All The Roads Back Are Blocked

Question: How can we get over the state of heaviness and fatigue that we find ourselves in lately which makes us fall asleep during the lessons? How can we wake up together and get out f this state as one global group by supporting one another?

Answer: This is the point of the exodus from Egypt, about which we have spoken so much, the point of the receiving of the Torah, the turning point, the birth. We know that a birth is accompanied by labor pains and that it is a dangerous state. At the moment of birth itself we feel the snake’s bite, the discovery of the heart of stone, because there is no other way we can be born.

The exodus from Egypt is called a “spiritual birth.” During that time the evil inclination has to be revealed and these are very dangerous states that keep us under great pressure, since otherwise we will not agree to escape from Egypt.

All these states are not so clear to a person yet. Imagine that it is a good state from which we break through to the spiritual world, to the upper world, that from this state we are born and ascend above the Machsom (barrier), above the border to the upper world. Therefore, it is the most tense state, the most dangerous state that can ever be in a person’s life. This is the state of his birth!

We always see a birth as a miracle, and to the last moment we are not sure whether it will go smoothly, although we have such modern medical equipment and we know about the process. Still, we never know what might happen and it is a very critical point.

The uniqueness of this point is that a person is under terrible pressure, and terrible fear. All his previous life has ended or is about to end. He doesn’t see his future life yet and doesn’t understand it, and it isn’t clear what it symbolizes, since in order to reach it he has to create an opening to the new world.

A person doesn’t understand how he can exist, since he has to “close what is open and open what is blocked,” just as it happens during the corporeal birth.

If we only yearn for the spiritual birth, we have to imagine this state in a very realistic way, as close to our understanding and feeling as possible, to the extent that we are ready to approach this state and to prepare ourselves to it.

The more we prepare ourselves for this state, the more we will advance towards it. This means that we need strong minds, physical strength, and good organization of all activities that enable us to go through the most difficult state that can ever be. All the roads back are blocked and there is nowhere to go ahead! Just like the escape from Egypt, when your path is suddenly blocked by the Red Sea and from behind Pharaoh’s troops are catching up with you and there is nowhere to hide.

There are different allegorical descriptions of the state of the spiritual birth and they all refer to pressure, difficulty, and threat. We have to approach them by ourselves and not to wait for some force to drag us or to push us in this direction. Otherwise we become lax and only look for how to best manage in order to stall. But we have to bring ourselves into these seemingly dangerous states.

If I understand and am conscious of what I do, I understand that it is only dangerous for my ego. It is pressing and unpleasant, but I approach it knowingly and evoke and summon the labor pains, the feeling of suffering, by myself. It turns out that it is another kind of pain, a sweet one.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/19/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam