Dear reader, with God’s help, I have guided you on the paths of truth. I have set before you a way in which you may walk securely and educate yourself step by step, ascending by degrees to the levels we have described. According to the purity of your heart and your intellectual capacities, you will succeed in surpassing the level we have proposed, especially through repeated practice. You will then see clearly that the more you persevere in this ascent, the more the purity of your heart will be refined, both through the study of Torah and the performance of the commandments, in the fear and love of God.

However, take great care and be vigilant not to let pride invade you by overestimating yourself because you serve your Creator with a pure thought. This feeling and its cause will not be perceptible to you at first; therefore, you must be attentive and very watchful. Scripture explicitly says: “Everyone who is haughty in heart is an abomination to the Lord” (Proverbs 16:5) – even if the pride is not revealed to others and remains confined to the thoughts of your heart, for yourself, it is nevertheless considered a real abomination by God. For it is the root and the leaven of the dough of all vices.

Our masters say: “Whoever becomes proud is like one who builds a high place [2]; the Shekhinah accuses him – he is like one who seeks to oust God, to rebel and complain against Him, and the Holy One, blessed be He, declares: He and I cannot dwell together [3].” It would be tedious to list all their remarks on this subject. Woe to the son who drives his father out of his own palace! Our masters carried their condemnation very far, even comparing the proud man to an idolater, a renegade, a fornicator. “Whoever becomes proud, if he was wise, his wisdom leaves him [4].”

Any man whose heart has been touched by the fear of God, his hair stands on end and his eyes grow wet with tears when he thinks of the example our masters used to support their words: Hillel the Elder, known and renowned elsewhere in their accounts for his profound modesty and extreme humility [5]! Yet when, just once, he allowed himself to be drawn into what, given his high degree of modesty, might have seemed a slight deviation, he was immediately punished and forgot a point of Halakhah [6]. What of us after that? How much must we be vigilant and watch not to succumb [7]!

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2. Disinterested Service of God:

Study and Practice of the Commandments

Pride can arise in a man’s heart because he desires to serve God with absolute purity of heart. He may be led to underestimate the service of those who seem to him not to be animated by such purity of intention and who fulfil all the prescriptions of the Torah of God without devequt (attachment). All the more may he be led to despise – heaven forbid – someone who seems to him to study the Torah in a non-disinterested manner, which is a grave sin, may the Merciful One preserve us from it [8].

For certainly, purity of heart in the worship of God is required for the fullness of the commandment, but not to delay its mere performance, as I indicated above at the end of the First Portico, and as I will specify further on [9]: whoever performs a divine commandment according to the prescriptions of the holy written and oral Torah, even without devequt, is also called a servant of God, and loved by Him, blessed be He.

Similarly, he who studies the divine Torah, even in a non-disinterested manner, has certainly not yet reached a truly high level – but let us be careful not to despise him, even inwardly. On the contrary, every man in Israel has the duty to regard him with respect, as it is written: “On her left are riches and honor” (Proverbs 3:16), and our masters gloss: “For those who are left-handed in study [10].”

The Zohar affirms in the same sense: “‘The Torah of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple’ (Psalm 19:8). How much should men invest effort in the study of Torah, for whoever applies himself to its study acquires life. Even if he does not do his effort disinterestedly, he is amply rewarded in this world, and he is not condemned in the world of truth. Come and see, it is written: ‘Length of days is in her right hand; in her left are riches and honor’ (Proverbs 3:16): ample reward and serenity are assured him in this world [11].”

Thus it is clear that he who devotes himself to the study of His Torah, blessed be He, even in a non-disinterested manner, for whatever purpose – except for the purpose of negative criticism, heaven forbid: for such a man, our masters say, it would have been better had he not come into the world, for study acts upon him like a poison [12] – the Holy One, blessed be He, rewards him abundantly. Riches, honor, and peace are granted him in this world, and in the world to come he is not held accountable for that interested thought and tendency.

All the more so if his study is not motivated by any specific interest, but he does not study for the sake of Torah itself, in the sense that I will explain later in the Fourth Portico, chapter three, in the name of the RoSH [13]. If he studies generally without a defined purpose, his study is close to disinterested study, and this activity is more appreciated by God than all the commandments performed in a disinterested manner, in holiness and intentional purity, as is fitting [14].

This emerges explicitly from a teaching of the Talmud: “They asked R. Yehuda son of Shimon ben Pazi: Which attitude is fitting? Disinterested reproof or interested humility? He answered: He who would acquire only disinterested humility is preferable, for we have learned ‘Humility is superior to all other virtues’; but non-disinterested humility is also preferable, for R. Yehuda said in the name of Rav: One should always occupy oneself with Torah and commandments, even in a non-disinterested manner, for thereby one progresses from a non-disinterested attitude to a disinterested one [15].”

This reasoning applies also to the study of Torah. How much more so that disinterested study is superior to disinterested performance of commandments, since a whole mishnah affirms: “And the study of Torah is equivalent to all the commandments [16]?” Our masters also established the superiority of Torah over the commandments [17]: The merit and light of the commandments protect a man, they say, both at the moment he performs them and after he has performed them; but only to preserve him from trials, not to preserve him from sin itself. The light of Torah, on the other hand, preserves him, according to the conclusion of the text, at least at the moment he engages in it, also from sin [18]. The Jerusalem Talmud declares that “all the commandments cannot equal in value a single word of Torah [19],” as we propose to explain later, in the Fourth Portico [20].

