715. Concerning Preparation for a Fast

Sorrow and joy, fear and love are all offshoots, consequences of various reasons, yet they are not the source.

Hence, when we want to expand and increase the result, meaning the sorrow and the joy, the sorrow itself, or the joy or the love cannot expand them. Rather, it is the reasons that must be expanded, and then the outcome of the cause will expand, as well.

This is similar to a person who has many numbers but he does not add them all together into one sum. For example, he has five ones but he does not add them up, making it five.

If I want to expand and increase the sum total, it is impossible. Instead, I must add details, and then I get the bigger sum, since the sum is a result of the details. Hence, if one adds in the reason, there is an addition in the sum total.

Likewise, one who wants to expand the love and the fear and the sorrow and the joy, meaning regards the thing he had and which was taken away from him, to the extent of the importance of the matter that he had, so grows the sorrow that he does not have it. Hence, when he wants to increase the sorrow, he should increase the preciousness and importance of the thing he lost.