170- Faith Within Reason
Faith within reason is called “A wicked strap with which to strike the wicked.” The reason is that through it, we are enslaved within the exile, for were it not for this they would immediately go free.
It is just as Israel were in Egypt 216 years, or as it is written, “And they afflicted them four hundred years.” The thing is that what they built would immediately be buried in the ground “and they made their lives bitter with hard work” until “the children of Israel sighed from the work,” until they were redeemed.
However, we should ask, Why did they not have a sigh and grief from the work? The reason is that if a person takes faith above reason, his body no longer wants to give him fuel for the work, since where there is no will to receive, there is no body.
The rule is that a body cannot work without any reception for itself. Ten percent, five percent, but no reception whatsoever? This is impossible. But there is an answer to this: One who increases the love of the Creator has the fuel coming from the love of the Creator, and being rewarded with the love of the Creator is specifically through hatred of the body.