“Don’t Swallow Maror Without Chewing It”

“Don’t swallow maror without chewing it” means that we need to work on our unity with greater perseverance despite our inability to reach it. If we in the group agree with the need to unite, then we have entered Egypt.

Previously, we did not agree or even speak about it. First, the brothers neglect Joseph and throw him out. But then there is a famine and they agree to unite, and then they enter Egypt.

At first, they live well in Egypt, but then they begin to realize that they are unable to connect. “And the children of Israel sighed from the labor” since they could not accomplish anything. It is then that “their cry ascended to God from the labor.”

This is the meaning of “Don’t swallow the Maror without chewing it.” We are obliged to “chew” this work and feel all its bitterness and heaviness, like the bitter and hard horseradish from which Maror is made. From hard work and our failure, we soften and, out of desperation, turn to the Creator.

Only after hard work do we begin to feel our captivity and the need to come out of it, and we begin to feel that there is a force that can help us.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/20/18, Writings of Rabash

Paradise For An Animal—Exile For A Person

In order to come to redemption, it is necessary to feel the exile, as it was said to Abraham: Torah, Genesis 15:13: You shall surely know that your seed will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and they will enslave them and oppress them, for four hundred years.

That is, you must feel very bad in your desire to enjoy. Although it can bring a person a lot of pleasures and fillings, wealth, honor, power, and all the abundance, a person decides that this is exile for him.

After all, he begins to appreciate spirituality, the quality of bestowal, above all corporeal possessions. Therefore, he cannot tolerate this exile. On the contrary, the more pleasant, satisfied, and rich the Creator makes his life during the “seven years of famine,” the more acute is his desire to break out of it.

He has all the benefits in abundance, but he does not agree to live like this, feeling that he is being bought by being given animalistic pleasures, yet spiritual pleasures—bestowal and the upper world—are hidden from him.

When a person begins to feel his state in this way, then it means that he is already worthy of redemption.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/4/18, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Inheritance of the Land”

Most Important Is An Abundance of Patience

The difficult thing about studying Kabbalah is that it requires you to acquire new values. That is why those who are not ready or willing to do so due to lack of patience, leave. They do not believe that this study will bring them actual results and do not really understand what this science is about.

Here you need patience to let the upper Light work on you—the force that transforms us into a new being. Gradually, we begin to feel, understand, and judge through new definitions.

Although it seems like someone is the same person on the outside, in reality he is completely different. He is impossible to define by the regular, corporeal definitions, values, and rules. Now he thinks in terms of similarity of form with the upper force, quite differently.

Such qualitative change is received through the influence of the upper Light, through undergoing an intricate inner revolution. This takes many years because such changes occur in a person gradually, in small steps.

And even this is hard to take. It is much easier to advance with the group that you can hold onto. If a person holds onto the group with his eyes closed, he overcomes all the difficulties.

He closes the door on his old values and receives new ones from the group, from the unification of the friends, meaning the new Kli, where ten become as one: he receives a new mind and feelings, a new attitude, new measurement units.

It is a very delicate, difficult period about which it is written: “A thousand enter the classroom and only one exits into the Light.” You have to have plenty of patience for the upper Light to work on you and give you new qualities. When it is said: “Do anything but leave,” this is what it is talking about.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/5/18, Talmud Eser Sefirot

Deeper Meaning Of Passover

From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 3/29/18

Although the Jewish year formally begins on Rosh Hashanah, there is a more expansive view of the Jewish holidays that shows Passover as the start of the Jewish year. To see it from this perspective, we need to understand the deeper meaning of Passover.

Passover describes an inner process where a period of intensifying division leads to a decision to unite, followed by the discovery of a more unified state. Also, Passover points out what makes the Jewish people unique.

Read more about the deeper meaning of Passover:

Dr. Michael Laitman On Trump

From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 3/28/18

When I comment on matters related to Donald Trump, I am not relating to his personality. Many see Trump as a poster child for the human ego, while the most basic understanding in the wisdom of Kabbalah is that all people are driven by their egos. Therefore, his public image is irrelevant to me.

What I am commenting on is the role he currently plays in the current state of global affairs.

Our world is in a developing crisis, and various interconnections being made by powerful global players who shape the world’s economy, politics and media only deepen the crisis, as they too are driven by the human ego. Therefore, if we weaken such egoistic connections, we alleviate the crisis, which can easily spiral out of control.

This is a natural dynamic that has nothing to do with Trump himself. I have expressed this many times before, but unfortunately, this message is not being clearly heard.

