READING: FROM MIDNIGHT TO DAWN FRIDAY

Lesson on the topic of “The Place of Creation”

The Place of Creation – Selected Excerpts from the sources

1. RABASH, Article No. 462, “Blessed Is the Place [Creator]”

“Place” refers to the place of creation, which the Creator created. By His desire to do good to His creations, He created existence from absence a place for them to receive the delight and pleasure that He wants to impart upon them. It follows that this place, meaning creation, should be filled with the light of the Creator, which is to do good to His creations. It follows that “Blessed is the place” means that we bless Him for creating the place.

It therefore follows that if the place has not yet been filled, and there is concealment of the face in this place, we say that this place must be filled with the light of the Creator. Although it is still not revealed to us, we must believe that “The whole earth is full of His glory,” and “His servants ask one another, ‘Where is the place of His glory?’”

Accordingly, the meaning of “The Place will fulfill your need” means that this lack, the concealment of the face, which causes all the lacks, will be filled, namely that it will be in revelation of the face.

2. RABASH, Article No. 20 (1991), “What Is, ‘There Is Nothing that Has No Place,’ in the Work?”

In the work, a “place” is a place of deficiency. That is, if a person has some lack, we should say that he has a place in which to receive a filling for the lack. But if he has no lack, it cannot be said that it can be filled, since there is no one to fill. For example, if one is not hungry, he cannot eat. This is considered that he has no place to fill his hunger. Or, if he is not thirsty, he cannot drink water, since he has no place in which to receive the filling.

3. RABASH, Article No. 20 (1991), “What Is, ‘There Is Nothing that Has No Place,’ in the Work?”

The Creator is the place of His world. That is, the correction of creation is that the place of the Creator, meaning the lack, called “the place of the Creator,” is that the Creator wants to bestow, meaning the deficiency.

The deficiency that can be said about the Creator is that He wants to do good to His creations. That desire to bestow, when the world is deficient because they want to bestow like the Creator, at that time the world will exist in wholeness. At that time, the Creator will be able to bestow upon them delight and pleasure. Why? Because the reception of delight and pleasure will be in a manner of correction.

4. RABASH, Article No. 20 (1991), “What Is, ‘There Is Nothing that Has No Place,’ in the Work?”

We say, “Blessed is the place.” That is, when one has been rewarded with receiving the lack of the Creator, which is the desire to bestow, the person thanks the Creator for giving him His place, meaning the desire to bestow, which is what the Creator has. A person should achieve this degree of having the desire to bestow. This is why we say, “Blessed is the place,” for giving us the place, meaning His deficiency, which is the desire to bestow, for with this desire of the Creator, the Creator can satisfy it with delight and pleasure.

5. RABASH, Article No. 20 (1991), “What Is, ‘There Is Nothing that Has No Place,’ in the Work?”

We asked, What is “There is nothing that has no place” in the work? It means that this thing that a person wants to obtain, meaning the desire to bestow, which is what a person feels he lacks, a person must first work so that the thing he wants to obtain, namely the desire to bestow, must first have a place, meaning a real lack.

This is expressed in two ways: 1) to feel deficient, 2) to feel that only the Creator can help him, and the person himself is utterly unable to emerge from the governance of the will to receive for himself.

This is the meaning of “There is nothing that has no place.” It means that the order of the work is that one must first prepare the place, meaning the lack, and then the Creator gives the filling of the lack.

6. Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article No. 98, “Spirituality Is Called That Which Will Never Be Lost”

A real place in spirituality is called “the place of reality,” since anyone who comes there, to that place, sees the same shape as the other. Conversely, something imaginary is not regarded as a real place since it is imaginary, and then everyone imagines it differently.

When we say “seventy faces to the Torah,” it means that they are seventy degrees. In each degree, the Torah is interpreted according to the degree one is in. However, a world is a reality, meaning that anyone who comes to any of the seventy degrees in that world attains the same form as all the other attainers who came there.

7. RABASH, Article No. 462, “Blessed Is the Place [Creator]”

We say, “The Place will comfort you among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.” That is, because all the afflictions that exist in the world derive from the concealment of the face, we say “The Place will comfort you.” In other words, this place called “creation,” which He created with the intention to do good to His creations, will be in revelation of the face, and then “They shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.”

This is the place of the world, meaning that He fills the lack of the world, but the world is not His place. In other words, the world does not fill His lack because He has no lack that needs to be filled. That is, the only reason we need to work in order to bestow is only for our sake, so as to have equivalence of form, and not that He needs anything.

8. RABASH, Article No. 33 (1991), “What Does It Mean that the Creator Favors Someone, in the Work?”

“When they do not do the Creator’s will,” when they are not walking on the path toward achieving the desire of the Creator, which is the desire to bestow, it is said about them, “who does not favor.” That is, He cannot help them by satisfying their wish, since their wish is the opposite of Kedusha [holiness], so how can He give them something that contradicts the Creator’s will, since all that one should do in the work is correct his actions so they are in order to bestow? If the Creator favors them, meaning that they receive help so they work for the will to receive for themselves, it is as though the Creator is failing them. Hence, the Creator helps them by not favoring them, so they do not remain in self-love. It was said about this, “He who comes to defile, it is opened for him,” but he is not helped, unlike when he comes to purify, who is assisted.

9. RABASH, Article No. 32, “Man’s Greatness Is According to His Work”

“It is not man’s place that honors him.” That is, it is not for this, if a person has been rewarded with some awakening. It follows that the Creator honored him; by this a person becomes respected, since an awakening that comes from above will finally depart from him because he still lacks the qualification to be fit to receive for the sake of the Creator and not for his own pleasure.

“It is rather man who honors His place.” Specifically by this, when one makes an effort during the choice and wants to honor His place, meaning the Creator, only then does one become honored. That is, through his work, a person becomes a vehicle for the throne. However, it is not during an awakening from above, which is regarded as the Creator honoring the person.

10. RABASH, Article No. 700, “Covering and Revealing”

“When Israel do the Creator’s will, their work is done by others.” “Work” means the work on qualities (Berachot 35b). When one does the Creator’s will, he sees no place that he should correct. But then the Creator makes for him the wings, which are a cover, and then he has a place where he needs to work in order to reveal the place and reveal the lack. In other words, the Creator does this work for him, revealing to him the lack.