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 Soul - Say your words:"
        ],
        [
            "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:",
            "ּBut the matter is, that the soul in its existence and root is very very great, but in order for it to come into this body - behold the Holy One blessed is He diminished its light and strength, and left for it only that measure which is appropriate for the body in this world. And behold it is in that time period like the moon where it says to it (Chullin 60b), \" Go and diminish yourself\", and in the future (Isaiah 30:26), \"And the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun\". And behold in its hand is goodness - to elevate from elevation to elevation until he highest strength, according to the perfection of its actions. And behold according to the diminution of power which was given to it in this world, it stands closing and closed within the cloudy body throughout the days of its service, to be tested and examined with the trials of the evil inclination, for it is for this that it was placed within man, and like their saying may their memory be for a blessing, (Zohar section 1, 106b) \"The evil inclination was not made other than to test man with it\". And according to the aptitude of its actions - so does it merit for itself elevation, to rise from level to level. And behold in the time of the reward then the events of all of the souls activates them, and elevates them according to their actions, and in this level of elevation will they return and refine their bodies in the time of the resurrection, and they will enjoy the plethora of peace forever, as we explained above:",
            "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."
        ],
        [
            "Said the Soul - I now understand that which is adequate for me now in the matter of this incarnation and the reward of the future. Now we need to complete the matters that we started:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Intellect - After we understood the existence of man and the matters between his soul and body, through the changing periods and order of time which are enacted for him, behold we need to understand how the Holy One blessed is He interacts with him through all of these times, whether in regard to his body, and in regard to his soul:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Soul - The order is certainly appropriate, for everything needs to be settled in its way, place and time. Now please complete your words:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the intellect - See, there are physical essences and spiritual essences. And behold how much difference there is between them, for physicality is certainly lesser relative to spirituality, whose matters are glorified and elevated. And behold how much illumination there is in the spiritual ones and how much darkness and deficiency in the physical ones. Therefore there are for us here two types of creations, creation with great illumination and widespread G-dly emanation and a creation with minimized illumination and minimized G-dly emanation. And these two characteristics, the character of the creation with illumination and the character of the creation without illumination, the character of the illumination is from the consequences of the construct of His goodness, and the character of the creation without illumination - is from the consequences of the absence of His goodness. And you will see, that the spiritual ones - all of the occupation is with matters of holiness; but the physical ones - their matters are secular matters and lowly and loathsome things. And we find, that all of the work of man under the sun is nothing but vanity of vanities, and the superiority of man over the beast is not to eat and to drink, and to do business in the world, these are all certainly lesser and insignificant. The general rule is, all matters of physicality and of nature are darkness and not light, in that the Master may He be blessed hides his countenance from the world and does not illuminate it with the light of His holiness, just the opposite, he leaves them in disorder without direction, in these lowly ways. But the matters of the spiritual ones - this is the path where the light of His countenance resides may He be blessed, for He lights them with His holiness, and this is straightforward. And now you should know, that these two are the foundations of his interaction may He be blessed and its root with all his creations - the character of hiding of countenance, that He is hidden and concealed and does not reveal the splendor of his glory, and the character of the illumination of the countenance:",
            "And that which applies to His behavior - applies to the creation because the course and murky creations were not created other than through hiding of His countenance, for the face of His holiness was not illuminated for them, and the honorable spiritual ones were created through the illumination of His countenance. And according to these fundamental principles was this connection between the body and the soul; that the soul, its matters in all their ways, come and continue through hiding of his countenance; and the soul and all of its matters - through the illumination of His countenance. And behold that man himself is the rectifier and the rectified, for he himself does he rectify through his service, and this is the subject (Sanhedrin 99b), \"And you shall do them..\" - it is written and you shall do you (Atem), that was explicated by the sages may their memory be for a blessing, and it is in his power [man's] to strengthen the physical and its ways himself or the spiritual and its ways. For if he goes after the vision of his eyes and the physical path of his heart, behold his soul, in place of that which was appropriate for it to be, to help the body, in order to refine it as we explained, just the opposite, causes loss and great damage to itself, for it is immersed in darkness. And the opposite of this, if he strengthens himself against his inclination and turns away from the path of vanity, in order to travel in the path of the Torah and Mitzvah - the soul will dominate over the body and refine it:",
            "And now you will see the revolving of the world, and the difference between those who lived earlier and those who live later, for in truth, one who sets upon their heart the matter which G-d gave to be answered, will be quite amazed by the desire for man to see it running to and fro, day and night without rest, fatigued and tired. And for what are they working - for food and drink, for vanities of vanities which are nothing, for a world of emptiness of the darkness, here today and in the grave tomorrow. But one who is fortunate to see, sees and understands that not for this was man created, rather it would be appropriate that his occupation be only with the grasping of the glory of his master, for it was for this that he was created, and he was given a great deal of knowledge and wisdom, and not to multiply business dealings, or any other immaterial maters. But it is man who spoiled his actions, and caused these for himself today. And in every generation the world is deficient and continues in this matter. For the early ones were closer to the wisdom, and directed towards the intellect, and the later ones are more distant from the intellect and submerged in physical matters and ordinary nature, in business and all works of art, where afterwards man has nothing as we explained earlier. And all this is possible as we said, because the body was created by the singular master may He be blessed through hiding of His countenance, and not through illumination of his countenance, therefore his existence is dark and murky; which is not the case for the soul, for it is just the opposite, created through illumination of his countenance and a view towards the good, therefore it exists and is eternal, and its creation is pure. And indeed, if man strengthened his body and it dominates him, the master may His name be blessed, will measure him in the character with which he measures - to interact with him only through hiding of his countenance. And from this we find that he will be very far from the light of life, from wisdom and knowledge, and submerged in filthy material rubbish and the vanities of this world:",
            "And you will see that this is what happened to man from the beginning, and to his progeny afterward to this day; for when it was that they followed their eyes and the body rules and not the soul, therefore the Holy One blessed is He also went with them in hiding of his countenance. And to Adam was said from the beginning \"...by the sweat of your brow shall you eat bread\" (Genesis 3:9), and from then and onward \"all of the work of man is for his mouth, and also the soul shall not be filled\" (Ecclesiastes 6:7). And behold wisdom became excluded and was removed from mankind:",
            "And this is a great principle, with the boundary that is set by his mind - so are the thoughts of man and his desires. Do you not see - a young child does not recognize what is wisdom, and will not have desire for it at all, rather just the opposite, for a child will flee from school, and will not think there is goodness other than the vanities which which he is occupied; and when his knowledge expands and his boundaries expand, he returns to desire things which are more proper, and on this path according to all of his elevations. So it is generally for humanity - when it was that all were receiving G-dly emanation from the great illumination, they did not find personal satisfaction other than from wisdom, and from that which is truly good; and when it its the case that all are not receiving G-dly emanation, they don't recognize as good other than the vanities of this world. And this is the negativity which was made after the sin of Adam, that removed the G-dly emanation and the illumination from humanity, and they remained sunken still in coarse physical matters. However when the Holy One blessed is He rectified things for Israel through the giving of the Torah, they damaged themselves with the calf and the rmainder of their transgressions with all their sins, and the world remained in darkness in the apparent ways of nature:",
            "It is not like this when man rules his soul, for then the Holy One blessed is He will also illuminate his countenance upon him, and will elevate him to a great level to be like one of the Seraphs, for the righteous are greater than the ministering angels, and it is like it was for the generation of knowledge at Mount Sinai, and like it will be in the future at the time that it says (Joel 3:1) \"I shall pour my spirit upon all flesh...\":",
            "And here also this good has gradations that Israel and the world merited in different generations, sometimes more and sometimes less; as for example, the generation of Moses, the generation of David, the generation of Solomon, and like that all the generations which merited good, it all was the illumination of the countenance of the Blessed One upon them according to the elevation of their souls, which were elevated by the power of their deeds:",
            "And see, that when we understand the details of the existence of the body and the soul, and their situations in the hiding of haShem's countenance and illumination of his countenance, as they were created in al the parts of their details in this matter, we will understand from itself the general rules of the organization of His behavior may He be blessed in the way that he guided and guides his world, at times towards the good and at times towards the negative G-d forbid; and we will see how much great wisdom we find in this behavior; and we will see also what a great principle it is in man, that with him - in his matters and upon his actions - are dependent the entire world, and all that is done with it from the beginning until the end:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Soul - Certainly these words are very settling upon the heart, to see the great wisdom in His behavior may His name be blessed, and how the matters are connected to each other - the creation of man and all the occurs to him, and the creation of the world and all that is in it."
