How should man train himself to acquire the quality of Power (Gevurah)?
Know that all actions which incite the evil inclination (Yetzer ha Ra) actually
stir up the (Gevurot Chazakot) strong Powers. Therefore, man should not
incite the evil inclination, so as not to awaken the Powers (Gevurot). The
reason is that man is created with two inclinations, good and bad: the one
belongs to Loving-kindness (Chesed), the other to Power (Gevurah).
However in the Zohar Ha Kaddosh, (Bereshit 49a) it is stated that the good
inclination was created for the sake of man himself, the evil inclination for
the sake of his wife. See how sweet are his words. Behold Beauty (Tiferet),
the quality of mercy, turns to the Right and all its conduct is with the Right,
the good inclination. But the Female is of the Left and Her conduct is with
Power (Gevurah). It is, therefore, proper not to bestir the evil inclination for
man's own sake because this bestirs the Power (Gevurah) in Supernal Man
and so destroys the world. Hence, every incitement of man towards
(Gevurah) Power and the evil inclination makes a flaw in Supernal Man. From
which one can observe how ugly is anger and the like, for it causes the
strong Powers (Gevurot Chazakot) to prevail.
In truth the evil inclination should be bound and tied down so that it is not
incited to any bodily act whatsoever, not for the desire of cohabitation, notthe desire of money, nor towards anger, nor towards honor in any way.
However, for his wife's sake he should gently bestir his evil inclination in the
direction of the sweet Powers (Gevurot Metukot), to provide her with clothes
and with a house, for example. And he should say: 'By providing her with
clothes I adorn the Shechinah,' for the Shechinah is adorned with
Understanding (Binah) which is the Power – Gevurah that includes all
Powers – Gevurot and these are sweetened in Her abundant mercies.
Therefore, all the needs of the household are the Tikkunim of the Shechinah,
which is sweetened from the evil inclination, which was created to do the will
of his Creator and for no other purpose.
Therefore, a man should not intend to derive any kind of pleasure from the
evil inclination but when his wife appears before him in her beauty in a fine
house he should have the intention of adorning the Shechinah, for She is
adorned by the good Powers of the Left from whence come wealth and
honor. For this reason he should bestir his evil inclination to love her and he
should then have the intention that the Left bestir itself to draw Her near,
according to the secret of (Shir ha Shirim8: 3): 'His left arm is under my head'
(for She does not at first bind Herself except towards the Left). And then
(Shir ha Shirim8: 3): 'And his right arm embraces me,' he should intend to
sweeten all those Tikkunim with the good inclination and to really perform
the Tikkun for Her, to make her happy in performing the divine command for
the sake of the Supernal Union. Behold in this way he sweetens all the
judgments (Gevurot) and performs their Tikkunim with the Right. This
method applies to all desires which derive from the evil inclination. These
should be directed chiefly towards the benefit of the wife whom G-d has
chosen to be a help mate for him and afterwards he should turn them all
towards the service of G-d to bind them to the Right.
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