Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is the spiritual significance of the Passover?“

Passover signifies a transition from exiting the control of our corporeal, egoistic and divisive world, and entering the control of the spiritual, altruistic and harmoniously-connected world.

Such a transition requires the emergence and development of a spiritual desire. In other words, Passover relates to the spiritual process that any person can undergo, on condition that they develop their desire to give, love and positively connect with others above their egoistic drives.

The transition is marked by the exodus from Egypt, i.e., the exit from the human ego. The time in Egypt of the people of Israel (i.e. people who have a desire for spirituality, “Israel” from “Yashar Kel” [“straight to God”]) signifies a stage of growing egoistic desires that do not let the people of Israel unite.

Pharaoh signifies the ego’s control. He is ready and willing to supply for every egoistic fulfillment we could wish for. However, Moses, which marks the desire to connect above the ego, drives the people of Israel’s desire to discover the Creator, i.e., the quality of love and bestowal, in their connection. When we find that we cannot connect, we feel that we are in the darkness of Egypt. In that state, we become ready to do just about anything in order to free ourselves from the control of the ego. That state is the escape from Egypt.

In relation to a person on the spiritual path, it describes a stage where a person becomes ready to do anything just to break free from the ego, to rise above it and reach the Creator’s quality, i.e., love and bestowal. We throw ourselves into the sea, which parts, and we cross it, i.e., we cut ourselves off from the ego, and by doing so, by being above the ego, we become ready to work with it and transform it into altruism.

This is the exodus from Egypt that we celebrate at Passover.

Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Question: The eighth Egyptian plague is the invasion of locust. Locusts are often mentioned in the Torah because they represent a special egoistic level of man that can be corrected. Interestingly, it is forbidden to eat insects except for locusts. What are locusts inside a person? What is this level of desire?

Answer: This is a very serious blow. Indeed, the Torah says that you can eat locusts. We know the restrictions that exist in using some desires, spiritual properties, but the property of the locust is allowed to be used at the human level.

The locust personifies the level that feeds the animate level of man. That is, it is a transitional step from animate to human. Therefore, it can be used for food to nurture the next level.

Question: In principle, locusts destroy everything. How do Kabbalists explain this? They must have seen the root and branch. We know that in egoism there is a state where man works, then his ego takes everything, and he sees that there is nothing left for him.

Answer: But he benefits from it. This is the best help because thanks to it man advances. He gets the opportunity to turn to the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 1/30/20

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Comment: The Seventh Egyptian plague is a hail of fire and thunder. It was after this blow that Pharaoh promised to release the Jews from Egypt.

My Response: A person begins to realize that one’s egoism will not be able to sustain such blows. He is left alone with his nature and what falls on him, and restricts the use of egoistic properties.

Comment: The Pharaoh, however, does not keep his word and does not let them go out of Egypt.

My Response: This is always the case. They are called a stiff-necked people because as soon as the blow passes, they forget about it and return to their egoistic desires. This is the property of egoism.

It is the opposite with altruistic properties. We need to charge them all the time, push them forward, support them, cultivate them. Yet, the egoistic properties grow by themselves, like weeds.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 1/30/20

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My new article on Linkedin “The Exodus from Egypt and the Exit from the Pandemic”

On Passover night, traditionally everyone sits with their loved ones at a festive table to read about freedom and the sufferings of slavery and plagues, and the desire for liberation. For a second consecutive year in the US, and most communities around the world, many will celebrate virtually since the pandemic is not behind us yet. So when we ask ourselves, “Ma nishtana?” (What has changed?), an inner reflection about what makes this night different from all others, we might need to scrutinize why we are still enduring painful situations and how we can be liberated from them once and for all.

Passover, from the Hebrew “Pesach,” means passage. It symbolizes the transition from the dominance of Pharaoh, our egoism, the exploitation of others for our own sake, into a state of love and bestowal when a new desire for positive social connection emerges. This desire is called “Moses,” from the word “moshech” (pulling), because he is the one who pulls Israel from exile, meaning from the controlling ego.

Passover, from the Hebrew “Pesach,” means passage. It symbolizes the transition from the dominance of Pharaoh, our egoism, the exploitation of others for our own sake, into a state of love and bestowal when a new desire for positive social connection emerges. This desire is called “Moses,” from the word “moshech” (pulling), because he is the one who pulls Israel from exile, meaning from the controlling ego. In fact, the holiday of Passover describes an inner process of contradicting forces interacting with each other until the period of intensifying division eventually leads to a completely different approach of consideration for others.

Such a critically reflective period has been unleashed by the COVID-19 outbreak. It surged as a mirror to look at ourselves and discover how dependent we are on each other and how opposite we have been from the desirable state of mutual care. It indicates that we have nowhere to go, so we better sit down and do nothing but improve our relationships with those close to us—even if they are not in a physical proximity—and within society.

