Preparation to the Lesson
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Preparation to the Lesson: The Book of Zohar – Selection for Passover, Chapter “VaYakhel (And Moses Assembled),” Item 426
The Light of Hochma is sensed as darkness or night. Daytime only comes to a person when he clothes the Light of Hochma into the Light of Hassadim.
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The Book of Zohar – Selection for Passover, Chapter “VaYikahel (And Moses Assembled),” Item 429
The extent of my readiness to help with the correction of the world determines the extent of what I’ll receive in order to pass it along.
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Shaar HaKavanot, Concerning Passover Exodus, Lesson 5
I do not exit from Egypt; I surrender to the Light, which leads me out of Egypt, elevating me three spiritual degrees higher.
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Writings of Rabash, Article 12, 1988, Shlavey HaSulam, “Shmot,”  Vol. 2, Page 20
A state of “concealment” is not one of fogginess or confusion; rather, it’s a clear understanding, a desire, an aspiration towards that which I’m so desperately lacking.
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Today humanity as a whole is very close to coming out of Egypt. More and more people feel the need to revise their life values and establish new priorities. Every person needs to perform his own calculation: What is he living for and why?

There are situations in our life when the battle for survival, for one’s existence, drowns out all these questions. After all, usually a question about the meaning of life arises when a person feels that he has achieved "everything" in this life, regardless of what level he is on. The question that then emerges in him is more elevated than his every day life.

We see that this question already engages large segments of humanity. It occurs unconsciously and it "chips away" at us from within. This is why there is dissemination of Kabbalah. It provides the explanation about what is happening in our era, why more and more people are suffering from depression, committing suicide, using drugs, getting divorced, and why the wave of terror is growing. It explains why the question regarding the meaning of life is arising and not leaving us, what is happening to our children, and why we can’t run from these questions even with a personal psychologist.

Humanity is unconsciously preparing itself for an ascent to a new era. Either through suffering or consciously, we aspire to connect into one spiritual vessel (Kli) as is instilled in nature, where we will perceive life as eternal and perfect.

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We work and prepare ourselves for an ascent to a spiritual degree, but we can only put in effort and nothing else. The action itself is carried out by the Light. A person has no strength to rise above himself. He cannot grab himself by the hair and drag himself out of the egoistic slump.

The result of our whole work is called "labored and found," for the Upper Light acts. The exodus from Egypt is carried out through "an awakening from Above," due to the revelation of a great Light, GAR de Hochma.

The Light is revealed, yet we have no clothing of Hassadim on it, and therefore we cannot perceive this Light. Thus it is called Egyptian darkness, night rather than day, and instead of rising by the spiritual degrees it occurs through a run, a leap. Pesach (Passover) comes from the word "skip" (Pesach).

This ascent occurs with a person as one impulse: outside of time, motion, space, and any human assessments. After all, everything is carried out by a force of influence from Above. Therefore, we need to be prepared for this exit.

It happens suddenly, in a hurry. A moment before a person is unable to imagine the state when he will be right before the exit from Egypt, and that it is just about to happen. It transpires in a completely unplanned manner. And in regard to the transition itself, it is written that when the Creator performs this with us, it is as though we are in a dream….

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The Zohar, Chapter “Bo (Come Unto Pharaoh),” Item 118: A firstborn is considered Hochma, and “All the firstborn” indicates that even the higher and lower degrees were broken from their dominion… ” Item 119: “From the first-born of Pharaoh that sits upon his throne…even unto the first-born of the maid-servant…."

A firstborn is GAR, the head of the Partzuf, and it needs to subside in Egypt. Everything that was perceived in the desire to receive pleasure as a stable basis of life, which supposedly could be achieved egoistically, is now being destroyed: "From the firstborn of Pharaoh unto the firstborn of the maid servant and the firstborn of the cattle."

Egoism grows, the Light cannot fill it, and Egyptian darkness comes about. It seems to us that the attitude of the Upper Governance with regard to us changes, but in reality the Light exists in absolute rest while the desire to receive pleasure in us increases constantly. If we don’t correct it in time, we feel greater and greater darkness and suffering within it.
At the end of the Egyptian slavery our desire increases through a leap, and it is revealed with a new force on the next level. It is there that a person feels Egyptian darkness, the ten plagues, which is egoism revealed in all of its ten Sefirot, meaning in a complete desire displaying darkness and evil. The desire has grown, and we have stopped feeling even that minor illumination within it which we had experienced before.

The ceasing of the former Light in the new, great desire to receive pleasure is called the execution of all the firstborns in the dark night, "from the firstborn of Pharaoh unto the firstborn of the maid servant and the firstborn of the cattle." This means that the Light has been concealed and is no longer revealed.

