בחוקותי / אם בחוקותי תלכו

And now I will begin to speak about that which I intended: You should know that just like the blind man does not grasp appearance of colors and the deaf man does not grasp the sound of voices and the eunuch sexual desire, so too bodies do not grasp spiritual pleasures. And just like the fish do not know the element of fire, since they are in the element of water, which is its opposite; so too, in this physical world, pleasures of the spiritual world are not known. Rather we do not have among us any of this pleasure, but only pleasures of the body and that which is grasped by the senses [regrading] food and drink and sex. And anything besides these is non-existent for us and we do not recognize it. [Neither] do we grasp it at first thought, but only after great analysis. And it is fitting that it is like this, since we are in the physical world, and that is why we only grasp the lower temporary pleasures. But the spiritual pleasures are permanent, lasting forever, without end. And there is no connection or similarity in any way between these [two types] of pleasures. And it is not fit for us, the masters of Torah, and not for the Godly of the philosophers that we should say that the angels or the stars or the spheres do not have any pleasure; but rather they truly have great pleasure in that they know and grasp the truth of the Creator, may He be blessed. And so [too], when the one that will be purified is purified and he goes up to that level after his death, he does not grasp the physical pleasures and does not want them. But rather it is similar to if a king who is the top of the government would divest himself of his kingdom and his government and go back to playing ball with children, like he used to do before his kingdom. Since that was in his being small of years when he did not distinguish between the worth of these two things; just as we today praise and elevate the physical pleasures and not the spiritual pleasures. And when you reflect on the matter of these two pleasures, you will find the inferiority of the one and loftiness of the other - and even in this world. And that is because you will find that most people always tire themselves and their bodies in toil and exertion, that has no equal, in order that worth and honor come to him and that people elevate him. And this pleasure is not pleasure of food and drink. And likewise, many people will choose to take revenge on his enemies more than acquiring many physical pleasures. And [also] many people distance themselves from the greatest of the physical pleasures out of fear that disgrace and embarrassment from people come to him from this, or because he is seeking to have a good name. And if its matter is such in this physical world, all the more so is it in the spiritual world; and that is the world to come - that our souls will fathom there the knowledge of the Creator, may He be blessed, just like the supernal bodies fathom [Him] or more [so]. And this pleasure cannot be divided into sections and cannot be recounted; and you will not find a parable by which to compare this pleasure. But rather it is as the prophet, peace be upon him, said when the greatness of that good and its value were so wondrous in his eyes. He said (Psalms 31:20), "How great is Your good that You have hidden for those that fear You." And so [too], they, may their memory be blessed, said (Berakhot 17a), "In the world to come there is no eating and no drinking and no bathing and no anointing and no intercourse, but rather the righteous ones sit and their crowns are upon their heads and they derive pleasure from the radiance of the Divine Presence." He wants to say by stating, "and their crowns are upon their heads," the permanence of their soul in the existence of that which is fathomed by them, and that is the Creator, may He be blessed; and in that He - meaning that which is fathomed (the active Intellect) - and he are one thing, as the philosophers have mentioned in ways that are [too] lengthy for here. And by their saying, "and they derive pleasure from the radiance of the Divine Presence," I would say that those souls derive pleasure in that which they grasp and know of the truth of the Creator, may He be blessed, like the holy creatures and the other levels of angels derive pleasure, in what they grasp and know of His existence. Behold, that the ultimate good and objective is to reach this supernal company and to be with this honor and the level mentioned, and the preservation of the soul - as we have explained - without an end, in the existence of the Creator, may He be blessed, Who is the cause of its existence, since [the soul] has grasped Him, as is explained by the first philosophers. And this is the great good, to which there is no good to equate to it and no pleasure to compare to it, since how can the eternal that has no end and no finish be compared to something finite. And this is what it stated (Kiddushin 39b), "'In order that it will be good for you and you will lengthen your days' (Deuteronomy 22:7) - in the world that is completely long." And the complete bad and great reprisal is that the soul be cut off and be destroyed and that it not be alive and existent. And this is the cutting off (karet) that is written in the Torah, as in (Numbers 15:31), "and that soul will surely be cut off (hikaret, yikaret)." And they, of blessed memory, said, "Hikaret - in this world, yikaret - in the world to come" (Sanhedrin 64b). And it is stated (I Samuel 