In conclusion: non-disinterested study of Torah is superior to disinterested performance of commandments, for the very reason that a non-disinterested action ultimately leads to a disinterested action.

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3. The Pedagogical Argument

In truth, it is almost impossible to attain immediately, from the beginning, the level of disinterested study as is fitting. Just as one cannot ascend from the earth to the height except by climbing the rungs of the ladder, so non-disinterested study of the Torah is a rung that allows one to reach disinterested study, and it is for this reason that he who applies himself to it is loved by God.

Thus our masters say: “One should always occupy oneself with Torah and commandments even in a non-disinterested manner [21].” They specify “always,” that is to say, permanently. At the beginning, the obligation essentially concerns constancy in study, night and day. Even if the mind sometimes inclines toward a feeling of pride, glory, etc., one must not, heaven forbid, take that as a pretext to interrupt or slow down study [22]. On the contrary, one must stand firm and remain confident that by persevering one will reach the level of disinterested study, as is the case with the commandments [23].

Whoever dares to despise and denigrate, heaven forbid, him who occupies himself with Torah and commandments even in a non-disinterested manner, will not remain unpunished – he will have to answer for it. Moreover, our masters place him in the category of those who have no share in the world to come; hell ends but his torment does not; he is compared to renegades, informers, epicureans [24].

The Mishnah places the epicurean among those who have no right to the world to come [25] and the Talmud explains: Rav and R. Hanina both say that it refers to someone who despises a Torah student. R. Yohanan and R. Yehoshua ben Levi affirm that one also considers as an epicurean he who shows signs of contempt toward his fellow in the presence of a Torah student. – “Those who declare: ‘What use are the masters to us? They read the Torah for themselves, they study the Mishnah for themselves,’ are also to be counted among the epicureans; they despise the students of the Law and misinterpret the meaning of the Torah [26].” They lose their share in the world to come, may the Merciful One preserve us.

In the same spirit, R. Yona [27], in Sha‘ar haTeshuvah, lists the different sanctions in increasing order of severity. The last, most severe sanction is reserved for those concerning whom our masters say they have no share in the world to come. Among these he also mentions he who despises a student of the Law.

R. Ḥayyim Vital, in Sha‘ar haQedushah, also places him in that same group. He is punished so severely and rigorously because he is among those who diminish the light of the influence of the holy Torah, and profane it, heaven forbid, as R. Yona explains at length. (See the words of this holy man of God in the reference indicated; he specifies there that the principle of the sanction reserved for those enumerated in this group is the profanation of the honor of the holy Torah, may God preserve us from it.)

When one denigrates and despises him who devotes himself to non-disinterested study of the Torah, one discourages him from persevering in that path, and he will never be able to reach the level of disinterested study, to become an accomplished sage of the Torah. This unquestionably testifies to an attitude of contempt toward the student of the Law, and there is no greater profanation of His Name, blessed be He, and of His holy Torah than this! It is in this way that one lowers and diminishes the riches of the glory of the holy Torah, casts it to the ground, throws it into the dust, and in general destroys the service of God. Worship cannot be maintained as it should in the community of Israel without the knowledge of the Sages of the Torah, who study the holy Torah night and day. The eyes of all Israel are turned to them so that they may teach the path to follow and the conduct to hold. Whoever contributes to a lack of Sages of the Torah in Israel thereby destroys the continuation of divine service, for the community of Israel would be deprived of Torah and masters and would no longer even know in what it is at fault. This is also the sense of R. Yona’s remarks – see what he writes on this subject.

Therefore, on the contrary, one must take care to honor and elevate with all one’s strength him who studies and upholds the divine Torah, even in a non-disinterested manner, so that he may be strengthened in the rectitude of his path and not relax his effort, in order to reach the degree of disinterested study. Even if it appeared that throughout his life, from youth to old age, to a very advanced age, he always studied for an interested purpose, one should still pay him homage, and at the very least not show him signs of contempt, heaven forbid. If he has devoted himself to the study of the divine Torah with constancy, there is no doubt that at certain moments his intention was solely for the sake of Torah itself. As our masters assure us: non-disinterested action leads to disinterested action. This does not mean that one remains indifferently all one’s life at the level of disinterested action. But as long as one engages in regular study for several consecutive hours [28], even though generally not in a disinterested manner, it is absolutely impossible that a disinterested intention does not slip in, even if only for a brief moment.

This intention, during that brief moment, sanctifies and retroactively purifies all the preceding activity [29].

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4. The Nonsense of Absolute Purity

This subject, as well as the problems attached to it, requires from us particularly vigilant attention.

Our masters warn us: “He who is greater than his neighbor, his inclination is greater than his neighbor’s [30].” The inclination, very cunning, presents itself differently according to individuals, according to the level they have reached in the study of Torah and the service of God. When it discerns that an individual of high degree will not yield to its urgings to commit such and such a fault or sin, grave or light, it presents itself to him disguised as the good inclination. It thus tries to blind his mind, poison him and lead him astray in the very manner and on the very point to which that man is attached. It proposes an attitude that, at first glance, appears to him as dictated by the good inclination; it emphasizes its aspects and qualities of purity that will allow him to rise to a higher level [a]. The man rushes into its net, like a bird to its snare, without noticing or recognizing that his soul is at stake and that he is running to his death.

