Pharaoh will remain in Egypt. We need to escape from Egypt and Pharaoh’s vessels. We do not work with the desire to enjoy itself, but we fight against it. It puts on the brakes or even shifts into reverse, but we want to break out from it, ahead of it to carry out the work of the Creator outside the borders of Egypt.

The battle that we fight during all the ten plagues of Egypt creates our vessel. I work above the desire to enjoy, which holds back the point in the heart, and this battle is called: “I labored and I found.”

My attempts to get away from egoism create the derivative, which is my new vessel. The same will be repeated on the next degree: Every time I build a more flawless, accurate, and finer vessel. After all, the desire to enjoy is the same, but my job becomes more refined and more precise, aimed at more internal clarifications. That is why, each time, a new vessel is created, more selective and of higher quality.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/25/12, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 102: This is why it is written that all who learn Torah Lo Lishma, their Torah becomes a potion of death for them. Not only do they not emerge from concealment of the face to disclosure of the face, since they did not set their minds to labor and attain it, the Torah that they accumulate greatly increases their concealment of the face. Finally, they fall into concealment within concealment, which is considered death, being completely detached from one’s root.

This is what happens if a person doesn’t make an effort through the environment, through the study and all the means he has, in order to reach the revelation of the Creator, which means to discover the attribute of bestowal and love of others inside him, in order to arrive through the love of the created beings to the love of the Creator. He has to focus on that so that the result of his study will be the revelation of the attribute of bestowal upon others, no matter how artificial and meaningless it may seem to him at first and contrary to his own nature.

At first he refuses to hear about it and to agree to it. But if he returns to it time after time, despite all the obstacles, and performs all the requirements as required and determined by nature, by the Creator, as a result of the crisis, and all the other conditions that are revealed to him, he gradually agrees that the goal of the study is to reach self-negation.

It is a very special action, not the kind we imagine at the beginning of the way. But to the extent that the changes occur in us along the way, we discover new definitions each time, what—restriction, the other, connection, mutual guarantee, Creator, the attribute of bestowal and love, etc.—mean. We already begin to understand what “the potion of death” and the “potion of life” mean and why the Torah brings such opposite phenomena. Thus we gradually begin to clarify the right way and direction.

A person often falls into situations in which he does not see how wrong he is. But “what one’s mind doesn’t do, time does.” The only way out is to advance as “an ox to the burden and a donkey to the load,” to go on studying day after day as it says: “Do anything but leave!” He doesn’t understand what is happening: The ego is given to him from above and so are all the conditions he is in; everything is done by the upper force.

He exerts himself, does something, but so far he doesn’t understand what is going on. The main thing is not to leave, but to at least perform the simplest actions mechanically. If he can somehow carry on this way, then he should be happy that he manages to do at least this.

So we should respect anyone who makes efforts to go through each day and to participate as much as he can, as much as he is allowed from above. It is an essential condition to come to this place, to this state. Afterward there is already the work of clarification: Why, what for, what will I get from it, why am I participating in this, what is the desired outcome that I expect?

I have to learn from the example of Rabbi Shimon and his students since we want to connect and to be like them, to sit among them. They felt hatred or love toward one another. We have to reach these contrasting discernments.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/24/12, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Question: Why can studying the Torah incorrectly be harmful, and even “the potion of death?”

Answer: The incorrect study of the Torah is the wrong use of the system that was designed to perform a gradual correction of the desire to receive. Instead, it draws the part that is meant to be corrected away from correction. Thus, it prolongs the way and fills it with sufferings, which brings the Creator, who loves us, a great deal of sorrow. Thus, this path is undesirable.

From the point of view of a person’s ego, this path is also undesirable since it brings about sufferings. But if we speak about the form of bestowal and value it with regard to the Creator, we have to see how much He suffers.

If we didn’t participate in the system of correction, but were corrected by it unconsciously, instinctively, like the still, vegetative, and animate nature, then there would not be reward and punishment for us. The system wouldn’t change with regard to us, but would push us in one direction by its rigid, absolute laws, like a train moving on a track.

But because a person is on a level that he himself participates in this process, he has to become more sensitive to the influence of the system on him. So he learns to understand this system and grows feelings towards it, which means towards the Creator who is on the other side of the system. “From Your actions we shall know You” and we connect to Him.

It is impossible to attain any discernment this way, not even the smallest one, if you don’t go incorrectly at first. The point is only that a person should constantly try incorrectly only in potential but not in practice.