        ],
        [
            "Said the Intellect - I will say further to you on this subject, that when we descend into the details of the matters of the soul and the body, we will understand well how all of them are dependent on this root of the two characteristics that we mentioned, for each one of them can be discussed in all of its matters based on its source, and this is an adequate reason for all of these matters. And not only this, but the decree from his wisdom may He be blessed, was to demonstrate the paths of these characteristics in the body and the soul which come about through them. And we find, that even though the body comes through hiding of His countenance, it and its matters, still it in properties and parts are drawn entirely from the behavior of hiding of His countenance; and the soul is also drawn entirely from the behavior of illumination of his countenance. This is a detail in our parsing of man as it says in regard to him (Genesis 1:26) \"...in our image and likeness\" - the the demonstrates in his form all of the arrangement of His characteristics may He be blessed:",
            "And you will see that there is no existence of the body other than darkness, for even when it reaches the greatest merit that can be found in int, never the less it still needs to be differentiated from the soul, and it can only be differentiated through this separation - that the soul is essentially glorious illumination and comes from the illumination of His countenance may He be blessed, and the body is not like this, rather it is something that in and of itself is darkness, which comes from the hiding of His countenance, rather refining befalls it until the place where it can reach, and it is to the farthest reach where there will be a small separation between it and the soul. Never the less the soul will be soul - something that has no deficiency applicable to it at all; and the body, just the opposite - something that is deficient according to its nature, but that achieved refinement in the refinement that it achieved:",
            "And you will see further, that the body has divisions of organs and parts, each one with its utility, for the eye sees and does not hear, and the ear hears and does not see; which is not the case with the soul, that all of the powers which are within it without any of the division into organs like the organs of the body, rather all of it is in every part, and this is certain. Now you will see how this emerges thoughtfully from the introduction which we heard, that the body is created through hiding of haShem's countenance and the soul through the illumination of His countenance. And you will see a great and fundamental introduction, have you not already heard that perfection is one, for there is no relevance to deficiency or excess in actual perfection. But when the Holy One blessed is He does not want to work through his perfection, then there are many ways for The Place to reward or to punish, each person according to their actions, as was explained earlier. And when the decree of the heavenly wisdom is to demonstrate in the creation itself that He created the path and order in which He created it, as we explained, therefore with regard to hiding of His countenance - like its ways are many so did he want to make this creation with many parts and different organs, that they should be actual parallels to all the parts of his properties may He be blessed. This is the mater that I mentioned to you, that for this was it said, \"Let us make man in our form, like our image\", for with all the elevated characteristics which can be discerned in His glory may He be blessed, when he acts according to the value of his creations, so shall be found divisions in the image of this man; as an example, the eye- under the eye of his interaction who supervises all of the inhabitants of the earth to judge all their actions, like the matter that is said (Genesis 18:21), \"I shall descend and will see\" - to teach you that a judge cannot judge other than that which his eyes see (Sanhedrin 6b). The ears of man - correspond to the way that the Holy One blessed is he sits and listens to the prayers of all of mankind and all of their praises, and so is it said (Exodus 2:24), \"And the Lord heard their cry...\"; and our Sages may their memory be blessed said (Avot 2:1), \"Know who is above you - a watchful eye and a listening ear\". The mouth of man - because the mouth of haShem speaks in visions to his prophets and the splendor of his voice is heard by his angels who possess fortitude of strength and do his will. And similarly like this, all of the other parts of the body can be explained in detail, parallel in their appearance and their matters to His characteristics may He be blessed, that he prepared to activate his creations. And the making of man is right and left, with duplication of his parts to here and there, two eyes, two ears, two hands, to lets, as His characteristics hay he be blessed are also double - whether for benevolence or for His rod, to the right for merit or to the left for obligation. Is this not the path that the heavenly will grasped after concealing his perfection which equilibrates everything towards the good. And indeed, like the parts of the body are discerned and differentiated according to their purpose, so to all of the occurrences of man in the hiding of haShem's countenance revolve and change in His strategy to activate them, like all that which we see in the passage of time, in everyday events.",
            "But perfection, I already said, is one, to rule over all that is deficient in order to complete it, And it is not split in and of itself, rather in one equalization can complete all who need completion. And so is this matter with the soul which is created with the illumination of the countenance of His perfection may He be blessed. And you will see is this intent not - in order to strengthen the soul over the body and to refine it, in order that the Lord may He be blessed measure for it according to its action, in order that it also reveal His perfection, to rectify all falsehood and all deficiency which is in the world, and all that we will explained earlier. And the body is prepared for calamity at the time in which it rules in man, for so shall the Holy one blessed is He conceal the face of his perfection, and will leave the world and man under the judgement of the world which turns, like the law of ephemerals where time periods vary upon them in all the corners to which they turn. Therefore there is in the body all that is appropriate to be found in the order of the wheel which revolves in the world, in the concealment of complete goodness, in order to arouse with regard to it all of this, but however, to Him is the monarchy in man, with which he will rule in him. And there is in the soul that which is appropriate for completion, to complete all deficiency, in order to arouse upon it, like it, whether man will merit his manner, and the crown of kingship will be placed on his head, in order that it alone rule in its wisdom and the property of its reason, for it is good:",
            "And indeed this matter is well explained in the Midrash of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai (Raya m'himna [the faithful shepard], Zohar Parshat Pinchas, page 257b), \"And there is wisdom which is called wise among all types of wisdom\", for in addition to that which was explained in it by those who know the truth according to the ways of the holy ones, behold from the simple meaning of the saying we learned that which I explained to you already above, that the Holy One blessed is He has many nicknames, not based on himself but according to His creations, and this is what they said (there) \"...according to the name of their creator that they were going to be created in the future\". And indeed they said \"according to the name of their creator\" is clear, for it is not said that is an innovation in Him G-d forbid, for there is no innovation or change in Him, but rather from the beginning it was in his power to do this, but these characteristics are always only those that are relevant to his creations, not that which is relevant according to Himself. And it said \"like this did He create the Soul\", and this is that the existence of the Soul reflects His perfection with which it was created; \"Like this is the Master of the world..., but all of those are to Him like the Sefirot...and just like the Master of worlds has no known name..so to the Soul does not have [a name]... see there. And it is necessary that you be precise in regard to this matter in order to understand the existence of the body and soul in the manner of their creation and and all that is dependent upon it. Behold the singular Master may His name be blessed, according to his perfection it is impossible to ascribe any name or appellation, for we cannot grasp His perfection, and it is impossible to name that which one cannot grasp, for the name is a limitation in the owner of the name, and that which cannot be completely understood - cannot be limited. And indeed we grasp in His glory may He be blessed specific characteristics, as for example, mercy, rulership, strength, justice, compassion, anger, power, and similar to this, all of the characteristics that we can grasp in Him are from the aspect of his actions, those characteristics that the prophets grasped in Him from the early times to the late, because He may He be blessed gave them this comprehension. And according to this comprehension that they grasped in his Glory, we name Him may He be blessed with these appellations. merciful one, ruler, courageous, judge and others like that. And here, even though He may He be blessed in his perfection with without boundary or measure at all, but these are the characteristics that he wanted, he wanted them in the limit and measure that he wanted; and therefore to one characteristic we call mercy and to one - rulership, and to one characteristic - strength, and to one characteristic - love and so for all of them. And in the characteristic of mercy there