Excerpts from His Sacred Writings

[Introduction]

54. There are two paths toward faith; one is the absolutely true one, and the other is the rational one. The latter changes in accordance with the times. There are occasions when, if there is some well-publicized and established scientific theory in vogue, it will harm the foundation of the apparent elements of faith from the perspective of absolute truth; and since the world of science has taken on a different form in the course of time, that rational type of faith will have lost its value, yet publicizing that theory per se will cause no harm to any absolute idea based on faith, which did in the past cause harm by being publicized. And what we are saying can be taken further still, insofar as it can happen that one specific form of logic would be incontrovertible at one particular point in time, to the extent that that scientific belief, based on reason, then shaped its configuration in a specific format, and subsequently that particular format alone would harm absolute faith; and then there arises an obligation to publicize the annulment of the prevalent rational theory. The basis of the distinction between the two parts of faith was already alluded to by Maimonides, but it requires a unique strength of mind to withstand the challenges posed in an era of darkness such as ours.

55. To achieve internal spiritual strengthening, a man—in particular one attuned to spiritual reflection and ethical influences—must battle the wickedness and folly of illusory pride, which brings in its wake an unbalancing of the intellect and subdues all the splendor of the soul, to become lowly and perpetual slaves to the vain and crude imaginings that dwell in the heart of the masses. In the first instance, pride removes the ability to adapt itself to any noble and refined idea on account of its inherent haughtiness and loftiness. The love of praise and acquiescence to the mores of society continually injures morality and knowledge and engenders a terrifying weakness within the progress of the soul in its entirety. The man who wishes to save his soul, so as to bring about some genuine benefit related to his particular talents in the world, is forced to empty his heart of all the despicable dust of this ugly character trait; and even if, against his will, he becomes entitled to some honor, large or small, he should not harbor any thoughts of grandeur on account of this apparent good fortune. His permanent mindset must have clarity of understanding, so as to increase the fine influence that is liable to emanate from each individual from whatever internal place it was previously prepared. The task needs to be dearer to him than everything else. [He has to be, in the words of scripture]: “One who delights in His commandments”—and not one who merely desires the reward for obedience to His commandments.

56. It is necessary to uncover, from the depths of the soul, the light of the attachment to the divine in the fullness of its illumination, to the point where it has the potential to flow over into the mightiest and purest love, into all the deeds and teachings of the practical aspect of the Torah, and all the requisite desire to illumine every hidden detail—to bring it out into the open, using the full force of the skill and diligence of the intellect, in order that engagement in the Torah and the divine commandments for their own sake may grow progressively greater in a manner commensurate with the measure whereby the soul becomes elevated through its lofty perspectives. However, that love branches out into the broad expanses of the world of action only once it has become sated with the beneficence and delight of the divine within its own borders, and does not lack the “moisturizing liquid” required for its spiritual demands; after the soul will have derived pleasure from the excellence of the feeling that becomes elevated and ever mightier through the power of prayer—the divine song and melody—at the most appropriate seasons, and from the radiance of the intellect purified by noble and majestic ideas, beautified by the perfection of their expansion, the light will increase and shine forth beyond the boundaries of the spirit.

57. Love of Israel is engendered by faith in the divine light of the community of Israel, which is its personal treasure that will never depart from it. This supreme love, and its cause, the inner faith in its divine roots, need urgently to be stirred up within men of understanding and spirit at a time of deterioration in the nation’s spiritual state, at a time when the trampling of sanctity and contempt for religion comes to the fore with full power and strength, in order to discern that, notwithstanding all this, the power of Israel is great and mighty vis-à-vis its God, and to gaze at the inner light penetrating the spirit of the community, and whose abode is located within each individual soul in Israel, either openly or privately, and also within the backsliding soul that has strayed far from the way of the Almighty. The revelation that the righteous man who loves the essence of the nation with all the strength he possesses, the divine goodness concealed within it, helps the person who is engaged in this authentic defense of his people, to elevate him above those who live a coarse and constrained life, who go around mournfully in their depressed state of anger. And the effect reverberates in an especially valuable way upon the nation in general and upon its individual members, imbuing them with a strength that arouses the grace and kindness of God, that He may pave a path for them to repent, motivated by love of the Almighty.

