Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Academy

Before a person completes the work and comes out of the domain of the Klipot [shells/peels], he does not see the measure of his entrance into Kedusha. All he sees is that each time he is farther away because the opposite of Kedusha reveals the evil in him. Before there is light of Kedusha, a person cannot see the real form of evil in him. As said above, precisely where there is light we can see the dirt that is in the house.

It follows that one cannot know what he can regard as a good state. That is, it might be that a person feels that he is in a descent, meaning that he sees that he has no desire for Torah and Mitzvot. He sees that now he has more passion for self-love than, for example, yesterday. Thus, a person should probably say that yesterday he was in a state where he regarded people who were concerned with corporeal means, with satisfying their will to receive, he stayed away from them and could not see intelligent grownups degrading themselves into being in such a lowly state.

But now he sees that he is one of them and he has no shame in feeling his lowliness. Rather, it is an ordinary thing for him, as though he never thought about spirituality. To understand it better, let us take for example, when a person must get up before dawn. When he is awakened by the alarm clock or by a person, he feels that he must rise to serve the Creator. He begins to feel the importance of the matter, and therefore rises quickly because the sensation of the importance of serving the Creator gives him strength to get up quickly.

Undoubtedly, at that time he is in a state of ascent. That is, it is not corporeality that gives him strength to work, but to him the spirituality, his feeling that now he will have contact with the Creator, in whatever manner, is enough to give him strength to work, and he does not think of anything but the Creator. He feels that now he is regarded as alive, but without spirituality he is regarded as dead. Naturally, he feels that he is in a state of ascent.

In truth, a person cannot determine his state, that he feels he is remote. That is, if he is a person who wishes to walk on the path of bestowal, he must understand that from above he is given a special treatment, that he was lowered from the previous state so he would begin to really contemplate the goal, meaning what is required of man and what man wants the Creator to give him. But when he is in a state of ascent, when he has desire for Torah and Mitzvot, he has no need to worry about spirituality. Instead, he sees that he will stay this way his whole life because he is happy this way.

It therefore follows that the descent he has received is for his own good, meaning that he is receiving special treatment, that he was lowered from his state where he thought that he had some wholeness. This is apparent in his agreeing to remain in the current state his whole life.

But now that he sees that he is far from spirituality, he begins to think, “What is really required of me? What should I do? What is the purpose I should achieve?” He sees that he has no power to work, and finds himself in a state of “between heaven and earth.” Then, man’s only strengthening is that only the Creator can help, but by himself, he is doomed.

It was said about this (Isaiah, 4:31): “Yet those who hope for the Lord will gain new strength,” meaning those people who hope for the Creator. This means that they who see that there is no one else in the world who can help them regain strength each time. It follows that this descent is actually an ascent, meaning that this descent that they feel allows them to rise in degree, since “there is no light without a Kli.”

It follows that when he thought that he was in a state of ascent, he had no desire in which the Creator to place anything, since his Kli was full and there was no room to put anything inside. But now that he feels he is in a state of descent, he begins to see his deficiencies and the main reasons that interrupt his achieving Dvekut with the Creator. At that time he knows what help to ask of the Creator because he sees the truth, the real obstructer.

According to the above, one cannot say that the Creator has driven him away from the work of the Creator. The proof of this is that he is in a state of descent, meaning that the Creator has thrown him out from the work and does not want him to work for Him. This is not so. On the contrary, because the Creator wants to bring him closer, when he felt that he was in ascent, He could not bring him closer because he had no Kelim.

In order to give him Kelim, the Creator had to bring him out of his state, and admit him into a state where he feels deficient. Then the Creator can give him help from above, as our sages said, “He who comes to purify is aided. The holy Zohar asks, ‘With what?’ And he replies, ‘With a holy soul.’” That is, he is being made to feel that the soul is a part of God above, and then he enters the Kedusha. At that time he can go from degree to degree until he completes his soul with respect to what it needs to correct.

2. From: RABASH, Article No. 34 (1988), "What Are Day and Night in the Work?"

"A person should know that he must feel what is darkness, or he will not be able to enjoy the light, since in anything that a person wants to taste any flavor, whether it is worth using, he must learn one from the other, as it is written, “as the advantage of the light out of the darkness.” Likewise, a person cannot enjoy rest unless he knows what is fatigue.

