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The Author said: Since we have already treated the limits and conditions of repentance, and since self-accounting before God is among those conditions, I thought it fitting to follow that with an explanation of the various forms of self-examination — for in this lies many kinds of awakening for the soul to its own welfare in both worlds, as the pious one said: "I considered my ways and turned my feet toward Your testimonies" (Psalms 119:59).
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I shall explain the matter of self-accounting under six headings: first, what is self-accounting before God; second, whether the accounting required of all rational beings takes a single form or varies; third, how many aspects self-accounting may take; fourth, what benefit this accounting yields; fifth, whether self-accounting is always required of a person; and sixth, what deeds ought to follow from it.
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The Author said: Self-accounting before God is a person's taking stock of his religious and worldly affairs in the court of his own intellect, so that he may know what he is owed and what he owes — what stands in his favor and what stands against him. The prophet commanded this: "Know today and take it to your heart that the Lord, He is God" (Deuteronomy 4:39). And concerning those who neglect this stocktaking, Scripture says: "No knowledge, no understanding: their eyes are sealed against seeing, their hearts against understanding" (Isaiah 44:18), and: "They did not remember His hand, the day He redeemed them from the adversary" (Psalms 78:42).
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The Author said: The taking-stock of people regarding their religious and worldly affairs differs according to differences in their discernment, their intellects, and the sharpness of their understanding. All rational beings are obligated to examine themselves concerning what is required of them toward God (great and exalted) according to their capacity to perceive His general and particular beneficence — as Scripture says: "And you know today — for I am not speaking to your children who did not know, who did not see the discipline of the Lord your God, His greatness, His mighty hand... for your eyes have seen all the Lord's great work that He did" (Deuteronomy 11:2–7). The meaning is that God's argument against you is stronger and more apparent than against your children who did not witness His signs as you witnessed them — for you saw them with your own eyes, and you are the ones singled out by the abundant blessings and protected from the afflictions of Egypt and the cold of the wilderness. In proportion to all this does obedience become obligatory upon you.
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So too with all rational beings: the level of self-accounting required varies according to differences in their discernment and differences in the blessings bestowed upon them. The believer is obligated to examine himself regarding what is required of him toward God (great and exalted) and to weigh it against the full extent of his capacity. What he can attain through deed, let him pursue with diligence; what he falls short of in deed, let him attain through knowledge, longing for it in his heart and desiring it with his tongue — as the pious one said: "How I love Your Torah" (Psalms 119:97), and: "How sweet are Your words to my palate" (Psalms 119:103). God will accept his excuse. He must watch for the moments of his capacity and ability, to fulfill what is easy for him of God's obligations, and not grant himself excessive excuse or treat them as negligence and heedlessness — lest he be exposed on the day of the Great Accounting, as the wise man said: "He who despises a word will suffer for it, but he who fears a commandment will be rewarded" (Proverbs 13:13).
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The Author said: The aspects of self-accounting are very numerous in this subject; I shall select from them thirty aspects by which the sum of God's obligations upon man becomes clear, when he calls them to mind and commits himself to meditating upon them and recalling them always.
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**The First Aspect:** When a person takes stock of his own existence — meditating on the primacy of his coming-into-being, on his emergence from non-existence to existence, his passage from nothingness to being, without any merit on his part, by the sheer generosity, grace, and goodness of his Creator — he sees with his intellect that his state is higher, his degree more elevated, his rank more exalted than that of the beasts, the plants, and the inanimate things of the earth. The gratitude owed to his Creator (great and exalted) is consequently incumbent upon him.
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Let him use as a parable to this: suppose he imagined that in his infancy his mother cast him on a road; then a man passed by and saw him and took pity on him, took him into his home, and undertook to rear him until he grew to adulthood and came to his reason. How incumbent upon him would it be to go in that man's every pleasure, to obey whatever he commands and forbids, and how many obligations would he have toward him? In proportion to the Creator's (great and exalted) care for him and His providential ordering of his affairs, let his submission to His obedience and his adherence to His command be. God rebuked the people on this account, saying: "Is this how you requite the Lord, O foolish and unwise people?" (Deuteronomy 32:6). And Scripture sets this out through Ezekiel: "I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood" (Ezekiel 16:6), and the rest of the passage.
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**The Second Aspect:** A person should take stock of himself regarding the greatness of God's blessing in the fashioning of his body, the perfection of his form, the completion of his likeness, the shaping of his limbs, and in bringing him forth from his mother's womb by His power — along with His providing sustenance for him before and after birth according to his nature, and in proportion to his need, as a gift and grace from God upon him. Let him imagine: if he had been born defective in his original formation — without hands, without eyes, without feet — and it were within a person's power to grant him those, how would his longing for that person, his gratitude to him, his submission to his command, and his adherence to his obedience be? In proportion to all this let his submission be to his Creator (great and exalted), who took charge of perfecting his body and completing all his limbs with the utmost precision and mastery — as He said: "Remember, I pray, that You made me like clay; will You turn me to dust again? Did You not pour me out like milk?" (Job 10:9–10), and: "You clothed me with skin and flesh" (Job 10:11), and: "You have shown me love and grace, and Your providence has preserved my spirit" (Job 10:12), and: "For You knit me together in my mother's womb" (Psalms 139:13).
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**The Third Aspect:** A person should take stock of himself regarding the greatness of God's blessing in endowing him with intellect, discernment, and a full set of noble moral qualities and refined virtues — by which He distinguished him above the beasts, as Scripture says: "He teaches us more than the beasts of the earth, wiser than the birds of the heavens" (Job 35:11). Let him imagine: if he had been devoid of intellect and discernment, and a person like him then endowed him with it so that he could perceive the excellence of his new state over the previous one — would a lifetime suffice to requite such a person? How much more so toward the Creator (great and exalted), whose blessings upon us have no limit and whose goodness toward us has no end, as the pious one said: "Many are the wonders You have done, Lord our God; and Your thoughts toward us — there is none to compare with You" (Psalms 40:6).
