Likutei Etzot (Compilations of Advice), Truth and Faith 30-58 (end)

Truth and Faith (continued)

30. As a result of faith not being complete, through this many stumble in error and make intermediary means between them and HaShem. In other words, that they believe in HaShem but they believe also in an intermediary and say they need the means. Meaning they believe, for example, in the means of livelihood which is doing business. They say, "The means of doing business is the main point", as if, God forbid, that without the means of doing business the hand of HaShem is unable to give them a livelihood. Or that the means of healing is through medicine, and they make it the main point. As if, God forbid, that without medicine, the hand of HaShem is unable to heal. But the matter is not so! For HaShem is the means of all means and he is the grounds for all grounds and no one needs [other] means. And our business with these means needs faith in HaShem only and not to make the means the main point. (From Likutei Moharan I, 62)

31. The principle is that everything we do, whether it be prayer, learning Torah, doing commandments - everything is in order to reveal HaShem's kingdom and faith. (From Likutei Moharan I, 77)

32. When one is very strong in faith, he merits afterward to come to intellect. All the more he strengthens in faith, he comes to greater intellect. Because the thing that was necessary to be understood first, because he didn't understand it [and thus had faith that it is so], afterwards he merits to understand it with the intellect through strong faith. Even afterward, there are higher things that are hidden from him and he is not able to understand them with his intellect. Thus, he needs to strengthen himself more in faith and to believe in that which is hidden from him now, which he can't understand with his intellect, until he merits to understand these things also with the intellect; thus it [repeats like this] forever. However, the faith needs to very, very strong until the faith spreads to all of his limbs. Then he will be able to merit to come to the intellect via the faith. (From Likutei Moharan I, 91)

33. The [urge for] winning doesn't tolerate the truth. And even if a true matter will be clarified before him, he pushes it away because of [his will for] winning. Therefore, one who wants the ultimate truth must remove from himself the trait of [wanting to] win first; then he'll be able to see the truth if he wants to. (From Likutei Moharan I, 122)

34. Faith is correlated to the power of growth and the power of sprouting forth, and this is the aspect of patience. In other words, when faith is complete, one grows and sprouts forth in serving HaShem, no matter what happens, because no confusion or obstacle can confuse him. Rather, he makes himself patient to suffer whatever will come upon him, for all the obstacles and confusions to serving HaShem in which he doesn't draw closer to those who fear HaShem, is all a result of laziness and depression and the heaviness that comes from a lack of faith. Because if his faith in the truth was complete as is proper, he certainly would run and be very speedy to draw closer to them. Thus, that he does not pray properly is also a result of laziness and heaviness that comes from a lack of faith. Certainly, if he had complete faith and he would believe that HaShem was standing over him and listening to every word by word that comes out of his mouth and heard the sound of his prayer, he would definitely pray properly, with enthusiasm and great desire. Rather, the main confusion of prayer is from a lack of faith and thus, all of the distancing from tzadikim, God-fearers, and from truly serving HaShem - all of it is from a lack of faith through which laziness, depression, and heaviness come upon him. However, when he has complete faith, nothing can hold him back. Rather, he becomes patient to suffer anything, and he grows and sprouts forth in serving HaShem, as it should be. (From Likutei Moharan I, 155)

35. To merit faith and patience is through the Land of Israel. Everyone needs to request from HaShem to have a longing and yearning for the Land of Israel, until he merits to go there. Also, to have yearnings for all the tzadikim of the Land of Israel, which is a segula to cancel out anger and depression; for the faith and patience that one merits in the Land of Israel are the opposite of anger and depression. (There^)

36. The essential completeness of faith is to strengthen oneself in strong faith so much so that it will be very pure and clear. Until it seems to him that he actually sees with his eyes the thing that he believes, as is explained above.

