<- Kabbalah Library
Continue Reading ->
Kabbalah Library

Rabash

Articles
Purpose of Society - 1 Purpose of Society - 2 Concerning Love of Friends Love of Friends - 1 Each One Shall Help His Friend What Does the Rule "Love Thy Friend as Thyself" Give Us Love of Friends - 2 According to What Is Explained Concerning “Love Thy Friend as Thyself” Which Keeping of Torah and Mitzvot Purifies the Heart One Should Always Sell the Beams of His House Achieve in Order Not to Have to Reincarnate? Concerning Ancestral Merit Concerning the Importance of Society Sometimes Spirituality Is Called “a Soul” Forevermore One Sells All That Is His and Marries a Wise Disciple's Daughter Can Something Negative Come Down from Above Concerning Bestowal Concerning the Importance of Friends The Agenda of the Assembly - 1 And It Shall Come to Pass When You Come to the Land that the Lord Your God Gives You You Stand Today, All of You Make for Yourself a Rav and Buy Yourself a Friend - 1 The Meaning of Truth and Faith These Are the Generations of Noah Go Forth From Your Land And the Lord Appeared to Him at the Oaks of Mamre The Life of Sarah Make for Yourself a Rav and Buy Yourself a Friend - 2 Jacob Went Out And Jacob Went Out Concerning the Debate between Jacob and Laban Jacob Dwelled in the Land Where His Father Had Lived Mighty Rock of My Salvation I Am the First and I Am the Last And Hezekiah Turned His Face to the Wall But the More They Afflicted Them Know Today and Reply to Your Heart Come unto Pharaoh - 1 He who Hardens His Heart We Should Always Discern between Torah and Work The Whole of the Torah Is One Holy Name On My Bed at Night Three Times in the Work In Every Thing We Must Discern between Light and Kli Show Me Your Glory Repentance The Spies The Lord Is Near to All Who Call upon Him Three Prayers One Does Not Regard Oneself as Wicked Concerning the Reward of the Receivers The Felons of Israel And I Pleaded with the Lord When a Person Knows What Is Fear of the Creator And There Was Evening and There Was Morning Who Testifies to a Person A Righteous Who Is Happy, a Righteous Who Is Suffering Hear Our Voice Moses Went Lend Ear, O Heaven Man Is Rewarded with Righteousness and Peace through the Torah Concerning Hesed [Mercy] Concerning Respecting the Father Confidence The Importance of a Prayer of Many Concerning Help that Comes from Above Concerning the Hanukkah Candle Concerning Prayer A Real Prayer Is over a Real Deficiency What Is the Main Deficiency for which One Should Pray? Come unto Pharaoh – 2 What Is the Need to Borrow Vessels from the Egyptians? A Prayer of Many The Lord Has Chosen Jacob for Himself The Agenda of the Assembly - 2 Who Causes the Prayer Concerning Joy Should One Sin and Be Guilty Concerning Above Reason If a Woman Inseminates Concerning Fear and Joy The Difference between Charity and Gift The Measure of Practicing Mitzvot [Commandments] A Near Way and a Far Way The Creator and Israel Went into Exile A Congregation Is No Less than Ten Lishma and Lo Lishma The Klipa [Shell/Peel] that Precedes the Fruit Concerning Yenika [Suckling] and Ibur [Impregnation] The Reason for Straightening the Legs and Covering the Head During the Prayer What Are Commandments that a Person Tramples with His Feet Judges and Officers The Fifteenth of Av What Is Preparation for the Selichot [Forgiveness] The Good Who Does Good, to the Bad and to the Good The Importance of Recognition of Evil It is Forbidden to Hear a Good Thing From a Bad Person What Is the Advantage in the Work More than in the Reward? The Importance of Faith that Is Always Present The Miracle