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Righteous and Wicked
583. Righteous and Wicked
October 18, 1975
“Even if the whole world tells you that you are righteous, be wicked in your own eyes.”
There are two discernments in servants of the Creator:
1) One is regarded as “righteous.” For example, one who has a fixed time when he rises before dawn, and when he wakes up from his sleep, he promptly gets up to work, for the body, too, understands that man must engage in Torah and Mitzvot [commandments] and it cannot be otherwise. He understands that one who was born in a good environment takes after the environment and has no foreign thoughts, God forbid, for how can it be otherwise?
That person is regarded as “righteous” because the things he does are in order to observe the Mitzvot of the Creator, to bring contentment to the Creator, and he does not feel any lack in himself. Rather, he always adds.
2) There are people, who, when they must rise before dawn at the usual time, the body disagrees and brings them foreign thoughts, asking “What is this work for? What did you gain yesterday when you got up before dawn? You learned and prayed, but who gained from this? What will it add to you that you’ve acquired more knowledge in the Torah or that you prayed? You could behave like most people: They get up on time, learn on time, and pray on time. Why do you need to rise early and exert more than most people?”
It follows that then he is in a state of “wicked” because when the intention, “What is this work for,” arises, no excuse helps unless he can overcome with the quality of above reason.
In other words, he should tell the body, “You are right, meaning all your complaints are true and I cannot justify them. But now I want to observe the Torah and Mitzvot above reason, as in doing that precedes hearing, since only in action can he work, but not in the intention, since from the perspective of the intention, meaning the goal, the body cannot understand.
It follows that then he is in a state of “Be wicked in your own eyes.” Eyes imply Hochma [wisdom], meaning that the thought and the intellect, which is called “purpose,” the act, he knows what for. Therefore, when he does not know, meaning from the perspective of reason, he is wicked. Thus, he can work only above reason, called “doing only.”
He tells his body, “Always do, and then you will be rewarded with hearing,” for as long as he has not taken upon himself to engage above reason, he cannot understand the view of Torah. Hence, here is man’s primary work—in above reason.