Likutay Moharan - Torah-teaching 106

Torah 106

"There is a vanity that is done upon the earth..."

"There is a vanity that is done upon the earth: that there are righteous men unto whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked, and there are wicked men unto whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous..." (Ecclesiastes 8:14)

Explanation: "Vanity" — hevel — signifies the vapor of the mouth which emerges from the throat in sighs and groans; each person groaning according to his own measure. As it is said: "The righteous shall walk in them, but transgressors shall stumble in them" (Hosea 14:10). There exists a wicked person who groans and sighs all his life over past deeds. Conversely, God forbid, there exists a righteous person who, from the beginning, has been upright, and he too wonders about his beginnings and groans and sighs. Behold, there are two ropes: one, the rope of holiness, and its opposite, the rope of impurity. Man has free will: one who sanctifies himself is bound to the rope of holiness; and, God forbid, one who attaches himself to the physical and base is bound to the rope of impurity. And the groan and the sigh — they are in the aspect of death, both in body and soul. • In the body, as our sages, of blessed memory, said: "A sigh breaks half a person’s body" (Berakhot 58b). • In the soul, this is also known, as it is written: "You gather their spirit—they expire" (Psalms 104:29). For before their death, their spirit is gathered in, and they expire. Likewise, when a person sighs or groans — if one contemplates and examines carefully — the sigh travels from deep within to the throat, which corresponds to "You gather their spirit", as at that very moment, an additional spirit is taken, and the person almost expires and is gathered [i.e., elevated or detached from his previous state]. Thus, if one sighs or groans over the sins in his hands, and he desires to return in repentance, then in that sigh he expires and is gathered from the evil that was in his hands — in the manner of: "You gather their spirit—they expire" (ibid). And thereby, he attaches to holiness. But likewise — the opposite is also true: God forbid — if one groans and sighs over the good that is in his hands, and he desires to cleave to impurity, then the spirit of holiness expires and departs from him, and instead he becomes attached to impurity. And this is the meaning of: "There is a vanity that is done on the earth" — that is, the vapor of the mouth from a sigh or groan — and there are righteous individuals who, wondering about the beginning [their earlier spiritual state], sigh — and the vapor that leaves their mouth returns to them as if it were the deeds of the wicked, for they have inadvertently connected to the side of impurity. And similarly, there are wicked people who sigh and groan, and the vapor that leaves their mouth returns to them as if it were the deeds of the righteous, for they are cut off from impurity and instead attach to holiness. Summary Principle: Each person must draw his vitality from one of the two ropes. The moment one is cut off from one, he is automatically attached to the other. Therefore, it is good to habituate oneself to sigh over his unworthy deeds, to long and to yearn — with the force of that sigh — to return to the Blessed Name. For by doing so, he is cut off from the rope of impurity, and bound to the rope of holiness, as explained above. ________________________________________ Additionally, I found in the writings of the companions a further explanation of this matter, which elaborates on the greatness of the value of a holy sigh, for they wrote that: A sigh that one sighs over his sins, or over the smallness of his spiritual attainment, is greater than many fasts and mortifications. For through fasting, one breaks only the body — but with a sigh, he breaks the entire body, and also exchanges his soul and his vitality from evil to good. For a person’s breath/vapor is the rope which connects the soul to its source — whether for good, or, God forbid, for the opposite. And when he sighs, it is in the manner of: "You gather their spirit—they expire" (Psalms 104:29). Thus, he becomes cut off from the rope he was initially tied to, and becomes connected to another rope — in accordance with the nature and direction of the sigh, as explained.