Q: How do we discover evil, and for what purpose?
A: If you remember the idea of creation and its goal, all your calculations will stop being passive. Instead, they will become vessels, or aims with which we contact the Creator and feel Him. Every negative attribute in us becomes a means to an end.
There is no other way to make contact with the Creator - only through our negative attributes, through the evil. The revelation of evil is the beginning of the revelation of good – its opposite. The Creator tells you of your negative attributes to make you want Him when you sense your egoism. We have to try and use the evil to help us make contact with the Creator.
Here, in the midst of my evil, I cleave to Him. Even if it is the opposite side, I still make contact with the Creator. It is here that I ask Him to help me: “Out of the depths have I called Thee, O Lord (Psalms 130, 1).”
Q: Is this what prayer is?
A: Yes, this is prayer. Otherwise, where will you raise your MAN (prayer) from? When you feel that all this is death, and only the Creator has the solution, you ask, you plead and cry. In a moment you’ll be dead, like one who stands above the abyss, like the situation in the middle of the exodus from Egypt, standing at the shore before the Red Sea opened.
We needn’t hide our negative attributes; only use them creatively in negative situations. We should simply consult the Creator before any action, and only then start acting.