Why Am I Not Prince William?

Dr. Michael LaitmanOn the spiritual path, we are faced with a question: What do we do with our inborn properties? One has a good character: He is thoughtful, intelligent, isn’t stubborn and agrees when it’s worthwhile, quickly engages in the group, draws the Light, and moves forth. And another hates everyone, doesn’t want to do anything, procrastinates, and, in short, acts like a bad boy. But is it really his fault that he was made this way?

What should he do then? There are all kinds of folks: simple minded and quick witted, unlucky and gifted, fast and slow paced, arrogant, ambitious, and so on. Characteristics are many, and everyone has their own combination. The Creator endowed me with a specific package of properties, and I have no power over it. It wasn’t up to me; I didn’t get to pick the list.

Where is my free will then? Where is equality on the spiritual path? Where is the degree of choice we all share? Where is the chance that everyone is supposed to have? Not only are we all different, but also, fate is good toward some and harsh to others. At times, people have to face problems we wouldn’t wish our enemies.

However, free will is supposed to initially be founded on equal opportunities, isn’t it? Where is this equal chance at the starting line and further on the path? We don’t have it all the same.

In response to this, Baal HaSulam explains why the created being is supposed to develop in this specific way. The truth is that we originate from the final, perfect state of existence. It is said: “The end of an action is in its initial thought.” It is as if the Creator is saying: “I wish to see everybody in this specific state.” He initially created this final condition, in which we exist in all our glory and perfection.

How can we come to it voluntarily? For this, from the final perfection, there expands a reverse path back to us, into this world. Let us see many “defects” and “faults,” let us all be different, let us have individual destinies and combinations of qualities—it all is rooted and “sprawled” from the final, complete state.

One may wonder: Why has the situation been arranged the way it has? Why am I not Prince William whose wedding is watched by the whole world? And after all, why did the perfect state give rise to such imperfect, distorted states with numberless flaws?

Baal HaSulam answers these and all other questions in his article “The Freedom.”
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/29/2011, “The Freedom”

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In Search For Freedom
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The Measure Of Yearning And Longing

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