"One is the opposite of the other"— the "wicked man who prospers" is antithetical to the "righteous man who suffers." That is to say, the goodness that is in his divine soul which is in his brain and in the right part of his heart, is subservient to, and nullified by, the evil of the kelipah that is in the left part. This type, too, is subdivided into myriads of degrees which differ in respect of the extent and manner of the nullification and subservience of the good to the bad, G‑d forbid.

There is the person in whom the said subservience and nullification are in a very minor way, and even these are not permanent or recurring at frequent intervals; but on rare occasions the evil prevails over the good and conquers the "small city," that is the body— yet not all of it, but only a part of it, subjecting it to its (evil's) discipline, to become a vehicle and a garment wherein one of the soul's three garments mentioned above is clothed, namely, either in deed alone, in the commission of minor transgressions and not major ones, G‑d forbid; or in speech alone, in the utterance of something that borders on slander and scoffing and the like; or in thought alone, in contemplations of sin, which are more serious than actual sin, or even when he does not contemplate committing a sin but indulges in contemplation on the carnal union between male and female in general, whereby he is guilty of violating the admonition of the Torah, "Keep thee from every wicked thing," meaning that "One must not harbour impure fancies by day,.. ." or, when it is a fitting time to study the Torah, but he turns his heart to vain things, as we have learned in the Mishnah in Avot, "He that wakes in the night [or that walks alone by the way], and turns his heart to vanity [is guilty against his own soul]." For, by reason of any one of all these things, and their like, he is called wicked at such time that the evil in his nefesh prevails over him, clothing itself in his body, inducing it to sin and defiling it.

Presently, however, the good that is in his divine soul asserts itself, and he is filled with remorse, and he seeks pardon and forgiveness of G‑d. Indeed, G‑d will forgive him if he has repented with the appropriate penitence according to the counsel of our Sages, of blessed memory, namely, the three-fold division of atonement which is expounded by Rabbi Ishmael, as is explained elsewhere.

There is also the person in whom the wickedness prevails more strongly, and all three garments of evil clothe themselves in him, causing him to commit more heinous and frequent sins. But intermittently he suffers remorse, and thoughts of repentance enter his mind, from the quality of good that is in his soul, that gathers strength now and then. However, he has not enough strength to vanquish the evil so as to rid himself entirely of his sins and be as one who confesses and abandons [his evil ways, once and for all].Concerning such a person, the Rabbis, of blessed memory, have said, “The wicked are full of remorse.” These represent the majority of the wicked, in whose soul still lingers some good.

But he who never feels contrition, and in whose mind no thoughts of repentance at all ever enter, is called the "wicked who suffers," for the evil that is in his soul has alone remained in him, having so prevailed over the good that the latter has already departed from within him, standing aloof, so to speak, over him. Therefore the Sages have said, "Over every ten Jews hovers the Shechinah."