Correct the Aim

Q: You often use the term, “aim.” Which should I prefer when the aim contradicts the Mitzva?

A: A Mitzva is a correction of man’s inner intentions, which makes the phrasing of the question incorrect. We need not correct anything but the aim, meaning our intent to delight ourselves alone, the aim for ourselves.

Man’s nature is not to take anybody else into consideration, and to work only for himself. That is man’s essence. Our only duty is to alter that nature, and that is the only thing that we can call “correction.”

There can be no contradiction between a Mitzva and an aim. The Mitzva is a gradual process of correction of the aim, from “for me,” to ”for the Creator.” Man must correct that aim at all cost. The mechanical acts that a person performs in this world, which are called Mitzvot, are not spiritual Mitzvot, but customs whose actual spiritual meaning is unintelligible to us.