Article No. 22, 1989<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As we see, when does one ask questions? When he is lacking. He is asking, \u201cWhy do I need to suffer from not having what I think I need?\u201d He comes to the Creator with complaints and demands and asks, \u201cWhy do I need to suffer?\u201d But when a person has abundance, what questions are there to ask when he feels that he is free, that he is not enslaved by anything, or feels that what he does not have pains him, giving him room to ask, \u201cWhy\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Therefore, we should understand why we ask questions specifically on Passover night, which is the festival of freedom. Also, they are called \u201cfour questions,\u201d meaning four times \u201cWhy,\u201d precisely when he is not lacking anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to what the ARI says, Passover night is more complete than the eve of Shabbat [Sabbath]. He says that on the eve of Shabbat there is an ascent of Malchut<\/em> to Mochin de<\/em> Neshama<\/em>, but on Passover night, there is an ascent of Malchut<\/em> to Mochin de<\/em> Haya<\/em>, such as on the day of Shabbat (see Shaar HaKavanot<\/em>). Thus, we should understand why we ask questions specifically at a time of wholeness. Certainly, there are many answers to this, and we will interpret this in the work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is known that the work we were given in Torah and Mitzvot<\/em> [commandments] is so that through them we will correct ourselves to be worthy of receiving delight and pleasure, since for this man was created, as it is known that the purpose of creation is to do good to His creations. However, to avoid the shame upon reception of the pleasures, since every branch wishes to resemble its root, and since the root bestows upon the creatures, there is disparity of form between the giver and the receiver, which causes us shame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Therefore, to correct it, a Tzimtzum<\/em> [restriction] and concealment were placed on the upper Providence. Thus, through the Tzimtzum<\/em> and concealment, a place was made in which we are so far from the Creator that it causes us to have very little understanding of His guidance over His creations. It is written about it in the \u201cIntroduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot\u201d (Items 42-43), where he says that if Providence were revealed, and for instance, one who ate something forbidden instantly choked, and one who performed a Mitzva<\/em> [commandment\/good deed] immediately discovered a wonderful delight in it, similar to the greatest pleasures in our corporeal world, what fool would even contemplate tasting something forbidden when he knew he would immediately lose his life for it, or wait to receive a great corporeal pleasure when it came into his hand? Thus, the Tzimtzum<\/em> and concealment, which were made to correct the shame, cause us all the labor and remoteness from the Creator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It follows that the Tzimtzum<\/em> and concealment were made to benefit the lower one. Thus, there is no point in asking about Providence, \u201cWhy is the Creator treating us as it seems to us, for we do not see the good and we suffer in exile, poverty, and so on?\u201d In other words, everyone complains about why the Creator behaves with undisclosed guidance toward us, that it is only good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For this reason, it is forbidden to slander His guidance\u2014the way He behaves with the creatures. Instead, we must believe with faith above reason that it should be precisely as we see it. And concerning what we feel, we should walk in the ways of Torah, as the sages have instructed us how to behave with all these feelings that we feel, and to say about them with faith above reason, \u201cThey have eyes and see not,\u201d as is written in the article from 1943.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is known that there is a prohibition on slander. However, it is commonly thought that slander, which is so bad, is between man and man. But in truth, slander is primarily between man and the Creator, as it is written (Shemot Rabbah<\/em>, Chapter 3, 12), \u201cMoses caught the act of the serpent, who slandered his Creator, as it is said, \u2018For God knows that in the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you will be as God, knowing good and evil.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n With the above-said, we can see why slander is worse than other things. It is because slander is primarily from the serpent, who slandered the Creator and told him, \u201cThe Creator commanded you not to eat from the tree of knowledge, but to keep it in concealment and in hiding.\u201d The serpent told him about that, \u201cYou shouldn\u2019t obey what He told you, that the tree of knowledge should remain hidden from the lower ones.\u201d Instead, his argument was that everything should be open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That was the serpent\u2019s slander. It follows that he spoke about Providence, that the Creator\u2019s conduct with the creatures of undisclosed guidance was wrong. But in truth, the concealment is only so that the creatures will be able to receive the delight and pleasure without shame. This can only be when the creatures receive everything for the sake of the Creator, meaning that all the reception will be only in order to bestow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It follows that the serpent\u2019s slander is not a part. Rather, he spoke about the entire correction that was executed on Malchut<\/em> so that the lower ones, who extend from her, would be able to achieve Dvekut<\/em> [adhesion], called \u201cequivalence of form,\u201d by which there would be the correction that enables them to receive the delight and pleasure without any unpleasantness, called \u201cshame.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because of this correction, we were given the Torah and Mitzvot<\/em> by which to be able to emerge from self-love, which is separation from the Creator, and achieve equivalence of form, as our sages said, \u201cI have created the evil inclination; I have created the spice of Torah.