Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 3/29/18
Posted on March 29th, 2018
Lesson on Topic: “Pesach,” Part 1
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Lesson on the Topic: “Pesach,” Part 2
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Lesson on Topic: “Pesach,” Part 3
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Lesson on Topic: “Pesach,” Part 1
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Lesson on the Topic: “Pesach,” Part 2
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Lesson on Topic: “Pesach,” Part 3
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The fourth stage of desire Behina Dalet, which is the created being, is the farthest from the Creator in its qualities, but at the same time, the closest to Him in its ability to attain Him. The other stages are impossible to rate in terms of attainment, because they contain no reflected Light. It appears only if Behina Dalet works with them.
Let’s say that my egoism and I are impressed by a certain melody, painting, or story. These works themselves have no feelings. However, by integrating them with my egoism, I give them a feeling, and attain the Creator through them. They themselves don’t have it, and that is the meaning of the “first nine Sefirot.” The first nine Sefirot are the qualities that, combined with my ego, help me discover the Creator’s qualities, which He shows toward me, my perception.
The difficulty in perceiving the Creator is that He acts “in circles” (without any restrictions), while the created being has to answer Him “in a straight line,” meaning with a screen that restricts egoism. But when we rise from one degree to the next by faith above reason, it is a continuous, “analog,” and integral ascent. As we reach the next level, we are able to discern it as discrete, as a particular degree.
We still do reveal something from the circles, from the Creator’s perfection, by making an ascent with faith above reason. Faith above reason lets us get as close as possible from the straight line of the created being to the round perfection of the Creator.
The force of unity comes to us from the endless Light. Therefore, if we reach even the smallest measure of the quality of bestowal with the help of the Light, the force of the round perfection, where everyone is equal, we thus form the desires that are close to the circle, to the Creator. However, they are formed in us through our straight line.
We gradually attain the circle through the straight line, but there is always some elusive additive we lack. As when we try to calculate the infinitive, the area is broken down into a multitude of rectangles approaching a curve, but the elusive remainder always remains.*
A person receives the desire from above, but he builds the intention through his own efforts. The intention contains a part of the connected vessels he received from the friends, because the Klipa is always in his way, annoying him, he reveals the additional intention, like a child that huffs and puffs trying to achieve something, and that is how he learns. It is through our efforts that we build an addition to our desire, which is called an intention.**
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/19/18, Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 2, Chapter 2, Item 6
* (Minute 45:19)
** (Minute 51:15)
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Why was it beneficial for Pharaoh to raise Moses in his house? Just think, how much has the world gained from the Jews? The world owes its entire development to the Jews because the upper Light is conducted through them, through the quality of Bina to Malchut, bringing it everything: the start of all religions, beliefs, and knowledge.
Even the corporeal desires for food, sex, and family develop because the Light shines on them from above in addition to the animal level. And this is all because there is an intention to bestow, represented by Israel. Therefore, more Light keeps coming and develops desires. And the desire itself does not develop, it is dead like dust.
The only reason that a desire develops is for the sake of it reaching the next degree. And if all four stages have already been reached: inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human, then further development can only come from above, through Israel.
This can be seen by the displacement of the Jewish people experienced in Europe as they were exiled from one country to the next. If not for this small group in our world that is somehow connected to the upper Light, the world would not have developed. Why would it? All the development is done for the sake of achieving bestowal, adhesion, and the end of correction.
And if there is no such group and no connection between the upper Light and Malchut, then Malchut does not develop. Therefore, the world blames the Jews for all its problems. It is the Jews that caused the world’s development that has now come to the end. The world is up against a wall, the global crises is unfolding, and the Jews are obviously going to be blamed for it.
The Jews are astounded by these accusations because they gave the world so much good, so many new inventions. But this is a misunderstanding of our role, because we are meant for something completely different.
It is similar to the story of the exile in Egypt. At first, the Jews brought a lot of benefit to Egypt, and then life went bad. These parts of Bina are supposed to start rising from Malchut and to elevate it to the next level of development. It is like a woman who is ready to give birth, but is unable to. Can you imagine what would happen to this child?
