In spirituality there are no letters, there are no symbols through which one can comprehend it. Spirituality is comprehended only with vessels that we gradually construct within us. Baal HaSulam writes in Letter 14: “All the multiplication in spirituality relies on the letters that are sucked from the materiality of this world…,” meaning that from the states through which a person passes, as is written: (Isaiah 45:7) ‘…and creates darkness.’”

We are not ready to grasp the Light, we perceive it according to its absence, according to the black letters on the white background. In such a form we reach awareness of the Light from the darkness, from the troubles, from the absence of Light.

A person doesn’t have the vessels for discovering the Creator, discovering the characteristic of bestowal. He doesn’t know, doesn’t understand, and doesn’t feel this. This is found beyond him. To explain bestowal to us is like teaching a dog to be a person: to understand, to feel, and to make decisions like a person. This is simply impossible.

Everyone is born on the level of a beast, as it is said: (Job 11:12), “…from a wild donkey a man will be born.” And only the Light that is summoned by us builds the level of Adam (man) in us. So we require all kinds of “letters” that are built in us from darkness. Some kind of illumination, some kind of small revelation, reaches us and suddenly all kinds of deficiencies and problems are revealed. So over this contrast of one opposite the other, we learn about various states until they are all connected into spiritual sensations and discernments.
[131544]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/2/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: What does it mean to ask to be above Pharaoh?

Answer: To be the slave of Pharaoh means to clarify with certainty, with mind and heart, that I am not ready to do anything except what the ego, the desire for pleasure, dictates to me now. That is how I discover Pharaoh,  the power that controls me now.

However, how can I know that this is Pharaoh? It is on condition that the Creator invites me to go with Him, when He says: “Come to Pharaoh.”

This means that the second power is revealed, the Creator,  the power of bestowal in contrast to the power of reception. And then I can clarify relative to every one of the forces and decide when I am under the control of the Creator and when under the control of Pharaoh. Ultimately, “the children of Israel sighed from the labor”, we are not prepared to remain in slavery to Pharaoh any longer.

99.9% of the time of my entire life, I am under the control of Pharaoh and am not ready to be freed from this control. The more that I advance, this percentage grows to just about 100%. First I didn’t think that I belonged to Pharaoh 100%; I thought that I fell into the ego rarely, like all people.

Then I felt myself in the Egyptian exile and I didn’t feel this at first. For the first seven years of plenty, I was also under the control of Pharaoh and fulfilled all of his orders, but I agreed to this and therefore everything was wonderful. I didn’t feel myself in Egypt, in slavery. I had knowledge, control (Joseph managed all of Egypt), and I was filled with plenty.

However after that it became clear that all of this wasn’t good. In reality nothing changed except my assessment. What seemed to me as good, spiritual, causing advancement, now seems completely otherwise now. I see that all of this was egoistic, not spiritual, but absolutely materialistic, and there is no advancement in it, rather the opposite. Therefore this is called the “seven years of famine.”

No change took place except in our perception. Everything is determined by a person’s attitude, but outside nothing changes.

Question: If I am completely under the control of Pharaoh, how can a request for redemption be built within me?

Answer: When I discover that this is Pharaoh, then the opportunity to ask is created. If I begin to understand that I have business with Pharaoh, this means that the second force already exists in opposition to him, the power of the Creator. Otherwise, I would not have discerned that Pharaoh is in front of me; rather, I would have lived a normal, good life, advancing in studying, in dissemination, and in the group.

Why is it suddenly bad for me? It is because I determine that this life is bad. Apparently what do I lack? Yesterday everything was still okay. Right, only today everything is no longer okay because I have new demands and I don’t agree with a life like this. Here the seven years of famine begin.

Question: What is the difference between my request to rise above Pharaoh and the state where I am found beneath him?

Answer: One of the criteria is: Who wins: the power of reception or the power of bestowal? Where do I get the reward I deserve in exchange for my efforts? No one works for nothing and I also want a profit.

