There isn’t a more important state than our current state, since this is where our spiritual evolution begins. It is in our situation, in our condition, that the exit to the first spiritual level is possible. It cannot be any other way. Everyone starts off this way. We are given a special opportunity and we have to use all the means that we are given in order to bring ourselves to the feeling of exile, to feeling that we are in chains and in the worst possible state under the domination of Pharaoh.

Pharaoh controls even our smallest thought, our smallest desire, wherever we turn and whatever we do. Every impulse and every move we make stem from him; every thought and every stream of consciousness, every desire and all the desires that stem from it, are all determined by the ego. No matter which way we go and how far we try to move away from evil, we remain in the ego.

A person determines that he cannot leave exile, although he really wants to exit it and makes many attempts, many great efforts, and exerts himself, but it leads to nothing. When he cries out desperately with the last powers he has left for only this last cry, a miracle takes place and he comes out of Egypt.

Now he begins to understand and to feel what it means to be under the influence of the Light. He comes out of his enslavement to his desire and voluntarily becomes enslaved to the Light, by choosing to be under the domination of the attribute of bestowal, above reason.

He knows that he is becoming a slave, that he is enslaving himself, and that he isn’t free anymore, but he is free of the desire to receive and from his beloved self, about whom he constantly worries. He is under another kind of domination and actually wants to be under this domination.

There is no neutral state on the way between egoistic Egypt and complete bestowal. A person immediately moves from one kind of domination to another, but he wants it and yearns for it even when he is still in Egypt. Besides the repulsion, the hatred, and the rejection he feels towards the state in Egypt, he also yearns for the total domination of the Light so that it will totally rule him, guide him, and manage him.

This is how we should prepare ourselves internally. Let’s hope that we are somehow ready for that and as for all the rest – the Lord will complete the work for us.
[132569]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/13/14, Writings of Rabash

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Psalms 121: A song for ascents. I shall raise my eyes to the mountains, from where will my help come?
My help is from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.
He will not allow your foot to falter; Your Guardian will not slumber.
Behold, the Guardian of Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord is your Guardian; the Lord is your shadow; [He is] by your right hand.
By day, the sun will not smite you, nor will the moon at night.
The Lord will guard you from all evil; He will guard your soul.
The Lord will guard your going out and your coming in from now and to eternity.

We have to raise our deficiencies for the correction of Malchut, the shattered vessel, the shattered soul, until we reach the head of the world of Atzilut, from where will my help come, I shall raise my eyes to the mountains, which means to rise above every mountain of doubt. This ascent is according to the equivalence of form that I want to attain. Of course, I cannot do so at the moment, but I want to ascend there.

This is where my help will come from, my help is from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth, which means that He creates Malchut by the attributes of Bina and Zeir Anpin, HaVaYaH connects them.

A person can express his request this way from every state he is in, from the day and from the night, in order to discover that the Guardian of Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. All these days will accumulate and the Creator will help us and will dwell in the unity between us according to our yearning to unite.

We must not forget that we have to prepare a platform, a place for the Divinity. All our work is with the connection in a practical and down to earth manner, despite all the troubles and the obstacles. There are no coincidences in life, everything is arranged and organized to the very last detail from Above so that we will connect in these conditions.

The higher we ascend, the lower we descend by receiving more obstacles. Thus the shattered vessel, the shattered soul, is revealed until we clarify all its parts that we have to connect in order to attain the first spiritual level.

The main thing is to ascend to the first level of the spiritual ladder. All the other levels follow one another in a chain of cause and effect. They all have the same nature and the most difficult thing is to make the transition from the nature of in order to receive to in order to bestow.

Then there is the same manner of ascent according to the same rules. More and more details are revealed and the impression certainly changes, but it isn’t the initial transition of our nature anymore. So the main thing is to overcome the first level.
[132503]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/11/14

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Question: How can I delight the Creator if I don’t feel Him?

Answer: This is why we are given a group and all of humanity. It says: “I dwell among my people.” If I try to delight humanity, my group, then by exiting myself and entering them, I will feel the Creator. 

The Creator is felt in the center of the group. When we operate in the group we discover something common in its center: a common desire in which we discover the Creator. It is because the Creator is in the innermost point and His vessel is the common desire: our common intentions and the common desire of the group. In order to be attracted to Him, we need to build another more external layer, which is the whole world.

It is impossible to work only with regards to the Creator since He is concealed. But if I am incorporated into the group and constantly invest in it to such an extent that eventually I want to give myself to the group and melt into it, I discover the Creator within it, because I have already attained the attributes that match Him in some way.
[132097]

From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/03/14, Questions and Answers with Dr. Laitman

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Question: From that time when the preparation for the Passover holiday began, a very strong heaviness of heart, an inner struggle was felt. Why is it so difficult for me?

