Article No. 5, 1989
The first ones explained that the creation of the world was not because of lack, for it cannot be said about the Creator that He is deficient. Rather, the creation of the world was out of largess. That is, as it is said (in Midrash Rabbah, Beresheet), “The Creator said to the angels when He wanted to create Adam HaRishon, and they said, ‘What is man that You should remember him?’”
The Creator replied to them, “What is this like? It is like a king who has a tower filled abundantly but he has no guests.” This is not a lack; it is simply that He wants to give with largess so the created beings will enjoy. A lack is what a person must receive, but cannot receive it. This is regarded as a lack. But to bestow is not considered a lack. Therefore, we learn that the creation of the world because of His desire to do good to His creations was out of largess and not out of a lack.
But one who receives something must have a deficiency. That is, if the receiver wants to enjoy what he is receiving, the receiver must choose only those things he wants. Otherwise, he will derive no pleasure from this. He wants to enjoy but it is impossible. This is what we see in our nature. Moreover, the extent of the pleasure he receives depends on the extent of the yearning. Thus, the yearning for something determines the extent of the pleasure from it, whether a lot or a little.
In order for His desire to do good, meaning for the creatures to enjoy the delight and pleasures, He created in the creatures a desire and yearning to always crave to receive pleasure. If they cannot satisfy the lack for the thing they want, they suffer, and the extent of the suffering from not being able to satisfy the lack also depends on the extent of the yearning for it.
Sometimes, the suffering becomes such that a person says, “I’d rather die than live,” if I cannot satisfy my deficiency. But this is because of the suffering he suffers from his lack. Naturally, when he receives the satisfaction of his need, of which he said “I’d rather die than live,” what pleasure he feels when he receives the filling!
When speaking of the work, a person must come to such a lack at not having Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator that he says, “If I cannot achieve Dvekut with the Creator, this absence causes me such torments that I say, ‘I’d rather die than live.’”
This is called a “real desire,” and this desire is worthy of satisfaction. The order of the work is that each time, a yearning for Dvekut awakens in a person, and when he walks on the path toward Dvekut with the Creator, he always checks if he has been granted nearing the Creator. That is, when it says, “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,” does he really love the Creator or does he love himself, as well?
This is as our sages said (Sukkah 45), “Anyone who joins for the sake of the Creator with another thing is uprooted from the world.” This means that he prays to the Creator to help him be able to do everything for the sake of the Creator, meaning that his only aim will be to bestow. However, he also adds a little bit of the aim for himself, as well, which is another thing from “for the sake of the Creator.” “For the sake of the Creator” is to bestow, while he, during the prayer that the Creator will help him, wants also for his own sake, which is another thing from the desire to bestow, the complete opposite.
This is why he is “uprooted from the world.” That is, the Creator created the world in order to do good to His creations, and from this world he is uprooted due to lack of equivalence of form. Hence, each time, he criticizes himself to see if he is walking on the right path. If he sees that he is not, it pains him. But the suffering must be to a great extent, meaning that the suffering is the result of the need.
That is, it does not mean that he should suffer, but he must have a need, and the need causes suffering. In other words, the suffering he suffers testifies to the extent of his need.
It follows that the birth of the created beings with a desire to receive was necessary, for without a desire and yearning to receive pleasure, we would not have the concept of pleasure. Thus, why are we not feeling pleasure when we already have a desire and yearning for the pleasure, and we must labor or we will not be given pleasures in corporeality or spirituality?
The answer pertains to the above-mentioned intention to do good to His creations, as it is written (in the book Tree of Life), in its beginning: “The Tzimtzum [restriction] was in order to bring to light the perfection of His deeds.” It explains there (The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Part 1) that it means that “Since there is the matter that every branch wants to resemble the root, when the created beings receive the delight and pleasure from the Creator, there will be shame in them. Hence, there was a correction in favor of the creatures, that if they receive in order to bestow, there will be no shame during the reception of the pleasures.”
Accordingly, we should understand that if we say that the Creator desires to do good to His creations out of largess, from where do the wicked come? This implies that one who does not want to receive the delight and pleasure is called “wicked,” but why is he called “wicked” if he does not want to receive the abundance, and one who does receive the delight and pleasure is called “righteous”?
The matter of observing Torah and Mitzvot [commandments/good deeds] is as our sages said, “I have created the evil inclination; I have created the Torah as a spice.” Through Torah and Mitzvot, the evil will be corrected. But what is the evil? It is that we cannot receive delight and pleasure because of the disparity, which causes us the shame. Because of the shame, we cannot be given, since the shame prevents the completeness of the delight and pleasure. This is why we are not given the delight and pleasure. Hence, they are told, not only are they not given delight and pleasure, but they are also given a name, “wicked.”
We should understand why they are called “wicked” if they cannot receive delight and pleasure. Since the Creator created the world out of largess, it is like a rich man who has everything and does not need a thing. He wishes to give almsgiving to the poor, and since he wants the poor to feel elated when they receive the almsgiving, and not feel any unpleasantness, the rich person said, “I will give the almsgiving, great or small, but on one condition.” That is, the almsgiving, great or small, does not depend on the giver, but on the receiver.
This is so because from the perspective of the Giver, He can give much more than the receiver can attain. That is, the receiver cannot know how much delight and pleasure the Giver can give him, since the receiver does not know what is the possession of the Giver. Instead, to the extent that the receiver tries to demand delight and pleasure, according to what he evaluates and understands that the Giver can give him. And indeed, what the Giver has to give to him is also above man’s intellect, and he cannot evaluate anything above his intellect.
