Preparation for the Lesson
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Writings of Rabash, Vol. 2, Article 32
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 2, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Chapter 8, Item 86
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Writings of Rabash, Vol. 2, Article 16
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The spiritual vessel (Kli) is not ten people, but a ten, which has become a single whole. To the extent that they can be included in the concept of “one,” they become a spiritual vessel. All our work is directed at this unity, and only by working on it do we begin to feel the obstacles that Pharaoh and his ministers put in front of us. The Creator purposely hardened their hearts to bring us to the understanding of what separation and unity are, as well as to help us achieve the qualitative unity in which the new state is revealed.
Everything is evaluated not by the group of ten people, but by its ability to unite into one whole. And the group becomes like one only if it has the connection with the upper force, besides which there is nothing else, and can concentrate all problems into one.
Therefore, we are always need a guarantee. Everyone receives his hardening of the heart at different times, in different ways, and everyone else helps him overcome it, as it’s written: “And he should help his friend.” There is never a situation when one is unable to help another, because one always has something that another lacks. Therefore, even if I am in a decline that I cannot come out of, I am still able to help another rise. After all, his heart is hardened in different ways.*
At first, a person works only for the reward that is customary in this world, meaning egoistic success, higher understanding, knowledge, to rule. Gradually, he acquires a different understanding of success, seeing its signs in how devoted he is to the group, and through the group how dedicated he is to the upper force. He considers his reward for all his efforts to be the ability he acquires to annul himself to the group and the upper force. This means that he is already working toward gaining desires for bestowal in order to move on to Lishma.
This is what the process of going through the Egyptian exile is all about from beginning to end. We enter Egypt with the desire to earn and succeed in our regular egoistic parameters. In reality, it corresponds to what Joseph is talking about. This is why we coexist so well with the Egyptians; all our desires to bestow work inside the desires of the Egyptians to receive. Egypt is prospering, the desire to receive is enjoying, and everything is fine!
Gradually, as a result of our work and the Creator’s influence on us, we start feeling our separation, the oppositeness. Our system of rewards changes and so does our understanding of work. Egyptian exile is a very special period, and that is why we remember Egypt on all the stages of our correction, up to the very end. **
At first we imagine spiritual success in ordinary egoistic terms and we feel a connection with Egypt. The previous stage called “the land of Canaan” already exhausted itself and was followed by a famine. And the next stage, “Egypt,” promises an ocean of pleasures. And therefore we descend into Egypt.
But gradually, through the hardening of the heart, the increased desire to receive, we understand that our work has to be different and that this is not unity. The main thing is that the Light that reforms is working on us, which changes us. We would never achieve success without it, because no matter how much we connect in egoistic desires, the only thing that comes out is pure egoism.
Therefore, all we need to do is carry out actions of unity, diligently following the advice of the Kabbalists. This is what is called the work in Egypt. Pharaoh organizes our work precisely to lead us to spirituality. We will feel that our egoism does not agree and it receives blows; we are unable to unite despite all our efforts.***
Try to work for the benefit of others, and you will see how easy it is. You will work to the extent that you can without worrying about anything. This instantly frees a person from numerous concerns, giving a sense of freedom. After all, you do what is needed, and not worry about the outcome, because it goes outside of yourself. In this case, the desire to receive does not limit the person. In this way you can outwit your egoism, which made us worry about ourselves.****
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/12/18, Writings of Rabash, Article 15, 1990, “What Does It Mean that Before the Egyptian Minister Fell, Their Outcry Was Not Answered in the Work?”
* (Minutes 34:00 – 36:44)
**(Minutes 36:44 – 39:36)
*** (Minutes 40:08 – 43:07)
**** (Minutes 45:00 – 46:26)
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The Jews would have remained the slaves of egoism forever because they lived very well in Egypt, were satiated and enjoyed life. But then the Creator changes their desire and they start to ask: “Why do we live? What is this life about? What is its purpose?”
People changed, just as it is happening now. In fact, it would seem what more could we want? The world is capable of providing every person with plenty, but we spoil everything. As if we are doing this ourselves, but in reality it is the upper governance working on us, corrupting us, not allowing us to enjoy life. We could have children and enjoy our families. A hundred years ago, if people had the opportunities they do today, they would have considered it a paradise. Why are we not satisfied with it? This is what is meant by “The king of Egypt died.”
