What characterizes this world that is distinctive compared to the spiritual world? From the Machsom and above, there is revelation, light. From the Machsom and below, there is the opposite: darkness, concealment. Accordingly, even if I experience a descent above the Machsom, I perceive it differently because this descent takes place within lights, within revelation.

Conversely, in our world, if you are in darkness now, devoid of any spiritual sensation, you can nevertheless be in high spirits and filled with a desire to study and advance, or you can, on the contrary, be in a state of an absence of desires, when everything is bland and you do not want anything.

In such a case, you may perhaps wait until enough time passes for some help to come from above, so that you will be pulled back up and granted an awakening. But this is undesirable, because it can drag out and lengthen the path m any times over.

It is possible that a person is sent a descent not so that he will wait until it ends, but so that he will by force subject himself to the influence of the society that is on a higher level, and then the work will quickly be done on him, and he will come out of the descent. Society will save him.

So, here, in the darkness, we have two states: double concealment and single concealment.

While in single concealment, we feel that there is something above us. Apparently, there is the Creator who is the cause of everything. Even misfortunes are sent to me by Him, and this supports me: I depend on something and, one way or another, still justify reality. I, in some way, justify the blows: if someone sends them, it means someone is arranging all this.

In contrast, when in double concealment, I feel nothing but nature. There is no master, and there is no justification for my existence. I am not permitted the simple oblivion of an animal that does not reflect on life. I do reflect on life, and therefore, I am in double concealment.

Single or double concealment is a person’s inner sensation, not a natural phenomenon. Therefore, the descents and ascents in our states while we are “in Egypt,” prior to the Machsom, and “sighing from the work” because the burden is indeed hard for us do not persist in the same form once we have crossed the Machsom.

There, even while in darkness, in the Klipot, a person knows and perceives that these are indeed Klipot standing in opposition to holiness, and that it is through them that one goes to the upper. Through the Klipot one constantly establishes contact with the Creator by using them as auxiliary means.

There the Klipot are intentions, thoughts for the sake of reception, whereas holiness is the intention for the sake of bestowal. Between these two polar states, there is a constant war. Here, before the Machsom, we are all in the will to receive for our own sake.

After the Machsom, everything is different. But until then do everything that you are capable of doing. And everything that we organize here stems from simple necessity: alone, without including oneself in others, a person can fall, and no one will save him. Therefore, a person must immediately submit himself to the influence of the group. Otherwise, the journey will stretch not for years, but for incarnations.

Therefore, it is necessary to quickly drive yourself into the group, into a certain schedule, into some obligations, to resort to all kinds of tricks, so that in case of a fall, they will put pressure on me and oblige me to continue the path. This is a duty.

A spiritual descent that might otherwise last several months can, with the help of society, be reduced to several hours or minutes. Moreover, it is not only a question of time, because when you come out of a fall with the help of the group, you acquire such qualities and internal attributes that will allow you to bypass several more falls.

If, however, you come out on your own, you still do not acquire the necessary experience and will have to go down again and again. Emerging with the help of the collective adds the experience of your friends to you since you unite with them, and it replaces many additional falls. This is a very great saving in terms of time and the number of falls.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/1/26, Rabash, “Why the Festival of Matzot Is Called Passover”

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Question: What is this state called Moses? It seems to be present in this world and at the same time connected to the upper world.

Answer: Indeed, Moses is present in this world while simultaneously being connected to the Creator, as if existing in the upper world. We learn that as a result of the shattering of the vessels, all our souls fell to the material level, into this world.

But how do we extract the Kli from this state? If everything here stemmed only from the will to receive, we would not feel the surrounding light within our Kli, which is a desire to receive for oneself. However, within the Kli there is a point in the heart. It is this point that senses the light because it does not belong to the will to receive, to the vessel.

The point in the heart is a part of the screen that once existed before the shattering of the vessels, before the sin of the Tree of Knowledge. At one time, the vessel had a screen. After the sin of the Tree of Knowledge, the screen shattered. A part of this screen remained within our will to receive, and it is precisely this part that perceives the surrounding light because there was once a connection between the screen and the light.

