CLINGING TO GOD
The Great Emptiness
The method of thinking rarefied thought, the great emptiness that is needed to prepare yourself to cling to the Infinite One, makes all the life-powers as clear as glass and elevates them from anything lowly.
And it also elevates all of the people who are connected to the person who is accomplishing this unity, who holds this great thought in the entirety of the depth and greatness of his spirit and soul, with a luminous spiritual ascent.
And the prayer whose foundation is this supernal thirst is completely saturated with this luminous holy spirit, and it reaches its destination like a bow and arrow in the hands of a warrior. "With my sword and with my bow"-meaning, "with my prayer and my request."
Orot Hakodesh IV, p. 448
From The Great Thirst
From the great thirst that you may feel at particular times for the divine light of holiness in general, and of the Torah and the mitzvahs in particular, you may understand how right it is to be engaged always with great love and with constant application in Torah and mitzvahs, in improving your character and in elevating your mind, for these together will bring you to cling to God, with all the attendant avenues of sweetness.
Those souls for whom clinging to God is the basis of their lives feel the deep pain of the hollowness of a lack of Torah and mitzvahs within their souls. And they can imagine the utter desolation of the wicked, those who have forgotten God - how cheap their "image of God" has become and how pathetic these wicked people really are, who think that they are so wise, who think that they lack nothing, as they go after the stubbornness of their wicked hearts.
Orot Hakodesh IV, p. 447
Clinging To God Through Clear Mindfulness
We experience clinging to God through clear mindfulness without struggle, but with joy and delight.
However, in images [of the heart], we sometimes feel delight and a joyful heart, but other times bitterness. Yet even when bitter, it is still beloved to us; we still lie in its loving embrace.
And then mind and [the heart's] imagery bind together into one point, and the name of the Almighty (Shadai) is revealed through them, for Shadai is the acronym of Seichel (mind), Dimion (imagination), Yud (the letter Yud, indicating Divinity).
Orot Hakodesh IV, p. 443
Two Types Of Union
There are two types of union with the Divine that flash upward within us.
One comes from the Torah. You may feel no more than an inner illumination of your soul, unconnected to the letters that comprise Jewish law and mitzvahs-yet this comes from the power of the light of Torah as it deals with this world.
The other kind comes from the essence of the light of your soul, in your soul's relationship with the light of God in the world.
And in all the many details of these two types of union with the Divine, that flash up within us, differences in how to use them. And sometimes we must blend them together.
Orot Hakodesh IV, p. 444
Unity Consciousness
That unity consciousness
in your conscious volition,
in your rational awareness,
in your imagery consciousness,
in your life of action-
when all of these are an organized entity, they open up the pathways of life,
the dew of divine favor
that characterizes the life of Eden, life of truth-reality,
a life that has a richness of divine glory, that has a sweetness that radiates light,
unlimited.
Tzaddikim who experience the world-to-come reality even as they are alive in this world know and experience some of the state of being of that life-level.
We are commanded to make ourselves better, and the entire world too,
to make the path of the divine straight,
to remove anything that gets in the way of the light of the pleasure-state of the heights,
of true life-being, of true unity into the divine.
Only that union-consciousness is the wellspring of success,
and the goal of life
and being in its entirety.
How unfortunate are those people who trudge in the darkness!
How pitiful are those who don't have a God of truth
in their rational awareness
and in their conscious volition,
in their imagery consciousness
and in their life of action!
On the other hand,
how glad are those whose walking is in the countenance of divinity,
joyful in the light of His radiance,
who rejoice the entire day in His name-manifestation,
who rise, uplifted, in His righteousness-state.
My heart constricts because it aches so much because of that terrible gloom in which people who sit in the dark exist.
My inner alignment with that which is ultimately right
presses my soul
to light the torch of a life of true being,
to lift up the pennant for everybody.
The archetype, Israel, is the treasure chest of life in the world.
In its being is integrated the consciousness of Hashem-the God of that which is true.
In its revival, the world will come to life,
It will remove the veil that has been thrown over all the nations.
