Question: What drives a person to advance, impurity or holiness?

Answer: A person who is still in the intention of in order to receive, which is called Egypt, is driven to advance by impurity. After all, he does not as yet, have any desires in order to bestow. He doesn’t value bestowal since it doesn’t seem attractive, and so he advances only because he sees a corporeal loss and a spiritual gain.

I can tell you how wonderful spirituality is indefinitely, but you cannot feel it because you don’t have any flavors of it. So you will agree that it sounds very tempting, but you cannot perceive it in order to understand that it is attractive according to the pleasures you are used to: food, sex, family, money, respect and knowledge, or at least part of it!

So a person is given troubles in order to push him to spirituality, but they are intentional. Eventually it is Pharaoh who undergoes the blows, but before that, the nation of Israel suffers during the seven years of hunger. They are not give bricks, but are  forced to prepare them by themselves and work from morning till night without a rest. Everything is according to the path of suffering and everything depends on the sufferings that we choose. The spiritual sufferings are a result of my drawing away from spirituality. The more we advance, the more qualitative the sufferings become until eventually we reach the exodus, but these are still sufferings. A person cannot advance by living a comfortable life. If he feels pleasure, the pleasure immediately fills him and stops him. This happens all over the world. Give people abundance and they will live without thinking about anything, like animals.

It is only if the deficiency in them grows that they are forced to look for a way to fill it or escape the pain that they not only lack something but that it really hurts. In that case they will reach the filling. Guiding the created being by blows and sufferings is the safest way, because the nature of creation is a desire to receive and not to bestow.

We have to either increase the feeling of deficiency in the desire to receive or increase the temptation to receive. A person is a machine that feels emptiness in its belly. Instead we can prepare a table full of delicacies and thus awaken a person’s appetite, even if he isn’t really hungry.

This means that we can increase the deficiency in two ways, but they both operate from the aspect of receiving and not from the aspect of bestowal. We can draw a person by the force of bestowal only through the group. If I am incorporated in the group, I begin to understand that my progress doesn’t depend on the emptiness I feel in my belly and not on the wonderful dish before me. The progress takes place on a more sublime dimension and begins from lack of bestowal and advances towards an increasingly greater ability to bestow.

So I begin to work with the group, ignoring what I feel in my belly or the plate that is before me, and move on to a new dimension. So far I have advanced on one dimension according to the route on the low level. I escaped from the emptiness I feel in my belly towards the filling.

The gates of impurity, of receiving, are on the lower level and the gates of holiness, of bestowal, are on the upper level.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/28/14, Writings of Rabash

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Baal HaSulam, “The Inheritance of the Land”: Israel will not return to their land unless they all become one bundle.

Land (Eretz) refers to desire (Ratzon). We want to acquire the “land of Israel” which is a special desire that has to be aimed at the Creator, Yashar-El (straight to the Creator). This means that we have to focus our desire on the Creator, in order to bestow, and this is expressed when we focus ourselves on love of others.

How is all that related to the geographic location of the state of Israel? Is it about branches and roots? The Jewish nation can live on their land only if they are compatible with the laws that operate between the nation and the spiritual land of Israel.

This means that when my desires are focused on delighting the Creator, it is expressed in delighting others according to the principle of all of Israel are friends and are  mutually responsible for one another; don’t do unto others what is hateful to you; love thy friend as thyself; as one man in one heart, etc.

If I am attracted to that, it means that I correct all my desires with the help of the Upper Light, and then they change from foreign desires to internal desires; they turn from a dry land to a desire to Yashar-El. Then, as I enter the spiritual land of Israel in spirituality, I am attracted to the land of Israel in corporeality.

This is the reason that the Creator sent Abraham from Babylon to the land, which was the land of Canaan at the time, so that he would correct himself there and feel the true nature of Yashar-El. It is about both the internal work and about corporeal actions. The families of Abraham’s students collected their belongings, their camels, their sheep, and goats and travelled to that place. This transition was according to their work of connection, according to what Abraham had taught them.