of Hanukkah The Difference between Mercy and Truth and Untrue Mercy One’s Greatness Depends on the Measure of One’s Faith in the Future What Is the Substance of Slander and Against Whom Is It? Purim, and the Commandment: Until He until He Does Not Know What Is Half a Shekel in the Work - 1 Why the Festival of Matzot Is Called Passover Two Discernments in Holiness The Difference between the Work of the General Public and the Work of the Individual The Severity of Teaching Idol Worshippers the Torah What Is Preparation for Reception of the Torah - 1 What Are Revealed and Concealed in the Work of the Creator? What Is Man’s Private Possession? What Are Dirty Hands in the Work of the Creator? What Is the Gift that a Person Asks of the Creator? Peace After a Dispute Is More Important than Having No Disputes At All What is Unfounded Hatred in the Work What Is Heaviness of the Head in the Work? What Is a Light Commandment What Are “Blessing” and “Curse” in the Work? What Is Do Not Add and Do Not Take Away in the Work? What Is “According to the Sorrow, So Is the Reward”? What Is a War Over Authority in the Work – 1 What Is Making a Covenant in the Work Why Life Is Divided into Two Discernments What Is the Extent of Teshuva [Repentance]? What It Means that the Name of the Creator is “Truth” What Is the Prayer for Help and for Forgiveness in the Work? What Is, “When Israel Are in Exile, the Shechina Is with Them,” in the Work? What Is the Difference between a Field and a Man of the Field, in the Work? What Is the Importance of the Groom, that His Iniquities Are Forgiven? What Does It Mean that One Who Prays Should Explain His Words Properly? What Does It Mean that the Righteous Suffers Afflictions? What Are the Four Qualities of Those Who Go to the Seminary, in the Work? What Are the Two Discernments before Lishma? What Are Torah and Work in the Way of the Creator? What Is “the People’s Shepherd Is the Whole People” in the Work? The Need for Love of Friends What Is “There Is No Blessing in an Empty Place” in the Work? The Main Difference between a Beastly Soul and a Godly Soul When Is One Considered “A Worker of the Creator” in the Work? What Is the Reward in the Work of Bestowal? What Does It Mean that the Torah Was Given Out of the Darkness in the Work? What Are Merits and Iniquities of a Righteous in the Work? What Beginning in Lo Lishma Means in the Work What Is “The Concealed Things Belong to the Lord, and the Revealed Things Belong to Us,” in the Work? What Is the Preparation on the Eve of Shabbat, in the Work? What Is the Difference between Law and Judgment in the Work? What Is, “The Creator Does Not Tolerate the Proud,” in the Work? What Is, His Guidance Is Concealed and Revealed? What to Look for in the Assembly of Friends What Is the Work of Man, in the Work that Is Attributed to the Creator? What Are the Two Actions During a Descent? What Is the Difference between General and Individual in the Work of the Creator? What Are Day and Night in the Work? What Is the Help in the Work that One Should Ask of the Creator? What Is the Measure of Repentance? What Is a Great or a Small Sin in the Work? What Is the Difference between the Gate of Tears and the Rest of the Gates? What Is a Flood of Water in the Work? What Does It Mean that the Creation of the World Was by Largess? What Is Above Reason in the Work? What Is “He Who Did Not Toil on the Eve of Shabbat, What Will He Eat on Shabbat” in the Work? What It Means, in the Work, that If the Good Grows, So Grows the Bad What Is, “Calamity that Comes upon the Wicked Begins with the Righteous,” in