219) \u201cTo keep you from the evil woman.\u201d Happy are the righteous who know the ways of the Creator, by which to walk. They engage in the Torah day in and day out, for anyone who delves in the Torah for days and nights inherits two worlds: the upper world and the lower world. He inherits the upper world, even though he did not engage in the Torah Lishma [for Her sake], and he inherits the upper world when engaging in it Lishma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
220) \u201cLength of days is in her right hand; in her left hand\u2014riches and honor.\u201d \u201cLength of days is in her right hand\u201d means that one who walks on the right of the Torah, who engages in it Lishma, has length of days in the next world, for there he is awarded the glory of the Torah, which is glory, and a crown to crown over all. This is so because the crown of the Torah is only for the next world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201c\u2026in her left hand\u2014riches and honor\u201d is in this world. Even if one engages in it Lo Lishma [not for Her sake], he is awarded wealth and honor in this world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
221) When Rabbi Hiya came from Babylon to the land of Israel, he read in the Torah until his face were as shining the sun. When all those who learned Torah stood before him, he would say, \u201cThis one engaged in Torah Lishma, and this one did not engage in it Lishma.\u201d He would pray for the one who engaged in it Lishma, that it would always be so and he would be rewarded with the next world, and he would pray for the one who did not engage in it Lishma that he would come to engage in it Lishma and be rewarded with everlasting life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
222) One day, he saw a disciple learning Torah and his face were turning green. He said, \u201cHe must be reflecting on a sin.\u201d He held him before him and drew upon him words of Torah until his spirit settled within him. From that day on, he resolved not to pursue bad reflections and engage in Torah Lishma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
223) When one sees that bad thoughts come upon him, he should engage in Torah, and they will go away. When that evil inclination comes to tempt a person, he should draw it unto the Torah, and it will depart him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
224) When that evil side stands before the Creator to accuse the world for the bad deeds that they had done, the Creator has mercy on the world and advises people how to be saved from it so it may not control them or their deeds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And what is the advice? It is to delve in the Torah, and they will be saved from it, as it is written, \u201cFor the commandment is a candle and the teaching is light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life,\u201d \u201cTo keep you from the evil woman, from the smoothness of the alien tongue.\u201d Thus, the Torah keeps one from the evil inclination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
225) This is the side of impurity, the other side, which always stands before the Creator to prosecute against people\u2019s transgressions, and always stands to lure people downwards. It stands above, to mention people\u2019s transgressions and to slander them for their deeds because they are given to his authority, as he did to Job, when the Creator told Satan, \u201che is in your hand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
226) Thus he stands over them to accuse and to mention their transgressions in all that they had done. At such times when the Creator is judging them, on Rosh Hashanah [Hebrew New Year\u2019s Eve] and Yom Kippur [Day of Atonement], he rises to slander them and to mention their transgressions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And the Creator has mercy over Israel and gives them an advice by which to be saved from it: the Shofar [festive sounding of a ram\u2019s horn] on Rosh Hashanah and on Yom Kippur, and the scapegoat it is given so as to retire from them and occupy itself with the piece that it was given.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
227) \u201cHer feet go down to death; her steps support Sheol [the abode of the dead].\u201d It is written about faith, \u201cHer ways are of pleasantness, and all her pathways are peace.\u201d These are the ways and trails of the Torah, and they are all one. Thus, all the ways\u2014the ways of impurity and those of holiness\u2014are one. One is peace and the other is death, and they are complete opposites, for each path of impurity is the opposite of its parallel in holiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
228) Happy are Israel, for they adhere to the Creator as it should be, and He gives them the counsel by which to be saved from all the other sides in the world, since they are a holy nation for His share and for His lot. Hence, He gives them advice on every single thing. Happy are they in this world and in the next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
229) When this evil side comes down and roams the world, and sees that the acts of people have all gone astray, he rises and slanders them. And had it not been for the Creator, who pities His creations, they would not have remained in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
230) \u201cAs she spoke to Joseph day after day.\u201d \u201cAs she spoke\u201d is the evil side, which rises and slanders daily, and speaks before the Creator (Joseph implies the Creator) plentiful evil and gossip, to blot out the people of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
