Letter 11

September 8, 1955

To the friends, may the Lord be upon you,

…and perhaps this is the meaning of what we say at the Mussaf service (additional to the regular service) of Rosh Hashanah (beginning of the Jewish year), “Happy is the man who does not forget You, and a man who exerts in You.” We should understand, if one always remembers the Creator, what other effort is there?

In “Assistance of Our Father” (part of the service), before the Eighteen Prayer, we say, “Happy is a man who hears Your commandments, and places You Torah (teaching/law) and Your words on his heart.” We should understand, 1) he should have said, “Who observes Your commandments, 2) what is “Torah” and what are “words,” 3) What is the connection between placing the Torah and the heart; it should have said, “on the mind.”

Our sages said about “Kingship, Memories, Horns”: “Kingship, so you will make Me king over you. Memories, so that your memory shall come before Me. And with what? With a Shofar (horn).” We should understand the meaning of memories, since there is no forgetting before the throne, so how can it be said, “So that your memory shall come before Me”? Also, if we blow then the Creator remembers us; how can this be said? In corporeality, the sound awakens a person who is asleep, but how can this be said about the Creator?

However, 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 equivalence 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 illumination 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.”

There are two meanings to the “You”: 1) You, meaning the Creator; 2) In the Creator who is clothed in the twenty-two letters of the Torah.

Also, “Happy is a man who hears Your commandments,” meaning rewarded with hearing. It advises us how to be rewarded through “Your Torah and Your words.”

In other words, he believes that the whole Torah is the words of the Creator, meaning that “You” is clothed in the twenty-two letters of the Torah. We need to pay attention to this, as you know what Baal HaSulam said, that the mind only serves the man, but the man is primarily the heart.

This is the meaning of “kingship,” that you will crown Me over you.” That is, an act that will inspire us so that we take upon ourselves the burden of the Kingdom of Heaven. But we see that promptly after the reception we forget about the reception. At that time we are advised, “so that your memory shall come before Me,” meaning before the Creator. That is, all the memory we have should work only to remember the Creator. This means that memories are like kingships, meaning that we need to be inspired.

And with what? With the Shofar (horn). You probably know that the ARI interprets Shofar to mean the Shofar of Ima, Shofar of Bina. Shofar means beauty, and Baal HaSulam explains that beauty is Hochma that extends from Bina that has returned to being Hochma. By a person believing that all the beauty and importance are in Hochma, in which all the pleasures are included, and all that is missing is corrections, so a person wants to remember good things, since human nature is to forget only bad things.

Therefore, we must believe that everything has been prepared for us, and we will be rewarded with remembering and not forgetting the Creator for even a minute, and we will be awarded good writing and signing.

From me.