Question: If a person asks to be brought closer to the light, won’t it be an egoistic request? After all, he wants it to be better for him.

Answer: It doesn’t matter. Desiring spiritual things egotistically for oneself is called Lo Lishma.

A person wants to experience the spiritual world, to receive spiritual life and a sense of true reality, and to see that his life is not wasted. After all, it is going by and who knows how long he has left? He doesn’t want to end it pointlessly.

A person initially cannot think about anything but his own benefit. Therefore ,if he does not egotistically desire the spiritual and imagine it as good, he will never turn to it.

Therefore the spiritual path begins with egoistic attainment (Lo Lishma), and then, under the influence of the upper light (Ohr Makif), the egoistic attitude to the spiritual itself is replaced by altruism (Lishma).

Therefore a person’s egoism is called “help against oneself” (Ezer Kenegdo) because it leads one to a state where he suddenly sees: “But it’s precisely what is bothering me!”

The very ego that helped me so much and pushed me forward, I must now destroy, not the desires themselves, but only their egoistic intention. Thus gradually the light changes me.
[5237]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/17/23

Related Material:
Lo Lishma: Having Something To Correct
Kabbalistic Terms: “Lishma”
The Great Value Of Lo Lishma

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson | Add Comment →