We view spiritual work as a means to achieve a goal. The goal is described as good, beautiful, and pleasant. The goal is eternal life and eternal rest.

Is everything written by the Kabbalists meant for lazy people? “Work now, and afterward, thank God, you will rest”? There is no end to the interpretations on this topic.

Do I really have to die in order to attain the goal? What exactly must I attain in order to rest? It is like in the joke: a man is lying under a tree, and he is told: “Go work.”

“What for?”

“You will earn a lot of money and you will rest, lying under the tree!”

And he answers: “But I am already lying under the tree!”

It is the same here: What does it mean that now I must work and afterward I will rest, rest will come later? After all, it is said that rest is the goal of creation.

We study that reality is unchanging. The upper light is in absolute rest within His Kli. This state is prepared from the outset, and we are already in it, although for now it is hidden from us.

Baal HaSulam brings many examples of this. For instance, the story about the son of a wealthy man who sits in the basement until he grows up and understands where he is, or about people running to the King’s palace to reach Him. Yet ultimately, as it is said: “And you shall eat that which has long been stored up”; meaning, we are already in this state, but we must prepare the Kelim (vessels) in order to feel it.

The preparation of the vessels is called applying effort or work. After a person has prepared his Kelim, he attains equivalence of form with the light: the light is in absolute rest, and the person also comes to this state. This is a partial explanation of why the goal is called rest.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/5/26, Rabash, “What Does, ‘Everything that Comes to Be a Burnt Offering Is Male,’ Mean in the Work?”

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