Answer: Shame is what differentiates a human from an ape. It stems from a sense of the difference between the giver and the receiver. After that, everything depends only on the causes of the situations in which I feel myself as a giver or receiver, and according to this, I sense either perfection or shame. Shame is the opposite of perfection.
Forget everything with which you associate the word “shame” in this world. It’s totally different. It’s a sensation of separation between the giver and the receiver in spirituality. Real shame is a spiritual feeling, and material shame is always possible to mute, to hide in some way.
Real shame comes only on the condition that I feel the Creator as giving and loving, and myself as blaming, cursing Him, and desiring to steal from Him. In short, everything is the other way around! To the extent that we reveal ourselves as standing one against the other, I feel shame, and it compels me to cover myself, my egoism, and begin its correction.
Thus, shame is a particularly useful feeling for correction. That’s why it’s revealed on the condition that a person is able to correct himself. Otherwise, there’s no need. It makes no sense to shame a cat for drinking somebody else’s milk and to appeal to its conscience. The cat wouldn’t feel any shame. It can feel only that it was beaten for its action and will be afraid to repeat it next time. This means that the animal will be ruled by the fear of suffering not by shame.
Shame comes as a result of development when you sense a higher degree: how perfect it is in comparison with you, how much it loves you, and how opposite your relation to it is. And you can do nothing with yourself.
To feel this gap, a person is required to have inner intelligence, not merely the material mind and emotions. Everything depends on how much he appreciates this property of bestowal, and not in relation to himself. After all, he may feel like a baby who isn’t ashamed to receive from his mother.
Moreover, it’s only when he rises above the state of a baby with its mother and wants to feel independent. If he lacks this freedom, he feels shame. A slave who doesn’t yearn for freedom doesn’t feel shame because he belongs to his master. The one who wants to grow to be a free person starts to feel shame immediately and thus comes to freedom.
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/24/2011, Talmud Eser Sefirot