<- 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 / What It Means that the Name of the Creator is “Truth”

What It Means that the Name of the Creator is “Truth”

Article 3, 1988

It is written in The Zohar, Haazinu (Item 210): “Happy is he who has been summoned to the King and knows how to call upon Him properly. If he calls and does not know Whom he calls, the Creator moves away from him, as it is written, ‘The Lord is near to all who call upon Him.’ To whom is He close? He reiterates, ‘To all who call upon Him in truth.’ But is there anyone who calls upon Him in falsehood? Rabbi Aba said, ‘Yes, it is he who calls but does not know Whom he calls.’ How do we know? Because it is written, ‘to all who call upon Him in truth.’ What is ‘in truth’? It is with the seal of the King’s ring, which is the completeness of everything.”

It is very difficult to understand the answer of The Zohar to the question, Does anyone call Him in falsehood? To this comes the answer, “Rabbi Aba said, ‘Yes, it is he who calls but does not Whom he calls.’” This is very perplexing. Why does one who does not know Whom he calls is regarded as lying? We could say that he is mistaken, but not lying! Also, the evidence he brings to the interpretation, “truth,” saying that it is with the King’s ring, which is the completeness of everything, what evidence is this, that we must know whom we are calling or it is called a “lie”?

To understand the above, which is necessary because according to the words of The Zohar, “One who prays but does not know to Whom he calls, the Creator moves away from him,” can we understand this? But how can one know to whom he is calling? Certainly, every person calls upon the Creator. Otherwise, to whom does he pray? So, what does it mean “to whom he calls.” What is even more difficult to understand is why he says, “and does not know to whom he calls.” After all, we learned that one should believe and not know to whom he calls.

We need to establish the matter of the purpose of creation and correction of creation first, and then we will know what man must correct. It is known that the purpose of creation is for the lower ones to receive delight and pleasure, and for this reason He has created in them the will to receive pleasure, and otherwise they cannot exist in the world. This desire forces them to do everything they can in order to obtain pleasure, and by this they can exist in the world.

Yet, along with it, as it is written in the introductions, upon the reception of the pleasure, shame is born within this will to receive—that it receives in a dishonest manner. In order to correct this, there was the Tzimtzum [restriction] and concealment, where the spiritual pleasure is hidden from us and is revealed only to the extent that the will to receive for oneself departs, to that extent, the spiritual pleasure is revealed. If the will to receive is present in some place, the abundance promptly departs from there, and both cannot be in the same place.

Accordingly, we can understand the correction of creation, when corrections are made so that creation will achieve the goal for which it was created—meaning to receive complete delight and pleasure without any bread of shame. We learned what is the order of the work, meaning what a person must do so the shame will be removed from him when he receives pleasure from the Creator, since before a person obtains this Kli [vessel], which is to receive with the aim to bestow, at which time there is no shame, meaning that while receiving, he will not feel unpleasantness due to oppositeness of form.

This means that as long as the lower one has no will to receive, and that will to receive will not make any disparity of form in relation to the light and the abundance, the Tzimtzum and concealment are still on it. This means that the upper abundance does not reveal, and anything of Kedusha [sanctity/holiness] he looks at, he sees as dark and not as light.

However, this applies to people who truly want to draw near to Kedusha. This order applies to them because from above, they do not want them to waste time needlessly, since they are fit to achieve the holy work in purity, meaning in order to bestow. In these people, if they do not aim in order to bestow, they see darkness and not light.

Conversely, in people who belong to the general public there is the matter of the general light, which shines for them as surrounding. They are satisfied by this and do not feel their lacks that they must correct. This light illuminates in Lo Lishma [not for Her sake].

