The First Choice

The Creator does not hand out curses

Eitan Yardeni begins at the origin. In our origin, the kabbalists say, we received everything: all the Light, all the abundance, all the joy. The purpose of creation is that the Light of the Creator can share, and that we can receive, appreciate, and share again.

So where does the curse in the verse come from? It is not sent. We still experience pain, loss, injustice, and we can call that a curse or bad luck. But there is only one source, and it only knows how to bless. What changes is what we do with what arrives.

Reality arrives suspended

This is the line that holds up the whole episode. Reality itself is neither good nor bad. It is potential energy, capable of becoming either, and it stays there, waiting, until someone interacts with it.

From the soul's point of view, everything is already good. But while no one is looking, it stays suspended. Looking at a situation only as something to take from already makes it bad. Looking at it as unfairness already makes it bad. Good and bad were not there before the looking.

Perception is the first act of free will

We tend to locate choice in action, or in speech, or at most in thought. The episode moves choice to before all of that. The first exercise of free will happens in the instant I perceive, before any analysis.

That is where the seed is planted. And Eitan Yardeni is specific about the timing: if you catch yourself in the first two seconds, it makes an enormous difference. After that it is no longer perception, it is justification.

He also cuts off the easy shortcut. This does not mean saying everything is fine, that no one is harming you, that nothing should be confronted. Perception here means aligning my view of reality with the view held by the Light of the Creator. It is not pretending.

Not every good thing is a blessing

Here the episode makes its most uncomfortable move. Something great happened at work: a big raise, a deal, a partnership. The automatic reaction is to say "what a blessing." Eitan Yardeni disagrees. The fact that something good happened does not make it a blessing.

He has often seen the opposite: people with major business breakthroughs who brought enormous chaos into their lives. Why? Because instead of asking "how do I grow here," they were swept up in the excitement. The ego lifted a little. Entitlement crept in, then taking things for granted, then forgetting where they came from.

The other reading of the same win is available the whole time: this is the time to grow my appreciation. This is the time to grow my humility. This is the time to strengthen the team, to be a better father, to notice the friend who is struggling.

The itch that feels good is not a blessing

The image Eitan Yardeni uses is domestic and settles the question in one line. You are scratching a mosquito bite and it feels wonderful. Is that a blessing? It feels good. It is not.

His definition is simple: blessing means long-term good. By that measure, resisting the scratch is the opportunity. Caring for the body in a real way, and growing the capacity to resist a passing temptation.

And he extends this to everything: why does the Creator show me this reality and not another? Because the will is to give more and more, and the only way to receive more is to grow. Reduce the ego, increase sharing, increase trust, let go of the illusions and the search for approval. The reality presented to me is the one that lets me grow.

We do not see things as they are, we see them as we are

Elisheva Balas tells two things that fit together. The first is from today: a meeting at the Kabbalah Centre in Los Angeles to review an event. Five people attended the same event, sitting a few seats from each other, and had five completely different experiences.

The second is from her childhood. Her grandparents spoke a language she could not understand, and to her it always sounded like they were arguing. She would ask her father why they were so angry with each other. He would answer: they are not angry, they are deciding what to make for dinner.

She treats this as a source of humility, not of insecurity. And she offers a concrete tool: keep a few people in your life you can honestly ask, "this is how I saw it, what do you think? What am I missing?" It is not handing your perception over to someone else. It is a system of checks, especially when judgment is involved.

This is not toxic positivity

Elisheva Balas names the risk before anyone else has to. None of this is saying "it's all good" while you are suffering. It is not self-deception.

What she describes is harder and more honest: I can be genuinely challenged, feel blocked, want a different reality, and at the same time trust wholeheartedly that this is taking me in the right direction.

She goes further and gives lack a purpose. Being full, receiving everything as expected, being treated the way we want, is a tricky place to be, because there the desire to grow diminishes. It is lack that opens room for more Light. Without it there would be no desire, and without desire there would be no vessel.

And there is a reminder for anyone who judges themselves: even when I look at one instant of my own movie and feel shame or regret, that is a snapshot. You do not judge the whole book by a single page.

This week comes with extra weight

The practical warning of the episode is this, and it is worth writing down: this week we will be tested. We will see things that are easy to judge, situations that look wrong, unfair, out of proportion. That is not an accident. It is the training.

If the week carries extra energy to shift perception, it will bring along the material to exercise it. And the place the training shows up most strongly is in anticipation, before the result. The question "will it go well or badly?" already assumes the situation is the one deciding.

The way out Eitan Yardeni offers is to declare freedom before knowing: if the good comes, I will grow in appreciation and use it to do more good for others. If it does not, it was not meant for me, and I grow from it. I am free either way.