217. If I Am Not for Me, Who Is for Me

“If I’m not for me who is for me, and when I am for me, what am I?” This is a paradox. The thing is that one should do all of one’s work by way of “If I’m not for me who is for me,” that there is no one who can save him, but “in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it,” that is, in the form of reward and punishment. However, to oneself, in private, one should know that “when I am for me, what am I?” This means that everything is in Private Providence and there is no one who can do anything.

And if you say that if everything is in Private Providence, why is there the issue of working in the form of “If I’m not for me who is for me?” Yet, through working in the form of “If I’m not for me who is for me,” one is awarded Private Providence, that is, attains it. Thus, everything follows the path of correction. And the division of the duty and the Torah, called “children of the Creator,” is not revealed unless it is preceded by work in the form of “If I’m not for me who is for me.”