Question: There is a resemblance between Moses and the state of the Israeli nation today. Moses doesn’t feel secure with regard to the Israeli nation or to Pharaoh, although he is in contact with the Creator. The current state of the Israeli nation is also quite insecure.

Answer: It doesn’t matter. If there is a specific direction, if we understand that we have no choice, then despite the conditions that force us to escape from Egypt and to jump into the Red Sea, we do what we have to do.

Question: But you say that the modern Israeli nation doesn’t feel that it’s in Egypt. Perhaps a certain force should appear or someone who can explain things and start this process?

Answer: This is exactly what we are trying to do. Our group, our organization, wants to show the whole nation of Israel that there is a way to be saved. Let’s change our life! After all, things are constantly getting worse; the world is becoming more and more hostile, and the Israeli society is disintegrated and divided. Our security is in an increasingly growing danger.

But the blows that we feel don’t come upon the “nation of Israel,” but upon “Egypt,” upon our ego, since we don’t want to exit it. Israel in us, the desire to bestow that wants to come out of exile and to ascend, doesn’t feel the blows. When we are in the ego, it feels the pain, but the moment we leave it, we become disconnected from the “plagues.”

Question: What should we do in order to stop falling into the ego?

Answer: The only thing we should do is to unite. We have the method of connecting for the whole nation of Israel, and it’s the means to be free of all our troubles.
[103732]
From KabTV’s “Kabbalists Write: The Night of Passover Seder” 3/4/13

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Question: Is there an exodus from Egypt by force?

Answer: Of course, everything happens forcefully. Without the Creator’s “plagues” and without the pressure from Pharaoh we wouldn’t come out of Egypt. As it says, it’s actually Pharaoh who brought the children of Israel closer to the Creator, when He provided the unbearable conditions for them. Did He think that they wouldn’t run from Him, but that they would actually love Him?

If Pharaoh operated on the Creator’s side, as the Creator’s force, if the Creator didn’t force the ego to be the source of all our troubles, we wouldn’t try to break free from it. The Creator creates the difficulties for us so that we, while wanting to exit our ego, will become like Him. Therefore it says that Pharaoh brought the children of Israel closer to our Father in Heaven. The Creator always operates in concealment.

When the people of Israel escape from Egypt, Pharaoh follows them and surrounds them sending them into the sea. The chase helps the people of Israel advance in the right direction. Even when you escape the ego, you are not totally free from it unless you jump into the Red Sea. Then all of Pharaoh’s army that has been chasing you drowns in it.

Jumping into the Red Sea is the final phase in the process of the exit from exile. The name the Red Sea, Yam Suf (Suf-Sof – meaning end in Hebrew) actually indicates that that you have reached the end of Egypt. Then Pharaoh returns but in another form; it isn’t Pharaoh anymore, but Amalek and other foes.
[103730]
From KabTV’s “Kabbalists Write: The Night of Passover Seder” 3/4/13

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Question: What does it mean to ask for connection with the Creator when in a difficult state, instead of trying to overcome the difficult state on one’s own?

Answer: Wisdom comes only with experience. We need to feel darkness many times, and then light, and again darkness and light. That is, we need to go through many unpleasant and pleasant sensations where I feel bad or good for all sorts of spiritual and material reasons, and I can do nothing about it.

Thousands of these experiences should change in me until I begin to realize that my perception depends upon my assessment, on the importance that I attach to the spiritual properties of connection, love, and my relationship to the others. I already start to guess what is hidden in this darkness and to feel it. I don’t just feel good or bad, but good and bad because of my relation to the group, because I don’t consider it important or don’t treat friends well.

There are many steps on this path, many small stages, not yet spiritual, but psychological barriers that must be overcome. And then comes the understanding that waking up out of the darkness, I start thinking about the screen, about the time when I can be above these feelings.

We have to go through the good and bad feelings, through day and night, until the end of correction. Although everyone goes through this in his own way, in the end, I begin to feel the need to rise above these feelings. I no longer want to depend on them and be their slave, but I want to be protected against them with a shield.

Let various internal impressions arise in me, but they should not affect my attitude toward the friends, toward the spiritual path, toward the importance of the goal and the Creator. I want to be independent in that from my egoistic desire and its sorrows. This requirement is being born in me: I want to be above the suffering of egoism, similar to the behavior of a true man in this world who bravely stands his ground, and nothing can shake him, no outside influence.

