In Egypt we had plenty of material benefits, everything except one thing: bestowal without any calculation for oneself, which is called the spiritual work in the desert. Man doesn’t strive for this, and it is impossible to strive for this above the constantly growing ego. One has to constantly fight the ego as he connects more and more with others, until they all become a single whole.

“The thing is that, indeed, they were very fond of the work in Egypt.” It was a wonderful consumer society: You worked, earned, and succeeded. Everything was up to you; everything was clear, according to the order, the laws of democracy.

As it says: “…’But they mingled themselves with the nations, and learned their works.'” That is, everything was managed only by the desire to receive at every level, in every appeal. “It means that if Israel are under the dominion of a certain nation…” that is, if the point in the heart, the direction towards bestowal, the spiritual spark, is under the dominion of a person’s ego, then the desire for spirituality only helps the ego develop in different directions. And there is no way to break free from this slavery because a person sees that he can even profit from his aspiration to spirituality.

Thus different altruistic organizations and mystical practices, anything that is a bit above the simple ego and can fill a person, come into being. Such people feel that they are fulfilled, perfect, and elevated, and it seems to them that they don’t lack anything. This is a sign that the point in the heart is under the rule of Pharaoh, and this is why it all looks so good: altruism, mysticism, or New Age. These people don’t suffer and only want to make others like them.

While Israel (those who yearn for the Creator) suffers, works hard, and fights with problems. After all, a person works against the ego that is getting stronger all the time. So on one hand, he has all material benefits, a “pot full of meat” as it was in Egypt, and in spirituality there is nothing: a desert, the dry land, only faith. And so a person is constantly torn between the two points, trying to decide what he should do.

It seems that by leaving Egypt we are separating from it totally. But in spirituality it isn’t so because when you fall, it is as if you fall back. Of course, it isn’t the same state because it is a new degree, and so the troubles begin already in the desert: snakes, scorpions, quarrels, all sorts of problems, and diseases. The ascents and descents come one after the other and are combined in one person.
[74790]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/8/2012, Shamati #159 

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During the preparation for correction the order of the inner work is as follows: Wanting to connect with the friends, I pressure myself and make great efforts. In response, the Light, the force that helps me connect, shines on me. Finally, I complete the connection and immediately the AHP of the higher degree, whose desire to receive is even lower and thicker than mine, is revealed. As a result, I feel that I am in an even greater exile.

So it turns out that the more I try to reach goodness, bestowal, the deeper I sink into evil. However, this immersion into evil is comprised of two parts: On one hand, I still remember the connection that was achieved, the closeness to the friends, and on the other, a new corrupt desire is now revealed to me, even worse than before.

Thus during the period of exile, I grow not in a linear way, but step-by-step. By attaining connection I fall, and not by one degree but by two. It’s because in the beginning I rose to unification (+), then I fell to detachment (-), and so now I feel a double descent (x2). Then everything repeats again and again: I rise and fall even lower.

I always fall not to the previous level of the ego, but from the level I rose to. Therefore, because of every ascent, the next fall is twice as bad. When I rise, I ascend in bestowal, and when I fall, I descend into receiving and into the filth.

Thus a person expands his vessels by building-up the good according to the evil, and thanks to that he advances during the 400 years of exile.

The exile begins when we approach unification in the group. It ends when, having given all our powers to unification, we reach a point when we cannot connect.

During this process we unite and become the people of Israel. It isn’t the same small group that once descended into Egypt because of internal conflicts, like the conflict of Joseph and his brothers, for example. One united nation comes out of Egypt, although it is still impossible to attain Godliness by this unification. At the present state the form of unity is revealed as the control of the desire to receive. Only by our last effort does the escape, the exit from the ego, occur.

In spirituality we also walk on “two legs”: from unity to separation and then to unity again. Pharaoh grows, so does Moses opposite to him, and the Creator is revealed.… All these discernments become greater and greater, and we don’t escape them, but carry on with our work.
[74558]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/5/2012, Writings of Rabash 

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Question: Why is it so hard to understand what the connection itself is?

Answer: It is hard for us to perform these actions because we initially relate to them and approach them egoistically. I cannot annul my mind in perceiving the world, in perceiving the group, and in perceiving myself, and start clarifying the situation by using a cold external mind.

