Question: Why is it customary to have a meal on Pesach evening when the entire family sits around the table?

Answer: Pesach is a special holiday because it symbolizes the birth of the Israeli nation. It says that it is only after the exodus from Egypt that they become a nation, and that we cannot be called a nation as long as we are separated and divided, and the egoistic force tears us to pieces. It is only when we resist these foreign forces and try to connect that we discover the force of unity that ties us and that we become a nation. Therefore the Israeli nation today is not called a nation according to the true Kabbalistic definition.

Comment: This state of division was very strongly revealed during the elections in Israel that ended not too long ago and divided the nation into many parties and movements. The internal division is increasingly growing and deepening.

Answer: These elections were very harmful to the nation since we celebrate the fact that we have conflicts and that we hate one another. During the election’s propaganda, we emphasized these differences and everyone tried to harm the other as much as he could. This is terribly harmful to our nation, although it is called democracy. After all, the entire basis of the Israeli nation is unity above all the obstacles and the differences.

Question: But, what should we do if our opinions differ?

Answer: This is a very good thing! It is actually the connection between plus and minus that generates energy. It is good that we don’t share the same opinions. We only must learn how to connect above all the differences. Therefore, the connection to which the wisdom of Kabbalah brings us is far from being a simple idea. We must find the special force in nature that will help us unite despite our differences and oppositeness. The opposite opinions remain, but we know how to make peace between us above them so that love will cover all the sins. This is a very profound principle. We are both sinners, you and I, but we build a bridge above the hate we feel towards one another.

The Book of Zohar tells us that Rabbi Shimon’s ten students who sat in a cave and wrote this book hated each other so much when they began to study at midnight they wanted to burn one another. But, to the extent that they studied together and made efforts in order to gradually build the bridge above their burning hatred, they reached spiritual revelations about which they tell us later in The Book of Zohar. Such a bridge can be built only above opposite opinions.

Question: Does that mean that whenever we have disputes, we always can build a bridge above them?

Answer: We can always build a bridge above our disputes, and moreover, it is forbidden to pressure a person to force him to concede and change his opinion. The more different his opinion is from the others, the better it is.

Question: So, what will build the bridge between us?

Answer: For example, we can take an electric or electronic system that actually works thanks to the fact that it burns energy as a result of the potential gap between two electric wires that reach it. When we are in a conflict and opposite one another because of our egoistic nature, and, at the same time, connect above it, these two levels create spiritual attainment within us. We attain the spiritual world in the potential gap when we discover and get to know not only our current corporeal world, but also the upper world. The attainment of the spiritual world is called a soul.
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From Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 3/15/15

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Question: I don’t feel myself enslaved; it seems to me that I am a free man. So how is the instruction on the Passover holiday to represent myself as leaving the servitude of Egypt every year relevant to me?

Answer: It seems that we are free because we don’t feel that we depend upon each other. We try to arrange our lives so as not to be associated with anyone, so nobody will bother us. That is our nature.

For the sake of this independence, we invent new computers and mobile phones. In every house there are so many household appliances that require minimal help from others. This makes it easier for our egoistic nature, and we carry out its demands: I don’t touch anyone and try not to have anyone touch me.

But basically, all of us are connected and interdependent. It becomes clear that all the still, vegetative, and animate nature also constitute a single integral system in which everything is connected with everything else. So the wisdom of Kabbalah warns us that we depend upon one another and we will yet discover this dependence in the future.

If we don’t attain unity, then it will be very bad for us. In the meantime, we don’t feel the necessity for this to any great degree and because the wisdom of Kabbalah was not disclosed in the bondage of the previous generations, thousands of years it was in hiding. We didn’t have a need for it as we were not ready to discover that we are interdependent.

But today the whole world feels this mutual dependence. To the degree that it discovers this negative connection, it will turn to the Jewish people, for only this people possesses the method that makes it possible to unite above all differences.

There is a very great demand for this method in the world today. Therefore if we don’t convey this method to other people, we will feel very strong pressure. Anti-Semitism will continue to grow and the nations of the world will bring more and more claims against the Jewish people, blaming us for all their troubles.

They won’t exactly know the reason for their hatred towards us, but it is derived specifically from that. This pressure can be expressed in different ways, as we see in the attitude of the United States towards Israel deteriorating day by day.

Question: When you look at the world today, would you define our state as slavery?

Answer: Certainly, we are enslaved to our nature. I am always carrying out the commands of my inner nature and I obey them without any clarification, criticism, or opposition. I am simply not prepared to go against it.