It is said: “There isn’t a righteous in the land who did good and didn’t sin.” So the mistakes have already been prepared for me every step of the way, and I must sin. But I prepare myself, try, and am careful and afraid to sin, which means that I am afraid to break away from the feeling of “there is none else besides Him” who is “the good and the benevolent.” I am afraid that I will stop yearning for love and bestowal, that I won’t be able to rise above my desires, above my instinctive thoughts, which means above my animate level.

I need self-clarification, self-recognition; I constantly ride my donkey (hamor), my egoistic desire (homer) (which has the same root in Hebrew), and I compare what I feel and what the donkey thinks to what I would like to feel and how I would like to think. Thus I discover my donkey together with the human in me.

“God shall save man and beast,” and thus I advance. My mistakes bring me to my successes and help me advance. My mistakes and successes are revealed in me as the left and right lines. In this case, they are both legitimate and they complement one another correctly, since without mistakes, I wouldn’t discover new discernments and wouldn’t understand where I am.

I have to sin and to do Mitzvot (commandments), since there cannot be one without the other; everything begins from the recognition of evil. But it could be better if I discovered this evil in the Light. The Light comes and helps me see the dark, and not the darkness revealed first when I don’t understand that it is darkness and by a long path of suffering advance towards the Light.

This is why Kabbalists and the Torah give us advice as to how we should prepare ourselves for the right revelation of the sins, for the revelation of evil.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/24/12, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 101: Thus, as long as one has not attained Providence of the revelation of the face, the abundance of Torah and Mitzvot he has performed makes his concealment of the face much heavier. This is the meaning of, “the Creator hides Himself in the Torah.”

Indeed, all that heaviness he feels through the Torah is only proclamations by which the Holy Torah itself calls him, awakening him to hurry and give the required measure of labor, to promptly endow him with the revelation of the face, as God wills it.

The closer a person gets, the more distant he feels that he is. But he also understands that this distance is given to him on purpose so that he will hurry to complete the necessary sum of his exertion. But a person who doesn’t have the right connection, who doesn’t advance correctly, simply feels the “hardening of the heart” increase, which eventually throws him off track.

We should understand this difference clearly. Both feel the “hardening of the heart,” the one who advances correctly and the one who does not advance correctly. But they interpret it differently and feel their state differently. The one who is advancing correctly is connected to the teacher, to the group, to the Creator, to the study, and doesn’t miss a chance; he is constantly looking for ways to tighten the connection, the mutual guarantee. He understands that only by adhesion to the environment will he be able to discover the Creator inside it.

Thus he feels support. The more he discovers the evil in his attitude towards others, the more it pushes him to connect with them and obligates him to demand from himself and from others to tighten this connection. He envies the success of others who advance and is frustrated when he compares himself to them, but it pushes him to connection and correction.

However, a person who does not advance correctly, which means that he doesn’t look for bestowal and connection with the environment in order to discover the goal of creation in it, but rather aspires for personal success, he cannot receive support from the environment since he hasn’t established this support. Then he feels that this path is not for him. It seems to him that others don’t understand anything, that they are dealing with nonsense, and it is impossible to reach this goal. Eventually he leaves the group.

So we should pay close attention to whether or not we are building the right connection with the environment that must constantly support us. When a person falls, the environment helps him rise, and when he is full of strength, then he has to invest it in the environment, building up “stock” there, thanks to which he will later receive help.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/23/12, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Baal HaSulam, “Letter 50”: “The head of the pleasant future that is expected, God willing, is approaching us. And so I yearn and long for your being near me in your body and soul. (which means that you will come near me and not that I will come near you, which is impossible and also useless).

How sorry I am that last Tishrei, was a great time of good will, but you were not near me at the time…so the sorrow that I felt all of last year because of that goes without saying. The reason for that is pride that crept into you, and to the same extent, the unfounded hatred among you… clearly that if you hate a member of the group, it is a clear sign that you don’t feel absolute love towards me either.

These words were written according to the law of love, the law of adhesion, like in a family where there are not small ones or great ones, but rather, the law of love ties everyone together and is equal for everyone. So, each one should rise above his criticism, according to “He who faults another does so through his own flaws.” Through the eyes of love, no one will seem inferior to others. If you connect according to the law of love “above reason,” you will be able to connect equally with everyone correctly.

If there are some differences among the members of the group, it is a sign of a flaw.

There are good times and bad times, and there are comfortable times and less comfortable times. Although, on the one hand, Kabbalists are above time, motion, and place, and they go through different periods according to their individual time, the general periods also influence them. Therefore, there can be general good times and bad times.

There are times of general awakening from above or times in which it is easier to be awakened from below. So, we must try not to miss such opportunities that are given from above to connect the awakening from above to the awakening from below. Otherwise, it will seem like disrespect.

