On Lag B’Omer we celebrate the passing of the great Kabbalist, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, author of The Zohar. He was a special person and the revelation he made signifies the giving of the Torah, the science of correction, to the whole world.

Humanity developed from one generation to the next in birth pangs until it reached Abraham, who revealed the science of Kabbalah above the crisis that developed in Ancient Babylon. Then the nation of Israel waited for the Egyptian slavery and the Exodus from it, followed by the construction of the First and Second Temples, as well as other ascents and descents. All the horrible events that befell this nation and all human history in general appear to be one never-ending trial.

However, the entire path that we went through until the arrival of Rabbi Shimon was just our preparation for correction. After the destruction of the Second Temple, the nation of Israel finally lost the sensation of spirituality and entered exile from it. But then we received this gift from the heavens, marked by the arrival of a sage from the times of the Temple (a Tana), a Kabbalist of great stature. His special soul incorporated all the previous souls and united them within itself. That is why, together with his students, he was able to attain an extraordinary height, the final correction in his generation.

Baal HaSulam writes that never in history has there been any attainment higher than the one achieved in the times of Rashbi and his generation. The likes of it can only happen again at the End of Correction, and we are now standing at its threshold.

Zohar is the name of the Light that becomes revealed in GAR of the World of Atzilut, in its root, which is a special place – the "concealed mind" of the system of Arich Anpin. Rabbi Shimon was unique in that he was able to connect this incredibly high level with our world. His attainment placed him on the level of the Final Correction, just as before the destruction of the Temple, yet at the same time, he lived a regular, material life in the times after the destruction of the Second Temple. This was when the nation fell completely from the level of brotherly love to unfounded hatred, and this fall caused a complete disappearance of the spiritual sensation.

Because Rabbi Shimon united these two entirely different poles within him, he was able to write this great Book, meaning to make a revelation. Without it, we would not have the opportunity to correct our souls and attract the Light that Reforms.

From the lecture in honor of Lag B’Omer 5/01/10

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The Zohar, Chapter “Shemot (Exodus),” Item 59: The Creator never left Israel in exile, before He came to place His Divinity with them.
It is even more so with Jacob, that when he went down to exile, the Creator and His Divinity and the upper holy ones and the Merkavot, all came down with Jacob… This is the conduct of the Creator in all the exiles….

What does it mean that “Divinity went down to exile with the nation of Israel“? We think that there exists something, in which the Creator does not take part. However, the only one Force that acts in the whole creation and in us is the Creator or the Light.

Exile is a special state of the creature (the desire He created), which the Light purposely creates in it in order to lower and distance the creature from Himself, to create a desire for Him in it. The Light measures out very precisely all the states of exile, all the problems, emptiness, and misfortunes that will be revealed in the will to receive pleasure. The reverse side of the Light or the Creator, acts in exile, as it is written, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart (Exodus 10:1).” (The Creator was also clothed within the great flood, and so on.)

“There is none else beside Him.” The exile is a form of the Creator’s, the Light’s influence in its oppositeness or reverse side. This influence is precisely measured in all the gradations of qualities, against every desire of every soul, and in all the connections between them.

Therefore, the Creator, the Light surely exists together with the people in exile, constantly influencing and supporting us. He creates this exile Himself, with His reverse, shadowy side, as King David wrote, “Thou hast beset me behind and before (with Light and with darkness) (Psalms 139:5).”

When the Light no longer needs to act from the reverse side, that is, through darkness, when the Creator stirs up and rouses the desire (Kli) to a sufficient extent, and it will truly aspire to the front side of the Light or bestowal, then He pulls the Kli out of exile, to liberation. However, the Light is the only acting force, which influences us from either the reverse or front side. Therefore, the exile is Him preparing us for our liberation.

From the 1st part of the Daily Morning Lesson 4/12/10, The Zohar

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The Zohar, Chapter “Bo (Come Unto Pharaoh),” Item 179: The commandment that follows is to speak in the praise of the exodus from Egypt, which is mandatory for man for all time. Every man who tells the story of the exodus from Egypt and delights in that story will rejoice with Divinity (which is joy from all sides) in the next world. This is a man who is delighted with his master, and the Creator is delighted with that story of his.

The commandment is the Creator’s order, the law of nature, the duty of each person. The Creator is nature; that means that it is our duty which is built into our nature to “tell the story” about our exodus from Egypt (our egoism) into the property of bestowal.

“To tell the story” means to verify, find out, understand, test, and to attain at its deepest level the Light which impacts our desire to receive pleasure. As a result of this effort, we become aware of the nature of our participation in the processes that occur within us under the influence of the Light. We have to acknowledge whether our involvement is unconscious, automatic or independent. Without a clear understanding of this process at the very depth of its meaning we cannot attain the Creator.

It’s impossible to jump from the uncorrected state into the corrected one. We won’t understand the Creator and won’t become similar to Him unless we truly understand creation. By correcting ourselves internally we attain Him (Creator – Bo re) inside of us. This is the meaning of “Bo re” (Bo-Re), to come and see, to reach and get to know, which takes place inside of our inner progress, within the changes we undergo.

