Question: Who in the spiritual hierarchy can obtain the closest proximity to the property of bestowal?

Answer: Spirituality is the world of forces. Everything there is about forces.

The closest to the property of bestowal are Cohens (priests) who represent the most internal part of the general soul; then come Levites who gather around the Cohens, and then the people of Israel follows.

Erev Rav (the mixed multitude) is behind the Cloud of Glory (the Surrounding Light). Even though they make all efforts to grab as much as they can for their own sake, they cannot get inside it because they do not accept the property of bestowal, to work for the Creator’s sake, for the benefit of others.

This is a quantitative and qualitative balance of forces in a single system called “the common soul.”
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 12/24/14

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The weekly chapter of the Torah “Bambidar” tells us how the Israeli army was built. We learn how they gathered around the Tabernacle and what was displayed on the flags of each camp, etc.

This speaks about the building of the general soul: about the forces, intentions, and attributes of which it is made. The structure of the general soul reminds us of the structure of an atom, where only those parts that can withstand the radiation of the nucleus, the radiation of bestowal, can be close to the nucleus. It is according to this principle that the camps gather and are classified.

It says that it is forbidden to come close to the Tabernacle since one can die (“the stranger that approaches will die”). This means that your vessels, your desires, may not be able to hold on, and so become egoistic, causing you to die spiritually.

Comment: But all of humanity accepts these words as rigid laws and a threat of physical death.

Answer: The laws of nature are indeed rigid because the system that governs the world is very tough and uncompromising, but everyone still follows the stream of goodness.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 12/31/14

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Comment: There is an entire discussion in The Book of Zohar as to which letter the creation of the world should begin with. Eventually it was decided that the first letter would be “Bet” (Bereshit, Genesis).

Answer: The first letter is very important since it determines the meaning of the whole act of creation.

In the article “The Letters of Rav Hamnuna Saba” in The Introduction to The Book of Zohar there is the description of the “struggle” over which letter should control the world to bring all egoism, all the attributes opposite to the Creator, to compatibility with Him.

The attributes have to be opposed to each other because it is only as a result of the conflict between the positive and negative forces that we can begin to study and reveal the Creator; it is impossible to do it any other way. It is impossible to discover any attribute, anything in the world, if we don’t have attributes that are opposite from the Creator.

But how could anything opposite to Him be created? For this purpose the constantly growing egoism was created, so that it could be compared to the positive force and in the contrast between them compare: the attribute of the created being and the attribute of the Creator, day and night.

A person has to feel alternately this and that, and then together; these properties are opposite to each other. During this comparison, he either lowers the Creator to the level of darkness or raises darkness to the level of the Creator.

This work helps the created being discover the Creator from the attribute that is opposite to Him, but not in contrast, one against the other, like in our world. A person ascends and dresses his ego with the Creator’s attributes making them into a form that is totally egoistic internally and opposite from the Creator while all His positive attributes are revealed externally.

Then the created being begins to attain the two opposite attributes through one action, in one thought, in one deed, at the same time. As he ascends from our world upward, he begins to build all the creation by himself.

This is why it is said that the righteous build worlds. It is as if the Creator has destroyed the world He created (which is indeed so), and they build it and recreate it just like a child who is given a toy that is totally disassembled in order to teach him to put it together.

Thus, a person gradually ascends to the Creator’s level , and thus becomes equivalent to the Creator. He passes all the emanations and acquires the Creator’s attribute in all his filling.

Question: When you speak about a person, do you refer to the united figure of all mankind?

Answer: Yes, it is all the people in the world; it is their corrected inner core that is connected into one unique correct state called Adam (a human being) that resembles the Creator.

Comment: The wisdom of Kabbalah is so deep and rich that one constantly thinks about how he can absorb it.

Answer: It is impossible to do it in any theoretical manner. The wisdom of Kabbalah isn’t an ordinary wisdom that can be learned from a distance; it isn’t a performance that can be acted and thus felt. We have to fully penetrate and be incorporated in this figure and that is the problem.