Answer: Difficulties are being added to you, disturbances. You need to overcome them and you cannot. What is the reason for failure?

Question: If I fight in this state, then I feel how I am sinking even further into the dominance of the ego.

Answer: Why do you fight with the external disturbances, like Don Quixote with the windmills? You are not working at all in the place that is necessary. All of your powers must be concentrated only on connection with the friends. If you also have disturbances with this, this is a sign that you are acting alone. But if you are working together with the friends, then between you there must be Arvut, which makes it possible for you to rise together above your common, general problem.

Now, with the whole group, we are in a unique period before the Passover holiday, the spiritual root of which is the Exodus from Egypt that came down to the physical level and was imprinted here. We also belong to this physical level and already belong to its spiritual root somewhat, because we yearn to leave this egoistic servitude.

We still don’t know exactly if this is the same Pharaoh, if this is the same Egypt, but we have already touched upon it a bit. We already belong to the “next generation” and therefore get the heaviness of heart from Pharaoh, above which we must rise to connection between us. The ascent is called an extra connection.

If we make an effort and converge more and more strongly, then we can reach it. Our next station needs to be the actual embodiment of one man with one heart, and this is already the standing before Mount Sinai. We can make this leap now. Our problem is only that we don’t locate the right place for effort, and we don’t see that it’s found between us.

The place between a friend and myself is our common deficiency, our common yearning for discovery of the Creator. We produce, build, and stabilize the Creator, the power of bestowal and love, within the connection between us, in the connection of our desires and yearnings. The Creator doesn’t exist without us. We need to restore and stabilize the shattered Kli, to want it to be connected.

When we quantitatively and qualitatively complete the full extent of these efforts, suddenly there is a “Poof!” and all the parts are connected in the right way into a complete Kli in which the Creator is discovered. But nothing comes of it until the last moment arrives, when we try to connect it, when everything is arranged in its place, and when, with our desire, we acquire the form of bestowal. Then the Light will be revealed within it.
[132508]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/11/14, Writings of Rabash

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Question: When I ask for the desires of others as my own, do I need to intend to give contentment to the Creator and not just to do good to people?

Answer: You ask for the possibility of giving them contentment, despite the fact that these desires are like your own, because with this you are giving contentment to the Creator. You cannot give contentment to the Creator directly, for He has no deficiency for anything. So you give contentment to the whole world, and the Creator receives pleasure from this.

There is a territory that is the entire world except for your point. There is a large circle which is the entire soul, and you are outside of the circle with your point and are asking for them. By bringing the Creator to this circle, He is happy that He can bestow to them all. It follows that you are bringing the Creator to bestowal and with this, you give Him contentment.

You pray that things will go well for people, and with this you intend to give contentment to the Creator. This is because the Creator is perfect and has no deficiency besides bestowal, and you make it possible for Him to do this. But the Kli is not found in Him; rather it is within His creature, within all of humanity.
[132049]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/06/14, Writings of Rabash

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It is not difficult for the Creator to completely control the creatures. This is the power of the Elyon, about which it is said, (Isaiah 44:6) “I am the first, and I am the last,”  the only one who activates and manages everything. The problem is only how to bring the creatures to free choice, to independence. It’s up to the creatures to take it for themselves since freedom and independence cannot be given from Above.

How is this done? We don’t know what freedom and independence are. If we hide from some unpleasant sensation, we suppose that we are free of it, and when we cease being under pressure or domination by someone, we think that we have become independent. But this is not true.

If we have this desire, first of all we require a desire and a need for independence and freedom. And this is a problem. How can there be something free in a creature that is the product of the particular forces which produced it?

If there is no independence, then there is no creature. There is only a protein substance that exists according to clear and defined laws and is under the influence of various forces that develop and support it, bringing life and death. However within all of this, it has no independence in anything.

If you look at the lives of all people, then it seems obvious that they don’t decide anything by themselves. Where might they have an opportunity for independent desire?

This is the problem, if this is possible to say,  of the Creator when creating creation. For a creature is someone who acquires the power of independence. He separates from the Creator. But how is this possible? And if he will not separate, how will he reach independence?

Therefore it’s important for us to pass through a sensation of exile, not once, but an exile that comes and goes several times on a more and more internal level all the time. The first exile, if it can be called exile, was the Babylonian exile. The second exile is the exile of Egypt, the third is the exile of Persia, and the fourth and last is our exile.

We attain these exiles through our inner work when we reach recognition of our dependence, and then we know how to become independent. Indeed our partnership, our adherence with the Creator, rests upon our independence. Otherwise I cannot be a partner.

Also, when it’s said that I am the servant of the Creator, this is not the same slavery I had been in at the beginning. I make myself a servant of the Creator from a completely independent state and level. The level of servant rests upon maintaining a state opposed to Him, meaning absolute freedom.
[132115]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/07/14, Writings of Rabash

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Question: What does it mean to feel that nobody in the world is able to help you?

