July 13, 1922<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To my flesh and blood … the exalted and glorified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now I have come to reply to your letter from the 33rd<\/sup> of the Omer<\/em> Count [Lag BaOmer<\/em>], along with your letter from the 15th<\/sup> of Sivan<\/em>, which I received yesterday, and for which I refrained from replying to your letter from Lag BaOmer<\/em>, as I had hoped you would inform me of the order of fixed names between us by which to disclose the thoughts in our hearts. However, I received the argument, \u201cI do not know\u201d … and for which now, too, I will not be able to elaborate due to my fear that you would misunderstand. Therefore, I will wait for the third letter; perhaps I will be able to discern a clear way by which to let you know that which is in my heart and I will not miss the target.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I regret the long time that I had disappointedly spent in vain in three long letters\u2014the first from the 22nd<\/sup> of Shevat<\/em>, in which I wrote you a good poem for the work, which begins:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Indeed, let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth; all my bones are dried of oil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And from the work of the Lord is every potion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And the life of all, in Him shall it be believed.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Another letter from the 10th<\/sup> of Adar<\/em>, in which I interpreted a bewilderingMidrash<\/em> [commentary]: \u201cA hegemon asked one of the members of the house of Selini. He said to him, \u2018Who will take the kingship after us?\u2019 He brought a clean piece of paper, took a pen and wrote on it, \u2018And after that his brother came out,\u2019 etc. They said, \u2018Look, old words from the mouth of a new old man.\u2019\u201d I had explained the wondrous truth in these words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A third letter was from the third day of [the Torah portion] VaYikrah<\/em>, in which I explained the dispute between the House of Shammai and the House of Hillel regarding how to dance before the bride. I also said a true and pertinent poem that begins:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Please see, whose is the signature?<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is a question for all the people of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And for the burning fire<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a wrongdoing man or as a rebellious woman.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n I find no flaw in them that should have caused their loss, except that you might have misunderstood them due to lack of clarity between us. Therefore, it is a great commandment to break this iron wall that stands between us, where one does not understand the language of the other, as in the generation of Babylon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And what you have proven lengthily in your letter, to evidently show that the foundations of our love are based on \u201cconcealed love,\u201d and concluded from it what you consider a clear conclusion that there is no fear at all regarding all the questions I had asked you, these are your words, verbatim: \u201cHowever, I have no fear at all regarding your question concerning me regarding you, or concerning you regarding me. They are all annulled and canceled, and you, too, should not fear at all or look at the fa\u00e7ade, but at the internal revealing of the heart, as a lover who hides the myriad thoughts rushing through his heart and makes them one piece, good and strong, to repel from him all the pickles, piquant foods, garlic, and onion. By this request I do not mean to increase the love or not revoke it, for the love stands in its place, perfect and whole, completely unchanged, and there is nothing to add to it or take away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHowever, to not make you sorry needlessly\u2014and why and what for, and by your sorrow you will add to mine, and you certainly do not want me to be sad\u2014I have therefore hinted those two hints for you, for they are true and simple,\u201d thus far your words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What shall I do if I cannot lie even when the truth is bitter? Therefore, I shall tell you the truth: I am still very uncomfortable with all your lofty words. If that pains you, truth is still my most beloved. It is written, \u201cLove your friend as yourself,\u201d and \u201cThat which you hate, do not do to your friend,\u201d so how can I leave you with a \u201csweet thing\u201d if it is not real? This is truly loathed by me and I shall vomit it and utterly repel it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Especially, regarding the most important matter, called \u201clove,\u201d which is the spiritual connection between Israel and their Father in heaven, as it is written, \u201cAnd You shall bring us, our King, to Your great name, Selah, in truth and in love,\u201d and as it is written, \u201cWho chooses His people, Israel, with love,\u201d this is the beginning of the salvation and the end of correction when the Creator reveals to His creations\u2014which He has created\u2014all the love that was previously hidden in His heart, as you well know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is why I must disclose to you the flaws that I had tasted in your two dainties. The first reason from the threefold string that is far more valuable than worldly love of friends, you were very wrong in this allegory, comparing and equating rudimentary, spiritual love with love of friends that is conditional\u2014which will be revoked when the matter is revoked. In the other reason, you added insult to injury to support our love by the natural love of equivalence that is present with us to a great extent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I wonder, \u201cAbraham\u2019s master, you have supported the lesson without a source,\u201d that our love is rudimentary and everlasting, dependent on the love of natural equivalence, which can be canceled, and \u201cWhen the supporter fails, the supported falls.