Entries in the 'Spiritual Work' Category

Passover—The First Similarity with the Light

Dr. Michael LaitmanFrom Rabash’s Article, “The Duty to Convey the Story of Exodus from Egypt”: The Book of Zohar explains why one shouldn’t eat matzah during the year, but only during Pesach. It is similar to the king who appointed one of his subjects to be a minister and on the day of his appointment dressed him in luxurious clothes.

Later, the subject took off these beautiful clothes. He was wearing them only for one day when he took a position of a Minister to celebrate the event. Afterward, every year he commemorated his appointment and dressed in his festive, solemn clothes. This example explains why we eat matzah only during Pesach to honor the exodus from Egypt.

Each spiritual root has a corporeal branch. The entire universe represents a single will to receive, “something out of nothing.” Besides it, nothing has ever been created. The light impacts the matter and leaves its imprint on it.

Only because of its imprint and due to the four stages of HaVaYaH can we explore the Light. If we manage to change our desire, we will attain the Light that created the matter and left its imprint on it.

Exiting from the egoistic forces (Klipot) is just one of the stages that lead us to the attainment of the Light. If we manage to achieve this stage, we will detach from our nature that was made out of nothing and begin connecting with the imprint of the Light that is present inside the desire. We will learn what the Light is, what It does, how did It create everything, and what happened to all fragments of the Creation long before this world and man emerged.

In other words, we rise to our root and learn that there was a special point called the “exodus from Egypt” in the program of creation of the desire and in the Light’s impact on it. The desire stops sensing only itself and is no longer confined to its nature; it goes out and begins feeling the Light, its origin, the Root.

From this moment on, the desire has already established a mutual connection with the Light and they begin acting as partners. The upper root that allows us to approach it and work together with it is very important since it is the point where a Man (Adam)—(Domeh) the one who is similar to the Creator—appears. It’s like a birth! That’s why the exodus from Egypt is called a spiritual birth of every individual soul. This explains why we honor this state.

There is a correlation of the spiritual root of the material branch that is imprinted in the categories named world, year, and soul. This world was made as a projection of the spiritual world, that’s why for each spiritual action or event, there is a corresponding material branch in this world. This is why we celebrate the entire spiritual process that we go through in the branches; it is called a yearly cycle.

All our traditions are a material reflection of spiritual actions that we hope to attain and implement. Exiting from the will to receive and attaining the very first sign of the similarity with the Light, i.e., spiritual birth, is called the exodus from Egypt. It is the initial step for all of us. This month is called the first among all other months. It denotes the beginning of the spiritual growth of a human being.

By all means, we advance for many years before arriving to a sensation called Egypt and realizing that it’s impossible for us to stay at this level. Although this state is very hard to reach since for that we have to experience more pressure, undergo unpleasant sensations, acknowledge that we are unable to exercise self-control, and divulge our slavish dependence on our egoistic nature.

The fact that we live in this material world is of great help to us. It’s a spiritual state in which we completely depend on the will to receive, and thus have no connection with the Light. This step allows us to experience material sensations. It seems to us that we live in the materiality, at the last level of sensations that manifest inside the will to receive.

Due to materiality, we can organize our lives in a way that we get a chance to exit from it and begin sensing spirituality.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/13/14, Writings of Rabash

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Passover—The Exodus from Egypt

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Leviticus,” 23:4 – 23:8: These are the Lord’s appointed [holy days], holy occasions, which you shall designate in their appointed time: In the first month, on the fourteenth of the month, in the afternoon, [you shall sacrifice] the Passover offering to the Lord. And on the fifteenth day of that month is the Festival of Unleavened Cakes to the Lord; you shall eat unleavened cakes for a seven day period. On the first day, there shall be a holy occasion for you; you shall not perform any work of labor. And you shall bring a fire offering to the Lord for a seven day period. On the seventh day, there shall be a holy occasion; you shall not perform any work of labor.

Question: Why is it forbidden to work on the first and last days of Passover?

Answer: It is because we distinguish between two states in the spiritual work: awakening from below and awakening from above.

