Teshuva: A Taste of Olam HaBa Likutei Moharan, Torah 4

(2) I, Hashem, am your Elokim who brought you out of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage:

I AM Hashem [Y-H-W-H] your Elokim, Which have brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. (Ex. 20:2):
1. When a man knows that all the things that happen to him to him are for his good, this aspect is like the World to Come, as is written (Ps. 56): "In Hashem I will praise His word, in Elokim I will praise His word". And this aspect is like the World to Come, as our Sages of blessed memory said (Pesachim 50): "On that day shall Hashem be One, and His name One." — and they argued: And now is He not One? And our Sages of blessed memory resolved: Now, one recites the blessing upon the good events, "Who is good and beneficent," and on the bad events "the Truthful Judge." But in the future it shall all be "Who is good and beneficent," that the name Hashem and the name Elokim shall be one unity:

“And the Lord shall be King over all the earth, on that day shall the Lord be one and His name one” (Zechariah 14:9). The Gemara asks: Is that to say that now He is not one? Rabbi Aḥa bar Ḥanina said: The World-to-Come is not like this world. In this world, upon good tidings one recites: Blessed…Who is good and does good, and over bad tidings one recites: Blessed…the true Judge. In the World-to-Come one will always recite: Blessed…Who is good and does good. There will be only one mode of blessing God for tidings.

2. But this aspect [of seeing the Oneness of Hashem in both the good and the bad] is impossible to attain except when one raises the aspect of the Malkhut (Kingship) of holiness from exile among the nations. For now the Malkhut and the rule is by the nations, and for this reason their idolatries are referred to as “Elohim,” [“You shall have no other Elohim besides me.” (Ex. 20)] for they nurse from the aspect of Malkhut, which is called Elohim, as is written (Ps. 74): "Elokim is my King of old;" and when one raises the aspect of Malkhut from among the nations, then is fulfilled: "For Elokim is the King of all the earth" (ibid. 47):

(4) 4. And when one knows all this [that everything Hashem does for you is for the Good], it is called complete knowledge...this is called knowledge, i.e. that one should not partition between mercy and judgement, and should bless upon all of them "Who is good and beneficent." And this is called "Hashem, one, and His name, one," as our Sages of blessed memory said, that in the future there shall be complete unity, that it shall all be "Who is good and beneficent." And this is: Hashem, One, and His name — this is like Elokim, Kingship, as is written (Sam. II 8): "And David made a name:"-- One (אחד=13) in gematria equals love (אהבה=13), i.e. whether it is Hashem which is mercies, or whether it is His Name which is like Elokim, like judgement — it is all for your good because of the love that Hashem Yitbarakh loves you, as is written (Prov. 3): "For whom Hashem loves He corrects." And the scripture (Amos 3): "You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities."

And because of this, when Moshe prayed concerning the sin of the Calf, he said (Ex. 32): "If you will forgive their sin — ; and if not, erase me please;" for it is impossible, that a man should not have some haughtiness, when he hears his praise told; all the more so when a great king praises and glorifies the man, then it is certainly impossible, that he should not have some haughtiness. But one needs for this the nullification of all his feeling and materiality; then the man can hear his praise, and he will not have any haughtiness, like Moshe Rabbeinu, who saw it written in the Torah: "And Hashem spoke unto Moshe,” “And Hashem said unto Moshe;" and Israel reads every day in the Torah the praise of Moshe, and he himself tells them his praise; and Moshe did not have any glory or haughtiness from this, as is written: "Now the man Moses was very humble," and certainly through his humility there was power in the hand of Moshe to atone the sin of the Calf, as is written: "but a wise man will atone it." And this is what Moshe argued: "And if not," i.e. if You will not forgive their sin, by this You show that I do not have such humility, that I could atone for them the sin of the Calf, therefore I asked: "erase me, please" in order that I should not stumble in pride, since I see and hear all the time the telling of my fame and my praise in the Torah, for who can stand in this, that he should hear the telling of his praise and not be proud, if he is not greatly humble; and if I am humble, then You must forgive their sin, as is written: "and passes by the transgression of the remnant" etc.:

[Here Rebbe Nahman explains that at the end of his life Moshe completely nullified himself to become a pure reflection of Hashem's will with no ego remaining. Because he became like nothing, no one knows where he is buried]...And all this was in his death, but certainly also in his life he nullified materiality, and would cleave himself to the light of the Infinite. But this nullification was like: "And the living creatures ran and returned;" for the Holy One, Blessed be He, wants our service, as is written: "but You desire praise from bodies of dust, from lumps of clay." And because of this, one must not remain so (extendedly annulled), only until the time when the Holy One, blessed-be-He, himself comes and takes up his soul. And this is that which we see, that sometimes a man flames up inside during prayer and says several words in great passion. This is by the mercy of Hashem upon him, that the light of the Infinite is opened to him and shines for him; and when a man sees this sparking, even though he does not see, his mazal (guardian angel) sees (Megillah 3). Immediately his soul flames up to great cleaving, to cleave itself to the light of the Infinite, and according to the measure of the revelation of the Infinite, according to the count of words that were opened up and sparked up — all these words he says in great cleavage and in great devotion of soul in nullification of his powers, and when he is annulled against the Infinite, then he is like: 'but no man knows' — even he himself does not know of his own [separate existence]. But this aspect must be "running and returning," in order that his existence should endure. [He cannot survive on the level of complete nullification to Hashem, because on that level he has no selfhood separate from Hashem. And so he must "return" to this world.] Hence, when he is like "and returning," then he must reveal [his holy experience] to his mind. For at first, at the time of cleaving, the knowledge was annulled, as is written: but no man knows; but when he is like "and returning," when he returns (to his mind) to his existence, he returns to his mind; and when he returns to his mind, then he knows the unity of the Infinite and His goodness, and then there is no difference between Hashem and Elokim, between the trait of judgement and the trait of mercy, for to the Infinite One does not apply, God forbid, a variation of will, for the variations are only in variations of the images [the "good" and "bad" that we see in our world, but which are not separate things to Hashem]. But through the cleaving of a man to the Infinite, where there is no variation of will — for there is simply will, and afterwards there remains in him his impression from this unity and afterwards he becomes like "and returning" — then his impression shows to the mind, that it should know that it is all good and all one. And this is [the explanation of] what Moshe said to his generation (Deut. 4): "You have shown your da`at/knowledge that the [Merciful] Hashem, He is the Elokim [of judgement]"...

I am the Hashem your Elokim — meaning, whether He is Hashem or whether Elokim, understand that all this is I, i.e. that you should fulfill: "When he treats me as Hashem I will sing praise for the thing; when he treats me as Elokim I sing praise for the thing," i.e. that all should be "Good and Beneficent" as mentioned above;

Who has brought you out of the Land of Egypt, since it says in the commentary (Bereishit Ch. 16): "for all the exiles are named by the exile of Egypt (MiTZRaIM), since they afflict (M’TZeRIM) Israel," i.e. through the Tzaddik the kingship and rule of the nations are annulled, for through this the Malkhut of holiness goes up out of them, as mentioned above.

From the house of slavery — this hints to nullification of the evil traits of the four elements which are named by the title "slaves,"...meaning through the Tzaddik the Malkhut goes up from the Other Side, and the evil traits are annulled, and through this the man comes to the aspect of the World to Come, to the aspect of: "When he treats me as Hashem I will sing praise for the thing; when he treats me as Elokim I sing praise for the thing:"