Question: Do I have to be actively incorporated in the sufferings of others and to suffer too as a result?

Answer: Of course, you have to identify with the sufferings of others as if you actually suffer, which means to be incorporated in others. We shouldn’t fear that we will remain in these corporeal sufferings like society itself. Indeed there is such a risk when we begin to help others that we will drown in their sufferings and become like them. But because we have a rope that connects us to the group, there is nothing to fear.

We must only tighten the connection to the group, and then the lower you descend into the public and penetrate their desires, the higher you will be able to ascend. It says “I dwell among my people,” because when we raise these lowest desires to the Creator through us, we give them the right form for correction.

Then you begin to see that the whole world is one desire, the whole world is you, the lowest corporeal desires that scream in people are your personal desires. It is a very good thing that you perceive them as foreign now as long as you are not corrected, don’t love everyone as you love yourself, and cannot tie all of reality to one thing.

If you felt these needs as your own, then you wouldn’t be able to worry about them, you wouldn’t be able to relate to them objectively, you would feel too interested in them and wouldn’t be able to rise above these desires, and wouldn’t be able to ask for their correction instead of for the feeling of pleasure.

If you put yourself in the shoes of these people and feel their sufferings just as they feel them, then you would focus on the pain like everyone else, or cry out to the Creator so He will save you; you wouldn’t be able to relate to these desires purposefully in order to use them only to bring the Creator contentment, but would only think about yourself.

The division of the general soul into so many parts allows us to work with these desires, as if externally and independently. We can gradually become incorporated in these desires and feel them as if they were our own, but it is only to the extent that we are protected enough by a Masach (screen),  we can be impressed by them as if they are our own but we can ask for the right correction for them.

This means that we shouldn’t ask to get rid of the troubles, but should use them as help in getting closer to the Creator, to bring Him joy. Then we will be able to thank Him for the bad feelings since it is thanks to them that our desire to receive pleasure is spurred towards bestowal.
[114794]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/14/13

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