First we should understand the reason for our actions and what I am required to do. The Creator wants me to bring about the correction of the world. The world is all the reality that appears before me. This means that I have to relate to it accordingly and to be included with the public, with the people, who at their level of development, are also in exile in Egypt; even if they are not in the final stages, they are in very advanced stages. People are already feeling that they have reached a dead end; they are feeling that it is the end of the world; they have encountered ecological problems, wars, famine, suicide, despair, etc. This is the “exile in Egypt” for them, an exile from the prosperity they knew before and helplessness.

In the past a person used to make changes in his life and find relief in it. Today there is nowhere to turn to; one doesn’t find comfort anywhere. There is no comfort at home and in the family, and nowhere to rest. Children don’t show any hope for something good; at work it is impossible to settle for what one really needs together with others since there is no goodness. The hope to rest when one retires is becoming imaginary, and we cannot be sure that when we grow old we will have food and shelter. People live in uncertainty: All their lives they saved in some fund, but if they ever will get this money back is a big question. And these are only some of the problems.

So when we are approaching the Creator, do we take into account what He wants and not what we want? The Creator wants the correction of the world. Is this how we approach people, taking their desires and worrying about them? I am not sure. Do we go out to the people enough, those who, by the way, feel the exile much more than we do? Are we included in their exile, and their corporeal troubles? Do we gradually turn their troubles into spiritual troubles at our level?

If the Light influences people through us, people will feel good. This is what the part of the world called “Israel” should do, to become “Light unto the nations.” For all those who have no contact with the Light, I have to be the “adaptor,” their envoy. Do I start from that?

The Creator wants to bring them Light and advancement, while I am only the link. I have to take their deficiency and to turn it into a necessity to connect at my level, the necessity for the Reforming Light and to transmit this request upwards, and not my personal desires. This means to bestow.

Do we do that? Do we give enough weight to dissemination in order to absorb the people’s desires? The account begins from the lower degree and not from the middle. The true deficiency is concealed in the world, while we receive our deficiency from the Creator and only have to be part of the whole.

By absorbing the deficiency from people, you have to connect with the friends. Otherwise why do you need this connection? What for? Who is your future bestowal intended for? Without the world there is no way you can reach it. The Creator doesn’t need your bestowal; he doesn’t need any favors from you. You can bring Him contentment if you pass His Light downward, if you manage to convince people that they need to change. Then by the slight change in them, you will increase it and raise it to the Creator, and thus draw the connection from the bottom up. You will grow from smallness up to His high level and will take your place in the middle. Without the connection between the two ends, you are playing with something that is based on nothing but the ego.

Question: So what are we doing wrong? After all, we are trying to bring our message to the world.

Answer: It seems that we are not impressed by the world’s desires enough in order to act by them. Eventually we are only left with a “fictitious” formal impression of the work that is done. Everything turns out the opposite: We want to advance and so we use people as a means, instead of being the means for their advancement and to bring people what the Creator wants to bring them. We are turning everything upside down: Instead of being servants, we are becoming the proprietors of the situation. The Creator depends on us, the nations depend in us, while we look at them standing in the middle.

The point is not the actions, but our inner attitude. The deficiency of the Creator and the deficiency of the world are what should be important for us. It is from these deficiencies that we should stabilize our self-deficiency so that it will lead to the desired result. “Israel” belongs to the level of Bina, and it has nothing of its own. Its upper part is the Keter and the lower part is Malchut. In the middle there is only a cut. So how can the two parts be connected? It is we who have to become this connection and this is our only property.
[74697]
From the 4^th  part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/5/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: You are saying that the desires of the masses should be in first place and not our own spiritual aspirations. But today I am worried about my advancement and this is the reason I disseminate. How can I make this internal transition?

Answer: I have to understand that everything that will happen to me depends on others, on the extent to which I bring them closer to the source. To do that, I have to bring them closer to me, and then they will provide me with the right deficiency in order to turn to the Creator. That’s why they are suddenly important to me.

Next I will discover that they are my parts and then I will find out that they, in fact, are the parts of my soul. The need for the “Self” totally disappears: Let it burn, I only want to provide for them, that’s most important. The previous self-consciousness disappears: My upper part belongs to the Creator, my lower part belongs to the created beings, and I am in the middle, in the neutral middle third of Tifferet that exists only in order to connect the two halves. We shouldn’t do anything with it.

