Article No. 23, Tav-Shin-Mem-Zayin, 1986-87
Concerning peace, Rabbi Shimon Ben Halafta said in Masechot Okatzin: “The Creator did not find a Kli [vessel/receptacle] that holds a blessing for Israel but peace, as it was said, ‘The Lord will give strength to His people; the Lord will bless His people with peace.’” The verse says (Isaiah 57), “‘Peace, peace, to the far and to the near,’ says the Lord, and I will heal him.”
We should understand his words when he says, “The Creator did not find a Kli that holds a blessing for Israel but peace.” He says “blessing” and he says “peace.” This means that the blessing is the main thing and the peace merely holds the blessing. We should also understand why he says, “a Kli that holds a blessing for Israel.” This implies that for the nations of the world, peace is not a good thing. Can it be said that there is a place where having peace is not good?
We should also understand the meaning of “Peace, peace, to the far and to the near.” It means that the Creator gives peace to those who are far. Certainly, He gives peace to those who are near to the Creator, but what does it mean when He says, “to the far and to the near”?
In order to understand this in the work, we must understand the matter of the purpose of creation and correction of creation, which we have discussed many times before. The purpose of creation is for man to be awarded delight and pleasure, since this is why He has created the creatures. It follows that as long as a person has not been awarded this, that person is regarded as one who has not achieved wholeness because he is far from the goal. Thus, a person must exert to be rewarded with the goal, meaning with the delight and pleasure for which he was created.
However, before a person engages in Torah and Mitzvot [commandments] in order to thereby achieve the goal, he must engage in the correction of creation, meaning to know how to receive the delight and pleasure so he will be able to enjoy it. If he does not know the order of corrections, he will spoil the abundance. For this reason, before a person engages in the purpose of creation, he must exert to learn the order of corrections—to know what he should correct so as not to spoil the gift that the Creator will give him.
It is known that all the corrections pertain to Malchut, as it is written, “To correct the world with the kingdom [Malchut] of Shadai, and all the flesh shall be calling Your name.” What does it mean that Malchut must be corrected? Since His will was to do good to His creations, He has created existence from absence a lack called “desire to receive delight and pleasure.” This Malchut spreads with her will to receive over several Behinot [discernments].
There is a rule in spirituality that disparity of form divides the degree into two. For this reason, once this Malchut craved a decoration at the point of desire and wanted equivalence of form with the Creator, as in, “As He is merciful, so you are merciful,” because of this, she wanted to be a giver, just as the Creator is the giver.
After this correction, called Tzimtzum [restriction], there was a judgment that it is forbidden to receive unless when it is possible to aim to bestow. That judgment became the root from which Klipot [shells/peels] extended, which are the opposite of Kedusha [holiness/sanctity]. Kedusha is called “bestowal,” as it is written, “You will be holy,” meaning “You will retire,” as in, they will retire from receiving in order to receive. Instead, the intention should be only to bestow upon the Creator like the Creator bestows upon the creatures.
It is written, “for I am holy.” That is, as the Creator gives, Israel, too, should give to the Creator. The opposite of this, meaning the opposite of bestowal, is considered the opposite of Kedusha, and this is Tuma’a [impurity], or Sitra Achra [other side] or Klipa [singular of Klipot]. For this reason, the will to receive later became Klipot, which want to receive in order to receive.
It is written in the “Introduction to The Book of Zohar” (Item 10):
“Indeed, first we must understand the meaning of the existence of the Tuma’a and the Klipot. Know that this great will to receive, which we determined was the very essence of the souls by creation—for which they are fit to receive the entire filling in the thought of creation—does not remain in that form within the souls. If it remained in them, they would have to remain eternally separated from Him.
“In order to mend that separation, which lies on the Kli of the souls, He has created all the worlds and separated them into two systems. These are the four worlds ABYA of Kedusha, and opposite them the four worlds ABYA of Tuma’a. He imprinted the desire to bestow in the system of ABYA of Kedusha, removed the will to receive for themselves from them, and placed it in the system of the worlds ABYA of Tuma’a.
“Now we can see what corrections we must perform—correct the vessels of reception so as to have the aim to bestow. It is as he says there (in Item 10): “And the worlds cascaded onto the reality of this corporeal world, to a place where there is a body and a soul and a time of corruption and a time of correction. For the body, which is the will to receive for himself, extends from its root in the thought of creation, traversing the system of the worlds of Tuma’a, as it is written, ‘a wild ass’s colt is born a man’ (Job 11:12).
“He remains under that authority for the first thirteen years, and this is the time of corruption. By engaging in Mitzvot 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 in order to bestow. And so he accumulates degrees of Kedusha from the thought of creation in Ein Sof [Infinity] until they aid a person in turning the will to receive for himself in him to be entirely in the form of reception in order to bestow contentment upon his Maker, and not at all for his own benefit.”
Now we can see that all our work in Torah and Mitzvot is to correct the Malchut, which is called “receiving for oneself” after her root in Ohr Yashar [Direct Light] in the world of Ein Sof. From this stems the order of the work.
