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ALIPIREA
3.01 Baal HaSulam,
“The Writings of the Last Generation”
Life’s direction is to attain adhesion with Him, strictly to benefit the Creator, or to reward the public with achieving adhesion with Him.
3.02 Baal HaSulam,
“The Writings of the Last Generation”
In every person, even in the secular, there is an unknown spark that demands unification with God. When it sometimes awakens, it awakens a passion to know God, or deny God, which is the same. If someone generates the satisfaction of this desire in that person, he will agree to anything.
3.03 Baal HaSulam,
“Matan Torah [The Giving of the Torah],” Item 13
If indeed there are two parts in the Torah: 1) Mitzvot between man and the Creator, 2) Mitzvot between man and man, both aim for the same thing—to bring the creature to the final purpose of Dvekut with Him. Furthermore, even the practical side in both of them is really one and the same, for when one performs an act Lishma, without any mixture of self-love, meaning without drawing any benefit for himself, then one does not feel any difference whether one is working to love one’s friend or to love the Creator.
3.04 Baal HaSulam,
“A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”
Spiritual Dvekut can only be depicted as equivalence of form. Hence, by equalizing our form with the form of His qualities, we become attached to Him.
This is why they said, “as He is merciful.” In other words, all His actions are to bestow and benefit others, and not at all for His own benefit, since He has no deficiencies that require complementing. And also, He has no one from whom to receive. Similarly, all your actions will be to bestow and to benefit others. Thus, you will equalize your form with the form of the qualities of the Creator, and this is spiritual Dvekut.
There is a discernment of “mind” and a discernment of “heart” in the above-mentioned equiv- alence of form. The engagement in Torah and Mitzvot in order to bestow contentment upon one’s Maker is equivalence of form in the mind. This is because the Creator does not think of Himself—whether He exists or whether He watches over His creations, and other such doubts. Similarly, one who wishes to achieve equivalence of form must not think of these things, as well, when it is clear to him that the Creator does not think of them, since there is no greater disparity of form than that. Hence, anyone who thinks of such matters is certainly separated from Him and will never achieve equivalence of form.
This is what our sages said, “Let all your actions be for the sake of the Creator,” that is, Dvekut with the Creator. Do not do anything that does not yield this goal of Dvekut. This means that all your actions will be to bestow and to benefit your fellow person. At that time, you will achieve equivalence of form with the Creator—as all His actions are to bestow and to benefit others, so you, all your actions will be only to bestow and to benefit others. This is the complete Dvekut.
3.05 Baal HaSulam,
“The Writings of the Last Generation”
The basis of my entire commentary is the will to receive imprinted in every creature, and which is disparity of form to the Creator. Thus, the soul has separated from Him as an organ is separated from the body, since disparity of form in spirituality is like a separating axe in corporeality. It is therefore clear that what the Creator wants from us is equivalence of form, at which time we adhere to Him once more, as before we were created.
This is the meaning of the words, “Adhere to His attributes; as He is merciful, etc.” It means that we are to change our attribute, which is the will to receive, and adopt the attribute of the Creator, which is only to bestow, so that all our actions will be only to bestow upon our fellow persons and benefit them as best as we can.
By this we come to the goal of adhering to Him, which is equivalence of form. What one is com- pelled to do for oneself, namely the necessary minimum for one’s self and one’s family’s sustenance, is not considered disparity of form, as “Necessity is neither condemned nor praised.” This is the great revelation that will be revealed in full only in the days of the Messiah. When this teaching is accepted, we will be rewarded with complete redemption.
3.06 Baal HaSulam,
“The Love of God and the Love of Man”
Our sages spoke only of the practical part of the Torah, which brings the world and the Torah to the desired goal. Therefore, when they say one Mitzva, they certainly mean a practical Mitzva. This is certainly as Hillel says, meaning “Love your friend as yourself.” It is by this Mitzva alone that one attains the real goal, which is Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator. Thus, you find that with this one Mitzva, one observes the entire goal and purpose.
Now there is no question about the Mitzvot between man and the Creator because the practical ones among them have the same purpose of cleansing the body, the last point of which is to love your friend as yourself, after which immediately comes the Dvekut.
3.07 Baal HaSulam,
Shamati, Article No. 47, “In the Place Where You Find His Greatness”
“In the place where you find His greatness, there you find His humbleness.” It means that one who is always in true Dvekut [adhesion] sees that the Creator lowers Himself, meaning the Creator is present in the low places.
One does not know what to do, and this is why it is written, “Who sits on high, who looks down on heaven and on earth.” A person sees the greatness of the Creator and then “who looks down,” meaning he lowers the heaven to the earth. The advice that is given to this is to think that if this desire is from the Creator, we have nothing greater than that, as it is written, “He raises the poor out of the litter.”
First, one must see that he has a lack. If he does not, he should pray for it, why does one not have it? The reason he does not have a lack is due to the diminution of awareness.
Hence, in every Mitzva [commandment], one must pray, why does he not have awareness, for he is not keeping the Mitzva in wholeness. In other words, the will to receive covers so he will not see the truth.
If he would see that he is in such a lowly state, he would certainly not want to be in that state. Instead, one should exert in one’s work every time until he comes to repentance, as it is written, “He brings down to the netherworld, and raises up.”
This means that when the Creator wants the wicked one to repent, He makes the netherworld so low for him that the wicked one himself does not want to be so. Hence, one needs to pray pleadingly that the Creator will show him the truth by adding to him the light of the Torah.
3.08 Baal HaSulam,
“The Freedom”
The children of Israel were rewarded with complete Dvekut on that holy occasion, their vessels of reception were completely emptied of any worldly possession and they were adhered to Him in equivalence of form. This means that they had no desire for any self-possession, but only to the extent that they could bestow contentment, so their Maker would delight in them.
And since their will to receive had clothed in an image of that object, it had clothed in it and bonded with it into complete oneness. Therefore, they were certainly liberated from the angel of death, for death is necessarily an absence and negation of the existence of something. But only while there is a spark that wishes to exist for its own pleasure is it possible to say about it that that spark does not exist because it has become absent and died.
However, if there is no such spark in man, but all the sparks of his selfness clothe in bestowal of contentment upon their Maker, then he neither becomes absent nor dies. For even when the body is annulled, it is only annulled with respect to self-reception, in which the will to receive is dressed and can only exist in it.
However, when he achieves the aim of creation and the Creator receives pleasure from him, since His will is done, man’s essence, which clothes in His contentment, is granted complete eternity, like Him. Thus, he has been rewarded with freedom from the angel of death.
3.09 Baal HaSulam,
Ohr HaBahir
The first restriction is the ascent of the desire of Ein Sof not to receive anymore in Phase Four. It is the great reception that is implemented in the world of Ein Sof, where there is disparity from His Self. This was in order to do good to His creations.
In other words, it is so that in the end, souls that are clothed in a body in this world will emerge from the ascent of this desire, so they will turn all of the great reception to be in order to bestow. At that time, they will have equivalence of form with His self and will be worthy of adhesion with Him. This is the meaning of doing good to His creations, since they will be able to receive the great lights that are received in Phase Four, who is called “His mate in Ein Sof.” And yet, they will not be separated from Him because of it due to the disparity of form of reception, which does not occur in Him, since their whole intention in receiving from Him will be only because He wants it, and their sole aim is to bring contentment to their Maker. This is the meaning of “Ein Sof does not bring down his unification on her until He is given his mate.”
3.10 Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article No. 19,
What Is “The Creator Hates the Bodies,” in the Work?
One must always examine oneself, the purpose of one’s work, meaning if the Creator receives contentment in every act that one performs, because he wants equivalence of form with the Creator. This is called “All your actions will be for the sake of the Creator,” meaning that one wants the Creator to enjoy everything he does, as it is written, “to bring contentment to his Maker.”
Also, one needs to conduct oneself with the will to receive and say to it, “I have already decided that I do not want to receive any pleasure because you want to enjoy, since with your desire I am forced to be separated from the Creator, for disparity of form causes separation and distance from the Creator.”
3.11 Baal HaSulam,
“The Writings of the Last Generation”
All of the anticipated reward from the Creator, and the purpose of the entire creation, are Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator, as in, “A tower filled abundantly, but no guests.” This is what they who cling to Him with love receive.
Naturally, first, one emerges from imprisonment, which is emerging from the skin of one’s body by bestowal upon others. Subsequently, one comes to the king’s palace, which is Dvekut with Him through the intention to bestow contentment upon one’s maker.
Therefore, the bulk of commandments are between man and man. One who gives preference to the commandments between man and God is as one who climbs to the second step before he has climbed to the first step. Clearly, he will break his legs.
3.12 Baal HaSulam,
Shamati, Article No. 3, “The Matter of Spiritual Attainment”
May we merit receiving His light and following the ways of the Creator, and to serve Him not in order to receive reward but to give contentment to the Creator and raise the Shechina [Divinity] from the dust. May we be rewarded with Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator and the revelation of His Godliness to His creatures.
3.13 Baal HaSulam,
Shamati, Article No. 1, “There Is None Else Besides Him”
One must always try and adhere to the Creator, namely that all his thoughts will be about Him. That is to say, even if he is in the worst state, from which there cannot be a greater decline, he should not leave His domain, namely that there is another authority that prevents him from entering the Kedusha [holiness], that can bring benefit or harm.
That is, he must not think that there is a force of the Sitra Achra [other side] that does not let a person do good deeds and walk in the ways of the Creator. Rather, all is done by the Creator.
The Baal Shem Tov said that he who says that there is another force in the world, namely Klipot [shells], that person is in a state of “serving other gods.” It is not necessarily the thought of heresy that is the transgression, but if he thinks that there is another authority and force apart from the Creator, he is committing a transgression.
Furthermore, one who says that man has his own authority, that is, he says that yesterday he him- self did not want to follow the Creator’s ways, this, too, is considered committing the transgression of heresy, meaning he does not believe that only the Creator is the leader of the world.
3.14 Baal HaSulam,
Shamati, Article No. 19, “What Is ‘The Creator Hates the Bodies,’ in the Work?”
One must especially try to have a strong desire to obtain the desire to bestow and overcome the will to receive. A strong desire means that a strong desire is measured by the increment of the in-between rests and the arrests, meaning the time gaps between each overcoming.
Sometimes one receives a cessation in the middle, meaning a descent. This descent can be a cessation of a minute, an hour, a day, or a month. Afterward, he resumes the work of overcoming the will to receive and the attempts to achieve the desire to bestow. A strong desire means that the cessation does not take him a long time and he is immediately reawakened to the work.
3.15 Baal HaSulam,
Shamati, Article No. 5, “Lishma Is an Awakening from Above, and Why Do We Need an Awakening from Below?”
When the thief, meaning the will to receive, does not feel any flavor or vitality in the work of accepting the burden of the kingdom of heaven, in that state, if one works with faith above reason, coercively, and the body becomes accustomed to this work against the desire of his will to receive, then he has the means by which to come to work that will be with the purpose of bringing content- ment to his Maker, since the primary requirement from a person is to come to Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator through his work, which is discerned as equivalence of form, where all his actions are in order to bestow.
This is as it is written, “Then shall you delight in the Lord.” The meaning of “Then” is that first, in the beginning of his work, he did not have pleasure. Instead, his work was coercive.
But afterward, when he has already accustomed himself to work in order to bestow and not examine himself—if he is feeling a good taste in the work—but believes that he is working to bring contentment to his Maker through his work, he should believe that the Creator accepts the work of the lower ones regardless of how and how much is the form of their work. In everything, the Creator examines the intention, and this brings contentment to the Creator. Then one is rewarded with “delight in the Lord.”
Even during the work of the Creator he will feel delight and pleasure since now he really does work for the Creator because the effort he made during the coercive work qualifies him to be able to truly work for the Creator. You find that then, too, the pleasure he receives relates to the Creator, meaning specifically for the Creator.
3.16 Baal HaSulam,
Shamati, Article No. 23, “You Who Love the Lord, Hate Evil”
In the verse, “You who love the Lord, hate evil; He preserves the souls of His followers; He will save them from the hand of the wicked,” he interprets that it is not enough to love the Creator, and to want to be awarded Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator. One should also hate evil.
Hatred is expressed by hating the evil, called “the will to receive.” One sees that he has no way to get rid of it, and at the same time, he does not want to accept the situation. He feels the losses that the evil causes him, and also sees the truth, that one cannot annul the evil by himself, since it is a natural force from the Creator, who imprinted the will to receive in man.
In that state, the verse tells us what one can do is hate evil. And by this the Creator will keep him from that evil, as it is written, “He preserves the souls of His followers.” What is preservation? “He will deliver them from the hand of the wicked.” In that state, since he has some contact with the Creator, be it the smallest contact, he is already a successful person.
In truth, the matter of evil remains and serves as an Achoraim [posterior] to the Partzuf. But this is only through one’s correction: Through sincere hatred of evil, it is corrected into a form of Achoraim. The hatred comes because if one wants to obtain Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator then there is a conduct among friends: If two people realize that each of them hates what his friend hates, and loves what and whom his friend loves, they come into perpetual bonding like a stake that will never fall. Hence, since the Creator loves to bestow, the lower ones should also adapt to want only to bestow.
The Creator also hates to be a receiver, as He is completely whole and does not need anything. Thus, man, too, must hate the matter of reception for oneself.
It follows from all the above, that one must bitterly hate the will to receive, for all the ruins in the world come only from the will to receive. And through the hatred, one corrects it and surrenders under the Kedusha [holiness].
3.17 Baal HaSulam,
Shamati, Article No. 61, “Round About Him It Storms Mightily”
Our sages say about the verse, “And round about Him it storms mightily,” that the Creator is metic- ulous with the righteous as a hairsbreadth. He asked: If they are generally righteous, why do they deserve a harsh punishment?
The thing is that all the borders we speak of in the worlds are from the perspective of the receiv- ers, meaning the lower ones limit and restrict themselves to some degree, and thus remain below, since above, they agree to everything that the lower ones do. Hence, to that extent the abundance extends below. Therefore, by their thoughts, words, and actions, the lower ones cause the abundance to come down from above in this manner.
It turns out that if the lower one regards a minor act or word as if it is an important act, such as con- sidering a momentary pause in Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator as breaking the gravest prohibition in the Torah, then there is consent above to the opinion of the lower one, and it is considered above as though he really broke a serious prohibition. Thus, the righteous says that the Creator is meticulous with him as a hairsbreadth, and as the lower one says, so it is agreed above.
When the lower one does not feel a slight prohibition as a serious one, from above they also do not regard the trifle things he breaks as great prohibitions. Hence, such a person is treated as though he is a small person, meaning his Mitzvot [commandments] are considered small, and his transgressions are considered small, too. They are regarded as having the same weight, and he is generally considered a small person.
However, one who regards the trifle things and says that the Creator is meticulous about them as a hairsbreadth is considered a great person, and both his transgressions and his Mitzvot are great. One can suffer when committing a transgression to the extent that he feels pleasure when performing a Mitzva [commandment]. There is an allegory about this: A man did a terrible crime against the kingship and was sentenced to twenty years in prison with hard labor. The prison was outside the country in some desolate place in the world. The sentence was carried out right away and he was sent to the desolate place at the end of the world.