Trump represents an approach to global affairs that lowers the risk of another world war, specifically because he is tearing down certain international connections, as if holding the brakes, by trying to bring America back to where it was on the global economic map. As long as the world develops according to the human ego, such moves by Trump help maintain the relative peace in the world.

The ruling elites are attempting to join hands and increase their financial control by making various international trade agreements which ultimately strip the people of the world from everything they have. They produce the guise of economic development in some developing countries, but in reality, all the profits go to the elites, and all the burden falls on the masses.

Therefore, the current development toward global integration is not the kind of development that will benefit the world; it will only benefit those who are pulling the strings.

This is why these global players are opposing Trump. They hold much of the mainstream media in their hands, and they design the impression that most of the public and all sane people are against Trump. They also do well in staging what seem like natural waves of social protest.

Unfortunately, the propaganda and brainwashing are so powerful that even some of my students are being influenced, as they fail to see that there are vested interests working behind the scenes and that people don’t go out to protest without being manipulated into doing so. It’s a well-oiled machine, fueled by many millions of dollars.

So I don’t take my cues from what’s playing on the media or what most people say, and I also don’t work for Trump. I am explaining the world through the lens of the wisdom of Kabbalah.

I have no interest in playing the childish game of picking a side—being for or against anything. My commentary comes from a different level altogether: the natural forces at play. From that level, it’s perfectly clear that as long as egoists are driving global connections, it’s better to sever them than to strengthen them.

In general, I look at all the phenomena in the world as expressions of the fundamental laws of nature, and I use them to explain Kabbalah’s take on the process the world is going through.

Kabbalists write that “dispersing the wicked is better for them and better for the world” (Mishnah Sanhedrin 8:5). In other words, the whole world will be better off if the ties between those powerful players are broken, as their egoism only serves to exploit all other people to the fullest.

Future Of Jobs

From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 3/28/18

Our evolutionary social development pushes us to utilize our wiring for human connection, to distill it through constant work on our relationships, and evolve to a new social reality. Rather than competing with robots for an old school job, let’s make our job the only function that no robot will ever replace, and find the kind of happiness that money will never buy.

Books About The Eternal

If we begin to explain to a little three or four-year-old child our adult problems, obviously according to his mental, psychological, and spiritual development, he will be incapable of understanding them. He is not interested in them and they are not included in his definitions at all.

This is how we read books written by Kabbalists;  we must try to realize that we do not understand what they say at all.

Let’s say we read the article “Concerning Love of Friends,” but we do not know what friends are or what love is. “Friends” in spirituality are parts of my soul; however, I do not feel them in this way. I immediately confuse the word “friends” with usual friendship in this world: with acquaintances, someone it is nice to spend an evening with or travel with, or with childhood friends.

However, here it has a completely different meaning. I want to reveal my soul, the eternal part of reality, but so far I only have a temporary, illusory existence in our imaginary world that really does not exist. Therefore, I must understand that the books speak of my eternal soul, which appears to me in the form of some special people I was brought together with by an upper governance, by the broken network of connections between us.

It is necessary to form a representation of such a system within ourselves, albeit still imaginary, but as close to the spiritual one as possible. Apart from this, we need to accurately define who is “a person” in general and “friends” in particular, and what is “love of friends”? Friends are not those with whom it is nice to hang out with, have a drink, a meal, or to dance or study with.

Friends are a special spiritual connection, which is not for the purpose of bringing pleasure to each other. Pleasure can only be the means. But in fact, the love of friends is when everyone acts instead of the other. This is one of the difficulties of studying Kabbalah.

The second difficulty is that we perceive the Torah as a story about our world: as if there is time, movement, and space, which do not exist in the spiritual world. Therefore, this “story” that we hear from the Torah does not exist as well! There is neither Egypt nor the Egyptian exile.

I should not imagine this has ever happened in our world. The Torah describes not historical events, but the sequence of preparatory states that Kabbalists went through in order to achieve the true and the only existing perception of reality.

So, I too should constantly imagine myself not studying history that occurred in the ancient times with a group of people fleeing from one place to another. It is not about this, but about a person’s sensory impressions, finding oneself in a state that he defines as spiritual exile, exile from the spiritual world. Then it is possible to imagine what the spiritual redemption and development is. It is only about what is happening within a person.

