Passover Animation

Happy Passover! Enjoy a short Kabbalistic explanation of the inner essence of Passover…

From the video clip:

Passover is much more than a historic tale. Let’s look at this holiday through the eyes of the wisdom of Kabbalah.

In the Haggadah, the land of Egypt represents a relationship of separation. A sort of living in a pool of ego, exploitation and despair, a state where everyone takes care of their own interests leaving the others to eat bupkis.

Israel represents the opposite situation. Life is full of joy, love of others, mutual guarantee… hang on a second, who are we kidding? Even if some of us physically live in the land of Israel, we’re still in that inner state of Egypt.

To be in Egypt means to be ruled by Pharaoh, the representative of the ego culture. He loves to turn us against each other, separate us, divide and conquer us, and eat Hummus every morning even though it’s bad for his digestion.

Moses, in contrast, is the representative of unity who doesn’t stand a chance if he goes head to head with Pharaoh, unless he’s got the entire people of Israel united around him.

And now we are ready for… the Exodus. The burning bush, staff and snake, blood, fire, charoses, and a mighty arm… all it’s really talking about is our choice between a reality of hatred and separation vs. a path of hope and connection.

Because that is how it always worked – either Pharaoh is ruling over you or you lend a hand to Moses. And it’s true even now.

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Spiritual Advancement by Correcting Egoism

The Mechanics of Initially Perceiving the Creator

In order for one who is still under the influence of egoism to perceive the closest Upper Object (the Creator), the Creator must equalize some of His qualities with those of the lower being—the person seeking a connection with the Creator.

He will endow some of His altruistic qualities with egoistic attributes, and can then come into balance with the person seeking connection with Him.

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Using Freedom of Choice to Reveal Spirituality

The Creator’s Concealment Creates Free Choice

In our present state dominated by our ego we existence a life full of obstacles and hardship. We hear about the perfect reality dominated by the Creator, love and bestowal but we don’t sense that reality.

If, despite our egoism, we were able to see the Creator, naturally we would prefer His world over ours, since the first contains all pleasure and no suffering.

However, freedom of choice and free will can only exist in the absence of our perception of the Creator while He is in concealment. But if, from the moment of birth, we are so strongly dominated by the ego that we cannot distinguish between the self and the ego, how can we choose to be free of the ego’s influence?

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How You Can Choose to Perceive the Creator

The Benefit of the Path of Kabbalah

Since we are all 100% egoists, we will never voluntarily wish to form a bond with the Creator. Only when we are convinced that this bond will bring a certain benefit will we desire connection.

Thus, we can conclude that simply seeing our own evil and understanding that only the Creator can send help is still insufficient impetus to seek help from the Creator. Only by realizing that coming closer to the Creator, and forming a bond with Him, will bring redemption will we have the incentive to seek help.

Kabbalah offers us its path, rather than the path of suffering.

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How Kabbalah Differs from Other Spiritual Paths

The Short Path to the Creator

The path of Kabbalah is different from other paths. Even though there are pleasures in our world, we can break away from egoism by having faith (above reason) in the purpose of creation. In this way, we may go beyond listening to what our bodies and our reason tell us.

When we do so, we start experiencing love for the Creator, as well as feeling His love for us. This is the path of peace and joy, and of faith in the fact that the long way is, in fact, the short way without suffering. When we are not capable of receiving the Light into the self—the Inner Light (Ohr Pnimi)— our spiritual development will take place only under the influence of the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif).

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