Question: The holiday of Passover is coming soon. What should we focus on now? How can we use this time for unity?

Answer: Passover is a very special time when I discover that I am in exile. This is the beginning of the Egyptian slavery. Unless I feel that I am in exile, I am still not in Egypt, I am not Pharaoh’s slave yet. To put it differently, if don’t strive for unity, I haven’t started the process yet. But when I am drawn to unity and I feel that I cannot unite because my ego stops me and blocks the way, the ego is revealed to me as Pharaoh. It controls me and doesn’t let me reach unity and discover the Creator.

The exile is not feeling the Creator. I feel that I miss Him, then I continue to head towards unity, and the ego, Pharaoh, appears as tougher and tougher. Eventually I don’t know what to do, I see no way out, and then the point called “Moses” is revealed in me. It begins to draw me out, to the unknown, while I am confused and don’t know in what way this point is different from Pharaoh. Thus Moses grows in Pharaoh’s palace, in the ego, either separating himself from Pharaoh or merging with him in my eyes. He aspires straight to the Creator, but is nourished on self-love.

And so I advance: I want to build a vessel, but instead I build “poor cities,” Pithom and Ramses. Every time I want to get close to others, to unite, new problems come up: disputes and separation, detachment and indifference. The ego holds power and doesn’t let me free, doesn’t let me do anything. No matter how hard I try to draw the connection, it doesn’t exist. My efforts are for the good of “Pharaoh” and they harm “Israel.”

And so I arrive to the ten plagues of Egypt, I suffer because my egoistic desire doesn’t let me unite with the friends. In answer to all my attempts, it summons great suffering in me and pulls in different directions. It gives my “beast” everything it wants, but blocks the way to unity because otherwise I will escape from Egypt.

Then Moses goes to Pharaoh demanding: “Let my people go.” We try to unite even more and want to escape Pharaoh’s control. This is already a true revelation. So what can we do? After all, the Creator constantly hardens my heart.

Thus I go through the ten plagues, until I manage to totally break loose from my ego. In the dark I escape to unity, to the mountain of hatred (Sina) that is revealed to me and to mutual guarantee as the essential means against the ego. I don’t suppress hatred, I don’t annul it, but rather build mutual guarantee around it. After all, this hate is a priceless acquisition: Thanks to mutual guarantee, I will be able to turn this mountain of hatred to the summit of Holiness, the mountain of the Lord.

Today it isn’t only about us. The whole world is starting this process by discovering that the destructive ego that controls it threatens to erase all of humanity from the face of the earth.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/2/2012, “Introduction to TES”

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Exile Is Separation From Brothers
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Israel’s Mission

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