Rabbah said: if the righteous wished, they could create a world; what separates? Your iniquities, as it is written (Isaiah 59:2), ‘but your iniquities have separated between you and your God’ — thus, if your iniquities were not [there], there would be no difference between you and Him. For Rava created a man [and] sent him before Rabbi Zeira; he was speaking to him, and he did not answer; and were it not for your iniquities, he would have answered. And from what would he have answered? From his soul. And does a man have a soul to put into it? Yes, as it is written (Genesis 2:7), ‘and He breathed into his nostrils the soul of life.’ And a man has the soul of life; and were it not for your iniquities — for the soul is not pure — this is the difference between you and Him, as it is written (Psalm 8:6), ‘and You made him lack a little from God.’ What is ‘a little’? That he has iniquities, and the Holy One does not; and blessed is He and blessed is His Name for ever and ever. It is iniquities that He does not have — but the [evil] inclination, however, comes from Him. ‘Comes from Him’ — does it enter your mind? Rather say: it used to come from Him, until David came and killed it; this is what is written (Psalm 109:22), ‘and my heart is slain within me’ — thus said David: since I could not [prevail] against it, [I made it that] ‘evil shall not dwell with You’ (Psalm 5:5). And by what did David prevail against it? By his study, for he did not keep silent night or day, and he would join the Torah of above; for every hour that a man studies Torah for its own sake, the Torah of above is joined to the Holy One. And this is what we say: let a man always study Torah, even not for its own sake, for out of [studying] not for its own sake he comes to [study] for its own sake. And what is the Torah of which you spoke? It is the bride (kalah), who is adorned and crowned and included in all the commandments, and she is the treasury of the Torah, and she is the betrothed (arusah) of the Holy One, as it is written (Deuteronomy 33:4), ‘the Torah that Moses commanded us is the inheritance (morashah) of the congregation of Jacob’ — do not read ‘inheritance (morashah)’ but ‘betrothed (me’orasah).’ How so? When Israel are engaged in Torah for its own sake, she is the betrothed of the Holy One; and at the time she is the betrothed of the Holy One, she is the inheritance of Israel.