October 24, 1926, London<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To my soul mate … may his candle burn forever:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
… Concerning the comparison of your matter to the cascading of the worlds, of which your friends do not approve, it is because they learned from me that first you need to understand the upper worlds, for so is the order\u2014from above downward first, then from below upward. It is so because a corporeal eye can give birth only to corporeality, and wherever he looks, he only materializes. Conversely, from a spiritual eye emerge only spiritual images, and any place he looks at is blessed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even the corporeal images, when we sense their origin, return to being truly spiritual, not by comparison or similarity, but rather truly inverted into complete spirituality, as it is written, \u201cIt is changed as the material of the seal, and will be fashioned as a garment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What you are asking of me, to teach you the matter of unifications because you were not rewarded with receiving them from authors, I wonder, how will you receive them from books?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I saw your allegories and poetic phrases that begin, \u201cI shall carry my adages and say, \u2018Words that are gauged by the Omer<\/em> [count].\u2019\u201d Indeed, you gauge your words with the Omer<\/em>, but exert further to bless the blessing of the Omer<\/em>, for \u201can Omer<\/em> is the tenth part of an Ephah<\/em> [measuring unit, as well as \u201cwhere\u201d].\u201d Ephah<\/em> means great bewilderment, as you write, \u201cEphah<\/em> [written like \u201cwhere\u201d in Hebrew] is the right [just] side, and Asirit<\/em> [one tenth] comes from the word Asurot<\/em> [forbidden],\u201d for there is a mother to the tradition, and there is a mother to the Pentateuch, as in, \u201cThe king is held captive by your tresses.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n That measure indicates that through faith and confidence, the heart\u2019s bewilderment is forbidden, too, meaning that not even a trace of bewilderment remains. This is the measure of the Omer<\/em>. And yet, we should bless, and this I did not find in your letter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is said, \u201cThe greedy man curses and spurns the Lord.\u201d That is, a prayer does half, and anyone who prays for himself is incomplete, but halved, for the whole one has nothing to pray for. This is why our sages warned us not to work in order to receive reward, but for wholeness. This is a sublime secret, and only those who have no awakening for themselves will understand it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is why our sages said, \u201cThe host slices and the guest blesses,\u201d meaning that one must not lie to himself that the landlord is giving him wholeness. Rather, he must feel the truth as it is, in utter precision. This is why it was said, \u201cThe host slices,\u201d yet the guest must bless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGuest\u201d comes from the words, \u201cand smelled in the fear of the Lord.\u201d And because he receives what the host gives him at the cutting, as though it was complete, he is blessing anyway. And the measure of his blessing is as the measure of his joy with the gift, which is possible for him only through \u201cHis delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is what our sages said, \u201cIf he stole a measure of wheat, ground it, kneaded it, baked it, and separated it, how will he bless? He does not bless, but curses.\u201d This is very deep, for one who steals does not thank the robbed one because the robbed one did not give him anything. Rather, he took from him by force, against his will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The cutting and the reward that a person deserves all stem from the first iniquity, since \u201ca transgression leads to a transgression.\u201d \u201cIn the beginning it is as a cobweb, and in the end it is as cart-ropes.\u201d Everything follows the beginning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And yet, although he believes that all the deficiencies and cuts were done by the Creator, he still cannot think so about the first iniquity, as it is certain that harm will not come from the upper one. It follows that he truly is a thief, as though he snatched from the Creator against His will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe tree of knowledge was wheat,\u201d as it is written, \u201cOne who robs a measure of wheat.\u201d Se\u2019ah<\/em> [measure] is as \u201cIn Se\u2019ahse\u2019ah<\/em> [full measure], when You send her away, You will contend with her.\u201d Wheat is the first iniquity. Therefore, although \u201cshe ground it and baked it\u201d\u2014meaning they became cart-ropes, and then he separated the Challah<\/em> [braided bread for Shabbat] from it, from the word Hulin<\/em> [secular], \u201cIt is entirely for the Creator,\u201d implying the exaltedness and separation above reason\u2014he is not blessing but curing, as it is a Mitzva<\/em>[commandment] that comes through transgression. For were it not for the first iniquity, this great Mitzva<\/em> would not have happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All this is because he is a thief, and does not see that a righteous pardons and gives; hence, he does not bless wholeheartedly and does not make repentance from love, for then sins would become to him as merits. He would recognize that the measure of wheat is the Creator\u2019s gift, and not his own power and the might of his hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is why our sages said, \u201cThe host slices,\u201d and not \u201cthe guest,\u201d meaning the measure of wheat is also the Creator\u2019s gift, to \u201ckeep His covenant and to remember His commandments to do them.\u201d When the guest grows strong and believes that everything that all the host has troubled Himself with was only for him, he blesses Him wholeheartedly. It turns out that that cutting is itself truly a whole thing, after the blessing of the Creator from above downward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But first, he must gain strength in his fountain of blessings from below upward. That is, he is called \u201ca guest,\u201d for he can gain strength and exert by the scent, as it is written, \u201cand smelled in the fear of the Lord,\u201d and as it is written, \u201cOne who steals from his father and mother and says, \u2018it is not a crime,\u2019 is a friend to a destroyer.\u201d In other words, the first iniquity is rooted in his body because of his father and mother; hence, the person became a thief by saying that he is as above-mentioned, and it is not the gift of the Creator. This is why he is regarded as stealing from his father and mother, and then adding sin to crime because he says, \u201cThere is no crime.\u201d That is, he grows fond of the Mitzva<\/em> of destroying, God forbid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is the meaning of the blessing of the Omer<\/em>, that one must feel the Creator\u2019s gift even in the measure of wheat, meaning by the scent. At that time, his joy is whole in all his work, and by this the reward becomes whole again, and \u201cThe Lord knows the way of the righteous.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yehuda Leib, son of my teacher and Rabbi Simcha, may his candle burn<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" October 24, 1926, London To my soul mate … may his candle burn forever: … Concerning the comparison of your […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"parent":6225,"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":[25],"class_list":["post-9461","book","type-book","status-publish","hentry","topic-baal-hasulam"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n