{"id":12560,"date":"2025-12-17T15:30:30","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T15:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.kabbalah.info\/?post_type=book&#038;p=12560"},"modified":"2025-12-17T15:30:31","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T15:30:31","slug":"the-work-of-the-general-public-and-the-work-of-the-individual","status":"publish","type":"book","link":"https:\/\/www.kabbalah.info\/en\/the-work-of-the-general-public-and-the-work-of-the-individual\/","title":{"rendered":"465. The Work of the General Public and the Work of the Individual"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>August 1979<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhen you go to war against your enemies, and the Lord your God delivers them into your hands and you take them away captive. And you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you desire her and take her as a wife for yourself \u2026 And if it came to pass that you do not want her, you shall let her go where she wishes.\u201d RASHI interprets that the verse speaks of \u201coptional war.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We should interpret this by the way of intimation. It is known that there are two kinds of work: the work of the general public and the work of the individual. In both, there is the war against the inclination. The work of the general public is called \u201ca war of commandment,\u201d or \u201cmandatory.\u201d In other words, we must fight in order to observe the&nbsp;<em>Mitzvot<\/em>&nbsp;[commandments] and not commit transgressions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The work of the individual is called \u201coptional war\u201d and concerns things that are neither transgressions nor&nbsp;<em>Mitzvot<\/em>. The work is to do them with the intention to bestow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When a person is in this optional war, the verse tells us \u201cdelivers them into your hands,\u201d meaning that he will succeed in the war. \u201cAnd you take them away captive,\u201d and then you are rewarded with \u201cAnd you see among the captives a beautiful woman.\u201d The&nbsp;<em>Shechina<\/em>&nbsp;[Divinity] is called \u201ca beautiful woman,\u201d as in \u201cWho will find a woman of valor,\u201d since when a person fights, he is a man of valor, and the&nbsp;<em>Shechina<\/em>&nbsp;is called \u201ca woman of valor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Concerning beauty, it is written in&nbsp;<em>The Zohar<\/em>, \u201ca good world,\u201d since the light of&nbsp;<em>Hochma<\/em>&nbsp;[wisdom] is revealed there, and the light of&nbsp;<em>Hochma<\/em>&nbsp;is called \u201cbeauty.\u201d \u201cAnd you desire her\u201d means that you will have a desire and yearning to receive her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In that case, we should know that we must perform corrections so we can receive not because of the desire but in order to bestow. \u201cAnd if it came to pass that you do not want her,\u201d meaning perform the corrections in order to bestow, then \u201cyou shall let her go where she wishes,\u201d meaning that it is forbidden to use that quality with which he has been rewarded because it is forbidden to receive without a&nbsp;<em>Masach<\/em>&nbsp;[screen].<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Precisely if his war is \u201coptional war,\u201d meaning in things he wants to do in order to bestow, then he is rewarded with a woman of valor, and then begins the work of the&nbsp;<em>Masachim<\/em>&nbsp;[pl. of&nbsp;<em>Masach<\/em>].<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>August 1979 \u201cWhen you go to war against your enemies, and the Lord your God delivers them into your hands [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"parent":6246,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"topic":[26],"class_list":["post-12560","book","type-book","status-publish","hentry","topic-rabash"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Kabbalah | 465. 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