Why do I feel bad?

Pain pushes us forward. Whether we feel depressed, empty or confused, all bad feelings appear in order to make us think about their reason and purpose.

In our world, we see only the outward shell of reality. We do not see what is hidden behind nature, society, a person or the cosmos, and we cannot control any of them.

As with embroidery, the links and threads traversing all the parts of the picture can only be seen on the reverse side. Likewise, we do not see the connections between events in our reality; we only see that “something suddenly happened for some reason.”

How can I know the consequences of my actions? All of a sudden, I suffer a blow and I do not understand why it happened or where it came from. “Where did I go wrong?” “What did I do to deserve this?” And even “What’s the point of it all?”

Anyone can interpret the reason for their own pain and the pains of others however they see fit. But everyone agrees that pain makes us think about its purpose and its cause, which in the view of Kabbalah, is one and the same.

The science of Kabbalah states that there is only one reason for all pain—to make us ask about its meaning. We can then use these questions to raise us from the level of our earthly existence, where the causes are hidden, to a higher level of existence, where the reason for the pain is revealed.

The science of Kabbalah grants us this opportunity: to discover that there is a source to life—the Upper Light, the Creator—and to attain adhesion with this source. Such questions about the source of pain, the purpose of suffering, and the meaning of life bring a person to Kabbalah.