58. Regarding repentance, how vital and glorious it is to illuminate all of life! The conduits of the spirit are shut up on account of human sin. The thirst for the divine and all its appurtenances, which constitute the enlightenment provided by practical and content-filled ethics to the essence of the soul—it struggles, it starts to jerk and to move around with lively movements, and it falls down again, because the filth of transgressions weighs it down; and not only to the sin of the individual, but more so to the sin of the community. Those special individuals who are hoping to receive the light of the Almighty suffer from the sin of the entire community. Their love for the community is infinitely strong. The force of the goodness within their souls yearns exclusively for the general good, but the community defiles them on account of the sins clinging to it. However, these truly righteous men voluntarily suffer all the things blocking progress, all the material and spiritual wounds, so long as they may attain their goal, to become wise and to do good, to increase goodness and light, to pave a path toward the light of the Almighty and His pleasantness, so that it may enter directly into every heart and spirit, so that all may delight in the beneficence of the Almighty; so that the Lord may rejoice in His works! [ . . . ]

62. An individual needs to be perpetually attached to the beneficent divine essence connected to the root of the soul of the entire community of Israel. And it is by this means that he obtains the merit of being capable of repentance, since his shortcomings and sins will be constantly apparent to him, stemming, as they do, from the source of his alienation from the godly nation, which is the rock from which he was hewn and the origin of all the goodness he possesses. He should not be dismayed by being attached to the root of the soul of the entire nation, even though [ . . . ] evil and coarse individuals are also to be found. This does not diminish in the slightest the beneficent divine illumination of the nation as a whole; and the spark of the souls of these people rests likewise within all the individual souls that have fallen to the lowest level. And because the community of Israel embraces the divine beneficence within it, not only for itself but for the entire world—for the totality of existence—it proceeds, from the powerful attachment lying inherently within the midst of the national soul, to an attachment to the Living God, through the medium of divine knowledge, which is all-encompassing, and the light of divine presence rests upon it in all its glory and strength. [ . . . ]

64. The sciences that are progressively becoming ever clearer in relation to the senses and their reality are continually driving out disturbing belief, blind faith, which is constructed upon a lowly and gloomy image of the divine. And, inevitably, they simultaneously perform two mutually opposed tasks: they destroy and they build. They destroy foolish faith, and inevitably pure faith now comes in its wake and prepares to reign on earth in its stead. The concept of faith itself becomes ever purer. It is not constructed on the basis of the weakness of life, but rather upon its strength and power. Before the pure knowledge of the divine illuminated the dark places of the world, the practical aspect of faith, and its emotional element, leaned heavily upon foundations of ignorance, which is intermingled with wickedness. And it grieves the heart to perceive the sensation of faith continually dwindling away, and the practice of faith continually dissolving. But beneath this destruction is hidden a noble edifice. For: “The Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king— He shall save us!”

65. All the sciences are soundly based upon two principal conditions; first, upon their specialized definitions—that it may become perfectly clear to those researching in them what their fundamental basis is, into which may be incorporated the unique format of the particular branch of science they wish to acquire and the full depths of which they wish to plumb; and secondly upon their general association with, and relationship to the sciences that lie beyond their fields. Then, when each science stands well fortified in its own right, and with this captures for itself all the capital required for it from the entire gamut of sciences, it blossoms and becomes elevated. The science of faith and knowledge of God, in all its branches, is similarly obliged to travel on that path, upon which have traveled all the great personalities of the world, who have done this successfully. It is imperative to protect most carefully the image of sanctity, the defining feature, through its sacred splendor, of this noble and exalted science, that embraces within it all happiness, both present and eternal; and alongside this, it is vital to be fully aware of the points where the branches of all the sciences make contact with it to receive from it and to flow over onto it. True faith will then accrue to us, replete with strength, knowledge, and wisdom. [ . . . ]

