Rabbi Shimon was the quintessential complete tzaddik.
Those who wish to enter into his domain must exhibit a similar quality.
They must be more than incomplete tzaddikim.
They must be of the category of “the ascendant ones” who transform the evil within their soul into good, the darkness into light, and the bitterness into sweetness.
These tzaddikim do not merely sweeten the bitter; they transform its bitterness into a new kind of sweetness.
They do not merely drive out the darkness; they convert darkness into light.
—Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz