Question: How can you properly direct pride in the right direction?

Answer: This trait is our inherent nature, our sense of “self” that separates us from the Creator. My “self” stands between me and the Creator and acts as a barrier or screen. Therefore, I need to transform my “self” into a screen that facilitates interaction with the Creator.

To the extent that I aim to rise above my “self” and connect with the Creator, not by annulling myself completely, but by rising above myself, I perform a restriction (Tzimtzum) on my egoism. This means I refrain from using my ego and begin working toward becoming similar to the Creator, striving to be like Him.

This is essentially our work: to transform the separating screen into one that controls our ego, confines it, and allows us to work above it. We develop a spiritual screen and reflected light that enables us to calculate how to bestow upon the Creator and, to some degree, become like Him.

Thus, pride is necessary, we should not destroy it; instead, we should transform it into similarity with the Creator. Our pride, our “self,” and our ego remain intact, but we clothe them in various forms of resemblance to the Creator.

We already use this principle in our everyday lives. For example, we don’t behave in public like small children running around naked and doing whatever they please. We adopt various societal norms, “dress” ourselves in these behaviors, and project a certain image. The same applies in the spiritual realm.

If we want to resemble the Creator, we reveal Him by becoming like Him. When we clothe ourselves in His likeness, we become Adam, meaning “human,” derived from the word “Domeh”—similar to the Creator.

Therefore, our pride remains within, but we continuously “dress” it in new layers of similarity to the Creator. As we do so, we gradually become more human, just as in the physical world, where a child grows into a mature, educated, and respectful adult.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/2/19, “Questions and Answers”

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