\u201d According to the serpent\u2019s slander, there will be open Providence, meaning everything will be disclosed, even though the Creator explicitly told Adam, \u201cBut of the tree of knowledge you shall not eat.\u201d Instead, this discernment must be covered and only at the end of correction will it be possible to illuminate this discernment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n About that, too, the serpent told him not to obey the Creator. In other words, the Creator did not do this in Adam\u2019s favor, that the Creator\u2019s guidance over the creatures\u2014the Good who does good\u2014will be undisclosed, but for other reasons. It turns out that the serpent\u2019s slander was a general thing, meaning he said that all the corrections we should do by the power of Torah and Mitzvot<\/em> are not for the man\u2019s purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is the reason why slander is the most severe of all prohibitions, since it encompasses the whole of the Torah. In other words, with this slander, all the corrections that were made should not be made. Thus, since it is so grave between man and the Creator, the prohibition between man and man is a grave matter, too, as we said about \u201clove your friend as yourself,\u201d which Rabbi Akiva said was the great rule of the Torah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It follows that one who slanders acts the opposite of the rule, \u201cLove your friend as yourself.\u201d Hence, slander between man and man is also a rule. This is why it is such a grave prohibition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With the above, we can interpret what our sages said (Sanhedrin<\/em> 38), \u201cRav Yehuda said, \u2018Rav said, \u2018Adam HaRishon was heretical.\u2019 And RASHI explains, \u2018\u2018Was heretical\u2019 means that he leaned toward idolatry.\u2019\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is very difficult to understand. Adam HaRishon spoke to the Creator. How can one who speaks to the Creator be heretical\u2014that his heart will lean toward idolatry? After all, the Creator spoke to him, so how can he be mistaken to the point that his heart leaned toward idol worship?<\/p>\n\n\n\n As we said above, the Creator told him that the tree of knowledge should be in concealment and must not be disclosed before the end of correction. When the serpent came to him and told him not to obey the Creator, that this great pleasure was found in the tree of knowledge, which the Creator hid from him, he took to heart the serpent\u2019s slander. This is called that he \u201cwas heretical.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n RASHI interpreted that his heart leaned toward idolatry, meaning that his heart leaned toward what the serpent told him\u2014that it would be better if there were open Providence in the world, as the serpent advised him. This is called \u201cheretic,\u201d one who does not like His governance. This means that he thought, according to the serpent\u2019s advice, that if the tree of knowledge were revealed and there were open Providence, many would engage in the holy work, for the above reason that everyone would observe Torah and Mitzvot<\/em> because it would all be clothed in the intellect, within reason, and not that everything must be above reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In other words, the tree of knowledge means that everything is revealed within reason, and on that was the commandment to refrain from eating. That is, our work toward the Creator should be above reason and not within reason, although it is reasonable to think that if everything were clothed within reason, the servants of the Creator would proliferate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is the meaning of the serpent\u2019s slander, who spoke badly about Providence. Since the Creator made the work of the Creator above reason, it does not mean that the Creator could make everything within reason. Instead, we must believe, although we do not understand, that this guidance is the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And so did Baal HaSulam say\u2014that the Creator chose the way of faith above reason because the Creator knows it is the most successful way for the lower ones to reach the goal called \u201cDvekut<\/em> with the Creator,\u201d which is equivalence of form, called \u201creceiving in order to bestow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although the sin of the tree of knowledge relates to high degrees\u2014the light of the end of correction\u2014as explained in the \u201cIntroduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,\u201d with regard to our work\u2014we should interpret that one who slanders Providence, saying that he does not want to believe that His guidance over the creatures is benevolent, and that it is so to believe above reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, a person says, \u201cIf there were open Providence, if I could see with my mind that the Creator bestows benevolently upon all creations, and if it were within reason, only in this way would I be able to observe Torah and Mitzvot<\/em>.\u201d This comes because of the sin of the tree of knowledge\u2014that a man wants to go specifically within reason and not believe above reason. Hence, when he does not believe that He is good and does good, he is slandering the Creator. This is rooted in the time when the serpent slandered the Creator to Adam HaRishon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A person wanting to go within reason is called \u201cthe sin of the tree of knowledge.\u201d This sin appears in two ways, in two questions that extend from it: 1) Pharaoh\u2019s question, who asked, \u201cWho is the Lord that I should obey His voice?\u201d meaning it is hard for him to believe anything that contradicts reason. And another thing extends from it, a second question, \u201cWhy should one work to benefit the Creator and not himself?\u201d In other words, he is asking, \u201cWhat will I gain by working for the sake of the Creator and not for my own sake?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n With the above-said, we can understand what we see, that even after one has overcome and said that he is taking upon himself to walk on the path of truth, and begins to believe in faith in the sages, reason dictates that each day he should advance and move forward. Yet, he sees that it is actually the complete opposite\u2014each day he is regressing. Thus, reason makes him say, \u201cThis work of going in bestowal is not for me. Rather, it is work for a chosen few.