Bold and in quotes: Original text of Baal HaSulam
Regular: Commentaries of Rav Laitman
lowercase italics: emphasized words
Capitalized italics: transliteration from Hebrew
We are reading article 34 in Shamati, page 50, article, The Profit of the Land.
It is known that nothing appears in its true form, only through its opposite, “as far as light excelleth darkness.” This means that everything points to another, and by the opposite of some thing, the existence of its opposite can be perceived.
Hence, it is impossible to attain something in complete clarity if its parallel is absent. For example: it is impossible to estimate and say that something is good, if its opposite is missing, pointing to the bad. It is the same with bitterness and sweetness, love and hate, hunger and satiation, thirst and saturation, cohesion and separation. It turns out, that it is impossible to come to love’s adhesion prior to acquiring the hate of separation.
In other words, we have to go through all the opposite states of Dvekut (adhesion), which is when a person is considered wicked or a thief. We have to go through all these transgressions that appear in The Book of Torah, that areopposite states from Dvekut.
First we experience them, and then determine that we hate them, that they are evil. This is called the “recognition of evil.” Once we recognize they are evil we are awarded to get rid of them. Then we rise to their corresponding opposite state, the state of completeness, of good, of bestowal and of keeping the Mitzva. As it is written, “one does not perform a Mitzva unless he has failed in it” and that “there is no righteous in the land who didn’t sin first,” etc.
The reason being is that first we have to enter the Aviut of the spiritual level. We have to be in it, dwell in it for as long as it takes us to determine that that state is loathsome and distasteful to us until we reach the point where we can no longer stay in it. Then along with this Aviut and from within it we rise to correction, to Dvekut. That’s why it says that “as far as light excelleth darkness.”
A person though shouldn’t wait for this darkness to come. On the contrary, it says that Israel accelerates time. It is written, “within Your Light we will see Light.” It means that the recognition of the darkness (which is opposite from the light) is possible only on the condition that we advance toward the Light and do not sit idly waiting for darkness to settle. By sitting in the darkness we don’t see anything. The states of separation, darkness and evil appear according to one’s willingness and ability to tolerate them and turn them into light, good and bestowal.
Thus to the extent a person wants correction, accordingly he’s shown how far from being corrected he is.
To come to hate separation one must first know what separation is, meaning what he is separated from...
One has to know that first. As it is written “in your light we will see Light.” First one has to attain the Light in order to see darkness. The darkness is not because one’s ego or will to receive suffers. It has a different meaning. It is the separation or the oppositeness from the Light. Therefore, if one obtains the Light or comes closer to it, one sees where the darkness is within oneself. If one doesn’t come closer to the Light, then one measures darkness according to different states. One measures it according to the bad feelings in one’s vessels of reception, whereas one should measure darkness as emptiness in one’s vessels of bestowal, when he cannot act through them.
...and then one may say that he wants to correct that separation. In other words, one should examine from what and from whom he is separated, and after that he can try to amend it and connect himself to the one he is separated from.
In other words, one has to be drawn and pull oneself as much as one can to Dvekut. Anything that appears as opposite is what one will determine as darkness and that is what one must correct.
If, for example, one understands that he will benefit from joining with Him, then he can assume and know what one loses by remaining separated.
Not only does one have to imagine what separation is but also how much does one gain by Dvekut according to one’s Kelim. One must assume in one’s vessels the benefit, the status, and the state of the Dvekut. So, opposite it one will not only feel what is separate, but will also feel how deep, how bad, and how detestable it is. Opposite to the benefit that one assumes, accordingly one will be able to assume the separation and the loss in the Dvekut.
Gain and loss are measured according to the pleasure and the suffering.
It’s not enough to calculate. One has to actually feel within Dvekut the best, most pleasant, and loftiest state, so that when one looses Dvekut one can measure and calculate the sensations of loss resulting from this separation. These things have to be clear to a person. The measure of one’s perception within his intellect and emotions of not being in Dvekut determines how bad and intolerable one’s state is. Thus one can rise to Dvekut, from darkness to Light.
