Confidence
It is written in the holy Zohar (Toldot, item 122-125): “Rabbi Elazar started and said, ‘Happy is the man whose strength is in You, happy is the man who strengthens in the Creator and places his trust in Him.’ We can interpret confidence as did Hananiah, Misha’el, and Azariah, who trusted and said, ‘If it be so, our God…’ meaning they trusted the Creator to deliver them from the furnace. But he says that it is not so. Rather, come and see, if He does not deliver them and the Creator does not become one for them, His Name will not be sanctified in the eyes of everyone. But after they knew that they did not speak properly, they restated, ‘But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king.’ That is, they said that whether He saves or does not save, you should know that we will not bow unto idols.’
“However, one should not trust and say, ‘The Creator will save me’ or ‘The Creator will do this and that for me.’ Rather, one should place one’s trust in the Creator to help him, as it should be when he exerts in the Mitzvot [commandments] of the Torah and exert to walk in the path of truth. And when one comes to purify, he is aided. In that, he should trust the Creator to help him. He should place his trust in Him and trust none other than Him. It is written about this, ‘His strength is in You.’
“‘Rails in their hearts’ means that one should establish one’s heart properly, so no foreign thought may come in it. Rather, his heart will be as that rail that is built to pass through it to every place that is needed, to the right and to the left. ‘And his heart shall be sincere,’ meaning whether the Creator does good to him or to the contrary, his heart will be ready and corrected never to question the Creator under any circumstances.
“Another thing: ‘Happy is the man whose strength is in You.’ It is as you say, ‘The Lord will give strength to His people,’ meaning Torah. ‘His strength is in You’ means that one should engage in the Torah for the sake of the Creator, meaning the Shechina [Divinity], who is called ‘Name’ because anyone who engages in the Torah and does not exert Lishma [for Her sake], it is better for him not to be created. ‘Rails in their hearts’ is as you say, ‘Lift up a song for Him who rides in the prairies, whose name is the Lord,’ meaning to extol He who rides in the prairies.
“Also, ‘Rails in their hearts’ means that one should engage in the Torah with the aim to extol the Creator and make Him respected and important in the world, meaning to aim his heart so his engagement in the Torah will draw abundance of knowledge for him and for the whole world, so the name of the Creator will grow in the world, as it is written, ‘And the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord.’ Then the words, ‘And the Lord shall be king over all the earth’ will come true.”
According to the above, it is difficult to understand the confidence that the holy Zohar interprets for us and says, “However, one should not trust and say, ‘The Creator will save me’ or ‘The Creator will do this and that for me,’” since we see that if someone asks his friend to do him a favor, if that person is his friend and knows that he has a kind heart then he trusts him to do as he asks. But how can it be said that he trusts him even if he does not do as he asks, as it is written, “One should not trust and say, ‘The Creator will save me’”?
Another perplexing point is that he says, “He should place his trust in … none other than Him.” It is written about it, ‘His strength is in You.’” We need to understand this, since on the one hand he says that he should not say that the Creator will save him, meaning that there should be trust even when He does not save him, like Hananiah. In that case, how can we speak of the doubt, that he should trust none other, which means that another will certainly help and save him?
That is, it is as though there is someone who can save him for certain, and this is why there is a prohibition on trusting someone other than the Creator, although he does not know if He will save him. How can it be said that there is someone who can save him? He brings the example of Hananiah, Misha’el, and Azariah, and there, how can it be said that they should not trust another, as though there is someone in the world who can save them from the furnace? Can this be said?
To understand the words of the holy Zohar we first need to remember the purpose of creation, meaning that there is a goal on the part of the Creator, which the Creator desired from Creation. And also, there is a purpose on the part of the creatures, meaning the purpose that the creatures must achieve, that we can say that they came for their purpose, meaning the reason why they were created.
It is known that from the perspective of the Creator, the goal is that He wishes to delight His creations. This is why He has created the creatures, so as to impart them with delight and pleasure. And since He wants the benefit He gives them to be complete, He has made a correction that before the creatures can receive in order to bestow, they cannot receive any abundance, called “delight and pleasure.” This is so because the nature of the branch is to resemble its root. And because the root of the creatures is to bestow upon the creatures, when the creatures engage in reception they feel unpleasantness.
