Editing Or Chozer (Reflected Light) (section)

== The Baal Teshuvah ==
Regarding the level of the baal teshuvah in the aspect of Or Chozer, the Mitteler Rebbe writes:

The love of "with all your might" is unlimited love, in the aspect of the very essence of the soul, which is called the master of will, which is entirely beyond the aspect of will. That is, the entire essence of the soul yearns and longs to depart and cleave, and not merely in the aspect of will alone. Therefore it is called "your might" without limit, for such great love does not come from the limited powers of the soul in will and the like, but from its entire essence, which is formless and completely unlimited.

Although this arousal of the entire essence of the soul completely is possible only in the aspect of "reflected light" to the Essence, which is when the vessels of the soul cannot contain the arousal, since it is too great for the contraction of the vessels of the soul's powers of intellect and heart. Therefore, such arousal must necessarily remain in an encompassing manner around the intellect, and the will remains in the essence of the soul, the master of will, etc.

This level is specifically achieved by baalei teshuvah, because the baal teshuvah was very, very distant from the light and pleasure of closeness to G-d, called "the light of the King's countenance is life." For through his many sins, the transgressor becomes very greatly distanced, and this distance causes in his soul a very great bitterness over the magnitude of the distance, until his return to G-d comes from the depths of the heart, like the well-known story of Rabbi Elazar ben Durdaya whose soul departed in weeping, etc. That is, the measure of the intensification of the longing to cleave to G-d intensified in him in the entire point of the heart, in a way that the vessels of the mind and heart cannot grasp at all.

This longing is called the aspect of '''Or Chozer''', and it is from the aspect of distance that causes arousal in the point of the heart, unlike completely righteous individuals whose arousal is only from their comprehension and pleasure in G-d through Torah and prayer. Even the arousal of "with all your soul" in the Shema is not with the entire essence of the soul, but only the aspect of light drawn from the essence of the soul, which is will. But the longing of baalei teshuvah is in the aspect of the soul's expiration - "my soul expires," like Rabbi Elazar ben Durdaya.

In the Zohar it is stated that the Messiah comes in order to bring the righteous to teshuvah, that is, to arouse that elevated level and vitality in the righteous as well, from the inner aspect of the soul.