Also, there is an order of work for beginners, and there is an order of work for advanced. It is as Maimonides writes, “When teaching little ones, women, and uneducated people, they are taught to work in order to receive reward. Until they gain knowledge and acquire much wisdom,” then they are taught Lishma [for Her sake], meaning not in order to receive reward.
From this we see that there is an order of work for the general public, and there is an order of work for individuals, and that order of work is not for the general public. This is according to the rule we spoke of, that there is one line, which is the work of the general public. In one line, it is explained that there is above and below, meaning of higher importance and of lower importance. A person must always walk on one line, meaning that he has but one intention when he engages in Torah and Mitzvot—to observe the Torah and Mitzvot that the Creator has commanded us through Moses, in return for which we will be rewarded in this world and in the next.
On this path, which is regarded as one line, we discern that he is gaining all the time because every act he does is whole from the perspective of the act and there is nothing to add to it, as it is written, “Do not add and do not subtract.” It follows that this person cannot not gain. However, at times he gains a lot, when he works many hours in Torah and Mitzvot, and when he works less, he gains less.
It follows that one line means that he is walking on the path of the Creator in one way. But one who does not engage in Torah and Mitzvot has no line at all. That is, he has no way in the work. Instead, when he is walking on the path of the Creator and observes Torah and Mitzvot, this is regarded as walking by one line. It is called so since he is working only in action: That which he must observe, he observes with all its details.
But those who want to work as individuals, who want to be rewarded with a personal “the Lord your God,” must work on the intention, on the reason that compels them to observe Torah and Mitzvot, meaning why they are observing Torah and Mitzvot, since there is no act without a reason. Therefore, a person must sort out the real reason why he has taken upon himself to work “as an ox to the burden and as a donkey to the load” and engage in Torah and Mitzvot.
However, when he looks at the reason that causes him to engage in Torah and Mitzvot, this criticism on the actions is regarded for him as a left line, and the acts he performs are now emerging from one line and are given a new name: right line. In other words, when there are not more than one line, it cannot be said that I have a right line, since there is only one line. But when he has another line, it can be said that one is called “right,” and the other is called “left.”
However, we must understand why we call the work in practice “right line” and the work on the intention “left line.” The rule is that something that does not require correction is called “right,” and something that does require correction is called “left.” It is as our sages said (Minchot 37), “The Gemara asks, ‘Placing on the left, from where is it (how do we know that placing a hand Tefillin is on the left hand and not on the right hand)?’ Rav Ashi said, ‘From your hand is written with a blunt Hey, and RASHI interpreted that writing with a blunt Hey means female, meaning in the left, as was said, ‘she is as powerless as a female.’’” For this reason, wherever we learn about a weak side, a weak way, or a weak place we call it “left.” In other words, anything that requires correction, which is in itself weak, is called “left.”
It therefore follows that with respect to actions, there is nothing to add there. For example, we do not say, “Today I put Tefillin on the left hand and tomorrow I will put Tefillin on the right hand, too,” or “Today I placed a Mezuzah [box with text from the Torah attached to door posts] on the right hand side of the door, and tomorrow I will try to place a Mezuzah on the left hand side of the door, as well.”
Rather, as it is known, concerning practical Mitzvot, it is said, “Do not add and do not subtract.” For this reason, those who only observe the actions and whose only intention is for the action to be proper, and who do not regard the intention, meaning what reward they want for their work, since they are working and observing Torah and Mitzvot, there must be some reason that compels them to observe. And since there are many reasons, such as fear of punishment or because of love, or in order to receive pleasures in this world and in the next world, they do not get into the scrutiny of the reasons, namely the real reason. The real reason is that the Creator wants them to put in work in order to obtain that which the Creator wants.
What is the reason that it can be said that the Creator wants us to work for? First, we need to understand what can we say that the Creator lacks, whereby our work He will receive pleasure from our giving Him what He needs.
To this there is one answer: If we look at the purpose of creation, we will know what He needs. The purpose of creation is to do good to His creations, meaning that He has created creatures in order to give them abundance, and the Kelim [vessels] in which they can receive delight and pleasure is the desire to receive pleasures, as it is known that we cannot enjoy something for which we have no yearning.
For this reason, in every creature there is a yearning for pleasures. However, in order not to have shame, a correction should be added to the will to receive: to make it in order to bestow. Since that correction is not to receive, we attribute that correction to the creatures, meaning that the creatures do not want to receive before they have the intention to bestow.
To the Creator, however, we attribute everything He gives. Since the Creator wants that when the creatures receive the pleasures, it will be without the flaw of shame, we say that the upper one accepted and agreed to the Tzimtzum that the lower one has made—not to impart abundance to the lower ones unless according to the correction that Malchut de Ein Sof has made.
It follows that we attribute the correction primarily to the lower one, but in what the upper one seemingly agreed to the view of the lower one. For this reason, it is impossible to receive any spirituality if there are any limitations and restrictions that the lower one has made. Rather, the upper one bestows according to what the lower one can receive in order to bestow. For this reason, after the cascading of the worlds, when man was created after the Klipot manifested in the world, for this reason, a person wants to receive in Kelim of self-reception, and he has no connection to the correction that Malchut of Kedusha had done.
