Question: What can we do to avoid the ten plagues of Egypt that are expected?

Answer: The ten blows come down on “Egypt,” which means on our desire to receive. If we transcend this ego, we don’t feel them as blows but as forces that help us detach ourselves from the ego and be free of it.

There is a physical, emotional, or ideological connection that depends on the five levels of our existence. The more I detach myself from the desire to receive and rise above it and don’t identify with it, the more the blows change with regard to me. First I begin to feel that it isn’t I who feels these blows and later they become more and more external.

On the third and fourth levels of Aviut (thickness), I feel these blows on me, on the second level of Aviut, I feel that they are external, and on the first level of Aviut when I already exit my desire, I discover that these blows actually help me. On the root level, I bless these blows and the fact that they helped me detach myself from “Pharaoh” and escape from him. Thus I experience the blows from one level to the next.

These levels can be felt in every state in our life. The more connected I am to my Pharaoh and the more I depend on him, I first feel that he treats me well like during the seven years of satiety, and then I feel bad like during the seven years of hunger, and then come the blows and the exodus.
[113979]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/02/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Rabash, “Make Yourself a Rav and Buy Yourself a Friend – 2”: There is a famous maxim by our sages, “As their faces differ, their views differ.” Thus, those who have agreed among them to unite into a group understood that there isn’t such a great distance between them in the sense that they understand the necessity to work in love of others. Therefore, each of them will be able to make concessions in favor of the others, and they can unite around that.

It is because we all have one goal that is above all the disagreements and which can unite us. So we only have to let it operate on us in order to unite as much as possible. In order to do that we constantly have to use all the actions that can lead to our connection according to the advice of Kabbalists. By that we raise the importance of the goal so that it will influence us; we draw the Light that Reforms from the world of Ein Sof (Infinity), which connects us. We are different, of course, and we mustn’t change that. All we have to do is to connect the sparks that are concealed in each one, so that they will become one flame that burns above all the gaps. The more these gaps grow, the more fuel there will be for the flame.

There is a certain moment in every person’s advancement in which he is awakened from above. Before that he is prepared by being given different troubles and problems, and his heart is softened by the sufferings. Thus he becomes more refined in his thought and his desire. He is brought half a level up from the bottom by the sufferings.

These sufferings help him ascend above the lower half of the level, above AHP. Thus he is shown that he should ascend even higher and overcome the upper half of the level, GE. This means that he overcomes half a level by sufferings and the other half by his efforts.

Thus a person ascends to the next level, which is actually the phase we are in now. We have been through lots of searching, working, efforts, and talks, and it has accumulated in us to a certain measure, which means to half of the next level. Now we begin to work on the other half by gathering in groups of ten, which is the phase of our practical work.

We don’t have an urge or a desire to do so, of course, and we feel confused at the moment, but this is already the second half of the level that we have to overcome by our own powers, by our work. In the first half we only prepared for the real work, we tried and made efforts during the study, the dissemination, and the duties.

Now, however, we have reached a new state in which the world also plays a big part. We are obligated to start the practical work in the group, and so we began to speak about it and to assimilate it among us. The main work in the group is to connect our sparks, which are our yearning for one goal, regardless of anything but it.

We should be careful of all the other differences and contrasts and not let them interrupt our connection. The main thing is that love should cover all the problems called “sins.” And that the love that ties us together should be totally aimed at bringing the Creator contentment, which is the ultimate goal upon which we all agree in advance.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/22/13

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Preparation to the Lesson

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “A Handmaid that Is Heir to Her Mistress“

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol 6, Part 15

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We invest great efforts in dissemination sincerely aching for success, but unfortunately, we cannot make bring connection with the upper force into this work. And most importantly, we can’t attract the Creator to our external actions to use Him to succeed in the external mission in our area or in the entire world, that is, to transfer our goal from Him outside.

On the contrary, the whole world and all the work must be a means of connection with the Creator! We seemingly use Him in the opposite direction, to succeed in this world. Whereas, the whole world is needed in order to achieve connection with the Creator. That needs to be changed in order to constantly specify the right direction, turning our intention from ourselves to the Creator.

