We are egoists and are only able to do whatever is important to our ego. How, then, can we get rid of it?

This is why we carry out Kabbalists’ advice. We have two possibilities:

1. To move under blows from our nature, meaning to develop due to having no other choice until we will nevertheless desire to get rid of the suffering. However, the path of constantly running away from evil is very lengthy and diffcult.

2. To use the magnifying glass of the mind without waiting for the blows to come. In the article “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose” Baal HaSulam explains that we can raise our perceptivity and keenly recognize the signs on the path, similar to being able to understand a word before it’s finished. A wise person sees things that others don’t even notice.

Some people write down wise advice but don’t let it pass through their heart. There are all kinds of cases. Every person has his “fate.” To the extent that a person hears what he is being told, that is how much he will advance if he is ready to draw a distinction between his ego and the spiritual path, if he properly interprets the meaning of "exile" and "redemption" and is willing to be relentless and stubborn even though it’s unpleasant to his egoism.

A person works in order to raise the importance of ascending above egoism, even though this causes him pain and seems like a loss. He discerns new things again and again, and with every new stroke the loss of egoism no longer seems sorrowful compared to the spiritual attainment that becomes revealed. And then he receives another addition of coal into the furnace of self-love, and that is in order to achieve the following ascent.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/13/11, Writings of Rabash

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The Book of Zohar, Chapter "Yitro (Jethro)," Item 533: There are two gemstones and one Masach between them, standing between each other. The upper gemstone is colorless, it is not openly visible.

Item 534: Malchut is called “a gemstone” because it clings to NHY de ZA, which are called “legs.” Because of Malchut’s ascent to Bina, Bina, too, is called “a gemstone,” and it is an upper gemstone.

There exists the ladder of the spiritual degrees extending from the world of Infinity to our world. This ladder consists of 125 rungs. The upper part of each degree contains the lower part of a higher degree, while the lower part of each degree is immersed in an even lower degree.

The upper part of the highest degree is the world of Infinity, while its lower part is inside the lower degree. It follows that the lower part of each higher degree exists together with the upper part of the lower degree. Hence, in each degree there is a common part between the upper and lower degrees where both of them unite into one.

The upper part of each degree is called Galgalta ve Eynaim (GE), while its lower part AHP (Awzen-Hotem-Peh). In sum, they comprise 10 Sefirot, but in a way that the lower degree contains the AHP of the upper one, and the GE of the lower degree clothe this AHP. It follows that the upper part of each degree is comprised of 10 Sefirot in total, which the upper and the lower degrees form together. This is how it is at every degree.

In the collective system of souls we are all connected together, all seven billion souls. Hence, all parts of my soul are included into everybody, and if I connect with them correctly, all of their parts are within me either as my GE or AHP. That is, nothing is left of me but my initial point with which I started my path. Only it remains in me; it is my foundation. I acquire everything else from the others: either the GE or AHP. I include everyone within myself: It is the body of my soul.

This is what The Zohar explains: It is impossible to create a "gemstone," Malchut, the spiritual vessel of each person unless he or she connects with everybody. I need everyone: They are my spiritual vessel. I have to receive my GE and AHP from everybody. And who am I? I’m the point in the heart from which I started the path.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/8/2011, The Book of Zohar

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Question: I just can’t seem to understand: What is the Light that reforms? And how can I demand it during the study?

Answer: 1. At the very least, try to recognize all of these qualities inside of you which we read about in The Book of Zohar. Try to discern where they are inside of you, “rummage” inside of your desires, thoughts, and inside yourself.

That is how you expand your inner Kelim, desires, and qualities of perception. As you search among them, you begin to differentiate between them. But all of these qualities already exist inside of you.

2. If I don’t have a need for correction, then to me the words “the Light that reforms” are devoid of life. If I require correction, then I expect this Light. But if I don’t have this need, then I don’t know what this Light is.

