What is - The Righteous Suffer?
The Righteous Suffer is a spiritual state that precedes a spiritual state of ‘cheer’, or The Righteous Rejoice – the situation that follows the revelation. But what does man discover after the ‘great cheer’? The fact that he is now able, according to his current degree, to give indefinitely to the Creator. When a person really attains that desire, he has a vessel, the ability to unite with the Creator.
How can we speed up the process of correction and be worthy of the revelation of the Creator?
You have to demand the revelation of the Creator for the purpose of the correction of the vessels. Malchut of the infinite (Malchut de Ein Sof), the maximum desire to receive, restricts itself. What can that teach us? If we feel the Creator, feel His presence, it gives us such strong forces, that we become able of controlling our own nature!
From the revelation of the Creator, a person clearly understands where the Creator is, and where we are. That process of the revelation of the Creator is like the feeling that we are standing in front of Him. The result is that we are immediately willing to restrict ourselves and act with the aim ‘for Her name’. That is the meaning of the phrase: “The light in it reforms”.
What is the meaning of the sentence: “I have created the evil inclination, I have created the Torah as a spice”? How is the power of the Torah expressed? By beginning to feel the greatness of the Creator, while still receiving. If we ask of the Creator to be revealed, but not because we want pleasure, but in order for us to able to use that revelation to correct our own vessel, we will be endowed with that revelation.
There is the light of correction, and there is the light of the purpose of creation, fulfillment. If we receive the light in order to have the ability to correct ourselves, it will be revealed to us, not as sublime pleasure, but as the ‘real essence’, so that we want to give to the Creator. Because of that we receive altruistic vessels, the right aim – all those things we need in order to come to the revelation of Godliness within us.
In the book “Shamati”, article No. 4, Rabbi Baruch Ahslag asks: “What is the reason for the heaviness that a person feels when he nullifies before the Creator? He replies: “… it is a simple thing called the lack of faith, meaning he does not see before whom he nullifies, meaning that he doesn’t feel the existence of the Creator, and that causes him to feel the heaviness. But when he begins to feel the presence of the Creator, he immediately yearns to nullify and bond with the root, and included in it, as a candle before the torch, without any mind and knowledge… … it thus turns out that man’s work is primarily to come to the sensation of the existence of the Creator… … and think of nothing, but that the reward that he wants for his work is that he will be endowed with faith in the Creator.”
I do not want to receive the pleasure from the Creator, but only the strength to correct myself. Man comes (slowly) to the resolution that instead of his present routine, instead of the day to day joys and sorrows (he stops worrying about his own future), he wants one thing only: to correct himself with the help of the Creator, to accepts His attributes, become like Him. That spiritual aspiration begins to gradually accumulate in man.
That desire is also a will to enjoy, but in the correction. We are not meant to suffer. The purpose of creation is to delight the creatures. But the pleasure should be a result of nearing the Creator, because that is the one infinite pleasure.
In the beginning of the meal I was hungry, but now I am full. The hunger began to fade the minute I started to eat, until I couldn’t even look at the food. Why don’t I want to eat anymore? Because it gives me no more pleasure.
Because our vessel is limited, when pleasure is received in it, it immediately begins to diminish. There is only one solution that enables reception of infinite pleasure, to receive in order to bestow, meaning to receive in order to give. In the latter case, I do not receive for my own pleasure, but in order to bring contentment to the Creator. If a person aspires for that kind of pleasure, he can certainly attain it.