We should understand this, for it is known that there is no Kli [vessel] to receive the pleasure except yearning, for the lack and the yearning for the thing are the gauge that can receive the pleasure from the matter. This is as our sages said, “One who drinks when he is thirsty, blesses for the pleasure,” for one does not enjoy eating if he has no appetite, as in “Sweet is the worker’s sleep.”

Accordingly, in the matter of poverty, that “there is none who is poor except in knowledge,” it follows that the yearning for knowledge is discerned according to how a person feels that he has a desire for knowledge. Accordingly, we should ask if when a person has been rewarded with the quality of Israel and feels that he has no lack, and he is not poor, from where will he take the Kli [vessel] called “yearning,” since he has already been rewarded with the quality of Israel?

The Torah comes and says about this, “For the poor will never cease.” Rather, the Creator will provide him with deficiencies and emptiness and poverty, so he will have Kelim [vessels] to receive the abundance. It follows that “For the poor will never cease” is a promise that the Torah gave to Israel that they will always have room to ascend in the upper degrees. This is the meaning of “Poverty becomes Israel,” etc., for by this they will always ascend in degrees.

This is the meaning of “A poor is as important as the dead.” If one feels his deficiency as though he is dead, that he has no life without the filling, that he needs to be filled, this is called “a Kli of yearning,” and by this he will receive the filling for his poverty.