The Good Who Does Good, to the Bad and to the Good

Article 1, 1987

We say, “And all believe,” etc., “the Good who does good, to the bad and to the good.” We should understand this in the work, meaning those who want to draw near the Creator, and who regard this as “good,” meaning that this is all that they expect—to be rewarded with Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator. Therefore, why should we interpret here “to the bad and to the good”? That is, why are they regarded as “bad” if we are speaking of a person who wants to reach the good, which he regards as Dvekut with the Creator? And accordingly, what do we regard as the degree of “good”?

To understand this, we first need to bring in the purpose of creation, which we know is about “doing good to His creations.” Accordingly, it means that when we say, “And all believe,” etc., “the Good who does good,” it means, as our sages said, that “the conduct of the Good is to do good.” And yet, we believe that He does good to the bad and to the good, meaning that the bad, too, will receive the delight and pleasure.

According to the simple meaning, we should say that “bad” are those people who do bad to others, meaning that they are concerned only with their own well-being and not to bestow. “Good” are those people who like to do good to others; these are the people who are called “good.” For this reason, we should interpret “the Good, who does good to the bad and to the good” to mean that bad people, who are immersed in self-love, will also receive delight and pleasure.

According to the rule we learn—that there was a restriction and concealment on the vessels of reception in order to receive, that the light will not shine again in this place and it will remain a space devoid of light, and that restriction is called Tzimtzum Aleph [first restriction], which will never be revoked, but only Tzimtzum Bet [second restriction] will be revoked, but one who receives in order to receive will never receive—so how can “does good to the bad and to the good” be true? After all, they do not have vessels to receive the upper abundance, called “to do good to His creations.”

Baal HaSulam once said that there are two types of Kelim [vessels] in a person: 1) vessels of bestowal, 2) vessels of reception, which Kabbalah calls Kelim de Panim [anterior Kelim], which are vessels of bestowal, and Kelim de Achoraim [posterior vessels], which are vessels of reception. The vessels of bestowal are called “good vessels,” and there are people who can correct themselves only with vessels of bestowal. This means that only with vessels of bestowal can they direct their intention to be in order to bestow, and not more. Others are rewarded with a higher degree, meaning that they can aim in order to bestow with vessels of reception, too.

According to the above, we should interpret the meaning of “Good, who does good to the bad and to the good,” to mean that a person should believe that the Creator gives help from above, as our sages said, “He who comes to purify is aided.” Therefore, when they ask of the Creator to give him the strength to be able to direct his actions to be in order to bestow, to ask for a complete prayer, meaning that the Creator will help him have the power to overcome in order to bestow even over his vessels of reception, too, so they will be in order to bestow, this is called “to the bad,” meaning to the vessels of reception. And “to the good” means vessels of bestowal. Both of them should have the intention for the Creator.

Now we can understand why it can be said of a person who wishes for the Creator to bring him closer to His work, so he can aim his work for the Creator, that they are called “bad.” According to the above, it will mean that those who want the vessels of reception—which are called “bad Kelim”—to also draw near to the Creator, we call them “bad.” It follows that when we speak of bad Kelim that will be corrected in order to bestow it is a higher degree than the “good,” since “good” means that he wants the Creator to give him the power to prevail over them and aim in order to bestow.

And regarding the evil inclination and good inclination, Baal HaSulam once said that Yetzer [inclination] comes from the word Tziur [depiction]. Therefore, sometimes the inclination means that a person receives a good depiction about keeping Torah and Mitzvot [commandments] for the Creator, meaning that he begins to feel the delight and pleasure that he will have by being rewarded with adhering to the Creator and adhering to the root that has created all creations, meaning that the Creator’s intention was to do good to His creations.

At that time, this depiction gives one a great yearning to leave all corporeal matters because he feels that they are all inconsequential and will be cancelled. He says about every corporeal matter he examines that it is not worth wasting his life in order to obtain it. Rather, he feels that it is worthwhile to give up everything in order to achieve Dvekut with the Creator, and to have connection with all the souls that were in this world and were rewarded with the life of the next world, and he will be rewarded with entering the seminaries, as it is in The Zohar, “the seminary of Rashbi,” “the seminary of Matat.” It follows that the good depiction he has received about spirituality causes him to depart from bodily pleasures and approach pleasures of the souls, since he longs, as our sages said, for “You will see your world in your life, and your end in the life of the next world” (see “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 89). This is the good inclination.

Sometimes a person receives a bad depiction, meaning he receives a depiction that if he takes upon himself to work only for the Creator and not for his own benefit, and that all his work will be dedicated to the Creator, he receives depictions as though he is lost from the world, which is filled with the joy of life, and he is leaving his entire family, with whom he was always together, and he suddenly leaves them. All the yearnings he wanted to obtain, and thought that he had obtained some, and some he did not, now, all at once, he loses everything and feels as though the whole world has grown dark for him. He cannot find in himself any desire or craving to have the ability to overcome all the depictions he is now receiving about the corporeal world.

Moreover, a person is surprised that he has never attributed such importance to the corporeal world as he does now, and he already agreed many times to work devotedly so that everything will be to benefit the Creator and not for his own benefit. However, he never felt such taste in the corporeal life as it seems to him now, in such a state where he received such bad depictions about spirituality, and good depictions about corporeality. This is called “the evil inclination.”

According to the above, we should interpret what is written in “And for a sin that we sinned before You coercively and willingly,” and afterwards we say, “for a sin that we sinned before You with the evil inclination.” Everyone asks, “Was the previous ‘for a sin’ about the good inclination and not about the evil inclination? After all, transgressions come only from the evil inclination.”

By this we should interpret what we have taken upon ourselves: to hear the bad depictions it tells us about spirituality. That is, on the one hand, we are immersed in all the corporeal sins, and in addition, we receive from it bad depictions about spirituality, and we can interpret “for a sin that we sinned before You with the evil inclination” as bad depictions about spirituality.