A question I received: If I hate the “Egypt” within me, how do I handle this, since it is also a part of me?

My Answer: The whole world is a part within me. I need to examine with what desires, aspirations, inclinations, and forces I can work now in order to advance to the goal; and with what desires, thoughts, and qualities I need to part, to separate myself from, in order to come closer to the goal. I need to elucidate what to draw away from and what to draw closer to. My movement is determined by what I separate myself from and what I connect with.

Since we are talking about our whole, common desire, which I don’t know what to do with, I need to clarify with which desires I wish to unite and which I do not. Our picture of the spiritual world, which we imagine to ourselves, seems similar to our world where we move from one object or place to another. However, in the spiritual world, I exist within one huge desire comprised of many different desires. I am situated in a space filled with desires with no empty spaces between them. There is no space without desires. Therefore, while I am in the uttermost depth of this field of desires where nothing except them exists, I merely need to sort through those desires: which do I wish to connect with and which I do not. This is called movement.

After all, the whole reality is a desire, a Sefira, within which I exist. There is nothing else. There are some desires, with which I am more connected, and others with which I am less connected, and some desires I reject. This is movement in the spiritual world. As I clarify more and more desires and unite with them, this is an “ascent.”

I exist among all of these desires, within matter where I was placed along with a small spark of Light. This spark allows me to scrutinize the desires. Our whole work consists of clarifying the desires within which we exist: which desires I can use for the sake of bestowal and which desires I am incapable of using for the sake of bestowal and need to reject using.

After all, we cannot come out of this field of desires; there is no empty space between them. Free space is what we call a desire that is not clear that has not been elucidated, which you do not see and cannot make out anything in it.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/20/10, The Zohar

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The Zohar, Chapter “Shemot (Exodus),” Item 250: And when the Creator saw the great joy of this world when it improved to being as above, He said, “Let not the twelve tribes mingle with the rest of the nations, leaving a blemish in all the worlds.” What did the Creator do? He shook all of them to and fro until they went down to Egypt to dwell in their abodes inside the obstinate nation, which despises their conducts and degrades them by not marrying with them or mingling with them, and by considering them slaves. The males were loathsome of them and the females were loathsome of them until everything was bettered by the holy seed without mingling with strangers….

There is a scrutiny of one’s state as one attempts to rid oneself of egoism, and then there’s a scrutiny of one’s state when one wishes to remain in (adapt to) his egoism. If I wish to remain in my egoism, then the egoism pushes me out through its hatred for me as it senses within me the point in the heart that is opposite to it. As it is written: “The Pharaoh brought the nation of Israel closer [via pointed oppression] to Israel,” and “I have created the ego as help against you.” It opposes you, and precisely therein is its help.

Similarly, when the Soviet government pushed a hard anti-Zionist agenda in the 1960s-70s, in so doing, it actually boosted Zionism. It is precisely the evil forces (the reverse side of the Creator) that help elucidate the evil, and not the Creator or the Upper Light, openly or directly.

Exile is one’s interim state between the degrees when both the Egyptians and Israel are revealed within him, opposite one another. He is in the middle scrutinizing these qualities. He is an exile, under the Egyptians’ command. On the one hand, he is drawn to Egyptians, but they reject him over the “seed of Israel” that is within him.

In other words, the desire to enjoy despises and rejects the intention to bestow for it wants only to act for the sake of reception. This is the hatred of the nations of the world toward Israel. And then there is the opposite discernment, when one has already advanced to the desire to bestow and identifies himself with it, as he nears the exodus from Egypt and is unwilling to mingle with the Egyptians (the nations of the world).

The Egyptians’ rule over him has ended; he no longer strives to be like them, no longer does he wish to unite with them, although he still lives among them, for now. In his eyes the Pharaoh receives blows, and these blows help him to rise above his relationship with the Pharaoh. Then he distances from the Egyptians, not because they spurn him, but because he is the one rejecting them as he nears the exodus from Egypt.

The Creator conducts these scrutinies in everybody (every person in this world) from both sides, in order to help us understand to which we are drawn more: egoism or bestowal. The nations of the world feel hatred for the spark of bestowal that has remained in the nation of Israel from its previous spiritual level. They reject Israel, which is precisely the reason the nation of Israel has remained intact.

