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Article "Thou Hast Hemmed Me In Behind and Before" - Talk 4

Lesson by Rav Michael Laitman, PhD Bnei Baruch, Israel
February 8, 2006
Lecturer: Michael Laitman, PhD

We are continuing to study the article Thou Hast Hemmed Me In Behind and Before from the book Pri Hacham, Maamarim (Fruit of Wisdom, Articles) by Baal HaSulam, page 104, section: The End of a Thing is Better Than its Beginning.

It’s interesting that yesterday someone who was probably watching or listening to the lesson, asked me: “The topic was the blessing of the righteous, so why didn’t you talk about blessings of the righteous?” We have to explain slowly to a person that “blessings of the righteous” and the entire matter in Kabbalah is a little different than it is in the ordinary world.

In this world a person feels powerless, frightened and terrified about the future and death. He feels uncertain of his success, health in the face of rivals and enemies. Therefore, he needs support. Because spirituality is hidden, how can he receive any support, and from whom? A person understands that only society can support him somehow. In what way? This leads a person to start looking for all kinds of blessings and charms.

Indeed, humanity developed many systems for that (dancing around the fire or public prayer), all kinds of amulets that people buy, e.g. the Star of David, a crucifix, or other signs. A person may carry with him the book of Psalms, Raziel Ha Malach (The Secret Angel) or other kinds of books according to his beliefs or religion.

A person may go to someone who seems great and powerful, in order to receive a blessing or a little note bolstering his confidence for success or changing his luck so harm will not befall him. People don't contemplate a new business venture before they receive a blessing or a prayer for something that doesn’t depend on the individual, such as ‘Will the business attract customers?’, ‘Will the business be a success or not?’, ‘Maybe a prayer before we set off for a journey so that nothing happens’ etc. In every situation, in every place people want (to get a blessing). For instance, a ship goes out to sea, so they break a bottle of champagne for its success, since who knows, soon the ship will be out at sea, under the power of nature, of the elements.

We see how superstitions affect huge groups, not just primitive people. We are talking about groups, e.g. a soccer team. Each team may hold a different superstition or ritual they believe will help in their winning. The latest scientific researches discovered that when a person received a blessing and was told: ’you will be fine, you will succeed, there is a bright future ahead of you,’ he acquired the power of faith that gave him great confidence.

For example, take a group of people who are ill and divide the group in half: one half receives this confidence, this elation, and the other half does not. As a result, people of the second group get physically ill, including cancer. We see that the blessing makes a difference and has a good influence. This exterior influence activates mental forces in a person which then act, e.g. the placebo affect etc.

Humanity developed all these types of rituals due to the lack of knowledge, understanding and connection to the force that operates everything. It’s not that those of us who study Kabbalah disrespect this; we too use these forces to some extent, each of us. Yet, the method of Kabbalah is to bring a person to the power of faith, first transcending his ego and personal success. And then a person relates himself to society, to the general force, to the general Kli with respect to the Upper One, in order to attain the equivalence of form with the Upper One.

In fact, what else does he need beside that force which will correct him to be similar to the Upper One? That’s his entire success; these are his rituals, his faith. Subsequently, faith, and the force of bestowal, the act of bestowal, as well as his own degree, everything depends on acquiring this force from Above. One does not have to believe blindly, but one should come to tangible, practical faith.

A person uses the power of corporal faith according to his needs. The more confusing and frightening the world is becoming with its lack of understanding, knowledge, and confidence, the more people are looking for opportunities to elate their power of faith. That's why today we are seeing the return of mystics and all kinds of those who sell confidence, security and success. The more safe and secure the world becomes, the less a person will need these systems to calm himself or to lie to himself.

We are slowly discovering from experience and through the growing will to receive that all these beliefs and charms can seemingly help in this life, in ordinary situations, yet when increased suffering comes, they cannot soothe a person in respect of giving him real confidence in a good future. Then the so-called simple naïve faith that people are used to no longer helps, and against their will they will have to find another support system. Another support can only come by acquiring the true power of faith, which is the force of bestowal.

In other words, when a person is beaten, he runs away. When he discovers that there is nowhere to run, his thinking changes from running externally from the blows, to changing his nature internally. If a person cannot enjoy through the will to receive, he is willing to diminish it to the point that he gets rid of it entirely.

This is what we’ll all have to experience. Perhaps, the blessings of the righteous are still very much in demand in the world, but there will be a time when humanity will find that it just does not have it, that all of these methods eventually are empty, because in higher degrees of the ego these methods cannot provide security and confidence.

The End of the Thing is Better than Its Beginning

The giving of the Torah in this low world is essentially an opposite thing, because the angels were wrong about it. This is the meaning of “the end of a thing is better than its beginning.”

“The end of a thing,” meaning the bottom of the degree, meaning, in the creation of the world, in the vivid, evident creation of the world in which there is no need for any observations. From what we read in the books, the first concepts, meaning, if he doesn’t eat, he will be hungry, if he touches fire, he will be burned, if he drops himself in the water, he will drown, etc. These things are understood by animals too, because the animate brain will tell them that, hence, it is called “the end of a thing.”

The beginning of a thing is the mind of the Torah which is not attained even by the speaking, meaning ordinary people, but only those who are the seed of Jacob, the chosen ones by the Creator. And in the world the good and the evil are mixed. In order to discriminate the good from the evil, the writing tells us that the path of the good is essentially the end of a thing, meaning to behave in the way the ignorant, the lowest of the people delve in it, through what all people attained, but along with it you should connect the mind of the Torah.

This means that a person should have a complete level. As we read about Rabbi Shimon, that before he reached the highest level, the level of Gmar Tikkun (the end of correction) , he fell to the degree of Shimon from the market (the least degree). Rabbi Shimon then acquired that complete level which contains all of the Kelim (vessels), and then all the Lights that come to him are called Gmar Tikkun.

Because this is the purpose of the opposites in the world…

These are Malchut and Keter. Malchut is the attribute of the creature, Keter is the attribute of the Creator and in between all those attributes that Malchut acquires in order to resemble Keter, and then it becomes as Keter. This is what we acquire by connecting to all the other souls into one Kli. Through his love, through his incorporation with all the other souls, by beginning to care for them every person acquires their desire. A person then connects all the desires to himself, and each one becomes like the whole reality. A person is a small world, by that he acquires his world and by that he is filled with the Light of the Creator.

…and the complete person must unite in complete unification, he must unite it in his mind, and this is called good. That’s the meaning of “the end of a thing is better if it is well connected with its beginning.” That means the mind of the Torah and the corporal mind bond literally as one.

Those who evolve begin to find that it's impossible to evolve upwards without evolving also in breadth. Only to the extent that a person is absorbed, or absorbs all the elements of reality in this Kli that he worries about, that he wants to expand and be incorporated with all the elements of reality, only within that Kli can he discover the wisdom, the right connection, the true system of all the elements, building the right connection. Accordingly the Light will appear in the system that he had built.

A person who progresses discovers that this is what attainment is like. That is why Kabbalah compels him even at the degree of this world to work, to study, to have a family, to mingle with the world, not to run away from the public, to be a citizen of his country. He has to be connected with all the processes that take place in the world he lives in and not shut himself up from the world.

In one's private Kli it’s very easy to be righteous, because it’s a small Kli that cannot grow. As much as we thought otherwise, that one should shut himself up, tie himself down and not mingle with the world, this is incorrect. Once he scrutinizes the goal for himself and realizes what it is and how it is to be attained, he discovers that only by being connected to the world and by wanting to bring the world to correction, to that extent he absorbs the Kelim from the world, and within these Kelim (meaning the thoughts, the desires of the world) specifically he can discover Godliness. What does it mean, Godliness? It’s an attitude of the Creator toward these souls, toward people.

This is why Baal HaSulam says that we must constantly be connected in these two contradicting points: Malchut and Keter, this world and the next world, and not to leave one without the other. The one who leaves the measure of Malchut is called an angel that is just floating about. But what does he have? He normally ends up in abstract form in his perception, but he does not hold it. Those who are only in corporeality have nothing more than what they discover in this life. It is specifically over the gap between the two worlds, between the corporeality and spirituality that the one discovers creation.

This means that one must perform corrections while incarnating in this world. A person cannot perform corrections while not perceiving the reality called this world, meaning, in between incarnations, while he is not present alive in this world. He cannot perform corrections because he does not have a holding point, a basis, from the lowest point of Malchut, from the point of death to the point of this world from which we begin to count the degrees from below upward.

That is why Baal HaSulam says: “The end of a thing is better than its beginning,” meaning that the disclosure of spirituality in the connection with the lowest corporeality gives us the depth and the height of the attainment. As a person rises in spirituality, the spirituality to which he rises projects its form on the lowest corporeality. Then the person sees the depth of the picture and that brings him sensation and attainment. The spiritual form clothed in matter (the will to receive) must clothe in the full thickness of the will to receive that appears to a person.

Therefore, “the end of a thing is better than its beginning.” Without the will to receive that is activated from the lowest degree we would be completely lacking the ability to grip Godliness, to grip the Light which appears only in the Aviut of the Kli.

Question: The attributes of the Creator and opposite to it, the vessels of reception look like a contradiction. Is Zeir Anpin incorporated with the attributes of the Creator and the creature?

What’s the connection between the upper nine Sefirot and Zeir Anpin?The confusion stems from the following: if one talks about a creature, the creature is the desire to enjoy. Desire to enjoy is dead. In order to be alive it must receive within it attributes of bestowal. Even in an electron, even in the tiniest particle, there is a spark of bestowal, otherwise it would not be existing, it would not move, it would not turn around. The livelihood, the energy, even in the inanimate comes from a spark of bestowal that is in it.

The will to receive itself just waits until the filling comes; it cannot make a single movement. Moving means that we discern that there is something there, and we are attracted to this force through the power of gravitation that shines upon us. The will to receive, in itself, doesn’t have the energy to make any kind of movement. It’s like a depressed person: the Light departed, so he is dead, he cannot move. He cannot even die. It's a known state.

This is why we talk about Malchut as substance that can’t be turned around. There must be the force of Keter, opposite to it and the attributes of the Giver through which He bestows and builds Malchut and awakens it. When Malchut awakens, if it wants to attain the Giver, it must acquire the eight Sefirot in between them.

Thecreature is integrated of nine Sefirot and this whole structure is called the structure of the creature. In the will to receive we discern ten Sefirot (ten attributes), starting from the seemingly pure attribute of the Creator. It is seemingly pure, because the attribute of the Creator is incorporated in matter, yet we don’t see matter in Keter. The matter there is only to illuminate for us the attribute of the Creator without any interference. But inside there is matter. (These ten Sefirot then go) up until the degree of Malchut where only matter shines(becomes evident), but the Creator is seemingly not there. Even though He revives matter from within, He is unfelt. In between there are the attributes of incorporation between the attributes of the Creator and the attributes of the creature. This is, in fact, the conglomerate of attributes that are in the creature.

Ten Sefirot, that is what we say about the attributes or the structure of the corrected creature that is present in spirituality, no matter on which spiritual degree.The question about what happens between Zeir Anpin and Malchut, already asks about the system that corrects the creature which is broken and has these attributes in oppositeness from the ten Sefirot situated in direct line. All these attributes and the correct incorporation between them (between the Creator and the creature) that created ten Sefirot, all this disintegrated and became like a pile of attributes which lost the right direction of connecting gradually from Malchut to Keter.

We are talking about the system that can restore these ten Sefirot that existed once but got broken, restore these ten Sefirot altogether again in such a way that these broken attributes will awaken seemingly by themselves. They cannot really do it by themselves, but the system should influence them in such a way that they don’t feel that they are influenced, the way we don’t feel when someone awakens us.

Where will those who are awakened go? What will they look for? How to make the concealment and revelation in such a way that they will start learning how to become adults, similar to the Creator, from the form opposite of Him? It’s a very complex, multipart, difficult system, because it has to be entirely Godly, incorporating the force of the Creator. There must also be the force of the broken creature, the Klipot, the desires to receive, as representatives. Otherwise the system will not know how to operate on us. When it operates on us, it operates both in disclosure and in concealment, from these two contradicting sides. Accordingly it awakens in us contradicting sensations, understandings, thoughts that are all in concealment, in collision, in contradiction, in opposition.

Therefore we should always scrutinize how we progress from these two contradicting things. That’s why we have the clarification of bitter and sweet, true and false. We have to combine them but we don’t know how. Looking for the right formula to combine these two contradicting things or these two forms of clarification (bitter/sweet and true/false) we build ourselves. In us too, this system is very-very complex, in accordance with the Upper system. These two systems are similar, but at the same time, in their oppositeness. When we study all that, this is called studying the wisdom of Kabbalah.

So “the end of a thing is better than its beginning,” it’s not what we thought that soon we’ll be happier than before. On the contrary, we have to draw spirituality into corporeality, and in corporeality discover it, and by this “turn matter into sanctity.” This is the meaning of “the end of a thing is better than its beginning.”

Two Opposites in the Same Carrier

That’s the meaning of the words of our sages: “A man and a beast the Creator will save.” These people who are shrewd and pretend to be like beasts...

