| The text of Tomer Devorah, written by Rabbi Moshe Cordovero (HaRamak). Teshuvah Elyonah ~ Exalted Repentance. Chapter Four, Binah (Divine Enlightenment). Presented in the original Hebrew text and accompanied with the English translation. The English text is annotated with the commentary of “Laughter Will Fill Our Mouths.”
(י) כך האדם בסוד תשובתו עושה סוד זה. (10) So, too, with Man: through the Secret of his Teshuvah (Repentance), he affects this Secret.
Flaws Forgotten and Blemishes Abolished
The Ramak compares Teshuvah (Repentance) to the pleasant fragrance of Noach’s offering, which transformed the Judgment of the generation of the Flood and elevated it to its sweet source in Binah (Divine Enlightenment). So too, Binah holds the sweet root of every blemish. Through man’s intention to elevate himself to his soul’s source in Binah, the blemish he promulgated ascends to its holy root and is cleansed.
Binah (Divine Enlightenment) functions unceasingly to “sweeten all the Judgments.” Man has the opportunity and free-will to tap into Binah whenever he is so inspired. As soon as he does so, Binah’s Light shines upon him and uplifts him to his holy root, “rectifying every flaw.”
The Creator has granted us the ability to make mid-course corrections and rectifications, and to heal ourselves by ascending to the holy root of our soul. As the Ramak writes ahead: “But [in the future,] all its ‘branches’ are destined to be sweetened, and they will return and become sweetened. And this is precisely due to the reason I previously explained: a man implanted within himself the Secret of Evil, and sweetens it, and gathers it into Goodness.”
Encouragement from the Wisest of Men
King Solomon writes (Koheles 7:20): There is no righteous person in the world who does good and does not sin. What wonderfully inspiring words from the sagest of men! King Solomon advises us not to despair if we sin, for the imperative of free-will almost guarantees the certitude of transgression. This predisposition should ostensibly lead to the dissolution of all Creation, for the standards of Midas HaDin (the Divine Attribute of Judgment) are unforgiving and uncompromising. However, this does not mean there is room for despair! On the contrary, before Creation of the Universe, God, in His boundless compassion and all-knowing foresight, first conceptualized the principle of and possibility to perform Teshuvah (Repentance). Truly an example of the Almighty’s “preparing the remedy before the affliction” (cf. Megillah 13b).
Man’s Precarious Existence Serves to His Benefit
Man’s precarious existence actually serves to his benefit by imbuing him with a sense of humility. Without the tendency to sin that is part and parcel of the distractions of physical existence, Man would have been tainted with a sense of arrogance. Whereas, by recognizing his vulnerability to stray after the allusions of this world, he has at least a chance of forestalling hubris with humility. Only Angels, purely spiritual beings unhampered by the desires and distractions that characterize physical existence and therefore lacking free-will, are immutably holy.
Man, on the other hand, must constantly battle the unrelenting diversions of physical reality in order to not only achieve, but to also continuously maintain his holiness and purity. As our Sages teach in the Ethics of our Fathers (4:2): “Do not trust yourself until the day of death.” Ultimately, if a person leaves this world having successfully passed the myriad tests that comprise life here, he will enter the World to Come on an infinitely higher level of holiness, purity, and closeness to the Merciful One than even the most exalted of Angels.
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