Israel did not somehow manage to survive on its own; but rather, it is the opposition to Israel that held it together. As Baal HaSulam writes, Israel exists like nuts in a bag, united not by love, but forcefully, by the external hatred that surrounds them.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/10, The Zohar

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A question I received: There is one’s personal intention and intention of the group. What should be the group’s intention during the Zohar study?

My Answer: It should be the same. The group’s intention cannot be different. A group is a sum total of the individuals in the group; it only amplifies everybody’s individual intention.

I have to connect with others because my intention does not carry enough power to attract the Light that Reforms. This Light reveals to me everything that I read in The Zohar. If my friends passed me their intentions, and their intentions united within me, I would immediately reveal the inner essence of a story that I read in The Zohar. It would happen instantly.

The problem is that they don’t wish to supply me with their intentions in the same way that I’m unable to pass them mine. Perhaps I’m talking about it, but it does not really bother me that much.

Herein lies the essence of unification. In uniting with others, I receive their intentions. Alone, I cannot reveal anything. It is the intentions that we receive from each other, nothing else. It is only through the web of intentions that I can connect with the other person, and this connection occurs only when I’m ready to supply others with life energy so that they all live in spirituality.

By thinking in this manner, I pass my intention to everybody. I unite with the others in a network of a living organism and then it becomes alive. I enliven it. Then each of my friends possesses a life force since each of them has an opportunity to pass the Light further.

The force of life or the Light exists among us. We can reveal it only according to our intention, our attitude toward each other.

It can be likened to an electromagnetic field. The field can’t be identified without an electric circuit with its conductors which allows the electric current to flow in the network, to move and perform work in the magnetic field. A metal conductor moving in the magnetic field passes electric current; free electrons are moving in it. These are exactly the same processes.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/10, The Zohar

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A question I received: What is the logic in “faith above reason?”

My Answer: “Faith above reason” has the logic of the Upper One. The logic of the lower one is when I see the world through my mind and feelings. This is how I live. I progress across a flat plane, only on my level, and can never rise higher. This is called “faith below reason,” or “faith like reason.” Faith does not determine my actions; faith, which is the property of bestowal is not above reason.

In “faith above reason,” it is as though I take off my glasses and don’t see anything except the Upper One. I am ready to join the Upper One in whatever He desires. I want to acquire His sensation and knowledge by the force of adhesion with Him. With this action I am willing to completely cancel myself, to part with my “settings.”

When I acquire His degree, I get His faith (His property of bestowal) and knowledge that are higher than mine. Through the force of greater bestowal I also acquire higher knowledge. This is called “faith above previous reason.” In this manner I attain a higher degree.

Therefore, those who proceed by “faith above reason,” actually add knowledge since they have new vessels of perception. It is because knowledge, attainment, the Light of Hochma, spreads only in the Light of Hassadim (bestowal, faith).

Whereas those who cannot rise above their reason in the animal mind, hold onto their current state, not wishing anything greater; they cannot cancel their opinion before a higher degree, before a teacher. Thus they will not attain anything, and remain “animals.” They will be “smart and reasonable” within the bounds of their minds, but they won’t even realize that there exists a higher wisdom. After all, a higher wisdom always seems to lack any current foundation.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/14/10, The Zohar

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Preparation to the Lesson, Shamati #46 “The Domination of Israel Over the Klipot”
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Shemot (Exodus),” Item 295
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Beit Shaar HaKavanot, Item 81, Lesson 29
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Article, “Independence Day”
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The Zohar, Chapter “Shemot (Exodus),” Item 249: The world was created in ten utterances. But when you look, they are only three that the world was created in: Hochma, Tevuna, and Daat. And the world was created only for Israel. When the Creator wished to sustain the world, He acted for Abraham in Hochma, for Isaac in Tevuna, and for Jacob in Daat. This is considered, “And by knowledge are the chambers filled….”

There is a force above that reveals for us the entire reality, which descends from HBD (Hochma, Bina, Daat) along three lines. This is how the Creator influences us from above.

And we, in turn, must take on an identical form below. Then we will understand the nature of this influence and how we can sense it, how to become similar to and merge with Him.

From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/10, The Zohar

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