Morning Lesson April 2, 2023
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 1:
Passover - Selected Excerpts from the Sources. (From Exile to Redemption. #139)
Passover - Main page for all chapters
1. Rav’s Introduction: (00:28) Yes, we are still studying about Passover and we have more to learn; we are in excerpt one thirty-nine and let's see how much we understand how we enter emotionally these excerpts and can absorb from them their atmosphere, to go deeper into the states that these excerpts, tell us please.
Reading excerpt #139 (01:12 - 03:06) “This means that since this..”
2. R. (03:09) A lot is written here, meaning even during the exile, at the end of the exile, a person who exits who's already seemingly ready to come out of exile, he doesn't believe that he’s coming out, he doesn't feel that he's coming out, he doesn't find the forces that lead him out of exile, he is in the dark. He doesn't believe that soon he will have a new state, that some force will come that will bring him out from in order to receive and will shift him to in order to bestow, he still cannot picture these things. The closer we get to exiting the exile, to exiting, to coming out of the will to receive, the more we feel how deep we are in the will to receive, how unable we are, not to think or feel or picture what I will have, how I will have it, how it can even be that I am emerging from the will to receive? So this is the situation before the exodus from Egypt, this is why that state is called darkness, night, and specifically at midnight, at half the night, that's when they come out of Egypt. Meaning the Creator kind of places a trick on them, as it says, “with a hard hand” because otherwise they would remain and we will learn this. So what we have now is that those who want to come out of Egypt are beginning to feel that two forces are operating on them: one force is keeping them in Egypt the force of Pharaoh, and the other Force wants to pull them out of Egypt, that's the force of the Creator.
3. S. (05:50) “This, they could not believe that such a thing that could be, had they believed it, then by the power of faith they would have come out from the exile”, why can't we believe in Moses?
R. Because he doesn't fit any sense or knowledge or experience or anything, how can it be that the will to receive which is growing in us so much so we cannot stand each other? So we cannot approach mutual bestowal, so we cannot turn to the Creator, there is a collision between these two tendencies in a person that is terrible, so how can we think that such a state can bring us redemption? The truth is the children of Israel, on the one hand, as much as they thought that they wanted to come out of the exile for themselves, they were completely unwilling and unable to do it, so that's the situation.
Reading excerpt #140 (07:44 -12:23) “Therefore, when a person has faith..” twice.
4. R. (11:02) These are the states that we have before the exodus from Egypt where no one believes that they are coming out. Who discovered himself so egoistic and more and more and more so.
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5. S. (12:28) What's the indication that I understand that the Creator gave me the understanding of the exile?
R. The fact that I am getting new states now, the states themselves give me a sensation that it is coming from the Creator, that it is impossible that such states I am getting as I got before in my regular life but it is certain that they are coming to me from above.
S. The important point here is that I used to think that exile is complete detachment but here it turns that a state that I understand that it is coming from the Creator?
R. Yes, the recognition of Redemption comes through the recognition of the exile and the exile is when a person understands from where this state called “exile” is coming to him. It's not like that it was just cut off from the Creator, it is the recognition of the distance, the oppositeness, the lack of feeling, the distance, all those states, all those discernments come to a person and truly make him feel what it means to be exiled from the Creator.
6. S. (14:23) Why do we escape Egypt specifically in the dark, the night, what is the role of the darkness in the light of that state of Egypt and the exodus from Egypt, how do we define those lights and darkness?
R. Darkness symbolizes not knowing, not feeling: when we feel only darkness, meaning that we don't know where we are, we don't know by what we come out and if we are coming out at all, we just feel bad. We don't know no we don't feel and we simply are like a herd willing to run away from anything that will scare us even to the slightest bit ,so recognition of the exile is a very, very subtle feeling when we are afraid of everything. Just like animals, you see how when they are afraid that if someone might approach them and put them in danger, how they are willing, how they are ready to flee every second from where they are. So are we in Egypt this is called ‘the preparation for the exile in Egypt’. Of course it's a preparation, the preparation is not from us, we are the opposite, we are seemingly unwilling, not wanting but we have no choice.
Out of revealing how opposite we are from the Creator, how much we are unable and don't even deserve to be in Egypt, in that state we discover the necessity to come out of Egypt and eventually come out. The darkness of Egypt is the darkness that we don't know in which direction to run, we are in such fear that it shuts our eyes, kind of blindfolds us and we don't know this anxiety, this lack of there's no place to run to, we don't see the road. We have no confidence, no connection, we have nothing, this is why we are in a state where in the end, only when we feel that if we we, kind of huddle a little more together, by this we will be able to feel a little bit of confidence, because we don't have it; and then, because of helplessness we are like a herd of sheep huddling together all of us into one mass and from this comes the Redemption.
