My Self-Judgment Day
Question: Why is an offense against a person worse than an offense against the Creator? Does it mean that a person cannot manage with the Creator unless he manages with those around him?
Answer: You cannot turn to the Creator if there are people in the world whom you have harmed. We can influence the Creator only through people according to the law of “from the love of the created beings to the love of the Creator.”
After all, the Creator is concealed and we can only reveal Him by giving to people. This is the reason that the wisdom of Kabbalah is called the concealed wisdom. It teaches us how to truly give to people in order to discover the Creator behind them. If we don’t know that, we will never be able to do people good by our giving, then we will not be able to bestow upon the Creator either. It turns out that we will end our life without any positive outcome.
Question: Suppose I have hurt a friend and want to make up with him. Is it enough to ask for his forgiveness as is customary before Yom Kippur?
Answer: Of course it isn’t enough if you only ask for the friend’s forgiveness just to cleanse yourself before the Creator on Yom Kippur. In order to do that you are ready to give the friend anything as a gift as long as you can be sure that he will forgive you and you will be able to justify yourself before the Creator.
But this is better than nothing since we come to Lishma (for Her sake) from Lo Lishma (not for Her sake). Truly making peace with a friend means to start loving him, which means to restrict your personal desires and be truly ready to do everything for him. This is the correction of the intention in the heart when there is no self-calculation left, which means that whatever happens to me doesn’t matter. Such a correction called true bestowal is required of us and only the wisdom of Kabbalah can teach us it.
We may say that the essence of Yom Kippur is the summing up, the clarification, of how many restrictions I can perform on myself so that I can act in love of and bestowal to others after that day. Through the love of people I will attain the love of the Creator. The “day of judgment” is the day of my self-judgment.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 9/30/14
Related Material:
To Ask Forgiveness For The Effort I Didn’t Give
The Way To A State Of Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur: Sorrow Or Joy?
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This is a very lovely post which actually is the essence of the matter I think. After all, what do we really have to work with in this world other than what we sense around us? If we can constantly actively observe our response to the different stimuli presented us, try to understand the reason (difficult many times or perhaps impossible) and respond correctly, with all of our hearts, haven’t we won at least a part of the battle?