The Zohar, Chapter “Shemot (Exodus),” Item 250: And when the Creator saw the great joy of this world when it improved to being as above, He said, “Let not the twelve tribes mingle with the rest of the nations, leaving a blemish in all the worlds.” What did the Creator do? He shook all of them to and fro until they went down to Egypt to dwell in their abodes inside the obstinate nation, which despises their conducts and degrades them by not marrying with them or mingling with them, and by considering them slaves. The males were loathsome of them and the females were loathsome of them until everything was bettered by the holy seed without mingling with strangers….

There is a scrutiny of one’s state as one attempts to rid oneself of egoism, and then there’s a scrutiny of one’s state when one wishes to remain in (adapt to) his egoism. If I wish to remain in my egoism, then the egoism pushes me out through its hatred for me as it senses within me the point in the heart that is opposite to it. As it is written: “The Pharaoh brought the nation of Israel closer [via pointed oppression] to Israel,” and “I have created the ego as help against you.” It opposes you, and precisely therein is its help.

Similarly, when the Soviet government pushed a hard anti-Zionist agenda in the 1960s-70s, in so doing, it actually boosted Zionism. It is precisely the evil forces (the reverse side of the Creator) that help elucidate the evil, and not the Creator or the Upper Light, openly or directly.

Exile is one’s interim state between the degrees when both the Egyptians and Israel are revealed within him, opposite one another. He is in the middle scrutinizing these qualities. He is an exile, under the Egyptians’ command. On the one hand, he is drawn to Egyptians, but they reject him over the “seed of Israel” that is within him.

In other words, the desire to enjoy despises and rejects the intention to bestow for it wants only to act for the sake of reception. This is the hatred of the nations of the world toward Israel. And then there is the opposite discernment, when one has already advanced to the desire to bestow and identifies himself with it, as he nears the exodus from Egypt and is unwilling to mingle with the Egyptians (the nations of the world).

The Egyptians’ rule over him has ended; he no longer strives to be like them, no longer does he wish to unite with them, although he still lives among them, for now. In his eyes the Pharaoh receives blows, and these blows help him to rise above his relationship with the Pharaoh. Then he distances from the Egyptians, not because they spurn him, but because he is the one rejecting them as he nears the exodus from Egypt.

The Creator conducts these scrutinies in everybody (every person in this world) from both sides, in order to help us understand to which we are drawn more: egoism or bestowal. The nations of the world feel hatred for the spark of bestowal that has remained in the nation of Israel from its previous spiritual level. They reject Israel, which is precisely the reason the nation of Israel has remained intact.

Israel did not somehow manage to survive on its own; but rather, it is the opposition to Israel that held it together. As Baal HaSulam writes, Israel exists like nuts in a bag, united not by love, but forcefully, by the external hatred that surrounds them.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/10, The Zohar

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The Zohar, Chapter “Shemot (Exodus),” Item 249: The world was created in ten utterances. But when you look, they are only three that the world was created in: Hochma, Tevuna, and Daat. And the world was created only for Israel. When the Creator wished to sustain the world, He acted for Abraham in Hochma, for Isaac in Tevuna, and for Jacob in Daat. This is considered, “And by knowledge are the chambers filled….”

There is a force above that reveals for us the entire reality, which descends from HBD (Hochma, Bina, Daat) along three lines. This is how the Creator influences us from above.

And we, in turn, must take on an identical form below. Then we will understand the nature of this influence and how we can sense it, how to become similar to and merge with Him.

From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/10, The Zohar

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When we begin to study Kabbalah, often we feel so inspired and uplifted that we burn with desire and are ready to turn around the worlds. Yet sometimes we fall into complete numbness and can’t make sense of anything; the world becomes immersed in darkness for us. In other words, we feel life within when we have a contact with the Light, and as soon as we disconnect from the Light and it stops shining on us, we feel dead.

Then the next stage comes. Through our actions (studying, disseminating Kabbalah, and creating connection with friends), there forms a system that shines to us even when we are going through states that aren’t very good, when we don’t attract the Light on ourselves. This system is similar to a person who is surrounded by others who can always help him when he needs it.

