Suffering Becomes Sweet

A person on a spiritual path can also encounter common problems in life. The question is whether he links them to the light of tomorrow, and thus, is he willing to suffer today. There are many people who agree to searches and restrictions for the sake of future achievements, for example, scientists who conduct scientific research, or mothers willing to endure labor pains and nine months of pregnancy to give birth to a baby.

Although it is suffering, it is chosen voluntarily. Therefore, you cannot say that suffering is always bad. If the goal justifies the suffering, then I am ready to go through it as a payment for the desired outcome. In general it is not clear if I could have achieved this goal without suffering. A free gift is usually not valued because there is no vessel for it, no desire, it is not achieved through one’s own efforts. I have not developed sensitivity for feeling this pleasure.

It cannot be said that suffering is only evil. We are created from the desire to enjoy and can feel spiritual fulfillment only if the desire is properly processed by the light and takes on a special form.

Look at the difference between an inanimate stone and a human body, which is so intricately arranged that we do not even understand how it works or the connections inside it. We know almost nothing about it. And all this is due to the fact that the light created a human body through many actions. Even creating a material body takes a lot of work. It is all due to suffering: the light struck the desire to enjoy, broke it, and connected it in various ways. How long did the development of the universe take until, as a result, human beings appeared?

All suffering has a clear goal; the only question is how, by getting involved in the work, to use suffering purposefully. Suffering then becomes sweet; instead of feeling the suffering, we will enjoy it. Research shows that even at the physiological level, laughter and crying are one and the same process in the body.¹

When you receive suffering, you must immediately turn to the Creator and affirm that it comes from Him, the good that does good, for the sake of my advancement toward the goal. This entire world means nothing, and all of its petty, vile pricks are just to constantly keep me aimed at the Creator. “There is none else besides Him,” all this is shown to me by the Creator to draw my attention so that I would appeal to Him.

I put my foot forward to take the next step and turn to the Creator. One more step—I turn to Him again, and so on all the time. If I do not take my eyes off the Creator, then I will not stumble. Thus, we advance toward the connection with the Creator until we enter the state of a spiritual embryo.²

I should always feel some deficiency so that I have a reason to turn to the Creator. Every time I get a stimulus, it directs me toward “There is none else besides the Creator.” When I fulfill the measure corresponding to the root of my soul, perform a sufficient amount of actions that return me to the Creator and I associate them with Him, I begin to feel that I am in the “field blessed by the Creator.” That is, I no longer need to search for where the Creator is hiding, I feel myself in the field of His bestowal.

This is the attainment of the state of spiritual embryo. And before that, there is preparation for it, excitement: the Creator pulls me toward Him and pushes me away, pulls and pushes away. This is similar to physical copulation: entrances and exits. In the same way as the conception of a corporeal fetus, our entry into the holy Shechina takes place.³

I want to constantly depend on the Creator no matter if I am feeling good or bad. I rise above the external cause that pushed me toward the Creator and just want to be inside Him! That means that I am becoming a spiritual embryo.

It is necessary to constantly search and collect the desires leading one to the entry to the embryo. It is said: “Only His goodness and grace will chase me.” The Creator sends the excitement. He awakens a new desire in me to enjoy, and I feel bad, I start looking for Him and reach a certain connection in the light of Hassadim. He then awakens another desire to enjoy in me, and I seek Him again. And so every time: start – stop, entry – exit. All of these actions together are called “intercourse.”

After a person performs a sufficient number of such actions, “his seed becomes blessed”; that is, he turns into a drop of spiritual seed that penetrates into the womb, into the Creator, and becomes an embryo.⁴
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/28/19, Writings of Rabash, “Concerning Yenika [Nursing] and Ibur [Impregnation]”