25:29), "the soul of my master shall be bundled in the bundle of life." Behold, in all that he chose and accustomed himself to the pleasures of the body and disdained truth and loved falsehood, his soul was cut off from this level and it remained cut off matter [after his death]. And the prophet, peace be upon him, already elucidated that the world to come is not grasped by the physical senses and this is what is stated (Isaiah 64:3), "an eye has not seen, O Lord, except for You." And they said in explanation of this, "All of the prophets only prophesied about the days of the Messiah, but about the world to come, 'an eye has not seen, O Lord, except for You'" (Berakhot 34b). As for the matter of good outcomes and reprisals and bad (besides cutting off) that are written in the Torah, it is what I will explain to you. And it is that He says to you, "If you will do these commandments, I will help you with their performance and to be complete in them, and I will remove from you all of the obstacles and impediments." As it is impossible for a man to do the commandments for Him, when he is sick and hungry or thirsty and in a time of war and siege. And therefore He makes it come out that all of these matters will be removed, and that they be healthy and quiet until [their] knowledge is perfected and they merit life in the world to come. Behold that the objective of the reward of doing [the precepts of] the Torah is not in all of these things. And so too, if they violate the Torah, the punishment of these bad things that will befall them is [so that] they will not be able to do the commandments; and as it is stated (Deuteronomy 28:47), "Since you did not serve." And when you reflect upon this with complete reflection, you will find it is as if He says to you, "If you have done some of the commandments from love and with effort, I will help you to do them all, and I will remove from you the obstacles and impediments; and if you abandon one of them in the manner of disgracing [it], I will bring impediments to you that will impede you from them doing all of them, until you not have wholeness and existence in the world to come. And this is the matter that they said, of blessed memory (Avot 4:2), "The payment (reward) of a commandment is a commandment and the payment of a sin is sin." And the Garden of Eden, however, is a rich and fertile place - the choicest of lands. It has many rivers and fruit-bearing trees. God, may He be blessed, will reveal it to people in the future to come and show that way that leads to it, and they will enjoy it. And it is possible that they will find very wonderful plants that are very useful in it, besides the ones that are known and famous to us. And all of this is neither impossible nor unlikely, but rather it is likely - and even if had not been written in the Torah; all the more so, since it is elucidated and publicized in the Torah. Gehinnom, however, is the name for the pain and the punishment that will come to the evildoers, but the Talmud did not give a [definitive] description of this punishment. Rather, there are those that say that the sun will approach them and burn them, and their proof to this is from that which is stated (Malachi 3:19), "behold [the sun of] the day is coming, burning like a furnace." And there are some that say that a strange heating up will begin in their bodies and burn them, and their proof to this is from that which it states (Isaiah 33:11), "your spirit is fire, it shall consume you." And the revival of the dead is from the main fundamental principles of Moshe, our teacher - peace be upon him. And there is no religion and no attachment to the Jewish religion for the one who does not believe [in] this. But it is [only] for the righteous, and so [too] is [this found in] the language of Bereishit Rabbah, "The power of rain is for the righteous and for the evildoers, but the revival of the dead is only for the righteous." And how should the evildoers be revived - as they are dead even in their lifetime? And so [too] did they say (Berakhot 18b), "Evildoers are called dead even in their lives, righteous people are called living even in their death." And you should know that man, per force, must die and decompose and return to what he is composed of. The days of the Messiah, however, is the time when rulership will return to Israel and that they will go back to the land of Israel and that this king will be very great, and the seat of his rulership will be in Zion (Jerusalem). His fame will grow and his mention will be among all of the nations, [even] more than King Shlomo. And all of the peoples will make peace with him and all of the lands will serve him, due to his great righteousness and due to the wonders that will come about though him. And anyone that comes against him, God, may He be elevated, will deliver into his hand. And all of the [relevant] verses in Scripture testify to his success and our success with him. And nothing about existence will change from what it is now, except that rulership will return to Israel. And this is the language of the sages (Sanhedrin 91b), "There is no difference between this world and the days of the Messiah except for the subjugation by the nations alone." And there will be in his days rich and poor, strong and weak, in relation to each other. But it will be very easy in those days for people to find their sustenance; to the point that with a little effort that a person exerts, a great output will result. And this is what they said (Shabbat 