Rabbi Baruch Ashlag

Shamati [1]. Article 147

If “For Torah’s sake” [2] is awakening from above, why does one need awakening from below?

I heard this in 5705 [3]

A man cannot understand how to become worthy of the [spiritual] stage “for Torah’s sake” [2]; this stage is above his understanding because the human intellect is unable to understand how such a thing can exist in the world, and the reason is that the only thing man is given to understand is that if he works on Torah and commandments he will achieve something, and doing this he definitely pursues personal interests, since otherwise he is not able to do anything.

Hearot veBiyurim [4]

482) The [spiritual] stage “for Torah’s sake [2]” – that is a stage on which man will serve for the sake of Heaven because he loves haShem

[Text by Rabbi Baruch Ashlag (continued)]

However an emanation that comes from above (from Heaven) is needed [in order to raise the man to this stage], and only someone who senses its taste is able to learn and understand this. And it is said about this: “Taste and you will see that haShem is kind [5]” (Tehilim 34, 9).

At the time that the man takes upon himself the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven, he has to exert effort in order to achieve complete perfection, that is all his aspirations have to be directed so that he does good and does not receive at all. And therefore, if the man sees that the limbs of his body are not agreeable to knowing this, then no advice may be given to him besides prayer: to pour out his supplications [6] to haShem to help him by making the body [7] agree to subjugate itself to the Holy One, praised be He.

If this is so, then we need to understand the following: if the stage “for Torah’s sake [2]" is a gift from haShem, then for what purpose does the man have to do all his work: to use sophisticated techniques, follow recommendations, exert effort, use some resources, make corrections [when trying to tackle the problem] of how to achieve [the spiritual stage] “for Torah’s sake”? Is it not so that any advice will not help him, and if haShem does not give him a different nature called “desire to do good”, any effort to attain the state “for Torah’s sake" in fact will be of no avail?!

Hearot veBiyurim

483) If the stage “for Torah’s sake [2]" is a gift from haShem and the man by himself is unable to achieve the state in which he entirely longs to do good and not to receive for himself anything whatsoever …

[Text by Rabbi Baruch Ashlag (continued)]

The answer corresponds to what our sages of blessed memory said [in the Mishnah, tractate] Avot, chapter two, mishnah twenty one: “It is not for you to complete the work, and you are not free to withdraw from it”. This means that it is incumbent upon man to provide the awakening from below, that is to pray, because the prayer is called a want, and without the want there is no filling.

Hearot veBiyurim

484) It is incumbent upon man to provide the awakening from below, that is to pray. Prayer is man’s liberation from his work, since by means of the hard work he attains a true want, i.e. prayer. And this prayer cannot be reduced to mechanical movements of the lips, but it means that the man is absolutely broken and suffering a lot, seeing that he is steeped in self-love and has no connection to love of haShem or to love of other people.

[Text by Rabbi Baruch Ashlag (continued)]

But the prayer cannot be perfect and true unless prior to the prayer he knows that without it he is unable to fulfill his desire. Therefore when the man needs to attain the [spiritual] stage “for Torah’s sake [2]”, filling comes from Above, and then the response to the prayer comes from Above, too, that is he satisfies his want. Therefore the man needs to work in order to obtain [the spiritual stage] “for Torah’s sake” from haShem only because he has to attain the stage of a want and a vessel [8], and the man is never able to achieve filling by himself, but it is a gift from G-d.

However the prayer has to be perfect, that is to originate from the depth of the heart; this means that the man recognizes one hundred percent that nobody in the world can help him besides haShem Himself. And how does the man know that nobody will help him besides the Holy One, praised be He, in His own Person? The man can attain this knowledge only if he made every possible effort and that did not help. Hence the man has to perform all the actions and use all the means that may exist in the world in order to attain the [spiritual] stage “for the sake of Heaven.” And then his corrected vessels are formed, the vessels that have to wish to attain [the level] “for Torah’s sake [2]”. And through this the prayer comes into existence, that is the awareness that all his actions are useless, and then his prayer can rise from the depth of his heart. And then the Holy One, praised be He, hears his prayer and gives him the [spiritual stage] “for Torah’s sake” as a gift.

But when exerting the effort in order to achieve the [spiritual] stage “for Torah’s sake” the man has to understand that he has to take upon himself that he wants to serve wholly for altruistic reasons, that is exclusively for altruistic reasons and not in order to receive even one thing, and only in this case he starts to realize that his limbs will not comply with this desire. And due to this he is able to understand absolutely clearly that for him the only good advice is to pour out his supplications to haShem [6] so that haShem helps him to make his body agree to subjugate itself to haShem without any conditions, because he sees himself to be unable to convince his body to nullify its essence completely. Therefore only when he sees that there is no hope that his body itself will agree to serve for the benefit of haShem, his prayer can rise from the depth of his heart, and then his prayer is accepted.