My profit can be in the vessels of reception or in the vessels of bestowal: either I feel that the profit belongs to me or to someone else. And this someone could be close to me or far away and even a hated enemy. This depends upon the degree of correction of my desires of bestowal.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/2/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Rabash, “What is the Blessing ‘that a miracle happened to me in this place’ in the Work”: And at the same time it says, “remember that you were a slave in Egypt.” This means that a slave is a bad thing, and still a person sometimes wants to remain a slave since the slave said, “I love my master.”

However, the matter of exile is according to the measure of suffering and pain that one feels in exile. To that extent, one can feel joy at his redemption. The sufferings one feels is the vessel that can receive the Light if he is freed from the sufferings.

The sufferings one feels should be suffering from being in exile, from his inability to perform true acts of bestowal. This is called exile and slavery

However, if a person doesn’t suffer, he may be an Egyptian or even a minister of Pharaoh. Slavery must be against one’s will. He may want to be a slave until he reaches a state where he wants to escape from slavery with all his might and all the means that he has.

We must imagine what exile and slavery mean—how, through them, I accept my nature as foreign domination that is inside me. Pharaoh enters me like a bacteria or a snake. He fills me, and doesn’t let me move or even breathe freely. If I do something, he swallows all the fruits of my work, thus turning everything to his benefit.

If I don’t distinguish between him and me, I do everything for his sake without any account or recognition. I think that I want to fill myself and not Pharaoh because I identify with him. This is called the animate level.

If I begin to consciously work for Pharaoh, it is already a real sin. It is a Klipa (shell). If I begin to hate him and to object to his domination, it is the work in exile. This is how the seven years of famine arrive in which I see that I cannot do anything, and everything turns out to be for the sake of Pharaoh. However, I don’t want it and won’t accept it! Thus, our struggle is ignited until it reaches its end.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/1/14, Writings of Rabash

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Question: There are types of dissemination that require all of us to be out in front of the public. But what should be done if not everyone has the ability and talent required for that?

Answer: I only know one thing. If I want to execute an action correctly, I need to put myself into the hands of the group so that it will decide and determine what I should do. It could be that they will say, “Sit and don’t do anything since you will spoil it all.” And so that will be my participation in the dissemination.

I can be a driver, an usher, a lecturer. It doesn’t matter what I do. But it is preferred that the group decide that for me and that I don’t decide anything for myself. That means being a slave. I am in spiritual work.

And then I am released from all the doubts: I was told and I do it in the best and most completely naïve way, without entering my mind into it. My mind is only for understanding what they want me to do and to carrying it out in the best way without going into my “I,” into my initiative.

Thus, there needs to be the leadership that includes experts in dissemination who decide and determine what to do, who themselves participate in all these activities in order to be an example to everyone. And everyone needs to follow them. And those who don’t want are drilling a hole in the general boat, and we don’t need him at all in the group.

A person needs to understand that he needs to purify himself from all these forms of the ego, from the worry of it not being pleasant, from the doubts about doing this or that. If you simply cannot carry out what the group decides, then leave the group. After all, you must rise above your beast.

The group is stronger than you, and if you receive its protection, then execute and be happy that you now have the opportunity to do it. And if not, then you will stay with your ego and have no chance to advance. In this case, no need to bother the others. Go rest, we will meet in the next incarnation.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/20/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Exile differs from redemption since it lacks the letter “Aleph,” which means that the Creator is revealed in the time of redemption. Thus, we prepare our deficiency for Him.

I must picture my connection with the Creator even when I am in exile. It is like a void, a place of deficiency, that later is filled by something. However, this deficiency already has the form of the future redemption. It begins to take on the right formation. According to it, I begin to understand what the exile should be and what I expect of it.

It isn’t redemption from the pots of beef, onions, and garlic. So, what is the redemption exactly? Perhaps I suffer and feel the exile on the animal level or the level of a plant, but not on a level of a human being, Adam, who resembles (Domeh) the Creator.

The entire difference between exile and redemption is the presence of the Creator. At the end of the exile, I must picture what it is like when this is the only thing missing. It turns out that I already have an impression, that I know what must be revealed.

