Question: What is the meaning of the instruction “Remember this day in which you went out from Egypt” in a person’s inner spiritual work?

Answer: It is written in The Zohar (Parashat Bo, §121) that “the Exodus from Egypt is mentioned 50 times in the Torah.” Moreover, it is said that every day a person must see themselves as if they are leaving Egypt, because all of our spiritual work revolves around Egypt.

A person’s spiritual work in correcting their egoistic nature begins with the state of Abraham—the initial spark of the quality of bestowal. But how can this quality be developed?

This is why the question of Abraham to the Creator arises: “How shall my descendants inherit the great land?” (Parashat Lech Lecha). Meaning, how can I develop within myself (my descendants—my future states) a great desire for bestowal and love so that I may receive all of Your light?

The answer (from the Creator to Abraham) follows: “Know that your descendants will be in exile for 400 years.”

These 400 years represent the four levels of egoism. In other words, the Creator tells a person that they will completely immerse themselves in egoism and thus acquire a desire equal to the light of infinity.

At first, you will be filled with the desire to absorb everything for yourself, but then you will recognize that it is corrupt and wish to break free from it. And upon leaving it, you will begin to correct it—from egoism to bestowal. This is what it means to leave Egypt and enter the Holy Land.

Thus, by gradually correcting the acquired egoism, a person ascends 125 spiritual degrees until reaching complete correction (Gmar Tikkun).

In this way, our entire spiritual journey consists of three stages.

1. From the starting point (Abraham aspiring to reveal the Creator) to the entrance Egypt.
2. In Egypt, the development of striving for the Creator, which leads to the growth of egoism, the recognition of it as evil, and the desire to break free from it.
3. The correction of this egoistic desire until it is completely transformed.

Everything revolves around Egypt: part of our path is before it, and part is after. Egypt is the central point.

Therefore, every day a person must feel that they are leaving Egypt; meaning, every day they take a part of their egoistic desire, correct it, and receive new light within it. This is what is called a new day.
And so the process continues through all the spiritual levels.

Fifty times is the exodus from Egypt mentioned in the Torah.
[40540]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/13/11, The Zohar Chapter 121 “Bo”

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What is the Egyptian exile? It is the revelation of self-love within a person!

And the exodus from Egypt is when I gain the ability to feel love for my neighbor within myself for the first time.

I will be able to leave Egypt only if I truly want to gain the power of love for others.

The essence of the future liberation, as Baal HaSulam writes in the article “About Yehuda,” must be clear while still in exile. You must understand what you want, what you define as your exile, from what?

If exile for you is being enslaved by love for yourself and liberation is gaining the power to love others, the ability to unite and become a single soul as it was before the shattering of Adam in order to reveal the Creator in unity, in that case, you are truly in a state of exile and ready for liberation; and it comes to you!

If you have prepared your desires, the light that returns to the source appears and takes you out of egoism. Everything depends only on your desire to get free from your egoistic concerns!

This is what exile is intended for. That is why we are not ready for liberation, because it lies only in this! Spirituality is bestowal. If we want it, it means we are ready to be liberated.

We are now extending our exile because we do not consider it exile and slavery! We feel comfortable in it!

We just want more money, power, fulfillment; leave us alone with your love for your neighbor. We do not desire it!

Hell, on the contrary, is the inability to bestow. Heaven and hell are far from ordinary human conceptions. A man wants neither heaven nor hell and does not feel them within himself.

This means he is neither a sinner nor a righteous person but simply an animal that is not in exile.

A sinner knows he is an egoist because he desires to become a righteous person, one who bestows. Therefore, he calls his uncorrected state hell.

A righteous person who has achieved the qualities of bestowal and love feels himself in heaven!
[12655]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/12/10, The Zohar “Shmot

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Question: What is truth?

Answer: Truth is the upper light that covers all the differences and disagreements that exist in the Kelim. The light of the Creator in its pure form, before it passes through the Kelim, is called truth.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/22/25, Writings of Rabash “What Are the Light Mitzvot that a Person Tramples with His Heels, in the Work?”

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We are working and preparing ourselves to ascend to a spiritual degree, but all we can do is apply effort and nothing more.

The actual action is performed by the light; I do not have the strength to rise above myself. I cannot grab myself by the hair and pull myself out of the swamp of egoism!

The result of all our efforts is called “He labored and found,” because the action is performed by the upper light.

The exodus from Egypt happens through the awakening from above, due to the revelation of a very great light, GAR de Hochma.

It is called the darkness of Egypt because the light is revealed, but we have no clothing of Hassadim to perceive it.

That is why it is called night and not day, and not an ascent through spiritual degrees but rather an escape, a leap. Pesach comes from the word “to skip” (passover).

This ascent occurs in a person as a single impulse beyond time, motion, space, or any human evaluation.
Everything happens through the force of the influence from above. That is why we must be prepared for this exodus.

It comes suddenly, in haste, and the moment before it happens, a person cannot even imagine that they are standing right at the threshold of exiting Egypt that it is about to happen.

It occurs completely unplanned. And it is said about the transition itself that when the Creator does this to us, we experience it as if in a dream.
[12008]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/31/10, The Zohar, Chapter 166, “Bo”

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, Shamati 86, “And They Built Arei Miskenot“

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2nd part of the Lesson — Lesson on the Topic “Lights of Pesach (Passover)”

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Selected Highlights

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Israel will not return to their land until they are all in one bundle.

Our sages said, “Israel will not be redeemed until they are all in one bundle.”

2. We must understand how Israel’s unity pertains to redemption (Baal HaSulam, “Inheritance of the Land“).

What does “return to their land” mean?

If we speak about the external world, returning to the land of Israel is not such a great problem. It is possible that we could have done so several hundred years ago. After all, Jews have always lived here.

