Question: What are the “Ten Plagues of Egypt”?

Answer: The purpose of creation is going to the next level of existence, the upper world. While living on Earth, we have to feel the upper world, to see the system of management, the Creator of everything that exists in this world and is hidden from us today.

Egoism, which is our foundation, the enormous force of nature that we must transcend, is what “runs” us. On the one hand, the ego is drives us upward; on the other hand, it will not free us. After all, if it were to lead us as usual within itself through all the configurations and structures through which we have passed in the course of human evolution—the primitive era, the era of slavery, the feudal era, the capitalist era, and the socialist era—it would not be clear toward what we would continue.

But egoism puts a “wall” in front of us, we cannot move further; so the current phase is called “the last phase of human development on Earth.” In other words, egoism is requiring us to become rounded, to unite on the one hand, but on the other hand, it won’t let us unite. Therefore, the only solution we can come to is to transcend “Pharaoh” (egoism), above Egypt to the next level of existence, the higher system of management.

This is what the wisdom of Kabbalah speaks about. This is what we must reach. The “Ten Plagues of Egypt” exist in order to completely break away from egoism. This is because our egoism consists of ten parts, which are the ten Sefirot: Keter, Hochma, Bina, Hesed, Gevurah, Tifferet, Netzah, Hod, Yesod, and Malchut. Each one of them “portrays” for us a particular type of existence within the ego.

We must gradually release ourselves from these ten Sefirot, these ten modes of existence. This happens when we begin to see that each one of them is finite, incomplete, leading to a blind alley and giving us no hope of continuing our existence within the ego.

The final phase of each of these ten levels, these characteristics, these parts of our ego, is the ten plagues of Egypt. After them it is no longer possible to remain within the ego. Instead we must get up and run away from it blindly. On the present level, we cannot see the next level. So the flight from Egypt happens at midnight, in total darkness.

The ten plagues of Egypt are in fact a separation from our egoism, when we run away in the dark and it is unclear where we are going. But the main thing is that we are running away from it! And so gradually we develop before us a new life, a new world, new eternal, infinite, and perfect new expanses.

Question: Is it possible to get along without the plagues?

Answer: No. In fact it is not pain but insight, enlightenment. The plagues pass over our ego and in these states we rise above it!

Comment: It turns out that if I identify with the ego, I feel the plagues. But if I rise above it, i.e., identify with Moses who is leading me forward, I don’t feel them.

Answer: This how the plagues function. They obligate a person to rise above them, and then he stops feeling the ego. If the person is elevated above it, he stops feeling it. Then a relaxed, new life begins.

So in fact, the ten plagues are not really plagues. They are the highest gift that the Creator gives a person, pushing him out of egoism forcefully. So, let’s go, let’s run away from it and gain a new world!
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 4/12/16

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New Life 713 – The Seder And The Birth Of The People Of Israel
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

How is our situation today as a people analogous to the situation of the children of Israel in the story of the Exodus from Egypt? From what must we be freed to become free people and why does the Passover holiday symbolize the birth of the people of Israel?

The night of the Seder symbolizes the birth of the people of Israel, the exit from the womb that became tight and oppressive. Even today we are living in a world full of pressures that they say will advance us toward our birth into a new world. The night of the Seder is like a family game, like a theater, and it connects us as a people. On the night of the Seder we go through everything that had been said to Abraham in the “Brit Bein HaBatrim” (Covenant Between the Pieces) (Genesis 15:7-21). Abraham wanted to know what would bring humanity to connection and love, and the Creator answered him with the exile in Egypt.

Egypt symbolizes capitalistic development, prosperity, and their problems. Like today, there is material abundance in our world, but without spiritual satisfaction. Therefore the disorder of depression has developed followed by the manufacture of sedatives.

The Torah tells about what seem to be an external situations to explain internal situations. So that we will decide that we want to escape from Egypt, ten plagues for our ego are required because the ego is what prevents us from being connected and feeling that we are one people rather than there being unfounded hatred and division. The destruction of the Beit HaMikdash (Temple) was the result of unfounded hatred, before we arose as a nation. In the meantime, we are an ingathering of exiles. Only connection and love between us can transform us into a people because the Light specifically comes out of the darkness.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 713 – The Seder And The Birth Of The People Of Israel,” 4/12/16

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New Life 155 – The Passover Seder, Part 2
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

How can we live a better life as individuals and as one Israeli family? What do we organize on the Seder Eve? And what can we learn by that in order to improve our life?

What is the Seder: We celebrate the discovery that there is order in creation, a plan, a program of development, a sublime goal.

In the beginning our forefathers were idol worshippers. Terach, Abraham, Egypt, and the connection to the upper force. This isn’t history. We celebrate the possibility of revealing the order to exit slavery and be liberated.