I must be ready for it, to expect it, as if I already can taste what the redemption should bring me, what liberation, and what freedom from the angel of death. What symbolizes life and death for me? Life is redemption and slavery is death.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/1/14, Shamati #190

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The Torah, “Exodus” (Pekudei), 38:22: Bezalel, son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, had made all that the LORD commanded Moses.

Bezalel means “in the shadow of the Creator” which means the Masach (screen) that the ego builds in resembling the Light according to the materials in us. They are all upgraded according to the level of Aviut (thickness).

The Torah, “Exodus” (Pekudei), 38:24: All the gold that had been used for the work in all the work of the Holy the gold of the weaving was twenty nine talents, seven hundred and thirty shekels, according to the holy shekel.

Shekels are not coins but a measurement of gold since everything was measured by its weight in ancient times.

Here we have a full account of the gold and silver and other materials that were used in the holy work.

There are materials that belong to the level of the still, like clay, gravel, etc.; materials from the vegetative world, such as wool and different plants, and materials from the animal world like hides and cotton used to make cloth etc. They all symbolize desires from the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature.

In spiritual work, we raise these desires to the uppermost level called Adam (a human being) and create the Tabernacle, the vessel for the revelation of the Creator.

All the desires are inside a person, and the person is the vessel for the whole world. It is because the world is inside me and not on the outside, although I feel that it is corporeal, material, real, and that it exists outside of me.

When I feel these dualities, I can calibrate myself to return as often as possible to the right picture of the world. This helps me re-examine my attitude to those around me, to the ecological environment and to all of humanity.

All the wars in the world are actually inside me. They occur before my eyes since I am like a projector that projects before me everything that happens inside me: battles, problems, explosions, space, etc.

This feeling is gradually revealed inside me under the influence of the Light, and I begin to feel that all the troubles and the problems in the world are a projection of my uncorrected attributes. First, I have to correct myself, and by that I correct the whole world. This is the correct perception of reality.

Unfortunately, we want the opposite: to correct everything around us so that we will feel good internally. But this happens according to the thought of creation in order to focus on the right attitude, the correct perception of the world.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 10/16/13

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The Torah, “Exodus” (Pekudei), 39:1-39:2, 39:22, 39:27: And out of the blue, purple, and crimson wool they made the meshwork garments to serve in the Holy, and they made Aaron’s holy garments, as the Lord had commanded Moses. And he made the ephod of gold, blue, purple, and crimson wool and twisted fine linen. And he made the robe of the ephod, the work of a weaver, completely of blue wool. And they made the linen tunics, the work of a weaver, for Aaron and for his sons.

The garments for ministering, the Ephod, Choshen (the robe), are all garments of a totally corrected person that symbolize different Masachim (screens).

It is about levels that we should raise our desires to, the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate, so they will create the right Masach and will enable us to work on the level of the speaking, on the level of the priest.

We have to correct 613 desires according to love and bestowal as the attribute of the Upper Light demands of us.

By reading the description, which is an allegory of the spiritual actions, we have to understand what happens during these actions: where the purple, the scarlet, the Choshen, the ephod, and the Tabernacle are in us, and look for everything internally.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 10/16/13

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Question: Why is it said that due to corporeal pleasure you come to spirituality?

Answer: It means that I try to do all kinds of actions of bestowal to friends or in dissemination to another, to the general public.

Even though I try to carry them out only in order to bestow, without any personal benefit, ultimately I discover that they bring me pleasure and I am ready to do them only on condition that I will enjoy them.

I don’t have perpetual energy in me allowing me to perform actions without any fuel. If I move my hand, I must expend calories, expend energy. But where does this come from? So I must have pleasure to supply myself with energy.

I am not ready to just bestow. The Creator is the source of the energy, whereas I cannot be a source of energy. If I do something, I must get adequate compensation for this so that it will be worthwhile for me to act according to my emotion and intellect according to the calculations of my internal computer.

