I heard on Nisan 9, April 18, 1948
Our sages say about the verse, “And round about Him it storms mightily,” that the Creator is meticulous with the righteous as a hairsbreadth. He asked: If they are generally righteous, why do they deserve a harsh punishment?
The thing is that all the borders we speak of in the worlds are from the perspective of the receivers, meaning the lower ones limit and restrict themselves to some degree, and thus remain below, since above, they agree to everything that the lower ones do. Hence, to that extent the abundance extends below. Therefore, by their thoughts, words, and actions, the lower ones cause the abundance to come down from above in this manner.
It turns out that if the lower one regards a minor act or word as if it is an important act, such as considering a momentary pause in Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator as breaking the gravest prohibition in the Torah, then there is consent above to the opinion of the lower one, and it is considered above as though he really broke a serious prohibition. Thus, the righteous says that the Creator is meticulous with him as a hairsbreadth, and as the lower one says, so it is agreed above.
When the lower one does not feel a slight prohibition as a serious one, from above they also do not regard the trifle things he breaks as great prohibitions. Hence, such a person is treated as though he is a small person, meaning his Mitzvot [commandments] are considered small, and his transgressions are considered small, too. They are regarded as having the same weight, and he is generally considered a small person.
However, one who regards the trifle things and says that the Creator is meticulous about them as a hairsbreadth is considered a great person, and both his transgressions and his Mitzvot are great.
One can suffer when committing a transgression to the extent that he feels pleasure when performing a Mitzva [commandment]. There is an allegory about this: A man did a terrible crime against the kingship and was sentenced to twenty years in prison with hard labor. The prison was outside the country in some desolate place in the world. The sentence was carried out right away and he was sent to the desolate place at the end of the world.
There, he found other people who were sentenced by the kingdom to be there like him, but he became sick with amnesia and forgot that he had a wife and children, friends and acquaintances. He thought that the whole world is nothing more than the desolate place with the people who are there, that he was born there, and he did not know of more than that. Thus, his truth is according to his present feeling and he has no regard for the actual reality, only according to his knowledge and sensations.
There he was taught rules and regulations so that he would not break the rules once more, and keep himself from the transgression written there, and know how to correct his actions so as to be brought out from there. In the books of the king, he learned that one who breaks this rule, for example, is sent to a punitive land far from any settlement. He is impressed by this harsh punishment and has grievances at why such harsh punishments are given.
Yet, he would never think that he himself is one of those who broke the rules of the state, that he has been sentenced harshly, and the verdict has been carried out. And since he became sick with amnesia, he will never feel his actual state.
This is the meaning of “and round about him it storms mightily”: One must consider his every move, that he himself had already broken the king’s commandment, and has already been banished from the world. Now, through many good deeds, his memory begins to work and he begins to feel how far he has become from the settled place of the world.
He begins to engage in repentance until he is taken out from there and brought back to the settled place, and this feeling comes specifically through one’s work. He begins to feel that he has grown far from his origin and root until he is rewarded with Dvekut with the Creator.