Humanity is led like a herd and does not perceive the order (“Seder” also means order in Hebrew). Very few understand and actually manage the order. Connecting to the inner software that operates nature makes everything go and leads to a good life.

Israel demands a new social order but doesn’t really understand what it is. This is exactly the feeling of darkness. The new order has to be compatible with the level of development defined by nature.

Moses understands the Seder since he knows how to connect to the upper force, and therefore he is the only one who can draw the people forward. He leads them to come out of the ego, ascending to a brotherly connection and discovering the upper force of love and bestowal among us.

We discover a common mind and heart through integral education, by learning the system of connections and through connection workshops. We are the slaves of the current social order: working, purchasing, spending, being in a constant chase! We are not able to escape this enslavement yet, but there is already a feeling of inner bitterness,

There are two trends today: growing external problems, multi-faceted crisis, and inner distress.

We will not be able to lead a good, healthy, joyful life without changing society. We need to connect and feel mutual guarantee among us. We are slaves to the social system we have built, to Pharaoh that forces us to live the way that we do.

Questions to think about: What manages me? What affects me?

We are the slaves of society, and therefore only the upgrading of our social values will help each of us. There is only one change we have to make: adding  the love of Israel to society, so that we will feel as one nation. We need a social-educational process: sitting together several times a week. We can also do it through the media.

Lesson # 1: The world is connected and integral today; all of nature is in a state of mutual complementation. Only man disrupts the balance in the world since he consumes much more than he needs.

What causes natural disasters, revolutions, and wars? It is actually we who are the lords of creation that are the most miserable. Why? It is because we cannot manage our ego. There are two conditions for managing our ego: rational consumption and good communication with others.

How do you communicate correctly with others? You rise above all the criticism that you feel toward others. In this way we reach peace, mutual complementation, and a truly good life. There is abundance in the world and the only thing we lack is connection. We can attain it by educating ourselves to live a new life, together, not under pressure or coercion.

A workshop for the Seder: Imagine that you have ascended all your egoistic feelings and that you are relating to others differently. Describe the new attitude out loud. We feel a new atmosphere among us.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 155 – The Passover Seder, Part 2,” 3/12/13

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New Life 154 – The Passover Seder, Part 1
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

What are the hidden meanings of Passover and the figures in the Haggadah and why do we keep the tradition for generations and celebrate the Seder?

Nimrod symbolizes the ego that erupted and separated people. Terach was a supporter of Nimrod. Abraham, his son, was against him. He realized that advancing according to the ego is a mistake. According to the ego a person who is more successful succeeds more. The opposite form is connection and mutual relations.

Abraham’s method was to use the ego in the opposite way, which allows a person to get to know his nature. A person begins to feel the force that builds the egoistic desires in him and to discover the Creator.

Nimrod and Terach realized that Abraham was ruining things for them. Abraham left with thousands of his followers. Abraham’s group moved to the land of Canaan. The ego grows and there are great disputes, but they try to keep connected above them. Ego and anti-ego: there is endless work that leads to the recognition of the source of life, of a new life.

Jacob’s sons represent different methods of working above the ego. Joseph represents the most advanced method. They went down to Egypt where there are the seven years of satiety, then the ego grows and Joseph’s method is exhausted.

These periods are called the levels in a person’s work above his ego, which are his help against him. Then there are the seven years of hunger in which a new king rises who doesn’t know Joseph. The ego has nothing more to gain.

The new ego called Pharaoh is very cruel. He doesn’t let us live and connect. A new force called Moses is revealed and says: “We have to fight Pharaoh!”

Nimrod is a level of the ego and in contrast to it there is Abraham’s method, Pharaoh is a level of the ego and in contrast to it there is Moses’ method. Moses is a special upgrading. We need the force that constantly builds a new ego in us, the Creator.

The children of Israel need to understand that the new ego is ruining them, and the ten plagues develop this recognition. They reach the state of darkness, the necessity and inability to connect. We drown in the swamp…the night of the exodus from Egypt.

We have no power to connect, but we have the power to escape from Egypt by a small force called Moses. This is an internal journey of developing the method of connection, the growing ego, and the gathering at Mt. Sinai.

The children of Israel begin to recognize God, the force of nature that is everywhere and develops everything. Pharaoh is the most cunning ego that requires the revelation of inner software that builds the ego. At the gathering at Mt. Sinai, the mountain of hatred is revealed, the Pharaoh that is among them.

Passover is when we begin to be a nation that is connected to the inner force that builds our nature, the upper force. The connection we feel among us is called the general soul, and so the evening of the exodus from Egypt is considered a birth.

