Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and so on are stages of the soul’s development. A new force arises inside the soul each time and begins to drive the development and all that accompanies it.

The new force is always a will to receive and a will to bestow. The development is phased, however, with one period following another. Until I have completed one stage of development, I don’t know what the next one will be, and so on.

After the seven years of plenty, I don’t know what the seven years of famine are. It seems to me that I am advancing, and I will enter the spiritual world the same way. Suddenly, instead of the spiritual world – boom! – the Egyptian darkness descends. Similarly, I don’t know that all of a sudden I exit the Egyptian darkness, the terrible, pitch-black darkness when my desire has no fulfillment, neither the Surrounding nor Inner Light, and I come to the Light.

Development occurs in stages. We just need to know how to advance, but every revelation is a surprise, a complete surprise.
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From the Lesson on Weekly Torah Portion, 12/2/10

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