One stays away from something that causes one to suffer, and hates it. The measure of the distance depends on the measurement of the suffering since it is man's nature to escape from suffering. Hence, one depends on the other, meaning to the extent of the suffering so is the measure that one strains and works to stay away from it. In other words, the torments cause hate for that thing that induces torments, and to that extent one stays far from it.
It means that one has to attain the feeling of sweetness in Dvekut and correspondingly hate for the separation and whatever obstructs one from attaining it. Simply put, it has to be in one’s sensation, one’s senses, and one’s Kelim.
It follows, that one should know what is equivalence of form in order to know what he must do to reach adhesion, called equivalence of form. By that he will come to know what disparity of form and separation are.
If I go from the end to the beginning, I have to obtain Dvekut. In order to obtain Dvekut, first of all I have to be in separation. In order to be in separation, first I have to know what I am losing by not having Dvekut. Accordingly, I will hate separation and be repelled by it toward the state of Dvekut. We must feel and measure these things because until we hate something to the fullest, we can’t leave it. We’ll come back to it again and again and somehow stay connected to it.
In spirituality only the complete state is taken into consideration. Therefore the hate towards separation and darkness should be complete and full, so that a person will rise from it to Dvekut. These things have to be sensed in all the bones.
It is known from books and from authors that the Creator is benevolent, meaning that His guidance appears to the lower ones as benevolence, [That’s what it says, “it is known from books and from authors.” A person doesn’t still feel that in his Kelim.]
“And this is what we must believe.”
That’s already different. What does it mean that one has to believe what he is told? It means that he has to obtain the power of faith, of bestowal as it is written, “a person attains righteously by his faith.” By that force of bestowal a person knows what separation and adhesion are. He doesn’t obtain Dvekut yet, but to the measure of his faith and bestowal he can already assume what it is.
Therefore, when one examines the comportment of the world and begins to examine himself or others, and how they suffer under providence [When he still doesn’t have the attribute of bestowal, faith.] instead of delighting, as is fitting for His name, which is benevolent, it is then hard for him to say that providence is benevolent and imparts abundance.
The egoistic will to receive is apparent and since “one disqualifies others according to his own flaws,” a person therefore, sees that the world is bad. If man is bad, then the one who created the world is bad. He doesn’t have a choice because it is determined according to his corrupted or corrected Kelim.That’s the situation. Even that degree of perception is not easy to reach. Many people say that the world is bad, but they don’t connect it correctly to the Creator and to their corrupted attributes.
A person who begins to study and understand the wisdom of Kabbalah and realizes the councils of Kabbalists, as it is written “that he works according to the books and the authors,” reaches a state where he understands that the world seems dark to him because of his own corrupted Kelim. Then he doesn’t connect these things to the Creator. He connects them to the measure of corruption within his own Kelim. He sees his own Kelim from the side compared to the way that they should be.
It’s not that he feels good, but he now determines what his picture depends on. He relates his state to the corrupted Kelim and not to the guidance of the Creator. Thus he agrees that the Creator is benevolent and that it must be that his Kelim are corrupted. That’s the reason he feels Providence as opposite.
However, we must know that in that situation, when we cannot say that the Creator imparts only good, we are considered wicked…
That he “has to know” means that he discovers that state, that situation and understands why he determines the world as bad. Thus he calls himself wicked and not the Creator wicked, because he is the one that out of his own Kelim arrives at that bad sensation. It is not that the situation is bad.
…because suffering makes us condemn our Maker. Only when we see that the Creator imparts pleasure do we justify the Creator…
In other words, a person understands and feels within his Kelim that he can’t think of the Creator with good thoughts if he himself feels bad. No intellect is going to help here. He can tell himself a thousand times that he feels bad because he is corrupted and the Creator is good. Still his sensation determines how he thinks of the Creator. If a person feels bad, his intellect will not help. This is how he feels in the bottom of his heart, thus he turns to the Creator and says that the Creator is bad.
