874. Rest and Joy, Light to the Jews

June 1984

“Rest and joy, light to the Jews” (Shabbat [Sabbath] evening songs). This means that it was light only to the Jews. But to the nations of the world, rest and joy are regarded as darkness. Can this be? Who does not want rest and joy? Also, we need to understand what our sages said about the verse, “The dove came to him toward evening, and behold, in her mouth was a freshly picked olive leaf.” They said, “In her mouth,” as though speaking. She said, “I prefer my foods to be as bitter as an olive from the hand of the Creator than as sweet as honey from the hands of flesh and blood” (Iruvin 7).

We should also understand what our sages said, “Rabbi Yohanan and Rabbi Elazar both said, ‘When one needs people, his face changes as chrome. It was said, ‘as when vile things become high in the eyes of people’’” (Berachot 6).

To understand all the above, we must know that we can speak of rest only after exertion. Since we are speaking of Jews, it means that we are speaking of things that pertain to Jews, which means matters pertaining to serving the Creator, which pertains to Jews. Therefore, we should speak of work that one needs to do the holy work, which is bestowing contentment upon the Creator. This is why we were given the six workdays to work with the body to emerge from self-love and bestow upon the Creator.

Since the body does not agree to this because this is against its nature, the labor begins, since labor is that with which the body disagrees. When one wants to go against its opinion and will, it is a great exertion, since the body uses all kinds of arguments to make him think that this is unjust, that he is demanding intolerable things.

This is as it is written in The Zohar, “‘And they returned from touring the land.’ ‘They returned’ means that they returned to the bad side, saying, ‘What have we gotten thus far? We labored in the Torah, yet the house is empty, etc. Who will be rewarded with that world, and who will come into it? It would have been better had we not toiled so, etc., but who can be rewarded with it? etc., and we also saw the descendants of the giant there,’ meaning that you need a body as strong and as mighty as a lion. They who have faith, what did they say? ‘If the Creator wants us, He will give it to us’” (The Zohar, Sulam [Ladder commentary on The Zohar], Shlach, Item 63).

It follows that the spies did not lie, but they had to believe above reason that “if the Creator wants us,” He can help us. This is as our sages said, “He who comes to purify is aided.” This is what The Zohar says, that those who have faith said, “If the Creator wants us,” etc., for then the Creator shows His glory, meaning we begin to feel the glory of the Creator because this is all we need, since to us the work of bestowal is regarded as Shechina [Divinity] in exile, for our body does not feel the importance of the King, and therefore does not value serving Him and working for Him and thinking about Him all day and how one can please Him.

But if one could feel the importance of the King, we see that it is in our nature that we have the strength to serve an important person and it does not tire us at all. On the contrary, we seek all day how and with what we can do some service for him, and we expect no reward for the work because the work itself is his reward.

For example, the leader of the generation comes to the airport, and all the townspeople come out to greet him. He brought with him a small suitcase, picked one of the townspeople and gave him the suitcase to bring it to his lodging place. Afterward, he wanted to pay him for his work, since he was his porter, and since he is a very important man, he wants to pay him as if it were a big suitcase, for then you need to pay a good sum of money, and he wants to pay for his porterage a considerable sum for his little effort.

Clearly, this man will not take any payment for his work because he is an important person, so any sum of money he might pay him will be meaningless compared to the pleasure he derives from being chosen by the sage to serve him, rather than another person from the town. It is human nature that this costs him no exertion. Rather, according to the sage’s importance, so is the pleasure of serving him.

It follows that the work itself is the reward and he does not look for any payment. On the contrary, all the rewards one might receive in return for the work is completely inconsequential compared to the work itself with which he has been granted, and this is his reward.

Conversely, if he is serving a common person and there is no importance in serving him, it is not worthwhile for the body to work for the sake of others, much less for the sake of the Creator, since for the sake of the Creator also contains the matter of faith, which is not such a simple matter.