This has to be in absolutely everything: I knock on the door, talk to someone, but inside I constantly have to keep in mind that by every word and every action I strengthen my relationship with the Creator. I bring these external desires to the Creator to approach Him, to Divinity, and thus, I build the basis for His revelation in the entire world.

This is a constant work until the end of correction. New vessels will be revealed for us every moment, new disturbances, egoistic desires that try to tear us away from the Creator. The Creator does this on purpose, wanting to strengthen our connection. This is a kind of “flirting:” He seems to distance Himself from us, to push us away so that we hold onto Him more strongly.

This is the work, all the 125 degrees. It is revealed in various forms that appear like pictures of this world. This world is the outer wrapping in which we must use every detail, every action, every scene of this play, in order to attach everything to the Creator and unite with Him.

Only the environment will help, which is described by Rabash. We are in this big and strong group. While on a trip, far from the central group, I see how the distance helps. On the one hand, physical distance makes a person further from the Creator and separates from Him, and at the same time, every moment gives the opportunity to return to the center of the group and draw more and more strength from there.

Therefore, only through our connection, where everyone tries to constantly keep in the same thought, will we succeed. You will later become convinced that the entire Torah speaks only of how to neutralize the picture of this world in order to feel inside it the upper force to such an extent that we will begin to see Its actions: the way this force moves, controls, and manages all atoms, all people. We will see that they themselves are just obedient shadows, following that higher force. All these images are presented to us not to look at them—people or nature—but to reveal the force of nature through them.

Only the friends, only the group, in which everyone apply efforts, will be able to support us and return the correct intention to those who have lost it. We need to talk about this constantly and make this connection more and more clear, so that on the basis of this connection we reach out to the external public. Then you will see how strong you have become. It is most important for us to gain strength. Going to the streets for external dissemination is needed not to express ourselves to the people and integrate with them, but to bring them closer to us and to the Creator. That is, the trend should be opposite to our physical actions.

On the physical level, we go out to the public; we want to influence it and build a better life for everyone, for all of humanity, to use the crisis to unite. But at the same time, we need to see behind all these actions that their connection will be linked to us and through us to the upper force. That is, everything must pursue one goal: to return to Divinity all its parts that were lost in the breaking.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/9/13, Writings of Rabash 

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Section 47: …“holy vegetative.” The nature of its Light is like the corporeal vegetative: There are distinct differences in motion in each of its elements….

The essential difference between the vegetative level and the animate level depends on the program. A person is spiritually born on the still level, and on the vegetative level, he absorbs the program of development and realizes it.

This is the qualitative addition of the vegetative level where we begin to absorb the process taking place in creation, the changes from state to state. So, we study the development of a basic cell, the developmental force, the development of signs and stimuli, and the need for development. This means everything relevant to development and to understanding it, we acquire this on the vegetative level.

The still level supplies me with only a source for nullification of the self. After that, I will want to nullify myself on a higher level and am now ready to accept all the acts of the Creator in this regard. Thus, I develop, “gain weight,” based on that point of nullification of the self on which the entire still level focuses to rise to the level of the vegetative.

At first, I completely finish correction of my 613 desires, thoughts, and intentions, on the still level. Then, an opportunity which I never could have dreamed of before is revealed to me. Suddenly, opened before me is a new world and all that fills it. I now can connect to all of my previous levels for the sake of this opportunity. I didn’t have a need for this up until now. Now, I see something higher that is connected to one point in contrast to all that was until now. Thus, I include the summary of the connection of the still level within the vegetative level.

Obviously, all this is taking place with the help of the Light that Reforms and with the help of concentration, the conclusion of the previous level and the ascent to the next level. Thanks to the Light, I already acquire readiness to nullify myself in every movement. In other words, every time I nullify myself, new forms are clothed in me that are, in sum, a movement. I nullify myself not in regard to the present state, rather through estimating and speculating about the next state. I already have some ability. So, all that the Creator will do, all will be for the good, and He will do precisely the opposite of my desire.

