Why is the created being made egoistic? Why does man always think about himself? Why didn’t nature make us feel and love each other as our own children who are even more dear to us than we ourselves? Why didn’t we receive such properties? Why do we, like the infamous cuckoo birds, drop our eggs into somebody else’s nest?

The wisdom of Kabbalah explains that it is done so intentionally, that there is nothing accidental in our unwillingness to hold another person dear. On the contrary, we view the other person as appalling, alien, and foreign. It is written: “Love your neighbor as you love yourself,” but what kind of neighbor is he? He is not a neighbor; he is the most distant and hateful person to me! It would be great if there were just a few of them left in this world to service my needs, and the rest can go to hell, drop dead. It would make our life even easier, wouldn’t it? That’s how we are all made.

So, Kabbalah explains that this mutual hatred is given to us intentionally so that above it, we would aim at unity, bonded by ties of love. “Love” means that we feel the other, sense his needs before our own, and serve to fulfill them the best we can.

The force of rejection remains between us in the form of hate, as some sort of resistor, a resistance element placed between the points of a microchip. But we, despite this resistance between us, are paving the way above it and pass on it with our desire, our “electricity,” the yearning to be together. And that’s when we find the energy in this resistance: the energy of love and personal participation.

We will emit this energy; we will get familiar with and conscious of it by attaining the entire force of nature, its parts, and its timeless harmony. In such a state, we will be living not as individuals, each in their own little element, but between these elements, growing on and rising above this resistance. Mutual hate and love, together, will build a net of relations between us that will be a degree higher than those today.

Right now, we live in a state of resentment among ourselves, as separate, disconnected, and broken apart elements. On the other hand, as we rise, we create unity, solidarity, oneness between us, and we start to experience this network as a new, higher dimension, where we begin to live now. This is what we call eternal life. This is, in fact, the upper life: a timeless, perfect existence that lies above the present one, limited by death and, essentially, killing us day by day.

This is why we need egoistic resistance on one hand and its correction by love on the other. This is where we need to specifically unite the two opposing properties within ourselves. And yet, love prevails over hate and allows us to ascend spiritually so we may break free from this world upward, into perfection and eternity.
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From the Virtual Lesson, Fundamentals of Kabbalah Series 5/15/2011

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