Part IV: Crisis and Correction. Chapter 6: A New Method for a New Desire

Before we talk about how Kabbalistic concepts can help us in our day-to-day lives, let’s see what we’ve learned so far. It might come as a surprise, but you already know quite a bit about Kabbalah...

The darkest time of night is right before the dawn. Similarly, the writers of The Book of Zohar said, almost 2,000 years ago, that humanity’s darkest time will come right before its spiritual awakening. For centuries, beginning with the Ari, who lived in the 16th century, Kabbalists have been writing that the time The Book of Zohar referred to was the end of the 20th century. They called it “the last generation”...

It takes only four steps to change the world...

In our own eyes, we are unique and independently acting individuals. This is a common human trait. Just think of the centuries of battles humanity has been through, only to finally obtain the limited personal freedom we have today...

The whole of Nature obeys only one law: “The Law of Pleasure and Pain.” If the only substance in Creation is the will to receive pleasure, then only one rule of behavior is required: attraction to pleasure and rejection from pain. Human beings are no exception to the rule. We follow a preinstalled design that entirely dictates our every move: we want to receive the most, for the least amount of work. And if possible, we want it all for free! Therefore, in everything we do, even when we are not aware of it, we try to choose the pleasurable and avoid the painful...

Nature gave us three challenges: it “sentenced” us to constantly seek escape from suffering; it set us on a continuing pursuit of pleasure; and it denied us the ability to determine what kind of pleasure we really want. In other words, we can’t control what we want. We are subject to a variety of desires that pop up within us, without asking our opinion in the matter...