Here there is absolute adhesion with the levels of ascent and a person constantly changes his form from a dark point to an enlightened figure of complete love and bestowal.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 12/31/14

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Question: In an atmosphere of complete disconnection and lack of understanding, how can we convey the law of love for others to people?

Answer: The same state of disconnection occurred at the time of receiving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. Before that, the people of Israel came out of Egypt, where Pharaoh, the evil that separates us, was revealed.

We found ourselves in terrible darkness, passing through the “49 Gates of Impurity.” That is why we were rewarded the revelation of the force of unity, the Light of the Torah.

It is said that the advantage of light is known from the darkness. So today, when no one considers others and everyone hates each other, the light of the Torah is revealed to us.

Question: Why is this light hidden from us?

Answer: The light is hidden because we do not use it. The evil force is revealed to us through our egoism and desires, and the force of good has no place to be revealed. Let’s begin to perform good actions, bringing the force of good from concealment, and we will suddenly find out that we have two forces: the plus and the minus, the good and evil.

We will be able to balance these two forces and live in a world where we will become the masters of everything we do. The world will be opened before us.

Question: What would you like to wish the people of Israel on the holiday of the giving of the Torah (Shavuot)?

Answer: I would like to wish that we all understand that we have been given the Torah. We need to recall every day that we were given the Torah and that we must receive it. It is the only thing that we lack. This is not about religious traditions but about the method of correction, which allows every person to correct himself and attain love for others.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 5/3/15

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Question: Why must we receive the Torah every year during the holiday of Shavuot if we already received it at Mt Sinai?

Answer: It isn’t a physical action and about being physically at the foot of Mt. Sinai. We are told that a person should see himself as if he is coming out of Egypt every day. He must hear the Ten Commandments every day as if he is receiving them over and over again. It is because our ego, our desire to receive, is renewed every day. In contrast to this, we continuously must awaken the desire to bestow, the power of love. This is the reason that the Torah is given to us on a daily basis.

Now, however, we are in exile, which means that we don’t feel the good force which is concealed from us. We only can reveal it through the wisdom of Kabbalah, which was also intentionally concealed until not too long ago.

Question: How is the Torah related to the wisdom of Kabbalah?

Answer: The wisdom of Kabbalah is called the wisdom of truth, the wisdom of the Light, since it is actually through this wisdom that we can attain the force of goodness, the force of love and bestowal, and fulfill the mutual guarantee and unity between us. We have been trying to do that for decades in the state of Israel, but things are getting worse and worse. We already have reached a point in which the situation is unbearable.

The wisdom of Kabbalah, on the other hand, reveals to us the force of goodness, the force of love, that ties us together and allows us to use it. We begin to feel how we must balance evil wherever it is revealed by the force of goodness. Then, we have two forces by which we can advance in the right direction to unity and love, and can develop in a good and wonderful manner.
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From Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 5/17/15

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Question: For some time great Kabbalists lived in Russian cities: the Baal Shem Tov, Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, and others. Did this influence the spirit of Russian Jewry?

Answer: Without a doubt, students of the Baal Shem Tov lived in every city. The Baal Shem Tov first began to apply the wisdom of Kabbalah that the Ari revealed in the 16^th century. He taught this to his many Kabbalist students, those who attained the highest level in the system. Their role was to arouse inspiration in the people, to correctly elevate, stabilize, and lead them forward. This was the idea of restoring the spirit of the people, which they had already lost at the time of the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash (Temple), when they fell from the level of mutual love to mutual hatred. So the need ripened to raise the people from the egoistic level of rejection, to the altruistic level of mutual love.

The Baal Shem Tov established what was called Hassidism, practical Kabbalistic work. But it is necessary to say that the Hassidism of today is much different. The Baal Shem Tov changed the study of the Ari to bring it closer to the people and show them them inner correction. In this way, he implemented the general rule of the Torah, “Love thy neighbor as yourself.” The people were then able to leave both spiritual and physical exile, because one is connected to the other. But if a person was not ready for spiritual redemption, he also would not attain physical freedom.