So, it’s not enough for a person to understand that he feels bad in the world because of his corrupted Kelim.If he feels bad he still condemns the Creator regardless of how much he understands that it depends only on him. This is why we must reach from within the bottom of the heart, at its lowest element, the point where we will discover and feel the benevolence as His Name, the Benevolent One. Only on that condition will a person not curse the Creator and not condemn his Maker. Then he will be called righteous.
…as our sages say, “Who is righteous? He who justifies his Maker”…
To justify the Creator or not doesn’t depend on the intellect, the understanding of the Kelim, or the Lights from where they come, nor why they happen. It depends only on a person’s sensation.
…meaning that the Creator leads the world righteously.
Thus, when one suffers one draws far off from the Creator since he naturally becomes hateful of Him who imparts him torments. Consequently, where one should have loved the Creator he now becomes the opposite, for he has come to hate the Creator.
That’s what the sensation determines. If he is suffering in the world, he hates the Creator. That’s how the Kelim are. We’re speaking only about the Kelim.
Accordingly, what should one do in order to come to love the Creator? For that purpose we are granted the remedy of engaging in Torah and Mitzvot and the Light in it Reforms.
A person can decide intellectually whatever he wants. However, all the good, just and the most correct things mean nothing. To change the sensations of the heart is possible only through the Upper Light that Reforms.
There is a Light there, which lets one feel the severity of the state of separation, and slowly, as one intends to acquire the Light of the Torah, [During the study, when he engages in it.] hatred for the separation is created in him.
Baal HaSulam explains to us in Item 155 in the Introduction to Talmud Eser HaSeferot that when a person who is studying wants to reach the corrected states, he reads about them and wants to be in them, and if he prepares himself correctly within a group with the right intentions to the lesson and during the lesson, then the surrounding Light shines on him. This Light brings him back or closer to the state that he is reading about.
He begins to feel the reason that causes him and his soul to be separated and far from the Creator.
Why does he begin to feel it? He begins to feel it in the Upper Light. Before that it’s not going to help. He can picture all kinds of situations, but if they don’t come through the Upper Light that comes down to him these states are not real. Only through the Surrounding Light can he see the measure of the gap between himself and the Light, what the gap is and what oppositeness is, and what exactly he should do to reach that Light. We should understand that with our intellect we will never determine the true state we have to be in.
One must believe that His guidance is benevolent…
To believe means to reach the attribute of bestowal, the attribute of Bina, so that Good comes from the Creator. Why? Because then he’ll be in equivalence of form with Him, in the attribute of Bina.
…but since one is immersed in self-love, it induces disparity of form in him, since there was a correction called in order to bestow, called equivalence of form. Only in this manner the delight and pleasure can be received. The inability to receive the delight and pleasure that the Creator wants to give evokes in the receiver hate for separation...
The pleasures that exist in the state of Dvekut begin to appear to him. These pleasures are all in this state “in order to bestow.” He begins to attain it by beginning to attain the greatness of the Creator. Bestowing upon Him begins to be interpreted in him as the greatest pleasure, the pleasure of bestowal. Without any connection to himself, he begins to then appreciate that state as the greatest according to the correction in his Kelim, in the force of faith that he receives from Above. Only in the attribute of bestowal that he acquires does he begin to understand what Dvekut is and how sublime it is. That causes him to hate the separation.
These are already the true measurements which do not happen in egoistic Kelim.Meaning he acquires a correction called the attribute of bestowal, and in the attribute of bestowal he measures how much he loses by not being in bestowal. In the Kelim of Bina that he acquired and in vessels of faith, he measures what he loses from not having Dvekut.Before that he can’t really measure what he loses by not having Dvekut. The calculation will always be egoistic: what I lose by it.