My egoistic desire demands that I succeed and obtain benefit without considering anyone else. And if I am in an integral connection with others, how could I not take them into consideration?  I become limited in all of my actions.

Question: So the problem isn’t in my doing well,  but my doing so at the expense of others?

Answer: I cannot even succeed that way. Today not even an entire nation can succeed if it is isolated from others. All of them are discovering the necessity for connection with each other, but they cannot do this correctly. Nobody knows how to establish good connections between them: America, Russia, China, Europe, Jews, and Arabs.

Nobody can succeed and go out in the first place if it isn’t done through a totally good connection. It follows that the most successful will be the one who most accurately takes our mutual connections into account and acts accordingly. And this is what going out from slavery to freedom symbolizes. Everyone, all of humanity, must learn this.
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From Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 3/15/15

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In order to come to the state of “Passover,” we must reach such a level of development where we are unable to work with egoism; we need to rise above it.

The outburst of egoism happened for the first time in Babylon. Against this eruption that took place when the population was not large, Abraham, a priest of ancient Babylon, discovered the system of ascent above egoism.

Several thousand people accepted this method, and they went together with him to the land of Canaan, present-day Israel. Abraham taught his followers what it meant to be in love with each other, rising above the ego and constantly stepping over one’s ego—Pesach (from the word Pasach, to pass).

Our ego is growing constantly, and we are growing above it, covering it by the law of “… love covereth all transgressions.” Transgressions remain, but, the greater they are—up to immense hatred—the greater love appears between us.

We do not hide our hatred, are not ashamed of it, because we understand that it comes from human nature, and our task is to identify in nature the next, positive force that will give us the opportunity to cover hatred with love.

Then, we will be in a constant state of spiritual elevation. However, hatred will determine the height of the love with which we cover it.

It turns out that we can continue to grow constantly. That is, each transition from stage to stage will become Passover (Pesach), the holiday that is always with you.
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From KabTV’s “Conversations about Passover,” 3/18/15

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Question: Why does it say that in every generation a person should see himself as if he came out of Egypt?

Answer: It isn’t about historical events but about states that we should undergo in every generation. Although we have already been through a certain process that brings us closer to one another and to society and we have corrected ourselves in some way and our forefathers have done the same in their generations, our children have to repeat the same process.

Everyone is born in his ego, since a person’s nature is evil from his birth, and we have to continuously overcome it and get closer to one another. But this process isn’t infinite and we are already in the last generations that have to end the correction.

In the past this process continued from one generation to the next, and now there are only a few generations left to complete it as we tie all the generations together in the one-generation of the Messiah. This is called the last generation since it sums all the actions that bring us closer to one another and then we reach the best state.

Comment: Unfortunately, we don’t see that today’s society is getting closer to the corrected state. Every day we hear about new incidents of violence on the news. I would rather call our state: catastrophic and uncorrected.

Answer: That’s true and still I am very optimistic. We see the same sequence of events in the exile in Egypt. It also begins in a very nice way in seven years of satiety when the Jews live a wonderful life in Egypt and hold the best and highest posts. Moses becomes Pharaoh’s adopted son and is raised in the palace on Pharaoh’s lap as the prince of Egypt. It seems that one could not wish for a better life. But then the seven years of hunger suddenly arrive. The children of Israel sigh under the hard work. A new king emerges in Egypt and they begin to feel how the darkness grows until the ten plagues of Egypt arrive. These plagues rain down upon us, from Pharaoh, which means our ego, and they actually help us escape and force us to change our attitude to life: to unite.

Today we feel that the period of the darkness of Egypt is starting once again, but it is general, global, and worldwide. This darkness is meant to bring us closer to redemption, but first it will be very dark. We can understand that the darkness is the sign of a new bright and wonderful state; it indicates that we want to get closer to one another, but we cannot. As a result we don’t need to receive strong blows because we already feel that we lack the force of love and bestowal.

But if we disrespect one another, the blows of Egypt will certainly come. This means that everything depends on us now. If we understand with glance, like a child who understands his parent’s warning and improves his behavior, then there is no need for the blows.

But if the child doesn’t listen, he has to be punished and eventually will do what is required of him. Everything depends on how well we can listen to what the wisdom of Kabbalah tells us. Let’s hope that we will listen to its warnings.
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From Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 3/15/15

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Passover reminds us not only of the past, but also of the future.

From time immemorial, Passover evening has united Jewish families around the holiday table. The feast is spelled out in every detail, yet is foreign to formalism, and its unhurried ceremony revives the exit from Egyptian slavery.