Therefore, the upper one cannot bestow abundance below before the lower ones take upon themselves to use only vessels of bestowal, as was said above, that the upper one agreed to the Tzimtzum performed by Malchut de Ein Sof, who is called “the root of all the receivers” who later emerged.
For this reason, the upper one awaits the vessels of bestowal that the lower one will give to the Creator so as to have the ability to impart it with the complete delight and pleasure, meaning that there will be no shame upon the reception of the abundance.
However, how can a person receive vessels of bestowal when it is against his nature? He was born with a desire to receive for himself because he was extended after the system of Klipot emerged. For this reason, in order for a person to have vessels of bestowal so the Creator could impart abundance, He has given us Torah and Mitzvot. It is as our sages said, “The Creator wanted to refine Israel, therefore He gave them plentiful Torah and Mitzvot, as was said, ‘The Lord desired for His righteousness; He will increase the Torah and glorify.’”
It therefore follows that the real reason that compels a person to observe Torah and Mitzvot is that through the Torah and Mitzvot he will award himself an exit from his Aviut [thickness], which is self-reception, and will receive vessels of bestowal. These are the Kelim that the Creator awaits because specifically in vessels of bestowal, a person can receive delight and pleasure from the Kedusha.
For this reason, a person who wants to walk on the path of truth, must, before every act in Torah and in prayer and in good deeds, see that he has a real reason for which to engage in Torah and Mitzvot. That is, the Torah and Mitzvot should give him the purpose for which he is working and doing what he can to obtain it.
However, as there is work in observing Mitzvot, whether or not to do good deeds, meaning that there is choice there, we should know that the work of choice is harder on the intention, since the intention is man’s work, as in, “You are called ‘man,’ and not the nations of the world.” We interpreted that a “man” is one who bestows, which is MA in Gematria, called “male,” meaning a giver. But a beast is called “female,” and a beast is BON in Gematria, which is a receiver.
It follows that when he is in the action and does not consider the intention, he is observing Torah and Mitzvot for beastly reasons. That is, the reward he expects to receive for his work is reception, called a beast and not a man, as The Zohar says about the verse, “The grace of the nations is a sin; all the good that they do, they do for themselves.”
This means that in terms of the work, this work is regarded as receiving reward into what is regarded as man’s “nations of the world.” Although it is also difficult to engage in Torah and Mitzvot in action, it is regarded as Lo Lishma [not for Her sake], which is for his own sake. However, we should know that this is the first degree, that we must begin from here, and that there is no other way, as Maimonides said.
This is already regarded as “man” and not a “beast.” When we say that they are as “the nations of the world,” it is nonetheless the “nations of the world” in man, the beast in the man. Conversely, those who have no connection even to the action are called “a nation that is similar to an ass.”
For this reason, we should know that the degree of Lo Lishma is a very important degree, and we haven’t the intellect to appreciate the importance of Torah and Mitzvot Lo Lishma. Baal HaSulam said that “as much as one may appreciate the work Lishma, which is important work, he should know that Lo Lishma is more important than the importance that a person attributes to Lishma, since one cannot properly assess the importance of observing Torah and Mitzvot even Lo Lishma, although observing Torah and Mitzvot should be Lishma.
It therefore follows that although the real reason for observing Torah and Mitzvot should be to be rewarded with vessels of bestowal, that it is specifically in those Kelim that the Creator has the ability to give the upper abundance, since the Creator wants the creatures to feel only pleasure and no shame upon the reception of the abundance, for this reason, He awaits our work in Torah and Mitzvot with the intention to thereby be rewarded with vessels of bestowal.
However, the beginning of the work is specifically in action. At that time, we need not think and scrutinize quite which reward we hope to receive from the Creator in return for our work. Instead, he observes Torah and Mitzvot only because he is following the Creator’s orders. This is called “satisfactory work for the general public.” That is, they should not think at all about the intention, but all their thoughts will be about observing Torah and Mitzvot in action.
Certainly, there is the matter of choice here, and the war of the evil inclination that it is impossible to observe Torah and Mitzvot even in Lo Lishma. Indeed, his reward is great indeed, as Baal HaSulam said, that the Lo Lishma is very important in the eyes of the Creator, since keeping Torah and Mitzvot even in action requires great efforts and a person must relinquish corporeal things in order to be able to observe what the Creator has commanded. Still, true work begins when a person wants to scrutinize the intention of Lishma, meaning that he wants to work in order not to receive reward.
In the work on intention, which is the real reason for observing Torah and Mitzvot, here begins the real division between good and bad. When a person wants to work for the Creator, since the Creator is called The Good Who Does Good, who is the giver, the body, called “evil,” comes and obstructs him. The will to receive for oneself is called “bad” because the quality of judgment is on it because there was a judgment and restriction that it should remain in the dark and is unfit to receive any light.