So for two generations until the 18^th century, the Kabbalistic current that was called Hassidism prospered. In every village and settlement, there were people who were involved in attaining the Creator on the basis of the right connection between them, which is what the Torah requires. In this way, Judaism became spiritual, and many people appeared who became teachers. At the same time, opponents of Hassidism appeared, but no matter what, both groups began to rise spiritually and this played an immense role in influencing the environment.

Around that time, opportunistic people began to appear, which changed everything and replaced the popular current so that they were no longer involved with the attainment of Torah. Instead, they simply carried out the physical Mitzvot (commandments) with some kind of slightly greater inner aspiration, but no more than that. This means that Hassidism fell to a lower level. But until the end of the 19^th century and in spite of all this, there were still a multitude of Kabbalists who felt the higher world, the system of management. From this, they taught others. This very strongly influenced the spirit of Russian Jewry and was rooted in them forever. So the continued discovery of the spiritual world, the discovery of the soul, the feeling of the upper world, and the entire system of discovery of the Creator as the higher force of management, pushed, and today still pushes a large part of the Jews of Russia towards true spiritual attainment.

Among my students today, it is possible to find many from the former Soviet Union and Russians still living in Russia. Even today, the spiritual potential that was inserted into them by the followers of the Baal Shem Tov still lives within them.
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From KabTV’s “About Our Life” 5/07/15

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Torah, “Leviticus” 23:9 – 23:11, 23:15: And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel and say to them: When you come to the Land which I am giving you, and you reap its harvest, you shall bring to the Cohen an Omer of the beginning of your reaping. And he shall wave the Omer before the Lord so that it will be acceptable for you; the Cohen shall wave it on the day after the rest day… And you shall count for yourselves, from the morrow of the rest day from the day you bring the Omer as a wave offering seven weeks; they shall be complete.

An Omer is a sheaf that is gathered from the produce that is harvested and tied together.

In spiritual work, the meaning of the term, “Omer,” is a share (a count, a numbering) of the levels that are attained by us—seven levels of the development of connection in succession. On every level, the connection becomes more and more intense, and so we constantly count our seven Sefirot: Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet, Netzach, Hod, Yesod, and Malchut.

In the Torah, each one of them is composed of another seven Sefirot: Hesed of Hesed, Gevura of Hesed, Tifferet of Hesed, Netzach of Hesed, and so on. Seven times seven equals 49, meaning 49 days, seven sevens, which are talked about in the Torah.

At this time, we examine all of our inner characteristics connected to one Omer with all the rest. But this is not the same connection that existed in Egypt that helped  people exit it. The counting of the Omer begins from the second day of Passover, when each one examines himself, “With this I correct something, in a Sefira like this, in a state like this.”

Greater and greater connection begins to be realized between us until we attain such a state that, specifically within this “bundle,” this connection, the powerful ego that is called “Mount Sinai” (the mountain of mutual hatred) is revealed. We reach this during the process of our correction on the fiftieth day of the counting of the Omer.

In other words, our natural egoistic state is discovered in us that does not allow us to unite. Yet, on the other hand, an immense desire is revealed in us that is called the advancement toward mutual Arvut (Mutual Guarantee).

We want to be connected to each other in one Omer, but we don’t have the power to nullify our egoism. So, we agree to the conditions of the Torah, accepting its method to correct the ego gradually, and not kill or destroy it.

Ultimately, the Omer is only the beginning of our correct advancement toward unity. We understand that the future is in unity by whose side stands our immense egoism that doesn’t let us unite. The greatest internal contradictions and oppositions torment us. Our inner point can rise up to Mount Sinai, whereas we, ourselves, are unable to.

Mount Sinai is, in fact, the same tower of Babel, but now it acquires an absolutely different form because people already have passed through the departure from Babylon and Egypt, and are beginning to understand that if they climb above the ego, then on its summit, they will discover the Creator in their unity.

