The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.

Daily Morning Lesson: April 1, 2026

Part 1: A lesson based on the articles of Rabash

Rabash. Article No. 13, 1987. Why the Festival of Matzot Is Called Passover

Original lesson date: 03/15/2002

Reader: Hello dear friends, in the first part we will study a lesson from Rav from February 2002, it's based on an article, Why the Festival of Matzot Is Called Passover. You can find it in the first volume of Rabash writings, we will read it together in the Ten – we have thirty-five minutes to do so. Tens who finish before the time is up are welcome to do a workshop about the main points from the article.

Reading: (00:43) Why the Festival of Matzot Is Called Passover

Article No. 13, 1987

There is a question: Why do we call the good day, which is called in the Torah “Festival of Matzot [unleavened bread],” “Passover” (Kedushat Levi, Bo). The answer is because it is written, “I am for my Beloved and my Beloved is for me.” That is, we praise the Creator and the Creator praises Israel. This is why this good day is called in the Torah, the “Festival of Matzot.” It is as though the Creator praises Israel, meaning that Israel and I call the good day by the name “Passover,” as it is written, “And you shall say, ‘It is a Passover offering to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when He smote the Egyptians, and spared our homes.’”

We likewise find in the war of Midian (Numbers 31:2-3), “And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, ‘Avenge the vengeance for the children of Israel on the Midianites.’ And Moses spoke to the people, saying, ‘Bring out men from among you for an army, that they may go against Midian to execute the Lord’s vengeance on Midian.’” We should understand why the Creator said to Moses that the war against Midian is the vengeance of the children of Israel, and Moses said to the people the opposite of what the Creator had told him: He said that the war against Midian was the Lord’s vengeance. We should explain this in the same manner: The Creator praised Israel, that it is the vengeance of the children of Israel, and Moses praised the Creator before Israel. This is why he changed what the Creator had said to him.

However, we should also understand what does it mean that the Creator praises Israel and the people of Israel praise the Creator. Are we speaking of flesh and blood people, where each one respects the other? Can you imagine that the Creator needs to be respected? I already said an allegory about this: It is like a man walking into a hen-house, and since he heard what our sages said (Shabbat 113a), “Rabbi Yochanan called his garments ‘My honorers’” (meaning that when a person wears dignified clothes he is respected). For this reason, since he wants the hens to respect him, he wears nice clothes. Clearly, anyone who sees him doing this will laugh at him because what honor can one receive from hens?

Accordingly, how can we say that the Creator wants us to respect and praise Him? Evidently, the Creator is not even similar to our allegory, since the distance between a human and a hen is only one degree, for chickens are animals and we are regarded as speaking, but it is all corporeality. But what distance is there between us and the Creator that you can say that the Creator is impressed by our praise, and that this is why Moses changed the words of the Creator, who said, “Avenge the vengeance of the children of Israel,” and he said to Israel, “the Lord’s vengeance”?

To understand the above, we must remember the purpose of creation, which—as our sages said—is to do good to His creations. In order for the benefit that He wishes to impart upon the creatures to be complete, meaning so that there will be no shame in it, there was a correction called “concealment.” Accordingly, while a person is still unable to do all his work in order to bestow, only when he corrects his actions and exits self-love, to that extent he exits the darkness and enters the light. This is called “coming out from darkness to light,” for then all of his receptions are only because he wants to impart pleasure upon the Creator by helping Him carry out His goal, which is unbounded bestowal, meaning a gift without any shame upon reception of the pleasure from the Creator.

By this we will understand why the Creator praises Israel. That is, the Creator wants to do good to His creations; this is why He praises Israel, for the intention is to benefit Israel. From this, the will to receive was created in the creatures who want to receive in order to receive. This is regarded as wanting to receive because of self-love, since due to the will to receive that the Creator created in the creatures, they crave to receive abundance in order to satisfy the need that the craving causes them, which is why they receive. This is called “in order to receive.”

However, from this extends separation due to disparity of form. For this reason, the people of Israel take upon themselves the Tzimtzum [restriction]—not to receive delight and pleasure despite their craving. Nevertheless, they do not want to receive unless they know that they can aim to receive the pleasure in order to bestow. This means that since He desires to give, this is why they receive the abundance. But as far as their own benefit, they relinquish the pleasures. It follows that the people of Israel are praising the Creator. That is, they relinquish their own will and engage only in praising the King, meaning that which the King wants, they do.

This is why Moses changed what the Creator had said, “Avenge the vengeance of Israel.” The Creator said what Israel should do only for Israel’s benefit, but Moses changed what the Creator had told him, but this is not regarded as deviating from the purpose of benefiting His creations. Rather, the reason for the change was also to do good. Additionally, it was not because it is impossible for Israel to receive the benefit of delight and pleasure unless they aim their actions only to benefit the Creator. This is regarded as all their actions being only because of the praise of the Creator, meaning due to the fear of sublimity, which is because of the greatness and importance of the King.

However, we should understand why the praise of the Creator is called “Passover,” after the Creator’s passing over. It is also written, “and you shall eat it in haste; it is the Lord's Passover.” RASHI interprets that the offering is called Passover after the passing over, and the passing over is that the Creator skipped over the houses of Israel from among the houses of the Egyptians. He would jump from Egyptian to Egyptian, and Israel in the middle escaped.

We should understand the meaning of skipping and passing over in the work. It is known that the essence of our work is to achieve Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator, which is equivalence of form, by which we receive Kelim [vessels] that are suitable for reception of the abundance. It is also known that our Kelim come from the breaking of the vessels. The breaking of the vessels means that we want to use the vessels of reception in order to receive, and this is regarded as separation from the Creator. This occurred in the upper worlds, and also through the sin of the tree of knowledge, when the Kelim fell into the Klipot [shells/peels], and we must elevate them because we come from their Kelim. By working with our desires to receive—which come from there—in order to bestow, we correct each time a piece of these Kelim, which are in the Klipot, and raise them to Kedusha [holiness/sanctity] by wanting to work only with the aim to bestow contentment upon the Creator.