Since man is born by nature with the desire to receive and must work against nature, here lies the real dispute. It is so much so that one cannot defeat and subdue his will to receive and be able to work for the Creator and not for his own sake.
Here we can say that they are called “two things that deny one another.” The will to receive is the complete opposite of the will to bestow, and then comes the third party and decides between them, meaning until the Creator comes and makes peace between them. In other words, the Creator gives him a gift: the desire to bestow. Then, opposite the giving of the Creator, the evil surrenders, bringing the above receiver under man’s good.
In other words, we learn that there are two forces in the body, two kinds of desire. But the desire to bestow begins to work in a person only when he wishes to begin the work on the intention. But in the work of the general public, it is still not apparent that there are a desire and a need in the body to aim to bestow, and to say about it that the will to receive resists since there is still no one to resist.
Rather, specifically when a person begins to work in order to bestow and contemplates whether he wants to work in order to bestow, it is up to him, meaning depends only on his will. But when he begins to work he sees that he is not the landlord who can do whatever he wants, but that he has another view with him, meaning the will to receive objects.
In that state, we feel the hardest work. This is even harder than the work of choice that a person needs to place on the act of Mitzvot, since he wants to do truly clean work for the sake of the Creator, as was said, that he wants to do the work of Kedusha, which is in order to bestow.
At that time begins the real dispute between good and bad. In terms of action, it was still not clear to the body that it wanted to walk on the path of not receiving anything for itself, but that everything will be for the Creator. It thought that everything would be for the receiver.
Since they are two forces within man, and the will to receive comes to a person as soon as he is born, as it is written in The Zohar (Vayeshev, Items 3-4), “an old and foolish king. A king is the evil inclination, who is called a ‘king’ and a ‘ruler’ in the world of men. He is old and foolish, since he is with man from the day one is born into the world. For this reason, he is an old and foolish king.”
It is also written there (Item 8): “For this reason, the evil inclination immediately connects itself to man from the day he is born, so he will believe him. Later, when the good inclination comes, man will not be able to believe it and its words will seem burdensome to him.”
It is also written there (Item 9): “Because the evil inclination comes first and makes its arguments before him, later, when the good inclination comes, it will be bad for man to be with it, and he will not be able to raise his head, as though he has been burdened with all the burdens in the world.”
We therefore see that there are two forces within man, but the bad force is stronger because it comes with its arguments that one must tend to one’s own benefit. Hence, its governance is stronger since it comes before the good inclination. This is called “In a quarrel, the first one is right,” as it is written there (Item 10), “For this reason, any judge who accepts the words of a litigator before his colleague arrives is like one who takes upon himself another god to believe in.”
It is also written there (Item 11): “But a righteous who fears his Master, how much evil does he suffer in this world so as to not believe or partake with the evil inclination? But the Creator saves him from all of them, as it is written, ‘Many are the ills of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him from them all.’ Thus, one who suffers many ills is righteous because the Creator wants him. This is so because the ills he suffers remove him from the evil inclination. For this reason, the Creator wants that person and delivers him from them all.”
According to the worlds of The Zohar, when does the Creator save a person? Only when he suffers many evils. Afterward, the Creator comes and saves him. This is perplexing. Why should a person suffer many troubles and then the Creator helps him? Why should the Creator mind if He saves the righteous before he suffers many evils?
The answer is that it is known that there is no light without a Kli, and a Kli is called a “need.” If a person is given something he does not need, he will not keep it and will lose it. Therefore, when a person begins to work on the intention to bestow, which is against nature, the body resists this because it is the opposite of its quality.
At that time the dispute is between the two beings. Since the receiver comes to the person first, and “In a quarrel, the first one is right,” therefore, its governance is very strong. To the extent of the effort that a person makes in order to defeat his self-receiver, but he is unable to do so, he therefore feels very bad. Each time he overcomes and thinks that he is winning and the receiver has surrendered because he can see the losses—that the receiver is causing him troubles by not letting him aim for the Creator, and now he sees the truth, all of a sudden he falls into its net once more.
He does not even feel when he departed from the Kedusha into a state of lowliness. But after some time he realizes that he is in the domain of the receiver for himself with all its lowliness. Finally, a person is bewildered, how such a thing can be.
That is, it is known that everything deteriorates gradually. But here he sees that while he felt that now he was at the top of the world, suddenly he sees that he is at the bottom of the pit, and there were no stops in between. He realizes that he has fallen not in the middle of the fall, but when he is already lying on the ground. Only then he regains consciousness and he sees that he is on the ground. Also, there is no fixed interval between the fall and the realization that he has fallen.
We should understand why this is so, for it seems that such is the order of the work. The thing is that through the ascents and descents, a great need for the salvation of the Creator forms in him. This is the meaning of the verse, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous.” That is, one who wishes to be righteous, and it is known that righteous is the quality of Yesod, and Yesod means a “giver,” that is, one who wishes to work in order to bestow is regarded as “wanting to be righteous.” He suffers many afflictions, meaning many descents, and each descent causes him pain and sorrow for being under the control of the receiver.
