204. The Purpose of the Work
During the preparation period, the whole work is in the no’s, that is, in the no, as it is written, “and they shall be afflicted in a land that is not.” However, with matters of the tongue, which is considered “me,” one must first be awarded the discernment of love.
Yet, during the preparation, there is only work in the form of no’s, by way of “thou shalt not have,” and by the profusion of no’s we come to the point of God [1] of Hesed (mercy). But prior to that, there are many no’s, which is another God, many no’s. This is so because from Lo Lishma one comes to Lishma.
And since the Sitra Achra provides support, hence, even afterwards, when we work and extend Kedusha (Sanctity), still, when she takes the support, we fall from the degree, and then she takes all the abundance that they extended. Thus, the Sitra Achra has the power to dominate a person, so one is compelled to fulfill her wish. And he has no other counsel but to raise himself to a higher degree.
Then the sequence begins anew, as before, with the forty-nine gates of impurity. This means that one walks in the degrees of Kedusha until the forty-nine gates. But there she has control to take all the vitality and bounty, until a person falls each time into a higher gate of impurity, since “God hath made even the one opposite the other.”
And when one comes into the 49th gate, one can no longer raise oneself, until the Creator comes and redeems him. And then “He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again; God shall cast them out of his belly.” This means that now one takes all the bounty and vitality that the Klipa (shell) was taking from all of the forty-nine gates of Kedusha. This is the meaning of “the looting of the sea.”
Yet, it is impossible to be redeemed before the exile is felt. And when one walks on the forty-nine, one feels the exile, and the Creator redeems on the 50th gate. And the only difference between Galut (exile) and Ge’ula (redemption) is in the Aleph, which Is Alupho Shel Olam (Champion of the world). Hence, if one does not properly attain the exile, too, he is deficient in the degree.
[1] In Hebrew, the word God ( El) and ‘no’ are written with the same letters but in the opposite order