Rabash, “What is the Blessing ‘that a miracle happened to me in this place’ in the Work”: And at the same time it says, “remember that you were a slave in Egypt.” This means that a slave is a bad thing, and still a person sometimes wants to remain a slave since the slave said, “I love my master.”

However, the matter of exile is according to the measure of suffering and pain that one feels in exile. To that extent, one can feel joy at his redemption. The sufferings one feels is the vessel that can receive the Light if he is freed from the sufferings.

The sufferings one feels should be suffering from being in exile, from his inability to perform true acts of bestowal. This is called exile and slavery

However, if a person doesn’t suffer, he may be an Egyptian or even a minister of Pharaoh. Slavery must be against one’s will. He may want to be a slave until he reaches a state where he wants to escape from slavery with all his might and all the means that he has.

We must imagine what exile and slavery mean—how, through them, I accept my nature as foreign domination that is inside me. Pharaoh enters me like a bacteria or a snake. He fills me, and doesn’t let me move or even breathe freely. If I do something, he swallows all the fruits of my work, thus turning everything to his benefit.

If I don’t distinguish between him and me, I do everything for his sake without any account or recognition. I think that I want to fill myself and not Pharaoh because I identify with him. This is called the animate level.

If I begin to consciously work for Pharaoh, it is already a real sin. It is a Klipa (shell). If I begin to hate him and to object to his domination, it is the work in exile. This is how the seven years of famine arrive in which I see that I cannot do anything, and everything turns out to be for the sake of Pharaoh. However, I don’t want it and won’t accept it! Thus, our struggle is ignited until it reaches its end.
[131522]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/1/14, Writings of Rabash

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Question: There are types of dissemination that require all of us to be out in front of the public. But what should be done if not everyone has the ability and talent required for that?

Answer: I only know one thing. If I want to execute an action correctly, I need to put myself into the hands of the group so that it will decide and determine what I should do. It could be that they will say, “Sit and don’t do anything since you will spoil it all.” And so that will be my participation in the dissemination.

I can be a driver, an usher, a lecturer. It doesn’t matter what I do. But it is preferred that the group decide that for me and that I don’t decide anything for myself. That means being a slave. I am in spiritual work.

And then I am released from all the doubts: I was told and I do it in the best and most completely naïve way, without entering my mind into it. My mind is only for understanding what they want me to do and to carrying it out in the best way without going into my “I,” into my initiative.

Thus, there needs to be the leadership that includes experts in dissemination who decide and determine what to do, who themselves participate in all these activities in order to be an example to everyone. And everyone needs to follow them. And those who don’t want are drilling a hole in the general boat, and we don’t need him at all in the group.

A person needs to understand that he needs to purify himself from all these forms of the ego, from the worry of it not being pleasant, from the doubts about doing this or that. If you simply cannot carry out what the group decides, then leave the group. After all, you must rise above your beast.

The group is stronger than you, and if you receive its protection, then execute and be happy that you now have the opportunity to do it. And if not, then you will stay with your ego and have no chance to advance. In this case, no need to bother the others. Go rest, we will meet in the next incarnation.
[130595]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/20/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Writings of Rabash “Shlavei HaSulam,” Article 40

Workshop

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

Writings of Rabash, “Shlavei HaSulam,” Article 16   

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Exile differs from redemption since it lacks the letter “Aleph,” which means that the Creator is revealed in the time of redemption. Thus, we prepare our deficiency for Him.

I must picture my connection with the Creator even when I am in exile. It is like a void, a place of deficiency, that later is filled by something. However, this deficiency already has the form of the future redemption. It begins to take on the right formation. According to it, I begin to understand what the exile should be and what I expect of it.

It isn’t redemption from the pots of beef, onions, and garlic. So, what is the redemption exactly? Perhaps I suffer and feel the exile on the animal level or the level of a plant, but not on a level of a human being, Adam, who resembles (Domeh) the Creator.

The entire difference between exile and redemption is the presence of the Creator. At the end of the exile, I must picture what it is like when this is the only thing missing. It turns out that I already have an impression, that I know what must be revealed.