According to the many evils that he feels, a need forms in him, called a Kli, for the Creator to help and save him, since he sees that there is no way out of that governance and only the Creator can help him. It follows that through the suffering he suffers, these evils give him the need called a Kli for the Creator to give him the filling for this lack.
But before he suffers from his inability to work in order to bestow, if the Creator gives him some illumination that reforms him, he will not appreciate it because he has no need for it. Although he asked to be given the desire to bestow, he immediately regrets it because the need for it has not been carved within his heart.
This is the answer to why the Creator does not help him as soon as he prays, and especially when he has prayed to the Creator several times and the Creator did not hear his prayer, a person becomes angry with the Creator. Sometimes thoughts come to a person that he has grievances and says, “If I were to ask the Creator to help me for my own sake, I could understand that I am still not worthy of the Creator hearing me. But when I ask the Creator because I want Him to help because I want to work for His sake, for the sake of the Creator, why does He not want to help me?” For this reason, a person escapes the work.
Now we will explain the question that we asked. It stands to reason that where there is no dispute, that place is more important than a place where there is a dispute, although afterwards, someone gets involved in the matter and makes peace between them. We must say that it would certainly be better if there was no dispute, and they would not have to make peace.
In the order of the work, we see otherwise: Our sages said (Berachot 5), “One should always anger the good inclination over the evil inclination, as it was said, ‘Be angry but do not sin.’” RASHI interprets “anger the good inclination” to mean that he should make war with the evil inclination.
This means that although there is peace there and the evil inclination does not obstruct his engagement in Torah and Mitzvot, still, one should make war with it. We should also ask, If it does not disturb him from engaging in Torah and Mitzvot, why is it called “evil inclination”? And moreover, we need to anger it. Why do we need to anger it if the evil inclination does not harm him?
In the work we should interpret simply that he is accustomed by upbringing to engage in Torah and Mitzvot in all its details, and he has nothing to add to the actions. But according to the order of the correction of creation, a person should correct the receiver for himself to work in order to bestow. For this reason, when a person begins to think about the intention, meaning when he begins to organize for himself, prior to making the Mitzvot, for which reason he is going to perform the Mitzvot, and he comes to the true intention, meaning that the Torah and Mitzvot were given in order to cleanse people, so that from this day onward he hopes that by the merit of Torah and Mitzvot, he will not give to his receiver anything, for this he should anger it.
He tells the body to work and observe Torah and Mitzvot, and that its reward for its work will be that he will not give it anything, unlike how it was thus far, when all his thoughts were only about how to please his receiver. Now he says to the receiver: “I ask you to engage in Torah and Mitzvot with a new aim, meaning that I will not give you anything.”
Would this not anger? The evil inclination is right. Whoever heard of such a thing? It is insolence to tell a person, “I want you to work for me, and I will give the reward for your work to another. Moreover, I will give the reward that you deserve for the work to a person who hates you.”
Our sages saidabout this: “One should always anger the good inclination over the evil inclination.” It is as it is written in The Zohar that the Creator hates the bodies (Vayeshev, Item 28). But still, a person angering the evil inclination does not make sense. After all, it did not do him any harm so why anger it?
King Solomon called the evil inclination “enemy,” as it is written, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him bread.” We should understand what this comes to teach us. Normally, when someone has a bad neighbor whom he hates, it is normal for an enemy and a bad person to do harm to the neighbors. But sometimes a person meets someone and asks him, “Where do you live?” He tells him, “In the house of so and so, and we are only two neighbors.” He asks, “How are you getting along with your neighbor? since I heard that he is a very bad man.” He replies, “I don’t know about this because he’s never done me any harm.” So he tells him, “How can this be?” and he asks some more: “How do you behave with him?” So he tells him, “Each day before I leave the house I ask him what he needs. Even what he does not tell me, I understand that he needs it. Likewise, with other things, before he asks me, I immediately do his wish.” So he replies to him: “Now I understand that he is really a bad man, but he has no reason to harm you because he is afraid that he might lose the services you give him. Try not to serve him and you will see his evil, that in truth, he hates you but he doesn’t want to lose the service you are giving him.”
The lesson is that when everything we do, whether in Torah and Mitzvot or in corporeal matters, is for the sake of the receiver, it does not reveal its evil. Only when we tell it, “Thus far I have been working for you; henceforth, I want to work in order to bestow upon the Creator, and I also want you to work for the Kedusha and not for the Tuma’a.” When it hears these words, it immediately becomes angry.
Now we will understand why our sages said to anger it. It does not mean that we must anger it if it causes us no trouble or harm. However, we need to advance in man’s work, which is the intention, to aim to bestow upon the Creator. If a person wants to know if he really wants to work henceforth only for the Creator, the sign is if the evil inclination becomes angry. This is the indication that the person wants to walk on the path of construction of Kedusha. This is why the evil inclination becomes angry.
In other words, the anger is a result of a person wanting to work for the Creator. But if a person says that he wants to work for the Creator only as lip-service, this does not anger the evil inclination because why should it care if a person speaks and does not even know what he is saying? In other words, the person does not even know the meaning of “for the sake of the Creator.”