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**The Fourth Aspect:** A person should take stock of himself regarding the greatness of God's blessing in alerting him to what conduces to his welfare in both worlds — through an excellent law and a true book that dispels his blindness, removes his ignorance, illuminates his sight, draws him near to the pleasure of his Lord, makes him know the reality of his Creator, and teaches him the obligations whose fulfillment constitutes his happiness in both worlds — as He said: "The Torah of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul" (Psalms 19:8), and: "The precepts of the Lord are upright, rejoicing the heart" (Psalms 19:9). Let him imagine: if he lacked this knowledge, and then a person brought him to it — would he consider any effort or capacity of his sufficient to repay that person's gratitude and praise for such a gift? How much more toward the Creator (great and exalted), who alerted him and granted him comprehension and aided him in it. The minimum that we owe Him in gratitude for this is to hasten to adhere to His law and race to accept His command and prohibition — as the pious one said: "I made haste and did not delay to keep Your commandments" (Psalms 119:60), and: "How I love Your Torah!" (Psalms 119:97).
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**The Fifth Aspect:** A person should take stock of himself for his delay in understanding the book of God (great and exalted), and his settling for only what is close at hand and obvious in meaning, and neglecting what lies beyond that. He would never behave so with a letter received from his sovereign — if its comprehension were difficult for him on account of obscurity in the script, in the wording, in the profundity of its meanings, in their subtlety, their complexity, and the strangeness of its language, he would bring all his understanding and intellect to bear upon grasping its intent, and he would be deeply agitated until he understood its purpose. If he would do this to grasp a letter from a weak and lowly mortal like himself, how much more is it incumbent upon him to exert himself to understand the book of his Lord — which is his life and his salvation, as He said: "For it is your life, and it will lengthen your days" (Deuteronomy 30:20). How is it possible for you, my brother, to turn away from it, content with what is close and obvious in meaning, neglecting the rest? Do you not see your deficiency and your failure in this matter?
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**The Sixth Aspect:** When a person senses in himself an inclination toward disobedience to God and violation of His covenant, he should call to mind all that he has come to know through his senses — the foundations and branches of the created world, its simple and compound elements, its heights and depths — all sustained by God's command, all keeping God's covenant. Has he seen anything in creation that has departed from God's governance (great and exalted), or witnessed in it any violation or breach of His covenant? If we imagined something in creation violating God's covenant, no human being could survive. If, for instance, the elements violated God's covenant and their natures changed, or if the earth shifted from its center, and the sea overflowed its bounds and covered the face of the earth — would any person remain alive?
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And more remarkable still: if the organs of the human body violated God's covenant within a person — if his limbs that are by nature in motion came to rest, or those at rest came to move, or if the senses ceased delivering to him what they were charged to deliver — the whole order of his being would be corrupted, his composition would dissolve, and his governance would fail. How then is a person not ashamed to violate his Lord's command while dwelling in a domain in which nothing violates God's command, and aided by helpers who never violated God's covenants — namely, his own limbs?
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The closest parable for this is: a king commanded a group of his servants to carry a heavy load on their shoulders along a fine road, and he made a covenant with them to cross a great river with the greatest of care and bring it to a set place by a fixed time. Then he entrusted the minister with oversight of them during this time and these conditions. The servants did as the minister commanded. But then the minister neglected to observe the king's command concerning them. One of the servants said to him: "O heedless one who forgets the king's covenant — are you not afraid that one of us will follow your example and violate the king's covenant of care for you, and you will fall into this great ravine and die the worst of deaths in it? Recover from your negligence with repentance and forgiveness — for the king commanded us to be negligent in caring for you if you violated his command to us." And the minister recovered from his negligence and corrected his error. So too with you, my brother: consider whether any of your limbs has violated God's command to you in how you direct it. Do you not know that God (great and exalted) has stipulated in His true book that if you obey Him, all that is in the world shall be subject to your judgment and agreeable to you, and shall oppose you if you violate His covenant — as is made clear in Leviticus 26 and elsewhere?
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**The Seventh Aspect:** A person should take stock of himself before his Lord regarding the conditions of servitude and adherence to the obligations of Lordship before his Creator (great and exalted). We have mentioned most of these in the Third Gate of this book; the seeker should look for them there. Let him examine himself against them, perceiving the unceasing succession of his Lord's blessings upon him in His concern for his welfare, His compassion for him and tenderness toward him, and His maintaining all that he requires by way of sustenance continually — never leaving him to himself or to the weakness of his own body in managing his affairs, and granting him understanding, intellect, and knowledge by which to manage his states and know the obligations of his Lord upon him, as he said: "Your servant am I; give me understanding, that I may know Your testimonies" (Psalms 119:125).
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When the servant perceives the abundant blessings of his Lord poured over his soul and body and all his movements — His constant awareness of him, His oversight of his private and public life, His keeping of all his deeds and all the thoughts that pass through his mind, whether praiseworthy or blameworthy, and His insight into the constraints of the law and its guidance concerning what his Lord is pleased with and what angers Him — let him devote all the faculties of his body and the forces of his soul to what will please his Lord and draw him near to Him. Let him remove the veil of ignorance from his understanding and lift the curtain of passion that stands between him and the realities of things. Let him clothe himself in fear of God, shame before Him, love of Him, and desire for what pleases Him. When he does this, rich gifts and great lights come to him from God (great and exalted), as He said: "O Lord, in the light of Your countenance they walk" (Psalms 89:16), and: "May the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you" (Numbers 6:25).
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The root of all this lies in fulfilling the conditions of repentance and worship, and in singling out his Lord for Lordship with purified intention and truthful conscience — by which his pure love for his Lord is perfected, and his Lord's love for him in return, as He said: "You have caused the Lord to proclaim today that He will be your God... and the Lord has caused you to proclaim today that you will be His treasured people" (Deuteronomy 26:17–18).
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**The Eighth Aspect:** A person should take stock of himself regarding what is required of him in sincerity (ikhlāṣ) before God (great and exalted). Sincerity is of two kinds. The first is the sincerity of monotheism, as we explained in the First Gate of this book. The second is the sincerity of conscience in any act of worship — whether obligatory or supererogatory — as we explained in the Fifth Gate.
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Among the conditions of the sincerity of monotheism: not to take any god besides God; not to believe in one even if not worshipping one; not to attribute to God any likeness, form, figure, motion, or transfer; not to ascribe to Him any quality from the qualities of bodies, or any state from the states of substance and accident; not to believe His eternity has a beginning or His existence an end; not to consider Him one as a numerical unit, or singular as a singular individual, or an originator other than He, or a creator besides Him — and so with the rest of His beautiful names and His exalted attributes.
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Among the conditions of sincerity of action for God (great and exalted): not to intend through one's action anyone besides God (great and exalted) — neither love of human praise, nor desire for people, nor fear of them, nor to attract worldly benefit or repel worldly harm or harm in the hereafter — as our early teachers said: "Do not be like servants who serve their master for the sake of receiving reward" (Avot 1:3).