Such a state is no longer a “commandment” that shines at the moment it is performed; it is called the “Torah” that shines to us always (forget about the conventional understanding of “commandment” and “Torah”!). Even if we don’t feel so well and are confused, we have external support. It helps us look at ourselves from the side and realize that this is not so bad; it happened before and it passed. The Torah (the Surrounding Light from the group or from the environment) protects us even when we don’t study it, that is, when we are not close to the Light.

When we approach the Machsom, we feel a greater concealment, total Egyptian darkness. However, we also have the support of the environment, which safeguards our straying from the spiritual path into a purely animal state. We understand what kind of darkness it is; we feel it and know when it is coming to us and why. We are aware of what we need to do, and how to adhere to the Creator.

From this darkness we receive the Creator’s order to make signs of our union, “Mezuzahs on the doors,” to prepare the vessels for coming out of Egypt, and to run away exactly at midnight. This connection with the Upper Force is called the “Torah,” the Light that comes to us even if we are currently incapable of a “commandment,” of a personal connection with the Creator, which is called a “day.” This is how we advance.

The concealment no longer disconnects us completely, when we don’t understand or feel anything, as it sometimes happens to beginners. Now the concealment develops special forms; we begin to distinguish various shadows and qualities in them, and understand how to work with them.

The more we advance, the more we reveal the forms of darkness of these empty hollows. They clarify for us the form of salvation – on the other side of the Machsom.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/16/10, Shamati #39

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The wisdom of Kabbalah rejects the concept of death thereby revealing the only action that we are able to perform. In everything else we are totally dependent on nature and act involuntarily. We spend our entire lives trying to ignore death, as if medicating ourselves in order to avoid the truth. It is a game we play, chasing money, honor, and power within an imaginary reality.

What do we do with the help of Kabbalah? Kabbalah provides a solution to this fundamental human dilemma by explaining how to reach eternal life here and now. We are shown how to gradually transition into an additional dimension without leaving this life; in fact, we become fully integrated together with it.

This is the meaning of “freedom from the angel of death,” described in the Torah as the covenant carved on stone tablets. Torah offers: “I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life… (Deuteronomy 30:19).”

However this opportunity was concealed, and people learned how to distract themselves. Therefore, the dissemination of Kabbalah has to include the explanation of this choice. In other words, Kabbalah not only leads to a good life on this earth, but also helps attain everlasting existence. When masses come to this realization they will no longer hide from the idea of death.

The practice of spiritual advancement proves that a person begins to acquire this realization (presentiment) only after initial studies, which bring the influence of the Upper Light. Then one is granted a chance to sense eternity to the extent one moves closer to the property of the Creator (bestowal, Hafetz Hesed). By doing so, a person enters eternity and is already present in the infinite flow of life. This opportunity is available to everyone.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/15/10, Article “The Freedom”

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The Creator begot the creature from the desire to receive pleasure. But He had to instill sparks of bestowal into it so that the creature could exist and develop. In addition to receiving, the creature should also bestow since the force of life consists of these two parts: consuming and giving.

Life amounts to clarifying what is bad and good for you, to rejecting the bad and attracting the good. Any living creature – of vegetative, animate, and spiritual or speaking levels – acts in this way, according to its state and degree.

To enliven creation, the desire for bestowal has to be added into all of its elements except for its initial material, the desire to receive pleasure. Otherwise, it would be dead, lifeless dust. To make a living creature out of dust, a spark of Light, the property of bestowal, needs to be introduced into the desire to receive.

The intermixing of properties of reception and bestowal occurs in every “atom” of creation in the process of the soul’s breaking. Until the breaking of the vessels and the state of the First Restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph), Malchut receives the Light because the Creator gives her such a power, and not because she herself possesses it.

Only starting from the World of Atzilut and onwards, does Malchut mix with Bina and start acting herself, wanting to unite with Bina, to rise to it and become like it. This is the work of the creature itself. Until that moment, everything occurs by the power from Above.

For this reason the receiving desire became able to perform acts of bestowal only after the breaking of the vessels (desires) whereby the sparks of bestowal penetrated the desire to receive pleasure. It then also revealed how opposite it is to the Light. The breaking of the vessels is actually the revelation of the true nature of the creature, the desire to receive pleasure, in relation to the Light.