It therefore turns out that the meaning of what RASHI said, to anger, means to make war with it. We should understand why RASHI adds by interpreting that he should make war with it. The answer is that “angering” means making war with it. In other words, he should not serve it but rebel against it and tell it, “Thus far I have been serving you with all my might. Now I will no longer give you anything. On the contrary, I want to enslave you, so you will work for the Creator.”
By this he will see that the evil inclination becomes angry with the good inclination. If you make war and do not see that the evil inclination is angry with you, it is a sign that you do not even know what “for the sake of the Creator” means. Rather, you only heard that it is written in the books that we should do everything for the sake of the Creator. You say that you want this, too, but in truth, you have no idea what this is about.
It follows that the bad is actually within us, but we do not see it. Only through the dispute does it appear. Hence, if a person is at peace with it, he is hopeless because he will never be able to achieve the purpose of creation, since he will not have vessels of bestowal, but only vessels of reception, and these Kelim cannot receive the upper abundance because of the oppositeness of form.
A person does not know the power of the evil—that he should escape it—before he feels what the evil causes him. For this reason, specifically through the wars it makes with it, it has constant ascents and descents, and according to the sensation of pain from the descents, this makes him hate the evil.
This is the meaning of “You who hate the Lord, hate evil. He keeps the souls of His followers, delivers them from the hands of the wicked.” One who wishes to love the Creator, meaning that his only aim in life is to have but one desire—to be able to bring contentment to the Creator—must first hate the evil. It is impossible to work for the Creator unless one is not working for his own benefit. And since the receiver, called “evil inclination,” disrupts him from working for the sake of the Creator, this causes man to hate his evil, called “self-benefit.”
For this reason, specifically when a person tries to work for the sake of the Creator and sees that this is the obstructor, it causes him each time a measure of hatred for his evil, for one who does something bad to another once is not as one who harms him each and every day. It follows that the hatred is measured by the amount of bad that he suffers from it. This is why it was said, “Man’s inclination overcomes him every day and seeks to put him to death. If the Creator did not help him, he would not be able to overcome it, as it was said, ‘The Lord will not leave him in its hand’” (Kidushin 30).
According to the above, we can understand why it is necessary for man’s inclination to grow each day and then the Creator will help him, and why the Creator does not help him once and for all. Why do I need this work, each day the same thing? The person understands that each day he needs to advance, since the order is that in whenever a person wants to acquire something, each day he advances, at times less and at times more. But here a person sees the complete opposite: Not only is he not advancing, but he sees that he is constantly regressing.
However, the truth is that as Baal HaSulam said, each and every day, a person who wants to walk on the path of truth advances closer to the truth each day. That is, each day a person sees more of the truth—that the will to receive for oneself is bad. That is, by the receiver causing him troubles by removing him from working to benefit the Creator, each day when a person suffers new troubles and afflictions in that the Creator does not let him work for the sake of the Creator, it follows that the afflictions a person receives from the evil inclination cause a person to hate the evil inclination.
This is the meaning of what is written, “You who love the Lord, hate evil.” That is, those who love the Creator must first come to hate the evil. This comes to him by the evil afflicting him. This is the reason why he hates it. At that time a person falls into great fear that he will remain under the control of self-love and will never be freed from it.
This is when the promise that the Creator will help him comes, as it is written, “The Lord will not leave him in its hand,” of the bad. But if a person has not come to fear that he might stay in the hands of the wicked forever, since he sees that he is not afraid that he will remain in the hand of the receiver because it still does not pain him, causing him to feel troubles and afflictions over being unable to do anything for the Creator, it means that he still does not have the need. Thus, how can the Creator help him? If something is not necessary, a person does not value it. Therefore, if the Creator helps him, he will promptly lose it, since the help of the Creator is as it is written in The Zohar, which writes about what our sages said, “He who comes to purify is aided. He asks, ‘With what?’ and he replies, ‘With a holy soul.’”
When he obtains this but he has no need, it is impossible to value the upper abundance. He will lose it and the Klipot will take it away from him because he will not understand the importance of Kedusha—that it must be kept from the outer ones, from those outside of Kedusha.
However, a question arises here: When can one feel the bad, meaning that the will to receive is called “bad”? During the descent, when a person falls into the corporeal world, he does not even think about the work because he is completely immersed in the lusts of this world. In that state he is a slave to the receiving master and loves him wholeheartedly. Thus, how can he feel that the receiver is called “bad”? If he could feel that receiving for himself is called “bad,” he would not serve it wholeheartedly, so when is the time of evil, meaning when is the time when one feels that receiving for himself is called “bad”?
Baal HaSulam said that the sin among those who are working, who want to walk on the path of truth, is actually during the ascent. This is the time when one can make scrutinies concerning the work of the Creator. During the descent, there is no one to speak of because then he is not a man but a beast, since his only concerns are beastly concerns. For this reason, during the ascent, if a person does not guarantee that his work is in the right order, he is thrown out and he falls into the netherworld, since he did not conduct himself during the ascent the way he should have and did not pay attention to this.
