Question: The upcoming Saturday is traditionally called Great Saturday (Shabbat HaGadol) as it leads into the holiday of liberation, Passover. What makes the spiritual work that is carried out on this Saturday special?

Answer: This Saturday is called “great” because additional Light is present in it. In spiritual work, this Great Saturday doesn’t come to a person according to a calendar on a wall, but can happen any time of the year.

Nevertheless, there is a connection between the material branch and its spiritual root, and the upcoming Saturday is in some ways unique. Additional Light acts during Great Saturday, and it is capable of awakening a person to exit the exile to which the holiday of Passover is dedicated. This entire time is special and extremely favorable for inner work.

This influence appears on the still level, but we nevertheless respond to that kind of influence too. It is felt in all aspects of life. Even nature is waking up; it is springtime!
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/30/2012, Shamati #190

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The Holiday of Pesach (Passover) begins tomorrow. We have to understand what it is. Firstly, “Pesach” is the most important state. We remember this exodus from Egypt in all the following corrections. Why? Because this is the foundation, from which the ladder of spiritual degrees begins.

Secondly, Pesach is the spiritual birth of a human being.

Thirdly, we are talking about darkness, in which we build the preparatory base for our corrections because we have nothing else to correct except what is disclosed in “Egypt.” These years of preparation, on the one hand, are useful because they reveal our corrupt desires; on the other hand, they are hard because exile is an unpleasant thing.

However, in reality it all depends on how we accept what is happening, trying hard to comprehend, understand, and recognize this state, how much we are aware of its necessity in the group, and how much we can feel blossoming in it.

Similarly, the Middle Ages was a dark period of history, which was characterized by confusion, human brutality, the cruelty of inquisition, religious aggression, and animalistic mores. However, going deeper, we see that it became the preparation for the outburst of the Renaissance, for the development of science and other subsequent achievements.

Until the end of the Middle Ages humanity was obtaining big vessels, desires. Then, a cultural explosion took place, and the Age of Enlightenment began during which we used what we had prepared before. Now, we are approaching a logical result—the crisis of all the desires having been exhausted and there is nothing else to do in our world.

If we draw parallels with spirituality, the current preparation allows us to reach the end of correction and use our desires correctly. After all, we revealed our evil during the period of Egyptian exile. That is why all further corrections are called the “memory” of the exodus from Egypt.

In this case, evil is revealed to us only in the relationships between friends. Consequently, if we correctly perceive the problems arising between us, we prepare ourselves for ascent. We must request correction from these states; however, on condition that we want to unite, we feel the need for it, see that we cannot, and nonetheless continue to push. The less we succeed, the more we press.

We need to reveal bestowal namely in this mutual pressure between us. Even if instead of it, we on the contrary reveal reception, evil, manifested above good, we do not retreat, do not relax, and do not despair. We are going to the end, until the state about which is said in the Torah: “and the children of Israel groaned from the work” (Exodus 2:23)

It will not be just moaning; we will really feel that we are powerless to do anything else. That is when a person raises his hands to the Creator and merges in the collective prayer.

Thus, we should respect the current period. We cannot exit it until we prepare the desire for further corrections. It is impossible to receive revelation from Above, if we do not push, forcing the upper force to reveal us our evil.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/5/12, Writings of Rabash

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The attribute of bestowal is attained in the group, in society, under special conditions that are described by Kabbalists from the state that was prepared for us by the shattering of First Man (Adam HaRishon), the general soul. If we use the small environment that was given to us correctly, and in it, try to reach mutual bestowal, we will discover that we are in exile in Egypt.

We discover that there is no way we can attain spirituality, the Creator, the attribute of bestowal, if we don’t reach the love of friends first. But all our attempts to reach connection and love of friends end in complete failure, as it is written, “the Children of Israel cried from the work,” because we discovered that we built poor cities, Pithom and Ramses for Pharaoh, which means that we only increased our desire to receive.

Although we despair from this work, we don’t leave it and we shout: “Save us!” After all, our ego, Pharaoh, doesn’t let us connect, and if this goes on this way it will never let us leave the exile and attain the connection with the upper force.

This is really a cry of despair from the bottom of the heart. Then a special, general force called “Moses” is revealed. It is revealed in the group and goes through many changes. Once it is revealed and once it is concealed, until we stabilize this collective force and place it against our ego.

When we are ready to fight our collective ego that disturbs us from connecting by placing the collective force of connection called “Moses” against it, the life or death struggle begins. We support this force as much as we can and even above our power! Here we discover in our general collective point the help from Above. At this point, the Creator says: “Come to Pharaoh, let’s fight him together!” this means that He agrees to connect with our collective point, and so he takes us out of Egypt.