The people in the world don’t understand the law of compatibility between a branch and a root. But it was expressed even in Babylon, when its people scattered all over the globe. First they were as one nation, although they were many tribes and extended families. Then when the ego erupted between them and began to expand, the signs of separation appeared.

People connected to one another, drew away from another, and thus they divided into groups that eventually left Babylon and scattered all over the world. This is how the nations of the world were created. They were formed according to the egoistic desires that determined their uniqueness and who could get along with whom. Consequently, we see that today every nation has its unique mentality, customs, traditions, etc.

In addition, people from all of Babylon who had a point in the heart gathered around Abraham regardless of the tribes or the extended families to which they belonged. When they heard the message that Abraham spread they felt that they wanted to belong to that group, which headed towards Canaan according to the law of branch and root.

The rest of the people didn’t know why they were attracted to different places. It is the same today: A person doesn’t feel that it is the Creator who sends him everything in life and that He guides him in a certain direction or another. It seems that everything happens by chance, without a cause, although nothing is random in nature. The reasons are simply concealed from us.

On the other hand, Abraham’s group received a clear order: “Go to your land.” In other words, the students felt very clearly the connection between the spiritual root and the corporeal branch. They were in a state of Canaan and therefore reached the land of Canaan.

Later they connect more strongly to one another until they reached the state of the “house of Jacob,” meaning unity in smallness (Katnut). Then they discovered that they lacked an additional inner drive, resistance, or in short, an addition, material for work.

Thus, their egoistic desire began to grow, which is called the exile in Egypt. This internal process was accompanied by an external process: They went down to Egypt. There they underwent different experiences according to their internal states: seven years of satiety, seven years of hunger, the plagues of Egypt, although all this took place externally and not in complete accordance with their internal states.

We cannot discern this connection; therefore, there is no point looking for definite parallels. In the spiritual exodus from Egypt, for example, all of Egypt, which means the whole egoistic desire, fell. After all, the children of Israel broke off from the big ego. It existed between them and didn’t let them connect despite all their efforts until they had a chance to rise above it. Generally speaking, this connection was possible only above the ego and not inside it or together with it.

But something different happened in the corporeal world. Egypt didn’t fall immediately after the children of Israel left it. After all, this world exists although there is nothing spiritual about it. This is where the lack of correlation between the spiritual destruction of Egypt and the spiritual branch stems from.

We establish our reality among us on the spiritual level, and the corporeal level, which is perceived by our five senses, remains the same. There is no spiritual content in it and it doesn’t have to become desolate according to spiritual events. This is how the difference between the levels is revealed as the corporeal Egypt remains in its place although it has been destroyed in our internal states.

It says that the spiritual root has to touch the corporeal branch, but only to touch it. It isn’t dressed in it and doesn’t operate in it.
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From the 5^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/30/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Like A Bundle of Reeds, Why Unity and Mutual Guarantee Are Today’s Call of the Hour, Michael Laitman, Ph.D.

Chapter 10: Living In an Integrated World
An Integrated World Requires Integral Education

The “Point-in-the-Heart” Way

For some of us, the way to come by unity is relatively simple. We have already mentioned the “point in the heart,” that thirst to understand what life is about, what makes the world go around, the yearning that enabled Adam, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and the entire nation that arose out of the pariahs from Babylon to develop a correction method that turns the evil inclination into goodness. Those who have that point can start studying the texts that Kabbalists have left for us as a means to attain the Creator, the quality of bestowal. Along the way they will learn how to unite on a profound level and will be ready to pass that unity on to others.

In our generation, the most instrumental texts for achieving those purposes are Baal HaSulam’s The Book of Zohar with the Sulam (Ladder) commentary, the writings of the ARI, preferably with Baal HaSulam’s commentaries, published in his Talmud Esser HaSephirot (The Study of the Ten Sephirot), as well as Baal HaSulam’s other writings, published in The Writings of Baal HaSulam. To make these, and other texts more accessible, we have established a free online library of authentic Kabbalistic texts, translated into dozens of languages.

In the original Hebrew, they can be found at www.kab.co.il, and translations of much of the texts—including even a version of The Book of Zohar, titled, Zohar for All, which consolidates the text of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai (Rashbi) with the commentary of Baal HaSulam—exist in English as well at www.kabbalah.info, for no cost or preconditions whatsoever.