From this moment, I have a direct connection with the Creator because I begin to demand from Him. So far, I have asked for only good feelings, nice states, sweet fulfillment, that is, I demanded for my egoism. Now, I demand to raise me above my egoistic desire, and this the correct requirement for the Creator. I want to relate to the Master equally well, in the same direction, while remaining above emotions, above the sorrows of my ego. This is called the “anti-egoistic screen” (Masach).

Of course, these screens have a number of levels and features, but the work with the Light starts from this first screen. I want to restrict my desire to enjoy. And naturally, I feel everything that happens in it and the worry in myself. But all these emotions, cooking in my stomach, do not affect my vision, heart, and mind. There is a partition (Parsa) between them, which I feel as a diaphragm inside my body. Under this partition, in the “stomach” something is cooked and happens, but I want to identify myself with what is above this diaphragm: with the lungs, heart and brain.
[103829]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/28/13

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Question: People in whom the point in the heart has been revealed have freewill, while 99% of people feel depressed. It turns out that we are one big family that has a goal in life, and therefore we are happy.

Answer: Of course we are one big family since only one vessel, one desire, was created initially. Then it was shattered to billions of individual desires. So there are seven billion people in the world today. Now we have to reconnect, but this time by our collective efforts. This, of course, happens under the influence of the upper Light, since we can’t do it by ourselves. The Light does everything, but we have to take this whole system through the integral connection, which means to become one unique whole again.

What’s going on here? First, we were one unique whole. Then under the influence of the upper Light, we began to feel egoistically repulsed by one another, and our vessel was shattered.

This means that the Light has inserted its opposite attribute into us, and now there are gaps between us, emotional distances: I can’t stand the other and he and I can’t live together, why? It’s because the Light has inserted an ego in us, the resistance between us, the darkness.

If we annul this opposite attribute now, by demanding that the Light influence us, then it will illuminate for us again, but according to our desire to rise above the ego now. So it turns out that if before the Light illuminated us on the level of the Light of Nefesh, which is a very faint Light, now it illuminates on the level of the Light of Yechida for us, which is a great eternal Light.

This is all our gain. In other words, the repulsion that we feel, all the gaps and the spaces between us, have to be filled with the Light.
[103561]
From the European Convention in Germany 3/22/13, Lesson 2

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Hundreds of years ago the Kabbalists already spoke about the general impending crisis of humanity that is appearing today in Europe in a particularly acute form. At the beginning of the 20^th century Baal Hasulam wrote that at the end of the century, more precisely from the year 1995, a completely new stage would begin, a real stage in the development of humanity. Basically, this period was even born in those days, but it always takes time until a process reaches its realization among the masses of people.

On the other hand, these changes are similar to those changes that take place in a group. And so from the organization of small groups, we can learn what will happen in large blocks like these, like that of the entire European continent.

From the learning material, we know that the moment that people strive to unite, they immediately discover a new level of egoism. Why does this happen? Because when we are found in some stage of development and need to rise to the next level, we can do this only if we overcome our ego.

The next level of development is a greater connection between people. If we connect between us, suppose with the power of 10 kilograms, and then in continuation, suppose, we need to be connected with the power of 100 kilograms. So how is it possible for us to be connected between us with an intensity like this to organize a stronger and more consolidated society in which the upper Light, the force that acts upon us and influences us externally (the Surrounding Light), will be revealed?

For this we need to become egoists between us on our present level, so that all of this ego will be found among us. Then in opposition to it, we will connect with each other, which is to say that we will make a screen above us, so that all of the Light that reaches us will not enter each of us in an egoistic form, but will remain outside, above us, in the form of a community, in the form of a covenant. And then we will feel the collective Light with a collective desire that will connect us. This will be our first spiritual Light, which we call by the name “Nefesh” (“the Light of Nefesh”).

The ego rends and pushes us from within, but in opposition to that, specifically working above it, we compel ourselves to connect. Even though we are all egoists, in spite of this, we unite.

Our unified state is composed of two opposing forces: the egoistic force that separates us causing repulsion, hatred, lack of understanding; and above this, we rise to connection between us.

When these two opposing forces, the negative force on the one hand and the positive force on the other hand, reach a particular tension between them, then in one moment, in the form of a leap, the upper force, the Light, is revealed there. It gives us a feeling of cooperation, a feeling of connection, and together with this, a feeling of existence in an absolutely different space, in another state, called “the upper world.” We begin to feel ourselves beyond space, beyond time, beyond substance, beyond movement, within a world of the forces that run this material world. We need to go out together to a level like this. To rise to it today is our mission.

