The wisdom of Kabbalah says that the Creator is good that does good. In order to realize Himself, He created the desire to receive, which is called the “created being.” This desire should be developed according to the Creator’s plan, according to His program until the created being understands and feels Him as good that does good, as great.

This is the desire of the Creator. Kabbalists explain to us that it’s not because He wants us to recognize His greatness, His omnipotence, and our dependence on Him. We are talking about the highest so therefore it is clear that this is so. No, the Creator wishes to raise us to His level.

So, we have to go through a certain awareness of the higher force in our nature and to reveal how we can ascend to its height. The Creator enjoys that we experience Him, meaning reach His level. According to the law of equivalence of form, to achieve adhesion with Him means to acquire the same properties as His.

The period of our self-correction is the path, the ladder, the rungs of which lead us upward through the five worlds. The created being can realize this ascent only if it is sure and knows for sure it he must do this. Then it has the force to realize it.

From where does the created being get the power to take the actions leading upward from reception to bestowal contrary to its nature? The created being has to have an understanding, awareness, and sense that he is in the bad egoistic state of reception and has to come to a good state of bestowal that is completely opposite to his current one.

We are told that we can do this if we get help from the Creator. The Upper Light is shed on us, and then we begin to talk in a different way and understand that to receive is bad for us and to bestow is good.

Well then, simply let the Creator do this! He has created the desire to receive within us and now can “shine” on us to turn that desire into bestowal. But no, this cannot occur because we would then lose independence and become like “angels,” that is, forces that just perform certain actions. Instead, we must admit and accept for ourselves that to receive is bad and to bestow is good.

This internal statement is called the “recognition of evil,” and nothing else is required. We only need to recognize the evil of the desire to receive and the good that is inherent in the desire to bestow. Once this happens within us, we will definitely stop using the evil of the egoistic desire that is manifested at this moment, and begin to use the desire to bestow, manifested as good.

It would seem that this is not child’s play: If a doctor explained to me what is good and what is bad, what is harmful and what is healthy, I would appreciate and follow his advice. However, I have to recognize evil myself. Advisors who tell me what is good and what is bad will not help me. I have to very precisely figure out on my own that the desire to receive is evil and that the desire to bestow is good.

Here, such a thin “string” is stretched that it cannot be expressed in words. I need to remain neutral internally, rising above the created being, since the desire to receive is defined as evil and the desire to bestow as good, with the first quality belonging to the created being, and the second, to the Creator. However, I need to anticipate preceding the created being, to stand in front of it, and look at these two desires. Then, based on this completely independent point, I need to define the desire to receive as evil.

This will be the true realization of evil. It is not done “all to order” for me, not on the basis of pleasure and suffering that lead to my decision when time after time I play a “negotiation game,” choosing according to the criteria of my egoism. No, the “expert,” “judge,” and “tester” in me has to stand apart, neither on the side of the Creator nor on the side of the created being, but seemingly a step in front of it.

This is a prerequisite. It is impossible that the Creator is good in my eyes. Why is He good? Is it because He created my desire and is enjoying His presents? No, it is just a given, the creation in which we find ourselves. The Creator desires us to “anticipate” the created being, so that we agree with Him, that He made it in that way.

The benefit of this is great: We are no longer dependent on what and how He created us. We have to rise above good and evil, regardless of the intentions connected to them. We must reach another degree, rising above them to the beginning of the plan of creation that existed even before He created us, before He decided to be revealed to the created being as the giver and made the created being as receiving. We seem to find ourselves before that moment and even before its cause. And this is where we actually find ourselves.

Therefore, the realization of evil must go deeper, to within the qualitative depth. It is not about how terrible my endless egoism is and how beautiful bestowal is. It is about the quality and essence: Why do I define one as evil and one as good? This choice should be performed on my own feelings. It just measures the details of perception for me “for statistics,” and above it I reveal a higher principle, which is above the created being and before it. Thus, the recognition of evil encompasses the whole of reality and raises us above it.
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From the 5^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/3/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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