Baal HaSulam, Shamati #159 “And It Came to Pass in the Course of Those Many Days”: The thing is that, indeed, they were very fond of the work in Egypt. This is the meaning of “But mingled themselves with the nations, and learned their works.”

It means that if Israel are under the dominion of a certain nation, that nation controls them and they cannot retire from their dominion. Thus, they tasted sufficient flavor in that work and could not be redeemed.

At first a person is in his desire to enjoy and sees that he works for the sake of his ego. He learns and acquires knowledge and feels that he is above others since he understands and feels more than them.

The wisdom of Kabbalah opens before him the whole essence of life in this world and he looks down with contempt at all the other people who lie around on this planet and don’t understand anything. He feels that he is higher, more important and superior to them and his ego is filled with pride.

He receives explanations about good and evil and turns everything in his favor in order to calm himself. Now he has a tempting goal. He sees the wisdom of Kabbalah as his redemption and the answer to all the troubles since he arrived to this wisdom quite depressed having been beaten by life. Here he suddenly finds all the answers and comfort. He is glad that he isn’t guilty of all the evil he has done and expects things to be better than in the past. In short, he is very satisfied.

This is intentional, just like with small children who receive from the Creator energy to run around, to learn everything, and not to sit still and be lazy so that they can quickly learn about the world and develop. The same thing happens to a person when he begins to study, as it is written: “The thing is that, indeed, they were very fond of the work in Egypt, this is the meaning of ‘But mingled themselves with the nations, and learned their works.'”

The nations of the world are the states in which only the desire to enjoy rules, and Israel under the domination of Egypt is a state in which the desire to bestow that awakens in me works for the benefit of the egoistic desire. It turns out that I can be more successful than others. I calm myself; I understand and feel more as if I am getting more opportunities and therefore feel that I am better.

These are the onions, the garlic, and the squash that we ate in Egypt. At this initial state I can turn all the evil that is revealed for the benefit of my ego. This means that I am Pharaoh’s slave. Everything serves the egoistic desire, even the small desire to bestow in me that I have thanks to the study and my connection with the group.

This is how I use this method up to a certain point until there is suddenly a change in my feeling. This is called: “and the king of Egypt [who was good to me] died.” Then it is as if a new domination emerges. I don’t feel that I am so successful anymore and that this business is so simple. I cannot use the wisdom of Kabbalah to improve my ordinary, corporeal egoistic life anymore.

Here I begin to feel my slavery. The desire remains the same desire, the same king, but it is dead for me! The new phase begins: “and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage” What are we working for if it isn’t for our sake? And what will become of us?

We connected with the hope to discover the upper force because we thought that it is good for our ego, but now we suddenly discover that it isn’t the good we were waiting for and not the connection we thought it would be. We begin to understand the good and the connection in their real sense, which means that we are aware that the fruit will not be revealed in the desire to enjoy but only in the desire to bestow.

We still don’t understand the meaning of receiving a payment in the desire to bestow, but it will be revealed to us. We hope to feel good, but what is good in bestowal? We have to change our perception with regard to the coming change.

This is the meaning of “the king of Egypt died,” that all the dominations of the king of Egypt—he gave them food and livelihood—had died. This is why they had room for prayer. And they were immediately salvaged. And then when they walked in the desert and came to a state of Katnut (smallness), they craved the servitude that they had had prior to the death of the king of Egypt. Which means that they left the domination of Pharaoh.
[131307]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/30/14, Shamati #159

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Writings of Rabash “Rungs of the Ladder,”  “Come Unto Pharaoh-2”

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Exile and Redemption” 

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Question: The greatest fortune is not even whether I will or won’t pass through the Machsom (barrier); rather, it is that the Creator has brought me to study. What does this depend on?

Answer: It is the Creator who brings the person to the good fate and we cannot influence this in any way. We can only try that by coming to study we will be able to realize ourselves.

Question: But why are we so few, such a small percentage?

Answer: We are not so few; we have very great spiritual strength, greater than the whole world. What kind of power does the whole world that is completely managed from above have in comparison to a single person who has freedom of choice and the ability to influence reality? It is impossible to compare this at all.

The total power of every person living in the world is equal to one person who is studying in a Kabbalistic group. If they want to influence the spiritual world, every one of them on their level must connect together to be equal to one of our friends.

It is just as all of the still are equal to one of the vegetative, all of the vegetative are equal to one of the animate, and all of the animate are equal to one man (Adam). So also among people, if they all are managed from above and there is one who is not managed and has some kind of independence, so all of them together are equal to that one. If they all connect on their physical level by nullifying themselves, they become equal to this one who is studying the wisdom of Kabbalah. The relationships between levels are like that.
[131328]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/31/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: Why do we want to come out of Egypt in the first place, what is so bad there?

Answer: We are made of two parts: the animate level and the human level. Therefore it is said, “the Lord will save man and the beast.” Everything depends on the extent to which you identify either with the animal or with the man.

The man in me yearns to open his eyes to the spiritual world, to understand why he lives, to see the way ahead, and to understand all of reality. The animal is attracted to the armchair and the TV in order to feel good and comfortable. It turns from side to side and doesn’t want anything.

This means that I have a choice: either this world or spirituality. We swing between these two states, and that’s the way it will be until the end of correction. We will receive increasingly greater temptations to enjoy egoistically and a greater hardening of the heart. We can be given a hardening of the heart even in our current state so that we will not be able to move even one millimeter.

If you feel good in this state, then there is nothing to talk about. If you don’t feel a need to advance spiritually, you need to develop in this world in order to discover its worthlessness.

Question: Does developing mean to receive blows?

Answer: There is a phase in a person’s development in which he receives blows, but he is still unable to understand why and where they come from. He is not developed enough yet. He has to receive a certain number of blows to try to escape from them in different directions until he begins to understand why this happens.

Before that he only wanted to hide from the blows and now he already has a question and wants to know why he receives blows. Clarifying the reason is already an upper level. He doesn’t simply want to erase what is bad on the current level, but he yearns to know where it comes from and why. He has already grown.

Then he ascends to the next level and finds out why the blows arrive. He begins to explore their source, why our life is the way it is and what are the laws according to which the system that punishes him is built. He wants to know all that.

Then he ascends even higher and wants to know not only how the upper system works but also the goal that it operates for, which means whether there is any plan. After all, he sees that the system operates systematically.

We constantly advance by blows, yet I don’t pay attention to the blow itself but to why I receive it and to its source. Eventually I rise above the blows and want to discover the reason for them. The blows force me to value their reason and then I begin to detach myself from my feelings and leave the animal to suffer. It is good that it suffers since there is no other way I can advance. I want to identify and to connect with the reasons for the blows, which means with the cause of reasons.

This is why I accept my advancement gladly. But I will not advance unless I receive enough qualitative blows on every level according to my questions, according to my appreciation of the blow. If I receive a blow but it is unimportant for me and what is important is who I received it from and for what reason, this is a totally different situation. The Creator has brought me all this way so that I will discover that He is the one who gives me these blows.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/31/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Shamati #86 “And They Built Store-Cities” 

Lesson on the Topic: “Dissemination of Kabbalah” 

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Writings of Rabash, “Rungs of the Ladder,” “Come Unto Pharaoh-2”

The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpts, “Your Right Hand, O Lord, Majestic in Power,” Item 295 

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Exile and Redemption”

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Writings of Rabash, “Rungs of the Ladder,” Article 19

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Exile and Redemption” 

Writings of the ARI “Shaar HaKavanot,” Pesach

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Writings of Rabash, “Rungs of the Ladder,” Article 16

The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts, “Excerpt Items for Passover,” “Your Right Hand, O Lord, Majestic in Power,” Item 287

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Writings of ARI, “Shaar HaKavanot,” Pesach 

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Question: How is it possible to reach correction if we leave the influence of the group and immediately fall into the corporeal, beastly existence?

Answer: The group must help a person. It’s possible that I am in such a decline that I am not able to connect to the group by myself—that I feel hatred and rejection concerning the group and I neglect the friends.

However, if I have a group in which I previously invested, if I tried to install it in the correct orderso that everyone would help each other and would immediately lift up those who fell, then they also will worry about me when I fall.

Question: How do you strengthen the group so it never leaves a person?

Answer: It is impossible that a person will never disconnect from the work, won’t forget the friends, and won’t curse everyone, including the Creator. It’s impossible that he will not think that he is insignificant and that everyone else are nothing as well. You must go through all the states. You will not succeed going through this path in a smooth way and avoid feeling all of this.

You have to dive into your ego, feel it, and go through all the discernments, and then, later, you will begin to become integrated with the others, and the exile must be four hundred years, four levels that one must pass within the desire to receive. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have anything to correct, and how would one reach the summit?

You are in front of Mount Sinai, and you must raise above all that hatred (Sina) in order to reach the Creator. Don’t be afraid. If you have a teacher, group, studies, a general connection, and dissemination, then you need not be afraid. However, if you are missing any element, that is already a problem, and this is because, at the end of each process, there needs to be the goal to delight the Creator. It is impossible if you don’t connect all the components together and make from them the basis for your bestowal to the Creator

Question: Desires constantly grow. Will they be corrected all at once or will the correction take place gradually, portion after portion?

Answer: The correction takes place gradually in small portions. We progress toward correction gradually because it is hard for us to agree to these changes. We are not able to execute them all at once, and in addition there must be a mixture between feelings and intellect, which corrects them and connects them to each other.

We must go through all of this together. In order to reach Malchut, you must also connect the history, your inner development, and all the souls that existed before you. You must pass through the entire process, and at the end of it you turn into a messenger who represents the huge desire, a huge balloon, with one point above, which is you who is connecting the whole Kli (Vessel) with the Creator.

You become the representative of the whole of humanity, and that’s the intention: that you correct the entire Malchut on your part, concerning yourself, and thus, each one does. So each one, for himself, attains the entire Malchut. Each soul attains the entire creation from one end to the other.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/6/14, Writings of Rabash

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From Rabash “Yenika (feeding) and Ibur (Impregnation)”: And the person must believe that before he is born, meaning before the descent of the soul into the body, the soul adhered with Him be He blessed, and now it yearns to return and adhere, as it was before its descent.

The soul was in adhesion with the Creator because there was a single complete Kli, all of whose parts were connected and whole. The single Upper Light filled them equally in a state of “He is one and His name is one” (Zechariah 14:9).

This state is most permanent, stable and secure; it is the foundation of all of creation. And therefore after the shattering, the vessel was fractured into a multitude of pieces and each one of the pieces yearns to return to that connection. For now they have become parts; they cannot feel fulfillment and always feel deficiency. In this world there is no happiness, fulfillment, and true wholeness, and perfection cannot be. This is because each one is only part of the system, and as long as the system is not whole, deficiencies and problems will always be discovered in it. And that is how it will be until the end of correction.

So each and every part, every person, subconsciously yearns to connect with others. This tendency and inclination is discovered gradually according to the development of the person. Ultimately, the necessity of connection is discovered because we can reach wholeness only in this way.

But for this it is necessary to win the struggle between my yearning for wholeness and connection and my ego that wants to dominate. And connection can only be between equals. So I need to decide what to choose—this or that. But we cannot resolve this inner dilemma.

Until the end of correction we will be found in such an inner crisis. On the one hand, I want wholeness, which can be felt only through integral connection, equality, the general inclusion of everyone. On the other hand, I want to dominate! This may be a connection, but it is one where I dominate and not all are equal and integrally connected.

Therefore, humanity constantly fluctuates, sometimes to one side and sometimes to the other side. And that is how it will always continue until we reach complete recognition of evil.
[128073]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/14/14, Writings of Rabash

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