READING: BETWEEN AFTER MIDNINGHT AND DAWN THURSDAY

Baal HaSulam. Shamati, 121. She Is Like Merchant-Ships

LESSON MATERIAL

121. She Is Like Merchant-Ships

I heard

In the verse, “She is like the merchant-ships; she brings her bread from afar,” when one demands and insists, “she is all mine,” that all the desires will be dedicated to the Creator, the Sitra Achra [other side] awakens against him and claims, “She is all mine,” too. Then there is a tradeoff. A tradeoff means that a person wants to buy a certain object, and the buyer and seller debate its value, meaning each of them claims that he is right.

And here the body examines to whom it is worthwhile to listen: to the receiver or to the giving force. Both clearly argue, “She is all mine.” And since the person sees his lowliness, that in him, too, there are sparks that do not agree to observe the Torah and Mitzvot [commandments] even as a dot on the iota, but that the whole body argues, “She is all mine,” then, “she brings her bread from afar.” This means that from the removals, when one sees how far he is from the Creator and regrets and asks of the Creator to bring him closer, “she brings her bread.”

Bread means faith. In that state one is awarded permanent faith, since “God has so made it that He would be feared.” This means that all the removals that one feels were brought to him by the Creator, so he would have the need to take upon himself the fear of heaven.

This is the meaning of “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on what proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.” This means that the life of Kedusha [holiness] in a person does not come specifically from drawing closer, from entries, meaning admissions into Kedusha, but also from the exits, from the removals. This is so because through the dressing of the Sitra Achra in one’s body, and its claims, “She is all mine,” with a just argument, one is awarded permanent faith by overcoming these states.

This means that one should dedicate everything to the Creator, that is, that even the exits stem from Him. When he is rewarded, he sees that both the exits and the entries were all from Him. This forces him to be humble, since he sees that the Creator does everything, the exits as well as the entries.

This is the meaning of what is said about Moses, that he was humble and patient—that one must tolerate the lowliness, meaning that in each degree one should keep the lowliness. The minute he leaves the lowliness, he immediately loses all the degrees of Moses he had already achieved.

This is the meaning of patience. Lowliness exists in everyone, but not every person feels that lowliness is a good thing. It turns out that we do not want to suffer. However, Moses tolerated the humbleness, which is why he was called “humble,” since the lowliness made him glad.

This is the rule: “Where there is no joy, the Shechina [Divinity] does not dwell.” Hence, during the purification period, there cannot be the Shechina, although purification is a necessary thing (like the lavatory: although one must go there, one is still certain that this is not the King’s palace).

This is the meaning of Beracha [blessing] and Bechora [seniority], whose letters are the same [in Hebrew]. Seniority is GAR, and the Sitra Achra wants the GAR, but not the blessings, since blessing is the clothing over the Mochin. And Esau wanted the seniority without the clothing, but it is forbidden to receive Mochin without clothing. This is the meaning of Esau’s words: “Have you not reserved one blessing for me?” “One blessing” means the opposite of blessings, meaning a curse. It is said about that: “He loved cursing, and it came to him, and he had no desire for a blessing.”