So, on the vegetative level, there is an addition of devotion to the program of development and not to the state itself.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/22/13, Writings of Rabash

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Section 32: The fourth period is the work after rising from the dead. It means that the desire to receive that completely disappeared died and was buried, rises from the dead in its biggest and worst appearance, as it is said, “In the future, the dead will rise with all their defects”…

These defects were in them from the start.  They were not healed and corrected and so after the “death” of the desire to receive, an opportunity to discover these defects appears to complete the correction. This is about that part of desire that could not be corrected in the framework of the second restriction.

The difference here is enormous. You see, the second restriction is different from the first restriction in the Kli of perception. It is no accident that we view the world through a “hole” in the center of the pupil. According to that principle, we also can understand the other senses. The characteristic of Malchut included in Bina is discovered everywhere in us.

Generally, the senses must be like Bina to some degree. Otherwise, we would not be prepared to comprehend anything, but in this mechanism, Malchut is required also, the female characteristic, the void of a desire lacking fulfillment, the need that remains.

This stage of Malchut and Bina is formed in the second restriction, according to the law of root and branch, and this influences our physical senses. As Malchut, they make it possible for external stimuli to enter inward, and at the same time let Bina reflect, reject them.

On the other hand, how is it possible to imagine the Kli from the first restriction and grasp it? This is no longer the hole in the pupil.

Question: Perhaps we then create conditions for rising toward a great adherence?

Answer: Right, all my senses disappear, passing to the outside, to the collective system. Whether I want it or not, my old comprehension disappears without a trace, and I stop feeling as I did previously and feel something else now: The network that connects everything. There my sight, hearing, senses of smell, taste, and touch operate.

So, I transform my personal, particular, corporeal, “animal” vessels to the shared vessels of the group “body,” the network of communication between us all, constructed from mutual influence, mutual unity. In this unity, beyond rejection, enviously, arrogance, hatred, above the burning fire, all sorts of good relationships and communications stream between friends, and with this flow the friends discover a particular arrangement that contracts into ten Sefirot, or five phases, and the Lights are discovered in these phases—Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya and Yechida—corresponding to the five senses.

Our world remains the same for me, and simultaneously I see an inner network that penetrates everything around, but so far eluded my comprehension. This network is like a cellular network, only it conveys the connection between us. It connects not between cell phones but between emotional and mental receivers, doing this on a permanent basis without needing to dial someone’s number.

Now, I see what we transmit to each other in this network and do not become confused. On the contrary, everything is completely natural, for suddenly it becomes clear: This is my soul (Neshama), the closest and dearest thing that I have, my life; I never tire of it; rather, I only want to fill it with strength. I want to help this network so that it will become unified, coherent, balanced, and stable. With it, I discover vessels and Lights, thoughts and events. I live in it now and am concerned only about the welfare of my brothers and friends for the sake of the Creator that is discovered in this network of the Shechina.

Question: How is this consistent with the excessive desire about which Baal HaSulam writes?

Answer: Take, for example, the cellular network that is celebrating its 40^th birthday, the day of the first conversation from a cellular telephone. In the beginning, it was basic, yet, with time, it acquired new characteristics and capabilities. Thus, our inner network also receives additional strength in contrast to the depth of an opposing desire. You see, only resistance, a resistor under tension, increases power.

Today, instead of the first, simple devices, the world is full of smart phones that not only know how to call but send messages, surf the web, navigate, play, and so on. They provide us with a wide and varied communication that is improving all the time.

We aspire instinctively to create a cellular network that is like the spiritual network, containing all the information. Although these dreams won’t materialize, ultimately, humans will recognize their powerlessness, and then, as usual, there will be the crisis, and after that, they will understand what kind of mutual communication we are speaking about. You see, instead of the wonders of modern technology, we require a true, internal communication, and it is specifically that to which humans subconsciously are drawn.

I cannot say exactly in which direction things will develop. In fact, today people are searching for connection with others due to their own interests. The present means of communication are not affected by their independence. Rather, it’s the opposite. They distance people from each other and help our ego to live quietly. A telephone conversation preserves distance between us. It is always possible to shut it off. This is a wonderful support for our ego. The person doesn’t owe anything to anyone and simultaneously maintains communication with everyone.

