🍇 SATURDAY PRAYER: GEVURAH- GRACE FOR THE FIRST SHABBAT MEAL
READING: SUNSET FRIDAY
SALT AND PEPPER IN SPIRITUAL WORK
-by Rabbi Michael Laitman
Even when a person finally begins to hear what is being said about different kinds of bestowal that need to be attained, there is still a big difference in what bestowal he wants to enjoy. And then it is important with what bestowal he wants to bring contentment—changes also happen there. After all, he begins to understand that there is egoistic bestowal.
And this is what we reveal in the group. We enjoy getting together, it lifts our spirits and we feel inspired—so why not unite? Besides, we think that it helps us advance spiritually. But let us think: What are we are advancing towards? It is pleasure, even though it seems to be due to bestowal! Is this already spiritual pleasure or not yet?
However, in either case, we exert efforts and the Light affects us, clarifying our desires. As a consequence, we begin to better understand the different types of reception and bestowal—for whose sake they are performed—until we finally begin to perceive new flavors, which happens only with the help of the Light that Reforms, only by the group effort.
Now a person is able to distinguish between “strong spices” and the “food” itself. On one hand, he needs his desires to receive as “spices.” But on the other, he does not enjoy them, but the real “food” whose flavor they bring out—his degree of bestowal. One is built on the other.
And one does not need a lot of pepper, salt, or mustard to bring out the flavor of food, even though you cannot manage without them either. The same happens with our efforts to add our own aspiration to the work of the Light. It does not need to be big; a big effort is not required of us. But this effort is necessary and it helps us “find.”
This is why we need to try to evaluate every state we experience: Whether our states are really spiritual and stand for spiritual advancement? Or perhaps these are additives with an opposite flavor: pepper, salt, and mustard, and not the flavor of the Light and bestowal. These additives help to separate the form of bestowal, the Light that comes to us, on their background—the form that is expected of us from Above.
But this work is very important; it is necessary for preparation of spiritual vessels. Our work is to make efforts, which leads to a “finding,” as it is written: “I have labored and found!” This is the main principal of spiritual advancement.