the Work? What Does It Mean that the Ladder Is Diagonal, in the Work? What Are the Forces Required in the Work? What Is a Groom’s Meal? What Is the “Bread of an Evil-Eyed Man” in the Work? What Is the Meaning of “Reply unto Your Heart”? What Is the Prohibition to Bless on an Empty Table, in the Work? Why Is Shabbat Called Shin-Bat in the Work? What Does It Mean that the Evil Inclination Ascends and Slanders, in the Work? What Is, “A Drunken Man Must Not Pray, in the Work? Why Are Four Questions Asked Specifically on Passover Night? What Is, If He Swallows the Bitter Herb, He Will Not Come Out, in the Work? What Is “Do Not Slight the Blessing of a Layperson” in the Work? What Is “He Who Has a Flaw Shall Not Offer [Sacrifice]” in the Work? What Is “He Who Defiles Himself Is Defiled from Above” in the Work? What Is the Meaning of Suffering in the Work? What Is the Meaning of Lighting the Menorah in the Work? What Is the Prohibition to Teach Torah to Idol-Worshippers in the Work? What Does It Mean that Oil Is Called “Good Deeds” in the Work? What Are Spies in the Work? What Is Peace in the Work? What Is, “He Who Is Without Sons,” in the Work? What Is “For It Is Your Wisdom and Understanding in the Eyes of the Nations,” in the Work? What Is “A Road Whose Beginning Is Thorns and Its End Is a Plain” in the Work? What Are Judges and Officers in the Work? What Is, “Every Day They Will Be as New in Your Eyes,” in the Work? The Daily Schedule What Does “May We Be the Head and Not the Tail” Mean in the Work? What It Means that the World Was Created for the Torah What It Means that the Generations of the Righteous are Good Deeds, in the Work What It Means that the Land Did Not Bear Fruit before Man Was Created, in the Work When Should One Use Pride in the Work? What Are the Times of Prayer and Gratitude in the Work? What It Means that Esau Was Called “A Man of the Field,” in the Work What Is, “A Ladder Is Set on the Earth, and Its Top Reaches Heaven,” in the Work? What Does It Mean that Our Sages Said, “King David Did Not Have a Life,” in the Work? What Placing the Hanukkah Candle on the Left Means in the Work What Does It Mean that by the Unification of the Creator and the Shechina, All Iniquities Are Atoned? What Does It Mean that Before the Egyptian Minister Fell, Their Outcry Was Not Answered, in the Work? What Is “For Lack of Spirit and for Hard Work,” in the Work? What Is the Assistance that He who Comes to Purify Receives in the Work? Why the Speech of Shabbat Must Not Be as the Speech of a Weekday, in the Work Why Is the Torah Called “Middle Line” in the Work?-2 What Is Half a Shekel in the Work? - 2 What Is, “As I Am for Nothing, so You Are for Nothing,” in the Work? What Is the Order in Blotting Out Amalek? What Does It Mean that Moses Was Perplexed about the Birth of the Moon, in the Work? What Does, “Everything that Comes to Be a Burnt Offering Is Male,” Mean in the Work? What Is, “Praise the Lord, All Nations,” in the Work? What Is, “There Is None as Holy as the Lord, for There Is None Besides You,” in the Work? What Is, “Every Blade of Grass Has an Appointee Above, Who Strikes It and Tells It, Grow!” in the Work? What Is, “Warn the Great about the Small,” in the Work? What Is, “The Torah Exhausts a Person’s Strength,” in the Work? What It Means that “Law and Ordinance” Is the Name of the Creator in the Work What “Israel Do the Creator’s Will” Means in the Work What Is “The Earth Feared and Was Still,” in the Work? What Are “A Layperson’s Vessels,” in the Work? What Is “He Who Enjoys at a Groom’s Meal,” in the Work? What Is, “The Children