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Consider this, my brother, in the dealings of people with one another: when a sincere friend discovers that his friend's motive toward him is mixed, the master is displeased, even if the deed is complete and sound in its outward form. And since a person is in need of his companion and dependent on his help — how much more is the Creator (great and exalted), for whom all created beings have need while He has no need of them and no benefit from them, the One who sees into consciences and the hidden recesses of hearts — how can we please Him from ourselves with what we would not accept from ourselves toward our brothers and friends, despite those friends being ignorant of what our hearts conceal of duplicity, resentment, and lack of sincerity toward them?
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When a perceptive person grasps this meaning, shame before God (great and exalted) overcomes him, and he corrects his inner life, and purifies his conscience for God (great and exalted) in his monotheism, in his performance of one of His commands, or one of His laws — performing it with diligence and zeal, as the pious one said: "I ran in the path of Your commandments" (Psalms 119:32).
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**The Ninth Aspect:** A person should take stock of himself regarding the various forms of worship and his exertion in them according to their differences — comparing his effort to what he would expend in the service of his sovereign if commanded to some task. For when a king assigns him a task to be done through bodily movement, he brings to it every ounce of strength and effort he possesses, withholding nothing of his capacity. And if it is a task requiring reflection, planning, and judgment, he presents all his understanding, intelligence, intellect, and discernment in diligence toward it. And if he is composing the king's praise and thanks for the excellence of his care and the greatness of his beneficence — in verse or prose, in writing or in speech — he withholds nothing of his eloquence and fluency, his metaphor and figure, his truth and artfulness that can be brought to bear, and he declares it all openly. If he could display that through all his limbs, his private life and public life, he would do so. If he could command the heavens and the earth and all they contain into his service of praise and thanks, out of eagerness to express the sincerity of his conscience toward the king, he would do so — and this despite the weakness, foolishness, baseness, and swift ending of man's span.
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In proportion to this, so too should he be in his acts of worship toward God (great and exalted). Every act for God falls into one of three categories: the first is the obligations of the heart alone — which is what we have sought to explain in this book; the second is obligations of the heart and the limbs together, such as prayer, reading God's book, glorifying and sanctifying Him, disseminating knowledge, commanding the good and forbidding the evil, and the like; the third is obligations of the limbs alone, in which the heart has no part except the intention for God (great and exalted) at the beginning of the act — such as the sukkah, the lulav, the tzitzit, the mezuzah, and the observance of festivals, sabbaths, and fasts, and the like. Regarding these, our early teachers said: "Commandments do not require inward intention." When a person takes up any of the obligations of the heart, he must empty his heart of all worldly thoughts and concerns, and purify his conscience for God in that moment, driving away from himself all worldly preoccupations and dedicating his attention to the act for God (great and exalted) — as it is told of certain ascetics, that one used to say in his private address to God: "O Lord, Your concern has kept other concerns away from me; Your grief has banished other griefs from my soul." By this the Lord will accept his deed and be pleased with it — and in this spirit the saying of our early teachers holds: "Commandments require inward intention."
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When a person takes up an obligation of both heart and limbs — such as prayer and praise of God (great and exalted) — he should free himself from worldly and spiritual preoccupations, empty his heart of all thoughts that distract him from the meaning of prayer, after cleansing himself of all dirt, impurity, and foul odor, and distancing himself from all that is ugly in it. Then he should call to mind before whom he is standing in his prayer and what he seeks through it, and with what words and meanings he is addressing his Lord.
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Know that the words are with the tongue and the meaning with the heart; the words are like the body of prayer and the meaning like its soul. When a man prays with his tongue while his heart is occupied with something other than the meaning of prayer, his prayer is like a body without a soul — a shell without a kernel. Scripture says: "Because this people draws near with its mouth and honors Me with its lips, while its heart is far from Me" (Isaiah 29:13). This was illustrated by the example of a servant whose master came to him: the servant was bound to his master's service and the care of his household, but instead the servant ignored him, occupied with entertainment and play, neglecting to show him reverence and dignity in person — so his household was weakened in their ability to fulfill some of his needs because of the servant's bodily absence, and the master was displeased with him and did not accept his care and honor but directed his displeasure toward him.
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So too when a person praying empties his heart and conscience of the meaning of prayer, God does not accept his prayer of limbs and tongue movement. Notice that at the end of our prayer we say: "May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable before You" (Psalms 19:15). If a man's mind has been wandering during the prayer through worldly matters, permitted or forbidden, and then he concludes his prayer with "the meditation of my heart" — is this not among the ugliest of things, that he claims his heart has been present before his Lord while it was absent? Our early teachers said: "A person should always examine himself: if he can direct his heart, let him pray; if not, let him not pray." And Rabbi Eliezer, on his deathbed, among his final charges to his disciples, said: "When you pray, know before whom you are standing." And Scripture says: "Prepare to meet your God, Israel" (Amos 4:12). And our early teachers said: "Do not make your prayer routine, but rather mercy and supplication before the Omnipresent" (Avot 2:13), and: "When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to You" (Jonah 2:8), and: "Let us lift up our hearts with our hands to God in heaven" (Lamentations 3:41).
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You should know, my brother, that the intention of prayer is nothing other than the cleaving of the soul to God (great and exalted) and its submission to Him, with reverence for her Creator and glorification and praise of His name, and the entrusting of all her concerns to Him. Since it is difficult for the soul to achieve this without structure and discipline, our early teachers arranged the meanings required by most people in their turning to God with their poverty and humility before Him — these form the fixed prayer in its proper order and form — so that the soul may face her Creator through them and not be ashamed of addressing Him directly. When properly performed, the prayer manifests from it its own essence: submission and humility before God (great and exalted).
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Since the heart's thought is greatly agitated and has no stability, due to the rapid flowing of inner impulses upon the soul, it is difficult for it to perform the meanings of prayer in itself. Therefore our early teachers bound the meanings of prayer in a precise formula to be delivered from a person with his tongue, so that the soul's thought would follow the speech and be led by the utterance — and prayer became a verbal form for an inner meaning. The verbal form requires the meaning; the meaning does not require the verbal form when it can be performed with the heart, for the heart's intention is our original purpose and on it depends our reward. Our early teachers allowed abridging the essentials of prayer in a short prayer for one in haste — and if verbal form were the foundation of prayer, we would not have been allowed to abbreviate it at all.
