Kabbalah Library

69. It is a commandment to love. To Love the Creator means that one should love Him with great love, like Abraham, who loved the Creator with great love and devoted his body and soul to Him. Thus, one who loves the Creator observes ten utterances, ten Sefirot above and below. This is why Abraham was tried all those ten trials, and he withstood all of them. They correspond to ten utterances, since each trial is one utterance, one Sefira, in which he was tried in that utterance and withstood it.

70. Hence, there are ten trials opposite the ten Sefirot. Abraham withstood them all because he connected and adhered to the right of the Creator, which is called “great love,” Hesed of ZA. It is called “great love” because one who stands in this love is connected to the upper world, ZA.

Everlasting love is the bottom world, Malchut, to which the love of the Creator is tied. Everything, great love and everlasting love, one is without separation between them. The love supersedes all the works in the world. The name of the Creator is glorified and blessed in love more than in anything.

71. It is a commandment to read the Shema reading twice daily. One corresponds to the degree of the day, ZA, and one corresponds to the degree of night, Malchut, to incorporate the degree of the night in the day, and incorporate the degree of the day in the night. This is why there is a need for twice daily, one in the daytime and one at night.