64. From Lo Lishma, We Come to Lishma

I heard on VaYechi, Tevet 14, December 27, 1947

“From Lo Lishma [not for Her sake] we come to Lishma [for Her sake].” If we pay close attention, we can say that the period of Lo Lishma is the more important time, since it is easier to unite the act with the Creator.

This is so because in Lishma one says that he did this good deed because he is serving the Creator in wholeness, and all his actions are for the sake of the Creator. It follows that he is the owner of the act.

However, when one works Lo Lishma, one does not do the good deed for the sake of the Creator. Thus, he cannot come to Him with a complaint that he deserves a reward. Thus, for him the Creator does not become indebted.

Hence, why did he do that good deed? Only because the Creator provided him an opportunity that this SAM would compel him and force him to do it.

For example, if people come to one’s house, and he is ashamed to sit idly, he takes a book and learns Torah. Thus, for whom is he learning Torah? It is not because of the commandment of the Creator, to be pleasing in the eyes of the Creator, but for the guests who came into his domain, to be pleasing in the eyes of man. Thus, how then can one seek reward from the Creator for this Torah in which he engaged for the guests?

It follows that for him, the Creator did not become indebted, and instead, he can charge the guests, that they would pay him a reward, meaning respect him for learning Torah. However, one cannot obligate the Creator in any way.

When one performs self-examination and says that in the end I am engaging in the Torah, and he tosses off the cause, meaning the guests, and says that now he is working only for the sake of the Creator, then one should immediately say that everything is conducted from above. It means that the Creator wanted to grant him engagement in the Torah, but he is not worthy of receiving an element of truth. For this reason, the Creator gives him a false cause, and through this cause he engages in the Torah.

It follows that the Creator is the operator, and not the person. Then, moreover, he should praise the Creator that even in a state of lowliness that he is in, the Creator does not leave him and gives him strength, meaning fuel to want to engage in words of Torah.

You find that if he pays attention to this act, he notices that the Creator is the operator, as in “He alone does and will do all the deeds.” Yet, one does not put any action in the good deed. Although the person does that Mitzva [commandment], he does not do it for a Mitzva, but for another cause (man), and the cause extended from the separation.

The truth is that the Creator is the cause and the reason that compels him. But the Creator is robed in him in another clothing, and not in a clothing of a Mitzva, but for another fear or another love. It follows that during the Lo Lishma, it is easier to attribute the good deed and say that the Creator is the doer of the good deed, and not man.

This is simple, since one does not want to do the thing for a Mitzva, but for another cause. However, in Lishma, one knows about oneself that he is working because of the Mitzva, meaning that he himself was the cause, meaning because of a Mitzva, and not because the Creator placed the idea and the desire to make the Mitzva in his heart, but he himself chose it. But the truth is that it was all done by the Creator, but private Providence cannot be attained prior to attaining the matter of reward and punishment.