Question: We see actions, but we do not see intentions. Is it possible to ever see the magnitude of the intention is, and how great versus the magnitude of the action?

Answer: A Kli can sense how great the intention is according to the principle, “From Your actions we know You.” How can I appreciate a mother who gives and gives if I only receive and receive, and have no quality of bestowal?

When I begin to learn what it means to bestow or when I grow up and the same desires that my mother had arise in me on the animate level, then I remember what my mother did for me, I understand how much she loves me, and I understand her intentions. I can discern someone’s intentions only if I have the same intentions myself.

There can be no adhesion (Dvekut) in the will to receive. Everyone constantly remains in their will to receive, which does not change. But the desire to bestow, called the intention above the will to receive, does change. By changing my intention, which means changing the desire to bestow, I can understand another person and their intentions.

The Creator has neither intentions nor actions. It is only in relation to us that His actions may appear bad, only to be revealed later as good. This is because we attain Him through our own Kelim (vessels). Our sensation is divided into Kli and intention. An action may be one of reception, while the intention, the form of the action, is one of bestowal. Therefore we can have parts within us that are opposite to one another. But there is nothing like this in the Creator.

Since we receive from Him into our Kelim, we also divide what we receive into two parts: how it is felt in our Kelim and how it is felt in our consciousness, in our perception of the intention. We might think that the Creator is acting badly, even though His intention is good. But from His side there is only one direct action.

When can I receive directly what emanates from Him? When I attain the same intention as He has, and my Kli immediately perceives its correct, direct expression. Then I decipher it not through my receiving Kelim, but only according to my intentions to bestow.

I remember before an operation in the hospital, a doctor approached me, a man two meters tall who weighed 120 kilograms. He said I was about to feel some discomfort, then he sat on top of me and nearly crushed the life out of me. My rib cage was shattered, and he said he was going to make an opening in it. He took something resembling a drill and drove it into my chest. This was done without anesthesia because I was in a condition that could not wait.

I drifted in and out of consciousness, yet I felt no hatred toward him. Later, we spoke about it, and he was surprised that I remembered everything that had happened. Usually people lose consciousness completely. But I remembered it, and for me, it was a very valuable lesson. A person inflicts such pain upon you that you want to die to escape the sensation, yet you feel no hatred toward him. This demonstrates that the intention holds absolute dominion over action, even within our world.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/23/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘Anyone Who Mourns for Jerusalem Is Rewarded with Seeing Its Joy,’ in the Work?”

Related Material:
Intention Is Action
One Action, Different Intentions
Correcting the Intention

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