You see one of the key realities of Kabbalah, is that in life there are choices

 

The bad is a mirror of the good

 

In fact, the every same hammer can be used to build or harm

 

We have a simplistic notion of seeing everything as good or bad, or painting with broad strokes (we see this clearly in how religions have definitions (“inside this circle is good, outside bad”) conversely those who are naïve, and do not think there is evil, need only open their eyes)

 

In Kabbalah we know that three organs run us – our mind (opinions – thoughts)

 

Our heart (which has two drives: love of pleasure and love of what we love, including love) and fear of pain, including what we hate, namely shame, criticism, hence the basis of neurosis – suffice it to say that the largest study into mental health – a European study of 500,000,000 people, found fear to be the root problem – for when in a state of fear we cannot think, as our thinking takes place in our neo-cortex but when fear kicks in, it accesses the primal amygdala nuclei region, bypassing rationality)

 

Then we have ego – a strong desire to be proud and never shamed

 

The thing is, all of these things have positive and negative

 

Positive or negative emotions and thoughts

 

Positive and negative loves (the main one being to fulfill God’s will, versus my own)

 

Positive and negative fears (the main one being to not ignore God, and we should have no other fear)

 

Pride is generally a vile trait (the root of all evil, the source of terrorism, antisemitism, bullying, maliciousness – for the person who seems himself as great gets jealous, vexed, angered, hence rationalizes their desire to demean, as we see in all the wonderful reasons terrorists, antisemites, bullies have) but there is one pride that is priceless, pride that I fulfill God!