People always yearn for communication of this kind, “behind the curtain,” that ensures immunity and simultaneously satisfies curiosity. Communication like this relaxes our ego. Meanwhile, governments fully utilize this tool for surveillance and collecting information.

In general, humanity naturally uses the results of its progress for evil first. And what will happen next? We will see.
[104747]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/9/13, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Preparation to the Lesson

The Book of Zohar — Introduction

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Exile and Redemption“

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Our problem is that we are “in shackles,” captured in the network that links us, closes us and determines all our values. We just have to dress in a certain way, eat certain food, work as prescribed, behave as accepted, and to adhere to the standard way of thinking.

We do not have our own tastes, but we have those habits that society “spoon-feeds” us. It gives us our beliefs and our actions; it affects us now through its channels, some of which can be neither recognized nor traced. We cannot block them by any protective mechanism that blocks the thoughts and desires of a large environment.

As a result, a person does not know who he is at all. After all, he is placed in the system, programmed and filled with messages that originally have no relationship with it. There is nothing you can do about it; you cannot eliminate or remove them from yourself. Even the desire to escape from these clutches is also implanted in us by this system. It turns out that I have accumulated thoughts and desires that are not mine, and I myself do not exist at all.

Even though I am not free and am “made” by the environment, only the point in the heart, if it emerges in me, gives me the opportunity to build in myself something that doesn’t depend on anything and anyone, something caused by another world.

In my world, I am already “finished,” “prepared.” Here, I will never reach my own feelings, reason, and independent actions. They initially cannot be mine because everything that I have, I have received from another, from the world.

Yet, this “ape” is able to take a different form – the form of the human (Adam), similar (Domeh), to the Creator. If the point has emerged in my heart, I can develop it by my own efforts in a special environment, I can build a completely different world. I create a “bubble” in the middle of our world and develop freely in it if only I realize my freedom of will.

However, I also obey—but obey on my own accord, according to my own decisions—surrendering myself before my new, unique environment with its unique values. This is the only way. I do not own anything.

Accordingly, by accepting the influence of the external environment, I am in “exile.” Conversely, placing myself under the influence of the special environment, I strive to get out of exile and ultimately get rid of the influence of the external “landlord’s” egoistic society.

It is understood from this that the exile for the people of Israel means retreat under the influence of the external wide world and the assimilation of foreign customs, external values, substituting for love of the other as oneself. On the other hand, trying to get out of exile, we build the environment that will be imbued with the values of love and bestowal. This is possible by means of the wisdom of Kabbalah or by means of integral education. Either way, there is only one means: the environment that puts unity above all.
[114392]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/12/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: When we disseminate integral education and turn to the wide public we feel that we are on a mission of the upper force that manages us in concealment. How can we convey to the group our impressions, thoughts and feelings that we experience during the dissemination so that it will become everyone’s property in order to strengthen the group?

Answer: Disseminating integral education is a very important type of work that we now do in factories, offices, schools, prisons, and in organizing various courses. First of all, this type of work brings us closer to the Creator because through it we can feel how much we need His help. This happens as a result of our practical work.

A person who only sits and studies doesn’t advance. The Torah cannot exist without practical actions. If we just sit and do nothing practical, there will be no room for the revelation.

We should understand that in previous generations it was totally different and even a person who had a friend or two he studied with could reach spiritual attainment. But it was different in the past; the desires were different and more pure and so it was possible to reveal the upper force that way.

But today when the Creator gives us such opportunities, we will not be able to reveal anything if we don’t use them. So working in disseminating integral education has become very important and accordingly our whole factory has changed. We don’t even have to think about how to change it actually. The work itself changes people and they feel that they belong to these daily activities more.

It is a very big present from above because the wisdom of Kabbalah is the method of revealing the Creator in this world. This means that the Creator is revealed in the relationships between people: We have to discover the absolute love on the Creator’s part and His good attitude towards all of us on the level of this world. When we discover this attitude, it means that we add the upper world to the picture of this world. It is an ascent up the levels of the upper worlds, the revelation of the network that connects everyone.

