Celebration of Pesach (Passover) is a special time. We as if are wrapped in a subtle fog caused by exhaustion and coming out of our usual state. It’s a special time in the whole world, when the Surrounding Lights are doing the work according to the order deriving from the law of branch and root.

Besides, we are entering the holiday that directly pertains to us. There is no spiritual root closer and more vital to us than Passover. It’s all we want. Having come out of egoism, we repeatedly remind ourselves about the exodus from Egypt and only correct it over and over again on the entire remaining path, to the very end of correction. After all, we must completely sever ourselves from Egypt, to such an extent as to turn it into its opposite: bestowal.

At this time, we can make a leap, and that’s our task at the moment. It doesn’t matter that we are little and don’t understand everything. And it’s okay that we lack something; it will always be this way. The feeling of darkness, entanglement, confused sensations and mind, it is all necessary. We have to be distracted—this is provided in abundance. We all feel confused, stupefied, weakened and so on; everyone just wants to sleep. It is the best, optimal state for us.

But at the same time, we must exert strictly verified and precise efforts aimed at our unification. If you are falling asleep, sleep, but with a correct intention. Even in this action you should connect with the points in the hearts and then drift into sleep, while maintaining the internal connection with one another. Oneness needs to be “pressed through.” Go within, despite your drowsiness, and you will start receiving awakening from the others.

Each of us lacks mutual inclusion. If I am connected with all the others and they with me, it gives me the strength of hundreds of thousands of people. It is a result of mutual guarantee. If we don’t employ it, we won’t succeed. We must aim ourselves at realization of unity.

Tonight, all around the world, we will sit together at the festive table, and we won’t be focusing on what we eat and drink, not the Passover dinner as such. It’s all a mere tradition, but what is really important is whether we intend to rise above our egoism toward love and unification.

That is what the exodus from Egypt signifies. And the rest is only interpretations. All festive attributes are not more than signs, the symbols of a unified effort. If I pressure myself with all the others, while doing so, I pass through the entire Passover feast. It becomes revealed to me.

Therefore, we need a powerful awakening now. And we truly are capable of making a breakthrough. After all, we are witnessing how the upper force pushes us forth, constantly organizes, and tends to us. Now a push is required on our part, and I don’t see any obstacles to that. A little blur of sensations—is it really Pharaoh?

Don’t wait for it to become easy at some point. We always move against desires and thoughts. Sleep will keep falling on you, urgent business will keep distracting you, and confusion will always remain. Such is the path.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/2011,  Baal HaSulam’s Letter 10

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Baal HaSulam’s “Commentary to the Passover Haggadah” (From the article “This Is for Yehuda”): This is why we like to remember the eating of Matza in Egypt [in the first Kabbalistic group] even today [during the evening Passover meal] since we [today], too, are as when we were enslaved abroad [the land of Israel is "Eretz Israel" in Hebrew, which means “desire aimed straight at the Creator”]. Also, with this Mitzva, we aim to extend the redemption [from Pharaoh, egoism] that will happen soon in our days, Amen, just as our [spiritual] fathers ate in Egypt.

This passage talks about a group of Kabbalists that existed and functioned under the guidance of Abraham and came out of Babylon around 3700 years ago in order to connect by the ties of love among them, which is described as “love another as you love yourself.” And they learned from their own experience how hearts harden and how much tougher the power of Pharaoh (ego) who rules them becomes.

But regardless, they started overcoming this hardening even though egoism kept growing. They reached an internal state of coming out of their egoism that is called the exodus from Egypt. Instead of the egoistic ties that they used to have, they connected to each other with the ties of bestowal and love, which signifies leaving the Egyptian borders.

Therefore, all actions that we perform during the festive meal have a sole intention: to reach the same liberation from the ego. We repeat every action and ritual established by the very same group of Kabbalists, following the directions of Baal HaSulam, who in thorough detail explains each stage of the festive ritual because it reflects how strongly a person truly desires to come out of his or her personal Egypt.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/2011, “This Is for Judah”

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Baal HaSulam’s “Commentary to the Passover Haggadah” (From the article “This Is for Yehuda”): “That bread that our fathers ate in the land of Egypt” (The Passover Haggadah): …It follows that the Mitzva of eating a Matza was given to them while they were still enslaved, and the aim of the Mitzva was for the time of redemption since then they departed in haste.

