The Encyclopedia of Shame
“One who eats that which is not his is afraid to look at his face.” This means that anyone who feeds on the labor of others is afraid (ashamed) to look at his own form, for his form is inhuman (Baal HaSulam, “The Love of God and the Love of Man”).
Within us lies the attribute of shame; it is profound and piercing. We are desperately afraid to expose it because shame nullifies our self, turns us into nothing.
If I experience shame rising to its full height, I annul myself as a result. This stems from the highest root: from my opposition to the Creator, from the desire to receive that stands in contrast to the light.
When feeling how opposite it is to the light in qualities and height, the desire experiences this gap as shame.
Then it is ready to annul itself, to cease to exist, just to no longer feel this chasm. This is what compels it to perform a restriction, i.e., to nullify itself. To get rid of the shame, I am willing to return to non-existence, to the nothingness from which I came.
Sometimes a tiny speck of this spiritual feeling awakens within us.
So why is shame necessary? It helps us attain adhesion, complete resemblance to the Creator. Shame arises from the oppositeness revealed between us and Him and helps bridge that gap.
This means that if I want to progress, I must constantly intensify the feeling of shame, that is, the gap between me and the Creator, so that I can move forward without error.
Let’s say that today I am ashamed as if I stole one dollar from Him. Tomorrow, it will be two dollars, the day after, three. By isolating and emphasizing my opposition, I correct it and advance.
Thus, shame is the sharpest sensation that literally “short-circuits” me to the Creator. If I truly correct the shame through bestowal and constantly rise above it, I reach adhesion. That is why our final state is defined precisely as adhesion.
Shame is a separate creation. Two desires alone—receiving and bestowing—are not enough because then direct fulfillment would suffice: one gives, the other receives, no problem.
But the Creator desires that the created being resemble Him. Therefore, He embedded within it this unique feeling called shame, which constantly prods and agitates us.
When you throw a bone to a dog, it happily gnaws at it with no shame. But a human being, unless reduced to a bestial state, is constantly driven by shame.
What makes you live in that particular house, wear those clothes, go to work, start a family, enjoy “cultured entertainment,” and so on? Shame. Otherwise, what will people say?
There is shame that hinders my advancement: “What will others think?”
And there is another kind, shame before the Creator.
If I strengthen it, the embarrassment before others fades into the background: “Let them talk, let them think what they want.”
I am ready to feel childish awkwardness before others if only it helps me feel true shame before the Creator and aim in the right direction.
Shame is the point of my I, its indicator.
In relationships with others, my ego can be harmed. But in relation to the Creator, it is about the deep, primordial opposition of attributes.
Shame is created separately. It does not exist in the inanimate, vegetative, or animate levels. It belongs solely to the human species and differentiates within it according to levels of desire.
Shame is the reason for the first restriction, the cause of all development. In the world of infinity, Malchut was filled with light and in adhesion with the Creator. But it lacked just one thing—to rid itself of the opposition to Him.
That is the point of shame.
You would think, what does it matter? Before you is a table filled with royal delicacies, and the Host gives you His entire palace, all His treasures: “All that I have is yours. What more do you need? Don’t you want to be a guest in My house? Fine, I am no longer the host.”
Yet, the guest remains unsatisfied: “It was not I who prepared all this, it was You. I came to everything ready-made.”
“So you want to become like Me—existence from existence itself?”
Here we touch upon a very subtle point, so lofty that it is unclear where it leads, somewhere beyond the tenth millennium, after the final correction.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/31/11, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Love of God and the Love of Man”
Related Material:
Shame As The Means Of Correction
Shame Is The Opposite Of Perfection
Shame That Keeps Us From Going Back
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