Also available at the above-mentioned web addresses are the writings of my teacher, Rav Baruch Shalom Ashlag (the Rabash), Baal HaSulam’s firstborn son, and successor. Although fewer of his writings have been translated into English, all of his essays that teach students how to promote unity in student groups have been published in English in the book, The Social Writings of Rabash. For those who prefer hard copies of the texts, all of the above publications exist in print, and can be purchased at www.kabbalahbooks.info or on amazon.com and other online outlets.

Additionally, veteran students have established an Education Center that teaches the basics of Kabbalah and how to implement it so it becomes part of one’s daily life, complementing one’s personal growth toward obtaining one’s goals in life. For more advanced students, I teach a daily three-hour lesson broadcast live on www.kab.tv, with simultaneous interpretations into all major languages—English, Spanish, French, Russian, German, and others. In these lessons, I strive to advance students as quickly and as easily as possible while adhering to the modes of teaching I received from my venerated teacher, the Rabash.

In the last couple of years, we have also been airing shows on US TV channels such as JLTV and Shalom TV, primarily on weekends. Naturally, these shows are not “hardcore” Kabbalah studies, but they are certainly a great reference for anyone who wishes to “wet one’s feet” and see what this study is all about.

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Preparation for the Lesson

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Writings of Rabash, “Rungs of the Ladder,” “Come Unto Pharaoh-2”

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Writings of Rabash, Letter 66

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The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts, “Excerpt Items for Passover,” “The Exodus from Egypt,” Item 153

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Torah, “Shmot,” Verse 2, Item 23

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Question: People who survived the Holocaust ask how such a thing could have happened if “There is none else besides Him.”

Answer: It is impossible to answer this question on the corporeal level. A person asks simply: “if the Creator is good, He has to do what I think is good, but if I feel bad, it is sign that He is bad or that He doesn’t exist at all.” Then he reaches the conclusion: “Well then, the Creator doesn’t exist.”

In order to give a different answer, we need to explain that Israel has to manage the world and because they cannot manage it properly the world suffers, and of course the first to suffer are those who brought the world to this condition.

There is no other reason for the sufferings. The ball is always in your hands, from the days of Abraham onwards. And don’t say that you couldn’t and that you didn’t know, you have always known and always could. It is all very straight forward.

But if I say that to people, they may think that I blame them and that I am against them. It is like a child who is told that he did something wrong and he cries that daddy is bad. Why is daddy bad if I explain to you and show you your mistake so that you will not go wrong again? No, daddy is bad in any case! This is what he feels in his ego.

It says: “He has given a law that cannot be broken.” This is the reason that the Creator is called nature. Can nature change? If a volcano erupts, is it that the lava destroys someone and someone else is spared? would it hit someone and spare someone else? If it rains, everyone gets wet. Here there are no questions.

If the nation of Israel does not begin to do what they have to do, all the atrocities will repeat, and even more than once. If during your lifetime you repeat the same mistake over and over again because of your weak character you receive blows each time. The same thing happens with the world.

The atrocities of the Nazis we underwent during WWII can be repeated as many times as necessary until you will realize what you must do and do it. If you don’t, then Nazism will never end. We are facing this state right now and nothing can be done. Only our internal unity and our dissemination outward can prevent the adversity, not only for the Jews but for the whole world.
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From the 5^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/28/14, Topic: Holocaust Memorial Day

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Question: Why does Baal HaSulam write that after democracy and socialism comes a fascist regime?

Answer: Because democracy is incapable of satisfying the desire for pleasure. The desire for pleasure grows and demands progress. The person himself wants to be more connected, and democracy brings him to this. Yet what kind of benefit does he get from connection; how do we realize it?

The realization of unity can only be either for the sake of our personal benefit or for the sake of the Creator. One of the two, there is no third. If we advance in a simple and natural way, then the connection comes about for the sake of our benefit. And this means that we are connected against everyone else and we try to turn them into our slaves, subjugating them.

