“Though War Should Rise Up Against Me, Even Then Will I Be Confident”

If people understood that all the misfortunes that befall them—hunger, war, and disease—could easily be eliminated by one appeal to the Creator, that we only need to move toward Him before all these hardships, haunting us for thousands of years, fall upon us; what a light and easy life we would have!

After all, we are all in a common boat in the same current. But how many thousands of years has humanity been under pressure so that we finally realize that there is no alternative, we have to get closer to the Creator. All problems come just for that reason.

How much unhappiness and misery throughout history could we have avoided had we listened to Abraham in ancient Babylon and united as one man with one heart? All our history would have been different. We would easily have achieved a higher dimension and lived as in Paradise, in a harmonious union of the desire to enjoy and the desire to bestow, developing our attainment to perfection.

We should not forget that all the troubles and problems are designed to push us toward the Creator. But as long as a person is developing on the still degree, he advances very slowly, through a lot of suffering. On the vegetative degree, development becomes more intense, and on the animate and human, even faster. We see that the rate of change is increasingly growing, that is why in the course of our life we can accomplish many various actions every hour.

We have an opportunity to check how one affects the other and how our advancement toward the Creator affects the fact that we avoid troubles. It is said, “Thou embrace me from the front and from behind.” “From the front” is the direct control of the Creator if I seek Him and draw the Light that Reforms to myself, according to my efforts.

And “from behind” is His indirect control if I am too lazy to make efforts and to advance myself. Then, the same Light that was supposed to be revealed before me as Surrounding and Reforming Light affects me from the reverse side in order to turn me toward the source by the path of suffering. And this advancement is stretched out for a long time and is accompanied by suffering.

As it is sung in one Sabbath song, “Though a host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear! Though war should rise up against me, even then will I be confident.” “Though a host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear!” is a high state when a person reaches the realization that he is pushed by pressure from behind because that is the form of advancement now. But he relies on the Creator, on the Upper governance, understanding that everything comes from there, and that is why only by striving upward can he save himself from all troubles. And most importantly, he relies on the help of the Creator so that he will be able to seek the Creator not out of fear but to bring Him pleasure.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/13/13