Hence, a correction was made, called Tzimtzum [screen] and Masach [screen], where only by these can the creatures receive in order to bestow, and then they can enjoy the delight and pleasure that were in the thought of creation. The purpose of the creatures is that they must achieve Dvekut [adhesion], called “equivalence of form.” That is, as the Creator wishes to delight His creatures, the creatures should also arrive at a state where their only wish is to bestow upon the Creator.
For this reason, those who want to enter the path of truth, to achieve Dvekut, must accustom themselves to make every thought, word, and action have the aim to bring contentment to the Creator through the Mitzvot that they do and the Torah in which they engage. They must not consider what they can receive from the Creator for wanting to please Him. That is, they must not think, “What will the Creator give me,” meaning that they can extract from the Creator’s authority into their own. This would cause them to create two authorities: an authority of the Creator and an authority of the creatures, which is the opposite of Dvekut, for Dvekut means unification, when two things become one as they unite with one another.
Conversely, two authorities is separation. This reception when they think of themselves, of receiving something from the Creator into their own authority, makes them more separated than they were thus far.
By this we understand the words of the holy Zohar that were said about the verse, “Sin is a disgrace to any people, since “All the good that they do, they do for themselves.” This brings up the question, “Why is it not enough to say that they are not being rewarded when they engage in acts of mercy—meaning when they bestow, do good—since their intention is not the act of mercy but rather the reward they will receive in return, which is called “for themselves”? That is, they engage in mercy not with the aim to do good to another, but rather aim that the good that they do for another will bring them some reward. It makes no difference whether it is money or honor, as long as they receive reward for their will to receive.
However, we should understand that this means that saying “sin” implies that it would be better if they did not do the mercy. Can this be said? After all it is no crime to do mercy, so why is it considered a sin?
According to what we explained about people who wish to walk on the path of truth, meaning to be rewarded with Dvekut with the Creator, who aspire for equivalence of form, when they are in “sit and do nothing,” they do not demand anything for their vessels of reception. Thus, they are not doing anything to drive them away from the Creator.
But when they perform an act of mercy, they ask the Creator to give them some reward into their vessels of reception. Thus, they are asking for something that will separate them from the Creator. This is why the mercy is considered a sin (but this does not refer to Torah and Mitzvot because regarding Torah and Mitzvot, our sages said, “One should always engage in Torah and Mitzvot Lo Lishma [not for Her sake] because from Lo Lishma we come to Lishma [for Her sake]”).
However, according to the rule that it is impossible to do anything without pleasure, how can we work in order to bestow and not receive any reward into our own authority, but rather annul ourselves to Him and cancel our own authority so that only the singular authority remains, namely the authority of the Creator? What are the fuels that will give us the strength to work so we can work in order to bestow?
The fuel that gives strength to work should come from serving the King, and according to the importance of the King, since the Creator has placed a power in nature that we derive great pleasure from serving an important person. Thus, man feels pleasure according to the importance of the King. That is, if one feels that he is serving a great King, to that extent his pleasure grows. Therefore, the more the King is important, the more he enjoys his work.
The pleasure he receives from serving the King is that the greater the King, the more he wants to annul before Him. It follows that all the delight and pleasure he receives does not enter man’s authority, but rather he wants to annul before the King to the extent of the King’s greatness and importance. Thus, there is only one authority here, called “singular authority.”
But when he wants to receive some reward from the King for his work then he has two authorities separated from one another. It follows that where man should achieve Dvekut with the Creator, he achieves separation from the Creator, which is the complete opposite from the goal that the creatures should achieve.
It follows that the reason that gives him strength to work is only that he can bestow upon the King. But before one has reached a state where he feels the greatness of the Creator, he is at war with the body because it does not agree to work without reward, and it cannot work because of the great pleasure of serving the King because it does not feel it, as it lacks the sensation of the greatness of the King. Even more so, it is because it lacks faith, meaning to believe that there is a King in the world.
Our sages said (Avot, Chapter 2), “Know what is above you. The eye sees and the ear hears, and all your works are written in the book. When he has faith that there is a supervisor in the world, the calculations of His greatness and importance begin. When he has faith that there is a supervisor in the world, this faith brings him the sensation of importance even when he does not consider the greatness of the Creator. Still, he already has the strength to work in serving the Creator.”