Hence, when Shabbat [Sabbath] comes, when the light of Shabbat shines in the manner of the name of the Creator, as it is written in The Zohar, that Shabbat is the revelation of His name, meaning that the importance of the Creator becomes revealed, then he gets rest from his labor of the body not wanting to work in order to bestow because he did not feel the importance of the Creator. But when one feels the light of Shabbat, the body agrees to work in order to bestow because it is of great importance to him that he has been rewarded with serving the Creator, and then he does not want any reward, since any reward he might be given is meaningless compared to the value of the servitude he did while serving the Creator.

It follows that by having rest, meaning that he was rewarded with feeling the importance of the Creator, which caused his body to agree to work only in order to bestow contentment upon the Creator, this is his joy. However, from where did it come to him to feel the importance of the Creator? This happens through the light of Shabbat. This is why he says, “rest and joy.” It comes by the coming of “light to the Jews,” for Shabbat shines only for the Jews, as was said, “rest and joy” come from the light of the Jews, whereas for idol-worshippers, the light of Shabbat does not come.

This is not so on weekdays. At that time, it is called “Shechina [Divinity] in exile,” when the importance of the Creator does not illuminate, that it is worthwhile to serve Him. This is called “Shechina in the dust.” Just as dust is unimportant, so is serving Him. At that time, we have great labor if we want to work only in order to bestow, for the body argues that “Since you do not feel the importance of the Creator, work for yourself,” meaning only for reward.

In other words, you must always have in your hand what you are working for and not relinquish any self-reception when you taste the taste of pleasure, for this determines how much we can enjoy what we are doing, and what we do not enjoy, why toil for it? Thus, the body argues, “Why should you labor and work and relinquish self-benefit and work for the sake of the Creator, meaning bring contentment to the Creator?”

By this we will understand what our sages said, that the dove said, “I prefer my foods to be as bitter as an olive from the hand of the Creator than as sweet as honey from the hand of flesh and blood.” Ostensibly, this contradicts what our sages said, “When one needs people, his face changes as chrome. It was said, ‘as when vile things become high in the eyes of people,’” etc. This means that if nourishment is placed in the hands of flesh and blood, meaning that one must receive his nourishment from people, it is not sweet. On the contrary, his face changes like chrome, etc.

Also, in the blessing for the food, we say that we are blessing the Creator so we ask and tell Him: “And please do not make us need, the Lord our God, not the gift of flesh and blood, and not their loan, but only Your full hand,” etc. This means that if the foods are dependent on flesh and blood, they are not sweet. Rather, precisely when it is in the hands of the Creator, it means that they are sweet. But here the dove said the exact opposite, that from the hand of the Creator they are as bitter as an olive, and from the hand of flesh and blood they are as sweet as honey. But we see the opposite of the reality that the dove said.

We should also understand what the dove said, that in the hands of the Creator, they are as bitter as an olive. Why should the foods be as bitter as an olive in the hands of the Creator? Since the dove said this, it means that there is such a reality, so why should it be so, meaning why did the Creator create such a reality?

To understand the above, we must first understand the meaning of “in the hands of the Creator,” and what “from the hands of flesh and blood” means, and what is the meaning of “foods.”

“Foods” are that which feed man. Through reception of foods, meaning that the foods with which man feeds himself come in several types of pleasure such as eating, drinking, sleeping, money, and honor. All those things give him satisfaction, and he says that for these foods that he obtained in order to sustain his body, he says that it is worthwhile to live in order to receive these nourishments that sustain him if he receives what he wants. When he calculates, after he has obtained all the things he craved, he says that it was worthwhile to be created and worthwhile to live.

Also, we [see] that often, although a person has many things and lacks nothing, and he has abundance, he still has nothing from which to sustain himself. We see that there are many very rich people in the world who nonetheless do not enjoy their lives and have nothing on which to sustain themselves.

The reason is as presented in the introduction to The Zohar, that any pleasure that one receives is precisely from things for which he yearns. To the extent of the yearning, so is his ability to enjoy, not more and not less. The measure of the pleasure from a meal is to the extent of the hunger, and there is no pleasure from drinking more than he is thirsty, as our sages said, “One who drinks water when he is thirsty says, ‘Everything is done by His word’ [the blessing for water],” for then, when he enjoys, he can give thanks for the pleasure. Also, there is pleasure from rest only according to the labor.

