In his article "Exile and Redemption," Baal HaSulam writes that Israel (a person who searches for the Creator) will find no rest among the “other nations” (desires of this world) until the following takes place within him: “And from there you shall crave the Creator, and you shall find Him, for you shall look for Him with all your heart and with all your soul.”

Until you have reached such a request, you have no chance of escaping Egypt for it is only with a ripe desire that you will gain your freedom. Your own desires to remain in Egypt are the guards that are keeping you there.

This is why the 10 Egyptian plagues are necessary. In order to be born, one must come to feel a great yearning for the next degree, that is, to desire what’s on the outside while still remaining on the inside.

It’s as though there are two totally opposite desires inside of you. They cannot be reconciled, but you come to a point where they almost connect, and that is when the breakthrough happens. The force of the Upper One expels you and hurls you onto the next degree in accordance with the principle, “I labored and I found” (Igati ve Matsati).

Indeed, you have achieved the point of near-contact between your desire in your current state and your subsequent state. In nature it is impossible for the desire to receive to make contact with the desire to bestow. Therefore, when this transition takes place inside you, the Creator completes the work (the serpent’s bite), and you are born on the next degree!
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/2/10, “Exile and Redemption”

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Since the times of ancient Babylon, there are people who belong to “Isra-El,” that is, have a desire for the Creator. Their number is increasing over the course of history because their souls are becoming mutually incorporated in one another. This is why there are so many people now who search for spiritual redemption, meaning desire to abandon the property of egoistic reception and attain bestowal.

There is an inner struggle inside each one of us between the desire of “Isra-El” which strives to reach love and bestowal and all our other desires which do not yet wish to hear of bestowal and unity. This way, man constantly balances between the two sides, the two powers.

When the desire is truly to bestow, when there is a spiritual spark that remains from the breaking, the person will not be able to remain submerged in his egoism, in his desires of the “nations of the world.” Spiritual sparks will necessarily flow out of there.

At first, they fell and mixed with this enormous egoistic desire, as if they were thrown into a “broth” and had “soaked it up,” and then they were taken out together with the desire (Aviut or coarseness) they had “soaked up.” In other words, the spark (GE) returns to its place, but now it is surrounded with the desires which have attached themselves to it. They are called AHP de Aliyah (of elevation).

However, as long as Israel, the desire for the Creator, is submerged into the desires of the “nations of the world,” it will not find peace and will keep being pushed out by them as a foreign body in order to ascend and perform the correction. To be in the power of these desires is referred to as exile, while the ascent and correction is referred to as redemption.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/2/10, "Exile and Redemption"

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Question: What is our interconnection like?

Answer: A connection is when I look at you, and you begin to understand what I am thinking of. A connection is when you stand thirty feet behind me, and I feel that you are there with my back.

There are many types of connection between us, many fields where we interact. The electric, magnetic, biochemical field, the field of desires, thoughts, and intentions, all these fields connect us together.

All live bodies create fields around them, and we interconnect with our fields. Sometimes we make contact, and sometimes we can’t. Everything depends on the extent to which our fields correspond to one another.

However, there is a special, powerful, and elevated field: the spiritual connection between us. This field embraces and encompasses everything else, and this is why it is called the “Creator.” This is the field we need to reveal, but, essentially, all the fields belong to a single, universal field that Einstein also wanted to discover.

It connects our thoughts and desires, and we influence one another through it. Once I concentrate on this possibility, once I desire to reveal our interconnection, I will discover our mutual influence and will use it for the universal interconnection.
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From the Talk on the Arvut 10/29/10

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As I take off to the Convention, I leave everything I have in this world at home in order to come to a place of unification, to be born there in a new life. There is no place to run, the ways back are cut off, with no connection to the world. The world does not exist.

We need to prepare for such a state. I plan to spend these days precisely and only in this manner. I don’t think about anything else but this.

At home, at work, at the bank, and at the store, I prepare everything so that I wouldn’t have to think about anything over the course of these three days, as if flying to Mars with a one-way ticket. Nothing is keeping me here anymore; the bridges have been burned.
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From the Talk on the Arvut, 10/29/10

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Before the Convention, we should concentrate on the following three things:

1. We are confident in the fact that we exist in a good, powerful, and correct environment, and that we are revealing the path to mutual unity and mutual bestowal.

2. We concentrate our power of thought on seeking out the connection between us.

3. We are happy with our exclusiveness, glad for this special state and status that we have achieved.

Such conventions have not yet occurred. We all feel this by the intensity, pressure, and pleasant trepidation that permeate each of us. And all this comes from Above. It is great help from Above showing us that we should try to add something to it that we still lack, namely:

a. Joy and fulfillment of a spiritual ascent,
b. Confidence in achieving the goal, and
c. Inner effort.

I need to unite with the friends into a single network in order to reveal the mutual force called “the Creator” between us. Our whole work, all serious analysis is conducted inside every person, while on the outside we should radiate joy, ease, and confidence. There should be laughter on the outside and a burning flame deep within.
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From the Talk on the Arvut 10/29/10

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Question: How can I think about the friends throughout the day if I don’t feel that they’re thinking about me?

