We constantly adapt to various codes of behavior in order to avoid feeling ashamed.
Beyond taking care of life’s essentials, namely that we have food, shelter, good hygiene and can take care of our families, everything else we do is motivated by our need to avoid shame.
The reason for our need to avoid shame stems from the very basis of our existence, in the process of our reality’s formation.
The wisdom of Kabbalah, which explains the process of our reality’s creation and evolution, describes that the Creator (the will to bestow) created the creation (the will to receive) and filled it with light (pleasure, fulfillment, enjoyment). After the creation felt the pleasure by the light, it realized that there was a greater quality behind the pleasure that it felt—a giver of the pleasure. Feeling that there was a giver of the pleasure and that it was a receiver of the pleasure caused the creation to feel shame. In other words, shame is the first reaction of creation to feeling its Creator, and it is thus what we must complement in order to attain likeness to the Creator.
That is why in our world, which emerged from this giving-receiving interplay between the Creator and the creation, the feeling of shame is behind the way we think and act in society.
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