What Is Peace in the Work?

The verse says, “Therefore say, ‘Behold, I give him My covenant of peace … because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the children of Israel.’”

We should understand this in the work. 1) What is, “because he was jealous for his God”? 2) What is, “and made atonement for the children of Israel”? 3) What is “My covenant of peace”?

It is known that the order of the work is that a person must achieve the completion of the goal, which is that he will receive the delight and pleasure that was in His desire to do good to His creations. However, in order for man to merit receiving it, he must fight with the Sitra Achra [other side], which is the quality of the “nations of the world,” which opposes the quality of “Israel.”

“Israel” means that all their actions are Yashar-El [straight to the Creator], while the “nations of the world” are the opposite of Kedusha [holiness], and want everything for their own sake, for which they are separated from the Life of Lives. Because of this, they are called “dead,” as it is written, “The mercy of the nations is a sin,” and The Zohar interprets, “All the good that they do, they do for themselves.” This means that they only work for their own benefit, since man is born with a desire to receive for himself, which is a Klipa [shell/peel].

It is written in the “Introduction to The Book of Zohar” (Item 11), “And he remains under the authority of that system for the first thirteen years, which is the time of corruption. And by engaging in Mitzvot [commandments/good deeds] from thirteen years of age onward, in order to bestow contentment upon his Maker, he begins to purify the will to receive for himself, imprinted in him, and slowly turns it to be in order to bestow. By this he extends a holy soul from its root in the thought of creation. And it passes through the system of the worlds of Kedusha and dresses in the body. This is the time of correction. And so he accumulates degrees of Kedusha from the thought of creation in Ein Sof [Infinity], until they aid him in turning the will to receive for himself in him, to work entirely in order to bestow contentment upon his Maker, and not at all for his own benefit. By this one acquires equivalence of form with his Maker.”

It therefore follows that a person should qualify himself to have equivalence of form, for precisely through vessels of bestowal he can receive the completeness of delight and pleasure. However, in order to be rewarded with vessels of bestowal, which are vessels that work for the sake of the Creator, and which are against the nature with which man is born, since man is born the opposite—with a desire to receive only for himself—therefore, as long as he works for reward and punishment, called Lo Lishma [not for Her sake], the body does not resist the work so much.

But when a person wants to engage in the holy work, to make it a means by which to obtain vessels of bestowal—which is completely against nature—the body comes with “who” and “what” questions, meaning questions corresponding to the mind and to the heart, which is called “spies.” Although the person overcomes each time, the order is that then the entire order of the work is in ascents and descents, and a person comes to a state where he wants to give up on ever achieving equivalence of form.

Also, many times he wants to escape the campaign because he sees that his work is in vain and he has no reason to hope that it will ever be good, as he sees from the past. For this reason, many people who begin the work of bestowal, see that it is too difficult and therefore leave this work and say that this work is only for great people, and not for ones like him.

This is the time when a person has complaints and demands to the Creator, and he is in dispute with the Creator and argues, 1) Why did the Creator create him with a nature of wanting to receive? 2) Why does the Creator want him to cancel his vessels of reception? After all, the Creator is good and does good, so why is He not behaving toward us as we understand? We understand the ascents and descents in such a way that sometimes, during the ascent, we are at peace with the Creator and say about Him that He leads the world as the good who does good. But during the descent, we haven’t the strength to say that He behaves with a guidance of the good who does good. Hence, we are always in dispute.

Indeed, why is the order of the work so difficult that it requires ascents and descents? The known answer to this is what is written, “As the advantage of the light from within the darkness.” In other words, it is impossible to receive light if he has no lack and need for the light.

For this reason, when a person sees that the nations of the world in him object to the Creator, and he cannot tolerate the enemy of Israel within him, he becomes jealous for his God and does not look at any descents he has, and does what he can and cries out to the Creator to help him be able to defeat the wicked ones within him.

By this he overcomes and does not escape the campaign. At that time, the Creator gives him the covenant. That is, he makes a covenant with Him that there will be peace between him and the Creator, by receiving a gift from the Creator, which is the vessels of bestowal. This is regarded as making the covenant, which is the Klipa [shell/peel], called “will to receive for himself,” and instead of the foreskin, the Creator gives him vessels of bestowal, and by this they make a covenant, meaning peace.

It follows that through one’s jealousy for one’s God, when he sees that all the nations of the world in his body slander the work when a person wants to work for the sake of the Creator, even though a person often overcomes their views and says, “I am certain that the Creator will help me, as it is written, “He who comes to purify is aided,” they laugh at him and tell him, “But you see for yourself how many times you said that the Creator would help you, yet you are standing in the same situation as when you started to work. Therefore, leave this path.”

Here, a person needs great strengthening, called “because he was jealous for his God.” At that time a person prays to the Creator and says, “Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to Your name give glory. Why should the nations say, ‘Where is their God?’”

