New Life 540 – Jewish Culture: Were We Slaves?
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel
Why are we in a state of slavery today like we were in ancient Egypt? How can we break away from the domination of Pharaoh? What will the life of the nation of Israel be like once they truly become a free nation in their land?
Israel is divided and torn and the ego is celebrating. This is the slavery in Egypt, but we are not aware of that.
Being a slave is a more advanced state in which a person already recognizes the domination of the ego over him.
The wisdom of Kabbalah [1] teaches us that man’s nature is intentionally evil so that he will gradually get to know it and differentiate himself from it.
The first disconnection from the ego is called the exodus from Egypt [2]. Then during the counting of the Omer (the days between Passover [3] and Shavuot) we correct ourselves. It is like an internal inventory where I locate all the egoistic inclinations in me and correct them.
In that case, the whole Passover story is about the correction of the relations between people. We will feel the upper level of our existence in the loving relations between us and will merge with eternity and wholeness.
It is customary to use a new set of dishes in Passover; it symbolizes a new set of relationships between me and others.
The Seder describes the sequence of actions a person should perform in order to exit his ego, his evil inclination. The wisdom of Kabbalah speaks quite a lot about the ego because it is our nature. Egoism means a negative attitude to others, using others and taking advantage of them.
The Passover Seder plate symbolizes different forces that operate and lead us into Egypt and take us out of there. Let’s examine ourselves and discover that the ego dominates us and ruins us, and agree to escape it.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 540 – Jewish Culture: Were We Slaves?” 3/24/15
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