The core of creation and the correction of creation. It is known that the purpose of creation is to do good to His creations, meaning that the Creator wants to bestow abundance upon the lower ones. As long as one has not received all the pleasures and still feels some deficiency, it is a sign that he has not achieved the goal in full.
However, achieving the completion of creation must be a correction, as it is the correction of creation, which is upon the created beings to do. This is the meaning of “which God has created to do.”
This correction is the desire to bestow, as explained in the books of Baal HaSulam, that before a person corrects his intention that all his actions will be for the sake of the Creator, it is impossible to receive the upper pleasures, a discernment called “receiving in order to bestow.”
This work of bestowal is all the work that we should do, since it is against the nature imprinted in us, called “will to receive.” We must do the opposite, to crave only to bestow and not receive for ourselves.
We can understand this through an allegory. If a person wants to build a house, having the house is regarded as the goal, and the completion of his desire is to have the house. However, in order to be given the house, he must make a correction, and before he makes the correction, he will not have the house.
It follows that he must do two things: 1) He engages in achieving the goal, which is having the house, meaning to come into the house and put his belongings in there, and so forth. 2) He engages in correction, meaning how to have the correction by which he will have the house. The correction in order to have the house is called “money,” meaning that by giving money to the owner, the owner will give him the apartment.
However, having money requires labor. After he labors, he will be paid a reward for the labor, and when he has the money, he will receive the house from the owner of the house. Before he gives him the money, he will not have the house. It follows that the correction and qualification to deserve receiving the house is the money.
It therefore follows that when one exerts in order to obtain money, it is considered that he engages in corrections. That is, all the work that a person does and in which he should have success was said only about obtaining the correction, which is the money. This is not so with the work on receiving the house; at that time, he has no work.
The size and importance of the house depend only on the corrections, on how much money he has.
From this we understand that in spirituality, too, it is impossible to achieve the goal, meaning pleasures, before a person makes the correction, and the correction is the desire to bestow, meaning Lishma [for Her sake]. If one works Lishma, then as our sages said, “the secrets of Torah are revealed to him and he becomes like a flowing stream, and all the world becomes worthwhile for him.” But if he does not have the desire Lishma, he will not be given any of the spiritual things.
It follows that the desire Lishma is like money in corporeality, where measuring the attainment of the goal depends on the intensity of the desire Lishma. As it is impossible to obtain money without work, but only after the work does he receive money, so it is impossible to receive the desire Lishma without labor.
In other words, by exerting in Torah and Mitzvot [commandments], one is rewarded with the desire Lishma. A person must see that all the reward that he hopes to be given from Torah and Mitzvot is the desire Lishma. When he has this desire, he will be able to receive the goal and the completeness. Hence, there is work on corrections, on engagement in achieving the correction, and there is work on receiving the goal.