About Suffering Great And Small

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe giving of the Torah, meaning the method of correction, is not a one-time event, but a constant process; each one who feels a need for correction receives the method of correction. It was said, “I created the evil inclination, and I created the Torah as a spice for it.” The criterion is simple. If a person wants to correct himself and discovers that his desire is bad, that it is the evil inclination, then an inner outcry directed at correction is born within him that is aimed at the need for correction for deliverance from the evil.

We naturally tend to always get rid of the bad that is within us. The whole point here is whether a person really feels this? Is he willing to bear the bad feeling, despite the countless possibilities to neutralize this feeling and avoid the demand for correction?

And it can be vice versa, to sweeten the situation by evading it, saying, “After all, this isn’t so bad. I’m not worse than others. And why do I care about it at all?” There are a lot of “diversionary paths” that help one escape from the bad feeling. This is because it is very unpleasant and involves great emotional pain to reveal how evil I am.

Therefore a person needs support, great help, which will provide him with secure support. He reaches the real recognition of evil through this; he will scream from lack of choice, and along with it, he doesn’t escape from the path. And then he is really in need of the Torah.

How can one reach such a state where we are really “shackled” and can’t escape from the suffering so strongly that we receive the Light that Reforms from Above? This can be accomplished through very great agony through the path of development called “In due time,” the path of suffering. These sufferings come from a corporeal level and obligate us to spiritual work. The gap between these two levels is so big that suffering is many times more powerful than on the path of hastening which allows one to recognize the necessity for the Torah in the spiritual work.

In this spiritual work, we begin to use the Light that Reforms and examine ourselves from the spiritual degree. We recognize the necessity for correction not because we have a bad life, but because we ourselves yearn for it. Accordingly, the suffering has a different form: spiritual and not corporeal. Therefore according to this, their quality is much higher, their pain is much deeper, and the intensity is such that the person is capable of tolerating it.

The uniqueness of the wisdom of Kabbalah is that it explains how to progress on the path very quickly, by feeling a little suffering quantitatively, but great qualitatively. Thus we can shorten the path; we can divide the suffering with the friends and pass it to them in small quantities. There are many advantages in following the path of Torah compared to the path of suffering. It allows us to ascend to a different qualitative level of progress.

Today, when the whole world is sinking under the troubles of the path of suffering, we want to show to people and ourselves how to advance on the path of Torah. We are at the head, as owners of the method, and they after us, until we all come to the beautiful goal.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/28/12, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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