7. S. (18:48) I heard you say that the exodus from Egypt is a sudden state, that it happens suddenly, well what is that situation, how do we come to that in the ten?
R. Because we can't imagine what is the exit, what the exit really is, how we can shift from in order to receive to in order to bestow, how it is possible that I invert myself, my relationship to the friends, to the world, to everyone. And precisely by becoming a giver, similar to the Creator to some extent, that I agree with it, that I want it and how I want it because there is no other choice. And because I see no other place to run away from the will to receive which is truly surrounding me on every direction and choking me, smothering me. In that state we emerge from the state of in order to receive and begin to cling to in order to bestow and it takes a long time, it takes a long time until a person finally understands and feels in all of his cells in his body and in his soul that this is what it should be.
8. S. (20:42) Every time I see that lowliness in myself, I feel the greatness behind my friends which gives me strength to get out of Egypt. I request this and I am grateful, does it feel like this all the way?
R. Yes, that's how it will be, well let it be this way.
9. S. (21:18) How the growth, how does the growth of faith help recognition of evil and how does recognition of evil help the faith grow?
R. It comes through the reforming light which when the light comes it gives you the feeling of faith, that you are willing to peel yourself off from the will to receive and search how you can belong to the will to bestow and attach yourself there and be in this, heart and soul.
10. S. (22:22) How can we be in gratitude to the Creator for revealing the evil inclination within us and showing us the work?
R. To thank Him in our hearts because we talked about it so much and wanted to connect so much between us but couldn't and to rise above our ego, our will to receive and we also didn't didn't succeed, and know that we finally see that it is happening to us, that it is the Creator arranging between us such a relationship, such closeness, then of course we are very grateful to Him and we welcome all this with love.
11. S. (23:34) He says when a person has faith he doesn't escape the campaign and also in the previous excerpt, it says “had they believe this, then by the power of faith they would emerge from exile”, what kind of faith are we talking about here?
R. Faith that everything happening is happening by the hand of the Creator and only the Creator, only He, can deliver us from our situation of being under our ego, under the governance of Pharaoh.
12. S. (24:23) A person is faith and is in exile and he thanks the Creator and he prays, what's the difference that he will feel when he is liberated from exile because he already feels he’s with the Creator so what is changing?
R. He is still in exile but he's beginning to know the form of the exile and he wants to come out of it, in other words he already has the recognition of evil of the exile. And this is what eventually bring him out of exile, we don't need search for the power to come out of exile, we need to search only for the prayer that the Creator will bring us out of exile. All the forces are in the Creator’s hands and all the work is the work of the Creator, as it says, not ours. So we must only ask but ask in such a way that the Creator will perform the operations.
S. But a person who has faith is already connected to the Creator, he doesn't suffer, he doesn't have hard labor?
R. Here we are still talking about the transition from exile to Redemption.
13. S. (26:12) Does the Creator give us conditions that prevent us from coming out of Egypt? Is the Creator the one who is helping Pharaoh keep us longer there in Egypt so that we can develop, grow?
R. Correct and it is also written even when we do come out of Egypt that the Creator doesn't bring us out in the short way but in a long and winding road and it is all in order for us to accumulate within us a strong desire to truly come out of Egypt.
14. S. (27:10) It turns out that if they had faith they would exit Egypt, they would be released if they had Faith, so it turns out that the condition to come out of Egypt is faith, how does it turn out like that?
R. Here we need to understand what is the force that brings us out of Egypt, it's the power of faith which the Creator conveys to us, passes on to us instead of the power of knowledge while we are in Egypt, it is the power of faith with which we begin to hate Egypt, to truly move away from it and in this way we run away, moving away from Egypt which is how the Creator helps us then. But it is on condition that He passes on to us all the feelings to the point of such a feeling that we cannot stay there, absolutely, we are willing to give anything just so that we can get out. It is the most detestable thing to feel that we are in our ego, a most detestable thing, and this is what lifts us from Egypt to love and connection and mutual bestowal between us.
