Question: Won’t rising above physical problems lead to apathy regarding physical life?

Answer: You specifically build your spiritual life above this physical life. Spirituality is built only above this world. Our world was created for this; it was not given to us by chance. The life of our physiological body is wondrously arranged in the same pattern as the upper world, as a branch resembles its root, so that in all events in this world you will begin to feel what stands on a higher level behind them.

We see how much the ten plagues of Egypt differ: blood, frogs, lice, and so forth, to the plague of the firstborn. Every plague is an unpleasant blow, but they all differ from each other. According to your place in the general system of the soul of Adam HaRishon, you pass through everything that happens in this world personally, as blows to your ego, inside your skin.

Specifically these blows help you to get out of your skin more and more, thanks to your overcoming every time. And you bless these blows, for without them you have no chance to become free. The ego holds you within the skin; only through a blow will you decide to flee from there.

The blow builds the human being in you, meaning Klipat Noga, the middle third of Tifferet, giving you the opportunity to think about why you want to get out. You don’t want to hide and flee from the blows, you are ready to stay in the dark; rather you want to adhere to the source, to the Creator, with great thanks that He gives you the opportunity to exit this body a little and approach Him.

In this condition, you begin to see and feel an enormous amount of subtleties and nuances, and in this form you build your spiritual body, namely the first ten Sefirot of the Returning Light. This really will be the Returning Light, for you no longer ask for yourself, rather you rise above the darkness felt in your will to receive, which transforms into the contracted Malchut.

You overcome this darkness and begin to build a screen above it. And your yearning to satisfy the Creator is called the Reflected Light, for you think only about His benefit. Thus you take on the initial structure of your spiritual Partzuf from which begin states found above our substance, our desire to receive in order to receive. You are detached from your “Self.”
[104524]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/4/13, Shamati #36

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To be a Tzadik (righteous) means to justify the Creator in all circumstances. A person is given every state to help him to want to go outside of his skin to such an extent that darkness thickens around him, and this is a very great help that the Creator sends someone ready to be a Tzadik.

A person is placed in situations that are unacceptable to his ego so that he will be ready to come out of himself. It is clear to us that the spiritual world is above this physical world. Therefore, everything physical must die, but this is not about the usual death of all humans, but rather, that a person, himself, will agree that all of his worldly values will die. And thereby, he acquires the next level: spiritual life.

He exits his body, being released from all self-interest in what will happen to him, above all the situations into which the Creator puts him. He concurs with these circumstances, accepting them happily as builders of his new, spiritual level, for they raise him above his physical conditions, take him out of the limits of his skin and, particularly, make it possible for him to ask for adherence with the Creator from within the darkness. The only inclination this person will have is to give the Creator contentment while he, himself, is found in the dark.

In this, he sees his salvation, his departure from exile. Outside of his skin, he feels true life because he can satisfy the Creator without any consideration of self. Thus, he defeats the darkness, the suffering, the fear, the anxiety, and the shame that he feels, which were revealed intentionally to indicate to him his corporeal limitations and to help him rise above himself.
[104427]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/4/13, Shamati #36

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We may be starting a special process in which the group is now taking on such a form that we finally can feel not our personal individual states, but the general states that we are going through. We will begin to go through them together, and this is called being the people of Israel in Egypt, when one blow follows another, and then we rise above them together.

The ten plagues of Egypt don’t take place far away from us, where Pharaoh is, so that we can observe them from a distance and rejoice. These blows take place inside us, and our personal Pharaoh experiences them! So, we have been awarded to advance toward the final state of the group as one nation.

Whoever doesn’t feel the darkness yet should be worried since it means that he doesn’t work enough on the connection with the group and that he still lacks the inner work. He subconsciously may be escaping the problem, keeping his distance, instead of touching the truth a little. A person’s defensive force is operating here, scaring a person and preventing him from entering the group and clarifying things.

