Egoism Helps Us Return to the Creator

Egoism was created as an aid to humankind. Gradually, while struggling against it, each person acquires all the senses necessary to experience the spiritual. For this reason, each person should look upon all obstacles and suffering with a full consciousness of their purpose, that is, to induce one to ask for the Creator’s help in receiving redemption from that suffering. Then, egoism and other unpleasant aspects transform into “help against you”—which is actually against egoism itself.

It is also possible to offer an alternative rendition. Imagine egoism standing “opposite us,” instead of the Creator, screening and covering the Creator from us, as if saying: “I stand between the Creator and you.”

Thus does the “I” or “self” of a person stand between that person and the Creator. For this purpose, there is a commandment first to “remember what was done” to us by Amalek, and then to “erase all memory” of Him.

We should not search within ourselves for thoughts that serve as obstacles, but rather should take the first thing that arises in our hearts and minds from the moment of awakening, and tie it to the Creator. This is how “obstacles” help us return our thoughts to the Creator. From this, we see that the worst thing is when we forget about the Creator.

Egoism Pushes Us to “Righteousness”

To the extent that egoism pushes us to sin, it also pushes us to be exceptionally righteous. In both cases, it tears us away from the truth. To the same extent that we can pretend to be righteous before others, so sometimes, without realizing we are deceiving ourselves, we begin to believe that we are truly righteous.

Rabbi Jacob Yitzhak of Lyublin (Hoseh mi Lyublin) said, “I have more love for sinners who know that they are sinners, than for the righteous who know that they are righteous. But sinners who think that they are righteous will never find the right path, because even on the threshold of hell they think that they have been brought there to save others.”

Hidden in the Bible Is the Wisdom of Kabbalah

That which is desired but is concealed is known as a “secret.” If we read the Bible and feel that it is talking about us, then we are considered to have begun studying the hidden wisdom of Kabbalah, where we will read about ourselves, although we are not yet aware of this.

As we progress on the spiritual path, we will realize that the Bible speaks about us, and then the Bible will transform from being concealed to being revealed. Those who read the Bible without posing questions about themselves cannot discern in the Bible either the hidden or the revealed parts; to those individuals, the Bible appears simply as a historical account or a collection of legal statutes.

Redemption Lies Above our Egoistic Nature

From the point of view of egoism, there is nothing more strange and unnatural, unreal and absurd, then “selling” oneself into slavery to the Creator, to erase in oneself all thoughts and desires, and to enslave oneself to His Will, whatever it may be, without knowing in advance what it is.

All spiritual demands seem equally pointless to one who is distant from the Creator.

And conversely, as soon as one experiences spiritual ascent, one agrees to that state of being without resistance or critique of reason. Then, one is no longer ashamed of one’s thoughts and aspirations directed towards committing oneself to the Creator.

These contradictory predicaments are given to us specifically to help us realize that our redemption from egoism is above nature, and is awarded only by the Will of the Creator. Until then, we exist in a state of dissatisfaction, because we either compare our present state to that of the past, or we compare our present with our hopes for the future, and thus suffer from the absence of the desired experience.

Independently Striving for the Creator

If we had only known great pleasures we could receive from Above, and were not actually receiving them, we would suffer immeasurably more. However, it can be said that in regard to spiritual pleasures, they are kept from our awareness, and we remain in a state of unconsciousness and do not perceive their absence.

Thus, it is vital for us to feel the Presence of the Creator. If we were to subsequently lose that perception, it is already clear that we would once again yearn for it. As it is said in Psalms, number 42, “As a deer pants for streams of water, so my soul cries out for You, God.”

The desire to perceive the Creator is called “the aspiration to ’lift’ the Creator’s Presence from the dust,” that is, from the lowest state in our understanding, when everything in our world appears to us more precious than being able to sense the Creator.

Those who keep the commandments due to their upbringing (which in itself is a manifestation of the Creator’s desire) do so in the same manner as those who aspire to grasp the Creator. The difference lies in the perception of the individual in question. This is of primary importance, since the desire of the Creator is to benefit His creations by giving them the feeling of His closeness.

Thus, in order to forsake the habitual observance of commandments and become freely acting, we must clearly understand what we received as a result of our upbringing and from society, and what we now aspire to as independent individuals.

“The Biggest Obstacle Preventing You From Perceiving the Creator” is based on the book, Attaining the Worlds Beyond by Dr. Michael Laitman.