READING: BETWEEN AFTER MIDNINGHT AND DAWN MONDAY

Baal HaSulam. Shamati, 34. The Advantage of a Land

34. The Advantage of a Land

I heard on Tevet, 1942

It is known that nothing appears in its true form, only through its opposite, “As the advantage of the light from within the darkness.” This means that everything points to another, and by the opposite of something, the existence of its opposite can be perceived.

Hence, it is impossible to attain something in complete clarity if its parallel is absent. For example, it is impossible to estimate and say that something is good, if its opposite, pointing to the bad, is missing. It is the same with bitterness and sweetness, love and hate, hunger and satiation, thirst and saturation, separation and adhesion. It turns out that it is impossible to come to love adhesion prior to acquiring the hate of separation.

To be rewarded with the degree of hating separation, one must first know what is separation, meaning from what he is separated, and then it is possible to say that he wants to correct that separation. In other words, one should examine from what and from whom he has become separated. After this he can try to mend it and connect himself to the one from whom he has become separated. If, for example, he understands that he will benefit from joining with Him, then he can assume and know what is the loss if he remains separated.

Gain and loss are measured according to the pleasure and the suffering. One hates and stays away from something that causes him suffering. The measure of the distance depends on the measure of the suffering, since it is human nature to escape from suffering. Hence, one depends on the other, meaning that to the extent of the suffering, one exerts and does all kinds of actions so as to move away from it. In other words, the torments cause hatred for the thing that induces torments, and to that extent he moves away.

It follows that one should know what is equivalence of form in order to know what he must do to achieve adhesion, called “equivalence of form.” By this he will come to know what are disparity of form and separation.

It is known from books and from authors that the Creator is benevolent. This means that His guidance appears to the lower ones as good and doing good, and this is what we must believe.

Therefore, when one examines the conducts of the world, and begins to examine himself or others, how they suffer under Providence instead of delighting, as is fitting for His Name—The Good Who Does Good—in that state, it is hard for him to say that Providence is behaving in a manner of good and doing good and imparts them with abundance.

However, we must know that in that state, when they cannot say that the Creator imparts only good, they are considered wicked because suffering makes them condemn their Maker. Only when they see that the Creator imparts them with pleasures do they justify the Creator. It is as our sages said, “Who is righteous? He who justifies his Maker,” meaning he who says that the Creator leads the world in a manner of righteousness.

Thus, when one suffers, he becomes far from the Creator since he naturally becomes hateful of He who imparts him torments. Consequently, where one should have loved the Creator, he now becomes the opposite, for he has come to hate the Creator.

Accordingly, what should one do in order to come to love the Creator? For this purpose we are given the remedy of engaging in Torah and Mitzvot [commandments], for the light in it reforms him. There is light there which lets him feel the severity of the state of separation. Bit by bit, as one aims to acquire the light of Torah, hatred for separation is created in him. He begins to feel the reason that causes him and his soul to be separated and far from the Creator.

Thus, one must believe that His guidance is benevolent, but since he is immersed in self-love, it induces disparity of form in him, since there was a correction called “in order to bestow,” and it is called “equivalence of form.” Only in this manner can we receive this delight and pleasure. The inability to receive the delight and pleasure that the Creator wants to give evokes in the receiver hatred for separation, and then he can discern the great benefit from equivalence of form, and then he begins to yearn for adhesion.

In turns out that every form points to another form. Thus, all the descents where one feels that he has come to separation are an opportunity to discern between something and its opposite. In other words, from the descents, one should learn the benefits of the ascents. Otherwise, he would be unable to appreciate the importance of being brought near from above, and the ascents that he is given. He would not be able to extract the importance that he could extract, as when one is given food without ever having felt hunger.

It turns out that the descents, which are the times of separation, create the importance of adhesion in the ascents, while the ascents make him hate the descents that the separation causes him. In other words, he cannot assess how bad the descents are, when he slanders Providence and does not even feel whom he slanders, to know that he must repent for such a grave sin. This is called “slandering the Creator.”

It follows that precisely when one has both forms he can discern the distance between one and the other, “As the advantage of the light from within the darkness.” Only then can he assess and appreciate the matter of adhesion by which the delight and pleasure in the thought of creation can be acquired, being “His desire to do good to His creations.” Everything that appears to our eyes is but what the Creator wants us to attain the way we do, since they are ways by which to achieve the complete goal.

Yet, it is not so simple to merit adhesion with the Creator. It requires great effort and exertion to acquire the sensation and feeling of delight and pleasure. Before this, one must justify Providence, believe above reason that the Creator behaves with the creatures in a manner of good and doing good, and say, “They have eyes but they see not.”

Our sages say, “Habakkuk came and ascribed them to one,” as it is written, “The righteous shall live by his faith.” It means that one need not engage in details, but concentrate his entire work on a single point, a rule, which is faith in the Creator. This is what he should pray for, meaning for the Creator to help him to be able to go with faith above reason. There is power in the faith: Through it, one comes to hate the separation. This is considered that faith indirectly makes him hate the separation.

We see that there is a great difference between faith, seeing, and knowing. Something that can be seen and known, if the mind asserts that it is worthwhile to do that thing and he decides on it once, that decision is enough regarding that thing that he decided on. In other words, he executes according to how he had decided. This is so because the mind accompanies him in every single act so as not to break what the mind had told him, and lets him understand by one hundred percent, to the extent that the mind brought him to the decision he has reached.

