READING: BETWEEN AFTER MIDNINGHT AND DAWN FRIDAY

Baal HaSulam. Shamati, 207. Receiving in order to Bestow

LESSON MATERIAL

207. Receiving in order to Bestow

I heard on Shabbat, Tevet 13

People in the world walk on two legs, called “pleasure” and “pain.” They always chase after the place of pleasure, and always flee from the place of suffering. Hence, when one is rewarded with tasting the flavor of Torah and Mitzvot [commandments], as it is written, “Taste and see that the Lord is good,” then he chases the servitude of the Creator. The result of this is that one is always rewarded with degrees of Torah and Mitzvot, as it is written, “And His law does he contemplate day and night.”

But how can one restrict one’s mind to one thing? Rather, love and pleasure always tie one’s thoughts so that one’s mind and body are attached to the love and the pleasure, as we see with corporeal love. This is so precisely when one has already been awarded the expansion of the mind, which yields love. This discernment is called “within reason.” But one should always work above reason, since this is called “faith and bestowal.”

This is not so within reason, for then all the organs agree with one’s work because they, too, receive delight and pleasure, which is why it is called “within reason.”

At such a time one is in a difficult situation: It is forbidden to spoil the discernment, as it is a Godly illumination within him, as this is abundance from above. Instead, one should correct both, meaning the faith and the reason.

And then he needs to arrange it so that everything he has achieved so far, meaning the Torah that he has now achieved and the abundance that he now has, what has this got to do with that? It is only because he had had prior preparation by taking upon himself the above reason.

This means that through engagement in Dvekut [adhesion], he attached himself at the root. By this he was awarded reason, meaning that the reason he has obtained by the discernment of faith was a true revelation. It follows that he appreciates primarily the above reason, and also appreciates the reason, that he has now been rewarded with the revelation of His names to extend abundance.

This is why now he should strengthen further through reason, and take upon himself a greater above reason, as Dvekut in the root occurs primarily through faith, and this is his whole purpose. This is called “reception,” the reason he extended in order to bestow, and by which he will be able to take upon himself faith above reason to the greatest extent in quantity and quality.