[a] Perhaps our masters wanted to recall this idea when they said that “the evil inclination is like a fly that stands between the two doors of the heart” (Berakhot 61a). It is known that the good inclination resides in the right ventricle, and the evil inclination in the left ventricle, as it is written: “The heart of the wise is at his right, and the heart of the fool at his left” (Ecclesiastes 10:2). Our masters therefore affirm that the good inclination knows and always keeps its place on the right; it never proposes anything to man but true good. The evil inclination, on the other hand, does not keep the place assigned to it, on the left, in order to push openly toward fault and sin. Sometimes it leaves its residence and enters the right ventricle, to present itself to man in the guise of the good inclination, as if wanting to lead him toward an excess of holiness, and man does not discern the evil and bitterness it contains, heaven forbid.

So take good heed not to be deceived by your inclination, when it tries to persuade you that it is essential to be constantly preoccupied with intentional purity as is fitting, that your thought must be perpetually and without interruption in intimate communion with your Creator, that you can in no case and at no moment depart from pure thought, that you must act in every circumstance only for God. It suggests to you that the performance of Torah and commandments can only be validly done with extreme concentration and perfect communion with God. It tries to make you believe that as long as one is not ready to act with holy intention, in an attitude of communion and purity of thought, the act cannot be considered to have religious value.

This old, foolish king [31], a master in the art of throwing dust in the eyes, now knows how to present arguments drawn from Scripture, Mishnah, Talmud, Midrash, and the book of the Zohar, such as the aphorism: “The Torah requires the heart [32]” and many others of the same kind. If you apply yourself to discerning things with intelligence and according to the spirit of the Torah, you will easily understand that his whole game consists precisely in showing a clean paw, putting forward signs of purity, making you believe that he is walking toward holiness when he is leading to death – may the Merciful One preserve us.

Understand his method and see how he contrives to foment evil by presenting it as good. Today he persuades you that Torah and commandments without devequt are worthless, that you must prepare your heart and raise your thought toward the purest ideas, to the point that you will be so totally absorbed in preparing the commandment before performing it that you will let the prescribed hour for the commandment or prayer pass. Then he convinces you that a prayer or commandment performed with extreme concentration in a spirit of holiness and purity, even after the prescribed time, is far preferable to a commandment performed on time but without the required fervor.

When your inclination has led you to no longer pay attention to the scrupulous observance of the time fixed for such and such a prayer or commandment, because your thought is occupied with purifying itself and your heart must first turn toward fervor, it will lead you with sweet words, slowly, gradually and insensibly, to consider as permissible the non-observance of the fixed time for prayer and the commandment, even when you are occupied with vain and unimportant things. It then strips you completely, and you have left neither commandment performed on time, nor intention, nor fervor: if one listens to these proposals and engages in this path, heaven forbid, one participates in the destruction of all Torah life.

Consider indeed! If someone strives, for example, on the first night of Passover, to eat a piece (olive-sized) of matzah in holiness, purity, and communion; if he pursues his spiritual preparation all night until daybreak or near dawn, the purity of his thought would be rejected and not accepted [33]. On the other hand, he who eats a piece (olive-sized) of matzah at the proper time, even without particular holiness and purity, has performed a positive commandment prescribed by the Torah, and will be rewarded. One could multiply examples to demonstrate that we must respect the period and the time prescribed for the performance of the commandments: otherwise, what would it matter that one sounds the Shofar with deep fervor on the first night of Passover instead of eating matzah, or that one consumes an olive-sized piece of matzah on Rosh haShanah, or that one fasts on the eve of Yom Kippur and on Yom Kippur, instead of fasting, one takes the lulav! What would become of the Torah [34]?

Even if your inclination does not lead you to exceed the prescribed time, it may lead you to seek purity to the point that you no longer have the leisure to ensure the precise performance of the commandments, exactly according to the modality of the law and the established rules, and to take into account the ordinances laid down by the Talmud and our illustrious masters. Your inclination cannot guarantee you that an exaggerated pursuit of purity of intention will not lead you to neglect the details of practical action. Know indeed that as long as you remain attached to the idea it suggests to you, namely that it is essential to realize that a commandment or a study that is not absolutely pure, without mixture or composition, like the fine flour of the offering, must be excluded from your behavior, you remain, blinded, exposed to its seduction, and you cannot ensure the scrupulous performance of the details of the prescriptions without insensibly transgressing their laws and rules, even without realizing it.

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5. The Objectification of Intention:

The Act of Prayer

It is evident that this path is dangerous and can lead to total abandonment, to the destruction of many basic principles of the holy Torah and the Rabbis. We emphasized at the end of the First Portico [35] that the essence of the commandment is the practice of the act, purity of intention being only an addition, which cannot serve as a pretext to delay its performance. Every intelligent and upright man understands this easily. For sacrifices, we generally admit that any offering can be considered as offered for the purpose of performing the commandment, and our masters explicitly say that he who eats the Passover sacrifice gluttonously, though he has certainly not performed the commandment in the best way, has nevertheless fulfilled his duty [36]. On the other hand, he who at the time of the obligation to offer the Passover sacrifice and at the time of the obligation to consume it is immersed in deep reflections about Passover, in subtle thoughts, pure among the purest, but omits to bring the sacrifice, is punishable by excision; and so it is for all the commandments.

