Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, Article 19: “Come Unto Pharaoh – 1”: And about that it says, “Come unto Pharaoh,” which means that we shall go together, that I will also go with you, so that I will change nature and I want you to ask only for Me, so that I will help you change your nature and turn it from the desire to receive to the desire to bestow.

This is a very important moment, when we cannot do anything by ourselves. First we ask for something global and rely on ourselves in every other aspect, hoping to manage by ourselves and to leave the Creator only “His part.” But the more we advance up the ladder or towards the exodus from Egypt, before the ascent to the first level, we see more clearly that we are weak and that we cannot do anything right, not even one action, not a thought or an intention. I actually grow weaker along the way, and so it says: “And the sons of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried out.”

But then it says, “and their cry rose up to G-d.” It’s then that we have an opportunity to pray, to ask, to demand. This is to what we are led.

According to my advancement, I grow weaker and my prayer, my request for help, grows until I reach a state in which I cannot do anything, the darkness and powerlessness take hold of me and at the same time I reach a whole request. Until then, things don’t move.

So it’s clear that I cannot manage without the support of the group, without the friends’ mutual guarantee. I feel that I’m falling down further: I lose my powers, the goal grows pale and doesn’t attract me forward, my motivation disappears and the evil inclination grows before my very eyes while the point in the heart descends further downward and there is nothing left. The good Pharaoh gradually becomes evil and vicious to such an extent that it seems that there is no way I can be free of his domination. So where can I find the urge, the attraction, to carry on if not from the group?

Generally speaking, I reach a state of hopelessness and maximum separation (∆) between the current state and the desired one. Still I refuse to withdraw; I have to come out to the Light…
[103991]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/31/13, Writings of Rabash

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Question: How is it possible to check whose servant you are: a servant of Pharaoh or a servant of the Creator? How is this examination realized, intellectually or emotionally?

Answer: We check with the mind what we feel in our heart. A heart is all the desires of a person, and I need to check who controls my desires: the will to receive with an intention in order to receive or with an intention in order to bestow. The will to receive is always there; it is the substance of creation, but I must examine for what I am working.

This examination is done only through the group. In our physical world we cannot measure anything without a scale of measurement. We require some unit of measurement: a meter, a kilogram, Hertz, a measurement scale with which I will be able to measure and weigh some phenomenon.

How can I weigh a desire and my intention that controls it? This is only possible depending on how I adhere to the group and associate myself with the whole. Through this I can measure myself and change something within me. Otherwise, I will always be mistaken.

Therefore, “And you shall love your neighbor as yourself” is called the fundamental rule in the Torah for it controls everything. If I do not place myself correctly relative to society, I will not be able to see where I am at all. With my measurements, I will not be able to discern any error, neither the smallest nor the largest.
[103981]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/31/13

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Question: What is the meaning of adhering to the group?

Answer: To adhere to the group is to be with the friends in the entire process through which they are passing, to perform the tasks, to participate in all the events: in studies, dissemination, duties, gatherings of friends, workshops, and paying maaser. I need to try to be a useful and active participant in all this. These are mechanical actions of joining a group, which are visible.

Besides this, within myself, I wholeheartedly try to be included in this image called a “group,” to disappear, to melt there. I want to be absorbed within this concept of the “group,” the “society,” so that nothing of me remains.

If I try to do this according to my egoistic motives, to the extent of my efforts, I become closer to the Light, and It brings me thoughts about this and shows how appropriate I am to it or not. So, I begin to demand that the Light correct me more. I begin to relate to my inclusion in a group in a more practical way, connecting this inclusion with the Light that influences me and helps me to enter a group.

It follows that the more I am included in it, the more states I begin to discern: greater or smaller inclusion, how much I forget about myself, how much more I belong to the friends, how much more or less I love them. Only according to this do I evaluate my ascents and descents, since no other ascents and descents exist.

And so together with everyone, I turn to the upper Light that makes of us one whole. And here the work begins. All measurements and evaluations take place only in regard to the group because without this there is no correct measuring scale, there is no correction with which I would be able to examine myself.

I have no indication and evaluation of my emotions, not in relation to the Creator and not in relation to myself, if we don’t do this within the group. The group is the place where I feel, measure, and carry out all spiritual actions.

There is no other place outside of it! There, in the group, I need to discover hatred and my ego, all of my characteristics. All that is discovered outside the group doesn’t require any correction. Only what is discovered in the relationships between the friends, this is the only thing that we need to correct. Pharaoh, the ego is the force of mutual rejection and of hatred that is discovered in a group. And outside the group, this is all the physical life of the animal body.
[103976]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/31/13

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Question: This evening we are arranging a special lesson symbolizing the end of the Passover holiday, the departure from the ego. How do we need to approach this with a maximum request to cross the Machsom?

Answer: This comes suddenly. Nobody knows exactly when, nobody can predict anything. But Baal HaSulam writes that the time of Passover is a very important time; in our world it’s a special time regarding the Surrounding Lights.

Indeed, the departure can take place any time, any day, but at the same time we need to do as much as possible according to the communication of the physical branch with the spiritual root. We have a chance, and for this a great cooperative effort is required, likewise a little chutzpah (audacity).

