I heard on the eve of Shabbat, May 14, 1943
“A transgression does not extinguish a Mitzva [commandment], and a Mitzva does not extinguish a transgression.” It is the conduct of the work that one must take the good path. But the bad in a person does not let him take the good path.
However, one must know that one does not need to uproot the bad, as this is impossible. Rather, one must only hate the evil, as it is written, “You who love the Lord, hate evil.” Thus, it is only hatred that is needed, since it is the conduct of hate to separate the adhered.
For this reason, evil has no existence on its own. Rather, the existence of evil depends on love for the evil or the hate for the evil. It means that if one has love for evil then one is caught in the authority of the evil. If one hates the evil, he exits their premises and one’s evil has no dominion over that person.
It follows that the primary work is not in the actual evil, but in the measure of love and the measure of hate. For this reason, a transgression induces a transgression. We must ask, “Why does he deserve such a punishment?” When one falls from one’s work, he must be aided to rise from the fall. But here we see that more obstacles are added to him so he would fall lower than the first fall.
But in order to feel hatred for the evil, he is given more evil, so as to feel how the transgression removes him from the work of the Creator. Although he regretted the first transgression, he still did not feel regret enough to bring him hatred for the evil.
Hence, a transgression prompts a transgression, and every time he regrets, and each remorse certainly instigates hatred for the evil until the measure of his hatred for the evil is completed, and then he is separated from the evil, since hatred induces separation.
It therefore follows that if one finds a certain measure of hate at a level that prompts separation, he does not need a correction of “a transgression induces a transgression,” and therefore saves time. When one has been rewarded, he is admitted to the love of the Creator. This is the meaning of “You who love the Lord, hate evil.” They only hate the evil, but the evil itself remains in its place, and it is only hatred to the evil that we need.
This extends from, “Yet You have made him but little lower than God,” and this is the meaning of the serpent’s saying, “and you shall be as God, knowing good and evil.” It means that when one exerts and wants to understand all the conducts of Providence, like the Creator, this is the meaning of “A man’s passion shall bring him low.” It means that one wants to understand everything with the exterior mind, and if he does not understand it, he is in lowliness.
The truth is that if one awakens to know something, it is a sign that he needs to know that thing. When one overcomes one’s own mind, what he wishes to understand, and takes everything with faith above reason, this is called the greatest lowliness in the human attribute. You find that to the extent that one has a demand to know more, yet takes it in faith above reason, you find that he is in greater lowliness.
Now we can understand what they interpreted about the verse (Numbers 12:3), “And the man Moses was very meek,” humble and patient. It means that he tolerated the lowliness in the highest possible measure.
This is the meaning of Adam HaRishon eating from the tree of life prior to the sin, and that he was in wholeness. Yet, he could not walk more than the degree he stood on, since he did not feel any lack in his state. Hence, he naturally could not discover all the holy Names.
For this reason, “He is terrible in His doing toward the sons of man” made him eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Through this sin, all the lights departed from him; hence, he was compelled to start his work anew.
The writing says about it that he was expelled from the Garden of Eden because if he had eaten from the tree of life he would have lived forever. This is the meaning of the internality of the worlds. If one enters there, one remains there forever. It means that once more he would remain without any lack. And to be able to go and reveal the holy names, which appear by the correction of good and evil, he therefore had to eat from the tree of knowledge.
It is similar to a person who wants to give his friend a big barrel filled with wine, but his friend has only a small cup. What does he do? He pours wine into that cup and takes the cup home and he pours it. Then he begins to go with the cup once more and once more fills it with wine. Then, he goes to his house once more until he receives all the wine barrels.
I heard another parable that he said about two friends, one of whom became a king and the other became very poor, and he had heard that his friend had become a king. So the poor man went to his friend the king and told him of his bad state.
Then the king gave him a letter to the treasury minister that for two hours he would receive as much money as he wanted. The poor man came to the treasury with a small box, went in, and filled that little box with money.
When he came out, the minister kicked the box and all the money fell on the floor. This continued time and time again, and the poor man was crying, “Why are you doing this to me?” Finally, he said, all the money that you took this whole time is yours and you will take it all. You did not have the receptacles to take enough money from the treasury; this is why that trick was played on you.