Therefore, the very rich, who do not lack anything so they have something to yearn for since they have abundance, because there is yearning only where there is a lack, and they do not even enjoy rest because they do not work, since they have many managers for all their businesses, and have plenty to eat and drink, as well as nice clothes and stately houses and so forth, because they are devoid of yearning, they are devoid of pleasure. Nothing can nourish them, and they are regarded as poor because they have no foods.

Now we will come to clarify the meaning of what the dove said, “I prefer my foods to be as bitter as an olive in the hands of the Creator, than as sweet as honey in the hands of flesh and blood.”

The thing is that when one begins to work in order to provide foods for himself, there are two options about it: 1) The foods will be in the hands of the Creator, as our sages said, “Israel sustain their Father in heaven.” In other words, he decided that all his foods, which man enjoys, are that he wants to bestow contentment upon the Creator, that he is in Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator, called “equivalence of form,” as in “As He is merciful, so you are merciful.” It follows that his nourishment is that he wants his foods to be placed in the hands of the Creator, and when he feels that he is working entirely in order to bestow, this is called “in the hands of the Creator,” and the hands of flesh and blood do not reach there. “Hand” means a vessel of reception. When all his work enters the Kli [vessel] of the Creator, and not in his own vessels of reception, called “self-love,” it is considered that his nourishment is in the hands of the Creator.

Now we will explain why when his foods are in the hands of the Creator, they are as bitter as an olive. Since “by the hand of the Creator” means in order to bestow, and since it is against nature, for the nature we are born with is only to receive, when one wants to work against nature, his body resists this work.

Instead, the body wants its nourishments to be in the hands of man, for the hands of flesh and blood are called self-love, called “receiving in order to receive.” This is the meaning of what the dove said, “as sweet as honey in the hands of flesh and blood,” for where one sees that the work he is doing will yield nourishment, meaning pleasures, which feed his will to receive, this is called “in the hands of man,” where the foods are as sweet as honey because they come into the hands of flesh and blood.

And while he wants only to turn the order of life completely upside down, meaning that if previously, all he wanted and thought about was delighting his will to receive, now he wants to relinquish all his pleasures if he sees that they come with the aim of self-benefit. Although he has not achieved this degree of a desire to bestow, but only thinks about it, the body already begins to betray him and does not want to give him strength to work. Then, when he begins to go against the body, he promptly begins to feel a bitter taste in his work.

The dove said that she agrees to it although she tastes a bitter taste, since this is the truth, meaning that this is the real way to achieve the goal for which this world was created, which is to do good to His creations, and one cannot achieve this degree before he is rewarded with equivalence of form called “in order to bestow contentment upon the Creator.” Otherwise, the point of Tzimtzum [restriction] lies on him, which is the concealment of the face of the Creator.

This is why the dove said that she wants her nourishment, meaning her pleasure, to be that she can concentrate on how from all her work she will be rewarded with everything going to the hands of the Creator and not to self-reception, since this removes her from the goal for which she was created. Hence, during the work, when one tastes a bitter taste and it is impossible to work without overcoming in ascending and descending, that time continues until a person gets help from above, as our sages said, “He who comes to purify is aided.” The Zohar asks, “How is he helped?” With a holy soul, meaning he is given the light of Torah called “the light in it reforms him.” At that time, there is no longer work with his body because all the forces that resist the Creator annul before the upper light.

For this reason, when the light of Shabbat comes, when a person begins to feel his additional soul, all the forces that oppose the Creator are revoked, so there is no more room for labor. It follows that he is at rest. This is called “rest and joy.” Where does it come from? From “light to the Jews,” when the light that belongs to the Jews shines on him, meaning that this light that comes from above makes a person Jewish.

Conversely, the nations of the world, which “All the good that they do, they do for themselves,” meaning in order to receive, the light that comes to assist and by which they can achieve the aim to bestow, they do not want it whatsoever, since they regard it as death. Hence, when the light of Shabbat comes, it is rest and joy only to the Jews.