Kabbalah Moments: High Mountain
Posted on April 12th, 2011
Question: What should the world Kli focus on now in order to feel that we are in Egypt and to really desire to come out of it?
Answer: We have to remain in an ascent instead of a descent. Each of us and all of us together should never descend or stray from the established order because this will definitely cast us down.
We must very quickly turn to the week of Passover and prepare ourselves, understanding what the exodus from Egypt means. We must prepare for this inspiration and this surge with all our might. The more powerful our aspiration will be, the more we will be influenced by the Lights of Passover.
We have to actualize this right now. First of all, we must be united. It’s not one person that comes out of Egypt, but everyone without exception: women, men, children, and the elderly. This is the unification toward the common exodus. This is what we have to think about, constantly keeping the intention.
There is less than a week left until the holiday. A “holiday” is an external sign, but by using these seven days we will be able to unite, to create such a connection and form such intentions at the lessons that we will “get a lift” forward.
Some people are experiencing a descent and others—an ascent. Others yet are feverishly undergoing changes. But we need all of these states. A person must value a descent just as an ascent because you can’t have one without the other.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/12/11, Writings of Rabash
Question: What signs can help us tell whether a person is advancing in the study of The Book of Zohar?
Answer: Which books you study is irrelevant in this regard because besides studying The Book of Zohar we also study Talmud Eser Sefirot as well as articles and letters by Baal HaSulam and Rabash which explain how to advance toward unity among us and toward mutual study. They help us to get organized correctly. After we organize among ourselves into a study group, we begin studying actual Kabbalah.
The purpose of the study group in Kabbalah is not to study the material, but to aspire through reading it to realize the “Segula,” meaning to evoke the influence of the Light upon us from a higher level. If during the study we desire for the Light to become revealed inside our unity, then by this effort we build the higher level and then our effort brings about the emergence of that level.
However, if we study trying only to understand the material, then we do not study the Torah. That’s because the Torah refers precisely to our effort and the appearance of a new level in it.
Therefore, progress in studying the primary sources (The Zohar, the books of the Ari, and Talmud Eser Sefirot) is determined by the force of your aspiration to reveal the next level inside of you, instead of the desire just to know the material.
There is no advancement in understanding or accumulating knowledge because prior to the sensation of the upper world, all our notions of it are incorrect.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/12/11, The Zohar
Pharaoh within you needs to grow. At first he is small, so what kind of a king is that really? Joseph feels that he can control his entire Egypt, his entire egoism, to his benefit. He foresees the future and knows what needs to be done. My ego flourishes; I reach the seven years of plenty.
And even when the seven years of famine begin, I do not yet feel it. I sell my reserves to Pharaoh. The misery of the Egyptians benefits me: I sell them to Pharaoh together with everything they have, while Israel does not suffer at all in my land of Goshen. There is no hunger there.
See how these states are revealed in a person in a certain order, one after another, until he begins to understand that Pharaoh is his angel of death, and there is nothing he can do about it. Then, he begins to realize that everything comes from the same source, the Creator. Pharaoh brings him closer to the Creator (to “bring closer” and to “sacrifice” are one word). He helps us “indirectly.”
I no longer receive pleasure from reception, but I do not enjoy bestowal either. So, what am I left with? I have neither! This is called: “And the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage.” I have come out of egoistic reception and I see no joy in it. These “beautiful cities” are only good for Pharaoh; they do nothing for me. This means that I have already separated myself from Pharaoh.
These cities remained poor to me because I have not received anything for them. Where is bestowal, attainment? There is nothing. This is because I want bestowal and spiritual attainment egoistically. I want to bestow for my own sake. So, how can I come to pure, unselfish bestowal?
I need to rise above these “poor cities” so I would stop expecting any kind of compensation for my actions. Only then can I become ready to rise to the degree of faith which is completely unconnected from my desire and current qualities.
I am unable to reach this state on my own, but I need the desire to touch it, to separate from thinking about myself even slightly. This is a big problem. When I finally come to this through the cities that are beautiful to Pharaoh and full of misery to Israel, I begin to understand that there is no other way to move forward than through blows that come from Above. I will never be able to separate from my egoism and forget about any consequences of my bestowal.
Next, I think about bestowal, but how do I avoid expecting to receive personal benefit from it? I need to receive real blows to do this so that I suffer together with Pharaoh from the egoistic use of my bestowal.
