Question: What is the meaning of the vessels that we pick up from the Egyptians?

Answer: Without them, we are unable to reveal the Light (the Creator) because all we are able to do is modify the intention. Egypt is the intention for one’s own sake.

The land of Israel (Eretz Israel) is a desire (ratzon) directly to the Creator (Yashar-El). The same desire that exists in Egypt transforms to Israel after changing the intention.

We have only one desire. When we first reveal it, it seems like ancient Babylon because everything seems so confused. It is a huge egoism that mixes all states together. The first time we exit our ego due to Abraham’s method we strive to rise above our will to receive and detach from our prior states as much as we can.

This phenomenon is called “Abraham.” Abraham leads us out of Babylon and separates us from our usual, corporeal egoism.

In the beginning, when one comes to a group, one is taught how to work beyond one’s egoism and to connect with friends. While making attempts to achieve unity, one suddenly experiences a tremendous downfall.

This is an entrance to Egypt: a more egoistic and harsh intention. One wants to receive all the worlds. It is a more egoistic and focused intention. One even wants to use the wisdom of Kabbalah for the sake of one’s personal wellbeing. This is called the power of Pharaoh.

If we continue working, the group and the Surrounding Light influence us. We don’t sense the Light, but notice the consequences of its impact on us. We feel that we are obligated to exit our egoism, to get rid of it. We apply efforts and experience troubles and numerous problems that help us detach from our ego.

Sometimes we fall very deep into our egoism. Sometimes we detach from our ego and rise over it. We go through ups and downs. Our egoism (the Pharaoh) keeps receiving blows until we rid ourselves of it.

The first detachment from the egoistic intention is called exodus from Egypt. This is what we hope to go through all together when we unite. I anticipate that this coming Pesach won’t be just a holiday on the calendar for us and that we will experience a spiritual leap.

What will change in us if the leap happens? First, Babylon will turn into a sensation that we are in Egypt, in slavery, still inside the will to receive. Everything depends on our perception. In Babylon, everybody acted within their egoism and it was considered normal because this is human nature.

But we do not agree with this state and want to rise above the ego. When we tried to elevate, we transitioned from Babylon to the land of Canaan, the future land of Israel. There, we suddenly sensed that we simply cannot do it the way we tried and that we have to stay inside the will to receive, otherwise we won’t advance at all. This means that we have entered Egypt.

When we acknowledge the necessity of changing intentions from egoistic to bestowing, we start working on exiting Egypt and continue our work until we manage to disconnect from our egoistic intention. Detachment from the latter is the exodus from Egypt.

Then, we are uncertain of what should be done next: We have detached ourselves from the egoism, but what now? At this point, we start acquiring the intention to bestow that we add on top of the same desire that we had when we were in Egypt. That’s why each commandment that we observe, each bestowing action, is just a recollection of our exodus from Egypt.

I use the desire that previously was called Babylon, then was Egypt, and then transformed into the Sinai Desert, and in the end it finally became the land of Israel. The desire remains the same, but the intention improves each time.
[131706]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/3/14, Q&A with Rav Laitman

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There isn’t a more important state than our current state, since this is where our spiritual evolution begins. It is in our situation, in our condition, that the exit to the first spiritual level is possible. It cannot be any other way. Everyone starts off this way. We are given a special opportunity and we have to use all the means that we are given in order to bring ourselves to the feeling of exile, to feeling that we are in chains and in the worst possible state under the domination of Pharaoh.

Pharaoh controls even our smallest thought, our smallest desire, wherever we turn and whatever we do. Every impulse and every move we make stem from him; every thought and every stream of consciousness, every desire and all the desires that stem from it, are all determined by the ego. No matter which way we go and how far we try to move away from evil, we remain in the ego.

A person determines that he cannot leave exile, although he really wants to exit it and makes many attempts, many great efforts, and exerts himself, but it leads to nothing. When he cries out desperately with the last powers he has left for only this last cry, a miracle takes place and he comes out of Egypt.

Now he begins to understand and to feel what it means to be under the influence of the Light. He comes out of his enslavement to his desire and voluntarily becomes enslaved to the Light, by choosing to be under the domination of the attribute of bestowal, above reason.

He knows that he is becoming a slave, that he is enslaving himself, and that he isn’t free anymore, but he is free of the desire to receive and from his beloved self, about whom he constantly worries. He is under another kind of domination and actually wants to be under this domination.

There is no neutral state on the way between egoistic Egypt and complete bestowal. A person immediately moves from one kind of domination to another, but he wants it and yearns for it even when he is still in Egypt. Besides the repulsion, the hatred, and the rejection he feels towards the state in Egypt, he also yearns for the total domination of the Light so that it will totally rule him, guide him, and manage him.

