The Lubavitcher Rebbe explained that darkness had to be created with real strength so that human beings, with human nature as we know it, could fully enjoy the World to Come without shame

[World to Come belief explained in a linked post at the end.]

If darkness [selfish desire] were much weaker, human nature itself would have to be different.

Why?

Because the darkness of this world has to match the kind of being a human is.

We are physical, emotional, and intelligent.

We experience pleasure, fear, desire, attachment, shame, habits, and inner conflict.

Darkness had to be strong enough for separation from the Creator to be felt through all of those parts of human personality.

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But the purpose is not simply to overcome selfish desire.

Creation begins with the experience of being separate from the Creator, and the deeper purpose is for that separation to become relationship.

Why?

Because intimacy means knowing that you matter to the Creator, your choices matter, and your personality has a purpose.

The parts of us that feel separate do not need to disappear.

They can learn a new way to relate.

Physical desire can express goodness.

Fear can develop into trust.

The need for approval can become kindness with boundaries.

Intelligence can notice patterns of infinite wisdom [patterns have a source], awakening awe that develops into love [a love that always contains some sadness, because the Creator’s goodness can always be more revealed].

Even separation can become a desire to feel inseparable from the Source of life.

True free will is what allows this transformation to become ours rather than something the Creator simply programmed into us. 

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The Rebbe explains that true free will is G-dly.

The Creator placed a piece of His freedom within the human soul and gave us that freedom in our relationship with Him.

The Creator already knows every choice we will make, but knowing our choice is not the same as causing it.

His knowledge does not force us to choose one way or another.

We are still the ones choosing.

Maimonides also teaches that the Creator’s knowledge is not like human knowledge.

We understand something by receiving information about it.

His knowledge is completely united with Him and beyond the limits of human understanding [there is mystery to belief in an Infinite Creator that has intelligence, free choice, and desires giving, there is also mystery to believing the source of intelligence and beauty is blind like a rock].

That means His complete knowledge and our true free will can both be true, even if our minds cannot fully explain how they fit together.

Instead of treating that mystery as a problem, it can deepen awe [humility, fear, and wonder].

A healthy relationship with the Creator includes always having something more to wonder about, question, and become curious about.

The more we understand, the more we can also recognize how much greater He is than anything we can understand or even imagine. 

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Free will does not mean choosing whatever color clothing or tradition we happen to like.

Those choices have explanations in personality, upbringing, taste, and habit.

True free will comes from a place deeper than those influences.

It appears when the Creator gives us an instruction and we can choose whether to follow it or ignore it, even when another path feels easier or more pleasurable.

That is what makes deeper intimacy possible.

If we could only do what naturally felt good, the relationship would mostly reflect how we were created.

But when another path feels real and we still choose His instruction because we trust that the Creator is good, the choice becomes an act of intimacy.

We are not only obeying.

We are saying:

“I trust that Your wisdom and goodness are greater than what feels easiest to me right now. I believe my choices matter to You, and I want to stay connected to You.”

That choice contains both responsibility and relationship.

True free will allows us to say:

“I am not only receiving life from You. I am freely choosing how I want to relate to You.”

That is why free will is not only about obedience.

It is the ability to bring ourselves into the relationship. 

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This is also why darkness cannot be too weak.

If physical pleasure, fear, approval, or control had very little pull, choosing goodness would come much more automatically.

Our actions would contain less of our own developed desire and less of the inner work that brought our personality into the choice.

Human beings can do something deeper.

We can notice what we want.

We can question it.

We can meditate on the patterns of infinite wisdom around us, the Creator’s goodness, His presence, and His desire for a relationship.

Those ideas can develop awe, love, trust, and the desire to feel inseparable from the Source of life.

Then our physical actions can express feelings and desires that we helped develop through thought, emotional growth, responsibility, and repeated choice.

That is a point of darkness.

It gives the whole human personality something real to transform.

Fear can become trust.

People-pleasing can become kindness with boundaries.

Anger can become courage and responsibility.

Physical desire can become a way of revealing goodness through the body.

Separation can become relationship.

Because another path feels real, choosing goodness brings more of ourselves into the relationship with the Creator.

That creates deeper intimacy. 

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And the deepest pleasure a human being can experience is intimacy with the Creator, because healthy intimacy can awaken awe, love, joy, trust, and the feeling of being deeply connected to the Source of life.

Chassidus also speaks about the Creator having pleasure from intimacy with a human being.

This does not mean the relationship changes Him or gives Him something He was missing.

“Pleasure” is a human word Chassidus uses to describe that this relationship is deeply purposeful and meaningful in His desire for creation.

The relationship matters because the Creator chose for it to matter, not because He needs it in order to become complete.

Chassidus explains that the World to Come will reveal this pleasure in its fullest form, because we will see how our choices, relationships, and acts of goodness helped transform a world of separation into a home for the Creator. 

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A person can enjoy a gift.

But when all the goodness feels unearned, part of them can feel like a passive receiver instead of a true participant.

Darkness gives human beings the chance to bring intelligence, emotion, body, responsibility, trust, and true free will into the relationship.

That is why, with human nature as we know it, weaker darkness would have required a different kind of human being.

The Creator did not only want us to receive goodness.

He wanted us to become the kind of people who could freely transform separation into relationship and then fully enjoy the goodness that relationship reveals. 

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Related guides:

What happens in the world to come for all nations: https://nextself.ai/spirituality/maimonides-rambam-describes-the-world-to-come-as-fully-spiritual/

You choose the kind of life your nervous system lives in: https://nextself.ai/spirituality/beliefs-are-not-only-an-idea/

Every world view has mysteries to it: https://nextself.ai/spirituality/biggest-question-spirituality-not-only-existence-cause/

Extreme people pleasing is like idol worship: https://nextself.ai/spirituality/one-unhealthy-spiritual-pattern-misdirected-awe/

Why should belief be apart of relationship with the Creator? https://www.facebook.com/share/p/18EkeAbkkv/

Only in a world where you can feel unloved can you discover unconditional love: https://nextself.ai/spirituality/the-story-of-joseph-and-his-brothers-helps-explain-why-the-creator-chose-a-human-being/