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Atzilut is Private Providence The Striking of Thoughts upon Man Against Your Will – 1 If There Is a Virgin Maiden The Meaning of Sins Becoming as Merits A Gentile Who Observes the Sabbath Must Die The Correction of Lines This Is the Path of Torah – 1 A Hedge for Wisdom – Silence - 1 For He Whom the Lord Loves He Admonishes - 1 The Fear of You and the Dread of You Shall Be upon All the Animals of the Earth - 1 The Whole World Is Nourished by My Son Hanina – 1 A Hand on the Throne of the Lord – 1 Thus You Shall Say to the House of Jacob Ordinances The Numbered Things of the Tabernacle – 1 Concerning the Shechina [Divinity] The Garments of the Soul - 1 Beginning to Speak from the Connection with the Creator Concerning the Will to Receive - 1 Sanctification of the Month And You, Israel Behold, I Am Setting Before You The Main Thing We Need The Summoning for the Blessing on the Food Who Will Not Lift Up the Face Three Lines – 1 The Earth Feared and Was Still The Creator Observed Their Works Turn Away from Evil and Do Good – 1 How I Love Your Teaching Man’s Greatness Is According to His Work What Is Amalek, Whose Memory We Must Blot Out TANTA [Taamim, Nekudot, Tagin, Otiot] Find Favor and a Good Mind Who Hears a Prayer Fish Means Worries The Blessing of the Torah Anyone with Whom the Spirit of the People Is Pleased – 1 Concerning Two Witnesses Raising the Hands Serve the Creator with Joy The Discernments of “Woman” and “Sons” in the Torah Ruin by Elders—Construction; Construction by Youths—Ruin Sons of Wise Disciples This Moment and the Next Moment Worse than Everyone Right, Wholeness, and Truth Our Faith in Books and Authors God Made It so that He Would Be Feared Questions in the Work A Kli [vessel] that Holds a Blessing Ani [I] and Ein [nothing/null] A Request for Help You Stand Here Today – 1 Turn Away from Evil and Do Good – 2 Woe unto You Who Await the Day of the Lord The Order of the Work The Difference between Kedusha [holiness] and Sitra Achra [other side] The Meaning of Exile The Work of the Greatest in the Nation Greeks Have Gathered Around Me The War of the Inclination What Is Handsome In the Work? Against Your Will You Live; Against Your Will You Die A Horse to Ride On A Prayer for Life and Nourishments The Degree of “Wicked” Joy and Fear All Bitter Herb [Maror] Old and New The Torah Must Be Received with Both Hands Midnight Correction Faith Above Reason Good Deeds Are Called Sons The Unification of ZON The Ruin of Kedusha [Holiness] Man Determines Nothing New Under the Sun The Meaning of “Torah Lishma [for Her sake]” From Lo Lishma to Lishma Joy that Comes from Dancing Definitions – 1 Exalt the Lord Our God Knowledge and Faith The Testimony of the Creator Upper and Lower It Is All Corrections Passion for Knowledge Suffering and Joy Faith Is Called “Action” The Desire to Bestow – 1 The Need and Importance of Teaching Faith Awakening – 1 Love of Others Colors in the Work What to Ask of the Creator—to Be His Servant Faith Within Reason How Good Are Your Tents, Jacob – 1 Man and the Torah Faith Is Regarded as Above Nature Concerning Shekalim – 1 The Greatness of the Creator Is His Humbleness Foundations The Association of the Quality of Judgment with Mercy Devotion Concerning Suffering – 1 Hochma and Hassadim Raising MAN – 1 Concerning Fear The Torah Is Acquired through Suffering Two Kinds of Repentance Three Things in the World For Your Crimes, Your Mother Was Sent Away The Meaning of Dust A Groom and a Bride Man’s Actions A Palace Run My Beloved Good Taste in Small, Corporeal Things Entry into the Work The Reason for the Faith Moses Is the Quality of Faith Am I In the Place of God? The Whole Earth Is Full of His Glory Mind and Heart Discernments in States As He is merciful, So You Are Merciful Repentance Concerning Shekalim – 2 Inner Keys and Outer Keys Anyone Who Is Settled in His Wine One Learns Only Where One’s Heart Desires One Does Not Toil Over a Meal and Misses It Anyone Who Associates the Aim for the Creator with Another Thing Specifically through a Man and a Woman I Wish They Left Me and Kept My Law Why Israel Are Compared to an Olive Tree Be Mindful with a Minor Commandment as with a Major One – 1 Be Mindful with a Minor Commandment as with a Major One – 2 Be Mindful with a Minor Commandment as with a Major One – 3 I Have a Minor Mitzva [commandment], Whose Name Is Sukkah A