This is how we should prepare ourselves internally. Let’s hope that we are somehow ready for that and as for all the rest – the Lord will complete the work for us.
[132569]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/13/14, Writings of Rabash

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Psalms 121: A song for ascents. I shall raise my eyes to the mountains, from where will my help come?
My help is from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.
He will not allow your foot to falter; Your Guardian will not slumber.
Behold, the Guardian of Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord is your Guardian; the Lord is your shadow; [He is] by your right hand.
By day, the sun will not smite you, nor will the moon at night.
The Lord will guard you from all evil; He will guard your soul.
The Lord will guard your going out and your coming in from now and to eternity.

We have to raise our deficiencies for the correction of Malchut, the shattered vessel, the shattered soul, until we reach the head of the world of Atzilut, from where will my help come, I shall raise my eyes to the mountains, which means to rise above every mountain of doubt. This ascent is according to the equivalence of form that I want to attain. Of course, I cannot do so at the moment, but I want to ascend there.

This is where my help will come from, my help is from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth, which means that He creates Malchut by the attributes of Bina and Zeir Anpin, HaVaYaH connects them.

A person can express his request this way from every state he is in, from the day and from the night, in order to discover that the Guardian of Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. All these days will accumulate and the Creator will help us and will dwell in the unity between us according to our yearning to unite.

We must not forget that we have to prepare a platform, a place for the Divinity. All our work is with the connection in a practical and down to earth manner, despite all the troubles and the obstacles. There are no coincidences in life, everything is arranged and organized to the very last detail from Above so that we will connect in these conditions.

The higher we ascend, the lower we descend by receiving more obstacles. Thus the shattered vessel, the shattered soul, is revealed until we clarify all its parts that we have to connect in order to attain the first spiritual level.

The main thing is to ascend to the first level of the spiritual ladder. All the other levels follow one another in a chain of cause and effect. They all have the same nature and the most difficult thing is to make the transition from the nature of in order to receive to in order to bestow.

Then there is the same manner of ascent according to the same rules. More and more details are revealed and the impression certainly changes, but it isn’t the initial transition of our nature anymore. So the main thing is to overcome the first level.
[132503]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/11/14

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Preparation for the Lesson

Shamati #159 “And It Came to Pass in the Course of Those Many Days”

The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts, “Parashat,” “BeShalach“

Writings of Rabash “Dargot HaSulam” Article 921

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Question: If we want to take an example from Abraham, what must we talk about with people?

Answer: Suppose that we organize an institute called “Abraham,” after the name of the approach and the idea, and we begin to disseminate this philosophy, this perception, and goal of life on its behalf. So we must gather a sufficient amount of people to come out of the current modern Babylon just as they came out from ancient Babylon. This means that it’s necessary to reach a particular strength among that part which is detached from the ego and then rise upward.

We require a power that will take us upward. If I have a small balloon filled with helium, it can’t lift me. But if I take a large balloon with a diameter of twenty meters, then it will.

Question: When meeting with people, how do we do this so that this helium balloon will lift their point in the heart?

Answer: It’s simply necessary to publicize this idea among everyone, as Abraham did in his time. Through this, we attract people and they will begin to wake up and to learn from us. There is no obligation for everyone to agree with us. They come, try it—some of them leave and some of them stay.

Question: Is this active or passive dissemination?

Answer: It seems that Abraham disseminated his idea actively since Nimrod, the king of Babylon at that time, expelled him from the city since he couldn’t agree with Abraham.
[132553]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/10/14, Talk About Dissemination: Questions and Answers with Dr. Laitman

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Question: If we yearn for the Creator and want to discover Him, why is it so important to go out and work on the unity of the whole nation?

Answer: It is our duty since whoever belongs to the corporeal nation of Israel has sparks from the spiritual levels that he attained in the past. We have been through the exile in Egypt, we have built two Temples, the first and the second, and we were in contact with the Creator.

So these sparks exist and we need them in order to attain the power needed to breakthrough upwards. Abraham couldn’t come out of Babel by himself. He needed to take people with him in order to fulfill the goal of creation. The goal is fulfilled among people, and therefore we need a great power. 

What is the quantity of sparks that we need? What general power do we need in order to exit the ego and to start feeling the influence of the upper force? I cannot say. We are going to perform a totally new action that has never been performed before.

It says that there should be 600,000 souls, but we don’t know what it means. It can be a thousand, a hundred thousand, 600,000, or 6 million people. It is impossible to know now what the number of the people should be since 600,000 is a power that exists on the level of Arich Anpin, in greatness that we need to awaken.
[132558]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/10/14 Talk About Dissemination: Questions and Answers with Dr. Laitman

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Question: How does the descent called the Shaar haTuma (Gates of Impurity) come to be expressed?

Answer: Everything depends upon what we think is a descent. In the beginning, at the first gate of impurity, I simply see that I have no power, I don’t want to do anything, and I have lost the taste for life.

Whereas at the 10th or 15th gate, I lose the desire to learn, to be connected with the friends, to carry out acts of bestowal, and to be involved in dissemination; I lose faith in what is written in the books of the Kabbalists. I simply want to lie down and get away from everything or get drunk and pass the time idly.

Yet together with this, I begin to understand that these are not my states; rather they come from some external source. They pass me through them intentionally so that I will consolidate my relationship to the Source, to the Creator and to what He does.

