Likutei Moharan, Part II 19:1/ליקוטי מוהר"ן·תנינא י״ט:א׳

1The ultimate goal and perfection is nothing other than to serve God with absolute simplicity, without any cleverness whatsoever.

2There are philosophers who maintain that the ultimate goal and the World to Come are nothing other than to know each thing as it is; for example, knowing the star as it is—knowing its innate nature and why it is positioned where it is.

3For there is the knower, the known and the knowledge—i.e., the ability of the knower, the intellect itself, and the known object. For [the philosophers,] it is this which is the ultimate goal and the World to Come: that the knower, the known and the knowledge become one. They spend all their days in this world on this, engaging in philosophical enquiry to attain the necessary truths, which they regard as the ultimate goal. In their opinion, this itself is the World to Come. Notwithstanding that in this world, enclothed as they are in corporeality, the delight which they have from this philosophical enquiry is minimal, in the World to Come, where they will strip away the body, they will have great delight from this. Thus, according to their nefarious ideas, the ultimate goal is primarily attained by means of their philosophy and secular wisdoms.

4However, in fact, we regard the attainment of the ultimate goal to be essentially only through faith and applied mitzvot—worshiping God based on the Torah, with simplicity and straightforwardness. And through this itself we merit that which we merit, “no eye has seen it…” (Isaiah 64:3), as it is written (Psalms 111:10): “The beginning of wisdom is the fear of God.” The main genesis and preface to wisdom is nothing but the fear of God. One must make certain that the fear precedes the wisdom.

5And you should know that the matter is not as they maintain, God forbid. For if it were so, then only very, very few—namely, the intellectually elite philosophers—would attain the ultimate goal. Then what of the ordinary folk, who lack the mind for engaging in philosophical enquiry to know the necessary truths? They are the majority and the nucleus of the world. How would they attain the ultimate goal?

6But in fact, attainment of the ultimate goal is specifically through simplicity—i.e., fear of God, and [fulfilling] the applied mitzvot with total straightforwardness. This is the meaning of “Ultimately, all things having been considered: Fear the Lord and keep His commandments! For this is [the sum of] all mankind” (Ecclesiastes 12:13). In other words, King Shlomo, of blessed memory, teaches us that the attainment of the ultimate goal, the concept of “Ultimately,” is essentially only by means of simplicity and straightforwardness—to fear God and observe His mitzvot straightforwardly.

7And this is: “Ultimately, all things having been considered: Fear the Lord and keep His commandments!” This is the concept of simplicity and straightforwardness; to fear God and fulfill his mitzvot, with deeds… with straightforwardness. Thus, he concludes: “For this is all mankind”—in other words, this is something all mankind can fulfill and through it attain the ultimate goal, because the main thing is “Fear the Lord….” Every person can therefore attain the ultimate goal, because this is something all mankind can fulfill.