Striking Of The Inner And The Surrounding Light

The inner light (Ohr Pnimi) is what I receive from the host, enjoying in all my desires the taste of fulfillment and the attitude of the Creator who with all His greatness invites me to connect and bestows upon me. I feel all these corporeal, human, and spiritual pleasures on all levels and I am obliged to extract all possible pleasure from them.

However, all this is clothed in my intention to bestow to the host. I subjugate myself to Him and want to give Him contentment. There is no pleasure here that I feel outside of my relationship with the host. First of all, I connect with Him in the Rosh, become included in His intention, in His attitude toward me. I absorb His attitude toward me and I build a reciprocal attitude toward Him from it. Our relationship, His and mine, becomes clothed on each other and the inner light appears.

The surrounding light (Ohr Makif) shows how much I am not ready to do this. The surrounding light emerges out of my regret that I have to stop receiving pleasure from the host, rejecting His appeal to me due to my inability to respond to Him in the same way because of my lack of His greatness. The surrounding light is a consequence of my awareness of how small my love for the host is compared to His love for me.

The surrounding light is the clothing of the spiritual Partzuf, which reflects the reaction of the created being to the revelation of the Creator in it. Therefore, it presses on the Partzufand asks it to receive fulfillment, like a mother standing in front of a baby with a spoonful of food and trying to persuade him to open his mouth.¹

My attitude toward the group and my care for it instead of caring for myself is an exact reflection of the work of the Partzuf with the upper light (Ohr Elyon). Even if I am not yet at such a degree that I can work directly with the light, it is already a close relationship. The Guf of the Partzuf is a measure of my connection with the group, and the Rosh is a calculation of how much I am able to connect with my friends according to my discernments, thoughts, and emotions.

Coupling by striking (Zivug de Haka’a) is striking at my egoism and adhesion through my decision above my mind and feelings to connect with friends like one man with one heart.

I strike my will to receive, push it away, and rise above it because I want to follow the mind and the emotion of the group and the Creator in it. Desire is my nature and the thought is something peripheral; therefore, it can be received from above or through the group, giving me the ability to understand, feel, and make decisions above my own thoughts.

My own thoughts and desires are the animate level. The desires and thoughts of the group can be above them only if I try to work with them.²

Restriction and Striking

Restriction is when I shut my desire, disallowing myself to receive pleasure, like a baby who tightly clenches its mouth and refuses to eat. The striking, however, already implies a condition: if I have the ability to eat for the sake of bringing contentment to mother, I will gladly open my mouth. But I do not have such an ability, so what do I do?! Help me, give me the desire to bring You contentment and I will be happy to open myself for the reception.

Restriction is an unconditional act and striking occurs on the condition that I am ready to accept the pleasure if there will be adhesion between us. In striking, my goal is connection. During the restriction, the purpose is not to connect but only to prevent me from receiving. I do not want any contact because I have no strength for anything but to restrict; otherwise, I will burn from shame.

Coupling by striking is already above shame. I do not take shame into account, but think only about love and connection between us, rising above egoism. By striking, I demonstrate that I am ready to receive the meal, not for myself but only to give contentment to the host. First, we check our relationship with the host and only when this heartfelt spiritual connection is established can we implement it in action and it descends into matter, into the will to receive.

This is why the decision is made first of all in the head of the Partzuf, in the pure thoughts and emotions not associated with the clothing of the light in the desires, in the matter. Only then can we perform this action, step by step, from light to heavy: the light of Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya, and Yechida.³
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/17/19, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Items 30 – 38