Question: How do the Egyptians push the children of Israel to work in order to bestow?

Answer: By despair! A person performs egoistic actions, Lo Lishma (not for its own sake), but it doesn’t matter since we are below the Machsom (barrier).

Above the Machsom, there is the domination of the bestowal, the altruistic intention, while below the Machsom there is the domination of receiving, the intention for myself. After the shattering the desires fell below the Machsom. The shattering took place on purpose in order to provide the condition in which we will want to return to connection, even egoistically, and that is considered that we have the right intention.

This means that the Light that Reforms will operate on us from Above. The border of Parsa, the Machsom doesn’t stop the Surrounding Light and is not a barrier for it. The Surrounding Light can illuminate even with an egoistic intention and a prayer. The MAN can come from egoistic desires that only yearn a little for bestowal.

The Parsa is a very sensitive border, and so we can reach correction from every state.

The Egyptians, the desires to enjoy, are the ones who push Israel to work in order to bestow so that they can take all the gains afterward. It is like a snake that swallows all the fruit of our work. What else can be a means that helps me advance in addition to Egypt, in addition to my egoistic desires?

A person has no other means. There is a point in the heart that is pushed forward by egoistic vessels: thoughts, desires, and intentions. Without this obstacle I would have nothing but the sparks called the sons of Jacob. These sparks actually don’t want to do anything and are only a Reshimot (reminiscences) inside a person.

We can advance only by the cruel egoistic desires of this world and beyond it: the desires to attain, to understand, to ascend above life and death. Where can we get the energy to come to the lesson every morning and to disseminate? All this comes from the Pharaoh, from our ego. A person who suppresses his ego cannot advance.

Therefore, we don’t restrict our egoistic actions. On the contrary, the more the ego pushes us, the better. As it says, “he who is greater than his friend, his desire is even greater.” A person yearns to attain the Creator, and Pharaoh helps him advance.

We have to use the whole cruel ego we have, which means to go through the 49 gates of impurity. The Egyptians help us advance, but at the same time each time we receive the Light, and so we reach a state in which we have to escape. The Light that comes to us creates this special attitude towards the intention in us, but we perform all the actions at the Egyptians account.

So the best Pharaoh is that which gives us trouble and brings us to a state where we escape from it.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/16/14, Writings of Rabash

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The role of the spiritual guide is to connect the student to him so that through his efforts the student can constantly rise and come closer to the level of his Rav. The teacher explains from his level and creates several intermediate “stations,” actions that the student makes on his way toward him.

This is what we do when we explain things to children; we adjust ourselves to them, even changing our voice, depending upon whether it is a son or a daughter, or a child of two or seven. Everything changes accordingly.

Students have an opportunity to hear a story, an explanation by the teacher, and to work with him externally, in other words, to understand and to feel him, to absorb him inside and join that to what he already has experienced before, to serve him, to build a layer and another layer of new knowledge and sensation above that which they already acquired during the study.

This is called studying wisdom. However, in studying Torah, he must adhere to what is in the teacher and try to be in the same state. This means not just hearing what comes down to him from above, but trying to rise to that level, at least to hold on to the teacher in some way.

This can be done through what is called “serving” the teacher, in other words, doing all kinds of actions that the teacher recommends. In particular, this is connected to the group and dissemination. This is called serving the teacher.

How else can you serve him? It is only by helping him to realize the method. We see this in the example of Moses and Joshua ben Nun. Joshua helped Moses arrange benches in the study hall and take care of his students, and the students of Moses were great sages, the leaders of the people who studied with him everyday throughout the forty years of wandering in the desert. They didn’t just wander in the desert. Indeed, it is possible to go through the entire Sinai desert in a maximum of two weeks, even with sheep, women and children. However, they walked for forty years. This means that they walked a little, and then would sit somewhere for a few months or even years. After that, they again would walk and stop again for a long time.

That is how they learned and advanced spiritually, and, accordingly, also physically, and, on the way, they learned. Indeed, the main thing was to acquire the level of Bina through the study, for without this, it is impossible to enter the land of Israel. Israel is Bina, Yashar-El, and begins to connect Bina with Malchut. This is called being in the land of Israel.

It is written that Joshua didn’t study. Rather, he only helped Moses organize the people and the Kabbalists who were in Moses’s group to disseminate, to use our terminology, and, specifically by meriting to help Moses teach and disseminate, he merited being the leader of the people after Moses.

For us, this is a very clear and prominent example that a person reaches spirituality not through wisdom, but through devotion to the way of his Rav. When you go out now to disseminate and try to disseminate the Torah to the people of Israel and after this, to the world, you essentially are doing necessary work. This is what Joshua did.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/14/14, Writings of Rabash

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The Torah, “Leviticus,” 1:9: …but its innards and its legs, he shall wash with water. Then the Cohen shall cause to [go up in] smoke all [of the animal] on the altar, as a burnt-offering, a fire offering, [with] a pleasing fragrance to the Lord.

A pleasing fragrance to the Lord are the parts of our corporeal desire that we cannot use for the sake of the Creator. We raise them to the next level in the form of fire and smoke as if we burn them. At the same time, we don’t enjoy them but delight the Creator. The word “fragrance” refers to the attribute of Ruach.

All the desires that were previously used egoistically have to become kosher, which means to be worthy of bestowal in order to use them for the benefit of others. So there is no such matter in our world (matter is a desire on the level of the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking nature) that can be used directly for bestowal without being changed by certain actions first.

The whole Torah speaks only about this. So bringing offerings, the Tabernacle, the Holy Ark (where the Torah is kept), the curtains, the Menorah, and all the other objects symbolize a person’s inner attributes.

The Torah describes how these objects are prepared, of what they are made, who should prepare them, and in what conditions. For example, during the construction of the Temple, cedars of Lebanon were used. They brought copper from a certain place and from another they brought wool from special sheep. All this indicates that a person has to choose these parts of his desires and use them in this particular way as he corrects them in order to bestow.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 11/13/13

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Preparation for the Lesson

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Writings of Rabash, “Igrot,” Letter 59

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Workshop

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The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts, “Tetzaveh,” “Matzot and the Omer Count”

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Writings of  Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 34

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Writings of  Baal HaSulam, “Inheritance of the Land“

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