241. Call Upon Him while He Is Near

“Call ye upon Him while He is near” (Isaiah 55:6). We must understand what “while He is near” means, since “the whole earth is full of His glory”! Thus, He is always near, so what does “while He is near” mean? It would seem that there is a time when He is not near.

The thing is that states are always evaluated with respect to the attaining individual. If one does not feel His nearness, then nothing will come out of it, as everything is measured according to one’s sensation. One person may feel the world as filled with abundance, and the other will not feel the goodness of the world, so he cannot say that there is a good world. Instead, he states as he feels—that the world is filled with suffering.

And the prophet warns about that: “Call ye upon Him while He is near.” He comes and says, “Know that the fact that you are calling upon the Creator means that He is near.” It means that now you have an opportunity; if you pay attention, you will feel that the Creator is near you, and this is the sign of the Creator’s nearness.

And the evidence of it is that we must know that man is not naturally qualified for adhesion with the Creator, since it is against man’s nature. This is so because by creation, he has only the desire to receive; while adhesion is only to bestow. However, as the Creator calls upon man, it creates a second nature within him: he wants to revoke his own nature and cleave unto Him.

Hence, one should know that his speaking words of Torah and prayer, is only from the Creator. He should never think of saying that it is “my power and the might of my hand,” since it is the complete opposite of his might. This is similar to one who is lost in a dense forest, without seeing an outlet that will lead him to an inhabited place, so he remains despaired and never thinks of returning to one’s home. But when he sees a person from afar or hears a human voice, the desire and the craving to return to his origin will immediately awaken in him, and he will begin to shout and ask of someone to come and save him.

Similarly, one who has lost the good way and entered a bad place, and has already accustomed himself to live among beasts, from the perspective of the will to receive, it would never occur to him that he should return to a place of reason and Sanctity. Yet, when he hears the voice calling him, he awakens to repent.

But this is the voice of God, not his own voice. But if he has not yet completed his actions on the path of correction, he cannot feel and believe that this is the Creator’s voice, and he thinks that it is his power and the might of his hand. This is what the prophet warns of, that one should overcome one’s view and thought, and believe wholeheartedly that it is the voice of God.

Hence, when the Creator wishes to bring him out of the dense forest, He shows him a remote Light, and the person gathers the remains of his strength to walk on the path that the Light shows him, in order to attain it.

But if one does not ascribe the Light to the Creator, and does not say that the Creator is calling him, then the Light is lost from him, and he remains standing in the forest. Thus, he could have now shown his whole heart to the Creator, to come and save him from the evil place, from the will to receive, and bring him to a place of reason, called a place of the sons of Adam (people), as in Adameh la Elyon (I will be like the Most High), meaning the will to bestow, in adhesion. Instead, he does not take advantage of this opportunity and remains as before, again.