Question: How, after the convention is over, can we keep ourselves in the state that we achieved there? After all, there usually comes a downfall?

Answer: We cannot afford it, similarly to how a mother who has a little baby on her hands cannot show that she is sick. There are situations when necessity puts everything else in the background. And only if a mother is on her deathbed does someone else take care of a baby.

In our case, we don’t have time for rest, lofty phrases, and downfalls. The world around us is developing very quickly, while we lag behind and thus must get abreast of its speed. We will feel more and more how all bad things happening in the world are related to us since we are late with our correction.

This is why I don’t even let the thoughts about a post-convention downfall cross my mind: It just can’t happen! Besides, until the summer our schedule is packed with important events: conventions in Italy, Spain, and Moscow. We all have to unite and prepare for them. This is why we don’t have any breaks, everything is compressed in time. And this is good because it corresponds to the speed of changes taking place in the world.
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From the Talk about the Convention 3/25/2011

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Question: What is the meaning of the command, “Remember the day when we came out of Egypt” in the sense of a person’s inner work?

Answer: It says in The Zohar, in Item 121 of Chapter "Bo" that the Torah will mention the exodus from Egypt 50 times. Besides that it is written that every day a person must see himself as coming out of Egypt, and that is because all of our work happens only in relation to Egypt.

A person’s spiritual work on correcting his egoistic nature begins from the state of “Abraham”—the rudiment of the quality of bestowal. But how can we develop this quality?

This is why “Abraham’s” question to the Creator emerges in a person: “How will my descendants inherit a great land?” (Chapter "Lech-Lecha"). This means: How can I develop inside of me (because my descendants are my future states) a huge desire of bestowal and love in order to receive Your entire Light from You?

This receives the following answer (from the Creator to Abraham), “Know that your descendants will be in exile for 400 years,” where 400 years are all four levels of egoism. That is, the Creator tells a person that he will become entirely immersed in egoism and will thereby acquire a desire equal to the Light of Infinity.

First you will be permeated by this desire to absorb everything and then you will discover that it is flawed and will desire to come out of it. Once you come out of it, you will begin correcting it from an egoistic desire to bestowal. This means leaving Egypt and entering the holy land.

This way, by gradually correcting the egoism we acquire, we ascend up 125 degrees until the full correction (Gmar Tikkun). Thus, our entire spiritual path divides into three phases:

1. From the initial point (Abraham, the aspiration to reveal the Creator) until entering Egypt.
2. Inside Egypt, where we develop the aspiration to the Creator, which brings about the development of egoism, the realization that it is evil, and the exit from it.
3. The correction of our egoistic desire until its total correction.

Everything revolves around “Egypt”: Part of our path is “before it” and part is “after it.” But Egypt is the central point. That is why a person must feel that he is coming out of Egypt every day, meaning that every day he takes a part of the egoistic desire and corrects it, and receives a new Light inside of it. This is called “a new day.” And this continues on all the levels.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/13/11, The Zohar

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We are egoists and are only able to do whatever is important to our ego. How, then, can we get rid of it?

This is why we carry out Kabbalists’ advice. We have two possibilities:

1. To move under blows from our nature, meaning to develop due to having no other choice until we will nevertheless desire to get rid of the suffering. However, the path of constantly running away from evil is very lengthy and diffcult.

2. To use the magnifying glass of the mind without waiting for the blows to come. In the article “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose” Baal HaSulam explains that we can raise our perceptivity and keenly recognize the signs on the path, similar to being able to understand a word before it’s finished. A wise person sees things that others don’t even notice.

Some people write down wise advice but don’t let it pass through their heart. There are all kinds of cases. Every person has his “fate.” To the extent that a person hears what he is being told, that is how much he will advance if he is ready to draw a distinction between his ego and the spiritual path, if he properly interprets the meaning of "exile" and "redemption" and is willing to be relentless and stubborn even though it’s unpleasant to his egoism.

A person works in order to raise the importance of ascending above egoism, even though this causes him pain and seems like a loss. He discerns new things again and again, and with every new stroke the loss of egoism no longer seems sorrowful compared to the spiritual attainment that becomes revealed. And then he receives another addition of coal into the furnace of self-love, and that is in order to achieve the following ascent.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/13/11, Writings of Rabash

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The Book of Zohar, Chapter "Yitro (Jethro)," Item 533: There are two gemstones and one Masach between them, standing between each other. The upper gemstone is colorless, it is not openly visible.

Item 534: Malchut is called “a gemstone” because it clings to NHY de ZA, which are called “legs.” Because of Malchut’s ascent to Bina, Bina, too, is called “a gemstone,” and it is an upper gemstone.