Every day I want to separate myself more and more from the stories, from history and geography, and explain them to myself at the inner, sensory level: mine or someone else’s who wants to develop spiritually. All this applies only to the period of a person’s spiritual development. Therefore, “love of friends” and, in general, the entire Torah should be considered only in the internal form, in relation to our development.
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From the 1^st Part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/6/18, Lesson on the Topic: “Preparation for the Pesach”

Pesach—Holiday Of The Beginning Of Correction

We are approaching the Pesach (Passover) holiday, which symbolizes the beginning of the correction. Everything begins with exiting Egypt followed by the giving of the Torah.

Corrections are possible only in a person who has already gone through Egyptian exile. The created being starts with the sin of the Tree of Knowledge and the shattering of the soul, and then the process of its correction takes place.

Therefore, it is clear that first the recognition of evil is necessary, the clarification of the state we found ourselves in after the shattering at the Tree of Knowledge, where the soulwas divided into many parts that we now need to reassemble. This is along with that egoistic desire to enjoy, which so far rules our relations.

Thus, we attach all the unfolding evil inclination to the soul, which is being restored to us, that is, all the force of the Light that had been filling the soul and led to the rejection of each part from the others. When we reconnect them, working against the force of the Lightthat was once filling the soul and now became hostile to it, we attain the Creator’s and the corrected created being’s qualities.

However, this all begins from the recognition of evil of the state we are in now, with the revelation of the egoism ruling between us, rejection, hatred, misunderstanding, and the clarification of how deeply each one is immersed only in himself and unable to exit. All this is the very first and necessary stage on the path of studying the Creator.

All the articles about Pesach should be perceived only with reference to our distancing and connection. When we move away from each other, the evil forces rise and reveal a feeling of exile in us.

Then immediately we can talk about connection and correction, and redemption begins. That is, we must see everything in light of exile and redemption, distancing and rapprochement, revelation of the breaking and its correction.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/8/18, Writings of Rabash

The Times of Israel: “The Passover From Materialism To Unity”

The Times of Israel published my new article “The Passover From Materialism To Unity:”

Passover is an opportunity to pass over from a state of divisiveness, disregard and coldness in modern society, to one of unity, care and warmth.

Although the Jewish year formally begins on Rosh Hashanah, there is a more expansive view of the Jewish holidays that shows Passover as the start of the Jewish year. To see it from this perspective, we need to understand the deeper meaning of Passover.

Passover describes an inner process where a period of intensifying division leads to a decision to unite, followed by the discovery of a more unified state. Also, Passover points out what makes the Jewish people unique.

What Makes the Jewish People Unique?

Unlike other nations and races, the Jewish people did not emerge organically from familial offspring or terrestrial closeness. The Jews were originally a gathering of people who became known as “the Jews” when they dedicated themselves to uniting “as one man with one heart,” and accepted the responsibility of being “a light unto nations” (the Hebrew word for “Jew” [Yehudi] comes from the word for “united” [yihudi] [Yaarot Devash, Part 2, Drush no. 2]).

The holiday of Passover explains this transition.

It starts at a time when the people of Israel lived exceptionally well in Egypt. In terms of commonly accepted social values, they had it all: comfort, wealth and success, or as it is written in the Torah, “in Egypt … we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted” (Exodus, 16:3). However, even with all their material abundance, they felt that something was missing.

At this point, let’s zoom out to see the process this describes: Human nature, which is a desire to receive pleasure, constantly urges us to fulfill ourselves. The more we fulfill ourselves, the more we feel empty, and the more we feel a need to seek higher and greater fulfillments time after time. Thus, our desire to enjoy grows, and we evolve through various stages of the desire’s growth. After we satisfy our basic needs for food, sex, shelter and family, our desire grows, and we develop social desires—money, respect, control and knowledge—which we continually try to satisfy.

Then, we encounter a problem.

Like a dog chasing its tail, we chase after all those pleasures, but we keep finding ourselves wanting something more or different than them, without being able to point out what we really want. The Passover story describes this new desire: that when our material desires are quenched, a new desire for positive social connection emerges. This desire is called “Moses.”

Moses had been around the whole time the people of Israel were thriving in Egypt. He grew up in the house of Pharaoh until he himself exhausted the material pursuit of happiness. That is when the Egyptian exile began. Pharaoh, i.e. our ego, refuses to accept unity. It cannot think of anything worse than the idea of living life with a goal to “love your friend as yourself.”

So as the people of Israel prospered in Egypt, they naturally started wanting more than what they had, and the idea of social unification—Moses—started forming among them. Then came the struggle between Moses and Pharaoh. On one hand, Moses pointed the way to unity and love for one another, while Pharaoh insisted that he rule, i.e. that they would continue living and working only for egoistic, material fulfillments. When Pharaoh saw the people of Israel accepting Moses, he became the savage king the Passover story describes.