What does it mean “the Creator will save man and beasts?” As we speak about people who are cunning in their knowledge, we mean that this is what they feel because we only speak from the perspective of a person. Who measures it and says: “You are cunning or you are not; you have the knowledge, or you don’t have the knowledge?” These are the clothing of Adam ha Rishon, and The Tree of Knowledge. So, who are those who are cunning? Those who determine about themselves, as a matter of fact, that they are like beasts. Beasts, meaning, that they have no knowledge.

It means that these two opposites are connected in them into one.

Why are they beasts in that? It’s a very high degree. Two opposites that connect as one, it should be Godliness not a beast; it should already be a degree of a person, of a human, similar to the Upper One.

For example, it is written, “If there is no flour, there is no Torah.”

“If there is no Torah, there is no flour.”

In other words Baal HaSulam says that these two degrees or states—man or beast, flour or Torah, where a beast is opposite to flour, and Torah is opposite to a man—are reciprocal and it’s not that one is bigger then the other.

The first opinion is the corporeal mind; I wish to say, a mind that everyone attains. The second opinion is the mind of the Torah. Because, what is the meaning of the power of the Torah to provide flour? What we understand, it is written that “The Creator does not leave his providence even for a minute.” That is why He benefits those who do His will and listens to their prayer.

In a person there is not a single degree, single state when he is detached from Providence. That’s why if there’s no Torah, there’s no bread; if there’s no bread, there’s no Torah. In the entire degree of a man, from head to tail, in all the levels of his connections to this world he has to disclose the Providence, the Creator.

Accordingly, those who are awarded working in the Torah, they definitely must not work as ordinary people, because they will ask from the Almighty, and He will give them. It is written, “Because they are righteous, the Torah is kept and their work is blessed.”

What does it mean? It means that a person should work in the Torah and not pay attention to corporeality. What he discovers in the Torah, must pass to his corporeal degrees and appear there. As we say, “The more he activates his Aviut (coarseness) in Dalet de Aviut, the more he discovers the Light of Yechida coming from Above, from Keter. Therefore, he doesn’t have to worry about correcting the lowest degrees, but the higher he elevates, so raises his lowest measure too.

Say, each of us who is present here, has thoughts that belong to spirituality and thoughts that belong to corporeality. In which thoughts should he be in order to correct himself? In thoughts that belong to spirituality. He must elevate them higher and higher, and from his highest attainment and perception the Light will come and tend to the lowest Kelim (vessels) that he never even thought about and never was aware of. They will suddenly start appearing.

This is called “Preferring to engage in Torah and not in the market.” From this engagement in the Torah the market (the lowest desires) will be corrected. If it is the other way around, if he’s in the lowest desires, he’ll just drown in them. From there he will not find the forces of Torah that will correct his Kelim.

Accordingly, those who have been awarded with the work in the Torah, certainly should not work in a corporeal way. Because “He’ll ask what he wants and he’ll be given.” As it is written,“Because they are in mercy, their work is blessed.”

This is what the Tana (the sage) tells us “If there’s no flour…” etc. Meaning, that desirable ways is to connect them together, meaning, to pretend like a beast and to know that if “there’s no flour, there’s no Torah.” Because of that he’ll try in everything his corporeal mind teaches him to do to obtain flour and food for his body. [This pertains to the lights in the Kelim.]

Even though according to the mind of the Torah, it is permitted because “not the strength of the horse he wants and not the thighs of the man he wants. The Creator wants those who fear Him, those who wish for His mercy.”

The whole work that a person does is not about the degrees of desires he works with: corporeal or spiritual desires. They are actually as one for attaining the goal. But after he fulfills his work and makes efforts in everything he can, he comes to a state where without force of the Light he cannot progress. He comes to a state that without God’s mercy he can’t make another step forward. That’s why it is written, “The Creator wants those who fear Him,” those who understand that they can’t progress without help from above. They are “those who wish for His mercy.”

He does not wish for the strength of the horse or for the thighs of man, the Creator wants those who fear Him, those who wish His mercy to save them from death. [To save them from hunger, their soul from death.]

Then why should he exert himself and strip a carcass in the market so he will not need people. He’s better off engaging in the Torah and fear the Creator, and crave His mercy because He will not want the thighs of man.

Why should one not engage in the lowest things? It is because they will not give him the Light that can come and correct the Kelim. Rather he must engage in the Torah through all the actions that can bring him the Light that Reforms. This is primarily the work in the group, there we can cancel the will to receive and connect to the rest of the Kelim. By working with them, we come to a state where we cannot annul ourselves. We then start asking, like at Mount Sinai, for the force of the Torah that Reforms. Then, this force comes and expands through all our thighs and corrects all of our desires, up to the lowest.

