Question: If I am going to perform an action of “If I am not for me, who is for me?”, where can I get the confidence that I will not enjoy it to the extent that I will disconnect from Him?

Answer: In his book A Sages Fruit, Baal HaSulam gives an example that in the morning a person should say: “If I am not for me, who is for me?” and in the evening, “There is none else besides Him.”

What does this mean? Suppose I am going to work now, and I am working hard; meaning, I am going to immerse myself in the desire to receive, sweat, and think that thanks to this effort I will get paid. Afterward, I examine the situation and realize that it is not me who is sweating and receiving payment, but rather, the Creator gives me the work and the earnings. In other words, the work lies not in what I actually do, but in how I relate to it.

If I change my attitude toward what I must do in life by recognizing that He is the one sending it to me, then I will feel neither the difficulty of connecting with Him nor the difficulty of performing any work because the “work” as such ceases to exist. Our difficulty lies in the challenge of forging a connection between ourselves, the purpose of creation, and the work that exists before me.

It is not difficult for a person to dig a hole all the way to the center of the earth. If through this action they remain connected with the Creator, they will receive endless energy and motivation. We do not understand that the problem is not the physical difficulties, but the fact that the action is not connected to the light, to the Creator.

If you connect with the Creator in every task, if the work becomes a purposeful action and begins to bring you the light from above and adhesion, then the light of adhesion will serve as your payment; and then instead of sweating during the action, you will be in the designated goal. The action itself will become the goal.

Therefore, our work embodied in the phrase“If I am not for me, who is for me?” lies in drawing closer to the one who is the cause of our work. In that state the work ceases to feel like labor. That is why, in the evening, after you have succeeded in unifying all this, you declare: “If I am not for me, who is for me?”

Of course, this does not refer to our literal mornings and evenings. Morning represents the intention where you act as Hafetz Hesed (desiring nothing for yourself), in Hassadim (Mercy) without Hochma (Wisdom). And in the evening, when there is no light, you receive Hochma and say: “If I am not for me, who is for me.” This signifies that you have brought this light to yourself, through your own effort.

In the morning the light comes through the Creator, while in the evening, even in darkness, light becomes possible through your own effort.

In life we often find it difficult to perform a task, perhaps we are weary or harbor some resistance to it and find it burdensome. Yet, if I attach a sense of purpose to this action, it becomes easy to perform. I sort of forget about the action itself; it becomes merely a means to connect with what I am currently united with—a means for achieving the goal.

Therefore, we should not pay attention to what is happening to us; rather, we should concentrate on our attitude toward what is happening.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/17/26, Rabash, “Who Needs to Know that a Person Withstood the Test?”

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