There, he found other people who were sentenced by the kingdom to be there like him, but he became sick with amnesia and forgot that he had a wife and children, friends and acquaintances. He thought that the whole world is nothing more than the desolate place with the people who are there, that he was born there, and he did not know of more than that. Thus, his truth is according to his present feeling and he has no regard for the actual reality, only according to his knowledge and sensations.
There he was taught rules and regulations so that he would not break the rules once more, and keep himself from the transgression written there, and know how to correct his actions so as to be brought out from there. In the books of the king, he learned that one who breaks this rule, for example, is sent to a punitive land far from any settlement. He is impressed by this harsh punishment and has grievances at why such harsh punishments are given.
Yet, he would never think that he himself is one of those who broke the rules of the state, that he has been sentenced harshly, and the verdict has been carried out. And since he became sick with amnesia, he will never feel his actual state.
This is the meaning of “and round about him it storms mightily”: One must consider his every move, that he himself had already broken the king’s commandment, and has already been banished from the world. Now, through many good deeds, his memory begins to work and he begins to feel how far he has become from the settled place of the world.
He begins to engage in repentance until he is taken out from there and brought back to the settled place, and this feeling comes specifically through one’s work. He begins to feel that he has grown far from his origin and root until he is rewarded with Dvekut with the Creator.
3.18 Baal HaSulam,
Letter No. 25
The Zohar also spoke about it, saying that one who is rewarded with repentance, the Shechina [Divinity] appears to him like a soft-hearted mother who has not seen her son for many days, and they made great efforts and experienced ordeals in order to see each other, because of which they both were in great dangers. But in the end, they came to that longed-for freedom and were rewarded with seeing one another. Then the mother fell on him, kissed him, comforted him, and spoke softly to him all day and all night. She told him of the longing and the dangers on the roads she has experienced until today, how she had always been with him, and that the Shechina never moved, but suffered with him in all the places, but he could not see it.
These are the words of The Zohar: “She says to him, ‘Here we slept; here we were attacked by robbers and were saved from them; here we hid in a deep pit,’ and so forth. What fool would not understand the great love and pleasantness and delight that burst from these comforting stories?”
3.19 Baal HaSulam,
“This Is for Judah”
We find that the only need in man’s wishes, which does not exist in the whole of the animate species, is the awakening toward Godly Dvekut [adhesion]. Only the human species is ready for it, and none other.
It follows that the whole issue of presence in the human species is in that preparation imprinted in him to crave His work, and in this he is superior to the beast.
3.20 Baal HaSulam,
Letter No. 25
One who repents from love is rewarded with complete Dvekut [adhesion], meaning the highest degree, and one who is ready for sins is in the netherworld. These are the farthest two points in this entire reality.
It would seem that we should be meticulous with the word “repentance,” which should have been called “wholeness,” except it is to show that everything is preordained, and each and every soul is already established in all its light, goodness, and eternity. But for the bread of shame, the soul went out in restrictions until it clothed in the murky body, and only through it does it return to its root prior to the Tzimtzum [restriction], with its reward in its hand from all the terrible move it had made. The overall reward is the real Dvekut, meaning that she [the soul] got rid of the bread of shame because her vessel of reception has become a vessel of bestowal and her form is equal to her Maker.
3.21 Baal HaSulam,
Shamati, Article No. 70, “With a Mighty Hand and with Fury Poured Out”
We should know that of those who want to come into the work of the Creator in order to truly adhere to Him and enter the King’s palace, not everyone is admitted. Rather, he is tested: If he has no other desires but only a desire for Dvekut [adhesion], he is admitted.
And how is one tested if he has only one desire? He is given disturbances. This means that he is sent foreign thoughts and foreign messengers to obstruct him so he would leave this path and follow the path of all the people.
If one overcomes all the difficulties and breaks all the bars that block him, and little things cannot push him away, the Creator sends him great Klipot [shells/peels] and chariots to deflect one from entering into Dvekut with the Creator alone, and with nothing else. This is considered that the Creator is rejecting him with a mighty hand.
If the Creator does not show a mighty hand, it will be hard to push him away since he has a strong desire to adhere only to the Creator and to nothing else.
But when the Creator wants to reject one whose desire is not so strong, He pushes him away with a small thing. By giving him a great desire for corporeality, he already leaves the holy work entirely, and there is no need to repel him with a mighty hand.
Yet, when one overcomes all the hardships and the disturbances, one is not easily repelled, but with a mighty hand. And if one overcomes even the mighty hand and does not want to move from the place of Kedusha [holiness] whatsoever, but wants to adhere specifically to Him in truth, and sees that he is repelled, then one says that fury is poured out on him. Otherwise, he would be allowed inside. But because fury is poured out on him by the Creator, he is not admitted into the King’s palace to adhere to Him.
It follows that before one wants to move from one’s place, and breaks in and wants to enter, it cannot be said that he feels that fury is poured out on him. Rather, after all the rejections that he is rejected, and he does not move from his place, meaning when the mighty hand and the fury poured out have already been revealed upon him, then “I will be King over you” comes true. This is so because only through bursting and great efforts does the kingdom of heaven become revealed to him, and he is rewarded with entering the King’s palace.
3.22 Baal HaSulam,
Letter No. 8
There is a sublime purpose for all that happens in this world, and it is called “the drop of unifica- tion.” When those dwellers of clay houses go through all those terrors, through all that totality, in His pride, which is removed from them, a door opens in the walls of their hearts, which are tightly sealed by the nature of creation itself, and by this they become fit for instilling that drop of unifi- cation in their hearts. Then they are inverted like an imprinted substance, and they will evidently see that it is to the contrary—that it was precisely in those dreadful terrors that they perceive the totality, which is removed by foreign pride. There, and only there, is the Creator Himself adhered, and there He can instill them with the drop of unification.
3.23 Baal HaSulam,
“A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”
Every time one equalizes one’s form with one’s rav, he adheres to him for a time. As a result, he obtains the knowledge and thoughts of the rav, according to his measure of Dvekut, as we explained in the allegory about the organ that has been cut off from the body and was reunited with it.
For this reason, the student can use his rav’s attainment of the Creator’s greatness, which inverts bestowal into reception and sufficient fuel to give one’s heart and soul. At that time, the student, too, will be able to engage in Torah and Mitzvot Lishma with his very heart and soul, which is the remedy that yields eternal Dvekut with the Creator.
3.24 Baal HaSulam,
Letter No. 1
Everyone believes in private Providence, but do not adhere to it at all.
The reason is that an alien and foul thought … cannot be attributed to the Creator, who is the epitome of the “good who does good.” However, only to the true servants of the Creator does the knowledge of private Providence open, that He caused all the reasons that preceded it, both good and bad. Then they are adhered to private Providence, for all who are connected to the pure are pure.
Since the Guardian is united with His guarded, there is no apparent division between bad and good. They are all loved and are all clear, for they are all carriers of the vessels of the Creator, ready to glorify the revelation of His uniqueness. It is known by the senses, and to that extent, they have knowledge in the end that all the actions and the thoughts, both good and bad, are the carriers of the vessels of the Creator. He prepared them, from His mouth they emerged, and at the end of correction it will be known to all.
3.25 Baal HaSulam,
Shamati, Article No. 218, “The Torah and the Creator Are One”
“The Torah and the Creator are one.” Certainly, during the work they are two things. However, they contradict one another. The discernment of the Creator is Dvekut [adhesion], and Dvekut means equivalence, being canceled from reality. (And one should always depict how there was a time when he had a little bit of Dvekut, how he was filled with vitality and pleasure, and to always crave to be in Dvekut, for a spiritual matter is not divided in half. Moreover, if this is something fulfilling, he should always have the good thing. And one should depict the time he had since the body does not feel the negative, but the existing, that is, states he had already had. And the body can take these states as examples.)
The Torah is called “the light” in it. This means that during the study, when we feel the light, and want to give to the Creator with this light, as it is written, “One who knows the commandment the Master will serve Him.” Hence, he feels that he exists, that he wants to bestow upon the Creator, and this is the sensation of oneself.
However, when one is awarded the discernment of “the Torah and the Creator are one,” one finds that all is one. At that time, one feels the Creator in the Torah. One should always yearn for the light in it; and the light we can with what we learn, although it is easier to find the light in words of Kabbalah.
During the work, they are two ends. One is drawn to the discernment of the Creator, at which time he cannot study the Torah, and he yearns after the books of Hassidim. Then there is one who craves the Torah, to know the ways of the Creator, the worlds, their processes, and matters of guid- ance. These are the two ends. But in the future, “He shall smite the corners of Moab,” that is, they are both included in the tree.
3.26 Baal HaSulam,
Shamati, Article No. 17, “What Does It Mean that the Sitra Achra Is Called ‘Malchut without a Crown’?”
It is known that calculation is implemented only in Malchut, who calculates the height of the degree (through the Ohr Hozer [reflected light] in her). Also, it is known that Malchut is called “the will to receive for oneself.”
When she annuls her will to receive before the Root, and does not want to receive but only to give to the Root, like the Root, which is a desire to bestow, then Malchut, called Ani [I], becomes Ein [nothing], with an Aleph. Only then does she extend the light of Keter to build her Partzuf and becomes twelve Partzufim of Kedusha.
However, when she wants to receive for herself, she becomes the evil Ayin [eye]. In other words, where there was a combination of Ein, meaning annulment before the root, which is Keter, it has become Ayin (meaning seeing and knowing within reason).
This is called “adding.” It means that one wants to add knowing to faith, and work within reason. In other words, she says that it is more worthwhile to work within reason, and then the will to receive will not object to the work.
This causes a flaw, meaning that they were separated from the Keter, called “the desire to bestow,” which is the Root. There is no longer the matter of equivalence of form with the Root, called Keter. For this reason, the Sitra Achra is called “Malchut without a Crown.” It means that Malchut of the Sitra Achra does not have Dvekut [adhesion] with the Keter. For this reason, they have only eleven Partzufim, without Partzuf Keter.
This is the meaning of what our sages said, “ninety nine died of evil eye,” meaning because they have no quality of Keter. It means that the Malchut in them, being the will to receive, does not want to annul before the Root, called Keter. This means that they do not want to make of the Ani [I], called “the will to receive,” a quality of Ein [nothing], which is the annulment of the will to receive. Instead, they want to add. And this is called “the evil Ayin” [eye]. That is, where there should be Ein with Aleph [the first letter in the word Ein], they insert the evil Ayin [eye, the first letter in the word]. Thus, they fall from their degree due to lack of Dvekut with the Root.
This is the meaning of what our sages said, “Anyone who is proud, the Creator says, ‘He and I cannot dwell in the same abode,’” as he makes two authorities. However, when one is in a state of Ein, and annuls himself before the Root, meaning that one’s sole intention is only to bestow, like the Root, you find that there is only one authority here—the authority of the Creator. Then, all that one receives in the world is only in order to bestow upon the Creator.
This is the meaning of what he had said, “The whole world was created only for me, and I, to serve my Maker.” For this reason, I must receive all the degrees in the world so that I can give everything to the Creator, which is called “to serve my Maker.”
3.27 Baal HaSulam,
Letter No. 14
“Come to Pharaoh.” It is the Shechina [Divinity] in disclosure, from the words, “and let the hair of the woman’s head go loose,” as it is written in The Zohar. The thing is that to the extent that the chil- dren of Israel thought that Egypt were enslaving them and impeding them from serving the Creator, they truly were in the exile in Egypt. Hence, the Redeemer’s only work was to reveal to them that there is no other force involved here, that “I and not a messenger,” for there is no other force but Him. This was indeed the light of redemption, as explained in the Passover Haggadah [story].
This is what the Creator gave to Moses in the verse, “Come to Pharaoh,” meaning unite the truth, for the whole approaching the king of Egypt is only to Pharaoh, to disclose the Shechina. This is why He said, “For I have hardened his heart,” etc., “that I may place these signs of Mine within him.”
In spirituality, there are no letters, as I have already elaborated on before. All the multiplication in spirituality relies on the letters derived from the materiality of this world, as in, “And creator of darkness.” There are no additions or initiations here, but the creation of darkness, the Merkava [chariot/structure] that is suited to disclose that the light is good. It follows that the Creator Himself hardened his heart. Why? Because it is letters that I need.
This is the meaning of “that I may place these signs of Mine within him, and that you may tell … that you may know that I am the Lord.” Explanation: Once you receive the letters, meaning when you understand that I gave and toiled for you, as in, do not move from “behind” Me, for you will thoroughly keep the Achoraim [posterior/back] for Me, for My name, then the abundance will do her thing and fill the letters. The qualities will become Sefirot, since before the filling they are called “qualities,” and upon their fulfillment for the best, they are called Sefirot, sapphire, illuminating the world from one end to the other.
This is the meaning of “that you may tell.” I need all this for the end of the matter, meaning “And you shall know that I am the Lord” “and not a messenger.” This is the meaning of the fiftieth gate, which cannot appear unless the forty-nine faces of pure and impure appear in one opposite the other, in which the righteous falls [forty-nine in Gematria] before the wicked.
3.28 Baal HaSulam,
Shamati, Article No. 38, “The Fear of God Is His Treasure”
Our sages said, “Everything is in the hands of heaven but the fear of heaven,” is because He can give everything but fear. This is because what the Creator gives is more love, not fear.
Acquiring fear is through the Segula [power/remedy] of Torah and Mitzvot. It means that when one engages in Torah and Mitzvot with the intention to be rewarded with bringing contentment to one’s Maker, that aim that rests on the acts of Mitzvot and the study of Torah brings one to attain it. Otherwise, one might remain—although he observes Torah and Mitzvot in every item and detail— he will still remain merely in the degree of still of Kedusha [holiness].
It follows that one should always remember the reason that obligates him to engage in Torah and Mitzvot. This is the meaning of what our sages meant by “that your Kedusha will be for My Name.” It means that I will be your cause, meaning that all your work is in wanting to delight Me, meaning that all your actions will be in order to bestow.
Our sages said (Berachot 20), “Everything there is in keeping, there is in remembering.” This means that all those who engage in observing Torah and Mitzvot with the aim to achieve “remem- bering,” by way of “When I remember Him, He does not let me sleep.” It follows, that the keeping is primarily in order to be awarded remembering.
Thus, one’s desire to remember that the Creator is the cause for observing Torah and Mitzvot. This is so because it follows that the reason and the cause to observe the Torah and Mitzvot is the Creator, as without it one cannot adhere to the Creator, since “He and I cannot dwell in the same abode” due to the disparity of form.
3.29 Baal HaSulam,
Letter No. 18
Keep away from suffering a man’s jolt prematurely, for “Where one thinks is where one is.” Therefore, when a person is certain that he will not lack abundance, he can focus his efforts on words of Torah because “the blessed adheres to the Blessed.”
But lack of confidence behooves labor, and any labor is from the Sitra Achra [other side], and “The cursed does not adhere to the blessed,” for he will not be able to focus all his efforts on words of Torah. And yet, if he wishes to travel overseas, he should not contemplate these things at all, but very quickly, as though the blink of an eye, and will return to normalcy, so as not to scatter his sparks in times and places that apart from this are still not sufficiently united.