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Make firm, my brother, the meaning of your prayer in your heart, and weigh your speech by it, and direct them both to one aim toward God (great and exalted). Free your body from all its motions; fix your senses and thoughts so that nothing worldly occupies them during prayer — as you do when you compel yourself to praise and thank your sovereign and describe his virtues when he is ignorant of what is in your heart, and even more so toward the Creator (great and exalted), who knows your outward and inward states, your private life and public life.
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Know that prayer is the trust of God and His deposit with you, for He assigned you the responsibility of it — and none perceives your inner state but He. If you pray as God commanded you, you have fulfilled the obligation of the trust, and He will accept it from you. But if you are not truthful in it with your heart and tongue, you have fallen into the category of those who betray God's trust — as Scripture says of them: "They are a perverse generation, children in whom there is no faithfulness" (Deuteronomy 32:20). And concerning those who are faithful to God's trusts and fulfill their obligations, He said: "My eyes are upon the faithful of the land, to dwell with Me" (Psalms 101:6).
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When a person undertakes any of the purely bodily obligations — such as sukkah, lulav, tzitzit, and the rest we mentioned — he must first form his intention for God (great and exalted) before the act, so that the basis of the deed is obedience to God's command, out of reverence, exaltation, gratitude, and great thanksgiving for His blessings and His abundant grace. Then he should fulfill the commandment to its fullest limits — at the beginning of the act, in the middle, and at the end — seeking thereby the pleasure of God (great and exalted), as the pious one said: "I desire to do Your will, my God" (Psalms 40:9).
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**The Tenth Aspect:** A person should take stock of himself regarding the Creator's (great and exalted) knowledge of his outward and inward states, His awareness of him, and His keeping of all his deeds and all the thoughts that pass through his mind — whether praiseworthy or blameworthy. He should be ever mindful of this, and resolve to improve both his outer and inner life for God (great and exalted). Let him consider: if a human being were to observe him and monitor all his movements constantly, would he allow himself to do something that person would find objectionable? And what if that observer were his benefactor and his master — and even more so if his Creator were the observer, who knows his inner and outer states at all times, whom nothing distracts from anything, as He said: "I the Lord search the heart and examine the kidneys" (Jeremiah 17:10), and: "In every place the eyes of the Lord look upon the evil and the good" (Proverbs 15:3), and Scripture says about the awareness of God: "Be not rash with your mouth, and let your heart not be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on the earth" (Ecclesiastes 5:1), and: "The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men" (Psalms 14:2).
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Moreover, we know it is customary to adorn ourselves with the finest clothing when meeting our kings and leaders so that they may see our outward appearance. In proportion to this we must adorn ourselves with God's obedience in our outer and inner lives, since His awareness of both is constant and equal. If kings could see our inner conscience as they see our outward bodies, we would not rest without adorning our conscience to suit them. Most people's motive for diligence in acquiring and disseminating knowledge is only to display it before kings — and so with many matters of religious practice: the masses follow the religion of their sovereign. The Creator (great and exalted) has the most right, the most obligatory claim, and the strongest demand upon us to adorn ourselves with His obedience in our consciences, hearts, and limbs — since He is ever aware of them and sees them, nothing distracting Him from anything, as He said: "I the Lord search the heart" (Jeremiah 17:10), and: "The Lord looks down from heaven" (Psalms 14:2).
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When this meaning circulates continuously in the believer's mind and he accounts himself by it perpetually, God (great and exalted) will be present with him in his inner being, seen by the eye of his intellect. He will not cease to fear Him and revere His command, pondering His traces and following His works in guiding His creatures — which testify to His majesty, greatness, wisdom, and the penetrating power of His decree. When he perseveres in this, God soothes his awe, calms his fear, reveals to him the secrets of His wisdom, opens for him the door of His knowledge, takes charge of his governance and management, and does not leave him to himself and his own devices — as He said in the Psalm of David: "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want" (Psalms 23:1–6). Then he reaches the highest ranks of the beloved of God and the loftiest stations of the chosen: he sees without eyes, hears without ears, speaks without tongue, senses things without senses, intuits them without inference. He does not love anything over anything else in his condition, nor prefer any state over any other of what God chooses for him — his pleasure has merged with the pleasure of God, and his love is oriented toward God's love, so that what he loves is what God loves for him, and what he finds objectionable is what God finds objectionable for him. Of such a one the pious one said: "Blessed is the man who listens to Me" (Proverbs 8:34).
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**The Eleventh Aspect:** A person should take stock of himself regarding the past span of his life — whether he has spent it in the obedience of his Lord or in the obedience of his passion. Let him use as a parable: a king entrusted him with funds to spend in one of his designated expenditure channels, and warned him not to spend any of it on anything else, and informed him that he will call him to account at the end of the year, accepting no excuses.
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Is it not prudent for him to examine himself at the close of each interval of the year, to know what of the funds has gone and on what it was spent, so that he may be alert to the remainder and the remaining time — before the accounting suddenly overtakes him while he is ignorant of what he owes and what stands in his favor?
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On this model, my brother, it is obligatory upon you to pledge yourself — if at all possible — to account yourself every day, reviewing your God-given obedience required of you in it. And if you have been negligent in this during the past of your life, the least you can do is to account yourself for what remains — and do not compound negligence with negligence, heedlessness with heedlessness. There is no negligence with your Lord, no dismissiveness, no forgetfulness. It has been said: "The days are pages; leave in them what you would like spread about you." Record in your pages, my brother, and do not neglect them and become like a beast, as the pious one said: "Do not be like the horse and the mule, without understanding" (Psalms 32:9). And Scripture says of one whose neglect of self-accounting has been prolonged: "Even gray hair is sprinkled upon him, and he does not know it" (Hosea 7:9).