Through a long process, the people of Israel ultimately stood by Moses, demanded their unity, and triumphed. They united at the foot of Mount Sinai and accepted the law of “love your friend as yourself.” They then proceeded to purify themselves of hametz (leaven), i.e. their ego, and made the transition (i.e. the Passover) from egocentrism to unification, realizing Moses’ idea and guidance.

Passover Today

Since Passover describes a process of overcoming egoism with unity, it is just as relevant today as it ever was. Today’s materialistic culture looks increasingly like the Egypt described in the Passover story: we enjoyed the delights of materialism for quite a while, but more and more people are increasingly feeling that their lives are missing something.

We see this expressed among individuals with increases in depression, stress and loneliness, and in society with intensifying politically-fueled social division, xenophobia and anti-Semitism. All these phenomena show us that we can have all the material abundance we want, but it still won’t fulfill us, and what we really need in order to fulfill our new, bigger desire is unity, positive social connection.

Unlike our material fulfillments, we cannot picture what uniting above our divisions would be like. We see no example of unity that we can fill our media and educational systems with, and so we keep regurgitating and reinventing materialistic ideas, stories and products since we do not see nor know anything else.

As society continually engages in this materialistic pleasure-chasing loop without any other goal in sight, and as problems increasingly burst out from this setup, the more society points the finger of blame at the Jews. Anti-Semitic sentiment thus rises because the Jewish people, in their ancestry, possess the template for realizing the new desire for connection. If the Jewish people fail to aim and work toward unification in a time when not only the Jews, but the world at large, needs unity, then the world subconsciously starts feeling the Jewish people as the cause of their problems.

Our forefathers underwent the process of uniting, saving themselves from ruin in the process. Today, as the finger of blame is on us for all kinds of reasons, it’s up to us to identify the root reason for all that blame—that out of all people, we have been given the keys to unite above all differences, and this is what the world really needs from us. It’s as if the world pays no attention to all the technology, culture and medicine we bring to the world. However, if we do as our forefathers did, then we’ll realize what we were put here to do, and we’ll see how the world’s attitude to the Jews will change to one of respect and appreciation.

I hope that we will start paying attention to the root causes and tendencies behind the world’s problems, and that this Passover, we will make a step toward their ultimate solution—unity.

Happy Passover!

Attaining The Elusive Perfection Of The Creator

The fourth stage of desire Behina Dalet, which is the created being, is the farthest from the Creator in its qualities, but at the same time, the closest to Him in its ability to attain Him. The other stages are impossible to rate in terms of attainment, because they contain no reflected Light. It appears only if Behina Dalet works with them.

Let’s say that my egoism and I are impressed by a certain melody, painting, or story. These works themselves have no feelings. However, by integrating them with my egoism, I give them a feeling, and attain the Creator through them. They themselves don’t have it, and that is the meaning of the “first nine Sefirot.” The first nine Sefirot are the qualities that, combined with my ego, help me discover the Creator’s qualities, which He shows toward me, my perception.

The difficulty in perceiving the Creator is that He acts “in circles” (without any restrictions), while the created being has to answer Him “in a straight line,” meaning with a screen that restricts egoism. But when we rise from one degree to the next by faith above reason, it is a continuous, “analog,” and integral ascent. As we reach the next level, we are able to discern it as discrete, as a particular degree.

We still do reveal something from the circles, from the Creator’s perfection, by making an ascent with faith above reason. Faith above reason lets us get as close as possible from the straight line of the created being to the round perfection of the Creator.

The force of unity comes to us from the endless Light. Therefore, if we reach even the smallest measure of the quality of bestowal with the help of the Light, the force of the round perfection, where everyone is equal, we thus form the desires that are close to the circle, to the Creator. However, they are formed in us through our straight line.

We gradually attain the circle through the straight line, but there is always some elusive additive we lack. As when we try to calculate the infinitive, the area is broken down into a multitude of rectangles approaching a curve, but the elusive remainder always remains.*

A person receives the desire from above, but he builds the intention through his own efforts. The intention contains a part of the connected vessels he received from the friends, because the Klipa is always in his way, annoying him, he reveals the additional intention, like a child that huffs and puffs trying to achieve something, and that is how he learns. It is through our efforts that we build an addition to our desire, which is called an intention.**
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/19/18, Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 2, Chapter 2, Item 6

The Egyptian Exile Of The 21st Century

Why was it beneficial for Pharaoh to raise Moses in his house?Just think, how much has the world gained from the Jews? The world owes its entire development to the Jews because the upper Light is conducted through them, through the quality of Bina to Malchut, bringing it everything: the start of all religions, beliefs, and knowledge.

