World Kabbalah Convention 2018 “Absorbed (Rooted) in the Upper One”

Lesson 1: Living in the Reality that “There is None Else Besides Him”

1. Baal Hasulam, Introduction to the Book of Zohar, Item 13

By the very thought to create the souls, His thought completed everything, for He does not need an act, as do we. Instantaneously, all the souls and worlds that were destined to be created, emerged filled with all the delight and pleasure and the gentleness He had planned for them, in the final perfection that the souls were intended to receive at the end of correction, after the will to receive in the souls has been fully corrected and was turned into pure bestowal, in complete equivalence of form with the Emanator.

This is so because in His Eternalness, past, present, and future are as one. The future is as the present and there is no such thing as time in Him. Hence, there was never an issue of a corrupted will to receive in its separated state in Ein Sof.

On the contrary, that equivalence of form, destined to be revealed at the end of correction, appeared instantly in the Infinite. And our sages said about that: “Before the world was created there were He is One and His Name One,” for the separated form in the will to receive had not been revealed in the reality of the souls that emerged in the Thought of Creation. Rather, they were cleaved unto Him in equivalence of form by way of, “He is One and His Name One.”

2. Baal Hasulam. Shamati 67 “Depart From Evil”
Besides man’s body there is only the Creator. This is because it is the essence of creation that man is called “creature” only with respect to himself. The Creator wants man to feel that he is a separated reality from Him; but except for that, it is all “the whole earth is full of His glory.”

3. Baal Hasulam, PriChacham - Sichot, The Secret of His Name

All the thoughts that enter a person’s mind are the act of the Creator. That is to say, it is not what a person feels, that he draws them from some place or that they originated from him. This is false, the biggest lie. Rather each thought, the smallest of the smallest, the Creator sent it to the mind of man, and that is the motivating force of man and of beast and of every living thing. In other words, when the Creator wishes to move a living being He works with him by sending him a thought, and that thought move him as He wishes. Just as when He sends rain upon the earth and the earth cannot feel who sent it the rain, so is a person unable to feel in any way who sent him that thought since he cannot feel it before it enters the authority of his imagination. And because it is under one’s authority it seems to him as part of himself. Thus we understand that one does not have a grip on the thought, and the reason is simple, because the Creator does not wish to send us such a thought that will be ready for one’s attainment, rather He arranged for us an order of thoughts and from this order one must at last fully attain it, and this is the meaning of “lest none should depart from Him”.

4. Baal Hasulam. Thou Hast Hemmed Me In Behind and Before
Thou hast hemmed me in behind and before, meaning the revelation and concealment of the face of the Creator. This is because indeed, “His kingdom ruleth over all,” and everything will return to its root because there is no place vacant of him. But the difference is in present tense or future tense, because who connects the two worlds, discovers His clothing in the present: everything that is done is a clothing for the revelation of divinity.

And this is deemed the present tense, meaning that now, too, he comes out in royal clothes and evidently shows that the rider is not subordinate to the horse. But although it seemingly appears that the horse leads the rider, the truth is that the horse is provoked to any movement only by the sensation of the rider’s bridle and headstall. And this is called “the construction of the stature of divinity,” and it is also called “face-to-face.”

5. Baal Hasulam, Shamati 50. Two States

There are two states to the world. In the first state the world is called “pain,” and in the second state it is called “Holy Shechina (Divinity).” It is so because before one is endowed with correcting one’s deeds to be in order to bestow, one feels the world only in the form of pains and torments.

However, afterwards one is rewarded with seeing that the Holy Shechina is clothed in the entire world, and then the Creator is considered to be filling the world. Then the world is called “Holy Shechina,” which receives from the Creator. This is called “the unification of the Creator and Divinity.” As the Creator gives, so the world is now occupied solely in bestowal.

6. Baal Hasulam, Letter 1

Everyone believes in private providence, but do not adhere to it at all. The reason is that an alien and foul thought cannot be ascribed to the Creator, who is the epitome of the “Good that doeth Good.” However, only to the true workers of God does the knowledge of private providence open, that He caused all the reasons that preceded it, both good and bad. Then they are cohesive with private providence, for all who are connected to the pure, are pure. Since the Guardian is united with its guarded, there is no apparent division between bad and good. They are all loved and all clear, for they are all carriers of God’s vessels, ready to glorify the revelation of His uniqueness. It is known by instinct, and to that extent they have knowledge from the end that all the actions and the thoughts, both good and bad, are the carriers of God’s vessels. He has prepared them, from His mouth they’ve come, and at the end of correction it will be known to all.

7. Baal Hasulam, Shamati 4, What Is the Reason for the Heaviness One Feels when Annulling before the Creator in the Work

It therefore follows that the essence of one’s work is only to come to the sensation of the existence of the Creator, meaning to feel the existence of the Creator, that “the whole earth is full of His glory.” This will be one’s entire work, meaning all the vigor that he puts into the work will be only to achieve that, and not for any other things. One should not be misled into having to acquire anything. Rather, there is only one thing a person needs, namely faith in the Creator. He should not think of anything, meaning that the only reward that he wants for his work should be to be rewarded with faith in the Creator.

8. Rabash - 2. Article 13 (1989) “What Is the “Bread of an Evil-Eyed Man” in the Work?”
All our work in Torah and Mitzvot is in order to emerge from the exile of the will to receive for ourselves. In other words, we must aim—while engaging in Torah and Mitzvot—that our reward will be that by this we will be rewarded with emerging from the exile and enslavement in the will to receive for ourselves, and we will be able to work only in order to bring contentment to the Creator, and we will not demand any other reward for our work in Torah and Mitzvot.