Each time and each day, pieces of the Klipot—called “in order to receive”—are sorted. They are corrected so they can be used in order to bestow. The order is that a piece is elevated to Kedusha, and then we come down to a state of reception once again, and even forget that there is the matter of bestowal. But then we receive an ascent once more, take the part of the will to receive in us, overcome it, and correct it to work in order to bestow. This repeats itself each time until we acquire a certain measure of reception that has received the correction of bestowal. To that extent, there will be room for the upper abundance to enter. This Kli [vessel] is made by adding all the ascents that one had into one Kli, as it is written, “Penny by penny joins into a great amount” (Sotah 8).

By this we can interpret what we asked about Passover, that our sages said, “He would jump from Egyptian to Egyptian, and Israel in the middle escaped.” This means that every descent is called “Egyptian,” meaning he receives everything for self-love. “Israel in the middle” is an ascent when he overcomes and does everything in order to bestow and not for his own sake. That state is called “Israel.” But afterwards he descends once more. It follows that he descends once more into being an Egyptian, and so on and so forth. “And Israel … escaped” means that he escaped from the Egyptians and became Israel.

In order for a person to have a complete Kli that can receive within it upper abundance, the Creator jumps from Egyptian to Egyptian, meaning He takes into account only the Israel that is between each two Egyptians and joins them into a great amount. It is as though there is no interruption between Israel and Israel. Skips over the Egyptian means that it is as though the Egyptian does not exist in reality. For this reason, all the Israelites are joined into a great amount until he has a complete Kli.

Accordingly, we should interpret what is written there, that He skipped over the houses of Israel and only the Egyptians were killed. It is as RASHI interprets, He passed over, meaning jumped from Egyptian to Egyptian, and Israel in the middle escaped. This means that all the Egyptians were killed, and only all the Israelites, who were in the middle, between the Egyptians, stayed alive. The literal meaning is that all the descents that are between the ascents were erased, and only ascents remained.

This is as though they never had descents since they were erased. This is the meaning of the Egyptians being killed. Hence, now it is possible for all their ascents to connect and become one state.

There are many discernments in the will to receive that was corrected into working in order to bestow and become one complete Kli for reception of the light of redemption, called the “exodus from Egypt,” when they were liberated from the exile in Egypt, enslaved to self-love, called the “Klipa of Egypt,” as it is written, “and He brought out His people, Israel, from among them, to eternal freedom.”

Had the descents remained, there would be interruptions between each two ascents due to the descent in the middle. But when the descents disappear we should look only at the ascents, and then we can speak of the Kli that will be fit to receive the light of redemption.

For this reason, we should learn that one should not focus on the descents when he always falls from his spiritual state. Rather, he should focus on the ascents. Therefore, when he sees that he is in a state of lowliness, he must not despair. Instead, he must overcome above reason and rise again. He must not look at the past and say, “Since until now I thought that I had already understood that it is not worthwhile to focus on self-love,” still he sees that he soon suffers a descent. Therefore, a person asks, “What’s the point of ascending if I must keep falling? What do I gain by this?”

To this comes the answer: “And the children of Israel sighed from the work, and their cry rose up to the Lord.” That is, there was an awakening from below. Then the Creator killed the Egyptians and the Israelites remained and joined into a great amount, meaning because of all the ascents that they had one at a time, they had a big Kli in which to receive the abundance.

It therefore follows that no good deed of a person is lost. For this reason, we must not say, “How do the ascents help me if I lose them right away?” This would be true if he could hang on to them henceforth and not descend. But it was said about this, “Who will climb up the mountain of the Lord?” This is one discernment.

The other discernment is “And who will rise in the place of His holiness?” To this comes the answer, “He who is of clean hands and a pure heart,” meaning one who has been rewarded with clean hands and has no more self-love in him, but his only intention is to bestow. “A pure heart” means that his heart is with the Creator, that faith is fixed in his heart. These people have no descent in the degrees of lowliness, but all their ascents and descents are in spiritual degrees. Since we should attain complete degrees, called NRNHY de Nefesh and NRNHY de Ruach, their ascents and descents are all in the King’s palace, and not outside the King’s palace, and they are not thrown down to the place of darkness and the shadow of death.

However, at the same time we must know that no ascent is lost. Rather, “penny by penny joins into a great amount.” For this reason, a person should be happy when he feels that spirituality is desirable to him and he wishes to come as close as possible to the Creator. He considers it a great privilege that an awakening from above has suddenly come to him, and he begins to look at self-love as loathsome and not worth living for, and yearns only for spirituality.

Yet, one should know that he should not say, “When I have an awakening from above, I will begin to do the holy work.” Rather, the fact that a person remembers that there is spirituality, even if he has no desire for it, he should already be thankful to the Creator for knowing that there is spirituality in the world, though he has no desire for the work.

This is similar to a great king who comes to town but not all the people are told about it. Only a handful of people are informed, and not all of them are permitted to enter, but only a chosen few, and they, too, require much persuasion among the ministers in order to receive the permit to enter.

And this person was informed only that the king has come, but he was not given an entry permit. How is that person thankful to those who notified him?

It is likewise here. He is aware that there is a King in the world, but he was not yet permitted to enter and serve the King. That is, he knows and believes to some extent that there is a Creator to the world, but he has not been granted permission to leave his work and work for the sake of the King. That is, he has not received from above a desire to leave his corporeal engagements and engage in spirituality. That person should be delighted with this knowledge, meaning that he has some faith in the Creator.

If a person appreciates this knowledge although he cannot overcome and engage in serving the Creator, still, the joy from remembering that there is a King in the world can lift him from his lowliness, admit him into the work, and give him a desire to overcome his body. This is so precisely if a person pays attention and values this awareness.