An approach like this can be seen all over the world, more or less following every democratic government. After people get at least a little freedom, they immediately begin to feel that they lack connection. Yet they don’t know how to use it: “So we got connected, and what’s next?”

We are compelled to exploit this connection for the sake of someone or something. Ultimately it is realized in fighting against the others and showing how strong, unified, and consolidated we are among all of the people. This emerges naturally and inevitably. Today this tendency can already be seen in the world. From month to month the world approaches Nazism more and more.

It is enough to look at what is generally happening in the common European market, their decision-making, events happening in the United States, in Russia, and in many nations. It could be that you don’t feel this very much, yet I see that Nazism is becoming acceptable in society.

We are beginning to talk about it as something legitimate. We begin from a distance with the fact the we must discuss it so that it won’t return. But in the meantime, until we begin the discussions, we arrange conventions and printed material and people get used to the subject. This is the first stage.

Although it is said that Nazism is a negative phenomenon, but researchers and historians supposedly should discuss it. After that philosophers and futurists join this discussion, they investigate and examine how and why this happened. As a result of this, they reach the conclusion that this behavior is inherent in human nature and the Nazi regime was a natural and valid stage in the development of humanity. That is, it is embedded in our nature and cannot be avoided.  And so the legitimization of fascism is made.

After that begin the speeches about the necessity of the unity of the people, the need for sanctions against immigrants, the necessity of uniting against enemies because we are weak and losing. It would be like talking about steps necessary for survival. The idea gradually spreads. For this purpose there exists a special technology with whose help in a few years it will be possible to sell people anything.

Hitler didn’t immediately come to power either. Many years passed from World War I until World War II. He had some kind of a base upon which to stand; he was truly elected by the majority. Today it is even easier to do this because connection in our day is even more in demand, an even more sensitive topic. There is even greater disappointment in our development.

We as humanity have stopped developing. A new mobile phone every half-year doesn’t testify to technological advancement. These technologies are already old; there is nothing new, just a change in the external shape to sell the product. We have reached the limit of development of technical thinking and soon the same thing will happen in biology and everything else.

So there are many reasons for the development of Nazism. These trends are continuing to grow in all nations: France, Ukraine, United States, Russia, and it would be worthwhile to think about this before it is too late.
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From the 5^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/28/14, Topic: Holocaust Memorial Day

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Baal HaSulam, Shamati 159, “And It Came To Pass In The Course Of Those Many Days:” This is the meaning of “the king of Egypt died,” that all the dominations of the king of Egypt, which he was providing for and nourishing, had died.

The king of Egypt died inside us and  the control of the ego upon us disappeared. Therefore, we were not able to work anymore. We were always working in order to receive and then to bestow in order to receive.  And suddenly there is no one to work for since the desire to receive disappeared. And if there is no desire, then there is nothing to do, no desire to bestow or receive. The ego disappears, we come to despair and don’t know where to go.

We don’t have a reason to move; we feel disconnected from life, which suddenly becomes in vain. But, clearly this is exactly the passage to the next degree. If at this moment we are powerless, it precisely indicates our dependency on the force of desire and how it held us in its complete control.

“The king of Egypt died,” that is, our ego stopped being important to us. We no longer try to fulfill it as before, nor do we feel that there is any vitality in this fulfillment.

In ordinary life it is clear to us that if I we are fed up with a game, it is not as important as before, that is, that the king of Egypt, the ego, that was part of the game and fulfilled us, does not fulfill us anymore. Therefore, we look for another game, changing our place of work or lifestyle.

But, in spiritual work we don’t know how to change a problem. In regular life we have TV, the Internet, advertisements, and we constantly choose where else we can find enjoyment and what else can be experienced. We enter the supermarket and see endless varieties of wine, cheese, and meat on the shelves. If you don’t want one thing, take another one. This confuses people and creates an illusion of a variety of pleasures, and this calms people by showing them that there is always something to fulfill them. Nevertheless, we see that with all the sufferings, a large percentage of people suffer from depression, complete despair, and drug use.

Because we progress toward mutual spiritual work, today in our world people do not understand where the king of Egypt disappeared to. Before he provided aspiration for work from which we received different fulfillments. But today, everything has disappeared and this is a problem in our lives.

