<- Kabbalah Library
Continue Reading ->
Kabbalah Library

Rabash

Articles
Purpose of Society - 1 Purpose of Society - 2 Concerning Love of Friends Love of Friends - 1 Each One Shall Help His Friend What Does the Rule "Love Thy Friend as Thyself" Give Us Love of Friends - 2 According to What Is Explained Concerning “Love Thy Friend as Thyself” Which Keeping of Torah and Mitzvot Purifies the Heart One Should Always Sell the Beams of His House Achieve in Order Not to Have to Reincarnate? Concerning Ancestral Merit Concerning the Importance of Society Sometimes Spirituality Is Called “a Soul” Forevermore One Sells All That Is His and Marries a Wise Disciple's Daughter Can Something Negative Come Down from Above Concerning Bestowal Concerning the Importance of Friends The Agenda of the Assembly - 1 And It Shall Come to Pass When You Come to the Land that the Lord Your God Gives You You Stand Today, All of You Make for Yourself a Rav and Buy Yourself a Friend - 1 The Meaning of Branch and Root The Meaning of Truth and Faith These Are the Generations of Noah And the Lord Appeared to Him at the Oaks of Mamre Make for Yourself a Rav and Buy Yourself a Friend - 2 Jacob Went Out And Jacob Went Out Concerning the Debate between Jacob and Laban Mighty Rock of My Salvation I Am the First and I Am the Last And Hezekiah Turned His Face to the Wall But the More They Afflicted Them Know Today and Reply to Your Heart Come unto Pharaoh - 1 He who Hardens His Heart We Should Always Discern between Torah and Work The Whole of the Torah Is One Holy Name On My Bed at Night Three Times in the Work In Every Thing We Must Discern between Light and Kli Show Me Your Glory The Spies The Lord Is Near to All Who Call upon Him Three Prayers One Does Not Regard Oneself as Wicked Concerning the Reward of the Receivers The Felons of Israel And I Pleaded with the Lord When a Person Knows What Is Fear of the Creator And There Was Evening and There Was Morning Who Testifies to a Person A Righteous Who Is Happy, a Righteous Who Is Suffering Hear Our Voice Moses Went Lend Ear, O Heaven Man Is Rewarded with Righteousness and Peace through the Torah Concerning Hesed [Mercy] Concerning Respecting the Father Confidence The Importance of a Prayer of Many Concerning Help that Comes from Above Concerning the Hanukkah Candle Concerning Prayer A Real Prayer Is over a Real Deficiency What Is the Main Deficiency for which One Should Pray? Come unto Pharaoh – 2 What Is the Need to Borrow Vessels from the Egyptians? A Prayer of Many The Lord Has Chosen Jacob for Himself The Agenda of the Assembly - 2 Who Causes the Prayer Concerning Joy Should One Sin and Be Guilty Concerning Above Reason If a Woman Inseminates Concerning Fear and Joy The Difference between Charity and Gift The Measure of Practicing Mitzvot [Commandments] A Near Way and a Far Way The Creator and Israel Went into Exile A Congregation Is No Less than Ten Lishma and Lo Lishma The Klipa [Shell/Peel] that Precedes the Fruit Concerning Yenika [Suckling] and Ibur [Impregnation] The Reason for Straightening the Legs and Covering the Head During the Prayer What Are Commandments that a Person Tramples with His Feet Judges and Officers The Fifteenth of Av What Is Preparation for the Selichot [Forgiveness] The Good Who Does Good, to the Bad and to the Good It is Forbidden to Hear a Good Thing From a Bad Person The Importance of Faith that Is Always Present The Miracle of Hanukkah The Difference between Mercy and Truth and Untrue Mercy One’s Greatness Depends on the Measure of One’s Faith in the Future What Is the Substance of Slander and Against Whom Is It? Purim, and the Commandment: Until He until He Does Not Know Why the Festival of Matzot Is Called Passover The Difference between the Work of the General Public and the Work of the Individual What Is Preparation for Reception of the Torah - 1 What Are Revealed and Concealed in the Work of the Creator? What Are Dirty Hands in the Work of the Creator? What Is the Gift that a Person Asks of the Creator? What is Unfounded Hatred in the Work What Is Heaviness of the Head in the Work? What Are “Blessing” and “Curse” in the Work? What Is Do Not Add and Do Not Take Away in the Work? What Is “According to the Sorrow, So Is the Reward”? What Is Making a Covenant in the Work Why Life Is Divided into Two Discernments What Is the Extent of Teshuva [Repentance]? What It Means that the Name of the Creator is “Truth” What Is the Prayer for Help and for Forgiveness in the Work? What Is, “When Israel Are in Exile, the Shechina Is with Them,” in the Work? What Is the Difference between a Field and a Man of the Field, in the Work? What Is the Importance of the Groom, that His Iniquities Are Forgiven? What Does It Mean that the Righteous Suffers Afflictions? What Are the Two Discernments before Lishma? What Are Torah and Work in the Way of the Creator? What Is “the People’s Shepherd Is the Whole People” in the Work? The Need for Love of Friends What Is “There Is No Blessing in an Empty Place” in the Work? When Is One Considered “A Worker of the Creator” in the Work? What Is the Reward in the Work of Bestowal? What Beginning in Lo Lishma Means in the Work What Is the Difference between Law and Judgment in the Work? What Is, “The Creator Does Not Tolerate the Proud,” in the Work? What Is, His Guidance Is Concealed and Revealed? What to Look for in the Assembly of Friends What Is the Work of Man, in the Work that Is Attributed to the Creator? What Are the