Chapter 16: When the Heart Won’t Catch Fire

This, then, is a great rule in the service of G‑d for beinonim: the main thing is to master and rule over the nature in the left chamber [of the heart] by means of the light of G‑d that shines to the G‑dly soul in the mind, and so to rule over the heart.

He does this by letting his mind dwell on how great the Ein Sof, blessed be He, until his understanding brings forth a spirit of knowledge and awe of G‑d in his mind, leading him to “depart from evil”, whether the prohibition is Biblical or Rabbinic, down to the lightest Rabbinic restriction, G‑d forbid; and [brings forth] a love of G‑d on the right side of his heart, an ardent longing to be joined to Him through observing the commandments of the Torah and of the Sages, and through Torah study, which outweighs them all.

Beyond this, there is an important principle to grasp in the service of beinonim. Suppose the capacity of his mind and the strength of his understanding are not enough to bring forth a love of G‑d that is openly felt in his heart, a heart ablaze like fire, yearning with a palpable longing and ardor to be joined to Him; suppose instead that the love remains concealed in his mind and deep within his heart,

Note: The reason for this is that his mind and his nefesh, ruach and neshamah come from the level of ibbur (“pregnancy”) and concealment within the [supernal] tevunah (understanding), and not from the level of birth and revelation, as is known to those versed in the hidden wisdom.

That is, his heart grasps, through the wisdom and understanding in his mind, how great the Ein Sof, blessed be He, is, before Whom all things are genuinely null. It is therefore appropriate, given Who He is, that every living soul should yearn for Him, to be joined with Him and dissolve into His light. His own nefesh and ruach too ought to yearn for Him with ardor and longing, to shed their casing, the body, and be joined with Him. It is only against their will that they live within the body and are tied to it, like “widows while their husbands live”. No thought of theirs can take hold of Him at all, except by taking hold of and enveloping itself in the Torah and its mitzvos, as in the parable, given earlier, of embracing a king. It is therefore appropriate for them to hold Him close with all their heart, all their soul and all their strength, which means fulfilling the 613 mitzvos in deed, word and thought, where thought means understanding and knowing the Torah, as was said before.

Now, when he delves into this within the concealed understanding of his heart and mind, and his mouth matches his heart, so that his mouth acts on the conclusion his heart and mind have reached, namely that G‑d’s Torah is what he desires, and he recites and studies it day and night, and his hands and other limbs likewise perform the mitzvos in keeping with that same conclusion, then this understanding becomes enclothed in the deeds, words and thoughts of Torah and mitzvos. It serves them as intellect, as life and as “wings to soar upward”, just as though he had performed them with genuine awe and love openly felt in his heart [with a palpable longing and ardor in his heart, and a soul thirsting for G‑d, because of the fiery love within him, as described earlier]. For it is exactly this understanding in his mind and deep in his heart that moves him to perform them. Had he never meditated on it, he would not have engaged in them at all, but only in what his body needs. [And even if his temperament makes him a diligent student, by nature he still loves his body more.]

This is what our Sages hinted at when they said: “A good thought, the Holy One, blessed be He, joins to the deed.” They could have said: “Scripture counts it as if he had done it.” The explanation is this: the fear and love revealed in his heart are what clothe themselves in the doing of the mitzvos, to give them life to fly upward. For the heart, too, is physical like the other limbs, which are the tools of action, only it is inner and is their source of life. That is why it can clothe itself in them, to be their wings and raise them up.

But the fear and love in the understanding of his mind and the depths of his heart, mentioned above, are far, far above the level of action. They cannot clothe themselves in the doing of the mitzvos, to be their mind and life and raise them to fly upward, unless the Holy One, blessed be He, joins and connects them to the action. And they are called a “good thought”, because they are not real fear and love revealed in his heart, but only in the understanding of his mind and the depths of his heart, as mentioned above.

Note: As written in the Zohar and Etz Chaim, the word tevunah (understanding) has the letters of ben u’vas (“son and daughter”), which are fear and love. And sometimes tevunah comes down to become the mind of the nukva (feminine aspect) of Z’eir Anpin, which are the letters of the Torah and the mitzvos. The wise will understand.

But the Holy One, blessed be He, makes this joining in order to raise the doing of the mitzvos and the Torah study done through the “good thought” mentioned above up to the World of Beriah, the place to which Torah and mitzvos rise when they are done with intellectual fear and love that are truly revealed in the heart.

Even apart from this, however, they still ascend to the World of Yetzirah by virtue of the innate awe and love that lie concealed in every Jewish heart from birth, as will be discussed at length further on.