Person Builds a Building Turning His Ear from Hearing Torah The Creator Is Meticulous with the Righteous Man and His Role One Who Restrains Himself in Strife The General Public and the Chosen Few Delight Them with a Complete Building – 2 The Meaning of Evil You Have Not a Blade of Grass Below Discernments in a Spiritual Kli [vessel] Man’s Work Prayer Concerning Equivalence of Form Happy Is the Man A Cure before the Blow Noah Was a Righteous Man Anyone with Whom the Spirit of the Creator Is Pleased Mind and Heart The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil The Lord Appeared to Him by the Oaks of Mamre How to Draw Near Him He Who Has No Sons Abraham Begot Isaac And Isaac Was Forty Years Old And Judah Approached Him – 1 And Behold, the Lord Stood Over Him Joy While Learning Torah The Way of the Land Preceded the Torah Jacob Sent Anyone Who Sanctifies the Seventh – 2 The Lord Hears the Poor When Pharaoh Sent the People This Is the Day that the Lord Has Made Hear, O Israel The Lord Your God Was Unwilling to Listen Three Prayers - 1 Save Your Servant, You, My God Your Children, Whom You Said The Counsel of the Lord Ever Stands This Day, the Lord Your God Commands You You Stand Today - 2 The Concealed Things Belong to the Lord Our God Sins Become for Him as Merits There Is Fear Only in a Place of Wholeness What Is Joy? The Ascent of Malchut to Bina The Middle Line Concerning the surrounding lights He Who Comes to Defile “Right” Means Wholeness What It Means to Bear a Son and a Daughter in the Work What Is, He Swallowed Maror [bitter herb], He Will Not Come Out, in the work? Three Lines – 3 Movement Due to Shame You Shall Tithe a Tenth Questions about “Return O Israel” Nourishment Laboring and Finding The Power of Thought The Exile of the Shechina [Divinity] Desire for Spirituality Cast Their Seed Among the Nations General Attainment and Personal Attainment Two Labors Concerning the Goal I Will Remove the Stony Heart The Act Is What Decides Righteous and Wicked The Face of the Lord Is in Evildoers The Upper One Scrutinizes for the Purpose of the Lower One Malchut of the Upper One Becomes Keter to the Lower One Why He Waited until the War Against Amalek And Jethro Heard Those of Little Faith Remember that You Were a Slave Peace at Home Overcoming The Mitzva of Sukkah Anything that the Merciful One Does, He Does for the Best Man’s Inclination Inheritance of the Land Justice, Justice You Shall Pursue By Your Actions, We Know You The Generations of Jacob Joseph If Any Man of You Brings an Offering - 1 Who Despises the Day of Smallness Branch and Root To Admonish Another Annulment - the Baal Shem Tov Way The Quality of Moses Miketz [After] There Has Never Risen a Prophet Like Moses One Who Walks along the Way Action and Thought Tzimtzum The Journeys of the Children of Israel The Measure of Overcoming Man as a Whole Two Discernments in the Kelim Inverse Relation between Lights and Vessels Merging of the Body The Difference between the Soul and the Body It Is Good to Thank the Creator Pleasure Cancels the Mind The Birth of the Moon Bo [Come] We Will Do and We Will Hear – 2 Internality and Externality The Godliness Made the Concealment The Need for Gentiles Dead Fish Turn Away from Evil and Do Good - 4 None as Holy as the Lord The Need for a Kli without Light Three Prayers - 2 Good Writing and Signing Rosh Hashanah The Rosh Hashanah Prayer With a Shofar You Will Renew An Article for Sukkot What Is Hanukah What Is the Miracle of Hanukah The Meaning of Amalek When He Let His Hand Down, Amalek Prevailed Blotting Out Amalek Revealing the Concealment Until He Does Not Know The Meal of a Wicked One His Law He Contemplates Two Opposites I and Not a Messenger Concerning the Environment The Torah Spoke Regarding Four Sons The Need for an Act from Below The More One Speaks of the Exodus from Egypt And he said, “When You Deliver the Hebrew Women” And God Spoke to Moses And I Will Take You as My People Come unto Pharaoh Behold, a People Has Come Out of Egypt The Passover Offering Concerning the Beginning of the Month Peh-Sah [speaking mouth] The First Innovation Concerning the Exodus from Egypt The Duty to Tell the Story of the Exodus from Egypt Concerning the Matza [unleavened bread] The Time of Redemption Questions for the Exodus from Egypt Concerning the Omer [Count] The Exodus from Egypt and the Giving of the Torah The Point in the Heart The Ninth of Av

