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You Who Love the Lord, Hate Evil
23. You Who Love the Lord, Hate Evil
I heard on Sivan 17, June 2, 1931
In the verse, “You who love the Lord, hate evil; He preserves the souls of His followers; He will save them from the hand of the wicked,” he interprets that it is not enough to love the Creator, and to want to be awarded Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator. One should also hate evil.
Hatred is expressed by hating the evil, called “the will to receive.” One sees that he has no way to get rid of it, and at the same time, he does not want to accept the situation. He feels the losses that the evil causes him, and also sees the truth, that one cannot annul the evil by himself, since it is a natural force from the Creator, who imprinted the will to receive in man.
In that state, the verse tells us what one can do is hate evil. And by this the Creator will keep him from that evil, as it is written, “He preserves the souls of His followers.” What is preservation? “He will deliver them from the hand of the wicked.” In that state, since he has some contact with the Creator, be it the smallest contact, he is already a successful person.
In truth, the matter of evil remains and serves as an Achoraim [posterior] to the Partzuf. But this is only through one’s correction: Through sincere hatred of evil, it is corrected into a form of Achoraim. The hatred comes because if one wants to obtain Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator then there is a conduct among friends: If two people realize that each of them hates what his friend hates, and loves what and whom his friend loves, they come into perpetual bonding like a stake that will never fall.
Hence, since the Creator loves to bestow, the lower ones should also adapt to want only to bestow. The Creator also hates to be a receiver, as He is completely whole and does not need anything. Thus, man, too, must hate the matter of reception for oneself.
It follows from all the above, that one must bitterly hate the will to receive, for all the ruins in the world come only from the will to receive. And through the hatred, one corrects it and surrenders under the Kedusha [holiness].