Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” item 33: …any contentment of our Maker from bestowing upon His creatures depends on the extent that the creatures feel Him—that He is the giver, and that He is the one who delights them. For then He takes great pleasure in them, as a father playing with his beloved son, to the degree that the son feels and recognizes the greatness and exaltedness of his father, and his father shows him all the treasures he had prepared for him…

“Playing” means that I feel the Creator’s desire, His attitude, His need to create us because of His desire to do good to His created beings. I feel the unending love that flows from His level. He created us in order to allow us to feel His love, and we can enjoy this love only if we understand it, to the extent that we can value it.

We are together in this mutual love like two lovers, like a father and son. They play together, but the son perfectly understands his father and is adhered to him. They are incorporated in one another in their desires, and each one can fill the other. They are originally opposite from one another by nature, but thanks to the correction, they are united and have endless opportunities to develop. This inner contradiction is not an obstacle, but rather, allows them to reveal infinite love above the separation.

Question: Why do we talk about evil so much and so little about the good?

Answer: First, you should talk about the good with one another, about the goal of creation, and about the work and the group.

Second, we study and examine our vessels, our desires, and this is not more or less, but a lack of desires. Our study and raising a request for correction stem from the lack of fulfillment in the desire. We learn how to reach the right desire and to raise it in order to receive the forces, the Masachim (screens), and the correcting Lights in response. Only then do we reach fulfillment and eventually are rewarded with pleasures as a result of the adhesion, the unity, and equivalence of form with the Creator.

So, all our work is done under pressure, but if you value it, if you appreciate this pressure, if you remember that you are working for a reason and to serve the Creator, if your faith is strong enough—which means the forces of Bina, the forces of bestowal—then, even if it’s about overcoming unpleasant states, you still will enjoy it. After all, you have another force, the force of Bina that raises you above Malchut. Although you don’t feel comfortable in Malchut, Bina gives you the feeling of the ascent.

It is difficult to express this dualism in words, but this is our work. We make efforts, and then the question is whether we enjoy them or not. That depends on for whom are we making these efforts.

In any case, there aren’t so many words about excitement and pleasure in the story about this work. The work, itself, is most of the story.

Personally, I enjoy most of the states I go through. Sometimes, you are thrown into an unpleasant feeling and sometimes into indifference. Anything may happen, but you should try to hold on to the ascent and to enjoy every state. After all, if the Creator manages you, if you are constantly in His hands, even when He cuts you off and throws you out, eventually there isn’t a moment without pleasure.

Back to the playing of the father with his son: We actually feel it in a state in which you don’t receive anything. It is in contrast to our perception. There is nothing in your vessels. The Light of NRNHY is not the fulfillment that you receive from someone, but your attitude toward the Creator that is built on top of the emptiness inside you. It is this attitude that reveals to you a Light that is “in the air,” the attitude itself. It is the Light of bestowal and love that comes from you.

We say that the abundance of the Light comes from the Creator and is revealed in all the worlds, but, in fact, it doesn’t mean that you are egoistically filled with pleasure—no. It is because it happens above the first restriction, in the attribute of “to bestow in order to bestow,” and then, in “to receive in order to bestow.” It is in complete contrast to our current views, and it is impossible to explain this.

This is the reason we cannot describe the pleasure that we experience to others when we play with the Creator. It is all a result of self-annulment and devotion, above the Machsom (barrier), outside yourself, in your aspiration outward, above the pangs of love.
[104741]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/09/13, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

Related Material:
The Uncompromising Upper Kindness
The Whole World Is The Creator’s Face
The Bitter Sweetness Of Bestowal

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