Article No. 5, 1986<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is written in the holy Zohar<\/em> (Vayera<\/em>, item 141): \u201cRabbi Shimon started and said, \u2018A son honors his father, and a servant his master.\u2019 \u2018A son honors his father\u2019 is Isaac with respect to Abraham. He asks, \u2018When did he honor him? When he tied him at the altar \u2026 and he did not resist doing his father\u2019s will.\u2019 \u2018And a servant [honors] his master\u2019 is Eliezer with respect to Abraham. When he sent Eliezer to Haran, who did there all that Abraham wished, he honored him, as it is written, \u2018And the Lord has blessed my master.\u2019 And it is written, \u2018He said: \u2018I am Abraham’s servant,\u2019\u2019 to honor Abraham. Indeed, a man who brings silver and gold and gems and camels, and who is respectable and handsome, did not say that he was Abraham\u2019s beloved or his kin. Rather, he said, \u2018I am Abraham’s servant,\u2019 to raise Abraham’s merit and honor in their eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n (In item 145) He says, \u201cThis is why it is written, \u2018A son honors his father, and a servant his master.\u2019 And you, Israel, My sons, it is a disgrace for you to say that I am your father or that you are My servants. \u2018If I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is the fear of Me?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n We should understand the words of the holy Zohar<\/em> when it says that \u201cThe Lord says, \u2018And you, Israel, My sons, it is a disgrace for you to say that I am your father.\u2019\u201d This implies that we need to tell someone that the Creator is our father, but we cannot say it because we are ashamed. So we must know to whom we are to say that He is our father. We must also know what is the shame for which we are unable to say it, as it is written, \u201cIt is a disgrace for you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is generally perplexing. After all, each day we say, \u201cOur father, our King.\u201d And during the Eighteen Prayer we say, \u201cReturn us, our Father, to Your law,\u201d so to whom else are we to say that the Creator is our father and we are ashamed to say it, and for which the Creator is angry and says, \u201cIf I am a father, where is My honor?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n We should interpret this: We need to say that \u201cThe Lord is our father\u201d relates to the Creator. We always say, \u201cOur Father, Our King,\u201d and for this the Creator is angry: how are you not ashamed to say to Me that I am your father while you show Me no respect, as it is said, \u201cIf I am a father, where is My honor?\u201d That is, the Creator says it is a disgrace for you to call Me \u201cOur Father,\u201d and I see that to you, My honor is in the ground, which is called \u201cShechina<\/em> [Divinity] in the dust.\u201d Thus, how are you not ashamed to call Me \u201cOur Father\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnd if I am a master, where is the fear of Me?\u201d You say that you are all servants of the Creator, but I do not see that you have fear, meaning the fear of heaven that you should take upon yourselves. A servant is one has no authority of one\u2019s own, as our sages said, \u201cHe who has bought a slave has bought his Rav.\u201d Rather, he is annulled before the master, and all that he receives from the master is only so he can serve the master and not for himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But I see that you are taking the opposite route. That is, you want Me to serve you, meaning that I will satisfy your self-love, and all you are coming to ask of Me is how to increase your authority. That is, you are the masters and I am your servant, and you walk around all day with complaints about Me that I owe you and that if you could receive from Me by force you certainly would.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What did the Creator do so they would not receive by force? He did something small: He created darkness in the world, called \u201cconcealment,\u201d in case the creatures are unwilling to be servants and work for Him, called \u201creceiving in order to bestow contentment upon one\u2019s Maker,\u201d as our sages said, \u201ccleave on to His attributes.\u201d It is known that as long as one is in vessels of reception, the more one receives, the worse one is, meaning farther from the Creator. Therefore, He has made a great correction that when the vessels of reception govern a person he does not see anything of Kedusha<\/em> [holiness] from which he can derive pleasures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rather, he sees only those pleasures that he can see, called \u201cpleasures of separation.\u201d It is as the holy ARI says, that the Klipot<\/em> [shells\/peels] were given a slim illumination for all the corporeal pleasures so they may exist. This light of corporeality is all that we can see as having pleasure. But over spirituality lies a cloud of darkness that covers all the spiritual pleasures. Thus, they do not receive by force when the landlord does not want to give because they see no pleasures. Hence, those whose wish is only self-love flee from any true thing where there is delight and pleasure because darkness covers the earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For this reason, a person cannot begin to work Lishma<\/em> [for Her sake] right away, but must begin in Lo<\/em> Lishma<\/em> [not for Her sake]. In Lishma<\/em>, which is the true way, the body must flee from this work, as every kind goes to its kind. Since man was created with vessels of reception in order to receive, when he sees a thought, word, or action that does not yield anything for his vessels of reception, he promptly flees from them because this is not his kind. His kind is the nature in which he was created\u2014receiving in order to receive, and not to give anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In order for a person who begins the work of the Creator not to flee from the work of bestowal because this is not his kind, we must begin with Lo<\/em> Lishma<\/em>. That is, he keeps the Torah and Mitzvot<\/em> [commandments] that the Creator has commanded us in return for reward from Him for our work. This is so because we could work only for corporeal things, to make money and gain respect, and enjoy rest. We relinquish obtaining money, honor, and other lusts that the body requires of us to do, and which would delight us, and instead keep the Torah and Mitzvot<\/em> that the Creator has commanded us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We see that when we demand something of the body, that it will relinquish the pleasures it thinks it can enjoy, it asks, \u201cWhat will you get out of it?