of Esau and Ishmael Did Not Want to Receive the Torah,” in the Work? What Is, “The Shechina Is a Testimony to Israel,” in the Work? What Is, “A Cup of Blessing Must Be Full,” in the Work? What Is, “Anyone Who Mourns forJerusalem Is Rewarded with Seeing Its Joy,” in the Work? What Is, “For You Are the Least of All the Peoples,” in the Work? What Are the Light Mitzvot that a Person Tramples with His Heels, in the Work? What Are a Blessing and a Curse, in the Work? What Is, “You Shall Not Plant for Yourself an Asherah by the Altar,” in the Work? What Is an Optional War, in the work? - 2 What Is, “The Concealed Things Belong to the Lord Our God,” in the work? What Is, “We Have No Other King But You,” in the Work? What Is, “Return, O Israel, Unto the Lord Your God,” in the Work? What Is, “The Wicked Will Prepare and the Righteous Will Wear,” in the Work? What Is, “The Saboteur Was in the Flood, and Was Putting to Death,” in the Work? What Is, “The Herdsmen of Abram’s Cattle and the Herdsmen of Lot’s Cattle,” in the Work? What Is “Man” and What Is “Beast” in the Work? What Is, “And Abraham Was Old, of Many Days,” in the Work? What Is, “The Smell of His Garments,” in the Work? What Does “The King Stands on His Field When the Crop Is Ripe” Mean in the Work? What It Means that the Good Inclination and the Evil Inclination Guard a Person in the Work These Candles Are Sacred What “You Have Given the Strong to the Hands of the Weak” Means in the Work What Does It Mean that Man’s Blessing Is the Blessing of the Sons, in the Work? What Is the Blessing, “Who Made a Miracle for Me in This Place,” in the Work? Why We Need “Reply unto Your Heart,” to Know that the Lord, He Is God, in the Work What Is, “For I Have Hardened His Heart,” in the work? What It Means that We Should Raise the Right Hand over the Left Hand, in the Work What Is, “Rise Up, O Lord, and Let Your Enemies Be Scattered,” in the Work? What Is, “There Is Nothing that Has No Place,” in the Work? What Does It Mean that We Read the Portion, Zachor [Remember], Before Purim, in the Work? What Is “A Lily Among the Thorns,” in the Work? What Is the Meaning of the Purification of a Cow’s Ashes, in the Work? What Does It Mean that One Should Bear a Son and a Daughter, in the Work? What Is, “If a Woman Inseminates First, She Delivers a Male Child,” in the Work? What Are Holiness and Purity, in the Work? What Does It Mean that a High Priest Should Take a Virgin Wife, in the Work? What Does It Mean that One Who Was On a Far Off Way Is Postponed to a Second Passover, in the Work? What Does It Mean that Charity to the Poor Makes the Holy Name, in the Work? What Does It Mean that the Creator Favors Someone, in the Work? What Is Eating Their Fruits in This World and Keeping the Principal for the Next World, in the Work? What Is the Meaning of “Spies,” in the Work? What Is, “Peace, Peace, to the Far and to the Near,” in the Work? What Is the “Torah” and What Is “The Statute of the Torah,” in the Work? What Is the “Right Line,” in the Work? What Does It Mean that the Right Must Be Greater than the Left, in the Work? What Are Truth and Falsehood in the Work? What Should One Do If He Was Born With Bad Qualities? What Is, “An Ox Knows Its Owner, etc., Israel Does Not Know,” in the Work? What Is, “You Will See My Back, But My Face Shall Not Be Seen,” in the Work? What Is the Reason for which Israel Were Rewarded with Inheritance of the Land, in the Work? What Does It Mean that a Judge Must Judge Absolutely Truthfully, in the Work? What Does It Mean that the Right and the Left Are in Contrast, in the Work?