In a group we see that at the moment we begin to connect with a general common desire, at that particular moment, we get hit. Suddenly a feeling of separation, cooling off, lack of meaning appears: “We don’t need all this…” Many of our friends leave; others, having survived this process of cooling off and rejection, again awaken afterward and a desire for connection is attained.

Together with you, we need to pass through many stages like these in this ascent. We cannot overcome it and pass through it all at once. Suppose we require 150 stages (just an arbitrary number) until we reach that point in which our potential will equal to the Light of Nefesh.

And so we discover within us these two potentials, the negative and the positive; here in this kind of difference between them, the Light is discovered.

This matter is known to us from electronics, from physics, and from other sciences. For example, a lamp comes on when there is enough power for it. If there exists a potential difference (℧), then the Light is revealed, the Light of Nefesh. This is what we must desire in a group.

The same thing happens today for the whole continent, and after that it will spread throughout the world.

In Europe, according to a sign from above, in accord with the program of creation, they have begun to unite. Certainly, all the peoples suppose that this will be useful for them from an economic standpoint; otherwise, it would be impossible to attract people to this in any way. We also enter a group because some future fulfillment attracts us towards it. It is also the same thing here: People feel that they can be together, can be stronger, that this will be more worthwhile for them, and so they begin to unite. But in the process of unification, they suddenly discover that there are numerous hidden obstacles and problems. All of Europe is now found in this state.

Naturally, if the peoples of Europe were conscious of what is truly happening to them, that specifically now they need to desire to unite and to connect, they would do what we are trying to do as a group, meaning, in spite of the circumstances, they would strive to unite somehow. Likewise, they already see that they cannot divide and separate from each other.

With the group a slightly different process takes place, we are divided and again connected. New people come, we go, we come and so forth, or we simply leave for a number of days or weeks (a state exists like this), or are even found within it, but as if we are not found, to the point that we descend alone.

But in Europe, the people who manage the financial and economic connections see that this is impossible, that it is impossible to separate further. We see this in the example of Cyprus, and before then, we saw the example of Greece. And this will continue. There is no escape. It will be necessary to transform, to connect more and more.

But problems await them here, because without understanding what needs to be done, this will be a blind search.

And in general, according to the analogy with a group, it is simply necessary to make an effort at mutual incorporation, mutual unification, mutual connection. Then just as in the group, the entire continent would also find a way out, followed by the whole world rising to the level of the upper world. Nothing special is happening here, this is truly a process of consolidation and connection.
[103447]
From the European Convention in Germany 3/22/13, Lesson 1

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In all of creation, from the world of Infinity and all the upper worlds, Adam Kadmon, Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, Assiya, and all the Partzufim and Sefirot until this world, which is the last and the lowest one and includes the whole universe, the still, vegetative, and animate nature, and people on earth, only man has free will. And of all the people it’s only those in whom the question of “what is the meaning of this life?” awakens.

If a person suddenly feels a need to know what he lives for, it means that together with this question the chance to correct his life and to fill it with meaning has appeared. The question itself indicates that there is a certain connection to the source of life. This means that he has a chance to correct his relationship with the source. Today this question awakens in many people, and so we see that depression is widespread.

If we could determine what the lack of communication between us is, what the failure in connection is, we could correct ourselves. We could incorporate the bad system and the good system in us, and we could see which connection is broken and which is intact. But we can’t do that because man was created only with the evil force. I don’t feel anything at all other than the desire to enjoy. I don’t understand anything and can’t think about anything else. This is my inner program.

Everything I look at, everything I see and feel, everything I relate to, all my conscious and subconscious behavior, every day of my life is focused only on one question: “How can I enjoy on the account of every moment and every opportunity.” This is how man is built, and he can’t break this circle.

If I want to do something good for someone else, the reason is my special relations with that person because of which I feel close to him. My good feeling depends on his good feeling. Not only man but also all of the still, vegetative, and animate nature operates according to this principle. We can see this principle everywhere: from the tiniest elementary particles and the waves to gigantic objects and whole galaxies. There is only one desire in everything—to grasp what is good for me and to reject what is harmful.