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**The Twelfth Aspect:** A person should take stock of himself concerning his greed and his soul's craving for the world, with all his effort and the full extent of his capacity and the utmost of his power — and compare it with his laxness in the affairs of his afterlife and his neglect of the obedience of his Lord. His ambition for the world is the highest of ambitions; his hope in it is the loftiest of hopes, for nothing of its varieties of gain satisfies him — it is like fire: the more fuel you add, the greater the flame. His whole heart and understanding are occupied with it night and day. He counts no one righteous except one who helps him with it, and no intimate except one who guides him toward it. He watches the seasons of prices and the times of buying and selling; he monitors the fluctuations of goods' value constantly; he searches out commodities' demand, their losses, their rise and fall in every market. No distant travel deters him from pursuing it — neither heat nor cold nor the terror of the sea nor the length of the desert road — all of this because of his craving for wealth, though no craving of his can be satisfied and no goal ever truly reached. Perhaps his striving comes to nothing and he achieves only prolonged pain, groaning and weeping. And if he reaches some portion of what he hoped for — perhaps all he gets from it is the burden of guarding it, managing it, and protecting it from calamities until even that is taken from him, either in his lifetime as Scripture says: "In the middle of his days he will leave it" (Jeremiah 17:11), or after his death: "They leave their wealth to others" (Psalms 49:11).
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The sage warned us against greed and diligence in amassing money, saying: "Do not toil to grow rich; cease from your own understanding" (Proverbs 23:4). He described the malady attached to it: "Will you set your eyes upon it? It is gone — for it surely makes itself wings" (Proverbs 23:5). Another sage guided us to contentment with enough for sustenance, envying only our diligence in earning provision and the minimum, in his saying: "When you eat the labor of your hands, happy are you and it is well with you" (Psalms 128:2). Then a pious man begged of his Lord to grant him the middle path of provision, and to protect him from wealth that leads to excess and from poverty that corrupts character and religion, saying: "Two things I ask of You... Give me neither poverty nor wealth; feed me my allotted bread — lest I be satisfied and deny and say: Who is the Lord? Or lest I be destitute and steal, and profane the name of my God" (Proverbs 30:7–9). We find a similar case in our father Jacob (peace be upon him), who asked his Lord only for sustenance, saying: "And give me bread to eat and clothing to wear" (Genesis 28:20).
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Will you not awaken, my brother, and see the deficiency in what you craved and yearned for — to maintain your body in its natural state, which will accompany you only a brief time, and which will not leave pain nor be free of affliction even while you keep it? If it is overfed it grows heavy; if underfed it falls ill; if overdressed it suffers the heat; if underdressed it suffers cold. Then its governance in health and sickness, life and death, lies outside your choice and judgment — under the governance of the Creator (great and exalted). Where then is the excellence of your soul over your body? The nobility of its world over the world of the body? Its elevation above its fall, its spirituality over its corporeality, its permanence over its dissolution, its stability over its corruption, its simplicity over its composition, the subtlety of its essence over the coarseness of the body, its perceptiveness over its bestiality, its receptivity to virtues over its receptivity to vices?
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If you diligence in the affairs of your body with all this effort despite its lowliness, how much more must you diligence in the affairs of your noble, eternal soul — which you were charged to care for, to manage, and to concern yourself with through the acquisition of knowledge, wisdom, and good character, as the sage said: "Get wisdom, get understanding" (Proverbs 4:5), and: "Get wisdom: how much better than gold!" (Proverbs 16:16), and: "Know that wisdom is thus for your soul: if you find it, there will be a future, and your hope will not be cut off" (Proverbs 24:14). The acquisitions of the spirit are especially yours and cannot be taken from you by another — unlike the acquisitions of the body. Perceive the difference between the two matters, my brother, and understand the distance between the two conditions. Turn away from the superfluities of your world and strive earnestly in the concerns of your afterlife.
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**The Thirteenth Aspect:** A person should take stock of himself regarding the excess of his knowledge over his deeds, and the gap between his discernment and his exertion in the obedience of God — comparing what his capacity and power have yielded against the full extent of his God-given understanding. Let him use as a parable: a servant whose master gave him land to plant and supplied him with seed proportional to his need. He planted part of the land and spent the remainder of the seed on other things. When the master inspected the land and found part of it unplanted, and asked him about it, he admitted his negligence in fulfilling the command. The master then called him to account for the seed he claimed to have sown in the land, and examined the planted portion closely — and demanded from him the remaining seed, burdening him with its penalty and with whatever it would have yielded in the land, so that his fine was enormous and his misery doubled.
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So too, my brother, you must take stock of yourself regarding the understanding of God and His law with which God endowed you, and the strength and capacity He granted you to fulfill what is required of you — measuring that against what has actually emerged into deed from you. For you are called to account for all of this. How much more so when the particular blessings of God stream upon you! Therefore you must strive hard, exert yourself fully to fulfill your obligation, match your deed to your knowledge, your action to your discernment, and bring all your effort to bear on acting on what you know. Do not squander it on the superfluities of your world and then become incapable of fulfilling the obligations of your religion — for God (great and exalted) gave a person strength commensurate with his need for religion and world alike; whoever squanders some of it on superfluities forfeits it when he needs it for the essentials.
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**The Fourteenth Aspect:** A person should take stock of himself concerning his love — and his soul's attachment and the full orientation of his devotion — toward any person who has shown him similar love in return, as Scripture says: "As in water face reflects face, so the heart of man reflects the heart of man" (Proverbs 27:19). Even more so when that person who loves him is a minister or a prince — and even stronger when a manifest sign of love appears from him in drawing near to him, keeping him company, showing him goodness and favor for no need on his part — so that no distracting matter keeps him from loving that person, and he withholds nothing of his capacity from his own soul but devotes it all to that person's affairs, his obedience, and his pleasure, and readily sacrifices his own soul and wealth and children for his sake.
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If we do this for a weak mortal like ourselves, how much more are we obligated to do its many times over for our Creator (great and exalted) — of whom the prophet told us that He loves our people, as he said: "Not because you are more numerous than all the peoples did the Lord attach Himself to you... but because of the Lord's love for you" (Deuteronomy 7:7–8), and: "For Israel was a youth and I loved him" (Hosea 11:1). And along with His informing us of this, we have witnessed the traces of His love for us and His care for us from ancient days and recent times, with drawing near to us and keeping company with us in every age: "Even in being among their enemies I did not despise them or loathe them" (Leviticus 26:44), and: "Though we are servants, our God has not forsaken us in our servitude" (Ezra 9:9).
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Moreover, it is well known among us that if someone befriended our ancestors, we are obligated to maintain that friendship with loyalty and fidelity, as Scripture says: "Do not forsake your friend and your father's friend" (Proverbs 27:10). The Creator (great and exalted) displayed His love for us in His covenant with our fathers, and His care for us — fulfilling His promises to them and honoring His covenant with them. Therefore let not our souls be indifferent to Him, nor trust in His grace, nor bestir themselves with love of Him and adherence to His obedience. To God is the complaint over how coarse our natures are, how stiff our necks, how little our faithfulness, how difficult our submission to truth. We show no regard for the friendship of our ancestors, nor do we honor the love of the Creator and His care for us, nor do we incline at His drawing near to us, nor attend to His great goodness toward us and His abundant grace upon us, nor are we ashamed of Him who created us and whose governance of us is subtle.