Ramchal

Agra

Kabbalah Library Home /

Rabash / What Is, “The Torah Exhausts a Person’s Strength,” in the Work?

What Is, “The Torah Exhausts a Person’s Strength,” in the Work?

Article No. 29, 1990

Our sages said (Sanhedrin 26b), “Rabbi Hanin said, ‘Why is the name of the Torah Tushia [gumption/resourcefulness]? It is because she Mateshet [exhausts] a person’s strength.’” We should understand this. After all, our sages said (Avot, Chapter 6:7), “Great is the Torah, for she gives life to those who make her, as it was said, ‘For they are life to those who find them, and a healing to all his flesh.’” They also said (Iruvin 54), “If his head aches, let him engage in Torah; if his throat aches, let him engage in Torah; if his stomach aches, let him engage in Torah, as was said, ‘a healing to all his flesh.’” Thus, this contradicts the above said.

To understand this, we must first understand what is the Torah. That is, for what purpose did the Creator give us the Torah? Our sages said (Kidushin 30), “I have created the evil inclination; I have created for it the Torah as a spice.” This seems to mean that if there were no evil inclination, He would not create the Torah, as it is written, “I have created the Torah as a spice.” Can it be said that the Torah was created for the evil inclination?

The Zohar says (“Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” “General Explanation for All Fourteen Commandments and How They Divide into the Seven Days of Creation,” Item 1): “The Mitzvot in the Torah are called Pekudin [Aramaic: commands/deposits], as well as 613 Eitin [Aramaic: counsels/tips]. The difference between them is that in all things there is Panim [anterior/face] and Achor [posterior/back]. The preparation for something is called Achor, and the attainment of the matter is called Panim. Similarly, in Torah and Mitzvot [commandments/good deeds] there are ‘We shall do’ and ‘We shall hear.’ When observing Torah and Mitzvot as ‘doers of His word,’ prior to being rewarded with ‘hearing the voice of His word,’ the Mitzvot are called ‘613 Eitin,’ and are regarded as Achor. When rewarded with ‘hearing the voice of His word,’ the 613 Mitzvot become Pekudin, from the word Pikadon [deposit]. This is so because there are 613 Mitzvot, where in each Mitzva [singular of Mitzvot], the light of a unique degree is deposited, opposite a unique organ in the 613 organs and tendons of the soul and of the body.”

According to the above, it means that the Torah and Mitzvot are discerned in two degrees: 1) An advice, as it is written, “613 Eitin.” That is, by observing Torah and Mitzvot, they will have the strength to cancel the evil inclination. By this we should interpret what is written, “I have created the evil inclination; I have created the Torah as a spice.” That is, the Torah is considered a spice for the evil inclination. In The Zohar, this is called “613 Eitin.” 2) Torah for the sake of Torah, which are regarded as 613 Pekudin. This Torah is the names of the Creator. We attain this Torah after we have corrected our actions and can work in order to bestow and not for our own sake.

However, when beginning to walk toward attainment of the vessels of bestowal, we said that for this we need the Torah as Eitin, called 613 Eitin. There is also work before this, namely the first manner in which we begin to observe Torah and Mitzvot. This is called Lo Lishma [not for Her sake], and this is the first discernment.

The second manner is when we want to work Lishma [for Her sake]. At that time, we must do everything we can in order to achieve Lishma, meaning to be able to come to do everything in order to bestow.

Afterward, we arrive at the third manner, when we are rewarded with the Torah, called “the names of the Creator,” which The Zohar calls “613 Pekudin.”

Therefore, when beginning to observe Torah and Mitzvot in the first manner, meaning in Lo Lishma and in order to receive reward, as it is written in The Zohar (“Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” “General Explanation for All Fourteen Commandments and How They Divide into the Seven Days of Creation”), The beginning of man’s work in Torah and Mitzvot is because of reward and punishment in this world, or reward and punishment in the next world. In this state, he still does not need the Torah and Mitzvot as Eitin. Rather, to the extent that he believes in reward and punishment, the reward and punishment obligate him to observe Torah and Mitzvot, and not because of the advice, “I have created the evil inclination; I have created the Torah as a spice,” where the Torah is the counsel against the evil inclination within man, and the man wants to emerge from its control. That is, a person wants to emerge from self-love and do everything for the sake of the Creator, and this is why he observes Torah and Mitzvot. Instead, the will to receive for himself obligates him to observe Torah and Mitzvot.

Thus, what does “From Lo Lishma we come to Lishma” mean? since we see no connection between a person observing Torah and Mitzvot in order to receive reward, that should make it a springboard for him to shift from Lo Lishma to Lishma. Our sages said, “because the light in it reforms him.” That is, the light in the Torah shines to a person so he will feel that he is not regarded as human, but that he is like any other animal, as it is written (Yevamot 61), “You are called ‘man,’ and the idol-worshippers are not called ‘man.’”

