Who To Ask For Forgiveness And For What? Part 1

Question: During these last few days of the Jewish year it is customary to ask the loved ones and the Creator for forgiveness for everything we’ve done. Where does this tradition come from?

Answer: First of all, we need to understand who the Creator is? This is the upper force of nature. We can’t attain this force by itself.

It manifests in the fact that it created the creation that is the desire to enjoy, to receive fulfillment, and it fills it to the extent that this desire becomes similar to the upper force.

If creation—the desire to receive—makes itself similar to the Creator, bestowing, then the Creator fills it, and to this extent the creation begins to reveal its maker.

Initially, people are completely opposite to the Creator; they think about their own pleasure and do not want to give anything to anyone.

However, if we know how to change our nature with the help of the wisdom of Kabbalah, we will begin to reveal the Creator, the force of love and bestowal, which gives us fulfillment, health, the sense of past, present, and future, perfection, and raises us above time, movement, and space into the world of absolute goodness.

And all this is only to the extent of our equivalence with this force of bestowal and love that is called the Creator. So where is this Creator? He is in the connection between people if we unite with each other. All the levels of nature: still, vegetative, animate, and human are connected into one system. The human stands above all others in this hierarchy, and the connection between all the parts of this system depends only on him.

To the extent that a person will be able to establish good connections between everyone and turn this system into an integral, interconnected, balanced, and kind one, based on mutual help and love, the Creator, the upper force, will be revealed in this system.

This entire network in which the creation exists is called a “place” that is filled with the upper force. It is impossible to reveal this force anywhere apart from this place, this vessel, that is woven from our relationships with each other. The stronger our connection, the stronger is this revelation. This is the only way to feel the Creator; there is no any other way.

One’s relation to other people defines the relation of the person to the Creator. The kinder we will make our connections with each other, the more we will reveal the upper force that is manifested between us.

There is no point to ask the Creator for forgiveness until a person pays off all his debts to the creatures, to other people. If we establish good relationships between us and provide the Creator with the place for revelation, then this will be our appeal to Him and our plea for forgiveness.

We are not required to make any other repentance before the Creator than what we implement in the relationships with each other. Otherwise it would be just hypocrisy.

Why would I ask the Creator for forgiveness if I could build a corrected place where He could be revealed and I didn’t do so? After all, this is my entire work, and instead of that, I cry and appeal to Him for help. Why does He need to save me if I myself did nothing for it?
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 9/27/16