Question: I do not have a button I can press to start this process. I must go through all the stages you described. When I examine myself and see that everything I do is not for bestowal but for my own sake, what comes next? Awareness of evil does not arise through the intellect.

Answer: The practical awareness of evil, that is, awareness of whether one’s intention is aimed at receiving or at bestowal—arises mainly through efforts in the group, study, and dissemination. The more a person invests in these activities while simultaneously wanting to perceive his intention, the more clearly one begins to see it thanks to those efforts. Without such an investment, one would have no way to recognize one’s intention.

After the shattering of the Kelim, fragments of the shattered screens remained within us. We need to feel them. How is this possible?

Once there was a screen opposite the light, and the screen and the light were equal. Now the screen and the light are opposites. I must feel this opposition so that it will push me to replace the shattered screen with a corrected one.

How can this be done? I must perform actions that I would carry out using with corrected screens. These actions are study, work in the group, and dissemination. We have no other actions at our disposal that are connected with the screen. I am not speaking about eating more, drinking more, or receiving more pleasures. We still have many stages to pass before reaching those matters; those are actions of reception.

The actions of bestowal that can be connected with screens of bestowal are study, interaction in the group, and dissemination. If, while performing these actions, I think about my attitude toward myself, my friends, or the Creator, I immediately see how far I am from bestowal.

With other actions, I quickly fall into an illusion and can somehow justify myself. But with these actions, I cannot. That is why the sages advise us to act. Otherwise, I too might sit in a corner like some great Kabbalist, going nowhere and doing nothing (although, in reality, they all worked, but let’s suppose otherwise) and perform the Yihudim (“unifications”) associated with Kabbalists.

Yihudim means that, through the screen, a person connects himself with the upper light. Therefore, in this world, only these actions remain for us to perform. I must make sure that every day includes study, dissemination, and work in the group, while simultaneously focusing on the intention, the purpose, behind everything I do. 

It is said that even if my desire to draw closer to the Creator through this actions stems from wanting my own well-being, yet I still remember the Creator and recognize that I do not think about Him very much, this constitutes the state known as  Lo Li­shma. From this state, I grow and draw closer to the goal.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson on 9/8/26, Rabash, Article 40, 1989 “What Is, “Every Day They Will Be as New in Your Eyes,” in the Work?”

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