On the way different phenomena occur, which the Haggadah tells us about, and we have to go through all this. It refers only to our attempts to reach connection and to somehow fulfill it. Eventually we come out of this state, of our inability to connect, and attain what we wanted. The method of connection called Torah is revealed to us against the ego and the hatred.

Now the system we can use appears. It is called Torah, the Reforming Light that gradually begins to influence us in order to correct us. There is Mt. Sinai that separates us, the collective ego that stands in the way of the connection among us. When the Light corrects the hatred into connection, this mountain becomes the “mountain of Holiness.”

This is what the holiday of Pesach is about (from the Hebrew word meaning “to skip”), which symbolizes the transitions from exile to freedom. Exile is my inability to connect. I don’t know how to do it, but I yearn for it and demand it.

Redemption symbolizes the fact that I was given a chance, a system, a method that enables me to correct the evil in me and to turn it into good. Good means mutual guarantee, love of friends, in which I discover the force that enables me to fulfill this attitude and adhere to the Creator. After all, He is the goal I yearned for from the start.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/1/12, Shamati #41

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Question: How can I reach the Light of faith?

Answer: Our desire determines everything, but the Light does not change. All the changes take place only within a person: where he aims his desire at, and relative to this, what strength he needs. He receives according to this.

We are always under the influence of some light, but it is very weak. We do not match this light, but feel its lack, and that is why we do not notice it.

Light is a force, but it affects us either to the extent of our similarity to it or the opposite. That is why the light of the Passover holiday is a huge light, but it is not manifested openly.

We think that light is when it is light outside. But there is nothing outside—the entire world is inside us. And that is why light means the light of mind, the light of feeling, opening in our heart and thoughts.

A vast world that seems to surround us is revealed, in fact, in our sensations and mind. And Light is the force of revelation in the feeling or thought.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/2/12, Shamati 59

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Question: The holiday of Passover is coming soon. What should we focus on now? How can we use this time for unity?

Answer: Passover is a very special time when I discover that I am in exile. This is the beginning of the Egyptian slavery. Unless I feel that I am in exile, I am still not in Egypt, I am not Pharaoh’s slave yet. To put it differently, if don’t strive for unity, I haven’t started the process yet. But when I am drawn to unity and I feel that I cannot unite because my ego stops me and blocks the way, the ego is revealed to me as Pharaoh. It controls me and doesn’t let me reach unity and discover the Creator.

The exile is not feeling the Creator. I feel that I miss Him, then I continue to head towards unity, and the ego, Pharaoh, appears as tougher and tougher. Eventually I don’t know what to do, I see no way out, and then the point called “Moses” is revealed in me. It begins to draw me out, to the unknown, while I am confused and don’t know in what way this point is different from Pharaoh. Thus Moses grows in Pharaoh’s palace, in the ego, either separating himself from Pharaoh or merging with him in my eyes. He aspires straight to the Creator, but is nourished on self-love.

And so I advance: I want to build a vessel, but instead I build “poor cities,” Pithom and Ramses. Every time I want to get close to others, to unite, new problems come up: disputes and separation, detachment and indifference. The ego holds power and doesn’t let me free, doesn’t let me do anything. No matter how hard I try to draw the connection, it doesn’t exist. My efforts are for the good of “Pharaoh” and they harm “Israel.”

And so I arrive to the ten plagues of Egypt, I suffer because my egoistic desire doesn’t let me unite with the friends. In answer to all my attempts, it summons great suffering in me and pulls in different directions. It gives my “beast” everything it wants, but blocks the way to unity because otherwise I will escape from Egypt.

Then Moses goes to Pharaoh demanding: “Let my people go.” We try to unite even more and want to escape Pharaoh’s control. This is already a true revelation. So what can we do? After all, the Creator constantly hardens my heart.

Thus I go through the ten plagues, until I manage to totally break loose from my ego. In the dark I escape to unity, to the mountain of hatred (Sina) that is revealed to me and to mutual guarantee as the essential means against the ego. I don’t suppress hatred, I don’t annul it, but rather build mutual guarantee around it. After all, this hate is a priceless acquisition: Thanks to mutual guarantee, I will be able to turn this mountain of hatred to the summit of Holiness, the mountain of the Lord.

