The Mistakes We Can Learn From

Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot, Item 58: With this we understand the words of our sages: that one who repents from fear is rewarded with his sins becoming mistakes....the sins one makes extend to him from the reception of Providence through double concealment, namely concealment within concealment....One concealment means that he believes in the Providence of reward and punishment. Yet, because of the accumulation of suffering, he sometimes comes to thoughts of transgression.

Why did a person make a mistake? It's because he didn't see that he was at fault. Yet he wasn't even supposed to see it, was he? Our entire work amounts to acquiring a new vision by faith above reason. Thus at the beginning, we do not perceive spirituality, so that later we can see it in the Light of bestowal. Spirituality cannot be seen in the egoistic light.

Nobody concealed spirituality or fenced it off from us. We hide it from ourselves by our egoistic desire. That's why we start perceiving spirituality only by rising above our egoism. It's similar to facing a wall, a barrier. By rising above it, I can have a glimpse of what lies beyond it.

This is how we can picture to ourselves what faith above reason is. While I'm "within reason," below the barrier, I cannot see the spiritual world. My organs of perception are different. Meanwhile, I have to start perceiving reality in the desires to bestow. When the Reflected Light shines upon me, it reveals to me the spiritual reality, which I can see in this Light.

That's why, without seeing spirituality, I naturally erred and committed crimes. How could I not have erred? However, why aren't they called "transgressions"? That's because thanks to revealing and correcting my mistakes, I corrected myself. In this way, I reached the degree of "repentance from fear"; that is, I built the screen for bestowing in order to bestow.

I learned from my mistakes because it's impossible to correct anything until one reveals the entire evil of egoistic desire. This is called identifying a mistake. By correcting a certain measure of the mistake that has been revealed to me, I perform a commandment.

Hence, upon completing one's repentance, one corrects all of his mistakes. It's precisely because of them and thanks to them that he reaches bestowal. All of these errors were the result of concealment.

-from the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/13/10

The Greatest Reward Is Not Seeing It

We should be very grateful to the Creator for concealment. Without it, we would remain animals, constantly chasing after pleasures that become revealed to us.

Concealment helps me stay in the darkness; even though it's unpleasant, I build myself through the concealment. That's why it's impossible to see whether we advance correctly, or if our actions will be rewarded. The reward is to walk in concealment, attempting to perform actions of bestowal. The best reward is not seeing a reward for this.

Otherwise, we won't come out of the Creator's rule. Only in concealment can we seemingly not be subject to Him. He watches us, yet gives us an opportunity to reveal Him and the greatness of His actions, in the concealment that formed after the restriction in the World of Infinity.

We don't ask about revelation. That would mean that a person, motivated by his natural aspiration, wants to return to the beastly state. Knowing is the worst thing that could happen to us. If we acquire knowledge after "faith above reason," we then reveal the new knowledge in the properties of bestowal, and not reception. This is already Divine knowledge.

However, we first have to perform a restriction, to pass to the other side and reveal the new knowledge there, and not before.

 -from the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/13/10