So why do we clean for Passover? We clean ourselves of our ego. Hametz (leavened food) equals ego; Matza is the force of bestowal.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 154 – The Passover Seder, Part 1,” 3/12/13

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Passover means transition from the feeling of our world, inherent to every man in this world, to the feeling of the upper world. Only a Kabbalist can master it.

Passover, like all other Jewish holidays, is a purely Kabbalistic holiday. It recounts man’s leap from the state of not being able to unite with others to the state when his ego allows him to do it.

Men’s exit from the control of the ego to the unity with like-minded people is called “Passover.”

Question: What enables him to undergo such a leap?

Answer: The desire. After all, from the arriving to Egypt until exiting Egypt the enormous egoistic desire is continuously growing, not allowing the people of Israel to unite between them.

The people of Israel have to unite in order to reveal the Creator,  the quality of love and bestowal, in the connection between them. And when they see that they don’t have any ability to do so, they feel that they are in the darkness of Egypt. And now they are ready for anything just to break free from there! And this is called flight, escape from Egypt.

And if we consider it in the light of what happens to a person, because usually Kabbalah talks precisely about it, then we are talking about man’s property. A person is ready to do anything, even jump into the sea, just to break free from his ego, to rise above it and to reach the quality of the Creator, which is love and bestowal.

He throws himself into the sea and the sea parts before him. He crosses it, cutting himself from the ego and this way he, by being above the ego, becomes ready to start working with it, transform it into altruism.

This is the exit from Egypt we celebrate during Passover.
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New Life 714 – Seder Customs
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

What do the customs and symbols of the Seder stand for? How are they related to the developmental process we have to undergo as a nation? What is the exodus from exile to redemption that we should reach?

The Seder symbolizes the summary of the Egyptian bondage, the enslavement to the ego, to capitalism, to the endless chase. People don’t want to get married and to have children any more, which indicates that humanity has reached a dead end and we need a new way of life.

What do the symbols and the Seder customs stand for?

The Passover Seder plate contains the symbols of the states we went through in Egypt and that we have to undergo on the day we are liberated. The four glasses of wine symbolize the ego that develops in four phases, where the wine represents the Light of Hochma. The glass for Elijah symbolizes the force that brings us to love and connection, the peak of our development.

The verse we read in the Haggadah, “pour out Your wrath on the nations that did know You,” refers to the egoistic forces in us, that a man is a small world. The Afikomen, which must be eaten until midnight, symbolizes the upper force that corrects us that appears at the darkest moment.

As long as we think that improving our bank account is our redemption, we are not headed in the right direction at all, and so we are still in exile. We will be redeemed when we feel that we lack love and connection and we have to work in order to attain it. Instead of criticizing one another, we have to criticize ourselves, and to examine where we stand with regard to the rule love thy friend as thyself. So on the Seder eve we should think about the exodus from unfounded hatred and disrespect of others to connection and brotherly love.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 714 – The Seder Customs,” 4/12/16

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New Life 544 – Jewish Culture: The Passover Haggadah
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

“What makes this night different?” Tonight we feel free. We were slaves and now are free…

We were slaves: we were enslaved to Pharaoh and couldn’t escape by ourselves. Today we are also enslaved to our ego, the evil inclination that divides us and sparks disputes between us and doesn’t let us be. How can we be liberated? We have to decide at the Seder table that we will no longer relate to this egoistic form.

The Torah spoke about four sons: the wise one who is clever, the wicked one who doesn’t want to engage in connection, the simple one who doesn’t understand anything, and the one who doesn’t know how to ask and realizes that there is something sublime about connection but for the time being we cannot digest it.

This is what stood by our fathers and us: if we wish to ascend above our ego, we will be rewarded with a force that will help us, the connecting force.

And the Lord saves us: the Creator turns Iran and everyone against us so that we will rise above our ego. If we build corrected relationships between us, the attitude of Iran and the rest of the world immediately will change for the better.

The Egyptians treated us badly; after the material abundance comes a feeling of emptiness and pain so that we will ascend.

The Lord took us out of Egypt: there is an upper force that can bring love among us right now if we only want it. We want to aim at the right place, not at good food, but at love that will reside among us.

With a strong hand: you tear yourself from your bad attitude to others and switch to a good attitude to others.

The Lord himself: just as He created us with an evil inclination, He will also build the good inclination in us. Who is the Lord? The force of love and bestowal, the force of unity, connection, mutual guarantee, and cooperation.

The ten plagues are ten disconnections from the negative attitude towards others and the switch to a positive attitude.

The slaying of the first born: why did God kill the babies in Egypt? It refers to our ego, that should not grow anymore. We must not allow any negative attitude toward others to grow in us; we must immediately kill it.

