READING: between after midnight and sunrise of Wednesday.

I see the Lord before me always

I see the Lord before me always – Selected excerpts from the sources

1. Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article No. 213, “Acknowledging the Desire”

The basic, primary principle is to increase the need, for this is the basis upon which the whole structure is built. And the strength of the building is measured by the strength of its foundation.

Many things compel one to labor, but they do not aim at the cause. Therefore, the foundation impairs the whole structure. Although from Lo Lishma [not for Her sake] we come to Lishma [for Her sake], it still requires a long time before one returns to the goal.

Therefore, one must see that the goal is always before his eyes, as it is written in Shulchan Aruch [Set Table (Jewish code of law)]: “I see the Lord before me always.” And one who stays home is unlike one who stands before the king. He who believes in the existence of the Creator—that the whole earth is full of His glory—is filled with fear and love, and needs no preparations or observation, only to completely nullify before the king from his very nature.

2. RABASH, Article No. 17 (1989), “What Is the Prohibition to Greet Before Blessing the Creator, in the Work?”

A person should believe that he can give much gratitude when the importance of a matter is revealed to him, but that which does not appear to him as important, a person does not appreciate. Nonetheless, one who wishes to come into the work of the Creator must believe in the sages and say that a tiny touch on Kedusha is regarded as a great thing. He should work on this and appreciate the matter until he can elicit joy from that small thing.

3. RABASH, Article No. 12 (1989), “What Is a Groom’s Meal?”

In the work. The bride means the time of the exile, a time of working in concealment of the face, when the love of the Creator and the glory of the greatness of the Creator do not shine for him and are ever before him, and he will not fall from his degree but always ascend ever higher. Instead, the person is in concealment of the face, called “the time of exile.” This means that he is still under the control of the “nations of the world,” which is the will to receive for himself.

This means that as long as he did not emerge from the authority of the will to receive, the Tzimtzum [restriction] and concealment are still over him. Each time he must overcome the concealment, see the Creator’s guidance, say that He is really good and does good, and everything he receives from the Creator is only good. Naturally, he should be thankful and praise the Creator from the bottom of the heart for giving him abundance.

In this respect, sometimes he has the power to overcome what he sees and say as it is written, “They have eyes and see not.” But this is only during the ascent.

4. Degel Machaneh Ephraim

Happy is a man to whom the Creator does not attribute iniquity. That is, man is a high degree, who observes, “I have set the Lord always before me.” When one’s thought sometimes turns away from the Creator, it is considered an iniquity for him that his thought has veered off from the fear of the Creator, as RASHI interprets (Psalms 16:8), “‘I have set the Lord always before me,’ I always place the fear of Him before my face.”

5. Degel Machaneh Ephraim

“I have set the Lord always before me”; this is a great rule in the Torah, since one’s sitting, movements, and engagements at one’s home are not as one’s sitting, movements, and engagements when one is before a great king. It is even more so when one thinks that he is sitting before the King of Kings, the Creator, and sees His actions. Promptly, fear and subjugation come to him.

6. Zohar for All, VaEra [And I Appeared], “Visible Colors and Invisible Colors”, Item 31

The way of the righteous is that it seems as though they speak to a person, but they raise their words to the Creator, to keep, “I have set the Lord always before me.” And one who greets a righteous, it is tantamount to greeting the Creator.