The egoistic desire to enjoy on the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking levels of nature operates only in this way. But on the speaking level we also receive a special freedom of choice. Man develops from the animate level, from the monkey, and at a certain point he begins to ask: “What am I living for, what is the meaning of life, what is the source of life, does it have a purpose?”

Throughout his evolution, as a result of blows and everything he has been through, man gradually begins to see the general picture. Then the question about the meaning of life forces him to clarify his desire, he has to understand why he lives. Even if his life is fine, the question whether it has a goal and what he can achieve in this life rises.

Some turn to religion and it gives a person a certain hope since it promises that things will be better after his death. But this is not a solution since by that a person doesn’t actually attain the answer to his question. He only calms himself by other people’s stories.

The wisdom of Kabbalah gives a person a real chance to see reality beyond the boundaries of physical death. It says: “You will see your world in your lifetime.” This means that by changing his attitude to reality, a person begins to see the opposite reality that is outside of him. He exits himself to the external world, as if identifying himself with the external world, and thus leaves his body, the animate level, and acquires new senses and new attributes called the human attributes.

A person identifies with and connects to all of nature that is outside of him. Thus he acquires an out-of-body existence, the spiritual life. We have to do it here, in this world, in this life, and then we will transcend to the next reality. After all, we are on the animate level of reality now. In our world there are the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature, and we belong to the animate level but are more developed than other animals.

We have to move on to the human level, the level of Adam, meaning “similar” (Domeh in Hebrew) to the upper force, the force of love and bestowal. When a person exits himself, he begins to see and feel this different reality. He begins to experience life outside the body, like in a collective matrix existing above matter.

Specifically this kind of existence is called the human level. We attain it by drawing the force of bestowal that exists in nature, adding it to the force of receiving, the force of the ego that we have, and then starting to correct it by changing it to bestowal. Thus we reach the spiritual level.

Today we are in the transition from one level to the other and in the near future we will see how the whole world will have to move on to the next phase of our evolution.
[103360]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/19/13, Writings of Rabash

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Question: The people of Israel were afraid to leap into the Red Sea (Yam Suf – Final Sea) until Nachshon decided to do this. It seems that it was not easy to do.

Answer: This truly wasn’t easy. We see that difficulties appear in all stages of the spiritual process. Always there are those who were ready to turn back. Our ego is so multi-layered that it is not immediately possible to abandon it, to go away from it, or at least to establish that it is bad.

It is difficult for a person to nullify himself before others. If I don’t act first, this says that I would prefer for someone else to do it. Would this be a desire for love and unity? It is true that at that moment the matter was still not clear. And we see that after that the “golden calf” and many other problems were to appear.

Question: What does “Nachshon’s leap” represent?

Answer: In a person there is a characteristic that represents proceeding with faith above reason: “My death is better for me than my life.” So, the person leaps into the sea, what will be will be. Certainly this is not talking about our present state. The action that is called “Nachshon’s leap” requires preparation.

It is required in order to pass to the next stage, but are we prepared to carry it out? In the meantime, we are far from realizing it, even though this moment rapidly approaches. There is no doubt that we are found in the stages of redemption. In the connection of hearts is the idea of peace and wholeness; in this is our salvation, this needs to come as an alternative to the current situation in Egypt. Therefore all of our work, learning, and dissemination are directed towards connection and unity. Only with the help of connection and a good mutual relationship can we be saved.
[103820]
From KabTV’s “Kabbalists Write: The Night of Passover Seder” 3/4/13

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Question: Did the people of Israel ever know that they were under the dominion of the ego?

Answer: Certainly. The group of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and his sons knew. The people of Israel carried out great spiritual work throughout all of these generations beginning from Abraham when they left Babylon and entered Egypt.

Today it’s not only the people of Israel, but rather the entire world also, that are beginning to discover that they are in Egypt.

But this is does not mean that the world is going backward. It makes no difference what happened before, for in the Torah there is no concept of “before” or “after.” Today the world comprehends that it’s found under the yoke of the ego, which is destroying us, leading to an abyss and destruction. The entire world already feels this. The “seven years of plenty” have ended, during which the ego played in our favor.

We wanted to prosper in a consumer society, and we constantly increased the rate of growth. From year to year we celebrated success, but today everything is finished. The descent has begun; everything is vanishing. Even though the leaders and the bankers try with all their might to hold on to the past, from day to day the condition becomes more severe. People understand that the problem is in the person.