This extends from the root, as our sages said, the Shechina [Divinity] is present only out of joy of Mitzva [good deed/commandment]” (Shabbat 30). This means that the joy he has while performing the Mitzva causes him Dvekut with the Creator, as said above, “The blessed clings to the blessed,” since joy is a result of wholeness.

Since he values the Giver, His importance and greatness, and there is a rule that if the giver of the gift is an important person, even if he gives a small gift, it is still regarded as a great thing. For this reason, from the awareness that he believes that he was notified from above that the King is in town, although he was not permitted to come in and speak with the King, since it is evident that he values the knowledge that the King exists, he is immediately permitted to enter and serve the King. Because they see that he values the King, they treat him with consideration and give him strength to overcome the thoughts and desires of the body.

Accordingly, we can praise joy. That is, because of the joy of being inspired by the importance of the King, he is given from above an illumination that is placed on the Kli of joy, which he has given from below as an awakening from below. This causes an awakening from above, and he is given permission, meaning a desire and craving to overcome the thoughts of the body.

It therefore follows that Passover is named after the Creator’s passing over the houses of Israel and leaving each and every one from Israel alive. It is known that there is no absence in spirituality, for the smallest discernment in Israel remained alive, and nothing was lost. Because the Creator saved Israel, this good day is called Passover, after the Creator’s deeds.

And regarding what we asked about the praise, how can it be said that the Creator wants to be praised and is He impressed by the praise of flesh and blood, there are two answers to this: 1) With respect to the goal, that His desire is to do good to His creations, meaning that all the delight and pleasure that the people of Israel receive, while they receive them, they aim to benefit the Creator, meaning that the Creator will enjoy this because He wants the creatures to receive delight and pleasure. And since they want equivalence of form, when they engage in Torah and Mitzvot, it is only because they want to bestow upon the Creator and not for their own benefit. This is regarded as the people of Israel praising the Creator, that because of the greatness and importance of the Creator, we try to please Him.

The Creator praising Israel means that He wants to give delight and pleasure, which is the purpose of creation, and He also wants that there will be no shame upon receiving the delight and pleasure. For this reason, He wants them to work in order to bestow. It follows that His praising Israel means that the people of Israel relinquish self-love and want to work only in order to bestow.

For this reason, He always focuses on their merit, meaning He counts the works that they do in order to bestow, so that He will be able to bestow abundance and there will be no flaw of shame. He does not speak of what they do in order to receive; He wants to erase this from the face of the Earth, as said in the clarification on the name, “Passover,” that He passed over, meaning killed the Egyptians that were between Israel and Israel, and spared the Israel in between. Naturally, He could have focused only on the merit of Israel, meaning on the ascents that they had, which is the merit of Israel, meaning the awakening from below that they did then in baking the Matzot [unleavened bread].

This is why the festival of Matzot and the people of Israel were written in the Torah, since the Creator focused on the merit of Israel while baking Matzot for the sake of the Creator, and did not focus on other things. This is called that the Egyptians who were there, He killed, meaning obliterated them as though they weren’t in reality. By this, all of Israel joined into one big degree, which was whole, becoming a Kli to receive the abundance. This is regarded as the people of Israel calling that good day “Passover.”

Now we can understand the second reason why the people of Israel named it in praise of the Creator. The first reason is His desire to do good to His creations, and they’re not wanting to receive because of self-love. Therefore, they receive the delight and pleasure because He wants us to receive. This is called “in order to bestow,” and this is in praise of the Creator.

The second reason that we praise the Creator is that He did not regard the descents and focused only on the ascents. This is regarded as passing over, where He took all the ascents into account and erased the descents from the face of the Earth. This is the praise of Passover, and this is regarded as speaking in praise of the Creator.

We should understand why it is written, “And you shall eat it in haste; it is the Lord's Passover.” Why Passover is called “haste”? According to what RASHI interprets, Passover is called “haste” because the Creator jumped and passed over from Egyptian to Egyptian, and Israel in the middle, escaped. We see that skipping to the end means that He rushed the end, as though it was not yet time. Since he rushed himself, this is why Passover is called “haste.” It is as though he had to hurry so that the Egyptians who were among the Israelites would not awaken, as it was still not their time to be corrected. This is why He rushed Himself and saved what He could save. That is, only Israel received correction and not the Egyptians. This is why it is called “haste.”

However, it is written concerning the end of correction (Isaiah 52:12), “For you will not go out in haste, nor will you not flee, for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard. Behold, My servant will be enlightened, He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted.” The ARI interprets that this will be at the end of correction, when even SAM becomes a holy angel, and the stony heart, which was forbidden to sort prior to the end of correction and remained in the Klipot, it, too, will then be sorted into Kedusha.

This is the meaning of “very good.” “Good” is the angel of life. “Very” is the angel of death, and it, too, will be a holy angel. This is called “Death will be swallowed up forever.” This is how the ARI interprets.

Indeed, we can interpret what is written, “For you will not go out in haste, nor will flee,” not as it was in the land of Egypt, when redemption was in haste and He jumped from Egyptian to Egyptian, and Israel in the middle escaped, since He had to obliterate the Egyptians and only the people of Israel remained alive.

But at the end of correction, when the Egyptians will also be corrected, there will be no need to be in haste because there will be no need to jump from Egyptian to Egyptian with Israel in the middle remaining in Kedusha. Rather, all the Egyptians will receive their correction from the Whole One. Therefore, there will be no need to hurry, meaning jump, but all the discernments that were in the Klipot will be corrected, as it is written, “And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.”

Therefore, a person should be happy. Through the joy he can come out of the state of lowliness that he is in. If a person asks, “What is there to rejoice about when he sees that he is in lowliness and has no desire to engage in Torah and Mitzvot?” He should receive his joy from the fact that he nonetheless knows that there is a King in the world. From this awareness alone he can be happy, as in the above allegory, that he was informed that the king came to town, and this gives him strength to ascend. 