231) \u201c\u2026but he did not listen to her, to lie with her or to be with her.\u201d \u201c\u2026he did not listen to her\u201d because the Creator has mercy on the world. \u201c\u2026to lie with her,\u201d so as to receive governance to rule over the world, but a government does not rule until it is given permission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTo lie with her\u201d means coupling. Can it be that holiness would copulate with impurity? The abundant reception of power from the Creator, when the evil side receives in order to punish, is considered a coupling because abundance is drawn only through a coupling. This is why it is written, \u201c\u2026to lie with her,\u201d to give her abundant governance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
232) Another interpretation: \u201cTo lie with her\u201d is as it is written, \u201c\u2026or a man who lies with an unclean woman,\u201d being with her, giving her governance and blessings and help, since without the help that she had from above, not a single person would remain in the world. But because the Creator has mercy over the world and helps the world through the Sitra Achra, the world remains standing while the Sitra Achra governs the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First it says, \u201cto lie with her,\u201d which is imparting abundant governance and granting the Sitra Achra permission to punish. And here it says that laying with her concerns the abundance of governance over the world, which was given to the Sitra Achra while she rules the world so the world will persist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
233) These two interpretations are one thing, but the evil inclination lures people, to veer them off their path and to cling to them. It distracts people from the path of truth every single day, to avert them from the way of life and to draw them into hell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
234) Happy is one who does good deeds and keeps His ways and trails so as to not cling to the evil inclination, as it is written, \u201cAs she spoke to Joseph day after day, he did not listen to her.\u201d He would not listen to what she told him every day because the spirit of impurity, which is the evil inclination, seduces man daily to lie with her in hell and to be sentenced to being there with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
235) When man clings to that side, he is drawn after her and is defiled with her in this world, and defiled with her in the other world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The side of impurity is a villain, filth, a real feces. And one who strays from the Torah is sentenced to these feces. Also, those who have no faith in the Creator, the wicked of the world, are sentenced to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
236) \u201cNow it happened in that day that he went into the house to do his work, and there were none of the people of the household there at home.\u201d \u201cNow it happened in that day,\u201d the day when the evil inclination rules the world and descends to lure people. This is the day when man comes to repent for his sins, or comes to engage in the Torah and to keep the commandments of the Torah. At that time, the evil inclination comes down to lure people and to avert them from repentance and from engaging in the Torah and keeping commandments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
237) \u201cHe went into the house to do his work,\u201d to engage in the Torah and to keep the commandments of the Torah, which is man\u2019s work in this world. And since man\u2019s work in this world\u2014engagement in Torah and Mitzvot [commandments]\u2014is the work of the Creator, one should be as strong as a lion on all of one\u2019s sides, so that the Sitra Achra will not govern him and will not be able to seduce him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnd there were none of the people,\u201d to stand up to the evil inclination and wage war on it as it should be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
238) What is the way of the evil inclination? Since it sees that no one rises up to it, to wage war against it, promptly, \u201cShe caught him by his garment, saying, \u2018Lie with me!\u2019\u201d \u201cShe caught him by his garment,\u201d when the evil inclination rules a person, he first mends and beautifies his clothes and does his hair, as it is written, \u201cShe caught him by his garment, saying, \u2018Lie with me!\u2019\u201d Cling unto me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
239) One who is righteous, stands up to it and wages war against it, as it is written, \u201cAnd he left his garment in her hand and fled, and went outside.\u201d Thus, he leaves it, stands up to it, and runs away from it to be saved from it, so it will not govern him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
240) In the future, the righteous will see the evil inclination as a tall mountain. They will wonder and say, \u201cHow could we have conquered such a tall mountain?\u201d Also in the future, the wicked will see the evil inclination as thin as a hair\u2019s breadth. And they will wonder and say, \u201cHow could we not conquer this hair\u2019s breadth thread?\u201d These cry and those cry, and the Creator will uproot it from the world and He will slaughter them before their eyes, and it will no longer govern the world. Then the righteous will see and rejoice, as it is written, \u201cOnly the righteous will give thanks to Your name; the upright will dwell in Your presence.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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