The Composition of the Group
One: Beyond The Honors of This World
The purpose of our society is not to attain power and involve ourselves in political and communal matters, whether directly and with a particular agenda, or indirectly. Our goal is to ascend: to take a step that rises beyond the entire world, its commotion and its turmoil. Therefore, our group will not apportion honors to a president, vice president, and so forth, because the foundation of our group is humility and exaltation: the humility of the essence of body and lower spirit, and the exaltation of their holiness.
And in a place where holiness is revealed, there is no place for honors and titles.
Two: To Extinguish the Fire
And also, we make a strong bond of commitment that our group should not, heaven forbid, be in any way insular and isolated from those Jews who are not a part of our group. To the contrary, the first principle and basis of our group is the love of the Jewish people and the love of friends, in the strongest possible manner.
Imagine if a fire broke out in the city, and the fire department came to put it out and rescue people, using its professional techniques. Would the firemen hate and drive away the residents who were also involved in the rescue work and in extinguishing the fireBeach to the best of his ability? Certainly not. After all, they all have one common goal: to put the fire out and save the people engulfed in its flames. The only difference amongst them is that everyone is doing rescue work in his own way. The fire department is most successful, for that which a group can do no individual can accomplish.
Each of us is constantly concerned and anguished about his life. AWhat will ultimately become of me? Day after day, I yearn to be close to God with my every thought, word and act and at the very least not to be far from Him and thrown into the thick mire (heaven forbid). Yet every day I destroy this yearning with my own hands. I do not even wait for God to cast me away from His countenance. Of my own initiative, I cast myself into uncharted territories of chaos and void, amidst spiritual forces corresponding to donkeys, mules and dogs.@
What will our end be? Our days and years have passed this way, and in our impoverishment we give vent to groans. Will we only awaken when we reach our last day on earth? Then will we beat our hearts and cry, AWoe, what did I do? Why is my soul and body engulfed in pollution, and nauseating worthlessness? My entire lifetime was one mass of uncleanness and foul, degraded desires, thoughts and lusts, which I now find repellent. And in addition to that, foolishness and meaningless things were the constant occupation of my soul. With my own hands, I removed myself from the world of holiness and purity, the sanctity of God, and threw myself into the pit of pollution and ugliness.@
This worry gnaws constantly at the heart and pierces the brain of each of us. Each one of us worries and sighs, but finds no remedy to heal his broken heart.
Therefore, we have joined together to find means appropriate for people as lowly in spirit as we are, with which to serve the one God. And at the very least we hope that God will help us so that we will not waste our days in the depths, but that we will be able to unify our hearts with the One God, and take refuge in His shadow while we are still in this world.
Three: To Keep a Secret
Therefore, our group will only accept those who share these concerns. As for those others who know in their souls that they do not fulfill these conditions and do not fall into this category, we ask them, ADo not enter our group and fool yourselves and us. Do not spoil the other members= pure hearts and clean minds.@
Even more than that, I am not so pleased that such a person should even read this book.
Perhaps this is alluded to in the words of the midrash that the Jews did not reveal their Amysteries@ in Egypt. We are told explicitly that the Jews did not reveal the secret that before Aa [Jewish] woman would request an item of her [Egyptian] neighbor@ (Shemot 11:2) the Jewish woman had already discovered that item during the plague of darkness.
But even more than that, they did not reveal the Amysteries@: all things having to do with the soul. These must be kept secret and hidden, for it is not right that when naked souls are cleansing themselves of their impurity others should be watching. Consider this well.
Four: Who May Join This Society
Further on, God willing, we will set forth the regulations of the group.
But at any rate, at the very beginning we must make it clear that only the following may apply to and become a member of this holy group:
1. You must be a person who truly feels pain and sorrow at your distance from God. You not only recognize your low state intellectuallyBwhich everyone realizes this intellectually, unless he is insane or drunkBbut in your heart you truly feel the pain because of an embittered soul. This causes you no less concern than do your physical problems. Not only that, at times this weighs so heavily upon you that you cry over the sufferings of your soul and the lowness of your being.
2. You must be a ben Torah, dedicated to learning and keeping TorahBto a greater or lesser extent.
3. Whether you are a merchant, craftsman, or whatever, you must meet with the group at least three times a week. And you must meticulously adhere to the group regulations, which will be described further on, God willing.
4. You must not be inconstant by nature, impetuously coming to a decision one day and forgetting about it the next, casually trampling upon your commitments and Aoverturning the pot.@
5. You must not be a liar, a dissembler immersed in his own falsehoods.
Some people lie occasionally, heaven forbid. This is very bad, God have mercy, but such a person can at any rate repent of this behavior, after which he would be a candidate to join our group.
But there is another kind of person, one who is in his essence a dissembler and liar, a man who fools not only others but himself as well.
My honored and holy father-in-law quoted a tzaddik to the effect that such person cannot repent, because even his repentance is false, since he fools himself and imagines that in one moment he has become righteous. But in truth, he is not righteous, he has not acted correctly, and he has not accomplished anything.
