The Elusive Point of Freedom

It seems so easy to just let the force of the Light come and correct us, making us love our neighbor! So why is the process of correction so difficult? The difficulty comes from the fact that this entire process is concealed, and that is in order to give us the freedom of will.

To be free means to go against my desire and understanding, when I don't want it directly! My animalistic body does not aspire to this and my egoism does not help me do this. I have to find a new motivation to advance, which does not stem from my qualities. Otherwise I would just be increasing my animate egoism.

The reason for my advancement must be outside of me, in the environment. In order to advance, I have to use something that does not belong to the egoistic desire, and therein lies the entire difficulty. If not for this, every person would aspire to correction. Who wouldn't want to receive perfection and eternity, feel the Creator, see all of his fate from beginning to end, and control it!?

Any person would agree to exchange this temporary world for an eternal one. However, people feel that this is too exalted, too difficult, and unattainable. And it's all because we have to reveal the point of our free choice, called "the middle third of Tifferet."

We understand what love is and what hate is, but it's not clear what a neutral state is, "the middle third of Tifferet." On every degree we have to make our choice while in that state. Otherwise we won't be independent of the Creator.

What's the point of creating a miserable creature that suffers in this world, and then giving it the knowledge that there is a perfect state and one must only use a means called the Torah to go from a bad state to a good one? In fact, any machine could do the same thing if there is good and evil, and a means to go from evil to good. There is no free choice here.

Religions operate according to this scheme of two lines. The difference between Kabbalah and religion is free will, the third line. A person has to find the point where he can carry out actions independently of himself and his earthly choice, so he won't look for self-benefit.

If we find this point and act based on it, it means we freely build ourselves and are independent of our previous nature. We cut ourselves off from it and give birth to ourselves, instead of having the Creator do it.

This point of independence poses the difficulty. It constantly confuses us and erases everything we understood and felt a moment ago, immersing us into a "fog" all over again. But it is happening because we are being led into a completely different dimension of life where we will reveal the true reality instead of the unconscious state we are in today.

From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/27/10, "The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings"

Preparing a Place for the Creator

The Creator constantly awakens a person by revealing descents and sorrow for the Shechina. One should approach all the descents and ascents from the right perspective: What should I be sorry about, and what am I in fact sorry about?

I have to make an analysis and gradually, with the help of the Light, aspire to the intention of bestowal. Previously I waited for the Light to become revealed to me, but now I want it to change me.

Really, there is no point in waiting for the Light to suddenly start shining. The Creator is everywhere, but we lack equivalence to Him in order to feel Him.

That is why it is necessary to make an order for one's corrections: how to relate to oneself, to one's environment, to the teacher, and to the place of the Creator's revelation (the Shechina), which one must create together with the friends and prepare it for the presence of the Creator. Gradually it becomes clear that all the troubles of every person in the world are aimed only at correcting the Shechina.

This is the only thing we should be concerned with. It is sufficient to take the Shechina to the first degree of the 125 degrees of correction and the Creator will immediately be revealed to that degree. He is at rest and His revelation depends only on the degree of our similarity to Him.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/27/10, Writings of Rabash