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Awake, my brother, from this slumber, and uncover from your intellect the veil of your passion that has been spun upon it until it has interposed between you and the light of your mind — like a spider spinning across the opening of a house: if it is left alone and continues to thicken, it prevents the sunlight from entering. In the beginning of its spinning it was the finest of things, the most delicate — but the longer it continues, the stronger it grows and the more it blocks the sun's light from penetrating. So does passion act in your heart: at first it is the weakest of things and does not prevent you from seeing the realities. If you perceive it at that stage and clear it from your heart, it is easy to do so. But if you pay no attention to it and are heedless of it, its power grows and blocks the light of your intellect from you — making it hard to clear from your discernment.
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Address yourself, my brother, and seek God's (great and exalted) help in repelling it from you; strive and exert yourself to be illumined by the light of wisdom and to see the realities of things through the insight of your heart.
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**The Fifteenth Aspect:** A person should take stock of himself concerning his preparation for what he needs before he needs it — even while he does not know whether he will survive until the time he needs it. When he must travel, he prepares for his journey days before it comes — looking into what commodities are available in the land he travels to, what means of transport to take, what provisions to bring, what companions will join him, what stages he will pass through on the road, and the like — without knowing what God has decreed for him in all this, or how long his appointed time will be extended. On this model, my brother, we must prepare for the greatest return, and ready ourselves for the far journey to the afterlife — which is unavoidable and from which there is no escape. We must look into our provisions and what we shall bring before our Lord on the day of the Great Accounting, of which Scripture says: "For behold, a day comes burning like a furnace" (Malachi 3:19). How can we be heedless of this, when the departure is set, the transfer is constant, the journey is long, and the destination is far? It is strange indeed that we have become careless about our provisions for the afterlife and turned away from attending to the supplies for our return — preoccupied with the passing world over the eternal, with the ailments of our bodies over the ailments of our understanding, with the service of our evil inclinations over the service of our Creator, with the worship of our passions over the worship of our God. What bewilderment — how blind it is! What drunkenness — how strong it is! As Scripture says: "For their eyes are sealed against seeing and their minds against understanding" (Isaiah 44:18), and: "They reel, but not from wine; they stagger, but not from strong drink" (Isaiah 29:9).
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**The Sixteenth Aspect:** A person should take stock of himself concerning the length of his remaining time in the world — imagining the proximity of his end and the arrival of death — when he observes the sudden death of all living creatures, rational and otherwise, without advance notice, without warning, without a known appointment by which he might feel secure. Death does not wait for a particular month of the year, or a particular day of the month, or a particular hour of the day; it does not come only with old age and not with middle age, maturity, youth, childhood, infancy, and nursing — it befalls all creatures at all times and all places.
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Let him use as a parable: if a king deposited a sum with him and set no time for reclaiming it, but commanded him to be on watch for it so as not to be absent when the king demands it — would it be permissible for him to be absent and far from the king's presence as long as the deposit remains with him? It can also be compared to one who owes a debt with no fixed term, and whose creditor waits upon him at any moment — his soul cannot rest until he pays it.
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When a person accounts himself concerning the length of his life in the world, and recalls that a group of his brothers have departed to the afterlife before him — at the most robust of their engagement with this world — and sees no distinction in himself that would justify his own remaining beyond them, he shortens his hope in the world, lengthens his hope in the afterlife, looks to his provisions for when he departs, and accounts himself before his day of accounting.
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Some of the wise said: "Whoever has placed death before him has straightened his soul." The sage said: "The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning" (Ecclesiastes 7:4), and: "It is better to go to a house of mourning than to a house of feasting, for that is the end of all man — and the living will take it to heart" (Ecclesiastes 7:2) — meaning the one alive of heart, the perceptive and discerning person — and: "Man is like a breath" (Psalms 144:4).
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**The Seventeenth Aspect:** A person should take stock of himself when his soul inclines toward the company of people and closeness with them — weighing against that the virtues of solitude and separation from people, and the harms of mixing with their common masses without a necessity that demands it.
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Among the harms of mixing with people: excess of idle speech and gossip — much talking with no need for it, as the sage said: "In much talk there is no avoiding sin" (Proverbs 10:19). And it was said: "Guard your excess words and release your excess money." Then there is backbiting and slander and the disclosure of people's private affairs — Scripture says: "When you sit with your brother, you speak; when you testify against your mother's son, you find fault" (Psalms 50:20). Then there is outright lying and false flattery — "Iniquity is in its midst; deceit and treachery do not depart from its public square" (Psalms 55:12), and: "I listened and heard: no one speaks honestly" (Jeremiah 8:6). Then there are frivolous oaths — concerning which God said: "The Lord will not hold guiltless one who takes His name in vain" (Exodus 20:7). One of the sages said to his disciples: "The law permits us to swear by God when truthful, not when lying; and I guide you: do not swear by God either truthfully or falsely — say only 'yes' or 'no.'"
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Then there is pride, arrogance, dismissing some companions and mocking them — I devoted a separate chapter to refuting this in this book in the Gate on Humility. Then there is loss of watchfulness over God during mixing and conversation with people, with little safety from harm to one's honor and property. Then there is ostentation and love of praise, and adorning oneself before people and displaying before them what is praiseworthy and what is not praiseworthy in the varieties of knowledge and deed.
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Among the social obligations that mixing makes possible is commanding the good and forbidding the evil — which God commanded us to do. We are obligated to forbid the evil through three means: the first is by physical action, as Phinehas did in the incident of Zimri and Cozbi; the second is by verbal rebuke, as Moses our teacher said: "Why do you strike your fellow?" (Exodus 2:13); the third is through the heart's denunciation — as the pious one said: "I hate the congregation of evildoers" (Psalms 26:5). If one can forbid by action and does not, he is negligent. If action is beyond him, verbal rebuke is required. If that too is impossible, heart-denunciation is the minimum. We are obligated to rebuke sinners in every circumstance — for the general masses are never free of shortcoming. When you are alone, the obligation of commanding good and forbidding evil falls away perforce, and this is among the hardest obligations to fulfill properly, as our early teachers said: "Is there in this generation one who knows how to rebuke?"