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But I am at one, and who can answer me? And I shall tell you, if you are a storyteller, do not compare the rudimentary, spiritual love to love of friends that is dependent on any reason that is to be ultimately canceled, but rather to the love between father and son, which is also rudimentary, unconditional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Come and see a wondrous custom in this love. It seems that if the child is an only child to his father and mother, the child must love his father and mother even more, for they display toward him more love than parents who have many children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, in reality, it is not so. On the contrary, if the parents become extremely attached to their children by their love, the children\u2019s love is then greatly decreased and diminished. Sometimes it even becomes apparent among children of this sort of love that \u201cThe feeling of love has been quenched entirely in their hearts.\u201d This is a custom that is of the laws of nature that is applied in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The reason for it is simple: The father\u2019s love for his son is rudimentary and natural. As the father wishes for his son to love him, the son also wishes for his father to love him. That craving in their hearts causes them constant, incessant fear. That is, the father is very much afraid that his son will hate him in any extent, even the slightest of the slightest, and the son, too, fears that his father might hate him in any extent, the slightest of the slightest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This \u201cconstant fear\u201d causes them to display good deeds toward each other. The father always exerts to show his love in practice to his son, and the son, too, constantly exerts to show his love in practice to his father, as much as he can. In this way, the feelings of love always multiply in both their hearts until one prevails over the other in good deeds to a great and complete extent. In other words, the fatherly love of the father appears to the son in full, such as to which there cannot be addition or subtraction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Upon reaching that state, the son sees \u201cabsolute love\u201d in his father\u2019s heart. I wish to say that the son has no fear whatsoever that his love will diminish, nor has he hope that his love will grow. This is called \u201cabsolute love.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then, slowly, the son grows idle in displaying good deeds before his father. To the extent of the diminution of good deeds and displays of love in the son\u2019s heart toward his father, to that very extent the sparks of \u201crudimentary love\u201d that has been engraved in the son\u2019s heart by nature quench. A second nature is made in him, close to hatred, for all the good deeds his father does for him are low and little in his eyes compared to the obligation of \u201cabsolute love\u201d that has been stamped in his organs. This is the meaning of the words, \u201cI am not worthy of all the mercies and of all the truth,\u201d and delve deeply in this for it is profound and long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And since it is always my way to praise nature\u2019s systems, which the Creator has imprinted and set up in our favor all the days, I will tell you the reason for instilling that boundary. It is not that He has ill will. On the contrary, it is all the multiplication in spirituality, for the main thing desired of the servants of the Creator is Dvekut<\/em> [adhesion], and there is no Dvekut<\/em> unless from love and pleasure, as it is written, \u201cAnd bring us closer, our King, to Your great name, Selah, in truth and love.\u201d With what love did they say? With complete love, since the complete cannot be on the deficient, and complete love is \u201cabsolute love,\u201d as said above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Therefore, how can there be multiplication in the desired Dvekut<\/em> that rises and is obtained by all the adventures that have come upon them? This is the meaning of the Creator clothing a soul in the body and in the murky matter, which finally found out that it needs to actually display love, and the deficiency of the display of love in his own heart, for the nature of the substance is to promptly quench any feelings of love that it has already acquired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this manner, \u201cThe complete is over the complete,\u201d and there is absolute knowing in complete and absolute love on the part of the intellect. And yet, more love can be added, and if he does not add love, he will certainly subtract and quench all the possessions he has already acquired. This is the meaning of \u201cAnd the land shall not be sold forever.