Work aimed at realizing the greatness of the giver is our only work, as in the example of the guest and the host.

Either I act according to my desire to receive pleasure or my “human” level enters the picture, the point in the heart, the quality of Bina, that I received as a result of the shattering of the vessels. This is a divine spark from above, my soul, opposite which I sense the host. Then I have two elements of perception within me: my natural desire to receive pleasure from the host and the point within me that senses the host Himself as the giver.

Now I conduct two kinds of calculations: with Him as the giver of pleasure and with Him as the giver. I find myself in this separation, and this is where the work begins. What is more important to me? Him, His greatness, or arranging my relationship with Him? Or does it not matter to me who He is and what He is, as long as I receive from Him and fill myself?

Therefore if we want to develop correctly, we must constantly cultivate the awareness of the host, the concept of the host, the giver.

Initially, a person stands before the host and does not see Him. Not seeing the host is very important because it brings a person shame, the feeling that he is a receiver, that he must restrict his desires, and exert all his strength to develop his attitude toward the giver so that the giver becomes increasingly more important than the pleasures that come from Him.

If He is greater than the pleasures that come from Him, then I continually restrict my desire to receive and I do not wish to operate within it. I prefer to remain in connection with the giver, who is great. This gives me greater pleasure, greater confidence, and fills me more. And it fills me for the sake of receiving, which is called “Lo Lishma,” yet I still prefer to be connected with the host rather than simply with the pleasures.

Then a stage comes when even this “consumer” connection with the host, when I “use” Him for my own interests, no longer appears favorable to me. When I prefer connection with the host over pleasures, that connection awakens in me an awareness of the nature of His character.

This is involves attaching importance to the act of bestowal, to the quality of bestowal itself. This is called “the enchantment of holiness.” This quality itself becomes so important to me that I no longer wish to be connected with the host through my vessels of reception. I want to connect with bestowal and to belong to it. This means that a person begins to step out of himself into the quality of the giver.

Then he seeks the means by which he can truly do this. He still needs awareness of the greatness of the host, but now of His greatness as the giver. This is pure Bina, which a person wishes to acquire. As one acquires it, one begins to resemble the host, but only in that one wishes to be like Him. This means that a person, as it were, acquires Galgalta ve Eynaim, the qualities of bestowal.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/26/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘The Saboteur Was in the Flood, and Was Putting to Death,’ in the Work?”

Related Material:
The Greatness Of The Giver
Reversal of the Intention to Receive
Desire And Intention

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