is nothing other than mercy, and nothing in rulership other than rulership, and in mercy there is only the measure that He may He be blessed wanted in it, and in rulership only the measure that He wanted, and so for all of them. And do not say because of this that He may He be blessed according to his perfection has these powers in these measures, rather all of this is dependent on his will may He be blessed, and as we explained, the he is the master to change all of this; and just the opposite, in his perfection we may not measure any measure at all. Indeed since he wants to be understood through these characteristics and to act in this way, therefore we ascribe these appellations to him. And do not understand when we said that the Holy One blessed is He is merciful, to say that his essence may He be blessed according to himself is such, like we would say about a person that there is this quality in his soul to be merciful - that it is so impressed upon his temperament, that it will be grasped and its matter understood from it even from one aspect G-d forbid, for this we should not think at all, for it is impossible to know from His matters may He be blessed, that which He is to himself in truth at all. But when we call him merciful, we understand that he desires in one characteristic, which is the characteristic of mercy, a character which is not according to he Himself, but is according to the values of the creations and measured in their measurements. But since he wants this, and he wants to be understood in this way, we call him by this name - merciful. But his complete and straight essence is certainly outside of all these matters. And this is the faith that we are obligated to believe in may He be blessed with certainty, as we explained above already:",
            "Now we will understand this matter itself in regard to the body and soul. For the body has parts and specific limbs, with specific functions with limitations; but the soul, in and of itself is it not one matter, external to the matters of the body altogether, and all of its ways are other ways, different from the ways of the body entirely, even in the matter of the senses themselves, but since it actuates all of the actions of the body when it [the soul] is in it[the body], it [the soul] hears with the ears of the body, it sees with the eyes of the body, and with all like this, therefore it is called seer, hearer, and all of the other appellations, but it is not that it has any of these ways at all. For even though it is the soul alone that sees, and not the body which is inanimate, and we find that it sees things the way that people in their completeness see in truth; this is not the way it [the soul] sees at all, for it has an entirely different way from the way of the senses of the body, and this is a way that a person while in the body is unable to appreciate. But since it is affected by the rule of the eye to see according to the rule engraved in it, therefore we say the it is the seer, and so for all of the other senses. However the rule is that the soul is one type of creation distant in its matter from all the ways of the body entirely, but it is created in its rule to do all that is rooted in the limbs of the body according to their nature. And here it grasps these rules, and does all these actions with the body, and therefore they all interact with it. And behold this is precisely like the matter of His perfection may he be blessed, regarding the specific qualities which he wanted in them, for there is not matter of these qualities in perfection but rather these are the specific qualities which he wanted, limited and measured in the measures that he wanted for them. But since He may He be blessed - the perfect in his perfection - he acts according to these qualities, therefore we refer by these names and appellations, and these actions and descriptions are ascribed to him, even though according to his perfection simply in truth in all of these matters, and he has no relationship from the aspect of Himself with any of these ways and these activities at all:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Soul - This is the explicated tradition whether for the body or for the soul, and it is a great gate opened to understand all of the matters of man in all time periods:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Intellect - Now we need to com to the gradation of the periods of the soul and the body, and their various situations. But one more introduction needs to be introduced first, and it is, that it is clear that many rules and many ways are needed to complete all of the matters of man, and all of the matters of the creation in all of their time periods; and it was already said (Psalms 40:6) \"Much have you done you are haShem our Lord your wonders and your thoughts...\" and it says (Psalms 92:6) \"How great are your actions haShem\", (Psalms 104:24) \"How many are your actions haShem...\". However in any event the details need to enter and come under the general rules, and the general rules are not so may, but their details are many, and are adequate for all that is needed in this creation:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Soul - This is certainly clear, there are no details that do not have generalizations, and that which the details fatigue the mind to organize them, the generalizations are easier for him to receive. Therefore, we need to pursue the generalizations and not the details:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Intellect - And so did the sages say (Sifrei HaAzinu 32:2), \"Always have the words of the Torah in your hand, the generalizations and not the details\". Returning to our matter...here you have already seen the existence of two qualities to Him may He be blessed - the hiding of his countenance and the illumination of his countenance, they are the root and reason for the body and soul. And it is for us to understand these two qualities each one on its own, in all of their many details which are summarized under generalizations, in order to understand the matters of the soul and the body, each one on its own in all their details like this. And after we found this and know it, we need to know more for these two qualities come as one to direct the entire world and its inhabitants, and there is nothing which does not have a place for these two characteristics - the concealment in its revelation and the illumination in its covering, as we explained earlier. Afterwards we will go to understand and to study the consequences that emerge from the joining of these two characteristics, when one of them or the other is strengthened. Here we have three items of knowledge, knowledge of these two characteristics this one by itself, and this one by itself, knowledge of their joining to also act always together, and knowledge of the consequences born from this joining of these types, according to the the strengthening of the concealment or the illumination:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Soul - I observed after you said that the Holy One Blessed is He wanted to demonstrated the organization of his creation and its ways in the creation itself, for through this way behold the two characteristics through which man behaves, that through them was he created, we see within him in the the two parts from which he was composed and build, and these are, the body and the soul; and this is the first matter of knowledge that you mentioned. And also the second we have the parallel explicated in man, for is the soul not joined to the body and disseminated in all of its parts, to make all action through both of them equally as one. But with regard to the third, I will ask of you, does it have a parallel? For I have not found it:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Intellect - Also for this will you find a parallel if you will be precise in depth upon this construct of man. For behold other than the appearance of the body in its form, and other than the soul which has its form, there is one thing which is found that joins both together - which is the radiance of the face. And you can see that this is what distinguishes the living from the dead. And not this alone, but even the variation of the presence of the soul in the body is apparent through it. Do you not see that the face of the sick is bad; and not only this but the thoughts of the heart are seen in it, do you not see, playful faces, angry faces, expressive faces - all witnesses to the thoughts hidden within the heart. And this radiance is not found in the soul by itself, for the radiance is of the the body, and not in the body by itself, for a body does not have radiance without a soul; but it is something that is born from the joining of the soul and body together. And this is not an empty thing this matter, for when the prophets liken a form to its maker, as we explained, in demonstrating for them the heavenly honor in his characteristics, and from allegory can completes, when he demonstrates his characteristics to their eyes like a powerful young man going to war, or like an elderly man filled with mercy seated, like [the sages] said may their memory be blessed (Chaggigah 14a). Behold the eye of the prophet visualizes this, and in his heart for him so conceives, to understand in the vision of his prophecy the concealment of His face and the illumination of His goodness, and that which is born from their joining, like the appearance of man upon him from above, that he has a body and soul and illuminated face from the joining of both as one, whether they are expressive, whether they are lighthearted, whether they are angry, to know all that the Lord haShem will do in His world, to the right or to the left:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Soul - This is enough for me now in regard to this matter for the parallel. Let us return to the understanding of the behavior itself in its gradations:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Intellect - Here this comes out first in the consequences of the joining of these two characteristics as one, the perfect situation which is appropriate to be for man in the end-time of perfection which will be for him. And the thing is evident from itself, for the intended level, which will be at the end of all of the elevations of man it is established first, for from when the soul emanates from its source it needs to be in its state of greatest perfection to which it can reach at the end of everything rather it is said to it from above, go and diminish yourself, until you return to your original place when elevated by your actions. But it is not that its creation is diminished from its beginning, and that is elevation will be greater later, for there is nothing new under the sun, rather the order is the opposite of this, for in its great strength did it emanate, afterwards - it was diminished until it will return to its strength. And in any event - the end action is the original thought. Therefore the perfection of many is established first, and afterwards - his dimininution, to return in the steps that he descended, to elevate toward his perfection as was established in him from the beginning:",