Why is this so important? It is essential because the root cause of every problem is our egoistic desire to enjoy only for ourselves in complete disregard of others. And if I care about others, it is only to the extent that it relates to me, that I depend on them. As a result of this approach, after such an extended period, we have not been able to create the necessary conditions to get out of the pandemic.

The Haggadah we recite during the traditional Seder table includes the phrase “we were slaves” of Pharaoh and couldn’t escape by ourselves. Today we are also enslaved to our evil inclination, which sparks disputes between us and creates lack of balance in all levels of nature, which causes illnesses, despair, and afflictions. The liberation from such a state is the true exit from Egypt, the exit from the control of our egoistic desires.

When will we be set free? When we are free of hatred and begin to feel that our health and good future hangs on the positive relationships between us. When we start thinking well of others, embrace them, and desire to benefit them. It is possible to achieve this goal if we ask the upper force, the Creator, to pull us out from Egypt with a strong but caring hand, and to pass us all over from a state of divisiveness, disregard, and coldness in modern society, to one of love, warmth, and cooperation.

I wish you all a happy Passover!
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Question: The fifth Egyptian plague is livestock pestilence. What kind of livestock is this about if we are talking about the inner state of a person?

Answer: It is about different levels of desire. Livestock represents our animalistic desires. This blow is felt like a manifestation of my egoism, which I did not know about before and as the realization that I cannot use it in any way.

There are ten desires in man that go from Malchut to Keter, the ten Sefirot, in which the egoistic foundations of these desires are manifested. When a person is given the realization that he cannot use these properties for bestowal, he understands that he will not be able to feel spiritual life in them.

Question: Can we say that all plagues go from external desires to more internal ones? For example, the sixth plague is blisters and boils that appear on man’s body and not on the livestock.

Answer: Yes. Desires are manifested from external, distant from a person, to those closer to him.

These desires of a man in relation to himself, to the Creator, to other people, show him, first of all, that they cannot be used. In any form, each of them demonstrates that it cannot be used for the sake of bestowal, and therefore, if they manifest in a person, he will not be able to leave Egypt with them and enter the spiritual world.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 1/30/20

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Everything that happens to us is sent to us by the Creator. He commits a transgression, and we cover it with love. We cannot destroy his work, but thanks to Him creating transgressions and hatred, we can reach love and unity. One is impossible without the other.

Either we are coming closer to goodness and unity, or to a third world nuclear war. How much time will it take? The Creator has no concept of time. The program will not change. As Baal HaSulam writes, millions of years later, life and the process of development….will begin anew on planet Earth.

We are opposite to one another, but along with that we complement one another and thus reach perfection. No one can exist with another person unless he forcefully bends him. A developed person wants good, pure-hearted relationships, not out of fear.

There’s no bad or good. Each one considers the other bad, and himself good. Complementing is when despite fights and arguments, each one understands how to properly coexist with others, mutually complementing one another for the sake of society. For the sake of society and not only for one’s own sake.

We have an evil and good inclination. It is written, “Two cling to the talit“—each one says, “everything is mine.” they argue. Either they’ll tear a person apart or the person will be able to unite them. Neither quality can leave the stage: not the historical, nor the human, both are present everywhere.

The force of #Moses pulls out those who understand that living in the state of Egypt is low and miserable, that we are controlled by our #egoism, and it obligates us to lead this kind of life. Rising above egoism is our work, our mission, our goal. This is the meaning of the #Passover holiday.

#Passover is a transition from the control of the ego-desire, “everything for me,” even when it is harmful to the neighbor, to the desire “for the sake of others”—even at one’s own expense. This is a leap from #egoism to bestowal, from #hatred to love when we change our life and shift from the evil inclination—the will to receive, to a good one—the will to bestow.

We are between heaven and earth, under Pharaoh’s power. We want to run away from him, but don’t understand how. The young generation is looking for what it can do with its life, “What are we living for,” “Why?” We must help it find a way to come out of #Egypt, rise above all the egoistic values of Egypt, and find new ones. #Passover
From Twitter, 3/23/21

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Question: On Passover, we use a special tray on which we lay out six types of food. Why are these species chosen?

Answer: This food symbolizes particular types of forces and properties that we go through in order to get out of egoism and achieve altruistic properties.

This is all a way out of egoism into altruism. Therefore, it occurs gradually in our various properties.

For example, sitting at a common table, necessarily together, necessarily with a tilt to the left, reclining, represents that we are no longer pressured by Pharaoh, we are no longer slaves to our desires.

Four glasses of wine symbolize the complete exit from egoism, which consists of four stages of egoistic desire.

Matza represents bread that must be baked quickly because the spiritual exodus from Egypt is very quick and unexpected. Suddenly, a person is caught by a wave and carried forward. There is a change in his perception of the world.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 4/15/19

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Comment: The second Egyptian plague is frogs. As it was promised to Pharaoh, “They will go up and come into your house and into your bedroom and upon your bed.”