37. Through dispute the thoughts of the wicked fall; which are thoughts of denial about good people. The remedy for this is to be silent and give over the battle to HaShem. (From Likutei Moharan I, 251)

38. A man of truth that does all the commandments with precision between himself and his Creator, just as he would before people - there is no division by him at all. For he has no amount of deceit [that he would] do, God forbid, some action in serving HaShem that is for [the sight of] people. He draws to himself the power of all righteousness (or charity) and through that cancels out thoughts of denial. (There^)

39. When a person is in some sort of trouble, God forbid, then the truth is damaged. Therefore, he needs to guard himself a lot, exceedingly, that he won't be trapped in some mistake or lie via the trouble, God forbid. (From Likutei Moharan II, 2)

40. Through thanking HaShem at every time for everything that happens to him, particularly when he leaves some trouble, God forbid - and also through learning halakhot - the truth enlightens his speech and makes all the parts of speech whole. For the main existence and wholeness of speech is only through truth. He will also merit to pray in truth, which is the main wholeness of prayer; and he merits to receive the Torah of truth from a true Rabbi that will teach him the path of truth in his real Torah. He also merits to make true shidukhim, that HaShem will order for him and for his children their true mates. All this one merits through praising and thanking HaShem and through learning halakhot, as stated above. Through this, one merits to draw the blessing, holiness, and joy of the Sabbath to the six days of the week and through that, the simple oneness of HaShem is revealed through various workings; to believe and to know truly that all the various workings are drawn from the simple oneness of HaShem. This is a very precious aspect above, in all the worlds, and even by HaShem it is an amazing thing and very precious and important. (There^)

41. The main principle is faith. And everyone needs to search themselves [to determine] if their faith is whole and to strengthen themselves in faith, always. Because through a damage in faith come incredible blows which nothing can help - not medicine, not prayer, and not the merit of the Forefathers. Also, crying out of moaning and groaning will not benefit the sick, because sometimes these sounds can benefit the sick, that [Heaven] has mercy on him by this - but through a fall in faith, even these sounds don't help. (From Likutei Moharan II, 5)

42. When a person falls from faith, God forbid, then even crying out without speaking doesn't help. Then one must cry out from the depth of the heart, in the aspect of "from the depths I have called you, HaShem", from the depths of the heart. Through that, deep advice is revealed and via them faith grows and is fixed. Further through this, everything we mentioned above returns and is fixed, namely healing, prayer, and merit of the Forefathers. (There^)

43. Through a fall of holy faith, false beliefs are made and strengthened. Also to the opposite: when the holy faith is elevated and fixed, false beliefs are weakened and they fall; then the idolatrous nations come back and return from their false faiths to the our holy faith and converts are made. Sometimes potential converts are made, meaning that even though they don't come to actually convert, they recognize HaShem from the place they are at and they know and believe that there is a Single, Ancient One. Other times, actual converts are made who come and convert. These converts harm Israel and bring pride and promiscuity in Israel; they yet need many remedies for these. (There^, also see below sec. Tefillin 6)

44. The essence of complete faith is merited by drawing closer to the true tzadik that has ruah hakodesh, that through this, the medame is fixed. Through that is the main completeness of faith that one merits to believe in HaShem and in the renewal of the world which is the foundation of everything and the whole universe depends on it. (From Likutei Moharan II, 8, also see below in sec. Tzadik 98)

45. Faith depends on the mouth of a person, that one needs to speak faith with the mouth as it is written: "I will make known your faith with my mouth". Therefore, when a person falls from faith, God forbid, the advice for that is to speak the belief with his mouth, that he should say with a fullness of mouth that he believes etc. The person himself that speaks words of faith with his mouth, he himself is the aspect of faith. Also, through this he merits to come to complete faith, for faith depends on the mouth of a person as we've explained. (There^)

46. Also to the opposite, God forbid, one needs to be very careful not to bring upon his lips any statement of denial or heresy, God forbid, even by way of jest. In other words, that his heart believes, but he is saying a statement of denial in the name of someone else and is mocking it - even this is greatly forbidden, for it harms faith. For it is forbidden to say jesting matters about HaShem, even by way of joking [about the unbelievers]. (There^)