            "And we find that the situation of perfection with which man is initially distinguished, which is the path and period where the soul alone controls and rules entirely, without any control by the boy at all, it is as if it [the body] were not, for it is entirely subservient and bent completely under the rule of the soul in its purity, until it does not even have identity, it only has existence, but no control. And this is clear, for the control of the body is not other than darkness and blackness to the soul, for behold the matter of physicality is nothing but concealment of illumination, and something from it - hinders, for it is impossible for there to be even a small amount of control for the body, in order not to decrease some light and power from the soul. Therefore, in the time when the soul in all its might, that nothing in it be decreased that is appropriate for its perfection, this is the time when the body certainly has no control, therefore the soul has nothing withholding it. But it should not be said that it [the body] does not have existence, for we already said that the reward needs to be for both of them, but it will not have control, and it will be completely bound to the soul without separation from it, for it cannot do anything by itself, there cannot be in its will that which is not in the soul's will, to the point that it is almost as if it cannot be discerned by itself for something, rather it is as if it were intermingled among the pure powers of of the soul:",
            "The situation lesser than this, is when the body is distinguished by its slight control, for consequent to this a deficit comes to the soul, for it to not be perfect in all of the glory of its splendor; but this minimal control does not cause other than a minimal deficit, but if the control multiplies then the deficit multiplies. And indeed, if we speak about one generality alone, we would say that there are 3 time periods, the time of the complete control by the soul, and the time of the minimal control by the body, and the time of complete control by the body. But if we go in the manner of gradations, to understand other situations of the body in its control - five levels can be counted according to the way of the generalization. And these are they:",
            "The first level, is it not that the body has existence, but no control at all, until the point that there is no hint in the world of matters of physicality, the way there are now. And we find, that in this situation man will not find within himself anything from those items that he has today when his physicality controls him, and this is the most perfected situation among the situations:",
            "The second level, that there will be for the body minimal control, and you will find in man himself like a remembrance of that which he had at the time that he had a body, and this is not a remembrance of the details of things, rather a remembrance of the generalities of many things that he had. It can be compared to someone who suffered many difficulties, and worked and toiled through various experiences, and afterwards remained weakened and generally tired. For like this the existence of control by the body produces one general deficiency, without clarity on what it is in detail, rather it is like a person who has some sorrow in his heart, such that his joy is not complete, even though there is no specific cause for this sorrow. Similarly you will not find a power of the soul by itself to expand through all its powers, rather you will feel some kind of small heaviness, and the details of the hindrance are not known:",
            "The third level, when the body controls in particular, but not in all its details rather in some details. That you find man in himself some things from the things of the body, the simplest ones, but in any event physical. And indeed it is clear, that in all of these situations there are no great consequences to these matters of the body as I will write with the help of heaven:",
            "The fourth level, when the body will control in all its details, and you find man in himself all the physical matters. But like the souls is presently in this world like a stranger in the land, it it needs to travel in the ways of the body, similarly the body will be like a stranger in the land, and the soul will be the ruler, and the body will need to travel in its ways, like the matter (Shemot Rabbah 47:5) \"You came to the city go according to the custom of the place\". What is this like? Like Moshe our teacher, peace upon him, when he went to receive the Torah for Israel, he did not lose his body and did not change, but since his body was like a guest in the place of the souls he changed his style to act like the actions of the souls, like the Rabbis explained, may their memory be for a blessing (Bava Metzia 86b), \"A person should never deviate from the local\" etc., (see there). And you find, that his change at that time does not follow as a consequence of himself but rather a consequence of his place, and it is not a complete change. And here consequences still do not emerge from these matters of the body, for it is still like a stranger, and like we explained, that it needs to go in the ways of the soul; but rather in this fourth level - all the matters of the body are differentiated and known, but they are not in their place, and need to nullify their matters because of the soul. And from this level and up we shall not differentiate all the details of the body, and all the more so that they don't have consequence, since they need to go in the ways of the soul.",
            "The fifth level, is when the body controls in all aspects, and is like a person reigning in his home, that all of its matter are in their strength and will all their consequences. And this level is also divided into two, and even so is all one level. And this is, because the matters of the body, even in the aspect of the body, can be of two paths, either the secular path and animalistic action, like that actions of most people, or a path of holiness and service, like the matter of (Mishlei 3:6), \"in all your ways know him\", when everything is in the straight intention as appropriate and like it will be in the future time as it says (Ezezkiel 36:26), \" and I will give you a heart of flesh\", as was appropriate for man to have had he not sinned. But both of them are like one in any event physical matters, for he needs to eat, needs to drink and it is impossible without this whether the eating or drinking is secular or holy. Both are physical matters:",
            "And indeed, once we knew that all these things come into being from the concealment of His countenance may He be blessed or from the illumination of his countenance, therefore it is said that the Holy One blessed is He changes his behavior according to that which is needed for his creations in these five levels. For in the low level which is the fifth, the lowest of all, he will increase his behavior through concealment of his countenance, and a small amount of illumination of his countenance will act in his world; And in the fourth - the concealment is diminished and the illumination is increased; and in the third - the concealment is diminished in diminution after diminution, and the illumination is increased in a greater increase; And so according to this way, until rising to the first level, where the illumination is strengthened greatly, and the concealment is a very small amount, until because of this there will only remain control for the soul alone and not for the body at all:..."
        ],
        [
            "Said the Soul - Why was it necessary to divide this division to five levels?"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Intellect - Since it is like this according to gradation, and this is apparent to the eye, because all of these things can be, and they are in levels one after another, existence without control; general control, control with some of the details, control of all the details, and still like someone who is a visitor outside of his place; control of all the details in his place, like a person residing in his home. These are the five things which emerge and continue according to the nature of the matter, there is no application to this of proof or count. Indeed what you need now, is the division that I mentioned to you at the beginning, which is, control of the soul by itself completely; slight control by the body; complete control by the body, for this is what you need to understand the behavior in its entirety. And the five levels that I mentioned, will be a preservation for you, for I already know - items will be found in the words of the sages may their memory be for a blessing that in order to understand them in their meaning you will need to use this introduction, but there is no space here for this matter:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Soul - If so, lets discuss these three situations."