During the awakening from below we evoke the cooperation between the light and the vessel by our yearning. The light corrects the vessel and gives it the right intention. During the awakening from above, this work is fulfilled from above but only because we have created all the right conditions for it in advance.

We make efforts, and thus create the right conditions for the first and last days of the holiday since the week of Passover has to be closed at its ends by states in which we don’t do anything since the upper light does all the work. The first day of the holiday is the beginning of the exodus from Egypt. The last day is the end of the exodus that seals it.

It is important to say that the nations of the world have different calendars. The Christian calendar is based on the movement of the sun. The Muslim calendar is based on the movement of the moon. While the Jewish calendar takes the movement of the sun, the moon, and the earth into account since the earth is the central object between the sun and the moon.

On one hand we take the year into account, which means the revolution of the earth around the sun, and on the other hand we take the month into account, the revolution of the moon around the earth, and compare the two. Thus the Jewish calendar doesn’t change and so, for example, we can calculate in advance which day of the week will be the first day of Passover in another 35 years.

What is more, based on the comparison between the movement of the sun, the earth, and the moon, we can say that Passover cannot be on certain days of the month. This means that everything is accurately related to the general astrological system.

Question: The Torah refers to holy assemblies several times. Why do we have to gather in Passover?

Answer: Holy assemblies during Passover are the most important thing for the Israeli nation since it is actually thanks to their desire to unite that they need to come out of Egypt.

A person’s union with a group of people, with the society, with the nation, or with the whole world is actually different levels of the exodus from Egypt (from the ego). When we attain the force of unity, a certain tension, this exodus, the detachment from the ego, takes place.

It is always among us, separating us and making us feel repulsed by one another. If we begin to compress and condense it, try to unite and connect to one another, then the exit from the ego begins the moment we first attain unity.

On the first day of Passover (the exodus from Egypt) we begin to tighten this connection. Then we work on it during the week and totally unite on the last day of the exodus from Egypt. From that moment on we are a united nation.

But in the meantime, people don’t understand what they should do, although there is a direction that spurs the desire to escape from the ego, it is merely an animalistic instinct without the proper awareness. People will acquire the recognition when they gather at the foot of Mount Sinai.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 5/28/14

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The Connection between Passover, Matza, and Maror

231.04From a lesson on Rabash’s article “The Connection Between Pesach, Matza, and Maror“

The holiday of Pesach stands at the head of all holidays and all times in the spiritual process because it symbolizes the transition from the desire to receive for oneself to the desire to bestow, or more precisely, from the desire to receive for one’s own sake to the desire to receive for the sake of bestowing. This is why Pesach is so important. It marks the entry into the spiritual world, into the sensation and understanding of spirituality.

Before this, a person goes through many stages starting from his natural state of being immersed in the desire to enjoy, often without even realizing it. Then, he begins to ask, “What am I living for?” That is, mere animalistic existence no longer satisfies him, and he wants to understand the meaning of life, its source, cause, and purpose. An animal does not ask such questions; this is the beginning of the birth of a human being.

The entrance into spirituality begins when a person suddenly feels that he can no longer think only about himself and wants to act outside his egoism. Pesach (Passover) symbolizes the entry into a new world, the start of a new stage—Lishma—the beginning of bestowal, faith, and attaining the quality of Bina, according to which we begin to work.

Only when a person feels and understands that he is incapable of acting for the sake of bestowal can he be considered to be in exile. This is exile from the quality of bestowal, which he wants to attain but cannot. Only this determines the measure and severity of the exile.

Humanity is divided into three parts. The first part consists of those in whom the point in the heart has already awakened which leads a person to Kabbalah or compels them to seek it. The second part still does not understand the purpose of any of this.

And the third part fights solely for material actions without touching the intention; meaning, they strive to preserve the intention for their own sake. Based on this, humanity can be divided into many groups, nations, and various movements.

The Egyptian within me convinces me that the main thing is to perform the actions that the Torah demands without paying attention to the intention, i.e., to focus solely on material commandments.

