Question: I don’t really understand: How does the fact that someone attacks us and accuses us bring us closer to the revelation of the Creator?

Answer: When you drive along a road, there are shoulders on both sides of the road. Then, there are ditches on both sides that drain the water and the dirt that builds up on the road, and then there are fields or houses. This means that there are clear boundaries that limit your way.

This is exactly what a person’s life is like. When we bring up a child and guide him, we explain to him what he should do and what he shouldn’t, what he should be careful of and what he can use. We constantly try to guide him so that he will advance successfully toward a certain goal that seems to be worthwhile.

We always should know how to advance from one moment to the next. If I advance from state A to a state B that is closer to the Creator, I must know how to advance and which powers can guide me in the right direction. These powers must correct me if I want to advance in the right direction. There is only one point in me: A spark that draws me in that direction. The Creator has ignited it in my heart, so how can I advance with that spark? How should I know which way to advance?

I must move from point A to point B, which is closer to the Creator, to bestowal, to the love of others, to the love of the Creator, which means that it is opposite from me! This means that I must be free of my ego to rise above it a bit, and instead of loving myself, to be filled at least a little with the love of friends. It should be filled with the love of friends at least because loving everyone is a bit too much for me at the moment. So, it turns out that I must work with the group now.

However, how can I clear my mind of kinds of egoistic thoughts and opinions of this world? I must clarify what bestowal and receiving mean. I must understand that everyone is engaged in receiving, and I must engage in bestowal. How do I reach that? How can I be free of the influence of all the other people? How can I be free of the values of the egoistic society?

It isn’t easy to clarify that, and the Creator fixes such conditions for me that force me to clarify things each time by making greater efforts. This means that there is an opposite force that operates here and seems to stand in my way of advancing. I am forced intentionally to feel that I am confused, weak, scared, and that I don’t understand who is right and don’t know which way to advance. I am under great pressure on all sides. So what should I do?

The Creator surrounds me with many enemies and problems on the level of this world, and there is nowhere to which I can run: not forward nor backward, to the right nor the left, upward nor downward. There is simply nothing I can do. This negative pressure on all sides constantly grows and the goal keeps growing more important for me, and through the love of others, I want to reach the love of the Creator, to be adhered to Him. Eventually, this ring should be so tight around me that I will cry out to the Creator, “Help! I cannot take it anymore!”

Then, at the last moment, when the Red Sea (Yam Suf) is before me ready to swallow me (and this happens on every level), I suddenly am saved! The Light that Reforms reaches me and shows me the way, lighting it up for me, changing my perception and my feelings, and the way opens up before me!

Before that, there is no way. I don’t see anything and I don’t know which way to go. It is the same every time. This means that I am forced to go through difficult states. So, why do Kabbalists call this a life of pleasure and comfort as compared to the corporeal life filled with pain and suffering, empty of any content?

I don’t see that advancing along the spiritual path promises me an easy, pleasant life. If advancing along the road that leads to the goal of creation guaranteed a good life, my ego would run before everyone and shout, “Catch the thief!”

So, I must clarify this road in the group and check it by the connection between us. Then I really will rise above my animal feelings and understand that it is actually only the kind of life in bestowal and advancement toward the goal of creation that can be pleasurable. This is the only kind of life I want to lead. This is the only kind of life I consider “Heaven!” I want to live in bestowal, like Hafetz Hesed, not to be impressed by anything people think and say about me who are like barking dogs that surround me on all sides. This doesn’t worry me at all.

Only after going through several phases will I know that they helped me come out of Egypt. Who pushed the people of Israel out of Egypt? Pharaoh already had lost his power and his army, which are the true egoistic forces, but the mixed multitude that accompanied Israel remained.

So, when can we say that we have come out of Egypt? It is actually when the mixed multitude chases us.
[119438]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/29/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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