The former egoistic desire, in which we enjoyed life, family, kids, vacation, and health—died. Life stopped bringing us satisfaction.
The desire for pleasure grew, not in quantity, but in quality, and it is demanding new, higher fulfillment. You offer it buckets of meat, fish, cakes, candy, travel, but it doesn’t want anything. Many people are depressed, use drugs, and even want to end their lives, the number of suicides is growing, or a person suddenly buys weapons and begins to shoot everyone indiscriminately.
Where does it come from? It comes from the Creator. He spoils our desire for pleasure and poisons our existence. We are unable to fulfill our desire and feel that death is better than such a life.
First of all, we need to understand that it comes from Above, in accordance with the program of the development of nature. We cannot resist it, nor compensate in any way to fix the situation. No tranquilizers can help soften the blow of “the king of Egypt died.”
Jews worked remarkably well during the “seven years of satiation,” and they felt satiated. You think that during the “seven years of famine” there was less food? There was the same amount of everything, but they felt as if they had nothing, and there was a famine. There was nothing they could satisfy their desire to receive with—just like in today’s world.*
The desire to receive is a machine. You bring a deficiency into it, and it does everything to fulfill it. From the side of creation, the desire to receive, there is no freedom of will. It works like an automaton according to the data entered into it.
But the Creator wants to bring us to the point of acting on our own, independently. This is only possible if the creation has two forces: the forces of reception and bestowal. Then, between these two forces, it can build an intention toward bestowal and work above its nature.
Only then will the created being exist; before this it simply does not exist because it is a part of nature: the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels. The instinctual reaction of the desire to receive is not considered an independent life.**
If fifty years ago our ancestors got what we have today, they would have been thrilled beyond belief. However, today we are not satisfied with our lives because our desire to receive has changed; it is no longer content with its previous fulfillment. And this is progress; we seemingly have everything, yet it is not enough.
That is why the oligarchs are so eager to earn more than profits, because stealing a billion only gives them the fulfillment worth a hundred dollars. There is no feeling of contentment. ***
It is a blessing that a person does not anticipate death, but only thinks of food, sex, family, money, power, and knowledge. Is it worth worrying about these things, if sooner or later you die? But the person does not think about death, and this means that “the king of Egypt died” hasn’t happened yet. Even being in despair from his work, he still wants to return to his previous state, like the Jews in the desert dreamed of returning to Egypt.****
Egyptian slavery is a feeling that egoistic unity no longer works.*****
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/12/18, Shamati #159 “And It Came to Pass in the Course of Those Many Days”
* (Minutes 3:25 – 8:04)
** (Minutes 12:51 – 14:48)
***(Minute 15:11)
****(Minutes 17:50 – 18:35)
***** (Minute 21:45)
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Moses symbolizes the desire for truly unselfish work—as far as can be in Egypt—for the Creator. First, Moses grows in Pharaoh’s palace like an Egyptian prince.
He is similar to all people with their desires and even more like the Egyptians than any other Jew, but then his time to start ruling people and become a leader comes, so the quality of bestowal awakens in him.
We cannot do without Moses. After all, one must have this property awakened by the Creator that will pull him out of the animal state and make him a human, Adam, similar to the Creator. Moses is a property of Bina, which should stand in the middle between Malchut and Keter.
Moses is a property of the Creator clothed in a person from above so that one could connect with this property like Malchut connects to Moses from below. Without this property, one generally would not be able to understand what bestowal is and how one can think of something higher than his egoism, his Malchut. Without Moses’ property in each of us, we would never become the Creator’s workers. It is this property that distinguishes a human being from an animal.
Moses is me, a special quality in me, acquired by the reforming Light that lets me work with the source. This property of Bina is within a person, and this is the means by which one corrects oneself. Bina does not yet merge with the Creator. It only “sweetens.” It is the Light of Hassadim. Bina and Malchut join to work together in order to reach Keter properly and merge with the Creator.
The conditions for entering Egypt are either a willingness to unite or resistance to it. In other words, people should be for or against unification, not indifferent to it. Egypt includes the sons of Jacob, those who have been trained by the forefathers.
The step of the forefathers is completed at this point. The stage of the sons, “the sons of Israel,” begins because Jacob, in a great state, is called Israel. This is a new state, a new stage.