But if we came out of Egypt, then why do we again repeat: “This year we are slaves, next year we will be free?”

Our sources state that behind the known events and ups and downs, there is one more layer of information that is not so much about history but about human relationships. Or rather, it is about the unity and mutual understanding that the Jewish people reached and is so necessary, not only to the Jewish people, but especially today to the whole of humanity.
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Question: Why do we drink wine during the holidays, particularly the tradition of drinking four glasses of wine at the Pesach (Passover) meal?

Answer: Wine symbolizes the Light of fulfillment (Hochma) that comes down to us during the holidays, thus letting us undergo a certain spiritual ascent.

Wine is not just a symbol of joy. Rather, it proves that we constantly enhance our connection and get closer to revelation of the upper spiritual world.

As soon as we reach a state called the crossing of the Red Sea and transcend from mutual detachment to reciprocal connection, we will happen to reveal new, benevolent relationships among us called the upper world.

There are four steps that we should go through in order to build a good connection among us. They are symbolized by the traditional four glasses of wine that we drink during the Pesach meals.
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From Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 3/15/15

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Question: Is there a reason for all our problems?

Answer: If there is a conflict with our spouse, our children, our neighbors, at work, and even within ourselves it means that our ego, called Pharaoh, dominates us.

Question:  But the slavery in Egypt, which the Torah tells us about, was only in ancient times and ended a long time ago.

Answer: Pharaoh dominates us all the time, even right now. The events described in the Torah are not related to a certain time and are not a historical story. We are still enslaved to the same ego, to our egoistic nature, which doesn’t allow us to live a normal life.

We live in a special world today, in a special time. We are all connected in one network to an integral world, an integral economy, and depend on one another. If the international community imposes certain sanctions against any country, it cuts off its connections with that country , like Iran for example, this state falls, since everyone depends on everyone else.

This shows us what an integral world we are living in, in which everyone is connected to one another. If we don’t keep the good relations in this interdependent world, we harm ourselves.

Therefore, if we don’t manage to fix the relationships between all the nations, all the countries, and all the political parties within a country, we will simply destroy ourselves. Nothing can help us if we are opposite to the general law of nature.

Question: But it is a fact that we don’t get along with each other and we still go on living.

Answer: There is a limit to this confrontation: how large it can grow and how long it can continue. The reason for this confrontation is our nature, which forces each of us to think only about himself. But a person doesn’t understand that his own good and wellbeing depend on everyone else. Our foolish ego operates in such a primitive way. People cannot understand that if we connect with good relationships with others we  will only benefit.

Question: It seems contrary that in ancient primitive societies people were more closely connected and that we draw further apart as we develop.

Answer: Don’t consider ancient societies as primitive. They realized that they depended on each other and that they were connected and couldn’t survive without these connections.

The problem of modern society is that we have reached such a high level through technological progress that it seems that we can live independently of each nother and so each one locks himself in his apartment with his cell phone and his computer and doesn’t want to see anyone. The main point is that he shouldn’t be touched.

This lack of connection between us, or the negative ties, are called Pharaoh, our ego. We don’t want to consider others and we don’t understand that we are mutually connected in one network and this is especially true for the nation of Israel. We always need to value ourselves according to this scale: the extent that we are against others or for them.

The whole Torah is only about “love thy friend as thyself,” which is the great rule of the Torah. This rule includes everything and there is nothing but reaching the right unity.
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From Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 3/15/15

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Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Halevi Epstein, Maor va Shemesh (Light of the Sun): The writing implies that the goal of the creation was that no bestowal should descend unless by intervention from below and the raising of MAN, which the assembly of Israel awaken, and, by raising MAN, all the worlds thus ascend and add to the desire to adhere to their root.

This is the main delight for the Creator, that Israel purify themselves from the depths of corporeality and yearn to adhere to their Maker.

There is the Light of Ein Sof (Infinity) and the vessel of Ein Sof. The vessel of Ein Sof is all of humanity, and there is a pipe between them with a valve or a tap, which is us. The more strongly we unite, the more we open that tap, the greater the flow of the upper abundance that reaches the vessel of Ein Sof, all of humanity, through us.

Therefore, everything depends on the assembly of Israel, on the connection of the people in whom the Reshimot (reminiscences) have awoken that oblige them to yearn to the Creator, which means to look for a special connection with Him. On the other hand, they can be connected with the whole, great vessel of all of humanity.

We must determine a mutual connection both with the upper level and with the lower level in order to connect them through us. To the extent that we unite in this work, we will attain bestowal.