Now the light has become surrounding light, coming from afar, and from the screen only a spark remains within the Kli. However, a distant connection between them is preserved through the Machsom, and this point, this spark that remained from the screen, is called Moses, from the word “Limshoch,” to pull.

By using it correctly, I draw out all my other qualities, myself, my entire inner being through the Machsom upward, bringing them out of Egypt. Thus, Moses, the point in the heart, gains strength and pulls the entire Kli out of darkness.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/1/26, Rabash, “Why the Festival of Matzot Is Called Passover”

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In this world, our nature is egoism, which we either manage to cope with or not. But when we ascend and cross the Machsom, our work divides into three lines, and we proceed along the middle one. We enter spirituality with our small ego, although it may have grown, it is still insufficient. At each degree, we begin to receive vessels (Kelim) from the Klipot.

In other words, when leaving Egypt, one must take vessels along, so we flee from the Egyptians with “possessions” (vessels). Lights arrive at every degree, and our work is to create the correct combination between the vessel and the light, through which we rise to the next degree, where again we establish the correct combination, ascend once more, and so on.

At each degree there are Klipot: Amalek, the seven nations in the land of Israel, the desert, and so forth, as well as what suddenly appears within Israel itself, for example, the mixed multitude (Erev Rav).

All of this comes from the side of the Klipa and represents our inner vessels that are constantly being awakened. We correct them with the help of the surrounding light and thereby acquire a higher degree each time. And of course, our war does not cease until the end of correction.

We must constantly resist the Klipa, that is, our uncorrected vessels, because the Klipa exists within the person. This does not stop even upon entering the Land of Israel; there is still much to be done and corrected there. And a person must go through all of this.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/1/26, Rabash, “Why the Festival of Matzot Is Called Passover”

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Question: What does it mean that the point in the heart is not part of the Kli? Does the Kli feel it? It seems that this point has a connection with the upper, yet creation cannot attain the upper until it crosses the Machsom. How can this be?

Answer: How is it that you are sitting here and striving toward the upper world? This is by no means attainment of the upper world. Among all your qualities there is one quality, among all your desires there is one specific desire that senses it will receive fulfillment from the upper world.

Your other desires can receive fulfillment from this world, and over the course of reincarnations you have exhausted them all: desires for honor, money, corporeal pleasures, and knowledge have already more or less developed.

Now a desire for the spiritual awakens in you, a desire that can be filled only by the light, and it is precisely this desire that forces you to work now, to come here, and so on. Now you are working with this point; you feel it as the greatest lack of fulfillment, or at least a lack more pressing than the need for sleep, rest, and the like.

We are tasked with developing this point through the means of the surrounding light, not by suffering. If you take the will to receive for your own sake and give it suffering, then it begins to look for a way out, and, in its search, it turns to the point in the heart, which appears to it as the only thing that sufferings have not touched. Then it identifies itself with this point and wants, as if under its protection, to escape from suffering into the spiritual world.

The path of suffering is very long and painful. If, however, I myself develop this point so that it becomes greater and more important than all the other desires, then I will not need suffering. This, essentially, is what actually happens with us, with the whole nation.

If we resort to the approach called “the path of Torah” and develop this point in the heart, then we will not need all the sufferings that the Creator sends us.

On His part there is no other intention besides the plan of creation: to bring us to perfection and eternity. If we ourselves want to do this, then the need for blows disappears.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/1/26, Rabash, “Why the Festival of Matzot Is Called Passover”

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Question: Do we have to accept suffering and continue working?

Answer: You must not accept suffering. You need to figure out with whom you are currently identifying right now. If you agree with suffering, it means that you remain in the Klipa since now suffering is separating you from the Creator. That is, the sensation of suffering is a sign of connection with the Klipa.

Question: It seems like a vicious cycle. How can we break it?

Answer: Go and search. You have to seek the Creator’s greatness above the Klipa. This is called raising the Creator above Pharaoh and seeing that He is the winner. The entire war, the ten plagues within ten properties, in ten Sefirot, takes place inside a person because there is no Klipa (evil inclination) or Kedusha (holiness) outside of man. It is the result of his internal analysis.

A person who wants to follow the path of Baal HaSulam but does not try to realize it for the sake of others, does not try his best to sustain the group, even in the most artificial form, does not seek to give as much as possible to others or to expand the circle, if he does not do all this, even if he has no inner drive, he must do so simply to survive, he has no choice.

Those who do not engage in dissemination disappear from the sphere of Kabbalah, deteriorate with nothing left of them. It is hard for us to understand this; we are not privy to the upper calculations, and why this is happening. We must fulfill our mission.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/21/26, Rabash, “We Should Always Discern between Torah and Work”

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Question: In Rabash’s article “What Is, If He Swallows the Bitter Herb, He Will Not Come Out, in the Work?” it is written that Maror (bitterness) can only be felt during an ascent. How can one make use of this, if it is at all possible?

Answer: Pharaoh and the Creator are both revelations. One cannot be revealed without the other. Sometimes, the Creator seems to be revealed separately, and at times Pharaoh seems to be revealed separately, but this is not so because each of them is the complete opposite of the other.

Pharaoh is the reverse side (Achoraim) of the Creator, and the Creator is the reverse side of Pharaoh. This is just like the relationship between pleasure (Oneg) and affliction (Nega). Therefore, when Pharaoh is revealed, in principle, I should rejoice that through him, through all his thoughts and impulses, the Creator is essentially being revealed.

Pharaoh is everything that contradicts the Creator: “Why do you need the Creator? Does He even exist? What will you gain from having a connection with Him? Why do you need precisely such a connection that is not based on simply receiving from Him? If it is about receiving, then please, yes, He truly exists, take and receive. But who is the Creator that I should obey His voice? Precisely His voice?” And so on.

Thus, with the exception of the blessing, that is, with the exception of acting for the sake of bestowal, Pharaoh can seemingly do everything that the Creator does. The system of impure forces (Klipa) stands opposite the system of holiness (Kedusha) right up to the end of correction. Anything that is first revealed in the Klipa is practically equivalent to what exists in holiness, to such an extent that you are given everything except one thing: to be like the Creator.

“What will you gain from this? Take as much as you want for yourself.” It is as if you constantly choose something that has no logical justification—to be like Him. And all the forces, all the fulfillments that do not relate to this quality of “like Him,” Pharaoh gives you: magnificent cities, fulfillments, everything—except this one point.

This is why it speaks of a fundamental concept. It is not an evil force, not Amalek, not Haman; it is the Klipa opposite the Creator. If you obey Pharaoh’s voice instead of the Creator’s voice, then you have everything and do not feel any enslavement. You have beautiful cities and everything else. If you do not wish to leave Egypt, take everything, it is yours.

Question: Can a person distinguish the voice of Pharaoh from the voice of the Creator?

Answer: Yes.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/28/26, Rabash, “What Is, If He Swallows the Bitter Herb, He Will Not Come Out, in the Work?”

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Question: Why do Baal HaSulam and his predecessors place special emphasis on Passover?

Answer: Kabbalists never deal with history. In spirituality, there is no concept of time, which is the notion from which our understanding of various processes derives.

In spirituality, there are levels, degrees from this world leading to the end of correction, and each of the 620 degrees radiates a certain state into this world. All the states that exist in spirituality on these 620 degrees must also be realized in this world, and moreover, only once.

If something has already occurred on the inanimate level (Domem), that is, in the material world, then it does not need to be repeated a second time. For example, we physically were in Egypt, we exited Egypt, and now we do not need to repeat this. Everyone who now exits their inner Egypt into spirituality, into what is called the Land of Israel (Eretz Israel), does not need to do this physically, since we have already performed it in a physical form in previous incarnations.

However, in spirituality, there is no degree more significant than the very first one because ascending it is the most difficult. One must endure the Egyptian exile, the plagues, the splitting of the Red Sea (Final Sea,Yam Suf), the receiving of the Torah, 40 years of wandering in the desert, the seven nations and Amalek before entering the Land of Israel. This is a very difficult process.