Today it isn’t only about us. The whole world is starting this process by discovering that the destructive ego that controls it threatens to erase all of humanity from the face of the earth.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/2/2012, “Introduction to TES”

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Rabash, article “Purim”: It is said that in the end of correction, all the holidays will be annulled except for the Book of Esther because there has never been such a great miracle as on that day. Neither on Saturdays nor other special days such a great Light was revealed but only during the days of Purim. And that is why there is a great advantage of Purim over all other days.

Indeed, before the end of correction it is impossible to correct all the shattered sparks and vessels, but only 288 sparks out of 320 so as to connect them to bestowal. And this is clarified gradually, but there are 32 sparks left of all the sparks, which cannot be clarified.

And this is called the “stony heart (Lev HaEven).” And it is only when all the 288 sparks will be clarified completely, the stony heart will be corrected, as it is said: “And I will remove the stony heart from your flesh, and I will give you the heart of flesh, and then death will disappear forever, and all the evil will be corrected into goodness, and the darkness will shine like the Light.”

It follows that the Light of Purim corresponds to the end of correction and is revealed only by miracle. And for that reason, all the holidays are annulled except Purim, which belongs to the end of correction, when all the evil will be corrected, and there will be no difference between damned Haman and blessed Mordechai, and Haman too will be corrected to goodness.

Haman is the ego that manifests when we rise from the exile and attain the level called “to bestow in order to bestow” that characterizes Mordechai the righteous. The righteous symbolizes the attribute of Bina (Hafetz Hesed) from which we rise even higher and totally erase any memory of Amalek by attaining the level of “to receive in order to bestow.” This is already the next degree.

When Mordechai, the intention “to bestow in order to bestow,” the point in the heart, manifests in a person, he begins to fight with the desire to receive within him. Haman is the grandson of Amalek, which means that he is behind Amalek by two degrees. When Haman is corrected by Mordechai, he gets closer to Amalek by one degree and becomes his son.

Haman and Amalek are the egoistic forces, Klipot (shells). Haman is revealed in the beginning of our path, and we have to bring him to correction, “to bestow in order to bestow,” which is called Mordechai. Thus we rise one degree upwards, to the level of the son. Then we reach Amalek himself, the shell that stands opposite to the intention of “to receive in order to bestow.” This matches the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Amalek symbolizes the egoistic intention, all the big desire to receive with the intention for oneself, which a person discovers and gradually corrects. Haman is the part of Amalek that is revealed upon entering spirituality, the attribute of Bina. Then many other wicked described in the Torah are revealed, and they are all the offspring of Amalek. We only have to destroy the offspring of Amalek, “to erase the memory of Amalek,” because it is the egoistic intention.

Of course, it isn’t about people or actions, but only about intentions.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/8/2012, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Where is the group in the events of Purim, in the story of Haman and Amalek?

Answer: You find your Mordechai, your Haman, and everyone who prevents you from connecting to the group and through it pleasing the Creator—in the group.

First of all, it is necessary to find the direction to the North, to find out, do you have this very internal attitude with which you strive to please the Creator? Did you discover this point in you, the weakest and very delicate inner desire? Do you have it?

But if you do not have it, it is not terrible, it will still come; it will be revealed through the Reforming Light, and eventually you will begin to feel like you somehow pertain to the Creator. And above all we need to find this aspiration in us that determines the main direction, and this can only be done with the help of the group.

For this reason, everything we do in the group, with our friends, all our gatherings, everything must be done with the purpose to at least come closer to pleasing the Creator. And when we do not act with this purpose, we will be nothing but “a gathering of fools.”

This is because the fact of unity in a group does not yet mean anything. It is a fact that when different groups like the army or a football team are being trained, they go through special psychological training which prepare a person to give his life for his group. He begins to feel that the group is above him. And then he operates through a simple calculation, he compares himself to the group and sees that it has a greater value, and thus he is willing to kill himself.

This is false altruism, which allows a person to sacrifice himself simply because he has developed a new scale of priorities, which determines what he deems to be more or less important. But this has nothing to do with bestowal; it is just a result of a psychological manipulation.

And this is a dangerous trap because many believe that they are on the path of bestowal when in reality they are participating in a gathering of dissemblers—a group, which instills the value of bestowal to the group. Essentially, this is even greater egoism because it is a common group ego, which pulls you forward. It is above a person but does not lead in the direction of the Creator. And this is a mistake many people make. All religions have developed as a result of this kind of mistake made sometimes in the very beginning.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/8/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: How are the Maccabean war and Chanukah felt in the internal work, as the ascent of Malchut to Bina?