Know that no flaw comes from the lower ones except in the permitted time and place, as it is now, meaning whether helpful or regretful, or God forbid despairs at the present moment, it is “rushing the end in all the times and in all the places in the world.” This is the meaning of “a moment of His fury” and “How much is His fury? A moment.”
Therefore, one has no choice but to direct all the present and future moments to be offered and presented to His great name. One who rejects a moment before Him for it is difficult displays his folly openly, for all the worlds and all the times are not worthwhile for him because the light of His face is not clothed in the changing times and occasions although one’s work certainly changes because of them. This is why thanks to our holy fathers, faith and confidence above reason have been prepared for us, which one uses in the tougher times effortlessly and tirelessly.
This is the meaning of “By this comes lightly, ready for all His works on those six days.” The letter Hey, which is the root of creation, is a light letter, and laboring to enhance its level does not help at all, for it is thrown, as in “no reason and no end.” Therefore, one who assumes the complete burden of the kingdom of heaven finds no labor in the work of the Creator, and can therefore adhere to the Creator day and night, in light and in darkness. The Geshem [“rain,” but also “corporeality”]—which is created in coming and going, changes and exchanges—will not stop him since the Keter, which is Ein Sof, illuminates to all completely equally. The fool—who walks under a flood of preventions that pour on him from before and from behind—says to all that he does not feel the cessation and the lack of Dvekut [adhesion] as a corruption or iniquity on his part.
Had he sensed it, he would certainly have strained to find some tactic to at least be saved from the cessation of Dvekut, whether more or less. This tactic has never been denied of anyone who sought it, either as in “the thought of faith” or as in “confidence,” or as in “pleas of his prayer,” which are suitable for a person specifically in the narrow and pressured places, for even a thief in hiding calls on the Creator. For this reason, it does not require Mochin de Gadlut to keep the branch from cutting from its root.
3.30 Baal HaSulam,
Shamati, Article No. 121, “She Is Like Merchant-Ships”
“Man shall not live on bread alone, but on what proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.” This means that the life of Kedusha [holiness] in a person does not come specifically from drawing closer, from entries, meaning admissions into Kedusha, but also from the exits, from the removals. This is so because through the dressing of the Sitra Achra in one’s body, and its claims, “She is all mine,” with a just argument, one is awarded permanent faith by overcoming these states.
This means that one should dedicate everything to the Creator, that is, that even the exits stem from Him. When he is rewarded, he sees that both the exits and the entries were all from Him. This forces him to be humble, since he sees that the Creator does everything, the exits as well as the entries.
This is the meaning of what is said about Moses, that he was humble and patient—that one must tolerate the lowliness, meaning that in each degree one should keep the lowliness. The minute he leaves the lowliness, he immediately loses all the degrees of Moses he had already achieved.
This is the meaning of patience. Lowliness exists in everyone, but not every person feels that lowliness is a good thing. It turns out that we do not want to suffer. However, Moses tolerated the humbleness, which is why he was called “humble,” since the lowliness made him glad.
3.31 Baal HaSulam,
Shamati, Article No. 8, “What Is the Difference between a Shade of Kedusha and a Shade of Sitra Achra?”
There are two kinds of shadows, and this is the meaning of “and the shadows flee away,” meaning that the shadows will pass away from the world.
The shade of Klipa [shell] is called “Another god is sterile and does not bear fruit.” In Kedusha [holiness], however, it is called “Under its shadow I coveted to sit, and its fruit was sweet to my palate.” In other words, he says that all the concealments and afflictions he feels are because the Creator has sent him these states so he would have a place for work above reason.
When one has the strength to say this—that the Creator causes him all this—it is to one’s benefit. This means that through this he can come to work in order to bestow and not for his own sake. At that time, one realizes, meaning believes that the Creator enjoys specifically this work, which is built entirely on above reason.
It follows that at that time, one does not pray to the Creator that the shadows will flee from the world. Rather, he says, “I see that the Creator wants me to serve Him in this manner, entirely above reason.” Thus, in everything he does he says, “The Creator certainly enjoys this work, so why should I care if I am working in a state of concealment of the face?”
Because one wants to work in order to bestow, meaning that the Creator will enjoy, he feels no humiliation in this work, meaning a sensation that he is in a state of concealment of the face, that the Creator does not enjoy this work. Instead, one agrees to the leadership of the Creator, meaning however the Creator wants him to feel the existence of the Creator during the work, he agrees wholeheartedly. This is so because one does not consider what can please him, but what can please the Creator. Thus, this shade brings him life.
This is called “Under its shadow I coveted,” meaning one covets such a state where he can make some overcoming above reason.
3.32 Baal HaSulam,
Letter No. 16
I have already said in the name of the Baal Shem Tov that prior to making a Mitzva [command- ment], one must not consider private Providence at all. On the contrary, one should say, “If I am not for me, who is for me?” But after the fact, one must reconsider and believe that it was not by “My power and the might of my hand” that I did the Mitzva, but only by the power of the Creator, who contemplated so about me in advance, and so I had to do.
It is likewise in worldly matters because spirituality and corporeality are equal. Therefore, before one goes out to make one’s daily bread, he should remove his thoughts from private Providence and say, “If I am not for me, who is?” He should do all the tactics applied in corporeality to earn his living as do others.
But in the evening, when he returns home with his earnings, he must never think that he has earned this profit by his own innovations. Rather, even if he stayed all day in the basement of his home, he would still have earned his pay, for so the Creator contemplated for him in advance, and so it had to be.
Although the matters look the contrary on the surface, and are unreasonable, one must believe that so the Creator has determined for him in His law, from authors and from books.
This is the meaning of the unification of HaVaYaH Elokim [God]. HaVaYaH means private Providence, where the Creator is everything, and He does not need dwellers of material houses to help Him. Elokim in Gematria is HaTeva [the nature], where man behaves according to the nature that He instilled in the systems of the corporeal heaven and earth, and he keeps those rules as do the rest of the corporeal beings. And yet, he also believes in HaVaYaH, meaning in private Providence.
By this he unites them with one another, and “they became as one in his hand.” In this way, he brings great contentment to his Maker and brings illumination in all the worlds.
This is the meaning of the three discernments—commandment, transgression, and permission. The commandment is the place of Kedusha [holiness], the transgression is the place of the Sitra Achra [other side], and permission, which is neither a Mitzva nor a transgression, is the place over which the Kedusha and the Sitra Achra fight.
When a person does permitted things but does not dedicate them to Kedusha, that entire place falls into the domain of the Sitra Achra. And when a person grows stronger and engages in permit- ted things to make unifications as much as he can, he returns the permission into the domain of Kedusha.
Thus, I have interpreted what our sages said, “It follows that the physician has been given per- mission to heal.” That is, although the healing is certainly in the hands of the Creator, and human tactics will not move Him from His place, the Torah still informs us, “and shall cause him to be thoroughly healed,” to let you know that it is permitted, that this is the place of the campaign between Mitzva and transgression.
It follows that we ourselves are obliged to conquer that “permission” under the Kedusha. But how is it conquered? When a person goes to an expert physician who prescribes him a medication that has been tried and tested a thousand times, and after he takes the medicine he is cured, he must believe that without the doctor, the Creator would still cure him, for his longevity has been preordained. Thus, instead of singing and praising the human doctor, he thanks and praises the Creator. By so doing, he conquers the permitted under the domain of Kedusha.
It is likewise in the rest of the matters of “permission.” By this he expands the boundaries of Kedusha so that the Kedusha expands to its fullest measure, and he suddenly sees himself and his full stature standing and living in the palace of holiness. Indeed, the boundaries of Kedusha have so expanded that it reached his own place.
3.33 Baal HaSulam,
Shamati, Article No. 107, “Concerning the Two Angels”
Concerning the two angels that accompany one on the eve of Shabbat [Sabbath], a good angel and a bad angel, a good angel is called “right,” by which one comes closer to serving the Creator. This is called “the right brings closer.” And the bad angel is considered “left,” pushing away. This means that it brings him foreign thoughts, whether in mind or in heart.
When one prevails over the bad and brings himself closer to the Creator, meaning that each time, he overcomes the evil and attaches himself to the Creator, it follows that through the two of them, he has come closer to Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator. This means that both performed a single task—they have caused him to adhere to the Creator. In that state one says, “Come in peace.”
And when one has completed all of one’s work and has admitted all the left into Kedusha [holi- ness], as it is written, “There is no place to hide from You,” the bad angel has nothing more to do, as the person has already overcome all the difficulties that the evil presented. At that time, the bad angel is idle. At that time, the person tells it, “Go in peace.”
3.34 Baal HaSulam,
Letter No. 11
All the good of the awakening from below concerns only our learning how to feel the deficiency, as it is set before us by the Creator. This is the meaning of “A prayer makes half,” since as long as one does not feel the deficiency of the half—the part that was cut off from the whole, and the part does not feel as it should—one is incapable of complete Dvekut [adhesion] since this will not be considered advantageous for him, and one does not keep or sustain a needless thing.
Our sages told us that there is a remedy for this feeling by the power of the prayer. When one is persistent in praying and craving to adhere to Him perpetually, the prayer can do half, meaning that he will recognize that it is half. When the sparks multiply and become absorbed in the organs, he will certainly be rewarded with complete salvation and the part will be adhered to the whole forever.
3.35 Baal HaSulam,
Shamati, Article No. 19, “What Is ‘The Creator Hates the Bodies,’ in the Work?”
If the Creator gives one some illumination from above, the will to receive surrenders and annuls like a candle before a torch. Then one has no labor anyhow, since he no longer needs to take upon himself the burden of the kingdom of heaven coercively as an ox to the burden and as a donkey to the load, as it is written, “You who love the Lord, hate evil.”
This means that the love of the Creator extends only from the place of evil. In other words, to the extent that one has hatred for evil, meaning that he sees how the will to receive obstructs him from achieving the completeness of the goal, to that extent he needs to be imparted the love of the Creator. If one does feel that he has evil, he cannot be granted the love of the Creator since he has no need for it, as he already has satisfaction in the work.
As we have said, one must not be angry when he has work with the will to receive, that it obstructs him in the work. One would certainly be more satisfied if the will to receive were absent from the body, meaning that it would not bring its questions to a person, obstructing him in the work of observing Torah and Mitzvot [commandments].
However, one should believe that the obstructions of the will to receive in the work come to him from above. One is given the force to discover the will to receive from above because there is room for work precisely when the will to receive awakens.
Then one has close contact with the Creator to help him turn the will to receive to work in order to bestow. One must believe that from this extends contentment to the Creator, from his praying to Him to draw him near in the manner of Dvekut [adhesion], called “equivalence of form,” discerned as the annulment of the will to receive, so it is in order to bestow. The Creator says about this, “My sons defeated Me.” That is, I gave you the will to receive, and you ask Me to give you a desire to bestow instead.
3.36 Baal HaSulam,
Shamati, Article No. 42, “What Is the Acronym Elul in the Work?”
Those who wish to work in order to bestow are admitted into the King’s hall, and when one works in order to bestow, he does not mind what he feels during the work.
Rather, even in a state where he sees a shape of black, he is not impressed by it, but he only wants the Creator to give him strength to be able to overcome all the obstacles. It means that he does not ask the Creator to give him a shape of white, but to give him the strength to overcome all the concealments.
Hence, those people who want to work in order to bestow, if there is always a state of whiteness, the whiteness allows one to continue in the work. This is because, while it shines, one is able to work even in the form of reception for oneself.
Hence, one will never be able to know if his work is in purity or not, and this causes him never to be able to be awarded Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator. For this reason, he is given from above a form of blackness, and then he sees if his work is in purity.
This means that if one can be in gladness in a state of blackness, too, it is a sign that his work is in purity, since one must be glad and believe that from above he was given an opportunity to be able to work in order to bestow.
3.37 Baal HaSulam,
Shamati, Article No. 191, “The Time of Descent”
It is hard to depict the time of descent, when all the works and the efforts made from the beginning of the work until the time of descent are lost. To one who has never tasted the taste of servitude of the Creator, it seems as though this is outside of him, meaning that this happens to those of high degrees. But ordinary people have no connection to serving the Creator, only to crave the corporeal will to receive, present in the flow of the world, washing the whole world with this desire.
However, we must understand why they have come to such a state. After all, with or without one’s consent, there is no change in the Creator of heaven and earth; He behaves in a manner of good and doing good. Thus, what is the outcome of this state?
We should say that it comes to announce His greatness. One does not need to act as though he does not want Her. Rather, one should behave in a manner of fearing the exaltedness, to know the merit and the distance between him and the Creator. It is difficult to understand this with a super- ficial mind, or have any possibility of connection between the Creator and creation.
During a descent he feels that it is impossible that he will have connection or belonging to the Creator by way of Dvekut [adhesion], since he feels that servitude is a foreign thing to the whole world.
In truth, this is so. But “In the place where you find His greatness, there you find His humble- ness.” This means that it is a matter that is above nature, that the Creator gave this gift to creation, to allow them to be connected and adhered to Him.
Hence, when one becomes reconnected, he should always remember his time of descent so as to know, understand, appreciate, and value the time of Dvekut, so he will know that now he has salvation above the natural way.
3.38 Baal HaSulam,
Letter No. 18
First thing in the morning, when he rises from his sleep, he should sanctify the first moment with Dvekut with Him, pour out his heart to the Creator to keep him throughout the twenty-four hours of the day so that no idle thought will come into his mind, and he will not consider it impossible or above nature.
Indeed, it is the image of nature that makes an iron partition, and one should cancel nature’s partitions that he feels. Rather, first he must believe that nature’s partitions do not cut off from Him. Afterward, he should pray from the bottom of his heart, even for something that is above his natural desire.
Understand this always, even when forms that are not of Kedusha [holiness] traverse you, and they will instantly stop when you remember. See that you pour out your heart that henceforth the Creator will save you from cessations of Dvekut with Him. Gradually, your heart will grow accustomed to the Creator and will yearn to adhere to Him in truth, and the Lord’s desire will succeed by you.
3.39 Baal HaSulam,
Shamati, Article No. 211, “As Though Standing before a King”
One who is sitting at one’s home is not as one who is standing before a King. This means that faith should be that he will feel all day as though he is standing before the King. Then his love and fear will certainly be complete. As long as he has not achieved this kind of faith, he should not rest, “for this is our lives and the length of our days,” and we will accept no recompense.
And the lack of faith should be woven in his limbs until the habit becomes a second nature, to the extent that “When I remember Him, He does not let me sleep.” But all the corporeal matters quench this lack, since he sees that anything that gives him pleasure, the pleasure cancels the deficiency and the pain.
Rather, he must want no consolation, and should be careful with any corporeal thing that he receives, so it does not quench his desire. This is done by regretting that by this pleasure, the sparks and powers of the Kelim [vessels] of Kedusha [holiness] are missing in him, meaning desires for Kedusha. Through the sorrow, he can keep from losing Kelim of Kedusha.