So I say to Him, “Do what you want! You can create darkness around me—even this is good! When it’s dark I don’t want anything, and this is better than chasing after pleasures. But together with this, give me the possibility of being aware of you, the one who creates this darkness for me.”

It means that the Creator makes the heart of Pharaoh heavy. Here I begin to differentiate between my desire, the condition that is felt with it, and the Creator who arranges all this for me. This is already an internal separation, a crossroad.

That is how we continue to work and the darkness doesn’t dissipate. On the contrary, we pass through the 49 gates of impurity and arrive in the darkness of Egypt. Yet thanks to the exodus from Egypt, the darkness stops being darkness. We change our relationship to darkness.

Indeed, we are found in the same condition all the time, changes only our perception of it. It’s as if I put on other glasses and see the state differently, advancing further, whereas the state itself hasn’t changed. We are immersed in the Light of Infinity. 

However, one starting point is given to us in order to feel the world that we see now within the Light of Infinity. And the changes depend upon what I think is good and bad. Indeed our substance is the desire to receive and it’s up to us to decide what is good or bad in relation to it.

If we change the perception of reality, our relationship to it, then the whole world is different. What was hated becomes loved. Imagine that a big man clothed in a white robe approaches a little child, takes out a menacing syringe, and gives him a painful injection. How must the child relate to his actions?

But when we grow up, we understand that the monster in white is not a cruel demon, but a doctor who must give me an injection and it’s for my own good. This is unpleasant, but must be tolerated.

Reality is unchanged, it is complete; we must change. In our day this is what the world has to understand. The changes that result from the inner development of the ego are over. We have developed our ego to the end. It has reached its maximum point and doesn’t have anywhere else to develop in the physical world.

We have reached the limit beyond which we have to begin to change our relationship. So we are found at a very unique point: The ego has nowhere to develop, on the opposite, it begins to deteriorate and bring us down. Indeed, it wants nothing more from life. So if we want to advance, this is possible only with the desire to bestow.
[132385]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/09/14, Shamati #54

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Question: How can I delight the Creator if I don’t feel Him?

Answer: This is why we are given a group and all of humanity. It says: “I dwell among my people.” If I try to delight humanity, my group, then by exiting myself and entering them, I will feel the Creator. 

The Creator is felt in the center of the group. When we operate in the group we discover something common in its center: a common desire in which we discover the Creator. It is because the Creator is in the innermost point and His vessel is the common desire: our common intentions and the common desire of the group. In order to be attracted to Him, we need to build another more external layer, which is the whole world.

It is impossible to work only with regards to the Creator since He is concealed. But if I am incorporated into the group and constantly invest in it to such an extent that eventually I want to give myself to the group and melt into it, I discover the Creator within it, because I have already attained the attributes that match Him in some way.
[132097]

From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/03/14, Questions and Answers with Dr. Laitman

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Question: From that time when the preparation for the Passover holiday began, a very strong heaviness of heart, an inner struggle was felt. Why is it so difficult for me?

Answer: Difficulties are being added to you, disturbances. You need to overcome them and you cannot. What is the reason for failure?

Question: If I fight in this state, then I feel how I am sinking even further into the dominance of the ego.

Answer: Why do you fight with the external disturbances, like Don Quixote with the windmills? You are not working at all in the place that is necessary. All of your powers must be concentrated only on connection with the friends. If you also have disturbances with this, this is a sign that you are acting alone. But if you are working together with the friends, then between you there must be Arvut, which makes it possible for you to rise together above your common, general problem.

Now, with the whole group, we are in a unique period before the Passover holiday, the spiritual root of which is the Exodus from Egypt that came down to the physical level and was imprinted here. We also belong to this physical level and already belong to its spiritual root somewhat, because we yearn to leave this egoistic servitude.

We still don’t know exactly if this is the same Pharaoh, if this is the same Egypt, but we have already touched upon it a bit. We already belong to the “next generation” and therefore get the heaviness of heart from Pharaoh, above which we must rise to connection between us. The ascent is called an extra connection.

If we make an effort and converge more and more strongly, then we can reach it. Our next station needs to be the actual embodiment of one man with one heart, and this is already the standing before Mount Sinai. We can make this leap now. Our problem is only that we don’t locate the right place for effort, and we don’t see that it’s found between us.

The place between a friend and myself is our common deficiency, our common yearning for discovery of the Creator. We produce, build, and stabilize the Creator, the power of bestowal and love, within the connection between us, in the connection of our desires and yearnings. The Creator doesn’t exist without us. We need to restore and stabilize the shattered Kli, to want it to be connected.

When we quantitatively and qualitatively complete the full extent of these efforts, suddenly there is a “Poof!” and all the parts are connected in the right way into a complete Kli in which the Creator is discovered. But nothing comes of it until the last moment arrives, when we try to connect it, when everything is arranged in its place, and when, with our desire, we acquire the form of bestowal. Then the Light will be revealed within it.
[132508]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/11/14, Writings of Rabash

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