180) Rabbi Shimon opened and said, “It is written, ‘And Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord.’ Come and see how great is the power of the Torah and how superior it is to everything. Anyone who engages in the Torah fears neither upper nor lower, and does not fear the evil illnesses in the world because he is clung to the tree of life and learns from it each day.

181) “This is so because the Torah teaches the person to walk by the path of truth. It teaches him advice on how to repent before his Master, to revoke the sentence, for even if he is sentenced that the sentence will not be revoked, it is immediately canceled‎ and removed from him, and is not present on a person in this world. For this reason, one must engage in Torah day and night, and never leave it, as it is written, ‘And you shall meditate on it day and night.’ If one moves away from the Torah or parts from it, it is as though he has parted from the tree of life.”

Explanation: He began with a prayer, in the verse “And Hezekiah turned his face to the wall” and interprets it only in the Torah. The thing is that this advice rose to him only by the force of the Torah, by which he obtained arriving at complete repentance until nothing separated between him and the wall, the holy Shechina [Divinity], and this is why his prayer was accepted. Hence, the sentence of death that he was sentenced was revoked. This is why he ends that because we see that the power of the Torah is so great as to revoke a death sentence, “One should engage in Torah day and night and never part from it.”

182) Come and see an advice for a person: when he goes to bed at night, he should take upon himself the kingship of above wholeheartedly and come early to deposit his soul to Him. He will promptly be saved from any bad illnesses and from all the evil spirits, which will not govern him.

Explanation: The Lord called the light, “day,” the light of adhesion and Kedusha that we obtain from the Creator. This is the governance of the day. He called the darkness, “night” meaning the forces of separation that separate us from His light are the governance of the night. Hence, we sleep at night, which is one sixtieth of death, which is the governance of the Sitra Achra. Out of those two governances, we cannot cling to Him forever because we arrest His adhesion by the force of the governance of the night, which always returns and comes over us, and stops us from the work of the Creator.

To correct that, Rabbi Shimon gives us an advice: Each night, before going to sleep, one should take upon himself the kingship of above wholeheartedly. This is so because when the night is corrected, as in the act of creation, when it is written, “And there was evening and there was morning, one day,” when night and day are united into one body and one day, then the night is called “the governance of Malchut,” and no shell is mixed in her.

Hence, a person should take upon himself that upper Malchut [kingship], too, wholeheartedly without any partitions between himself and the Malchut. That is, he must take upon himself the kingdom of heaven for life or for death, and nothing in the world will remove him in anything from the upper kingdom, as it is written, “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” And if he has accepted it wholeheartedly, he is certain that nothing can ever part him from the Creator.

By that, it is considered that he has advanced into giving him a deposit of his soul because he came first, to hand his soul into the hand of the Creator, to keep His commandments in full, to complete devotion. For this reason, when he sleeps and his spirit departs, he no longer tastes in it one sixtieth of death, which is the power of SAM, but devotion on the path of commandment, since the power of death no longer governs him, for he has admitted it into the power of devotion of a commandment.

And when he does so, the governance of the night cannot blemish him any longer and arrest him from the pleasantness of the work of the Creator, for to him, the evening and the morning are one day, and the night is only a real part of the day. Hence, he is immediately saved from any bad illnesses and from all the evil spirits, which do not control him, for his night has already parted the domain of the Sitra Achra, since nothing can ever part him and the holy Shechina, and the forces of the Sitra Achra and the judgment do not govern him any longer.

183) And in the morning, when he rises from his bed, he should bless his Master, walk into His home and bow before His hall with great fear. And then he should pray his prayer and take advice from the holy fathers, as it is written, “And as for me, by Your abundant grace I will come into Your house; I will bow to Your holy temple in fear of You.”

Commentary: “By Your abundant grace” is to bless his Master for the grace He has done with him. “I will come into Your house” means to enter His house. “I will bow to Your holy Temple” means to bow before His hall. “In fear of You” means with great fear. And then he will pray his prayer.

This is why it is said that he should take advice from the holy fathers, since the prayer that we pray is the correction of the holy Shechina, to extend abundance to her, to satisfy all her deficiencies, for hence, all the requests are in plural form, such as “And grant us knowledge from You,” or “Bring us back, our Father, into Your law.”