Once he acquires the attribute of faith then his calculation is correct. Before he acquires the attribute of faith, he cannot understand what Dvekut is and what he loses by not reaching it.
...and then he can discern the great benefit in equivalence of form and one begins to yearn for adhesion. In consequence, every form points to the other form.
The attainment is always in two forms, Light and darkness, one against the other. You can’t have one form because “in Your Light we will see Light.” From light one sees the darkness and from darkness the light. It means that if a person is just in darkness and there is no light, correspondingly that is not a real darkness. It is an egoistic darkness. The real darkness is measured only when there are corresponding discernments in the Light, in sanctity, in bestowal. Thus if we want to attain something real, we have to obtain it as one against the other. Therefore we understand that the correct measurements come only after one completes the measure of effort he has to give according to his degree.
Thus, all the descents where one feels that he has come to separation are an opportunity to discern between something and its opposite. In other words, one should learn from the descents of the benefits of the ascents, or he will not be able to assess the importance of being drawn near from above, and the ascents that he is given. He would not be able to extract the importance that he could extract, as when one is given food without ever having felt hunger.
Only out of the depths of the Kelim that fit, to the extent of the depth being felt, appears the corresponding Light that shines in that depth.
How do we know what the darkness is that we’re in? Some small Light comes and then we see the pit we’re in. Without that Light we can’t see the darkness. That is why, like in Hebrew and Aramaic “Or” is light and “Orta” is darkness, night. We really have just one term but the other is made out of its opposite. You can’t have one without the other. If he wants to have an appetite, he must first be equipped with hunger.
It turns out that the descents, which are the times of separation, produce the importance of the adhesion in the ascents while the ascents make him hate the descents that the separation causes him. In other words, he cannot assess how bad the descents are when one speaks slander about providence and does not even feel whom he slanders…
He can’t understand it from the state of descent, but only from the ascent. In other words, from the ascent he studies the descent, whereas from descent he studies the ascent.
He doesn’t even feel who he slanders whom to repent for such a sin. This is called slandering against the Creator.
If he does not determine one opposite from the other, then he doesn’t have the ability or the components of the state from which he’ll be able to move forward. We see that in our study how a person progresses in the middle line. He must use the two writings, the two directions that deny each other until the third writing comes and is determined between them. It means that he joins the assent and descent, the darkness and light, the separation and Dvekut, and all the discernments, one opposite the other while illuminations on the right give him the right sensation of what left is. Otherwise, he’ll determine the left to be his own egoistic ego and not the opposite of the right.
It is just like we talk about the Klipot. What do the Klipot want? They want the Creator, the adhesion in him and the pleasure within him. The Klipot are powers that appear in him on the condition that he is really drawn to Dvekut.Then correspondingly the opposite forces appear in him, the sensation of what is the opposite of Dvekut, the Klipa. The Klipa appears only in one who serves the Creator. If he has these two forces, these two lines, one opposite the other, in between them he can determine his free choice and the correct progress.
Thus, it follows that precisely when one has both forms that he can discern the distance between one and the other, “as far as Light excelleth darkness.” Only then can one assess and regard the matter of the adhesion by which the delight and pleasure in the thought of creation can be acquired, being “His desire to do good to His creations.” Everything that appears to our eyes is but what the Creator wants us to attain the way He does; these are ways to complete the goal.
So besides the thought of creation, we must accept everything that comes to us above reason since we don’t understand what the components are. What do they support? What are the right bases for progress? We are always in our own egoistic will to receive and not in two discernments, one against the other, the right line and the left line. That is why we have to transcend our egoistic desire and begin to determine our states independently. “In Your Light we shall see Light.” Only in this way, (by transcending or by the Light), can we see our correct state and correspondingly see the opposite state of Dvekut.
Yet, it is not so simple to acquire adhesion with the Creator. It requires great effort and exertion to acquire the sensation and feeling of delight and pleasure.