        ],
        [
            "Said the Intellect - Our sages may their memory be for a blessing taught us that the world exists for six thousand years, and afterwards in the seventh millennium is destroyed and afterwards the Holy One blessed is He renews His world (Sanhedrin 97b). And we also found that they said (ibid 92a) regarding the seventh millennium, \"The righteous what do they do? The Holy One blessed is He makes for them sails and they float upon the water, as it says (Isaiah 40:31) \"And those who trust in haShem will renew their strength...\". From the simple meaning of the words we learn there are there time periods, and they are the six thousand years; the seventh millennium, and the renewal of the world. For six thousand years the world stands as it is now; in the seventh millennium the world has still not been renewed and the righteous are like they lived in the resurrection of the dead, but the Holy One blessed is He makes for them sails etc; and the renewal of the world - that the Holy One blessed is He will renew the world in a complete renewal. And indeed, the world is as it is now, here we see that the body has control like a person residing in his house, because this is his place and not another; but in the seventh millennium the righteous become elevated from the earth, and the body remains external to the place of its rest, and it is like a person wandering from his place, and like a visitor diverted to sleep. Therefore it has no remaining control except like Moshe our teacher may he rest in peace in his ascension to the mountain, where since he ascended from the earth he no longer went in the ways of the occupants of the earth. And similarly with regard to the seventh millennium the sages may their memories be for a blessing called it (Sanhedrin 97a) \"A day that is completely Sabbath for eternity\", for you rest upon it from all the physical labors which are secular, but the body does not move yet from its existence, for no renewal has been made yet to creation. But from the renewal of the world and onward, which is (Eruvin 22a) \"...tomorrow to receive their reward\", there is no need anymore for the control of the body at all, for it is not needed other than for service in its time, but is existence will become subjugated to the soul, to be pampered with the heavenly goodness forever and ever:..."
        ],
        [
            "Said the Soul - But the seventh millennium and renewal of the world, are they not things that are hidden from our knowledge, and how can we discuss them?"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Intellect - On the contrary, we shall not discuss them. But the existence of these times and their matters in general we know with certainty, and this is what we are saying with regard to the body and the soul. But the details of these times it is certainly not possible for us to grasp them and to know them at all. Only the time of these six thousand years is known to us and grasped in its details, and our eyes and words focus on this in a detailed way. And the two other times we will only know in generality, for they are times when the body loses is control and the soul is elevated to the first time:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Soul - If so, let us discuss that which we are permitted and we are able to grasp:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Intellect - Now we need to understand the first situation of man, which is when he is in this world, is this not the time of his service. And indeed, what is this service in general - we already explained, that it is to remove all of the deficiencies that exist in His creation, it is this negativity that is found now and stands to be nullified. And indeed, upon man is this burden to try to nullify it from himself at first, and afterwards - from all of creation in its entirety according to that which is relevant to him, and like the Sages may their memory be blessed said (Sanhedrin 37a), Man needs to say for me was the world created. And this matter was explained by them may they be blessed in the Midrash (Yalkut Shimoni Hosea at the end of section 532) regarding the verse (Hosea 14:2) \"For you have fallen because of your sin\", this is their language \"Said Rabbi Simai, \"It is analogous to a high stone that stands at the junction of roads and people trip on it. Said the king revive it bit by bit until the time will come and I will remove it from the world\" etc, (see there). Indeed what needs to be explained now, are the details of this service, and in what way this rectification can be made for man and the world.",
            "However, what needs to be explained first is the existence of this negativity, which is the cause for the burden of this service, and to understand all of its parameters, what is its matter and derivatives, with what is its power great and with what one can chisel away at it, like their saying, may their memory be for a blessing, and through what it can be removed from the world. And you will see that this is entirely innovative existence, which was willed and innovated by the Master may He be blessed to test man with it, to give them a place for service; and there was no hint or trace of this existence, nor anything close to it at all, before the Master may He be blessed innovated it, for the Master may He be blessed behold he is the absolute goodness and perfection. And all that which is good, even if it is innovated, is named as related to Him may He be blessed, and is drawn slightly near to his matters blessed is He; but this negativity, in contrary is something actually opposite to him may He be blessed, which is not relevant to this matter and not close to him in name or trace at all before it was innovated by the Master blessed is He, as we explained. But from the power of his ability which is without limit is that he can cause to exist even that which is actually opposite to him, for there is not in his rule may He be blessed any matter from it at all, to announce and make know that there is no limited whatsoever to his ability may He be blessed. And this is what was said in the text (Isaiah 45:7) \"Crafter of light..and creator of negativity, I am G-d who does all of this\". And indeed it is He may He be blessed who caused it to exist - He only fabricated it in order that it be nullified, like they say may their memories be blessed that I brought above, and only fabricated them with this limitation, and with this nature and with the rule He willed, for in any event the intent is to reap from the negativity itself a good fruit from the righteous, to give them good reward in the world:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Soul - Certainly this thing needs to come to its properties, for I see that this knowledge includes many types of knowledge:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Intellect - I need to suggest to you first a general and very fundamental proposition:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the soul - speak:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Intellect - You need to know that everything that is or is maintained in existence - would not be or be maintained other than through the G-dly emanation which flows from Him may He be blessed, and according to the existence of the G-dly emanation so is the existence borne from it. And this matter was explained well by the great Rabbi the Rambam may his memory be blessed in his book the guide [to the perplexed], in section two in many chapters, and one of them, in chapter 10 of it. And an example of this is the G-dly emanation of the stars, which we know that gave birth to all the matters of this lower world, and as they say may their memory be blessed, (Breishit Rabbah 10:6), \"There is no blade of grass below that does not have a constellation in the heavens that strikes it and says grow\"; and like he brought may his memory be blessed in his explanation. And indeed, these provide G-dly emanation according to the rule which has been made their nature by the Lord may He be blessed, and provided G-dly emanation of only that which they receive from Him may he be blessed; but the Lord may He be blessed He is the source of all G-dly emanation which emanates. And he explained may his memory be blessed in chapter twelve about this, \"...the source of living waters is G-d\" which was mentioned by the prophet Jeremiah (17:13), and similarly (Psalms 36:10) \"For with you is the source of life...\" that was said by king David peace unto him, that meant to say the G-dly emanation of existence. And the generality of the matter is said may their memory be a blessing, as was explained to us the He is without a body, and He caused it that all is His action, it it said that the world from G-dly emanation of the creator is renewed, and that he provides G-dly emanation to it for all that is renewed in it, and similarly it is said that He provides G-dly emanation from his wisdom, see there:",
            "And indeed you have heard already, that all the actions that the Master may He be blessed does with us - not one of them are from his matters may he be blessed, according to his straightforward essence, which is elevated above all blessing and praise, for He relative to himself is certainly exalted above all that is relevant to his creations. But all of them are matters that He may He be blessed innovated through His will and desire, and they are the types of G-dly emanation which he wanted and innovated to be a source of G-dly emanation and to go according to the order which he decreed in his wondrous wisdom, all things which are relevant to the existence of those whom he willed to exist. And it emerges, that the reason and the reasoned are both like one innovated from His will may He be blessed; meaning, the types of G-dly emanation and its ways are the reason, and the creations are the reasoned. And indeed the Master may He be blessed innovated types and ways of G-dly emanation, according to the types of the existent beings whom he willed to be, for each individual type of G-dly emanation produces one type of existent beings. And this is straightforward, for the G-dly emanation of Wisdom [chochmah] is one type of G-dly emanation and the G-dly emanation of Power [Gevurah] is a different type of G-dly emanation, and the G-dly emanation of Wealth is a different type of G-dly emanation, and so with regard to all of them."
