Baal HaSulam, “The Giving of the Torah,” Item 8: …This is because there is a natural law that the receiver feels shame and impatience upon receiving gifts from the giver out of compassion and pity. …
And this is the reason He has prepared for us the toil and the labor of Torah and Mitzvot, to produce our exaltedness by ourselves, because then the delight and pleasure that comes to us from Him, meaning everything that is included in the Dvekut with Him, will all be our own possession that has come to us through our own efforts. Then we will feel ourselves as the owners, without which there cannot be a sensation of wholeness.
Shame is a measurement that defines the relationships between us. If one doesn’t feel shame, then one has nothing to correct since he does not see any major differences between himself and the Creator. Therefore, it is better to divulge shame and be embarrassed by a comparison of our receiving properties with His bestowal.
The question is, if one stops receiving, does it mean that he neutralizes shame. For example, I visit a friend of mine and see a generously set table waiting for me, but I refuse the treats, “No, no, thanks. I am full. I am on diet.” Is it possible that we act the same way in spirituality in order to diminish the sense of shame? By acting so, we neglect the Creator as if we don’t care about His indulgences.
After all, what, in fact, can we receive? Is it the Light of NRNHY? To be honest, it doesn’t fill us with pleasure. NRNHY is the Light that stems out of our comprehension of the Giver’s magnitude.
All we ever receive from it is a tiny spark from which originated a desire to receive pleasure. A desire to receive is comprised of a black point, the tip of the letter Yod, and in the Light lies a spark that created the black point.
The rest is triggered by our awareness of the Creator’s greatness, when we appreciate it, it elevates it in our eyes. That is why we constantly should remind ourselves that we must aspire to His greatness.
If somebody is really important to us, we are ready to “carry his suitcase.” The greater this person is in our eyes, the heavier the suitcase we are ready to carry. At first, the suitcase seems too heavy to us, “Why do I carry it in the first place? Why am I doing this?”
However, if we realize how indispensable the owner of the suitcase is, we lift it with ease. It’s such an honor and good fortune to serve this important person! We even are ready to pay for the right to carry his suitcase.
As a result, we devote our entire lives to the Creator. What do we get in return? Nothing. After all, a spark and a black point constitute the basis for everything there is.
Question: Is there any analogy to the genuine shame in the work we do?
Answer: Yes, it can be applied to various types of shame that we experience in front of our friends. We are afraid that they will figure out that we are ignorant or that we still are being egoists.
It’s a primitive, self-centered shame. There also is a spiritual shame caused by our inability to contribute our share by acknowledging that we are not supporting our friends the way we should and do we elevate them. They depend on us, so we feel embarrassed that we are unable to cope with the task.
Question: Must the group instigate this kind of shame in its members?
Answer: The group must evoke us and promote our growth by teaching us how to respect shame since it demonstrates a deficiency in the desire to receive. If pleasures and affliction are conditioned by either fulfillment or emptiness within our desire, then bad or good states reflect in the sense of shame or, on the contrary, the realization of the Creator’s greatness.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/28/12, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”
Related Material:
If I Feel Shame, It Means That I Advance
Without Feeling Shame You Get Nowhere
A Priceless Sense Of Shame
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There is nothing more important than prayer, MAN. After all, it sums up all our great efforts in concentrating on the importance of the goal, on the greatness of the Creator, and on the qualities that we strive to obtain in order to overcome and re-shape our ego, the desire to receive.
