READING: between after midnight and sunrise of Friday

Lesson on the topic of “For Every Penny Joins Into A Great Amount”

For Every Penny Joins Into A Great Amount – Selected Excerpts from the Sources

1. RABASH, Letter No. 65

before a person qualifies himself to be fit to receive wholeness, he cannot see the length of the way that he has already traversed on his way toward the goal of wholeness, for only at the end of his work he will be able to see, but not midway, since he will not be able to receive His abundance before he has complete Kelim that are ready for it. This is why we must brace ourselves and say that we are already near the king’s palace, for every penny joins into a great amount, and perhaps soon we will see that the gate is open before us and we will be rewarded with entering delighting with the king.

2. RABASH, Article No. 13 (1987), “Why the Festival of Matzot Is Called Passover”

It is also known that our Kelim come from the breaking of the vessels. The breaking of the vessels means that we want to use the vessels of reception in order to receive, and this is regarded as separation from the Creator. This occurred in the upper worlds, and also through the sin of the tree of knowledge, when the Kelim fell into the Klipot [shells/peels], and we must elevate them because we come from their Kelim. By working with our desires to receive—which come from there—in order to bestow, we correct each time a piece of these Kelim, which are in the Klipot, and raise them to Kedusha [holiness/sanctity] by wanting to work only with the aim to bestow contentment upon the Creator.

Each time and each day, pieces of the Klipot—called “in order to receive”—are sorted. They are corrected so they can be used in order to bestow. The order is that a piece is elevated to Kedusha, and then we come down to a state of reception once again, and even forget that there is the matter of bestowal. But then we receive an ascent once more, take the part of the will to receive in us, overcome it, and correct it to work in order to bestow. This repeats itself each time until we acquire a certain measure of reception that has received the correction of bestowal. To that extent, there will be room for the upper abundance to enter. This Kli [vessel] is made by adding all the ascents that one had into one Kli, as it is written, “Penny by penny joins into a great amount” (Sotah 8).

3. RABASH, Article No. 10 (1984), “What Is the Degree One Should Achieve in Order Not to Have to Reincarnate?“

For example, a king wanted to send a large number of gold coins to his son overseas, but all of his countrymen were thieves and swindlers, and he did not have one loyal messenger. What did he do? He divided, he broke all the coins into pennies, and sent them through many messengers, so that the joy of stealing would not be worth blemishing the glory of the kingship.”

In this way, through an order of times in many souls, it is possible, through the illumination of the days, to scrutinize all the holy sparks that were robbed by the Klipot due to the sin of the tree of knowledge.

The meaning of many souls is division into inner lights, and many days means division into outer lights. And each penny accumulates into the amount of great light with which Adam HaRishon sinned, and then will be the end of correction.

4. RABASH, Article No. 22 (1985), “The Whole of the Torah Is One Holy Name”

We must always consider the goal, which is to “do good to His creations.” If the evil inclination comes to a person and asks him all of Pharaoh’s questions, he should not reply with lame excuses, but say, “Now, with your questions, I can begin with the work of bestowal.”

This means that we should not say about the questions of the evil inclination that it came to us in order to lower us from our degree. On the contrary, now it is giving us a place to work, by which we will ascend on the degrees of wholeness. That is, any overcoming in the work is called “walking in the work of the Creator,” since each penny joins into a great amount.” That is, all the times we overcome accumulate to a certain measure required to become a Kli for the reception of the abundance.

5. RABASH, Article No. 16 (1988), “What Is the Foundation on which Kedusha [Holiness] Is Built?”

Each day when a person digs the foundation, he digs into the depth of the ground and does not go back to working on what he has already worked yesterday. But the progress is in deepening, and the measure of the depth of the digging is until he receives a genuine need for the Creator’s help, to help him have the desire to work in order to bestow.

“Penny by penny accumulates into a great amount.” Finally, from all the digging, he arrives at such a depth that it is possible to build on it a building that is worthy of being rewarded with NRNHY of the Neshama, with which one should be rewarded.

6. RABASH, Letter No. 14

One is rewarded with everything only by overcoming, called “strength,” and each and every strength that a person elicits joins into a great amount. That is, even if a person overcomes once and gets an alien thought, and says, “But I already know from experience that soon I will not have this desire for the work, so what will I get now if I overcome it a little?”’ At that time, he must reply that many pennies join into a great amount, meaning to the general account, whether to the root of his soul or to the public.

7. RABASH, Article 21 (1989), “What Is, ‘A Drunken Man Must Not Pray,’ in the Work?“

Our sages said, “Walks and does not do, the reward for walking is in his hand.” This means that one should appreciate even a tiny contact with spirituality, in whatever manner. The Creator accepts everything and registers it under that person’s account, and penny by penny join into a great amount.

This is as it is written in Baal HaSulam’s essay, “The Order of the Work,” that we should address the work to the Creator and believe that He accepts our work, and it makes no difference how this works seems. That is, the Creator takes everyone into consideration if he does something in the work, and it makes no difference what aim a person has at the time, but the Creator takes everything into the account. For this reason, the person, too, should certainly think about everything that is something in the work of the Creator, and a person should derive delight and joy from everything, in that he has the privilege of having any contact with spirituality.