Question: So it follows that when we connect with the masses in order to absorb their desires and to serve them, we do the work among us and we receive the answer somewhere from Above. It’s quite a complicated system….

Answer: The system is simple: Above is the plus and below is the minus, and you allow the entrance in the middle and open up the way.

It can be drawn differently, like a fan. On the left there is positive pressure (P+), on the right there is negative pressure (P-), and you determine what will come out. On one hand, there is the nation, on the other hand there is the Light, and in the middle, Bnei Baruch (BB).

This is exactly how nature is built. This system is normal and natural. Let’s draw it in Kabbalistic terms. Above there are Keter and Hochma, in the middle there is Bina divided into GE (Galgalta ve Eynaim) and AHP (Awzen, Hotem, Peh). At the bottom there is ZON (Zeir Anpin and Nukva). At the top until the middle of Bina there is the system of the Creator, at the bottom there are the lower ones, and among them there is Bnei Baruch. It’s all the same: Above there is the plus, below there is the minus, you are in between, and the tap is in your hands.

This is our work. We connect in the group in order to correspond to the Light, and below we build the system of dissemination that conveys the message of love of others and unity. This is how we connect with the people in order to bring contentment to the Creator.
[74641]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/6/12, Writings of Rabash 

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We are part of a system called the world of Infinity. In this Infinity, there exists the desire with various forms and modes of reception and bestowal, as well as the Light that is revealed within the desire to the extent that desire ascribes importance to the attribute of bestowal. The more the desire expresses bestowal, the more the Light is revealed. If the desire doesn’t long for bestowal, the Light is not revealed.

It is called the world of Infinity as all possible forms of creation, from the most egoistic to the most altruistic, from minus Infinity to plus Infinity, exist in it.

Desire itself was created by the Creator, and all of its forms are revealed according to the plan of development that also comes from the Creator. However, as a result of all the metamorphoses and changes that the desire, spinning and boiling in this cauldron, goes through, a new, special point of self-awareness, of independence, is formed. And this point begins to grow in all the states that the desire goes through: to feel more, to understand more, to feel itself as existing, and to attain its independence.

This point is most important because it grew from the middle, third, line. It doesn’t exist in the nature of the Creator nor in the nature of the creature, which is opposite to the Creator and completely subordinate to Him. Of course, it is a derivative, the result of the clash between these two opposite attributes, but it is absolutely independent.

It is difficult for us to imagine how this independence is possible if everything was created by the Creator. But imagine two completely opposite fields, divided by a chasm along the entire range from minus to plus Infinity, where neither one can exist. The border where both of these attributes meet and battle with each other is where the creature can exist independently.

On one hand, it is still considered the created being, meaning that it was created by the upper force. On the other, it has an attribute that makes it possible for it to stand opposite to the upper force, not being under its full control. In the meantime, we are unable to grasp how this is possible. Man doesn’t understand how, being under the full control of the Creator all the time, he can nevertheless remain free!

Two completely different, opposing attributes exist, and the creature can exist only in the abyss between them. It becomes the creature only to the extent that it makes efforts to acquire awareness. This awareness is something third that did not previously exist.

All the rest already had existed in the creature: all the forces, the attributes, and the character that determines who I will be. For all of this, it is written: “Go to the Master Who made me.” However, above all this, I create something third, independent. It is like a child who grows and suddenly becomes independent, having his own opinions. Obviously, this is created under the influence of heredity, education, and environment, but this is the manifestation of his personality, not just a simple sum of fixed parameters according to a plan inscribed into it.

It is like when we cook soup, add all ingredients into it, and in the end receive a new essence called soup. Or we slice and mix five ingredients: tomato, cucumber, onion, salt, and pepper. In the end, a new essence appears called salad.

Today, we live in this world, unconsciously fulfilling the commands of our nature. From where can something new appear to us? Only if you position yourself between the two worlds of reception and bestowal, wanting to belong to both in order not to detach from either of them, but use them both, then thereby you create a new essence, like a new dish, the “salad.” You take all the desire from the world of reception and give it the form of bestowal, which is called Adam.

The fetus is composed of the matter, the desire to receive pleasure, but from the outside, it adopts the form of the Creator, the Light. Then, the substance and form together are called man.

