Question: What does the commandment “Do not do to others what is hateful to you” mean? How can it be universal for both the corporeal and the spiritual levels?

Answer: In order to master the upper world, we have been given egoism, and by transforming it we could adapt to the upper world.

Basically, egoism is an artificial state, so that by transforming it we would understand the structure of the spiritual world. Egoism is not an end in itself; in general, we do not have to correct it. It is a means of correction, an aid in adapting to the upper world.

No wonder, the Creator said “I created egoism.” He created it for man so that by gradually correcting it each time he would understand and reveal the spiritual world more and more.

Question: In the Kabbalistic method there are two principles: “Do not do to others what is hateful to you” and “Love your neighbor as yourself.” What are these steps?

Answer: “Do not do to others what is hateful to you” is a correction of the egoism, meaning the termination of using it as an ego. While “Love your neighbor as yourself” is already a revolution, it is using egoism in the opposite direction, for the sake of others.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian, 6/24/18

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