117. Labored and Did Not Find? Do Not Believe

I heard

Necessity of the labor is a requirement. Since the Creator gives man a present, He wants man to feel the benefit in the present. Otherwise, that person would be like a fool, as our sages said, “Who is a fool? He who loses what he is given.” Because he does not appreciate the importance of the matter, he does not pay attention to keeping the present.

There is a rule that one feels no importance in anything if one has no need for that thing. As the measure of the need and the suffering if one does not attain it, to that very extent one feels gladness, pleasure, and joy at the satisfaction of the need. It is similar to one who is given all sorts of good beverages, but if he is not thirsty, he tastes nothing, as it is written, “As cold water to a faint soul.”

Hence, when meals are set in order to please people, there is a custom: When we prepare meat and fish and all sorts of good things, we take note to serve bitter and hot things, such as mustard, hot peppers, sour, and salty foods. All of this is to evoke the suffering of hunger, since when the heart tastes a hot and bitter taste, it evokes hunger and deficiency, which one needs to satisfy with the meal of good things.

No one would ask, “Why do I need things to arouse hunger? After all, the host should only prepare satisfaction for the need, meaning the meal, and not prepare things that evoke the need for the satiation?” The obvious answer is that since the host wants people to enjoy the meal, to the extent that they have a need for the food, to that very extent they will enjoy the meal. It follows that if he gives many good things, it will still not help them enjoy the meal due to the above reason that there is no filling without a lack.

Hence, to be rewarded with the light of the Creator, there must also be a need. And the need for this is the labor: To the extent that one exerts and demands the Creator during the greatest concealment, to that extent he becomes needy of the Creator, for the Creator to open his eyes to walk by the path of the Creator. Then, when one has that Kli [vessel] of a deficiency, when the Creator gives him some help from above, he will know how to keep this present. It turns out that the labor is considered Achoraim [posterior]. And when he receives the Achoraim, he has a place in which to be rewarded with the Panim [face].

It is said about that, “A fool has no wish for wisdom.” This means that he does not have a strong need to exert to obtain wisdom. Thus, he has no Achoraim, and he naturally cannot be awarded the discernment of Panim.

This is the meaning of “As is the sorrow, so is the reward.” That is, the sorrow, called “labor,” makes the Kli [vessel], so one can be awarded the reward. This means that to the extent that one regrets, to that extent he can later be rewarded with joy and pleasure.