III. Kabbalah Today. 17. All Together Now

Kabbalah contains both personal and social aspects. As we discussed in the last chapter, we are all parts of the same collective soul. This chapter explains how the personal corrections presented in the last chapter flow through our connections to society. In the end, the individual correction we described in Chapter 16 is complete only when it contains a reciprocal connection with the entire humanity...

Think back to Chapter 15, where we said that the source of all the suffering in the world is a result of our oppositeness from the rest of nature. All other parts of nature—still, vegetative, and animate—follow nature’s commandments instinctively and definitively. Only human behavior places us in contrast to the still, vegetative, and animate nature...

In ancient times, humans were not so egoistic as to be opposite to nature. They felt nature and their fellow persons reciprocally. This was their language of communication, which, for the most part, was a silent language, similar to telepathy, on a certain spiritual level. Increased egoism, however, detached humans from nature. Instead of correcting the oppositeness, humans thought they would be able to attain the Creator egoistically, not through correction...

How much is one plus one? The answer is Ein Sof (infinity). Each of us is integrated with everybody else, and for this reason, with just one more person to work with, we can simulate a society. This, in turn, simulates our relationship with the Creator. The reward is huge. Indeed, there is a special bonus to altruism. It may seem as if the only change will be putting others before ourselves, but there are actually far greater benefits. When we begin to think of others, we become integrated with them, and they with us...

Humans are the height of creation, so when we are corrected, everything else will follow. The first thing to do is to agree that giving is good...