There exists the ladder of the spiritual degrees extending from the world of Infinity to our world. This ladder consists of 125 rungs. The upper part of each degree contains the lower part of a higher degree, while the lower part of each degree is immersed in an even lower degree.

The upper part of the highest degree is the world of Infinity, while its lower part is inside the lower degree. It follows that the lower part of each higher degree exists together with the upper part of the lower degree. Hence, in each degree there is a common part between the upper and lower degrees where both of them unite into one.

The upper part of each degree is called Galgalta ve Eynaim (GE), while its lower part AHP (Awzen-Hotem-Peh). In sum, they comprise 10 Sefirot, but in a way that the lower degree contains the AHP of the upper one, and the GE of the lower degree clothe this AHP. It follows that the upper part of each degree is comprised of 10 Sefirot in total, which the upper and the lower degrees form together. This is how it is at every degree.

In the collective system of souls we are all connected together, all seven billion souls. Hence, all parts of my soul are included into everybody, and if I connect with them correctly, all of their parts are within me either as my GE or AHP. That is, nothing is left of me but my initial point with which I started my path. Only it remains in me; it is my foundation. I acquire everything else from the others: either the GE or AHP. I include everyone within myself: It is the body of my soul.

This is what The Zohar explains: It is impossible to create a "gemstone," Malchut, the spiritual vessel of each person unless he or she connects with everybody. I need everyone: They are my spiritual vessel. I have to receive my GE and AHP from everybody. And who am I? I’m the point in the heart from which I started the path.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/8/2011, The Book of Zohar

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Question: I just can’t seem to understand: What is the Light that reforms? And how can I demand it during the study?

Answer: 1. At the very least, try to recognize all of these qualities inside of you which we read about in The Book of Zohar. Try to discern where they are inside of you, “rummage” inside of your desires, thoughts, and inside yourself.

That is how you expand your inner Kelim, desires, and qualities of perception. As you search among them, you begin to differentiate between them. But all of these qualities already exist inside of you.

2. If I don’t have a need for correction, then to me the words “the Light that reforms” are devoid of life. If I require correction, then I expect this Light. But if I don’t have this need, then I don’t know what this Light is.

I am told, “You have to wait for the Light to come.” Fine, so let it come. The sages say it’s good, and I agree. If that’s my attitude, then I cannot attract it.

It is written that one must await salvation at every moment. “The Creator’s salvation comes in the blink of an eye.” This is talking precisely about the correcting Light, the Light that reforms, bringing us back to the Creator.

The action we demand from above must always be preceded by our desire, the need for it. Otherwise it will never happen. Either we elicit the suffering inside of us on our own, which is “the suffering of love,” a passionate desire for the Light, or it will come in the form of compulsory suffering, by the path of “Beito” (in due time).

However, without suffering, without a question and without a desire, I cannot attain the correcting Light. That’s because the Light is at absolute rest. We only need the desire so the correcting Light would influence us.

We could say that the Light is present inside of the desire, but is revealed only when this desire reaches the true measure.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/12/11, The Zohar

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Question: How does The Book of Zohar teach us the methods of the connection between us?

Answer: Baal HaSulam adds a commentary to The Zohar to stave off the materialization of The Zohar‘s text. It lays ground for the formation of the spiritual state within us, beyond space and time, beyond the images of our world, to make us want to experience it within and not outside of us.

The Sulam commentary, like all the books of Kabbalists, is written for people who have already acquired spiritual attainment to help them understand what they’re already feeling. I am being explained what I am feeling right now; I’m at the level where “a person’s soul teaches him.” Then by reading Kabbalistic texts, I begin to understand what I am feeling.

Before spiritual sensations arise in me, however, the Kabbalistic texts are not a source of knowledge but “Segula” (a miraculous force) for me because while reading them, I am exposed to the influence of the upper Light, washing over me like a stream of living water.

Hence, I don’t want to explain what each phrase in The Zohar means from the standpoint of Sefirot and Partzufim so that a student will not be satisfied with superficial knowledge. I want him or her to search inside, within their feelings, wondering what it is really like. Then they will have a greater yearning for revelation and thereby form a desire, a need, for it.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/11/2011, The Book of Zohar

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Pharaoh within you needs to grow. At first he is small, so what kind of a king is that really? Joseph feels that he can control his entire Egypt, his entire egoism, to his benefit. He foresees the future and knows what needs to be done. My ego flourishes; I reach the seven years of plenty.

And even when the seven years of famine begin, I do not yet feel it. I sell my reserves to Pharaoh. The misery of the Egyptians benefits me: I sell them to Pharaoh together with everything they have, while Israel does not suffer at all in my land of Goshen. There is no hunger there.