It seems that there is nothing new here as everything already existed. But you did the work—you lent the matter the Creator’s form. You took the matter from one area, the property from the other, and you combined the two together. As a result, a new essence was formed. It is no longer the first or the second, but something third. It’s like the salad that has a meaning on its own; it is a new taste, a new existence.
[73475]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/21/2012, TES

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Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam (The Steps of the Ladder), 1985, Article 15: And the more they afflicted them”: “And the shell of Egypt, is the general shell, where the sparks of Holiness fell, that the People of Israel who were in Egypt, had to correct them. Then there must first be such pain and suffering that they can’t leave their control, as it says “and the Children of Israel sighed from the work, and they cried out, and their cry rose to the Lord from the work, and the Lord heard their sigh.

There must be a feeling of exile, there must be such strong suffering and pain that “it is better to die than to live” if I can’t come out of Egypt, if I don’t achieve what I want. My desire has to be so big. Otherwise it isn’t a vessel; it isn’t a place for the revelation of what we are looking for.

At the same time, my crying out should be strong not only in quantity but also in quality. I have to know what I am yearning for in exile, what I want to discover, what is happening to me.

So the exile is the most serious preparation for redemption. In exile I clarify things, by clarifying what exactly I want and in what way. This is the reason why the exile cannot be less than 400 years, according to the four phases we go through when we build our vessel. Only at the end of this process can we come out of exile and really receive what we have prepared. The upper Light has no form and now too it fills everything, but we don’t feel it. We must acquire the four phases, a whole vessel, and then the Light will be revealed.

So it isn’t about 400 years, but actually about four whole phases of building our vessel. The forms we develop in it totally depend on each of us. Of course, we receive the initial spur from Above as it is written: “The Creator puts a person’s hand on the good fate and tells him, take it.” But later on a person’s fate is in his own hands.
[74644]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/6/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Each time I go to a convention, I feel a kind of heaviness, a burden that pulls us to the ground. You said that this would soon pass and we would feel the unity. How is it possible to get rid of this heaviness? What can help us?

Answer: The only force that can help us against our ego is the importance of the goal, the importance of the group as a means of attaining the goal. But the most important thing is the goal.

If we work on the importance of the goal so that it becomes the most important thing, we won’t feel that the ego disturbs us. We will begin to feel that the ego is a sign of the places within us that we still need to correct. It shows us where you can still make efforts, where you can still correct something.

It’s like a broken car engine: In the place where something is knocking, the valve needs to be adjusted, in the place where something is whistling, the connections need to be fixed, and where it is heating, water needs to be added or something needs to be cleaned.

Your ego works in the same way, showing what is still uncorrected in you. If you advance towards the goal, if you want to direct yourself correctly, you discover the ego as “help against you. ”It pulls you by the legs, and this means that you don’t have enough strength. Here you must add strength and then advance forwards.

If you didn’t have this indicator, you wouldn’t know what you need to correct, just like in the engine or, for example, in our body. The biggest problem in the physiology of the body is the diseases that progress without us feeling it. During this period they don’t even cause pain or any other negative sensations. While if I feel unpleasant sensations, I immediately go to a doctor and stop the disease in the beginning of its development, and not when it already reaches a state where it isn’t possible to cure or to operate it.

That is, we need to relate to the ego correctly and rationally; we have to interact with it and not just annul it: “I don’t want you! I hate you!” No, the ego is support along our way.
[74108] 
From the Vilnius Convention 3/23/12, Lesson 1

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Question: In order to come out of Egypt our ego has to go through the “ten plagues,” what does that mean?

Answer: The ten plagues of Egypt are the ten plagues that a person feels on himself, on his ego, which help him get rid of the ego. If I didn’t feel the blows, I would want to stay in the ego. But because I feel the blows while in my ego, they help me break away from it.

Each blow is stronger in quality than the previous one. Suppose I lost everything that I have in gambling, (although it isn’t about that at all), the next blow can be the loss of someone dear, etc. Actually nothing in the world happens with money and not with one’s relatives and not with anything, but the inner feeling is as if you lose everything.

There is an article in the book Shamati about that, when a person enters spirituality he thinks that he leaves the whole world, his family, and that he is detached from everything. This detachment is necessary. The ten plagues help us rise systematically above certain layers of our ego until we totally exit it, which means that we escape it.

