Take jealousy for example. Without this quality, we would not have the strength to do spiritual work. After all, spiritual work means rising above our ego. This is something against our ego. But if we tap into the force of jealousy/envy, then it’s like the sages wrote: “envy, lust, and honor take a person out of this world”. Meaning that if we learn how to use these qualities correctly, we can find the right fuel to come out of our egoistic world into the spiritual world, filled with love and bestowal.
Keep in mind that we practice all these things within this safe environment that we call the Kabbalistic group. Outside of the group, we should act normal, just like everyone else. We’ll learn more about all these things and how to apply them practically in the more advanced semesters when everyone will receive their own Kabbalistic group.
You can say that anything that takes place within our default nature, the desire to receive pleasure, is predetermined. Only when we rise above this nature, do we gain any sort of freedom.
See my reply 55264 to Marion below for more details.
Yes, there are a lot of Kabbalistic books that have been written throughout the generations, including what is called the “old testament”. Keep in mind that Kabbalistic books are written in a type of code called the language of roots and branches. Meaning that they use words of our world to describe spiritual phenomena.
Yes, you can say that the story from the book of Job is an example of the path of pain, that we are constantly being pushed by sufferings towards the purpose of creation. But if instead of waiting for the sufferings to push us, we start to aspire towards that purpose by ourselves, then we don’t need those sufferings anymore.