8. RABASH, Article No. 9 (1987), “One’s Greatness Depends on the Measure of One’s Faith in the Future”

Through the commandment of faith, the future will draw nearer to the present in him. This means that the surrounding light will be internal. This is considered that the light actually dresses in the present. It is called “the surrounding will become internal.”

Thus, from here—meaning from faith, from believing that in the end he will reach the goal, even though reason shows him each time that he is retreating from the goal and not advancing—he overcomes and goes above reason. And then faith itself accumulates each time in the form of “penny by penny joins into a great amount,” until he is rewarded with permanent whole faith, which is the attainment of the light of Hassadim in illumination of Hochma.

9. RABASH, Article No. 12 (1988), “What Are Torah and Work in the Way of the Creator?”

On the extent to which he believes that the Creator hears a prayer and can justify Providence and say what he thinks, that he did not receive what he asked for not because the Creator did not pay attention to his prayers, but he believes that the Creator stands and waits for his prayers and collects them, as in, “Penny by penny join into a great amount.”

10. RABASH, Article No. 17 (1989), “What Is the Prohibition to Greet Before Blessing the Creator, in the Work?”

This lack that a person begins to feel, that he cannot work for the sake of the Creator, is called a Kli [vessel], meaning a need for someone to help him have a desire to work for the sake of the Creator. The help he receives from above is regarded as the Creator helping him, is regarded as “light.” Those two appear one at a time, and not at once.

This is why it was said, “Man’s inclination overcomes him every day.” That is, the light and the Kli are not completed in one day. Rather, it is as it is written, “Penny by penny join into a great amount,” until the Kli receives the full measure of the lack that is suitable to receive light in full.

11. RABASH, Article 2 (1986), “Lend Ear, O Heaven”

If a person has really come to feel that he is far from the truth, he will not be comforted by the fact that everyone is taking the path of falsehood. Rather, day and night he longs to come out of that state. At that time a person acquires the need to achieve Lishma because he can no longer tolerate the falsehood.

But since that Kli [vessel] is not made all at once, meaning that the desire that the person receives from the left line is not made at once, but that desire forms in him gradually until it reaches the complete measure, and before this he still cannot achieve Lishma, since there is no light without a Kli, it means that he cannot be awarded Lishma before he desires it, and that desire grows within him slowly. Penny after penny joins into a great amount, meaning it is filled into a complete desire, and then the Lishma can dress in that desire because he already has a complete Kli, meaning a complete desire to be rewarded with Lishma.

12. RABASH, Article No. 13 (1987), “Why the Festival of Matzot Is Called Passover”

We must know that no ascent is lost. Rather, “penny by penny joins into a great amount.” For this reason, a person should be happy when he feels that spirituality is desirable to him and he wishes to come as close as possible to the Creator. He considers it a great privilege that an awakening from above has suddenly come to him, and he begins to look at self-love as loathsome and not worth living for, and yearns only for spirituality.

Yet, one should know that he should not say, “When I have an awakening from above, I will begin to do the holy work.” Rather, the fact that a person remembers that there is spirituality, even if he has no desire for it, he should already be thankful to the Creator for knowing that there is spirituality in the world, though he has no desire for the work.

13. RABASH, Letter No. 77

The whole foundation is that one should ask that all of one’s thoughts and desires will be only to benefit the Creator, a depiction of lowliness, called Shechina in the dust, immediately appears. Hence, we must not be impressed by the descent, since many pennies join into a great amount.

This is as we learned, “there is no absence in spirituality,” rather that it has temporarily departed in order to have room for work to advance. This is so because every moment that we scrutinize into holiness enters the domain of holiness, and a person descends only in order to sort out more sparks of holiness.

However, there is an advice that one should not wait until his degree is lowered for him, and when he feels his lowliness he goes up again, and that ascent is regarded as sorting a part into holiness. Instead, he himself descends and elevates other sparks, and raises them into the domain of holiness.

It is as our sages said, “Before I lose, I search” (Shabbat, 152), meaning before I lose the situation I am in, I start searching. It is as Baal HaSulam said about King David, who said, “I awaken the dawn.” Our sages said, “I awaken the dawn and the dawn does not awaken me.”

14. Baal HaSulam, Letter No. 2

By exerting the heart to display love between him and his Maker, the Creator instills His Shechina [Divinity] on him in remembrance, as in, “In every place where I mention My name, I will come to you and bless you.”

When the remembrance increases by the very work, the desire and longing increase, as in “And spirit draws spirit and brings spirit,” and so forth. Finally, the remembrance increases and grows by the craving and ascends in good deeds, for “All the pennies join into a great amount.” This is the meaning of “Behold, this one comes and His reward is with Him, and His work is before Him.”

15. RABASH, Article No. 2 (1987), “The Importance of Recognition of Evil”

In the work of the Creator. When we want him to continue in the work because in spirituality, everything we do is regarded as wholeness from the perspective of the general public, we must not mention any flaw in his work. Rather, he is told, “Everything you do is perfect because penny by penny joins into a great amount and no act in spirituality is lost. Rather, at the time of the end of correction, all the acts will be corrected.”