Even the corporeal desires for food, sex, and family develop because the Light shines on them from above in addition to the animal level. And this is all because there is an intention to bestow, represented by Israel. Therefore, more Light keeps coming and develops desires. And the desire itself does not develop, it is dead like dust.

The only reason that a desire develops is for the sake of it reaching the next degree. And if all four stages have already been reached: inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human, then further development can only come from above, through Israel.

This can be seen by the displacement of the Jewish people experienced in Europe as they were exiled from one country to the next. If not for this small group in our world that is somehow connected to the upper Light, the world would not have developed. Why would it? All the development is done for the sake of achieving bestowal, adhesion, and the end of correction.

And if there is no such group and no connection between the upper Light and Malchut, then Malchut does not develop. Therefore, the world blames the Jews for all its problems. It is the Jews that caused the world’s development that has now come to the end. The world is up against a wall, the global crises is unfolding, and the Jews are obviously going to be blamed for it.

The Jews are astounded by these accusations because they gave the world so much good, so many new inventions. But this is a misunderstanding of our role, because we are meant for something completely different.

It is similar to the story of the exile in Egypt. At first, the Jews brought a lot of benefit to Egypt, and then life went bad. These parts of Bina are supposed to start rising from Malchut and to elevate it to the next level of development. It is like a woman who is ready to give birth, but is unable to. Can you imagine what would happen to this child?
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/11/18, Lesson on the Topic: “Preparation for the Pesach,” Part 1

Egyptian Corridor

Baal HaSulam writes that the advantage a person has over an animal is that the desire for spirituality awakens in a person. If not for this, a person would lead an animalistic existence. Spiritual aspiration is what makes a human (Adam) out of a person.

“Egyptian slavery” is a state preceding spirituality, like a corridor we must pass in order to enter the spiritual world. Therefore, first we enter Egypt. Once there, we begin to clarify our desires and prepare ourselves for the spiritual degree.

Egypt is characterized by an immense increase in egoism until a person wants to swallow the whole world. The person then begins to ask, “What is the meaning of my life?” and to search for the answer. In the end, he sees that egoism completely dominates him, making him a slave of Pharaoh. He does not agree with this and wants to work for the Creator instead.

But he discovers that he cannot do this. Therefore, he screams and makes demands until he is in complete despair that his efforts do not bring any result, as it is written, “And the children of Israel sighed from the work.”

The person feels blows because he is striving for spiritual work, but sees that nothing comes from it, and a cry bursts out of him. That is, the right desire, the request, arises in him and he then comes out of Egypt.

How many times during the years of our work have we tried to bestow, to unite, to think well of others, and to care, but so far, we have seen no results? Where do all our efforts go? After all, nothing disappears without a trace. We are in a closed system where the law of conservation of energy operates. But where is the fruit of my work, my desires, cares, successes, and misses— does it all really just disappear?

No. It all accumulates: my, yours and humanity’s work throughout all times. Therefore, there are people who receive such burdening of the heart that leads them to the exodus from Egypt. Others continue the Egyptian slavery for now, but nevertheless, from generation to generation, they accumulate their efforts. This applies to all of humanity, without exception.

Even a tiny louse that makes efforts to eat and survive also contributes to the common piggy bank, because it also belongs to the common desire created by the Creator.
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From the 1^st Part of the Kabbalah Daily Lesson 3/11/18, “Preparation for Pesach,” Part 1

New Life #961 – What Is Missing In The Zionist Vision?

New Life #961 – What Is Missing In The Zionist Vision?
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Summary

Zionism means to exit egoism and enter an altruistic nature. The wisdom of Kabbalah, based on the teachings of Abraham, demonstrates how to achieve this based on the value “And you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” It teaches us to be like siblings in one family, connected in love. Nevertheless, the Jewish people experience mutual hatred and remain ethnically, religiously, and politically divided. A new Zionist vision will grow from among students who study the wisdom of Kabbalah and it will focus on connection among all these factions.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #961 – What Is Missing In The Zionist Vision?,” 2/6/18

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Pesach, Matza, Maror

We don’t have a need for spirituality ‑ it is given to us from above. No one on their own lights up with an aspiration to study Kabbalah and reveal the Creator. One is led there from above, and this is called “in due time” (Beito), by the natural path of development. However, if we wish to advance on our own according to “the hastening of time” (Achishena), we need the mutual guarantee. Through the connection to the group, I can receive from the friends and provide each of them the correct spiritual needs through which we will be able to advance.

