“This is the constitution of the Torah [law].” RASHI interprets, “Since Satan and the nations of the world count Israel, saying, ‘What is this Mitzva [commandment] and what is the point about it?’ He wrote about it, ‘a constitution,’ a decree before Me and you have no permission to doubt it.”

A red cow, an allegory about a handmaid’s child who soiled a palace. They said, “Let his mother come and wipe clean the faces.” Likewise, let the cow come and atone for the calf. This means that they made everything be in order to bestow.

The words, “Since Satan and the nations of the world count,” etc., mean that to them it is a constitution, meaning that one should reply to them that it is a decree before Me and you have no permission to doubt it. But for Israel, it is not a constitution. There is a verse by our sages: “To you, a reason; but for others, a constitution.”

Concerning the question, “What is this Mitzva [commandment] and what is the point about it?” In the way of The Secret, this pertains to the intention we should have, that everything will be in order to bestow. At that time, Satan and the nations of the world ask, “What is this Mitzva?” Is the Creator deficient that we should impart upon Him delight and pleasure? On the contrary, He desires to do good to His creations, and not for the created beings to do good to Him. Also, they ask, What is the reason about it?

What reason can there be to a person if he is told that he is forbidden to work for his own benefit, called receiving in order to receive? That is, a person must achieve a degree where no pleasure is for the sake of man’s enjoyment, but only in order to delight the Creator.

What flavor can one derive from such work that will oblige him to engage in Torah and Mitzvot [commandments]? After all, they do not see in it a good enough reason to make them engage in Torah and Mitzvot “with all your heart and with all your soul.”

On the contrary, he understands that he is relinquishing self-benefit from corporeal things, from which he would obtain greater pleasures for his self-benefit, but what flavor can there be in a vessel of bestowal?

To this comes the answer that it is written about it, “a constitution, a decree before Me and you have no permission to doubt it.” This means that we should not give any answer to the body while it asks the question of Satan and the nations of the world. Rather, we should tell the body that this is so, a decree from heaven that the aim to receive is forbidden for us. Only then can we avoid arguments, and then we can win.

However, when he acquires the quality of Israel it is to the contrary—he has no pleasure or flavor unless he can work in order to bestow. When he cannot aim in order to bestow, he feels himself as bad and as dead, for then he feels that “The wicked in their lives are called ‘dead,’” since then he is rewarded with feeling the taste of Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator, and the opposite of it when he is separated from the Creator.

This is the meaning of “Since Satan and the nations of the world count Israel,” etc. But when they acquire the quality of Israel, when they emerge from the control of the nations of the world, it is to the contrary: They feel all the flavor in life precisely in the aim to bestow, which is called Dvekut.

This is the meaning of “Let the mother come and wipe clean her son.” The event with the calf was that they fell into a state of receiving in order to receive. At that time, the cow erases the incident with the calf. The cow is regarded as the intention Lishma [for Her sake], which is regarded as annulment of his self, regarded as the burning of the cow.

It is explained in the Sulam [Ladder commentary on The Zohar] that it is regarded as “Go and diminish yourself,” which was said about the moon, who returns to being a dot, having lost all of the left line, called Hochma [wisdom]. Naturally, the sin of the calf passes away and he walks only with the aim to bestow.