Question: There is some similarity between Moses and the current state of the people of Israel today. Moses does not feel confident about the people of Israel or the Pharaoh although he is in contact with the Creator. The current state of the Israeli nation is also quite insecure.

Answer: It doesn’t matter. If there is a specific direction, if we understand that we have no choice, then despite the conditions that force us to escape from Egypt and to jump into the Red Sea, we do what we have to do.

Question: But you say that the modern Israeli nation doesn’t feel that it is in Egypt. Perhaps a certain force should appear or someone who can explain and start this process?

Answer: This is exactly what we are trying to do. Our group, our organization, wants to show the whole nation of Israel that there is a way to be saved. Let’s change our lives! After all, things are constantly getting worse; the world is becoming more and more hostile, and the Israeli society is disintegrated and divided. Our security is in an increasingly growing danger.

The blows that we feel do not come upon the “nation of Israel,” but upon “Egypt,” upon our ego, since we do not want to exit it. Israel in us, the desire to bestow that wants to come out of exile and to ascend, does not feel the blows. When we are in the ego, it feels the pain, but the moment we leave it, we become disconnected from the “plagues.”

Question: What should we do in order to stop falling into the ego?

Answer: The only thing we should do is to unite. We have the method of connecting for the whole people of Israel, and it is the means to be free of all our troubles.
[R103732]
From KabTV’s “Kabbalists Write: The Night of Passover Seder” 3/4/13

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Question: When we are talking about the holiday of Passover, why do we say: “Remember the exodus from Egypt?” After all, there were other exiles, from Babylon, Greece, and Rome, but we are reminded only about the exodus from Egypt. Why is this?

Answer: The Egyptian exile is the root of all the exiles. All the other exiles are as if superimposed on it. This exile is the most difficult and fundamental. A person rises above his egoism and, for the first time, realizes what the spiritual world is and what it means to feel the property of bestowal instead of the property of receiving that we are born and exist in.

We perceive the world through the senses that constantly want to enjoy and benefit from everything. The revolution in the sensory organs—when I begin to “exit myself,” to identify myself with the world, to give to others, to feel myself outside of my body so that my heart stays there—is called the exodus from Egypt. All the other exiles already happen outside of me.
[R103664]
From KabTV’s “Kabbalists Write: The Night of Passover Seder” 3/4/13

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Question: As a rule, the people of Israel were hated and expelled from various countries. However it is different in Egypt, the people of Israel seemed to be pulled into it.

Answer: We were expelled from country to country until we had a desire to exit egoism. After all, we are liberated only when we want to get out of it in order to unite. Therefore during the entire period of exile, we only collected, added, and accumulated misery and misfortunes.

Today we have reached a state that we simply are obliged to realize ourselves, i.e., unite. This is the action that is necessary to ascend above egoism. Then we will come out to freedom, to the land of Israel. Now we cannot yet imagine this state when you do not depend on anyone, are not afraid of anyone, are not oppressed by anyone, and you feel freedom in the full sense of the word.
[R103823]
From KabTV’s “Kabbalists Write: The Night of Passover Seder” 3/4/13

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 116

How Is the Concept of “a Vessel of Bestowal” Possible, Both a Vessel and a Bestower?

Indeed, there is something strange about the concept of a vessel of bestowal, a will to receive for the sake of bestowal. Since the Kabbalists lacked linguistic tools to express spiritual states, they used various simplified and condensed formulations. Had they not done so, they would have had to write entire books just to describe states such as Ibur (embryonic state), Katnut (smallness), Rosh (head), Toch (inner part), and so on, and even that would not have been enough. Therefore, they developed a language that would let them express spiritual states.

How does this language work? Through a kind of pre-agreed “password,” information is conveyed. This password carries extensive details about the subject matter and the intent of the author. If the reader is on the same spiritual level as the author, they share a common conceptual framework, and the meaning of the password is immediately clear to them.

For example, someone who does not know the meaning of the word “Rosh” (head) in Hebrew will have no idea what to do upon hearing it. We must be familiar with the word to understand its meaning.

However, mere familiarity with the word is not enough to grasp its full context. We must also understand the intent behind the term.

The language of Kabbalah is like a coded language where only those who recognize its codes can comprehend the meaning hidden behind the words. That is, in order to read Kabbalistic texts, we must know what the Kabbalists mean by their terms. They write to one another much like spies communicating in coded messages with no one but themselves able to understand what they were writing.

Why is it necessary to read Kabbalistic books? Baal HaSulam writes in “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot” (item 155) that when we long to understand the inner content of the words, without deceiving ourselves by forming imaginary, physical representations of them (as people often do when reading the Torah as if it were a historical narrative), and without interpreting the text in a corporeal, materialistic way, but instead deeply yearn to grasp the true, inner meaning of the words, we draw upon ourselves the surrounding light (Ohr Makif) from the state the text describes.

However, if instead of delving into the deeper layers of what the Kabbalists write, we imagine pictures from this world, then both the narrative and the imagery remain within the framework of this world. In such a case, we do not draw any illumination from above and remain stagnant, unable to progress.