There is no other way. I cannot extract the correct aspiration for spirituality from myself; it would be for anything but spirituality. We shouldn’t be ashamed or afraid of the desires that arise in the group. After all, envy, pride, honor, and the desire for power, which consciously or unconsciously manifest in the group, help us reach the spiritual world. Meanwhile a person can experience the most honorable and pure desires, but if they don’t go through the group, they will not help the advancement.*

During Pesach (Passover) a person must say, “Pesach, Matza, Maror.” Otherwise one will not come out of Egypt. The Matza is the war with the evil inclination. The Maror is the unbearable bitterness from the work, from one’s inability to unite and bestow. Therefore, first we come to Pesach (Pasach means the passing), and then to salvation.

One follows the other: Pesach, Matza, Maror. Pesach does not depend on the person; it’s the Creator giving one the strength to escape (Pasach). And Matza and Maror are one’s duty to swallow his work in order to choke from the bitterness of the egoism and scream out.**
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/20/18, Writings of Rabash—Igrot (Letters) / Letter No. 72

Egypt And Unity – Two Incompatible Things

The work of the sons of Israel in Egypt is the work on unification in the ten. However, this unification is impossible in Egypt; therefore, they flee from there. After all, they wanted to unite in the desire to enjoy. All the problems in Egypt are the realization that we are unable to unite, no matter how hard we try.

Thus, seven years of satiation and seven years of famine pass in our unsuccessful attempts. However, each time we gain increasingly subtle and sublime definitions and eventually come to the need for exiting Egypt. Moses understands that it is necessary to separate from Pharaoh; he goes to Pharaoh and demands the people be let go.

But previously there was no such awareness and it was unclear that the desire to enjoy completely dominates a person. Even now it seems to us that it is enough to make an effort and we will unite. So we try again and again and 400 years pass in these attempts, that is, in all four stages.

There can be no unification in Egypt; after all, we are in our egoism! And even if we reach some kind of unity, then at the next degree we discover that it was egoistic and not for the sake of bestowal, the way it seemed to us.

The years of exile are degrees. If we are in 250^th year of exile, it means that we managed to unite at the 250^th degree. But suddenly the left line is revealed showing me that there is no unity and I hate everyone. It means that now, at the 251^st degree I discovered a much greater desire to enjoy than before. So we climb up the degrees, stepping with the left foot and then with the right one.

There is unity in Egypt, but it is egoistic. After all, all of Egypt is arranged for us to understand that we will not have life in egoism.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/9/18, Writings of Rabash, The Rungs of the Ladder, “What Are the Two Discernments Before Lishma“

Fall Slightly To Rise Endlessly

Desires were originally created by the Creator and nothing new appears, but everything depends on a person’s awareness: how he recognizes, distinguishes, and connects them. In the state of descent, one reveals that he is in exile, and according to the depth of this awareness he can achieve liberation.

Everything is determined by consciousness. A baby and an adult live in the same world, but does a baby see much compared to the adult? That’s why awareness, suffered in exile, helps us reach liberation. After all, it occurs in the same organs of perception, only turned upside down and grown through our efforts by 620 times.

If we felt exile on the same level in which we feel liberation, we would never be able to get out of it. But thanks to the work in the group and the reforming Light, we achieve an ascent 620 times more powerful than a fall. We do not need to feel the fall to minus infinity in order to feel the rise to plus infinity.

The Creator made it so that we will feel the rise 620 times more than the fall. This is the meaning of the shattering. In a descent, we find out that we cannot connect, and everyone feels this state in their personal petty egoism. While in ascent, uniting, we reveal our common desire, in which all our efforts, desires, and prayers take shape. And then their power increases 620-fold.

That is, it is impossible even to compare the fall and the rise. Although falls seem very strong, unpleasant, and deep to us, they are nothing compared to the rise, which is 620 times more powerful.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/8/18, Writings of Rabash

Connecting Through Our Differences

Success depends on one’s connection to the group, since the environment provides us with many inner discernments that we no longer need to experience on our own. This is because we each include everyone within us, and if I am connected to ten other friends, I absorb all the personal states of each friend. Thus, I advance.

Our connection not only saves us time, without it I will never achieve spiritual birth. Starting with a single drop of semen, the growth of the body occurs through the multiplying of cells and their connection with each other. We call this development or growth. Everything depends on the connections between us.