Further progress in the desire to acquire and to be successful has become impossible because the desire itself has changed. Fashion has become repulsive to us; we have become tired of annoying advertising that calls upon us to buy unnecessary things. Durable goods, such as refrigerators, air conditioners and televisions, break down quickly because manufacturers benefit from our buying new products, allowing them to profit at our expense. Through this we are drawn into an endless cycle of work, and so we work 10 to 15 hours per day.

Gradually it’s becoming clear that this approach to life is unacceptable. Our ego is destroying us and when we understand this, we will feel that we are in Egypt, in the service of the ego. But this is not yet everything. The feeling that the ego is destroying me and doesn’t let me live is not enough. I need to think about how to rise above it and to organize my life in a different form, not in reception, but in bestowal and in connection to other people. Since this connection is being revealed today throughout the world, I must be included in it, otherwise I will be found in conflict with natural development.

Through connection with other people in the world and becoming a unified integral system, I become included in it and begin to exist within it harmoniously. Otherwise, I will be lost and will endure all kinds of blows.

But how can I leave the ego and connect well with people? Through my desire for this, I begin to feel how much it stops me, pulls me backwards. And here the struggle between me and my ego begins. I become like Moses, my ego becomes like Pharaoh, and we begin to struggle over the outcome.
[103657]
From KabTV’s “Kabbalists Write: The Night of Passover Seder” 3/4/13

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Question: Even Ezra said that the generation that came out of Egypt felt the burden of slavery and lost its spirit. And that is why it could not fight against its master before the new generation of the desert grew up, the generation that did not know exile and thus its spirit was not broken. In what generation are we today?

Answer: We are in Egypt, under the dominance of our egoism, and first of all, we must rise above it. One thing is to become free from a foreign power, and another thing is to fight against it. They flee Egypt, instead of fighting the Egyptians. After all, this whole path through the Red Sea is completely a flight. We have no strength to fight our egoism; we need just to run away from it and rise. Only hatred for our egoism raises and separates us from our ego.

And then, there is a stage when we begin to correct this egoism. We do not return to Egypt to do that; we took the vessels from there and now begin to connect them to ourselves and correct all these desires, which we have risen above.

The first stage of correcting desires is called the generation of the desert when we correct these desires from reception to bestowal. And then there follows the generation of the conquerors of the land of Israel, which is called reception for the sake of bestowal.

Among the people of Israel, there are forces that can go ahead and lead the rest, similar to Moses, who brought the people out of Egypt. There are people with spiritual attainment who have already risen above egoism and have connected with other souls. They understand the entire process, know what to do in the given moment, and have to lead the others.

We are talking about people who study Kabbalah because it is impossible to return to the Source without the Light that Reforms. And this Light can be drawn only by studying Kabbalah, which is designed for this.

There are such people! We are able to move forward and pull a lot of people who are watching our TV programs, studying with us through the television or the Internet, studying in our courses, attending lectures, and thus they advance. That is why they have a real chance to become free with us, to rise above their egoism and feel what is called freedom, what it means to be a Jew, which is to be united with others (Yechud).

They will learn what it means to be in the land of Israel, that is, in the desire for the Creator (Yashar-El), for bestowal and love for others. In this way, we can succeed in all the spheres of our material life and eliminate all the problems around us.

The main thing is the spirit of unity. If we had related to the entire people of Israel with such a feeling of community as to our family members, sitting together with us at the festive table, if we had embraced everyone, this would have been most of the efforts that we need to make to come out of Egypt.
[103598]
From KabTV’s “Kabbalists Write: The Night of Passover Seder” 3/4/13

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Question: When we are talking about the holiday of Passover, why do we say: “Remember the exodus from Egypt?” After all, there were other exiles—from Babylon, Greece, and Rome—but we are reminded only about the exodus from Egypt. What is the meaning of this?

Answer: The Egyptian exile is the root of all the exiles. All the other exiles are as if superimposed on it. This exile is the most difficult and fundamental. A person rises above his egoism and, for the first time, realizes what the spiritual world is and what it means to feel the property of bestowal instead of the property of receiving with which we are born and in which we exist.

We perceive the world through the senses that constantly want to enjoy and benefit from everything. The revolution in the sensory organs—when I begin to “exit myself,” to identify myself with the world, to give to others, to feel myself outside of my body so that my heart stays there—is called the exodus from Egypt. All the other exiles already happen outside of me.
[103664]
From KabTV’s “Kabbalists Write: The Night of Passover Seder” 3/4/13

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