Question: When we are talking about the holiday of Passover, why do we say: “Remember the exodus from Egypt?” After all, there were other exiles, from Babylon, Greece, and Rome, but we are reminded only about the exodus from Egypt. Why is this?

Answer: The Egyptian exile is the root of all the exiles. All the other exiles are as if superimposed on it. This exile is the most difficult and fundamental. A person rises above his egoism and, for the first time, realizes what the spiritual world is and what it means to feel the property of bestowal instead of the property of receiving that we are born and exist in.

We perceive the world through the senses that constantly want to enjoy and benefit from everything. The revolution in the sensory organs—when I begin to “exit myself,” to identify myself with the world, to give to others, to feel myself outside of my body so that my heart stays there—is called the exodus from Egypt. All the other exiles already happen outside of me.
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From KabTV’s “Kabbalists Write: The Night of Passover Seder” 3/4/13

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Rabash, “What is Because of Impatience and Hard Work in the Work”: We need to work hard because it is only the sufferings of hard work that make us cry out to the Creator with a whole desire that the Creator will save us from the dominance of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. This means that it is from a state of lowliness that a person senses that he feels worse than all the other people and this pushes him to cry out to the Creator with all his heart so that He will help him. But he believes that the Creator hears his prayer since He has revealed his evil to him and so He will surely help him and take him out of the evil too, which is called redemption. This means that he believes that the Creator let him understand that he is in exile and He will surely take him out of exile afterward.

We advance by two forces, but for those who don’t know where to go, there is only one force that pushes them from behind and forces them to move forward. They are constantly trying to escape from it, trying to be saved from the “roller of development” that catches up with them from behind and pushes them to advance.

But the path of the Torah is different from the path of suffering. A person is given the wisdom of Kabbalah so that he will build up the force that will illuminate before him and will pull him, in the hope for a better future, with great hopes, positive examples, a feeling of awe that is felt by the connection and spiritual elation.

The goal must be as glowing and as attractive as possible, and depicted as wonderful and good. Although the advancement is by the ego, which we must constantly reject, we have to try to use this method: to draw the light that reforms, so that it will do all the work. The approach here requires subtlety, like in anything. If you know how to enter it, then it is very easy for you to do it. Someone who doesn’t know this feels great difficulties and constantly runs into a wall.

We have to arrange the right environment in which you will soon begin to suffer because of the lack of connection and because of your envy, lust, and desire for respect. You will see that others are more successful than you. You will envy others that succeed in connecting so strongly and you will also want to attain that.

The envy forces you to demand your change. You already know how to evoke the reforming light, you begin to change under the influence of the light, and thus advance. The main thing is to develop the drawing force that is called “I shall hasten it.” It is because the troubles, the sufferings, the natural force of evolution “in its time,” is not up to you. We should understand that the sufferings come to a person in order to wake him up; we need to develop the pangs of love by ourselves instead of corporeal sufferings so that instead of the evil that catches up with us, the goodness will illuminate in front of us.

Instead of the natural course in the grip of time, we should rise above time in order to determine the pace of our advancement by ourselves. This means that it is all in your hands! We have to feel elation and a sense of awakening since it all depends only on us! If we want it today, it will be today! If we really want it now, it will be now! Everything that we want to attain by the path of the Torah can be promoted and achieved.

It is very important to emphasize this in the work: to operate and integrate all the components, all the means that we have in the way of “I shall hasten it” that will help us advance. We have to develop all the means and to connect them correctly in order to see that there is certain method here instead of following the path of suffering by developing under the pressure of our nature. A person can advance by rising above nature in order to advance before it and to open the gates for it.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/21/13

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Question: The night of the Passover Seder is a special night for the people of Israel. It is thought that on this night this people was born and began its new way. So really, in what way is this night of the exodus from Egypt so unique?

Answer: A person begins to feel that he is in the Egyptian exile, in slavery to his ego, which is called Pharaoh, and that it is necessary to depart from under its dominance, to flee; yet he cannot do this. He begins to scream internally, he is no longer prepared to endure a life like this. He invests effort in regard to the group, the environment, the teacher, and the books. He really feels that he is in prison, in darkness.

