Lesson 36. The Spiritual Meaning of Passover According to the Wisdom of Kabbalah

Selected Excerpts from the Sources

1. Baal HaSulam, "Inheritance of the Land"

The souls cannot receive the good reward for which He created the world and the souls if they do not have a Kli [vessel] ready to receive. And the only way one can obtain that Kli is through labor and toil to observe the Mitzvot [commandments] through the pressure and the wars that one fights with the evil inclination, and the numerous preventions and troubles. The affliction and labor in Torah and Mitzvot provide a Kli for the soul so it may be fit to receive all the delight and pleasure for which He created all creations.

4. RABASH, Article No. 14 (1987),"The Connection between Passover, Matza, and Maror"

Abraham asked the Creator, “How will I know that I will inherit it,” since they haven’t the Kelim [vessels] or the need for the great inheritance that You are showing me that You will give to my sons; they haven’t the need.

To this, the Creator replied to him, “I will give them a need for the lights, just as I will give them the lights.” In other words, the Creator will give them both the lights and the Kelim. Do not think that I bestow only the abundance. Rather, I bestow upon them both the need, which is called Kli, and the abundance. This is called “lack and filling.”

By the people of Israel being in exile in Egypt four hundred years, which is a complete degree of four Behinot [discernments], by being in exile in a land that is not theirs, meaning that the Egyptians will impart Israel with a desire for self-reception, a desire that does not belong to Kedusha, which is called Eretz [land], from the word Ratzon [desire], and their wanting to escape that desire, when I make them unable to come out of that governance by themselves and see that only the Creator can help them, and they will have no other choice but to ask Me for help.

13. RABASH, Article No. 71, "The Meaning of Exile"

What is exile? It is that he is under the rule of self-love and cannot work for the sake of the Creator. When is self-love considered exile? It is only when he wants to emerge from this control because he suffers from not being able to do anything for the sake of the Creator.

14. RABASH, Article No. 15 (1991),"What Is the Blessing, ‘Who Made a Miracle for Me in This Place,’ in the Work?”

We should know that the exile he feels, that he is in exile, is measured not by the exile, but by the sensation of bad and suffering that he suffers because he is in exile. Then, when he is tormented because he is under the rule of oppressors and he must do all that they demand of him, and he has no right to do what he wants, but he must serve and carry out all that the nations of the world in his body demand, and he is powerless to betray them, to the extent of the pain he feels and his desire to escape them, to that extent he can enjoy the redemption.

27. RABASH, Letter No. 66

It is impossible to come out of the exile in Egypt before entering the exile. Only then can it be said that we are coming out of the exile.

The author of the Haggadah tells us about this that we need to know that in the beginning our fathers were idol worshippers, meaning that they were in exile under the rule of idol worshippers, and only then the Creator brought our fathers closer. But if they did not feel that they were placed under the rule of idol worshippers, it could not be said that the Creator had brought them closer. Only when a person is remote from the Creator can it be said that the Creator is bringing him closer, because the absence should always come before the presence, for the absence is the Kli [vessel] and the presence is the light that fills the absence and the darkness.

28. RABASH, Article No. 936, “The Time of Redemption”

It is impossible to emerge from exile before one is in exile. It is also known that the holy Torah is eternal and applies to each and every generation. Also, we say in the Haggadah [Passover story], “Every generation, one must see oneself as though he came out of Egypt.”

For this reason, we must know the meaning of the exile we are in, and what it means that each generation we must emerge from this bitter exile.