Letter 19

1 Tishrey, Tav-Reish-Peh-Zayin, September 9, 1926, Rosh Hashanah, London

My dear soul mate and disciple, and all the friends.

I have received all your letters, and may they please the Almighty. However, “Know the God of your father and serve Him.” “Know” means recognition, because a soul without knowledge is not good. This means that one who yearns and longs to serve Him, for he has a soul, but he does not know his Master, this is not good.

Even though one has a soul, he is not ready to know Him of his own “Until the spirit be poured upon him from on high.” However, one must lend an ear and listen to the words of the sages and believe in them wholeheartedly.

It has already been written, “Only goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.” As The Baal Shem Tov interprets “The Lord is your shade”—like the shade that follows man’s movements, and its inclinations lean every way the person does, so is man according to the Creator. This means that when love for the Creator awakens, one must see that the Creator has awakened toward him with intense longing, etc. This is the meaning of the words of Rabbi Akiva: “Happy are you Israel—before whom you purify, and who purifies you.”

Hence, in the beginning of one’s nearing, he is given a soul in a manner of circles. This means that the Creator awakens toward him every time there is an opportunity on the part of man to cling to the man with longing and yearning. This is what the poet tells us, “Only goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.” King David is the collective soul of the whole of Israel. Hence, he always longed, yearned, and craved true Dvekut [adhesion] with Him.

However, one must know in one’s heart that the Creator chases him just as much as he chases the Creator. One must never forget that, even during the greatest longing. When remembering that the Creator misses and chases him to cling to him as intensely as one wishes for it himself, he then always goes from strength to strength, with yearning and longing, in a never-ending Zivug [coupling], the complete perfection of the soul, until he is rewarded with repentance from love, meaning the return of the Vav to the Hey, being the unification of the Creator with His Shechina [Divinity].

However, a soul without knowledge and recognition of his Master is in great decline when the longing increases to a certain extent, for it seems to him that the Creator dislikes him. Woe to that shame and disgrace; not only does he not complete his yearning and longing to be filled with eternal love, he is even in a state of “A whisperer separates from the champion,” since he thinks that only he wishes and longs and yearns for the Creator. He does not believe our sages that to the very same extent the Creator wishes, longs, and yearns for him.

What are we to do to benefit those whose heart has not been fixed with faith in the sages? “From my flesh shall I see God,” for I have already proven to you several times that the conducts of this world are Otiot [letters] that one must copy to their actual place in spirituality, for spirituality has no Otiot.

However, due to the breaking of the vessels, all the Otiot were ejected to corporeal conducts and people. When one corrects oneself and reaches one’s root, he must collect them by himself, one by one, and bring them back to the root, to holiness. This is the meaning of “to sentence oneself and the entire world to the side of merit.”

The matter of the unification of the Creator and His Shechina that one induces when he has had his fill of yearning and longing is precisely like the bottom Zivug applied in the birth of a corporeal body. It, too, extends necessarily by a prior cause, namely the hardening, which is a certain measure of longing and yearning called “hardness” in the corporeal language. Then, one’s seed is also blessed, for it shoots like an arrow in Nefesh [soul], Shanah [year], Olam [world]. This is the meaning of “How is there repentance? In the same place, at the same time, and with the same woman, since the bottom Hey consists of Nefesh, Shanah, Olam.

Nefesh is the measure of the longing and the yearning. Shanah is the changing stimulations, as complete coitus bears the complete measure to restore past glory, meaning, as they were in Dvekut with their root before they separated in the corporeal world. However, one cannot be ready for this sublime Zivug, called “complete coitus,” all at once. Rather, “Only goodness and mercy shall follow me,” etc.

Hence, the stimulus, which is the beginning of the coitus, is the meaning of “a righteous who suffers.” The Creator has no wish for his Dvekut, so he does not taste love in the longing and yearning that needs “the same thing,” and “the same place.” Thus, one is found in a state of sorrow, which is a Nega [affliction] that is destined to be sweetened into Oneg [delight (the words are spelled with the same letters in reverse order)].

