Question: The idea that negative desires arose in the spies who were sent to spy in the land of Israel is often mentioned in Midrash Raba.

Answer: The point is that there is an initial weakness in a person opposing the efforts that allow him to enter the land of Israel. After all, what is the difference between the desert and the land of Israel? In the desert, you can be only on the level of Bina, but, when you enter the land of Israel, you must ascend to the level of Hochma because you begin to work with the egoistic desires there. They appear before you, and you realize that it is a totally different paradigm now, a totally different attitude toward the ego. Now, you can begin to bring it out again.

You have acquired the ego in Egypt, and absorbed it. You were under its domination and eventually have made it even more egoistic than the Egyptians themselves. Besides that, you have taken out of Egypt what is called their vessels. You have denied your egoistic desires during the 40 years of wandering in the desert and have learned to rise above them until you actually succeeded in doing so. Then, there was a break, and you didn’t use them at all. Now, when you enter the land of Israel, you raise Egypt inside you again and gradually revive the ego and begin to use it again.

However, now you turn it into the land of Israel as the Egyptian desire is transformed totally and aimed at the Creator, at the attribute of love and bestowal. Thus, all the giants (which means all the obstacles) seem incredibly big to us because, after being in the desert where we have become used to eating MAN only in relation to the Creator and always have aspired to reach the level of bestowal, we need to reawaken Pharaoh inside us, to free this evil dog and begin working with him.

These are the most terrible egoistic desires that we need to learn to overcome.Therefore, it says that seven warrior nations are waiting for us in the land of Israel that we must fight and conquer.

This is how Egypt operates in us, and therefore, every day, a person must imagine that he has just come out of Egypt and thus build the land of Israel by making the interior ego external. Then, Mt. Sinai becomes a holy mountain on which the temple is built.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/2/15

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