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Reader: (37:53) We'll move to the lesson from March 15, 2002.

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M. Laitman: The Creator only counts these actions. He combines them together this way and if He comes to a state in which, to that extent, the soul of man is sufficient, that force he has is sufficient, the exertion he's made is enough – enough light operated upon his soul, then a person receives at once the Exodus from Egypt. He immediately feels that the heavens are opening up for him, he begins to see the higher-up reality and the reasons for what's happening here in this world. This world is the world of consequences, the world of actions, executions, whereas the upper world is the world of causes, the world of roots, decisions. Then, a person starts to see, not that he's being uplifted physically, but in his awareness, he begins to see the reasons why everything that's happening happened, which is called revelation, spirituality, the revelation of the Creator. The state itself is Pesach, Passover, as a result from the Creator passing over all the actions of a person and collected only the actions in which a person wanted to reach spirituality with. Here, Pharaoh is our nature, Moses is the small force in us that wants to draw us to the upper world, yes? All the arguments between Pharaoh and Moses are the inner work that a person performs, feels – how he feels that it's going through him and he has the hardening of the heart – the more he advances, he has more difficulty until he reaches the ten blows that he must go through. These ten blows, there are certainly unpleasant things we need to deal with and to invent to oneself all kinds of ways in which he will yearn and where he will get the strength for this. Because spirituality doesn't just illuminate but, on the contrary, also the spirituality is darkened for him. He stops seeing it, he seemingly doesn't want it, all of this is done through the hardening, the heaviness that happens on the heart. Pharaoh becomes greater, Egypt becomes more attractive and it's not too bad to live in this world, this, actually, animalistic world without any benefit. Nevertheless, the person feels like, eh, it's not too bad, until truthfully, time after time, he makes these exertions, the number of exertions, quantity becomes quality, and the quality itself rises up also; and then he is rewarded with the exit from Egypt. 

That's why it's from this that the spiritual process starts happening. He enters the first spiritual degree and from there, it's what we call, Jacob's Ladder, the spiritual ladder, 620 steps, rungs, until the final correction, the degrees of a righteous, already degrees of the spirit of holiness, the degrees of prophecy. And, there too, each and every time a person wants to rise from one degree to the next, he must have that surrounding light that comes to him through the study, through the inner work. Just like here in this degree, in our world, this world for us is called a sub-degree, a sub-spirituality but it's a degree. It's the same principle; it's just like here and there but the light is revealed. The forces that disturb and the forces that help are revealed there and the person is more, he finds himself there, knowing where he is and what he's doing. And, nevertheless, each time when he's in a lower degree, he doesn't understand the nature of the upper degree and he must go again in eyes shut. But this, there's already not the difficulty like there is in coming out of this world to spiritual degrees.

(42:52) Therefore, the exit from Egypt is the most difficult exit, it's the exit; and the rest of the exits from each and every degree that is higher up are already steps, paces. And each degree he acquires is considered that he corrected himself, that he ascended to it. It's considered that he performed a Mitzvah, a commandment. Hence there are 620 degrees, 620 degrees, 620 Mitzvot – commandments, 613 plus seven commandments of our sages. Then, as he rises upon each degree and this is thanks to him exiting Egypt, hence, in each and every one of the commandments, in many of the commandments we add, in remembrance of the exodus from Egypt. Because this base, this foundation enters us into spiritual actions which are called, Mitzvot or commandments. These are not the commandments that we know from this world that are just deeds that we do with our hands or feet or with our tongue. But, rather, spiritual actions by which a person fills himself with the upper light. However, just like by books we can draw upon ourselves the upper light and as a surrounding light that surrounds us, wraps us, we don't quite have a screen for it to enter yet and that's why it's called, surrounding light which surrounds us and, by that, purifies and corrects us. Just like, through the books, we perform this action for the time being, it's possible to perform these actions through actions – not just study but through corporeal actions because in the holidays, let's say, the holiday of Passover that's coming up now. There are the surrounding lights and in accordance in which a person participates in the making of the holiday, physically, just like all the people do. But where he has, besides that, which everyone has the intention that by this he wants to reach the awareness of the holiday, the ascent to the degree of Passover so that what has to happen with him will be what is called, Passover. In relation to the work that he does in the, that are aimed correctly in the preparations for the holiday correctly, and if those intentions are correct, then he can be rewarded with great surrounding lights, also in the preparation for the holiday, itself. That's why if you see many toil at this and everyone wants to participate and love this work because it gives a spiritual result that is greater than the study. 

(46:17) Baal HaSulam and all the other Kabbalists before him gave importance to all the holidays, and from all the holidays they gave the most importance to the holiday of Pesach and the holiday of Sukkot. Because these two holidays, the holiday of Pesach, of Passover, is really, it stands against the exit from this world into spirituality. The entrance into eternality, wholeness, in which each would actually want this; and Sukkot is the matters of the clouds of glory that are also forces, also surrounding light like a cloud, like a Sukkah, like the thatch. Everything is the surrounding light that comes to a person and corrects, it's the same principle but, actually, the conditions change in where a soul of a person is; hence in our world there are all kinds of different expressions, different depictions of these holidays, these spiritual states. In Sukkot it's expressed through the surrounding light in the form of, in a different form because the soul is already in a higher degree. Whereas in Passover it's truly the exit from our state to the light. Each time a person participates in some study, in work, in something with us, it is worthwhile  to not forget that he should aim for all these things that he is going through and all that he does: his labor of coming here from home, rising, sitting here, listening, together with that, one should have the thought, the intention that he is doing this in order to exit this world into the spiritual world in order to start feeling the upper reality. Then, these things accumulate together and make the holiday of Pesach in him. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (48:45) Why does Baal HaSulam value the holiday of Passover as the most important holiday? 