However, “time will do what the mind does not do.” The Creator counts all the stimuli and collects them into the complete measure, which is the measure of hardness for the intended day. This is what the poet means by “Awaken and sound to sever any shout.” Teki’a [sticking/blowing (of a horn)] is the completion of the coitus, as it is said, “stuck in his brother’s wife,” which is the Zivug of the Creator and His Shechina [Divinity] from above downward before the soul clothed in incarnations of this world.

Afterward, when one prepares to return to his root, he does not induce the complete Zivug at one time, but creates stimuli, which is the degree of Nefesh, by way of cycles, chasing the Shechina with all his might, quivering and sweating, until he mounts this extremity all day and all night, incessantly.

It is as the books write concerning the cycles. While one’s soul is being completed in the degrees of Nefesh, he comes ever closer, and so his yearning and sorrow grow since the unsatisfied desire leaves behind it a great affliction according to the measure of the desire.

This is the meaning of “sound.” The poet teaches us and says, “Awaken,” meaning that you induce stimuli in the Shechina. “Sound,” for you cause a great affliction, like no other, which is the meaning of “he groaned and moaned” because “What does the Shechina say when one is afflicted?” etc. And why do you do so? It is in order to “sever any shout.”

This is the meaning of “The righteousness of the righteous will not save him on the day of his transgression.” To Him who knows the mysteries, the desire in one’s heart for His nearness is known, and that it might still be interrupted. Hence, He increases His stimuli, meaning the beginnings of the coituses, for if one listens to His voice, as in “The Lord of your shade,” one does not fall and descend due to the increasing affliction of the stimuli since he sees and hears that the Shechina also suffers as he does by the increased longing. Thus, one’s longing grows and intensifies each time until one’s point in the heart is completed with complete will in a tight knot that will not crumble.

Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai said about this in the Idra: “I am for my beloved and upon me His desire. All the days I was connected to this world, I was connected to the Creator with one knot, and because of it, now, upon me His desire, etc.” That is, “Until He who knows the mysteries shall testify that he shall not return to folly.” Hence, he is granted the return of the Hey to the Vav for eternity, meaning the complete coitus and the restoration of past glory, which is the meaning of “the great Teki’a.”

All this is by the power and the virtue of the blowing, for they have severed any shout, and he shall not return to folly. Then one merits the complete consciousness in a never-ending Zivug, called “knowing,” and he sees that all the many times of hardships that came to him were but “to know.” This is the meaning of “at the same time,” meaning “known to Him who knows the mysteries,” that times have created that power in him, to remain in his righteousness forever.

“In the same place” is the restoration of past glory, as it was before its diminution, as you have heard from me several times, that the Creator does nothing new at the end of correction, as the fools think. Rather, “And you shall eat old store long kept,” meaning until he says, “I want.”

“In the same woman ...” “…Grace is deceitful and beauty is vain; but a woman that fears the Lord, she shall be praised.” This means that during the preparation, beauty and grace appear as the essence of perfection for which one yearns and longs. However, at the time of correction, when the earth is “full of the knowledge of the Lord,” “I shall see an opposite world,” as only fear and longing are the desired perfection. Then one feels that during the time of preparation they were lying to themselves. This is the meaning of “a righteous who is happy,” meaning the complete coitus for the one who is granted the great Teki’a. This is a complete righteous.

Show these words before the eyes of all the friends, and with this I shall bless you with writing and signing in the books of the righteous.

Yehuda Leib

My troubles are many, and I cannot let you know the greatness of my longing for you, but I am certain of the near redemption. Do not deny me your letters, at least one long letter every week. Believe me that while you write me, your answer will come right away.

I have not heard a thing from our friend … and perhaps there is no need to those who fear Him? That, too, he should let me know. I miss hearing of him and of his household.

All the best, and God willing, we shall speak at length of goodly matters.

Yehuda