Within the black dot of creation that was made “out of nothing,” we have to repeat all the actions of the Light in order to let the Light fill us. But this fulfillment has to happen within our comprehension, knowledge and sensations.

That’s why we are “commanded” to recognize the whole process that our egoistic desire goes through, from the very bottom of its depth, for the sake of attainment of the property of bestowal: To “speak” about the exodus from Egypt.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/1/10, The Zohar

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We work and prepare ourselves for an ascent to a spiritual degree, but we can only put in effort and nothing else. The action itself is carried out by the Light. A person has no strength to rise above himself. He cannot grab himself by the hair and drag himself out of the egoistic slump.

The result of our whole work is called "labored and found," for the Upper Light acts. The exodus from Egypt is carried out through "an awakening from Above," due to the revelation of a great Light, GAR de Hochma.

The Light is revealed, yet we have no clothing of Hassadim on it, and therefore we cannot perceive this Light. Thus it is called Egyptian darkness, night rather than day, and instead of rising by the spiritual degrees it occurs through a run, a leap. Pesach (Passover) comes from the word "skip" (Pesach).

This ascent occurs with a person as one impulse: outside of time, motion, space, and any human assessments. After all, everything is carried out by a force of influence from Above. Therefore, we need to be prepared for this exit.

It happens suddenly, in a hurry. A moment before a person is unable to imagine the state when he will be right before the exit from Egypt, and that it is just about to happen. It transpires in a completely unplanned manner. And in regard to the transition itself, it is written that when the Creator performs this with us, it is as though we are in a dream….

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A question I received: I always thought that BB was a non-religious organization and that it never forced secular people to follow religious traditions, but recently I heard that you are following Kashrut (Jewish dietary laws) during Passover. Please explain. Also, please give us your opinion on whether you suggest that everybody should follow the tradition.

My Answer: We are an educational organization and have nothing to do with religion of any kind. We are based strictly and exclusively on the principles of Kabbalah as they are stated in three authentic Kabbalistic sources:  The Zohar, the works of the Ari, and those of Baal HaSulam (Rabash). We follow their advice in everything. If you have any concerns, please ask us and insist that we show you our source of information.

Even though Bnei Baruch is not a religious organization and doesn’t follow any religious traditions (“commandments” – Mitzvot), we still are practicing the actions that in our world constitute the branches that stem from spiritual roots. On the surface it looks like we observe Judaic tradition, but in fact they originate from totally different intentions and aim at internal and external connection with their spiritual roots.

I strongly advise you to re-read the “Passover Story” and Ari’s commentary to it, The Gates of Intention (Shaar HaKavanot).  You will understand why by observing specific actions we become elevated over our egoism (see also Baal HaSulam’s article “This Is for Judah.”)

Abraham’s group started to follow “irrational” earthly rituals after they managed to produce spiritual actions within their corrected desires and clarified their bodily analogies. They perceived spiritual and earthly actions as one whole (the root and the branch or the cause and the consequence).

When we fell from the level of spiritual understanding of the commandments (destruction of the Second Temple), we continued to follow only our bodily traditions rather than spiritual and physical actions interlaced together. That’s when the religions of this world were initiated.

Today we have to attain the spiritual world and reveal the spiritual actions. This will transform our customary traditions into spiritual actions. Instead of performing forceful or mechanical actions we will act consciously and will clearly see the impact of our actions onto the Upper World. That is, the attainment comes first; it is followed by the actions that stem from it.

I wish you all to “exit Egypt” and to get correct intentions while you are at the festive dinner table!

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The story of coming out of Egypt is the revelation of the process of transitioning from feeling our world in the egoistic desires, to feeling the Upper World in the acquired quality of bestowal. A person takes his whole household, meaning all his desires: the desire to receive – his “wife” as well as his “children” – his next states and he tells them about the past.

In other words, he reveals the past in the future desires, through this story. He goes through a revelation, which he performed unconsciously when he came out of his egoistic desire through the Machsom.

At that time, the Creator performed this action on him, and he “ran in a hurry, in darkness,” performing this escape without understanding it. He couldn’t even feel these actions because everything occurred in darkness, in concealment from him.

However, now as he sits and tells this story, he returns to the same states. He examines the Creator’s actions which were performed on him, and carries out these actions on himself, on his “household,” and on the “children,” meaning on his future states. He repeats the Creator’s actions after Him. This is precisely what is called the story of coming out of Egypt, when the “father” tells his “son”: “Look what the Creator has done with me…”

First the Light raised him to the degree of bestowal, “gave on deposit” (Lavu Elai). With the force of bestowal which he has now, he can perform the same actions on his own with the desires that are situated below him (Ve Ani Porea). In this manner, he repeats the Creator’s actions of bestowal and becomes just like Him.

First we receive all the forces, Lights, and knowledge from Above. The Creator teaches us, like children, and gives us everything until we grow up and are able to carry out these actions on our own. No one demands that we become adults immediately, but after we receive all the forces and are led out of Egypt, we are obliged to repeat these actions on our own.