This is so because the prayer is for the whole of Israel, since all that there is in the holy Shechina exists in the whole of Israel. And what is lacking in her is lacking in the whole of Israel. It follows that when we pray for the whole of Israel, we pray for the holy Shechina, since they are the same. Thus, before the prayer, we must look into the deficiencies in the Shechina, to know what needs to be corrected and filled in her.

However, all the generations of the whole of Israel are included in the holy Shechina, and we no longer need to correct all those corrections that she received from the generations before us. Instead, we must complement them, to correct what is still missing in her after their corrections.

The holy fathers are the inclusion of the whole of Israel. They are the three roots of all 600,000 souls of Israel from every generation through the end of correction. And all the extensions and bestowals that the whole of Israel extend and receive in all the generations are first received by the holy fathers. From them, the abundance reaches the whole of Israel in that generation that extended the abundance. It is so because this is the spiritual order, that no branch can receive anything, except through its root, the primary illumination remains in the root, and only a part of it extends to the branch. It therefore follows that all the corrections that were already corrected in the holy Shechina stand and exist in the souls of our holy fathers.

Hence, one must not enter the house of assembly unless he has first consulted with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, for our whole prayer is to complement what is still missing in the Shechina, after the corrections that have been made in it thus far. Thus, first we must know and extend all the corrections that have already been corrected in the holy Shechina, and then we will know what still needs to be added to them.

For this reason, one must not enter the house of assembly before he seeks advice from the holy fathers, for one must consult the holy fathers to know what must still be corrected. And this is possible only after we extend in the holy Shechina everything that the holy fathers have already corrected in her, and then we will see what is still missing in her, since they have already established the prayer that is the holy Shechina.

The correction of Abraham is called “morning prayer,” Isaac’s correction is called “afternoon prayer,” and Jacob’s correction, “evening prayer.” Therefore, we must first extend the full measure of correction that they have already corrected in the prayer, then we will know what we must still pray for and correct, what is still missing in her.

184) One should not enter the house of assembly unless he has first consulted with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and was granted permission. This is because they established the prayer before the Creator, as it is written, “And as for me, by Your abundant mercy I will come into Your house,” which is Abraham, who is mercy. “I will bow to Your holy Temple” is Isaac, from whose side the Malchut is called “hall.” “In fear of You” is Jacob, Tifferet, who is called “terrible.” One should first be included in them, and then enter the house of assembly and pray his prayer. Then it is written, “And He said to Me, ‘You are My Servant, Israel, in Whom I will show My glory.’”

Here, he explains three general corrections that were carried out on the holy Shechina by the fathers: Abraham corrected her into a home, meaning a permanent residence, in a way that one can adhere to her permanently, just as one is in one’s own home permanently. Isaac added a correction and corrected her into a holy Temple. This means that the King resides in her permanently, for the King is always in His palace.

Jacob added a correction and corrected her into fear, which is the gate to the abode, the opening for both the house in the holy Shechina and for the holy Temple in her, as it is written, “How terrible is this place, and it is the gate of heaven.”

And once a person includes all of those three corrections of the fathers to the fullest, he can know the full measure that has already been corrected in the holy Shechina, and he will enter the house of assembly and pray his prayer to correct in the Shechina what is still missing in her.

Explanation: Abraham is the root of mercy in the souls of Israel, since he is the one who corrected the holy Shechina into a receptacle for the light of mercy. She received the Hassadim for all the souls of Israel in their fullest. Had it remained so, all of Israel would have been adhered to the Creator permanently, and the holy Shechina would be the house of Malchut, filled with every delight and pleasure, and not a single person would wish to part from her for even a minute.

However, Abraham’s entire correction consisted of making a complete receptacle for the light of Hassadim, without any possibility of a flaw. In other words, he elevated the holy Shechina into bestowal and contentment upon our Maker, and to not receive anything for our own delight, for this is the quality and the receptacle of the light of mercy. It is as we learn, “Anyone who says ‘What is mine is yours and what is yours is yours—a Hassid [from the word Hesed (mercy)],’ for he does not demand anything for his own pleasure.”

And since all the restrictions and the whole of the grip of the Sitra Achra are only in reception for oneself, it follows that by that, he entirely removed the scum of the shells and the Sitra Achra, and the Shechina has been established in complete purity. However, that still did not complete the thought of creation, since the essence of the thought of creation was to delight His creatures, and the measure of pleasure depends and is measured only by the amount of the desire to receive, where by the amount of the desire to receive, so is the measure of pleasure from reception.

