Question: Does it make sense to perform actions without a desire, without an inner attitude? Suppose I know that right now I am not capable of desiring the Creator, but I was told that if I work in the kitchen, for example, I will attain this.

Answer: First of all, a person must act. As it is said in the “Preface to The Book of Zohar”: even commandments without intention purify the body, but on the level of Nefesh de Nefesh.

What does commandments without intention mean? It is when a person like you wants to reach the goal but does not know by which actions exactly.

It is said that even simple commandments, that is, various corrections of desires without the intention for the sake of the Creator will help if you try to come out of the inanimate (Domem) state. This state is characterized by a lack of understanding and absence of sensation as if you do not exist at all.

Question: But must a person ask himself what he is doing this for?

Answer: When you act without knowing why, you are like a small child. He looks at his father and repeats the same actions after him, without knowing why he is doing them. This is called the “monkey” instinct. In fact, this is the most correct learning when the small one wants to become similar to the great one only through actions.

“From Your actions we shall know You.” From the fact that a person performs these actions, he begins to understand the mind, the plan of the upper, why He does this. Then the lower one begins to receive this mind. Even in this world you never know the next degree in advance, its plan or how it works. You see only its external form, that is, how it acts on you.

It has other Reshimot, other intentions that you do not touch at all and about which you have no idea. Of course, you cannot act as it does because you do not have such Reshimot, screens, and forces. And nevertheless, if in your state you try to do everything as it is done there, despite the fact that you have no desire and no Reshimot, this will mean that you want to become similar to the upper.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/23/26, Rabash, “The Measure of Practicing Mitzvot [Commandments]”

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