Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. I promise to answer them. Commentaries in brackets are mine.

Why Is The Creator Concealed From Man?

And in order for the created beings to receive all the abundance and enjoyment without feeling ashamed for receiving it, the correction [of initially purposefully corrupted egoistic nature] was performed.

The essence of this correction is the restriction and concealment of the Upper Light [from man]. Meaning, until one corrects his desire to receive into a bestowing one [becomes similar to the Light, the Creator] no revelation of the Upper Light is possible. [We perceive the Upper Light like any natural phenomena only to the measure of similarity of our properties to that phenomenon.]

And instead of tasting goodness and pleasure [from bestowal] in the commandments [the acts of correction of the desire to receive into the desire to bestow so as to become similar to the Creator] that we fulfill, we are unable to feel the taste that won’t make us ashamed while receiving pleasure. For this specific reason the correction [concealment of the Light, pleasure from bestowal and love] was performed whereby at the moment of receiving pleasure, we must act for the sake of bestowal since otherwise the concealment extends to our actions.

– Rabash, Shlavei ha Sulam, “Sanctity and Purity in the Work,” 1991, pg. 28.

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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. I promise to answer them. Commentaries in brackets are mine.

Why Is The Creator Concealed From Man?

Had He told them about the wondrous things in the essence of the reward [in merging with Him through our similarity in the property of bestowal and love], they would necessarily use and [unintentionally] assume His work [bestowal with intention] in order to obtain that wonderful reward for themselves. This would be considered working for themselves, for self-love. That, in turn, would falsify the whole purpose [of the Creator to make us similar to Him, eternal, free, independent from Him, and perfect].
– Baal HaSulam, Article The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee), Item 29

The Lord is the [property of] absolute benevolent goal. Accordingly, it is the law of the benevolent to do good, and that is what He desired – to create creatures so He could be benevolent towards them since if there is no receiver of the goodness, there is no benevolence. Indeed, in order for the benevolence to be complete, He knew in His sublime wisdom that it is worthy for the receivers to receive it from their own toil. Only then they would have that goodness, and no shame would remain as they receive the goodness, as would be if he were to receive charity from another.
– Ramchal, Klalei Pitchei Hochma ve Da’at (The Rules of Gates of Wisdom and Knowledge), Item 18

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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. I promise to answer them. Commentaries in brackets are mine.

Why Is The Creator Concealed From Man?

That deficiency [in our sensations] was born only as a result of the concealment of the face of the Lord, who did not wish to shine His face upon His creatures immediately, and [by this concealment] create them whole from the start. Rather, on the contrary, the Creator hid His face [perfection of the property of bestowal and love] from them, leaving them lacking [since the opposite property of reception and hatred appeared in them as the result of concealment], as the Light of the King’s face is surely life, and Its concealment is the source of all evil.

However, since the initial intention of concealment is not to be concealed, but on the contrary, to be revealed later and to transpose any evil born only from that concealment, He thus established law and order in order to reveal His concealed benevolent face. This is achieved by people’s actions, by fulfilling the laws and the doctrines which He gave us in His Torah, the doctrine of truth. By carrying them out, man reaches [reveals the sensation of ] eternal life since the reward of a Mitzva [the correction of each of 613 desires of the soul] – Mitzva [the act of bestowal itself], that is the Light of His face [fulfillment by bestowal and love], which He concealed from man at the beginning of His Creation.

Thus, the creature’s toil [by aspiring to become similar to the Creator], being dominated by his evil [egoistic] inclination, and his evil manifests in all sorts of [egoistic] deficiencies [with regard to the others], and his distance from that which would give him the Light of life [the property of bestowal]. And the acts of Mitzvot [the acts of bestowal to others and the Creator] draw the [previously] hidden Light upon him, so that by the time he has completed the law of the Mitzvot [has corrected all 613 corrupted, initially-egoistic desires], he himself complements them [in similarity to the Creator since Adam (man) comes from the word “Dome” (similar)] in drawing the Light in this life [and thus sensing the eternal and perfect existence, similarity to the Creator, in the property of bestowal].
– Ramchal, Klalei Pitchei Hochma ve Da’at (The Rules of Gates of Wisdom and Knowledge)

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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. I promise to answer them. Commentaries in brackets are mine.

Why Is The Creator Concealed From Man?

The reason for the concealment of the face [the concealment of the Creator] from the people has been explained: It is deliberate, to give people room for labor, to engage in His work in Torah and Mitzvot [to correct themselves to bestow in order to become similar to Him] out of free choice [by acknowledging that His state is perfect and that He is just]. Because the Creator receives more contentment from their work in His Torah and Mitzvot than from His angels above [the forces of nature], who have no choice and whose work is coerced.
– Baal HaSulam, “Introduction To The Study Of The Ten Sefirot,” Item 80

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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. I promise to answer them. Commentaries in brackets are mine.

Why Did the Creator Place the Burden of Creation Upon Us?

The primary foundation upon which this entire construction stands is His Supreme desire for man to complete himself along with all that was created for him, and that itself [perfection that he himself attains] would be his merit and reward. Merit – since he engages and toils in order to reach this completion, and when it is attained he will enjoy the fruits of his own efforts and his part of his own work. Reward – since he will finally be complete and will sense pleasure in its goodness for all of eternity [reaches liberation from death].
– Ramchal, Da’at Tvunot (Knowledge of Wisdom), Item 14

“If the purpose of the creation of the worlds is to delight His creatures, then why did He create this corporeal, turbid and tormented world? Without it, He could certainly delight the souls as much as He wanted; why did He bring the soul into such a foul and filthy body [egoistic desires]?”