However, since he lacks faith and has only partial faith (see “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” item 14), when he wants to work in order to bestow, the body promptly comes and yells out loud, “Are you crazy?! You want to work without pay, and you are saying that you want to serve the King, which is itself a great reward. This pertains to those who feel the King, and whom the King examines every movement that they make. They can say that they are working because it is a great privilege to serve the King, but not you!”
This causes the war of the inclination: at times he overcomes the body, and at other times the body overcomes him. He says to the body: “The fact that I don’t feel the greatness of the King is your fault because you want to receive everything in your own domain, called ‘receiving in order to receive,’ but there was a restriction and concealment on this discernment, so it is impossible to see anything of truth. Therefore, let me out of your desire and let’s begin to work in order to bestow, and you will certainly see the importance and greatness of the King. Then you yourself will agree with me that it is worthwhile to serve the King and nothing in the world is more important than this.”
For this reason, when a person wants to work only in order to bestow and not receive anything, and all his calculations are about bringing contentment to the Creator through his work—that he wants to bring Him contentment—and he does not regard himself at all, how can one know if he is really on that path? Perhaps he is deceiving himself and his intention is only to receive? That is, he is giving in order to receive and not walking on the path of truth, meaning that all he wishes is to be a giver in order to give.
Here one can criticize oneself, meaning one’s intention. When he prays to the Creator to help him with the war of the inclination so the inclination will not come to him and wish to control him with its complaints against his work, the Creator will give him a desire only to want to work for Him with all his heart and soul. And certainly, there is no prayer without confidence that the Creator hears the prayer, for if he has no confidence that the Creator will hear his prayer he will not be able to pray if he is not certain that someone hears his prayer.
This brings up the question: “If he sees that his prayer is not heard, meaning that it is not granted as he understands it should be granted—that he is given what he is asking because the Creator is merciful and gracious, and if He heard He would certainly give what one is asking—then why is his prayer not answered? Doesn’t the Creator hear the prayer? Can this be said?”
However, one should believe that the Creator does hear the prayer, as we say in the Eighteen Prayer, “For You hear the prayer of every mouth of Your people, Israel, with mercy.” However, we should believe what is written, that “My thoughts are not your thoughts.” That is, the Creator knows what is best for man, meaning for his wholeness, and what can obstruct his wholeness.
Therefore, we should say that the Creator always hears and answers according to man’s best interest, and this is what He gives us. Thus, one should believe that the states that a person feels are what the Creator wants us to feel because it is in our favor.
It follows that the confidence that we should have in the Creator is that the Creator certainly hears our prayers and answers them, but not according to our understanding, but according to the Creator’s understanding of what we should be given. It therefore follows that the confidence is primarily about trusting the Creator that He helps everyone, as it is written, “His mercy is over all His works.” However, the confidence should not be that the Creator will help us according to our understanding, but according to the Creator’s understanding.
There are people who think that the confidence is according to what a person thinks he needs, that the confidence should be with regard to that, and if he does not believe that the Creator must help him according to man’s understanding, it is not regarded as believing and trusting the Creator. Rather, one should have confidence precisely as man wants it.
By this we can understand the words of the holy Zohar when we asked about its saying, “However, one should not trust and say, ‘The Creator will save me’ or ‘The Creator will do this and that for me.’ Rather, one should place one’s trust in the Creator to help him, as it should be.” It brings evidence from Hananiah, Misha’el, and Azariah, who said, “Whether He saves or does not save.” The holy Zohar says there that when one comes to purify he is aided, and in this he will trust the Creator to help him and trust in Him and not place his trust in another besides Him.
It is written about it, “His strength is in You.” We asked, “What does it mean that he will ‘not place his trust in another’?” Is there anyone else who can help him, for which there is a commandment not to trust another? He speaks of trust in relation to Hananiah, and who could have saved them form the furnace, for which he had to give a prohibition on trusting another?
The thing is that when a person wishes to walk on the path of truth, meaning that all his works will be for the Creator, called “in order to bestow and not for his own benefit,” he must believe that the Creator knows what to give him and what not to give. In order for one to avoid deceiving himself and see each time if he is walking on the path of bestowing contentment upon the Creator, he needs to see himself, and whatever his state, he must be pleased.