        ],
        [
            "Said the Soul - And couldn't the Holy One blessed is He create all of the existent beings with one G-dly emanation?"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Intellect - G-dly emanation - means to say, that which reaches from the Creator may He be blessed to his creations in order to do something with them. And we cannot differentiate it from the aspect of the actor, for we doe not know how the Holy One blessed is He acts; we cannot differentiate it other than from the aspect of the one acted upon. And when Power [Koach] and Strength [Gevurah] reaches from the Creator may He be blessed to the creation this G-dly emanation will be G-dly emanation of Strength, for it was the Heavenly will in this G-dly emanation- that the Strength be born from it; and when Wisdom [Chochma] reaches it - the G-dly emanation will be G-dly emanation of Wisdom, and this is straightforward:",
            "Let us discuss their matter at hand, regarding the goodness and the negativity, we see the birth of good and the negative in the world, who do you think they emanate?"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Soul - Is it not something visible to the eyes? That which is good is a G-dly emanation of giving goodness, and that which is negative is an emanation of the negative:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Intellect - Two things shall I say to you, One that the Holy One blessed is he does not emanate negativity G-d forbid, for his is the source of good, and from the source of good negativity does not emerge:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Soul - If so, where does the negativity come from ? For it says (Isaiah 45:7), \"...makes peace and creates negativity...\":"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Intellect - it is written \"creates negativity\" and not \"does negative\", for he created negativity into existence, for it he did not create it it would not exist, but he did not make it through positive action:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Soul - and if so, how was it made?"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Intellect - In the text it is written (Psalms 30:8) \"G-d with your will you raised me up like a mighty mountain, when you hid Your face, I was afraid.\", (Psalms 104:29), \"When you turn your countenance they fear...\"; and Moshe our teacher peace upon him already said (Deuteronomy 31:17) \"...and hid my countenance from them and they will be for consumption...\" And this, is because the good - the Holy One blessed is he literally makes it with his G-dly emanation of good, but the negativity is not other than the absence of his G-dly emanation and its nullification, whether minimal or substantial. For the G-dly emanation of the good comes through every rectification which is needed for the good of the object of the G-dly emanation, and if the G-dly emanation were nullified and absent entirely - this would be nullification for the object of the G-dly emanation, complete nullification, but if the G-dly emanation is not completely nullified, but if some conditions of its completeness are nullified and absent - there will be a deficiency in the object of the G-dly emanation, but not complete nullification. By way of example, the G-dly emanation of existence and life if it comes complete with all of the good preparations, then the object of the G-dly emanation will be alive and healthy; and if it were to be nullified completely - the object of this G-dly emanation would die. But if it were not completely nullified, but its preparations were absent and the conditions of its completion, this object of G-dly emanation would not die, but would be side and live a life of affliction, and this is straightforward. And it comes out, that we cannot say that the good and the negative are two G-dly emanations, like you thought, rather they are consequences of the G-dly emanation or its absence in total or in part:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Soul - This is one reason. and the second that you specified that you would tell me - what is it?"
        ],
        [
            "Said the intellect - When we look with precision at the existence of things, we find that negativity is not other than the loss of goodness itself. And were we to take all of the types of goodness that are in existence, and understand their boundaries, and all types of negativity and understood their boundaries as well, we would see that there is no existence to the negative ones other than deficits in those good ones themselves. Therefore it is not applicable her to say there are two G-dly emanations, rather the G-dly emanation and the absence and its nullification in total or in part as we explained.:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Soul - And if so, this world which we see is certainly a composite, for it has good and negative, we would need to say that it was made in two ways, with G-dly emanation and through nullification of the G-dly emanation:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Intellect - And is this an astonishing thing? This is straightforward, and one cannot differ, for all that is good - is born from His G-dly emanation, and all that is negative - is born from the absence of G-dly emanation and its nullification with certainty. And if we see goodness and negativity, we certainly know that these two were made by the Lord, He gave G-dly emanation and removed his G-dly emanation, and these two creations that we mentioned were created:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Soul - But this I don't understand. When it was said that from the G-dly emanation creations were created this was good, but from the absence of G-dly emanation how can creations be created? Existence is not born through absence. And if so we can't escape from one of the two, either you need to say that the Holy One blessed is He created negativity through actual action, or that it was impossible for it to have creation or existence."
        ],
        [
            "Said the Intellect - When we say that the Holy One blessed is He created this world, certainly we will first understand the general creation and afterwards the details, meaning, at first nature itself, and afterwards its personalities [the objects of creation]. And when the Master may He be blessed wanted to innovate nature with good and negativity, it is certain that G-dly emanation came from him to innovate the existence of the nature, and this is goodness; and this is the G-dly emanation itself - a portion of it was absent, that is, the preparation of good that was within it, and a condition of its completion was that the nature was made with the aspect of goodness. And it is that the existence of this absence was that which innovated in nature the deficiencies in the existence of good, which is the generality of negativity. And this, that nature is certainly damaged by that which is not maintained by the G-dly emanation for it. And after innovating these two matters in general nature, then the personalities [objects of creation] were made in detail, some according to the matters of goodness according to the matters of negativity. And indeed the existence of the personalities were also certainly made with G-dly emanation, for we already established the first foundation that there is nothing made except through G-dly emanation. And perhaps this G-dly emanation is the G-dly emanation which comes after the G-dly emanation which we mentioned, that innovated with general existence being and loss, and therefore has in its rules to take from the generality of nature for the purpose of making the personalities which are needed to compose them from the good and from the negative which has been innovated already:",
            "And nevertheless you will see that I am not saying that the G-dly emanation was nullified entirely, for then all of the existent beings would certainly be nullified, and this is the absence that I said could not cause existence, but the matter is that it was only nullified in part, that it is its preparation and rectification that are nullified. And this is like the matter that reaches a person that becomes ill but does not die, so is the general existence of the nature which is damaged with the removal of some G-dly emanation, and not entirely, and negativity is innovated which is non other than damage to the existence of nature in its perfection. And that which is set before us is eternally existent - that the Holy One blessed is he does not do other than goodness, and negativity is not made by Him, rather it is born from the absence of His G-dly emanation:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Soul - In the end I understand the existence of negativity how it comes to be. Now we need to complete this matter, to understand all of its boundries:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Intellect - Indeed it is necessary for you to know one great introduction, and it is, even though in His rule may He be blessed it was certainly preordained to do all of the actions, for nothing shall change in Him at any time, even so it shall not be called out that these things occurred through power, that need to emerge through action, for this is one of the mistakes that early believers of the world stumbled upon. Indeed the generality is, that all that are in the matters of the Master may He be blessed that predate the creation of the world - it is impossible to grasp them at all, and there is no relevance there to any of the boundaries which are mentioned now, and not to mention power or action, which would obligate from this the presentation of the relationship that exists between the power and the action. Indeed at the time that He wanted to create the world, He Himself innovated the existence of power and action, and He Himself made the world and all of its creations first through power an then through action, to innovate this existence of power and action. For with his first utterance to create the world the world was [extant] in power, and afterwards emerged through action and this was hinted to by our Rabbis may their memory be for a blessing (Rosh HaShanah 32a) \"...Breishit was also an utterance...\", and was different from the other utterances to be inclusive of the world in power, before it emerged to action. And indeed when He innovated nature in power, then all the these matters which we mentioned in regard to G-dly emanation were made and afterwards all emerged into action as they were prepared in power, like we explained:",