Answer: We need to discover that we are nothing by ourselves, zeroes that are managed by the Light one hundred percent. The Light influences the desire, the desire awakens and is attracted to the Light. This is what happens in us egoistically.

But we need to change the direction so that the Light will not influence the desire so that the desire will not ignite and will not pursue the Light. I want to build a barrier (Machsom) between them, to make a restriction on my desire so that it will not be exposed to the direct influence of the Light so that it will not obligate me to run after the Light like a beast.

I don’t want to be a corrupt servant. I don’t agree to be in submission, enslaved by the Light without my own examination and decision, doing everything that it would command me. It’s as if I look at my desire and the Light from the side and see how they communicate. And I don’t do anything at all, I have no right to speak and decide.

Before the Light influences the desire, I am not ready to do or to see anything. This is called psychology because I learn how my body and desires are aroused by the influence of pleasure, which is the Light.

If I don’t want to be in a state like this, it means that I feel the slavery. I acquire a kind of independent point of examination, the position of a judge, an investigator, and I see that I don’t exist in this picture at all. The Creator gave me a point in the heart, and from this, I can follow my heart, my desires, my characteristics; I can see how much I am managed from above. The Light can influence me in whatever way it wants, and I will do it all.

There is a period of recognition of evil where I see, understand, and would like to resist this influence, to become a barrier to the Light, a mechanism that reflects and sends the Light back and doesn’t let it pass to the desire. I don’t want my desire to be ignited by the Light all the time. I want to be the master of the right to speak, the independence that my point in the heart demands. Yet I see that I am not ready to do it.

These are the stages of the recognition of evil, 400 years of exile. Exile means being enslaved by our ego, which is called Pharaoh, Haman.

If I reach a state where I don’t agree with the Light influencing my desire, then I give birth to a prayer. The prayer must be in the right direction and have enough intensity. It must be according to such a form, conditions, and degree that results only from my connection with the environment.

I see from my point in the heart that I am not able to be the adapter between the Light and desire and to decide anything. So I go to a group because I want to strengthen the point in the heart.

I am united with the group, wishing to increase the point in the heart, to get more forces to allow it to stand as a screen between the Light and the desire for pleasure. But I see that I am not able to do this in a group and I don’t want to connect with them.

From this it follows that I don’t have the ability to protect my desire from the influence of the Light and I am given over to the absolute dominion of the Light and pleasure like an animal that is under the control of the egoistic desire. From the side of the desire to bestow, I want to enter into a group, but I am not able to; there are two such lines.

The feeling of exile is built with two components. On the one hand, the Egyptians have control over me, meaning that I completely depend on the influence of the Light on the desire. And on the other hand, I am not able to connect with my people, to be integrated in a group. It all comes to this; the children of Israel are separated in Egypt and cannot unite as one. The Egyptians, who are the general desire for pleasure, have control over them. Ultimately this desire becomes unbearable without a glimmer of hope. Only a miracle can save us!
[131868]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/6/14, Writings of Rabash

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If a goal is unattainable, I forget about it. It is said, “A person doesn’t covet the daughter of the king,” only a prince can marry her. And if I am not a prince and I have no chance, why should I be sorry all my life about something that is unattainable? My desire to receive, which is a desire for pleasure, will not let me suffer. So there are many things in the world that I don’t see at all, they are not within my field of vision. Subconsciously I think that they are unattainable, so they don’t even come up in my mind. There are people for whom the desire to marry the king’s daughter burns because they have a chance to attain this with the help of all kinds of tricks. And if I have no chance, I am calm.

So the more we rise, the more suffering and problems we feel because we are made more worthy of attainments, greater rewards, and fulfillments. So a person is always in a dilemma: either he improves, changes, advances (and this is a long path), and pays dearly for this, or he stops being sorry about it and this disappears from his field of vision as if it didn’t exist. The choice is in his hands!

So there are people who say, “There is no choice” and they continue on the spiritual path, and there are those who say, “There is no choice” and they go back to the materialistic existence. Both of these say, “There is no choice,” but the question is to what it refers?

Question: But we have no concept of what the bestowal is! Is there some kind of indication from which we can begin?

Answer: Certainly there is, this is clarification among the friends. The Creator is not revealed in any lofty matters. He creates problems for you in your daily life so that you will learn from them, first, that you are not able to change them. You have no control over the situation. There are a thousand different factors, and they also don’t determine anything, they only serve one power that arranges the whole mess for you. This power is the opposite of connection, the opposite of love, and this is what you must clarify. And so it follows that it’s up to you to locate the connection and the love only to clarify upon what they depend. They depend on a power that exists outside of you.

