Lesson 3: What Stops Us from Truly Connecting
Lesson article: Rabash. Article No. 9 (1984). One Should Always Sell the Beams of His House > >
Additional source excerpts as preparation for Lesson 3
1. 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.
(This is so because one grows accustomed to moving on a line of growing farther. Hence, whenever one feels that he is distant, it does not induce any change in the process, since he knew in advance that he is moving on a line of growing farther, since this is the truth, that there are not enough words to describe the distance between us and the Creator. Hence, every time he feels that distance to a greater extent than he thought, it causes him no contention.)
2. Likutey Moharan, Last Edition, Mark 48
When one begins the work of the Creator, the way is that he is shown distancing, and it seems to him that he is pushed away from above and not permitted to come into the work of the Creator whatsoever. But in truth, the whole distancing is actually nearing. One needs to brace oneself very, very much, so as not to fall in his mind when he sees that several days and years have passed, he is making great efforts for the work of the Creator, but he is still very far and did not even begin to enter the gates of holiness, since he sees himself that he is still full of coarseness and corporeality, and thoughts and great confusions, and is not permitted to do anything of holiness that he wishes to do in the work of the Creator. And it seems to him as though the Creator does not look at him at all, and does not want his work because he sees that he shouts each time, and begs and pleads before Him to help him in his work, but nevertheless, he is still very, very far. Therefore, it seems to him as though the Creator is not looking at him at all and not turning to him whatsoever, since He does not want him at all. All these and the likes of these require great strengthening, to strengthen himself very, very much, and not look at all this at all, for in truth, the whole distancing is actually nearing, and all the righteous experienced all the above-said.
3. Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article No. 15, "What Is Other Gods in the Work?"
The resistance of the body appears in a person in the form of foreign thoughts. It comes and asks the questions of “who” and “what.” Through these questions, a person says that all these questions are certainly sent to him by the Sitra Achra [other side] to obstruct him in the work.
It says that if, at that time, one says that they come from the Sitra Achra, one breaches what is written, “You shall make no other gods over Me.” The reason is that one should believe that it comes to him from the Shechina [Divinity], since “There is none else besides Him.” However, the Shechina shows one his true state, how he is walking in the ways of the Creator.
This means that by sending him these questions, called “foreign thoughts,” meaning that through these foreign thoughts she sees how he answers the questions regarded as “foreign thoughts.” And all this, one should know one’s true state in the work so as to know what to do.
4. RABASH, Article No. 29 (1986), “Lishma and Lo Lishma”
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.”
5. Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article No. 1, "There is None Else Besides Him"
One should imagine that it is as though a small organ of the person is sore. Nevertheless, the pain is felt primarily in the mind and in the heart. The heart and the mind are the whole of man, and certainly, the sensation of a single organ cannot resemble the sensation of a person’s full stature, which is primarily where the pain is felt.
Likewise is the pain that one feels when he is removed from the Creator. Since man is but a single organ of the Shechina, for the Shechina is the common soul of Israel, hence, the sensation of a single organ is not like the sensation of the general pain. That is, there is sorrow in the Shechina when the organs are removed from her and she cannot nurture her organs.
(We should say that this is as our sages said: “When a man regrets, what does the Shechina say? ‘It is lighter than my head.’”) By not relating the sorrow of remoteness to himself, he is spared falling into the trap of the desire to receive for himself, which is considered separation from the Kedusha.
6. Baal HaSulam, Letter No. 4
You lack nothing but to go out to a field that the Lord has blessed, and collect all those flaccid organs that have drooped from your soul, and join them into a single body.
In that complete body, the Creator will instill His Shechina incessantly, and the fountain of intelligence and high streams of light will be as a never ending fountain.
7. Zohar for All, Tetzaveh [Command], "And in the Desert Where You Saw", Item 86
There is no light except for that which comes out of that darkness. This is so because when that side surrenders, the Creator rises above and His glory grows. Also, the work of the Creator is only out of darkness, and there is no good except from within the bad. And when one enters a bad way and leaves it, the Creator rises in his glory. Hence, the perfection of everything is good and bad together, and to later depart to the good. And there is no good except for that which comes out of the bad. And in that good, the glory of the Creator increases, and this is complete work.
8. Baal HaSulam, "Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot", Item 133
Only the mighty ones among them, whose patience endured, defeated the guards and opened the gate. And they were instantly awarded seeing the king’s face, who appointed each of them in his right place.
Of course, from that moment on, they had no further dealings with those guards, who diverted and mislead them and made their lives bitter for several days and years, running back and forth around the gate. This is because they have been rewarded with working and serving before the glory of the king’s face inside his palace.
9. RABASH, Article No. 9 (1984), "One Should Always Sell the Beams of His House"
We must believe that everything that the Creator gives us is for our own good, although we must pray, just in case, that the Creator will lift these troubles from us. However, we must know that the prayer and the granting of the prayer are two separate issues. In other words, if we do what we must, then the Creator will do what is good for us, as with the above allegory. It is said about that, “And the Lord will do that which seems good to Him.”
10. RABASH, Article No. 337, "Happy Is the Man"
“Happy is the man whom the Lord afflicts.” We should ask, but is the purpose of creation not to do good to His creations? Thus, this is the opposite of the goal.
We can interpret that it is known that every branch wants to resemble its root, as it is written in the “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” that the whole world loves rest. However, this is like a person holding a stick in his hand and beating everyone to make them work. Hence, each one must relinquish his rest in order to be saved from the afflictions of being beaten with a stick.
The stick is the afflictions when a person feels that he is lacking something. Therefore, when a person has a deficiency of having nothing to eat, he must labor in order to quiet the suffering of hunger. The bigger the lack, the more he must exert until he is compelled to obtain the object of his yearning.
Hence, if the Creator afflicts when he has no spirituality, the suffering compels a person to make great efforts until he must obtain the spirituality that he feels he lacks.