438. Save Your Servant, You, My God

July 1981

“Save Your servant, You, my God; delight the soul of Your servant; give Your strength to Your servant.” Three times David became a servant in this praise, corresponding to three times that the authors of the Mishnah said that a person should be a servant in the prayer.

“In the first blessings, he should be as a servant praising his rav [great one/teacher]. In the middle ones, as a servant seeking a gift from his rav. In the final blessings, as a servant thanking his rav for the gift he has received from him, and he walks away” (The Zohar, Pinhas, Item 180).

Here lies the order of man’s work. First, one must believe in the Creator above reason and praise his rav, meaning feel completely and utterly whole, for it is known that to the extent that a person feels that his friend is giving him gifts, to that extent he praises him. Also, to the extent that he feels his friend’s greatness, to that extent he can praise. In other words, if he feels that he is lacking something and his friend can satisfy it, he immediately loses the power to praise and glorify his friend.

Therefore, when a person begins his work, he must go with faith above reason that he is not lacking anything, and that his rav has satisfied all his wishes. At that time, he is called “whole,” and then the whole can connect to the whole. Conversely, when he is deficient, the deficient does not connect to the whole.

Afterward, he can establish deficiencies like a slave seeking a gift from his rav, when he asks for his needs, meaning that the judge has only what his eyes see and he must not ignore any deficiency that he has. On the contrary, to the extent that he feels his deficiency, so he can pray that his rav will satisfy his wishes. And then, the more the student asks, the better.

Finally, he must not stay deficient. He must go again on the path of faith above reason, that he is utterly and completely whole. This is the meaning of the words, “as a servant thanking his rav for the gift he has received from him, and he walks away.” He should believe above reason that he has already received all his wishes, called a “gift.”

He thanks his rav for this, for one must not live in separation, meaning that he has complaints against his rav that he is not giving him what he asks. For this reason, it is forbidden for man to be deficient and he must always be in joy. However, in order to have Kelim [vessels] to receive, he must evoke the deficiencies.

In the offering, this is regarded as ascending and descending, “Knowing in the beginning and knowing in the end, and concealment in between.” That is, between knowing and knowing it is permitted to see the concealment, meaning that he has no revelation with respect to the truth, to feel that his work is desirable to his rav.

It follows that one must not disclose any lack in Torah and work for himself. Rather, he must always go above rhyme and reason that he is utterly and completely whole. In between, he can ask his wishes as his eyes see, that he has only faults. But afterward, he must believe as though he has already received all his wishes and he thanks his rav for this.

At that time, he can be happy that he is whole. It follows that all his wholeness is built on faith, and his deficiencies are built on knowledge, since “the judge has only what his eyes see.”