It is good that we all are different, perceiving, understanding, and reacting differently. This gives us an opportunity to be included in one another above all the differences, thereby forming an integral vessel—the common desire, which is organized in a very complex, multilayered way, ready to receive the upper Light. After all, the revelation of the Creator cannot occur in one individual desire: it is too primitive, one-dimensional, and flat.

Therefore, we connect many different, opposite qualities together. From this diversity of connections and interconnected qualities (which wish to preserve their uniqueness while also being connected regardless of their differences), we create a complex spiritual vessel worthy of revealing the Creator.

This is why our connection to each other is so important; this connection is what builds the spiritual vessel (Kli). The Creator, the upper Light, fills all space. The problem is only in how to come to similarity to the Light from our egoistic desire, and how to accept it according to the similarity of our qualities.

This is achieved precisely through the multitude of contradicting qualities that, despite all differences, are connected to each other with one common goal: to reveal the Creator within our connection. Our connection to each other is called “the Creator” (Bore), which means “come and see” (Bo-Re).

Therefore, we should value the preparation that nature created, that is, the breaking of the common soul and the possibility of uniting different desires for the sake of one goal: the revelation of the Creator. Our unity allows us to create the form of connection that will be called the Creator.
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From the 1^st Part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/18/18, Writings of Rabash—Essays, Vol. 2, Article 19, “Come Unto Pharaoh”

Answers To Your Questions, Part 221

Question: What is a soul?

Answer: A soul is a desire that is similar to the Creator, meaning a desire with an intention of bestowal and love. A soul doesn’t exist in anyone; a soul exists only when we create it from our egoism.

Question: Recently a desire has arisen in me to pray only for the purpose of thanksgiving by means of reading Psalms; “My soul, bless the Lord” (Psalms 104:1) and “My soul, praise the Lord!” (Psalms 146:1) is all I can say in prayer. Is this correct?

Answer: Look at the Psalms I shortened on my Twitter.
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New Life #959 – The Experience Of Life In Israel

New Life #959 – The Experience Of Life In Israel
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Summary

The people of Israel have a fire burning within them that stems from their spiritual root and the days of Abraham. He taught people how to connect and attain the power of oneness that operates throughout creation. The people of Israel, however, are never satisfied and feel that something is eating them from the inside out because they are not realizing their desire for spirituality. They all have their own opinions and need to discover that they can build bridges of unity above the differences.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #959 – The Experience Of Life In Israel,” 2/4/18

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Becoming A Single Whole

The spiritual vessel (Kli) is not ten people, but a ten, which has become a single whole. To the extent that they can be included in the concept of “one,” they become a spiritual vessel. All our work is directed at this unity, and only by working on it do we begin to feel the obstacles that Pharaoh and his ministers put in front of us. The Creator purposely hardened their hearts to bring us to the understanding of what separation and unity are, as well as to help us achieve the qualitative unity in which the new state is revealed.

Everything is evaluated not by the group of ten people, but by its ability to unite into one whole. And the group becomes like one only if it has the connection with the upper force, besides which there is nothing else, and can concentrate all problems into one.

Therefore, we are always need a guarantee. Everyone receives his hardening of the heart at different times, in different ways, and everyone else helps him overcome it, as it’s written: “And he should help his friend.” There is never a situation when one is unable to help another, because one always has something that another lacks. Therefore, even if I am in a decline that I cannot come out of, I am still able to help another rise. After all, his heart is hardened in different ways.* 

At first, a person works only for the reward that is customary in this world, meaning egoistic success, higher understanding, knowledge, to rule. Gradually, he acquires a different understanding of success, seeing its signs in how devoted he is to the group, and through the group how dedicated he is to the upper force. He considers his reward for all his efforts to be the ability he acquires to annul himself to the group and the upper force. This means that he is already working toward gaining desires for bestowal in order to move on to Lishma.

This is what the process of going through the Egyptian exile is all about from beginning to end. We enter Egypt with the desire to earn and succeed in our regular egoistic parameters. In reality, it corresponds to what Joseph is talking about. This is why we coexist so well with the Egyptians; all our desires to bestow work inside the desires of the Egyptians to receive. Egypt is prospering, the desire to receive is enjoying, and everything is fine!

Gradually, as a result of our work and the Creator’s influence on us, we start feeling our separation, the oppositeness. Our system of rewards changes and so does our understanding of work. Egyptian exile is a very special period, and that is why we remember Egypt on all the stages of our correction, up to the very end. **

At first we imagine spiritual success in ordinary egoistic terms and we feel a connection with Egypt. The previous stage called “the land of Canaan” already exhausted itself and was followed by a famine. And the next stage, “Egypt,” promises an ocean of pleasures. And therefore we descend into Egypt.