\u201d He understands that he would be better off escaping the campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And what is he told? That he should once again go with faith above reason and disregard what reason compels him to do. As it is written in the essay \u201cFaith in His Rav\u201d (1943), one cannot see his true state. Instead, he should go above reason, and only in this way can we reach the goal and be rewarded with Dvekut<\/em> [adhesion] with the Creator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, we should understand what it gives us to feel within reason that we are regressing instead of progressing. In other words, for what purpose does one need to feel that he is in decline? What is the benefit in that? We see that in a state of ascent, when one has a desire for spirituality and regards mundane pleasures\u2014which the whole world chases so as to obtain these pleasures\u2014as though they were created needlessly, meaning that it would be better if the Creator created all creations enjoying spiritual things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thus, regarding thoughts of declines, what does one gain by the fact that after each ascent he comes to a descent? As a result, a person always asks, \u201cHow many are the ascents and descents and why are they needed anyway? It would be better if I could stay in the state of ascent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the answer is that it is impossible to appreciate anything without knowing its importance. In other words, there is a rule that the joy that a person takes in something depends on the importance of the matter. Sometimes a person is given something important, and if he could appreciate it, he could receive great pleasure from it. But since he does not know the value of the thing, that person cannot enjoy it, except to the extent that he understands its importance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, a person buys an object, a book, which is not so beautiful on the outside, and later that book is reprinted and costs more, but since he did not have much money, he bought this book. The seller, too, was not aware of the importance of the book and sold it to him for a low price. But sometime later, a man comes to his house, sees the book, and says, \u201cSince this book was printed 300 years ago, this book is worth a fortune, as there are only three such books in the world.\u201d Now that he hears about the great value of the book, he begins to take pleasure in the book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The lesson is that 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\u2019t the importance to appreciate it, we can only enjoy according to the importance, as explained in the allegory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is why we were given descents: to be able to learn the importance of the ascents, as it is written, \u201cas the advantage of the light from the darkness.\u201d Specifically through descents, one can come to know and appreciate ascents, and then he can enjoy the ascents and come to feel that \u201cThey are our lives and the length of our days.\u201d But when one does not know the need for faith because he thinks that engaging in Torah and observing Mitzvot<\/em> is enough for him to be considered a servant of the Creator, he is not given descents from above so as to appreciate the ascents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Their work is on the outside. They have no intention of entering the inside. That is, they have no intention to completely annul before the Kedusha<\/em> [holiness\/sanctity]\u2014and holy means \u201cretired and separated from himself,\u201d as it is written, \u201cYou will be holy for I am holy,\u201d\u2014at which time there is only the authority of the Creator because the lower one wishes to annul before the root, and all he sees is that it is worthwhile to live only to benefit the Creator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For a person to be in a state where he wants to live only in order to give contentment to the Creator, he must provide himself with great faith in the greatness of the Creator, to make it worthwhile to annul himself for the sake of the Creator. The faith he has acquired during his upbringing is not enough for him. With the faith that he has acquired during the upbringing, he can already work and observe the Torah and Mitzvot<\/em> in all its details and precisions. This is because he does not have to annul himself before the Creator. Instead, he asks of the Creator that in return for his observing the Torah and Mitzvot<\/em> that the Creator commanded us through Moses, the Creator will grant all his wishes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He believes in reward and punishment, and certainly, as our sages said (Avot<\/em>, Chapter 2, 21), \u201cIf you studied much Torah, trust your landlord to pay the reward for your work.\u201d Hence, since the basis obligating him to observe Torah and Mitzvot<\/em> depends on the reward, not on the giver of the reward, he does not have to engage in the greatness of the faith in the Creator, but in the greatness or smallness of the reward. Hence, there is no question of ascents and descents, believing in the greatness and importance of the Creator. Rather, the only thing that is pertinent there is that he engages in Torah and Mitzvot<\/em> or that he grows weaker in observance because he does not always believe in the reward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This causes those who engage in Torah and Mitzvot<\/em> in order to receive reward\u2014who are sometimes among people who do not believe in reward and punishment\u2014to be able to influence a person with their thoughts. This might cause him even to stray completely from Judaism. Hence, they must not come in contact with people who are free in their views, since they bring them foreign thoughts about faith in reward and punishment. But on the whole, those who engage Lo Lishma<\/em> [not for Her sake] do not experience ups and downs, meaning there is no need for the presence of