It will drive out the gloom of denial of the divine,
which is an ugly death-consciousness that affects the whole world,
spreading like a malignancy.
Israel will stand upon its feet.
It will rise up filled with power in its land of fascinating loveliness,
It will express the speech of its prophetic state from the source of the life within its soul,
It will awaken to life the seeds of divine life that are sleeping in the heart of every person
and every living being.
"Every soul will praise God, halleluiah!"
Orot Hakodesh IV, p. 450
All Levels Of Reality Intertwine
All levels of reality intertwine and interconnect.
The light that delivers light
shoots through from one level to another level
depending on how well-aligned they are.
That alignment relationship is set by the judgment of God.
It is His correct decision in the world where He is hidden.
This flowing river of light above,
the souls of tzaddikim are lit within in it,
in its complete fullness and goodness,
in the foundational conduit flow of the joy-shivering sweetness of God
and the power of a life that is holiness multiplying,
that river of light
pours more and more broadly
across all the avenues
of the multitudinous masses
To make them happy,
To make them blessed,
To make them glow
And to make them enjoy
A joy of multiple worlds
in the radiance of the aliveness of the souls of tzaddikim,
depending on how strong the connection is,
to be connected and in embrace
with a holy love
to the tzaddikim,
Whose hearts are straight,
Who are, in the midst of the multitude,
Those whose souls are illumined from within.
"'Cling to Him.' Cling to the wise and their students."
And the order of such a life,
And the state where the inside and outside of reality touch on every point
Spreads throughout the web of existence,
Making every point touch every other point,
to a state of shared commonality
Embracing
Every moving creature, every plant, every inanimate being,
with every soul level (nefesh, ruach, neshamah)
That permeates them and hovers about them.
This is the foundation
Of the Chapter of Song of each creature in the world.
Orot Hakodesh IV
The Battle Rages Within Me
The battle rages within me.
My heart is filled with a yearning that is
spiritual, high and broad.
I want divine sweetness
to flow through me, all of me,
not to get pleasure from the delight in it,
but because
this is how things should be,
because
this too is what reality is,
because this is the core of life.
So I am always moaning like the sea,
Inside I am roaring,
loudly,
Give me divine light,
The delight of the living God and His joy,
The great experience of visiting the palace of the King of the worlds,
Mighty One, my God, my Father,
To whom all of my soulful love is dedicated,
The fear of Whom elevates me.
And my soul lifts higher, floats upward beyond anything that is low,
Trivial-mindedness and limitations,
Which the life of nature,
Of the body,
Of the environment,
And of reality consensus
constrict it,
Squeeze it in tongs,
Put it in irons.
A river-flow of positives comes,
endless Torah-ideas and insights,
clusters of thoughts.
And the most precise convolutions about letters and words
comes and surrounds my soul that is pure,
that is free,
floating lightly as a cherub,
pellucid as the essence of heaven,
pouring like an ocean current of brilliant light.
But I have not yet attained this level:
to gaze from beginning to end,
to understand the sweetness of the message,
to feel the honey of every subtlety,
to gaze forward using the light
within the darkness of the world.
I am filled with painfulness,
And I look forward to being saved, to light,
to being supernally uplifted,
to the appearance of knowing and illumination
and to the dripping dew of life,
even in these narrow conduits
from which I will draw and satiate myself.
I will take delight in the sweetness of Hashem.
I will know the pure, ideal Will,
the supernal, concealed supernal Might,
that fills every letter and point of a letter,
every Talmud discussion and discussion,
and I will rejoice in Your commandments that I love,
and I will speak of Your decrees.
Orot Hakodesh IV, p. 402
The Core Nature Of Our Soul
We must carry out all the commandments with joy, because they open up the sense of sweetness and divine love that is hidden in the core nature of our soul.
Another good way to connect ourselves to this holy goal is to separate ourselves from every sin, because sin thickens the light of our soul.
If we act in an ugly manner, spiritual clarity grows confused. Then there is an end to the expansion of the light of divine sweetness.
