From Each According To His Abilities, And Eternity To All

Dr. Michael LaitmanIt is written “I labored and found.” Not knowing what the quality of bestowal is, a person tries in all possible ways to acquire it—and he does. Then one sees that it truly is a “find” since he didn’t know what he was pursuing or for what he was searching. Suddenly he discovers that he has found something completely different!

Had he known ahead of time, he wouldn’t have exerted effort even for an instant because he would have been unable to strive toward this. That’s how opposite it is to what he thought previously. Before, it only seemed to him that he was thinking about bestowal; yet he still thought about how to receive, profit, win, and fill himself. He simply called that bestowal.

However, by performing such deceptive actions even without a proper intention, he grew. All this is due to the system that spread from the world of Infinity to our world and prepared everything necessary for us to return there. This system sent down to us a “ladder” of spiritual degrees, where every higher degree is submerged into a lower one. Thus, even by acting for our own sake (Lo Lishma), we can reach bestowal (Lishma).

Particularly by finding oneself in darkness one is able to adhere to the upper one. After all, he doesn’t know to what to adhere until the upper one reveals the forces of bestowal to him. Then the lower one reveals that he is in connection with the upper one.

In other words, all that is asked of us is that we exert effort to the extent that it is possible. Thus, we shouldn’t be afraid that we are so far from spirituality that we don’t understand anything about it and are unable to do anything. It is written, “One does not learn with the mind.” The whole system is built in such a way that every person, with all the qualities and traits with which he was born, has an opportunity to reach bestowal, meaning the property of the Creator and the purpose of creation.

Everyone is given his own path, a place to exert effort, and an opportunity to achieve adhesion with the Creator. No one is excused from this work. Therefore, one must see the opportunity that opens up to him at every given moment to desire only bestowal. We should not try to justify ourselves by thinking that we are too far from bestowal, it’s impossible to aspire to it, and all this is “not for me.” That’s incorrect!

Everyone is able to desire to reach bestowal at every given instant. And if a person forgets this, it means that the environment is not organized in a manner that it constantly reminds him that the only thing he needs is to desire bestowal. Accordingly, he will constantly receive either help or obstacles (the right or the left lines) in his advancement. Yet he will always advance, either in continuously greater rejection or by drawing closer. He will proceed in this manner.

There have been numerous sayings on this topic, for example: “I labored and found” and “it is not for you to complete this work, but you are not free to reject it.”
[55577]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/14/2011, Shamati #95

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