Yet, the Tana teaches us to try as hard as we can to get the flour because without it there is no Torah.

These are two opposites that are still present and appear to us this way. We cannot say “everything is from Above,” because “if I am not for me, who is for me” is also in the work.

It is better to desecrate one Shabbat in order to keep many Shabbats etc. Even though, you should know that if there is no Torah, there is no flour. Meaning, the labor and the exertion does not bring to you the flour except by keeping the Torah and fear of Heaven because He does not want man’s thighs. These are two opposites when they become as one meaning, when he performs the acts of beast and knows that it is considered emptiness and vanity and it all comes from the table of the King. Such a person is called “whole.”

A person certainly knows that in all the dealings in this world he has no free choice and everything comes from Above, yet he tries to engage in them as much as he can. In corporeality, he relates to everything as to corporeality without any remedies and powers. Even though in the internality that clothes in the corporeality he relates to it in a spiritual way. Thus, he builds his level equally made of opposites.

To those who are not yet in construction of this process it seems to be filled with contradictions, opposites, confusion, lack of order, lack of cause and consequence. They can’t connect spirituality and corporeality according to height or depth. One does not appear through the other or within the other. Therefore the one who looks from the outside and the one who looks from the outside inwardly, the deeper he goes, the more he can justify externality. And if he can’t…

In short, we have to come to a full measure, which is “two opposites when they become as one” meaning, when he performs the act of beast and knows that it is considered emptiness and vanity and it all comes from the table of the King. Such a person is called “whole.”

That’s the meaning of the words “Happy is the man who puts his trust in the Creator and did not turn to those who incline to falsehood, who unites the two things: trusts the Creator and prevails, overcomes to find prey and food for his house. Yet, he knows that all his actions and efforts are not more then falsehood; and the most important is that he trusts in the Creator.”

That’s what Baal HaSulam explains to us in a letter from Fruit of Wisdom, Letters,pg. 25 that before a person goes to work, he should say, “If I am not for me, who is for me?” The work can be spiritual and corporeal because they are as one, it doesn’t matter. And when he ends it, he must say, “There is none else beside Him.”

What does it mean that he has to say this before and after? A person should try and come to a state where it is set firmly in him in the states that he experiences. Not that he says, “I make an inner effort now and if I am not for me, who is for me?” This is different, because there cannot be coercion over the desires and knowledge. This is why a person should, through exercises, efforts and eventually by getting help from Above come to a state where before every effort it becomes obvious to him that “if he’s not for himself, who is for him,” meaning that the Creator leaves it for him as free choice only.

Although on the other hand, he undoubtedly knows that the Creator controls everything. Then how can it be that He left anything for a person and that there is some effort that a person performs or a room for effort? It’s only when a person ends all his efforts, then he discovers that “There is none else beside Him,” and that it cannot be otherwise.

At the same time, the contradiction doesn’t disappear. Meaning that a person worked and acted, and there is certainly something of him here, something that he acquired, and something to be proud of and to be glad about the corrections he made and experiences now. There is great work for a man to do, so as to come to correction where these two opposites always serve as one, as connected together.

That’s the meaning of the words “For the whip of the wicked will not rest on the righteous.” Meaning, even though that their actions are similar and why is it so? The writing interprets, “The righteous do not send their hands into iniquity because they assume the complete burden of the Kingdom of Heaven and know that He gives you the force.”

In superficial actions one can never discover, discern between the righteous and the evil. Even the worst or the best things, everything comes after one’s intention. How do these things come together? Does a person act from the force “If I am not for me, who is for me?” or from the force “There is none else beside Him?” where both these forces are sanctity. Or maybe he operates from not connecting these two things and then everything is Klipa (shell).

The reason for it is to scrutinize the belief of the righteous in the Creator, how far it reaches. Even though the Creator knows the thoughts, still, the scrutiny of the actions must be clear to the eyes of the righteous. Because it is the nature of matter that doesn’t let the righteous believe in himself until he sees evidently in action and he always fears that the sin will make him fall from his degree while he acts and understands.

This is very hard. How much should one understand? To what extent does he need a disclosure so that it either gives him a guarantee that he is acting correctly or fails him? In the latter case he will be certain that he acted correctly and he can’t rise above the disclosure, transform it seemingly into concealment and transcend from it to the additional Dvekut (adhesion). Because we go from the smallest desire to bestow to a greater and greater one. So, every disclosure in those levels only obstructs.