He should trust that this must be the Creator’s will, so I do not mind what state I am in. Rather, I must toil and pray for what I understand, and trust in the Creator that He will help me, for my own benefit. But the Creator knows what is to man’s benefit, not man. Here one can criticize one’s engagement in Torah and Mitzvot [commandments], if one’s intention is that he wants to bestow upon the Creator and not for his own benefit, meaning that his aim is not to bestow in order to receive.
For this reason, when one establishes the order of one’s work and goes to pray to the Creator, he should trust in the Creator that He will receive his prayer. At that time he should trust in the Creator, meaning that the measure of confidence concerns the Creator’s view, and not that he will trust another.
And who is the other? It is man himself. That is, the measure of confidence that the Creator will help him should be as the Creator understands, and not as man understands.
Man is called “other,” as our sages said (Sukkah, 45b), “We learn that anyone who combines work for the Creator with another thing is uprooted from the world, as it is said, ‘Only for the Lord.’ This means that it should be only for the Creator, without self-gratification, called ‘reception.’ This means that even when he aims the Mitzva [commandment] for the Creator but wants a little bit for himself, as well, he is uprooted from the world.”
What does it mean that he is “uprooted from the world”? Are those who are not rewarded with aiming all their works uprooted from the world? We need to understand to which world they are referring. According to what we learn, they mean the eternal world, called “the world of the Creator.” This means that the name of the Creator, who is called The Good Who Does Good, is apparent there. There, His thought is revealed—to do good to His creations.
This is the purpose for which He has created the world, and from that world he is uprooted. That is, he cannot be rewarded with the delight and pleasure being revealed to him because of the correction of the Tzimtzum [restriction], which was in order for man to be awarded Dvekut [adhesion], called “equivalence of form.” For this reason, when one wants to receive a little for oneself, as well, to that extent he moves away from Dvekut with the Creator and therefore cannot be awarded the delight and pleasure found in the purpose of creation. Thus, he is uprooted from that world.
It follows from all the above that if one wants to know if he is not deceiving himself and wants to serve the Creator with the intention only to bestow contentment upon the Creator, and the holy Zohar says that when he prays to the Creator to help him, he should certainly have confidence that the Creator will help him. Otherwise, if he has no trust, how can he ask? If he does not trust the Creator to help him, he has no room for prayer because one cannot pray and ask a favor of someone unless he knows that that person can do him this favor.
Therefore, he must certainly be sure while he is praying to the Creator that He will certainly help him. And if one sees that the Creator has not helped him as he understands, he doubts the Creator, that He might God forbid not hear the prayer. This is why the holy Zohar says that he should pray and trust the Creator that He will certainly help him as He understands, since that person wants to engage specifically in matters that are only for the Creator’s sake and not for his own sake.
Thus, what difference does it make how he works to bestow upon the Creator? That is, he must believe that if the Creator sees that it will be to man’s benefit if he works in whatever state he is in, it does not matter what one thinks will bring the Creator more pleasure, if He helps him according to man’s understanding of what brings the Creator more delight.
Rather, he should trust in the Creator to help him according to His understanding. This is what the holy Zohar calls, “One should place one’s trust in the Creator to help him, as it should be.” This means that what the Creator understands, that the person should be only in that state. And concerning the state one is in he should ask the Creator to help him. (That is, in the state he is in, and he understands that this is what he needs, what he understands is what he will ask, but the Creator will do as He sees fit.)
When can it be said that he agrees to the Creator’s will and does not insist on saying that he wants the Creator to help him according to his wish? This happens precisely when one asks what one understands, and prays that the Creator will help him as he understands, yet annuls his will before the Creator’s will. Then it can be said that he has placed his trust in the Creator to help him as it should be, meaning as the Creator understands and not as man understands.
This is called “Cancel your will before His will,” as our sages said ( Avot, Chapter 2). But if he has no desire to achieve any purpose while he prays to the Creator to help him reach, it clearly cannot be said that he will annul his will before the will of the Creator and say, “I want what I want and what I understand that I need, but You will do to me as You see fit.” Then it can be said that he is annulling his will before the Creator’s will.