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The Creator’s goal is to elevate us to His level. The desire to receive pleasure that was made by the Creator is a channel through which we sense our life. This is the only property that exists outside of Him.

For this reason we always experience a shortage of fulfillment. We constantly feel as if something is missing and we continually aspire to a new fulfillment. When the Light fills the desire to receive pleasure, it disappears immediately. The Light cancels the desire and thus the desire no longer feels fulfillment.

That’s why the life that we sense through the desire to receive pleasure seems temporary and transient. Each passing moment erases itself instead of staying and supplementing the following moment.

When the desire and the pleasure meet, they neutralize each other even if the pleasure is minimal. Our life is built of digital contacts and minimal meetings between the desire (Kli) and the Light that immediately disappears; this process happens throughout our whole life and ends with our death.

Let’s say, one has a certain number of desires (a “quota” for life) consisting of several million small portions of the desire to receive pleasure that reveal themselves one after another. Against each of them there is the Light that fills them. The moment they meet together, they disappear. When we utilize all the desires in our “life allowance quota,” our life ends.

If we manage to arrange for the Light and the desire to “catch” each other at the time of their “meeting” and make them “stay” together, we start sensing the Light caught in the desire as our eternal infinite life. The moment stops sliding away; it stays and elevates us above time. We stop the moment and by doing so manage to attain eternal existence!

This is “the patent” of spiritual eternity and perfection that we attain with the help of the wisdom of Kabbalah.

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A question I received: I always thought that BB was a non-religious organization and that it never forced secular people to follow religious traditions, but recently I heard that you are following Kashrut (Jewish dietary laws) during Passover. Please explain. Also, please give us your opinion on whether you suggest that everybody should follow the tradition.

My Answer: We are an educational organization and have nothing to do with religion of any kind. We are based strictly and exclusively on the principles of Kabbalah as they are stated in three authentic Kabbalistic sources:  The Zohar, the works of the Ari, and those of Baal HaSulam (Rabash). We follow their advice in everything. If you have any concerns, please ask us and insist that we show you our source of information.

Even though Bnei Baruch is not a religious organization and doesn’t follow any religious traditions (“commandments” – Mitzvot), we still are practicing the actions that in our world constitute the branches that stem from spiritual roots. On the surface it looks like we observe Judaic tradition, but in fact they originate from totally different intentions and aim at internal and external connection with their spiritual roots.

I strongly advise you to re-read the “Passover Story” and Ari’s commentary to it, The Gates of Intention (Shaar HaKavanot).  You will understand why by observing specific actions we become elevated over our egoism (see also Baal HaSulam’s article “This Is for Judah.”)

Abraham’s group started to follow “irrational” earthly rituals after they managed to produce spiritual actions within their corrected desires and clarified their bodily analogies. They perceived spiritual and earthly actions as one whole (the root and the branch or the cause and the consequence).

When we fell from the level of spiritual understanding of the commandments (destruction of the Second Temple), we continued to follow only our bodily traditions rather than spiritual and physical actions interlaced together. That’s when the religions of this world were initiated.

Today we have to attain the spiritual world and reveal the spiritual actions. This will transform our customary traditions into spiritual actions. Instead of performing forceful or mechanical actions we will act consciously and will clearly see the impact of our actions onto the Upper World. That is, the attainment comes first; it is followed by the actions that stem from it.

I wish you all to “exit Egypt” and to get correct intentions while you are at the festive dinner table!

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A question I received: If reality depends on the environment, then what do reincarnations of souls mean in this context?

My Answer: Reincarnations of souls are changes in the desires. After all, nothing exists but the desire and this desire changes. Within this transient desire, we perceive ourselves in one reincarnation or in the next one, within the intention for the sake of receiving or for the sake of bestowal.

The difference between this world and the future world, between the Creator and the creation are all different states of the desire. The desire that is in the state of bestowal is called “the Creator.” The desire that is in the state of reception is called “the creation.”

Currently we perceive within our desire that we are living here, in this world. The desire will change, and we will begin to feel that we are living in a different reality. A change in the desire determines everything. But, we cannot imagine states in which we do not yet exist.

However, for Kabbalists who exist in the desire to bestow as well as in the desire to receive, both parts of reality are above corporeal life and death, since they are in control of both types of phenomena in the desire.

Certainly, a person who has not corrected himself yet goes through reincarnations or various changes of the desire, until he completes his path by acquiring control over all the desires, all the qualities that can possibly be revealed.

