Simcha - III

In contrast to the other forms of sweetening the Din (discussed in the previous two posts), that of Binah is the highest form as it is rooted in Simcha which chases away all the Klipot. The root of the evil of the evil and the Klipot is that they try to infuse a person with an imaginary life. The Yetzer Hora only enters an empty heart as idleness and boredom lead the person to find a sense of being alive within sin. But this is all empty and imaginary and trying to convince the person that they will fill his empty life. But a person whose heart is filled with true holiness is not one in which the Klipot can take root as it is filled with God's blessing, richness of life and full of pleasant feelings, joy of holiness with no emptiness boredom or starving for life.
The bottom line is that every person wants to feel alive and if he doesn't keep himself alive with holiness he will starve, and then the Klipot will sell him rotten food that appears good on the outside.
What fills a person with great spiritual wealth? Simcha! To expound on this we need to know that wealth is synonymous with Mochin (literally brains, in Kabbalistic terminology it means the spiritual emanations from above, specifically of Chochma and Bina). All of the middot are vessels within which one can receive the light of Chochma and Bina. Chochma is the source of Torah wisdom, and Bina is the source of happiness. Together they fill a person with wealth and a sweet and powerful sense of satisfaction to the extent that the person no longer feels a sense of hunger and emptiness which lures him to imaginary ways of satisfying his needs.
Bina is the wine that brings joy and bestows on a person great happiness and fullness of life. Bina is also referred to as Elokim Chaim as it is the Middah that bestows a feeling of truly being alive through happiness.
תפלה פ"ב

Simcha - II

When sweeting of Din is accomplished through the pain of having sinned exemplified in Malchut, or the admitting of wrongdoing and Viduy of Hod, or being God-fearing and overcoming the desire to sin of Gevurah, there remains room for the Klipot (forces of impurity) to take hold. This results from the fact that all of the above have the tendency to cause a person to draw into himself and to feel down about himself. One who feels knocked down tends to want to be alone and doesn't feel comfortable relating to others in a happy and loving manner. After confessing his sins a person may feel embarrassed and not show a shining face towards others. One whose sins have left him gripped with fear may feel an overpowering sense of seriousness that makes it difficult for him to smile at others.
The bottom line is that as long as a person remains within the left-side middos which emanate from Gevurah it is difficult for him to incorporate also the right-side of kindness, love, smile, connection, unity. He wants to be alone as Gevurah is the essence of separating things so that each thing stands alone. In these situations a person is not avoןding others because of evil Gevurot - there is no anger, hubris, stinginess or related traits. Those are perversions of the left-side and the distancing that results from them is negative, distorted and misguided. In this case the distancing is resulting from the good middot of Teshuva and correction. Despite this, as he is still rooted in the left-side his heart is connected to Gevurah, separation, and does not find itself whole and complete and incorporating Chesed and the light of unity, love and connection.
Therefore, even though these are all necessary Middot in the process of Teshuva and purification, they will not come to their completion until one joins to them the higher level of Binah the root of joy as we will explain next.
תפלה פ"א

Hidden Connections

Every Mitzvah has reasons that are revealed. Frequently these reasons seem to show that certain Mitzvos have no connection. One example is the ארבע פרשיות which seem to have each been instituted for a reason that is independent of the others. The same is true of other Torah concepts which seem to have an independent existence with no connection to another. However, beneath the veneer of revealed reasons lies a hidden realm which intimately ties together all the parts until they are one entity forming a comprehensive picture expressed by numerous parts that had seemed to lack any connection. Hidden lines and thin threads weave together all the aspects of the Torah to form amazing connections. We frequently find in the Tikkunei Zohar connections between seemingly distant topics, which are then united by their hidden ties.
Topics such as conversion, Korbanos, Tzitzis, redeeming first-born donkeys, Amalek and marriage which are each found in a different part of Shulchan Aruch and have no connection in the revealed world, are deeply connected in the Zohar. One can study Mesechet Kiddishin and have a comprehensive knowledge of the laws of marriage without knowing anything of the laws of mixing meat and milk. But Kabbalah connects them. In the revealed world discussions about certain topics are generally focused solely on that topic. It is then expounded upon through numerous citations from the sages until the topic is completely clarified and its practical application understood. However, within their words the Sages sprinkled hints, sparks of the hidden teachings, which direct us to discover the hidden principles, and the connections between disparate topics. Often these are predicated upon shared usage of certain terms.

פורים כ"ו

Simcha - I

Simcha is rooted in the sefira of Binah which is also the root of din. Two principles of din are that it is the place where vulnerability to klipot exists, and that it can only be sweetened (mitigated) at its root. Therefore one can only sweeten the din by connecting to Binah.
 There are a number of other Sefirot which relate to din, namely all the 'left-side' sefirot of Gevura, Hod and Malchut. They are knowמ collectively as אלוהים (Elokim). In its most perverted sense Din is exemplified as the self-centered Yetzer Hora which manifests anger, hubris, lust and other egoistical traits. One must get to the roots of the four sefirot in order to mitigate the din.
Binah is the root of Simcha, Gevurah is fear and overpowering, Hod is acknowledgement of truth, and Malchut is humility.
 One mitigates the Din in Malchut by feeling the pain of the damage one has caused by improper behavior. This is exemplified by the humility demonstrated by King David in the wake of his sin. Stubborness is the root of sin, and breaking that weakens the evil within the uncircumcised heart.
Within Hod, by admitting the truth of one's failings and reciting Viduy one mitigates the Din. The sin came about because he was blind to falsehood. By owning up to the reality of the wrong he wrought, he breaks the power of delusion,and enters the realm of truth.   Within Gevurah one mitigates the Din by learning how to be a God-fearing person. Sin comes from forgetting who God is, and magnifying onesself. When one visualizes God before himself, the Yetzer is weakened and mitigated. In a similar vein within Gevurah, the Din is sweetened by fighting and overcoming the Yetzer as the fighting is inspired by the fear of God found within.
תפלה פ