יסודות החסידות בספר דגל מחנה אפרים - פרשת שמות - ההסתייגות מהעלאת מחשבות זרות

(1) Even if there occur to him lustful imaginations or other extraneous thoughts during Divine service, in Torah or in devout prayer, he must not let his heart dwell on them but must immediately avert his mind from them.

(2) Nor should he be foolish by attempting to sublimate the middot of the extraneous thought, as is known. For such things were meant only for tzaddikim, in whom extraneous thoughts do not occur of their own making, but those of others. But as for him whose extraneous thought is his own, from the aspect of evil that is in the left part of his heart, how can he raise it up when he himself is bound below?

(3) Nevertheless he must not be downcast at heart and feel dejected and despicable during Divine service, which should be with great joy. On the contrary, he should draw fresh strength and intensify [his] effort with all his power to concentrate on the prayer with increased joy and gladness in the realization that the foreign thought that had invaded his heart comes from the kelipah in the left part, which, in the case of the benoni, wages war with the divine soul within him.

(4) For it is known that the way of combatants, as of wrestlers, is that when one is gaining the upper hand, the other likewise strives to prevail with all the resources of his strength. Therefore, when the divine soul exerts itself and summons its strength for prayer, the kelipah also gathers strength at such time to confuse her and topple her by means of a foreign thought of its own.

(5) This refutes the error commonly held by people, who mistakenly deduce from the occurrence of the foreign thought that this proves their prayer to be worthless, for if one prayed as is fitting and proper, no foreign thoughts would have occurred to him. What they say would be true if there were only one single soul, the same that prays as well as thinks and fancies the foreign thoughts.

(6) The real truth, however, is that there are two souls, waging war one against the other in the person’s mind, each one wishing and desiring to rule over him and pervade his mind exclusively. Thus all thoughts of Torah and the fear of Heaven come from the divine soul, while all mundane matters come from the animal soul, except that the divine soul is clothed in it.

(7) This is like the example of a person praying with devotion, while facing him there stands a wicked heathen who chats and speaks to him in order to confuse him. Surely the thing to do in such a case would be not to answer him good or evil, but rather to pretend to be deaf without hearing and to comply with the verse, “Do not answer a fool according to his folly, lest even you become like him.”

(8) Similarly, he must answer nothing, nor engage in any argument and counterargument with the foreign thought, for he who wrestles with a filthy person is bound to become soiled himself. Rather should he adopt an attitude as if he neither knows nor hears the thoughts that have befallen him; he must remove them from his mind and strengthen still more the power of his concentration.

(9) However, if he finds it hard to dismiss them from his mind, because they distract his mind with great intensity, then he should humble his spirit before G–d and supplicate Him in his thought to have compassion upon him in His abundant mercies, as a father who takes pity on his children who stem from his brain; so may G–d have pity on his soul which is derived from Him Who is blessed and deliver it from the “turbulent waters”; for His sake He will do it, for verily “His people is a part of the L–rd.”

(1) “The wicked man plots against the tzaddik, he gnashes his teeth at him. The Lord laughs at him, for He sees that his day is coming. [The wicked have drawn the sword… Their sword will pierce their own heart, and their bow will be broken.]” (Psalms 37:13-15)

(2) The matter is as follows: It is hard to understand—what is the source of the foreign thought that comes to the tzaddik who wants to pray with great devotion? Have our Sages, of blessed memory, not said: One who strives for purity is assisted [from on high] (Yoma 38b)?

(3) However, the matter is as follows: At the time of the Shattering of the Vessels, the sparks fell from all the worlds. Through the prayers of the tzaddikim, [these sparks] rise slowly, level after level.

(4) Thus, when a tzaddik stands in prayer and binds himself to his current attribute, he is beset by a foreign thought consistent with that particular attribute. When he then arrives at a higher level, he is beset by a foreign thought in consonance with the attribute he has now attained. Thus the tzaddik has to know from which attribute and from which world this foreign thought stems. He has to also know by what means to elevate it to that world and that attribute in which he presently resides.

(5) Nevertheless, there are times when the tzaddik wants to elevate it but cannot. The reason is that he has been distracted by a foreign thought from a higher level, a level he has yet to attain. It is therefore impossible for him to elevate it, since he is still on a level lower than this—i.e., his current level.

(6) But why does he receive this foreign thought prematurely?

(7) Know, I possess a tradition that when there is opposition to some tzaddik, a different tzaddik is distracted by a foreign thought consistent with that opposition. And because he wants to elevate it, even though he does not, the strength of the desire is sufficient to break all the opponents.