If he has no desire to “leap out of his body,” it means that he was not awarded with the Creator’s pressure that squeezes him like a cherry so that the pit will pop out. How else can one jump into the waves of the Red Sea? Only in this way, under pressure, like on a cherry. Can you imagine what great pressure that is?

If the spiritual world is above the corporeal world, which means above life and death, then I should feel that I am ready for this transition! This body, this life with everything in it, isn’t worth anything compared to the world into which I am moving.

The shell that prevents us from advancing can be broken only by the force of love and mutual concern, only by the general work together with everyone. If you don’t feel the general concern for the society, for the community, for the whole, global Bnei Baruch community, for the whole world, you will not be able to be involved in this process.

Part of the group already may be going through it while you are standing on the side as it is passing you by, and you don’t hear, see, or feel it. Instinctively, you ignore the difficulties and guard yourself, thus keeping yourself at a distance.

We must be involved in everything that the group, the community, and the global Bnei Baruch society deals with, and be sensitive and on the alert as to all the worries and the changes that everyone experiences. Whoever is not actively involved in this general process are called “women,” “children,” “slaves,” and “sheep and goats.” These categories determine all the types of people in our global group who somehow are connected to us, but only externally.

So, accordingly, only “600,000 souls” receive the Torah.
[104378]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/5/13, Shamati #61

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Rabash, “What is the People’s Shepherd is the Whole Nation in the Work”: But the main difficulty is only the lack of faith. Thus, a person has to devote all his work and perform actions in order to buy the faith in the Creator, which is the only thing that provides him with everything.

It is about a special force that, together with all the troubles, problems, tensions, and internal conflicts, keeps a person in the state of Hafetz Hesed. This means that it doesn’t make his life easier, but that it keeps him above the heaviness of life.

This force doesn’t solve the corporeal problems and doesn’t free a person of them. On the contrary, every spiritual level is built above the unsolved corporeal conflicts of the current level. Otherwise, a person would not be forced to rise above it. Having no choice under the pressure of the ego, he needs the state of Hafetz Hesed. Otherwise, he will simply not be able to live. On the other hand, this is necessary because he will never bring the Creator contentment.

This is the choice between these two discernments, between the two causes according to which a person advances to a spiritual life.

Question: What is his choice exactly?

Answer: You may choose to be in Hafetz Hesed in order to simply walk around in the forest with a flower in your hand and not wanting anything more than that, or you may not be able to stand the pains that this life brings and wish to escape to a place where everything seems good, where everything is for the best, since there is none else besides Him. Indeed, don’t I deserve such a good state?

You either yearn for the state of Hafetz Hesed because it is a higher level that allows you to remain above all the unpleasant feelings in the desire to receive or in order to remain in bestowal and to appreciate it more than receiving. It is quite hard to explain this to ourselves, but it is already the beginning of the real state of Hafetz Hesed.
[104195]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/3/13, Writings of Rabash

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We are initially adhered to our vessels of receiving, and only in them can we feel the world. We judge everything only according to how good or bad we feel in our vessels of receiving called “a donkey (hamor),” which is also our “matter (homer)” (which has the same root in Hebrew). And the man in us is also adhered to the same “donkey.”

Thanks to our exertion, we can detach the man in us who is immersed in his matter. Then this man begins to think differently.

How can we detach the man from his matter, from his “donkey?” Only by the Light that Reforms that gives a person the attribute of bestowal, Hesed, the Light of Hassadim. This Light fills the part called “man” and gives him new attributes by which a person can detach himself from the donkey, from the matter of the desire to receive. This detachment from the desire to receive is called the exodus from Egypt.
[104130]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/3/13

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An endless process is expected in which there will be big local conventions. On the 10^th to 12^th of May there will be a convention in the US, in New Jersey, and in June there will be a convention in Krasnoyarsk, Russia. In July there will be a convention in St. Petersburg, in August there will be a convention in Europe, and in September the holidays begin in Israel…in short there is a big convention in a different country every month.