15. S. (29:53) How will we have faith in the exile?
R. The light of faith can shine even during the exile because it is the light of Hassidim, light of Hassidim which doesn't need any conditions, if there is an inclination, a tendency towards bestowal then the light of Hassidim appears. And precisely, thanks to it, we disconnect from the intention to receive and move to the intention to bestow, without the light of Hassidim we would have no way to emerge from the exile within the will to receive.
S. How will we have Hassidim?
R. We will receive it from above, we will receive it from the Creator by wanting to, all of us, be in mutual bestowal or at least disconnected from the will to receive.
16. S. (31:18) It turns out that the Creator in the beginning gives you the joy and strength to work for Him, then these forces decline and disappear and a fear comes from losing everything in this world. It is clear that we are trapped in this situation so how can we rise above this fear and acquire faith in this new world, this next world?
R. That's the matter of the benefits from the breaking of the vessels so that each part from the broken vessel is in a different situation, a different state, and therefore they can add, they can grip onto each other and when one falls, the other can rise, and the other one is in the middle, and in the end they keep themselves and take themselves into states that are more and more connected and high. That's the whole benefit from the breaking of the vessel because then in any situation we can still grip onto the connection between us and through it will begin to rise more.
17. S. (33:04) It says in the text that “they come out of Egypt and they won't just not work for Pharaoh, they won't work at all”, what is it?
R. I think it wants to say that they didn't feel the work as work, as effort, but that they will work, when they work with a power of bestowal towards the Creator they will feel no difficulty.
18. S. (33:47) In items one thirty-nine and one forty, it seems very connected and a lot of groups went by that and my question is this: in one thirty-nine, it says “if we come out of Egypt, the Creator infuses life into Malchut and give her the power, and then they can can trust that they are coming out of Egypt and they do it joyfully” and so forth. So that’s my question, how do we take this phase of coming out of Egypt even though we feel the exile and we explore it in the ten and we receive the power of faith that infuses life into us and we come out of Egypt and really to believe Moses?
R. We just need to do what is written to connect and to give each other powers to exit and in this way all of us come out, reach the exit, that's it.
19. S. (35:09) The state that you have described of the exodus feels like something empty where you don't feel anything. How can you know that you are in the right state and you don't suffer from lack of care and indifference and so forth?
R. It's according to his efforts to connect with the friends, there is no other way to check a real situation that person is in, he has to to adhere to his society and together with them try to keep themselves, maintain themselves in a certain level of mutual bestowal, mutual support, mutual care until the Creator lift them truly above the intention to receive.
20. S. (36:45) You said, I heard at least, it takes a long time and how do we in our ten then speed up the time if we want to come out of Egypt this Passover?
R. Only through the effort to connect among you, only through the efforts to connect within you.
21. S. (37:10) What does it mean that the Creator gives us this exercise with a mighty hand?
R. A serious exercise where he positions us, places us in front of our egos and we have nowhere to run but only by working on the ego where He forces us to solve the problem. These are the Creator’s real exercises.
Reading excerpt #141 (38:20) “It follows that all the torments..
22. S. (39:59) Does the recognition that I am in Egypt happen individually or should we feel it in the ten as a whole?
R. It is general for the ten. Everything that has to do with Egypt, recognition of Egypt, work in Egypt, exiting Egypt, we have to do all of it to escape from Egypt. We have to do all of it in the united ten, in each and every ten. And then it turns out that as we see in this world, there are nations that are still in their initial development, as if they are living in the trees or in caves and some are already advancing ahead of everyone else etc.. It all depends on the tens, on the tens.
23. S. (41:40) Yesterday for the first time I felt envy of the friends. Does it accelerate the exit from Egypt?
R. Any connection of ours to the friends brings us another step forward on the path.
24. S. (42:16) It is written in the excerpt that all the suffering and pain that he suffers is because he cannot work for the Creator. The root of this pain is it in faith in Malchut itself before the restriction?
R. Yes.
25. S. (42:47) What will be the thing that will eventually bring us out of exile and into a state where we can no longer tolerate our ego?
R. Connection between us, the desire to help one another and then we rise above the ego, the hatred, the rejection, the distance, into connection, embrace and love between us and then we begin to feel that this is already the exit from Egypt.
26. S. (43:42) Friends can work for years on the path, immerse themselves in connection and then suddenly discover that they are in the shells?
R. They can work for a very long time as we read. It is 400 years, the time of the exile, in other words we have to go through the entirety of the exile, the four phases of the exile. We have to experience all of it until we feel that we are ready to emerge from exile to redemption.