I am told, “You have to wait for the Light to come.” Fine, so let it come. The sages say it’s good, and I agree. If that’s my attitude, then I cannot attract it.

It is written that one must await salvation at every moment. “The Creator’s salvation comes in the blink of an eye.” This is talking precisely about the correcting Light, the Light that reforms, bringing us back to the Creator.

The action we demand from above must always be preceded by our desire, the need for it. Otherwise it will never happen. Either we elicit the suffering inside of us on our own, which is “the suffering of love,” a passionate desire for the Light, or it will come in the form of compulsory suffering, by the path of “Beito” (in due time).

However, without suffering, without a question and without a desire, I cannot attain the correcting Light. That’s because the Light is at absolute rest. We only need the desire so the correcting Light would influence us.

We could say that the Light is present inside of the desire, but is revealed only when this desire reaches the true measure.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/12/11, The Zohar

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Question: Even though our world is an imaginary reality, Kabbalists treat it very seriously. Why is that?

Answer: It’s because we grow and act while being inside of it. Even though this reality is definitely imaginary, you have to take it seriously and arrange things in it as if it really exists.

Imagine that you joined a group of children and are playing with them as seriously as possible, making the game real the way they do. The little ones are running around, trying to put something together and arguing over toys, but to them—this is life. And you participate in their life, helping them put its parts together so they would grow quickly and correctly in this “sand-box.”

This requires a serious attitude. It takes great efforts to raise a child in this world, and a person must treat himself in exactly the same way. This is how he should treat the spiritual child that is growing inside of him. You cannot make any compromises in this regard: I take care of myself, my family, children, and parents, and all the material needs. And even though all of this is obviously an illusion, that doesn’t matter.

The pictures of the material world are depicted in my brain by the egoistic desire and I cannot correct that desire because it is on the still level. Even the great Kabbalist Rabbi Shimon had to eat, drink, make a living, and take care of his students. Do you really think they were floating up in the clouds, not worrying about their families and about putting bread on the table?

This world is part of my growth, “including toothaches,” as Rabash used to say. The only difference is that I must aspire upwards over and over again, toward bestowal, toward the spiritual world. Kabbalists have a different problem: How to remain serious inside of this children’s sand-box. And they are obligated to do that. That is why they have such a responsible attitude to upbringing and other areas in the material world. A person has to provide for all of his vital needs.

Corporeality disappears from our sensations only at the end of correction when there is no more need for this game of the imagination.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/12/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: How does The Book of Zohar teach us the methods of the connection between us?

Answer: Baal HaSulam adds a commentary to The Zohar to stave off the materialization of The Zohar‘s text. It lays ground for the formation of the spiritual state within us, beyond space and time, beyond the images of our world, to make us want to experience it within and not outside of us.

The Sulam commentary, like all the books of Kabbalists, is written for people who have already acquired spiritual attainment to help them understand what they’re already feeling. I am being explained what I am feeling right now; I’m at the level where “a person’s soul teaches him.” Then by reading Kabbalistic texts, I begin to understand what I am feeling.

Before spiritual sensations arise in me, however, the Kabbalistic texts are not a source of knowledge but “Segula” (a miraculous force) for me because while reading them, I am exposed to the influence of the upper Light, washing over me like a stream of living water.

Hence, I don’t want to explain what each phrase in The Zohar means from the standpoint of Sefirot and Partzufim so that a student will not be satisfied with superficial knowledge. I want him or her to search inside, within their feelings, wondering what it is really like. Then they will have a greater yearning for revelation and thereby form a desire, a need, for it.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/11/2011, The Book of Zohar

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Baal HaSulam, Shamati #59 “About The Rod and the Serpent”
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Passover, Bo (Come Unto Pharaoh),” “And It Came to Pass at Midnight,” Item 114
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Talmud Eser Sefirot 6, Part 15, Item 41
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Writings of Rabash, Dargot HaSulam “Time of Redemption”
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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

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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

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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

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