Question: We learn that the process of correction is internal and must be separated from the external world. But on the other hand, we live in a unified reality and I feel how Kabbalah influences my day to day life. I am a lawyer by profession, and as such I often have to be sly with people, yet I feel that I can no longer keep lying to them! So what should I do?

Answer: Well, what can you do?…If I am a member of a mafia that continues to steal, then how can I remain in it if I’m no longer able to lie?

There are many professions like this. If you are in the system of the egoistic society, then it operates by these laws. That is why Kabbalists usually chose simple professions and did not even think of rising to higher offices.

I understand the difficulties that arise if a person already has this profession and it is difficult for him to alter his living standards. Yet you should try to arrange your life so you will operate within the bounds of justice, more or less, even if it isn’t spiritual justice, but the simple human kind. Be in a position where you won’t have to lie, steal, and harm people because, indeed, you will feel that you are no longer able to do this.

Spiritual progress changes a person so he can no longer tolerate lies on such a grand scale as is customary in business among regular egoists. This is a problem in many professions that are related to human relationships.

On one hand, the method of Kabbalah is aimed only at a person’s inner correction, his attitude to the friends in the group. Yet, he can no longer act unfairly in the external world either. He changes entirely because he is an integral individual. He cannot lie to people with a selfish goal in mind and bring harm upon them. This is a consequence of correction.

Otherwise, why should the world correct itself if everything will remain the same on the outside? In the end we have to attain corrected life on this earth. By attracting the Light that Reforms upon us, we will all begin to feel this way, and in fact, will feel much more so. We will not be able to lie or cause harm to each other.

It’s true that loving your neighbor means loving his aspiration to the Creator. But when you start to change, you will also change in relation to the whole world. That is how the Light influences us.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/11/11, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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