Question: On the first evening of the Passover holiday, it is customary to hold a special meal at which the Passover Haggadah is read, which is the telling of the Jews’ escape from Egyptian slavery. Is this story a simple historical narrative or does it have a deeper meaning that applies to today?

Answer: The Egyptian exile dates back to the age of the forefathers, followed by the age of the sons. The patriarch Abraham began to gather disciples from all over Ancient Babylon. He taught that it is impossible to advance and come closer while everyone is in such internecine strife and selfishness, as it happened then in Babylon.

The construction of the Tower of Babel symbolized the ultimate form of selfishness that had grown to the heavens. The whole of Babylon was torn apart by mutual hatred and misunderstanding, which is called “the confusion of languages.”

Abraham told his students that there is a single method for all mankind, but it is impossible to force it on people because it requires maturity from a person. The essence of this method is “love covers all crimes.”

Each of us is inside our egoism, but we must build a connection between us on top of it. Egoism is unfounded hatred of one’s neighbor. If I see my neighbor’s lawn is greener or he has bought a better car than mine, then I start to hate him.

This is hatred for no reason. If my son bought a nice car, I would only be happy. The more successful my children are, the happier I am, but every success of my neighbor spoils my mood.

This happened on a small scale within the neighborhood, yard, and house. But today, the whole world has turned into a Babylon: rich people and poor people are all arguing, defending their opinions, and disagreeing with each other.

We do not know what a good, peaceful life means when you do not feel any pressure. It is like living in paradise. There is no time and space and everything goes smoothly and easily. Everyone helps each other, lets them go ahead. If you need something, everyone rushes to your aid. You can be sure that you will always be supported at the right moment.

We are not used to such a life and cannot imagine it. Abraham explained to the Babylonians that it is impossible to continue living in our growing egoism and quarreling with each other. 99% of all our forces are spent on survival in the conditions of this internecine struggle.

But what if selfishness is so huge? It dominates us; it forces everyone to fight for their opinion, and compels everyone to consider themselves the smartest. It is impossible to fight your nature, and it is not necessary—you just need to rise above it.

Everyone has their own opinion, as it happens between relatives, but we are all united by a family that we all have to take care of together. We need to take this example from life. Let’s say my children do not share my political views: one has more conservative, right–wing views, the other has left-wing views, the third has become Orthodox religious, etc., everyone votes for their own party.

But if we are one family, then despite this, we love everyone and help everyone. It is important to us that this is a person close to us, a member of our family. That is how we have to take care of all the people—as if they were one family.

Then we will not pay attention to the difference of views. If someone wants to live differently, let them live. Everyone can stay with their ego if they consider themselves obligated to love others above it. Others think differently from me, but I do not put pressure on them or try to convince them by force. Everyone is free to remain as they are, which means that all crimes will be covered by love, just like in a good family.

I cancel myself in front of others and do not dictate my opinion to them, but on the contrary, I am ready to join in their desires and help them. And so everyone does relative to the others, thanks to which we create a special, warm common field, which is called the feeling of a family or one people.

We are enveloped in a cloud of love, mutual participation, unification, warmth, reciprocity. It is something completely new. It did not exist before, it is built precisely on this principle of “love that covers all sins.”
Everyone stays with their egoism, but we know how to deal with it. After all, egoism is given to us by nature, and it is obvious to us today that we cannot do anything about it. But from Abraham, we got a technique that allows us to overcome this egoism and unite.

Those who know how to connect above egoism are called Jews (Yehudim), from the word “Yehud” (unity), or the people of Israel, Yashar-El, that is, straight to the Creator. The nation of Israel was created on this basis.

After leaving Babylon, from petty strife, Israel finds itself in a period called the Egyptian exile, which is slavery to its egoism. Egoism dominates us and does not allow us to connect. No matter how hard we try, no matter how hard we work, nothing works.

It is called slavery, which is exhausting work on our material. We try to build something out of it between us, but nothing comes of it until we realize that we need to rise above our ego. It happens after many blows and hard work.

As a result, we decide that it is impossible to continue to exist like this. This is the situation we find ourselves in today. Otherwise we will just destroy each other in an internecine war.

We need to really realize that our life is slavery. The power of evil that lives in us eats us and destroys us. Then we will agree to rise above egoism as we did once before. We do not know how to do this, but at least we are fleeing from mutual hatred, we want to get out from under the power of the Pharaoh.

This means that we are leaving Egypt, running in the dark to no one knows where. We only understand that we can no longer exist in it. And then we come to Mount Sinai, seeing what kind of hatred (sin) exists between us.

We agree to rise above this hatred and unite into one person with one heart, to achieve mutual guarantee, to accept the Torah, that is, the method of unification. The main rule of the Torah is to love one’s neighbor as oneself. That is when we are born as the people of Israel, as it says, “Today you have become My people.”
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From KabTV’s “New Life 537” 3/25/15

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Question: If I were to open The Book of Zohar and no one told me it was important, I probably would not find anything in it, just a fairy tale. Imagine someone who has nothing to do with us opens this book. What does he find there? What does he read?