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How can we achieve eternity and perfection? It’s achieved according to the law of equivalence of form. If the Light and the desire are opposite to one another, then the Light annuls the desire. However, if they’re equal, they support one another, and we feel that they both exist. That’s what we call eternal life. Achieving it is precisely the purpose of the science of Kabbalah.

In order to bring us to the state similar to that of the Creator, to the ability to live forever and perceive our true reality, we must undergo a process of corrections. All these corrections come down to making the desire to receive pleasure similar to the Light and to begin observing the law of equivalence of form.

Herein lies the entire correction. Either we are opposite to the Creator as we were originally created, or we gradually achieve equivalence with Him. We correct ourselves until the Light and the desire join together. At that moment, we are born into the spiritual world.

This method of correction is called the science of Kabbalah (in Hebrew, the word “Kabbalah” means reception). It’s the science of receiving the Light into the desire so that it won’t disappear and we would feel true, everlasting reality. Indeed, this wisdom is great and not at all simple. We really don’t understand how this can be achieved. Yet, although we don’t realize it, this is our innermost desire and the purpose of our existence. Subconsciously, we’re always searching for it.

There’s a phase when we first make contact with the Light and perceive it in our desire. The Light remains within us, and we begin to feel life as eternal, and don’t part with the Light within us. This phase or spiritual birth is called the exodus from Egypt.

Before then, we must remain in Egyptian exile, in the preparatory phase to the spiritual birth or redemption. That’s why we devote so much attention to studying the phases which we must undergo while in the Egyptian exile. We want to realize our exodus as soon as possible using all the means prepared for us by Kabbalists throughout history.

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The Zohar, Chapter "Shemot (Exodus)," Item 250: For fear that they would mingle the tribes with the rest of the nations… He exiled them to Egypt, who were proud and despised and loathed Israel. And they were there until the iniquity of the Amorites was full and they came to their own land, for there was no longer fear of mingling with the rest of the nations.

How do we draw closer to the desired state when we build the middle line within ourselves? The middle line which is our similarity to the Light, to the One who bestows, or the Creator happens precisely due to the state called "the Egyptian Exile" that becomes revealed within us.

My egoistic desire becomes so big that I feel that I am locked in it and that it controls me. Then, I begin to discern between myself and my nature, between myself and my egoism, or between myself and my properties.

I would like to change my properties, but I’m incapable of doing that. I see that they harm me; I realize that I corrupt myself, my life, the lives of those who are close to me, and the entire world. I put myself and everyone else in danger because I exist in this endlessly growing egoism that I can’t temper. Yet I’m unable to do anything with it.

Then, there comes a state where a person begins to realize that the force acting in him is an alien force. He doesn’t identify himself with it any longer. He begins to perceive it as his bitter enemy. This is called, "Now a new king arose over Egypt” (Exodus, 1:8). A person begins to feel that a new dominion has been revealed, and that this is not him but someone else who sets up all this for him. It could be Nature or the Creator, but it’s not him. He doesn’t know how to free himself from it.

As if from the side, a person now sees his desire to receive pleasure as something alien to him. He begins to discern the Creator as the one Who organizes all of this for him. He already has the same attitude both to the Pharaoh and to the Creator.

He then experiences an internal split, the realization that there exists the Upper Force which determines everything that happens with him. However, this revelation doesn’t happen on its own, but only after multiple hours of study, uniting with friends in the group, and working in dissemination during which the person is practically engaged in the wisdom of Kabbalah.

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A question I received: In the spiritual world, a day, a month, and a year are not our calendar days. How can I reject the egoistic desires if the seven days can last for years according to our calendar time?

My Answer: In our world, we live according to the regular astronomical calendar that corresponds to the revolutions of Earth, Moon, and Sun. This defines our whole life.

Kabbalists, on the other hand, tell us what happens “inside” a man with our self-awareness and awareness of the world. A spiritual year, week, or day is in no way related to astronomical time. A person can pass a spiritual year in a few minutes or be in the state of Shabbat (Saturday), symbolizing the end of correction, in the middle of a week. Passover, when a person comes out of Egypt, can happen to him at any time.

There are spiritual roots and there are their consequences, the material branches are reflected in processes happening in nature. It is written, “Israel is above the stars and signs of fate.” A person that aspires toward the Creator (Isra-El means “straight to the Creator” in Hebrew) is above all these considerations in his spiritual development. This is why he advances without any relation to the astronomic calendar.

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A question I received: Spiritual attainment could be both individual and general. Can there also be an individual and general exodus from Egypt?

My Answer: According to the spiritual law – the law of Nature – everything that happens in the particular happens in the general as well, and vice versa. In our time, an individual exodus from Egypt (exodus from egoism, crossing the Machsom) is no longer possible; the exodus can only be general.

The science of Kabbalah describes the process of exodus: The nation has the spiritual leaders, such like Moses and Aaron, yet it escapes from Egypt in its entirety. In other words, by connecting with each other, a large number of people come out of the exile. They rise above their egoism particularly by interconnecting, helping each other, and escaping from Pharaoh (our ego) together. That’s why specifically disseminating the science of Kabbalah and connecting among us can bring us redemption and take us out of Egypt.

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