We understand that we cannot change jobs anymore; there is no place to where we can escape, and we will need to concentrate on finding a new king. Meaning, we must receive the control of the force to bestow without any reward, to receive force from above and perform actions that are directed upward and toward people outside of us.

We only need to request to disconnect from any self-benefit, from our future, from fulfillment, and from good or bad feelings within us.

And afterward, when they walked in the desert and came to a state of Katnut, (smallness), they craved the servitude that they had had prior to the death of the king of Egypt.

When man had previously disconnected from working for his ego and had risen above it, he again is brought back to the feeling of the desires, intentions, pleasures, and fulfillments he had in the past! This is done so that above his feeling of disconnection, he will build the same state on a spiritual level.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/14, Shamati #159

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Before the Exodus from Egypt a person passes through “49 gates of impurity.” That is, he no longer believes in anything; he doesn’t expect anything; he sees that he just about doesn’t have any connection with the upper force and that it is impossible to change anything in his life. Where is this upper force found, which is “There is none else beside Him”? Everything is under the control of Pharaoh and it is impossible to do anything against the ego that controls him.

A person doesn’t understand and doesn’t believe in the “good that does good.” Only a thin thread connecting him to spirituality remains; it is so fragile that he no longer believes that something will come from it. The despair is so great, and the thread that holds him is the patience that is beyond the intellect and logic.

This situation gradually accumulates, and if the person truly reaches the 49 gates of impurity, then the upper power acts against them, acquiring redemption for him.

Here it should be mentioned that “every action leaves an impression,” time after time, a bit further and further, and so we count the 400 years during the period a person accumulates clarifications, efforts, even weaknesses, and over comings, which he succeeds in doing by himself or with the help of the Creator.

Our entire struggle to leave Egypt is under the control of the Creator, There is none else beside Him and He is the good that does good. And the Klipa (the egoistic force) denies the higher providence of There is none else beside Him in every possible way.

The servitude, the exile (in Hebrew, Galut) differs from the redemption (Geula) basically because of the letter “Aleph,” which is the Lord of the World. One must concentrate on this point constantly and not on anything else. Specifically it is necessary to constantly sharpen our clarification, fight against our nature, against Pharaoh, because there is none else beside Him, the good and that does good.

We don’t ask for someone to change anything; we don’t appeal our fate. Instead we only turn to the Creator with our requests. This is what there is none else beside Him, means, because everything that happens we connect only to Him. Only He performing every action, preparing them so that from within the struggle against all the disturbances in which He has wrapped Himself, we discover Him and turn to Him.

Exile means that we are still not ready, but we very much yearn to discover the source of everything that is happening, as it is said, “I and not a messenger.” This is a very important moment. This is our only work, and it is up to us to be ready for it.

It is very important to remain at this point like a ship or an airplane that we must constantly navigate to remain on the right track despite the wind and various disturbances. This is possible only with a good crew.

Everything is constructed so that a person is not prepared to maintain his position by himself. Problems fall on him, and then pity is taken upon him and he is given another opportunity. But this chance is specifically to build the right team for himself so that together with them he will maintain his direction.

It must always be remembered that all of the disturbances come from the Creator and not from Pharaoh or his army and that there are no accidents and no messengers. Instead everything comes directly from the Creator. Our task is to discover the Creator instead of all the sources of power and other actions. Through this, our servitude, the blows, and all of the events of the story of the exodus from Egypt are revealed. All of this is a struggle to locate the Creator through all of the disturbances that are found between the Creator and us.

In the beginning there is no connection between the Creator and us because we are opposites. And the disturbances come precisely so that we will use them to build a connection with the Creator. So we see that Pharaoh brings us closer to the Creator; the evil inclination is help against us (Genesis 2:18)  and we transform that into a connection with the Creator.

If we consistently work this way and try to build connection, then gradually we rise to a stronger and stronger connection, like the rungs of a ladder, and we fall into even greater disturbances, into a greater lack of connection. And again we try to build Pithom and Ramses and again fall, losing the connection, tearing, and becoming confused, denying any control by the Creator.