In this manner, we attain a very serious state. On the one hand, our egoism is revealed to us: pride, arrogance, and our failure to control it. On the other hand, we agree to bow our heads and accept the correction upon ourselves under the same conditions that it will be given to us.

These are the ten, essential Mitzvot (Commandments), the ten Sefirot, the ten Kelim, with whose help we acquire the ten indelible names of the Creator. Attaining the name of the Creator is not anything but attaining His characteristics. Above this is found only one single name, Yod-Hey-Vav-Hey (YHVH).
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 5/28/14

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Why did Moses tell them, come and be engaged in the (Mishkan) Tabernacle and it will be important for you, but Moses heard the fools of Israel speaking behind him, and it says, “And they looked after Moses and what did they say, Rabbi Yochanan said happy is the one that gave birth to this, and what does she see in it, all his days, blessed be He speaks with him, all his days he pays the blessed be He, that is: and they looked after Moses. Rabbi Chama … and his friend tells him a man that rules the work of the Tabernacle you don’t ask him to be rich. When Moses heard this, Moses told them, your life, the Tabernacle is completed I will give you the account. He told them come and we will calculate, meaning: and those numbered of the Tabernacle.” (Midrash Rabbah, Schmot, Chapter “P’kudei Ha Mishkan”)

This is speaking about one person. This includes, the people, the spiteful critics, Moses, us, and also the Creator—all of these are our inner qualities. Everything that is outside of us is imprinted in our minds where we perceive a picture of the world and all that happens around us.

Therefore, as soon as a person on the level of “Moses” (which is a very high spiritual degree), such states awakened are awakened, all sorts of contradictions. But the construction of the Tabernacle could not be otherwise because there are always huge obstacles in terms of quality and in quantity. After all, thanks to them, based on those obstacles and correcting them, the vessels of perception to reveal the Creator will be built. In our world we cannot imagine how much the actions of opposition help.

Imagine how difficult it is to build in space where there is no counter in the form of gravity, how difficult it is for a person to act when he is not between two forces and has only one force to work with. Then there is a need to use weights or some magnets that create gravity, because without action and resistance we will not succeed. Therefore, both forces arise in the spiritual work; they help us to find our way.

It is known that a missile aimed at a target has to move relative to something; it constantly checks itself so that it doesn’t deviate from the course, and precisely by the small deviations it progresses in the correct direction. It is the same in spiritual work. Only thanks to the disturbances do we progress. As it is written, “Man must bless the bad as he blesses the good,” because it is precisely the evil that pushes, awakens, and helps us to progress. We check ourselves relative to it.

Therefore, we need to clearly and precisely understand the completion of the goal of creation cannot be composed only from positive qualities. Disturbances could also be called “positive” if it weren’t for the existence of the negative force.

Without the disturbances nothing could be built. If, for example, I build a wall by placing one brick after another, I have to see in relation to what I lay them in order for the wall to be straight. I use levels and plummets and with their help, I build the wall. Limits are necessary! Without them there is no creation.

If there is no resistance, then it’s not the right path. In every activity: in study, at work, in daily life, there must be an action and reaction between which we build the middle line.

Exactly because of that the Torah describes dramatic states that are continuous collisions because in each new level we need to feel the revelation of the negative level and toward it build the positive level. How could we work if we aren’t able to reverse a negative thing to positive? Then there would be no chance to create something.

If we act in a correct form, then we need the negative as well as the positive. Imagine that instead of spot lighting in a room, there were only light without shading, without transition of shadow and light. Without such limits we would not be able to feel, see, sense, or be oriented.

Therefore, Moses in us is very happy in situations of controversy and uses them in a correct form. He builds the Tabernacle and he is aware that these qualities exist in him, and after he finishes building the Tabernacle he begins to work with them.

The main thing is that the restrictions build the outlines of our spiritual vessels in which we reveal the Creator. Why is it said that it is possible to build the spiritual vessel only with the help of the letters “Yod- Hey – Vav – Hey”? Because they are limits.