3.40 Baal HaSulam,
“A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”
The merit of one who has been rewarded with adhering to Him once more, meaning rewarded with equivalence of form with the Creator by inverting the will to receive imprinted in him through the power in Torah and Mitzvot. This was the very thing that separated him from His self. He turned it into a desire to bestow, and all of one’s actions are only to bestow and to benefit others, as he has equalized his form with the Maker. It follows that he is just like the organ that was once cut off from the body and has reconnected to the body: It knows the thoughts of the rest of the body once again, just as it did prior to the separation from the body.
So is the soul: After it has acquired equivalence with Him, it knows His thoughts once more, as it knew prior to the separation from Him due to the will to receive’s disparity of form. Then the verse, “Know the God of your father,” comes true in him, as then he is rewarded with complete knowledge, which is Godly knowledge.
3.41 Baal HaSulam,
Shamati, Article No. 16, “What Is the Day of the Lord and the Night of the Lord, in the Work?”
Is written, “Woe unto you who desire the day of the Lord! Why do you need the day of the Lord? It is darkness, and not light.” The thing is that those who await the day of the Lord, it means that they are waiting to be imparted faith above reason, that faith will be so strong, as if they see with their eyes, with certainty, that it is so, that the Creator watches over the world in a manner of good and doing good.
In other words, they do not want to see how the Creator leads the world as The Good Who Does Good, since seeing is contradictory to faith. In other words, faith is precisely where it is against reason. And when one does what is against one’s reason, this is called “faith above reason.”
This means that they believe that the guidance of the Creator over the creatures is in a manner of good and doing good. While they do not see it with absolute certainty, they do not say to the Creator, “We want to see the quality of good and doing good as seeing within reason.” Rather, they want it to remain in them as faith above reason, but they ask of the Creator to give them such strength that this faith will be so strong, as if they see it within reason, that there will be no difference between faith and knowledge in the mind. This is what they, those who want to adhere to the Creator, refer to as “the day of the Lord.”
In other words, if they feel it as knowledge, the light of the Creator, called “the upper abun- dance,” will go to the vessels of reception, called “Kelim [vessels] of separation.” They do not want this since it will go to the will to receive, which is the opposite of Kedusha [holiness], which is against the will to receive for one’s own sake. Instead, they want to adhere to the Creator.
3.42 Baal HaSulam,
Shamati, Article No. 172, “The Matter of Preventions and Delays”
All the preventions and delays that appear before our eyes are but a form of nearing—the Creator wants to bring us closer, and all these preventions bring us only nearing, since without them we would have no possibility of approaching Him. This is so because, by nature, there is no greater dis- tance, as we are made of pure matter while the Creator is higher than high. Only when one begins to approach does he begin to feel the distance between us. And any prevention one overcomes brings the way closer for that person.
This is so because one grows accustomed to moving on a line of growing farther
3.43 Baal HaSulam,
Letter No. 19
In the beginning of one’s nearing, he is given a soul in a manner of circles. This means that the Creator awakens toward him every time there is an opportunity on the part of man to cling to the man with longing and yearning. This is what the poet tells us, “Only goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.” King David is the collective soul of the whole of Israel. Hence, he always longed, yearned, and craved true Dvekut [adhesion] with Him.
However, one must know in one’s heart that the Creator chases him just as much as he chases the Creator. One must never forget that, even during the greatest longing. When remembering that the Creator misses and chases him to cling to him as intensely as one wishes for it himself, he then always goes from strength to strength, with yearning and longing, in a never-ending Zivug [cou- pling], the complete perfection of the soul, until he is rewarded with repentance from love, meaning the return of the Vav to the Hey, being the unification of the Creator with His Shechina [Divinity].
3.44 Baal HaSulam,
“Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Items 42-44
The reason for our great distance from the Creator, and that we are so prone to transgress His will, is for but one reason which became the source of all the torment and suffering we suffer, and for all the sins and the mistakes that we fail in. Clearly, by removing that reason, we will instantly be rid of any sorrow or pain. We will immediately be granted adhesion with Him in heart, soul, and might. And I tell you that that preliminary reason is none other than “our lack of understanding of His guidance over His creations,” that we do not understand Him properly.
If, for example, the Creator were to establish open Providence with His creations in that, for instance, anyone who eats something forbidden would choke on the spot, and anyone who performs a Mitzva would discover such wonderful pleasures in it, like the finest pleasures in this corporeal world, then 1) what fool would even contemplate tasting something forbidden, knowing that he would immediately lose his life as a result, just as one does not contemplate jumping into a fire?
Also, what fool would leave any Mitzva without performing it as quickly as possible, just as one cannot retire from or linger with a great corporeal pleasure that comes into his hand, without receiving it as quickly as he can? Thus, if Providence were open to us, all the people in the world would be complete righteous.
Thus, you see that all we need in our world is open Providence. If we had open Providence, all the people in the world would be complete righteous and would also adhere to Him with absolute love, for it would certainly be a great honor for any one of us to befriend and love Him with our heart and soul, and always adhere to Him without losing even a minute.
3.45 Baal HaSulam,
“The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”
When one comes to love others, he is in direct Dvekut, which is equivalence of form with the Maker, and along with it man passes from his narrow world, filled with pain and impediments, to an eternal and broad world of bestowal upon the Creator and upon people.
3.46 Baal HaSulam,
Letter No. 9
I know the great advantage with which the Creator has granted me over my contemporaries, for I have searched a long, long time why I have been chosen by God’s will. And after all the lowliness emitted from that son of a wicked one, which is the Klipa [shell] that rules in my time, and after I have witnessed its true measure, I realize the Creator’s kindness with me, to distract my heart today and always from hearing the above-mentioned question of the wicked.
I find myself committed and obligated, as today and as always, to be as an ox to the burden and as a donkey to the load, all day and all night. I will not rest from searching some place where I can bring some contentment to my Maker. Even in this day that I am in, I am happy to work under a great burden even seventy years, without any knowledge of its success (even my whole life), except that it is certainly the way that I have been commanded to walk in all His ways and to adhere to Him, which I have heard initially.
At the same time, I cannot excuse myself at all by any notion or contemplation from doing any work for His sake because of my lowliness. I crave and think all day about the sublimity of the work of God, in such sublimity that I cannot even write about it.
3.47 Baal HaSulam,
Letter No. 2
I shall advise you to evoke within you fear of the coolness of the love between us. Although the intellect denies such a depiction, think for yourself—if there is a tactic by which to increase love and one does not increase it, that, too, is considered a flaw.
It is like a person who gives a great gift to his friend. The love that appears in his heart during the act is not like the love that remains in the heart after the fact. Rather, it gradually wanes each day until the blessing of the love can be entirely forgotten. Thus, the receiver of the gift must find a tactic every day to make it new in his eyes each day.
This is all our work—to display love between us, each and every day, just as upon receiving, meaning to increase and multiply the intellect with many additions to the core, until the additional blessings of now will be touching our senses like the essential gift at first. This requires great tactics, set up for the time of need.
3.48 Baal HaSulam,
Letter No. 19
When one prepares to return to his root, he does not induce the complete Zivug at one time, but creates stimuli, which is the degree of Nefesh, by way of cycles, chasing the Shechina with all his might, quivering and sweating, until he mounts this extremity all day and all night, incessantly.
It is as the books write concerning the cycles. While one’s soul is being completed in the degrees of Nefesh, he comes ever closer, and so his yearning and sorrow grow since the unsatisfied desire leaves behind it a great affliction according to the measure of the desire.
This is the meaning of “sound.” The poet teaches us and says, “Awaken,” meaning that you induce stimuli in the Shechina. “Sound,” for you cause a great affliction, like no other, which is the meaning of “he groaned and moaned” because “What does the Shechina say when one is afflicted?” etc. And why do you do so? It is in order to “sever any shout.”
This is the meaning of “The righteousness of the righteous will not save him on the day of his transgression.” To Him who knows the mysteries, the desire in one’s heart for His nearness is known, and that it might still be interrupted. Hence, He increases His stimuli, meaning the beginnings of the coituses, for if one listens to His voice, as in “The Lord of your shade,” one does not fall and descend due to the increasing affliction of the stimuli since he sees and hears that the Shechina also suffers as he does by the increased longing. Thus, one’s longing grows and intensifies each time until one’s point in the heart is completed with complete will in a tight knot that will not crumble. Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai said about this in the Idra: “I am for my beloved and upon me His desire. All the days I was connected to this world, I was connected to the Creator with one knot, and because of it, now, upon me His desire, etc.” That is, “Until He who knows the mysteries shall testify that he shall not return to folly.” Hence, he is granted the return of the Hey to the Vav for eternity, meaning the complete coitus and the restoration of past glory, which is the meaning of “the great Teki’a.”
3.49 RABASH,
Article No. 68, “The Order of the Work”
When one believes in the delight and pleasure that exists in above reason, he comes to consciously feel, to know the evil within him. That is, he believes that the Creator imparts such delight and pleasure, and although he sees all the good above reason, he achieves recognition. That is, he feels in all the organs the power of the evil that is found in receiving for oneself, which prevents him from receiving the abundance.
It follows that faith above reason causes him to feel his enemy within reason—who obstructs him from reaching the good. This is his standard. That is, to the extent that he believes in the delight and pleasure above reason, to that extent he can come to feel the recognition of evil.
Later, sensing the bad yields the sensation of delight and pleasure, since the recognition of evil in the sensation of the organs causes him to correct the bad.
This is done primarily through prayer, when he asks the Creator to give everything in bestowal, called Dvekut [adhesion]. Through these Kelim [vessels], the goal will be revealed in open Providence, meaning that there will be no need for the concealment because there will already be Kelim that are able to receive.
3.50 RABASH,
Article No. 12 (1988), “What Are Torah and Work in the Way of the Creator?”
The meaning of “Torah and work” is that he learns Torah in order for the Torah to bring him the light of Torah. By this, he will be able to invert the vessels of reception to work in order to bestow, and with these Kelim he will be rewarded with Dvekut with the Creator, called “learning Torah Lishma.”
3.51 RABASH, Article No. 12 (1988),
“What Are Torah and Work in the Way of the Creator?”
We engage in the Torah in order to subdue the evil inclination, meaning to achieve Dvekut [adhe- sion] with the Creator, so that all our actions will be only in order to bestow. That is, by ourselves, we will never be able to go against nature, since the mind and heart that we must acquire require assistance, and the assistance is through the Torah. It is as our sages said, “I have created the evil inclination; I have created the Torah as a spice. By engaging in it, the light in it reforms them.”
3.52 RABASH, Article No. 30 (1988),
“What to Look for in the Assembly of Friends”
When a person makes the effort and judges him to the side of merit, it is a Segula [remedy/power/ virtue], where by the toil that a person makes, which is called “an awakening from below,” he is given strength from above to be able to love all the friends without exception.
This is called “Buy yourself a friend,” that a person should make an effort to obtain love of others. And this is called “labor,” since he must exert above reason. Reasonably thinking, “How is it possible to judge another person to the side of merit when his reason shows him his friend’s true face, that he hates him?” What can he tell the body about that? Why should he submit himself before his friend?
The answer is that he wishes to achieve Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator, called “equivalence of form,” meaning not to think of his own benefit. Thus, why is subduing a difficult thing? The reason is that he must revoke his own worth, and the whole of the life that he wishes to live will be only with the consideration of his ability to work for others’ benefit, beginning with love of others, between man and man, through the love of the Creator.
Hence, here is a place where he can say that anything he does is without any self-interest, since by reason, the friends are the ones who should love him, but he overcomes his reason, goes above reason, and says, “It is not worth living for myself.” And although one is not always at a degree where he is able to say so, this is nonetheless the purpose of the work. Thus, he already has something to reply to the body.
3.53 RABASH, Article No. 12 (1988),
“What Are Torah and Work in the Way of the Creator?”
Our sages said, that the Creator said to Israel, ‘I have sold you My Torah. It is as though I have been sold with it.’ This is the meaning of having a merchandise that one who sells it is sold with it.”
This means that the Creator wants that when a person takes the Torah, he will seemingly take the Creator with him. Yet, a person does not feel he needs this. Primarily, a person takes after the majority. And since when beginning to teach women, children, and the general public, Maimonides says we should begin in Lo Lishma, and normally, everyone takes after the beginning, meaning that the reason they were given for why we need the Torah are reasons of Lo Lishma, and not because “I have created the evil inclination; I have created the Torah as a spice.” Naturally, the majority of the world does not even understand that there is a reward called “Dvekut with the Creator.”
For this reason, the view of the majority controls a person—that he does not need to study Torah so that by this he will be able to achieve the real intention. That is, that through the Torah he will be able to aim in order to bestow and not for his own benefit, that it will bring him Dvekut, to adhere to the Creator.
3.54 RABASH, Article No. 12 (1988),
“What Are Torah and Work in the Way of the Creator?”
One who has faith in the Creator can believe that the giver of the Torah is clothed in the Torah. Conversely, a gentile, who has no faith in the Creator, how can he learn Torah, since he does not believe in the giver of the Torah? He can learn only from the clothing of the Torah, but not from the one who wears it, since he has no faith. The outer clothing is called “wisdom” and not “Torah,” since Torah is specifically when he is connected to the giver of the Torah.
By this we understand what our sages said, “Should one tell you, ‘There is wisdom in the gen- tiles,’ believe.” It is so because they can learn the clothing with the one who wears it, which is only called “wisdom,” without any connection to the giver of the Torah. But “Should one tell you, ‘There is Torah in the gentiles,’ do not believe,” since they have no connection to the giver of the Torah.
Since the essence of our work is to achieve Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator, as it is written, “to cling unto Him,” it follows that the Torah is the means to adhere to Him. That is, while learning Torah, we should aim to be rewarded with connecting to the one who wears it. This is done through the clothing, which is the Torah, in which the Creator is clothed.
3.55 RABASH,
Article No. 875, “Three Lines – 4”
Before one is rewarded with emerging from self-love and doing everything in order to bestow, called Lishma, although he learns all these matters as they are, they are only names without any clari- fication, meaning that he has no attainment in those things that he is learning, since he has no knowledge about the material of the upper roots, called “the holy names,” or Sefirot and Partzufim [pl. of Partzuf].
We can learn the upper matters, called “the wisdom of Kabbalah,” only by way of Segula [rem- edy/power], since they can bring a person desire and yearning to adhere to the Creator because of the Kedusha [holiness] of the matters that speak of the holy names. Conversely, in the revealed Torah, he must believe that the whole Torah is the names of the Creator. It follows that these matters are more capable (as explained in the essay, “The Giving of the Torah”).
When a person learns the upper matters in order for it to bring him closer to Kedusha, it causes a nearing of the lights. This means that this learning will cause him to thereby be rewarded with aiming all his actions in order to bestow. This is called “work in the manner of preparation,” where he prepares himself to be worthy of entering the King’s palace and to adhere to Him.
3.56 RABASH, Article No. 12 (1988),
“What Are Torah and Work in the Way of the Creator?”
We see that the creation of the worlds and souls was primarily with one intention—to correct every- thing so that it works in order to bestow, which is called Dvekut, equivalence of form. The Creator said about the Torah, “I have created the evil inclination; I have created the Torah as a spice.” That is, once man receives the Torah as a spice, the evil inclination will be corrected to work in order to bestow, as it is written in The Zohar, “The angel of death is destined to be a holy angel.”
