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When I hear about some of the absolutely disgusting tortures and sufferings that humans have inflicted upon one another, I find it really hard to believe that God Himself is the torturer. I find it much easier to believe that we were given the choice between ‘good and evil’ and that some people choose selfish evil acts.
I also don’t like the idea of me doing something selfish and regrettable, and not owning up to it as my mistake. It doesn’t feel right saying that my mistake is God’s mistake, especially in the moment. It’s like I’m using God as a scapegoat.
Hi Chris,
We learn from the Kabbalists that every single moment comes to us directly from the Creator, this is called “there is none else besides Him”. Furthermore, they also say that He is the “good that does good”. Meaning that every moment He is sending us nothing but goodness. But why then don’t we see this in our world? Why do we see so much suffering and problems in the world?
This is because our world is governed by our egoistic nature. This egoistic nature is opposite to the Creator’s nature. Because of that, it inverts the Creator’s goodness into something bad. It’s just like multiplying numbers: a positive times a negative equals negative.
So as long as we remain within this egoistic nature, we will continue to see and feel more suffering and bad things in the world. But if we correct our nature to be similar to the Creator’s nature, then we will reveal the true reality in which only goodness exists, and our previous egoistic state would appear as nothing more than a dream.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2011/06/how-can-we-justify-the-creator/
Albert @ KabU
Hi Simon,
There is a difference, but I wouldn’t go into it because Kabbalists are not interested in delving into philosophical debates between this or that, rather, Kabbalists are interesting in helping us reach true freedom, that is freedom from our egoistic nature.
Baal HaSulam talks about this in the article, the Freedom. He writes: “Harut (carved) on the tables”; do not pronounce it Harut (carved), but rather Herut (freedom), to show that they are liberated from the angel of death.
Throughout the article he explains how our current egoistic nature is that angel of death. Meaning although we are technically alive and surviving, relative to spirituality, our life is considered death. True life is within a completely different nature, that of bestowal. In order to reach freedom from our current nature, we need to choose and build a spiritual environment for ourselves which will influence us with the importance of acquiring the quality of bestowal.
For this reason, the Kabbalists equate our main freedom in life in choosing to be influenced by a spiritual environment. Not just any environment, but specifically a spiritual environment, since only through the spiritual environment can we get the importance of coming out of our egoistic nature and only through that environment can we draw the light that can help us to actualize this.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2012/10/bestowal-should-become-fashionable/
Albert @ KabU
Can you explain for what purpose we were given the illusion of free will and freedom of choice, by the creator?
Hi Joan,
We see from how we educate our kids that education is gradual. We don’t just throw our toddlers into the adult life of a 9-5 job and marry them off. Instead we bring them to a playground and give them special conditions for their level of development. And through those special conditions, which are essentially games or simulations, they grow and develop until they are ready for adult life.
Likewise with us, this world is like a playground for our development. And the feeling of freedom, although it’s an illusion, is still a necessary part for our level of development.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2015/07/imaginary-and-true-freedom-part-3-absolute-freedom/
Albert @ KabU
Just going to say what I think: We as humans think we have free will but until we reach the spiritual level we do not have free will or we have what we perceive to be free will but we do not?
Hi Tracey,
It’s like a child in his room who thinks he’s the king of the world and has full control over everything there. He does not realize that his parents arranged every single detail in his entire room, giving him exactly what is beneficial for his current level of development, and not more than that.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2010/10/are-we-free-people-or-just-cogs-in-the-mashine/
Albert @ KabU
Hi Lucy,
With our kids, generally not with words but through our own personal example. That’s the main way we have of teaching them. We need to also remember the rule that “there is no coercion in spirituality”. So we shouldn’t force our children to learn about spirituality if they don’t want it.
If you want a more detailed approach, there were a few dozen episodes with Rav Laitman where he goes into great depth of the proper approach to educating children. “New Life” episodes 203 – 219 were the main ones. Here’s a link.
Albert @ KabU
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