\u201d These are all sincere and true words, and you should treasure them for the end of days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now you will understand my thoughts about you, as I see that you do not fear that my love for you will cool and that my love for you is absolute love. You wrote explicitly that our love will always stand, \u201cwithout adding and without taking away.\u201d But in the end, our spirituality is clothed in matter, and the nature of matter is to cool because of absolute love. This is an unbreakable law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hence, moreover, if you feel our love as complete, you must now begin to perform actual actions \u201cto display love\u201d due to the fear of cooling that rises out of the feeling of absolute love, negating any fear. In this way, the desire and the love increase twofold. This is called \u201cmultiplication.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n My words are said by seeing, and \u201cA judge has only what his eyes see,\u201d and no scrutiny and doubt will repeal my words. If you do not feel my words in your heart, it is due to being troubled with your own loss. But when you find the loss and the trouble is removed, look into your heart and you will find it vacant from any feeling of love due to the lack of actual actions to display the love, and this is clear. Even now, the shackles of our love are being very slightly shaken due to \u201clack of fear\u201d because of the knowing that is in absolute love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I wrote you all this to let you know my honest opinion, for how can I deny you a word of truth? However, it is not at all concealed from me that these words are currently disagreeable to you, and are long and tiresome for you, and seem like chatter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But hear me out and you will always be happy, for there is none so wise as the experienced. Therefore, I shall advise you to evoke within you fear of the coolness of the love between us. Although the intellect denies such a depiction, think for yourself\u2014if there is a tactic by which to increase love and one does not increase it, that, too, is considered a flaw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is like a person who gives a great gift to his friend. The love that appears in his heart during the act is not like the love that remains in the heart after the fact. Rather, it gradually wanes each day until the blessing of the love can be entirely forgotten. Thus, each day, the receiver of the gift must find a tactic to make it new in his eyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is all our work\u2014to display love between us, each and every day, just as upon receiving, meaning to increase and multiply the intellect with many additions to the core, until the additional blessings of now will be touching our senses like the essential gift at first. This requires great tactics, set up for the time of need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is the meaning of the words, \u201cIn those days they shall say no more, \u2018The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children’s teeth are made blunt.\u2019 … Any man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth shall become blunt.\u201d That is, as long as they did not come to know it\u2014that a display of love is required\u2014they could not correct their father\u2019s sin. This is why they said, \u201cThe fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children’s teeth are made blunt.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But once they come to that awareness, they are promptly rewarded with correcting their father\u2019s sin, and any flaw that they will find, they will know that they will sin with displaying love, as was said above. Therefore, each day will be as new in their eyes, as in the first time. To the extent of the display of love on that day, they will draw the light until it is sensed. And should they feel only a little, it is due to eating the unripe fruit of that day, for on that day they did not display love sufficiently and ate prematurely. This is why it lessened in their senses, for it is not as on the first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The words are primarily a law for the Messiah, but it also applies to this world, since by exerting the heart to display love between him and his Maker, the Creator instills His Shechina<\/em> [Divinity] on him in remembrance, as in, \u201cIn every place where I mention My name, I will come to you and bless you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n When the remembrance increases by the very work, the desire and longing increase, as in \u201cAnd spirit draws spirit and brings spirit,\u201d and so forth. Finally, the remembrance increases and grows by the craving and ascends in good deeds, for \u201cAll the pennies join into a great amount.