Likutay Moharan - Torah-teaching 279

279 - There Are Those Who Say Torah from Below to Above

Know that there are those who say Torah from below to above, and she—from below—is very wide, for from below they expand the matter and enlarge it greatly, and above it is short, and it goes and shortens and ascends, until above-above it is very, very short. For above, nothing of it remains—only a little, little—because certainly there is there some holy spark.

But there are others who say Torah from above to below, and there above she is very, very broad, and all that descends below becomes shortened and descends until below—she is very short, and only a little, little below. But above she is broad, very much so.

And similarly in arousal from below, it needs to be from below short, in the aspect of (Psalms 66) "the mouth spoke in my distress," in the aspect of a shofar, where the wide part is above and the narrow is below at the mouth.

And this is the aspect of "the mouth spoke in my distress"—that is, the narrow and short side is to me, at the mouth, in the aspect of the shofar as above.

And so we find with David in all his prayers, that the beginning was from constriction and distress—when it was very narrow for him, such as due to troubles from Avshalom or the trouble from Naval, and so on—and afterward he would come in that same prayer into ruach hakodesh (divine inspiration).