See how these states are revealed in a person in a certain order, one after another, until he begins to understand that Pharaoh is his angel of death, and there is nothing he can do about it. Then, he begins to realize that everything comes from the same source, the Creator. Pharaoh brings him closer to the Creator (to “bring closer” and to “sacrifice” are one word). He helps us “indirectly.”

I no longer receive pleasure from reception, but I do not enjoy bestowal either. So, what am I left with? I have neither! This is called: “And the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage.” I have come out of egoistic reception and I see no joy in it. These “beautiful cities” are only good for Pharaoh; they do nothing for me. This means that I have already separated myself from Pharaoh.

These cities remained poor to me because I have not received anything for them. Where is bestowal, attainment? There is nothing. This is because I want bestowal and spiritual attainment egoistically. I want to bestow for my own sake. So, how can I come to pure, unselfish bestowal?

I need to rise above these “poor cities” so I would stop expecting any kind of compensation for my actions. Only then can I become ready to rise to the degree of faith which is completely unconnected from my desire and current qualities.

I am unable to reach this state on my own, but I need the desire to touch it, to separate from thinking about myself even slightly. This is a big problem. When I finally come to this through the cities that are beautiful to Pharaoh and full of misery to Israel, I begin to understand that there is no other way to move forward than through blows that come from Above. I will never be able to separate from my egoism and forget about any consequences of my bestowal.

Next, I think about bestowal, but how do I avoid expecting to receive personal benefit from it? I need to receive real blows to do this so that I suffer together with Pharaoh from the egoistic use of my bestowal.

Then, the Egyptian plagues come, and I want to use them to rise above any personal interest, any personal consequence of my bestowal. In other words, I begin to strive to bestow for the sake of bestowal. The need to rid myself of my ego begins to form in me. These ten blows reveal the image of liberation in me because otherwise, I will not be able to go to the next state.

Exile and redemption are determined by the lack of the Creator and His presence. I need to understand what is called the Creator so that somehow He would manifest to me in my exile and I would reach redemption. Let Him manifest through His lack, but I simply want to have some kind of perception of Him.

This is why the last blows happen. I feel how a blow benefits me when it comes because a very strong revelation of evil takes place. On the other hand, these blows are very painful, and they happen directly to me in the form of inner, spiritual shocks. However, they really strengthen a person, like salt which “preserves” meat. These blows bring recovery.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/11/2011, Shamati No. 86

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Question: How can we reveal the Creator in exile when He is concealed from us?

Answer: We reveal the Creator inside Pharaoh. After all, Pharaoh is the opposite side of the Creator, “help against Him.” In resisting Pharaoh, we see the same form inside him. Thereby, we learn about the Creator. This is the only way we can learn.

Before rising to a new degree, you can only make judgments about it from the lack that you feel in your current state. You feel this lack because you are receiving the illumination from the AHP (Awzen-Hotem-Peh) of the upper one.
Galgalta ve Eynaim (GE) of the lower one is always inside the AHP of the upper one, and the AHP illuminates the lower one’s darkness. After all, the AHP of the upper one is filled with the Light of Hassadim (Mercy); it itself does not use its will to receive. When the Light of Hassadim reaches the GE of the lower one, the latter does not want this bestowal and perceives it as darkness. So, we reveal it as the “darkness of Egypt.”

When I desire this darkness and am prepared to be in it for the sake of adhesion to the upper one, I attain the form of the upper one and escape from Egypt. I walk in this precise darkness, the Light of Hassadim. This is pitch black darkness where GAR of the Light of Hochma (Wisdom) also becomes revealed, adding darkness from the other side. There are very large forces working here.

All of this becomes revealed along the way. One only needs to do what he is required to do. It seems that these degrees are very high and impassable, but they become revealed very fast once we reach them, as it is written: “The salvation of the Lord is as a blink of the eye.”
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/11/2011, Shamati No. 86

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Question: Why is it not enough to simply care for the common goal together, but instead we need every person to care for everyone else?

Answer: The common care is something vague and unclear. Every person’s care for everyone else does not mean that I am specifically concerned about a certain person. I am concerned about the notion of the group that, in my understanding, stands for our mutual connection which enables a new reality to be built within many hundreds of thousands of points in the hearts.

There are separate points, aspirations for the spiritual world, and there is a connection of these points, the system where these separate parts join together. There is something that converts this connection into one whole, and I care for this one whole, for the degree of connection of these points into one.

Imagine that the points in the hearts are pieces of tin that you put next to each other, and then they melt from the heat of love and fuse into one solid mass. In other words, this turns into a new essence: one vessel, one desire.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/10/2011, Writings of Rabash

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