Answer: The work is always on the desire to receive that awakens and on my intention with regards to it. The Maccabean war symbolizes the fact that I have to raise my intention above the desire to receive—not to use it, but only to rise above it. I don’t descend into the desire; I don’t study it. The main thing is to restrict my desire to receive, to rise above it and to acquire the form of Bina: to bestow in order to bestow. Bina is called Hafetz Hesed, and it has a huge desire, all of Malchut de Ein Sof. But I don’t use this desire; I only rise above it and want to bestow more than anything. I don’t touch this desire.

It’s like a person to whom I can give 10 dollars to keep for me, knowing he will not spend it. There are people you can depend on even if we speak about 100, 1000, 10,000 or even a million dollars. This is the level of Bina in a person when you can be sure that he won’t spend this money, meaning how pure he can stay and not touch the money. But there are people who can use the desire to receive with the intention in order to bestow: to take the “money” and to somehow bestow with it.

We are required to use our corporeal life according to our necessity, and this should “not be criticized nor praised,” meaning we should not use it in this egotistic world but to reach the level of Bina in the spiritual sense.

This is the preliminary state from which the wisdom of Kabbalah begins and which explains to us how to work with the desires to receive with the intention of in order to bestow. In them, we already resemble the Creator, but not until then. Until then you don’t fill others, but simply don’t want to receive anything, like a person who lives alone in the forest not needing anything for oneself.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/26/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: What is the “stop on the way” that Chanukah symbolizes?

Answer: In the spiritual world there are no “stops” as we know it. It isn’t that you are free from the spiritual work and can go home. The meaning of “a stop” is that we acquire the attribute of Bina and now we have to make a shift. We’ve raised Malchut to Bina and here comes Hanukkah.

Now we begin to make a shift, to lower Bina to Malchut, to work with the vessels of receiving (AHP). Thus we work with a growing desire to receive until we descend to its deepest levels. The ascent of Malchut to Bina is called the Maccabean Revolt, “to bestow in order to bestow,” and the descent of Bina to Malchut is already Purim, “to receive in order to bestow.”
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/26/11, Writings of Rabash

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When we are born in the world of bestowal, we first make an acquaintance with it, just like a person who starts a new job and is given some time to adjust and to get to know the new place of work. During this time he is only taught what should be done and he only learns and doesn’t produce anything.

It is also like a small child who is only required to listen and to learn, to watch and to experience things. It doesn’t matter if he makes mistakes or acts foolishly. He will be corrected. This means that in the spiritual world we are first treated like small children are treated.

But all this comes after great efforts that we make in order to transcend the Machsom (the barrier), to be born in the new world and to start living in the world of bestowal. With regards to all our previous work, the time after our birth is called “parking,” and Chanukah symbolizes this (“Chanu –kah”—parked so). A person reaches a comfortable situation. He still makes efforts, but they are of another kind—in order to know the good world.

He stubbornly works against his ego. It is similar to the wandering in the desert, about which the Torah tells us, a time that is meant for preparation and which ends upon entering the Land of Israel.

Chanukah is working with the Light of Chasadim, in the state of smallness. We have to learn to connect the desire to receive that is being revealed now to forces of bestowal.

In bestowal in order to bestow, we don’t use the full depth of this desire, but still it exists in us. It is like a baby: He already has legs, although he can’t walk yet; he has a brain although he hasn’t learned to think like a grown up. A newborn infant cannot see or hear anything, but he still has eyes and ears.

A baby has all the organs a grown up has. The only thing missing is the teeth. The teeth symbolize the power to clarify, which he hasn’t acquired yet. The “milk teeth” grow only after some time, and they are used only to clarify the Light of Chasadim (the milk symbolizes the Light of Chasadim) in the state of smallness.

When he grows up, he will have permanent teeth with which he will be able to chew and to clarify the filling for his vessel of reception, the Light of Hochma, and to feel the “flavors” of the Light.

Chanukah is the first part of our absorption into the spiritual world, the upper world, called the “world of bestowal.” This is bestowal in order to bestow in which we transfer all our desires to the level of mutual bestowal and learn how this system operates. We are incorporated in it like small children living in the big world who learn and do something together with the grown ups, playing with them.

This is called “parking,” because until now, during the time of preparation, a person worked hard against his egotistic desires. Afterwards, when he moves on from the level of “to bestow in order to bestow,” (Hafetz Chesed), to the next stage, to the level of love—the Land of Israel, he will start working with his vessels of reception again.

So Chanukah is a “spiritual” holiday and its symbols are the oil and the light.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/22/11, Writings of Rabash

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