The problem is that one determines the states and phases that he has to go through in order to reach the goal out of his own egoistic desire. And in regard to that desire he cannot understand correctly even a single step. But if he has some confidence, he might think that he can understand, can determine, and can somehow progress in sorting that what is true or not true. This foolish illusion is what brings him the problem. He does not progress correctly. He doesn’t realize his situation. He is like a bat who doesn’t feel that he is in the dark. He begins to determine what light and what darkness are from within his own will to receive. Only on the condition that he transcends his own corporal ego, can he then with those two lines determine one opposite the other.
Before that, one must justify providence, believe above reason that the Creator behaves in goodness with the creature [in all the situations] and say, “They have eyes and see not.”
He doesn’t though erase all of his thoughts and doubts. He goes along with them and adds them in determining his resolution that the Creator is benevolent. This is possible only on condition that he works correctly, according to the books, the authors, in the group, in the study where he accumulates all the elements, all the components that can lead him to the right decision.
Our sages say, “Habakkuk came and ascribed them to one: ‘The righteous shall live by his faith.’” It means that one need not engage oneself in details, but concentrate his entire work on a single point, a rule, which is faith in the Creator. For that he should pray.
In other words, to reach the force of bestowal above everything that happens to him. So he understands and feels in his heart and soul, in his mind and intellect that everything that happens to him is only good. From the Upper One no evil comes.
He should pray for the Creator to help him become capable of advancing with faith above reason. There is power in the faith, that when one comes to hate the separation it is considered that faith indirectly makes him hate the separation.
It means that only by the Light of Faith, as it is written, “the righteous shall live by his faith.” can he progress to the degree of righteous. Faith is the basis to ascend in degrees of righteousness. It is when he justifies the Creator over all the Aviut that appears after he acquires faith. First, he acquires the force of Bina. Then in the ascent of Malhut to Bina hebegins to add to this force of Bina, the Aviut of Malhut which is already degrees.
We see that there is a great difference between faith, vision, and knowledge. Something that can be seen and known, if the mind necessitates that it is good to do that thing and decides on that once, that decision is enough regarding that thing that he decided on. In other words, he executes in the form that he decided. This is so because the mind accompanies him in every single act so as not to break what the mind tells him and lets him understand in every single act by one hundred percent, to the extent that the mind brought him to the decision he has reached.
However, faith is a matter of potential agreement. In other words, he overpowers the mind and says that it is indeed worthwhile to work as much as faith necessitates to work above reason. Hence, faith above reason is useful only during the act, when he believes. Only then is he prepared to make an effort above reason in the work.
When the Light of Faith shines on a person, to the extent of it’s shining, that person is above his will to receive. When the Light stops, a person falls again into his will to receive. His will to receive controls him. The Light of Faith comes and neutralizes the force of the will to receive. That’s how a person begins to discover how much he depends on the power of faith.
Conversely, when he leaves faith for but a moment, meaning when faith weakens for a brief moment, he immediately ceases the Torah and the work. It does one no good that a short while ago he took upon himself the burden of faithabove reason.
It means even though one is sustained above his will to receive with the intention to bestow, his will to receive is still his entire nature, it is the substance of man, and to the degree one thinks about using it in order to bestow depends only on the Light that shines upon him. Hence the Light that Reforms is called the Light of Faith.
However, when he perceives in his mind that this is a bad thing for him, that it is something that risks his life, he needs no repetitive explanations and reasoning why it is a dangerous thing. Rather, since he once fully realized in his mind that he should practice these things, that the mind tells him specifically which is bad and which is good, he now follows that decision.
We see the difference that exists between what the mind necessitates and what only faith necessitates and what is the reason that when something is based on faith we must first remember the form of the faith, otherwise he falls from his degree into a state of wickedness.
