Article No. 1, 1986
It is written in The Zohar (items 1-3): “‘Moses went.’ Rabbi Hizkiya started, ‘Leading to the right of Moses the arm of his glory, dividing the water before them.’ Three holy siblings walked among them. Who are they? Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. We have established that Aaron is Israel’s right arm, as it is written, ‘When the Canaanite, King of Arad … heard that Israel was coming through the sites.’ ‘Through the sites’ means that Israel were as a man walking without one arm, supporting himself in each place, since ‘sites’ means ‘places.’ Then ‘he fought against Israel and took some of them captive,’ since they were without a right arm. Come and see, Aaron was the right arm of the body, which is Tifferet, hence it is written, ‘Leading to the right of Moses the arm of his glory.’”
We should understand the allegory that he gives about the verse, “When the Canaanite … heard.” RASHI interpreted that he heard that Aaron had died and the clouds of glory had departed, as a man who is walking without an arm. What does it mean that Aaron was the right arm? We should also understand from the allegory that when one who has no arm walks, he supports himself in every place. We should know that everything we want to do must have a reason that necessitates doing it. According to the importance of the reason, so is the ability to exert in order to obtain one’s wish.
For this reason, when a person begins to walk in the work of the Creator and wants to work in faith and bestowal, he wants to know what is the reason that one must walk specifically in this way. Each one understands that if the work was based on reception and knowing, the work would be better and more successful. That is, the body, called “self-love,” would not resist this work so strongly, since although the body desires rest and does not want to work at all, if it were on the basis of reception and knowing, it would certainly be easier and more people would engage in Torah and Mitzvot.
Baal HaSulam said that the Creator wanted the body to resist so that man will have to have His help. Without help from the Creator, it is impossible to achieve the goal, and this was in order for man to be able to rise to a higher degree each time, as our sages said, “He who comes to purify is aided.” The holy Zohar asks, “With what is he aided? With a holy soul. When one is born he is given a soul. If he is rewarded with more…” Therefore, man is given work so he can rise in the degrees of holiness.
But in the order of the work, meaning in order for a person to ask for the Creator’s help, we need to be careful because when one comes to work, the body tells him, “Why are you so upset? In any case, you cannot overcome your nature, called ‘self-love.’ You cannot come out of it, and only the Creator can help. So why are you straining yourself, making such great efforts to exit self-love? You’re working for nothing! Why do you need this work?”
Baal HaSulam said about this that before each action one wants to perform he must say that the choice is only up to him. At that time he must not say that the Creator will help him. Rather, he must make every effort he can, and he needs the Creator only to complete the work, and he cannot finish the work for the above-mentioned reason.
Our sages said about this (Avot, Chapter 5, tractate 21): “He would say, ‘It is not for you to finish the work.’” Therefore, it can be said, “Why do I need to work? If I cannot finish it, what good is my work?” This is why the tractate continues, “Nor are you free to idle away from it.”
Thus, we see two things here that seem to contradict one another: On the one hand, a person is told to work “as an ox to the burden and as a donkey to the load.” This implies that the holy work depends on man, meaning that he can finish it. On the other hand, we say as it is written, “The Lord will finish for me.”
The thing is that both are needed. On the one hand, a person must make a choice, meaning to have a desire to work for the Creator. If he could finish his work he would remain in his current state because he would feel that he is complete because he would see that all his actions are for the Creator, so what else is missing? Therefore, there is no longer any need to draw the light of Torah.
However, in order to have a need to progress in the Torah, since the Torah is the names of the Creator, which the Creator desired to reveal to the creatures, and according to the rule, “There is no light without a Kli [vessel],” then how can one receive the light of Torah when he hasn’t the Kli, called “need and deficiency”? For this reason, when one begins to work and sees that he cannot finish the work, he acquires a need and deficiency for the light of Torah.
It is as our sages said, “The light in it reforms him.” And then, each time he wants to become purer, he must receive greater help from above. This is why we need both, and there is no contradiction between them, since each has its unique role.
This is similar to what we see in corporality, as every conduct that applies to spirituality extends to corporeality. We see that the order is that when a person is standing on the street carrying a heavy load, and he is asking a passersby to help him lift the sack onto his back, everyone tells him they have no time, and “Please ask someone else, since there are many people here who can help you, and you don’t really need my help.” But if a person is carrying a heavy sack on his back and the sack is dropping off and is about to fall to the ground, and people pass by him and he is asking for their help to put the sack on his back so it does not fall, we see that at that time, when the sack is about to fall off his back, no one will tell him, “I have no time; ask someone else to help you.” Rather, the first one next to him will immediately help him.
We should understand the difference between whether the sack is standing on the ground and he is asking for help, in which case everyone has his own excuse not to help him, and whether the sack is on his back and is about to fall, so the first person next to him helps him. We should understand that it is different with someone who is in the middle of the work, who has already begun the work and we can see that he is asking for help so he can continue the work, meaning that the load on his back is about to fall and so we help him.
But if he only wants to begin the work now, we tell him, “No rush. Pretend that the desire to begin the work came a little later; this is not so terrible.” For this reason, everyone sees that he does not need immediate help, but can wait until he finds someone with spare time to help him.
The lesson is that when a person waits for the Creator to help him and says, “Now I can work, but before the Creator gives me a desire and craving, I cannot overcome the desires of my body, and I sit and wait for the Creator to help me so I can begin the work of the Creator.”