However, when a person wants to emerge from the general public and be a worker of the Creator, built on the basis of faith above reason, when he does not want to receive the gift of flesh and blood—as we explained that sometimes when one’s faith is not enough to commit him to engage in Torah and Mitzvot—but since he is in an environment where all the friends engage in Torah and Mitzvot, he receives a gift from the friends. It is as though they give him part of their desire, and through the gifts of parts of desire he receives from the friends, it causes him to also engage in Torah and Mitzvot. It follows that the Torah and Mitzvot that he observes is built on the basis of the gift of flesh and blood and is not based on the Creator. In other words, the power of faith in the Creator that he has is not enough to compel him to engage in Torah and Mitzvot. Rather, the reason that causes him to observe Torah and Mitzvot is the gift of flesh and blood.

Now we can interpret what we say in the blessing for the food, “And do not make us need, the Lord our God, neither the gift of flesh and blood nor their lending, but only Your full and open hand, so we will never ever be ashamed or disgraced.” When a person blesses the Creator and thanks Him for giving him food, during the blessing for the food a person should pay attention and think that thanks to the food he exists in the world, that if he did not have food he would suffer hunger, and now the Creator has provided him with food, and for this he thanks the Creator, for the good that a person feels that the Creator has given him.

From corporeal nourishments, a person must contemplate on spiritual nourishments, which spiritual nourishments he received from the Creator. A person has to know that without corporal food he cannot live in corporeality. It is likewise in spirituality, called “the life of a Jew.” It has many names: Some call it a “life of Torah” or a “life of Kedusha [sanctity/holiness],” and some call spiritual life by the name “life that is connected to the Creator,” meaning that he says that the Creator gives him everything.

Sometimes, the Creator wants a person to ask Him for something, and then He will give him what he wants. The reason is not that the Creator longs for the creatures to ask Him for a favor and then He will give them, as with flesh and blood. Rather, we should interpret what our sages said (Yevamot 64), “The Creator longs for the prayer of the righteous.”

The reason is that there is no light without a Kli. Therefore, the Creator cannot give them when they have no need or desire. It follows that “longing for the prayer of the righteous” is longing for them to have a need and a Kli for the abundance, since the desire and need of the righteous is in order to bestow upon the Creator, and this Kli and need can hold the abundance and it will not go to the outer ones, as with the breaking of the vessels. Conversely, He does not long for the prayer of the wicked, since their Kli and need do not gain anything because He cannot impart abundance, as it will go to the Klipot [shells/peels], and all the gains of the Creator is in what He bestows.

Accordingly, we should say that the life that a person wants to have contact with the Creator, whether in prayer, when he asks Him to give him something, or when he thanks the Creator for what He has given him, in the end, at that time he is speaking to the Creator. The connection of speaking to the Creator brings him life, if he appreciates the fact that he is conversing with the Creator and he extends life because at that time he lacks nothing. That is, if a person can pay attention and picture to himself that if he could speak to a flesh and blood king, which everyone reveres, it is inherent in nature that a person can give everything he has in order to speak with the king. That person, if he can strengthen his faith that he is speaking to the King of Kings, who does not speak with just anyone, then as we said, we should make three discernments in this:

  1. The person does not know that this country has a king.

  2. Even if he knows there is a king, he does not know that the king has come to town.

  3. Even if he knows the king has come to town, he does not know the importance of his king, who is revered the world over, and all the kings and ministers in the world yearn to speak to his king, while he was fortunate to receive permission to speak to the king, and what else does he need? That is, he does not need the Creator to give him what he asks, for simply the privilege of speaking to the king is enough and gives him life. The reason he is asking something from the king is not so that the king will give him what he wants, since the prayer itself is enough for him, as though he has already granted his wish.

Likewise, when he thanks the Creator for what He has given him, he does not mind the size of the gift, but the fact that now he has the opportunity to speak to the King and thank Him—this is all His importance. This means that he does not consider the giving that the Creator has given him, or what he wants Him to give him. Rather, his entire importance is that he believes that now he is speaking to the King.

In such a state, when a person has no value for what he has, when he does not regard what enters the vessels of reception but measures the importance of what enters the vessels of bestowal, this is called “spiritual life,” since all his thoughts are about being rewarded with Dvekut with the Creator and not for his own benefit.

