ספר בראשית

The tzaddikim, thanks to their service of the Creator ‎with all their hearts, enable G’d to “clothe Himself” in an ‎attribute reflecting a certain degree of “pride,” i.e. satisfaction ‎that free willed creatures whom He has created have turned to ‎Him, although they had options that appeared to them as an ‎easier way of coping with life on earth. [Some of these ‎words are mine, Ed.] Once G’d has clothed Himself in that ‎attribute, He looks at the wicked with disdain, withholding His ‎largesse from them. In due course, this process results in the ‎wicked on earth suffering a total defeat and this is what Moses ‎referred to in Exodus 15,1 when he described G’d as ‎אשירה לה' כי ‏גאה גאה סוס ורוכבו רמה בים‎, “let me raise my voice in song to ‎‎Hashem, Who has taken ‘pride’ in triumphing, hurling both ‎horse and its rider into the sea.” The downfall of the gentiles ‎occurs simply because G’d no longer supervises their fates.‎It follows that it can be said of the tzaddikim that by ‎means of their good deeds they are directly responsible for how, ‎to whom, and in what quantities G’d’s largesse is dispensed. The ‎vessels, i.e. instruments, used by the tzaddikim, are the ‎musical instruments with which the Levites accompany the ‎sacrificial offerings presented by the priests. The Levites would ‎raise or lower their voices on occasion when singing, in ‎accordance with the norms used by musicians. Raising their ‎voices meant that they wished G’d’s largesse to be withheld from ‎the wicked, whereas lowering their voices was an invitation to G’d ‎to dispense His largesse to all His creatures in the lower regions, ‎including the wicked, such largesse being the result of G’d’s ‎mercy and love for His creatures.‎It is a rule, and that is why it is referred to in our sages’ ‎parlance as ‎כלל‎, something inclusive, all-embracing, that while ‎G’d’s largesse is in transit to earth, having commenced in the ‎celestial regions, this largesse does not have a specific colour, i.e. ‎is not addressed to anyone specifically. It is only when this ‎largesse reaches the creatures on earth that it is directed to ‎specific addresses. ‎When we speak of largesse in general terms, we view this as ‎comprising all the letters in the alphabet, whereas when we speak ‎about specifics, we view this as the respective letters in the ‎alphabet. Different deserving people have different needs, so that ‎if someone is in need of being well received by the prospective ‎employer to whom he applies for a position, he needs to be ‎endowed with ‎חן‎, projecting an outgoing pleasant personality. It ‎is the task of G’d’s largesse in this case to be converted into the ‎letters that spell ‎חן‎, charm, grace. If another tzaddik is in ‎need of immediate parnassah, livelihood, for himself and his ‎family, the means to purchase food, then G’d’s largesse needs to ‎be translated into the letters of the alphabet appropriate for this. ‎This process of the largesse being translated into immediately ‎usable form is known as ‎רוחב‎, “width;” as it alludes to the ability ‎of G’d’s largesse to adapt to the individual needs of different ‎people. The word ‎רוחב‎ is especially appropriate in this ‎connection, as width may be extended in either direction, i.e. the ‎‎tzaddikim are free to direct relatively more of G’d’s largesse ‎in the direction of the righteous or the wicked, as they may see ‎fit.‎