            "And I will tell you another deep matter in this item, and it is the generality of the existence of the world in all its time periods. For the root of all is that the Master may He be blessed desired and wanted to provide G-dly emanation from his goodness to the extant beings which he wanted to exist, and he innovated therefore the existence of illumination and G-dly emanation from Him may He be blessed, appropriate for the value of the existent beings that He wanted to exist. Indeed that which the Master may He be blessed wanted with the G-dly emanation, was that the G-dly emanation be of holiness specifically from him, for He is the essence of holiness and its source, and the derivatives of this G-dly emanation are only matters of holiness, like it is now with the angels, that do to have any matter other than matters of complete holiness; because the intended purpose of the innovation of this G-dly emanation is not other than that it emanate from His holiness, may He be blessed, towards the extant beings, in order that they benefit from the radiance of His holiness, and not apart from that:",
            "But since he willed the existence of this lowly world, he therefore also decreed that his G-dly emanation should be lowered in its level, to bear these things that are lowly and physical, for it is certainly reduction for it, for not for this purpose was it innovated. And it emerges, that that which we see that He now provides G-dly emanation for lowly and physical things, we know that this is a diminution and lowering for the G-dly emanation itself, that it needs to dress itself in these ways that are reductions with regard to it, for it to be the G-dly emanation of the Lord may He be blessed, the source of perfection and holiness. But thus did it arise in thought before Him may He be blessed - to dress the G-dly emanation in these dark ways, until the proper time when it will be disrobed from all of these garments, and will remain in its clarity and essence of its nature, that the creation and all its matters not be other than holy unto HaShem:",
            "And behold that all of the period of the service man the G-dly emanation is clothed in these garments, and at the end of the period of service - it will also be disrobed from these garments. And indeed great happenings and revolutions were placed by the Master may He be blessed to this for it to reach its purpose. And it emerges, that the root of the changing periods of the world is the manner of His G-dly emanation may He be blessed, for He progresses and changes His G-dly emanation from elevation to elevation, until it reaches the essence of its matter, that all that is innovated in that which exists will only be the Holy of Holies, as we explained:",
            "The general rule is, the Master blessed is he innovated the G-dly emanation towards the existent such that the internality of the matter is not other than an extension of holiness from Him may He be blessed towards the existent; and he also innovated paths for G-dly emanation, that are lowly and lesser relative to the elevation of its holiness; and innovated in the G-dly emanation itself the nullification and damages to the organization that I mentioned. And all of this is dependent on the matter of the revelation of the singularity that we mentioned above, that from the aspect of the hiding of His countenance are innovated all of these things through the rule of his G-dly emanation, and from the aspect of the revelation afterwards all of these coverings are removed from it. And we will speak regarding all this within with the help of heaven:",
            "What we need in this place is to know that in the G-dly emanation itself innovated things were innovated by the heavenly decree, and these are fundamental to that which is subsequently extant in the world, for only after all these preparations was this lowly world made, built according to all of these matters, and composed of all of these things, to proceed from matter to matter according that which the heavenly will decreed upon it:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Soul - In truth this introduction is fundamental, to know all the many preparations which exist for the needs of the existence of this world, that all of its attributes are not completed except after all of these preparations. Let us now complete our subject:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the Intellect - We already said that this negativity that was created, was not created except with the limitation wanted by the heavenly desire. And indeed even though the Master may He be blessed innovated the nullification to being, he did not innovate it other than to being without completeness. But to the being with completeness there will be no nullification, rather its sustenance will be eternal. And you will see that therefore now there is nullification to the existence of the world, and in the future there is not be anymore. And this is not other than that now the creation is not complete, therefore He decreed upon it the nullification. But in the future will be innovated the renewed heavens and the renewed earth whose creations will be complete, and therefore they will not have nullification:",
            "And we find, that the original G-dly emanation which caused the existence of general nature, and the nullification of its organization that caused the destruction of this nature, was not the G-dly emanation which will derive perfect things, like the heavens and the earth which will be renewed in the future, for they will not have nullification, like we explained, but rather it was G-dly emanation which di not have in its rule to derive things other than imperfect, therefore the rule was put in place for the them the nullification which is needed for the destructive elements in nature. And the G-dly emanation that caused the existence of the beings of nature, is composed of both the good and the negative, it is G-dly emanation that differentiates the negative to themselves, so that will not nullify the existent, rather they are restricted through the power of the heavenly decree, and dependent through His word that they will not strengthen and nullify the existent, only to cause to exist in the measure and boundary needed for the purpose of these existent beings, and to be strengthened in another time period where greater strengthening is needed, and at other times to be diminished, everything properly in its time as was decreed by the heavenly will. For now there are in the existent beings deficiencies and damages certainly, but not so sever that they would be nullified from being, and indeed there are in a measure that in the end will be strengthened, until they will be nullified, for all will be lost; and we find their existence is measured in a very precise measurement, as is known by the heavenly wisdom:",
            "And you will see that the heavenly thought that innovated the first G-dly emanation which we mentioned, was intended to innovate the nullification, for therefore it was not created intrinsically perfected, rather in order that there be nullification and negativity in the world, as we already explained, not due to an in adequacy of ability or deficiency of power G-d forbid, And that which will be done in the final future in the renewed heavens and the earth that we mentioned, could have been made from the beginning, but were therefore made without perfection in order that nullification befall them. But with the secondary G-dly emanation which was intended to give being to the existent creations, it was in truth the intention of the heavenly thought to save the being from nullification, and to distance it from them until a set time, as we explained, for therefore nullification was not nullified from the world, but limitations were placed on negativity and they were placed in the boundary that he wanted for the purpose of the attributes of the world, as we explained, until the time comes and he removes all negativity from existence, and all of the creations will remain complete and eternal:",
            "And perhaps you will remember now that which I mentioned to you earlier, how the the foundations of all of haShem's interactions are through two characteristics - concealment of the countenance and illumination of the countenance, whose consequences are perfections and deficiencies, and a type of which is - good and the negative. And indeed the existence of negativity is only born out of the essence of concealment of the countenance, the purpose of His concealment may He be blessed; for when the heavenly will desired to create man a possessor of soul and body, according to the attributes which we see today in the soul and body - he equalized his characteristics to apprehend and activate always through these two characteristics, the character of concealment of the countenance and the character of illumination of the countenance, in order to affect with this and also with that not to hold back His hand, in order to maintain all of the attributes of man for the good, the weaknesses and the strengths, the worthy and the lowly, everything which is needed to maintain him according to the intended purpose for him.",
            "Indeed, here you need one introduction, and it is that just because one is made deficient in perfection one may not say that it is actual negativity, because there can be deficiency, that even though it is not perfection and complete goodness is not negative. Can you not see, the angels are also certainly deficient, for they are not on a perfected purpose, for there is no perfected purpose other than to the Master may He be blessed, and amongst them they have several steps and levels, where the second level is lower than the first and more deficient than it, and even so they are not in sure great deficiency that there would be borne within them actual negativity, for there is not amongst them jealousy or hate, they have no inclination for evil within them, they have neither sleep nor weariness, and no illness or death. But people are lower than angels and more deficient than them, and the deficiency within them is so strong within them that it is actually actually negative, for they have within them an evil inclination, they become sick and die. And animals have even more deficiency, for they have neither intellect or speech, and they are filthy and unclean. And there are demons and angels of destruction, and spirits of impurity which are actual evil, and they are the actual opposite of good and perfection, those that the heavenly Name blessed is He conceals from them a complete concealment, as per the reason in (Breishit Rabbah 3:6, Midrash Tanchuma Tazria 9, see there), \"The Holy One blessed is He does not set his name aside upon evil\". And indeed the chain of deficiencies is what brings out negativity, for when this matter is extended, and deficiency is added to deficiency, in the end actual evil is born. And prior to when the Master may He be blessed innovated the existence of his divine interaction that was innovated for the needs of the existent beings, there was not matter of any deficiency at all, and when he innovated this existence, it comes out that he innovated the existence of one order though whose extension is born negativity, for since there is existence for deficiency - its end will be actual evil:",
