“Envy,” “Lust,” and “Honor,” Bring Man Out of the World

Welcome to all our friends who once again decided to dedicate their Sunday to developing their points in the heart. Please open your cameras and say hello. Today we have another opportunity to talk about connection between the friend and the principles for building a spiritual society.

A month ago we started talking about the principles for working in a ten and we gradually transitioned to principles for building a spiritual society. Why? It's unlike any other society - it's not even close. It's extremely different - you'll see for yourself. That's why we always take a principle and explain it according to the sources and what Rav says about it. It helps us aspire to develop in a certain way. The main thing we can do right now is attract this light that reforms along with all our friends from all over the world - to develop our point in the heart. We are one and let's ask the light to strengthen our connection.

The topic for today is very special because it's so significant on our path, and apparently we also know about it from our regular life - but here it's very different. The topic is envy. This is sort of a surprising subject. Because we came here to talk about spirituality and all of a sudden we need to talk about such a not so nice attribute. But for Kabbalists envy can accelerate our advancement if we use it properly. We can use this attribute to reveal the Creator - to reveal the good.

So each time we discover that the perspective of the wisdom of Kabbalah is always quite different from the normal perspective of this attribute.

“Envy,” “lust,” and “honor,” bring man out of the world (Avot, Chapter 4:28).

Whoever hears this - may think it sounds like they're killing that person (bringing man out of the world) - but it's actually quite the opposite.

In the wisdom of Kabbalah everything is usually the opposite. Olam/world is something that's concealed from us (from the Hebrew word haalma) - we want to go from something concealed from us to something much greater. One of the means for doing that is envy. We can reach much greater revelation using that attribute.

If we want to advance - meaning come out of the concealed into the revealed, and be aligned with the Creator - we must use envy. Because this is what brings us up through the stages of becoming equivalent to the Creator.

We heard something really interesting in the morning lesson - a person decided that we can fly. How did it actually happen? A person saw a bird flying and wanted to be able to fly - so that's why we started developing airplanes etc. Same goes for ships in the sea - someone saw the fish and wanted to be able to go into the ocean like them.

From looking at the world around us we see things that we don't have - and actually, we didn't even think we needed them until we saw them. You can see this very clearly on kids - they see another child has a toy and wants that specific toy. And until you get it for him - he won't calm down.

Rav is saying a person gets a point in the heart - otherwise you wouldn't be sitting here in this lesson - this is simply a point of interest. This isn't a deep desire for actually becoming like the Creator. We can only want that from seeing that others have these more advanced desires that my own. And then with the help of envy I can awaken myself.

Spiritual development is opposite to our egoistic development, so I need something to push me from behind to help me advance. Envy is one of those things.