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There Is None Else Besides Him Shechina [Divinity] in Exile The Matter of Spiritual Attainment What Is the Reason for the Heaviness One Feels when Annulling before the Creator in the Work? Lishma Is an Awakening from Above, and Why Do We Need an Awakening from Below? What Is Support in the Torah, in the Work? What Is, “A Habit Becomes a Second Nature,” in the Work? What Is the Difference between a Shade of Kedusha and a Shade of Sitra Achra? What Are Three Things that Broaden One’s Mind in the Work? What Is “Hurry, My Beloved,” in the Work? Joy with Trembling The Essence of Man’s Work A Pomegranate What Is the Exaltedness of the Creator? What Is the Day of the Lord and the Night of the Lord, in the Work? What Does It Mean that the Sitra Achra Is Called “Malchut without a Crown”? My Soul Shall Weep in Secret – 1 What Is “The Creator Hates the Bodies,” in the Work? 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Examining the Shade on the Night of Hosha’ana Rabbah All the Worlds Prior to the Creation of the Newborn An Explanation about Luck A Thought Is Regarded as Nourishment Let His Friend Begin

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Baal HaSulam / What Is the Reason for the Heaviness One Feels when Annulling before the Creator in the Work?

4. What Is the Reason for the Heaviness One Feels when Annulling before the Creator in the Work?

I heard on Shevat 12, February 6, 1944

We must know the reason for the heaviness one feels when he wants to work in annulling his self before the Creator and not worry about his own benefit. A person comes to a state as though the entire world stands still, and he alone is now seemingly absent from this world, and leaves his family and friends for the sake of annulling before the Creator.

There is but a simple reason for this, called “lack of faith.” It means that one does not see before whom he nullifies, meaning he does not feel the existence of the Creator. This causes him heaviness.

But when he begins to feel the existence of the Creator, his soul immediately yearns to annul and connect with the root, to be contained in it like a candle in a torch, without any mind or reason. However, this comes naturally, as a candle is canceled before a torch.

It therefore follows that the essence of one’s work is only to come to feel the existence of the Creator, meaning to feel the existence of the Creator, that “the whole earth is full of His glory,” and this will be one’s entire work. That is, all the energy one puts into the work will be only to achieve this, and nothing else.

One should not be misled into having to acquire anything. Rather, there is only one thing a person needs: faith in the Creator. He should not think of anything, meaning that the only reward that he wants for his work should be to be rewarded with faith in the Creator.

We must know that there is no difference between a small illumination or a great illumination that a person obtains, since there are no changes in the light. Rather, all the changes are in the Kelim [vessels] that receive the abundance, as it is written, “I the Lord did not change.” Hence, if one can magnify one’s Kelim, to that extent he magnifies the illumination.

Yet, the question is, With what can one magnify one’s Kelim? The answer is that to the extent to which he praises and thanks the Creator for having brought him closer to Him, so he would feel Him a little and think of the importance of the matter, meaning that he was rewarded with having some connection with the Creator.

To the extent of the importance that one pictures for oneself, so the illumination grows in him. One must know that he will never come to know the true measure of the importance of the connection between man and the Creator because one cannot assess its true value. Instead, as much as one appreciates it, so he attains its merit and importance. There is a Segula [power/remedy/virtue] in this, since by this he can be rewarded with this illumination staying permanently within him.