This is why the more one rises in acquiring the desire to bestow and in bestowal, so the Creator appears more and then this disclosure is like an obstruction. On top of it a person should make concealment and ask only for the force of bestowal. Then he receives the force of bestowal and, correspondingly to this, the disclosure.

This disclosure is like the example of Rabash about two friends with a check. One friend asks the other, “Give me $100,000,” a huge amount of money. His friend who sold his apartment and is about to buy another one has the money. He doesn’t know what to do, but he strengthens himself in his faith (this is just a corporeal example) and gives his friend the $100,000, which is what he needed to buy an apartment. It was not extra money that he just keeps in the bank; it was set aside to buy an apartment.

After he gives him the money his friend says, “I knew you were a good friend. I didn’t want to tell you before, but I have a cashier’s check here, and in a week's time I’ll get $100,000 from the bank. In the mean time I am giving you this check, so you’re certain that you will get your money back.” Then the first friend says to him, “Why didn’t you tell me? Now I have not fulfilled the inner work. The whole week I had doubts and carried out the inner work. On the one hand, I was anxious, and on the other, I had to trust my friend”

The same thing happens to us in our work on the disclosure of the Creator. The minute we make an effort and want to acquire the attribute of faith, this “check” appears to us saying that the Creator controls everything, and we have nothing to worry about.”

Where is faith here and where can a person act in bestowal? The contradiction in connecting these two opposites is never canceled, it even grows.

Question: What does Baal HaSulam mean by “scrutinize the actions?” What is meant by “actions?”

Actions are our intentions and the inner scrutiny When we act, we have scrutiny over our own clarifications and then scrutiny over the results from them.

Question: How to hide from the disclosure?

One must not hide from the disclosure. By the revelation of the Creator one gets a new Aviut (coarseness). Now one can transcend it. New Kelim are being disclosed to a person. There is a new Kli as something that one has to correct now and rise over it. Meaning, one uses now the disclosure of the Creator as a new deficiency, a new corruption, something to work on.

The question is as follows: “He showed me that he’s got $100,000 cashier’s check, and it means that I’m certain that he’ll give me back my loan. But by this he ruined my faith. Now I am not in doubts any more, not doing the inner work with respect to a friend, saying that he must be good, he’s a friend, and he’ll pay me back. He ruined it for me.”

How do we cancel this knowledge in spirituality? We don’t cancel it. Our work is on top of the domination of the Creator, as said, that “anything that is about to be collected is deemed,” and we can be totally certain about it as if we got our money back already, as if we didn’t give it to him. Yet it didn’t disappear the minute we had to work in darkness, in concealment, asking “to give or not to give?” It’s an effort that didn’t vanish.

Now, we have a different kind of effort. There is Aviut from the perspective of the Creator, and there is Aviut from the perspective of the Light. But now we have a different Aviut; now, we have to overcome “There is none else beside Him” just as we did with “if I am not for me, who is for me.” Although He does everything, we ask if it depends on something or not. Now we look for how we can transcend this cashier’s check. Is there anything in us that we can add?

Question: Even if he gives it (a check) to me, it doesn’t matter, one still wants to continue in the same direction?

Yes, of course, one looks for a new Kli. In corporeality it’s all over but in spirituality one always ascends degrees. One starts looking. It’s like an old man who is searching for something again and again as if he lost something. “It’s true, I lost a place for faith. Now, in that place of faith that I had, which He illuminated for me, I combine the two contradictory things so I have complete faith.”

But it’s a degree we can’t understand and it’s when Light of Wisdom comes into Light of Mercy, when we receive this revelation in order to bestow.

Question: Can we say that every time we have disclosure we have to hide it, so that we have a place to work? To accelerate the stages, do we just have to ask for it?

How can the Creator appear to a person if he does not have Masach (screen)? Does he receive His disclosure to poison himself?

Question (cont'd): I am talking before the Masach, now.

That’s why one has to make a Tzimtzum (restriction) before he works on the Kli. The first act he does is to reach the force of Tzimtzum. Above it, one can do whatever he wants. Then he is not limited. If he has the force of Tzimtzum, there is a different scrutiny, vessels of bestowal, vessels of reception, ascends and descends. They are above the force of Tzimtzum, meaning, beyond the Machsom (the barrier).

Translation: Л. Гойхман
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