This principle applies not only to commandments whose essential content is the practice of an act, but also to prayer called “service of the heart,” as our masters teach us in the first chapter of Tractate Ta‘anit [37], from the verse: “to serve Him with all your heart” (Deuteronomy 11:13) [38]. Nevertheless, the essence of the commandment consists, however, in pronouncing all the words of the ritual, according to the teaching of our masters at the beginning of the chapter ‘en ‘omdin [39], from the text concerning Hannah’s prayer: “Only her lips moved” (1 Samuel 1:13) – from which we learn that the one who prays must pronounce the words with his lips [40].

We find the same idea in the Midrash Shochar Tov: “One might have thought that the one praying could engage in meditation – to avoid this error Scripture specifies: ‘Only her lips moved… [and her voice was not heard].’ How? She expressed [her thought] with her lips [41].” This teaching certainly does not mean to give us only a description or an a priori rule, but also an a posteriori limit: whoever has merely meditated on the words of the prayer has not fulfilled his duty. If the time for prayer has not elapsed, he must repeat the prayer, pronouncing each word distinctly. If the time has passed, he must recite the following prayer twice, like someone who has not yet prayed, as the Magen Abraham remarks [42].

These arguments allow us to establish with certainty that meditation alone does not suffice to discharge the obligation of prayer. It is known, from the Zohar and the writings of the Ari, that prayer ensures the restoration of the worlds and the progressive elevation of the different aspects of the soul – nefesh, ruaḥ, neshamah – from below to above, through communion and the attachment of the human soul to its ruaḥ and its ruaḥ to the neshamah, as I indicated above, at the end of the Second Portico [43]. This connection is effected by the inflection and movement of the lips in articulating the words of prayer, which constitutes the “act” part of speech, according to the expression of our masters: “The articulation of the lips is an act [44].” The Talmud says likewise: “How do we know that speech must be considered an act? For it is written: ‘By the word of the Lord the heavens were made’ (Psalm 33:6) [45].”

This level corresponds to the nefesh of speech; the breath and the voice, which are the essence of speech, correspond to the ruaḥ, while the intention of the heart expressed by the words at the moment they are pronounced corresponds to the level of neshamah of speech. One understands therefore that one cannot be discharged from the obligation to pray by mere thought and meditation on the words of the ritual, for one can only reach the level of neshamah in a progressive manner, from below upward, so that the nefesh of speech, through the movement of the lips, attaches itself to the ruaḥ of speech, the breath and the voice, and these two levels finally attach themselves to the neshamah which corresponds to thought and intention.

He who prays solely by meditation, his prayer is ineffective since he performs no restoration. On the other hand, he who merely raises his voice and articulates the words, even though he has not achieved union with thought and intention and his thought is not at a high degree of perfection as would be fitting – since he does not reach the world of thought, the world of neshamah, his prayer being even devoid of human thought – his act is not in vain and he has, in this way, fulfilled his strict duty. He has at least achieved an ascent by binding his nefesh to his ruaḥ and reached the level of nefesh in the world of ruaḥ.

See Zohar: “Prayer must be performed with thought, the will of the heart, the voice, the articulation of the lips, in order to effect a perfect bond, to realize unity Above, as He is Above. [Just as perfection emanates from Above to Below, so must it ascend from Below to Above.] – The bond must be effected as is fitting. Thought, will, voice and speech are four that bind bonds among themselves. When they have established such a bond together, they all merge to become a single Chariot upon which the Shekhinah rests. [Thought arouses will, and will that comes from thought arouses the voice, which can be heard] and this perceived voice ascends to establish a bond from Below to Above [46].”

Another text declares generally that “prayer depends essentially first on the act and second on the word of the mouth [47].”

– “Everything a man thinks and meditates in his heart remains ineffective as long as he does not express it with his lips… This is the reason that in every prayer and supplication, one must pronounce the words with the lips. – If one does not do so, that prayer is not a prayer and that supplication is not a supplication. As soon as the words are expressed, they pierce the air and rise up… He who is charged to gather them seizes them and reunites them to the Holy Crown [48].”

A passage of the Zohar declares, in a very general formula: “Whoever says that the act is not necessary or that one does not need words to express ideas so that the voice may cause an action Above, let him give up his soul [49]!” Our masters have established as a rule that the absence of intention invalidates the commandment only for the blessing of the Avot (the first three blessings of the Amidah) [50].

– He who is anxious but would nevertheless like to pray, or finds himself in misfortune and cannot order the praises he wishes to address to his Master, what should he do? The answer is: Even though he is not able to direct his heart and will as is fitting, why should he not recite the praises of his Master? Let him pray, even though he is not able at that moment to join fervor and intention to his supplication [51]!

