Darkness by Design: Understanding the Cycles of Growth and Gilui

What if your darkness wasn’t a detour — but the design?

In this shiur on Tzidkas HaTzaddik 11, we uncover Rav Tzadok’s foundational principle: choshech (darkness) doesn’t just come before or (light) — it makes the light possible. From the opening lines of creation to the inner cycles of your own avodah, the Torah reveals a pattern: absence before presence, void before revelation, klipah before pri.

Rav Tzadok reframes how we encounter difficulty, delay, or silence — not as breakdowns, but as the exact conditions that allow something higher to emerge. We explore:

• Why the Torah begins with night
• How your own setbacks might be the first step of giluy
• And why Torah and Kodshim are the rare places where light comes first

A shiur about beginnings, but even more — about how to begin again.