In these people, it is said that there is the matter of ascents and descents. At one time they feel the importance of Dvekut with the Creator, and sometimes there is the Tzimtzum and concealment and they feel the taste of death in the state they are in, without spiritual vitality.

Now we will explain what we asked about the name of the Creator being “truth,” and for this reason, one who calls upon Him in falsehood, He moves away from him. Rabbi Aba interpreted that falsehood is one who does not know whom he calls. We asked, Why is one who does not know called a “liar”?

To understand the meaning of truth, we will bring here what is written (The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Part 13), where he explains the seventh correction of the thirteen corrections of Dikna: “Therefore, this Tikkun [correction] is called in relation to Him, ‘and truth,’ since by revealing these two holy apples below, the truth of His Providence over the lower ones is revealed. This is why the revelation of His Providence is called ‘and truth,’ for it is the truth of His will, and all the concealments present in the worlds come only to reveal this truth in His Providence, which is to do good to His creations.”

It therefore follows that what is written, that the name of the Creator is “truth,” means that the truth that the purpose of creation is to do good to His creations is apparent. This is why Rabbi Aba says that “‘in truth’ means with the seal of the King’s ring, which is the completeness of everything.” We should understand what it implies to us that truth is the completeness of everything.

As we learned, the completeness of creation is for the creatures to achieve the purpose of creation, which is that the Creator’s will is for the creatures to receive delight and pleasure. The completeness of everything is that when they receive delight and pleasure from the Creator, they will not part from the Dvekut, called “equivalence of form.” This can be specifically that when they receive delight and pleasure, their intention will be to bestow. This is called “the completeness of everything.”

It therefore follows that when a person asks the Creator to satisfy his wish, he should know the name of the Creator when he calls upon Him. Otherwise, it is not regarded as truth but as falsehood and the Creator moves away from him.

We asked, Why is it considered a lie if he does not know His name, and why does the Creator move away from him? The answer is that when a person comes to pray to the Creator, he should believe that the name of the Creator is “truth.” That is, the Creator wants the quality of truth to be evident, that the Creator wants to do good to His creations. If he calls upon the Creator but does not believe that the name of the Creator is “truth,” that He wants the creatures to receive delight and pleasure, it follows that he does not believe in the purpose of creation, which is to do good to His creations. Thus, he is calling in falsehood. That is, he is asking someone to do him a favor while not believing that that man can do him any good.

Thus, when he calls upon Him to do good to him, he calls in falsehood because he does not believe that the Creator is good and does good. Because of this, the Creator moves away from he who calls upon Him in falsehood.

In corporeality, too, we see that if someone asks someone for a favor, and the other one knows that he does not believe that he can do him a favor but he is asking him for no reason, clearly, that person will move away from him and will not even want to hear what he will say to him.

Likewise, the Creator knows that the person speaks falsehood, that he is not calling Him by His name, which is “truth,” that the Creator truly does good to His creations. Naturally, the Creator moves away from him.

It therefore follows that when a person comes to pray to the Creator to help him, if that person comes to pray to the Creator to bring him closer, to adhere to the Creator, the order is that prior to the prayer he should first examine to Whom he is praying, meaning to which name of the Creator he is praying.

That is, the Creator has many names. The names of the Creator are given after the operations that manifest from Him. It is as our sages said, that each angel is named after the operation.

For this reason, first and foremost, a person must believe that the name of the Creator is The Good Who Does Good, and that the purpose of creation was to do good to His creations, and that His name is “truth.” At the end of correction, His real name will be revealed, that His intention in our suffering was not vengeance, as is done among corporeal people. Rather, it was all with one intention—to do good to His creations. That is, the suffering they suffered were corrections that qualified them to receive the delight and pleasure.

When a person has this faith and he asks the Creator to bring him closer, meaning to give him strength from above to achieve the degree of qualification where all his actions are in order to bestow, and this is what he asks of the Creator—that His glory will be revealed in the world, and not as it is now, when the Shechina [Divinity] is in the dust—and he prays that His glory will be revealed in the world, this is considered that he knows the name of the Creator and is not calling Him in falsehood, but in truth.