Answer: Nothing, but he will learn about this book from me. At the same time, he will have some recordings of our lessons. He will open the book, and along with watching or listening to our recorded lessons, he will study it and this will give him an entrance into the upper world.

Before that, he should read other literature, such as Rabash’s articles about the group, about the connection between people, and also Baal HaSulam’s articles, which shape his approach to The Book of Zohar. This is how he will come to The Book of Zohar itself.

I am sure that in the end people will engage specifically in this.

I think the next generation will finally come to the conclusion that a person does not need to work as much as now. Should he work just to exhaust our planet and produce completely unnecessary things?! He will produce only what is necessary for his existence and spend all the rest of his time studying, disseminating, and exchanging spiritual information.

People will gradually begin to feel that they exist in both worlds. I am sure this will happen, if not in the next generation, then in the one after. But it will definitely happen.

Comment: But you yourself live in the current state.

My Response: I do what I must in my time. I feel myself to be a link in the chain of Kabbalists. I have a clear mission. I think this is clearly visible in my life—what I devote myself to and what I fulfill. I have no questions or issues with this.
[342858]
From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Zohar is Book №1” 7/8/10

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 118

Is Prayer a Request for the Strength to Work?

Prayer means that we ask only when we have no other choice. We turn to the Creator only when we have no alternative. Gradually, we begin to recall the Creator’s existence, and even this remembrance is something the Creator does. He makes it seem as if we remember Him on our own. In truth, we would never think about the Creator by ourselves.

The will to receive is structured such that it is entirely closed within itself. It is a closed system. The Creator introduces a tiny, imperceptible ray of light, and suddenly we think: “Oh, the Creator exists!” We feel as though we remembered Him on our own, without any help.

But in reality, it was the Creator who reminded us of His existence and let us turn to Him. This process happens repeatedly, and its entire purpose is to strengthen the connection with Him. Through this process, we build our inner spiritual system. It is how we acquire the Creator’s qualities and become similar to Him.

However, before this can happen, before we can recognize what is opposite to the Creator, before we can understand our “self,” the Creator needs to place us in unpleasant situations that are the exact opposite of the state we are about to attain.

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Matan Torah (Giving of the Torah),” Items 10-12, (12.8-9.2003)

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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, Shamati 22, “Torah Lishma“

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Question: If the matter of creation is the receiving desire, what does it mean to bestow in order to bestow? Where is the work with desire?

Answer: The truth of the matter is that the receiving desire itself works for the sake of bestowal. It supports a fellow human being, helps him, and performs various actions in relation to him.

In general, to understand bestowal for the sake of bestowal, it is necessary to understand what reception for the sake of bestowal is. It means that I work with my receiving desires so as to use them to raise a fellow human being and perform the actions of bestowal upon him, similar to how Bina works in its AHP.

I include the receiving desires of the other into my own and fill him with everything he requires. And what he requires is infinity. Then with my help his desires reach an infinite magnitude, while the Lights coming to him through me grow to the infinite size of NRNHY. This is how I work receiving in order to bestow: I make sure to give the other everything necessary, utilizing all of my abilities for this purpose and totally ignoring my own benefit.

However, for this I need the upper force that is not in my nature. My inborn nature lets me perform only actions that promise me personal benefit, whereas the actions of bestowal are totally selfless and do not benefit my receiving desires in any way. This is why I can’t perform them unless I receive the strength from the upper dimension, that of bestowal.

Hence, I incorporate the needs of the other into my desires and then through my desires I fulfill him. In general, we are talking about the desires that relate to our interconnection since the spiritual work is performed at the level of the unity of souls where we fill ourselves with the upper lights.

There is another option: not to engage my receiving desires, but only to transfer all the good from myself to the other, to participate in his fulfillment, but not with my own desires. This is pure bestowal. As a rule, these actions precede mutual bestowal. They correct our unification. Thanks to them we annul our egoism in order to rise above it to unity. And unity itself is activated by the direct use of our receiving desires.

In this way, bestowal for the sake of bestowal is an intermediate, small, weak, “poor” state. But we have no choice: We need to undergo it since we thereby clean our desires and rise above our egoistic qualities. Without it, it is impossible to start working with them. First of all, we have to “cleanse them,” meaning to fill them with the Light of Hassadim (Mercy).
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/23/2011 on The Principles of Global Education
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Question: People tend to be impressed by examples. Let’s say a person doesn’t believe that he depends on society and thinks that he can solve everything on his own.

Let’s imagine this situation: a baby is born, placed in a round room where the light constantly on, there is food, but the baby has no other interaction with people or animals. What will happen to him?

Answer: He will not become human. He will just consume food naturally, like an animal, and grow up the same way.

Question: But will he have his own thoughts and fantasies?

