Between a Hammer and an Anvil
Question: Can a person keep the Creator in mind in a state of greatest darkness, in a feeling of falling lower than anything there is?
Answer: One cannot maintain the sensation of the Creator’s presence or the sense of the goal in every state. And not just in every state; you can say in none because we learn from mistakes, From the negative, we come to know the positive.
This means that each time I must try and fail, try again and fail again. But that does not mean that my goal is to fail. My goal is to achieve success, and then a failure is not a failure at all, but a way of showing me another unfulfilled desire that I must fulfill.
Therefore, our path includes two kinds of states, two kinds of sensations, that are constantly in contradiction to one another. A person is always between them like between a hammer and an anvil.
One can hold on only with the help of the environment. I cannot imagine a person who truly perseveres and advances alone. Perhaps he studies. For example, recently, an Israeli man from Oslo called me; he has been living there for seventeen years: “I read your website, I participate in the Hebrew forum.” But he is not advancing! He does not feel that he lacks strength.
Baal HaSulam wrote about this hundreds of times: “A person does not feel a lack of strength when he falls and cannot emerge from the fall, and this means he is not advancing. The true sign of progress is when he begins to need an external force.”
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/9/26, Rabash, “What Does It Mean that Before the Egyptian Minister Fell, Their Outcry Was Not Answered, in the Work?”
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A Hero Among Heroes
A Hammer And An Anvil
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