My Response: This is about spiritual qualities. That is, no matter what spiritual qualities I want to use, I see my egoism everywhere, which prevents me from doing anything. Therefore, I do not have any spiritual life, which I had at some level before.

Question: Does it mean that everything I do, I do for myself, both in the family, on the street, and even when I turn to the Creator, it is still so that He would help me. Is that how it feels?

Answer: No, this is not how it was for them. After all, these are the sons of Israel, who, in the midst of their egoism, yearn for mutual bestowal, for connection. Egypt, Pharaoh, is their common egoism. And they, while inside it, are trying to somehow be mutually connected by the good, correct actions that Abraham taught them.

Question: So, are we talking about people who are already trying to connect in some way? They are not just the people?

Answer: No. That is why it is said that they descend to Egypt, where they gradually develop and suddenly discover that seven years of satiation bring them to a state where, while in egoism, they cannot satiate themselves.

That is, they cannot acquire any spiritual quality and fulfill themselves with even minimal spiritual life, although they have an excellent corporeal life. In this respect, Egypt is simply a corporeal paradise, but not the spiritual one.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 1/30/20

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The ascent from this world to the spiritual world is realized thanks to the fact that we increasingly need the help of the Creator. And to help us acquire His qualities, the Creator gives us the burdening of the heart, the feeling that we cannot cope without Him. Everywhere we are convinced that we are not capable of fulfilling any spiritual conditions.

But we are also unable to ask the Creator; we do not know how to do it. This shows lack of faith. That is, we do not feel the Creator, we do not feel that He exists and that He is waiting ready to help us, and that only with His help can we fulfill spiritual conditions, achieve connection and bestowal, and see the world as created from one source.

Therefore, we will have to reveal more of our force of evil, which does not allow us to connect with each other and with the Creator. And when we feel that we are not capable of connection and bestowal, it means that the Creator shows us the Pharaoh who stands between us and leads us to the wall, prevents us from moving toward connection and drawing closer to become one man with one heart.

And all this burdening of the heart is the result of not believing in the Creator, that is, the lack of feeling that this force exists and that it is only this force that puts all sorts of obstacles in front of us.

It is the Creator who sets the Pharaoh, our egoism, against us so that we may be convinced of our inner helplessness. I must act, but I feel that I am not able to, I do not have the strength to overcome my egoism even in the smallest way.

And the further we go, the weaker we feel, incapable of performing the slightest action of bestowal. But the Creator has deliberately arranged for us to plunge into egoism, which shows its complete power over us, the power of the Pharaoh in whose slavery we are under in Egypt. Only the Creator can save us by pulling us out of egoism, not any other force. Thus, we increasingly need the force of bestowal that the Creator can give us.

These two forces, the force of the Pharaoh and the force of the Creator, stand against each other, and Moses is us, the force in the middle that wants to outweigh toward the side of the Creator and rise above Pharaoh, to get out of his control. But this force is very weak. And only in the measure of our faith in the Creator, in the fact that He can save us by snatching us from the hands of Pharaoh, do we establish the dominion of the force of good over the force of evil.

The Creator sends out ten blows, awakening the force of Pharaoh. He says to Moses: “Come unto Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart.” And why does He harden Pharaoh making him stronger and stronger?

Moses is the force that wants to escape from Pharaoh and pull us out of egoism. Moses sees that he cannot go out on his own but must cling to the Creator, cling to Him as a baby clings to his mother with all his strength. It is the only way he feels safe and secure.

Both forces come from the Creator: the force of giving and the force of receiving. It is upon us only to pray that the force of bestowal will prevail over the force of reception and allow us to perform practical actions of bestowal.

And when we learn to perform altruistic actions, we will feel the presence of the Creator in them, His force, and His help. So we will begin to collect our desires of bestowal from which we will then form a spiritual vessel, our soul, the form of a spiritual group.

Therefore, the main thing is to consider where is it that we receive the Creator’s invitation to perform a spiritual action for the sake of bestowal, to realize our inability to fulfill it, and the need to turn to the Creator for help. Then we receive this power from Him and perform the action of bestowal. This ascent above egoism is called the exodus from Egypt.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/17/21,“Pesach (Passover)”

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Question: The first Egyptian plague is  water turning to blood. What is this blow from the Kabbalistic point of view?

Answer: In the spiritual sense, water symbolizes the quality of bestowal and blood the quality of reception.

For a time, the children of Israel lived in the quality of bestowal, from which they fed, through which they existed united among themselves. But suddenly this quality no longer unites them.

Even the minimal amount and quality of connection that they could achieve disappeared and they felt completely disconnected. They saw that the Pharaoh wanted to rule over them to such an extent that there was no connection left. And so they couldn’t go on like this.

The plague by blood is the first realization of their egoistic intentions, which lead them to absolute death.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 1/30/20

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