If I do not question the results of my work, it means I am an Egyptian; that is, I am acting according to the Egyptian within me. But if I begin to care about the intention, then I discover that I am in Egypt as a slave, in exile from the spiritual world.

There is a spiritual reality where everything is done for the sake of giving, while I remain in my egoism. The extent to which this troubles me, more or less determines my place in the spiritual process. Until I reach a state where such a life feels worse than death, and I feel I must escape from the egoistic intention. That means I am already on the threshold of liberation, on the way out of Egyptian exile.
My inner Egyptians hold me back and persuade me to keep going as before, saying everything is fine: the action is what matters, and intention is irrelevant. If I agree with this, I become an Egyptian.

But if an inner struggle over intention begins within me, I realize I am under the control of the Egyptians, and I want to break free from this slavery. I understand that what matters is not the action but the intention, and that I must rid myself of the intention for my own sake. This means I need the light that brings back to the source (the reforming light) and an escape from Egypt.

I am ready for anything as long as I do not remain in the egoistic intention. I need nothing but the ability to carry out this act. I have already detached from the intention for myself although I have not yet reached the intention to bestow. I still don’t know what true bestowal is or to whom to bestow, but I am already on the way out.

The transition from being an Egyptian to becoming Israel means that I no longer have the strength to act. I don’t want to act for the sake of egoism, but I do not yet know how to act for the sake of bestowing, and so I am left not knowing what to do.

This is how the exodus from Egypt happens. It is in total darkness, when we are lost and unsure of our next step, and then salvation comes.

It is said that the work of the Egyptians is done with white bricks, spotless, without a single blemish or speck of dirt. If each day I egoistically add another brick to my work, I build a beautiful, snow-white structure, without any impurity or trace of doubt, and feel completely righteous.

Egyptians in Egypt cannot have any awareness of evil because they simply follow the example set by the rest of the world. What more could a person need?

These are the seven years of plenty, when a person is fully engaged in the work of Egypt, confident in their own righteousness and success. He does not even realize he is acting out of egoism. That realization only comes as a result of the influence of the reforming light, which subtly illuminates bit by bit, gradually advancing the person.

“Penny by penny, a great fortune accumulates.”

When there is no strength left to work, only one thing remains—prayer. Turning to the Creator solves all problems. After all, the purpose of everything that happens to us is to compel us to connect with the Creator.

In Egypt, we acquire all kinds of means and methods of connection with the Creator. For every difficulty that Egypt places before us, we must find the answer through a new form of connection with the Creator.

The heaviness of the work depends solely on the intention. If the intention is for the Creator, for the sake of bestowal, then you soar as if on wings and feel no burden in the work. It is as if you have left Earth’s gravitational pull and are floating in space.

But if the work feels heavy, it means you are carrying the wrong suitcase and are not aimed toward the Creator.

We receive the influence of the Creator through the entire shattered soul of Adam HaRishon. The Creator perceives the whole soul as one. For now, I may have a personal, very limited connection with the Creator, but even that comes to me through the collective soul.

“The upper light is in absolute rest,” meaning it fills the collective Kli. But I receive connection with the Creator to the extent that I am connected with the collective soul.

Let’s say I connect with one out of twenty billion souls, then to that extent I receive contact, which always flows through the common connection.

The Creator is within all creations in a perfect state since all have already reached the end of correction, and I connect to that state.

What is the difference between Matza and bread? Matza is also bread, but it is called the “bread of poverty” and is made only from flour and water. And even the water is added in minimal amounts. You cannot make bread without water, so just enough is used to knead the dough without letting it ferment.

This is a sign that we are not yet capable of working with our desires for the sake of bestowal, but we also no longer want to work for the sake of receiving. It is an in-between state neither here nor there.
Matza symbolizes filling in order to escape.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/21/19, Writings of Rabash “The Connection between Passover, Matza, and Maror”

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Formula For Success

534We must constantly work with great precision to not waste a single minute. This is the formula for success. It’s not that each minute is so important in itself, but that you don’t let yourself go.

