The Indignant Question

The fundamental textbook with which we study the wisdom of Kabbalah is The Study of the Ten Sefirot. In this book, Baal HaSulam interprets the words of the ARI (Isaac Luria), which are vital for the development of the souls in our generation.

Baal HaSulam opens the preface to the book by introducing different doubts people have regarding the study of Kabbalah. He does not refer to these doubts directly, but rather turns elsewhere, to the question regarding the meaning of life:

“Indeed, if we set our hearts to answer but one very famous question, I am certain that all these questions and doubts will vanish from the horizon, and you will look unto their place to find them gone. This indignant question is a question that the whole world asks, namely, ‘What is the meaning of my life?’

“In other words, these numbered years of our lives, which cost us so heavily, and the numerous pains and torments that we suffer for them to complete them to the fullest, who is it who enjoys them? Or even more precisely, whom do I delight?

“It is indeed true that historians have grown weary contemplating it, and particularly in our generation. No one even wishes to consider it.

“Yet the question stands as bitterly and as vehemently as ever. Sometimes it meets us uninvited, pecks at our minds and humiliates us to the ground before we find the famous ploy of flowing mindlessly in the currents of life as always.”

(Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 2)

The wisdom of Kabbalah
is for anyone
who can no longer ignore the question
about the meaning of life.