We are obviously not one, but many in one
By zevi770 · January 23, 2014
God is obviously not many, but one
So what’s going on?
Quite simply, if you love your child, you don’t give him everything, you give him the tools, so he can manage to make something out of himself
Hence, God in his great love for us
a. gives us our true identity, himself, which is ourselves; namely, our idealistic love, compassion etc. etc.
However if that’s who we were, unchallenged, it wouldn’t be our, but his achievement!
So to counteract that, God gives us selfish and narcissistic instincts
The heart contains specific bodily pleasure (say sex, drugs etc. etc.) and fears of pain
And then to top it off – to make things really challenging, hence truly rewarding – an ego
The ego is what makes us evil
For when we are angry (an extension of the ego, for one cannot be angry if they don’t believe they weren’t erroneously hurt, which means, that based on their self-esteem, they think another maliciously, with no right, hurt them; however, if the person, for example, had a humble opinion of themselves, then they wouldn’t feel the sting of having their self-image sullied – which is why the Alter Rebbe says, believing, that present pain may atone for previous lifetime sins, is a great way to rid oneself of anger) but the net result of anger is, a desire for vengeance