Article No. 25, 1985
In every thing we must discern between light and Kli [vessel], meaning between the Giver, who is the Creator, and the receiver, who is the creature.
And since there is no light without a Kli, meaning if there is no one to attain it, then who can speak of it? Therefore, we can only speak of light that is clothed in a Kli, meaning the abundance that the Giver gives to the body, namely the measure of impression of the body from the abundance that pours down to it. We must believe that everything a person receives into his body comes from Him, both corporeality and spirituality, since it is known that there is no other force in the world that will bestow upon him.
Therefore, when a person begins to come into the work of the Creator, we must thank and praise the Creator, for this is the beginning of man’s entrance into the work. The order of the work begins as our sages said, “One should always establish the praise of the Creator and subsequently pray. From where do we know this? From Moses, as it is written, ‘And I pleaded with the Lord at that time,’ and as it is written, ‘God, You have begun,’ and ‘afterwards is written, ‘Let me go over, I pray Thee, and see the good land’’” (Berachot 32a).
Therefore, when he begins to thank the Creator, he first needs to thank the Creator for creating the world, as we say during the prayer, “Blessed are You who said, ‘Let there be the world.’” And then begins the work, meaning the extent to which he can thank the Creator for creating the world. In other words, the extent of the gratitude is as the extent of the pleasure.
Here begins the scrutiny of true and false, and here lies the difference between the work of the individual and the work of the public, meaning between one whose Torah is his craft or not. The meaning is as Baal HaSulam explained: His Torah is his craft means that through the Torah he wants to be rewarded with faith. Or, according to people who belong to the general public, it means that they study Torah in order to be rewarded with the next world, meaning in order to receive, and not to people who belong to the individual, namely engage in order to bestow.
When a person begins to praise the Creator, there is a scrutiny of true and false. That is, usually, when one needs to thank another person for helping him, the measure of gratitude is according to the measure of feeling that he has helped him. Therefore, when a person begins to thank the Creator for what He has given him, the body begins to think of the benefits He has done to him, and to the extent that he is impressed with the benefit that He has done to him, so is the measure of the gratitude.
Therefore, when a person says, “Blessed is He who said, ‘Let there be the world,’” it also depends on the extent to which he is enjoying the world. At that time the body begins to show him that he lacks corporeality and lacks spirituality, and does not let him establish the praises of the Creator. At that time there is a lot of work because then he needs to go above reason and believe that the Creator is doing only good to him, and there is also a scrutiny of true and false.
Since the general name of the Creator is Good Who Does Good, there is a lot of work to believe above reason that the Creator is good and does good. It therefore follows that when a person begins to establish the praise of the Creator, he has what to pray for so he can go above reason. Beforehand, there was not such a great lack of faith in the Creator above reason, but now he feels his lack of faith, and needs to learn Torah so that the light in it will reform him.
It turns out that his desire to establish the praise of the Creator causes him a deficiency. When he has a deficiency, called a Kli, to the extent of his impression from being far from wholeness he has room for work and a need for prayer and Torah.
However, there is another deficiency: Sometimes a person sees his lowliness, gives up, and escapes the campaign. At that time, all the pleasures he receives are only if he forgets about his situation, meaning that he is not thinking about spirituality or he can sleep, meaning feel great pleasure in sleep. This is so not because at that time he derives from sleep some special pleasure, but that when he sleeps he does not remember about the work. This is his pleasure, since whenever he remembers about the work, the body immediately brings him despair and lowliness.
Therefore, a person must always be careful not to fall into despair, namely that a state of suffering has come to him because he sees that he cannot continue the work. This is why Baal HaSulam said that one should be careful to criticize himself, except when he allocates for this a special time, and not whenever the body tells him to introspect. Rather, he should tell the body: “I have a special time for criticizing if I am going according to the line that I was given or have veered off from the correct line. Now I am engaging in Torah and prayer, and I am certain that the Creator will help me as He has helped all the servants of the Creator who wished to go by the right path and achieve the goal for which they were created.”
In my previous article, and in article no. 11 [Tav-Shin-Mem-Hey], I have written that we must say the opposite of what the body tells us. And by this will understand the question of The Zohar and its answer (Behukotai, item 18): “‘And do them.’ He asks, ‘What is, ‘And do them’?’ Since he already said ‘walk’ and ‘keep,’ why the ‘do,’ as well? He answers that one who performs the Mitzvot of the Torah and follows His ways, it is as though he has made Him above. The Creator said, ‘It is as if he has made Me,’ and established Him. Hence, ‘And do them’ as a law and ordinance,” thus far its words.
This answer seems very perplexing. How can it be said that by keeping Torah and Mitzvot we make Him above? After all, “The whole earth is full of His glory,” even before the creatures observed Torah and Mitzvot. Thus, what does it mean “As though you have made Me”?
As said above, we do not speak of a light without a Kli, for in regard to whom is it discerned that there is light? When there is a Kli, the Kli obtains the light. Therefore, when we say that the purpose of creation is to do good to His creations it pertains only to the creatures when they receive the delight and pleasure. This is regarded as having a Kli, and the Kli attains Him in a way that they receive from the Creator only delight and pleasure. But when the creatures do not receive from Him delight and pleasure, the question arises, “With regard to whom the name of the Creator, The Good Who Does Good, appears?”
For this reason, in order for the name of the Creator, the general name of all the names—The Good Who Does Good—to be revealed, and in order for the creatures to receive the delight and pleasure from the Creator, for His benefit to be complete, meaning that there will be no shame in the gift, hence there was the Tzimtzum and concealment, where we cannot attain and feel the good before we qualify ourselves with vessels of bestowal, which is equivalence of form. It turns out that then the name, Good Who Does Good is not revealed, which causes the creatures not to feel the Creator, and this is why there are wicked in the world who do not believe in the Creator.
In order for His name to be revealed in the world before everyone, all the Kelim need is equivalence of form. And in order to have the ability to acquire vessels of bestowal, which are Kelim [vessels] of equivalence of form, we can obtain this only by keeping Torah and Mitzvot. That is, while observing Torah and Mitzvot we must aim that it will be in order to raise the glory of Israel through observing the Torah and Mitzvot.
Israel means the letters Yashar-El [straight to the Creator], where the actions are directly toward the Creator and not for one’s own benefit. This is called “equivalence of form.” In the words of the holy Zohar, this is called “raising the Shechina [Divinity] from the dust,” since spirituality is not honored in our eyes so we can tell our bodies that it is a great privilege to be able to serve the Creator, and then the body surrenders and annuls before the Kedusha [holiness]. This is the meaning of what the holy Zohar says, that through “walk in My statutes and keep My commandments,” by that “And do them,” meaning as though you make Me above. In other words, by this you make the name of the Creator be revealed as Good Who Does Good, meaning that everyone will feel the good because you will be rewarded with equivalence of form.