Chapter 1 – Ashrei
Temimei Darekh – Happy
are they whose Way is Simple
1.
Through learning Torah all the
prayers and requests are received,
and the grace and importance of
2.
Through vigorous delving in
Torah one gives power to the Dominion of Holiness, that it should
dominate. And he strengthens the Good
Will over the Evil Will.
3.
Through delving in Torah one can merit to understand clues from all
the things in the world and connect via them to the Lord, blessed-be-He.
And even in a place of darkness and gloom where it
seems that there it is difficult to draw close to the Lord, blessed-be-He – there
too the true intellect will shine for him to find there too the Lord, blessed-be-He,
and draw close from there specifically to the Lord, blessed-be-He.
4.
A man does not commit a transgression unless a spirit of folly enters
him. Therefore every one according to
the transgressions and faults that he committed and blemished, according to
this he is truly insane. Therefore we
find several kinds of insanity by most people.
And the remedy for this is delving in Torah.
For the Torah is all names of the Holy One,
blessed-be-He, with which we suppress
the Evil Will and drive out the insanity and the spirit of folly which cleaved
to the man through his sins.
5.
One also merits through delving in the Torah to be saved from the evil
schemes of guile of the Evil Will, for usually it does not lead a man to sin
immediately. Only at first it disguises
itself in mitzvoth etc. But
through delving in Torah we merit to true intelligence and to be saved from all
this.
6.
The main reason why prayers are not received is because the words have
no charm. Therefore every man must make
effort that his words should be words of grace in truth. And this we merit through delving in Torah
and then one’s prayer is received.
7.
The Israelite man must always look at the intellect that is in each
thing and tie himself to the wisdom and the intellect that is in each thing, in
order that the intellect in each thing should light him up to draw close to the
Lord, blessed-be-He through that thing, for the main source of life that is in
each thing is only the intellect and the wisdom. And as is written (Kohelet
8.
It is impossible to merit to the light of the intellect mentioned
above except through the aspect of Kingship.
I.e. that one should accept upon himself the Kingship of Heaven in truth
and in complete faith and should constrict his mind and remove all his wisdom
completely as if he has no intellect himself at all and should disdain all the
outside wisdoms and intellects, and should seek out and hope for and yearn to
only receive light and the life from the true intellect and wisdom which are
like the Upper Intellect of holiness which is the main source of the life of
holiness that is in each thing as mentioned above.
9.
The main point of the war that is between the Good Will and the Evil
Will is only in this – that the Good Will incites the man to disdain all the
wisdoms and outside intellects and all the lusts which are complete foolishness
and spirit of folly in truth and to tie himself only to the light of the
intellect of holiness. But the Evil Will
incites the man to the opposite, in the aspect of “A fool will not desire
understanding” (Prov. 18:2) which is the aspect of
Esau who disdained the birthright which is like the wisdom and the intellect of
holiness. And everyone must give power
to the Good Will to overcome the Evil Will like our Rabbis of blessed memory
said (Berakhot 5): “A man should always
stir up Good Will over the Evil Will” and this they merit through delving in
Torah with force.
10.
When we merit to all the abovementioned, then a great unification is
made in all the worlds and the light of the moon becomes like the light of the
sun and we merit to gracefulness and through this all the prayers and all the
requests are received.
11.
The Evil Will wants to make a man really insane God forbid, for a
sinner is an insane person. As our Rabbis
of blessed memory said: “A man does not commit a transgression unless a spirit
of folly enters him.” But how should it
come to a man that he should be suddenly insane, God forbid? That is why it is the way of the Evil Will to
clothe itself at first in commandments and it strays a man as if were inciting
him to perform a mitzvah and then afterwards it strays him and incites him yet
some more, until he comes to complete transgressions on purpose God
forbid. And this is really like the
aspect of the insanity of the insane one who is confused and whose mind is torn
up until he says a bad thing is good etc. but even so he still has some sparks
of intellect and consciousness, that even according to the folly and lack of
knowledge he understands and knows even so not to do such things, and despite
this he does them until because of this they need twice the measure of healing
for the insanity, i.e. to beat them in order to suppress the wickedness of
their intentional misdoing, that it should not be convenient for them anyway to
be in their foolishness and they should not do anyway things that they in
themselves understand also that they are insanity and folly. And it is
necessary to also place upon them holy names and amulets in order to drive out
from them the evil spirit that confuses and tears up their mind God forbid
until they reverse the proper ways and call evil good etc. So likewise in the matter of healing a man from
insanities of the Evil Will he also needs the two aspects mentioned above. I.e. to suppress at first his wickedness and
intentional misdoing that he should not do anyway what he in himself
understands and knows that it is complete evil and transgression God forbid,
and they need also to drive out from him the evil spirit the spirit of folly
that clothes itself in mitzvoth and strays him as if it inclines him to do a
mitzvah as mentioned above. And all this
we merit in completion only through delving in Torah which is made up from the
two strategies mentioned above.
1.
The main way of connection to the Intellect of Holiness mentioned
above is through simplicity, which is the aspect of “And Ya`aqov was the simple man,” for Ya`aqov
merited to the light of the intellect mentioned above in completion.