However, we are talking about the connection of the branch and the root. “Return to their land” means returning to a desire that is entirely directed toward the Creator (Yashar-El). This is the origin of the name “Israel.”

How can I return my desire to the Creator? This is possible only if, together with all other desires, I become a unified whole.

By correctly interpreting the terms, we see that everything aligns. The sages did not play with words, but arranged them precisely according to their meaning. Israel cannot return to their land until they become one. In doing so, they realize the essence of these words and fuse desires into a single aspiration toward the Creator.

On the other hand, in exile, outside the land of Israel, they are divided, separated from one another, and full of mutual hatred.

Understanding the meaning of the words makes their significance clear. Abraham asked the Creator: “How will I know that I will inherit this land?” In other words, why do we go through this process, and how do we return to our land, the desire wholly directed toward the Creator, toward bestowal?

If we return to bestowal, we will inevitably return to the spiritual land of Israel. Then by the very nature of reality, spiritual forces will influence the corporeal world, and a corresponding situation will arise here as well.

In the past, we adhered to the intention of bestowal both in corporeality and spirituality. As a result, the physical land of Israel corresponded to its spiritual root. Then, having lost our spiritual aspect, we were expelled from the physical land of Israel as well.

Now, as Baal HaSulam states, we have been given an opportunity for spiritual ascent, and therefore we have returned here. Though in essence we do not yet match the corporeal land of Israel, we have nonetheless been granted this opportunity so that we may ascend to the spiritual land of Israel. This is the inner mechanism of events.

During the time of the Temple, we were on a spiritual level. Then we lost it and became shattered. In parallel, in the corporeal world, we lived in the Land of Israel, and even after our fall, we remained here for a certain period, let us call this conditionally  “70 years.” In reality, this “70-year” period lasted longer and showed clear signs of the impending destruction of the Temple and exile. Eventually, we were expelled and scattered throughout the world.

Now, 2,000 years later, the process is unfolding in reverse. First we have been given the opportunity to return to the corporeal Land of Israel with the hope that through this we will rise to the spiritual land of Israel. Thus, in Baal HaSulam’s words, we have been given a chance for redemption.

How long this window will remain open is unknown, but it has been open for over a 100 years. Just as there was a delay before our corporeal fall, now we have once again been granted a delay, a chance we must seize.

If we fail to do so, if we miss our opportunity, just as we missed the chance to correct our spiritual fall in the past, then, as Baal HaSulam writes, we may find ourselves in exile once again.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/10/11, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Inheritance of the Land”

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 17, “What Is the Assistance that He who Comes to Purify Receives, in the Work?”

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2nd part of the Lesson — The Conditions for Studying with Friends

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Selected Highlights

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The Creator never left Israel in exile, before He came to place His Shechina with them. It is even more so with Jacob, that when he went down to exile, the Creator and His Shechina and the upper holy ones and the Merkavot, all came down with Jacob, as it is written, “Who came to Egypt with Jacob.” This settles the question that even though He said, “I will go down to Egypt with you,” it does not mean He alone, but rather with His Shechina and armies and Merkavot. This is the conduct of the Creator in all the exiles, as Ezekiel revealed in the exile in Babylon (Zohar for All, Vol. 4, “Shmot,” Chapter 59).

What does it mean that He came to place His Shechina with them? We think that there is something in which the Creator does not act. But in reality, there is only one force operating in all of creation, within us: the Creator, the light.

Exile is a special state of creation that the light deliberately generates in it, in the desire it created, in order to lower it, to distance it from Himself, and to create a desire for Him in it.

The light precisely measures all the states of exile, which includes all the troubles that will manifest in the desire to receive, all the emptiness, all the suffering.

The reverse side of the light, of the Creator, operates in exile, as it is written: “I have hardened Pharaoh’s heart.” The Creator was also present within the flood and in other such events.

After all, “There is none else besides Him.” Exile is a form of the action of the light, of the Creator, in its opposite, reverse side in a clearly measured, precise way, in all gradations of qualities corresponding to each desire, each soul, in all their interconnections.

Therefore, it is evident that the Creator, the light, is together with the people in exile, continuously acting upon and sustaining them. He Himself creates this exile through His reverse, shadow side, as King David said: “You surround me from the front and the back (with light and darkness).”

And when there is no longer a need for the light to act through its reverse side, that is, through darkness—when He has sufficiently stirred and awakened the desire (Kli) and it truly strives toward the direct side of the light, toward bestowal—then He draws the Kli out of exile into redemption.

Only the light is the sole active force—whether through its reverse or direct side. And thus, all of exile is His preparation for us for our redemption.
[12661]
From Daily Kabbalah lesson 4/12/10, The Zohar “Shmot”

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, Shamati 70, “With a Mighty Hand and with Fury Poured Out”

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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, Shamati 70, “With a Mighty Hand and with Fury Poured Out”

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3rd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Vol. 1, Part 2, “Inner Observation,” Chapter 4, Item 48

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Selected Highlights

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Question: You said that when you cry out to the Creator for help, He draws you closer to Him. But at the same time, He shows you where you made a mistake by striving for desires that distance you from Him.

How can one ask that He brings one closer to Him and on the other hand that He truly reveals their mistake?

Answer: If you seek such states, you must find them and actualize them. Then you will see that the Creator is constantly directing you in only one direction.

Question: How important is it to find one’s mistake rather than to seek closeness to the Creator?

Answer: There is a state, and there is its cause. Here, we find ourselves in a certain state with the Creator, but we wish to know its cause. Ask more about the cause, and when it becomes clear to you, move forward based on it.
[342127]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/19/25, Writings of Rabash “What Is the Reason for which Israel Were Rewarded with Inheritance of the Land, in the Work?”

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