The name “Yod- Hey – Vav – Hey” is the outline in which we begin to feel the Light of creation; otherwise we cannot feel it. It is surrounding us now, but we don’t feel it because we have nothing to limit it, nothing within which to receive and feel it.

Once the limits become similar to the Light in the positive and the negative sense, then we will gradually begin to feel the Light and will ultimately reveal it. Therefore the limits that are used in a correct form are necessary as are the positive forces. After all, they actually are not negative, but are the only way we perceive them relative to another force. Therefore, if man builds his life in the correct form, then he will have great success.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 10/16/13

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Every person is created with an egoistic desire, but in addition to it, we are given the Torah, which can turn this evil desire into a good one. The desire remains, but, instead of using it for our own benefit, we begin to use it for the good of others.

This revolution in the use of one’s desire can be performed with a tool called the Torah, the Reforming Light. Studying my egoistic desire, I discover that it consists of 613 parts, 613 desires, that together comprise my evil inclination.

I need to correct all these desires, from the lightest to the heaviest, in order to stop using them for myself and start using them for the benefit of others. I must make a complete revolution in this. It is impossible to correct them halfway in order to make it beneficial for me and for you.

Therefore it is said that a person must perform 613 commandments. This is about 613 corrections of my desire from evil to good with respect to the other. As a result of these corrections, I come to love, fulfilling the main law of the Torah.

It is this method of correction that the people of Israel once received. For this, we are given the Torah. The task of the people of Israel is to implement this method, setting an example for the entire world and becoming a Light to the nations.

Therefore, the Torah contains so many warnings. Our entire fate depends on the fulfillment of this condition of love for one’s friend as for oneself. Let’s see whether we are approaching this realization or not.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 5/3/15

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The Torah is the most popular book of all times and among all peoples. It talks about the spiritual development of a person and about his inner characteristics.

We regard the Torah as a fascinating biography of historical figures and we don’t suspect that it is not talking about physical issues but about a person’s inner state and about the inner state of all of humanity. So it is up to us to leave its stories to the imagination of writers and historians and talk about what it really says.

Adam—A Desire that Raises the Person Above the Material

A person is born as an egoist, he passes through a long way of egoistic development on the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate, until for the first time, 5,775 years ago, the level of “man” (Adam) was awakened in him, the level of his inner development. It is not by chance that they called the first man who perceived the spiritual world Adam.

The desire was awakened in him to attain a new level that reveals the meaning of life, its source, and the power that created the universe and manages it. This is a pure power that is not clothed in any earthly images.

A person, according to his physical structure, senses, mind, and heart, is on the animal level of developmental. And suddenly the component of “Man” is revealed in him, an additional desire and intelligence that weren’t revealed in any form from an external aspect. These are already spiritual components that differentiate him from the beast. They raise a person above substance through his relationship to creation, to the Creator, to the meaning of life.

The first Adam described his attainment in the book, Sefer Raziel HaMalakh. In continuation, his students, Cain, Abel, and Seth, developed his discovery. That is how it continued until Noah, representing the tenth generation of the students of the first Adam.

Abraham, the First Active Explorer of the Power that Manages Creation

Ten additional generations passed from Noah to Abraham before humanity reached the state of “Babylon,” which is the first state in which people began to be locked into a group. The growing ego began to hint to them how to work amongst themselves, to help them discover the close relationship that was revealed in the clashes and opposition within a person and between people.

Precisely at this time in ancient Babylon, within one of the priests of the religion, Abraham, the son of Terah, the desire arose to attain a higher spiritual level. If before him all of the Kabbalists penetrated the secrets of creation passively, Abraham became the first active explorer who attained the power that manages the universe by himself.

This was a new level of attainment; he rose above his ego and began to work with it actively. The ego reached a level in him that began to be a real force and cooperated with him. So Babylon embodies the conflict between people, strife, discord, and their dispersion.

On this background, Abraham created the method for discovering the creation. Although Adam is considered to be the first Kabbalist, Abraham is the one who founded the study that became the instrument for attaining the universe and the force that manages it, the Creator.

