Before the law stands a doorkeeper. The doorkeeper accepts everything, but always with the remark, "I'm only taking it to keep you from thinking you have omitted anything." Alef with all and all with Alef, Bet with all and all with Bet, Gimel with all and all with Gimel, and they all return again and again, and they emanate through two hundred and thirty-one gates.
From its first appearance this crucial text was not historical, but exemplary. Fire ascends, water descends and wind balances between the two. Mem is silent, Shin is sibilant, and Alef balances between the two.
The doorkeeper frequently conducts little interviews, asking the man who comes to him questions about his home and many other things, but the questions are put indifferently, as great lords put them, and always finish with the statement that he cannot be let in yet. By this method one attains perfection, takes control over his life and transcends the limitations of time and space. And even in his darkness he is aware of a radiance that streams inextinguishably from the gateway of the Law.