S. Is there a way one can check whether he is working for the shell or for the Creator?
R. Between the friends, so how do we do it among the friends?
S. How to do it among the friends?
R. The way we connect between us, we establish ourselves and through the connection between us we want to reach the connection with the Creator and from the love of people to the love of the Creator, so basically by that we come closer to the exit, to the redemption.
S. There is this fear that we are going into these special times, so we want to work correctly and not exert in the wrong places.
R. We have to try and do what the Creator says, which is mainly “love your friend as yourself,” and from this to come to “love the Lord, your God.” That’s it beside these two phases we have nothing, when we connect and reach the purpose of creation.
27. S. (45:35) A prayer for the truth, a prayer actually has to be done out of our internal reality. How can I direct myself or be in service of the Creator and not in service of the will to receive?
R. By asking, you have nothing more to do besides raising a request this is called raising MAN, that's it. Just to always raise a request, give me, help me, and so on and so forth, and you do that together with the friends you all ask for the Creator. You have nowhere to turn to besides the Creator and there's no one to do it with besides the group of friends and that's it. So all you have is a state that really shouldn't confuse you. Connecting from below with the friends, clarifying a little bit what is your deficiency, what do you want? And then turn to the Creator and ask the Creator to fulfill this deficiency, to correct it.
S. The text says that a person receives this clarity concerning the situation. When it's done from a place of despair and an outcry comes from there is it important to reach in the ten greater awareness of this?
R. We have to be drawn forward and hold on to each other so that as a group we move towards the Creator and we ask, we demand and we cry until we receive. We receive what? Until we receive vessels of bestowal and then accordingly, we will incorporate with each other and connect in the Creator.
28. S. (48:08) I wanted to ask, as disciples, will we cross the bridge between the will to receive and the will to bestow forever or will these two desires unite together?
R. The will to receive and the will to bestow cannot unite; only their goals can unite that both the will to receive and the will to bestow, I’m working in them for the benefit of others, that's the answer.
29. S. (48:56) I wanted to ask about mutual work in the ten. Basically we need two things: mutual support in efforts to connect in the ten and the importance of the force of bestowal and to set an example. Is this enough?
R. Yes, for now and then later we will find out what is missing.
Reading excerpt #142 (52:50) “And he said, “when you deliver..”
30. R. (53:30) Meaning that anyone in whom there is a tendency towards connection, bestowal which is called a son, then these have to be detected and killed, thrown to the Nile once again. And only those who don't have an inclination to connect, then you can leave them and let them live. That's how we should look at the attitude of our ego towards the will to receive and towards the will to bestow.
Reading except #143 (54:25) “When a person begins to walk..”
31. R. (55:50) This is a division that is within each and every person and in general all of humanity. Those who belong to getting closer to the Creator are called Hebrew and those who are unrelated to getting closer to the Creator are called nations of the world.
Reading excerpt #144 (56:15) “See on the birth-stool..”
32. S. (58:03) What can a person do against this decree of Pharaoh?
R. What decree?
S. That every desire to bestow, that every nearing to connection you have to kill?
R. We have to connect against that and ask the Creator we have nothing else to do really. Only to connect between us more and more each time and ask the Creator to take us closer to Him. And so that's what we do each time that we discover some disturbance.
S. Who is it in us that wants to kill the connection?
R. Pharaoh.
S. Does it happen or does the Creator not let it happen?
R. The Creator sets up everything but we are talking about the forces that he activates, so one of them is Pharaoh, and Moses is corresponding to Pharaoh, he wants to take the people of Israel out of the rule of Pharaoh.
S. What eventually gives Moses the power to succeed?
R. That is because he is a loyal shepherd, meaning his power of faith, his power of connection to the Creator.
S. And we, how can we hang onto Moses?
R. We have to connect between us and then ask the Creator. We don't really pray to Moses, Moses is the messenger, the auxiliary of the Creator but the main thing is the Creator, that we have to turn to Him and then He organizes His messengers towards us in the right way, that these messengers direct us, connect us, take us out of Egypt and put us through all of the desert and the Red Sea to the people of Israel.
S. Moses leads the people at their lowest state. How can we feel the guidance of his Force? How do we follow it?
R. Only in prayer, only in prayer.
S. A prayer to hear his guidance, what prayer?
R. That we each time pray to the Creator to unify us and raise us closer to Him.
33. S. (01:01:22) In exile men and women come out of Egypt. What is it in the will to receive that state when he wants to come out of Egypt?
R. The part that sees that the will to receive is really damaging to him, that it is unrelated to the Creator, that it's for the benefit of the negative forces. This is the part of man that shows him how much he is in an incorrect state.