It would have sufficed us: we can attain everything if we only have good relations between us, we don’t need anything else. It would have sufficed us, the warmth between us at the Seder table, the force of connection and love, we want it to be among the whole nation of Israel. It is with the help of this force that we can solve all our problems, get rid of all the troubles and really flourish.

Next year in Jerusalem: A new world will be built from the force of love that we have created among us.

One, who knows (what it stands for): we begin to know the upper force from the connections of love, the one force.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 544 – Jewish Culture: The Passover Haggadah,” 3/31/15

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New Life 541 – Jewish Culture: The Ten Plagues In Our Day
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

What is the Torah really telling us, what is revealed to us through the ten plagues, and by means of the proper education how can we build a balanced world so we can live in peace and tranquility?

The Torah is not talking about things that happen in this material world, but the upper world. Every person must realize all the stories of the Torah by himself, and within himself: Adam, the period of the flood, the Exodus from Egypt, and so on.

Every person must write a Torah scroll for himself, meaning he must correct his characteristics according to the letters in the Torah.

We were created with an egoistic nature; we only do things for our own benefit. Our goal must be transcendence to love. To correct ourselves, either through blows or through awareness, we must feel that the ego is detrimental to us.

Pharaoh symbolizes the ego in a person; it doesn’t let us be considerate to others or develop love for others. So Pharaoh, the ego in us, must receive blows. Today all of humanity is in a state of “Egypt.”

The 10 plagues led the children of Israel toward breaking away from the ego that is divided into 10 parts. An example of a plague: The world is full of abundance today, but as a result of bad relationships, half of the world is starving while the other half throws large quantities of food into the garbage.

The rampant ego is the cause of the high cost of living, housing and retirement problems. In addition, nature assaults us mercilessly. The education of children, divorces, drugs, murder, violence, and terrorism—it is up to us to recognize that all of this is derived from the ego.

The situation in the world necessitates publicizing the method for correction, the method for connection above the ego, how to remedy the situation, and that there is a cure. In addition, through connection we can rise to a new, eternal, and whole dimension of existence. And the Haggadah of Pesach (Passover Haggadah) tells us about this, about freedom from the angel of death, freedom from the ego.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 541 – Jewish Culture: The Ten Plagues In Our Day,” 3/26/15

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New Life 539 – Jewish Culture: Between Chametz (Leavened Food) And Matzah
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

What important phases in our lives do Chametz and the Matzah symbolize? What is the meaning of the burning of the Chametz and why don’t we use a strong light when we search for it at home?

Matzah symbolizes our detachment from our egoistic desires so it is called the bread of affliction. Pesach (Passover) symbolizes the state in which we break away from our ego and operate as much as we can in love and bestowal.

The term “ego” does not refer to personal pleasures but to the enjoyment of hating others, using others and taking advantage of them. We have to treat others nicely. First, we will not feel any taste in it, just like the Matzah, but later it will grow and expand.

Leavened bread, Matzah, and Chametz are like kids who enjoy irritating others, for example, and then learn to restrain themselves and become loving and giving.

This is the way the world is today: it is under the domination of Pharaoh, under the domination of the ego, and so people need tranquilizers, drugs, and alcohol. The phase of restraint results from the recognition of evil when we all realize that the ego is destroying us. Eating Chametz after Pesach symbolizes a new world, connections of love and bestowal and the revelation of the upper world.

The burning of the Chametz symbolizes the elimination of the ego inside me, when I don’t agree to suppress others and dominate them. We search for the Chametz by the light of a candle since we have no more than a slight illumination that signals that the ego is bad and awful. The selling of the Chametz symbolizes that I am getting rid of the ego in order to exit it, and then I bring it back in order to correct it.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 539 – Jewish Culture: Between Chametz (Leavened Food) And Matza,” 3/24/15

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New Life 538 – Jewish Culture: Pharaoh Among Us
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Pharaoh, the power of the ego, controls us even today. So in Israel there is a huge division among people.

The story of the Exodus from Egypt is more relevant today than ever. We left Egypt, we achieved loving relationships, we went through destruction and exile. Today we must once again get out from the control of the ego and sweep the entire world after us to connection and love.

Because there is no connection between us and there is war between us, our neighboring enemies rise up against us on the outside, and so does the world.

When we talk about the “ego,” I mean the desire to exploit, oppress, subjugate, and control others—“Pharaoh.” Pharaoh is considered the king of Egypt because he dominates people, giving orders every moment.

The Passover Seder comes to remind us that in the past our people left Egypt, the ego, and today it is up to us to leave this situation again. We need a general process of social education that will bring us to feel that all of us are one family. The exodus from Egypt is a story about an educational process, the development of consciousness through impulses that move us.

One family means that everyone will relate to others as their children. Only life in a state like this is called living in paradise.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 538 – Jewish Culture: Pharaoh Among Us,” 3/22/15

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