descents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But those who wish to work because of the importance of the Creator, who always need to increase the faith in the importance and the greatness of the Creator, that only the importance and the greatness of the Creator obligates them to observe Torah and Mitzvot<\/em> in order to achieve Dvekut<\/em> with the Creator, those people must always assume and value the greatness of the Creator. They must always assess that if they have some grip on spirituality, it is because the Creator is bringing them closer, while they themselves are completely powerless unless they see that they will derive from it some benefit for themselves. It follows that the main work is to annul himself. Yet, this is against nature; only by His salvation can they achieve it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thus, during the ascent, a person thinks that it is natural and that he does not need the Creator\u2019s help at all. Hence, a correction was made, called \u201cdescents,\u201d where one is always shown the measure of his strength\u2014what he can do by himself and how he sees it. But when he is tossed off from his state, where he thought he was already human and not like the beasts that work for themselves, suddenly he cannot even feel that they wish to throw him down into this baseness, in which he discovers himself afterwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And yet, during the descent, he does not see that he is beginning to decline. Rather, when he descends, he remains unconscious. After being down for some time, he also gets help from above and he is told, \u201cKnow that now you are in decline.\u201d Before he is told that he is unconscious, he does not know a thing. However, one should believe that this, too, is so, since knowing does not come by itself. Instead, one should know that these descents were given to him to learn how it is possible to appreciate the state of ascent. But during the descent, one cannot learn anything from it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, during the ascent he can make a true judgment and say, \u201cNow I am in a state of faith, and this came to me from the Creator. Otherwise, I would immediately fall into a state of self-love.\u201d If he does not make this calculation and thank the Creator for bringing him closer, he is immediately thrown. It turns out that it is impossible to obtain real pleasure from nearing the Creator unless he can appreciate it, as said above, \u201cAs the advantage of the light from the darkness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It follows that for the creatures to receive the delight and pleasure and feel it, those descents were all necessary. They are called \u201cexile,\u201d and this is called \u201cShechina<\/em> [Divinity] in exile\u201d or \u201cShechina<\/em> in the dust.\u201d Only by this will one have the Kelim<\/em> [vessels] to feel the delight and pleasure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With the above-said, we can understand why specifically at the time of freedom, which is Passover night, the complete wholeness, as the ARI says, that Malchut<\/em> has the same Gadlut<\/em>, since Malchut<\/em> has Mochin de<\/em> Haya<\/em>, and so it is on Passover night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The answer is that precisely during an ascent, when one thinks of descents they had the power to elicit the importance of ascents. Otherwise, it is akin to one who is given something that is worth a fortune and he uses and enjoys it as though its worth was a few pennies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thus, specifically at the time of freedom, it is possible to ask the questions. That is, it is not about the questions, but we need the questions in order to understand the answers, as Baal HaSulam said about what is written, \u201cSpeak now in the ears of the people, and let them borrow every man of his neighbor.\u201d RASHI interprets that he warned them that that righteous will say, \u201cHe kept, \u2018And they shall serve them and they shall afflict them,\u2019 and He did not keep, \u2018Afterward they will come out with great possessions.\u2019\u201d There is a question: \u201cIf the Creator wished to give great possessions to the people of Israel, could the Creator not give them? Did he have to tell the people of Israel to be fraudulent and borrow vessels of silver and vessels of gold from the Egyptians?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The answer is that when the Creator told Abraham, \u201cTo give this land unto you to inherit it,\u201d Abraham asked, \u201cBy what will I know that I shall inherit it?\u201d \u201cAnd he said unto Abram, \u2018Know for certain that your seed will be a stranger in a land that is not theirs … and afterwards they will come out with great possessions.\u2019\u201d He asked, \u201cWhat do we see in the Creator\u2019s reply to Abram’s question, \u2018By what will I know\u2026,\u2019 that by being in a land that is not theirs, meaning in exile, Abram could be certain that they would inherit the land?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said that since there is no light without a Kli<\/em> [vessel]\u2014meaning no filling without a lack, and Abram said to the Creator that he did not see that they would need such great lights, called \u201cthe land of Israel\u201d\u2014the Creator told him that by being in exile and by asking the Creator to deliver them from exile, how will He deliver them? Only with great lights, since \u201cThe light in it reforms him.\u201d Thus, then they will have the need for the great lights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He explained about this that this is why the Creator said to borrow Kelim<\/em> [vessels] from the Egyptians\u2014meaning take the hardness of the Egyptians, but as a loan\u2014to receive the lights, and then return the Kelim<\/em> to them. In other words, they took the questions in order to understand the answers. It is as was said above, it is impossible to understand the light if not from within the darkness. This is why all the questions come specifically at the time of freedom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Article No. 22, 1989 As we see, when does one ask questions? When he is lacking. 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