435. When Balak Took Counsel
July 1978
When Balak took counsel, he said, “and I will drive it out from the land.” He said, “That degree to which Israel grip is from the land for certain,” for it is Malchut, which is called “land.” This is the meaning of “For it is mightier than I, for certain, who can fight and stand up to Israel,” for their degree is stronger than his.
For this reason, “I will drive it out from the land,” meaning from their degree, which is Malchut. If I drive them out from that land, meaning he can make them sin, he will be able to do with them everything he wants (The Zohar, Balak, Item 264).
We should interpret why he says that the degree of Malchut is stronger than his degree. Malchut is called “above reason,” as our sages said, “One should not say ‘impossible’ about pork, but rather ‘possible’ but the Torah forbade.”
This is called “above reason,” when the reason of the created being cannot agree to go against the will to receive, since man’s nature is that when he must relinquish the pleasure, he must know and understand why, meaning why I am making a concession, what does my body gain from preventing myself from enjoying.
At that time, it should be replied that it is either because of fear, meaning that by relinquishing pleasure, he denies himself the afflictions of Hell, meaning that when he weighs the value of the flavor of pleasure compared to the taste of suffering he will suffer for that pleasure, he sees that it does not pay because the suffering is far greater and it is not worthwhile to endure great suffering in return for a short-lived pleasure while the suffering is eternal suffering in Hell.
Or from the perspective of love, meaning that in return for relinquishing a fleeting moment of tasting pleasure, he will receive a greater pleasure and more prolonged, namely the pleasures of the next world.
For those two reasons, if a person compares the commandment to the transgression, he has the power to overcome the pleasure. Yet, in that state, although the body understands this, the evil inclination might come and confuse his calculations because everything follows the calculation of the will to receive, so the evil inclination has the power to confuse him and blur the depiction of heaven and hell.
But when one is rewarded with all his power of detaining being because of the kingdom of heaven, meaning that he is rewarded with not having to work for himself at all, but only in order to bestow, the evil inclination cannot argue with him because it has nothing to give him.
This is the meaning of the words, “and I will drive it out from the land,” from the degree of the kingdom of heaven, and then I will be able to make them sin. But a “land,” which is the kingdom of heaven, is stronger than him, and with this degree, it is utterly impossible to make them sin, and this is with respect to the heart.
It is likewise with respect to the mind: He must believe that the Creator hears the prayer. That is, if a person avoids everything and wants to adhere to the Creator, the Creator connects to him and brings him closer, as in “He who comes to purify is aided,” as The Zohar writes, “with a holy soul.” In other words, the Creator is revealed to him, and then he naturally forgets about the whole world and remembers only the Creator.
Come and see that the “The Lord, when you came out from Seir as you marched from the field of Edom, the earth quaked…” When the Creator wanted to give the Torah to Israel, He went and summoned the children of Esau but they did not accept it, as you say, “the Lord came from Sinai, He shone on them from Seir,” who did not want to receive it. He went to the children of Ishmael but they did not want to receive it, as it is written, “appeared from Mount Paran.” Because they did not want it, He returned to Israel.
We should understand why He went first to the children of Seir and Ishmael and did not go to the children of Israel straight away, if Israel would receive the Torah. Afterward, He would go to the children of Esau and Ishmael so that they, too, would receive the Torah. Also, if Israel would receive the Torah, there would be no place for the children of Esau and Ishmael to also receive the Torah.
We should interpret this according to the path of truth, according to the order of the reception of the Torah, as in “I have created the evil inclination; I have created the Torah as a spice” (Baba Batra 16), by which we are rewarded with the Torah of the Creator, in the sense that the Torah is the names of the Creator. In other words, the Torah is not a sorting of Tuma’a [impurity] and Tahara [purity], but rather the whole of the Torah is the names of the Creator.
When one begins to observe Torah and Mitzvot [commandments], he thinks that the Creator invited the children of Seir, as well, meaning he thinks that he can observe the Torah together with the children of Esau, since man consists of all seventy nations, and Esau and Ishmael are the roots of the nations of the world because the Klipa [shell/peel] of Esau is the quality of the “left,” corresponding to the mind, and the Klipa of Ishmael is the quality of the “right,” corresponding to the heart, while the rest are branches.
Hence, a person agrees to observe Torah and Mitzvot but does not want to relinquish the quality of the children of Esau.
Afterward, he sees that they do not agree to receive the Torah if he does not relinquish them, so he realizes that with the children of Esau, this will not go well. This is considered that they did not want to receive it, meaning that the person sees that with them he will never come to the real Torah.
Afterward, he thinks that perhaps together with the children of Ishmael he will be able to observe the real Torah, but then he sees that if he does not relinquish the children of Ishmael, he will never achieve the real Torah.
This is considered that a person thinks that the Creator gave the Torah to the children of Ishmael, that even if he did not relinquish them, the Creator intended to give them the Torah, meaning together with them. But when he truly understands, he sees that even with them He did not give the Torah.
This is considered that “they did not receive it,” meaning they do not agree. Once a person has come to a complete resolution that the children of Esau and the children of Ishmael do not want the Torah, this is considered that a person has achieved the recognition of evil.
At that time, a person returns to the quality of Israel, called Yashar-El [straight to the Creator], where everything he does must be aimed directly for the sake of the Creator, and this is the meaning of Yashar-El.
Then he has a choice: He can relinquish everything and take upon himself the quality of Yashar-El, or stay as he is, observing Torah and Mitzvot with the aim he has had since childhood, or accept above reason, called “We will do” before “We will hear,” meaning “for the Lord alone.”
This is the meaning of the words, “Then he returns to Israel,” meaning that then a person returns to Israel because the Torah was given only to the discernment of the name “Israel.” This is called “Who has chosen us from among all the nations.” Only when one has come to a state of Yashar-El is he capable of receiving the Torah. It follows that the real Torah is given to a person only when he is in the quality of Israel.
Prior to this, he can observe the Torah in practice, but not with an intention that is in order to bestow contentment upon his Maker, and then he receives the Torah as a means, which is “I have created the evil inclination; I have created the Torah as a spice.” Afterward, when he becomes Israel, he is rewarded with the internal Torah called “the names of the Creator.”