Part IV: Crisis and Correction. Chapter 7: The Four Factors of Our Make-Up

If we are nothing more than products of our environment, and if there is no real freedom in what we do, think, or want, can we be held responsible for our actions? And if we are not responsible for them, who is? To answer these questions we must first understand the four factors that comprise us, and how we can work with them to acquire freedom of choice...

Even though we cannot determine the attributes of our bed, we can still affect our lives and our destinies by choosing our social environments. In other words, because the environment affects the attributes of the bed, we can determine our own futures by creating an environment that will promote the goals we want to achieve...

Let’s take another look at the basics of Creation. The only thing that the Creator created is our will to receive, our egoism. This is our essence. If we learn how to “deactivate” our egoism, we will restore our connection with the Creator. When we act unselfishly, we will regain equivalence of form with Him as it exists in the spiritual worlds. Deactivating our egoism is the beginning of our climb up the spiritual ladder, the beginning of the correction process...

No desire or quality is naturally evil; it’s how we use it that makes it so. Ancient Kabbalists have said: “Envy, lust, and (the pursuit of) honor bring a man out of the world,” meaning out of our world and into the spiritual world...

Kabbalists relate to our inability to sense the Creator as “concealment of the Creator’s face.” This concealment creates an illusion of freedom to choose between our world and the Creator’s (spiritual) world. If we could see the Creator, if we could really sense the benefits of altruism, we would undoubtedly prefer His world to ours...

Ironically, true freedom of choice is possible only if the Creator is concealed. This is because if one option seems preferable, our egoism leaves us no choice but to go for it. In that case, even if we choose to give, we’ll be giving in order to receive—egoistic giving. For an act to be truly altruistic and spiritual, its benefits must be hidden from us...

The first principle in spiritual work is “faith above reason.” So before we talk about implementing free choice, we must explain the Kabbalistic meanings of “faith” and “reason”...