READING: BETWEEN AFTER MIDNINGHT AND DAWN MONDAY

Baal HaSulam. Shamati, 40. What Is the Measure of Faith in the Rav?

LESSON MATERIAL

40. What Is the Measure of Faith in the Rav?

I heard in 1943

It is known that there is a right path and a left path. Right comes from the words “to the right,” referring to the verse, “And he believed in the Lord.” The Targum says, “To the right, when the rav says to the disciple to take the right path.”

Right is normally called “wholeness,” and left, “incompleteness,” that corrections are missing there. In that state the disciple must believe the words of his rav, who tells him to walk in the right line, called “wholeness.”

And what is the “wholeness” by which the disciple should walk? It is that one should depict to oneself as if he has already been rewarded with whole faith in the Creator, and already feels in his organs that the Creator leads the whole world in the form of “The Good Who Does Good,” meaning that the whole world receives only good from Him.

Yet, when one looks at oneself, he sees that he is poor and indigent. In addition, when he observes the world, he sees that the entire world is tormented, each according to his degree.

One should say about that, “They have eyes but they see not.” “They” means that as long as one is in multiple authorities, called “they,” they do not see the truth. What are the multiple authorities? As long as one has two desires, even though he believes that the entire world belongs to the Creator, but something belongs to man, too.

But in truth, one must annul one’s authority before the authority of the Creator and say that one does not want to live for oneself, and the only reason that he wants to exist is in order to bring contentment to the Creator. Thus, by this one annuls his own authority completely, and then he is in the singular authority, the authority of the Creator. Only then can he see the truth, how the Creator leads the world by the quality of good and doing good.

As long as he is in multiple authorities, meaning when he still has two desires in both mind and heart, he is unable to see the truth. Instead, he must go above reason and say, “they have eyes,” but they do not see the truth.

It follows that when one regards oneself and wants to know if he is now in a time of descent or a time of ascent, he cannot know that, too. That is, he thinks that he is in a state of descent, and that, too, is incorrect, since he might be in a state of ascent now, meaning seeing his true state, how far he is from the holy work. Thus, he has now come closer to the truth.

And it might be to the contrary, that now he feels that one is in a state of elation, when in fact he is now controlled by receiving for himself, called “a descent.”

Only one who is already in the singular authority can discern and know the truth. Hence, one must trust the opinion of his rav and believe what his rav tells him. It means that one should go as his rav told him to do.

And although he sees many arguments and many teachings that do not go hand in hand with the opinion of his rav, he should nevertheless trust the opinion of his rav and say that what he understands and what he sees in other books that do not coincide with his rav’s opinion, he should say that as long as he is in multiple authorities, he cannot understand the truth, and he cannot see what is written in other books, the truth that they say.

It is known that when one is still not rewarded, his Torah becomes to him a potion of death. And why does it say, “Not rewarded, his Torah becomes to him a potion of death”? This is because all the teachings that one learns or hears will not bring him any benefit to make one able to be imparted with life, which is Dvekut [adhesion] with the Life of Lives. On the contrary, one is constantly drawn farther from the Life of Lives, since all that he does is only for the needs of the body, called “receiving for oneself,” and this is considered separation.

This means that through his actions he becomes more separated from the Life of Lives, and this is called “the potion of death,” since it brings him death and not life. It means that one becomes ever farther from bestowal, called “equivalence of form with the Creator,” by way of “As He is merciful, so are you merciful.”

We must also know that when one is engaged in the right, the time is right to extend upper abundance, because “the blessed adheres to the Blessed.” In other words, since one is in a state of completeness, called “blessed,” in that respect one presently has equivalence of form, since the sign of completeness is if one is in gladness. Otherwise, there is no completeness.

It is as our sages said, “The Shechina [Divinity] is present only out of gladness of a Mitzva [commandment].” The meaning is that the reason that brings him joy is the Mitzva, meaning the fact that the rav had commanded him to take the right line.

It follows that he keeps the commandment of the rav, that he was allotted a special time to walk on the right and a special time to walk on the left. Left contradicts the right, since left means when one calculates for oneself and begins to examine what he has already acquired in the work of the Creator, and he sees that he is poor and indigent. Thus, how can he be in wholeness?

Still, one goes above reason because of the commandment of the rav. It follows that all his wholeness was built on above reason, and this is called “faith.” This is the meaning of “In every place where I mention My Name, I will come to you and bless you.” “In every place” means although he is still not worthy of a blessing, nonetheless, I gave My blessing because you make a place, meaning a place of gladness, in which the upper light can be.