Hence, once the Shechina has been corrected only in a vessel of bestowal, without any reception for oneself at all, which is the departure from reception for the Creator and giving only to Him, still no correction has come from that to the basic thought of creation, which comes only by the greatness of the desire to receive.

This is why it is written that Abraham begot Isaac. Once Isaac found the Shechina in utter wholeness and fulfillment with the light of mercy through Abraham’s corrections, he felt the deficiency in her, that she was still unfit for reception of all that is included in the thought of creation. For this reason, he went and corrected her into a receptacle, so she will be fit to receive that desired fullness in the thought of creation. He evoked the desire to receive from the Creator, too, but only in reception in order to bestow. This means that he has a great desire to receive, but only because the Giver wishes it. Had the Giver not wished for it, there would have been no desire in him to receive anything from Him.

It is known that reception in order to bestow is regarded as actual bestowal. Thus, the Sitra Achra still has no grip there, in this will to receive. For this reason, the holy Shechina was established by him in the last, great wholeness, for now she was fit to receive all the pleasantness and softness from all that the Creator contemplated to delight His creatures when they arose in the mind to create them.

For this reason, now the holy Shechina is called “His holy Temple,” for now the King is in her with all his grandeur and splendor, like a king in his palace. However, with respect to Abraham’s correction, she is merely called “a house,” meaning the house of Malchut, for there His entire glory and majesty were still not apparent, for the glory of a king is apparent only in his special hall.

Thus, it is considered that Isaac corrected all the Gevura in the souls of Israel, meaning the mitigation of all the judgments in the guidance of the Creator. This is because all the restrictions, the sufferings, and punishments that come into the world are only to correct the vessels of reception of the souls, to be worthy of receiving all the goodness included in the thought of creation. And since Isaac had already corrected the Shechina in this wholeness, by that, all the Gevura had been corrected, since they have already come to their desired goal.

Yet, his correction, too, did not remain so, since the world was still unqualified for the end of correction. Hence, evil Esau came out of him, who corrupted his correction and did not endure in it, to be receiving only in order to bestow, as Isaac had corrected. Instead, he failed in self-reception. That is, even when he discovered that the Giver did not want him to receive, he still wished to receive for his own pleasure. Hence, the shells and the Sitra Achra clung to him, referring to being ruddy and hairy. For this reason, he lowered the legs of Malchut into the shells once more, as it is written, “And her legs go down to death.”

And when Jacob saw the corruption of evil Esau, he went and corrected the holy Shechina with the quality of fear, as it is written, “With his hand holding on to Esau's heel.” That is, because Jacob saw the corruption of Esau in the Shechina, he corrected himself with great fear until he raised the Shechina to a crown over his head, by which he gripped to the two corrections—Abraham’s and Isaac’s—at the same time, and no flaw came out of him. However, this correction is still not the end of correction, since the fear is similar to fear of sin, since Esau’s heel caused him that fear, without sinning like him.

But at the end of correction, Esau’s heel will be canceled‎, as it is written, “Death will be swallowed up forever.” At that time, the fear will be only because the Creator is great and rules over everything. For himself, Jacob certainly attained that real fear, as well, but for the whole of Israel, that correction still remains for all the generations following him, until the end of correction.

It is written, “And as for me, by Your abundant mercy I will come into Your house.” This is Abraham, mercy, since Abraham corrected her into the house of Malchut, filled with abundance, with the light of mercy.

“I will bow to Your holy temple” is Isaac, on whose side Malchut is called “a temple,” since Isaac corrected her into being the holy Temple, for the grandeur and glory of the King, befitting the Creator.

“In fear of You” is Jacob, Tifferet, who is called “terrible,” since Jacob corrected her with the quality of fear. By that, he corrected her into being a receptacle for all the corrections of Abraham and Isaac together, and must first be included in them, for how will he know what is still left for the Shechina to correct if he does not include himself in all those three corrections that the holy fathers have already corrected in her. That is, he should take upon himself to behave according to those corrections, and this is considered that he was included in their quality.

And only after he is included in all three corrections of our holy fathers will he begin to correct the Shechina, from the place Jacob the patriarch had left for us: to elevate fear to the quality of exaltedness because He is great and rules over everything. Afterwards, he will enter the house of assembly and will pray his prayer. That is, he should pray and extend the upper lights in her, with the fear of exaltedness, to bring her into the end of correction. Then it is written, “And He said to Me, ‘You are My Servant, Israel, in Whom I will show My glory.’”