But why does one need to annul his desire? What if he has no desire to annul? It is as though it is not wholeness, since it makes sense that if one agrees with the Creator’s will it is certainly better than if he has a different desire than that of the Creator, and he must annul it, as though he has something bad and he must cancel the bad. Would it not be better if he had no bad at all?
The thing is that it is known that for the spiritual Kli [vessel] to be fit to receive the abundance of delight and pleasure it must meet two conditions: 1) to have Aviut [thickness], which is the desire to receive delight and pleasure, 2) to have a Masach [screen] not to receive according to one’s craving and desire for the delight and pleasure, but according to the Creator’s delight.. This is called “receiving in order to bestow contentment upon his Maker.”
However, if he has no vessels of reception, meaning no craving to receive delight and pleasure, he is unfit to receive abundance from above because there is no satisfaction without a need. For this reason, one must try to make for oneself a lack—to crave that the Creator will bring him closer and give him the abundance that the Creator can give, and which he is craving to receive. At the same time, he cancels his desire and trusts the Creator to help him and give him what the Creator understands to be in his favor. Therefore, at that time he has no complaints that the Creator did not help him according to man’s understanding.
This is regarded as cancelling his desire and saying, “I do my part,” meaning what I understand to be in my favor, “and I understand and believe that the Creator probably knows my situation better, and I agree to go and engage in Torah and Mitzvot as though the Creator has helped me as I understand He should answer my prayer. And although I see that He did not give me any answer to my request, I still believe that the Creator has heard my prayer and answered me according to what is God for me. For this reason I must always pray that the Creator will help me according to my understanding, and the Creator helps me according to what He understands is good for me.”
This brings up a question: “Since the Creator is helping according to His understanding anyhow, what is man’s prayer for?” The Creator does not answer the prayer that a person prays and does as He understands that He should do. Thus, how does man’s prayer help? What is His benefit from our prayer for what we understand that we need, while He answers as He understands?
We must know that the prayer we pray for what we need, and we certainly know what we need and we want the Creator to answer our prayer as we understand it—that if He grants our wishes we will be happy people because He has given us all that we needed, we should know that there is a rule: there is no light without a Kli. That is, there cannot be satisfaction without a need.
It follows that even if a person knows what he needs, it is still not considered a deficiency that is destined to be filled, since what man thinks he needs does not mean he has a deficiency. A deficiency means that he is truly deficient of something. A deficiency is not something we do not have. There are many things we do not have, yet they are not regarded as deficiencies that can be satisfied.
For example, if there is a citizen in a certain country, and there is elections for presidency in that country, and someone was elected as president, while the citizen remained an ordinary person. It does not pain him whatsoever that he did not become president. But there is another person in the country, who thought he would become the president. He exerted great efforts among friends and famous people to help him become president but in the end someone else became president and he was left with only his desire.
There is certainly a difference between those two people, although they have the same absence, namely that they are not presidents. However, there is a huge difference between the one who exerted to become president and was left dissatisfied, and the other one, who despite not becoming president does not suffer from not becoming president. That is, even if they wanted to make him president, he has no Kelim [vessels] for it, meaning knowledge how to handle presidency.
Rather, the Kli for the filling is the desire for something, and a desire means that he is tormented over the thing he wants. And even if he has a desire for something and thinks that this is already regarded as desire, it is still not a real lack making this desire fit for reception of the fulfillment.
The reason is that a deficiency means suffering over what one does not have, and filling means pleasure of obtaining what one wants. It follows that according to his suffering from the negation, so is his delight with the filling.
Now we will come to understand the meaning of the prayer we pray for the Creator to help us as we understand, and believe what is written, “For You hear the prayer of every mouth,” and at the same time trust the Creator to hear the prayer of every mouth. However, we should not trust that the Creator should help us according to our understanding, but trust that the Creator will help us according to His understanding.
We asked, “So what is my prayer for, if the Creator will do as He understands?” However, the prayer increases the desire for the filling because the more one prays, the more the deficiency in him grows. That is, he begins to feel a lack for what he prays. When he began to ask for fulfillment of his lack he still did not have the feeling that he really needed what he asked. He simply saw that others were asking some fulfillment and heard from the friends that we should ask the Creator for some fulfillment, so he, too, started praying to the Creator to give him what he wants. However, he did not truly feel that he needed what he asked; it still did not settle in his heart.
