Mercy, Justice, And Peace

 

Inanimate nature, plants, and animals live according to their natural instincts. If there are good external conditions, they multiply, and if conditions worsen, they wither.

Man, however, adjusts the environment to his needs, changes it to make it more comfortable. If conditions are bad, man improves them: brings water to places where there is no water, lights a fire to make himself warmer, and even invents the refrigerator. He creates good conditions for himself.

If man did not create a favorable environment to live in, there would not be eight billion people on Earth today. Over the past hundred years, the world’s population has quadrupled.

There is no such rapid population growth in nature. But people strive to change nature—the inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature that surrounds them—in order to build a comfortable environment according to their egoistic interests.

There are no other such species in nature. Animals make their lives comfortable to some extent, they dig holes for themselves and even store food for the winter. But unlike people, they do not build power plants, gas stations, etc, but use only those forces they have received from nature without intending to improve and refine them in order to use them to build a more perfect world. Only man is capable of such a thing.

If humanity would advance correctly using all the resources given to us by nature, we will be able to rid ourselves of all problems. Through the correct connection between people, it is possible to correct our nature and come to a beautiful life.

Humanity is trying instinctively to use four qualities for building a society: mercy, justice, truth, and peace, but we see that the current state of society is the result of the incorrect use of these four principles.

If we learn how to use these principles—mercy, justice, truth, and peace—correctly, we will be able to receive all the benefits. These are the four foundations that distinguish man from beast, and with their help we build human society.

In the inanimate, vegetative, and animate world, there is no such concept as “society.” Although there are such communities as a close-knit anthill or a flock, everything works on the basis of instinct, controlled by nature.

But if a person wants a good life, then this is impossible without a properly organized society. Therefore, we must implement the four principles: mercy, justice, truth, and peace.

Truth is the most certain principle, but the problem is that we do not know it. Truth is the name of the Creator (Emet): the letters “Aleph-Mem-Tav” (א-מ-ת). “Aleph” (א) is the first letter of the alphabet, in the middle “Mem” (מ) is the quality of Bina, and the ending “Tav” (ת) is the last letter of the alphabet. This is how we receive the truth, the name of the Creator. With this word, these letters, the upper force created all the creation.

But we cannot govern human society by the quality of truth. So instead of truth, we use mercy, justice, and peace to somehow get closer to the truth.

Truth is complete bestowal, the nature of the Creator. Yet, since we are not able to act according to the quality of bestowal, called truth, we try in some way to get closer to it in order not to eat each other. These auxiliary principles are called mercy, justice, and peace.

These are not perfect principles, but in the absence of choice, we have to follow them in order to maintain a more or less normal relationship between us.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/10/20, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Peace in the World”