Then, the Egyptian plagues come, and I want to use them to rise above any personal interest, any personal consequence of my bestowal. In other words, I begin to strive to bestow for the sake of bestowal. The need to rid myself of my ego begins to form in me. These ten blows reveal the image of liberation in me because otherwise, I will not be able to go to the next state.
Exile and redemption are determined by the lack of the Creator and His presence. I need to understand what is called the Creator so that somehow He would manifest to me in my exile and I would reach redemption. Let Him manifest through His lack, but I simply want to have some kind of perception of Him.
This is why the last blows happen. I feel how a blow benefits me when it comes because a very strong revelation of evil takes place. On the other hand, these blows are very painful, and they happen directly to me in the form of inner, spiritual shocks. However, they really strengthen a person, like salt which “preserves” meat. These blows bring recovery.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/11/2011, Shamati No. 86
My book The Point in the Heart (gift edition) was just published in Brazil. The book is a compilation of selected excerpts from my daily writings published on Laitman.com.
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Question: How can we reveal the Creator in exile when He is concealed from us?
Answer: We reveal the Creator inside Pharaoh. After all, Pharaoh is the opposite side of the Creator, “help against Him.” In resisting Pharaoh, we see the same form inside him. Thereby, we learn about the Creator. This is the only way we can learn.
Before rising to a new degree, you can only make judgments about it from the lack that you feel in your current state. You feel this lack because you are receiving the illumination from the AHP (Awzen-Hotem-Peh) of the upper one.
Galgalta ve Eynaim (GE) of the lower one is always inside the AHP of the upper one, and the AHP illuminates the lower one’s darkness. After all, the AHP of the upper one is filled with the Light of Hassadim (Mercy); it itself does not use its will to receive. When the Light of Hassadim reaches the GE of the lower one, the latter does not want this bestowal and perceives it as darkness. So, we reveal it as the “darkness of Egypt.”
When I desire this darkness and am prepared to be in it for the sake of adhesion to the upper one, I attain the form of the upper one and escape from Egypt. I walk in this precise darkness, the Light of Hassadim. This is pitch black darkness where GAR of the Light of Hochma (Wisdom) also becomes revealed, adding darkness from the other side. There are very large forces working here.
All of this becomes revealed along the way. One only needs to do what he is required to do. It seems that these degrees are very high and impassable, but they become revealed very fast once we reach them, as it is written: “The salvation of the Lord is as a blink of the eye.”
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/11/2011, Shamati No. 86
Question: Why is it not enough to simply care for the common goal together, but instead we need every person to care for everyone else?
Answer: The common care is something vague and unclear. Every person’s care for everyone else does not mean that I am specifically concerned about a certain person. I am concerned about the notion of the group that, in my understanding, stands for our mutual connection which enables a new reality to be built within many hundreds of thousands of points in the hearts.
There are separate points, aspirations for the spiritual world, and there is a connection of these points, the system where these separate parts join together. There is something that converts this connection into one whole, and I care for this one whole, for the degree of connection of these points into one.
Imagine that the points in the hearts are pieces of tin that you put next to each other, and then they melt from the heat of love and fuse into one solid mass. In other words, this turns into a new essence: one vessel, one desire.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/10/2011, Writings of Rabash
The wisdom of Kabbalah is opposite to a layman’s opinion because spirituality is opposite to corporeality. Spirituality is focused exclusively on bestowal, while corporeality is all about reception, in line with their corresponding intentions. Although judging from one’s actions, it’s not always clear.
It is crucial in spirituality to never divide creation into different, opposing, contradictory forces, but rather attribute everything to a single force: “There is none else besides Him.” That’s the basis of Kabbalah.
Therefore, we have to attribute to a single force what seems to us as good and evil on every degree. A person should see himself as holding two reins: the force of good and the force of evil. The Creator holds these two reins from Above: the good and the evil and through them, converses with man in order to teach him.
One should understand that the Creator’s attitude comes to him or her in these two forms, meaning that the same upper force is at work, either with its front or back side: the Creator or Pharaoh. Then a person grows with the help of the two forces and is grateful for the bad as well as for the good. After all, both of them come in order to bring him closer to the adhesion with the upper force.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/10/2011, Writings of Rabash
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