Raising the Slave through the Ministers

Found in the book “Kabbalah for the student
Yehuda Leib HaLevi Ashlag (Baal HaSulam)

 

It is written, “for one higher than the high watcheth, and there are higher than they.” As a fierce answer is required, I shall answer you that everyone believes in Private Providence, but does not adhere to it at all.

The reason is that an alien and foul thought cannot be attributed to the Creator, who is the epitome of the “Good that doeth Good.” However, only to the true servants of the Creator does the knowledge of Private Providence open—that He caused all the reasons that preceded it, the good as well as the 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 they are all clear, for they are all carriers of the Creator’s vessels, ready to glorify the revelation of His uniqueness. It is known by sensing, and to that extent they have knowledge in the end that all the actions and the thoughts, both good and bad, are the carriers of the Creator’s vessels. He has prepared them, from His mouth they have come, and this will be known to all at the end of correction.

However, in between it is a long and threatening exile. The biggest trouble is that when one sees some wrongful action, he falls from his degree, clings to the famous lie, and forgets that he is like an ax in the hand of the cutter. Instead, one considers oneself the owner of this act and forgets the reason for all consequences from whom everything comes, and that there is no other Operator in the world but Him.

This is the lesson. Although one knows it at first, still, in a time of need, one does not control this awareness, to unite everything with the cause, which sentences to a scale of merit. This is the whole reply to his letter.

I have already told you face to face a true allegory about these two concepts, where one elucidates the other. Yet, the force of concealment prevails and controls in between.

There is an allegory about a king who grew fond of his servant until he wanted to raise him above all the ministers, for he had recognized true and unwavering love in his heart.

However, it is not the royal manner to raise one to the highest level all at once, without an apparent reason. Rather, the royal manner is to reveal the reasons to all with great wisdom.

What did he do? He appointed the servant a guard at the city gate, and told a minister, who was a clever joker, to pretend to rebel against the kingship, and wage war to conquer the house while the guard was unprepared.

The minister did as the king had commanded, and with great wisdom and craftiness pretended to fight against the king’s house. The servant at the gate risked his life and saved the king, fighting bravely and devotedly against the minister, until his great love for the king was evident to all.

Then the minister took off his clothes and there was great laughter, for he had fought so fiercely and bravely, and now realized that there was only fiction here, not reality. They laughed most when the minister told of the depth of the imaginings of his cruelty and the fear he had envisioned. And every item in this terrible war became a round of laughter and great joy.

However, he was still a servant; he was not scholarly. And how could he be raised above all the ministers and the king’s servants?

Then the king thought, and said to that minister that he must disguise himself as a robber and a murderer, and wage fierce war against him. The king knew that in the second war he would discover a wondrous wisdom, and merit standing at the head of all the ministers.

Hence, he appointed the servant in charge of the kingdom’s treasury, and that minister now dressed as a ruthless killer and came to loot the king’s treasures.

The poor appointee fought fearlessly and devotedly, until the cup was full. Then the minister took off his clothes and there was great joy and laughter in the king’s palace, even more than before.

The details of the minister’s tricks aroused great laughter, since now the minister had to be smarter than before because now it was evidently known that no one was cruel in the king’s domain, and all the cruel ones were only jokers. Therefore, the minister used great craftiness to acquire clothes of evil.

Yet, in the meantime, the servant inherited wisdom from after-knowledge, and love from fore-knowledge, and then he was erected for eternity.

In truth, all the wars in that exile are a wondrous sight, and everyone knows in their kind interior that it is all a kind of wit and joy that brings only good. Still, there is no tactic to ease the weight of the war and the threat.

I have spoken to you at length about it face to face, and now you have knowledge of one end of this allegory, and with the Creator’s help you will understand it on its other end, as well.

And the thing you most want to hear me speak of is one to which I cannot answer anything. I have given you an allegory about it face to face, as well, for “the kingdom of the earth is as the kingdom of the firmament,” and the true guidance is given to the ministers.

Yet, everything is done according to the king’s counsel and his signature. The king himself does no more than sign the plan that the ministers devise. If he finds a flaw in the plan, he does not correct it, but places another minister in his place, and the first resigns from office.

So is man, a small world, behaving according to the letters imprinted in him, since kings rule the seventy nations in him. This is the meaning of what is written in the Sefer Yetzira(Book of Creation): “He crowned a certain letter.” Each letter is a minister for its time, making evaluations, and the King of the world signs them. When the letter errs in some plan, it immediately resigns from office, and He crowns another letter in its place.

This is the meaning of, “Each generation and its judges.” At the end of correction, that letter called Messiah will rule and will complete and tie all the generations to a crown of glory in the hand of God.

Now you can understand how I can interfere with your business of state, and each must uncover what he has been assigned to uncover, and all will become clear through the incarnations.

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