At first, this work is depicted to us as if there is the Upper Light above and a big vessel below, and we are in the middle like a pipe that conveys the Light. When we connect, we open the pipe and the Light and abundance flows through them to the lower, corrects, connects, and fills them.

But it is only now that we believe in this schematic form. Later, we will see that it’s a bit different, that the Creator is already in the big vessel of humanity, and therefore we enter that vessel in order to meet the Creator.

It is by our connection that we allow Him to be revealed in the created beings, but He is already in them. All this work takes on a different form. We begin to feel that the Creator and the created beings are adhered as one, and only we are external to this connection and unity. This is the second phase of the work, and then there is also a third phase.

In the meantime, we must picture this work this way, as if we were a pipe with a tap and that, according to our connection, we are rewarded with conveying the Light from the Surrounding to the surrounded, which means from Ein Sof of the Light to the Ein Sof of the vessel.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/25/14, Talk about the Importance of Unity

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Our good fortune depends upon establishing good relationships between us. I try to do this in every way, but suddenly there is an explosion and somebody takes me out of balance and away from the right direction. In order to maintain this intention, we must have general agreement, a system of education that is designed especially for this purpose..

This is what must be taught to children at school, so that they will not behave the way they do today. This is a nationwide problem that must be solved on a national scale, and doesn’t just depend on someone’s desire or lack of desire.

No one wants this since it is contrary to our ego and not easy to realize. So we must create a system of education that will bring us closer to one another.

Our entire salvation is only in this. Two thousand years ago the people of Israel lost their land precisely because of unfounded hatred. Today we have again found ourselves in a dangerous situation, so let’s get closer to each other.

Baal HaSulam writes: All of our hope is in recreating a national education that is designed to discover the natural love that is latent in our people so that by all means we will go back and revive the same national muscles which have not operated in us for two millennia.

From the days of our father Abraham, who left Babylon, until the destruction of the second Beit HaMikdash (Temple), that is, for about 1,500 hundred years, the people of Israel lived in complete unity.

Question: What does it mean to live in unity? Does it mean that there won’t be any quarrels with one’s wife at home?

Answer: For this, it is necessary to have education that will lead to good attitudes, including women and children.

Question: This sounds like some kind of utopia. What exactly will happen with people? Will they stop being egoists?

Answer: People will be able to control their ego. You won’t do this to become good and to not quarrel with your wife, but because through quarreling, you are destroying the lives of all people in the world. This is specifically you, and even because you quarreled with your wife.

Imagine that your relationship with your wife influences the relationships of an immense number of men with their wives, because you are a Jew.

Question: So if a Frenchman quarrels with his wife, this doesn’t influence others as strongly?

Answer: No, this doesn’t have an influence in the way that a Jewish man quarreling with his wife does. This is because Jews are the first in the general system who must realize the law of Arvut (mutual guarantee), the connection between everyone. And after that, the whole world must also be included in this law of Arvut, in the general unity. It is specifically towards general unity that nature is pushing us, towards general unity.
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From Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 3/08/15

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Question: I would very much like to see the realization of that same unity of the people that you describe. But I see that we are still very far from such unity. Everywhere fights erupt on all levels: in the home, at work, in the government.

On the other hand, you said that my duty is to correct the world and bring everyone to unity, as if the whole world were on my shoulders. How can I work with the whole world?

Answer: Try to imagine that you can correct the world. This world is given to us for the same work that Abraham did in ancient Babylon.

He began to unite and connect people by explaining that the general rule, “And you shall love your friend as yourself” is the principal law. It is impossible to live in contradiction and opposition to this law; otherwise, we arouse and attract troubles and disasters upon ourselves.

A part of the people heard Abraham and left Babylon with him. They formed the people of Israel who lived many years according to these principles. We don’t understand the uniqueness of the Jewish people, but this uniqueness has been maintained until today only because this people lived according to the principle of bestowal and  love, unity.

For this reason the Jewish people are unique, and all of them agreed to this. Today we don’t live according to these principles, and in spite of all this, some kind of particle of this remains in us, which is received somewhere as a memory. And through this uniqueness of the people of Israel, we still receive benefit from our former unity.

There is no choice; today we are again approaching the same situation. Arrange life for the whole world and ourselves is possible only by bringing ourselves to resemblance and equivalence with nature. And nature is entirely integral and connected; all of its elements complement each other.

Modern science is discovering this integrality and mutual connection, and we must begin to approach it. For this we need to rise above our ego to general unity. We hope for success, quickly and soon.
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From Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 2/8/15

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