A question I received: How will a memory (Reshimo) about a past pleasure help me if, today, I’m unable to receive my favorite dish from the Host and need to limit myself to less?

My Answer: This is a fair question from the perspective of healthy egoism. However, you need to perform a calculation on how much pleasure you can bring to the Creator rather than on how much you can fill your belly. A memory of the past will allow you to perform an act of bestowal without making a mistake.

I came to visit Him knowing that I could accept only the pleasure that I would be able to return to Him. I did everything I could and left. The next time I come to Him, I’m weaker because I already have experienced the pleasure and now I desire it. After all, the hunger comes during the meal. The Light weakens me, and now I want to continue this pleasure. It would be easier not to start at all than to start and then stop.

In other words, when you come to the Host for the second time, you can’t receive the same pleasure for the sake of bestowal anymore. Therefore, you’re forced to receive less in order to give pleasure rather than receive pleasure. You evaluate the same pleasure that you received before according to the strength that you have now in order not to err.

This difference between the impressions from the Light and from the desire (Reshimo de-Hitlabshut and Reshimo de-Aviut) allows me to receive the maximum of what is possible and only for the sake of bestowal. I receive a lesser amount of Light (for example, the Light of Haya instead of the Light of Yechida), but I receive the same pleasure due to the fact that I give the full 100% of what’s possible despite having less strength.

From the perspective of egoism, there’s a difference in the pleasure, and from the perspective of bestowal, there is not. The force of the anti-egoistic screen does not depend on me. I do the most that I can in my state and in such bestowal, everyone is equal, the great and the small alike.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/23/10, Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Binary Calculation System: Current Desire And Previous Light
Laitman.com Post: Calculating The Pleasure Of An Unknown Desire
Laitman.com Post: Kabbalah Is A Patent For Infinite Pleasure

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism | Add Comment →