In spirituality, if we view it from the perspective of the laws of time, ascending from one degree to another may take a relatively short time, whereas transitioning from the material world to spiritual requires years.

This is indeed a very unpleasant period for a person: he is in this world and still feels nothing and sees nothing of the spiritual world. There is nowhere in particular for one to run, yet a person holds themself in the darkness and needs all kinds of devices to prepare a little more, to add intention, to make an effort. One constantly needs some support to rely on.

But in spirituality, the path is already laid. There we see and feel that no one needs to persuade or strengthen you. Therefore, Kabbalists single out Passover because it stands directly before the most difficult decision, the one linked to the inner workings of each individual soul.

Any suffering a person experiences is, in essence, suffering from darkness, from the lack of light. Every impulse and every thought that has ever arisen in a person, joins the others. This accumulates not only now, when we sit with a book, but it pertains to the cumulative treasury of all our incarnations. Passover, in essence, draws a definitive line and pulls a person out from beneath the Machsom. That is why Passover is a symbol of such unique significance.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/1/26, Rabash, “Why the Festival of Matzot Is Called Passover”

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Question: I have children, including twin boys. They enjoy hurting each other. Their usual state is one brother hurting the other; the offender derives pleasure and delight.

As I understand it, there are three states in Passover. The first is when we take pleasure in dominating others, when our ego, the Pharaoh within us, has a field day.

This is our ordinary state. When we feel that the ego devours and destroys all of us, and this becomes unbearable, the second stage begins, symbolized by matzah, the “bread of affliction.” You call this stage restriction. What is its essence?

Answer: Restriction means that I make a firm decision: I have no choice, I cannot continue to behave this way toward others. I must put an end to it and break free from the rule of my ego.

This stage includes the recognition of evil—that I am under the control of the ego—and the understanding that I have no choice, no other salvation but to exit it, to escape from it.

Question: And what do we do then? How do we relate to each other?

Answer: We—that is, many people within the people of Israel (let’s not speak about the whole world yet)—decide that we must rise above our ego, stop using it, and we strongly desire that this will happen. This is called the “recognition of evil.”

Question: What is the essence of this ascent?

Answer: We make every effort to stop using our ego; we compel ourselves to do so.

Question: Does this mean that our “food” becomes poor, like matzah?

Answer: One could say so.

Question: Now, after the stage of restriction, when we have “eaten matzah,” meaning we have forced ourselves to treat each other well, suddenly a new space is revealed to us. And after Passover the third stage begins, a time when we return to our ego again, but now we enjoy giving to one another and receive the joy of life from this.

Answer: Moreover, I begin to reveal life within the level of connection between us: the level of love and unity. This is what exiting Egypt and entering the upper world is. I reveal the force of bestowal and love, which is called Elokim, the Creator, the upper force.

This is not some image we imagine somewhere in the heavens, but the relationships between us. Within them, we feel a pleasure 620 times greater than before when we derived pleasure within our ego by exploiting others.

Now our pleasure lies in delighting others. And in this, we feel infinity. After all, how much can we enjoy within our ego? But in order to delight everyone, you have an infinite space.
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From KabTV’s conversation “New Life 539 – Jewish Culture: Between Chametz (Leavened Food) And Matzah,” 3/27/15

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Our world is the world of consequences, the world of deeds and actions, whereas the upper world is the world of causes, the world of roots and decisions. A person is not elevated in the physical sense; rather, within his consciousness he simply begins to see the causes of everything that happens. This is known as the revelation of the spiritual, the revelation of the Creator.

Such a state is “Pesach,” from the word “Poseach,” to pass over, to skip. It is the result of the fact that the Creator “passed over” all the person’s actions and gathered only those deeds in which the person wanted to attain the spiritual.

Pharaoh (Paro) is our nature. Moses (Moshe) is that small force within us that wants to pull us into the upper world. All the disputes between Pharaoh and Moses are the inner work that a person performs, that one experiences within oneself. One’s heart is hardened. The further a person advances, the harder it becomes, until one comes to the ten Egyptian plagues, which are ordeals a person is obliged to go through.