Two Actions During a Descent? What Is the Difference between General and Individual in the Work of the Creator? What Are Day and Night in the Work? What Is the Help in the Work that One Should Ask of the Creator? What Is the Measure of Repentance? What Is a Great or a Small Sin in the Work? What Is the Difference between the Gate of Tears and the Rest of the Gates? What Is a Flood of Water in the Work? What Does It Mean that the Creation of the World Was by Largess? What Is Above Reason in the Work? What Is “He Who Did Not Toil on the Eve of Shabbat, What Will He Eat on Shabbat” in the Work? What It Means, in the Work, that If the Good Grows, So Grows the Bad What Is, “Calamity that Comes upon the Wicked Begins with the Righteous,” in the Work? What Are the Forces Required in the Work? What Is a Groom’s Meal? What Is the “Bread of an Evil-Eyed Man” in the Work? Why Is Shabbat Called Shin-Bat in the Work? What Does It Mean that the Evil Inclination Ascends and Slanders, in the Work? What Is, “A Drunken Man Must Not Pray, in the Work? Why Are Four Questions Asked Specifically on Passover Night? What Is, If He Swallows the Bitter Herb, He Will Not Come Out, in the Work? What Is “Do Not Slight the Blessing of a Layperson” in the Work? What Is the Meaning of Suffering in the Work? What Is the Preparation to Receive the Torah in the Work?-2 What Is the Meaning of Lighting the Menorah in the Work? What Is the Prohibition to Teach Torah to Idol-Worshippers in the Work? What Is, “He Who Is Without Sons,” in the Work? What Is “A Road Whose Beginning Is Thorns and Its End Is a Plain” in the Work? The Daily Schedule What Does “May We Be the Head and Not the Tail” Mean in the Work? What It Means that the World Was Created for the Torah What It Means that the Generations of the Righteous are Good Deeds, in the Work What It Means that the Land Did Not Bear Fruit before Man Was Created, in the Work When Should One Use Pride in the Work? What Are the Times of Prayer and Gratitude in the Work? What It Means that Esau Was Called “A Man of the Field,” in the Work What Does It Mean that Our Sages Said, “King David Did Not Have a Life,” in the Work? What Does It Mean that by the Unification of the Creator and the Shechina, All Iniquities Are Atoned? What Is “For Lack of Spirit and for Hard Work,” in the Work? What Is the Assistance that He who Comes to Purify Receives in the Work? Why Is the Torah Called “Middle Line” in the Work?-2 What Is Half a Shekel in the Work? - 2 What Is, “As I Am for Nothing, so You Are for Nothing,” in the Work? What Is the Order in Blotting Out Amalek? What Does, “Everything that Comes to Be a Burnt Offering Is Male,” Mean in the Work? What Is, “There Is None as Holy as the Lord, for There Is None Besides You,” in the Work? What Is, “Every Blade of Grass Has an Appointee Above, Who Strikes It and Tells It, Grow!” in the Work? What “Israel Do the Creator’s Will” Means in the Work What Is “He Who Enjoys at a Groom’s Meal,” in the Work? What Is, “A Cup of Blessing Must Be Full,” in the Work? What Is, “Anyone Who Mourns forJerusalem Is Rewarded with Seeing Its Joy,” in the Work? What Is, “For You Are the Least of All the Peoples,” in the Work? What Are a Blessing and a Curse, in the Work? What Is an Optional War, in the work? - 2 What Is, “The Concealed Things Belong to the Lord Our God,” in the work? What Is, “We Have No Other King But You,” in the Work? What Is, “Return, O Israel, Unto the Lord Your God,” in the Work? What Is, “The Wicked Will Prepare and the Righteous Will Wear,” in the Work? What Is, “The Saboteur Was in the Flood, and Was Putting to Death,” in the Work? What Is, “The Herdsmen of Abram’s Cattle and the Herdsmen of Lot’s Cattle,” in the Work? What Is “Man” and What Is “Beast” in the Work? What Is, “And Abraham Was Old, of Many Days,” in the Work? What Does “The King Stands on His Field When the Crop Is Ripe” Mean in the Work? What It Means that the Good Inclination and the Evil Inclination Guard a Person in the Work These Candles Are Sacred What “You Have Given the Strong to the Hands of the Weak” Means in the Work What Does It Mean that Man’s Blessing Is the Blessing of the Sons, in the Work? What Is the Blessing, “Who Made a Miracle for Me in This Place,” in the Work? Why We Need “Reply unto Your Heart,” to Know that the Lord, He Is God, in the Work What Is, “For I Have Hardened His Heart,” in the work? What Is, “Rise Up, O Lord, and Let Your Enemies Be Scattered,” in the Work? What Is, “There Is Nothing that Has No Place,” in the Work? What Does It Mean that We Read the Portion, Zachor [Remember], Before Purim, in the Work? What Is “A Lily Among the Thorns,” in the Work? What Is the Meaning of the Purification of a Cow’s Ashes, in the Work? What Does It Mean that One Should Bear a Son and a Daughter, in the Work? What Is, “If a Woman Inseminates First, She Delivers a Male Child,” in the Work? What Does It Mean that Charity to the Poor Makes the Holy Name, in the Work? What Does It Mean that the Creator Favors Someone, in the Work? What Is Eating Their Fruits in This World and Keeping the Principal for the Next World, in the Work? What Does It Mean that the Right Must Be Greater than the Left, in the Work? What Are Truth and Falsehood in the Work? What Should One Do If He Was Born With Bad Qualities? What Is the Reason for which Israel Were Rewarded with Inheritance of the Land, in the Work? What Does It Mean that the Right and the Left Are in Contrast, in the Work?