This is similar to a person waiting for any person passing by him to place the heavy sack on his back. Likewise, that man is waiting for the Creator to give him strength and help him, and place the burden of the kingdom of heaven on his back, as it is written, “as an ox to the burden and as a donkey to the load.” He wants the Creator to help him with these burden and load and then he will begin the work. At that time he is told, “Wait for an opportunity, and in the meantime stay with the sack of assuming the burden of the kingdom of heaven below on earth.”
This is not so with one who has already begun the work, and is not saying that he will wait until the Creator gives him the desire to do the holy work and then he will begin to work. Rather, he does not want to wait because the craving to work and reach the truth pushes him forward though he does not see that he will have the ability to go forward alone, like Nahshon.
However, he sees that he cannot continue this work and is afraid that the burden of the kingdom of heaven, which he is now carrying, is beginning to fall off from him so he begins to call out for help, since he sees that each time, the burden he has taken on himself begins to fall. It is like a person carrying a sack on his back and sees that the sack is beginning to fall. We see that in corporeality, each one he asks for help helps him right away, and no one puts him off for later.
Similarly, in spirituality, one who begins to see that the burden and load are beginning to fall off from him, meaning the work he had previously assumed, to be “as an ox to the burden and as a donkey to the load,” and he sees that soon he will be in descent, so he cries out to the Creator and receives help. It is as our sages said, “He who comes to purify is aided,” as is written in The Zohar.
Conversely, Baal HaSulam said about one who waits for the Creator to help him first and then he will have the strength to work, that it is as it is written (Ecclesiastes, 11), “He who guards the wind will not sow and he who looks at the clouds…” meaning that he stands and waits for the Creator to send a spirit of repentance. This man will never reach the truth.
Now let us return to the matter we asked, “What is the allegory about a person walking without an arm and is supporting himself in every place, and when Aaron dies the arm departs and then the Canaanite can fight against Israel?” We need to know that the right arm is regarded as Hesed [mercy], which is the vessel of bestowal. That is, he wants only to do mercy and bestow. By his power, Aaron drew this power to the people of Israel. Because of it no one could fight against the people of Israel, since it is the conduct of the body that it comes to a person and makes him see that if he listens to it, it will give him many pleasures. But if the body hears that his only desire is to bestow, he sees that it hasn’t the strength to speak with him.
They received the power of bestowal from Aaron the priest, which is the quality of Hesed, and were adhered to him. Therefore, they were under his governance. Hence, when Aaron died, he lost the power of bestowal and the war of self-reception began, for the body could now find a place to argue with him. This is why he gives the allegory of a man walking without an arm, having to support himself in every place he finds where he can find support.
Here the lesson is that since they lacked the power of above reason, called “mind,” as well as the power of bestowal, called “heart,” the body demanded support for every effort that it made. That is, it asked, “On what basis are you demanding of me to give you the strength to work?” Since he had no Hesed so he could say, “I am going above reason,” since this is the quality of Aaron, whose is regarded as Hesed, called “bestowal” and “above reason.”
This is called, “hangs the earth on nothing.” Baal HaSulam interpreted that faith above reason means that he has no support, but everything is hanging in midair. It says, “Hangs the earth,” where “earth” means the kingdom of heaven. “On nothing” means without any support.
Therefore, when Aaron died they had no one to draw this power so they went within reason and naturally supported themselves in each and every place. That is, wherever they saw that they could receive support so the body would want to work in Torah and Mitzvot [commandments] they would accept it. This is called “through the sites,” as a person who is walking without an arm. Naturally, the Canaanite came to fight against Israel because within reason they have the dominance to fight. But above reason they cannot argue with this path because he does not need any support.
It follows that the whole exertion begins when a person wants to go above reason and needs to receive that power from above. This comes to them through the quality of Aaron, but now he himself must draw that force, meaning ask of the Creator to help him.
At that time he begins to discern between two things: 1) one who waits for the Creator to help him receive this power, and stands and waits for it, and 2) one who hasn’t the patience to wait for the Creator to help him, but rather begins to work and then yells for help from the Creator and says, “For the waters are threatening my life.” And because he has already come to a clear understanding that only the Creator can help him he receives the help.
The order of the prayer should not be as lip service. Rather, when he is faced with danger he should not yield before the governance of evil that comes to him with strong arguments and wants to distract him from the work of wanting to take upon himself the burden of the kingdom of heaven. They make every effort to disrupt him with everything they can do.
We see how the poet is giving us a clear picture of the evil that is standing before us. It is written in the Selichot (Selichot [prayers for pardon] for the fourth day of the Ten Penitentiary Days), “To You, O Lord, I call, O dreadful and terrible. Do not hide Your face in the day of trouble, when cursed ones arise against us … saying, ‘You must not accept God, bowing before Him dividedly, and without sanctifying He who does much pardons, nor fear the Godly dread. When I hear this, my heart trembles; this I will reply to my adversary: ‘God forbid that I should forget and leave the portion of the God of my father.’”
It turns out that when one wishes to take upon himself the burden of the kingdom of heaven, and burden means “as an ox to the burden and as a donkey to the load,” meaning that both the donkey and the ox resist assuming this work, but do it coercively. Why do they resist when they feel that they are working, but when they enjoy the work, meaning when they are eating, although this is also work, they are enjoying during the act so it is not considered “work”?
When a person has no right arm, regarded as desiring mercy, at which time he enjoys the work, the Sitra Achra [other side] has no contact with this work so she can fight. But when Aaron dies, namely when he has not been rewarded with Aaron’s quality of Hesed, the outer ones come to him and tell him all kinds of words of heresy, and then it is work in two ways.