By this we should interpret what we asked, What does it mean that they said, “Why is the Torah called Tushia?” It is because she exhausts a person’s strength. But they said the opposite: “a healing to all his flesh.”

The meaning is that when a person learns Lo Lishma, the Torah makes him feel that the quality of “man” in him is very weak. That is, the “man” power within him is very weak and he is like all other animals. But what is the form that the man sees? It is that the “man” in him is very weak.

We know that the main difference between man and beast is that a beast has no sensation of the other. This is called “will to receive only for one’s own sake.” This is also called “evil.” In other words, the will to receive for oneself is called “evil’ because the Tzimtzum [restriction] and concealment were on it, so that no light of Kedusha [holiness] may reach into this will to receive.

Since this will to receive is all that interferes, so we cannot receive the delight and pleasure that He wished to give to the created beings, this is why it is called “evil,” or “evil inclination.” However, it is difficult to understand why when a person observes Torah and Mitzvot with the aim, “I have created the evil inclination; I have created the Torah as a spice,” it bring a person the feeling that there is evil in him, meaning that he was happy at the time of ascent, and then he suffered a descent and feels the bad in him, and why does he have many descents?

It is because the Torah is the spice for the evil inclination. Thus, why do we not see that the evil inclination loses its power? Instead, each time, the evil appears anew. We see that there are many descents when we begin to walk on the path of doing everything in order to bestow. That is, each time, the evil is renewed with greater forcefulness than before he began the work with the aim to achieve a state where all his actions are for the sake of the Creator.

The thing is that the part of the will to receive for himself that is called “evil” has already been cancelled in him, yet there are other parts that he has not cancelled through the light in the Torah.

We can understand this through an allegory. Let us say that the will to receive contains 100 kilograms of pleasure. Yet, a person cannot cancel 100 kilograms of pleasure all at once. If he were to see the size of the evil within him, he would immediately escape the campaign. Therefore, this takes place gradually.

In other words, in the beginning, a person feels that he can receive one kilogram of the corporeal pleasures. When he receives an ascent, the power of the evil is cancelled in him, meaning he can overcome the one kilogram of pleasure that he felt in corporeal things. But since he must receive the strength to cancel all 100 kilograms of pleasure that there is in corporeality, and he cannot overcome 100 kilograms of pleasure right away, he is given one more kilogram of flavor for corporeality.

Consequently, he suffers a descent, since he had the power to overcome only one kilo of pleasure. When he is given a feeling of greater pleasure, he suffers a descent as a result, since he surrenders under a great pleasure. When he overcomes, which is called “an ascent,” he is made to feel three kilograms of pleasure in corporeality, until he completes all the overcoming that there is in work in order to bestow in corporeal pleasures.

Assume he can already overcome all the corporeal pleasures and work with them in order to bestow. Certainly, this requires constant help from above; otherwise, one cannot overcome even the smallest pleasure, as it is written, “Man’s inclination overcomes him every day. Were it not for the help of the Creator, he would not overcome it.”

However, a person must always seek help. If he were to be shown the measure of the lust in the will to receive, he would immediately see that this work is not for him. Hence, in the beginning, he is shown small flavors in corporeal lusts. But afterward, once he has received the power to overcome all the corporeal lusts, a person is rewarded with receiving spiritual lusts, where there is the matter of Masachim [screens], which is about overcoming the light of spiritual pleasures.

But there, too, it follows an order. That is, we begin, for example, from a small degree, meaning light of Nefesh. When he can receive this in order to bestow, he is given the light of Ruach, until he is rewarded with all the NRNHY, as it is written in The Zohar, “When he is born, he is given Nefesh. If he is rewarded further, he is given Ruach.”

This is as our sages said (Sukkah 52), “Anyone who is greater than his friend, his inclination is greater than him.” “Great” means that he has been granted an ascent in spirituality, meaning that he can already overcome a certain measure of pleasure and receive it in order to bestow. Then he is given pleasure once again, and on that measure of pleasure he is still unable to overcome.