3.57 RABASH,
Article No. 410, “Self-Love and Love of the Creator”
There is self-love and there is love of the Creator, and there is a medium, which is love of others. Through love of others we come to the love of the Creator. This is the meaning of what Rabbi Akiva said, “Love your neighbor as yourself is a great rule in the Torah.”
As Old Hillel said to the gentile who told him, “Teach me the whole Torah on one leg.” He said to him, “That which you hate, do not do to your friend. And the rest, go study.” This is so because through love of others we come to love the Creator, and then the whole Torah and all the wisdom are in his heart.
It is written, “The Creator said to Israel, ‘Be sure, the whole wisdom and the whole Torah are easy. Anyone who fears Me and performs the words of Torah, all the wisdom and all of the Torah are in his heart’” (“Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” where he references Midrash Rabbah, portion VeZot HaBracha). Concerning fear, it is explained in the Sulam [Ladder commentary on The Zohar], that it is fear that he might not be able to bestow upon the Creator, since it is the conduct of love that he wants to bestow upon the Creator.
Hence, one who has love of the Creator wants to bestow, and this is called Dvekut [adhesion], as in “And to cleave unto Him.” By this the Creator passes onto him Torah and wisdom. It follows that he taught him on one leg, meaning that through love of others he will achieve the degree of love of the Creator, and then he will be rewarded with Torah and wisdom.
3.58 RABASH,
Letter No. 66
It therefore follows that although he engages in Torah and Mitzvot, if it is not for the Creator, it is as one who has no God, for if he truly had the sensation of Godliness, he would certainly be engaging in order to bestow. But if he had engaged in doing good, then he would have the quality of love of others, by which he would also come to love the Creator, and would have the ability to observe Torah and Mitzvot for the Creator.
It turns out that a person should have the power and force to overcome his qualities, to turn them into being in favor of others, for by that he will later be rewarded with working with those qualities for the Creator.
Because once a person has already been corrected in his qualities so he can work in favor of others, he can work on the matter of faith in the Creator, for then he is fit to be rewarded with faith, for then he already has equivalence of form, called, “Cleave onto his attributes,” as in, “As He is merciful, be you merciful.”
3.59 RABASH,
Article No. 19 (1984), “You Stand Today, All of You”
One should walk on the path of truth—to say, “My current state, being in utter lowliness, means that I was deliberately thrown out from above to know if I truly wish to do the holy work in order to bestow, or if I wish to be God’s servant because I find it more rewarding than other things.”
Then, if one can say, “Now I want to work in order to bestow and I do not want to do the holy work to receive some gratification in the work. Instead, I will settle for doing the work of holiness like any man of Israel—praying or taking a lesson on the daily portion. And I don’t have time to think with which intent I study or pray, but I will simply observe the actions without any special intent.” At that time, he will reenter the holy work because now he wishes to be God’s servant without any preconditions.
This is the meaning of what is written, “You stand today, all of you,” meaning everything you went through, all the states you have experienced—whether states of Gadlut or states of less than Gadlut, which were considered intermediate or so. You take all those details and you do not compare one degree to another because you do not care for any reward, but only for doing the Creator’s will. He has commanded us to observe Mitzvot [commandments] and to study Torah, and this is what we do, like any common man of Israel. In other words, the state he is in right now is as important to him as when he thought he was in a state of Gadlut. At that time, “The Lord your God makes with you this day.”
This means that then the Creator makes a covenant with him. In other words, precisely when one accepts His work without any conditions and agrees to do the holy work without any reward, which is called “unconditional surrender,” this is the time when the Creator makes a covenant with him.
3.60 RABASH,
Article No. 128, “Exalt the Lord Our God”
“Exalt the Lord our God and bow before His holy mountain, for the Lord our God is holy.” “Exalt” means that if one wants to know the exaltedness and greatness of the Creator, we can
obtain this only through Dvekut [adhesion] and equivalence of form. Thus, what is “equivalence of form” and how does one achieve equivalence of form?
“Bow before His holy mountain.” Bowing means surrendering. It is when one lowers his reason and says that what the reason understands or does not understand, I annul and subjugate it. Before which quality do I subjugate it? Before “His holy mountain.”
Har [mountain] means Hirhurim [reflections], meaning thoughts. “His holy,” for “holy” means separated from the matter. This means that he removes himself from the desire of reception. “Bow” means submitting the body, even though it disagrees, and taking upon oneself only thoughts of Kedusha [holiness]. This is the meaning “Bow before His holy mountain.”
Why must we submit ourselves to thoughts of Kedusha, meaning retire from receiving in order to receive? It is because “The Lord our God is holy,” for the Creator only bestows. For this reason, one must be in equivalence of form with the Creator, and by this we can obtain the exaltedness of the Creator. Afterward, we can achieve the attainment of the exaltedness of the Lord our God.
3.61 RABASH, Article No. 300,
“A Land Where You Will Eat Bread without Scarcity”
One must engage in Torah day and night, that the night and the day should be equal for him, as written in The Zohar (BeShalach). In other words, the state of completeness called “day,” and the state of incompleteness called “night,” should be equal. That is, if his aim is for the sake of the Creator then he agrees that he wants to bring contentment to his Maker, and if the Creator wants him to remain in the state of incompleteness, he agrees to this, as well. The consent is expressed by doing his work as if he were rewarded with wholeness. This is regarded as “agreeing,” when the day and the night are equal to him.
But if there is a difference, to the extent of the difference, there is separation, and on that sepa- ration there is a grip to the outer ones. Hence, if a person feels that to him there is a difference, he must pray to the Creator to help him so there will not be a difference for him, and then he will be rewarded with completeness.
3.62 RABASH,
Letter No. 14
And one is rewarded with everything only by overcoming, called “strength,” and each and every strength that a person elicits joins into a great amount. That is, even if a person overcomes once and gets an alien thought, and says, “But I already know from experience that soon I will not have this desire for the work, so what will I get now if I overcome it a little?”’ At that time, he must reply that many pennies join into a great amount, meaning to the general account, whether to the root of his soul or to the public.
Perhaps this is the meaning of “The gates of tears were not locked.” Shaarei [gates] comes from the words, Se’arot [“hair,” or “storms”], which is overcoming. “Tears” comes from the word “tearing,” meaning that there is a mixture with other desires, and only in the middle of the desires there is a brief moment of a desire to overcome toward love and fear of heaven. “…not locked,” but rather that moment joins into a great amount. When the amount is full, the person begins to feel the spiritual clothing.
This is the meaning of the importance of tears, meaning that even if he is in the lowest state and has base desires, but still has the strength to overcome, meaning that from the point in his heart he yearns and craves the Creator, then that force is very important. Thus, even when a person is in exile, when his point in the heart is placed under other governances, called “Divinity [Shechina] in exile” for that person, for one moment he overcomes and sanctifies the Creator. And even though he is already certain, because of all of his experiences, that afterwards he will fall again, it is still very important that a person can say the truth openly.
3.63 RABASH,
Article No. 300, “A Land Where You Will Eat Bread without Scarcity”
Baal HaSulam said that because “The cursed does not cling to the Blessed,” “The Shechina [Divinity] is present only out of joy,” since he agrees to remain with all the bad if the Creator wants it this way, and in this way he engages in Torah and Mitzvot [commandments].
This is called “happy with his lot,” and at that time, he is rich. This is the meaning of “As one blesses for the good, so one blesses for the bad.” It means that if he were to be rewarded with the good that is concealed in Torah and Mitzvot, he would certainly work with joy and excitement and peace of mind. Likewise, now that he is deficient, he should also make his work be with joy and peace, and then he will be rewarded with food for humans, called “bread.”
3.64 RABASH,
Article No. 289, “The Creator Is Meticulous with the Righteous”
“It is very stormy around Him,” meaning that the Creator is meticulous with the time of righteous- ness.
But when a person is in a state of lowliness, when he does not feel a good taste in the work, it is pointless to be meticulous with him because he is in lowliness anyhow, and he has work to approach the Creator. Hence, it cannot be said that He will deny him the flavor of the work because now he feels no flavor.
The blow that one receives from the Creator, when He takes from him the flavor of the work, by this itself He heals him because then he has no other way to serve the Creator but with faith above reason. It follows that the blow that he received from the Creator, from this itself he can be healed, for otherwise, he will remain in separation.
By this we understand what our sages said, that by the blows of the Creator, He heals (Mechilta BeShalach). In other words, this is the healing—that He gives him room to work with faith without any support.
3.65 RABASH,
Article No. 10, “Jacob Went Out”
“Exit of the righteous from the place leaves an impression.” It means that only then, through the exit of the righteous, when he thinks, “Now that I feel good taste in the work, I no longer need to work above reason,” it causes him the exit of the righteous from the place. This creates in him an impression, so he will know how to keep himself from exiting the work of above reason from here on. As I heard from Baal HaSulam, when a person says, “Now that he has support and no longer stands between heaven and earth,” he must fall from his degree because then he flaws the discern- ment of above reason.
It therefore follows that precisely the departure of the degree he had leaves an impression on him so he will know how to be careful next time and will not blemish the faith above reason, but always justify Providence.
3.66 RABASH,
Article No. 6 (1990), “When Should One Use Pride in the Work?”
When a person engages in Torah and Mitzvot, this is the time to be in wholeness, as though the Creator has brought him close, to be among the King’s servants. However, one must not lie to oneself and say that he feels that he is serving the King when he does not feel this way. Therefore, how can he be grateful to the Creator for drawing him near if he does not feel it?
Instead, at that time a person should say that although he is in utter lowliness, meaning he is still immersed in self-love, and still cannot do anything above reason, the Creator still gave him a thought and desire to engage in Torah and Mitzvot, and has also given him some strength to be able to over- come the spies who speak to him and poke his mind with their arguments. And still, he has some grip on spirituality.
At that time, a person should pay attention to this and believe that the Creator is tending to him and guides him on the track that leads to the King’s palace. It follows that he should be happy that the Creator is watching over him and gives him the descents, as well.
3.67 RABASH,
Article No. 17 (1989), “What Is the Prohibition to Greet Before Blessing the Creator, in the Work?”
A person must walk on the right line, regarded as wholeness, and pray to the Creator and thank Him, even if he does not find within him anything that desires spirituality. But accordingly, how can he thank the Creator and say that the Creator hears what he says to Him, which is the meaning of attributing the work to the Creator, and He accepts his work regardless of how the work seems? However, if he relates only to the Creator and says, “I am turning to the Creator and I believe that He can answer my wishes,” by this a person becomes happy and feels superior. That is, the rest of the people have no connection to spirituality, and he believes that the Creator has given him [a feeling] that he has no spirituality, in whatever way, but the fact that he has an interest in thinking about spirituality, it makes no difference if he has or hasn’t, or that he is now in utter lowliness, meaning that he sees that now he has no desire to ascend in degree and emerge from the lowliness, but he thanks the Creator because at least he is thinking about spirituality, while the rest of the people do not have any thoughts of spirituality.
If he can thank the Creator, it gives him joy, and from Lo Lishma [not for Her sake] he comes to Lishma [for Her sake].
3.68 RABASH,
Article No. 217, “Run My Beloved”
It is impossible to receive anything without equivalence. Rather, there must always be equivalence.
Hence, when he evokes mercy on himself, it follows that he is engaged in reception for himself. And the more he prays, not only is he not preparing the Kli [vessel] of equivalence, but on the con- trary, sparks of reception form within him.
It turns out that he is going the opposite way: While he should prepare vessels of bestowal, he is preparing vessels of reception. “Cleave unto His attributes” is specifically “As He is merciful, so you are merciful.”
Hence, when he prays for the public, through this prayer he engages in bestowal. And the more he prays, to that extent he forms vessels of bestowal, by which the light of bestowal, called “merciful,” can be revealed.
3.69 RABASH,
Letter No. 11
All these verses and saying of our sages advise us how to cling to Him, since our only flaw is that we do not feel His greatness. When we begin to criticize as in, “What is this work,” we want to promptly receive everything as Ohr Pnimi (Inner Light). And you know that the Inner Light shines specifically when there are Masach and Ohr Hozer (Reflected Light), meaning clean Kelim. But Behina Dalet receives from the Ohr Makif (Surrounding Light), since Ohr Makif shines from afar, as it is written in Tree of Life.
This means that even if a person is still remote from the Creator and does not have equiva- lence of form, he can receive from the Surrounding Light. The ARI wrote that the Surrounding Light is greater than the Inner Light. That is, when can one receive when he is still remote? Only when he increases the greatness and importance of the Surrounding Light, meaning the exaltedness of the Creator and the importance of the light of Torah. Then he can receive illu- mination from afar.
We must believe that all the beauty of Creation is in the internality of the Torah. But faith requires great efforts. This is the meaning of, “Happy is the man who does not forget You.” How is one rewarded with this? By “exerting in You”.
3.70 RABASH,
Article No. 159, “The Need and Importance of Teaching Faith”
Faith is called “clean and easy craft.” It is “clean” because there must not be any mixture of self-ben- efit there, but only for the sake of the Creator, since when one believes in the greatness of the Creator, a person has no desire or yearning other than to adhere to Him all day and all night. This is why it is called “clean,” meaning only for the sake of the Creator.
However, before a person is rewarded with his body’s consent to the work of faith, this work is regarded as lowliness, since he does not see anyone respects him when he works only for the sake of the Creator.
At that time, he must see that his work is in concealment, since otherwise his work cannot be clean because while his work is with excitement, his actions will certainly be praised and by this, the matter of respect will interfere, that others will respect him for this.
Therefore, when he wants to have no mixtures, he must work in concealment and then he will not get any respect from this. This is why clean work is despicable in his eyes. Also, Kalah [easy/ light] comes from the word Nikleh [despicable], meaning despised.
Also, clean work is despised because a person cannot tolerate faith above reason, since by nature, a person appreciates what he grasps in the mind when reason obligates him.
Conversely, going against reason is despicable because such work is called “gullible,” as our sages said about the verse, “Who is gullible? Let him come here.” This is Moses, pertaining to faith, since Moses is called “the faithful shepherd,” who has faith and planted the faith in the whole of Israel. In this way, we should interpret the words of Rabbi, “No craft passes from the world.” As RASHI interpreted, whether it is loathsome or clean, since the view of Rabbi is that the whole world cannot do clean work, meaning that specifically one who is inclined to the work of truth is capable of doing clean work where there are no mixtures of Lo Lishma [not for Her sake] there.
3.71 RABASH,
Article No. 557, “Concerning Ohr Hozer [reflected light]”
Why not everyone has the sensation of Godliness, since it is written, “I fill the heaven and the earth,” and “The whole earth is full of His glory,” and yet we do not feel anything.
The answer is that where there is no clothing called Ohr Hozer, the upper light is regarded as nonexistent from the perspective of the emanated being, and because the whole meaning of the Ohr Hozer is that he receives only according to the intention to bestow, as long as one has not emerged from self-reception, he does not have this Ohr Hozer. Thus, although “The whole earth is full of His glory,” it is regarded as nonexistent from the perspective of the lower one.
