Rabash, Shlavey HaSulam (Steps of the Ladder), Article “What Is the Prohibition to Greet Before One Greets the Creator in the Work”: One must serve the Creator and always look for the ways to bring Him contentment so that the Creator would be pleased by his deeds.

It is written: “The Creator will rejoice at His deeds.” This is because the Creator’s deeds are the created beings who will bring Him joy.

We must work above the desire for pleasure. Everything that happens in it pertains to the still, vegetative, and animate levels of this world, to the materialistic psychology. Here, we determine what we perceive as sweet and bitter, and even if we want to rise higher, we don’t have the strength for it. We are not even aware that something higher exists.

A person becomes aware of his inner struggle with his egoism only after prolonged work. He develops a dilemma: the Creator or an egoistic calculation, and he is torn between them. Then, from the “seesaw” that has manifested in his will to receive pleasure a person rises to a higher “seesaw,” the state of choice referred to as “Klipat Noga (the Noga shell).”

This is when the constant calculations of darkness and Light which take place in his egoistic desire end. Now, “Light” is when regardless of his desire, a person feels that the Creator changes him, “operates” him, frees his attitude from his own nature, and helps rise above his egoism.

The Creator takes man out of calculations of personal benefit, and He enjoys His deeds. We are the Creator’s deeds, His work. The Creator rejoices at changing us.

This is why man must be ready to “sacrifice” himself, in other words, bring himself closer, “enter the operating room,” and entrust himself to the work that the Creator does on him. In this way, man comes to truth.
[33469]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/2011, Writings of Rabash

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