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Among the harms of mixing: corruption of judgment and diminishment of rational discernment and domination by passion in the mixing and blending with others, and adopting their bad character, as the sage said: "He who tends fools comes to harm" (Proverbs 13:20). And this is the teaching of our early teachers: "The conversation of children and the company of ignoramuses take a person out of the world" (Avot 3:10).
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The summary is that most transgressions are consummated only between two people — such as fornication, corrupt dealings, false oaths, false witness, and all sins of the tongue that are only completed in the company and mixing with people. As for solitude and separation from people, it is the cause of protection from all the vices we have mentioned, and the most powerful means toward virtues. It has been said: "The pillar of sincerity is the love of solitude and the preference for being alone." So beware, my brother, lest passion deceive you and make the company of people attractive to you when you are tempted toward socializing and away from solitude. But beware also of thinking that socializing with those who are learned in God and His law — and mixing with the distinguished among people — is the same as losing solitude and abandoning the virtues of being alone; on the contrary, it is complete solitude and perfect singleness. The benefits of associating with the virtuous and the religious are many beyond those of being alone — the sage said: "He who walks with the wise becomes wise" (Proverbs 13:20), and: "Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise" (Proverbs 22:17), and Scripture says: "Then those who feared the Lord spoke each to his neighbor, and the Lord listened and heard" (Malachi 3:16).
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**The Eighteenth Aspect:** A person should take stock of himself when he becomes proud and arrogant and his hopes in the world grow long — by assessing his magnitude in the sum of the highest and lowest kingdoms, so that his smallness and insignificance in the creatures of the Creator (great and exalted) become clear, as I explained this meaning in the Sixth Gate of this book. Then, in consequence of this, let him take in the honor the Creator (great and exalted) has shown the human being: granting him dominion over animals, plants, and minerals, as Scripture says: "You have set him over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet" (Psalms 8:7); informing him of the limits of His law; acquainting him with all that conduces to his welfare among the secrets of the highest and lowest world; and elevating his rank with the permission to sanctify and glorify his Creator, to pray to Him in afflictions, to receive His answer in calamities, to serve as God's messenger to His creatures, to be entrusted with secrets of His decrees, and to have miracles performed at his hands — along with the countless inward and outward, physical and spiritual, general and particular blessings that would take too long to describe, bestowed upon him in generosity and grace. It is well known that a servant's elevation in people's eyes is proportionate to the greatness of his master. Therefore the greatness of God's name (great and exalted) — sublime above all that is sublime in the eyes of all peoples, as He said: "For from the rising of the sun to its setting, great is My name among the nations" (Malachi 1:11) — means that the closest of peoples to Him and the most singled out for His obedience are our people, the children of Israel. Therefore our honor and pride above other peoples is proportionate to that.
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Account yourself before this meaning, my brother, and do not be lenient with yourself in it, nor let your passion distract your thought and intellect in it. Keep in mind that God is aware of your accounting in your inner being — and let your aim in it be for His sake, and your guidance in it for His face (great and exalted) alone. As He said: "The Lord knows the thoughts of man" (Psalms 94:11).
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**The Nineteenth Aspect:** A person should take stock of himself regarding what is required of him in the conditions of sincere worship and the fullness of submission. When he has perceived the succession of his Lord's blessings — in care for his welfare, compassion for him, solicitude for him, and His providing all that he needs of sustenance always — let him devote all the faculties of his body and the forces of his soul to what will please his Lord and draw him near. The root of all this lies in purifying his intention and rectifying his conscience, singling out his Lord with Lordship with complete sincerity — through which his pure love for his Lord is perfected, his heart is opened, and the veils of ignorance and passion are lifted from him. **The Twentieth Aspect:** A person should take stock of himself in his submission and prayer, addressing his Lord privately in supplication: "That which I desire I directed toward You, and I yearned toward You in what is not proper for me — and Your high choice is more suited for me than my own choice for myself. I have entrusted my affairs to Your penetrating power and Your exalted governance," as the pious one said: "My heart is not lifted up, nor my eyes raised too high" (Psalms 131:1).
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**The Twenty-First Aspect:** One of the early teachers said to his disciples: "Know that it is not an evil serpent that kills — it is sin that kills. It is not weapons that cause death — it is sin that causes death." And Scripture says: "You shall tread on the lion and the cobra... because he clings to Me I will rescue him; I will lift him up because he knows My name" (Psalms 91:13–14). When a person grasps this, the fear of death and harm diminishes in his heart and the fear of God grows, and he returns to his Creator and flees from his passions. **The Twenty-Second Aspect:** God (great and exalted) teaches His servant gradually and in stages, as the sage said: "I am the Lord your God who teaches you for your benefit, who leads you in the way you should go" (Isaiah 48:17). The analogy of this lies in the crafts and the studies: when a student begins a craft, in the early stages of his learning and work in its details, his teacher assigns him the easier before the harder — so that his hand becomes accustomed to the work, and he proceeds from stage to stage until it becomes easy for him to perform it. When the believer strives in it with his heart and intention and reaches his limit in it, God opens for him the door of spiritual virtues — and he arrives at what had previously been beyond his capacity, his perceptions growing and his light increasing.
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**The Twenty-Third Aspect:** A person should take stock of himself regarding his love for people in the world — that he love for them what he loves for himself of it, and dislike for them of it what he dislikes for himself of it, and have compassion for them and repel from them to the best of his ability whatever harms them, as Scripture says: "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Leviticus 19:18). Let him use as a parable: if a rich and noble man came as a guest and needed help, would he not feel obligated to go to any trouble to honor him? How much more so for his brother and his companion who is always near him.
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**The Twenty-Fourth Aspect:** A person should take stock of himself regarding his friendships — placing his companions in his own esteem in the position he assigns himself, when he encounters someone who deserves that of him. He should not entrust his secrets except to the most particular of his intimates — as Ben Sira said: "Many will seek your welfare; reveal your secret to one in a thousand" (Ben Sira 6:6). And he must seek the quality of friendship for God's sake alone — not for worldly benefit or to repel worldly harm.
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**The Twenty-Fifth Aspect:** He should consider the constancy of nature — the water that flows from springs night and day without ceasing or stopping — and in everything else of this kind that God (great and exalted) created. He should take lessons from all that God (great and exalted) created: what he is accustomed to and what he is unaccustomed to.