Because of the many prayers he prays he begins to examine if he really needs what he is asking, or is it only an accessory, meaning that he is asking for luxuries. That is, he does what must be done as a Jew, but he wants luxuries, meaning to have a better life in spirituality and not be an ordinary person like everyone else who are serving the Creator.
This examination of the prayers he prays makes him realize that he really needs the Creator’s help to keep anything in spirituality, since the prayers he prays each time bring him to notice that he is beginning to examine himself, why he is praying. These prayers, which our sages have established for us, do I really need what they said we should pray for, or do I need other things, meaning things that my body understands it needs to ask?
It turns out that as his prayers multiply he begins to acquire a real need until it torments him that he is lacking. This gives him a real desire for the Creator to bring him closer, and this is considered that the Creator is helping him, as it is written in the holy Zohar, “Rather, one should place one’s trust in the Creator to help him, as it should be,” meaning that the confidence should be that the Creator will help him with the prayers as the Creator understands he should be answered.
Now we will explain the rest of the words of the holy Zohar: “Another thing: ‘Happy is the man whose strength is in You’ is as you say, ‘The Lord will give strength to His people,’ meaning Torah. ‘His strength is in You’ means that one should engage in the Torah for the sake of the Creator, meaning the Shechina [Divinity], who is called ‘Name.’”
We should understand what he says there in the Sulam [Ladder commentary on The Zohar]: “for the sake of the Creator, meaning the Shechina [Divinity], who is called ‘Name.’” It is known that our whole intention should be to bestow contentment upon the Creator. Thus, what does it mean that he says about what the holy Zohar says, that one should engage in the Torah for the sake of the Creator, meaning the Shechina, who is called “Name”? This implies that we should aim all the engagement in Torah and Mitzvot for the Shechina. We need to understand the meaning of “for the Shechina.” And also, we find in several places in the holy Zohar that we must aim the engagement in Torah and Mitzvot to “raise the Shechina from the dust.” Thus, we need to understand the different wording between the Creator and His Shechina.
In previous articles we presented what Baal HaSulam explained about the words of the holy Zohar where it says, “He is Shochen [dweller], and she is Shechina.” He said that it means that the place where the Shochen is revealed is called Shechina. Thus, they are not two things but one. That is, we have light and Kli. In other words, we attain the Creator only through the Kelim [vessels] that attain Him. Therefore, when we speak of the Creator, we speak only of how the Creator is revealed to us through the Kelim.
But we do not speak of light without a Kli at all. We call the thought of Creation, to do good to His creations, by the name Ein Sof [infinity/no end], meaning the benefactor. That is, the benefactor bestows upon the creatures. The Kli in which the abundance appears is called Malchut, who is called Shechina, in whom the delight and pleasure are revealed.
It therefore follows that the Creator wants to bestow delight and pleasure upon the creatures, but the lower ones have no Kelim to receive due to the oppositeness of form between the receivers and the giver. Thus, the delight and pleasure are not revealed. At that time there is evil inclination in the world because it portrays spirituality, meaning bestowal, as bad, and only what he can receive in order to receive as good.
For this reason, the lower ones have no place where they can work in order to bestow, since one does not harm oneself. Thus, a person cannot have the motivation to work in order to bestow, hence the upper abundance that is the delight and pleasure cannot be revealed to the lower ones.
It follows that the name of the Creator, the general name, Good Who Does Good, is hidden and concealed from the lower ones. This name is called Shechina, which is the name of the Creator with regard to the Good Who Does Good, and this name is in exile. That is, where one begins to work a little bit in order to bestow, one promptly feels exile in this work—that he wants to escape from such states. It is so because as long as one is immersed in self-love he has no idea about the work of bestowal, and when he begins to feel that he is walking on the line of bestowing and not receiving anything, it becomes dark for him and he wants to escape from that state like one who wants to escape from the exile he was given.
This is similar to a man who sinned against the government and was sentenced to exile. He always contemplates how to escape from there. Likewise, when one feels that the receiver will not receive anything from this work he has no desire to work and wants to escape the campaign altogether. This is why at that time it is considered that the name of the Creator, which is Shechina, is regarded as being in exile, meaning that a person tastes exile in this work.
