Nathan of Breslov

“ For all the hairs of the beard are very supernal and lofty and awesome pipes, and there is no one who can conceive and grasp in his mind the astounding loftiness of the holiness of the holy beard, and vice-versa it is unfathomable, God spare us, the punishment of one who destroys and raises his hand and spoils such a lofty holiness. But due to our many sins, over the length of time many of them have broken through the fence, and they transgress five negative commandments boldly and they destroy the beard with an actual razor. ”

“ For each and every letter and word of our holy Torah -- Written Torah and Oral Torah -- and each mitzvah and each kosher custom of Yisrael the holy and chosen people, are all dimensions and constrictions through which we merit to attain perceptions of His Blessed Divinity, each one according to what he fits in his heart, according to what he merits via his service and effort in Torah, mitzvot and good deeds, and separation from the bad. ”

“ And therefore in this physical world the main part of Creation is founded on physical dust, because Man — who has free will, who is the essence, as for him all was created — was created on the earth specifically, for it was necessary to constrict the water until there was earthly dust in order that man and all that was created could exist on it. ”

“ And the main prohibition is with a razor, which is like a sword, which cuts down the days, because the sword was created to cut down the days of a man, and it is injust for it to wave over that which lengthens which is the holy beard which is aspect of length of days as mentioned. For the razor and sword are the aspect of Esav who was blessed with this, as is written, "Ve`al-charbekha tichyeh/And by your sword shall you live" [Gen. 27:40] , and it cuts down the days of a man. ”

“ Oth 6 Hence `Asiyah, the aspect of Dust, is where is the main grip of the arrows, which are the aspect of the Qelipoth's and Sitra Achra's onslaughts. Therefore whatever is closer to the earth is more gripped by impurity. Therefore worms that creep on the earth, which are closer to the earth than all animals, as they creep and swarm right on the ground, are thus all forbidden, as no sort of them are permitted for consumption. ”

“ And in the future this awareness will be revealed, for they will know Hashem with a wondrous intellect, that even though He constricted His light to the sides in order for there to be place for Creation, nevertheless "there is no place void of Him" and He fills all the worlds and pervades them etc. ”

“ And because of that, due to our very many sins, the sophistry of philosophy and heresy has become widespread in Germany and its surroundings, for they have completely thrown the yoke of the kingship of Heaven off of them in these generations, and cast off their beards and most of the pe'ot and go dressed in the others' clothing, etc. ”

“ And even tzadikim as these who cleaned and sanctified themselves from the zuhamat hanachash completely and broke all the cravings and nullified the body and the material completely, they too have their main strengthening only through the holy faith, as understood in the words of Rabeinu z"l in several places. For it is impossible to attain any... ”

“ For the Yetzer haRa` collected all his forces and chased after the Israelite lifeforce, for when he sees the vitality wants to escape from him and she flees from him, then he collects all his forces and chases her. For the more her vitality fortifies itself against him, the more he fortifies himself against her ”