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/11/18, Lesson on the Topic: “Preparation for the Pesach,” Part 1
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Baal HaSulam writes that the advantage a person has over an animal is that the desire for spirituality awakens in a person. If not for this, a person would lead an animalistic existence. Spiritual aspiration is what makes a human (Adam) out of a person.
“Egyptian slavery” is a state preceding spirituality, like a corridor we must pass in order to enter the spiritual world. Therefore, first we enter Egypt. Once there, we begin to clarify our desires and prepare ourselves for the spiritual degree.
Egypt is characterized by an immense increase in egoism until a person wants to swallow the whole world. The person then begins to ask, “What is the meaning of my life?” and to search for the answer. In the end, he sees that egoism completely dominates him, making him a slave of Pharaoh. He does not agree with this and wants to work for the Creator instead.
But he discovers that he cannot do this. Therefore, he screams and makes demands until he is in complete despair that his efforts do not bring any result, as it is written, “And the children of Israel sighed from the work.”
The person feels blows because he is striving for spiritual work, but sees that nothing comes from it, and a cry bursts out of him. That is, the right desire, the request, arises in him and he then comes out of Egypt.
How many times during the years of our work have we tried to bestow, to unite, to think well of others, and to care, but so far, we have seen no results? Where do all our efforts go? After all, nothing disappears without a trace. We are in a closed system where the law of conservation of energy operates. But where is the fruit of my work, my desires, cares, successes, and misses— does it all really just disappear?
No. It all accumulates: my, yours and humanity’s work throughout all times. Therefore, there are people who receive such burdening of the heart that leads them to the exodus from Egypt. Others continue the Egyptian slavery for now, but nevertheless, from generation to generation, they accumulate their efforts. This applies to all of humanity, without exception.
Even a tiny louse that makes efforts to eat and survive also contributes to the common piggy bank, because it also belongs to the common desire created by the Creator.
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From the 1st Part of the Kabbalah Daily Lesson 3/11/18, “Preparation for Pesach,” Part 1
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Writings of Rabash, Letter 3
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We don’t have a need for spirituality ‑ it is given to us from above. No one on their own lights up with an aspiration to study Kabbalah and reveal the Creator. One is led there from above, and this is called “in due time” (Beito), by the natural path of development. However, if we wish to advance on our own according to “the hastening of time” (Achishena), we need the mutual guarantee. Through the connection to the group, I can receive from the friends and provide each of them the correct spiritual needs through which we will be able to advance.
There is no other way. I cannot extract the correct aspiration for spirituality from myself; it would be for anything but spirituality. We shouldn’t be ashamed or afraid of the desires that arise in the group. After all, envy, pride, honor, and the desire for power, which consciously or unconsciously manifest in the group, help us reach the spiritual world. Meanwhile a person can experience the most honorable and pure desires, but if they don’t go through the group, they will not help the advancement.*
During Pesach (Passover) a person must say, “Pesach, Matza, Maror.” Otherwise one will not come out of Egypt. The Matza is the war with the evil inclination. The Maror is the unbearable bitterness from the work, from one’s inability to unite and bestow. Therefore, first we come to Pesach (Pasach means the passing), and then to salvation.
One follows the other: Pesach, Matza, Maror. Pesach does not depend on the person; it’s the Creator giving one the strength to escape (Pasach). And Matza and Maror are one’s duty to swallow his work in order to choke from the bitterness of the egoism and scream out.**
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/20/18, Writings of Rabash—Igrot (Letters) / Letter No. 72
* (Minute 11:30)
** (Minute 17:00)
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The work of the sons of Israel in Egypt is the work on unification in the ten. However, this unification is impossible in Egypt; therefore, they flee from there. After all, they wanted to unite in the desire to enjoy. All the problems in Egypt are the realization that we are unable to unite, no matter how hard we try.
Thus, seven years of satiation and seven years of famine pass in our unsuccessful attempts. However, each time we gain increasingly subtle and sublime definitions and eventually come to the need for exiting Egypt. Moses understands that it is necessary to separate from Pharaoh; he goes to Pharaoh and demands the people be let go.