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6. The Primacy of Action

It is undeniable that human thought rises and reaches the lofty heights of the higher worlds; if one joins purity of thought and intention at the moment of performing a commandment, the acts effect greater restorations in the highest worlds. However, for us, it is not thought that takes precedence, as we propose to explain.

“He to whom an act [of commandment] presents itself and he performs it with fervor, is a righteous man. He who performs it, even without fervor, is a righteous man, because he obeys the law of his Master, even though he does not have the weight of him who performs the will of God disinterestedly and intentionally [by this act seeks to grasp the glory of his Master]. He is like one who ignores the reason [for disinterested action depends on the will]… However, in the case where the will of the heart [which is the essence of everything] is absent, David prayed thinking of himself: ‘Let the work of our hands be established for us; the work of our hands, establish it’ (Psalm 90:17). – What does ‘established for us’ mean? – ‘Establish’: may you establish your restoration Above, as is fitting. – ‘For us’: although we do not know how to use the will, but only the act, ‘establish the work of our hands.’ – ‘Establish it’: Who? The level of emanation that must be restored [52]…”

Thus, what we affirmed concerning prayer in the Third Portico, that it must be directed toward the Place of the world, blessed be His Name (according to the explanation we proposed of the notion “Place of the world”) and the meaning of Unity in the first verse of the reading of the Shema‘ [53], all that pertains only to the full accomplishment of the commandment, but not as a prerequisite that could prevent its execution. He who knows nothing of these explanations, either because they have not been presented to him, or because he has rejected them because he did not grasp their depth, or because he feared they might lead him to destroy certain principles of the Torah (which can happen if one does not grasp them correctly as is fitting – see what we have developed on this subject above [54]), can nevertheless be called a servant of God.

If he serves Him, blessed be He, and performs all that is prescribed in the written and oral Torah and in the ordinances of our illustrious masters, if he believes in the general affirmation of the first verse of the Shema‘, that God is One, even if he ignores the meaning of this Unity, and directs his prayer toward God, without particular investigation, he is also called a servant of God [55]. Our recommendations indeed concern only those who have the capacity to grasp them, and especially fear God and worship Him, and have the courage to undertake this effort.

Therefore we must be attentive so as to neglect no detail of the practical applications of the commandment, including the precise ordinances introduced by our masters; all the more so, we cannot modify its schedule under the pretext of not having reached a sufficient level of purity of thought [56].

The more strict one is in one’s acts, the more worthy of praise.

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7. The Historical Argument

Your inclination can also mislead you by making you believe that the essence of worship is to act only for the glory of Heaven, in a completely disinterested manner; that a sin and a fault can be considered a commandment if they are performed for the glory of Heaven for some restoration [57]; that the Merciful One requires the heart [58]; that a sin committed with a disinterested purpose is worth as much [as a commandment performed in an interested manner] [59]; and many similar affirmations. It will also demonstrate to you that you must follow in the footsteps of the holy Patriarchs and the righteous of the first generations who lived before the promulgation of the Torah. Their speech, their thought, and the general line of their conduct aimed only at communion with God, the purity of their thought being absolutely disinterested. They applied themselves to ascending, restoring and unifying the worlds and the higher forces, by any action, in any manner and at any time, and not by specific acts and precise commandments, indelibly established. Thus it was, for example, with our ancestor Jacob concerning Laban’s flock and the rods [60], and the Maggid of Bet Yosef [61] reports concerning Enoch who was a cobbler, that he praised the Holy One, blessed be He, at every stitch while sewing shoes [62].

Our masters indeed taught that our ancestors performed all the precepts of the Torah [63], that Noah studied the Torah [64], but they had not received the order – these acts were not for them halakhic rules. As I indicated above at the end of the First Portico [65], they performed the Torah because the fineness of their understanding had enabled them to understand the modality of the restoration of the worlds and the order of the higher forces by means of the commandments. Moreover, they had permission to serve God by means other than the commandments, and they could transgress certain commandments and behave otherwise than according to the law of the Torah, when they judged that such a particular action was then necessary for the restoration of the worlds [66].

If you have even a little intelligence, you will discern that in this presentation there is neither proof, nor argument, nor even “the support of a broken reed [67].” The simple truth is that which I have developed above at the end of the First Portico: This worship was acceptable only before the promulgation of the Torah. But from the moment Moses brought it down to earth, “it is not in heaven” (Deuteronomy 30:12) [68]. We have brought proofs from Ezekiel and Isaiah [69] that it is now forbidden for us to modify any divine commandment, even for a disinterested purpose. Even if we were to conclude that a commandment prescribed to us could cause some damage, even if it were only a passive attitude on our part, the decision would not depend on human initiative. We could not exempt ourselves from our obligation, for we do not know the reasons for the divine precepts. See the development of this subject in the text above.

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8. The Narrow Path of the Torah

Finally, your inclination might seduce you by bringing multiple proofs to convince you that the goal of divine service consists solely in acquiring reverential fear: toward this goal the eyes and the heart must constantly tend. Fear of punishment and shame before other men is the worst of conduct, and it is fitting to remove these bad reactions from your heart. Your inclination will push you on the path of reverential fear, adding fear to fear, until it convinces you that fear of punishment and shame before others are faults, to be fled as one flees from sin. You thus risk being caught in its trap, and not being able to free yourself at a moment when you do not experience, as is fitting, reverential fear. It will present things to you in such a way that everything will seem unimportant: if someone reproaches you and shows you that you have transgressed a law, your heart will persuade you not to change as long as you act out of fear of the one who reproaches you, for you will say to yourself, “I act out of fear of men, an external fear, and only the fear of God should dictate my conduct.”