It is impossible to deny the existence of this force, because after all, we see that the entire creation was created according to some kind of principle, according to some kind of program. It links within itself and acts within an immense system according to a formula that we don’t understand.

Abraham began to investigate it actively, because around that time the public became egoistic, i.e., the opposition of society to this force of nature made it possible for the society to explore nature, the Creator. Abraham wrote about his discoveries in the Book of Creation (Sefer Yetzirah).

Overcoming the Crisis in Babylon

With this method launched by Abraham, since the shattering occurred first as the expression of separate individuals, each one representing a particular property that once was collected into one unified desire; now each one of us is some kind of unique aspect of the general desire that existed before then.

If we want to attain the force of nature that created the singular desire, we can do this to the degree of our connection and unity. When we connect and unite above our opposition and contradictions, we create a state of separation between the negative forces of our division and the singular positive force of nature. Specifically within this opposition appears the opportunity for clarifying the feeling of what happens in us and in all of creation.

When Abraham discovered this, he called the Babylonians to rise above their crisis because it is nothing other than the discovery of the opposition of society to nature. At the same time the opposition is increasing.

There exist only two methods for overcoming the crisis: Either gathering together according to the method of Abraham, or scattering in all directions so as not to feel the constant enmity and conflicts with each other. In this way, the Babylonian society divided into two parts: one part scattered and settled all over the surface of the Earth and the second part followed Abraham to the land of Israel.

Since all the characteristics are connected, it is natural that if one “changes his location he changes his fortune” (Talmud Yerushalmi, Shabbat 6:9). A particular force of nature influences every piece of land on Earth, so someone who changes the location of his dwelling changes his fortune, his fate. Clearly it is not necessary to accept this literally. But on the other hand, we see how both biology and geography truly influence the appearance of people, their manner and characteristics. And it is not because the land is like this, but because the characteristics of every point in space are different. So Abraham, since he was led by an inner intention, brought his disciples to the land of Israel, because he felt that their place was precisely here.

But the processes through which the people passed in ancient Babylon also continued in the land of Israel. The ego was constantly growing, and they needed to rise above it through the unity between them. There was nothing new in the method that was discovered by Abraham, it was simply realized by those who possessed the same view with greater or lesser success, and they succeeded in realizing it.

Joseph, A Level that Unites Separated Desires

The development of the school of Abraham was continued by his student Isaac, called the “son” of Abraham in the Torah. “Son” in the wisdom of Kabbalah indicates his successor.

But in the time of Jacob there began to be problems in the realization and implementation of the study in life itself, because the unity that they had to attain was already on another level. Jacob is a small part of the general soul (six Sefirot). To continue with the realization of the method, it was necessary to move to the general level, Israel, meaning ten Sefirot instead of six.

Here for the first time they saw that their method was not enough. They didn’t know how to solve the problem of unification. Between all the opinions that are called the sons of Jacob, and their brother Joseph started disputes and arguments. Joseph thought that it was necessary to unite according to a particular principle that specifically was about him, for even the name “Joseph” is derived from the word “L’Asof,” to connect, (in Hebrew all names have an internal meaning).

But the point of view of Joseph sounded very egoistic. His brothers didn’t agree with him, and ultimately they found themselves in Egypt against their will. In other words, the continued development of spirituality brought them to a state in which against their will they found themselves under the control of Joseph. And to continue rising further in the spiritual levels, they had to accept his leadership upon themselves.

In the Torah this is described in the form of a conflict between the brothers, the sale of Joseph to Egypt, the descent of the sons of Jacob to Egypt, and so forth. If we translate this into the language of Kabbalah, then it is speaking about the work of the person with his inner emotions, but already on another, more serious egoistic level, when the rigid, distinctive and precise ego is discovered.

The ego grew according to five levels. If we rise above them, it is possible to examine and attain the only power of nature that is its opposite, the Creator. When the sons of Jacob found themselves on the next egoistic level, they discovered it as good, because Joseph connected them together and they felt sufficient advancement. What they were not ready for before then, they succeeded in doing now, to unite among them and work in the direction of attaining the Creator. These are what are called the seven years of plenty. And together with this they discovered the system in which they were found.