So even though I perform good actions: studying, dissemination, strengthening the group, I discover that in spite of it all, I am working for my own sake. I clarify that I am not prepared to be a power supply; rather, I always must have the thought of the benefits that I get from it. This is corporeal action.

From this it is clear to me that I am the opposite of the Creator and also perform actions of bestowal for the sake of my gain and benefit. I am like Pharaoh who used the children of Israel, meaning bestowal for my own pleasure. Pharaoh was very happy that the children of Israel were working for him. It was worthwhile for him to hold onto slaves like these.

They seemingly acted in order to bestow, but the ego, Pharaoh, received all of the fruits of labor for himself. What could be better than that? The desire to receive alone, without acts of bestowal, which just works in the form of reception, is called a “beast.” That is how all the animals and beasts act, receiving pleasure directly. The calculation is very simple: How much to pay for each pleasure and how much I will get?

But the exile and enslavement in Egypt is that I already want to approach the Creator, and so I enter into this period. I do acts of bestowal, am connected with the friends, establish Arvut (mutual guarantee) between us, do acts of dissemination, do a multitude of things, invest all of my life in this. But I always discover that I did all of this for personal benefit.

In the end, I don’t want this to be for my own benefit, but I cannot do anything except for myself, otherwise I cannot work. So I fall, lose all my energy and I don’t have the strength to move. Kill me, I will not get up.

So I begin to discover how much I am not ready to work without a payoff. So how can I do acts of bestowal? If the society shows me the importance of bestowal and I see that I am not ready for this, then I feel myself enslaved. And accordingly, I already begin the struggle and I am approaching the plagues in Egypt.

I feel myself as if I am Moses, it is in my interest that my desire receives blows. Only this will allow me to break away from it.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/1/14, Shamati #190

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Question: What does the ability of the person to be patient along this path depend on?

Answer: Patience depends upon preparation, when I know that in the next moment I could receive such inner changes, like an upgrade of emotions and intelligence that I am not responsible for.

Who knows what I will be in the next moment: a complete fool or a world-class genius or a giant Kabbalist. I am just a computer that one touch of a button will change its entire program.

Therefore, I myself cannot prepare anything but only in my environment. The Creator gave me the possibility of controlling and managing my future through the environment! If I want to know who I will be in another moment, I can look at my environment, at my relationship with the friends, and on the commitments between us, and then I can envision my next state.

This is because the Upper Light always elevates me, reveals to me more and more evil so that I can advance. And so according to my connection with the environment, I can be sure that they will protect me and will be concerned for me and will help me to advance.

I cannot come closer and approach the Creator if I do not sign a covenant with the environment. Therefore, it is said, (II Kings 4:13) “I dwell in the midst of my people”. Without support from the environment that I prepared for myself, I will get only additional ego, additional disturbances from the Creator.

I don’t know what to expect from Him, but if you prepare yourself, this backing from the environment, then with their help you will surely be able to develop the right deficiency. In the face of that evil that the Creator will reveal to me, I can develop and create a request to the Creator through the environment so that He will transform the evil into good.

That is how I work all the time: I – environment – Creator, I – environment – Creator.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/1/14, Shamati #190

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The point this question is asked from is very important. A question symbolizes your connection to a phenomenon and your ability to clarify its source. I don’t think that you are in a state where you can find the right answer to a certain question. This cannot be below the Machsom.

All of reality descends from Above and it is all above the Machsom. Below the Machsom, there is the fictitious world. What we see here is a corrupt and distorted replica of the spiritual world according to which it is impossible to understand anything. This is your perception at the moment, just like all the other people who yearn to fill their corporeal desires for food, sex, family, money, respect, and knowledge.

On the other hand, you learn that bestowal is a good thing. On one hand, you ask a question and, on the other hand, you want to find an answer. This won’t work until this picture is stabilized as a unified picture: either on this side of the Machsom or on the other side of the Machsom, but it is impossible to ask on one side about what happens on the other side. So it is impossible to answer such questions.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/31/14, The Zohar

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