30b), "In the future the land of Israel will produce loaves of bread and woolen garments"; since people say that when a person finds something prepared and ready, "So-and-so found baked bread and cooked food." And the proof to this is that which is stated (Isaiah 61:5), "and foreigners shall be your plowmen and your vintners," to show that there will [still] be planting and reaping. And therefore this sage who said this statement to his student got angry when [the latter] did not understand his words and thought that it was as its simple meaning. And he responded to him according to his understanding and that answer was not a true answer. And the proof that he did not respond to him with a true answer is that he brought a proof from (Proverbs 26:4-5), "Do not answer a fool according to his folly[... Answer a fool according to his folly]." And the great objective that will occur in those days is that we shall rest from the subjugation by the nations which prevents us from the performance of all of the commandments; and that wisdom will grow, as it is stated (Isaiah 11:9), "since the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord." And the wars will cease, as it is stated (Micah 4:3), "and nation will not lift up sword against nation." And great wholeness will be found in those days and we will merit through it to life in the world to come. But the Messiah will die and his son will reign in his place, and [likewise] his grandson. And the prophet has already elucidated his death: "He will not tire and will not be crushed until he puts justice in the world"(Isaiah 42:5). And his rulership will extend for very many days and the lives of people will also lengthen. Since when worries and troubles are removed, the days of a man are lengthened. And one should not wonder that his rulership will last for thousands of years, since the sages said about the gathering of good, that when it gathers, it will not quickly separate. And we do not desire and hope for the days of the Messiah because of the multitude of produce and wealth and not [since] we will ride on horses and not [since] we will drink wine accompanied by types of song, as ones of confused intellect imagine. But [rather] the prophets and pious ones desired the days of the Messiah - and their longing for it grew - because of what will be in it from the gathering of the righteous and the proper administration and wisdom, and from the righteousness of the king and his great uprightness, and the heft of his wisdom and closeness to God, as it is stated (Psalms 2:7), "the Lord said to me, 'You are my son, I conceived you today'"; and the performance of all of the commandments of the Torah of Moshe, our teacher - peace be upon him - without negligence and laziness and without duress. As it is stated (Jeremiah 31:33), "And they will not continue to teach a man [to his brother and a man to his fellow] saying, 'Know the Lord,' since they will all know me, from their small ones to their big ones"; "and I have placed my Torah in their hearts" (Jeremiah 31:32); "and I will remove your heart of stone from your flesh" (Ezekiel 36:26). And there are many of these [types of] verses about this matter. And through these matters, they would strongly attain [life in] the world to come. And the objective is the world to come and towards it is the effort. And therefore this sage (the author of this mishnah), who is established in his knowledge of the truth, investigated [what is] the ultimate objective and left that which was other than it, and said, "All Jews have a share in the world to come." And [even] if it is the desired objective, it is not fitting for one who wants to be one who serves from love, that he should serve in order to reach the world to come, as we have elucidated in what came before. But [rather], one should serve in the way that I will say. And that is that if he believes that there is wisdom, and it is the Torah which came to the prophets from the Creator, may He be elevated, who informed them through it of the virtues and they are the commandments and the defects and they are the sins, [then] it is fitting for him from the angle of his being a man of proper disposition that he should do the good and go away from the bad. And when he does this, he achieves humanness and is distinguished from animals. And when a person is whole [like this], it is from the nature of the whole person that there not be an impediment for his soul to exist in the existence that is known for it, and that is the world to come, as we have said. And this is [the meaning of] what is stated (Psalms 32:9), "Do not be like a horse, like a mule that does not understand, with a bit and a bridle is his mouth restrained" [to be] like the impediments of animals from impulses, which is something external, like a bit and a bridle. And it is not fitting for a person to be like this, but [rather] his impediment should be from him and from his essence. I mean to say that the human form when it is complete is what impedes him from those things that wholeness prevents, and these are called the defects. And [his form] will energize him and push him towards that which will bring him to wholeness and that is the virtues. This is what has been clarified to me from all of their words about this lofty and weighty matter. And I will still write a composition in which I will gather all of the homilies that are found in the Talmud and in other [books] and I will elucidate them and analyze them such that they be