I see all these meetings, as well as the study and our workshops, not as isolated events, but as an uninterrupted, continuous, smooth process in which we are “pressured” to reach the gathering before Mt. Sinai. We have to clarify all the stages and then go through them internally, and this will be, of course, accompanied by many inner eruptions and explosions, and at the same time, we have to stay on track in order to eventually discover the new spiritual vessel, a new life.

You must understand that we have to die and be reborn internally. We have to be reborn in our perspective of life and of the world, in all our set of values, in education, and culture, in everything. We have to change, to move on to an unknown round, adjusting to a dimension that we cannot even imagine now.

In order to do that, we need a strong collective force and a continuous evolutionary process. No matter what happens, we have to think only about correction. The “ten plagues of Egypt” will be revealed to us, and so we have to learn from Moses what to do about them. The Torah calls him “the most humble of all.” This means terrible suffering and above that, gratitude and joy. See how much trouble the people of Israel caused him in the desert…

We will go through these steps together.
[104120]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/2/13

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Question: Can the system of relationships that currently exists among the people of Israel prevent the entire world from liberating from egoism?

Answer: By all means it is so. If we are not connected to each other, we cause malevolence not only to ourselves, but to the entire world.

The general process impacts us the same way as it does the rest of the world, but our task is to react to it differently. There is no sense in waiting for the entire world’s reaction since all they have is a desire to receive, whereas we also have a spark of bestowal. This explains why our reactions have to be correct and thoughtful. Our mission is to unite and become “the Light for the nations,” a “Kingdom of Priests.”

The lack of unity among Jews in the land of Israel influences not only the Jewish Diaspora, but the entire world that hates us and despises the State of Israel. Today we see that it’s not anti-Semitism that is popular, but “anti-Israel.”  It’s not an accident, since Israel is a very special place where we have to unite, but we don’t do that. If we start taking care of the relationships among us, we will eliminate all hindrances and will see that the rest of the world happily follows us. The nations of the world don’t have such a level of egoism as we do. So, if we apply enough efforts, they will join us on our path.

Moreover, Jews who live abroad will also relate to us appropriately. Today, they hate Israel. A majority of them vote against Israel. They would be happy if this state never existed. That’s what official surveys reflect. We can do nothing about it. It’s triggered by our non-performance in pursuing our mission. Nobody wants us the way we are now. We are egoists, protectionists, literally a “splinter” in the body of the world. All world problems are connected with Israel. Nobody notices our achievements; on the contrary, our accomplishments only irritate them. We have to bring a methodology of correction to the world rather than teach them how to use egoism in a better and more successful way.

Question: The nations of the world don’t realize what the Israeli mission is, do they?

Answer: Subconsciously they do. Why do they say that we are the reason for the overall evil? It’s because they feel that they depend on us. This sensation is not accidental. When Arab leaders claim that Jews are the cause of the world’s wickedness, they really feel it. It’s not just politics, but rather the voice of their hearts, their internal sensation. Jews in various countries realize that contemporary Israel doesn’t contribute much to this world. That’s why today there is a tendency to abolish Israel.

Unfortunately, nobody in Israel listens to the world’s predispositions. We behave as if we don’t care; we continue doing business, making money, raising our wellbeing, arguing in the Parliament…

We live as if nothing is going on. That’s why we can’t exclude a chance that very soon we will be overwhelmed with new immense troubles. External forces that come both from Jews and from the nations of the world might seed a disagreement among the people of Israel which will cause riots and protests, a new round of an “Israeli spring.”

It means that the experiment to create a State of Israel was not a success; how long can the world tolerate it? Why currently are all Jews in the world against Israel? If at this time, on the eve of Passover we won’t unite, then in 2-3 months we will end up in a very dangerous situation. Let’s hope that we will find correct words to address the people of Israel and that they will understand us.

Our salvation is in unity and in spreading unity to the entire world. We have to tell the world openly what our mission is and that unity is exactly what the nations of the world are entitled to receive from us. Then, they will understand how much they need us. Our previous internal relationships only caused them troubles; at this time, let our unity bring everybody benevolence. People will understand and feel it. If we change, then our internal state will change too; otherwise, we won’t live up to a good future.