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**The Twenty-Sixth Aspect:** A person should begin, in the prime of his intellect and discernment, to study God's book and the books of His prophets as if he had never read a letter of them before — applying all his understanding and heart to explaining and clarifying them, and extracting the verbal and conceptual meanings from them, never claiming to have already finished with them in all their aspects. The sage said: "The wise man's eyes are in his head" (Ecclesiastes 2:14) — meaning: his reviewing of the first stages of his affairs and what has passed of his religious and worldly matters, and his stocktaking of them to extract the good from the bad.
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**The Twenty-Seventh Aspect:** A person should take stock of himself when his body inclines toward physical desires — choosing his eternal soul over his perishable body. The soul is nobler and more permanent; let it take priority and receive his chief attention. As the sage said: "Wisdom is good with an inheritance" (Ecclesiastes 7:11). When his animal nature pulls him toward reviving the body and caring for its welfare, he neglects much of what calls the soul; and prudence dictates preferring his remaining soul over his perishable body. Scripture says: "Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (Proverbs 9:10), and: "The fear of the Lord — that is wisdom" (Job 28:28).
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**The Twenty-Eighth Aspect:** A person should seek forgiveness while he still has the chance — before his Lord exposes him and his sin becomes public — as the pious one said: "The wicked man in his pride does not seek God; there is no God in all his thoughts" (Psalms 10:4). When the servant reflects on this and takes stock of himself — knowing that his Creator is ever aware of him and his sin, and that He is patient with him, keeping His counsel and not hastening his punishment, hoping that the servant will repent — he hastens to seek forgiveness before exposure overtakes him in this world or punishment in the next.
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**The Twenty-Ninth Aspect:** Adversity comes in two forms: either patience over what has passed, or patience over what is beloved. In both cases, either you deserve this as punishment and it becomes an expiation for your sins, or it comes from God to you as a gift — a gracious elevation of rank. Whatever God has decreed regarding you is more fitting for you than what you would choose for yourself. If He tried you with adversity, it contains a hidden wisdom and a veiled benefit that your intellect cannot fully grasp. Therefore submit to it and accept it willingly, as the pious one said: "Though He slay me, I will hope in Him" (Job 13:15). Know that God's decree contains what is best for you, even when it does not appear so in the outward of the matter — and you must submit to God's wisdom and governance and trust in His abundant mercy.
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**The Thirtieth Aspect — Which Completes the Thirty:** A person should take stock of himself in the conditions of a stranger in this world — placing himself in it as a foreigner who has arrived in a land not his own, knowing no one and recognized by no one, with nothing to occupy him except concern for himself and preparation for his return to his homeland. Among the qualities of the stranger in this world:
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He takes from this world only what he needs for his journey, and contents himself with shelter and clothing and the minimum provisions for his sustenance. He looks at the road that lies before him. He considers the little blessing of comfort to be great. He longs for his homeland and those dear to him in it. He finds in the thought of returning to them more pleasure than in what he has of worldly things. He does not involve himself in this world's affairs and does not mix with its people unless compelled by necessity.
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You are a stranger in this world, my brother — for the abundance of its people does you no good, nor does the paucity of them harm you. Are you not in it like the solitary and alone who has no companion save his Lord, and no one to care for him save his Creator? Apply yourself to what benefits your soul and prepares you for your return — for this world is but a marketplace where merchants gathered and then dispersed: whoever traded profited, whoever was lazy regretted. And Scripture says: "Remember your Creator in the days of your youth" (Ecclesiastes 12:1).
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The Author said: The benefit of the self-accounting we have described is the fruit that accrues to the soul when it apprehends the truth of what we enumerated in the thirty aspects, and extracts their meanings and the lessons they contain.
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When this happens: you will find a high and strange power that you never knew among all you knew before, and you will discover faculties in yourself that you never previously discovered. Your soul's perceptions will sharpen, its meanings will become clear, its sight will penetrate, its understanding will be elevated, and it will reach levels of knowledge from God (great and exalted) that it could not reach before. Your capacity for virtuous deeds will grow, divine aids will reach you, and divine light will descend upon you — as Scripture says: "The Lord is my light and my salvation" (Psalms 27:1), and: "The spirit of the Lord will rest upon him — the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might" (Isaiah 11:2). You will distinguish the lofty meanings and arrive at the secrets of wisdom — and this is among the highest benefits of self-accounting.
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The light of this self-accounting will clear away the veil between you and the wisdom of the Creator and from before your eyes — and the Creator (great and exalted) will endow you with elevated knowledge, beneficial deeds, and divine strength, as Scripture hints: "And the spirit of the Lord rested upon him — the spirit of wisdom and understanding" (Isaiah 11:2). Moreover, self-accounting strengthens the soul's awareness of the Creator's magnitude, makes the heart more careful, reduces the soul's inclination toward disobedience, and makes the path of repentance easier and the obstacles of the evil inclination more navigable.
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And know, my brother — if you have neglected this self-accounting in the past of your life, the least you can do is to account yourself for what remains — and do not follow negligence with negligence. Occupy yourself with the stocktaking of your soul each day before sleep, and each week, and examine each transaction and deed that passed through your hands during it. Do not be like the cattle — as the pious one said: "Do not be like the horse or the mule, without understanding" (Psalms 32:9).
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Strive for your soul as you strive for your body — or better: as you would strive for a valuable garden or estate entrusted to your care. And when you have cared for it and tended it, the Creator (great and exalted) will take over its governance and management for you, as He said of the righteous: "I the Lord am its keeper; every moment I water it" (Isaiah 27:3).
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Do not account your deeds as too great a gift to God, even if they are for His sake — for in His least blessing upon you lies the surpassing of the deeds of all people on earth, when precise accounting is applied. Do not neglect your self-reckoning between yourself and your Creator (great and exalted) lest you perish, as Scripture says: "Do not boast yourself of tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring" (Proverbs 27:1).
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The highest degrees of knowledge of God are attained when a person knows Him with true knowledge — for whoever knows Him truly adheres to His worship and His obedience in proportion to that — heart, conscience, and limbs — and his sincere love for God is perfected, as He said: "But let him who boasts boast in this: that he understands and knows Me" (Jeremiah 9:23). And these are the highest degrees of knowledge of God — for whoever knows Him in truth adheres to His worship and obedience according to that, with his heart and his inward conscience. And this is the highest of benefits.
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