When he is rewarded with overcoming this pleasure and becomes great again, meaning achieves Gadlut [greatness/adulthood], which is called “an ascent,” he is given an even higher degree, which he has never overcome. Therefore, now he sees that he is worse. That is, he is unable to overcome this degree.

Now, too, the same sequence takes place, where he asks the Creator to give him the strength from above to be able to overcome this great measure of will to receive, as well. This is regarded as the lower one ascending to the upper one to seek the power of the Masach [screen].

By this we should interpret what our sages said, “Why is her name Tushia? It is because she Mateshet [exhausts] a person’s strength.” That is, each time, according to his greatness, he receives a greater measure of evil. In other words, the greater the pleasure, the harder it is to overcome it. It follows that “man” means “a giver,” as it is known that “man” in Gematria is MA, and MA is called ZA, a Giver. BON is called Malchut, the receiver. MA is the male, “man,” a giver, whereas Behema [beast], which is BON in Gematria, means female, receiving and not giving.

It follows that in Gadlut, which is the greater light, it is harder to overcome. Thus, the quality of “man” grows weaker every time because each time, he has a greater light.

By this we should interpret what we asked, “If his head aches, let him engage in Torah.” According to what Baal HaSulam said, “If his head aches” means that his thoughts are not in order. “If his stomach aches” means that everything that comes into his stomach is for his will to receive. “Let him engage in Torah,” as was said, “It is a healing to all his flesh.” That is, through the Torah, he is rewarded with Gadlut because “The light in it reforms him” and he is rewarded with being great.

Afterward, he is rewarded with a higher degree on which he still did not have the power to overcome, and he must ask the Creator to be given help to be able to overcome this, as well. It follows that each time, we should speak of two opposite things.

We should always discern two sides in each degree:

1) The lower one ascending to Gadlut, which is called “an ascent” in degree. He begins to appreciate what it means to be close to the Creator. Now he understands that he should be concerned only with the benefit of the Creator, and he himself should not merit a name. That is, he does not need anything for himself and he can relinquish both corporeality and spirituality. Where it concerns his own benefit, he relinquishes, and all his actions will be only to bring contentment to his Maker. This is considered that the Torah gives life to all, as it is written, “Great is the Torah, for she gives life to who make her, and a healing to all his flesh.”

2) “Anyone who is greater than his friend, his inclination is greater than him.” That is, afterward, he receives a greater pleasure. In other words, as long as he has not been rewarded with vessels of bestowal, he is still attached to corporeal pleasures. Then, each time, he receives a greater taste for corporeal things so he will have to overcome the will to receive for himself, for a person is not shown the measure of the pleasure that is found in corporeality because he will not be able to overcome. Rather, there is a certain measure that each one feels in corporeal pleasures.

But when a person begins to walk on the path toward doing everything in order to bestow and not for his own benefit, he is given from above more sweetness in self-love. It follows that when he begins to enter the Gadlut of the work, meaning that he wants to be among those who work in order to bestow, then each time, he is given more taste for self-love, so naturally, each time, he sees that he has more evil.

According to the above, we see that even during the preparation, when a person wants to begin to work in order to bestow, although he was still not rewarded with this, the matter of “Anyone who is greater than his friend, his inclination is greater than him” already begins. That is, when a person wants to begin the work of great ones, who engage in order to bestow, he receives many ascents in the form of “the light in it reforms him.” At that time, he is regarded as “great.”

Afterward, he is given more evil to taste, so he will ask the Creator to help him. It follows that we should make two discernments here: 1) The Torah gives him life and he becomes great. 2) Afterward, he is given bad, as said above, that “Anyone who is greater than his friend, his inclination is greater than him.”

It follows that then he is in a state where through the Torah, he has become great. He came to see the truth, that the strength of the quality of “man” in him has exhausted its strength and he is like a beast, in the sense that the will to receive for himself in him grows stronger in him every time, to the extent of the good that he received from the Torah, which reforms him.

