In the book Shamati, there are many articles that speak of hatred toward egoism (the Sitra Achra), how it surrounds a person, how one must hate it, rise above it, and outplay it. But all work with egoism must take place on the background of the understanding that “It all comes from the Creator,” that “There is none else besides Him.” Otherwise, we remain trapped within that same egoism (we work in Avoda Zarah).

Therefore, from the very beginning, a person must tune himself to the idea that “There is none else besides Him.” Only then can he begin to understand that it is the Creator Himself who deliberately places before him a quality opposite to His own so that the person will come to hate that quality, which is the opposite of the Creator. (“You who love the Creator, hate evil.”)

Only when there is genuine hatred toward one’s egoism because it separates him from the Creator, because it hides the Creator from him, can one truly separate from egoism through hatred. (“He who saves from the hands of the wicked.”)

Therefore all inner work must begin with the awareness that one’s entire state is from the Creator: “There is none else besides Him.” With the understanding that the Creator is playing with him from all sides (“From the rear and the front You encompassed me,” Psalms 139:5), the person himself must align with this game, and enter into it, the game with the Creator.
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