For this reason, during the ascent, a person must calculate what he has lost during the descent and what he must obtain and raise up the rungs of Kedusha, and why he is not ascending now to a state of greater wholeness than where he is now. He should also see if indeed he is currently at the highest level and there is no higher degree than the situation he is in now. He should also calculate the value and importance that he feels when he senses that he is in a state of ascent, and what he should do henceforth: If he has been rewarded with the secrets of Torah, does he even hope to be rewarded with it? and so forth. He can think about all this only during the ascent.
It therefore follows that only during the ascent, when he calculates what he gains and what he loses by being enslaved to the will to receive, that he cannot gain and only loses, that calculation that he does can make him feel how his inclination is harming him.
In each and every ascent, he must calculate what he missed from the descent. By this he sees that the inclination is causing him many harms. In order to set in his heart the need for the help of the Creator, many troubles come to him and he suffers from it, as in the words of The Zohar, which explained about the verse, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous,” that the righteous suffers many troubles from the inclination.
According to what we explained, we should interpret the verse, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous.” That is, after the righteous has suffered many afflictions, since “righteous” is named after the future, meaning one who wants to be righteous, who wants to work for the Creator, he suffers many afflictions until many afflictions are accumulated. This is why it is written, “from all of them,” meaning that when he has many afflictions, the Creator will save him, since then he has a real need for the Creator’s help and he will know how to appreciate the Creator’s salvation, since there is no light without a Kli.
Now we will explain the question that we asked, Why does it say, “The Creator did not find a Kli [vessel/receptacle] that holds a blessing for Israel but peace”? It seems as though peace is specifically for Israel, whereas for the nations of the world, peace is not good. Can this be? For whom is peace not good? That is, it implies that for the wicked, dispute is better than peace; how can such a thing be?
According to what we explained above, “wicked” means the bad in a person’s body. These wicked need to undergo correction, as we learned that the will to receive must be corrected so as to serve the Kedusha. This is the meaning of “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with both your inclinations.” But how can the inclination undergo such a correction? This can happen specifically through the dispute with the good inclination, as was said above, that the good inclination should anger it, meaning make war with it.
Through these wars, the evil in him appears. That is, he feels the troubles that the evil inclination causes him, and then a person determines that the receiver for himself is called the “evil inclination.” If the receiver for himself does not cause him harm, a person works for it wholeheartedly and all his concerns and thoughts are only for the sake of the receiver.
This receiver, which does many things against Kedusha, is named in plural form, meaning “wicked.” For these wicked ones, peace is not good, but rather dispute, for through the dispute they will be corrected, as it is written (Isaiah 57), “‘There is no peace,’ says my God, ‘for the wicked.’”
Now we can interpret the meaning of sins becoming to him as merits and how such a thing can make sense. That is, if the evil inclination causes him constant descents that compel him to descend once more into the netherworld, where he becomes completely separated from Kedusha, can such matters and actions ever be merits?
According to the above, through many evils that the righteous suffers from the wicked, where the inclination keeps harming him, this gives him a need for the Creator’s help, or he is doomed. “From all of them” means when many evils accumulate, it comes to a point where a person makes a heartfelt prayer, and then the Creator helps him.
It is as it is written (Psalms 85), “I will hear what the Lord God will speak, for He will speak peace unto His people and unto His followers, and let them not turn back to folly.” Thus, who caused it that “the Lord God will speak, for He will speak peace unto His people … and let them not turn back to folly,” meaning that he will not sin again? It was specifically these evils and troubles that the wicked in him caused his sins, and he has already come to the lowest possible lowliness, as it is written, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous.”
It is also written in The Zohar that when the righteous suffers many afflictions, the afflictions he suffers remove him from the evil inclination. For this reason, the Creator desires that person and saves him from all of them. In other words, by suffering afflictions he realizes that the inclination, namely the receiver for himself, is evil.
It follows that the suffering he receives from the inclination removes him so as not to want to work for it, and then he has a need to cry out to the Creator to help him out of its control. Thus, why does the Creator desire specifically that person? It is because that person has a need and a Kli that the Creator will help him, as it is said, “There is no light without a Kli.”
It follows that specifically the sins that the evil inclination has given to that person caused him the Kli. The Creator can impart the peace into that Kli, and this is called “sins becoming as merits to him,” since all the peace he had been rewarded with hearing from the Creator was thanks to these sins. This is why they became merits.
Now we can understand what we asked about what our sages said, “The Creator did not find a Kli that holds a blessing for Israel but peace.” We asked, What is the blessing and what is peace? We should understand according to the rule that there is no light without a Kli, that nothing in reality exists without a reason. If there is no reason for it, the matter must be canceled. This is why our sages said that the Kli that holds a blessing is only the peace. Otherwise, the blessing must depart. In other words, the blessing is the light and peace is the Kli, as it is written, “A Kli that holds a blessing for Israel.”
However, we should understand what is the merit in peace by which the blessing can be specifically through peace, and otherwise it must depart. It is known that the light is called “blessing.” When a person is rewarded with His light, he no longer lacks anything. Instead, he is in utter wholeness because it is impossible to say that that person is whole if he is lacking something.