– We deserve it!

– Why?

– Because!

This is compulsory. Regarding this it’s said: “My sons have defeated me.” Though I know that I don’t deserve it, in spite of it all, I demand, apply pressure, and this audacity is very useful because it shows that I am going beyond the limits of my ego, I believe that I depend on the Creator and it’s specifically from Him that I demand what I want. Here lies not just an emotional outburst but a deliberate shout, a necessary assault in His direction: “Do it!” That is how new Kelim, additional deficiencies, are aroused in me.

Question: What is needed in order to build this demand throughout the day?

Answer: It is necessary to concentrate on the opposition formed at the time of the departure from “Egypt,” on connection and elevation above our individual and collective ego. In general, we require a demand with the addition of audacity. And the main thing is unity. And don’t be distracted by anything else.

Question: How must one be audacious about this request and at the same time ask on behalf of everyone, together with everyone?

Answer: It’s written that we leave Egypt in the dark of night. This doesn’t say that it’s necessary to wait until it gets dark outside and to turn out the lights at home. No, this is darkness of the ego, which we feel inside of us when nothing more can save us and there is no possibility of escape.

We need to run toward the center of the group, toward love of friends, toward love of another. It’s necessary to concentrate on this; we require the importance of only this. The Light reveals the Kelim and corrects them. Everything comes from that except for the request for help.
[103943]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/31/13, Writings of Rabash

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Question: When men unite, they cause a feeling of incomparable thrill in women. We, women, are looking very much forward to this.

Answer: You should not wait for this. You need to act. Otherwise, nothing will happen. You should pressure men, help them, that is, behave like a wife at home in relation to her husband. That is how the entire women’s part of the world group must affect the men’s part. In principle, the soul is composed of male and female parts, and the Creator is between them.

You should not rely on men only. On their own, they would not have built the world. They cannot give birth, raise children, and perform household duties. That is why they need support, help, direction, and pressure. This is what a woman usually does at home, helping her husband.

The entire Kli (vessel) is the women’s part, not the men’s. The men do attract the Light, but to the women’s desire, to the women’s aspiration. Thus, it is necessary to match the women’s and men’s parts correctly. However, don’t wait! On the contrary, if you do not cause an urgent need to attract the Light in men, they will not do that. This is how we are organized.
[103925]
From the European Convention in Germany 3/23/13, Lesson 4

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Question: It is said that he who cleaves to the Upper One does not fail, that he is above all problems. How can we increase the desire to cleave to the Creator, to overcome all adversities, and rise above everything that we feel from the Creator?

Answer: We have already discussed that a person cannot do anything alone. Those problems that the Creator gives us just seem personal. No one has personal problems because of the Kli (vessel) that became shattered in the world of Nikudim. In other words, the soul of Adam that was in the world of Atzilut was common, and all the problems are the demonstration of the shattering of the correct, common state. That is why it is impossible to say that I am uncorrected. There is no human being who was like that because I am uncorrected only in my attitude toward the common state that was originally created.

The shattering occurred not in every one of us but between the parts of the common soul, and that is why we need to correct the connection between us. This is very important. We need to remember this and constantly try to imagine the corrected state, and then we suddenly will see how the general mosaic comes together and turns into a beautiful, joint Lego, and the upper world is manifested in this combination.

Question: When we are connected together, the Light passes through us to the 99% of humanity. In this case, do we need to cleave to the Creator more strongly to be able to transmit the Light more?

Answer: Of course. This is because the world will demand more and more from us. It is in a critical state even now. We need to perceive its state as a plea to us because when a baby who is feeling bad is crying, his parents guess what he wants. So, are we: The world screams, it feels bad, and we must guess what it needs. It needs unity. That is why we must act in this way.
[103921]
From the European Convention in Germany 3/23/13, Lesson 4

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Question: If the group has someone with an addiction and he has fallen from the general process, what efforts does it have to make in order to be in partnership with the Creator and to overcome our enemy, the ego?

Answer: The Creator doesn’t respond to a person’s individual requests. He actually does respond but not really in the person’s favor, since the person doesn’t give Him a chance to be revealed.

Suppose, I cry out now that I expect the Creator to be revealed to me. I have books and everything that I need! I lock myself in a room and begin to think, to shout, and to suffer.

Will the Creator be revealed to me? No. Why not? Where is the resistance that we build between us? Where is the enemy? He is gone. Where is the place in which He should be revealed?

The Creator should be revealed in the resistance, in the ego, in the fact that I cannot connect with the friends and ask for His help. Only then is He revealed!

But if I think about myself and only mumble: “Well, reveal Yourself to me,” then it will lead to nothing. Why should He reveal Himself?

“I want to rise to you…” what does it mean to rise to Him? It means to become equal to Him, to be close to Him in my attributes. What does it mean to be close to Him in my attributes? One unique and special. This means that the more we connect, the closer we are to Him, and so He is revealed in us.

There are seven billion people in the world. When we begin to rise, then in the next level we will feel that we are like one billion and then like one million, and then as one hundred people, and finally as one. This is the ladder upon which we ascend to the Creator.