However, faith is a matter of potential agreement. In other words, he overpowers the mind and says that it is indeed worthwhile to work as faith asserts to work—above reason. Hence, faith above reason is useful only during the act, when he believes. Only then is he willing to exert above reason in the work.

Conversely, when he leaves faith for but a moment, meaning when faith weakens for a brief moment, he immediately ceases the Torah and the work. It does not help him that a short while ago he took upon himself the burden of faith above reason.

However, when he perceives in his mind that this is a bad thing for him, that it is something that risks his life, he needs no repetitive explanations and reasoning why it is a dangerous thing. Rather, since he once fully realized in his mind that he should practice these things, of which the mind tells him specifically which is bad and which is good, now he follows that decision.

We see the difference between what the mind asserts and what only faith asserts, and what is the reason that when something is based on faith, we must constantly remember the form of the faith, otherwise he falls from his degree into a state suitable for one who is wicked. These states might happen even in a single day: One may fall from his degree many times in one day since it is impossible that faith above reason will not stop even for a moment during one day.

We must know that the reason for forgetting the faith stems from the fact that faith above the reason and the mind is against all the desires of the body. Since the desires of the body come by the nature imprinted in us, called “will to receive,” whether in the mind or in the heart, hence, the body always draws us to our nature. Only when we cling to faith does it have the power to bring us out of the bodily desires and go above reason, meaning against the body’s reason.

Hence, before one acquires vessels of bestowal, called Dvekut [adhesion], faith cannot be in him on a permanent basis. When faith does not shine for him, he sees that he is in the lowest possible state, and it all comes to him because of the disparity of form, which is the will to receive for himself. This separation causes him all the torments, ruins all the buildings and all the efforts he had put into the work.

He sees that the minute he loses faith, he is in a worse state than when he started on the path of work in bestowal. In this way, one acquires hatred for the separation since he immediately begins to feel torments in himself and in the entire world. It becomes hard for him to justify His Providence over the creatures, that it is in the form of good and doing good. At that time, he feels that the whole world has grown dark on him and he has nothing from which to derive joy.

Hence, every time he begins to correct the flaw of slandering Providence, he receives hatred for the separation. Through the hatred he feels in the separation, he comes to love Dvekut. In other words, to the extent that he suffers during the separation, so he draws nearer to Dvekut with the Creator. Similarly, to the extent that he feels the darkness as bad, he comes to feel that Dvekut is good. Then he knows how to value it when he receives some Dvekut, for the time being, and then knows how to appreciate it.

Now we can see that all the torments that exist in the world are but preparation for the real torments. These are the torments that one must reach, or he will not be able to acquire anything spiritual, as there is no light without a Kli [vessel]. These torments, the real torments, are called “condemnation of Providence and slandering.” This is what one prays for, to not slander Providence, and these are the torments that the Creator accepts. This is the meaning of the Creator hearing the prayer of every mouth.

The reason the Creator responds to these torments is that then one does not ask for help for his own vessels of reception, since we can say that if the Creator grants him everything he wishes, it might make him farther from the Creator due to the disparity of form that he would thus acquire. Rather, it is to the contrary: One asks for faith, for the Creator to give him the strength to prevail so he can be awarded equivalence of form, for he sees that by not having permanent faith, meaning when faith does not shine for him, he comes to doubt Providence, and he comes to a state called “wicked,” that he condemns his Maker.

It turns out that all the suffering he feels is because he slanders Providence. It therefore follows that what hurts him is that where he should have been praising the Creator, saying “Blessed is He who has created us in His Glory,” meaning that the creatures respect the Creator, he sees that the world’s conduct is unfitting for His glory, since everyone complains and demands that first it should be open Providence that the Creator leads the world in a manner of good and doing good. Since it is not revealed, they are saying that this Providence does not glorify Him, and that pains him.

Thus, by the torment one feels, he is compelled to slander. Hence, when he asks of the Creator to impart him the power of faith and to be rewarded with the quality of good and doing good, it is not because he wants to receive good so as to delight himself. Rather, it is so he will not slander; this is what pains him. For himself, he wants to believe above reason that the Creator leads the world in a manner of good and doing good, and he wants his faith to settle in the sensation as though it is within reason.

Therefore, when he practices Torah and Mitzvot, he wants to extend the light of the Creator not for his own benefit, but since he cannot bear not being able to justify His guidance, that it is in a manner of good and doing good. It pains him that he desecrates the name of the Creator, whose name is The Good Who Does Good, and his body claims otherwise.

This is all that pains him since by being in a state of separation, he cannot justify His guidance. This is considered hating the state of separation. And when he feels this suffering, the Creator hears his prayer, brings him near Him, and he is rewarded with Dvekut, for the pains that he feels from the separation make him be rewarded with Dvekut; and then it is said, “As the advantage of the light from within the darkness.”

This is the meaning of “The advantage of a land in everything.” Land is creation; “in everything” means that by the advantage, meaning when we see the difference between the state of separation and the state of Dvekut, through it we are granted Dvekut with the everything, since the Creator is called “the root of everything.”