47. One needs to be very careful not to glance at all at books that talk about philosophy, because they're very harmful and damage the holy faith. It's already been explained in several places, but one must repeat this warning several times, so as not to lose one's world (i.e. his eternal life) for a moment, God forbid. (There^)

48. It is better to believe even in idiocies  and lies in order to also believe in the truth, rather than to deny everything, God forbid. Meaning to deny the idiocies and lies and through that everything becomes jest to him and he [ends up] denying also the truth. (From Sihot HaRan, 103)

49. Completeness of faith is only through believing in HaShem without any 'wisdom' at all, nor any sign or wonder at all, nor any philosophy at all - only to believe with simplicity and innocence, as the women and common folk of Israel believe. (From Sihot HaRan, 33)

50. There are sages which are sages even in the wisdom of Torah, but they have no faith. These 'sages' are called ba`alei rathan, and one needs to distance himself from them and from their dwellings with every kind of distancing, as our Sages of blessed memory warned to distance oneself from ba`alei rathan because the breath of their mouths harms an acceptable person very much. Also, one can fall to the lust for promiscuity, God forbid, through the breath of their mouth. These 'sages' are, by and large, greatly promiscuous. (From Likutei Moharan II, 81)

51. Through the joy of Torah and commandments until one dances as a result of the joy, the holy faith is elevated. (From Likutei Moharan II, 80)

52. When there is constriction of and damage of faith, one must do difficult service, for example fasting and the like; however, when the faith is whole, one can serve HaShem in everything, for the Holy One Blessed is He does not come to complaint with his creations. (From Likutei Moharan II, 86)

53. Faith is considered as charity/righteousness. (From Sihot HaRan , 34)

54. Through faith one merits children/sons. Faith is the same numerical value as children. (There^)

55. Faith is a very strong thing. Through faith and innocence without any wisdom one merits the aspect of desire which is above even holy wisdom, in other words that one will merit an extreme desire for HaShem with a great, intense craving to the point that he won't know what to do from the greatness of the craving and he will cry out with longing of the soul. (From Sihot HaRan, 32)

56. There are some who have [negative] thoughts about the holy faith come upon them as a result of not having been born in holiness as is proper. There are some whose bad deeds added [these thoughts] themselves, for there are sins which bring on thoughts of denial in a person. Therefore, this person needs [to feel] shame and [have] a broken heart, since one who has philosophies and thoughts like these, God forbid, that are against our holy faith - it is proper for him to be very, very ashamed for having come to this by his sins. And through shame and a broken heart, these denials are broken and cut off. Also, a great advice has already been explained for faith - to say and speak the faith with the mouth. (There^, see 45 above)

57. One who has faith, his life is life! However, one without faith, God forbid, does not have life at all. For there is no one who won't have great hardships, journeys, and troubles; for a man was born for toil. But when he has faith, then even when hardships and troubles come upon him, God forbid, he can comfort himself that HaShem will have mercy on him and will make his end good; and that the hardships are for his good and his atonement, for all that HaShem does is definitely a great good! However, a philosopher who that doesn't have faith - when some difficulty comes upon him, he has no one to turn to and nothing to enliven himself or to console himself with. Therefore, he has no life whatsoever, since he walks without HaShem and without [divine] supervision, God forbid. Through faith, however, one's life is always good. (From Sihot HaRan, 53)

58. The main belief in the Oneness is through the true tzadikim who are the edge of the letter dalet of "one" (in the Shema`. That is, the edge of the dalet distinguishes the letter dalet from a resh. If the word "one", "ehad" is spelled with a resh (ר) instead of dalet (ד), it reads "another", "aher" - in other words, the tzadikim who are likened to the edge of the dalet, make HaShem "one" in the world, removing idolatry which is "another" god -Translator's note). As it is brought in the holy Zohar that the tzadik is the edge of the letter dalet. (Sihot HaRan, 280)

(Continue to next section, Sighing)