‘Remember’ does not mean here to remember as we know it. Rather it means being awarded. In other words, if he wants to take any step toward the goal, even the smallest one, he must first acquire the force of bestowal, of faith. Then he is certain that his step will be correct. If he determines it intellectually, according to his own reason, it is certain that it’ll never be in the right direction. He won’t even know which direction he is in and how much he is deflecting from the goal. Only after he receives the force of faith from Above, and with it makes a step forward, can he then be sure that he has made that step toward the goal.
These states might happen even in a single day; one may fall from his degree many times in one day [What does it mean “fall from his degree”? Losing the power of faith.] because it is impossible that faith above reason will not stop for even a moment during one day.
We must know that the reason for the forgetfulness of faith stems from the fact that faith above reason is against all the desires of the body. Since the desires of the body come by the nature…
His Reshimot and his Aviut are constantly renewed in him and they grow. Accordingly, he should also make sure that his faith is also renewed and grows.
Since the desires of the body come by the nature, imprinted in us, the body always draws to our nature. Only when cleaved to faith does it have the power to bring him out of the bodily desires and go above reason, meaning against the body’s reason.
Hence, before one acquires the vessels of bestowal, called adhesion, faith.
The bodily desire is constantly renewed and grows. Therefore he must attend to the force of faith above it. Thus he increases faith, the attributes of bestowal within him. The more Malchut grows, the more he needs to increase its Dvekut in Bina. That grip has to constantly be a true grip of Malchut in Bina, so Bina will always control Malchut.
That’s the first condition, which determines if a person is in faith above reason where his reason is inside Malchut and his faith is above it. The power of bestowal covers up the whole Aviut that he has in his Malchut.
Hence, before one acquires the vessels of bestowal, called adhesion, faith cannot be found in him on a permanent basis. When faith does not shine for him he sees how low his state is, as low as anyone can be, and it all comes to him because of the disparity of form…
It means that before he comes to acquire Galgalta ve Eynaim to the fullest while the Aviut grows in him constantly and on top of that Aviut that grows in him he acquires the new force of bestowal. And until he pictures himself in all of his Aviuts within the power of faith, he will never be sure he won’t fall. But he’ll constantly fall and rise, again and again, until he completes all the phases of acquiring the Katnut (smallness). Then he will rise with his vessels of bestowal that will guarantee him that he will not fall again from the state of above reason. He has already acquired the complete state of above reason and ended the degree of reward and punishment.
…which is the will to receive for himself. This separation causes him all the torments, ruins all the buildings and all the efforts he had put into the work.
The minute that he loses faith he sees how he is worse off than when he started on the path of work in bestowal and thus acquires hatred for the separation since he immediately begins to feel torments in himself and in the entire world.
As we said previously he learns the descents from the ascents and the ascent from the descents. Because he was in ascent and now he is in descent he acquires hatred for the descent to the same extent that it causes him to fall and brings him down.
It becomes hard for him to justify His providence over the creatures, regarding it as benevolent...
Besides the fact that he feels bad and determines that Providence causes him to feel bad as a result of his will to receive that awakens in him, he also sees that he is not the only one to feel bad but also sees the whole world as being bad. Thus he condemns himself and the entire world and sends himself and the entire world to a scale of demerit.
…and then feels that the whole world has grown dark before him and nothing gives him joy.
He is completely in egoistic Kelim and unable to take any step in order to revive himself.
Thus, every time one begins to correct the flaw of slandering providence [If he really discovers that the bad comes to him as a result of the fall from his state of Dvekut to that of separation.] he acquires hate for the separation, and through the hate he feels in the separation he comes to love adhesion. In other words, to the extent that he suffers during the separation so he draws nearer to adhesion with the Creator. Similarly, to the extent that he feels the darkness as bad, so he comes to feel adhesion as a good thing. He learns how to appreciate it when he receives some adhesion, for the time being, and thus learns to value it.
Now we can see that all the torments that exist in the world are but a preparation for the real torments. These are the torments that one must reach...