M. Laitman: Why does Baal HaSulam and the Kabbalists, also those who preceded him, why do they value the holiday of Pesach so much? The Kabbalists don't engage in history, ever. Altogether, there is no time in spirituality so from this, it reflects the relation to all the processes. Rather, what's in spirituality is degrees – degrees from this world until the final correction, the 620 degrees -each and every degree radiates to this world, a certain state. In which all the states in spirituality in these 620 degrees must also take place here in this world, once. If it happened once in the inanimate part of this world, it doesn't need to happen twice or three times – one time and enough. Let's say we were in Egypt, there was an exit from Egypt physically, yes in history. We don't need to enter that anymore, meaning each and every one now who exits his internal Egypt into spirituality into the land of Israel as we call, does not need to do this physically because physically this was done in our previous incarnations, when we were in those incarnations. But because, as I said, there is no more important degree than the first one in spirituality because it's the most difficult one, entering it is the most difficult. Look what kind of suffering you have to go through in all of the exile in Egypt, and then the blows, and the parting of the Red Sea and the receiving of the Torah; and 40 years in the desert, and then just entering and the seven nations and Amalek and all these things until you enter the land of Israel – this entire process is a very difficult process. If, in spirituality, if we were to translate it in concepts of time, an ascent from degree to degree can take a relatively short time. In corporeality meaning to move from corporeality to spirituality, it takes years. He writes in the introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot, from three to five years – it can be double. Meaning it's a period that is truly not pleasant for a person because he's in this world, he doesn't feel anything, yet, he doesn't see anything, he reads, it's kind of like he doesn't know where to run away to, also. But he holds himself in the darkness, and he must have all kinds of tricks around him to kind of prepare a little more, aim himself a little more, arrive a little more to it. For each thing he needs supporters to hold him, to sustain him; whereas when you enter spirituality, there, the path is paved. You see, you feel, no one needs to convince you and to reinforce you or strengthen you. That's why they consider the holiday of Passover truly against the most difficult solution in spirituality that happens for the soul of each and every person.

(52:48) Moreover, all the incarnations, we say that Passover happens only when a person is kind of like exiting Egypt. That he wants to, now, to collect all his efforts and the Creator collects them all and gives it to him. In truth, the calculation and the accumulation, the collection of all this labor and suffering and everything comes from our very first incarnation. And all the rest of the incarnations that we've incarnated and reached to the current incarnation, this work was done all the time. Every sorrow a person feels is sorrow from darkness, from the lack of light. Every passion or every kind of, wherever he had some thought or something, it's all accumulating; meaning, it's not just accumulating now in us where we sat down in front of the book. It's also an accumulation of all the previous incarnations – and Passover actually kind of connects it all and signs it together and takes them all from below the barrier. Hence, it's a symbol and a very special thing, after Passover we have the entry into spirituality. And there, too, there are wars. From the barrier and onwards, we are – let's maybe draw this:

Rav drawing: This world, the Machsom, the barrier, yes? And here is the ladder of degrees, all the way to the Gmar Tikkun, the final correction. If here in this world, we have ego, and we somewhat, get along, don't get along with it, so when we rise up the degrees, we cross the barrier, our work is divided, then, into three lines. This is the Klipot, the shells; this is the light or holiness, Kedusha; and we go in the middle, in the middle line. Meaning there is, here, when we enter spirituality, we enter spirituality with our small ego, still. As much as it's grown, it's still not enough, so we begin to receive from the shells in each and every degree, vessels. That's considered that we exit the Egypt – when we exit Egypt, we must take the vessels with us – we run away from the Egyptians with the vessels. Here, through the light that comes here, to each degree there come lights and at each degree we create the right combination – this is our work, to create the right combination between the vessel and the light – and in this way, rise to the degree here, make the right combination, and rise to the next degree, et cetera. 

(56:39) At each degree, you have the Klipot, the shells which are Amalek, the seven nations that are in the land, the desert. Also within Israel, there are all kinds of things that suddenly surface – the mixed multitude – it all comes from the side of the shells because they are our inner vessels that constantly awaken and through the light, again, through the surrounding light and the same principle we talked about. So we correct it and then acquire a higher degree each time, so of course, the war does not end until the end of correction and, until the end of correction, we must constantly be opposite, against the shell, against our own uncorrected vessels, which is really the shell, the shells are all inside man. Even at the entry into the land of Israel, it's not over, when you enter the land of Israel, there is a lot more to do here, to correct. According to what we read in the Torah, all those things, a person goes through them, yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (58:02) Question regarding ten plagues (No translation)?

M. Laitman: Yes, except we cannot discern these ten plagues. We'll talk about it in greater detail on Passover: What each plague is, what its nature is, why specifically through frogs or lice or what is there to it? Hail? Why not in a different way, what these phenomena, natural phenomena in this world, what they symbolize in spirituality, what really happens in spirituality with a person?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (58:55) He talks about, in the article, that there's a difference between the descents of this world and the desire for spirituality to, the desire to receive and the descents that a person went through, the barrier in holiness, and the vessels of the shells. What's the difference between the two descents? 