Now our masters warned us by reporting the blessing given by R. Yohanan ben Zakkai to his disciples: “Fear God as much as you fear men [70]!”

Need there be a more convincing example than that of R. Amram the Pious? Suddenly placed before temptation, heaven forbid, as the Talmud relates at the end of tractate Sanhedrin, he used cunning to fight his inclination, also using the shame he felt before his colleagues, provided that he not transgress the order of his Creator [71]. Although the Holy One, blessed be He, takes care of the honor of the righteous, it seems that the Talmud wanted to relate this fact to us in order to teach us the upright ways of the Eternal.

I have shown you some of the means used by the inclination, which disguises itself under all sorts of ruses. Our masters say [72] that “the inclination of man renews its attacks every day, as it is written: ‘only evil every day’ (Genesis 6:5) [73].” It is not content to harm by using the artifices used in the past; it invents new ones every day. It presents itself as not inciting to evil at all; on the contrary, it shows that all the Torah one has studied, or the commandments one has performed up to this day, still amount to very little, that everything “is only evil every day” – and it is in this way that it seizes hold of man.

Our masters gloss the verse: “The wicked watches the righteous, and seeks to kill him” (Psalm 37:32): it refers to the evil inclination, the angel of death, who opens his eyes wide to see what will happen and how to make him stumble (the expression “watches” means to foresee what will happen later) until one no longer mistrusts him [74].

As for you, reader, do not think that these ideas are the fruit of my imagination. They imposed themselves on me when I saw that many people, who aspired to draw near to God [75], fell into this trap. I then set about seeking them out and questioning them in order to gather direct testimony from their mouths. In one place, I saw with my own eyes how habit had become so ingrained that people had almost forgotten the normal time fixed for the afternoon prayer (Minḥah) by our masters. On the contrary, as a result of the habit, it was accepted by them as a rule and a halakhah that this prayer should be recited after the stars come out. When someone invited his neighbor to recite the afternoon prayer, he would answer: “Let’s go see if there are already stars in the sky!” May God forgive them, may He absolve those who, foolish, sin inadvertently!

Lend a receptive ear to the wise advice of the masters of the Torah, who, following the teaching of our Sages, affirm to us that it is essential to perform the commandment at its proper time, in all the details of its application, without the slightest deviation – purity of thought being added to the act.

You will then walk on a sure path and you will succeed in maintaining both. The Mishnah explicitly states that he whose deeds exceed his wisdom, his wisdom is likewise maintained, in holiness, purity and communion [76].

Can one permit oneself to neglect the comparison established by our masters – “He whose deeds surpass his wisdom is like a tree that has little foliage but possesses many roots: all the storms of the world cannot uproot it from its place [77]!”

To him who understands, greeting!

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Notes to the Warning

1. An introductory note: These eight transitional chapters must be considered as an introduction to the Fourth Portico, which is devoted to the Torah and the particular value of its study. They constitute a warning against the dangers stemming from an exaggerated pursuit of “purity of intention” and Devequt (cleaving to God), and seem primarily aimed at the religious attitudes advocated by representatives of the Hasidic movement. It is probable that this “Warning,” whose composition—but not its content—differs from the rest of the work, was added after the writing of the other Porticos.

The insistence on the necessity of attaining, from the very start, such a high level of service to God responds, according to the author, to a temptation whose motives he strives to thwart. After having shown in the previous Porticos that the Torah corresponds to the Law of “God as associated with the worlds in their differences,” and having refused the nihilism to which the conception of divine immanent omnipresence could lead, R. Ḥayyim describes here the psychological and moral perversions of an initial spiritualism that is not the crowning achievement of a progressive and sustained effort. To this elevation, which makes fervor and purity of heart the condition of the only valid religious attitude, he opposes the concrete integrity of the scrupulous respect for the halakhic rule.

2. To build a “high place” (bamah), while the only legitimate place for worship was the Temple in Jerusalem, is equivalent to an act of idolatry.

3. Sotah 4b, 5a.

4. Pesachim 66b.

5. Hillel the Elder, student of Shemaya and Avtalyon, end of the 1st century BCE and beginning of the 1st century CE.

6. Pesachim 66b. He rebuked his colleagues for not having been sufficiently attentive to the lessons of Shemaya and Avtalyon. He was punished for this and forgot a point of Halakhah concerning the offering of the Passover sacrifice.

7. The Hasidim accused their “intellectualist” opponents of seeking honors and granting excessive esteem to the religious value of their knowledge. See Toldot Ya’akov-Yosef, p. 38 ff. (Ya’akov-Yosef of Polonnoye, 1781). R. Ḥayyim turns the accusation of pride around and, with subtlety, detects this fault in the attitude and demands of the Hasidim themselves.

8. The primacy accorded to purity of intention can lead, through pride, to contempt for those who study the Torah simply, without seeking Devequt. Yet, these individuals are worthy of esteem, as long as their study does not have a negative goal of denigration.