This is the essential difference between the method of Kabbalah and any other approach to studying the Torah. In Kabbalah, we seek to draw the surrounding light upon ourselves. We strive to understand the inner meaning. This is called studying the inner aspect of the Torah, that is, learning precisely what it is conveying in its coded language.

Then, as we repeatedly attract the surrounding light during our study, we gradually advance until we enter the spiritual world.

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Matan Torah (Giving of the Torah),” Item 7-8 (12.7-8.2003)

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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, Shamati 21, “When One Feels Oneself in a State of Ascent”

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Selected Highlights

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Question: The people of Israel were afraid to leap into the Red Sea (Yam Suf – Final Sea) until Nachshon decided to do this. It seems that it was not easy to do.

Answer: Indeed it is not easy. We see that difficulties arose in all stages of the spiritual process. There are always those who were ready to turn back. Our ego is so multi-layered that it does not immediately give us the opportunity to escape from it or at least to define it as bad.

It is difficult for a person to nullify himself before others. If I do not act first, it means I would prefer someone else to. Is this a desire for love and unity? At the moment, this has not been clarified yet. And we see that after that the “golden calf” and many other problems were to appear.

Question: What does “Nachshon’s leap” symbolize?

Answer: There is a quality in a person that can go above reason: “Better death than such a life.” So the person leaps into the sea, come what may. Of course this is not our present state. The act called “Nachshon’s leap” requires preparation.

It is required to pass to the next stage, but are we prepared to carry it out? In the meantime, we are far from realizing it, even though this moment is quickly approaching. There is no doubt that we are in the stages of redemption. Peace and perfection are achieved in the connection of hearts. This is our salvation; this must replace the current state of Egypt. Therefore all of our work, study, and dissemination are aimed at connection and unity. Only with the help of connection and a good mutual relationship can we be saved.
[R103820]
From KabTV’s “Kabbalists Write: The Night of Passover Seder” 3/4/13

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Question: What property does Nachshon ben Amminadab, who was the first to jump into the Red Sea, symbolize in a man?

Answer: The Gematria (numerical) value of the name Nachshon ben Amminadab indicates the height of his spiritual condition is a property of pure Bina.

It is this quality that enables him to withstand the wall of water. On one hand water is a soft quality that is the basis of life, and on the other hand it is a hard property since it is manifested as Gvurot, the force of judgment.

The hard and soft forces hidden in water can only be moved by rising above egoism. Nachshon is able to do this because everything moves aside for a person who breaks away from egoism since he completely adheres to the Creator.

There is no empty space in the world: it is either reception (egoism) or bestowal  (the property of the Creator). After rising above the ego, you do not enter a vacuum, you enter but the property of the Creator, as Noah did when he entered the ark. So it is here, you enter the property of bestowal, as if in a cocoon, and exist in it. This is the effect of Nachshon. The sea harms someone, as in the story of the flood, and someone else gets to be saved.

Thus the actions of Noah and Nachshon are the same actions that occur at different levels of egoism and return to their original place in the four stages of development. This takes place at each stage. This is what spiritual advancement consists of.
[R152607]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/30/14

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Question: How can I find the part of the Creator within me?

Answer: The quality of bestowal that arises in you in relation to others is the quality of the Creator within you.

Question: How do I discover this quality? How can I recognize it? I might just be fooling myself.

Answer: Try it out with others, and you will see whether it is there or not and to what extent. When it truly appears, you will feel the Creator.

Question: Is it only at that moment that one can find the Creator within oneself? Is there nothing before that?

Answer: Nothing.
[342935]
From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. The Creator Within Me” 8/2/10

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 115

Is an Embryo Male or Female?

In our corporeal world, an embryo can be either male or female. In spirituality, a person goes through various states: still, vegetative, animate, speaking, angelic, and resembling the Creator. Each of these states contains thousands of stages.

This means that every soul undergoes development, first as Nekeva and then as Zachar, and again Nekeva and then Zachar. However, in our world, these alternating states take on a fixed physical form, either male or female, because, relative to spirituality, our world is still, meaning it does not change.

Thus, every stage in spirituality, every action, every quality, everything that exists and constantly changes there, assumes a fixed and unchanging form in our world, as it happens with an embryo.

Beyond this, there is also variation in the types of souls. It depends on which part of Adam HaRishon the desire originates from. The soul is an individual desire within the general soul called Adam HaRishon, and its nature depends on which part of this spiritual body it comes from.

Within the body of Adam HaRishon, there are numerous distinctions, right side, left side, above, below, above the chest, below the chest, and so on.

Likewise, cells within the human body differ from one another. Each cell contains something unique, functions and behaves differently, and connects with other cells in various ways that are characteristic of it.

This is also true in spirituality. Souls interconnect in the same way. Our physical cells are merely a result, a copy, a physical manifestation of what takes place in spirituality.

From this, we can understand how vastly different we are from one another, yet at the same time, how we are all interconnected as parts of a single body.

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