Additional Sections

[ . . . ] 3. There are two ways of attaining spiritual purity. One is by being very particular with the finer points of character traits, to make them straight and direct them in such manner that they will become purified, and as a result of the influence they project, life as a whole becomes pure. The second way is to view things from an intellectual perspective, and to elevate the soul to the highest level in the light of the Almighty, and by this means one’s fine character traits will inevitably become elevated in a general form, because their source becomes blessed, and they become automatically blessed from the source of their growth. [ . . . ]

4. Every human being has his own route to attain his happiness—the real purpose of his existence—through which he becomes attached to his Creator. He cannot attain the object of his desire by any other route, notwithstanding that it is the correct route for others. Accordingly, each individual has to value his own unique path immensely. And this applies to an individual, and a fortiori in the case of the nation as a whole; for in the measure commensurate with the elevation and the numerical superiority of the community over the individual, in like measure increases the obligation and intense precision required to protect that unique pathway through which the entire community finds abundant happiness. [ . . . ]

7. Our objective, always, is aimed not merely at being released from dire straits, not simply at being healed of our wounds, and to be spared from illnesses, not just to escape from the imprisonment of poverty and the darkness of blindness. [ . . . ] No! We seek incomparably more than this; the uncovering of the full light, the outpouring of the streams of eternal life from the source of the Holy of Holies, from the source of Israel, from the source of its supreme soul, from the source of love of the delight of the Everlasting Rock, which illumines the way for us with the splendid rays of the desirable Land, the Holy Land, the Land of Life, and the Land of Light. [ . . . ]

8. Every thought has many strata and layers, one on top of the other. Only one layer is openly apparent—that is the retention of memory, by which means we know what we are thinking, but there are numerous layers lying concealed within that thought itself, beneath the power of mental recall, and our entire essence is deeply enveloped in them; and it both operates by means of them, and operates upon them. The closer we approach the light of the intellect—the purity of the soul—the greater the number of layers, both higher and more secret, contained within every thought, that will become revealed before us—greater in worth and more glorious in influence. Happy therefore is he who walks on an upright path, who sanctifies his ways and directs aright the course of his life, both in the practical and spiritual spheres; for he becomes elevated to such a high level that every thought that he takes hold of will be revealed to him in the abundant wealth of its many layers, and they will thereby illumine all the compartments of his soul with precious light, and with the revelation of the secrets of the Almighty to those who fear Him. [ . . . ]

20. The basis of fear of all sin is putting aside intellectual understanding, for sin causes the divine light to become far removed from the soul of a human being, and in line with this, from the world as a whole. [ . . . ] Accordingly, our eyes and our hearts should constantly be directed toward the task of filling up the links of the chain of life, and keeping at bay anything causing a separation of links in the sacred chain, in order that the light of divine knowledge may flow perpetually onto us and give us light in the full flow of its illuminations, which are all-encompassing in their joy, saturated with pure delights. [ . . . ]

21. In the realm of opinions too, the rule of absence taking priority over existence applies. And when we see the spirits of human beings in fermentation, and when well-established and strongly held views seem shaky, we must be on the lookout for innovations within the formation of the spirit. And there can be no doubt that the innovations are aimed at amelioration, for the power of the work of Creation lay in the fact that the Holy One, blessed be He, repeatedly created worlds and then destroyed them, until such time as He declared, in connection with a world that was well suited to attainment of the goal of enduring goodness: “This gives Me satisfaction!” In precisely the same fashion does the quality of creativity progress. Also, throughout the course of the previous epochs and passing generations, a period during which much dross has accumulated within the battle lines of the spiritual sphere, even though it may be of a holy and exalted nature, the thunder claps hailing destruction are necessarily bound to burst. This is, however, a sign heralding the birth of a fresh spirit, which will establish many new edifices of a more highly perfected nature than those that preceded them.

Therefore, let not our spirit be downcast when we witness crises in the ways of the spirit that trample down much of the good now in existence, for it is not a program of destruction that the crisis heralds, but rather a program of innovations of form, and good tidings of a novel perfection, which, when completed, will constitute a mighty force for removal of all the dross and for the production of a wholly pure refined vessel. [ . . . ]