9. First Portico, end of chapter 22. Fourth Portico, chapters 29 and 30.

10. Shabbat 63a. Those who are “left-handed” in study are those who study for a non-disinterested purpose.

11. Zohar I, 184b, section Vayeshev.

12. Shabbat 88b. Inexact citation. The text is as follows: “R. Yoḥanan said: Whoever studies not for the purpose of applying it in practice, it would have been better had his placenta been turned over him” (i.e., that he never come into the world). — Although insisting strongly on the intellectual value of study, R. Ḥayyim sees in purely theoretical study that refuses in advance any possibility of practical application, a negative attitude, close to that of study undertaken for the critical purpose of denigration. Cf. Nefesh HaḤayyim I, ch. 21 and IV, ch. 7 and 18. See N. Lamm, op. cit., p. 169, note 65.

13. RoSH: Rabbenu Asher ben Yeḥiel (1250–1327).

14. The author envisages the possibility of a neutral study, which is undertaken neither for a purpose of personal profit, nor for a negative purpose of destructive criticism, nor for the positive purpose of the mitsvah. He does not reject such study undertaken without particular motivation, by habit, for he sees in it a possibility of departure to reach a higher level. This pedagogical estimation of the value of religious activities is very characteristic of R. Ḥayyim’s approach; it occupies an important place in the criticisms he formulates against the Hasidic doctrine, for which Devequt is a necessary condition to confer upon an act, and particularly upon study, the quality of a mitsvah.

This pedagogical argument, which will be deepened in the next chapter, allows him to consent to a neutral and routine study, not as a stopgap to which he resigns himself, but as being a normal disposition of all study, at its beginning, at the initial stage.

15. Arakhin 16b. Interested reproof: Reproof dictated by personal interest and not effected for the progress or interest of another. Interested humility: Renouncing reproving others, apparently out of modesty, but in reality to avoid trouble or to pass oneself off as a humble man. R. Ḥayyim wants to prove from this text that a non-disinterested attitude is not necessarily to be rejected. One can explain the analogy established by the author between humility and the study of the Torah not as a fortuitous rapprochement, but as the affirmation of two fundamental values, sources of all others. Humility is a cardinal virtue, without which all other virtues lose their moral character, and the study of the Torah is the absolute foundation of all religious attitude.

16. Mishnah Pe’ah 1:1. Humility is a fundamental quality, a cardinal virtue without which all others lose their value. Likewise, the study of the Torah is indispensable for the maintenance of religious life. In both cases, it is a question of preserving the source of value.

17. This idea, which is an essential point of R. Ḥayyim’s thesis, will be developed and widely commented upon in the Fourth Portico. See in particular chapter 29. See also Ruaḥ Ḥayyim, 3, 9.

18. Sotah 21a.

19. Pe’ah, chapter 1.

20. Fourth Portico, chapters 29 and 30.

21. Pesachim 50b.

22. See above, note 14.

23. A study undertaken for an interested purpose, for a precise personal goal, is not only accepted by the author, but seems to him to be an indispensable initial stage in the educational process of Torah study.

The recommendation of the Talmud, Pesachim 50b (which is the subject of the study in this chapter), is generally explained as a recommendation to persevere in study, even if interested, because one day or another it will necessarily lead to study undertaken for its own sake. R. Ḥayyim explains that this “advice” must be understood as a permanent rule, “tamid” (always): one must in all cases follow this path. Interested study being a necessary stage, wanting to eliminate it would be equivalent to weakening the possibilities of future development and would consequently constitute a serious error and a grave fault.

See Maimonides, Commentary on the Mishnah, Introduction to Sanhedrin, chapter 10. For Maimonides, a disinterested act corresponds to a service performed out of love and represents the summit of religious attitude. One can only attain it after a long and persevering effort, whose primary motivation is fear, that is to say, an interested goal. See Commentary on Avot 1:3 and Guide for the Perplexed III, 51.

24. Rosh HaShanah 17a.

25. Sanhedrin 10:1. The Mishnah speaks of the epicurean (apikoros) without defining him. The Talmud attempts to give a definition. See Maimonides, Introduction to chapter 10 of Sanhedrin: “He who abandons and despises the Torah or those who devote themselves to it — he who has no faith in the fundamental principles of the Torah…”

26. Sanhedrin 99b.

27. R. Yona of Gerona, Sha’arei Teshuvah (Third Gate: §§ 62, 155, 156). This work is also cited in Nefesh HaḤayyim, IV, 24.

28. This affirmation seems justified only by the prolonged duration devoted to study.

29. Cf. Ḥagigah 5b.

30. Sukkah 52a.

31. Designation of the evil inclination, cf. Zohar I, 179b. Reference to Ecclesiastes 4:13.

32. Sanhedrin 106b: “The Holy One, blessed be He, requires the heart,” cf. Rashi ad locum.

33. Reference to Leviticus 19:7.

34. Demonstration pushed to the absurd to prove that the mitsvah has a value in itself. Transgressing the objective conditions that regulate its application in order to preserve the fervor of purity of intention leads to the ruin of divine service according to the data of the Torah and the Halakhah.