Their oppositeness, the egoistic desires property to feel and care only about itself becomes revealed. So does the Light of bestowal and love. Then the creature realizes its oppositeness to the Creator and what it wants to be like. It attracts the Light from Above in order to become similar to the Creator. Thus the work of the creature commences.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/15/10, The Zohar

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The revelation is always personal; it cannot be received from someone else. Someone else can only teach you how to read. But there has to be someone to teach us to read, since reading and writing belong to the human level, whereas we, who are beginning to read, are on the animate level. Thus, we need someone who is on the human level to help us rise to that level and teach us to read and write.

The book is all of creation, from the initial plan all the way until the final act. However, in order to reveal it, a person has to go through the story and write it on his heart (as the verse says, “write the whole Torah on your heart”). That is how we prepare our spiritual vessels.

When a person reads the Torah, he learns from the Upper One, and when a person records it, he becomes equal to Him and starts to understand Him. That is how one rises to the level of the plan of creation, the end of the book.

The book is the plan of creation, which is attained at the end. The story is what we read and record within us by changing our desires and building letters out of them. Thus, we become the authors by revealing its Author. We create a copy of the book, and that constitutes all of our work.

The author does not invent the book with his own mind. He is already in front of a ready-made book from the heavens, and he transcribes it. He does not work with his own mind; he does not even know how to read or write. He must first learn. If we learn to read and write, and are able to transcribe all of creation upon ourselves, following the Creator’s example, then we will receive the title of “author.”

The Creator is not the author, since He did not write anything. He actualized everything with one thought. But we reveal His plan inside our uncorrected desires, and therefore, for us, His thought divides into the book, author, and story. If I learn to read, then His thought starts to be revealed to me inside my matter and I read it off of myself to the degree that I become equal to it. And then I transcribe it on myself.

The plan of creation is the right line, and my matter is the left line. I am in the middle line, transcribing this thought into my left line. The book, author, and story is the Creator, the creation, and the connection between them, called the Torah.

From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/10, Shamati #197

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A question I received: What should I do if after the lesson, I am unable to stay focused on spirituality throughout the day?

My Answer: Each person goes through different time periods. There is a time when we want to study Kabbalah for hours and can’t get enough of it. Other times, we distance ourselves and stop striving toward it.

However, in the long run we see that everything is organized in the best possible way for each of us, and if we use our free time correctly, the Creator arranges more hours that can be utilized for the realization of what we studied. We encounter all sorts of problems: distractions with our work, problems with our boss, unsympathetic surroundings, as well as distractions in our thoughts and desires. Yet we feel that in spite of all these troubles, we have to stay connected with spirituality.

After the class ends, we have to go back to the “big world” that erases the impressions that we got from spirituality and confuses us, but these are the most effective circumstances for our advancement. We have to try to stay tuned with the spiritual world and to keep in mind the source of all these troubles and why they were sent to us. As well, we are to remember what we are supposed to adhere to and why, meaning that “There is none else beside Him, Who is Good and does good.”  We have to constantly feel our inner connection with the Creator as if staying in touch with someone we love and cherish.

Try to retain this state throughout the day. You’ll start to feel that all those unfortunate circumstances are brought to you by the Creator within some imaginary world which gives you a chance to seek connection with Him through all the hassles and illusions you get.

You’ll see that this world is “invented,” and that it is just an outer shell; you’ll sense that the troubles simply constitute the shapes of your desires that convert within you all the time. Those are the desires that you have to “link” to the Creator; if you do, they will turn into their spiritual forms.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/13/10, The Zohar

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The Zohar, Chapter “Shemot (Exodus),” Item 59: The Creator never left Israel in exile, before He came to place His Divinity with them.
It is even more so with Jacob, that when he went down to exile, the Creator and His Divinity and the upper holy ones and the Merkavot, all came down with Jacob… This is the conduct of the Creator in all the exiles….

What does it mean that “Divinity went down to exile with the nation of Israel“? We think that there exists something, in which the Creator does not take part. However, the only one Force that acts in the whole creation and in us is the Creator or the Light.