But our consciousness must expand, in regard to both our actions and our spirituality, until the power of our soul grows so great that it has the strength to give an order to life (to life in general and to each individual life) in a fitting manner, so that the heavenly blossom of life, the universal sweetness-which embraces all everlasting pleasures and from which all temporal pleasures are fed-the pleasure of the sweetness of God, will blossom forever, flourishing and great.
Orot Hakodesh III, p. 186
The Source Of Life
"The source of life is with You; in Your light, we shall see light."
Life begins relationship where relationship to death exists; where there is something that can live, so that if the flow of life does not stream there, the negation of life, which is death, appears.
However, there is a source of life that is the essence of life, life independent, an existence that does not depend upon being the negation of death. This source of life rests in the realm of supernal divinity. From this origin, life begins pouring forth to revive all dead bodies, all who lack life, with the dewdrops of its lights.
Fundamental to the being of this source of life (a source prepared to pour forth life) is limitation, which with its constriction establishes forms and worlds marked by boundaries. The limitation found there is a revelation of an exceedingly precious divine goodness.
However, there is a supernal elevation that transcends this source of life. That supernal elevation is the directly-present light of God that differs from all lights of worlds. The entire being of the light within those worlds is intended to make dark bodies visible, bodies that in themselves do not share the nature of light. The light itself, however, is not a visible object, for the ability to see the being of light, corresponding to the measure of light, has not been revealed in the world.
But the light of God, in its high, broad and princely source, is the light in which and by means of which light is seen. This is the foundation of the supernal breadth of the infinite radiance that none of the worlds upon worlds are equal to.
Olat Harayah I, p. 21
In Alignment With Spiritual Reality
We must put ourselves in alignment with physical nature and its forces. We must learn its ways and actions, which derive from the general principles governing the world-a world of which we ourselves are a part. And these principles govern within ourselves just as they do outside us.
In the same way, and even more so, we must-we are forced to-put ourselves in alignment with the rules of spiritual nature. These rules govern the entirety of nature even more [than do the physical rules]. [Reality] is a part of [that spiritual nature,] whose principles rule within it even more [than do the physical principles].
The alpha and omega of this alignment is the supernal core of clinging to the Divine in all our ways and all our actions, all our feelings and all our thoughts. Every alignment with spiritual reality-which encompasses everything-flows forth from [that core], and returns to it.
"God, You have been our dwelling-place in every generation. Before the mountains were born, before You made the earth and land, You have always been God. You bring a person down, and then say, 'Return, humanity!'" (Psalms 90:1-2).
Orot Hakodesh IV, p. 440
To Cling To God
To cling to God is a person's most natural desire. Human beings have something developed within themselves, in an intellectual and emotional form, that exists in the entirety of all creation in a mute and silent form, a potential form.
And as for Israel: the nature of this people takes this desire as the basis of its national life, congruent with its historical fate.
A desire to cling completely to the living God, to the light of the Infinite Being, is something whose substitute can never be found in natural being. Just as we must live, just as we must eat and grow, so must we cling to God.
Clinging to God-this thing that is demanded of us in the entire fullness of our soul-must continuously develop within us, continuously grow ever more profound in feeling, ever more clear in recognition and understanding.
There is no way that humanity-or, for that matter, the entirety of existence-can live without the stream of desire to cling to the Divine. [This desire] lives constantly within [everything] in a hidden and concealed manner.
The childhood of humanity, the days when darkness lay thick and corporeal, placed into the world the foundations of a type of life that has preventing clinging to the Divine from emerging in its entire fullness.
It is impossible to imagine the pain of the universal, encompassing Soul, and the inner soul-pain of every living being and every human being, due to this spiritual oppression, to the blockage of goodness hidden within it, [a goodness] that shines so much and refines so much, that quickens a life of expansiveness, a life of eternity, a life of great stature and might. It must have this life. [This life] is the essence of its nature and meaning.
Orot Hakodesh IV, p. 439