35. First Portico, chapter 22.

36. Nazir 23a.

37. Ta’anit 2a.

38. See Second Portico, chapter 1.

39. Berakhot 31a.

40. Despite the importance of intention in prayer—it constitutes its essence—the mitsvah itself is linked first to the act of articulating the terms of the liturgy. This is the indispensable basis. To this necessary condition is then added the Kabbalistic conception of the restorative action of prayer, which undoubtedly requires clear intentionality, but whose action also operates by the simple recitation of the text.

As with the mitsvot, R. Ḥayyim accords importance to the very fact of prayer: the exaggerated emphasis on intention eliminates the value of both the content of the prayer and all the rules which, over the centuries, have fixed the specific form of divine service in Judaism.

41. Midrash Shochar Tov on I Samuel, 2.

42. Abraham Abele Gombiner (1637–1683): Magen Abraham (101, 2), Commentary on the Shulḥan Arukh, Oraḥ Ḥayyim, Laws of Prayer.

43. Second Portico, chapter 18 (note u).

44. Bava Metzia 90b; Sanhedrin 65a.

45. Shabbat 119b.

46. Zohar II, 262b.

47. Zohar III, 120b; see in this text the order of the elements.

48. Zohar III, Idra Zuta, 294b.

49. Zohar III, 105a.

50. First blessing of the Amidah. See Oraḥ Ḥayyim, Laws of Prayer, 101:1.

51. Zohar I, 243b (end).

52. Zohar II, 93b. Level of Malkhut, which must, thanks to the act of the mitsvah, be attached to Ḥesed, Gevurah, and Tiferet.

53. See carefully Third Portico, chapter 11.

54. Third Portico, chapter 1.

55. As specified in the Pardes Rimonim, First Portico, chapter 9, concerning belief in the existence of the Sefirot.

56. The non-observance of the fixed schedule for the recitation of the different prayers takes on, in the eyes of the author, an exemplary value for the negligent attitude to which the Hasidic movement could lead: the elimination of the principle of Halakhah as a specific expression of the spirituality of Judaism. The habit of not respecting the prescribed schedule is rather late in the history of Hasidism. The first masters of this movement generally prayed at dawn. (See Tsa’vat haRIBaSh.) Deviations spread following the teaching of R. Yeḥiel Mikal of Slotchov and R. Levi Yitzḥak of Berditchev. The delays were motivated by the necessity of preparing for prayer: a prayer undertaken in a spirit of impurity and by simple routine being of no value. See Second Portico, chapter 13. See Wilensky: Ḥasidim uMitnagdim, vol. 1, p. 38, note 19 and see Lamm, op. cit., pp. 16–20.

57. See G. Sholem: “Mitsvah haba’ah be’averah” (A mitsvah accomplished through a transgression) in Kenesset II, pp. 364–392.

58. Sanhedrin 106b.

59. Horayot 10b. Slightly different version in Nazir 23b: worth more.

60. See Genesis 30:32–43.

61. See Second Portico, note 52.

62. Maggid Mesharim, section Miketz.

63. Yoma 28b; 37b; Leviticus Rabbah 2:9; Kiddushin 82a.

64. Leviticus Rabbah 2.

65. First Portico, chapters 21 and 22.

66. See on this subject the conclusion of the Book of Beliefs (Sefer Ha’Emunot) by R. Shem Tov Ibn Shem Tov (1390–1440). His book Sefer Ha’Emunot is a pamphlet against the rationalism of Maimonides and a work favorable to Kabbalistic ideas. See his reference to R. Ḥushiel Gaon. Like all authors of the first generations, he tended to obscure these subjects and expressed himself very concisely. (Note by the Author).

67. Reference to II Kings 18:21; Isaiah 36:6.

68. The promulgation of the Torah constitutes a radical break with subjective and intuitive religion: the Revelation is the revelation of the categorical imperative of the Law. What was legitimate before this crucial event, is no longer so afterwards. See First Portico, chapter 21.

69. See First Portico, chapter 22. Cf. Berakhot 10a.

70. Berakhot 28b.

71. Kiddushin 81a: “Female captives came to Nehardea; they were housed in the house of R. Amram the Pious. (For he had given the order to redeem them.) The ladder leading to their floor was removed. When one of them moved, a ray of light fell on her through the skylight of the room: R. Amram took the ladder and climbed up. Ten people could not lift the ladder, but he lifted it all by himself. Having reached the middle of the ladder, he clung to it and cried out: ‘There is fire at Amram’s!’ The Rabbis rushed over. They said to him: ‘We are ashamed for you.’ He replied: ‘It is better that you be ashamed of Amram in this world, than that you be ashamed of him in the World to Come.’ Then he conjured the evil inclination to leave him, and it departed from him like a column of fire. Then he said to it: ‘You see, you are fire and I am flesh, yet I am stronger than you.’”

72. Kiddushin 34b.

73. Genesis 6:5, literally: “that every object of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all day long.”

74. Kiddushin 30b.

75. Reference to Isaiah 58:2.

76. Avot 3:12. (Note: In standard numbering, this is often 3:9 or 3:11 depending on the edition; the French text cites 3:12).

77. Avot 3:22. (Note: In standard numbering, this is often 3:1

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