Question: Does the Creator really need the created beings? It would be more reasonable to say that only we need Him, wouldn’t it?

Answer: If the Creator didn’t need the creatures, why would He create them in the first place? And yet, due to the fact that He is good who does good, He made the created beings in order to please them since that is what pleases Him! That is, the upper one has a “deficiency” as well, but it is not egoistic: The Creator desires to bestow.

It is written: “More than the calf wants to suckle the cow wants to feed.” Otherwise, whom would I bestow to if He doesn’t need anything from me? He has an enormous desire: He desires for me to be pleased! This is indeed a deficiency but a good, positive one.

The creature’s desire to please itself didn’t initially exist and was created “from absence.” But desire and the need to bestow existed all along. This need pertains to the Creator rather than to the created being. And this is the type of lack we have to inherit from Him so that we would strive to bestow and feel obligated to compensate for this deficiency; and if we don’t bestow, we suffer.

The upper one suffers if the lower one doesn’t ascend to and receive from Him. This is regarded as the suffering of Shechina which cannot bestow and bring the souls closer to itself. We only think that deficiency is always something negative, when in fact, if what I lack is bestowal to others, is it really bad?

But if the upper one has a lack, does it mean that He is imperfect? Yes, He is incomplete in terms of being dependent on the lower ones, but only because of His love for them. Until the very end of correction, this deficiency will remain, both in the upper one and the lower one.

As for us, we judge according to our own flaws and think that since He needs us, He isn’t perfect either. But where the Creator is concerned, His need to bestow derives from excessive perfection.

The Creator’s need and the need of the created being don’t disappear, but rather grow and in the end of correction become enormous! It is not as in our world when you satiate your need for love and it disappears. We were so eager to be together that now that we are—the desire vanished. I am full and don’t want anything anymore; I don’t have room for another meal.

Thus, we build a vessel within, a kind of desire that will never disappear! On the contrary, I feel greater deficiency—and greater fulfillment. But the lack compensated by bestowal to others is not a defect. It is highly valuable, honorable, and exalted! It is similar to a mother who desires to give all she can to her baby. And she definitely has a deficiency since from dawn to dusk she thinks solely of him, from the moment he was conceived inside her. But does it mean she has a defect? On the contrary, they both can delight in each other, and this is an opportunity to get fulfilled, to evolve, and to love.

The Creator is similar to the mother who suffers if she cannot give to her child as much as she can. It is a tremendous deficiency the Light contains, and it is it in particular that created desire instilled in us. When this desire unfolds in full, it will be as exalted as the Creator’s desire to bestow to us. Yet, it doesn’t demean; it exalts since it derives from love.
[46145]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/22/2011, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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