The Creator is in the network and He manages everyone, the whole desire, with the force of the good and the benevolent, which is the only thing there is. It is called the true reality that we reach and where we receive answers to all our questions. The world changes and we understand why we feel bodies that are born, live, and die.

There is no other reality, there is nowhere else a person goes to after he dies. When we come closer to the upper providence and bring the Creator and the connection between us into this world, when the upper force becomes clear to us and is among us, all the worlds are revealed to us, all of creation, life and death, all the direct and opposite forms that we see before us now. All this is already revealed and only our perception changes; we change and not the world around us.

So our practical work is the most efficient means in establishing the right attitude to reality. We want to find salvation here, among all the people, which means revealing the Creator to the created beings in this world. This is what we work for; this is the practical wisdom of Kabbalah, and there isn’t a more important kind of work.

We will change according to these demands and the world will look different. I can see it by how much great opportunities have opened up recently for conveying our message. Lately I can say much more. To the extent that we change, our factory will change and our whole attitude to the wisdom of Kabbalah will be more concrete. This means that we have to clarify: Where do we actually reveal the Creator, in which connections between us and in which connections between us and the world?

How can we draw the upper providence into this world? How can we correct a person? How can we overcome the crisis that surrounds us? Then we will discover the world of Ein Sof (Infinity), and discover that we are all under the domination of the good and the benevolent that is revealed, under the domination of love. Thus we implement everything that Kabbalists write about.

If we continue this way you will see that this type of work will help us reveal the upper force
[114127]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/07/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Igrot,” Letter 52

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Question: What should we do when we encounter a negative response and an outburst of hatred while disseminating?

Answer: While disseminating to the wide public we have to act as accepted in this world, which means to act as ordinary people do and to turn to the police or the courts in extreme cases. But in most cases, we don’t need to react.

We should understand that these situations were sent from above by the upper providence, but we need to respond to them in the usual way. Although we know it comes from the Creator and that there is none else besides Him, and that he arranges everything, our response should be according to the principle: “If there is no flour, there is no Torah, and if there is no Torah, there is no flour.” So we have to respond on the level of this world and also on the level of the upper world. This means that we have to strengthen the connection among us and by that we will surely neutralize all the hatred and the negative attitude towards us.

After all, we want to reveal the Creator in the connection between us so that He will dwell among us in order to bring Him contentment. Accordingly, He helps us by revealing greater and more numerous enemies to us each time. These are the uncorrected desires that have to be revealed to help us connect more tightly to the Creator.

So we have to accept all the negative responses with understanding. The group has to be prepared for that. At any given moment there are those who fall but there are also those who rise, and so the whole global group generally advances by mutual guarantee. Now we need to build stronger and more loyal relationships connections between all the groups and we will see how it will help everyone.

Analyze all the interruptions and revelations of hatred and decide what to do in each specific case. But the major correction is to remain silent as much as you can, and to connect as strongly as you can to the global group, to the Creator, as to a source of salvation.

Then we will see that all our enemies will suddenly become our fans. It is as if you knock on the door of strangers and at first they don’t want to open the door for you, don’t want to speak to you, and disrespect you. Then you see that you can improve your relations with them, and thus you learn how to relate to the whole world with the same patience.

We should see that the Creator is hiding behind every person, behind every closed door, playing with us. Relate to a person as to a representative of the Creator. The Creator wants you to show empathy now and to speak. If you come with the upper force inside you and see the person in front of you as the representative of the Creator, as help against, everything works out. This is how we will succeed all over the world.

This work is very important, since it forms us. As a result, we will be able to reach a wider public, more people in more countries. We have begun to work in Israel, and here it will be the most difficult because the Israeli nation is the most stubborn. If we learn to work with them, then later the method, the force of correction, will “pour from Israel unto all the other nations.” If we create the source of correction inside the Israeli nation, it will reach the world. We won’t even have to convince anyone; they will be drawn to it instinctively and will connect to us.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/07/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Igrot,” Letter 52

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