659. What Are Torah and Work?

With regard to the Creator, we can speak of Torah, since work pertains specifically to the created beings.

Work applies only to the created beings. Hence, when we speak of work, it means that we learn what one should do. In that state, a person should say, “If I am not for me, who is for me?”

Afterward, we should extend the quality of Torah on this work, regarded as what the Creator does. That is, we must extend the discernment of private Providence and we must not say, “My strength and the might of my hand has gotten me these riches.” This is the meaning of the Torah being called “the names of the Creator,” meaning that the Creator does everything.

Man’s work is included in the Torah of the Creator, meaning that man attributes all his work to the Creator. This is the meaning of what is written, that the Torah is called “the names of the Creator.”

In everything, we should discern between Torah and work, for when one engages in Torah, one must always have before him the reward he hopes to obtain from learning Torah: 1) Work. “The light in the Torah reforms him,” and from this he will have strength to work, so that everything he does will be in order to bestow. 2) Torah, to be rewarded with the holy names, since “One who does not know the commandment of the upper one, how will he serve Him?”