Baal HaSulam, “Fruits of Wisdom,” “He who Shares the Public’s Grief”: “A person is measured to the extent that he measures,” that is, according to the size of the vessels, according to the container and its interior part. The same deficiency will always be full, no more no less.
Therefore, God’s servant who doesn’t share the public’s grief, but only feels his own private deficiency has a container for the abundance that isn’t big enough, and therefore will not be able to receive the general revelation of Godliness in the secret of the public’s consolation, because he has not prepared a vessel to receive this general phase but only his private phase.
But if he shares the public’s grief and feels the troubles of the general as his own private trouble, he is rewarded with seeing the complete phase of the revelation of the Shechina, meaning the consolation of all of Israel, because his deficiency is a general deficiency and therefore the abundance of holiness is also general.
You should thus understand the meaning of “the righteous have no rest,” which means that because the abundance is blessed according to the level of deficiency and the longings of the righteous, to the same extent, no more no less, they always make efforts to deepen and to expand their vessel because the one who bestows has no measure, only the one who receives. Thus, their only goal in life is to grow stronger and to yearn to make in them a vessel and thus cause contentment in expanding the borders of holiness.
The vessel of receiving is limited and the vessel of bestowal is unlimited. It all depends on a person. To the extent that he tries to expand his vessel of bestowal, he receives help from above. If he is really interested in correction and uses all the means he has, he can always increase the vessel, which means increasing his deficiency for bestowal. The Light that Reforms operates on him according to these efforts and corrects his vessel, prepares it, and then fills it. Therefore it is said “the righteous have no rest, neither in this world nor in the next world,” which means neither on the current level nor on the next level, and they will always be able to advance.
The key and the basis for advancement is to share the public’s grief, which means that the additional deficiencies and the need for bestowal can only be acquired from the environment. There is no other place; the environment is the only place where one can draw from it unlimitedly and advance as a result.
We can thus immediately assess how a person sees this advancement in the spiritual life. Today it already refers to everyone, both men and women. It depends if a person isolates himself and thinks that he will advance only thanks to his studies, or whether he participates in dissemination and in community life, connecting to the group with all his might. If he doesn’t do that, he cannot accumulate a deficiency for bestowal, of course, reach a prayer, and receive a readymade vessel. The Light is in abundance, and it will therefore immediately fill the vessel the moment it is ready.
Baal HaSulam wrote: “A person is measured to the extent that he measures.” After all, a person can only measure the extent that he yearns to be in the vessels of bestowal and to be filled with Light. Everything depends only on him, on the preparation of his vessel. Sharing the public’s grief is the key for the revelation of the Creator.
In his article “The Giving of the Torah,” Baal HaSulam wrote that when the children of Israel were in Egypt they became one nation that suffered the enslavement and the hard labor together the moment they began to mutually share their grief. Pharaoh brought the children of Israel closer to the Creator and enforced increasingly greater afflictions upon them, and as a result, forced them to connect.They realized that only thanks to the connection between them could they be saved and come out of Egypt. This is how a person receives the right deficiency.
It turns out that we have unlimited opportunities to advance because the whole world already needs correction. We will always have a chance to influence the public and to engage in dissemination more and more without limits; we will receive the deficiencies from people and advance before them each time in order to be their teachers and to serve them. This is how we will advance towards increasingly greater vessels of bestowal.
All the grief should be aimed at only one thing: how to absorb additional deficiencies from the close environment or from an increasingly wider environment, until the whole world is included in my vessel. This is the purpose of the shattering, which means the keeping of the commandments. Only building a deficiency for bestowal fulfills everything.
Nowadays we see that the whole world, including us, is already arranged for the revelation of the deficiency for mutual bestowal. This is how we build the place for the revelation of the Creator in order to cause Him contentment. All this will happen before our very eyes.
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From the Preparation for the Convention 2/25/14
Related Material:
Looking At The World And Empathizing With The Suffering
All Who Feel The Sorrows Of The Public Merit Consolation
A World Of Mercy Without Malice
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