You push yourself in this race to the point of exhaustion and leave yourself no opportunity, not even a moment, to slip away from spiritual work.

Only then do you begin to feel the impossibility of reaching the goal through your own efforts and the right request for the Creator’s help arises within you, and He responds without delay.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Kabbalist is Out of It” 7/30/10

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The Field of Love

938.02Question: I remember when I came to a congress for the first time, I had a great desire to cross the Machsom. I was overcome by a feeling of certain unification, like you just cling to others and want to feel something.

I do not know if this is psychosomatic or actually an unconscious, temporary feeling of a single whole. Is this the feeling you are talking about, or just an autosuggestion?

Answer: It is also a psychological feeling created by you along with the others but on a very small, low, animate level. This is something that can be done in any company.

The Creator does not participate in it, and therefore, it is not spiritual. A single, unique field of love has not yet been felt in it.

Love is not what we imagine in our world. Love is a quality of absolute bestowal; it is when your and other people’s desires absolutely merge into a single whole and you have only one intention left—to fill them from yourself, to give to them. That is what love is.
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From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Field of Love” 7/4/10

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Connect to the Primary Sources

209Question: Before explaining a certain topic, you always ask to read the relevant article first. Why do you do that instead of just starting to talk about things in general?

Answer: I could speak for myself as well. But I want to teach people to be connected to the primary sources because the main thing for us is to be connected to those great Kabbalists, participants in the common system of souls, who perceive the unified field, the Creator, and exist within it.

That is why we study a book written by a Kabbalist who once lived in our world. In truth, this is a soul that felt the field of the Creator and described it: what happens in its relation to us, how it created us, developed us, and brought us to the state we exist now.

Question: But your own texts are also very deep. Don’t you transmit from your level just like other Kabbalists?

Answer: Yes, but I still do not claim the role of Baal HaSulam, my teacher Rabash, Rabbi Shimon, or the ARI. These are great Kabbalists—powerful parts of the collective soul—who are in deep, vast connection with this field, with the Creator.

They described their sensations and perceptions in a special way. And if I adhere to them through what they wrote, then I connect to their sensations as a small part of them, and in this way I can move forward. But if I do not interact with their source, how can I move forward?

After all, in our world, we also learn from others. If I try to learn by myself, it would take me twenty to thirty thousand years to become a human being. Imagine a child abandoned in the forest, what does he grow into? Nothing more than an animal. He can never become a man.

So do you want me to leave myself and my students alone in the forest? We must make use of everything the great previous generations have done for us, and they have prepared everything!
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From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. The Importance of the Sources” 7/15/10

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Spiritual Revelation Will Come to Everyone!

944Question: What does it mean when we say that the group comes out of Egypt? Is it referring to a local group or the entire world Kli?

Answer: The entire world Kli! No one will be allowed to exit alone, not a single group nor a single person. Mutual guarantee (Arvut)! What can you do?! Everyone connected in the system with us will receive spiritual revelation.

Right now, we are gradually forming the conditions for mutual guarantee. What is mutual guarantee? It begins when you break away from egoism and cross its boundary.

As you pass the boundary of egoism, you see a massive force of evil separating you from your friends, an integrated force built up over your entire path of spiritual work, from your first lessons to the very point where you break free from egoism. That is when the condition of mutual guarantee arises.

And what else could mutual guarantee be built upon if not on top of complete egoism?

Mutual guarantee means that despite the development and manifestations of egoism within me, I pledge to relate to all group members with love and devotion, no matter what I may perceive from them.

Because what I think they are doing to me is simply how it appears to me. Remember the concept of the perception of reality, a person paints the world within themselves.

Question: So am I accumulating egoism in order to reach Mount Sinai and then, like a rocket, burn it up?

Answer: You don’t burn egoism; you begin to rise above it. It never disappears. In fact, it continuously helps you “digest” yourself more and more. You’ll elevate above it, use its qualities, and transform them into qualities of bestowal.

