499. “I” is the Malchut

“He who learns Torah before an uneducated person, it is as though he has intercourse with his fiancé in front of him.”

An “uneducated person” is called the “will to receive.” “Intercourse” means unification. “Before an uneducated person” means that the quality of the uneducated still controls him, where it should surrender before him, as our sages said, “The uneducated person, the fear of Shabbat [Sabbath] is on him.”

Concerning engagement and matrimony: “A bride without a blessing is forbidden to her husband like menstruation.” “Blessing” means bestowal, which is in order to bestow, when a person unites with the Shechina [Divinity].

The month of Elul means repentance, “I am for my beloved, and my beloved is for me.” This is the intimation of repentance. It is written in The Zohar, “The Hey shall return to the Vav, to unite there the Yod-Hey with Vav-Hey in complete unity. The Lord is not complete, and His throne is not complete until He uproots the descendants of Amalek.

To understand all this, we must precede with the purpose, what is our role in life, and with the Torah and the Mitzvot [commandments]. The purpose of creation is to do good to His creations. Creation is existence from absence, meaning I from nothing, where “I” is the Malchut.