Likutay Moharan - Torah-teaching 280

280 - One Who Needs to Judge Before Judges in Torah Law

Know: one who needs to be judged before judges in Torah law—this is a punishment and vengeance that the Torah exacts upon him. For truly, all business dealings (masa u'matan) are Torah. For example, the law of exchanging a cow for a donkey is Torah—and all the more so when one does the thing itself, it is certainly Torah (as is told in the name of the Baal Shem Tov, of blessed memory).

Therefore, when doing business, one must bind their thought only to the Torah and the laws that are clothed therein. And one who uproots the business from the Torah, and falls into the business itself—not binding his thought to the Torah clothed in it—his punishment is that afterward he will need to be judged in Torah law.

Then he must return and bring all the words, thoughts, and dealings he had at the time of the transaction—from beginning to end—and bring them all into Torah. That is, he must return and tell everything before the judges, and they rule on it in Torah law.

It is then found that all the business was turned into Torah—and this is vengeance, that the Torah exacts from him for uprooting the laws clothed in the business from the Torah, and falling into business itself, as if there is no Torah in it. So his punishment is that he must bring all the words of the transaction and make them into Torah.

Then he is shown that all the business is Torah—for now all of it becomes Torah law. Surely, he must bring every word, even every thought, before the judges—because if even one word or thought is missing, the Torah law will be ruined.

All this is according to the defect: there is one whose punishment is only that he must be judged, but he merits in the judgment—only being shown the defect. But one who uprooted even more of the business from Torah—his punishment is greater, and he does not merit in the judgment.

For truly, when doing business, only the externality of the thought should be in the dealings, but the inner thought must be bound to Torah.

Also, one must have faith in the transaction—that is, to deal in faith and speak words of truth, as it is said (Shabbat 31a): “Did you deal in faith?” For business is the aspect of raising and elevating the matter, returning it to its place—for there are fallen holinesses (holy sparks), and through business they are elevated and returned to their place.

The main clarification of sparks from the kelipot (husks) is through faith. For faith dwells always with the fallen holinesses, in the aspect of (Ezekiel 5): “This is Jerusalem, in the midst of the nations I have set her.” Jerusalem, a faithful city—faith—is among them always.

Therefore, the fallen sparks cling around faith, and faith raises them up. Thus one must do business with faith—through faith, raising the sparks. This is the main aspect of business: to raise the fallen sparks.