The brilliance of making the world with incorporation of opposites:[1]
A general rule of how G-d created the world is that he imbued it with incorporation of opposite aspects. This is a great benefit for the world and for its stability, that even severities contains kindness and even kindness contains severities. Without this, the world would not be able to exist at all. What would be if the North was intrinsically the aspect of severities without incorporation of kindness? The answer is that the North would not be inhabitable due to the dire heat. For this reason G-d imbued within it the aspect of kindness, so it can express kindness which is a cold climate that cools off the heat of its severities.
Each level expresses its opposite: Based on the above it ends up that whichever aspect one intrinsically belongs to, whether kindness or severity, not only does it incorporate the opposite aspects, but it actually expresses the opposite aspect. So kindness expresses severity and severity expresses kindness. This is similar to the idea explained in the first discourse that when a woman gives seed first she has a male child while when a man gives seed first they have a female child, as each one expresses the opposite aspect.
The divine lesson: From the above teaching we can learn a very important lesson regarding our personalities and qualities. One should never feel that he is the epitome of perfection in his character and qualities, as everyone contains a different quality that is not contained in another. Hence, we should always be ready to incorporate within ourselves character traits and qualities found in other people. Incorporation of others is the only way to reach true completion and stability, just as we learn above regarding the world. At the same time, one should also never feel that he has no advantages over others and contains no good qualities, as in truth, certainly even he contains qualities that others don’t have. From the above we also learn that even if a person has a specific very strong personality trait nonetheless, he should not resort to being locked into that trait, and he can work on himself to incorporate other traits as well. Thus, even one who is naturally very mean can do nice things and become nice, and even one who is naturally very nice can incorporate becoming severe and serious when necessary. As the saying goes, “You are not what you are, but rather you are what you work to become.”
[1] Likkutei Torah Tazria