This is the beginning of the spiritual path. Before that, everything is just preparation. The entire period of recognizing egoism, meaning Egypt, is not yet a spiritual ascent.
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From a Kabbalah Virtual Lesson on 4/1/12, “The Group Is Exiting Egypt”

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A Ten Exists when They Are as One

938.07Question: We have the option to either receive acceleration from the Creator or let everything happen in its own time. What caused the accelerated exodus of the people of Israel from Egypt? What can we take from this example to speed up time?

Answer: The reason for the premature exit of the people of Israel from Egypt was a tremendous wave of “dark force” that descended upon the Israelites in Egypt and made their life there unbearable, worse than death. That is why they fled from there, and this led them quickly to the realization of their spiritual identity.

Question: How can this be applied in the ten when there are major disagreements?

Answer: If the ten is not like one man, then it does not truly exist yet, and this cannot be applied. A ten is when all the ten are as one.

Question: What is spiritual individuality?

Answer: It is the unique quality of each soul in the ten in relation to the others.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/9/25, Writings of Rabash “But the More They Afflicted Them”

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Enter The Book of Zohar

540Comment: You say that The Book of Zohar must be understood, but it is very difficult! Even Israelis, who in principle…

My Response: So what about Israelis? What difference does it make whether you are Israeli or not? That does not matter! What matters here is attainment. One must enter this book. For that, you need to feel the world it describes, nothing more.

Question: So it begins to work effectively only for a person who is in spirituality?

Answer: Yes, that is a natural and necessary condition.

Question: Let’s say you distribute this book throughout the world now. How will people be able to perceive it if they are not in that state?

Answer: With its help, they will begin to draw closer to the upper world and gradually enter it by drawing the upper light upon themselves.

In item 155 of the Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot, it is written that a person who, even without understanding anything, reads about the upper world, its structure, connections, functioning, and draws its influence upon himself because he is already within that structure albeit in an unborn state. Yet in doing so, he tries to awaken himself, to elicit the influence of the system upon him. That is how it works.

Comment: Basically, you are speaking of someone who intentionally tries to do this. But now you are giving a lot of material from The Book of Zohar to people who are not in spirituality, for example, while holding conventions and different events.

My Response: That is exactly how it should be! After all, they also need to be influenced by it. Otherwise, how will they approach it? How will they develop?

Comment: But it is hard for people. You see that yourself.

My Response: What difference does it make if it is “hard”?

If I have a small child, I constantly present him with tasks, try to provoke him with new, unfamiliar details of this world so that he can get to know it, discover it. I try to spark his interest so that questions arise in him: “What is this? What is it for? Why?” Only in this way does a person develop.

Therefore, of course, I must show the unknown and indicate that it is the unknown. Look at it, explore it; first find the question, and only then look for the answer.
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From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Zohar is Book №1” 7/8/10

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“These Bitter Herbs”

Dr. Michael LaitmanRabash, “What is, ‘If They Swallow the Bitter Herbs it Doesn’t Work Out’ in the Work?”: And this is like what we say (in the Passover Haggadah), These bitter herbs (Maror) that we eat, what is that for, it is because the Egyptians embittered, (Exodus 1:14), “And they embittered their lives with hard labor.”

The hard service was that the people of Israel wanted to leave the dominance of the Egyptians, that is, self-love. But when they overcame this to do something for the sake of bestowal, immediately the thoughts of the Egyptians came to them; they asked the question of the wicked son, (Exodus 12:26) What is this service to you? to work for the benefit of the Creator, and every time they overcame this, immediately the questions of the Egyptians came, and this is what is called hard labor.

All of this is in order to turn a person towards connection. Our essential problem is that each one of us tries to solve his problem alone and so we don’t succeed. And the simple and easy solution is to solve the problems together.

We need to understand that all of the work is in connection, and all the difficulties are given against it. If we see things by way of the group, no difficulty remains, everything goes along nicely.

The solution is precisely through not seeing the difficulty directly but understanding that it is directing us towards connection. If we yearn for connection, then the problem is removed and disappears immediately. Every time difficulties appear, it is because the connection between us is incorrect.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/16/14, Writings of Rabash

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