Baal HaSulam, Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Item 108: This is similar to a well-known tale about a Jew who was a house trustee for a certain landlord. The landlord loved him dearly. Once, the landlord went away and left his business in the hands of his substitute, who was an anti-Semite.
What did he do? He took the Jew and struck him five times in front of everyone, to thoroughly humiliate him.
Upon the landlord’s return, the Jew went to him and told him all that had happened to him. His anger was kindled, and he called the substitute and commanded him to promptly give the Jew a thousand coins for every time he had struck him.
The Jew took them and went home. His wife found him crying. She asked him anxiously, “What happened to you with the landlord?” He told her. She asked, “Then why are you crying?” He answered, “I am crying because he only beat me five times. I wish he had beaten me at least ten times, since now I would have had ten thousand coins.
The Creator made an unpleasant “shell,” our world, in which we suffer. For the Creator, there is no concept of time and of course He knows about the imminent “compensation.” It brings Him contentment.
For each blow, for every bad sensation, for the smallest or biggest trouble, for anything that we experience in life we will get an adequate compensation to which we would have gladly consented had we known about it beforehand.
This is how the general system works: it is based on the principle of replenishment. Even though people suffer now, they will inevitably be rewarded in the future. It is only a matter of time. Compensations bring benefit to the system. The system has no flaws. On the contrary, each of us would gladly add more afflictions to our lives if we knew that we would be compensated for them.
It is an unavoidable process. Otherwise, it would be impossible to guarantee spiritual profits since empty vessels should be opened, corrected, and fulfilled. If not, the creation that possesses its own endless vessels, desires, that govern them by using and fulfilling them with perfection would never be possible.
Question: Is there a way for us to understand that the Creator is good and does good while we still are in this terrible world?
Answer: “The Creator” is a general, balanced system. It is absolute, an equilibrium in which the Light and the vessel dwell in each other. Everything is based on this principle.
So far, you don’t see that the Creator rewards you by giving you a thousand coins for each of your troubles. Later, when you understand it, you’ll say: “What a beautiful thought is hidden behind it!”
When you correct yourself, you detach from your egoistic desires and transition to the realm of intentions. Reception for your desires is no longer the essence of your existence, now your intentions are. And because you completely stop identifying yourself with your troubles, you don’t forget about them but sweeten the properties of your vessel by using different methods.
In this world, we see similar examples of people enjoying memories of their prior sufferings. For example, my mother, a very well-to-do woman, sometimes preferred to have a glass of boiling water and a piece of stale bread. It reminded her of her hungry, younger years during the war when as a student she received this ration once a day. Many years later when she had an abundance of food, she couldn’t experience the same level of pleasure from food because her desire was no longer as empty as it had been during the years when she went hungry. It did not matter that the bread then was mostly made of sawdust; it only depends on our vessels, desires.
We cannot ignore these things. We go through various situations, and thanks to them, when recalling the stages of our spiritual path that never disappear and that we never forget, we begin using them differently, not as my mother did. Rather, by going through our current states, when we receive the Lights that descend to us, we try using our old vessels, thus triggering the Lights of NRNHY to be revealed.
If you regard the world as a nightmare, it is your vision. It is said: “Everybody judges according to his own flaws.” Now, your denial is in accord with the deficiencies of your vessels through which you see the world as a bad place. If you correct your vessels, you’ll see that there is nothing wrong with this world.
As we ascend the spiritual ladder, we tend to increasingly justify the Creator. That’s the main thing! The darkness turns into the light, and bitter becomes sweet. I see the world as more corrected, although for me it is not yet completely rectified because, as of now, I am not completely corrected.
And yet, to the degree of my correction, I justify this world, thus connecting the darkness with the Light. For me, it already shines as a bright day in unity, even though our unity is not as yet quite sufficient. By going through spiritual stages, I see that everything eventually ends up being good.
The only advice I have for you is to correct your vessels, desires. There is nothing else you can do. If you do so, wars, afflictions, and other disasters will dissappear from your picture of reality and never return. Baal HaSulam wrote: “There are no despots in the Kingdom of the Lord.”
In fact, there are no villains, as there is no evil. The entire reality is just a film that leads us from the evil inclination to a happy ending.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/26/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam
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Question: How can I relate to the friends like to the Creator and turn my criticism to love?
