I heard on BeShalach 1, February 2, 1941
Torah is called “indication,” from the words “shot through.”* It means that when one engages in the Torah, he feels his remoteness to the extent of his exertion. In other words, he is shown the truth, meaning he is shown his measure of faith, which is the whole basis of the truth.
The basis of observing Torah and Mitzvot [commandments] is on one’s measure of faith, since then it appears to him that his whole basis is built only on the upbringing he received. This is because the upbringing is sufficient for him to keep Torah and Mitzvot in all its intricacies and details, and everything that comes through upbringing is called “faith within reason.”
Even though this is against one’s mind, meaning reason necessitates that according to one’s addition in the Torah, so one should feel closer to the Creator. However, the Torah always shows him more of the truth. When he searches for the truth, the Torah brings him closer to the truth and he sees his measure of faith in the Creator.
This is so that he would be able to ask for mercy and pray for the Creator to bring him genuinely closer to Him, which means that he will be awarded faith in the Creator. Then he will be able to give praise and gratitude to the Creator for having been granted being brought closer to Him.
However, when he does not see the measure of his remoteness and thinks that he is constantly adding, you find that he builds all the buildings on a rickety basis, and he has no place to pray for the Creator to bring him closer to Him. It follows that he has no place for exertion to be imparted whole faith, since one exerts only for that which one needs.
Hence, as long as one is not worthy of seeing the truth, it is the opposite. The more one adds in Torah and Mitzvot, one adds in the measure of his wholeness and does not see any deficit in himself. Therefore, he has no place to exert and pray to be granted faith in the Creator in truth, because when he feels corruption, you should say correction.
However, when he engages in Torah and Mitzvot in truth, the Torah shows him the truth, because the Torah has that power to show one’s true state of faith (and this is the meaning of “make it known”).
When one engages in the Torah and sees the truth, meaning his measure of remoteness from spirituality, and sees that he is such a lowly being that there is not a worse person than him on earth, then the Sitra Achra [other side] comes to one with a different argument: In fact, his body is really very ugly, and it is true that there is not an uglier person in the world than him.
She tells him this so he will despair, since she is afraid that he will notice and come to correct his state. For this reason, she agrees to what one says, that he is an ugly person, and lets him understand that if he had been born with higher skills and better qualities, he could have overcome his evil and corrected it, and he would have been able to achieve Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator.
The answer to this should be that what she tells him is brought in Masechet Taanit (p 20), that Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon, came from a fenced tower from the house of his teacher. He was riding his donkey and strolling along the riverbank feeling great joy. And his mind was crude, as he had been studying much Torah.
A person who was very ugly came by his way. He told him, “Hello rabbi,” but he did not reply. He told him, “Vain, how ugly is that man, are all your townspeople as ugly as you?” He replied, “I do not know, but go and tell the craftsman who made me, ‘How ugly is this vessel that you have made.’” Because he knew that he had sinned, he descended from the donkey.
According to the above, we can see that since he learned much Torah, through it he was granted seeing the truth about the distance between himself and the Creator, meaning the measure of his nearness and the measure of his remoteness. This is the meaning of his mind being crude, meaning that he saw the complete form of one who is proud, which is his will to receive, and then he could see the truth that it was he himself who was very ugly. How did he see the truth? By learning much Torah.
Thus, how will he be able to adhere to Him, since he is such an ugly person? This is why he asked if all the people were as ugly as him or was he the only ugly one and the rest of the people in the world were not ugly.
What was the answer? “I don’t know.” It means that they do not feel and therefore do not know. And why do they not feel? It is for the simple reason that they were not rewarded with seeing the truth, since they lack Torah, so the Torah will show them the truth.
To that Elijah replied to him, “Go to the craftsman who made me.” Because he saw that he came to a state from which he could not ascend, Elijah appeared and told him, “Go to the craftsman who made me.” In other words, since the Creator created you so ugly, He must have known that with these Kelim [vessels] it is possible to achieve the goal. So do not worry, go forward and succeed.
*In Hebrew the same word is used for shooting and for indicating something.