Correcting the Senses

Q: Is there a Kabbalistic technique of behavior through which we can “soften” or limit the reception of evil?

A: Everything comes from the Creator. In principle, only one thing comes out of the Creator: simple Light, total goodness. In our corrupted senses we feel it according to our equivalence with it, ranging from the total opposite, to what it really is.

We perceive the difference between us and the Light as pain. That pain can be unconscious, as when a person doesn’t know why the world is in such pain, or it can be conscious. This occurs when we begin to feel the Creator and feel that the Creator is not a source of pain, but rather a source of pleasure, and the reason for the pain is the difference between our qualities and those of the Creator.

The way to delivery is quite simple - study only the writings of Rashbi (Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai), the Ari and Rabbi Ashlag. Our pain will gradually fade and instead of asking, “Why don’t I have…,” we will begin to ask “Why don’t I have love for Him?”

Afterwards, we will feel the “pains of love” - the desire to cling to the loved one. In the meantime, these are just words (and pretty worldly ones, too), but only when we have attained these situations can we understand their spiritual meaning. Sometimes even ordinary people feel they are experiencing these situations and begin to write about them.

In any case, I urge that you read a lot, without specific order. Read everything that we have published, and as a result, you will go through a variety of situations that will teach you how to live.

Your connection to a leader, a rabbi, a Kabbalist, is a must. Otherwise, in a moment of weakness, you might get distracted. You’ll return to Kabbalah, obviously, but it can take a very long time, perhaps several lifetimes.