Above the last level we are in total darkness making one more effort. The darkness symbolizes that we don’t know what is expected ahead. But since we are headed towards the attribute of bestowal, the darkness helps us.

If you are moving forward towards the Light, your ego is only too happy about it. But when you are moving forward in the dark, you can be sure that the ego will not disturb you, won’t do you any evil, and won’t take everything for itself afterward.

Question: That means that this is some kind of a trick?

Answer: This “trick” was in Egypt before the ten plagues, when no matter how hard we tried, everything was aimed at the ego. Therefore, “The children of Israel cried from the work” in building the two cities Pithom and Ramses.

Here, however, this is it, here we are headed towards the dark and not towards the Light as we were used to saying. What is more, all these blows and all the advancement are based only on our growing connection, which brings the group to this state where on the one hand the ego is revealed, the great internal hatred, and on the other hand, the clear recognition that only mutual guarantee can lead the group forward. What does that mean?

When you see that there is great hatred, you are ready to connect with everyone in order not to ever worry about anything for yourself, but only about others. All your enemies are also ready to care about one another. This readiness is revealed despite the great hatred, when you can’t even imagine how it is possible to wish these people good, and that you now have to think about them as the most important thing and in no way think of yourself. A serious, juicy detachment from the ego is taking place here!
[74545]
From KabTV’s “Foundations of the Integral Society” 4/1/12

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Now we are in a state when our whole group is coming out of Egypt, and the entire humanity is following it. We must realize our group’s exit from egoism. Once we are able to do that, all of humanity will rush after us automatically.

Humanity will feel that none of them have a method of salvation. People will feel that they cannot exist any longer if they do not follow us.

Every day, it will be manifested more and more. People will begin to discover that the world is actually empty, that it has no idea. That is what is interesting: The world was always full of various ideas: socialist, communist, scientific, political, and so on. And today, everything is gradually fading away.

And we begin to grow ourselves against the background of this picture. The spiritual group will radiate strength, method, and the goal—absolutely everything! No one else will have anything like it.

Nevertheless, due to powerlessness, due to uncertainty, more reactionary forces will awaken, and all sorts of crises, conflicts, and, possibly, wars will arise.

But it depends on how soon we rise and how quickly we can succeed in dissemination so that everyone sees that there is a precise method of salvation and it is not so unrealizable. Anyway, there is no other choice—we must be under this eternal force of nature, which is ready to help us only if we work in harmony with it.
[74541]
From a TV Program “Foundations of the Integral Society” 4/1/2012 

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Question: How can we ascend anew to the level of connection we had at the Arava Convention? How can we make sure that our work is direct, without any questions?

Answer: Everything depends on our intention, on whether every second, no matter what I may be saying, doing, or hearing, I think about greater closeness, unification, and the creation of a common feeling within where the Creator, the Light, will be clarified.

It’s like a person who has either a great problem or great joy. Suppose that a very pleasant encounter awaits me in the evening such as a dinner with people dear to my heart or some special event. During the day, I have to work, interact with co-workers, and solve problems, but I abide all day in anticipation of what is to come at night. Alongside the problems and concerns that I deal with every minute, I’m absorbed in the thought that in the evening, something wonderful and pleasant awaits me. I have two thoughts!

The same thing happens here. We can be interacting or doing anything. We purposely close off from everyone in order to ensure a maximum possible concentration of intention between us. This intention should be constant. Whatever we are listening to, doing, or saying, we have to constantly feel tension, seek and strive toward the sensation of oneness between us, the connection in which the Creator has to manifest Himself. This is what we need to do.

Secondly, you said that we felt it in our past unification in the desert. I don’t want to remember that; it was in the past. Right now, I want to ascend and feel a completely new next state. I don’t want to return to the past or even think about it. Each time, I stand before something completely new, and this new state will be better and deeper than the past one. This is the only way we should think.

Therefore, don’t try to awaken former feelings within you; they will only cause harm. Don’t live in the past!

Our next actions should be directed toward coming closer practically and at creating a new sensory organ. This should be much stronger, much more evident and clear than what we had in the desert or in other places.

Together with all our friends around the world, we should feel that we are ascending collectively, developing within us a new sense organ and building the conditions for sensing Him. We will feel Him. It is just around the corner, it already exists within us. Only a little bit more, and He will begin to manifest Himself.
[74033]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/23/12, Lesson 1 

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