Letter No. 24
Hello and all the best.
To my friend,
In response to your letter from October 27 regarding your first question about having to stand guard and evoke the love in the hearts of the friends, which you find unbecoming, I actually see that as necessary for you. You know what Baal HaSulam said, that from between man and man one learns how to behave between man and the Creator.
This is so because the upper light is in complete rest, and it is necessary to always evoke the love, “Until the love of our wedding pleases.” In other words, you are being shown from above that on this way, you must always evoke the love of His name, since everyone awaits your awakening.
That is, as you see that in love of friends you have the rights as you see it, meaning as it is being shown to you from above, you are the evoker (although the truth is not necessarily so; if you ask the friends, I am not so sure they agree with your evidence that it is only you who desires them and not the other way around).
This is the meaning of “A judge has only what his eyes see.” That is, as far as judgment goes, you must judge only by your evidence. This is why it is being shown to you from above that you have to keep awakening the love of the Creator in this way, that you must always stand guard, all day and all night, when you feel a state of day or feel a state of night.
We say to the Creator, “Yours is the day, and Yours is also the night.” Thus, the night, too, the darkness of night, comes from the Creator to man’s favor, too, as it is written, “Day to day utters speech, and night to night expresses knowledge” (See the Sulam Commentary, Part 1, Item 103).
It follows that you must evoke the heart of the friends until the flame rises by itself, as our sages said about it, “When you light up the candles.” By that, you will be rewarded with awakening the love of the Creator upon us.
And regarding your second question about your always having to evoke the heart of the friends, who, after they have already been rewarded with seeing the importance of the study, etc., still do not respect the lessons—that, too, stands to your merit.
In other words, you had to see for yourself that the Creator has given you His proximity several times already. There have already been several times when you felt that you had no other concern in the world but to remain adhered to Him forever, for you are unworthy of serving the King even in the simplest of works because why should you be more privileged than your contemporaries?
And yet, you wait for the Creator to awaken you to work, meaning to have an awakening from above, and then you will begin to study the lessons.
Namely, just as you must awaken the students, you are saying that the Creator should awaken you. That is, if the Creator gives you a reason and good taste in the work, you will agree to work. But before that, you cannot. Then, you are shown from above how low and inferior you consider the students to be.
And regarding the third question, about keeping the party with great exaggeration, it is so because this is how people behave when they are afraid that the baby will leave the house alone at night. They tell him, “There is a bear outside and other wild beasts,” since the baby cannot understand any other way. In other words, if he were to know the truth, that there is no lion or bear outside, but it is best for the baby to go to sleep, and most importantly, to remain indoors, the baby wouldn’t be able to accept the truth.
Therefore, you should know my brother, that to accept the path of truth and the words of truth of Baal HaSulam, there aren’t many people who can hear the words of truth, for you are only seeing many kids. And what can I tell you while you are in kindergarten, and you are impressed by them, writing to me that they are cheerful and gay? Indeed, so is the way of babies—to be cheerful and gay. But it is known that a baby is not taken seriously when crying or when happy because its excitement and feelings are about unimportant matters.
And when you see that the baby is crying during service, you are impressed, and when he is glad and dances, you are impressed, and you write that you envy the children for being cheerful and dancing. And what do you want? To be a baby all over again? You should know, my brother, that your childhood days are over, since before you walked into Baal HaSulam’s room, you were dancing, just as they are.
And may the Creator assist us in the corporeal and in the spiritual.
Your friend, Baruch Shalom HaLevi Ashlag
Son of Baal HaSulam