Exile is a special state of the creature (the desire He created), which the Light purposely creates in it in order to lower and distance the creature from Himself, to create a desire for Him in it. The Light measures out very precisely all the states of exile, all the problems, emptiness, and misfortunes that will be revealed in the will to receive pleasure. The reverse side of the Light or the Creator, acts in exile, as it is written, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart (Exodus 10:1).” (The Creator was also clothed within the great flood, and so on.)

“There is none else beside Him.” The exile is a form of the Creator’s, the Light’s influence in its oppositeness or reverse side. This influence is precisely measured in all the gradations of qualities, against every desire of every soul, and in all the connections between them.

Therefore, the Creator, the Light surely exists together with the people in exile, constantly influencing and supporting us. He creates this exile Himself, with His reverse, shadowy side, as King David wrote, “Thou hast beset me behind and before (with Light and with darkness) (Psalms 139:5).”

When the Light no longer needs to act from the reverse side, that is, through darkness, when the Creator stirs up and rouses the desire (Kli) to a sufficient extent, and it will truly aspire to the front side of the Light or bestowal, then He pulls the Kli out of exile, to liberation. However, the Light is the only acting force, which influences us from either the reverse or front side. Therefore, the exile is Him preparing us for our liberation.

From the 1st part of the Daily Morning Lesson 4/12/10, The Zohar

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The Zohar, Chapter “VaYaera (And the Lord Appeared),” Item 510: “And the angel of His presence saved them.” Thus, He was with them in the affliction, since he begins to say, “In all their affliction He was afflicted…” …When Israel are in exile, Divinity is in exile with them, too, as it is written, “Then the Lord your God will turn your captivity, and have compassion upon you.”

The Creator can stay together with the creature only at the times of peril or exile. Otherwise pride, ego, and coarseness of the desire to receive pleasure separate them.

When the creature is in harm’s way, feeling exile or bitterness, it is capable of feeling the Creator and being closer to Him, as it is said: “The Creator stays close to broken hearts.” There is no other way to awaken the creature, approach it, and stay together except for the times of trouble. Being in this state, the creature awakens.

However, if the creature is willing to inflict upon itself “suffering of love,” if it suffers because of the absence of a connection with the Creator rather than the earthly troubles, it ascends and becomes able to attain advanced states. It then lives the life full of blessings and pleasure.

The sensation of deficiency and darkness that the creature experienced while being separated from the Creator does not vanish; it remains within it. This sensation stays in the empty space beneath and inside of it, as well as in all the good that is above it.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/11/10, The Zohar

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What is the Egyptian exile? It is the revelation of love for yourself. Accordingly, the exodus from Egypt is when you are able to feel love for your neighbor for the first time.

I can “come out of Egypt” only if I really desire to acquire love for others. As Baal HaSulam writes in the article, “For Yehuda,” the essence of the forthcoming redemption must be clear while one is still in exile. You have to understand what you desire. What do you consider to be exile? What are you exiled from?

If you see that exile means that you are enslaved to self-love, and redemption is when you acquire the force of love for others, the ability to unite and become a single soul the way it was before the breaking of Adam, in order to reveal the Creator inside the unity, then you really feel the exile and are ready for redemption. And then it comes to you!

If you have prepared your desires, then the Light that Reforms comes to you and leads you out of egoism. Everything depends on your desire to come out of your egoistic concerns to freedom. This is the purpose of the exile, and this is why we are not ready for redemption – because it consists only of this. Spirituality is bestowal. If we desire it, it means we are ready to be freed.

Right now we are prolonging our exile because we don’t consider it exile and slavery. We feel good in it. We only want more money, power, and other sources of fulfillment. We want to be left alone and not be told about love for the neighbor. We don’t want that love!

Hell is the inability to bestow. Heaven and hell are very different from people’s regular notions about them. People don’t want either of them, and don’t feel either within. This means that a person is not wicked or righteous; he is simply an animal that is not in exile.

A person who is wicked knows that he is an egoist and desires to become righteous, bestowing. Therefore, he calls his uncorrected state, “hell.” One who is righteous has attained the quality of bestowal and love and feels that he is in heaven.

From the Evening Zohar Lesson 4/12/10

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