\u201d This is the meaning of \u201cBehold, this one comes and His reward is with Him, and His work is before Him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have been lengthy about it although the intellect is short in studying. However, it takes a long time to acquire this intellect until it is absorbed in the organs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And yet, this is all the awakening from below\u2014that the speed of the correction during the corrections and the measure of multiplication after the end of correction during the work on the desirable side depend on the extent to which it is possessed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You should not doubt my words, for otherwise \u201cThe proselyte is in the earth and the citizen is the heaven,\u201d for the measure of love is voluntary, dependent on the heart; it is not intellectual. Therefore, how can it be displayed at the top of all the intellectual degrees, as I have elaborated on?<\/p>\n\n\n\n But all who taste and see that the Lord is good witness all those things, since we are dealing with Dvekut<\/em> [adhesion] with the Creator here, and His uniqueness includes all the discernments in the world. Still, there is no doubt that there is nothing corporeal about His uniqueness, and therefore no step outside of an intellectual object.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For this reason, all who are rewarded with adhering to Him grow wiser, as they adhere with simple intellect. During the Dvekut<\/em>, the worshipper is adhered to the worshipped by the mere strength of displaying his will and love. But in Him, the will, intellect, and knowing are in simple unity, without any difference of form, as in the laws of corporeality, and this is simple. Therefore, obtainment of the disclosure of His love is the very blessing of the intellect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Come and learn from the complete worker (complete even in awakening from above). Ask your elders and they will tell you that the Complete One is complete in everything and has complete knowledge in the \u201cblessing in his future.\u201d And yet, it does not weaken him at all because of it\u2014from the labor in Torah and the searching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the contrary, none exert in the Torah and in searching as much as he. This is for a simple reason: His labor is not so much to bring the good future to himself. Rather, all his labor is about displaying love between him and his Maker. This is why the feelings of love grow and multiply each day until the love is completed in the form of \u201cabsolute love.\u201d Afterward, it leads him to double his wholeness by way of awakening from below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And by the way, I will clarify for you the meaning of the charity for the poor, which is so praised in The Zohar<\/em>, the Tikkunim<\/em>, and by our sages: There is an organ in man with which it is forbidden to work. Even if the smallest of the small desires to work with it still exists in man, that organ remains afflicted and stricken by the Creator. It is called \u201cpoor,\u201d for its entire sustenance and provision are by others working for it and pitying it. This is the meaning of \u201cAnyone who sustains a single soul from Israel, it is as though he sustains an entire world.\u201d Since the organ depends on others, it has no more than its own sustenance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And still, the Creator regards it as though he sustained an entire world, and this itself is the entire blessing of the world and everything in it, multiplied and completed solely by the force of that poor soul, which is sustained by the work of other organs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is the meaning of \u201cAnd He took him outside and said, \u2018Look toward the heavens …\u2019 and he believed in the Lord and regarded it to him as righteousness.\u201d That is, by taking him outside, there was some desire to work with this organ; this is why He forbade him the work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was said, \u201cLook toward the heavens.\u201d At the same time, he was given the promise of the blessing of the seed. These are tantamount to two opposites in the same carrier, since all his seed, which is to be blessed, necessarily comes from this organ. Thus, when he is not working, how will there be a seed?<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is the meaning of \u201cAnd he believed in the Lord,\u201d meaning he accepted those two receptions as they were\u2014the complete prohibition on the work, and the promise of the blessing of the seed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And how did he receive them? This is why he concludes, \u201cAnd [he] regarded it to him as righteousness,\u201d meaning as the form of charity [Tzedakah<\/em> means both \u201ccharity\u201d and \u201crighteousness\u201d], for a poor [person] is sustained by the work of others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is the meaning of the two sayings of our sages: One [person] thought that the Creator would treat him with righteousness and will keep and sustain him without work, and one thought that Abraham would act with righteousness toward the Creator. Both are the words of the living God, for prior to the correction, that organ is in heaven, and the charity is attributed to the lower one. At the end of his correction, it is not in heaven, and then the giving of the charity is attributed to the upper one. Know and sanctify for it is true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yehuda<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" July 13, 1922 To my flesh and blood … the exalted and glorified. 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