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Chazita about the great value of will…. On the verse, and vanities of this world, that does not want to eat and sleep What Is God’s Payment for?
“You are as fair, my beloved, as Tirzah” (Song of Songs but only yearns for Torah and prayer, for performing the mitzvot
6:4), the midrash states: “The name Tirzah can be read and achieving closeness to the Creator, and that derives wondrous Therefore, we can understand why the Creator brought the soul
as ‘you have the will.’ Thus: When you have this will, delight from everything that expresses the Creator’s will. But that down into this world of concealment and the evil inclination. It was
you do not need to seek from anyone or learn from would mean that a person would be taking pleasure without work, so that the soul will have free will. Then everything good that it
receiving unearned delight. What would be the point of creating
anyone….” such a world and sending souls there? They could have remained attains comes to it only because it has worked and overcome the
powers of evil that opposed it.
in the upper world and received unearned delight. What would be
Pay close attention to every word of this holy gained if in the lower world as well we received all delights without
If there were no free will, there would be no work for which it
midrash. How greatly it praises the trait of the any work, everything for free? That would be the work of Hashem deserves reward. That is why the Holy One, blessed be He, created
holy will of the holy people of Israel. That is without the work of man, and so that would bring us back to the this world. The Hebrew word for “world,” olam, is related to
because when they truly experience this will— dilemma of the bread of shame. In such a world, there would be the word he’elem, “concealment,” because this world conceals
which is a holy drive to come close to Hashem, no delight: either a person would be so bored that he would no the existence of the Creator, and it conceals the true delight—i.e.,
may He be blessed—they no longer need to seek longer want to go on living, or he would be so entirely aflame with closeness to the Creator—which is a spiritual, eternal delight. The
[wisdom] from anyone and [they no longer need] an outpouring of the soul for the Creator that he would not be able Creator brought the soul down into the body, which hides the true
to learn from anyone. Each person’s will teaches to live and exist. delight from the soul. And He gave the body an evil inclination
him what to do in order to please Hashem, may He that pulls it to physical pleasures that completely conceal the true
Therefore, the Creator placed man in a world of complete
be blessed. (Likutei Halachot: Netilat Yadayim 6:46) concealment and opacity, obstacles, obstacles and difficulties, delight. This concealment is the root of free will, because if
it were easy for a person to feel the delight of closeness to
and in a body that is entirely physical and far from feeling
In the above story, the Maggid revealed a profound message: the pleasure of Hashem. In addition, He created within man the Creator and the sweetness of the Torah and of prayer,
that a person’s will is so important and elevated that, as it were, it a powerful evil inclination that incites and entices him day he would run after Hashem, so that all of the powers of evil
overshadows the highest and deepest teachings of the Torah. The couldn’t overcome him. That is because, when we feel true
entirety of the holy Torah, together with its entire infinite and and night and that misleads him with every sort of delusion delight, all evil is completely nullified. Thus, a person would
and temptation in order to distance him from his purpose
eternal nature, with all of its lofty and precious concepts, with all attain goodness without work and effort, and he would lack
of its elevated values, and with all of the wondrous depth that was and from the true delight of the soul. Hashem gave the evil free will.
inclination the power to overcome a person and rule over
transmitted to us by the sages of the generations, is enfolded into him. Hashem did all of this so that every good thing that a
the trait of will. If a person cannot choose freely between good and evil, but only
person does will be the result of his absolute free will and of has the option of choosing good, what will he receive reward for?
his toil and effort, and he will then truly deserve to receive He hasn’t toiled. And even if he does receive reward, he won’t gain
With these words, the Maggid revealed a handbreadth but he
masked tens of thousands of miles of the light that is concealed in reward. And the reward that he receives will be complete benefit from it, because he is receiving it without having earned it—
the heart of every individual: a person must know, teach and delight, because it is reward for his good activity. and that constitutes the bread of shame. All reward is predicated
realize that the goal of the entire Torah is a singular point: upon the basis of free will, and free will is the outcome of the
to attain a powerful and permanent will! Perfectly Precise opposition between the body and the soul.

“Live by Them” Everything in this world, from a dust mote to the sun, exists for the The Creator would have had no problem in creating a rosy world
sake of free will. “Once [Rabbi Nachman] told me, ‘Everything in which we would see Him directly and take delight in our closeness
to Him, a world in which everything is good and no evil exists.
Know and understand that the will is the root of Creation and that you see in the world, everything that exists in the And He would have had no difficulty in creating a person with a
the purpose of the entire Torah. The will is the path, the instrument world, is all for the sake of free will and for the sake of luminous, pure body that does not desire any of the temptations
and the power with which to attain everything in life. The will is the testing you” (Wisdom of Rabbi Nachman 300). That being so, our