For this reason we pray to the Creator and engage in Torah and Mitzvot “to raise the Shechina from the dust,” meaning that this place of the Shechina, which is the name of the Creator, meaning the good who does good, will appear in vessels of bestowal. But a person feels the taste of dust in this work, and this, too, is the meaning of the Shechina in exile, when one tastes in it the taste of exile and wants to escape from this work, meaning from the holy work, where Kedusha [holiness] means to bestow contentment upon the Creator.
For this reason we must ask for personal redemption, where each one feels that he has come out of exile. That is, when he works in order to bestow he should feel that he is in the land of Israel, meaning that his desire will crave only Yashar-El [straight to the Creator], which is called Eretz Ysrael [Land of Israel].
The sign of this is whether one can say wholeheartedly what we say in the blessing for the food: “Let us thank You, the Lord our God, for bequeathing our fathers with a desirable, good, and broad land.” That is, besides having to pray for the general redemption, we must also pray for personal redemption.
It follows that in a place, when he was in exile, meaning when he tasted the taste of exile, when the image of bestowal only for the Creator and not for himself would come to him, he felt the taste of exile and dust. And at the time of redemption, when he comes out of exile, he feels in the work of bestowal the taste of a desirable, good, and broad land.
Thus, the land of exile means that we feel that taste of suffering and always reflect on how to escape from that land. Coming out of exile means that he has come to a desirable, good, and broad land. We say about this land: “Let us thank You, the Lord our God.” This is called Eretz Yashar-El [a land (desire) straight to the Creator], and this is the redemption we should aspire to achieve.
However, a question naturally arises, “Why do we feel the taste of dust in the work of bestowal and want to run from it as one who is in exile?” Although there are many reasons for it, we should add another one: There is a rule that there is no light without a Kli, meaning that there is no fulfillment without a lack. Hence, first we must enter the exile and feel the torment in this work because the body, which is called “will to receive,” kicks and resists this work because it is against its nature, and through the suffering it feels in exile.
That is, precisely those who engage in work of bestowal and the body resists, but they do not surrender to the body’s arguments and suffer the torments of the body, meaning their body’s resistance, but they do not escape from the campaign but are always at war with the inclination. At times he prevails and at other times the body prevails, so he is always in ups and downs and his soul is never at peace.
Then he suffers because he is not like other people, who promptly flee from the work when they see that the body resists the work of bestowal, and do not suffer because they are not in this work of tasting exile when the body resists them because they surrender to the body’s governance and speak about it like the spies, who slandered the land of Israel.
As we said in the previous articles where we brought the words of the holy Zohar, they naturally have no Kelim [vessels] in which to receive the redemption, as explained in the essay, “The Giving of the Torah,” that the exile is a matter of absence that precedes existence, which is the redemption. Therefore, you find all the letters of Geula [redemption] in Gola [exile], except for the letter Aleph, which points to Alupho Shel Olam [Champion of the world/the Creator], as our sages said. This teaches us that the form of absence is but the negation of existence.
For this reason, when we say in the blessing for the food, “Let us thank You,” we say, “and for delivering us, the Lord our God, from the land of Egypt, and for redeeming us from the house of slaves.” This teaches us that to reach the desirable, good, and broad land, we must first go through a stage of making the Kelim, meaning to be in the land of Egypt, and see that we are slaves serving Pharaoh King of Egypt, and the torments of exile bring us a need to pray to the Creator to deliver us from exile, as was said (Exodus, 2:23), “And the children of Israel sighed from the work, and they cried out, and their cry went up to God.” It follows that exile is a Kli, and redemption is the light and the abundance.
It turns out that the name of the Creator—which he explains there in the Sulam—being the Shechina, who is called “the name of the Creator,” when we asked, “How can it be said that we aim in the Torah and Mitzvot for the sake of the Shechina, we explained this with what Baal HaSulam said, that the Shochen [dweller] and the Shechina [Divinity] are one and the same, and the place where the Shochen is revealed is called Shechina.
We can understand this with an example: if we refer to someone as smart, rich, or generous, are these names different matters, meaning a different body than the person himself? That is, when the wisdom of they call him “wise,” or “rich,” meaning according to what others see. It follows that his name is only a revelation of the Creator.