Divinity in Exile

1 Shamati – Article No. 1

Divinity in Exile

Author: Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag

It is written, “There is none else beside Him.” This means that there is no other force against Him and every thing that appears to contradict the “Upper Household” is because this is His wish.

This is considered correction by way of “the left rejects, and the right adducts”. There are things in the world that were created only so as to avert one from the righteous path. However, only these rejections assemble the complete desire to need the Creator to truly bring one to eternal Dvekut (lit. adhesion).

This is so because they make one unable to endure in the state of LoLishma (lit. not for Her Name), and only through genuinely overcoming all the obstacles above reason can one be saved from these facts and deeds that were made in the ground. Otherwise, one is compelled to deviate from the path of God, even from the LoLishma.

Only when one sees that he has no place in Kedusha (lit. Holiness), and without overcoming above reason, he cannot keep even as much as the tip of the Yod,[*] is an earnest demand is then set in his heart. This means one has no other choice but that the Creator will open his eyes and heart.

The Creator has intentionally prepared for one to see the contradictions in this manner in order to bring him closer to the truth. One should always try to walk in Dvekut (lit. Adhesion) with the Creator, meaning that all of one’s thoughts will always be about Him. Even when one is in the worst possible state, the lowest that can be, one should still ascribe it to Him, meaning that the Creator does not let him into the King’s Palace.

One should not think that there is another authority that can do good or bad, that it is possible to say that the Sitra Achra (lit. Other Side) does not give him the strength to do good deeds and prevents him from walking in the ways of God. Rather, everything is done by the Creator.

The Baal Shem Tov has written, “He who says that there is another force, namely Klipot (lit. Shells), is in a state of serving other gods.” It is not necessarily in the thought of heresy that one sins, but if one thinks that there is another authority, namely one’s own authority, saying that yesterday he himself did not want to walk in the way of God, this too is considered another authority and another power. It is an actual sin, just as though one conceived a heretic thought.

When one sins, he should certainly regret that. However, one should also be careful not to regret having wanted to commit the sin. Instead, he should regret having been thrown by the Creator from the King’s Palace to a place of filth, the lavatory.

In other words, the Creator has placed a thought, a desire and craving to amuse oneself and breathe air in a place of filth. (Perhaps this is considered incarnating in a pig, meaning that one receive sustenance from the lowest things, similar to feculence and excrement).

Also, during an ascent, when one has a desire and craving to serve the Creator, one should know that it is because he has found favor in the Creator’s sight. This is why the Creator brings one closer, and one should be warned never to leave the authority of Kedusha.

Also, when one is sorrowful because the Creator does not bring him closer, then too he should mind not to consider himself, regretting that he is remote. By that one becomes a receiver, and the receiver is separated. Instead, one should regret the Divinity of exile.

This means that one should picture oneself in pain and torment because he is remote from Divinity. Since one is a part of Divinity, and it is known that if a certain organ is sore, be it the tiniest organ, that pain transmits to the entire body, you might say that the suffering and the pains in the organs are felt in the mind and in the heart, meaning the pains are sensed primarily in the whole of man.

Naturally, one’s private, individual sensation is incomparable with what one feels at being far from the King’s Palace, as these pains are sensed primarily in the entire degree, discerned as the Holy Divinity. (Perhaps this is what our sages mean when they say, “When one is sorrowful, what does Divinity say?”).

In addition, when one is joyous and feels that he has been favored a little by the Creator, that too should be ascribed to the Holy Divinity, not to oneself. One should rejoice having been granted pleasing the Holy Divinity, as when there is pleasure for the particular, there is pleasure for the entire collective.

It follows that one always loses one’s private selfness and is not captured in the net of the will to receive. The will to receive is necessary, since this is the whole man, and besides the will to receive, it is not considered a creature, but Creator. However, it should be in order to bestow.

This is so because there is great joy above from the pleasure of the lower ones, and this is called “The Joy of Divinity”. Hence, one must always think how to bring contentment to one’s Maker.

Certainly, by so doing, one will feel pleasure in being in the King’s Palace. He will play with the King’s Treasures, and this alone will be his goal. (Perhaps this is the meaning of, “Divinity is present only within gladness”).

[*]Tenth Letter in the Hebrew alphabet ()