Therefore, he must believe that there are things that are more precious and important than what the receiver can imagine, since all the attainments of the lower one are built on a corporeal, external mind, whereas spirituality is built on an internal mind. It is written about it in the introductions: “Each lower world, with respect to the world above it, is like a seed of mustard compared to an entire world.” For this reason, all the giving of the upper one, which we say is a great or small giving, does not depend on the upper one, but on the ability of the lower one to meet the conditions of the Giver. Only to the extent that the lower one tries to meet the conditions, to that extent the lower one receives. That is, if the lower one can place an aim on great giving, he receives great giving.
And what are the conditions that the Giver wants to give, which the lower one should meet? since the Creator created the world out of largess! That is, He is not deficient, so why does He need the lower one to follow His will? It seems as though the Giver does not want to give to him unless He receives from the receiver something in return.
The answer is that the Creator placed conditions at the time of the giving, that the receiver would not receive the almsgiving because of the yearning of the receiver, although the yearning for the giving that the Giver wants to give is very strong. Still, the Giver wants that on this reason, he should relinquish the reception and receive the almsgiving only because of the pleasure this gives to the Giver, who bestows upon the receiver. Our sages called this, “All your works will be for the sake of heaven and not for your own sake.”
However, we must know that this condition, that the Creator wants everyone to work only for Him, and not for one’s own sake is not in order to benefit the Creator, as though He needs this. Rather, the fact that the creatures work for the sake of the Creator is for the benefit of the creatures! That is, it is so that the creatures will not feel unpleasantness when they receive the almsgiving from the Giver. This is why the Giver placed this condition that they must do everything for the sake of the Creator and not for their own sake.
Now we can understand what we asked, Why are those who do not want to observe Torah and Mitzvot called “wicked”? After all, the Torah and Mitzvot were given in order to cleanse Israel with it, as Rabbi Hanania Ben Akashia says. It follows that one who does not observe Torah and Mitzvot will not receive delight and pleasure.
But, why are they called “wicked”? This is like a great doctor who comes to a hospital where cancer patients, which is a terminal illness, are operated. He says that he has a cure, and if they take the cure, they will all survive. Moreover, everyone will say that now they are enjoying life. That is, they will say that now they see that it was worthwhile to be born in order to receive these pleasures. And afterward, everyone will say wholeheartedly, “Blessed is He who said, ‘Let there be the world,’” since they will be in a world that is all good.
However, there is a group of people who are not letting the doctor come into the hospital. And when the doctor finally enters, after several pleas, and gives his cure to the patients, this group interferes and insists that they should not take the doctor’s cure. The question is, What name should be given to this group, which does not let these patients heal, since the patients are under their control? And it is so because as long as they are sick, this group has provision, but if they were cured from their illness, this group would have no provision. Certainly, they are regarded as wicked!
From aside, each one understands that if the doctor can punish them for not letting the patients heal, the doctor should certainly do so. No one will even think of saying that the doctor is angry at these wicked ones because they are disobeying him, but the doctor is punishing them for the sake of the patients. That is, the doctor wants to heal the patients out of largess and does not need any reward, since the doctor does not need anything that the patients should give him, but he comes to heal the patients only so the patients will feel good and be able to enjoy life. Certainly, one who sees what the doctor does will not say about him that he is doing something for his own sake.
For this reason, when the doctor says that this group, which does not let the patients take the cure, is wicked and deserves punishment, so that through the punishments they will suffer, these sufferings that the wicked will feel will cause them to stop interfering with the patients so that they can take the cure, as everyone understands that this is for the sake of the patients and not for the sake of the doctor.
By this we should interpret that although the Creator created the world out of largess, and the Creator has no lacks that the creatures can give Him something to complement it, since the Creator is complete and has no lacks in Him, still, because He wants the creatures to enjoy life, He sets a condition that the creatures will receive everything because the Creator wants them to receive delight and pleasure, for by this the delight and pleasure will be without any shame. This is called “the completeness of His actions.”
This is the cure that the doctor wants to give to the patients, who are near death, called “the wicked in their lives are called ‘dead.’” Through the cure, called “desire to bestow,” they will achieve Dvekut, and will adhere to the Life of Lives. It therefore follows that those who do not want the patients to receive, do not let them engage in Torah and Mitzvot, by which they can be rewarded with the cure called “desire to bestow.” In these Kelim [vessels], the Creator can place the delight and pleasure, since when they receive the delight and pleasure in these Kelim, they will not lose the Dvekut called “equivalence of form.” Dvekut means that they emerge from the state of “the wicked are called ‘dead,’” and are rewarded with life.
Thus, what does it mean that this group does not want and interfere with the reception of the cure? With what do they interfere? By not letting them observe Torah and Mitzvot, for by this they receive the cure, which is the aim to bestow. Naturally, it is clear why they are considered wicked for interfering with the reception of the cure. That is, the cure by which they will be rewarded with life is called “desire to bestow.” The forces that interfere do not let them take the cure, called “Torah and Mitzvot,” as our sages said, “I have created the evil inclination; I have created the Torah as a spice.”
For this reason, those who interfere, who are considered wicked, deserve punishments. Through the suffering they will feel, they will stop interfering with the reception of the cure. It follows that everything that the Creator does, meaning the punishments, is all for the sake of the created beings.