As a result of our efforts we pass through 49 gates of impurity. If we reach the 49^th gate, it means that we have made a multitude of corrections on our connection with the Creator. But this is hidden from us. For a fraction of a moment we discover something and fall immediately. In this way we must discover all of the disturbances that are contrary to the fact that there is none else beside Him.

And the discovery is made according to the principle of “I and not a messenger” if we are ready to depict the upper force in spite of all the disturbances. The exile is given to us so that we can feel the Creator, locate Him within “out of nothing.” That is how we reach redemption.

So it is impossible to forget that all of the work towards redemption is to determine the fact that there is none else beside Him when faced with all of the disturbances that of course come from the Creator.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/01/14, Shamati #190

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Baal HaSulam, Shamati #159 “And It Came to Pass in the Course of Those Many Days”: The thing is that, indeed, they were very fond of the work in Egypt. This is the meaning of “But mingled themselves with the nations, and learned their works.”

It means that if Israel are under the dominion of a certain nation, that nation controls them and they cannot retire from their dominion. Thus, they tasted sufficient flavor in that work and could not be redeemed.

At first a person is in his desire to enjoy and sees that he works for the sake of his ego. He learns and acquires knowledge and feels that he is above others since he understands and feels more than them.

The wisdom of Kabbalah opens before him the whole essence of life in this world and he looks down with contempt at all the other people who lie around on this planet and don’t understand anything. He feels that he is higher, more important and superior to them and his ego is filled with pride.

He receives explanations about good and evil and turns everything in his favor in order to calm himself. Now he has a tempting goal. He sees the wisdom of Kabbalah as his redemption and the answer to all the troubles since he arrived to this wisdom quite depressed having been beaten by life. Here he suddenly finds all the answers and comfort. He is glad that he isn’t guilty of all the evil he has done and expects things to be better than in the past. In short, he is very satisfied.

This is intentional, just like with small children who receive from the Creator energy to run around, to learn everything, and not to sit still and be lazy so that they can quickly learn about the world and develop. The same thing happens to a person when he begins to study, as it is written: “The thing is that, indeed, they were very fond of the work in Egypt, this is the meaning of ‘But mingled themselves with the nations, and learned their works.'”

The nations of the world are the states in which only the desire to enjoy rules, and Israel under the domination of Egypt is a state in which the desire to bestow that awakens in me works for the benefit of the egoistic desire. It turns out that I can be more successful than others. I calm myself; I understand and feel more as if I am getting more opportunities and therefore feel that I am better.

These are the onions, the garlic, and the squash that we ate in Egypt. At this initial state I can turn all the evil that is revealed for the benefit of my ego. This means that I am Pharaoh’s slave. Everything serves the egoistic desire, even the small desire to bestow in me that I have thanks to the study and my connection with the group.

This is how I use this method up to a certain point until there is suddenly a change in my feeling. This is called: “and the king of Egypt [who was good to me] died.” Then it is as if a new domination emerges. I don’t feel that I am so successful anymore and that this business is so simple. I cannot use the wisdom of Kabbalah to improve my ordinary, corporeal egoistic life anymore.

Here I begin to feel my slavery. The desire remains the same desire, the same king, but it is dead for me! The new phase begins: “and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage” What are we working for if it isn’t for our sake? And what will become of us?

We connected with the hope to discover the upper force because we thought that it is good for our ego, but now we suddenly discover that it isn’t the good we were waiting for and not the connection we thought it would be. We begin to understand the good and the connection in their real sense, which means that we are aware that the fruit will not be revealed in the desire to enjoy but only in the desire to bestow.

We still don’t understand the meaning of receiving a payment in the desire to bestow, but it will be revealed to us. We hope to feel good, but what is good in bestowal? We have to change our perception with regard to the coming change.

This is the meaning of “the king of Egypt died,” that all the dominations of the king of Egypt—he gave them food and livelihood—had died. This is why they had room for prayer. And they were immediately salvaged. And then when they walked in the desert and came to a state of Katnut (smallness), they craved the servitude that they had had prior to the death of the king of Egypt. Which means that they left the domination of Pharaoh.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/30/14, Shamati #159

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