READING: BETWEEN AFTER MIDNINGHT AND DAWN TUESDAY

Baal HaSulam. Shamati, 9. What Are Three Things that Broaden One’s Mind in the Work?

LESSON MATERIAL

9. What Are Three Things that Broaden One’s Mind in the Work?

I heard on Elul, August 1942

The Zohar interprets what our sages wrote: “Three things broaden one’s mind. These are a handsome woman, a handsome abode, and handsome Kelim [vessels].” It says, “A sightly woman is the Shechina [Divinity]. A sightly abode is his heart, and sightly Kelim are his organs.”

We must explain that the Shechina cannot appear in its true form, which is a state of grace and beauty, except when one has sightly Kelim, which are the organs extending from the heart. This means that one must first purify his heart to be a sightly abode by annulling the will to receive for himself and accustoming himself to work so all his actions will be only in order to bestow.

From this extend sightly Kelim, meaning his desires, called Kelim, will be clean from reception for himself. Rather, they will be pure, called “bestowal.”

However, if the abode is not sightly, the Creator says, “he and I cannot dwell in the same abode.” This is because there must be equivalence of form between the light and the Kli [vessel]. Therefore, when one takes upon himself faith in purity, in mind or in heart, he is imparted with a sightly woman, meaning that the Shechina appears to him in a form of grace and beauty, which broadens his mind.

In other words, through the pleasure and gladness he feels at that time, the Shechina appears within the organs, filling the outer and inner Kelim. This is called “broadening the mind.”

This is obtained through envy, lust, and honor, which bring a person out of the world. Envy means through envy in the Shechina, regarded as zeal in “The zeal of the Lord of hosts.” Honor means that he wants to increase the glory of heaven. Lust is by way of “You have heard the lust of the humble.”