M. Laitman: In this world, ascending or descending, this is what happens to me, first of all, what characterizes, what differentiates this world from spirituality? From here, from the barrier, upward, it is the revelation of the light; and from the barrier downward, it is the opposite – darkness, concealment. Now, accordingly, if in spirituality even if I'm in a descent, that descent is felt in me differently because that descent is also with lights, with revelation. Whereas, in our world, you're in the darkness now but in the darkness, you don't feel spirituality. So, even if you don't feel spirituality, you can be with upliftment and a desire to study in advance; or you can be in a state where you don't want anything and everything is kind of tasteless and there's no desire for anything. When you are in such a state, when you're in a descent in this world, you either wait until the time passes and some salvation from above will come and you'll be pulled back again – you'll be given an awakening. That's undesirable because this can stretch and prolong the way many times over. Or a person is given that descent not in order for him to wait until it passes, but in order for him to really force himself to be under the influence of the society. The society is at a higher degree and then it'll work on him quickly and he will come out – they'll save him. Here, in the darkness, there are two states which are called, double concealment and single, or regular concealment. If we are in single concealment, we feel that there is something above. There's probably a Creator and He does everything; He even sends me the trouble. And that sustains me, I'm dependent on something; I justify, somehow, the reality. You know, I have some sort of justification to the blows – if there's someone who sends them, then there's probably someone who arranges everything. But when there's double concealment, I don't feel anything, there's only nature, everything is just random. I'm not like a beast, not thinking about life, I am thinking about life so I'm in double darkness. The regular darkness – or the double darkness of regular concealment or double concealment – is the inner feeling of a person. It's not like it's out there somewhere, so ascents and descents in our states in Egypt, where it's called, yes, before the barrier, it's called, The children of Israel sighed from the work where it's really difficult for a person. These things don't exist after the barrier, there even in the darkness, as if in the darkness, a person is in the shells. He knows and sees that they are the shells, and they're right opposite the holiness. And through them, he passes to godliness, he always connects to the Creator through the shells. He takes them as a help made against him. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:03:48) Also, the shells at the level of revelation bring the person?

M. Laitman: The shells, too, are certainly different. There, it's already intentions and thoughts that are all against reception. The shells are in order to receive. The holiness is in order to bestow and that war is a war between two completely opposite states. Whereas, below the barrier, before he crosses the barrier, he is – all of us are – in the will to receive for ourselves, it's even a beastly will to receive, it's not the will to receive of the shells, spiritual. Then, the relations are – after the, past the barrier, it's different – just cross it and that's it. I wish it for you, but before that, do whatever you can do. In other words, without a group, I don't think, why are we organizing all these things? It comes out of necessity. It simply comes from necessity because otherwise a person alone, if he's not incorporated with others, he falls, no one saves him. He must immediately come under the influence of the group; otherwise, time will be prolonged into incarnations, not years, but lifetimes. And if each one is given an awakening, it's a sign that in this incarnation, he can come out. It all depends on his work, and you cannot do the work while you are already at a fall, you can work only while you have strength. So now that we are at a time when we can relatively convince ourselves that we can work with ourselves. We need to quickly bring ourselves into the group, into some routine obligations to come, why come, how to come, to pick someone else so he will pull you to all kinds of tactics to use them. So that afterwards, if I decline, I will be pressured and forced – this is a must. It could be, if a fall can last several months, through the society, it may take a few hours or a few minutes. And it's not only a matter of time, but through the society, you acquire such discernments that you already skip several descents. Or if you exit a descent on your own, then you don't acquire the experience you need. And you need to descend more, and more, and more, whereas through the society, when you descend, you acquire their experience when you connect with them. And then, instead of many descents – in other words, you save a lot of time, and also a number of descents. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:07:21) What's the relationship between the work a person does, the scrutiny, some internal work in the world? Is there something that a person does? 

M. Laitman: Wait a minute, the question is not clear What is the relation between what a person does with surrounding light? We are vessels, each of us is at a certain degree, we're all below the barrier – each one is a little higher or a little lower, it's a very small difference between us, right? And we learn that besides vessels and lights, there's nothing in reality. In other words, lights operate on us, the upper light operates on us thus far, down to the barrier. Below the barrier, it only shines from above the barrier, to below the barrier, it only shines from afar, as surrounding light. Now, of course, everything that happens with us happens as a result of the surrounding light. If there's less of it, you know, it's like a plant, you don't water it, it withers; if you water it, it rises up. We're like plants after the sun, after the light – no choice – vessels live only through the light. So, to the extent that we awaken the surrounding light on ourselves, we can rise from degree to degree and feel ourselves better. Because in spirituality, it's simple: If I'm at a certain spiritual degree, let's say now, now, I'm in this degree. So, all the conditions in that degree operate on me, and this is what I feel. If I want to feel, better, I need to rise to a higher level. In this degree, I'll never receive better things unless surrounding light comes more intensely. It constantly changes, I don't own it, I cannot influence it, but let's say it will change, so on my degree, I'll also be able to have a change for the better, or, God forbid, if the surrounding light changes from above into something a little worse. I will be in more trouble in my degree, on my degree, but it's not up to me; the light from above, according to some general program, does it with me, along with all the other souls. But if I actually want to bring myself to a better state, I have to shift from this degree to a higher degree, how to do it? Using the surrounding light, there's nothing more; so, all that we learn, why were we given the wisdom of Kabbalah? Not just to know all of reality, but practically. How can we awaken more surrounding light on ourselves? 

Now, accordingly, we can say that all our actions, all the thoughts, and all the desires, and all the reasons, all of it brings surrounding light upon us. Because the vessel, my vessel, where I am here, my vessel, that vessel is a part of this big vessel of Adam HaRishon. And in it, all the qualities are already predetermined, and the light that appears, of course, it creates in my feelings, inclinations, impressions. It's all known in advance, there's nothing new here; meaning, if I look from the outside, from a side, at a person, I see that it's a machine that functions according to how it's built from within and how it's operated from the outside. All of our involvement in this process is to accelerate it, to make the surrounding light influence me more and more. There's no possibility to change the path, but by me participating with the surrounding light to affect me more, so my deeds are felt differently. I see results from them and then the results when they come along with the light that I invited, they sweeten my worst state and make it into the good. If without light, I had to reach a result with all kinds of suffering, so with the light, all the suffering becomes a pleasant feeling; and I'll reach the same state. It’s just adding the light brings such a change to actually feel the opposite feeling in the vessels. And for us, it's life and death: fear, lack of confidence compared to the opposite, confidence, and pride, and force, powers. It's all about more or less light in the vessel.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:13:39) What is that state called, Moses? It appears that there's presence for this in this world and connection with godliness. 

