Woman: The Source of (Spiritual) Life - Official Kabbalah Publication of the Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Education & Research Institute
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Woman: The Source of (Spiritual) Life

We women always want something. Finally, there’s an explanation to this phenomenon – recommended reading for men and woman alike

A study published in the July issue of the Journal of Happiness Studies reports that while women start out adult life happier than men, they are less happy by the time they reach midlife. The study analyzes two factors of well-being — finances and family, and reveals that men and women form aspirations differently. In other words, our desires are different.

If we look for a pattern, we’ll find that men tend to be more easily satisfied with material sources of fulfillment, such as consumer goods, a nice home, a flashy car, travel and sports. While women also desire some of these things, their overall tendency is to long for something more. As women mature, they realize that material things do not bring lasting fulfillment. No matter how much money they make, how good their marriage or how successful their career, they are still more likely to be dissatisfied.

A Woman’s Perception

Actually, a woman perceives everything differently than a man. She has additional insights because she gives birth to new life. This is obvious in the physical world, but it’s equally true in the spiritual world. A woman, being the “source of new life,” also more intuitively feels the desire for new spiritual life. Men, on the other hand, have to work harder to develop this desire, because it does not come to them as naturally.

The underlying desire women have for spirituality is precisely why they quickly grow dissatisfied with anything they have. Consciously or unconsciously, women begin searching for a deeper source of fulfillment, which results in their persistent feeling of discontent with anything they have in the physical world.

Men, Women and Spiritual Fulfillment

The desire for spirituality comes from the very depth of one’s heart. Kabbalists refer to it as “the point in the heart,” which is a tiny “spark” of spirituality. Once it awakens, it continues to grow, leading us higher into the spiritual world until it fills our entire experience and perception.

Both men and women can feel this desire, but a woman is more likely to seriously pursue it. As soon as she senses the new possibilities offered by this new desire, her focus shifts right to it. She intuitively realizes that it is the only thing that can bring lasting satisfaction, fulfillment and true happiness.

However, a woman cannot develop this desire in isolation. She develops it precisely by sharing her passion for spirituality with everyone around her. She is able to incite a passion in others to reveal and attain the spiritual world, and thereby fulfill her feminine role as the origin of life, cultivating spiritual life in others.

Not surprisingly, one way a man can expand his spiritual desire is by absorbing it from a woman. Unlike women, however, men’s nature isn’t based on desire, but on the fulfillment of desire. Therefore, when men develop their spiritual spark, they enable the women’s desire to be fulfilled. That’s because in the spiritual world, there are no bodies, but only desires and properties. By realizing their spiritual nature, women provide a spiritual desire, and men provide the fulfillment for that desire.

This is how men and women complement each other spiritually, and enable one another to reach a state of perfection and boundless fulfillment.