Question: When a person is in a group, what is important: only their intention or their actions as well?

Answer: It is impossible for actions not to be important in our world. Who knows a person’s true intentions? Even the person himself does not know his intentions. This is why the wisdom of Kabbalah is called the science of the hidden.

Intentions are the main thing: for what purpose, why, toward what end, and in what direction I am thinking, aspiring, and directing my desire. These intentions are hidden from us so a person can only determine whether an action was correct after it was performed through the reaction it produces.

Therefore, we must take the action itself into account. Naturally, even the worst-looking action can be clothed in another intention. However, in our state, within the group, while we are still below the spiritual level, we do not see what exists beyond the external: intentions, desires, and thoughts.

The spiritual world is a state in which I perceive these as tangible, existing things. I see that there is a field of single thought, a single program, and one desire, called the Creator, which acts and sets everything into motion.

But before I see this field and become included in it, whether by my own volition or not, and before I reach such a level of reality, the external actions of people are very important to me. I am influenced by them.

I see one person sitting at a computer for hours preparing material for others, another hurrying to give lectures, a third doing something else. And I am inspired by this. I still experience reality through the sensation of bodies and do not see thoughts the way I currently see only the body.

When I enter what is called the future world, the next degree, and see thoughts and desires, truly holding and sensing them, and they become more important to me than bodily movements, then, of course, I will no longer need bodies. But for now, within the group, it is very important how we move, act, and present ourselves to one another.

To do the opposite, harboring good intentions while our external actions appear contrary to them, is to exploit another person’s integrity and let them down, which is wrong. For example, I cannot pretend that I have stolen something and expect a friend to force himself to think that I have done something wonderful because he is supposed to judge me favorably and think well of me.

Such things are forbidden. In relation to the group, outwardly, I must appear as a good friend and show the group precisely my good external actions. I must act this way because it increases love.

At first, I see the friend as an egoist. Then I see myself as an egoist while I no longer see him that way. And afterward I feel shame to the point that I cannot look him in the eyes. I truly feel ashamed to look at him and ashamed to see myself wanting to use him for self-gratification, to take advantage of him in various ways; then correction comes.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson for the holiday of Sukkot 10/5/26

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