For this reason, a person must go through a process of ascents and descents. However, he must not be impressed by the descents. Instead, he should exert not to escape the campaign. For this reason, although during the work he must know that they are two things, at the end of the work he sees that light and darkness are as two legs that lead a person to the goal."

3. From: RABASH, Article No. 22 (1989), "Why Are Four Questions Asked Specifically on Passover Night?"

"We do not know how to appreciate the ascent. That is, we do not understand the value of a single moment of having the power to believe in the Creator, and to have some sensation of the greatness of the Creator. In a state of ascent, we desire to annul before Him without any rhyme and reason, like a candle before a torch. Naturally, we cannot enjoy the fact that the Creator has brought us closer and has given us some nearness, from which we should derive the joy and elation that it should bring us. But since we haven’t the importance to appreciate it, we can only enjoy according to the importance […].

This is why we were given descents: to be able to learn the importance of the ascents, as it is written, “as the advantage of the light from the darkness.” Specifically through descents, one can come to know and appreciate ascents."

4. RABASH, Letter No. 77

"In the way of Baal HaSulam, where the whole foundation is that one should ask that all of one’s thoughts and desires will be only to benefit the Creator, a depiction of lowliness, called Shechina in the dust, immediately appears. Hence, we must not be impressed by the descent, since many pennies join into a great amount.

This is as we learned, “there is no absence in spirituality,” rather that it has temporarily departed in order to have room for work to advance. This is so because every moment that we scrutinize into holiness enters the domain of holiness, and a person descends only in order to sort out more sparks of holiness.

However, there is an advice that one should not wait until his degree is lowered for him, and when he feels his lowliness he goes up again, and that ascent is regarded as sorting a part into holiness. Instead, he himself descends and elevates other sparks, and raises them into the domain of holiness.

It is as our sages said, “Before I lose, I search” (Shabbat, 152), meaning before I lose the situation I am in, I start searching. It is as Baal HaSulam said about King David, who said, “I awaken the dawn.” Our sages said, “I awaken the dawn and the dawn does not awaken me.”

Therefore, the keeping is primarily during the ascent, and not during the descent. During the ascent we need to extend fear, lest we are pushed out, God forbid. But after all these, all we need is to cry out to the King and ask for His mercy on us once and for all."

5. From: RABASH, Article No. 6 (1989), "What Is Above Reason in the Work?"

"During the work, a person should say, “If I am not for me, who is for me?” At that time in the work, they think that they themselves are doing the ascents and descents, that they are men of war, called Tzava, “mighty men.” Afterward, when they are redeemed, they attain that the Lord is of hosts [Tzevaot], meaning that the Creator made all the ups and downs they had.

In other words, even the descents come from the Creator. A person does not get so many ups and downs for no reason. Rather, the Creator caused all those exits. We can interpret “exit” as “exit from Kedusha [holiness],” and Ba [comes] as “coming to Kedusha. The Creator does everything."

6. From: Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article No. 172, "The Matter of Preventions and Delays”

"All the preventions and delays that appear before our eyes are but a form of nearing—the Creator wants to bring us closer, and all these preventions bring us only nearing, since without them we would have no possibility of approaching Him. This is so because, by nature, there is no greater distance, as we are made of pure matter while the Creator is higher than high. Only when one begins to approach does he begin to feel the distance between us. And any prevention one overcomes brings the way closer for that person."

7. From: RABASH, Article No. 6 (1990), "When Should One Use Pride in the Work?"

"A person should pay attention to this and believe that the Creator is tending to him and guides him on the track that leads to the King’s palace. It follows that he should be happy that the Creator is watching over him and gives him the descents, as well. That is, a person should believe, as much as he can understand, that the Creator is giving him the ascents, since certainly, a person cannot say that he himself receives the ascents, but that the Creator wants to bring him closer; this is why He gives him the ascents."

8. From: Baal HaSulam, Shamati Article No. 19, “What Is 'The Creator Hates the Bodies,' in the Work?”

"One’s hope should be that since he cannot break free from the power of the will to receive, he is therefore in perpetual ascents and descents. Hence, he awaits the Creator, to be rewarded with the Creator opening his eyes, and to have the strength to overcome and work only for the sake of the Creator. It is as it is written, “One have I asked of the Lord; her will I seek.” “Her” means the Shechina [Divinity]. And one asks “that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.”"