I must be ready for it, to expect it, as if I already can taste what the redemption should bring me, what liberation, and what freedom from the angel of death. What symbolizes life and death for me? Life is redemption and slavery is death.
[131513]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/1/14, Shamati #190

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Question: Why is it said that due to corporeal pleasure you come to spirituality?

Answer: It means that I try to do all kinds of actions of bestowal to friends or in dissemination to another, to the general public.

Even though I try to carry them out only in order to bestow, without any personal benefit, ultimately I discover that they bring me pleasure and I am ready to do them only on condition that I will enjoy them.

I don’t have perpetual energy in me allowing me to perform actions without any fuel. If I move my hand, I must expend calories, expend energy. But where does this come from? So I must have pleasure to supply myself with energy.

I am not ready to just bestow. The Creator is the source of the energy, whereas I cannot be a source of energy. If I do something, I must get adequate compensation for this so that it will be worthwhile for me to act according to my emotion and intellect according to the calculations of my internal computer.

So even though I perform good actions: studying, dissemination, strengthening the group, I discover that in spite of it all, I am working for my own sake. I clarify that I am not prepared to be a power supply; rather, I always must have the thought of the benefits that I get from it. This is corporeal action.

From this it is clear to me that I am the opposite of the Creator and also perform actions of bestowal for the sake of my gain and benefit. I am like Pharaoh who used the children of Israel, meaning bestowal for my own pleasure. Pharaoh was very happy that the children of Israel were working for him. It was worthwhile for him to hold onto slaves like these.

They seemingly acted in order to bestow, but the ego, Pharaoh, received all of the fruits of labor for himself. What could be better than that? The desire to receive alone, without acts of bestowal, which just works in the form of reception, is called a “beast.” That is how all the animals and beasts act, receiving pleasure directly. The calculation is very simple: How much to pay for each pleasure and how much I will get?

But the exile and enslavement in Egypt is that I already want to approach the Creator, and so I enter into this period. I do acts of bestowal, am connected with the friends, establish Arvut (mutual guarantee) between us, do acts of dissemination, do a multitude of things, invest all of my life in this. But I always discover that I did all of this for personal benefit.

In the end, I don’t want this to be for my own benefit, but I cannot do anything except for myself, otherwise I cannot work. So I fall, lose all my energy and I don’t have the strength to move. Kill me, I will not get up.

So I begin to discover how much I am not ready to work without a payoff. So how can I do acts of bestowal? If the society shows me the importance of bestowal and I see that I am not ready for this, then I feel myself enslaved. And accordingly, I already begin the struggle and I am approaching the plagues in Egypt.

I feel myself as if I am Moses, it is in my interest that my desire receives blows. Only this will allow me to break away from it.
[131427]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/1/14, Shamati #190

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Question: What does the ability of the person to be patient along this path depend on?

Answer: Patience depends upon preparation, when I know that in the next moment I could receive such inner changes, like an upgrade of emotions and intelligence that I am not responsible for.

Who knows what I will be in the next moment: a complete fool or a world-class genius or a giant Kabbalist. I am just a computer that one touch of a button will change its entire program.

Therefore, I myself cannot prepare anything but only in my environment. The Creator gave me the possibility of controlling and managing my future through the environment! If I want to know who I will be in another moment, I can look at my environment, at my relationship with the friends, and on the commitments between us, and then I can envision my next state.

This is because the Upper Light always elevates me, reveals to me more and more evil so that I can advance. And so according to my connection with the environment, I can be sure that they will protect me and will be concerned for me and will help me to advance.

I cannot come closer and approach the Creator if I do not sign a covenant with the environment. Therefore, it is said, (II Kings 4:13) “I dwell in the midst of my people”. Without support from the environment that I prepared for myself, I will get only additional ego, additional disturbances from the Creator.

I don’t know what to expect from Him, but if you prepare yourself, this backing from the environment, then with their help you will surely be able to develop the right deficiency. In the face of that evil that the Creator will reveal to me, I can develop and create a request to the Creator through the environment so that He will transform the evil into good.