\u201d That is, \u201cThese new works you want to do, will they give you greater pleasures? If not then why do you need to change your work-place? You are used to working for this landlord but now you want to work for the Creator because He needs your work? Will He pay you a higher salary, meaning more pleasures? Will you enjoy more than in the work you are already used to?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n We should say to it: \u201cUntil now we had small gains, meaning imaginary pleasure, but now you will make great profit and your pleasure will be real pleasure because the Creator wishes to give you a spiritual reward. However, without work it will be bread of shame, which is why we were given Torah and Mitzvot<\/em>, and we must believe that He will certainly pay us for relinquishing our needs, from which we could enjoy, in return for a real reward, which is a spiritual reward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And although we do not know yet what is spirituality, we nonetheless believe it is a great thing compared to which all the corporeal pleasures are as a tiny candle, as explained in the words of the ARI, who says that due to the breaking of the vessels and the sin of the tree of knowledge, sparks fell into the Klipot<\/em> in order to sustain them, so they would not be cancelled as long as they are needed. But the majority of the delight and pleasure is found in the worlds of Kedusha<\/em>. Therefore, it is worthwhile for us to work in Torah and Mitzvot<\/em> by which we will be rewarded with the next world in return for our work in Torah and Mitzvot<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, once a person has begun the work of the Creator and wants to know the real work, he is told, \u201cIf I am a master, where is the fear of Me?\u201d That is, the proper way is for the servant to work only for the landlord and not at all for himself. Yet, you are working only in order to be rewarded with the next world; you want reward for your work. The slave works without any reward, and the landlord provides his needs for him only so the servant will be able to work for Him, but the servant has no property that can be said to belong to the servant. Rather, there is only one authority there\u2014the authority of the landlord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Indeed, all our work in Torah and Mitzvot<\/em> should be in order to achieve equivalence of form, which is Dvekut<\/em> [adhesion] with the Creator. Engaging in Torah and Mitzvot<\/em> is not as we thought before\u2014that the Creator wants us to keep His Torah and Mitzvot<\/em> and He will later pay us for this. Rather, the Torah and Mitzvot<\/em> we were given to keep is because we need it! That is, by keeping Torah and Mitzvot<\/em> we will receive the light of the Torah, and through that light we will then be able to achieve equivalence of form because the light in it reforms him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thus, what is the reward we should ask for in return for the body\u2019s work? It is that we relinquish the needs of the body for the purpose of keeping Torah and Mitzvot<\/em>. It is impossible to work without reward, since it immediately asks, \u201cWhy are you relinquishing the pleasures that you can enjoy? What will you gain?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The answer is that all our gain is that we are rewarded with serving the Creator. This is very important because it is true, meaning that he will be rewarded with clinging to the King of Kings. But when all the pleasures he has are built on taking every delight and pleasure into serving himself, and receiving pleasure in clothes of reception pertains to animals and not necessarily to humans, the highest of all creatures, so he enjoys the same dresses that animals enjoy. This is unbecoming of him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rather, all the dresses where man wants to receive pleasure should be garments of vessels of bestowal. That is, it is impossible to work without pleasure, but he measures his pleasures in how much he can bestow upon the King. That is, if he wishes to know how much work he receives from his work he should not measure how much he enjoys his work, meaning how much pleasure he derives from serving the King. Rather, he should measure by actions, meaning how much he wants the King to enjoy his work. It follows that all of his importance is in that he is serving the King.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It follows that if one wants to test if he is advancing in the work, he should do it in two ways: 1) by looking at the reward he hopes to receive from the Creator. If he is receiving a greater reward each day then the gauge is the vessels of reception. 2) How much he enjoys serving the Creator, and all his reward is that he is bestowing upon the Creator. For example, if he is serving the greatest man in the country, he enjoys it. But if he is serving the greatest in the generation, he certainly enjoys it more. Therefore, he wants the Creator to be greater and more important in his eyes each day. This is the real measurement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Article No. 5, 1986 It is written in the holy Zohar (Vayera, item 141): \u201cRabbi Shimon started and said, \u2018A son honors […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"parent":6243,"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-9751","book","type-book","status-publish","hentry","topic-rabash"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n