Ramchal

Agra

Kabbalah Library Home /

Rabash / And There Was Evening and There Was Morning

And There Was Evening and There Was Morning

Article No. 36, 1985

The Zohar says about the verse, “And there was evening and there was morning” (Genesis 3, p 96, and Item 151 in the Sulam Commentary), “‘And there was evening,’ which the text writes, means that it extends from the side of darkness, meaning Malchut. ‘And there was morning’ means that it extends from the side of the light, which is ZA.

“This is why it writes about them, ‘One day,’ indicating that the evening and morning are as one body, and both make the day. Rabbi Yehuda said, ‘What is the reason?’ He asks, ‘Since ‘And there was evening and there was morning’ points to the unification of ZON, that the light of day comes out of both of them, then after the text announces it on the first day, why does it says about each day, ‘And there was evening and there was morning’?

“And he replies, ‘It is to know that there is no day without a night and no night without a day, and they will never part from one another. This is why the text repeats and informs us each and every day, to indicate that it is impossible that there will ever be the light of day without the darkness of night. Likewise, there will never be the darkness of night that does not bring a day after it, since they will never part from one another.’” Thus far its words.

We should understand the above-written in the work, as to what light means and what darkness means, and why it is impossible to have a day unless it is from the both of them together, meaning that light and darkness produce a single day, that is, it takes both to build a single day. This means that the day begins when the darkness begins because this is when the sequence of the making of a new day begins.

We should also understand how the word “day” can be applied to darkness, since when the darkness has begun, we can already begin to count the day.

It is known that after the restrictions and the departure of the light that occurred in the upper worlds—after the second restriction and the breaking—the system of Klipot [shells] emerged, until the place of BYA divided into two discernments. From its middle and above it was the BYA of Kedusha [holiness], and from its middle and below it became the permanent section of the Klipot, as explained in TES (Part 16, p 1938, Item 88).

Consequently, in this world, “A man is born the foal of a wild donkey” and he has no desire for spirituality. Thus, from where does the sensation of need for spirituality come to a person, to the point of saying that he feels darkness, which he calls “night,” by feeling that he is remote from the Creator? We must know that at the same time when he begins to feel that he is far from the Creator, he is already beginning to believe in the existence of the Creator to some extent, or else how can he say that he is remote from something that doesn’t exist? Instead, he must say that he has some illumination from afar that shines for him to the extent that he feels that he is remote from the Creator.

It therefore follows that as soon as the darkness begins, meaning the feeling of the existence of darkness, the light immediately begins to shine to some extent. And the measure of illumination of the day is recognized only through negation. That means that one feels a lack, that he does not have the light of the Creator shining for him in an positive manner. However, the light shines for him in the form of lack, meaning that now he begins to feel that he is missing the light of the Creator, which is called “day.”

But those for whom the light of day does not shine don’t know if there is such a reality where a person must feel the absence of the light of the Creator, which is called “day.” Let us speak of a single person, meaning within the same body. Sometimes one feels that he is in darkness, meaning that he is remote from the Creator and craves to draw near to the Creator. He feels suffering at being remote from the Creator.