Question: What can we do on the eve of Passover to halt this negative development?

Answer: Aspire to exit from Egypt, meaning to rise above the hatred, disagreement, and separation among us for the sake of unity. The entire nation, which is now split into multiple groups and parties, as well as each particular individual have to realize that it’s our unity that will define our future, nothing but that!
[103816]
From KabTV’s “Kabbalists write: Exodus from Egypt.” 3/4/13

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” p. 29: For if we didn’t have this damaged will to receive within us, we could not correct it at all, for nobody can correct something that isn’t in him. And therefore that amount of will to receive that is embedded in the body from its birth into the air of the world is not enough. Rather, it is further compelled to be a vehicle for unclean Klipot for no less than 13 years.

It follows that even if I possess a great will to receive, this is still not enough. From the start the Creator says to us, “Come to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart.” He will inundate you with blows, so you will want to flee from him. It’s impossible to take me out of the evil inclination until it has reached a level where I can no longer endure it. But first it’s necessary to become completely aware of this evil.

In our world, we educate children to be careful, “Don’t go there, don’t do this…” But in the spiritual world, there is nothing like this. There it’s the opposite; they send me to “criminals” and “thieves,” “alcoholics” and “drug addicts,” into the arms of Haman, Balaam, Balak, Esau, and so forth. Otherwise, how can I correct these characteristics? In fact, these are uncorrected parts of my soul. Therefore, I must own them, feel them as mine, recognize the evil hidden within them, and be released from them, to rise above them.

Question: Does it follow that I must be evil in order to advance spiritually?

Answer: How should I answer you? Yes. It’s possible to correct only what is within you. And in spite of it all, this doesn’t say that I must just become evil. It’s one thing if, like a terrorist, I want to kill someone. It’s another thing if I want to love, and at the same time I discover within me a readiness to kill. These are two absolutely different approaches. And the difference here is that I discover the evil in opposition to it, I see that in myself I am evil, but I don’t kill someone who seems evil to me.

“13 years” among the unclean Klipot is not time according to the calendar, rather this is a level, and the stage is very high. I aspire to love, to bestow, so I discover my evil inclination. This is the condition; otherwise, I wouldn’t advance at all on my spiritual way towards correction, towards the Creator.

I want to be close to Him, to embrace Him, to kiss Him, to give Him pleasure according to the principle: “Don’t do to your friend what is hateful to you,” and love the other as thyself. And likewise, for 13 years, I discover the opposite of bestowal within me. In other words, I discover within myself characteristics, desires, and inclinations, which I didn’t even know existed because they are spiritual and come from the four impure worlds of ABYA. They dwell above the “beastly” comprehension of our world, and therefore, this is already an ascent.

Here the principle: “One against the other” acts. Aspiring to the good, I discover the evil, again and again. And so it goes for some time!

If I don’t maintain the position and stop, everything disappears. And if I don’t want to stop, then I turn to a group, to studies, to the Creator, resorting to all the means that will help me to hold on to the way, to tilt it favorably.

And only then are the “malicious” and “erroneous” things discovered in me, defects that seemed not to exist before then. I never felt what the 613 broken desires were and now they are apparent. If I hadn’t advanced, I would have remained on a level that in a spiritual sense is neither good nor bad. Conversely, if a person advances properly, he becomes worse.

But he works on himself; he understands what is happening with him; he is found in an inner struggle; he helps others, and they help him. It’s as if he “crushes” his ego with millstones, chews and grinds it, so that it will be possible to “swallow,” to “digest” it. During these difficult times we must help and support each other.

Imagine a car show, where the new car sparkles and glimmers, all shiny, clean, and beautiful—a real pleasure. And now look at a car repair shop: the stench, the garbage, the mess….It all depends on where and what they sell to you.

So at this stage, we do most of the “dirty work.” To correct the Human in me: What can be worse? And on the other hand, what can be higher?
[103435]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/20/13, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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