November 23, 1956, Manchester
To the friends, may they live long,
I received a few letters from…
I would be very happy if I could be with you, but what can you do that time causes? However, there are Mitzvot (commandments) we can keep, which time does not cause, meaning things that transcend time. For himself, man is limited by time and place. But when one strives to adhere to the Creator, he must equalize with Him, meaning be above place and above time.
It is known that a place is called Kli (vessel), meaning a certain will to receive. “Above place” means that one does not want one’s labor to be only for “one’s place,” but for “Blessed be the place,” who is the place of the world (referring to the Creator), meaning that all the labor should be only to bestow, and above time, for time relates only to reason. A person’s reason always makes him understand that now is not the right time to accept His work for His sake. But it is in that regard that we must always go above time. That is, do not say that the early days were better than these, but we always need renewal of powers, meaning the foundations on which to build all the work until we are rewarded with permanent instilling of the Shechina (Divinity).
Also, we must always walk on two paths that deny one another, meaning in deficiency and in wholeness, which is prayer and praise and gratitude.
See in The Zohar (Vayeshev, and p 12 in the Sulam commentary): “This is why that body and the purifying soul broke, and this is why the Creator makes that righteous suffer torments and pains in this world, and he will be cleaned from everything and will be rewarded with life in the next world. It is written about that, ‘The Lord tests the righteous,’ indeed” (the Sulam commentary on The Zohar, Vayeshev, item 36, p 12). In item 38: “And when the moon is blemished,” meaning when the soul emerges when the moon is flawed, the soul blemishes the body.
It is written in the Sulam: “How can it be said that the soul blemishes the body?” He explains that the blemish of the soul extends from the diminution in Bina. Malchut takes that diminution, as in “Mother lent her clothes to her daughter,” and the bodies become fit to receive the Gadlut (adulthood/greatness), too. Thus, the flaw that the souls cause in the bodies is in order to correct the body and qualify it to receive the light of Gadlut, thus far his words.
To understand this during the preparation period for entering the king’s palace, we can interpret that the body in its own way is whole. That is, it feels no deficiency about itself, as one feels if there is any corporeal lack. Then one does not sit idly in despair, but the sense of lack evokes in a person tricks and tactics, and one never falls into despair. This is precisely to the extent of the sensation of the lack. That is, if he regards the thing he craves as luxury, the sensation of deficiency is not so strong with luxuries and one easily gives up.
However, it is not because it is difficult to obtain that he accepts the situation and gives us, saying, “I did what I could and I have no idea how to get what I want,” and for this he turns his mind elsewhere. Rather, it is because what he is asking for is superfluous to him, and with redundancies there is no sensation of lack as there is for necessity. Indeed, when it comes to necessity, a person never accepts the situation and always seeks advice and tactics to obtain the necessity, meaning that man’s driving force, which does not let him give up, and each time it is renewed, is only the power of deficiency.
This depends on the measure of the deficiency, which in turn depends on the measure of suffering. A great need means that if he does not obtain what he wants he will feel great suffering, and a small need is if it does not pain him if he does not get what he wants, but if he gets it he will feel more complete.
Concerning necessity and redundancy, each person determines this measure by himself. Our sages said about that, that if one is accustomed to living with a necessity of a servant running before him, he must be provided this, and there is a story about Hillel who was running before him. Thus, each person can determine what is necessary.
This is the meaning of the soul blemishing the body. It means that when a person does not have a soul, he has a complete body. That is, he does not feel it necessary to work in purity. But by engaging in Torah and Mitzvot, the light in it reforms him. That is, the light in it, meaning the soul that one attains, breaks the body, meaning that the body breaks when it sees that it is incomplete.
This means that previously he knew that he had to engage in purity in order to attain wholeness, which is regarded as luxury, and one can give up luxuries. But when the body breaks, meaning that he sees that he is deficient—meaning sees the lack that there is in the upper Behina (discernment) called Bina, referring to Providence—there awakens in him a motivating power that will not rest until he is pitied from above and is awarded the face of the Shechina (Divinity).
May the Creator help us assume the burden of the kingdom of heaven above place and above time, to cling to His eternity.
Your friend, Baruch Shalom HaLevi Ashlag
Son of Baal HaSulam