There are two directions in getting close: each member getting closer, without any discrimination, and every student getting closer to the teacher. Here, everything is examined according to our image, which is a result of our pride and to what extent we can advance in “faith above reason” and understand that it is the Creator who is sending us all these obstacles.

Everyone sees everything the way he is allowed to see it, and he never sees the truth, but by our exertion in “faith above reason,” we draw the Light that Reforms, and by that are rewarded to see the truth.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/23/12

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In studying the wisdom of Kabbalah, we conduct practical scientific research according to the principle, “A judge only has what his eyes see.” In other words, to the extent that we change our nature, we can see the result in the wisdom of Kabbalah. However, these results appear in us. A person is a laboratory. He changes his attributes, and then he discovers a new reality.

Now, I discover a certain dimension within my current attributes, and when I change them, I discover another parallel dimension, and then another and another. These attributes, these layers of reality, are called “levels,” and the wisdom of Kabbalah tells us precisely how I must change myself each time through the society and by the force that develops me that I receive in order to rise to an upper dimension in my new feelings and mind, which are broader and more sublime.

At the same time, my new perception doesn’t erase the previous “picture.” I simply rise higher and higher, by perceiving an upper reality that science talks about. There is no contradiction or conflict between my discoveries and those of science. On the contrary, science seems to be part of my perception.

In fact, tomorrow’s science is actually your perception of the spiritual space. It is “spiritual” in the sense that it appears through the changes in a person.

Thus, we discover the “worlds,” new perceptions, although we don’t know what nature as a whole is. Kabbalists tell us that there are currently 125 levels of the development of our perception before us. I discover each one according to the Reshimot (informational genes), the Masachim (screens), and the degrees of Aviut (the depth of the desire). Everything is calculated and measured; all ticks like clockwork; everything is revealed to me according to the changes that I perform internally. I change, which means that I attain. I change again and attain again, again and again.

Thus, the process continues until the stage called “the end of our correction.” Kabbalists don’t tell us what happens afterward, although they speak about the levels of the seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth millennia and beyond. They end their explanations at the final correction because it is impossible to speak about the rest of the process.

You will have to go through all the 125 levels to the end, and then you will go through another change, a change that you go through since you rise from our world to the spiritual world. This is a true change of perception, an inner revolution that will take place again at the end of correction when you become totally integral, whole, like the Creator. Then, after you are corrected, you will be worthy and ready for something more sublime for which there are no words today. It is because, in the spiritual levels, you already transcend time. You transcend life and death, place and motion, and all the limitations of this world. What is more, we cannot speak about the further stages. Our current mind and feelings simply aren’t able to touch them.

So, now, we discuss another question, a question regarding humanity that, for the time being, perceives the world through five corporeal, animal senses. How can it acquire five additional senses called Keter, Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin and Malchut?

We acquire them according to the level of the correction of the five levels of thickness of our desire, which are the root phase, phase one, two, three, and four. I develop the five senses on top of the thickness that is constantly growing, both quantitatively and qualitatively. My “animal” body remains as it is, while, at the same time, I perceive and identify new parts of nature, layer by layer.

The interesting point is that even the smallest part, which appears in a general, fuzzy scale, still helps me understand and feel all of reality to the end of all the 125 levels.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/23/12, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy“

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We have to accept that the spiritual path is continuous work. However, today, you must overcome the indifference, and tomorrow, you will have to overcome hatred, such strong hatred that you will be ready to do everything but that, the state in which it is beyond your powers to even think about the friends since it is worse than death for you. The friends will evoke such a terrible aversion in you. You will not be able to come in contact with them, to look at them, to think about them. However, at the same time, it is the same type of work, the recognition of the importance of the goal, the importance of the Creator, the importance of the friends, and the importance of the group.

We constantly must “stick” to the same line from morning to night, and, only thus, prepare ourselves for every lesson. Then, to the extent that we attain a certain level of connection and unity, we will discover the spiritual world in it. The level of the connection is the spiritual level that we have attained. Our collective feeling is called the “Creator,” stemming from the words “Come” and “See” (Bo – Reh). Where you can come and see it in the collective feeling. So, if we don’t work on it, there is nothing we can speak about. We must prepare ourselves to constantly be focused only on that.

If you don’t want that, you are wasting your time, and you’d better go and enjoy the worldly pleasures. If you don’t only make efforts in what’s important, then your entire spiritual path is a lie. It is better to enjoy life like “everyone else,” to understand more quickly that we finally should do something. Otherwise, it is as it is written: “A fool sits with folded hands and eats his own flesh.”