That is how I work all the time: I – environment – Creator, I – environment – Creator.
[131422]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/1/14, Shamati #190

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The point this question is asked from is very important. A question symbolizes your connection to a phenomenon and your ability to clarify its source. I don’t think that you are in a state where you can find the right answer to a certain question. This cannot be below the Machsom.

All of reality descends from Above and it is all above the Machsom. Below the Machsom, there is the fictitious world. What we see here is a corrupt and distorted replica of the spiritual world according to which it is impossible to understand anything. This is your perception at the moment, just like all the other people who yearn to fill their corporeal desires for food, sex, family, money, respect, and knowledge.

On the other hand, you learn that bestowal is a good thing. On one hand, you ask a question and, on the other hand, you want to find an answer. This won’t work until this picture is stabilized as a unified picture: either on this side of the Machsom or on the other side of the Machsom, but it is impossible to ask on one side about what happens on the other side. So it is impossible to answer such questions.
[131503]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/31/14, The Zohar

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Question: Why at the time of the Passover holiday is it so important to carry out physical activities in this “imaginary world”?

Answer: This is important so that we will work on them as if we were working on spiritual characteristics. The symbols of the Passover holiday indicate that we want to abstain completely from the desire to receive, to disengage from Pharaoh. After this we begin to correct it, to build the “Golden Calf,” but this is already after the Exodus from Egypt.

We escape and disengage from it, but we take with us gold and silver vessels. In the wilderness all of our desires are awakened again and we regret the loss of the meat, onions, and garlic that we ate in Egypt. All this will be afterward, but for now we simply disengage from Pharaoh.

Disengagement is possible from something that is known to you. We don’t have a feeling of our desire to receive that will make it possible for us to disengage from it because we don’t feel it. How is it possible to disengage from the “heart of stone” if I don’t feel it and don’t understand what this is?

We are in such a state, at the time of the Exodus from Egypt where we need to discover the 49 gates of Tuma’a (impurity), but we don’t know exactly what they are. So we carry out an exercise through symbolic activities in our world that show our desire to be disengaged from our desire to receive for the sake of reception, which is called “Hametz” (leavening).

At the time of the exodus from Egypt it is forbidden for us to be connected with the desire to receive. So we must carry out these conditions precisely: in every place where you can see your desire to receive for the sake of reception, you need to be disengaged from it. Do this action in the physical world also and you will see how difficult this is; it depends upon you and puts you in a unique state.

The symbols that connect branch and root, these unique times, the Kabbalists always related reverently to these conditions.
[131407]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/31/14, The Zohar

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Igrot,” Letter 13

Workshop

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

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Baal HaSulam, Shamati #179, ” Three Lines”: The first line is considered right, regarded as Vak without a Rosh (head), considered “faith.” The second line is considered left, attainment. And then they are in dispute, since faith contradicts attainment, and attainment contradicts faith.

Then there is the discernment of the middle line, considered Vak de Gar, or Hochma and Hassadim, or the right and left lines, integrated in one another. This means that he receives attainment to the extent that he has faith.

Question: Why does faith contradict attainment and attainment contradicts faith?

Answer: Faith and attainment cannot be integrated. Faith is called bestowal. If I am on the right line, it stops me from receiving at the same time. If I have the intention of in order to receive on the left line, it doesn’t allow me to bestow.

I cannot do both at the same time. It is like entering your home and stealing from yourself and at the same time giving yourself a present. It is impossible! The revelation of the Creator is opposite from bestowal upon the Creator. Revelation means that I am using Him, enjoying Him, filling my vessels.

Is it possible in such an action to bestow upon the Creator? It is possible only if I correct my intentions and receive because He wants it and He enjoys my receiving. If I really correct myself this way, so that my receiving is only in order to delight Him, it is called to receive in order to bestow.

But in order to reach this state, I have to prepare myself so that I will really receive above my desire to receive and my intention is steadfastly in order to bestow so that I will not be tempted to receive for myself, but so that it will really be an action in order to bestow that will lead me to adhesion with the Creator.

I have to calculate precisely the limit that I can receive. There are many levels of building the vessel of the middle line here: Ibur (conception), Yenika (suckling), and Mochin (mind).
[131324]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/31/14, Shamati #179

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