Therefore, we should explain why the name of the Torah is Tushia. It is because through the Torah, he sees that the “man” power within him is weak, and only his “beast” power has strengthened.

It is the same in spirituality. That is, once a person has been rewarded with vessels of bestowal, there is constant overcoming of his Aviut [thickness]. Each time, he must ascend to his upper one and ask for the power to overcome the will to receive, which is now greater than his strength to overcome that he has from what he received before, since now he received greater Aviut. Hence, there, too, meaning after he has been rewarded with vessels of bestowal, he must always go forward in order to correct the will to receive, each according to his degree.

It therefore follows that when a person wants to begin the work of bestowal, he sees that he has only a little bit of evil. That is, he knows about himself that he has a little bit of evil. It follows, that the bad he has comes from what he knows about himself. For this reason, a person understands that he has the power to overcome by himself. Therefore, as was said, “Anyone who is greater than his friend, his inclination is greater than him.”

It follows that from above, he is given the awareness of the evil, meaning that the evil that has now been revealed to him comes from above. At that time a person stands and thinks, “From where did this evil come to me? since, according to the rule, ‘The light in it reforms him,’ in the beginning, I already felt that I received an ascent in spirituality. Thus, what is the reason that now I have more bad?”

He regards this bad that he received now as coming to him from above reason. That is, the reason cannot understand how he fell to a state of lowliness, called “evil,” meaning that now he received a feeling for all the corporeal things that before he began the work of bestowal, he was already far from them, but now he received greater closeness to self-love.

This is as it is written in the book Panim Meirot: “The meaning of ‘a good reward for the righteous’ is their own attainment of those degrees that through their good deeds, they returned the lights to the upper ZON. The punishment of the wicked is the meaning of the words, ‘One opposite the other.’ To the same extent that a person is rejected from attaining the eternal light, he descends into the pleasures of the filthy Klipot [shells/peels], which are called Sheol [netherworld] and Avadon [oblivion], since a certain attitude has emerged within him that enables him to tolerate them.

It follows that the bad that appears in a person does not come from himself. Rather, he sees as though this bad has come to him above his own reason. At that time, a person sees that there is no way he can overcome this bad that has been added to him now by giving work and labor. But what was the result? He received more bad. Thus, he asks, “What will be the end?” since no work and labor help him out of the governance of evil, which is self-love.

The answer is that a person must know that as the bad came to him from above, so his emergence from the bad will come to him through help from above. Therefore, a person should not be impressed with the fact that he sees that he is utterly incapable of emerging from the governance of evil by himself. Instead, he must know that as the evil in him has been added to him each time not by his own strength, since he did not labor in order to get more bad, but it came from above, namely above reason, which a person does not understand, likewise, he should believe that he will also receive from above the strength to emerge from the evil.

In other words, everything that comes from above reason is cancelled above reason, and we can say that the fact that a person is in exile, under the governance of reason, did not come to a person by his own doing. Rather, it is from above. Likewise, redemption, too, comes from above.

It therefore follows that when a person begins the work of bestowal and knows that he has a little bit of evil, he still does not find such great flavor in self-love. However, when he wants to cancel his self-love and work in order to bestow, he receives from above more passion for self-love. That is, he is shown what was hidden from him, the size and power of control that exist in self-love.

At that time, a person sees that he is on the complete opposite end of the Creator, for the Creator is all to bestow, and man is all to receive. When the Creator helps him, a person feels the greatness of the Creator, how the Creator is treating him in order to deliver him from the governance of evil. Then, each time more bad appears in a person, meaning that a person is lowlier, he sees that the Creator is tending to a lowlier person.

By this we should interpret what our sages said, “Rabbi Yonatan said, ‘Wherever you see the greatness of the Creator, there you find His humbleness.’” This means that wherever a person sees the greatness of the Creator, he sees that the Creator is humble, tending to him personally, in private Providence. Therefore, when the Creator becomes greater, the person sees that the Creator is more humble.