Likutei Moharan 35:1/ליקוטי מוהר"ן ל״ה:א׳

1“Ashrei HaAm (Happy Is the People) that knows the shofar’s blast; God, in the light of Your countenance they shall go.” (Psalms 89:16)

2Know! Repentance entails returning the thing to where it was taken from. This is the aspect of zarka, about which the holy Zohar brings: It was zarak (thrown back) to the place from which it was taken. What place is that? It is Chokhmah (Wisdom). For Chokhmah is the root of all things, as it is written (Psalms 104:24), “You created everything with wisdom.”

3As a result, every person has to guard his intellect from extraneous concepts, which are known as “Pharaoh’s daughter.” For the main wisdom by means of which one acquires wholeness is only the wisdom of Godliness. The other wisdoms are negations of wisdom. They are not wisdom at all. {“Bring My sons from afar, and My daughters from the ends of the earth” (Isaiah 43:6).}

4The word “daughter” alludes to the wisdom that is not wisdom, as our Sages taught: “Bring My sons from afar, and My daughters”—the latter are the exiles in other lands, whose minds are unsettled, like daughters (Menachot 110a). “PhaRaOh” connotes negation, as is written (Exodus 5:4), “Why taPhRiOo (are you distracting) the people [from their tasks].”

5Now, extraneous wisdoms are an aspect of a reed. For there is a KaNeH (reed) in holiness. This is hallowed wisdom, as is written (Proverbs 4:5), “K ’NeH (acquire) wisdom.” But “God made one to contrast the other” (Ecclesiastes 7:14) —i.e., a reed in impurity, as is written (Psalms 68:31), “Rebuke the beast of the KaNeH.” This is extraneous wisdoms.

6<Yet,> Israel is a holy nation. Each and every Jew possesses “a portion of God from Above” (Job 31:2), which is an aspect of wisdom. It is by virtue of this that they are called reishit (first), as is written (Jeremiah 2:3), “Israel is holy to God, the first of His yield”—<on account of the reishit (beginning) of wisdom (cf. Psalms 111:10)>.

7However, at the time of birth, each and every person’s intellect is contracted. Yet when one starts using it in contemplating the Divine service of the Holy One, then one’s intellect begins to expand, as is written (1 Kings 5:10), “Shlomo’s wisdom was greater.”

8But when a person takes into his holy intellect extraneous thoughts, which are extraneous wisdoms, the holiness of his intellect then decreases commensurate with the space occupied by the extraneous wisdom, the extraneous intellect, within the holy intellect. This extraneous wisdom is plunged into the holy intellect like a reed, diminishing the space of holiness. And around this reed—i.e., this intellect—collect and come together all the evil and odious traits.

9{When Shlomo married Pharaoh’s daughter, Gavriel descended and plunged a reed into the sea. A sandbank formed around it, on which was built the great krakh (city) of Rome (Sanhedrin 21b).} This is the meaning of: When Shlomo married Pharaoh’s daughter, Gavriel descended and plunged a reed into the sea. In other words, Above as well, from the devolution of the GeVuRot (severities)—this being the aspect of the angel “GaVRiel descended”—gold dross is created. This [gold dross] is an aspect of the evil forces, the extraneous wisdoms, which are also called “a reed.” “And he plunged” it into the sea of wisdom, thereby diminishing the space of holiness. “A sandbank formed around it”—i.e., the aspect of the odious traits. “And on it was built the great KRaKh of Rome”—i.e., the primordial snake, which KaRuKh (latches on) to holiness.

10This is why it is called “the great krakh,” as our Sages taught (Sukkah 52a): “because of the great [destruction] it wrought” (Joel 2:20). They expound there that the Evil Inclination has its eye out for Israel and especially her great leaders. As they taught there: “and the Torah scholars more than all the others.” It is because of this that the Serpent and the Evil inclination are called “the great krakh.”} For [the Serpent] latches on to the great leaders of the generation more than other people, <and it builds> its building on this extraneous intellect.