Without the body’s excitement, it is impossible to make a person do something. Thus, “If he sits and does not commit a transgression, it is though he did a Mitzva [commandment].”
It cannot be said that this concerns a person who observes many “do not do” each day. For example, a person might say, “Today I did not commit murder, I did not rob, I did not steal” and so forth. However, all these negations do not make any excitement in the body if a person does not think about them.
Only where one thinks about them, when he has the opportunity to do, but he does not do because of the commandment of the Creator, it can be said that he observed these Mitzvot [commandments] not to do.
But without any movement of the body in thought or speech or action, it cannot be said that he observed the “no” without feeling it or knowing it, since everything we say about a person is only by his impressions and feelings.
But if a person is not in these places, these qualities cannot be said, for normally, the work is about conquering the inclination or about doing, or about avoidance from doing. In them there is the matter of conquering the inclination. It is about this that they said, “Do not say, ‘cannot’ about pork, but rather ‘can,’ but the Torah forbade.”
Hence, there are four discernments:
1) It is hard for him to overcome the lust and he does the forbidden deed.
2) He does not do because of what people might say, for he is a person who is considered worthy, but suddenly his disgrace will become known in public.
3) He overcomes the inclination because the Torah forbade, but he is not happy that the Torah forbade and is suffering because of the prohibition in the Torah.
4) He is happy that now he is observing the King’s commandment.