Letter 43
14 Tammuz, Tav-Reish-Peh-Zayin, July 14, 1927, London
To the honorable ... may his candle burn:
... Our sages have already said, “The fear of your teacher is as the fear of heaven.” This, therefore, will be the measure of exaltedness that such a man obtains by his sanctity, for his exaltedness will by no means exceed the exaltedness of his teacher.
What the Rijnaar boasted about—that he was awarded a higher degree than all the sages in his generation because he acquired more faith in the sages than all of his contemporaries—we need to understand that faith does not come by lending. Such faith can be acquired by six-year-old children, too, but as a feeling of the exaltedness and the inspiration to his soul from the wisdom of the sages who have shared from His wisdom to those who fear Him.
I have already said and elaborated that the biggest Masach [screen] is in the work in the children of the land of Israel, since the domination of the Canaan Klipa [shell/peel] is in this place, and each one is as low as the ground, his friend is even lower than the ground, and his rav [teacher] is like him.
Allegorically, you can say the words of our sages about the verse, “Leave Me and keep My law”—“I wish they would leave Me” means that they were proud of the exaltedness. And although “he and I cannot dwell in the same place,” still, “Keep My law,” be attached to a genuine righteous with proper faith in the sages. Then there is hope that the righteous will reform them and will sentence them to the side of merit as is appropriate for the presence of the Creator. What could come out of their humbleness and lowliness so the Creator does not move His abode from them, if they have no genuine righteous [person] to guide them in His law and prayer, and lead them to a place of Torah and wisdom?
It is already known that it is forbidden to marry one’s daughter to an uneducated man. By this they gradually dry out like dry bones, God forbid. And what can you do for them if not repeat such words from time to time until the living one will pay attention?
... It is written, “And Moses will take the tent,” etc. Why did he pitch his tent outside the camp? The fools believe that he did it to stop the flow of Hochma due to the sin. This is unthinkable, since after the sin they need the fountains of Torah and Hochma thousands of times more than before, as our sages said, “Had Israel not sinned, they would have been given only the Five Books of Moses and the book of Joshua.”
However, it is to the contrary. It is a true remedy for opening the fountains of wisdom to a faithful source, since once Moses had pitched his tent outside the camp, the craving for him inside the camp increased, as “One who has bread in his basket is not like one who,” etc., and along with it the adhesion with Him. Thus, they were rewarded with expansion of Moses’ soul among them, for which they were called “the generation of knowledge.”
I have already said and reminded you the words of teaching that I said on the festival of Shavuot [Feast of Weeks] prior to my departure from you about the verse, “Run My beloved, and be like a gazelle”: “As the gazelle turns its face back when it runs,” etc., for having no other way to make a Panim [face/anterior], they devise this tactic—bringing the Panim to the Achoraim [back/posterior]. It is as it is written, “So is the Creator when,” etc., “He turns His face back,” since the sensation of separation and Achoraim, and the inability to receive the Panim of Kedusha [holiness] increase the sparks of craving tremendously, until the Achoraim become Panim, since the tablets were written on both sides. You should be noticing these things by now.
Yehuda