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Kabbalah Library Home / Rabash / Assorted Notes / It Came to Pass as That Day

372. It Came to Pass as That Day

Hanukkah, December 16, 1971

It is written in The Zohar, VaYeshev (236), “‘And it came to pass as that day, and he came home to do his work…’ ‘It came to pass as that day,’ the day when the evil inclination rules the world… When a man comes to repent for his sins, or to engage in the Torah and to observe the commandments of the Torah.”

In “The Soul of…” we say, “You hear the outcry of the poor, You listen to the shouting of the meager and You deliver. Who is like You, and who can be compared to You?” It seems as though we should ask why specifically the prayer of the poor and the meager? It seems as though he means that the outcry and the shouting are over what is written later, meaning “Who will be like,” and “Who can be compared.” But how can one even conceive of resembling the Creator?

We can interpret that there are three kinds in the work of the Creator, in each of which there is the matter of the evil inclination and the good inclination.

1) When he observes Torah and Mitzvot [commandments] with the intention Lo Lishma [not for Her sake], such as in order to be called “Rabbi.” At that time, the intention is that in return for the work, he wants for the created beings to pay him for his labor in Torah and Mitzvot.

It follows that he is not working for the Creator to pay his reward, but for people to pay his reward. Hence, he works in public so that people will see that he is working for them, so they will pay him. If he acts in concealment, who will pay his reward?

The second kind is that he works Lishma [for Her sake], meaning for the Creator to pay his reward, to give him the good of this world or the good of the next world. At that time, he works in concealment, so people will not see his work, which is called “so the outer ones will not have control,” when people on the outside see his work.

By this, he would fall under the governance of the outer ones, meaning to demand reward from people for his work, but he wants the Creator to pay his reward. This is called Lishma, since he wants the Creator to pay his reward. It follows that he is working for the Creator.

Conversely, one who wants people to pay his reward does not work for the Creator, but only for people. The evidence is that he wants people to pay his reward for the labor, and this is called Lo Lishma. Lishma, however, is when he works for the Creator. At that time, he does not want people to pay him, only the Creator.

The third kind is not in order to receive reward. At that time, the governance of the evil inclination comes and asks, “What is this work for you?” This is called “the question of the wicked one,” for then there is nothing to answer him.

In Lo Lishma, the evil inclination has no control since he has what to answer, meaning that people will reward him, that they will pay his reward. In the evil inclination of the second kind, when he works Lishma, he still has what to answer—that the Creator will reward him, meaning that the Creator will pay his reward.

This is not so with the evil inclination of the third kind, which is not in order to receive reward. When it asks, “What is this work for you?” there is nothing to answer to this question. Hence, only then does it gain control.

This is why The Zohar says, “When is the day of the governance of the evil inclination? It is precisely when one wants to repent, to return to his source.” That is, just as our source is only to bestow upon the creatures, we should also be only bestowing upon the Creator, as it says, to engage in Torah and observe the commandments of the Torah.

We should also interpret in the above manner that he wants to engage in Torah so he can observe the commandments of the Torah, as our sages said, “Great is the learning that yields action” (Kidushin 40b).

When one wants to work not in order to receive reward, there is the control of the evil and he cannot perform the Mitzvot of the Torah. This is, “I have created the evil inclination; I have created the Torah as a spice,” meaning that through engagement in Torah, one can come to observe the Mitzvot not in order to receive reward.

This is the meaning of “the outcry of the poor and the shouting of the meager.” What do they want? “Who is like You, and who can be compared to You?” meaning equivalence of form, “As He is merciful, so you are merciful.”

They are called “poor and meager,” meaning in knowledge, since they have nothing to answer to the evil inclination when it asks “What is this work?” while in the two previous kinds there is knowledge what to answer it. Hence, specifically then they are called “poor and meager,” and only then is there control to the evil inclination.