fitting with the truth of [their] matters, and I will also give proofs [to this] from their words. And I will reveal which of the homilies are like their simple understanding and which are parables and which were dreams [even though] they are described in completely straightforward statements, as if they were in a waking state. And in that composition I will elucidate for you many beliefs and there I will elucidate all of the things of these principles that I have given to you a little [here, that you] extrapolate from them to the others. And one should not be exacting with me, that in this essay I have somewhat overlooked words and matters about which experts are exacting; since I have overlooked this exactitude to allow for understanding for the one that has no prior education in this lofty matter that not all people grasp. And [concerning others enumerated by the mishnah as not having a share in the world to come,] the word, "epikores," is Aramaic. Its meaning is one who abandons (mafkir) and denigrates the sages or a specific Torah scholar or denigrates his teacher. And they said that "outside books" are the books of those who err and so [too] the book of Ben Sira - and he composed books that included buffoonery about matters of facial recognition. They do not have reason or a point except for wasting time with vanities. For example, those books found by the Arabs of historical stories and the conduct of kings, the genealogy of the Arabs, songbooks and the like are from the books that do not have any wisdom or physical benefit, except for wasting time. "And one who whispers [an incantation] over a wound" [has no share in the world to come] - and provided that it is with spit - because this involves a denigration of God, may He be blessed. And [likewise], one who pronounces the name [of God] with its letters, yod, hay vav, hay - which is the explicit name (shem hameforash). And they have already mentioned things besides these, that if one does them, he has no share in the world to come: they said (Bava Metzia 59b), one who whitens the face of his fellow in public and one calls his fellow by his nickname and (Yerushalmi Chagigah 2:1) one who derives honor from his friend's disgrace. Since one would not do from these acts - and even though one might think them to be light sins - except for one with an inferior spirit that does not have wholeness and is not fitting for the world to come. And from that which is necessary that we mention here - and [here] is the most fitting of all places - is that the fundamental beliefs and the foundational principles of our religion are thirteen principles:

“If you walk in My statutes ….” (Vayikra 26:3)
It is written in the Midrash (Yalkut Shemoni Mishlei, Ch. 22), (Tehilim, 111:10) “The beginning of wisdom is the fear of God. It is also written (Mishlei 22:4), ‘following humility [on the heel of humility] is the fear of God.’ The same thing that made wisdom a crown for the head, made humility the heel for the sole.” Through contemplation and investigating God’s intentions for all that He created, you may naturally come to the conclusion that there is a Creator and Master of the world. But this is only when he starts to bring himself close to Torah Study, and at that time this wisdom is called Yirah, the fear of God. This is because once you know that there is a Creator and Master, you will listen to God’s voice and experience Yirah before Him. Yet if you achieves the quality of Anavah, humility, then you can attain Yirah in the blink of an eye, with no need to search your soul in order to achieve it. Rather, it is simple and clear. This is, “If you walk in My statutes (chokim).” Then (through this process) God’s statutes will be carved (chakuk) into your hearts.

“If you walk in My statutes, and keep My mitzvot, and do them.” (Vayikra, 26:3)
All the while that God’s Kedusha is not carved and permanently installed into man’s heart, he is called “standing.” In this state he needs to constrict himself for the time being, not extending himself according to his own will. For now it is preferable to refrain from action. And with regards to walking? When a man turns to the Torah to the extent that it is carved in his heart, installed in his being, he can then extend himself and go wherever his desires leads him, for God is with him. This is as it is said in the Midrash (Devarim Rabba, Parsha 2:1), “Is there is a Jewish stranger?!” As the story goes (Yalkut Vaietchanan Rabba, 825 ) there was a ship filled sailors there was one Jew. They sailed across the heart of the sea, and when they reached a port the sailors told the Jew, “go to town and bring us food and drink.” He said to them, “but I am a wayfarer, a stranger. They don’t know me at all and won’t sell me anything.” The sailors said, “Is there such a thing as a Jewish stranger? Wherever you go your God is with you, as the Torah says, (Devarim 4:7), ‘For what great nation is there that has a god so close at hand as is the LORD our God whenever we call upon Him?’” (The wayfarer thought he was standing, but the sailors reminded him that he has the natural ability to walk, i.e. go from place to place without even thinking because he has internalized the Torah to the point where it inseparable from his being.) Similarly we read in the Gemara (Shabbat, 31b), “when it says in the Torah, ‘At the commandment of the Hashem they encamped, and at the commandment of the Hashem they traveled,’ it was like demolishing in order to rebuild on the same site.”