Why doesn’t Pharaoh kill Moses? He cannot do it because one can only kill someone with whom he is somehow connected, and Moses has nothing to do with Pharaoh. He escapes from Pharaoh’s palace and returns to him as a completely different person, with no connection to the past.
It’s a miracle, because Moses grows up in Pharaoh’s hands. It is written in the Midrash that Moses sat on Pharaoh’s lap, played with his beard, and tried on his crown. Of course, this is not about historical events, but about the secrets of the Torah. Then, Moses returned to Pharaoh, and they did not seem to recognize each other. It does not look like a grandfather meeting with his runaway grandson.
Moses no longer refers to Pharaoh, and therefore Pharaoh can do nothing: neither kill, nor break, nor rule over him. Moses exited the power of Pharaoh. Pharaoh is Malchut, and Moses is the stage of Bina. They are not connected with each other. And Moses cannot do anything with Pharaoh, either. Only the Creator, by controlling them both, is able to awaken forces in them.
First, Pharaoh raises Moses in his palace because, thanks to the people of Israel, Egypt was getting richer. The egoistic desire to enjoy uses the quality of bestowal for itself and receives huge profits.
As soon as we are in the group, wish to unite and cannot do it, it is a sign that we are on the threshold of entering Egypt. We reveal resistance to unification in ourselves. We need to take care of the connection in the ten to the extent that we feel how Pharaoh rules the relationship between us.
Unity in the ten is expressed in the desire to reveal the Creator.
[223068]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/11/18, “Preparation for Pesach,” Part 1
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Before anything else, it is necessary to connect to the Creator and then try to perceive all obstacles through that point of connection so that they are used to intensify the connection with the Creator rather than taking us deeper into our daily problems.
I must leave all my fears and worries and adhere to “There is none else besides Him.” I connect to the Creator, to this single existing reality, as one point, as in the beginning of creation.
“Behold that before the emanations were emanated and the creatures were created, the upper simple Light had filled the whole existence. And there was no vacancy, such as an empty atmosphere, a hollow, or a pit, But all was filled with simple, boundless light.” And then, in this Light, a black point solidified opposite to the Light in its desire to receive.
But it completely annuls itself before the Light, and I want to do exactly the same! And after I achieve adhesion with the Light in this single point, in other words, in all that is happening to me I see only the Creator, I will be able to start to open my mind, heart, thoughts, and desires to the extent that I am be able to relate them to the Creator.
I myself have nothing; I remain a single point. None of my sensations belong to me, they are all sent by the Creator so that I adhere to Him even more. Then my point of adhesion will begin to expand over all these disturbances and my degree of connection to the Creator will increase. It turns out that these are not obstacles at all. They are rather “help against Him,” since for me, this point is in opposition to the Creator, but it helps me increasingly strengthen our adhesion.
I am not always able to relate everything to the Creator, even though I understand that this is how it should be. Such problems and fears can arise that I am unable to maintain my adhesion with the Creator. The sign of adhesion is joy from the fact that there is none else beside Him, the good that does good. When I am in adhesion with Him, I feel myself complete and perfect because anyone who is in adhesion with perfection is also perfect.
If, however, there is no joy, it means that I am in exile and not in adhesion with “There is none else besides Him.”
I sit at work and experience myself in exile, needlessly wasting my time. Someone came up with all these tasks and I have to waste my entire life in them. There is no way out; I must continue, but with the constant intention that along with all this activity, I am connecting to the Creator and annulling myself before Him. And it is specifically because of my job and all the problems, the so-called illusory world, that I have the possibility to strengthen my connection.
And if I reach adhesion, then I cease to experience this world, it disappears. Instead of separating, it becomes unifying, instead of concealing the screen, it reveals the screen.
I turn exile into liberation only by bringing everything to the Creator, and this is enough. The entire difference between Egypt and Israel is that the same exact desire that was revealed in Egypt changes its intention to bestowal, after passing through the desert and entering the land of Israel. That is why each day we should see ourselves as exiting Egypt.
Each day must be devoted to achieving adhesion with the Creator; that is how I reveal that I am in exile. That is why I will have daily work to adhere to the Creator above all distractions and turn my evil inclination into good, to turn the angel of death into the angel of life.
[222939]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/7/18, Writings of Rabash, “A Real Prayer Is Over a Deficiency”
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