34. S. (01:02:35) In the excerpt it says that there are Egyptians and there are Hebrews. Are these different types of desires in a person?
R. Of course.
S. I discovered that I am usually more friends with the Egyptians in my desires and in my thoughts I am dealing more with corporeality. What do I have to do to change it, replace it?
R. I don’t understand the picture that you are describing?
S. It says here that he has corporeal desires and desires to work for the Creator and the Egyptians are the ones that disconnect from the work for the sake of the Creator. How do I switch the desires into spiritual ones, let’s say I have corporeal thoughts with respect to the friends or the Creator, how do we change one desire into another?
R. Well, in principle this is obviously something that you need to scrutinize. So, I don't know. All that I know is one thing: that where did we start, that there is a will to receive and we have to correct it to the will to bestow, that's how it will be like the Creator, similar to Him. We always need to nurture, to develop this desire within us, the desire to bestow, to increase it, to amplify it. So, go ahead and do it. This is done by the help of the group, with the help of, “that each helped his friend.” And in this way, we always keep getting closer and closer to the Creator. We ask of Him, we insist and so on.
S. Will it change my desire at some point?
R. For sure, yes.
35. S. (01:05:05) According to what is written in the excerpt, if I understand correctly, as long as we have the strength, the power to act in connection and to come to the lessons it is still not Egypt. Egypt is when we are powerless to do it, no vitality, we can't do these things? And from this we suffer?
R. Egypt is the place that we are in under the rule of Pharaoh, meaning we feel that our ego is what prevents us from doing something and specifically thanks to the ego, we exist. Without the ego we wouldn't do anything at all. Man has to feel how much the ego rules him and gives him life, livelihood. Because without my ego I would say I would just die because my entire life is the fulfillment of the egoistic desires in every moment and if those desires don't get fulfilled, then this is it, I am dead.
36. S. (01:06:50) Is the Creator forcing a person to come out of Egypt through the ten, is this the situation?
R. The Creator forces the person to exit Egypt through the ten, that’s correct.
S. So is this Hassidim?
R. At first yes, but then even by Hochma.
37. S. (01:07:40) It seems like every good intention that is born, every Moses that is born in a person, the ego kills it within a second. How can we preserve this Moses that is born within, so that he can develop and protect himself?
R. Only by connection with the group that all of us, as if give birth to Moses and nurture him to grow among us. And then along with him you begin to rise in spiritual degrees.
S. Is there an act of hiding him from Pharaoh?
R. You don't need to, you don't need to hide him, everything is organized in a way that you will feel the extent to which Moses is compatible with Pharaoh and how much we can use Pharaoh in the right way.
38. S. (01:09:00) What is the meaning of delivering a son? Don't all the desires that appear in us have the intention to receive?
R. Yes, all of our desires that appear within us to begin with are all in order to receive. We all start from the evil inclination.
S. So what is the meaning of giving birth to a son?
R. Giving birth to a son means that by the study, by the connection with the friends, we come to a certain desire or a thought that has some interest in bestowing.
39. S. (01:10:17) You said that the exile in Egypt has to go through all of the four phases. What are those four phases that we have to go through in order to reach a state of deliverance from Egypt?
R. Well these four phases are the four phases that we go through like the four phases of direct light. And to bestow in order to receive, to bestow in order to bestow and to receive in order to bestow. In every turn in our work we always have to clarify the four phases, the four stages that are always with us. That's how we are built according to the structure of our soul.
S. Yes, this is clear but what is the nature, the character of these phases during the exile in Egypt?
R. In the time of the exile in Egypt we have to prepare our vessels so that they work in bestowal, in all the states. Otherwise how do we come out of Egypt?
40. S. (01:12:16) The Creator is causing the birth of baby boys and Pharaoh wants to throw them in the Nile, so what is our role?
R. We have to only make a choice between them and grow on top of both Pharaoh and the Creator and thus, each time cling to the Creator, adhere to Him more and more, that's our work of choice.
S. Why is the one that eventually saves the baby boy a woman?
R. In many cases we see from the story of the Torah, that the woman is actually helpful in correcting and liberating the man and without her he would not succeed. We see this in many stories and so this indicates that we too understand that we have to correct the will to bestow, strengthen it so much, so that it corrects the will to receive, so that it rules over the will to receive and that ruling of the will to receive is actually its choice. That's how we should understand the tendency of the Torah.
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