Gradually he sinks into a state that is called the “darkness of Egypt,” the night of the exodus from Egypt. This night is absolute darkness; no hope is left for him, no chance in life. He doesn’t feel that he is prepared to continue to live within his ego, since he hates everyone, and he is unable to relate well to anyone.

He strives to love the friends, to love the other as himself, but he sees the opposite, he becomes worse and worse. The Pharaoh in him, his ego, becomes stronger and more brutal. So in the end the person is broken, for he sees that he has no chance of leaving this servitude.

He passes through very difficult inner states, which ultimately are amassed together: all of his attempts to flee from his ego, to rise above it, all the victories of the ego that show a person how strongly this Pharaoh is holding him from within. He really finds himself in the middle of the struggle of two forces: On the one hand the person pushes since he yearns to go free, and on the other hand the ego hangs on to his legs not letting him flee.

Ultimately, these two forces reach the peak of the struggle between them, and the person finds himself between them, feels absolute darkness. This state is called the night of exodus, the darkness of Egypt. And so suddenly he hears a call from within this darkness: “You must leave! You are ready to do this! You can get up and flee from your ego, here and now, at midnight, that is, from the darkest state. Don’t take anything with you to the new state, except those things that you really need for bestowal, the attainment of unity, the connection, the love”.

In this case the person is ready to leave and flee from his ego; he wants to rise above it. This is called his spiritual birth.
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From KabTV’s “Kabbalists Write: The Night of Passover Seder,” 3/4/13

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Question: Do I understand correctly that I must fill in and correct the qualities of my friends?

Answer: Of course, these are your qualities!

Question: How exactly should we relate to this? People have different personalities. Let us say I see a scoundrel or someone good. How do I interact and connect with them?

Answer: You can see how confusing this is. Now you will ask: “If I see others as a part of me, should I correct them or myself? If they correct themselves, they will be corrected in me. If I correct myself, they will be corrected on the outside. What should we do?”

I understand all this confusion, but none of this is necessary because it will lead you to all sorts of philosophies that will only distance you from the necessary practical actions. Ultimately, you will not achieve anything; you will only be confused or brag to others about how smart you are.

That is why Kabbalah is against it! First, it limits the portions given to people in the measure they can implement correctly. You do not need more. What for? Otherwise, it is all nonsense, philosophy.

In addition, there are some things a person simply cannot perceive correctly, which confuse him even more. This is not allowed. If you start telling an unprepared person about quantum physics and all sorts of variables beyond time, he will say you are not in your right mind.
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From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Properties of a Friend” 7/18/10

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In the article “The Last Generation” Baal HaSulam explains that the biblical principle of love your neighbor as yourself will manifest itself in our world in the future in a social system called communist altruism in which most people will become altruists—not naturally, but after correcting their egoism.

This will be manifested in the fact that they will work for society 12 hours a day and enjoy it.

Question: Actually the picture is not very cheerful. It is hard to imagine that people will work so many hours. On the contrary, they say that, in principle, people will work less, a couple of times a week for three or four hours or even less than that. Perhaps it all depends on what will be considered work?

Answer: Yes, the fact is that there will indeed be much less work, people will work less, but they will have other activities. They will engage in self-improvement. This will be considered their work.
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From KabTV’s “Era of the Last Generation” 8/8/24

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The thing is that we have to know that all of the souls extend from the soul of Adam HaRishon, for after he sinned in the sin of the Tree of Knowledge, his soul divided into 600,000 souls. This means that the one light that Adam HaRishon had, which The Zohar called Zihara Ila’a [upper brightness], which he had in the Garden of Eden at once, spreads into numerous pieces (Rabash, Article 10, “What is the Degree One should Achieve In Order not to Have to Reincarnate”).

Thus, we now have discrete states, separated and distanced from each other, even in some aspects opposite to one another. Any state different from another is in some way its opposite. These uncombined, elementary, fundamental states do not resemble each other in any way although they are all fragments of one single desire—Zeir Anpin on the level of Keter of the world of Atzilut. This state is divided into 600,000 parts.

The shattering occurs on a spiritual level even before we begin talking about our existence and sensations.

Following this, the descent of the shattered particles into our world happened, which means a gradual spiritual coarsening and distancing from the quality of bestowal and the quality of connection between them. Naturally, the light within each particle diminishes more and more, and each particle seemingly falls lower and lower in its state until it reaches the lowest state—a coarsening of desire to the point of becoming egoistic, manifesting increasingly in the desire of Adam.