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The story of coming out of Egypt is the revelation of the process of transitioning from feeling our world in the egoistic desires, to feeling the Upper World in the acquired quality of bestowal. A person takes his whole household, meaning all his desires: the desire to receive – his “wife” as well as his “children” – his next states and he tells them about the past.

In other words, he reveals the past in the future desires, through this story. He goes through a revelation, which he performed unconsciously when he came out of his egoistic desire through the Machsom.

At that time, the Creator performed this action on him, and he “ran in a hurry, in darkness,” performing this escape without understanding it. He couldn’t even feel these actions because everything occurred in darkness, in concealment from him.

However, now as he sits and tells this story, he returns to the same states. He examines the Creator’s actions which were performed on him, and carries out these actions on himself, on his “household,” and on the “children,” meaning on his future states. He repeats the Creator’s actions after Him. This is precisely what is called the story of coming out of Egypt, when the “father” tells his “son”: “Look what the Creator has done with me…”

First the Light raised him to the degree of bestowal, “gave on deposit” (Lavu Elai). With the force of bestowal which he has now, he can perform the same actions on his own with the desires that are situated below him (Ve Ani Porea). In this manner, he repeats the Creator’s actions of bestowal and becomes just like Him.

First we receive all the forces, Lights, and knowledge from Above. The Creator teaches us, like children, and gives us everything until we grow up and are able to carry out these actions on our own. No one demands that we become adults immediately, but after we receive all the forces and are led out of Egypt, we are obliged to repeat these actions on our own.

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We don’t have any other means for advancement, any other leverage that helps us move forward but the influence of the environment. If I am entirely, fully focused within myself, what force can possibly direct me in the opposite direction, from within myself, outside? I don’t possess any such powers. All of my powers work “for me,” “for my benefit.” How can I fashion an opposite action “for the sake of the other”? Where can such a power of nature come from?

For this, our soul has been divided into two parts: I and the surroundings, the world. The only freedom we have is to choose what’s more important. If you want to reach spirituality, you have to organize your environment so that it takes precedence over you. In reality, it’s not the external environment, but your soul, your AHP, the “garments” and “house” of your soul’s Kli, which are only seemingly outside of you.

Envy and honor attract you to a certain environment, to the parts of your soul, so you can organize these parts artificially in order for them to influence you.

From our level, we have been given this psychological approach. Yet internally, it is a spiritual approach. I connect with the desires (Kelim) that allegedly surround me, and use my feelings of envy and honor. In doing so, I essentially draw these desires back to myself so that they become connected with me and define my system of values.

What is the source of envy and honor then? It is the breaking of the souls into two parts: I and my world. By desiring to use “help against him,” against my ego, I engage these external desires of mine so they influence me in return.

Consequently we discover that we work with ourselves, with our desires, with our properties and this is how it has been set up from the beginning. But without organizing the environment, the other force that is capable of taking me “by the ear” and directing me toward my true desires (the soul) is not present, and it will never be revealed.

There is no other force in the world but the environment. Suffering can only make us more sensitive and urge us to find the solution. Yet the solution will be the same: to put yourself under the influence of the environment.

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How can we achieve eternity and perfection? It’s achieved according to the law of equivalence of form. If the Light and the desire are opposite to one another, then the Light annuls the desire. However, if they’re equal, they support one another, and we feel that they both exist. That’s what we call eternal life. Achieving it is precisely the purpose of the science of Kabbalah.

In order to bring us to the state similar to that of the Creator, to the ability to live forever and perceive our true reality, we must undergo a process of corrections. All these corrections come down to making the desire to receive pleasure similar to the Light and to begin observing the law of equivalence of form.

Herein lies the entire correction. Either we are opposite to the Creator as we were originally created, or we gradually achieve equivalence with Him. We correct ourselves until the Light and the desire join together. At that moment, we are born into the spiritual world.

This method of correction is called the science of Kabbalah (in Hebrew, the word “Kabbalah” means reception). It’s the science of receiving the Light into the desire so that it won’t disappear and we would feel true, everlasting reality. Indeed, this wisdom is great and not at all simple. We really don’t understand how this can be achieved. Yet, although we don’t realize it, this is our innermost desire and the purpose of our existence. Subconsciously, we’re always searching for it.

There’s a phase when we first make contact with the Light and perceive it in our desire. The Light remains within us, and we begin to feel life as eternal, and don’t part with the Light within us. This phase or spiritual birth is called the exodus from Egypt.

Before then, we must remain in Egyptian exile, in the preparatory phase to the spiritual birth or redemption. That’s why we devote so much attention to studying the phases which we must undergo while in the Egyptian exile. We want to realize our exodus as soon as possible using all the means prepared for us by Kabbalists throughout history.

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