What are the real torments? These are the sufferings against the real Dvekut and are not what appears to us in our egoistic Kelim. It means that of course a person must first transcend his ego, the Machsom. Then he feels the states of right and left, one against the other, the Kedusha and Klipa.He should hate the Klipa opposite the Kedush.This is when his determination of what separation and hate becomes real.
...or he will not be able to acquire anything spiritual, being there is no Light without a Kli…
Otherwisehe doesn’t have the feel of real darkness since he always determines darkness according to his own stomach.
…and the condemnation and slandering of providence relate to these torments. This is what one prays for, to not slander providence, and these are the torments that the Creator accepts. This is the meaning of the saying that the Creator hears the prayer of every mouth.
What does it mean “every mouth”? Within this whole situation that the person is in right now, he gets the real determination of what darkness is. What the opposite of the goal is and what the opposite of adhesion is when he is in the left line dominated by the Klipot. Then if he feels it as a fall from the right line, he feels in decline. This is called “the prayer of every mouth,” where in every situation within him, he now determines the right direction, the right goal.
The reason the Creator responds to these torments is that then one does not ask for help for his own vessels of reception, since we can say that if the Creator grants him his wish it would bring him farther from the Creator…
Because he’d be satisfied for what he receives, he’d settle for it. It’s called the bat. He feels that he’s in a state of day, he’s got pleasures and even the Creator shines for him. He is seemingly attaining spirituality. In reality he comes to a certain fulfillment in the Kelim and does not attain Dvekut, the attribute of bestowal. Then, even though he is in some kind of spiritual luminescence, it’s a Klipa. That’s why it’s called a bat and is opposite the rooster. The two states are in spirituality already, and are not in corporeality.
…if the Creator grants him his wish it would bring him farther from the Creator due to the disparity of form that he would thus acquire. Rather, it is quite the contrary. One asks for faith, for the Creator to give him strength to overcome and acquire equivalence of form, for he sees that by not having permanent faith, meaning when faith does not shine for him he comes to doubt providence.
That, in turn, brings him to a state called “evil,” when he condemns his Maker. It turns out that the suffering he feels is because he slanders providence. He hurts because where he should have been praising the Creator, saying, “Blessed is He who has created us in His Glory,” meaning that the creatures respect the Creator, he sees that the world’s comportment is unfitting for His glory. Everyone complains and demands that first it should be open providence that the Creator leads the world in benevolence. Since it is not open, they say that this providence does not glorify Him, and it hurts him.
Thus, by the torment one feels he is compelled to slander, and hence, when he asks of the Creator to impart him the power of faith and attain the benevolent, it is not because he wants to receive good so as to delight himself. Rather, it is so that he does not slander; this is what hurts him. For himself, he wants to believe above reason that the Creator leads the world in benevolence, and he wants his faith to settle in the sensation as though it is within reason.
Therefore, when he practices Torah and Mitzvot he wants to draw the Light of God not for himself, but since he cannot bear not being able to justify His providence, which is in benevolence. It pains him that he desecrates the name of God, whose name is Benevolent, and his body claims otherwise.
This is all that pains him since by that he is separated and cannot justify His guidance. This is considered hating the state of separation, and when he feels this suffering the Creator hears his prayer and brings him near Him. Then he acquires adhesion…
It means that he doesn’t take into account what he feels and what he experiences, his main concern is only his attitude toward the Creator. Accordingly, he determines whether he is righteous or wicked. And if at the bottom of his heart he feels that he condemns the Creator, then that is the pain that he cannot agree with. With everything else that happens in him he does not calculate at all, meaning his emotions are only for the Creator.
...the pains that he feels due to the separation make him acquire the adhesion, and then it is said, “As far as Light excelleth darkness.”
This is the meaning of “the profit of a land every way.” Land is creation; every way means that by the benefit, meaning that the difference between the state of separation and the state of adhesion is visible. By that one is granted adhesion with the every, meaning the Creator, the root of every thing.
Only “As far as Light excelleth darkness.” When they sustain one another and only in this way one determines where he is.