In other words, we want to be rewarded with feeling—while engaging in Torah and Mitzvot—that we are serving a great and important king, and that by this there will be love of the Creator within us, from feeling His exaltedness. However, all of our pleasure will come from serving the Creator; this will be our reward, and not that He will somehow reward us for the work. Instead, we will feel that the work itself is the reward, and there is no greater reward in the world than the privilege of serving the Creator.

9. Zohar, Introduction to the Book of Zohar, Night of the Bride. Item 138
It is a law that the creature cannot receive disclosed evil from the Creator, for it is a flaw in the glory of the Creator for the creature to perceive Him as an evildoer, for this is unbecoming of the complete Operator. Hence, when one feels bad, denial of the Creator’s guidance lies upon him and the superior Operator is concealed from him to that same extent. This is the greatest punishment in the world. Thus, the sensation of good and evil in relation to His guidance brings with it the sensation of reward and punishment, for one who exerts to not part from faith in the Creator is rewarded even when he tastes a bad taste in Providence. And if he does not exert, he will have a punishment because he is separated from faith in the Creator.

10. Baal Hasulam, Shamati 1, There is None Else Besides Him

A man must always try and cleave to the Creator; namely, that all his thoughts will be about Him. That is to say, that even if he is in the worst state, from which there cannot be a greater decline, he should not leave His domain, namely, that there is another authority which prevents him from entering holiness, and which can bring benefit or harm.That is, he must not think that there is the force of the SitraAchra (Other Side), which does not allow a person to do good deeds and follow God’s ways. Rather, all is done by the Creator.

The Baal Shem Tov said that he who says that there is another force in the world, namely Klipot (shells), that person is in a state of “serving other gods.” It is not necessarily the thought of heresy that is the transgression, but if he thinks that there is another authority and force apart from the Creator, by that he is committing a sin.Furthermore, he who says that man has his own authority, that is, he says that yesterday he himself did not want to follow God’s ways, that too is considered committing the sin of heresy. Meaning that he does not believe that only the Creator is the leader of the world.

11. Rabash, Vol 1, Art. 3 (1985), "The Meaning of Truth and Faith"

Also, we were given the path of faith, which is above reason, namely not to take our sensations and reason into account, but say, as it is written, “They have eyes and see not. They have ears and hear not.” Rather, we should believe that the Creator is certainly the Messiah, and He knows what is good for me and what is not good for me. Therefore, He wants me to feel my state as I do, and for myself, I do not care how I feel myself because I want to work in order to bestow.

Therefore, the main thing is that I need to work for the Creator. And although I feel that there is no wholeness in my work, still, in the Kelim of the upper one, meaning from the perspective of the upper one, I am utterly complete, as it is written, “The cast out will not be cast out from Him.” Hence, I am satisfied with my work—that I have the privilege of serving the King even at the lowest degree. That, too, I regard as a great privilege that the Creator has allowed me come closer to Him at least to some degree.

12. Zohar. Introduction to the Book of Zohar. Two Points. Item 121
All the many contradictions to His uniqueness, which we taste in this world, separate us from the Creator. Yet, when exerting to keep Torah and Mitzvot with love, with our soul and might, as we are commanded—to bestow contentment upon our Maker—all those forces of separation do not affect us into subtracting any of the love of the Creator with all our souls and might. Rather, in that state, every contradiction we have overcome becomes a gate for attainment of His wisdom. This is so because there is a special quality in each contradiction—revealing a special degree in attaining Him. And those worthy ones who have been rewarded with it turn darkness into light and bitter into sweet, for all the powers of separation—from the darkness of the mind and the bitterness of the body—have become to them gates for obtainment of sublime degrees. Thus, the darkness becomes a great light and the bitter becomes sweet. Hence, to the extent that they previously had all the conducts of His guidance toward the forces of separation, now they have all been inverted into forces of unification, and sentence the entire world to the side of merit.

13. Baal Hasulam, Shamati 33, The Lots on Yom Kippurim and with Haman

We must know that what appears to one as things that contradict the guidance of “Good that Doeth Good,” is only to compel one to draw the Upper Light on the contradictions, when wanting to prevail over the contradictions. Otherwise one cannot prevail. This is called “the greatness of the Creator,” which one extends when having the contradictions, called Dinim (judgments). It means that the contradictions can be annulled if one wants to overcome them, only if one extends the greatness of the Creator. You find that these Dinim cause the drawing of the greatness of the Creator. This is the meaning of what is written, “and cast his mantle upon him.” It means that afterwards he attributed the whole mantle of hair to Him, meaning to the Creator. It means that now one sees that the Creator gave him this mantle deliberately in order to draw the Upper Light on them.

However, one can only see that later, meaning after one has already been granted the Light that rests on these contradictions and Dinim that he had had in the beginning. This is so because he sees that without the hair, meaning the descents, there would not be a place for the Upper Light to be there, as there is no Light without a Kli (vessel).Hence, one sees that all the greatness of the Creator that he had obtained was because of the Se’arot and the contradictions he had had. This is the meaning of, “the Lord on high is mighty.” It means that the greatness of the Creator is awarded through the Aderet.

14. Zohar, Beresheet Aleph - Item 255
At the end of correction, when SAM is revoked, it will appear to all that SAM had never lived, but that unity was always ruling, as it is written, “There is none else besides Him.”