Why is Receiving for Myself Evil?
Q: If “the Creator made a world in order to bestow His abundance to the created beings,” then what’s wrong with wanting to receive everything “for oneself?” Why is it perceived as evil? Why was it necessary to create a world so imperfect, and a creation so incorrect?
A: The Creator wishes to bestow. Therefore, He created only a desire to enjoy. But in order to enjoy, a desire must not disappear after receiving pleasure.
Pleasure must not destroy desire. Desire must be intact, despite the received pleasure, possibly even growing, searching for new greater pleasures.
Therefore, desire and pleasure must dwell in different objects. For example, consider a mother endlessly caring for her child because her pleasure is in him and not in herself. In contrast, if someone wants to enjoy something, that person receives the pleasure, but doing so immediately extinguishes the desire, and the feeling of pleasure disappears. That is why it is only by living to fulfill another’s desires that we can feel never-ending, unlimited (by duration, volume) pleasure.
Therefore, the Creator’s Will, which created beings that must bestow upon Him, is simply a precondition for receiving endless, eternal pleasure.
But there’s one more result to that action: since we match our actions to those of the Creator, we become like Him and begin to feel what the Creator feels, i.e., we reach His level. And this is not just feeling eternal unlimited pleasure; it is the attainment of a totally different existence.
This existence is called “the goal of creation,” because the Creator will never leave us alone until we reach that level - every single one of us, and all of us together.
Why didn’t He create us in that state to begin with? Why must man go through so much suffering in order to feel this level? Because we can feel something only out of its opposite. Moreover, the greater the difference between the states, the stronger and more intense the feelings. Hence, reaching the Creator’s level compels us to go through states quite opposite to His: humbleness, emptiness, darkness and suffering.
If it’s impossible to avoid them, where can we get strength to go through all this? Are tragedies, catastrophes, destruction and pogroms unavoidable? From one generation to another, until the cup of anguish is full to the brink, can't we arrive at tranquility and perfection? Where is the great and perfect Creator?
Our complaints would only be fair if we were not given the instructions for achieving the goal. Kabbalah was given to correct us, to make us like the Creator. By studying how we can change ourselves, we can do so quickly and enter the state of perfection and eternity now, in this world, and in this lifetime.
Kabbalah reveals us to ourselves against the spiritual Light surrounding us, thus forcing us to feel ashamed and humble before the Light (the Creator) prior to physical suffering, and accelerate the emerging desire to get rid of our evil nature, and acquire the perfect properties of the Creator.
By starting to study Kabbalah, we can reach the state of perfection and eternity within 3 to 5 years (ideally, and within 6 to 10 years normally). Keep asking those questions.