Undergoing a Test of Your Intentions

As human beings, our initial spiritual state is egoism. One who begins to strive for closeness with the Creator is known as “a righteous person of the peoples of the world.” How can one verify if one is, in fact, already at this level? Since Man possesses only egoistic desires, everything that is missing from the gratification of the ego is perceived to have been taken away, as if what was desired had been possessed, and then stolen from the individual.

We have this feeling because of our spiritual “past”: on previous spiritual levels, our souls were completely filled with good, but with our spiritual descent into this world, all of it was lost. Therefore, the moment we feel a desire for something, it is equivalent to being filled with complaints towards the Creator about what was taken away, or was never given—that for which one longs.

Thus, if we are able to say from our hearts that everything the Creator did is for the good of all of us, and feel joy and love towards our Creator, as if we had, indeed, received from Him everything we could possibly imagine for ourselves, and justify everything the Creator supervises, then we have successfully completed the test of our intentions (kavana).

Running Towards the Goal of Creation

In many situations, we experience the tests as a choice between two possibilities: we feel as if half of our desires draw us to one side, and the other half draws us to the second side. In general, we do not feel within us any struggle between the opposing forces of good and evil, as only the forces of evil rule within, and the problem that continues to arise is which force will deliver the maximum benefit to us.

When the opposing forces are equal, we cannot choose or prefer one over the other, as we feel we are between two forces that are influencing us. At this point, our only solution is to turn to the Creator, so that He should draw us to the good side.

Thus we are obligated to consider everything that happens to us as if it were a trial from Above.

When we do so, we will speedily rise to the goal of creation. To understand the Creation in general, and the particulars of what has happened to us, we must understand the creation’s final goal. Then we will understand the actions of the Creator, since all of them depend on and emerge from the final goal.

This is similar to our world, where, if we do not recognize the future result, we are incapable of understanding anyone else’s actions. It is said: “Don’t show something completely in the middle of its work.”

Resembling the Creator by Performing Corrections

The Creator represents the entire creation, the Light. His goal is to please us with this Light. Thus, the only thing that He must create is the desire to be pleased . All that exists represents the Light and the desire to be pleased. All else created besides us has only one purpose—to aid us in reaching the final goal of creation.

We exist within the Creator, in the ocean of Light that fills everything with Itself. But we can perceive the Creator only to the degree to which we are comparable to Him in qualities. The Light can enter only those desires we hold that are similar to those of the Creator.

To the degree that we differ in qualities and desires from the Creator, we do not perceive Him, because His Light does not penetrate us. If all our qualities are opposite to His qualities, then we do not perceive Him at all, and imagine ourselves to be the only ones in this world.

The Creator strives to give us pleasure through His quality of “the desire to give.” For this reason, He created all the worlds and their inhabitants with the opposite quality, “the desire to receive.”

The Creator generated all of our egoistic qualities; thus, our lowly state is not our own fault. But the Creator wishes for us to correct ourselves and thus become like Him.

Becoming a Kabbalist = Acquiring the Light

The Light gives life to all substances: inanimate, plant, animal, and human. In our world, the Light is obscured and thus we cannot feel it. As we swim in the ocean of the Creator’s Light, if a part of that Light enters us, it is called “the soul.”

Since the Light of the Creator brings life, emits vital energy and pleasure, then those who do not receive the Light, but only obtain an insignificant glow to sustain their physical existence, are considered spiritually dead and lacking a soul.

Only a few in this world, known as Kabbalists (Kabbalah deriving from the word lekabbel: “to receive the teaching about the way to acquire the Light”) gain the ability to acquire the Light. Each of us starts from our original state, during which we are completely unaware of the ocean of Light in which we “swim.”

We must, therefore, attain a complete replenishment of Light. Such a state is known as “the goal of creation” or “the final correction.” In addition, this state must be reached during one of our earthly lifetimes.

“Why You Should Become a Kabbalist ” is based on the book, Attaining the Worlds Beyond by Dr. Michael Laitman.