But previously there was no such awareness and it was unclear that the desire to enjoy completely dominates a person. Even now it seems to us that it is enough to make an effort and we will unite. So we try again and again and 400 years pass in these attempts, that is, in all four stages.
There can be no unification in Egypt; after all, we are in our egoism! And even if we reach some kind of unity, then at the next degree we discover that it was egoistic and not for the sake of bestowal, the way it seemed to us.
The years of exile are degrees. If we are in 250th year of exile, it means that we managed to unite at the 250th degree. But suddenly the left line is revealed showing me that there is no unity and I hate everyone. It means that now, at the 251st degree I discovered a much greater desire to enjoy than before. So we climb up the degrees, stepping with the left foot and then with the right one.
There is unity in Egypt, but it is egoistic. After all, all of Egypt is arranged for us to understand that we will not have life in egoism.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/9/18, Writings of Rabash, The Rungs of the Ladder, “What Are the Two Discernments Before Lishma“
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Desires were originally created by the Creator and nothing new appears, but everything depends on a person’s awareness: how he recognizes, distinguishes, and connects them. In the state of descent, one reveals that he is in exile, and according to the depth of this awareness he can achieve liberation.
Everything is determined by consciousness. A baby and an adult live in the same world, but does a baby see much compared to the adult? That’s why awareness, suffered in exile, helps us reach liberation. After all, it occurs in the same organs of perception, only turned upside down and grown through our efforts by 620 times.
If we felt exile on the same level in which we feel liberation, we would never be able to get out of it. But thanks to the work in the group and the reforming Light, we achieve an ascent 620 times more powerful than a fall. We do not need to feel the fall to minus infinity in order to feel the rise to plus infinity.
The Creator made it so that we will feel the rise 620 times more than the fall. This is the meaning of the shattering. In a descent, we find out that we cannot connect, and everyone feels this state in their personal petty egoism. While in ascent, uniting, we reveal our common desire, in which all our efforts, desires, and prayers take shape. And then their power increases 620-fold.
That is, it is impossible even to compare the fall and the rise. Although falls seem very strong, unpleasant, and deep to us, they are nothing compared to the rise, which is 620 times more powerful.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/8/18, Writings of Rabash
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Success depends on one’s connection to the group, since the environment provides us with many inner discernments that we no longer need to experience on our own. This is because we each include everyone within us, and if I am connected to ten other friends, I absorb all the personal states of each friend. Thus, I advance.
Our connection not only saves us time, without it I will never achieve spiritual birth. Starting with a single drop of semen, the growth of the body occurs through the multiplying of cells and their connection with each other. We call this development or growth. Everything depends on the connections between us.
It is good that we all are different, perceiving, understanding, and reacting differently. This gives us an opportunity to be included in one another above all the differences, thereby forming an integral vessel—the common desire, which is organized in a very complex, multilayered way, ready to receive the upper Light. After all, the revelation of the Creator cannot occur in one individual desire: it is too primitive, one-dimensional, and flat.
Therefore, we connect many different, opposite qualities together. From this diversity of connections and interconnected qualities (which wish to preserve their uniqueness while also being connected regardless of their differences), we create a complex spiritual vessel worthy of revealing the Creator.
This is why our connection to each other is so important; this connection is what builds the spiritual vessel (Kli). The Creator, the upper Light, fills all space. The problem is only in how to come to similarity to the Light from our egoistic desire, and how to accept it according to the similarity of our qualities.
This is achieved precisely through the multitude of contradicting qualities that, despite all differences, are connected to each other with one common goal: to reveal the Creator within our connection. Our connection to each other is called “the Creator” (Bore), which means “come and see” (Bo-Re).
Therefore, we should value the preparation that nature created, that is, the breaking of the common soul and the possibility of uniting different desires for the sake of one goal: the revelation of the Creator. Our unity allows us to create the form of connection that will be called the Creator.
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From the 1st Part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/18/18, Writings of Rabash—Essays, Vol. 2, Article 19, “Come Unto Pharaoh”
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