It follows that the only thing that one must do in order to achieve the goal is to focus all of one’s work on one point: to be able to dedicate all of one’s free time for the sake of the Creator. This is the meaning of “Everything is in the hand of heaven but the fear of heaven.” This means that the Creator gives everything. The upper lights are already prepared for a person, as in “More than the calf wants to suckle, the cow wants to nurse,” and all we need is a Kli [vessel]. After the Tzimtzum [restriction], this Kli is called Masach and Ohr Hozer, and this is what connects the upper with the lower. That is, through it, the lower one connects to the upper one.
When this connector does not exist, the lower one cannot see the upper one, and the upper one is regarded as nonexistent from the perspective of the lower one. Hence, to the extent that one begins to work for the sake of the Creator, to that extent he acquires connection with the upper light. And by the measure of his connection, so is the measure of his attainment.
3.72 RABASH,
Article No. 22 (1987), “What Is the Gift that a Person Asks of the Creator?”
The Creator created—existence from absence—a Kli called “desire and yearning to receive delight and pleasure.” This means that what we see is as in “By Your actions we know You,” meaning that we speak only of what we see that exists in the nature of creation. We see that it is impossible to enjoy anything, whatever it is, unless there is a yearning for it. For this reason, we learned that from the perspective of the light that created this Kli, called “will to receive,” it underwent four Behinot [discernments], meaning four stages until the will to receive acquired the complete form of yearning. After the light created the Kli, this Kli received the delight and pleasure that He wished to give.
These two above-mentioned things, the light and the Kli, pertain to the Creator. We learn that in this respect, there was complete perfection and there is nothing to add to this.
However, afterwards, something new was born, which we attribute to the creature and not to the Creator. In other words, we attribute the matter of giving to the Creator, who is the giver, for His desire is to do good to His creations, which is to give abundance to the creatures and receive nothing from them. Yet, afterward, something new was made, as it is written in The Study of the Ten Sefirot (Part 1), that the first receiver, called Malchut de Ein Sof, craved a decoration called “decoration at the point of desire”: to have equivalence of form called Dvekut [adhesion]. For this reason, the Tzimtzum [restriction] was made, meaning that she diminished her will to receive on the Kli called “will to receive,” hence the light departed.
Malchut invented a new Kli, called “will to bestow,” meaning not to receive delight and plea- sure according to the level of the yearning for the light, but according to the level of her desire to bestow. This means that Malchut calculated how many percent of the abundance she could receive with the aim to bestow. On the part she would receive in order to receive, if she were to receive, she would not receive.
It follows that we attribute this Kli, which the lower one gives, to the lower one, since the Kelim [vessels] of the upper one, which the upper has made in order for the lower one to be able to enjoy the light, is only the will to receive. That Kli will never be revoked because what the Creator has created must always exist.
However, the lower one can add to the Kli of the Creator, as it is written, “Which God has created to do.” This means that God has created the Kli called “desire to receive pleasure,” and man must add to it a correction called “the intention to bestow,” as was said above, that Malchut de Ein Sof decorated herself at the point of the desire. This means that her decoration was in that she placed on the will to receive the aim to bestow.
3.73 RABASH,
Article No. 17 (1991), “What Is, “For I Have Hardened His Heart,” in the work?”
A person must be glad that at least he has a need for spirituality, whereas the rest of the people have no interest in spirituality whatsoever.
When a person appreciates this, although it is not important to him, he does appreciate it and tries to thank the Creator for this. This causes him to acquire importance for spirituality, and from this a person can be happy. By this, a person can be rewarded with Dvekut, since as Baal HaSulam said, “The blessed clings to the Blessed.” In other words, when a person is happy and thanks the Creator, he feels that the Creator has blessed him by giving him a little something of Kedusha, then “The blessed clings to the Blessed.” Through this wholeness, one can achieve real Dvekut.
3.74 RABASH,
Article No. 940, “The Point in the Heart”
It is written, “And let them make Me a Temple and I will dwell within them.” This pertains to the point in the heart, which should be a Temple where the light of the Creator dwells, as it is written, “And I will dwell within them.” Hence, one should try to build his structure of Kedusha [holiness], and the structure should be able to contain the upper abundance called “abundance poured from the Giver to the receiver.” However, according to the rule, there must be equivalence of form between the Giver and the receiver so the receiver, too, must have the aim to bestow like the Giver. This is called “action,” as it is written, “Let them make Me a Temple,” where the acting applies to the Kli [vessel] and not the light, since the light pertains to the Creator and only the action pertains to the creatures.
3.75 RABASH,
Letter No. 8
At the end of the day, this is a group of people who have gathered in a certain place, under a certain leader, to be together. With superhuman courage they face up to all those who rise against them. Indeed, they are brave men with a strong spirit, and they are determined not to retreat one inch. They are first-class fighters, fighting the war against the inclination to their last drop of blood, and their only wish is to win the battle for the glory of His name.
3.76 RABASH,
Article No. 27, “Three Lines – 1”
One should mainly walk on the right line, meaning do good deeds and feel himself as complete, and serving the king. One must believe that everything he does brings contentment to Him.
At the same time, he should dedicate time to walking on the left line, meaning to criticize, but the left should surrender before the right. That is, he walks on the left not because he wants the quality of the left, but in order to improve the right, to show that despite all his criticism and knowl- edge, he is going above reason, meaning in the “right,” which is called “faith.”
This is called the “middle line,” which decides between the two lines and leans toward the right. This is also called Achoraim [posterior]. Through this unification, one is later rewarded with receiv- ing the quality of Panim [face/anterior] of the degree. At that time there is clothing of Hochma in Hassadim, which cause a Zivug [coupling] Panim be Panim [face-to-face] above, in ZON.
3.77 RABASH,
Article No. 44 (1990), “What Is an Optional War, in the work – 2?”
A person must believe that this concealment, where a person does not feel that there is a King to the world, the Creator did this, and this is called “the correction of the Tzimtzum [restric- tion].” However, one must believe and make great efforts until he feels in his organs that the Creator is the leader of the world. And not just a leader! Rather, one must believe that His guidance is in the manner of good and doing good. A person must do all that he can to be able to attain this.
3.78 RABASH, Article No. 195,
“The Association of the Quality of Judgment with Mercy”
The main work is the choice, meaning “choose life,” so there will be Dvekut [adhesion], which is Lishma [for Her sake]. By this, one is rewarded with Dvekut with the Life of Lives. When there is open Providence, there is no room for choice. For this reason, the upper one raised the Malchut, which is the quality of judgment, to the Eynaim [eyes]. This created a concealment, meaning that it seemed to the lower one that there was a drawback in the upper one, that there was no Gadlut [greatness/adulthood] in the upper one.
Subsequently, the qualities of the upper one are placed within the lower one, meaning they are deficient. It follows that these Kelim [vessels] have equivalence with the lower one, namely that as there is no vitality to the lower one, so there is no vitality in the upper qualities. In other words, he feels no taste in Torah and Mitzvot [commandments] for they are lifeless.
At that time, there is room for choice, for the lower one to say that this whole concealment that he feels is because the upper one restricted himself for the sake of the lower one. This is called “When Israel are in exile, the Shechina [Divinity] is with them,” that whatever taste he feels, so he says. That is, it is not his fault that he does not feel the taste of vitality. Rather, in his view, there really is no vitality in spirituality.
If a person overcomes and says that the bitter taste he finds in these nourishments are only because he does not have the proper Kelim to receive the abundance because his Kelim are to receive and not to bestow, and he is sorry that the upper had to hide himself, for which the lower one can slander, this is regarded as MAN that the lower one raises.
By this, the upper raises his AHP. “Raising” means that the upper one can show the lower one the merit and the pleasure that exists in the Kelim of AHP that the upper one can reveal. Thus, from the perspective of the lower one, it follows that he raises the Galgalta Eynaim of the lower one, and by this itself, the lower one sees the merit of the upper one. It follows that the lower one ascends together with the AHP of the upper one.
3.79 RABASH,
Article No. 1 (1984), “Purpose of Society – 2”
It is important to remain serious during the assembly so as not to lose the intention, as it is for this aim that they have gathered. And to walk humbly, which is a great thing, one should be accustomed to appear as though one is not serious. But in truth, a fire burns in their hearts.
Yet, to small people, during the assembly one should be wary of following words and deeds that do not yield the goal of the gathering—that thus they should achieve Dvekut with the Creator.
3.80 RABASH, Article No. 31,
“Concerning Yenika [Suckling] and Ibur [Impregnation]”
The beginning of the entrance into the work of the Creator is regarded as Ibur [impregnation], when he cancels his self and becomes impregnated in the mother’s womb, as it is written, “Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.” This comes from the verse, “For if you call the mother, ‘understanding [Bina],’” meaning that he cancels self-love, called Malchut, whose original essence is called “will to receive in order to receive,” and enters the vessels of bestowal, called Bina.
One should believe that before he was born, meaning before the soul descended into the body, the soul was adhered to Him, and now he longs to adhere to Him as prior to her descent. This is called Ibur, when he completely annuls his self.
3.81 RABASH,
Article No. 14, “The Need for Love of Friends”
There is a special power in the adhesion of friends. Since views and thoughts pass from one to the other through the adhesion between them, each is mingled with the power of the other, and by that each person in the group has the power of the entire society. For this reason, although each person is an individual, he has the power of the entire group.
3.82 RABASH,
Article No. 25 (1987), “What Is Heaviness of the Head in the Work?”
The primary goal should be to be rewarded with Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator. Since the reason objects to this, he must go against reason, and this is very hard work.
Since he is asking the Creator to give him something to which all of his organs object, it follows that each and every prayer he makes to the Creator has its special work. This is why a prayer is called “work in the heart,” meaning that he wants to go against the intellect and the mind, which tell him the complete opposite.
This is why it is not called “the work of the brain,” since the work of the brain means that a person exerts to understand something with his mind and reason. But here he does not want to understand with his reason that we should serve the Creator in a state of knowing. Rather, he wants to serve the Creator specifically with faith above reason. This is why a prayer is called “work in the heart.”
3.83 RABASH, Article No. 5 (1987),
“What Is the Advantage in the Work More than in the Reward?”
It is written in The Zohar, “For the whole of the Torah is the names of the Creator.” Also, a complete man is one who has been rewarded with “The Torah and the Creator and Israel are one.” Therefore, indeed, greeting the Shechina is very important because the purpose is for man to achieve this degree.
But to come to greet the Shechina requires prior preparation, for one to be fit for it. In the words of our sages, this is called “As He is merciful, so you are merciful.” This is the interpretation of the verse, “and to cleave unto Him, cleave unto His attributes.” It means, as explained in the book Matan Torah [The Giving of the Torah], that only by a person working in love of others can he achieve Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator. There are many names to this: “Instilling of the Shechina,” “attainment the Torah,” “greeting the Shechina,” etc.
The main preparation, which is called “labor,” is that one must prepare oneself to annul one’s authority, meaning one’s self. We can call this hospitality [greeting guests], meaning that he can- cels the view of landlords and craves the view of Torah, which is called “annulling of authority.” Naturally, he becomes the guest of the Creator, who is the Host of the entire world.
3.84 RABASH,
Article No. 38 (1990), What Is, “A Cup of Blessing Must Be Full,” in the Work?
When a person can go with his eyes shut, above reason, and believe in the sages and go all the way. This is called Ibur, when he has no mouth. Ibur means as it is written (The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Part 8, Item 17), “The level of Malchut, which is the most restricted Katnut [smallness/infancy] possible, is called Ibur. It comes from the words Evra [anger] and Dinin [Aramaic: judgments], as it is written, ‘And the Lord was impregnated in me for your sake.’”
We should interpret the meaning of “anger and judgments.” When a person must go with this eyes shut, above reason, the body resists this work. Hence, the fact that a person always has to over- come, this is called “anger, wrath, and trouble,” since it is hard work to always overcome and annul before the upper one, for the upper one to do with him what the upper one wants. This is called Ibur, which is the most restricted Katnut possible.
3.85 RABASH,
Article No. 21, “Sanctification of the Month”
A person must take upon himself the burden of the kingdom of heaven on the lowest quality, and say about it that to him, even that state, the lowest that can be, meaning one that is entirely above reason, when he has no support from the mind or the feeling, so he can build its foundations on it, and at that time, he is seemingly standing between heaven and earth and has no support, for then everything is above reason, then a person says that the Creator sent him this state, where he is in utter lowliness, since the Creator wants him to take upon himself the burden of the kingdom of heaven in this manner of lowliness.
At that time, because he believes above reason, he takes upon himself that the situation he is in now comes to him from the Creator, meaning that the Creator wants him to see the lowest possible state that can be in the world.
And yet, he must say that he believes in the Creator in all manners. This is considered that he has made an unconditional surrender. That is, a person does not say to the Creator, “If You give me a good feeling, to feel that ‘The whole earth is full of His glory,’ I will be willing to believe.”
Rather, when he has no knowledge or sensation of spirituality, he cannot accept the burden of the kingdom of heaven and observe the Torah and Mitzvot [commandments]. Rather, he must accept the kingdom of heaven unconditionally.
This is what perplexed Moses: How could he come to the people of Israel with such lowliness? It is about this that the Creator showed him with the finger and said, “This you shall see and sanctify,” meaning the moon at the time of its birth, when its merit is still not apparent.
Precisely accepting the kingdom of heaven in lowliness will reveal what our sages said, “Rabbi Elazar said, ‘The Creator is destined to pardon the righteous and dwell among them in the Garden of Eden, and each one will point with his finger, as was said, ‘And he said on that day, ‘Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited and He will save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation’’’” (Taanit 31).
It follows that the hint that the Creator points to the moon with the finger and says, “This,” by this we are rewarded with each one pointing with his finger, “Behold, this is our God.”
3.86 RABASH,
Article No. 496, “The Path of Truth”
It is written, “Wherever I mention My name, I will come to you and bless you.” It should have said, “You mention My name.” However, this means that to the same extent that I mention My name, to that same extent I will come to you.
It seems as though there is no answer to what he explains. But according to the above, it is thor- oughly clear that to the same extent that he mentions, meaning what a person wants, this is what he is given. Those who walk on the path of truth, who want to bring contentment to the Maker, see that everything they do is not for the sake of the Creator, so they pray to the Creator to see that they can work for the sake of the Creator.
At that time, the Creator says, “Wherever I mention My name,” meaning that you will give me the possibility to attribute My name to your actions. In other words, there will be an awakening from below, where I, says the Creator, will attribute My name to the actions. So how will you know that I am already attributing My name to them? You will see this if I “come to you and bless you.” In other words, the whole purpose of creation, which is to do good to His creations, cannot be revealed before you correct the matter of the bread of shame, meaning that you work in order to bestow. At that time, the purpose of creation will come true, which is to do good to His creations.
This is the meaning of what is written, “Wherever I mention My name,” where I attribute My name to them, meaning that all your actions will be only to bestow. Then you will know if I “come to you and bless you.” This is as Maimonides says, “How is repentance? Until He who knows the mysteries testifies to him.”
3.87 RABASH,
Article No. 21 (1988), “What Does It Mean that the Torah Was Given Out of the Darkness in the Work?’