This is as it is written, “The Lord blessed Abraham with everything.” What is “with everything”? We should say that “everything” means that he did not lack anything. Otherwise it is not regarded as a blessing if there is some lack. For this light to stay in a person and not depart from him, it needs a Kli where it can be without becoming spoiled. Otherwise, if we see that, for example, a drink stays in a Kli, it must become spoiled, so we take the drink out of the Kli.
The lesson is that in spirituality, since the light is the giver, in order for the abundance to be in the Kli, the Kli, too, needs to have an aim to bestow. Otherwise, the light will become spoiled.
This means that since the outer ones, meaning Klipot, want to enjoy the light, it is regarded as the wine being spoiled. Thus, that wine is no longer fit for human consumption, as in, “You are called ‘man,’ and the nations of the world are not.” For this reason, before the Kli spoils the wine, the wine is taken out.
Likewise, before the Kli blemishes the abundance, the abundance is taken out and the light departs. It is as our sages said, “A person does not transgress unless a spirit of folly has entered him (Sotah 3). People ask about this: Therefore, why does the spirit of wisdom depart from a person? If it did not depart, the person would not sin.
Baal HaSulam explained that it is known that “The eye sees and the heart covets.” This means that when a person sees something, seeing it causes him to covet. A person cannot do anything about seeing, since this is not up to him. Also, it does not necessarily require seeing with the eyes to bring one to covet, but even by imagining. That is, a thought might come to him, and that thought will cause him to covet.
Therefore, if a person does not want to covet, for coveting is already a sin, he should repent on the seeing, and then he will not covet. Otherwise, he will have to covet, and coveting is already a sin.
For this reason, a correction was made that in order for a person not to blemish the Kedusha, if he does not repent immediately after seeing, the light of Hochma departs from him, and a spirit of folly enters in its stead. Then, the flaw is not so grave. This is why the spirit of Hochma [wisdom] departs from him, where our sages have told us what correction is done from above on man’s behalf—that the spirit of wisdom departs from him.
Now we can understand why we need a Kli that can hold the blessing that he is given from above, and so it will not need to be taken away from him again. It is that the spirit of wisdom is taken away from him so he will not blemish the Kedusha. Likewise, if a person has been rewarded with a blessing from above to receive abundance from above, if the person is improper, meaning that the Kli in which the abundance is clothed is inappropriate and can spoil the abundance, like the wine, then there is correction from above that the blessing is taken back.
Rabbi Shimon Ben Halafta comes and says about this: “The Creator did not find a Kli that holds a blessing for Israel but peace.” He advises us how the blessing can continue and never stop, namely peace. Yet, what is “peace”? We should interpret it according to the verse, “I will hear what the Lord God will speak, for He will speak peace unto His people … and let them not turn back to folly.”
We explained above that there should be a dispute within man, as it is written, “One should always anger the good inclination over the evil inclination.”RASHI interprets that he should make war with it. Specifically through the war, the evil in him will appear. Each time evil appears, it is regarded as the appearance of a wicked. Through many appearances, it is revealed that there are many wicked within man, as in the words of The Zohar, “Many are the ills of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him from them all.”
When these wicked appear in a person, they create the need called “a Kli for the Creator’s help,” as it is written, “He who comes to purify is aided. With what?” The Zohar says, “with a holy soul.” In other words, he is rewarded with the upper light, called a “soul,” and this reforms him.
Now we will understand the meaning of peace, of which it is written, “for He will speak peace unto His people … and let them not turn back to folly.” When the Creator helps him by giving him a soul as assistance to defeat the evil, this is called “peace.” In other words, it is when the evil surrenders under the good and now serves the Kedusha, as it was said, “And you will love the Lord your God with all your heart, with both your inclinations.” That is, the evil inclination, too, has become a lover of the Creator, meaning that now it can work in order to bestow contentment upon the Creator.
This peace, which was made in man so he will not turn back to folly, this Kli keeps the light from stopping. When we said that the Kli can blemish the abundance, this can be if the will to receive for himself awakens in the Kli. At that time the abundance can be extended to the Klipot. For this reason, the abundance must depart. But when the Creator tells him, “Peace, so he will not turn back to folly,” this is the Kli that holds the blessing.
By this we will understand what we asked, “If the Creator says, ‘Peace to those who are far,’ He certainly says, ‘Peace to those who are near.’” Thus, what does it mean to us when it says, “Peace to those who are near”? When does the Creator say, “Peace” [in Hebrew: also “hello” or “goodbye”]? It is when there is someone who is far, when the evil is revealed through the dispute, and it is apparent that the receiver for himself removes him from the Creator. This is called “far.”
Certainly, this matter applies specifically if someone wants to be close to the Creator. He makes war with Him, and he is called “near.” Specifically through both of them, meaning when one can make peace with the far and with the near together, then the Creator says, “Peace” [or “hello”]. This is why it is written, “Peace, peace, to the far and to the near.”