This always occurs when we transition from state to state, leaving the degree we are presently at: in Egyptian bondage, ruled by our ego, Pharaoh, our stubborn “evil inclination” that holds us hostage and doesn’t let us rise above our jealousy, hatred, lust, and ambition.

Try as we might, we still can’t rise above these egoistic properties and bond ourselves with each other with ties that correspond to the degree following the exodus from Egypt. We are still unable to become “as one man with one heart,” achieve mutual guarantee so that the integral force of love and bestowal regarded as the Creator would become revealed.

Therefore, while we are still enslaved by Pharaoh, we need to visualize the next state, to play “make believe” with it, like children play being adults when they grow up. So do we have to play living an “adult” life, the spiritual one.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/2011, “This Is for Judah”

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Writings of Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, “True Prayer”
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Passover, BeHaalotcha (When You Mount the Candles)” “Passover in Its Time and Second Passover,” Item 56
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Writings of the ARI “Shaar HaKavanot”
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The Article “The Arvut″
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Our desire is starting to take on the right form. We desire to unite, to reveal a pull toward unity inside every person despite egoism. This is very important: In spite of my egoism, I make efforts to internally aspire and come closer to the friends, to keep them all in a tight connection like people who are close to me in spirit and aim.

The most important thing now is for me to be able to trust them: If we are united, then they will ensure that I will not forget about our path and will only become stronger in the common consolidation.

I aspire to unite with the friends and I hope that this aspiration will enable me to receive an unquenchable desire for unity from them. This is all we need. From the very beginning and until the end of correction, this is the only thing required from us.

This is why it is written that love for the neighbor as for yourself is the concluding, summarizing rule of the entire Torah. There is nothing more than that, and we must aim our path only in this direction. It doesn’t matter how much this turns us off. If we want to carry out the program of creation by an accelerated scenario, then there is just one opportunity: to start from the opposite, most hateful and repulsive state, and from there to take steps toward love for the neighbor.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/21/11, Writings of Rabash

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If we could see the game that the Creator plays with us, we would understand that all that happens in our lives is meant to lead us to the single goal: the necessity to appeal to the Creator. And the force that gradually develops us and forces us to appeal to Him is called “Pharaoh,” the Creator’s faithful slave.

Pharaoh cunningly tricks us, gives us blows and obstacles along the path: It is all Pharaoh’s work. Our advancement depends on how we accept these blows, disappointments, and opportunities presented to us. We shouldn’t ever look at it as a chance occurrence, but see the Creator’s “guiding hand” and think of how to react to it. Clarifying these situations is what helps us advance forward.

The clarification occurs only by means of our connection because only then do we have a correct point of view that allows us to understand what the Creator wants. Ultimately, He will demand that we unite as “one man with one heart.” If we look at everything that happens to us from this point of view, we will promptly and correctly reveal what the upper force wants from us. This is very simple, but only if a person doesn’t fail to see all that’s happening to him from this correct point of view.

All the blows and concerns are leading us toward acquiring the quality of bestowal. We come for the sake of our egoism and our pride, until all of these blows and changes form a correct attitude within us that allows us to understand where we are in relation to the force of bestowal.

But the moment we change, we understand that all this was done out of love. The Creator didn’t want to assert His power and make us bow down. He wasn’t jealous of our love and commitment to Pharaoh. It was only His great love for us that forced Him to gradually teach us. And He suffered more than we did from all that was happening to us, similarly to the way parents suffer when giving a sick child shots and bitter medicine.

There never was nor could there ever be any negative treatment from the Creator. There can only be absolute love.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/20/2011, Baal HaSulam’s Letter 10

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We should try to recognize all the states that we anticipate seeing after we exit Egypt while we are still in Egypt, right now, when we work in the group. Despite the power of egoism, we want to reveal the spiritual world here and now. Only by exerting effort will we draw the force that will do it for us.