But if I cry out: “Raise me, reveal Yourself to me!” Then, how can He reveal Himself? There is nothing in you; you are but a point. Only our world can be felt in a point.

Today, His condition is that you can succeed only if you begin to connect and at the same time worry about the whole world. See what a crisis He has put the world into. This is what Baal HaSulam writes about. Only by thinking about the whole world do we gradually begin to rise.

On every level humanity will feel that it is becoming smaller, more compact, and its members will feel closer to one another like in a group, until we all become one. Only when we become one, will we be equal to the Creator.

So we have no other choice but to start connecting in order to reveal Him and to see that we cannot do it by ourselves,

How many times have we read the passage from The Zohar about Rabbi Shimon’s students who were great sages and were on the level of Arich Anpin of Atzilut, the highest level of attainment, which is the revelation of the Creator, the feeling of the upper world. See how they hated one another so intensely that they were ready to kill each other when they started writing The Book of Zohar.

We have to reach such states in which we demand that the Creator be present so that He will connect us. But the relations between us are cold: I don’t really feel like it; I am in a bad mood… we haven’t even reached the feeling of hatred yet.
[103862]
From the European Convention in Germany 3/23/13, Lesson 3

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Question: People in whom the point in the heart has been revealed have freewill, while 99% of people feel depressed. It turns out that we are one big family that has a goal in life, and therefore we are happy.

Answer: Of course we are one big family since only one vessel, one desire, was created initially. Then it was shattered to billions of individual desires. So there are seven billion people in the world today. Now we have to reconnect, but this time by our collective efforts. This, of course, happens under the influence of the upper Light, since we can’t do it by ourselves. The Light does everything, but we have to take this whole system through the integral connection, which means to become one unique whole again.

What’s going on here? First, we were one unique whole. Then under the influence of the upper Light, we began to feel egoistically repulsed by one another, and our vessel was shattered.

This means that the Light has inserted its opposite attribute into us, and now there are gaps between us, emotional distances: I can’t stand the other and he and I can’t live together, why? It’s because the Light has inserted an ego in us, the resistance between us, the darkness.

If we annul this opposite attribute now, by demanding that the Light influence us, then it will illuminate for us again, but according to our desire to rise above the ego now. So it turns out that if before the Light illuminated us on the level of the Light of Nefesh, which is a very faint Light, now it illuminates on the level of the Light of Yechida for us, which is a great eternal Light.

This is all our gain. In other words, the repulsion that we feel, all the gaps and the spaces between us, have to be filled with the Light.
[103561]
From the European Convention in Germany 3/22/13, Lesson 2

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Question: Even Ezra said that the generation that came out of Egypt felt the burden of slavery and lost its spirit. And that is why it could not fight against its master before the new generation of the desert grew up, the generation that did not know exile and thus its spirit was not broken. In what generation are we today?

Answer: We are in Egypt, under the dominance of our egoism, and first of all, we must rise above it. One thing is to become free from a foreign power, and another thing is to fight against it. They flee Egypt, instead of fighting the Egyptians. After all, this whole path through the Red Sea is completely a flight. We have no strength to fight our egoism; we need just to run away from it and rise. Only hatred for our egoism raises and separates us from our ego.

And then, there is a stage when we begin to correct this egoism. We do not return to Egypt to do that; we took the vessels from there and now begin to connect them to ourselves and correct all these desires, which we have risen above.

The first stage of correcting desires is called the generation of the desert when we correct these desires from reception to bestowal. And then there follows the generation of the conquerors of the land of Israel, which is called reception for the sake of bestowal.

Among the people of Israel, there are forces that can go ahead and lead the rest, similar to Moses, who brought the people out of Egypt. There are people with spiritual attainment who have already risen above egoism and have connected with other souls. They understand the entire process, know what to do in the given moment, and have to lead the others.

We are talking about people who study Kabbalah because it is impossible to return to the Source without the Light that Reforms. And this Light can be drawn only by studying Kabbalah, which is designed for this.

There are such people! We are able to move forward and pull a lot of people who are watching our TV programs, studying with us through the television or the Internet, studying in our courses, attending lectures, and thus they advance. That is why they have a real chance to become free with us, to rise above their egoism and feel what is called freedom, what it means to be a Jew, which is to be united with others (Yechud).

They will learn what it means to be in the land of Israel, that is, in the desire for the Creator (Yashar-El), for bestowal and love for others. In this way, we can succeed in all the spheres of our material life and eliminate all the problems around us.

The main thing is the spirit of unity. If we had related to the entire people of Israel with such a feeling of community as to our family members, sitting together with us at the festive table, if we had embraced everyone, this would have been most of the efforts that we need to make to come out of Egypt.
[103598]
From KabTV’s “Kabbalists Write: The Night of Passover Seder” 3/4/13

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Question: What does it mean to address the Creator?

Answer: To address the Creator means to demand from the inner forces of the world that hold and control it to be clearly manifested in us. We have to know this force, be in contact with it, and to act with its help. That is why we ask, demand, it to be revealed.

It does not matter to the Creator how you address Him. You can curse Him, just do not leave!
[103681]
From the European Convention in Germany 3/22/13, Lesson 2

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