470. When You Come - 1
September 1979
“And it shall come to pass that when you come to the land that the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance, and you inherit it and dwell in it.” RASHI interpreted, “They were not obliged to give the first fruit until they conquered the land and divided it.”
By intimation, we should interpret that man’s work is to engage in the way of the Creator throughout the day as much as possible. When one reflects on how his day went by, this is called “conquering the land,” and then he begins to divide the order of the work—for whom he worked, meaning for whose favor. At that time, it is written, “And you shall take some of the first of all the produce of the Adamah [land],” from the words Adameh la Elyon [I will be like the Most High].
This means that first, one must see if his fruits have given him the quality of equivalence of form, since first we must see if our work has yielded the fruits, since “I have created the evil inclination; I have created the Torah as a spice.”
If one is rewarded with the “spice,” which is equivalence of form, one should see what extent of equivalence of form he had during his work and what remains with him after his work.
If he sees that his work is not as it should be, then “You shall answer and say … ‘Aramean serving my Father.’” That is since there is the evil inclination in him, who is a fraud, deceiving a person each time in a different way, and mainly showing him that he does not need to correct his ways, this is why it is written, “And you will answer.”
RASHI interpreted this as raising the voice. That is, we must yell out loud so he will hear well that he still has the deceiver in his heart. Yet, he should be happy about one thing: that nevertheless, he has reached the truth, to see his true state.
This is the meaning of “You will rejoice with all that good that the Lord has given you.” “Good” means once he has been rewarded with real fruits.
“All the good” means he should be happy that nevertheless, he was rewarded with seeing the bad, whereby recognition of evil he can achieve the good. Thus, “all the good” means the bad, which is the Kli [vessel] for the good. From this he should be happy, meaning that one should always be happy because otherwise, he is attached to the Sitra Achra [other side].
Yet, a person can feel the joy only through some actual reality, or if he has still not come to see the truth then he has joy from thinking that he has wholeness. When he begins to see the truth, he should be happy that he has been rewarded with seeing the truth. Afterward, he is rewarded with real joy that he has been rewarded with the truth, and then he brings the first fruits.
The first fruits are the fruits that are revealed through the work, as in “They who sow in tears will reap in joy.” “Sowing” means that he places everything he has in the ground until it decays and he has nothing. That is, he loses even the small bit that he had.
Hence, at that time he has tears because he has nothing to hold on to, and the suffering he feels for the negativity within him are the Kelim [vessels] that can later be filled. This is called, “They who sow in tears will reap in joy.” They are Kli [vessel] and light, lack and filling, negativity and positivity. It follows that when he is rewarded with the light, he returns to the deficiencies he had.
This is why he says, “Aramean serving my Father and went down to Egypt.” This is as Baal HaSulam said, “At the time of Gadlut [greatness/adulthood], we must receive fear from what we experienced before (see “Introduction of The Book of Zohar” in the essay, “A Prayer for Havakuk”).