You reach connection with others and you see that this is unsuccessful, and so you summon the power that can influence the connection and correct it. This is a very simple and practical method; nothing exists outside of this.

We think that it’s necessary to work and to study a lot, to build cities, to organize the world, but nothing is needed! We must only begin by organizing the relationships between us and rise.

But instead of this, we get off the train too early at some remote way station where there is nothing but stinking garbage and bandits who are roaming around. And suddenly you are left at this station forever and this is where you are buried.  This is our life instead of doing everything rapidly and rising! The main thing is to begin to do everything together and constantly connect more and more and not relax.
[131860]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/4/14, Writings of Rabash

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Question: What does the connection between us mean?

Answer: Imagine that once we were connected like one family and then we drew apart. A certain force dispersed all the members of the family in different directions. Father went in one direction and mother in another, the kids were put in a home where no one cares about them, and the grandparents were sent to a retirement home. Once there was a family and now there isn’t one anymore: Everyone quarreled and dispersed so they only feel hatred and repulsion towards each other and refuse to acknowledge one another. No one is concerned about past memories of love and no one wants to get together again.

Still, there comes a chance to meet and to feel the warmth and the security of a family, but it doesn’t appeal to them, so what can we do? The father doesn’t want to come back to the mother, and the mother doesn’t want to come back to him; the kids are grown and are estranged from the parents after all these years, and the grandparents are very old.

It seems that there is a big family but everyone is detached from everyone else. They remember that once they were a united family, but it was a long time ago. What can they do? How is it possible to connect them in order to see them all as one happy united family where one can sit together and enjoy a good warm atmosphere? How can they be connected?

Question: Can they be gathered into one place so they will begin to communicate?

Answer: But they don’t want to meet! And even if they sit together, they don’t look at one another. They don’t realize that all the problems they have separately result from the lack of connection between them. And you cannot convince them.

If there were an obvious material gain, for example, suppose everyone has to pay taxes and if they unite they would benefit a lot and would only have to pay for one family, then it would obviously be worthwhile. But if there is no actual benefit that can be immediately reflected in their pocket or in their health, it’s a problem.

It’s hard to connect people even egoistically. We convince them that we prevent wars, achieve peace, and social success, but people still don’t listen to us and don’t want to connect. Apparently their agreement depends on receiving blows or from our dissemination, it’s one of the two. There are only two options: blows or dissemination.

Everyone is an egoist and everything depends on your ability to convince him that it’s worthwhile to connect. Everyone lacks something and if he doesn’t agree with you, it means that you failed to reach his deficiency and to convince him that he actually yearns for connection. We should know exactly what the people want and begin to talk to them by this immediate deficiency, like good salespeople.

Question: But what should I do if I don’t know how to convince people?

Answer: You shouldn’t worry. If you have a strong connection with the friends, then the moment you arrive and open your mouth everyone will immediately understand that you are right even before you begin to speak. You will be the supplier of the power of connection.

If there is no such connection, you have to go out to disseminate, to see your lack of success and then come back to the friends and try to connect with them, so that the upper force will be revealed between you. The upper force is conveyed to the public through your connection with the friends. This means that the Creator will fight for you and it isn’t you that fights. You only have to raise your hands like Moses and see how easily you beat Amalek. It isn’t a problem; you only have to convey the upper force through you. It isn’t by my force and might that the war is won,  it is the Creator, the Light does it.

Can you do something with the vessels (the desires), especially when you are in them? You are not the upper force, the force that is external to them. Only the Light can do that and you only have to draw the Light that Reforms and to focus it on the place where you feel the lack of correction.

Question: What does it mean to focus the Light when we are in the lesson, separated from one another?

Answer: Pray for all of us, so that the Creator will influence the connection between us and will connect us. This is all we need. The closer we become, this closeness is called the worlds: Assiya, Yetzira, Beria, Atzilut, until we merge into what is called the world of Infinity. Then all the barriers disappear.
[131855]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/4/14, The Zohar

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Question: When does a person feel that Pharaoh sucks the outcome of his work?

Answer: After several alternating ascents and descents, a person forms a certain attitude towards them. He is constantly changing and improving, and eventually he begins to appreciate the ascents and descents, not with regard to the ascents and descents of his mood, but with regard to the purity of his yearning for the goal.

Then, even if he is in a state of descent, he doesn’t examine it according to his mood but according to how long he can stay connected to the Creator during the descent and not be detached from Him. There are such states during a descent when a person sees that he cannot hold on to the goal. Still he tries to relate himself to the goal although he fails to do so; that is, it isn’t a complete disconnection.

This is actually where he discovers Pharaoh and where he feels the inner force that belongs to something from nothing, which pulls him by his feet downward into the swamp. Pharaoh is revealed in the seam between one state and another, but it isn’t just a descent.
[132267]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/08/14, Shamati #86

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