READING: BETWEEN AFTER MIDNINGHT AND DAWN TUESDAY

Baal HaSulam. Shamati, 20. Lishma [for Her sake]

LESSON MATERIAL

20. Lishma [for Her sake]

I heard in 1945

Concerning Lishma [for Her sake]. In order for a person to obtain Lishma, one needs an awakening from above, as it is an illumination from above and it is not for the human mind to understand. Rather, he who tastes, knows. It is said about this, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”

Because of this, upon assuming the burden of the kingdom of heaven, one needs it to be in utter completeness, meaning only to bestow and not at all to receive. If a person sees that the organs do not agree with this view, he has no other choice but prayer—to pour out his heart to the Creator to help him make his body consent to enslaving itself to the Creator.

Do not say that if Lishma [for Her sake] is a gift from above, what good is one’s overcoming and efforts, and all the remedies and corrections that he does in order to achieve Lishma, if it depends on the Creator? Our sages said about it, “You are not free to rid yourself of it.” Rather, one must give the awakening from below, and this is considered “prayer.” Yet, there cannot be a real prayer if he does not know first that without prayer it cannot be obtained.

Therefore, the acts and remedies he does in order to obtain Lishma create the corrected Kelim [vessels] in him that want to receive the Lishma. Then, after all the actions and the remedies he can pray in earnest since he saw that all his actions did not help him whatsoever. Only then can he make an honest prayer from the bottom of his heart, and then the Creator hears his prayer and gives him the gift of Lishma.

We should also know that by obtaining Lishma, one puts the evil inclination to death. The evil inclination is called “receiving for one’s own benefit.” By obtaining the aim to bestow, one cancels the self-benefit. Putting to death means that one no longer uses one’s vessels of reception for oneself. And since it is no longer active, it is considered dead.

If one considers what one receives for his work under the sun, he will find that it is not so difficult to submit himself to the Creator, for two reasons:

1. One must strain oneself in this world in any case, whether one wants to or not.
2. During the work, too, if one works Lishma, he receives pleasure from the work itself.

It is as the Sayer from Dubna said about the verse, “You did not call Me, Jacob, for you labored about Me, Israel.” It means that he who works for the Creator has no labor. On the contrary, one has pleasure and elation.

But he who does not work for the Creator, but for other goals, cannot complain to the Creator that He is not giving him vitality in the work, since he is working for another goal. One can complain only to the one for whom he works, to give vitality and pleasure during his work. It is said about him: “They who make them shall be like them, every one who trusts them.”

Do not be surprised that when one assumes the burden of the kingdom of heaven, when he wants to work in order to bestow upon the Creator, he still feels no vitality at all, and that this vitality would compel one to assume the burden of the kingdom of heaven. Rather, one should accept it coercively, against his better judgment. That is, the body does not agree to this enslavement, why the Creator does not shower him with vitality and pleasure.

The reason is that this is a great correction. Were it not for this, if the will to receive had agreed to this work, one would never have been able to achieve Lishma. Rather, he would always work for his own benefit, to satisfy his own desires. It is as people say, that the thief himself yells, “Catch the thief!” and then you cannot tell which is the real thief in order to catch him and reclaim the theft from him.

But when the thief, meaning the will to receive, does not find the work of accepting the burden of the kingdom of heaven tasteful, since the body accustoms itself to work against its will, one has the means by which to come to work only in order to bring contentment to his Maker, since his sole intention should be only for the Creator, as it is written, “Then shall you delight yourself in the Lord.” Thus, when he served the Creator in the past, he did not sense any pleasure in the work. Rather his work was compulsory.

But now that he has accustomed himself to work in order to bestow, he is rewarded with delighting in the Creator, and the work itself renders him pleasure and vitality. This is considered that the pleasure, too, is specifically for the Creator.