When a person wants to draw near to the Creator, meaning use the vessels of bestowal, but he can- not because the body disagrees with it, since his body extends from vessels of reception, at that time a person feels that the world has grown dark on him, for he understands that if he cannot obtain vessels of bestowal, he will never be rewarded with the upper light, which is the light of “doing good to His creations.”
It follows that the darkness he feels from not being able to obtain vessels of bestowal by himself gives him the need that someone will help him obtain those Kelim [vessels]. According to the rule, “There is no light without a Kli [vessel], no filling without a lack,” it follows that now he has received a need for the light of Torah. It is as our sages said, “I have created the evil inclination; I have created the Torah as a spice.”
Thus, the Torah is given specifically to the deficient, and that deficiency is called “darkness.” This is the meaning of the words, “The Torah was given out of the darkness.” That is, one who feels darkness in his life because he has no vessels of bestowal is fit to receive the Torah, so that through the Torah, the light in it will reform him and he will obtain the vessels of bestowal. Through them, he will be fit to receive the delight and pleasure, for those two are included in the Torah: 1) The Kli—that he wants to bestow. 2) Then he receives the delight and pleasure into the vessels of bestowal.
Conversely, the nations of the world did not receive the Torah, since it was given out of the darkness. In the work, “the nations of the world” means that the body comprises seventy nations that want the Torah not because they feel darkness when they have no vessels of bestowal. Rather, their only desire is the vessels of reception and they have no desire to emerge from that control. They want the Torah in order to add more light to themselves, meaning more pleasure than they receive from corporeal matters. That is, they also want the next world, as it is written in The Zohar, “They howl as dogs Hav, Hav [give, give], give us the wealth of this world, and give us the wealth of the next world.” That is, the wealth of this world is not enough for them, but they also want the wealth of the next world.
It follows that the Torah was given specifically to those who feel that their will to receive controls them. They cry out from the darkness that they need the Torah in order to deliver them from the darkness that is the control of the vessels of reception, on which there was a Tzimtzum [restriction] and concealment so that no light will shine in that place. But that place is the cause for the need to receive the Torah.
3.88 RABASH,
Article No. 15 (1986), “A Prayer of Many”
If there are a few people in the collective who can reach the goal of Dvekut with the Creator, and this will bring the Creator more contentment than if he himself were rewarded with nearing the Creator, he excludes himself. Instead, he wishes for the Creator to help them because this will bring more contentment above than from his own work. For this reason, he prays for the collective, that the Creator will help the entire collective and will give them that feeling—that they receive satisfaction from being able to bestow upon the Creator, to bring Him contentment.
And since everything requires an awakening from below, he gives the awakening from below, and others will receive the awakening from above, to whomever the Creator knows will be more beneficial for the Creator.
3.89 RABASH,
Article No. 21 (1986), “Concerning Above Reason”
When he begins to do the holy work on the path of truth, meaning when he wishes to achieve Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator, so all his actions will be for the Creator, by that he receives a little more light that shines for him each time, and then he begins to feel self-love as a bad thing.
It is a gradual process. Each time he sees that this is what obstructs him from achieving Dvekut with the Creator, he sees more clearly each time how it—the will to receive—is his real enemy, just as King Solomon referred to the evil inclination as “an enemy.”
3.90 RABASH,
Article No. 11 (1991), “What It Means that the Good Inclination and the Evil Inclination Guard a Person in the Work”
When a person wants to walk on the path of achieving Dvekut with the Creator and do all his work for the sake of the Creator, meaning to bestow contentment upon his Maker and not for his own sake, as it is against human nature, who was created with the will to receive for his own sake, and all of man’s work is that he is told that he will not obtain this by his own strength, but only the Creator can give him this power called desire to bestow, and a person should only prepare the Kli to receive this power called “second nature,” it follows that specifically through the evil inclination, which grows within him to its completion, a person sees his real deficiency—that he is unable to obtain the desire to bestow by himself. This brings him to a state where the Creator gives him the desire to bestow.
Thus, both the good inclination and the evil inclination lead a person to achieve the goal of equivalence of form, called “Dvekut with the Creator.”
3.91 RABASH,
Article No. 23 (1985), “On My Bed at Night”
“His father gives the white,” as we said that wholeness is called “whiteness,” where there is no dirt. There is a twofold gain here: 1) In this way he receives elation from being adhered to the Whole, meaning to the Creator, and we must believe that what He gives is wholeness. Wholeness makes a man whole, making him feel whole, too. Naturally, he derives nourishment from this, so he can live and persist and then have strength to do the holy work. 2) According to the importance he acquires during the work of wholeness, he will later have room to feel the deficiency with regard to his work, which is not truly pure. That is, at that time he can depict to himself how much he is losing by his negligence in the work, for he can compare between the importance of the Creator and his own lowliness, and this will give him energy to work.
However, one should also correct oneself, or he will remain in the dark and will not see the true light that shines on the Kelim [vessels] that are suitable for it, called “vessels of bestowal.” The correction of the Kelim is called Nukva, deficiency, when he works on correcting his deficiencies. This is regarded as “His mother gives the red.” That is, at that time he sees the red light, which are the barriers on his way, which prevent him from reaching the goal.
Then comes the time of prayer, since the man sees the measures of the work that he has in matters of “mind and heart,” and how he has not progressed in the work of bestowal. He also sees how his body is weak, that he does not have great powers to be able to overcome his nature. For this reason, he sees that if the Creator does not help him, he is lost, as it is written (Psalms 127), “If the Lord does not build the house, they who build it labor in it in vain.”
From those two, meaning from wholeness and deficiency, which are the “father and mother,” it turns out that the Creator is the one who helps him, giving him a soul, which is the spirit of life. And then the newborn is born.
3.92 RABASH, Article No. 24 (1986),
“The Difference between Charity and Gift”
In the work of the Creator, in the beginning of his work he had energy and confidence, and great importance for Torah and prayer because at that time he had grace of holiness, and felt that the work of the Creator is important. However, this was still not considered a “deficiency” that the Creator will satisfy, a deficiency is called Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator, since the lack and pain of not having Dvekut with the Creator was still not felt in him as he has not exerted for it because he has just begun the work.
But after a long period of time of making efforts and not achieving satisfaction of his deficiency, torments and pain begin to form in him because he has made efforts but sees no progress in his work. At that time the thoughts begin to come one-by-one. Sometimes it is with sparks of despair, and sometimes he grows stronger, but then he sees once more that he has fallen from his state, and so on repeatedly. Finally, a real deficiency forms in him, which he has obtained through exertion in ascents and descents. These ascents and descents leave him with pain each time at not having been granted Dvekut with the Creator. Finally, when the cup of labor has been filled sufficiently, it is called a Kli. Then the filling of it comes from the Creator, since now he has a real Kli.
It follows that his seeing that now—after several years of work—he has retreated, this happens deliberately so he will ache at not having Dvekut with the Creator. It turns out that each time he must see that he is approaching the making of the Kli, called “real deficiency.” That is, his gauge of Katnut [infancy/smallness] and Gadlut [adulthood/greatness] of the deficiency is to the extent of the suffering he feels at not having the filling, which is called here “Dvekut with the Creator,” where all he wants is only to bring contentment to the Creator. Before the deficiency is completed, it is impossible for the filling to come in full.
3.93 RABASH, Article No. 7 (1991),
What Is “Man” and What Is “Beast” in the Work?
When a person wants to work for the sake of the Creator and not for himself, then he sees that every- thing he does is not for the sake of the Creator but only for his own benefit. In that state, he feels that he has nothing and he is completely empty, and he can fill this place only with a pomegranate, meaning if he goes above reason, which is called “exaltedness of the Creator.” In other words, he should ask the Creator to give him the power to believe above reason in the greatness of the Creator. That is, the fact that he wants the exaltedness of the Creator does not mean that he says, “If You let me attain the exaltedness and greatness of the Creator, I will agree to work.” Rather, he wants the Creator to give him the power to believe in the greatness of the Creator, and with this he fills the emptiness in which he is in right now.
It follows that were it not for the emptiness, that is, if he did not work on the path toward achiev- ing Dvekut, meaning in equivalence of form, called “in order to bestow,” but rather like the general public, who suffice for the practices they observe, these people do not feel themselves as empty, but as full of Mitzvot.
However, specifically those who want to achieve bestowal feel the emptiness within them and need the greatness of the Creator. They can fill this emptiness specifically with exaltedness, called “full of Mitzvot,” to the extent that they ask the Creator to give them the power to be able to go above reason, which is called “exaltedness.
3.94 RABASH,
Article No. 39 (1991), “What Does It Mean that the Right Must Be Greater than the Left, in the Work?”
Is written (Sanhedrin 44b), “Rabbi Elazar said, ‘One should always precede prayer to trouble.’” We should interpret that one does not go into the work of the left before he first worked in the manner of the right, which is regarded as wholeness, meaning that he does not lack anything and he thanks and praises the Creator for giving him some grip on the work of the Creator, and then he begins the work of the left. At that time, he sees that he is in trouble, that he has neither Torah nor work that is suitable for one who is serving the Creator. At that time, he feels how far he is from the work of the Creator, meaning from working for Him, namely working only with the aim to bestow contentment upon his Maker, and not at all for his own benefit. At that time, he sees how the body objects to this, and he does not see that he will ever be able to do anything only in order to bestow.
It follows that when he begins the path of the left, this is called “trouble,” and he has no other choice but to pray to the Creator to help him and give him the desire to bestow, called “second nature.” At that time, the prayer is from the bottom of the heart, and the Creator hears his prayer.
3.95 RABASH,
Article No. 19 (1985), “Come unto Pharaoh – 1”
One should always overcome and not let thoughts of despair enter his mind, as our sages said (Berachot, 10), “Even if a sharp sword is placed on his neck he should not deny himself of mercy,” as it was said (Job, 13), “Though He slay me, I will hope for Him.”
We should interpret the “sharp sword placed on his neck” to mean that even though one’s evil, called “self-love,” is placed on his neck and wants to separate him from Kedusha by showing him that it is impossible to exit this authority, he should say that the picture he sees is the truth.
However, “He should not deny himself of mercy,” for at that time he must believe that the Creator can give him the mercy, meaning the quality of bestowal. That is, by himself, it is true that one cannot exit the authority of self-reception. But from the perspective of the Creator, when the Creator helps him, of course He can bring him out. This is the meaning of what is written, “I am the Lord your God, who took you out from the land of Egypt to be your God.”
3.96 RABASH,
Article No. 645, “By Your Actions, We Know You”
It is written in The Zohar, “There is no place vacant of Him.” Yet, we do not feel it for our lack of tools of sensation.
We can see that with a radio receiver, which receives all the signals in the world, the receiver does not create the sounds. Rather, the sound exists in the world, but before we had the receiving device, we did not detect the sounds although they did exist in reality.
Likewise, we can understand that “There is no place vacant of Him,” but we need a receiving device. That receiving device is called Dvekut [adhesion] and “equivalence of form,” which is a desire to bestow. When we have this machine, we will immediately feel that there is no place vacant of Him, but rather “The whole earth is full of His glory.”
3.97 RABASH,
Article No. 12 (1987), “What Is Half a Shekel in the Work – 1”
He should appreciate the service he is giving to the Creator by observing the commandments of the Creator. To the extent that he appreciates the greatness of the Creator, he rejoices in being rewarded with doing what the Creator commanded.
This matter of appreciating the great one is in our nature. We see that it is regarded as a great honor, if there is someone who is the greatest in the generation and people regard him as an import- ant person. Everyone wants to serve him.
However, the satisfaction in the service depends on the greatness and importance that the world attributes to this great person. It follows that when one feels and depicts to himself that he is serving the Creator, he feels that he is blessed, and then comes the rule that the blessed clings to the blessed. It follows that in such a state a person feels himself as the happiest in the world. This is the time when he needs to thank the Creator for giving him the little service that he served Him. It follows that in that state he is adhered to the Creator because there is joy in him, as our sages said, “The Shechina [Divinity] is present only out of joy.”
3.98 RABASH, Article No. 29, (1987),
“What Is ‘According to the Sorrow, So Is the Reward’?”
Precisely when a person begins to walk on the path of bestowal, he comes to a state of pain and sorrow, and feels the labor that exists in serving the Creator. That is, the labor begins to work when one wants to work for the sake of the Creator. Only then do the arguments of the spies come to him. It is very difficult to overcome them, and many people escape the campaign and surrender to the argument of the spies.
But those who do not want to move, but rather say, “We have nowhere to go,” suffer from not being able to always overcome them. They are in a state of ascending and descending, and every time they overcome, they see that they are farther from the goal that they want to be rewarded with Dvekut with the Creator, which is equivalence of form.
The measure of sorrow that they must tolerate is because in truth, a person cannot emerge from the control of self-reception by himself, as it is the nature in which the Creator created man, which only the Creator Himself can change. In other words, as He has given the created beings the desire to receive, He can later give them the desire to bestow.
However, according to the rule, “There is no light without a Kli, no filling without a lack,” first one needs to obtain a deficiency. That is, he must feel that he is deficient of this Kli called “desire to bestow.” And concerning feeling, it is impossible to feel any lack if one does not know what he is losing by not having the Kli, called “desire to bestow.” For this reason, man must introspect on what causes him not to have the desire to bestow.
To the extent of the loss, he feels sorrow and suffering. When he has the real lack, meaning when he can pray to the Creator from the bottom of the heart for not having the strength to be able to work for the sake of the Creator, then, when he has the Kli, meaning the real lack, this is the time when his prayer is answered and he receives assistance from above. It is as our sages said, “He who comes to purify is aided.”
3.99 RABASH,
Article No. 5 (1968), “What Is, ‘When Israel Are in Exile, the Shechina Is With Them,’ in the Work?”
The Creator wants him to see his real state, how remote he is from working for the benefit of the Creator. For this reason, the Creator has taken from him the flavor he felt in Lo Lishma [not for Her sake], which leaves him lifeless. It follows that the Creator is tending to him and wants to admit him into Kedusha.
Therefore, now he must pray to the Creator to help him, since now he needs His help. Otherwise, he sees that he is completely lost. This is regarded as having obtained a Kli and a need for the Creator’s help, since now he sees that he is truly separated from the Creator because he has no life, for one who adheres to the Creator has life, as it is written, “For with You is the source of life.” Now he can certainly pray from the bottom of the heart, for a real prayer is specifically from the bottom of the heart. Accordingly, he should be thankful to the Creator for letting him see his true state. Now he sees that he needs the Creator to give him the necessary assistance, as our sages said, “He who comes to purify is aided.” And The Zohar asks, “With what is he aided?” and it replies, “With
a holy soul.”
Therefore, now the Creator has given him an opportunity to obtain a holy soul. He should be delighted about the state of descent and suffering that he feels in this state. For this reason, he should say that he is not in a state of descent, but on the contrary, he is in a state of ascent.
By this we can interpret what our sages said, “When torments come upon Israel, they surrender and pray.” This means that when they come into a state of descent, they see their true state, that they are in lowliness. This is considered that they surrender, since they see their state—that they have parted from the Life of Lives, for one who has Dvekut with the Creator is alive. Otherwise, he feels only suffering. Therefore, it is clear to him that now is the time for prayer from the bottom of the heart. This is the meaning of the words, “They surrender and pray.
