Work Without Intention Is Also Work

It is not right to think that there is no benefit from our study anddissemination if we still don’t have the right intention. These actions also advance us. A person’s action cannot be completely without intention. He must see the desired goal before him; this gives him fuel without which he could not advance.

If we act in order to receive, then we have fuel for this, but for the sake of bestowal, we cannot even move. So in the first stage we carry out actions of Lo Lishma with the same egoistic intention that we have, and these actions are useful and help us to advance. In the meantime, we are connected by an inseparable connection with our ego; the upper Light doesn’t make any separation between us.

Since we are in a shattered state, through our actions, we can still attract and summon from above the Parsa, from the world of Atzilut, the Light that Reforms that reaches us through the center of the group, influencing and advancing us. In work like this it seems to a person that he doesn’t advance and doesn’t carry out the right actions. But even though he sees that all the fruits of his work are left with Pharaoh, this is how it has to be, for the advancement in Egypt towards redemption is service under the domination of Pharaoh.

Our ego dominates us and takes all of our energy away from us. And sometimes it gives us energy, but after that, it takes all of the results of our toil. But there’s nothing to do if we are in its servitude; this is the Egyptian exile.

I must not think that the actions that are done under the control of the ego are useless and don’t bring anything. The person must overcome (Itgabrut) this, like a real man (Gever), in order to advance in spite of it all.

The children of Israel had to enter Egypt in order to take Kelim, desires to receive, out from this servitude. If there is no desire, even if it’s destructive, there is nothing to correct and there is nowhere to discover the higher power because the Light corresponds to theKli.

So it’s necessary to respect the work in Lo Lishma, which is given to us now in the period of the Egyptian exile, and to see that we acquire Kelim precisely through it. We need to look at all this in a balanced way and, on one hand, to respect Pharaoh. As it is said when Jacob entered Egypt, he blessed the Pharaoh, for specifically with the help of Pharaoh we raise from the level of Jacob to the level of Israel through the additional Aviutof the desire that Egypt added. So do not think that it is useless to work without intention, meaning without a true intention to bestow.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/16/14, Writings of Rabash