471. You Stand Today – 2
September 1979
“You stand today … from the one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water … that you may enter into the covenant … that the Lord your God has made with you today.”
The interpreters ask, it begins in plural form and then in singular form. Also, to understand the meaning of the covenant, the interpreters bring the Midrash [interpretation] that individuals are like thin reeds, which are weak. But if they are turned into a bundle, they are strong.
Concerning the covenant, Baal HaSulam said why two people who love each other need the covenant if there is love and friendship between them. However, the covenant is because as now the love between them is complete, it is possible that after some time there will not be the same love and each one will imagine that the other is causing him harm. At that time, the covenant comes so that each one will keep the covenant that they had made while there was true love between them.
Thus, now, too, although they do not feel so, they will maintain the friendship between them as though now, too, they feel love.
Likewise, when a person feels the love of the Creator, he understands that it is worthwhile to leave other loves for the love of the Creator. But later, when the awakening passes away from him and he no longer feels the love of the Creator, he will want to return to the other loves that he had already decided to toss away.
At that time, a person needs the covenant and maintain the same conduct that he had while he felt the love of the Creator, although now he has no feeling whatsoever. Then, the work must be compulsory, to enslave himself to the covenant that he had made before. This is called “that you may enter into the covenant.”