April 24, 1955
Hello and all the best to my friends who are standing guard against the clouds and shadows currently facing the nation of the Lord. After the great concealment that has descended upon our world at this time, the spark of the light of the Lord that they have acquired from Baal HaSulam still glitters in their hearts; they know how to keep the points in their hearts, and they are awaiting the eternal salvation…
I would like to add a few words regarding the casual conversation that took place on the 23rd of April. A great question was asked, “What is the reason for all the secular things in our world, namely the labor and pain, if the Creator wanted to benefit His creations with things of holiness, for the creatures to feel delight and pleasure in Dvekut (adhesion) with the Creator? This secularity, what is it for?”
In your opinion, holiness would be enough for the creatures, so why all the system of Klipot (shells)? What gain and what contentment and benefit does this bring to the Creator if we believe that He Himself has created this whole enterprise?
You also said that only above reason can we accept these matters. I, too, think that with all the spiritual matters we assume above reason, we are later granted with clothing of the knowledge of the Creator in complete clothing, as it is written, “and I will pour out for you unbounded blessing.” But in the study, we can also understand the rhyme and reason according to the way of the Torah.
See in The Zohar (Tazria p 36 [item 105]), in the article, “There Is Advantage to Wisdom over Folly,” and in the Sulam, where it explains that although there are many things in the world, but if there is nothing that can be held, there is no perception and sensation of all the wonderful things that exist in our world.
This means that we haven’t the Kelim (vessels) to attain even the simplest things in which to feel the palatable taste, sweetness, and pleasantness. Only once we have the proper Kelim, called “desires to receive the good fillings,” and when we cannot say that we would be able to receive and obtain these things without the craving for them.
To make an allegory, it is known that there is pleasure in passion, meaning that there is pleasure in passion for something, and there is pleasure in obtaining the matter. The measure of the pleasure in the passion depends on the measure of pain from not obtaining it. That is, if one feels that if he does not obtain the matter he will feel disappointment in his life, the pleasure dresses in the duration of the passion and longing.
Let us take something simpler as an example: When one drinks water in order to calm his thirst, the water grip to the size of the Kli (vessel), meaning to the degree of the suffering of his thirst. But if we ask a person, while drinking the water, if he is happy with the suffering of the thirst, by which he now receives great pleasure from the water, he will certainly say “Yes.” And yet, if we advise a person, “If you want to enjoy the water eat salty foods and refrain from drinking half a day until your thirst is enough to make you enjoy drinking later,” he will certainly say, “neither they nor their reward.” Also, if we did not have the Kelim…
And concerning Rabbi Akiva, “All my life I have been tormenting, when will this matter come to me so I may keep it…” [The rest of the letter is missing.]