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Rabash

Assorted Notes
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

Ramchal

Agra

401. Hear, O Israel

March 1981

“Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” What is “one”? It is the assembly of Israel that is united in the Creator, who is Zeir Anpin. Rabbi Shimon said that the Zivug [coupling] of the Dechar [Aramaic: male] and Nukva [Aramaic: female] is called “one,” since the place where the Nukva is placed is called “one.”

What is the reason? It is because a male without a female is called “half a body,” and half is not one. When the two halves of the body connect, they become one body, and then they are called “one” (The Zohar, VaYikra, Item 101).

It is written, “Here is a place with Me.” Baal HaSulam interpreted that the acronym Aleph-Tav-Yod [letters of the words “with Me”] is Emuna [faith], Tefillah [prayer], Yegia [labor].

A person should begin the work of the Creator on the right, called “male,” which is wholeness, called happy with his share, which is regarded as “desiring mercy.” Whatever flavor and vitality he has in Torah and Mitzvot [commandments] is enough for him to labor in Torah and Mitzvot because he believes in private Providence, that such is the will of the Creator, and feels that he is a complete person, and thanks and praises the Creator for giving him a part in His work.

This is called a “male,” when he feels himself as whole and he is always happy and observes, “Serve the Lord with gladness.”

However, this is called “half a body”; he does not have the quality of female, which is a lack. From the perspective of the left, he begins to calculate to what extent his qualities and thoughts are whole, and then he sees the truth, that he is still immersed in the will to receive for his own benefit, and cannot work for the sake of others, whether between man and man or between man and the Creator.

To the extent that he has the recognition of evil, he can exert, meaning work, perform actions, as in “Everything that is in the power of your hand to do, that do.” Also, he can pray from the bottom of the heart, since only to the extent that a person feels the bad, meaning feels that it is bad, to that extent he acts in order to be rid of the bad. This is called “female,” meaning a lack.

It follows that he has room for two opposite qualities. On one hand, he is regarded as complete, which is the “right,” Hesed [mercy], happy with his share. He can praise and thank the Creator for letting him into a place of Torah and good deeds. On the other hand, he can pray to the Creator for remaining outside of the work of the Creator because everything was built on the basis of self-love.

At that time, the person is called “complete,” and otherwise he is not considered “man” because if he sees his deficiencies he will soon run from the quality of the “right,” as well.

But once he has seen his bad state and yet reinforces himself above reason that he has wholeness, and the sign of this is that he can thank the Creator for this, then he is called “complete.” This is “Right and left, and a bride between them.” By having the quality of male and female, he can be rewarded with the quality of “bride,” meaning the real kingdom of heaven.

This is the meaning of “Serve the Lord with gladness.” He asks there in The Zohar: But he cannot be happy because his heart is broken due to his sins! We learn about this, “One always enters through two doors: mercy and fear.”

We can explain this in the above manner. The “right hand side” door is faith above reason, when he is complete. This is private Providence, and it is “for he desires mercy.” The other door is fear, meaning Gevura, “left.” On this door we must give labor and prayer. This is called “man,” since he has two discernments, male and female, complete and lacking, and then his work is considered whole.