            "Indeed from the essential matters that HaShem innovated may He be blessed, is the matter of measurement and measure, for with His perfection there is no relevance to any measurement or measure, from there He wanted there to be a rule of gradation - he designed everything with measurement, and ordered all existent beings with gradations, this one under that, from the first amongst them until the last of them, and in every level he measured with its measurement, how much deficiency there should be within it and has much should remain within it of the Good and the Rectification. And according to the measurement measured, so are the consequences born from this level, and all of their laws and rules, everything according to the whole, each in its place:",
            "And it emerges, that when He may He be blessed takes both of these characteristics as one, with concealment of His countenance and illumination of His countenance that we mentioned, the Soul and the Body are born from this, for the matters of the body are less than those of the soul, and there are deficiencies in it which are not in the soul; but there is not negativity within it because of this. Indeed when He may He be blessed wills the innovation of the existence of Negativity, which is the opposite of his actual perfection may He be blessed, as we explained, behold then He concealed His countenance to the greatest extent that one can contemplate, until when He only conceals His countenance and does not illuminate it at all, born from this is the existence of actual deficiencies and creates a destroyer to do damage. And the generality of Negativity emerges, where He may He be blessed removed his right hand backwards from the management of His world, and manages it with sluggishness, by virtue of the darkness of his mystery, and He placed in this nature all of the deficiencies of Goodness, are they not all the characteristics of the court, to bring to justice all that is concealed and the evildoers. And indeed the fury of the Holy One blessed is He is only transient, and its wrath is only to make the snakes and seraphs set aside and invited to purgatory, to strike the evildoer in number according to the measure of his negative behavior:",
            "And afterwards he returned and set his mind, as if that were possible, to the existence of beings that they would exist and not be nullified even if they are liable to nullification. And behold the righteous one grasped his path to rectification and not to distortion, and returned and illuminated his countenance upon the world that stood to be created. And were He to have illuminated it with great light, then from this the existent beings would have existed in their ultimate rectified form, which would be their eternal maintenance. But indeed he did not act like this, rather caused to exist beings which are maintained, but not eternal. Indeed he already put in place a way for his interaction, may He be blessed, to cause the progression of all of his creation towards his honor to be perfected in his perfection, in order that a great multiplied and awesome light illuminate his world, whose consequence will be the eternal and perfect maintenance. And just the opposite, this negativity that he created - will be removed from the world. And not only this, rather it will become known to all that exist that everything that he did in the earlier period was also for their good, is this not the matter (Isaiah 12:1) \"...I thank you haShem for you were angry with me...\", that the prophet Isaiah told us in his prophecy, and I already spoke of this above:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the soul - gather in summary that which you said at length up to here:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the intellect - this is the generalization - when the master may He be blessed willed to innovate the general existence of nature in Good and negative, that its personalities be a mixture of both, he caused to flow from him may He be blessed a heavenly flow which causes the existence of the good which is in His nature and is etched in this good nature. And he returned and caused an absence of completion in this heavenly flow with his turning away of his countenance of goodness in complete concealment and etched in nature all of the deficiencies. Afterwards he returned and caused a flow through the illumination of his countenance to cause the existence of extant beings - beings in nature that are combinations of good and negative in one combination:",
            "And now I will explain to you the existence of man according to this matter of the presence of negativity that we have mentioned"
        ],
        [
            "Said the soul - for I am listening:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the intellect - To begin I will inttroduct for you one introduction, needed for our subject:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the soul - speak:"
        ],
        [
            "Said the intellect - The existence of man is constructed on deep wisdom without limit. For the master may he be blessed created many and great creations, one higher than the next and yet more above them. Each is needed in their position, for nothing if purposeless; and it all stands on the fundemental corner which is that which the master, may he be blessed, wants from the service of man - that he rectify all the deficiencies in the creation and elevate himself in elevation after elevation, until he cleave to His holiness, may he be blessed. And behold there are all the matters of the distance from him may he be blessed, and and of their consequences, and all the matters of of that which causes one to draw near to him and all their consequences, and allf them are deep and very awesome things, all all stand to progress through great revolutions to reach general perfection:",
            "And indeed the Heavenly Will wanted that the hand of man reach to all these many matters - that all of these move through the movements and actions of man. Indeed these great established places [Chullin 56b] are like a timepiece whose gears engage one another, and one small gear moves larger and many ones - so is the connection of the master may he be blessed with all his creations in great connection, and all connected through man. In order that he cause movement through his actions, and all fo the remaining movements come from him. And behold all of this is covered with the physical skin and flesh, such that only the region of the physical is apparent; but in truth hidden within great established places that The Holy One blessed is He created in hsi world for this purpose are all for his actions and service, for the elevation and addition to his holiness or to his descent and diminution G-d forbid, and all of his many situations. And this is only through the Neshoma soulin all of its parts and roots which He included in its substance. and this is that which King David, peace upon him, said (Tehillim 40:6) \"Many things have you my Lord G-d done for us, your wonders and thoughts...\", and he said (Tehillim 139:14) \"I praise you for the awesome wonders you have imbued in me, your actions are wonderous and my Nefesh soul knows this well\" - for the body cannot grasp these many things like the Nefesh soul, because the matter is not evident in physicality rather in spirituality:"
        ],
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        [
            "",
            "We know, then, with certainty, that even those qualities that we do discern in His acts – they are only things that have been innovated for us and our needs, according to our level, not of His level at all. And in generality, the qualities that He innovated for His acts, they are the sources of all that is done with His creations at all times. They are an set order of conduct toward the perfection of all creations, all matters on their level, one higher than the other, until even the highest among them is included in these qualities. However, we can only discern this hierarchy through His acts alone. That is, when we marshal all that is activated by the Blessed One with His creations, and define everything as it truly is, and appraise all of these acts one against another, we find in them this arrangement whereby one act may be termed more honorable than another, and, therefore, it is called higher than the other. And we ascribe attributes to the Blessed One according to the acts that come from Him, and in accordance with the order of the acts, we ascribe order and value to the attributes. And we find sages who understand the mechanisms of [divine] conduct, who decreed that certain qualities, and, consequently, the acts issuing from them, are connected with each other in many ways and many aspects. For although each quality is certainly an entity unto itself, the Blessed One wanted and made the generality of qualities to connect with each other, so that the perfection of one factor would require the assistance of the other, to the degree and extent necessary. And there is deep wisdom regarding this connection, to know the connection of all matters of conduct, through the links of the chain that enter into one another. "
        ]
    ],
    "versions": [
        [
            "Sefaria Community Translation",
            "https://www.sefaria.org"
        ]
    ],
    "heTitle": "דעת תבונות",
    "categories": [
        "Kabbalah",
        "Ramchal"
    ],
    "sectionNames": [
        "Chapter",
        "Paragraph"
    ]
}