“Israel” and the “Torah” are the same thing.
[Initially the Torah is an instruction for correcting evil, called 613 pieces of advice for correcting 613 parts of egoism.]
1) The Torah is regarded as 613 counsels, 613 tips for subduing the evil.
[And after the correction, the Torah is the portions of the Creator’s light corresponding to each of the 613 corrected organs of the soul.]
It follows that while performing the Mitzva, one extends to its corresponding organ in his soul and body the degree of light that belongs to that organ and tendon (Rabash, “What It Means that the World Was Created for the Torah”).
Question: How can one most simply explain to a person what Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are, and what the meaning of their unity is?
Answer: We exist in an unchanging state, as it is said: “I did not change.”
This single state is called Malchut of the world of infinity. The Creator, who wished to bestow goodness upon the creation, made it in a matching state of benevolence.
But in order to feel this beneficence, creation needs to go through various transformations that develop desire and appetite, that cause despair, troubles, and agitation within it, in other words, that cause sensations opposite to the sensation of the good who does good. Otherwise, creation would not sense Him.
However, so that the sensations of the good who does good, as well as their opposites, would not strike creation like a double blow, the Creator arranged it so that we gather unpleasant sensations drop by drop, gradually, in small portions. “Ouch!” and that’s enough. Again “Ouch!” and that’s enough. Thus, we move along the path, clarify our desire, and learn what is good and what is bad.
Overall, we must be sensitive and receptive to good and evil. The more sensitive a person is to recognizing evil, the higher their degree and the deeper they penetrate into the substance of creation.
Therefore, in the unchanging state that the Creator made, the desire to delight for the sake of bestowal already exists that is corrected by the proper intention, as well as the light that fills this desire and intention. There they are all united without any distinction. This state is called “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one.”
Israel (ישראל) is a vessel, a Kli, with the intention to bestow to the Creator, in other words, “straight to the Creator,” Yashar-El (ישר-אל). The Torah is the entire light that corrects and fills it. And they are one because they have reached a state in which they are completely equal and exist in adhesion.
Equality and adhesion between the Creator and the creation is the only form in which they exist. Each creature gradually reveals this form once the desire to reveal it awakens within.
By revealing emptiness in our current state and in the matters of this world, the Creator gradually leads us to a sense of emptiness, purposelessness, and meaninglessness of our life. At the same time, He awakens the beginning of a spiritual Kli, the seed of recognizing evil, within us. My state is miserable not because it is dull in taste, but because I lack adhesion with the Creator.
I realize this gradually. At first, I do not understand at all what I need, like a child who doesn’t know why he cries. But little by little the details emerge, become clearer, appear within me, and I begin to hear something.
Then I come to a group, to a teacher, and for several years I undergo the influence of the light in various states that I experience together with the teacher, the books, and the group. The process continues, and I become slightly more sensitive to recognizing evil. And the evil lies in the fact that I do not want to connect to the books, the teacher, and the group. When I begin to feel that this is precisely my evil, then I take the correct course toward correction.
At the same time, I understand that I must unite with the friends, receive awakening from them, acquire their mind and feelings, merge into them. I include myself in them, in their desires and intentions directed toward the goal. And for this inclusion, I must draw the light that returns to the source; in other words, I need to study together with them and attract the light.
If this occurs, I accumulate the necessary amount and quality of effort and come to the correction of my vessels.
Naturally, this process consists of a whole series of actions. I cannot withstand major corrections or big leaps all at once. Therefore, there are many degrees, divided into steps and sub-steps through which I reach the state of which it is said: “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one.” I already exist in this state, but it reveals itself within me gradually.
We could not bear everything at once, because this unity is too opposite to our nature.
[35942]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/21/11, Rabash “What It Means that the World Was Created for the Torah”
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