Answer: Nothing will happen. Absolutely nothing. All this appears only under the influence of the environment. Whatever environment you place him in, this is what will come out.

Comment: But then he is, in fact, not a man or even an animal.

My Response: Right. Therefore nothing will work outside of the environment. That is, you will get an animal organism that will grow up in this form. If you show him his mother later, he will be scared of her because he will not understand what it is that suddenly appeared alive and even moving. After all, he does not know what it means to be alive and what it means to move.

He has no sense of time, no sense of the surrounding space. Feed him through a tube, and give him nothing else. And then what?

Comment: So he will grow, say, until the age of twenty.

My Response: What difference does it make up to what age? He will remain at the same level—only absorbing food, releasing waste, and nothing else.

Question: Will he have self-awareness? Will he feel like he is living?

Answer: Only at the level he exists at.

Comment: A man is built on desires; desire is lack, desire is deficiency.

My Response: He will have no desires, no inner urges, because there is no surrounding society with which he can realize himself.

Question: So he was born a zero and will die a zero?

Answer: Yes. Absolutely.

Comment: But nature does not treat humans like that.

My Response: Nature, of course, does not do this; but sometimes, if it does, there is a special purpose and reason for this.

Without an environment, no Reshimot will arise in a person, no internal data for implementation, because he will not be able to implement it. One determines the other.
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From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Scandalous Experiment” 8/6/10

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Comment: Let’s suppose that a modern person ends up without a computer and all the things they are used to; they would get scared, but at the same time they would realize how strongly dependent they are on all of it.

My Response: No, that is still not most terrifying existence. We once talked about how I wanted to go to the Altai Mountains. So what about a computer? Maybe with a computer if I am going to sit there and write a book. Really what else do you need? A little boat, a fishing rod, rubber boots, and a bucket to go pick mushrooms. For a month? Wonderful!

You cannot even imagine! Alone with yourself, no one else. Nothing. It is pure bliss! You are alone with your thoughts, there is no one around, nothing affects you, and you can dedicate your thoughts to the most cherished, most beautiful, and purest, disconnected from the entire surrounding world. That is great!

I saw my teacher like that when he would disconnect. He would specifically go to Tiberias to be alone. And when I would go there to visit him, I saw a man who looked at me and did not understand who had come, why they had come, or what they wanted from him.

In other words, he could not feel what world he was returned to. He looked at you as if he were disconnected, and slowly, very slowly, he would come back to himself.

Question: But still a Kabbalist cannot exist completely alone?

Response: Sometimes it is necessary.
[343104]
From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Scandalous Experiment” 8/6/10

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 117

How Can We Gain Strength for the Work from a State of Helplessness?

How can we who realize that we lack true knowledge, who feel powerless and incapable of acquiring anything from what we read, who see that the door to spirituality is closed before us, how can we find strength to move forward if this work is placed upon us alone and not upon someone else? Where can we draw the strength for the work?

There are two completely different states that we tend to connect as one. The first is a state in which we are completely insignificant and beastly, with no spiritual strength at all. We do not understand anything about the spiritual world nor even about this world. We have no idea what will happen to us or to the world in the next moment. We have no concept of how everything is structured and operates. The more we open our eyes, the more we feel like a small child playing with pebbles on the shore of a vast ocean, just as Newton described his scientific work.

And this is a correct feeling. To some extent, this is what it means to sense the immense forces of nature. This is our reality. We cannot grasp this concept through our own strength.

This state described above is actually a springboard to an active state. Active in what way? In that we can demand strength and we can ask for corrections to be made within us. The previous state is meant to show us that, at our current level, this is truly our reality.

How can we ascend from this? We forget that we truly lack these forces. Why did the Creator make it so that at every step we get stuck and realize that we are nothing? It is so that from this helplessness, we will remember that the Creator exists. We then turn to the Creator, and He arranges everything for us in a way that lets us move forward, to understand, to act, and so on.

Why did the Creator make it this way? It is because this entire process is a means for us to connect to the Creator. It is intended so that we will surrender, so that we will feel a need for the Creator, and through this need, we will acquire the Creator’s attributes.

Ultimately the Creator wants us to become eternal and perfect like Him.

Each time, the Creator shows us weakness, helplessness, despair, ignorance, and a lack of grasp on reality—the exact opposite of His state—so that we will desire to turn to Him and receive the opposite of what we feel. “The opposite of what we feel” means receiving something from the Creator, His qualities and level.

Thus, through contrast, we arrive at a more complete state each time. The deeper we sink into feeling what is bad, the greater the good we can attain in contrast.
This is how all the spiritual levels are built.

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Matan Torah (Giving of the Torah),” Item 7-9, (12.8.2003)

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2nd part of the Lesson — The Right Way to Study the Wisdom of Kabbalah

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3rd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, Shamati 18, “My Soul Shall Weep in Secret – 1”

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Selected Highlights

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