Make The Right Choice: The Creator

Bina is an abstract property of faith, but this faith is realized in Malchut because faith can work practically only where there is a property of receiving. The desire to enjoy appears first at the level of Hochma, but it has not yet been realized by the created being. And the desire to bestow appears in Bina but still without its practical realization. From the combination of both appears the fourth stage, Dalet, where there should be faith, and to the extent of faith, reception. The desire to receive in Malchut is a consequence of the desire to bestow in Bina and the desire to receive in Hochma, which Zeir Anpin completely connects together.¹

The 15th of Av (Tu B’Av) is considered one of the best days for Israel. A good day is the day when you can bestow to the Creator the most. Tu B’Av symbolizes receiving for the sake of bestowal, but for the benefit of the future, when Malchut will already be corrected. In the meantime, although the ascent of the worlds takes place, it is due to the awakening from above, not to the work of the lower.

The end of correction takes place on Purim. Tu B’Av is a combination of the receptive desires of Malchut in the presence of all the right conditions that have come out of the four stages, represented as four groups of girls looking for suitors: Hochma, Bina, ZA, and Malchut.

The beauties said: “Turn your eyes to beauty, for a woman is for beauty.” The noblemen said: “Cast your eyes on family, for a woman is for sons.” The wealthy said: “Cast your eyes on the wealthy.” And the unsightly said: “Take us in the name of Heaven and crown us with gold ornaments.” In this way, all the stages passed by: Hochma, Bina, ZA, until the turn of Malchut came, and it turned out that Malchut Shamayim (the Kingdom of Heaven) must be poor and meager, not wealthy, beautiful, and noble. Only through our work can we become loyal to it.

This holiday represents our searches and disappointment in our own strength, our readiness to separate ourselves by any means from the desire to enjoy and our becoming devoted to bestowal, that is, to not demand anything for ourselves. I ask the Creator to provide me with protection against my desire to enjoy, my major enemy. I must hate my egoism to such an extent that I do not succumb to any temptation.

Let my egoism die—it will not get anything! Let me disappear—it does not matter because I have to go through the point of complete restriction and be born on the other side of the barrier, which means the death of my desire to enjoy for my own sake. This will be life and light for me: life is only on the other side of this barrier (Machsom).

To do this, one must reach the fourth stage, Malchut, an ugly, poor, lowborn bride called faith. If I am able to remain faithful to her despite her being poor and meager, then I have gained faith. This is the condition for gaining Malchut: consent to cleave only to her, despite other seductive images.

Faith is accepted without any conditions, otherwise it will not be faith but a calculation or a deal. Faith cannot have any selfish basis. I want to get rid of the egoistic calculation. Otherwise, I will not enter the spiritual world. This is a condition for entry: to cleanse myself of egoistic desires and remain only in bestowal. The property of bestowal is the absence of any calculation of self-benefit.

If I try to achieve faith, I go through all these stages, one after the other, getting acquainted with the “brides” preceding Malchut: beautiful, wealthy, and noble. But in the end, I reach the state when I want nothing but to get rid of all this “nobility.” I want only the Creator to exist and not me. This is how spiritual life begins.

I am ready to give up on all my calculations and cling to the Creator without any reasoning. This is how I become a spiritual seed. I want the Creator’s program to govern me, defining all my behavior, thoughts, and desires. Let a different engine work in me.

An egoistic engine is currently spinning in me, looking for how to gain more, to succeed, and to enjoy itself. I want a new engine to constantly turn me toward the Creator and not to seek anything for itself so that a new program of bestowal will work within me. This means that the upper light is being revealed in me, giving me a new perception of life, and with these new eyes, I see the upper world.²

Of all the “brides,” of all the desires, after a long clarification, we choose the one that requires nothing but adhesion and wants to base all of its reception only on faith. This is the condition for gaining Malchut, receiving for the sake of bestowal.

This bride seems ugly to our desire to enjoy, lowborn, poor, and meager. But precisely when I get nothing for my ego, I can be faithful to the Creator with all my soul. I am ready to die in order to remain faithful to Him. This is the condition for crossing the Machsom.³

Tu B’Av means choosing Malchut Shamayim. After the 9th of Av, I had nothing left for myself; everything collapsed: both the First and the Second Temple. Then the 15th of Avcomes when I can base my attitude toward the Creator only on the property of bestowal. Therefore, the 15th of Av is considered the greatest holiday.

Thanks to the revelation of the shattering on the 9th of Av, on the 15th of Av I gain the ability to hold onto the Malchut Shamayim, to choose the right bride, Malchut.

The four brides from whom we choose is our attitude toward the group, the expectation to receive wealth, knowledge, and nobility from it. But in the end, I see that I will get only one thing—through my devotion to them, the achievement of devotion to the Creator. For me, this is the greatest asset.

All this seems ugly to my desire to enjoy. I see nothing good in this group and I would be happy to do away with everyone, but this is exactly the form through which, if I accept it, I can reach the Creator.

The whole world shows me how it hates me because I am engaged in bestowal and how it would support me if I were as egoistic as everyone else. The world is becoming very harsh in this regard. No one blames me for egoistic reception, but everyone attacks me for the aspiration to bestow. If I change, then I am immediately promised a good life and the return of the three profitable brides: the stages Aleph, Bet, and Gimel.

Here, one has to be very straightforward and must not make any compromises. The Creator will confuse me in every possible way. But the condition for crossing the Machsomis to say: “I am better off dead than living such a life.” Then, I will see how all these mirages dissipate and disappear.

A real bride is the one who will be with me provided that I agree to accept her anyway, may she be the ugliest woman in the world. She has neither beauty, nor wealth, nor nobility—nothing attractive. Why do I love her and get close to her? It is because only in this image she brings me to the Creator.

I see that the Creator plays with me through all these mirages, seducing me with wealth, intelligence, knowledge, nobility, bribing my ambition. But in the end, I understand that the greatness of the Creator is in His modesty. Therefore, I need to reduce my pride and my requirements and look not for beauty and nobility, intelligence and wealth, but only for the desire to adhere with all my heart, and then I can get married.⁴

The period of the 9th of Av is the time of death and destruction. But starting from the 15th of Av and further on, from the joyful day of Tu B’Av on which we chose the correct Malchut Shamayim, we begin preparations for the congress: for the connection between us and merging with the Creator already with the correct desire.⁵
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/16/19, Writings of Rabash “The Fifteenth of Av,” Article 35 (1986)