Group None

And no deed is considered worthy unless it contains pure reverence. Therefore, it is necessary to make known to everyone that every man who wants to bring his soul towards the attainment of good qualities must mingle reverence to Heaven with each and every quality. For it is fear of the Lord, reverence of God, that strengthens all of our qualities. And fear of the Lord or reverence of God is like the thread which we run through the holes of pearls and then we tie a knot at its end so that it will firmly hold all the pearls. There is no doubt that if the knot should tear, all of the pearls will fall. Such is the reverence of Heaven. It strengthens all of the qualities and if you will undo the knot of reverence, then all your good qualities will depart from you, and when you have no good qualities within you then you have neither Torah nor Commandments. For the whole Torah depends on the constant improvement of the qualities. As regards the qualities, the good and the bad, the wise man can make good ones of bad ones but the fool can make evil qualities out of good ones. As for him who walks in the darkness, and does not consider the improvement of his qualities, it is possible that one quality will destroy all of his merit. For example, one who takes great pride in his deeds and boasts and preens himself always with the shame of his companions, and seeks to obtain honor through his companion's disgrace, such a man is like one who fills a barrel with fine wine, but there is in the bottom of the barrel a little hole. There is no doubt that all of the fine wine will be lost because of the small hole, if he does not stop it up. So this man who is arrogant, even though he is filled with Torah, will lose everything through this evil quality if he does not hasten to repair it.