And one needs to know that by means of meriting the [spiritual] stage “for Torah’s sake [2]”, the man kills the evil inclination. For the evil inclination is a desire to receive for one’s personal benefit, and by meriting the altruistic desire he nullifies the desire to receive so that it is unable to do anything. When this happens, this is considered killing the evil inclination because he removes it from its function and it is unable to do anything because it is already not used, and this nullification of its action is considered its killing.

And when the man provides an accounting for his soul: “What profit has man in all his toil that he toils under the sun?” (Kohelet 1, 3), he will see that this is not so difficult to subjugate himself for His sake, praised be He, for two reasons:

1) Under any circumstances, that is regardless of whether he wants to or not, he is obliged to toil in This World, isn’t he? And what remains for him as a result of all the effort he exerts?

Hearot veBiyurim

485) Therefore it is worthwhile to exert the effort in order to attain something real, and not in order to attain the things that lack substance.

[Text by Rabbi Baruch Ashlag (continued)]

2) On the contrary if the man works for Torah’s sake, then he gets pleasure even at the time he is working, according to a parable told by Maggid of Dubno of blessed memory [as a commentary] to the verse “But you did not call Me, O Jacob, for you wearied of Me, O Israel” (Yeshayahu 43, 22), saying that this is similar to the following: some wealthy man got off the train [9] with a small suitcase that contained silver and diamonds, and he put this bag where all merchants put their luggage, and then bellhops take this luggage and carry it into the hotel where the merchants lodge. And the bellhop thought that the merchant most likely would take the small bag himself and no carrier would be needed for that, therefore he took a large suitcase (that did not belong to the merchant). And the merchant wants to give him a small tip for this, the amount he used to pay, and the bellhop does not want to take it saying: “I have carried the large suitcase into the baggage room of the hotel and got very tired, I was dragging your suitcase with great difficulty, are you going to give me so little money for this?”

The moral is that when the man comes and says that he exerted much effort to observe Torah and commandments, then the Holy One, praised be He, tells him: “You did not call Me, O Jacob”; that is, the luggage that you took is not mine; this luggage belongs to somebody else; because you say that you exerted a lot of effort to observe Torah and commandments; this means that you for sure had another master, and you worked for him; that’s why you need to go to him to pay you. And it is said about this: “For you wearied of Me, O Israel”; this means that the one working for the Creator does not exert any effort; on the contrary, he gets pleasure and elevation of spirit, which is not true for one who works for other purposes, who cannot complain to the Creator about why He does not give him vital energy for his work. This is because he has not worked for the sake of haShem, so why should haShem pay him for his work? But the man can complain to those people for whom he worked, in order get the pleasure and vital energy from them. And since a multitude of purposes is classified as “not for Torah’s sake", the man has to demand the purpose for which he worked to give him his wages, that is to provide him the pleasure and vital energy; and about the people of this kind it is said: “Like them [10] shall be those who make them, all who trust in them” (Tehilim 115, 8).

Hearot veBiyurim

486) Exerting such an effort is a sign for the man that he still lacks belief in His greatness, praised be He. For if he truly believed that he works for the Great and Awe-Inspiring King, and works because of his love for the King, he would be filled with pleasure. Therefore he has to address his complaints about this to his body [7], because in this instance he worked for his body. And about the body it is said: “Like them [10] shall be those who make them, all who trust in them”; that is since the body is subject to decay and is not eternal, the same can be said about the state of a man who worked for the purposes of his body.

[Text by Rabbi Baruch Ashlag (continued)]

However the following difficulty should arise because of this: we see the following: even when the man accepts the yoke of the Heavenly Kingdom upon himself having no other intention, he nevertheless does not feel any upsurge of vital energy, while they say that it is the vital energy that obliges him to accept the yoke of the Heavenly Kingdom upon himself. But he accepts this yoke upon himself because of faith that is above his reason and knowledge, that is, he does this by virtue of overcoming himself, forcedly, and this is not for his good. If this is the case, a question arises: why when doing this work does he feel that it is laborious, and all the time his body is looking for a possibility to stop this work, because the man when doing this work is not feeling any upsurge of energy? Regarding the above matter [a question arises]: when the work being performed by the man [is characterized with the words] “to walk modestly” [11], because he has no other purpose except working for altruistic reasons, why does haShem [nevertheless] not provide him with the taste and the upsurge of vital energy during this work?

And the answer is: one needs to know that this requires great self-correction, because without it, that is, if the Light emanated and the vital energy were felt as soon as the man begins to accept the yoke of the Heavenly Kingdom upon himself, then he would gain the vital energy from the work, hence the desire to receive would agree with this work, too. The question arises: why does it agree? Naturally this happens because he wants to satisfy his passionate desire, that is he works pursuing his own benefit. And if this were so, then there would be no real possibility to reach [the stage] “for Torah’s sake”, because the man would be obliged to work pursuing his own benefit, because when serving haShem he would feel more pleasure than when satisfying passionate desires of material nature, and since this is so, the man would have to stay on the stage “not for Torah’s sake”, and this would happen because he would have satisfaction from his work; and a man is not capable to do anything for the sake of Heaven when he feels satisfaction. For without getting profit the man would not be able to work, and therefore, if when performing this work “not for Torah’s sake” the man felt satisfaction, he would have to stay in this state.