Rabash often used to say, “At least go and enjoy life,” since, when a person enjoys life, he thanks the Creator in his heart for having given him this life. You, however, torture yourself, eating yourself up and cursing the Creator. So, go have some fun, drink a beer with friends in the pub, take a walk, start making money, and enjoy life. Well, what’s the matter with you?

If not, we must be decisive in our work. If we have taken it upon ourselves to do something, then we must do what we have taken upon ourselves and not succumb to weakness. The main thing here is the feeling of responsibility. Mutual guarantee is actually mutual responsibility. I am responsible for everyone. If it were only about me, then I would have thrown everything away a long time ago. However, I am responsible for everyone. My conscience shouldn’t let me rest and relax.

So, I shouldn’t wait for special opportunities. I must start worrying now. How will I come to the lesson tomorrow morning? Am I ready to connect with the friends and demand the Light that Reforms? Do I want to create a “place” for adhesion with the Creator?

We need the greatness of the goal, the Creator’s greatness, to burn in us more and more strongly.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/19/12, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” item 98: Now you can see that the question the interpreters asked about the Mitzva of love, saying that this Mitzva is out of our hands, since love does not come by coercion and compulsion, is not at all a question. This is because it is entirely in our hands. Every person can labor in the Torah until he finds the attainment of His open Providence, as it is written, “I labored and found, believe.”

When one attains open Providence, the love extends to him by itself through the natural channels. And one who does not believe that he can attain through his efforts, for whatever reason, is necessarily in disbelief of the words of our sages. Instead, he imagines that the labor is not sufficient for each person, which is the opposite of the verse, “I labored and did not find, do not believe.” It is also against the words, “those that seek Me shall find Me”; specifically, those that “seek,” whoever they are, great or small. However, he certainly needs to labor.

It is because exertion is the “vessel.” It isn’t just a prerequisite like in our world, when I can borrow from the bank or steal if I don’t have money to buy something. In attaining spirituality I have no choice, the money has to be mine! This is my “covering” (Kisufa, from the same Hebrew root as money) over the desire to receive, the Masach (screen). It has to be mine, since otherwise, I won’t be able to feel the filling.

We can “borrow” from the Creator and then repay Him by our exertion, as it says: “The store is open and the hand is writing.” But I can only borrow as help for my development and not for the revelation. In order to attain revelation, I must have my own vessel.

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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/20/12, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Question: How are the right amount and the right quality of the exertion determined?

Answer: Now our efforts should be aimed at trying to see that everything is fulfilled and revealed within the connection among us, in the center of the group.

A person should feel this center of the general connection as an actual reality. After all, it is our first spiritual level. We should try to imagine this connection as hard as we can, in the form of a “crimson sphere,” or as some kind of a collective plate—as a place where all our hopes and expectations should be fulfilled.

It should become the most important and precious place in all of reality. Later we will discover that it is really the most important place, and that everything else are only meaningless results of what we discover in the center of our connection. What will happen in this center at any given moment will bring about an effect that will spread in every direction and influence the whole world.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/19/12, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Question: What kind of exertion brings a person to a spiritual revelation?

Answer: A person’s feelings, thoughts, and experiences constantly change, and it isn’t by chance that it says that there is a clear and accurate law: “I have labored and I found.” The vessels and the Light can’t connect on the speaking level without our exertion. Exertion is the extra deficiency without which the Light can’t be revealed in the vessel on the speaking level, but only on the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate nature.

The reason is that first man was born circumcised (without desires to receive), which means that he was a holy animal, an angel. Thanks to the shattering of the vessels, the vessels that carry the essence of the Creator mixed with the vessels that are actually the essence of the created being. Thus, part of the Creator and part of the created being connect inside one vessel.

A person’s feelings, experiences, and thoughts change, but they don’t belong to him. These are the results of the game between the vessel and the Light that create these feelings in us. But by exerting myself, by trying to connect the vessels that are separate from one another by an abyss of mutual hatred, I seemingly overcome this hate and thus add my participation on the part of the vessel.

This is my exertion. Thus I judge both myself and the whole world to the scale of merit.

It turns out that the level of the speaking was not created from above. From above, we only received the level of animate. The first man, our initial soul, was an animal. But after the shattering, we receive very opposite discernments by which we can establish our own deficiencies. By our exertion we attain a new deficiency that didn’t exist previously, and this new deficiency is on the speaking level.

It’s different from the other deficiencies on the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate nature in this world, and which are not considered a created being in the soul. A created being is actually the deficiency we generate by our exertion! This deficiency wasn’t created by the Creator, and so it can rightfully be called a free, created being that wants to bring the Creator contentment. This is in fact a new desire, a new created being that was created by our exertion.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/19/12, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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