These are truly unpleasant things. One must overcome them by constantly devising new strategies in search of strength to maintain the attraction to the spiritual, the goal, that not only does not shine brightly, but actually recedes into the shadows so much that a person stops seeing it, as if no longer desiring it. And all this happens through the hardening of the heart: Pharaoh appears greater, Egypt more attractive, and it no longer seems so terrible to live in this essentially animalistic world without any benefit.

This goes until the quantity of efforts that a person continuously makes transforms into a new quality, a quality that in turn continues to grow, and then the person merits the exodus from Egypt.

It is here that, in essence, the spiritual process begins, that a person ascends the first spiritual rung of Jacob’s ladder, the spiritual ladder comprised of 620 steps that leads to the end of correction. There is the level of the righteous, the level of the holy spirit, and the level of prophecy.

But even there, whenever one wishes to rise from one degree to another, a person cannot do without the same surrounding light, which comes to a person through study and inner work, just as here on the material level.

Our entire world is designated as the level preceding the spiritual world, but nevertheless it is a level. Therefore, the same principle is prevails there above it; the difference is that there, the light is already revealed, as are the forces of resistance and assistance, which enable the person to better understand and discern the nature of their actions.

Of course, each time, while on the lower degree, one does not understand the nature of the higher degree, and is compelled to go with eyes shut. But this is no longer as difficult as leaving this world for the spiritual levels. Therefore, the exodus from Egypt is the most difficult exodus, the “Exodus” with a capital “E”; and the subsequent exits from each lower degree to a higher one are simply steps.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/1/26, Rabash, “Why the Festival of Matzot Is Called Passover”

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Each new level we attain signifies that a person has corrected themself by rising to it, and has thereby fulfilled a commandment. Therefore, the number of levels corresponds to the number of commandments: 613 plus another 7 commandments instituted by the sages.

A person rises from degree to degree by virtue of the Exodus from Egypt; therefore, we attach the remembrance of the Exodus from Egypt to many commandments, since it is the foundation that allows us to begin spiritual actions called “commandments.”

We are not speaking about the commandments known to us in the material world (simple movements of the hands, feet, or tongue), but about spiritual actions through which a person fills himself with the upper light.

In the absence of a screen (a spiritual filter that would allow the upper light to enter within us), for now we can draw it toward ourselves through the study of the books. It reaches us in the form of surrounding light that gradually purifies and corrects us. The same actions can be carried out not only through study, but also through real deeds.

On the holidays, such as Pesach (Passover), which brings us goodness, there are specific surrounding lights, and here the participation of a person in preparing the festive event is important, specifically physical participation, carried out in unison in the whole nation.

But in addition to the general participaction, we must have an intention: the desire to attain the essence of the holiday, to ascend to the level of Pesach, so that what the event known as the Exodus would actually happen to us. Depending on the correct direction of the pre‑holiday preparation and the sincerity of the intentions, a person can merit very great surrounding lights even at the stage of preparation for the celebration.

That is why we try so hard: everyone wants to take part in this work and loves it because it gives a greater spiritual result than study.

Baal HaSulam and all the Kabbalists who preceded him singled out Pesach and Sukkot from among all the holidays. Pesach corresponds to the exodus from this world into the spiritual, to entering eternity and perfection, which, in essence, everyone wants.

And Sukkot is the “cloud of His Glory,” that is, a cloud, a Sukkah, a shelter: All this is also surrounding light that comes to a person and corrects him. The principle remains unchanged; only the conditions in which a person’s soul is found change. Therefore, in our world these holidays, these spiritual states, manifest in various forms and modes of expression.

On Sukkot the surrounding light acts differently, because the soul is already on a higher level, whereas Passover is truly the exodus from our state to the light.

Therefore, every time a person takes part in lessons or in work, it is desirable not to forget that everything that happens to them, all their efforts, require an accompanying intention: one undertakes these actions in order to come out of this world into the spiritual world, to feel the upper reality. Then these efforts accumulate and bring a person the holiday of Passover.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/1/26, Rabash, “Why the Festival of Matzot Is Called Passover”

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