M. Laitman: Exactly, Moses has presence in this world; he has also connection with the Creator, so he's also in the upper world. We learn that by the shattering of the vessels, all of our souls fell to this degree, to this world. But how to take the vessel out of this state? If for us here everything was only in the will to receive, that we didn't feel the surrounding light, where do we feel the surrounding light? Not the whole vessel, this is all our desires, the will to receive for oneself – this, this is the vessel. But in the vessel, there's another point, a point in the heart. This point in the heart feels the light because the point itself doesn't belong to the vessel, to the will to receive – it belongs, the point in the heart, let's say this: it's a part of the screen that was before the shattering of the vessels, before the sin of the tree of knowledge, there was a vessel with a screen. By the sin of the tree of knowledge, the screen was shattered – part of the screen remains in our will to receive and that part is what grabs the surrounding light. Because it used to have a connection, the light in the screen, now the light became surrounding, distant, the screen, only a spark of it is in the vessel. And the connection between them is through the barrier from afar, and this point is called, Moses. That spark that remained from the screen, that's called, Moses, from the word Moshe, to pull it, and if I use it correctly, I pull all my qualities, all myself, all my internality above the barrier, I take it out of Egypt. So, it's Moses, the point in the heart gets the force and takes the whole vessel out of the darkness. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:16:08) What does it mean that it's not part of the Kli? The Kli feels this point, it appears that this point has some connection with godliness, meaning it has attainment of godliness and the created being doesn't attain godliness before it crosses the barrier? So how?

M. Laitman: So how is it that you're sitting here and yearning for it? 

Student: How is it that I'm sitting here, there's probably something within me that has attainment of godliness? 

M. Laitman: No, no attainment, you don't have attainment, you have a quality from all your other qualities, there's a certain desire between all your desires that will feel that it will get a filling from godliness, that that's its fulfillment is. All the other desires can get a filling in this world, and you went through all those desires in your incarnations: lust, money, honor, knowledge – you pass through them, and they're relatively developed. Now a desire for spirituality awakened in you, what does that mean? That, only from the light it can be filled, and that's what obligates you to work now, to wake up, and come here, and so on. This point is what you're working with now, you feel it is your biggest deficiency – at least bigger than sleep, or rest, or all kinds of other things. So, we have to develop this point by the surrounding light and not by suffering, what can we do? If I take these deficiencies, the will to receive for oneself, if I take it and I give it suffering, so it starts searching: what can I do? From its search, it turns to the point in the heart, which is the only thing that isn't hurt by this suffering. And then he identifies with it and from it, it wants to run away from the suffering into spirituality; nut it comes through suffering and it's a long painful way. If I develop the point itself that it will be bigger than all other desires – it'll be more important than all other desires, I won't need the suffering – that is actually what is happening now with us, the whole nation. If we take this approach called, the path of the Torah, and develop the point in the heart, so we won't need all the suffering that the Creator is bringing us; there's no other intention but the purpose of creation, to bring it to eternality. As much as we want to do it ourselves, we won't need the blows. What can we do? I hope we're overcoming it already.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:19:33) Before the crossing of the barrier, is there a stage where a person can position himself and say: Okay, I'm more or less here? 

M. Laitman: Before a person passes the barrier, he has no idea where he is, also, after he passes the barrier, he doesn't know right away where he is. He feels spirituality, but like a baby. Like a baby in his mother's womb, he's still annulled, he still doesn't have a screen. It's just a screen enough to cancel his ego, he's still passive, he's still just observing; but not actively that he can absorb lights. And then from the feeling of the lights in the vessels to feel what spirituality actually is. But gradually starts growing like the baby in this world, when he enters spirituality, he only enters the nine months of pregnancy. But that's already completely different, he's already in the mother, he doesn't have to take care of himself. Only just not to be aborted, he just has to be concerned not to ruin his presence in spirituality. That's called that, he's an embryo in the womb, then when he develops as the embryo, he develops a bigger screen that can already receive the lights inside – that's called that he's already born – There's birth, there's the whole process, that's what you learn in The Study of the Ten Sefirot, it's written in hundreds of pages – just the conception is like 300 pages; then suckling, it's another 200 or 300 pages in The Study of the Ten Sefirot. Then the greatness, there's the first greatness, second greatness – it's a long process of the soul growing until it reaches the end of correction. That means that he reached the whole 70 years, the 70 degrees of Zeir Anpin.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:21:56) What's the difference between descent and suffering? How do I know if I'm in a state now of suffering or a descent? 

M. Laitman: What's the connection between suffering and a descent – can I be in suffering and not in a descent, or in a descent and not in suffering? That's a nice question, it's a very good question because really, it depends what the suffering is for me, and what we call, a descent. It could be that I feel suffering, and along with this, I'm an ascent? No, that's a lie, meaning every time, and every state, and every degree when a person develops, he determines for himself a different definition on what an ascent or suffering is until he reaches a state that it was important for him: the corporeal pleasures, money, lust, honor, knowledge. And for him, it was always an ascent and descent towards those things. He made more money, he's more in control – that's an ascent; he fell from that, that's a descent. Until he reaches a state that he doesn't care about all these things, only about spirituality. So, a spiritual ascent is that he feels the Creator a bit more watching over everything, conducting everything, and I'm a part of it, and I have some kind of uplifting. I determined that that's an ascent, it feels good of it; it could be that he's in a descent and he feels bad. In a regular, in a double concealment, he doesn't feel the Creator, either; he feels that he doesn't feel the Creator or anything, but he feels that he doesn't feel. It's not just beasts that are wandering around us; it's a person that sees that now everything is dark. All kinds of things are happening, and he's sure that it's disconnected, that has nothing to do with spirituality – that's the double concealment – so it's still a sort of revelation. A regular concealment is that unpleasant things are happening to me. It could be horrible, God forbid, feeling of fear, anxiety, disturbing thoughts, all kinds of unpleasant things. But inside, I feel that it's the Creator sending this to me; the feeling of the Creator sending me these things sweetens the feeling of the suffering to such an extent that I want them to be there, the suffering. The main thing is that I feel that it's the Creator doing it to me. So it could be that I feel suffering but in them I feel pleasure. And a person that comes to a state that isn't in a regular concealment and not in a double concealment, but he's just like a beast. So he prefers to go into a regular concealment: I don't care about the suffering as long as I feel connected to the Creator, a bit; give me something of eternality. I don't care if it's suffering, if this is the means, but obviously it's not the desired thing. I'm talking about states that a person goes through but on behalf of the Creator, obviously, it's not the desired state, because a person that truly reaches contact with Him, he has to enjoy that contact. 