And this would resemble the things people say: When people are chasing a thief in order to catch him, then the thief is also running and crying: “Stop the thief!” – and then it is not possible to recognize who is the real thief in order to catch him and to wrest the stolen object from his hands.

Hearot veBiyurim

487) This means to say that if the work resulted in an upsurge of vital energy, then the desire to receive itself would cry that the desire to receive has to be banned.

[Text by Rabbi Baruch Ashlag (continued)]

But when the thief, that is the desire to receive, does not feel a taste or an upsurge of vital energy during the work of accepting the yoke of the Heavenly Kingdom upon oneself, and if in addition to this the man is working in the state of “his faith is above his reason and knowledge”, forcing himself, and if his body [7] gets accustomed to this work, that is to the work which is against the will of the desire to receive, then the man has the means which make it possible to reach [the stage] of the work motivated exclusively by the desire to please his Creator. For the main thing required from the man is that by means of this work to reach clinging to haShem, that is the stage of qualitative proximity to Him, so that all his deeds are performed with altruistic motivation.

And this resembles the verse: “Then, you will delight with haShem” (Yeshayahu 58, 14); here “then” means that before, at the beginning of his work, he did not feel pleasure, but he worked forcing himself, which is not the case afterwards, when he has already accustomed himself to work with altruistic motivation and not to pay attention to whether he feels a taste of this work, but he believes that he is working because he is pleasing his Creator with his work. For a man has to believe that haShem accepts the work of the lower ones, and it does not matter how much they worked and what the content of their work is, since the Holy One, praised be He, always pays attention to the motivation, and the pleasure that Creator gets comes from this.

Hearot veBiyurim

488) This means to say that when a man is forced to work, he feels as if his work has a taste of dust; nevertheless he has to believe that the Holy One, praised be He, appreciates this work when the man is motivated with the desire to please the Creator. And through this faith he accustoms himself to work not feeling the taste, and therefore later becomes worthy of the “delight with haShem”, that is he receives pleasure and vital energy from the work, but not for his own needs, only in order to please haShem, since as for himself, he is already accustomed to work without feeling the taste. And note that Admor [12], blessed be the memory of the tzaddik, has recorded the following words said by his Holy father: a man has to believe that the Holy One, praised be He, also accepts the man’s work when his motivation is not altruistic at all, but he only labors to want his desire to become altruistic, but is unable to achieve that.

[Text by Rabbi Baruch Ashlag (continued)]

“Then” the man becomes worthy of the delight with haShem; now when serving haShem he will already enjoy pleasure and bliss, because now the man works indeed for the sake of haShem, since the effort exerted by him when he worked forcing himself prepares a man to be able to work truly for the sake of haShem; therefore during this work the pleasure that he gets also is just a delight with haShem, that is, for haShem alone.

Translator’s notes

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[1] Shamati is Hebrew for “I heard”. This means: 1) I heard this from my father Baal Sulam; 2) O Lord, I heard your message (Chavakuk 3, 2)

[2] liShma is Hebrew for “for its own sake”, but here it is translated “for Torah’s sake” according to Mishna, tractate Avot, chapter 6, mishnah 1: “Rabbi Meir says: Whoever engages in Torah study for its own sake merits many things […]”.

[3] The Hebrew calendar year 5705 is 1944 – 1945

[4] Hearot veBiyurim is Hebrew for “Notes and Commentaries” (by Rabbi Mordechai Avraham Gottlieb)

[5] When a man is suffering, he thinks that haShem is evil. One of the main tasks Kabbalah tackles is to help him to understand and to feel that haShem is kind. This is why the word kind is used in the translation of Tehilim 34, 9 which is usually translated as “Taste and you will see that haShem is good” (the Hebrew word “tov” may be translated both as “good” and “kind”).

[6] A prayer of a miserable man when he enwraps himself [in distress] and pours out his supplications to haShem (Tehilim 102, 1). The words “in distress” are added according to Rashi’s commentary

[7] “Body” in Kabbalah means “egotistic desire”

[8] In Kabbalah “vessel” and “want” are synonyms

[9] Perhaps he means a wagon or a coach, as there were no trains in the time of the Maggid of Dubno. Probably this story was recorded much later

[10] According to Tehilim 115, 4 (which is a verse above the cited text) “them” means “idols”

[11] He has told you, O man, what is good, and what the Lord demands of you; but to do justice, to love loving-kindness, and to walk modestly with your God (Micha 6, 8).

[12] Admor – our master, our teacher, and our Rabbi. This is a title of a leader of some Chassidic movement or dynasty. Here: Rabbi Baruch Ashlag.