They explained it with the verse, “One who eats that which is not one’s own, is afraid to look upon one’s face.” It means there is a flaw of shame in any free gift. In order to spare the souls this blemish, He has created this world [such a state, sensation], where there is work. They will therefore enjoy their labor, for they take their pay from the Whole, in return for their work, and are thus spared the blemish of shame.
– Baal HaSulam, Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 1, "Inner Reflection," Chapter 1, Item 6

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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. I promise to answer them. Commentaries in brackets are mine.

Why Did the Creator Place the Burden of Creation Upon Us?

It turns out that the purpose of the whole Creation is that the lowly [existing in egoism and thus restricted and transient] creatures will be able, by keeping Torah and Mitzvot [revealing their egoism as the only evil and correcting it by studying Kabbalah], to rise ever upward [by acquiring increasingly bigger properties of bestowal and love instead of reception and hatred], ever developing, until they are rewarded with Dvekut [equivalence of form] with their Creator.

But here come the Kabbalists and ask, why were we not created in this high stature of adhesion to begin with? What reason did He have to burden us with this labor of Creation and the Torah and the Mitzvot? And they replied: “He who eats that which is not his, is afraid to look at his face.” This means that one who eats and enjoys the labor of one’s friend is afraid to look at his face because by doing so [receiving free of charge] he becomes increasingly humiliated [feels as though he doesn’t exist in the world’] until he loses his human [similar to the Creator] form. And because that which extends from His wholeness cannot be deficient [otherwise the Creator cannot become revealed to the created beings as being imperfect], He gave us room to earn our exaltedness [become equal to Him] by ourselves, through our work in Torah and Mitzvot [discovering our egoism and correcting it].
– Baal HaSulam, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah),” Items 6 and 7

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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. I promise to answer them. Commentaries in brackets are mine.

Why Did the Creator Place the Burden of Creation Upon Us?

The first rule of what we know regarding the intention of the Emanated is that He desires to do good, He desired and created those who would receive His goodness. In order for the goodness to be complete, it has to be merited, not as charity, so shame would not taint it, as one who eats that which is not his.

In order for them to be able to merit [instead of created beings, to become independent, to become similar to Him], He created [especially for them] a single reality [corrupted by Him] through which they may be corrected, which He does not need, rather by their correction [which they perform themselves] – they will merit [to become independent like He].
– Ramchal, Klalei Pitchei Chochma ve Da’at (The Rules of Gates of Wisdom and Knowledge)

This is the rule, The Lord limited himself, meaning that He limited His ability [perfection], not to create them to the extent of His force [make creation perfect], but rather in accordance with what He desired and His direction. By creating them [purposefully, by restricting Himself, His perfection, His revelation by effort] lacking, in order for them [have an opportunity] to complete themselves by themselves [until reaching perfection, His level, similarity to Him], their completion [attained by themselves] would be their [merited] reward, resulting from their efforts to attain Him. And all that [evil created by the Creator and an opportunity to turn it into good] only serving His desire to do complete goodness [to the creatures].
– Ramchal, Da’at Tevunot (Knowledge of Wisdom), Item 28

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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. I promise to answer them. Commentaries in brackets are mine.

Why Did the Creator Place the Burden of Creation Upon Us?

There still remains room to ask: “If the purpose of the Torah and the entire creation is but to raise the base humanity to become worthy of that wonderful sublimity, and to cleave onto Him, He should have created us with that sublimity to begin with, instead of troubling us with the labor in corrections by the method of Kabbalah.”

We could explain that by the words of our sages: “One who eats that which is not his, is afraid to look at one’s 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.

Because no deficiency [deficiency refers to feeling not pleasure but shame from Him] comes out of His wholeness, He has prepared for us this work, that we may enjoy the labor of our own hands. That is why He created creation in this base form. The work [correction of one’s egoistic nature] lifts us from the baseness of creation, and through it we reach our sublimity by ourselves. Then we do not feel the delight and pleasure that comes to us from his generous hand, as a gift [in shame, as we are the created ones, unequal, and unable to return the love we discover as coming from Him], but as owners of that pleasure [having merited it].
– Baal HaSulam, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

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The Attainment Of The Purpose Of Creation Rests Upon The Whole of Mankind

But the end of the correction of the world will be by bringing all the people in the world under His work.
– Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee),” Item 20

Every person is obliged to attain the root of his soul.
– Baal HaSulam, “The Acting Mind”

This means that every person…is guaranteed to finally attain all the wonderful attainments that the Creator had contemplated in the Thought of Creation to delight every creature. And one who has not been awarded in this life will be granted in the next life, etc., until one is awarded completing His Thought, which He had planned for him, as written in The Book of Zohar.
– Baal HaSulam, Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot, Item 155

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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. I promise to answer them. Commentaries in brackets are mine.

The Attainment Of The Purpose Of Creation Rests Upon The Whole of Mankind

The Lord desires the correction of the world. Therefore, our sages said (Shabbat 88 B) each and every spoken word of the Lord was divided into seventy tongues, indicative of the preparation within the Torah to complement all of the nations.
– Rav Kook, Meorot Ha’Ra’aya LeHanuka, 87

…the whole of humanity, obligated to eventually come to this immense evolvement, as it is written, “For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11, 9). “And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, know the Lord: For they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them” (Jeremiah 31, 33). “Yet thy Teacher shall not hide Himself any more, but thine eyes shall see thy Teacher” (Isaiah 30, 20).
– Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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