Answer: Irrespective of them, you need to connect to the group and accept the notion that they’re all thinking about you as a fact. Then you will discover that this is truly the case. The friends will be revealed to you at a higher degree. They may be regular people, but you will see that, within, they are all unified.

Everything depends on you, on how you perceive the friends, and not on their self-awareness.
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From the Talk on the Arvut 10/29/10

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Question: Rabash writes that only when a person has done everything within his means will he turn to the Creator for help. But what about thoughts that I haven’t done everything and don’t deserve to ascend?

Answer: Nobody has done all they could. Keep making efforts and while you do, you will see that this instruction is accomplished.

The Klipa (shell) will always tell you that you haven’t done enough: “You know what, wait until the next Convention.” And you must answer it: “Stop promising me tomorrows, I want it here and now!”

Who will inspire you to respond like that? The environment will. It will multiply a person’s strength, when he bows his head and unifies with others.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/1/10, “And the Children Racketed Within Her”

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Question: How can the environment bring me to something other than my own egoism, when it itself is also comprised of egoists?

Answer: But you yourself choose the environment. The Creator has put a single desire and a common aspiration into a group of people, and He has gathered them here. They neither looked for nor needed one another, but He brought them together. They do not know where life will take them, but they differ from any other environment through their sparks and spiritual aspirations, which the time has come to correct.

I unite with my friends in order to establish a connection with their sparks, and this is the essence, this is my environment. One is pleasant looking, another is not so much, the third is quick-tempered, and the fourth a scholar, but I do not pay attention to the exterior forms because all of them pertain to the beastly properties of our world.

Instead, I look at the sparks that have ignited in my friends and are connected among them. These sparks are the consequence of the screen that connects us, and as I permeate further, I arrive at the place where it mends us together the same way.

Everything depends on the depth of immersion in our common “pie.” Its upper layer is the exterior, superficial view. And then I begin to look further inside. After all, an inner unity is now being manifested among my friends. I was brought to them so I would arrive at the essence, starting with the exterior impressions.

I can find this connection in any part of the world, and conceptually, I should not need to travel anywhere. All people are interconnected, but not all are already experiencing this desire to reveal their unity.

And so I have been pushed into this layer of humanity, which now needs to be corrected. That is, this layer has to reveal the common interconnection, and the Upper Light or the Creator within it. Now I try to discern this system as fast as possible, I am ready to be in it.

The mutual guarantee is the law of this common system, and the correction becomes revealed even more deeply. Nothing else exists; we are simply submerging ourselves deeper into this “pie,” the essence of the exterior images, the root of everything that happens.

I am always directed inward in order to find and strengthen the connection between us. During the Convention we concentrate on this simple intention.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/1/10, “And the Children Racketed Within Her”

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Question: What is required of me at the Convention? Should I be writhing in agony regarding my own birth or that of my friend’s?

Answer: Neither. Let everyone care only about tuning into the environment. This way one nullifies himself and becomes inspired with a friend’s desire. When every person does this, we automatically enter a deeper layer of our relationship.

Imagine a “pie” with many layers. On top I see the Convention participants, beneath them I see the friends, and even lower I see united sparks. With my eyes, I want to penetrate as deep as possible into the net that connects us, stretching across all the layers into Infinity. And this only depends on me.

One can jump impatiently or stand quietly, but regardless of what I do externally, the main thing is to concentrate as much as possible on the desire to reveal our inner connection which surely exists between all the creatures. Once I reveal it, I reveal everything in it.

For that I reject myself, striving to submerge even deeper in order to become a part of the common net, blending into it. This intention, this inner concentration is enough for me to begin to feel reality, the authenticity of the collective unity, more clearly.

In our world, we observe the consequences of a global interconnection, similar thoughts, and phenomena that appear in different people and different places. But all of this is the consequence; it is the “tip of the iceberg.” And yet there, deep down, is an unbreakable iron connection that binds us.

This connection is what we must reveal. The aspiration is enough. The rest will be revealed in it: the desires and the revelations that will lead us inward.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/1/10, “And the Children Racketed Within Her”

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Question: How do I know for sure what controls me at the moment: the desire to receive or the desire to bestow?

Answer: It depends on what environment you are attracted to. There are no other criteria to check this with. Our starting point is the desire to receive pleasure. With the help of the correct environment, I begin to analyze the situation and discern my egoistic intention.

Before I did not notice the power of the evil inclination within me, but now I have changed the criteria for checking. There is no Creator in front of me. Therefore, I check myself according to the environment, and according to its values I determine what inclination is in control within me: the good or the evil one.

Perhaps my desire to reach the spiritual goal is burning within me, but my family and former friends tell me, “You are confused. What did you find there? What did you gain? This will have a bad ending. It is better to come with us, we enjoy our lives.” From their point of view, I am immersed in evil, trying to reach a goal that comes from the evil inclination.

Everything is relative, and everyone defines for himself who controls it. Therefore, if you want to judge from the position of the Creator, you should calibrate yourself with a good environment, the group, and take it as a benchmark.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/1/10, “And the Children Racketed Within Her”

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