His inner part, his inner nature, which initially does not reveal itself, seems to shed its outer shells that came from the Creator, and his own structure, his own desire, his own nature—the desire to receive only for oneself that is, an absolutely egoistic desire enclosed within itself—becomes more and more apparent. This desire is the human being in our world.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/24/20, “Preparation for the Convention”

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Question: Did the process of the breakage of the general system happen gradually or instantly?

Answer: The process of the breakage took place instantly, but in stages. That is, only one action of the breakage occurred, but it descended in stages. Starting from the largest stage, the common vessel was gradually breaking and crushed into smaller parts until the smallest stage.

Question: Does the breakage mean that the upper light ceased to control our desire and, as it were, gave us freedom?

Answer: No, it did not cease to control our desire. While being in this broken desire, we are disconnected from the upper light, and therefore, do not feel its impact.

Question: Do I understand correctly that the breakage was necessary to mix the altruistic desires of the Creator and the egoistic desires of the creation, which allows the manifestation of life in our world? After all, life is a constant bestowal and reception.

Answer: Yes. Therefore, all our work in the corporeal world is to realize that reception is against the upper law of nature, against the Creator and bestowal, mutual unification is for Him, for His sake.

In principle, in every creation and, naturally, in every person there is a spark of inclination toward bestowal. Otherwise, we could not exist.
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From KabTV’s “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” 10/10/23

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Question: Can we choose which of our thoughts to follow?

Answer: In general, yes. We choose, sort, and strengthen our thoughts with our connection.

That is, you should have extra confidence based on the fact that you are in a group, and everyone is interested in gathering in one single force, in one single opinion, and in a single aim toward a single goal. Then it is called a group.

Question: How do we strengthen this confidence among friends?

Answer: There are many articles by Baal HaSulam and Rabash about this.

We need to talk to each other, encourage each other, and in order to manage this, we appoint a person in charge every day to awaken the friends.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/11/12, “Reinforcing Ourselves with There Is None Else Besides Him”

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The second commandment… it is love—that one should love one’s Master with whole love…even though you do not know if I will come after you to support you… [and] although I am not giving you anything, your love will still be whole, to adhere to Me with all your heart and soul (Zohar for All, Introduction of The Book of Zohar, The Second Commandment, Item 198).

Ultimately, we are talking about desires. If the other’s desire and my desire are arranged in such a way that I want to use his desire to fulfill my own, this is called “self-love.”

If we are in an equal state: “I give to him, and he gives to me,” each of us perceives his desire and the desire of the other as one.

For example, as in a combat team or as “one man with one heart,” this is the condition “do not do to the other what is hateful to you.” Then you will be connected to each other, but on condition that you are connected together by one desire. This is not love, but the connection of friends.

Whereas love means that I take my desire and put it below the desire of a friend (the level of love depends on how much lower) in order to use my desire only to fulfill the desire of a friend. His desire determines everything for me, and I live inside his desire, like a mother inside a baby. She feels everything he feels and what he needs, and only exists for this. This is called love.

Therefore, “to adhere with all your heart and soul” means to perceive the desire of the other as your own and take care only to serve his desire day and night. When is this possible? When everyone connects together under the influence of the upper force.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/10/11, The Book of Zohar — Introduction: “The Second Commandment”

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How can I connect myself with the spiritual world?“

We connect with the spiritual world by rising above our ego.

What is the ego? It is our inborn nature that desires to enjoy at the expense of others and nature.

Rising above this nature means bestowing good onto others, even though it is not to our own benefit. In other words, we place a restriction over our own benefit: we stop thinking about ourselves, and solely consider the benefit of others. Doing so makes us similar to the qualities of the spiritual world, those of love, bestowal and connection.

The key here is that we work on our connections with people. Our ego operates in relation to others, and by rising above our egoistic forces of wishing to receive from others for ourselves, and wishing to benefit them instead, then to the extent in which we do so, we enter into a perception and sensation of the spiritual world.

We thus connect with the spiritual world by correcting our connections to each other. We then start understanding, discovering and perceiving the spiritual world not as outside of us, but that it truly envelops us.

Based on the video “Is Your Spiritual Connection Real or Fantasy?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman, Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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