So, the one concealment, the regular concealment isn't the end of the path: also afterwards, it's all on a person's account. That I don't care even if I feel suffering, so I feel the Creator, and I have a calculation that to feel the Creator, it's even worth the pay with a bit of suffering. So, it's still an egoistic calculation, and I yearn for pleasure, that the feeling of the Creator for me is great pleasure. Until I pass the barrier, there can’t be more than that; when I come closer to the barrier, so the state is called here right before the barrier, it's called that, He won't let me sleep. That I yearn for spiritual pleasure so much upon all the pleasures of this world. Meaning I'll grow the point in the heart to such an extent that all other desires just fall and I supposedly don't even calculate them. But after the barrier when I receive a screen and a second nature, I start calculating not in what's better upon something else, to enjoy the Creator instead of going to party out at night. There, the calculation is already in order to bestow compared to in order to receive – it's different calculations. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:28:27) What is the difference between beast and double concealment? 

M. Laitman: A beast is someone that just doesn't feel anything, just returns to a state like before any desire to spirituality awoken in him. That's a beast, a beast is a regular person who has five senses, the will to enjoy. That this desire to enjoy, it's divided into beastly pleasures, money, honor, and knowledge. A beast is called, if you want to enjoy what you see in this world, that's called, a beast. Double concealment isn't that you're a beast, it means that you determine that you are in a double concealment. Meaning, you determine that you have no connection to spirituality, and that you're in a state of darkness; and the Creator isn't supervising you, He's not part of anything you have. The double concealment is also some measure of revelation. We say this: the light that shines from above, the light that shines from above isn't shining for us to our state more or less. He can shine in a way that He is present and not present – that He doesn't exist. Well, let's say this, that it's the Creator in concealment, that you feel that He's hiding, means that when He appears, that's His face, that He shows you that He's not appearing, that's called, His back, His posterior. And this is the whole difference between the path of Torah and the path of suffering. If He shows you that He's not present, He's awakening the path of suffering, difficult suffering. And if He illuminates directly, that's the path of Torah through the lights, and it all depends on the way you respond. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:31:00) What does it mean not to corrupt the presence in the spiritual world? 

M. Laitman: That a person doesn't leave the intention to bestow, he constantly keeps his screen, not to lose it, and he's always concerned to add to it. You don't completely lose it and go below the barrier, but there are descents, of course. But again, these ups and downs, there's a law: you always add holiness and you never take away from it even in this world. That we're in the worst state, we're still advancing ahead, only in a path that is going on upon us not in a good way. Let's say I have to go from here to Jerusalem, so I can take my car with an air conditioning, music, and that's how I get to Jerusalem. Or I can go to Jerusalem with landmines on the way and bombs, and I don't know what, and also reach Jerusalem. The question is, how do we get along?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:322:24) A person who's in the spiritual world can do harm? 

M. Laitman: He can harm, but his negligence harms him, like in a corporeal world. There's always the freedom of choice: whether to awaken himself and shorten the path, shorten in time, it's called to sanctify the times, or not – always. Also in spirituality, there is freedom of choice. In a different way than what we have, but there is. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:32:58) You said that whoever comes to the degree of double concealment or single concealment, there's a reality. Meaning that he reached some state already? Could he forget everything like he was and become like he was a year or two years ago, just a complete beast? 

M. Laitman: No, even if a person, it seems to him that he goes back to be like he was two years ago or even worse. So, it's right that he goes down lower than his previous state, but he goes down in order to take even more vessels from the Egyptians, even more to receive the uncorrected desires he has. It can't be that you will be in a state that you are lower than what you are today. It can happen for a short time in order to dunk you deeper in this pit, that you can see where you truly are in order to awaken you quicker to rise. That's what's happening today, the sufferings are growing more and more until it won't be enough for us. We'll have to start thinking.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:34:15) Can we just say that in this world there are several degrees, except we just don't see them, and a person still rises in degrees in this world? 

M. Laitman: Also in this world there are degrees, and this whole world, this whole state, this whole state is called, time of preparation – time of preparation. So obviously, here, there are many states, too, before you reach the barrier. First, in this time of preparation, we are going thousands of years, thousands of years, all the incarnations were going through this, not only now in this life. We went through, in all these incarnations, a desire for beastliness; desires for money; desire for honor; desire for knowledge; and then a desire for spirituality. All these things are throughout the incarnations, what we are going through, this is all the time of preparation. Obviously, there are degrees here, descents, ascents, every time we discover some more surrounding light from above, every time we discover more of a desire to receive from below. Then a person is drawn to money again, suddenly he has concerns on his honor, where he is towards society, whether receiving some support or what not. 

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Reader: (01:36:50)Let's share impressions from the lesson, what can we take to realize in the Ten, please. Then, we’ll go to the next part, but sing a song first. 

Song: (01:41:01)