But gradually, through the hardening of the heart, the increased desire to receive, we understand that our work has to be different and that this is not unity. The main thing is that the Light that reforms is working on us, which changes us. We would never achieve success without it, because no matter how much we connect in egoistic desires, the only thing that comes out is pure egoism.

Therefore, all we need to do is carry out actions of unity, diligently following the advice of the Kabbalists. This is what is called the work in Egypt. Pharaoh organizes our work precisely to lead us to spirituality. We will feel that our egoism does not agree and it receives blows; we are unable to unite despite all our efforts.*** 

Try to work for the benefit of others, and you will see how easy it is. You will work to the extent that you can without worrying about anything. This instantly frees a person from numerous concerns, giving a sense of freedom. After all, you do what is needed, and not worry about the outcome, because it goes outside of yourself. In this case, the desire to receive does not limit the person. In this way you can outwit your egoism, which made us worry about ourselves.****
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/12/18, Writings of Rabash, Article 15, 1990, “What Does It Mean that Before the Egyptian Minister Fell, Their Outcry Was Not Answered in the Work?”

Famine Among Plenty

The Jews would have remained the slaves of egoism forever because they lived very well in Egypt, were satiated and enjoyed life. But then the Creator changes their desire and they start to ask: “Why do we live? What is this life about? What is its purpose?”

People changed, just as it is happening now. In fact, it would seem what more could we want? The world is capable of providing every person with plenty, but we spoil everything. As if we are doing this ourselves, but in reality it is the upper governance working on us, corrupting us, not allowing us to enjoy life. We could have children and enjoy our families. A hundred years ago, if people had the opportunities they do today, they would have considered it a paradise. Why are we not satisfied with it? This is what is meant by “The king of Egypt died.”

The former egoistic desire, in which we enjoyed life, family, kids, vacation, and health—died. Life stopped bringing us satisfaction.

The desire for pleasure grew, not in quantity, but in quality, and it is demanding new, higher fulfillment. You offer it buckets of meat, fish, cakes, candy, travel, but it doesn’t want anything. Many people are depressed, use drugs, and even want to end their lives, the number of suicides is growing, or a person suddenly buys weapons and begins to shoot everyone indiscriminately.

Where does it come from? It comes from the Creator. He spoils our desire for pleasure and poisons our existence. We are unable to fulfill our desire and feel that death is better than such a life.

First of all, we need to understand that it comes from Above, in accordance with the program of the development of nature. We cannot resist it, nor compensate in any way to fix the situation. No tranquilizers can help soften the blow of “the king of Egypt died.”

Jews worked remarkably well during the “seven years of satiation,” and they felt satiated. You think that during the “seven years of famine” there was less food? There was the same amount of everything, but they felt as if they had nothing, and there was a famine. There was nothing they could satisfy their desire to receive with—just like in today’s world.*

The desire to receive is a machine. You bring a deficiency into it, and it does everything to fulfill it. From the side of creation, the desire to receive, there is no freedom of will. It works like an automaton according to the data entered into it.

But the Creator wants to bring us to the point of acting on our own, independently. This is only possible if the creation has two forces: the forces of reception and bestowal. Then, between these two forces, it can build an intention toward bestowal and work above its nature.

Only then will the created being exist; before this it simply does not exist because it is a part of nature: the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels. The instinctual reaction of the desire to receive is not considered an independent life.** 

If fifty years ago our ancestors got what we have today, they would have been thrilled beyond belief. However, today we are not satisfied with our lives because our desire to receive has changed; it is no longer content with its previous fulfillment. And this is progress; we seemingly have everything, yet it is not enough.

That is why the oligarchs are so eager to earn more than profits, because stealing a billion only gives them the fulfillment worth a hundred dollars. There is no feeling of contentment. ***

It is a blessing that a person does not anticipate death, but only thinks of food, sex, family, money, power, and knowledge. Is it worth worrying about these things, if sooner or later you die? But the person does not think about death, and this means that “the king of Egypt died” hasn’t happened yet. Even being in despair from his work, he still wants to return to his previous state, like the Jews in the desert dreamed of returning to Egypt.**** 

Egyptian slavery is a feeling that egoistic unity no longer works.*****
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/12/18, Shamati #159 “And It Came to Pass in the Course of Those Many Days”