Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 1: Rabbi Hanania Son of Akashia says, “The Creator wished to cleanse Israel; hence, He has given them plentiful Torah and Mitzvot (commandments), … It is as our sages said, “The Mitzvot were only given for the purification of Israel” (Beresheet Rabba, Parasha 44). We must understand this cleansing, which we achieve through Torah and Mitzvot, and what is the Aviut (thickness/coarseness/will to receive) within us, which we should cleanse using the Torah and Mitzvot.

We know that only one force works in the world besides which there is nothing else. But in that case, it seems to be doing some really “silly” things. Why did it make us selfish, coarse, dark, insensitive, and, basically, just bad?

Is it really a good creation? If the Creator is perfectly good, how can we get something bad from Him? If the creature is bad, we should blame the Maker who created it. Where else can a flaw come from if not from its root? Besides, if the Creator made such vice and intentionally created us flawed and selfish, why did He later give us a remedy called the Torah and Mitzvot (commandments) and force us to correct what He corrupted and made bad in us?

These questions run deep. Indeed, we begin to understand them only when we start climbing the spiritual rungs. That’s where we come to realize that the advantage of the Light can be learned solely from the darkness. If we didn’t have this darkness in the first place, we wouldn’t be able to attain the Light. It can’t be found in any other way.

Don’t think that it’s a payment for your work and somebody needs you to do your job first and get rewarded for it afterwards. It’s only you who needs it because if it weren’t for this darkness that you turn into the Light, you would have no chance whatsoever to feel what the Light is!

We get to see it only when we enter the spiritual world and start carrying out these acts of correction by transforming darkness into the Light with the help of the Torah and Miztvot, a specific sequence of spiritual acts that we need to perform with perfect accuracy.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/23/2011, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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