3.100 Zohar for All, BaHar [On Mount Sinai],
“And If You Say, ‘What Shall We Eat on the Seventh Year?’” It.52
One should always be cautious with one’s Master, and let his heart adhere to sublime faith, so he may be whole with his Master. When he is whole with his Master, no person in the world can harm him.
3.101 Zohar for All, VaYechi [Jacob Lived],
“Serve the Lord with Fear,” Item 414
Anyone who comes to serve the Creator should serve the Creator in the morning and in the evening.
3.102 Zohar for All, Truma [Donation],
“And You, O Lord, Be Not Far Off,” Items 224-225
Just as when a buck or a deer departs from its place, it promptly returns to that place, although the Creator departed upward to Ein Sof, He promptly returns to His place because Israel below cling to Him and do not leave Him to be forgotten and far off from them. This is why it is written, “O You my help, hasten to my assistance.”
This is the reason why we must unite with the Creator and grip Him, as one who pulls from above to below, so that no one will be left from Him for even an hour.
3.103 Zohar for All, VaYechi [Jacob Lived],
“A Lily and a Rose,” Item 237
People do not look, do not know, and do not observe that when the Creator created man and cher- ished him with the upper Mochin, He asked of him to adhere to Him so he would be unique and would have one heart, and would adhere to a single place of Dvekut [adhesion], which does not change—in ZA. It was said about it, “I the Lord do not change,” and which never inverts, and to which everything ties in a knot of unification.
3.104 Zohar for All, Yitro [Jethro],
“You Shall Not Have,” Items 421-422
“It is all one thing, and counts as a single degree. There are several faces within faces to the Creator. There are illuminating faces, faces that do not illuminate, lower faces, remote faces, near faces, faces within faces, faces without, faces of the right, and faces of the left.”
Happy are Israel before the Creator, for they cling to the King’s upper face, that face to which He and His name cling, and He and His name are one. The rest of the nations grip the remote faces, the lower faces. This is why they are remote from the King’s body.
3.105 Zohar for All, Emor,
“Raising the Right above the Left,” Item 83
Happy are Israel in this world and in the next world, for they know how to adhere to the holy King, awaken the power of above, and extend the Kedusha [holiness] of their Master over them. This is why it is written, “Happy are you, Israel, who is like you, a people saved by the Lord,” and also, “And you, who adhere to the Lord your God, are alive every one of you this day.”
3.106 Zohar for All, Truma [Donation],
The Watchman Says, “Morning Comes,” Item 118
Happy are Israel, who are sanctified in the upper Kedushot because they cling above, as it is written, “And you that did cleave to the Lord your God are alive every one of you this day.”
3.107 Zohar for All, VaYikra [The Lord Called],
“How Good and How Pleasant,” Items 99-101
“How good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together, as well.” Happy are Israel, for the Creator did not hand them over to a minister or to a messenger. Rather, Israel grip to Him and He to them. For their love, the Creator calls them, “servants,” as it is written, “For unto Me the children of Israel are servants; they are My servants.” Afterwards He calls them “sons,” as it is written, “You are the children of the Lord your God.” After that He calls them “brothers,” as it is written, “My brothers and my friends.” And because He called them “brothers,” He wished to place His Divinity in them and He will not stray from them. Then it is written, “How good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together, as well.”
“How good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together, as well” is as it is written, “And if a man shall take his sister … and see her nakedness, and she sees his nakedness: it is a shameful thing.” The “man” is the Creator. “Shall take his sister” refers to the assembly of Israel. Why is this so? Because “It is a shameful thing.” Hence, How good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together, as well,” meaning the Creator, as well as the assembly of Israel. “As well” includes Israel below, for when the assembly of Israel is in unity, in Zivug Panim be Panim [face-to-face] with the Creator, Israel below are joyfully present in the Creator. This is why it writes, “Together, as well.” “Together, as well” comes to join the Tzadik, meaning Yesod, with the assembly of Israel, who are one Zivug. This is why it says, “Together, as well,” since Yachad [together] comes from the word, Echad [one].
3.108 Zohar for All, Truma [Donation],
“They Will Take a Donation for Me,” Item 151
Happy are the righteous who know how to aim their hearts’ desire for the upper, holy King, and all their hearts’ desire is not for this world and for its idle lust, but they know and exert to aim their desire for clinging above, to extend their Master’s will in them from above downward.
3.109 Zohar for All,
“Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” “Two Points” Item 121
All the many contradictions to His uniqueness, which we taste in this world, separate us from the Creator. Yet, when exerting to keep Torah and Mitzvot with love, with our soul and might, as we are commanded—to bestow contentment upon our Maker—all those forces of separation do not affect us into subtracting any of the love of the Creator with all our souls and might. Rather, in that state, every contradiction we have overcome becomes a gate for attainment of His wisdom. This is so because there is a special quality in each contradiction—revealing a special degree in attaining Him. And those worthy ones who have been rewarded with it turn darkness into light and bitter into sweet, for all the powers of separation—from the darkness of the mind and the bitterness of the body—have become to them gates for obtainment of sublime degrees. Thus, the darkness becomes a great light and the bitter becomes sweet.
Hence, to the extent that they previously had all the conducts of His guidance toward the forces of separation, now they have all been inverted into forces of unification, and sentence the entire world to the side of merit.
3.110 Zohar for All,
Beresheet [Genesis] – 1, “I, I am He,” Item 175
The words, “See now that I, I am He” apply to the Creator and His Divinity, ZA and his Nukva. “I” is Divinity. “He” is the Creator, who is called Vav–Hey–Vav. In the future, at the end of correction, the Nukva will say, “See that I,” Vav–Hey–Vav are one, as it is written, “And the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun,” meaning that the Nukva is equal to ZA.
“And there is no God with Me” refers to other gods, SAM and the serpent, for then it will be revealed that SAM and the serpent never separated between the Creator and His Divinity, as it is written, “By the mouth of two witnesses … shall he that is to die be put to death,” which applies to SAM, who was dead from his beginning and was but a servant to hurry the redemption of our souls.
This is the meaning of “I will put to death and make alive.” I will put to death with My Divinity the one who is guilty, and I will make alive with my Divinity the one who is innocent. The Creator’s guidance from the beginning will appear throughout the world, and then, as it is written, “Sinners will cease from the earth, and the wicked shall be no more.” That is, unlike what it seems to us during the 6,000 years, that there is a governance that objects to Kedusha, which are SAM and the serpent, as it is written, “When man rules over man it is to his harm,” then it will appear to all—”I will put to death and make alive” with My Divinity, and there is none else besides Him.
3.111 Zohar for All, Ki Tazria [When a Woman Inseminates],
“Wisdom Excels over Folly,” Item 105
“As the advantage of the light from within the darkness.” The benefit of the light comes only out of the darkness. The correction of the white is black, for without the black, the white would be pointless. And because there is black, the white is elevated and respected. It is like sweet and bitter. A person cannot know the taste of sweetness before he has tasted bitterness. Thus, what makes it sweet is the bitter.
In things where there are opposites, the one reveals the other, such as in white and black, light and darkness, sick and healthy. If there were no sickness in the world, the term healthy would be unattainable, as it is written, “God has made the one opposite the other.” And it is also written, “It is good that you grasp the one, and also not let go of the other.”
3.112 Zohar for All, VaYera,
“The Count of the Days of the Messiah,” Item 453
Man is created in utter wickedness and lowliness, as it is written, “When a wild ass’s foal is born a man.” And all the vessels in one’s body, meaning the senses and the qualities, and especially the thought serve him only wickedness and nothingness all day. And for one who is rewarded with adhering unto Him, the Creator does not create other tools instead, to be worthy and suitable for reception of the eternal spiritual abundance intended for him. Rather, the same lowly vessels that have thus far been used in a filthy and loathsome way are inverted to become vessels of reception of all the pleasantness and eternal gentleness.
Moreover, each Kli whose deficiencies had been the greatest has now become the most import- ant. In other words, the measure that they reveal is the greatest.
3.113 Zohar for All, VaYetze [And Jacob Went Out],
“The Two Rods,” Item 250-352
King David always attached himself to the Creator. He did not worry about anything else in the world except to cling unto Him with his soul and his will, as it is written, “My soul cleaves unto You.” And since he clung to the Creator, He supported him and He did not leave him, as it is writ- ten, “Your right hand holds me fast.” We learn from this that when a person comes to cling to the Creator, the Creator holds him fast and does not leave him.
“My soul cleaves unto You,” so that his degree would be crowned above. This is so because when his degree clings to the upper degrees, to rise after them, the right side, Hassadim, holds him so as to elevate him and connect him with the right in one bonding, as it should be. It is written about it, “Your right hand would hold me,” and it is written, “And his right hand embrace me.” This is why “Your right hand holds me fast.”
When he grips to the Creator, it is written, “Let his left hand be under my head, and his right hand embrace me.” This is one unification and one bonding with the Creator. And when it is one bonding with Him, his degree is filled and blessed.
3.114 Likutey Moharan,
Last Edition, Mark 48
The work of the Creator requires great persistence, whatever happens to him. Remember this well for you will need it very much as you begin the work of the Creator. It requires great tenacity, and to be strong and brave, to brace oneself and stand still, even if you are dropped down every time. You must not allow yourself to fall off altogether, for it is necessary to experience all those falls, descents, and confusions prior to entering the gates of Kedusha [holiness], and the true righteous, too, have gone through all of it. Know, that man must cross and very, very narrow bridge, and the rule and the most important thing is not to be afraid at all.
3.115 The Holy Shlah,
Toldot Adam
If one is attached above and resembles the Creator to walk in His ways, his name is called Adam [man], from the words Adame LaElyon [I will be like the upper one]. If one separates oneself from adhesion, the man is named after the earth from which he was taken, and dust he is and to dust he will return. However, the name Adam implies Adame LaElyon [I will be like the upper one]. This is the core purpose.
3.116 Martin Buber,
Ohr HaGanuz
“Even if a sharp sword is placed on neck, let him not give up on mercy.” Rabbi Shlomo of Karlin traveled with one of his disciples. Along the way, they stayed at an inn. They sat at the table and the rabbi asked for some mead [alcoholic beverage created by fermenting honey with water] to be warmed up for him, since he loved drinking hot mead. In the meanwhile, soldiers went in, and when they saw the Jews sitting at the table, they scolded them and ordered them to get out of the house at once.
“Has the mead been warmed yet?” the rabbi asked the owner of the inn. The soldiers thumped the table ferociously and screamed, “Get out of here or else…!”
“Is it still not warm?” asked the rabbi. The commander of the soldiers pulled his sword out of its sheath and placed it on his neck. “Indeed, it should not be too warm,” said Rabbi Shlomo.
The soldiers left.
3.117 Maor VaShemesh,
Haazinu
The whole purpose of creation was that bestowal would come down only through an awakening from below and raising of MAN that the assembly of Israel awakens. When they raise MAN, by this all the words ascend and add passion to adhere to their root. This is the main joy of the Creator, when Israel cleanse themselves from the depths of corporeality and yearn to adhere to their Creator.
3.118 Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk,
Pri HaAretz
The thing that guards from ignorance and cessation of adhesion is connection and love and true peace in adhesion of friends. Indeed, were it not for this, he would be in concealment of the face. And if, God forbid, he will rush to separate his heart from people due to some hate or envy, he should quickly run to his brothers, the friends who truly listen to the voice of the Creator saying, “My brothers, my soul, save me please and let me hear; the word of the Creator will heal my ruined heart.” Let one accustom oneself to always install in his heart love of friends with all his might, and continue with it until his soul becomes adhered and they will adhere to one another. When they are all as one man, the One will dwell within them, they will be imparted from Him with many salvations and consolations, and they will rise in an ascent of body and soul.
3.119 Raaiah Kook,
Orot [Lights]
When one sets one’s heart and mind to adhere to the Godly light that shines in the assembly of Israel in general, by this he becomes adhered to the light of Godliness that dwells in the overall level of the overall man, of whom the assembly of Israel is the center and extract. By this, one also adheres to the general light of Godliness that is revealed in all of existence. By this, he willy-nilly connects his mind to adhesion with the upper Godliness above all of existence and his soul fills with vitality, sanctity, great glory, and might. By the addition to his strength, he adds strength to all the assembly of Israel since he is a part of it, and therefore adds power in the level of the man and in all the worlds.
3.120 Rav Chaim Vital,
Pri Etz Chaim, Gate “Conducts of Learning,” Chapter 1
My teacher would say that the heart of the intention of reading in the Torah depends on aiming to connect one’s heart to its root through the Torah in order to complete the upper tree and complete the upper Adam [man] and correct him, for this is the whole purpose of man’s creation and the purpose of his engagement in the Torah.
3.121 Pri Tzadik,
VaYeshev, Item 3
The first Hassidim [adherents of the Hassidut movement] would spend one hour in prayer so as to aim their hearts to their Father in heaven. The word “aim” means the directness of the heart; it is to direct the heart so it is not scattered into the passions and lusts of worldly matters, but only to aim directly to his Father in heaven.
3.122 Ramchal,
Mesilat Yesharim
Man’s existence in this world is only to observe commandments and work and withstand trials. It is inappropriate that he should have worldly pleasures except as help and assistance, so he will have contentment and a sound mind so he can clear his heart to this work that is upon him. Indeed, his plea should be only to the Creator and not to have any other purpose in any act he does, small or great, but only to approach Him and break all the partitions that separate him from his Maker. These are all the material matters and what relates to them, until he is drawn after Him like iron after the magnet, and all that he can think of as a means for this closeness, he will pursue it and grip it and will not let go of it.
3.123 Meshulam Feibush Heler,
Yosher Divrei Emet
The creation of the worlds was in order for the Creator to receive great pleasure from it, to emanate the souls of Israel from Him and they will cascade through several worlds until they come to this world and clothe in material clothing. From there, from that great distance, they will become refined and approach and adhere to Him with their thought, with their love for Him and their connection to Him, and they will resemble themselves to Ein [null], when they understand that indeed, without the creative force that has created them and sustains them, they are “null,” as prior to creation. Thus, there is nothing in the world but the Creator. The Magid of Maazritch said that if they are “nulled” in their minds because of their adhesion with the Creator, it means that in their minds, they attach all their power to the Creator. It follows that they are very great because the branch has come to its root and is in one unity with its root, and the root is Ein Sof [infinity]. Thus, the branch, too, is Ein Sof since its existence has been canceled like a drop that fell into the great sea and came to its root. Thus, it is one with the water of the sea and cannot be distinguished for itself.
3.124 Degel Machaneh Ephraim,
VaEtchanan
It is written, “The Lord is one and Israel are one”; hence, they are adhered to the Creator, since it befits the One to cling to the one. And when is this? It is when Israel are bundled and attached together in complete unity. At that time, they are regarded as one, and the Creator is upon them, for He is one.
But when their hearts divide and they are apart from one another, they cannot be adhered to the One and the Creator is not on them. Rather, another God is on them. This is implied in the verse, “And you who are adhered,” meaning when you are adhered and united with each other, “You are alive every one of you.” When they are in one unity. Then it befits the One to cling to the one, and the one Creator is upon them.
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