We need to find the place where we wish to be one and to understand how to exert effort and demand unity. We do everything we can by way of our own effort and the effort of the upper one. We beg and demand it from Him, and draw Him to help us while still remembering to provide our own contribution.

Only when we get a clear idea of the place, effort, and nature of our action will we make the right decision.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/2011, “This Is for Judah”

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Question: Will caring for the friends ever become my nature?

Answer: No, it won’t. Only egoism that rules me can be natural. All further states lie above it and can be attained by the constant exertion of effort.

To exit into spirituality is the same as to levitate above the earth in our world. You cannot just suspend yourself in the air. This requires a force that will hold you despite the force of gravity. Gravity is the force of our egoism. It always pulls me down; hence, as soon as I forget about the goal, I immediately fall to the ground.

If I wish to unite with the others, prior to anything else, I must put forth constant effort in order to “hang in the air,” in aspiration to unity. There is no cutting slack in this case: The instant I forget, I fall.

That’s why caring for the others will never become a habit or a second nature. And we should be thankful for it since thereby, we get a chance to realize our free will every next second.

If it were habit that moved me, I would be an angel. An angel obeys its nature: the nature of bestowal. It hangs in the air because it is “lighter than air” and isn’t affected by the force of earthly egoistic gravity. But a human being is.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/2011, “This Is for Judah”

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The entire development happens according to the four stages of HaVaYaH that arise from the combination of two qualities, the desire to receive pleasure and the desire to bestow, which begin to connect with one another. At first, the desire to receive prevails. Then, the desire to bestow does. Afterwards, they work together, and everything culminates with the final degree of Malchut which wishes to rule over everyone with its egoistic desire.

For this reason, when the Light influences the desire, it causes it to develop according to the four stages until the stage of Dalet (Four). This is the law of spiritual physics. This results in development according to the still, vegetative, animate, and human levels. Man, himself, also develops according to the same four levels: the still, vegetative, animate, and human levels within.

This is why we need to enter a state every time, to be in it, and feel its faults. We “stew” on a certain degree of development until we understand its deficiencies and begin to search for the new degree. All of this happens according to the law of the four stages of development, according to which every current degree always contains the opposite side of the next degree which attracts us.

This is why we initially enjoy every new attained state, but then we begin to feel that this state is our “exile.” It begins to feel bad and insufficient. This way, we lack the “vegetative” life on the “still” level, the “animate” life on the vegetative level, and the “human” life on the animate level. However, what do we lack on the human level? We lack the Creator!

We go through these four stages in this way, which are referred to as the four exiles. Every time that we feel that we are in exile, we want to come out of this state. Every time that we are no longer capable of remaining in a certain state because the sensation of lack becomes intolerable, we go to a new state, and this transition is called “redemption.”

In summary, there are four exiles and four redemptions. As of today, we have been through four exiles and three redemptions over the course of the history of mankind, and we are on the threshold of the fourth and last liberation.

In our current state, we have everything except the Creator, the sensation of and connection with Him so that we can feel His quality: bestowal and love of others. When a person specifically lacks this, it means that he has reached the final fourth stage, the sensation of lack of the revelation of the Creator.

There is no greater lack; this is the final lack. This is the lack we need to reach with our efforts, exercises, and mutual work. Man must verify whether this is really what he is missing. If not, he has not yet come close to liberation. However, if he has a strong environment that is entitled to come out of exile toward redemption, it is possible that they might carry him out of exile as they exit as they would carry an elder, a woman, or a child.

The first to come out are men (Gvarim), those who are able to overcome (Midgabrim). They pull everyone else along; they help and guide in some way. The others just need to be ready to join them, not to resist, to have a desire to come out even being weak and lacking the necessary strength to unite. However, they must not be against it.

In other words, we need to reach a state where we will specifically feel the lack of the quality of bestowal and love, unity, the mutual guarantee. This state precedes spiritual birth.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/2011, “This Is for Judah”

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