The question is, “Who causes him to worry about spirituality?” And sometimes he feels darkness and suffering when he sees that another is successful in corporeality in possessions and with people, while he lacks both sustenance and respect. He sees about himself that in truth, he is more gifted than the other, both in terms of talent and in terms of ancestry, and he deserves more respect. But in fact, he is many degrees lower than the other one, and this pains him terribly.

At that time, he has no connection to spirituality, and he doesn’t even remember that he ever was connected, and that he himself considered all the friends with whom he was studying at the seminary, that when he saw them suffering for their concerns to achieve wholeness in life, they seemed to him like children who cannot make a purposeful calculation, and all that their eyes see is what they want. At one time they see that the most important thing in life is money, and at another time they see that the most important thing in life is to have a respectable position among people, etc. And now he is within those very things that he mocked, and he feels that his life is tasteless unless he determines the whole of the hope and peace in life at the same level that they determine, that this is called “life’s purpose.”

And what is the truth? It is that now the Creator has taken pity on him and illuminated the discernment of day for him, and this day begins with negation. In other words, when the day begins to shine in his heart in the form of darkness, it is called “the beginning of the rise of day,” and then Kelim begin to form in him, in which the light will be able to shine in an affirmative manner. This is the light of the Creator, when one begins to feel the love of the Creator and begins to feel the flavor of Torah and the taste of Mitzvot.

From this we can understand the above words of The Zohar, that a day comes out specifically of the both of them, as it writes, “This is why it writes about them, ‘One day,’ indicating that the evening and morning are as one body, and both make the day.” Also, when Rabbi Yehuda said that this is why the text alerts every day anew—to indicate that it is impossible that there will ever be light without the darkness of the night that comes first. And also, there will not be the darkness of the night that does not bring the light of day after it, so they will never part from one another.

It is as mentioned above, 1) following the rule that there is no light without a Kli, and 2) it also requires light, which is called “day,” to make a Kli.

But we should understand why, if one has already been granted a little bit of day in the negative form and feels that his whole life is only if he is rewarded with Dvekut with the Creator, and he begins to torment over being remote from the Creator, who, then, causes him to fall from his state of ascent? In other words, his whole life should be only in spiritual life, and this is all his hope, and he suddenly falls into a state of lowliness, a state where he would always laugh at people whose hope in life was to obtain the fulfillment of beastly lusts. But now he himself is among them, nourished by the same nourishments that they feed on.

Moreover, we should wonder how he has forgotten that he was once in a state of ascent. Now he is in a state of such amnesia that it doesn’t even occur to him that he would consider the people that he is now among, meaning that his only ambitions are at such a low level and he is not ashamed of himself that he dared go into such an atmosphere that he always ran from. In other words, this air that they breathe so willingly, he would always say that it suffocates Kedusha [holiness], and now he is among them and feels that there is no fault in them.

The answer is as the writing says (Psalms 1), “Happy is the man that has not walked in the counsel of the wicked.” We must understand what the counsel of the wicked is. It is known that the question of one who is wicked that is brought in the Hagadah (Passover narrative) is “What mean you by this service?” Baal HaSulam explained that it means that when a person begins to work in order to bestow, the wicked one’s question comes and asks, “What will you get out of not working for yourself?”

And when a person receives such a question, he begins to contemplate that perhaps he is right. And then he falls into his net. Accordingly, we should interpret, “Happy is the man that has not walked in the counsel of the wicked” that when the wicked come to him and advise him that it is not worthwhile to work if he does not see some benefit and gain from it to himself, he does not listen to them. Instead, he strengthens himself in the work and says, “Now I see that I am going on the path of truth, and they wish to confuse me.” It follows that when that man overcomes, he is happy.

Afterwards, the writings say, “Nor stood in the way of sinners.” We should interpret “Way of sinners.” He says, “Nor stood.” A sin is as we explained in the previous essay (35, 1984-85), that the sin is if a person breaks “You shall not add.” In other words, the real way is that we have to go above reason, called faith. And the opposite of that is knowing—the body understands that he has no other choice except to believe above reason.

Hence, when he feels some taste in the work and takes it as support, and says that now he does not need faith, since he already has some basis, he immediately falls from his degree. And when one is careful about it and does not stand for even a minute to look and see if it is possible to change his basis, it is considered that he is happy because he did not stand in the way of sinners, to look at their way.

And afterwards, the writing says, “Nor sat in the seat of the scornful,” referring to those people who spend their days idly, who do not take their lives seriously and consider every moment precious. We should know to what “The seat of the scornful” refers. Those who cherish every moment and sit and think of others—if other people are all right and how much others should correct their actions, and have no pity for themselves, worrying about their own lives, this causes them all the descents. The RADAK interprets scornful as being of a shrewd mind in an evil way, finding faults in people and disclosing secrets to each other. This matter is for lazy people, idlers. This is why he said, “Nor sat in the seat of the scornful,” and this is the reason for the descents.