The Ego, Our Friend and Enemy

After the descent to Egypt stages begin that will bring us close to leaving it, escaping from under the control of Pharaoh, the emergence of the recognition that our work is realized within the ego. Attainment like this typifies every level.

This is because in order to rise to the next level that brings us forward, we need to be attracted towards it. So its ego needs to be shown to us as good, imperative, and as necessary for spiritual advancement: We enter into it, attain a new level with its help, and grow. And after this he already begins to acquire more painful forms.

We see that this is the way it happens even in our world, when throughout all of human development until recently, we thought that movement forward would bring us the good life, the right goal, the victory of reason, the good, and the right mutual relationships. We thought that there are ways of reaching this: capitalism, socialism, or communism. And we went forward, the main thing being to reach the goal, and without paying attention to the problems appeared along with this. Whereas, here an absolutely different situation was revealed: the recognition that we possess an egoistic nature and that we will not reach anything other than self-annihilation. And in our time we are beginning to attain and understand this.

In the beginning the ego attracts and seduces us, offers us very nice, good fulfillments. And after this we begin to understand that all of this is not for us and even harms us. And about this it is said in the Torah that we built beautiful cities for Pharaoh, Pithom, and Ramses, all of this is for the ego, and in fact, we dig a grave for ourselves with this. They are called dangerous cities, in regard to attaining the Creator, because the ego can bury us to such a degree that it is not possible to get out of it.

When the ego begins to attract us, we run after it: Everything in this world is ours, ours, ours. After that the person dies without taking anything with him. That is how things go one generation after another and gradually humanity begins to understand that this pursuit is harmful because this brings it to distancing, depression, and self-destruction. The lack of purpose, the appearance within us of the question about the meaning of life kills our egoistic movement forward and leads to a deep apathy.

At the end of development the ego must show us a reward: What have we gotten, where does this race end, where are the fruits of our labor? When we go a little higher with our egoistic desire we are already looking at everything completely differently. Everything that exists on the physical level seems as empty and useless to a person. He seemingly rises above his beastly state and understands that all of this is false: It isn’t clear why life has been wasted.

So it is said that Pharaoh specifically symbolizes the ego among the children of Israel, meaning those who have the need and the drive to discover the meaning of life, the purpose of existence, the Creator. Since the ego is constantly evolving and the need to see results is clearly growing, the person can no longer be satisfied only with mundane attainments, for he doesn’t exist forever and the needs in him are growing beyond materialism. He begins to understand that all of this is merely child’s play and ultimately, like everyone else, he will die. Life went by, and then what?

The ego helps us to decode, solve, see, understand and feel the lack of result of our way from the start. We see that the era of the “American dream,” the pursuit after profit has ended and now no one has the need for luxuries. People have evolved beyond this; you cannot compel them to run like a hamster in a wheel after more and more new purchases and fulfillments.

Humanity is now beginning to understand this; so today a stratum of ego that is immense in quality and small in quantity is appearing in it that asks the question about the meaning of life. It pushes humanity towards depression, drugs, terror, and crime, to suppress the question about the meaning of life any way it can, or at least to find some kind of partial answer for it. Gradually, more and more people are beginning to be interested in the Kabbalistic answer to this question.

In his time, this problem brought the students of Abraham to Egypt, to that state that began to awaken the ego in them that opposes the Creator, for only when they are immersed into the ego is it possible to discover this force. So the Egyptian exile and the exodus from Egypt became the foundation stones for the spiritual development of the person and humanity. Based upon the example of the small group of Abraham, which was thrown into the control of the ego called “Pharaoh,” it is possible to understand what is to be expected for all of humanity, since even today we are found in the same situation. This is the reason that when we open the Torah it is impossible for us to forget its extreme relevance for our time.
[157868]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/02/15, Lesson on the Topic: “Dissemination of Kabbalah”

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