It turns out that at that time, a person cries out for the glory of the Creator, how the nations within him mock him when he says, “I trust the Creator to help me.” At that time, they say, “Where is their God, for you, Israel, say that the Creator will help you?” And when a person is jealous for the Creator, when he is concerned with the glory of the Shechina [Divinity], meaning regrets that the Shechina is in the dust, and cannot stand how they despise the work in order to bestow, this is called what is written about Pinhas, “Therefore say, ‘Behold, I give him My covenant of peace, because he was jealous for his God.’”

This is as it is written in the book Shamati [I Heard] (Essay No. 1), that when a person regrets the Creator not bringing him closer, he should be careful that it will not be for his own sake, meaning because he is far from the Creator, since by this he becomes a receiver for his own benefit, and a receiver is in separation. Instead, he should regret the exile of the Shechina, meaning that he is causing the sorrow of the Shechina. A person should depict to himself that it is like a person feeling pain in some small organ. Nonetheless, the pain is felt primarily in the mind and in the heart, for the mind and the heart are the whole of man. Likewise, the pain that a person feels when he is far from the Creator, since man is but a particular part of the holy Shechina, and the Shechina is the whole of the soul of Israel, for this reason, the personal pain is incomparable with the general pain. This is called the “sorrow of the Shechina.”

When a person regrets this, it is called “because he was jealous for his God.” To such a person, the Creator says, “I give him My covenant of peace.” “Peace” means as it is written (Psalms 85), “I will hear what God the Lord will say, for He will speak peace unto His people and unto His followers, and let them not turn back to folly.” In other words, at that time the Creator tells them “Peace,” meaning that then, peace is made because the Creator gives him as a present, the vessels of bestowal, and naturally, he no longer has anyone who objects to working for the sake of the Creator.

But before he receives the covenant of peace, all the vessels of reception, which belong to the nations of the world, object to a person working for the sake of the Creator, as it is written, “I will hear what God the Lord will say, for He will speak peace, and let them not turn back to folly.”

This means that they will no longer have descents, where they want to work for their own benefit, since a “fool” is one who does not walk on the path of Kedusha. But one who wants to walk on the path of Kedusha, that all his actions will be in order to bestow, is called “wise.” It is as Baal HaSulam said, “Who is a wise disciple? He who learns from the Creator, who is called ‘Wise.’” In other words, he learns from Him the quality, “as He is merciful, so you are merciful.” This means that when a person learns to be a giver just as the Creator is the giver, he is called “wise.” It follows that the opposite is called a “fool.”

Thus, the fact that a person has been rewarded with the covenant of peace is “because he was jealous for his God,” meaning that he saw that the nations of the world in him despise the holy work, which is to work for the sake of the Creator.

This is the meaning of what is written, “and made atonement for the children of Israel.” That is, he was jealous for his God in that he wants that by this there will be atonement for the children of Israel, so they will have the strength to work for the sake of the Creator, which is called Yashar-El, meaning that they will be able to work for the sake of the Creator. By this they are rewarded with His covenant, so he will not turn back to folly.

However, there is a difficult question here: What can one do if he hasn’t the power of jealousy, and when he hears the argument of the spies and wants to run away from them so as not to hear the slander they speak, but as much as he moves away from them, they awaken in him a desire and yearning to nonetheless listen to what they say, and at that moment he descends from his degree and falls into their net?

The only advice for this is prayer. That is, he should ask the Creator not to be taken after the view of the spies. But only when the thoughts of the spies chase him, this is the heart of the work not to be taken after the spies. But why indeed is there room for the argument of the spies? The answer is that it is impossible to feel a good taste in the light unless from within the darkness, as it is written, “As the advantage of the light from within the darkness.”

It is written in Midrash Rabbah (96): “Her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace. All that is written in the Torah, was written for the purpose of peace. And even though wars are written in the Torah, even the wars were written for the purpose of peace.”

We should understand what it means that the wars were written for the purpose of peace, and that because of it, the Torah is called “and all her paths are peace.” There must be explanations to this in the literal, but in the work, we should interpret that we asked, Why do we need the argument of the spies and all those descents?

We explained that the reason is that it is impossible to understand anything except according to the need for the matter. Since “There is no filling without a lack,” it follows that all the wars that were written in the Torah, when pertaining to the work, it follows that all the wars are in relation to work. And since it is impossible to feel a good taste in peace if there is no war, meaning that only when there is the war of the inclination, which wants to work only for itself, and a person wants to work for the sake of the Creator, then there is the matter of darkness, meaning ascents and descents. Then, a need is born within man that the Creator will help him, since he sees that by himself, he does not see how he will be able to emerge from the control of self-love.

At that time, he truly needs the Creator to help him. Then the Creator gives him “My covenant of peace.” That is, the Creator gives him a gift: vessels of bestowal, by which he is rewarded with Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator. And then the verse, “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart” comes true, as our sages said, “with both your inclinations, the good inclination and the evil inclination.” This is called “My covenant of peace.”