Question: How do we work during a seminar, how do we listen to one another?

Answer: A friend can say things that I might or might not understand. He can say things that I think are great or maybe something foolish. In any case, I now perceive him as a manifestation of a representative of the Creator: The Creator is influencing me through him.

If I am repulsed by my friend’s appearance, expression, the actual meaning of his words, or everything else, I might not perceive him or want him. And this is a wonderful exercise! I need to rise above this! If he is a representative of the Creator, since “There is none else beside Him,” especially at an event like this that we are participating in, then I need to elevate my friend and try to penetrate the spiritual essence through him, which is presenting all of this to me and also presents itself this way. I must rise above myself to a state, where I will perceive everything in it as absolute goodness, absolute bestowal, an absolute spiritual quality—despite anything that I am feeling on the inside, despite the fact that I do not have it.

And it is a very good thing that these two qualities are manifesting in me: my egoistic attitude towards my friend, when everything that I see in him does not take any criticism at all, and on the other hand, on the contrary, when I treat him through faith above reason, as a representative of the Creator, because nothing should come from anyone in the world that might be evil, bad, imperfect. And if it exists in me, then it is mine; I am looking at him with my own eyes.

This is why, if I am able to note these two states in me, then I have already done certain spiritual work. We must put together all the highest and lowest critical states in relation to one another, and we will have a common vessel—Malchut, which is on the bottom and consists only of unpleasant things—and it will keep getting brighter and worse in us, and we will be able to keep rising towards Keter over it. Then we will reach such distance between them, such tension, which will equal the state when the Surrounding Light will turn into Inner Light and shine there. And then we will acquire the first spiritual degree.

What does this do? We raise MAN towards Malchut of the world of Atzilut, which connects us together, and there we establish ourselves for the first time as newborns. And a person cannot be born alone, but only a minimum of ten people.
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The center of the group is the point in which we become free from all the fragments of the breaking and want to concentrate only on our sparks uniting them together. And the more we seek to unite these sparks, the higher we rise on the spiritual ladder.

Due to these efforts, we reveal a new depth of desire in us, and a greater Light is revealed in the unity of sparks. The connection of sparks is the “Reshimo de Itlabshut,” and the depth of desire, above which we want to connect, is the “Reshimo de Aviut,” and thus we begin to connect in our first common spiritual Partzuf in which we will feel one soul.

The first time we will feel ourselves in the integral reality where we are all connected to each other, and inside it we will feel spiritual life—one for all. As it’s said: “There is none else besides the Creator,” one for everyone: one thought, one light, a unified system. We will feel ourselves living inside one upper force.

And then, we will begin to recognize it more and more, distinguish more features in it, different attitudes towards us relative to the size of Partzuf. But the very first point from which we have to begin is the point of our unity, called the center of the group. It consists of two elements: The first one is overcoming of our egoism, the Reshimo de Aviut, and the second one is our desire to unite through our sparks, which determines the Reshimo de Itlabshut.

If I install them correctly relative to each other, it’s called faith above reason. It all comes down to one reality, to a single state. Faith is the connecting sparks, and knowledge is the force of the egoistic desire, above which we want to build our connection.

It doesn’t matter if we fail to reach the desired and connect in the center of the group. The main thing is how much effort we have put into it. The extent of efforts determines the successful state.

We will never achieve success directly through our actions, but only will attract the Light to ourselves, so that the Creator finishes this work for us! After all, “a prisoner cannot free himself from the jail;” everything happens due to the help from Above, through the prayer and the answer to it.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/24/12, “Talk About the Workshop”

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The Zohar tells us about the ways we connect, which create the vessel of perception. By our connection in different manners, we discover the Creator. The Creator has no form and no image. His form is the extent and the manner of our connection. If we connect, we acquire the attribute of the Creator, His form.

At first the Creator was revealed in the starting point of the creation—Malchut of Ein Sof (Infinity). There was no connection there but just a point, one desire. Then this desire developed under the influence of the Light and received all its attributes. But it was still one, until the oppositeness of the Light in all its opposite attributes appeared in it.

By connecting, we discover the forms of the Light, the forms of the Creator. Therefore, to be connected also means to be adhered to the Creator with the attribute of love and bestowal.

The way we connect is the form of the Creator we discover. The intensity of our connection is the level on which we discover the Creator. The Creator is revealed in the connection among us.

The desire remains the same desire that was created at first, as a specific desire. The Light shattered it into many separated desires. By connecting them we discover the Light 620 times stronger in quality than before: We discover the thought, the mind, the thought of creation.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/23/12, The Zohar

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No matter how difficult spiritual attainment appears to be, in reality, there is nothing simpler. Imagine a system that is completely unified, wholesome, connected between all its parts, all minor details. Everything operates in absolute harmony and aspires towards a single goal—everything is aimed towards connection, making a common analysis, in other words, the Creator, which exists between us.

We reveal Him as a consequence of the harmony that arises between us through our constant efforts to connect between us harmoniously. As a result of finding harmony inside our desires, we reveal the Light that fulfills them.

The Creator is in us! We are in the world of Infinity, so let us reveal at least the very first, the easiest and smallest degree of this perfect state. To reveal it means to make yourself correspond to it, become equal in qualities, attain balance with the Light that fills it at least on the very first degree—Nefesh de-Nefesh de-Nefesh of the world of Assiya.

For this it is necessary to achieve equality of all parts of the common vessel. But how can it be achieved when equality cannot be measured? The only thing that can be measured is the difference between one and the other, Delta. But when things are identical, we cannot appraise them because we lose the scale for measuring them. How can two absolutely black colors be compared, or how can one compare white to white? We need a certain difference to appraise things.

However, we must verify our equality, because if I am not completely equal to another I cannot consider him my friend—I am not connected to him by a mutual open connection. And this is why we need two qualities: reception and bestowal. I must bestow to the group as someone big in relation to those who are small, giving them the greatness of the goal, the recognition of importance of the Creator and friends. And on the other hand, I must lower myself to the same extent in relation to them in order to receive influence and support from them, as I perceive them as the greatest people of the generation.

In other words, I achieve maximum bestowal and maximum lowering of myself. And these two maximums lead to my equality. I cannot build equality on its own, just by considering myself equal—this equality is not worth anything. Equality is only revealed as a consequence of two extreme states: the highest and the lowest.

And when everyone in the group works this way: in the maximum and the minimum, giving everything to the group and receiving strength, awakening, and inspiration from them, then it is as if they were becoming connected by a single open pipe. Before, we all used to connect to each other through pipes, through which the energy flowed, but now, they all merge together and we get one big lake, one common reservoir is being discovered.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/15/12, Writings of Rabash

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By acting against our ego and connecting more strongly, we go through 125 degrees of ascent that are divided into Sefirot, Partzufim, and worlds. The stronger we connect the more we feel the inner power that connects us, called the Creator. Thus we go through five worlds: Assiya, Yetzira, Beria, Atzilut, and Adam Kadmon and rise to the world of Infinity. We learn about all these states in the wisdom of Kabbalah and embody them in practice internally.

In order to fulfill this more efficiently, we have conventions. It’s very good that there are people from all over the world who don’t know one another in the convention hall: men, women, veteran students that have been studying for years, and those who have just heard about the wisdom of Kabbalah and as if “by chance” have come to this convention. The connection among everyone is possible and doesn’t require any early preparation.

If we try to connect practically, we begin to feel that something is happening inside: A special force is being revealed between us, which as if didn’t exist before and which we haven’t felt. This force is only revealed in our world when we begin to work, by actually carrying out the advice of Kabbalists, and then we discover the force of connection between us.

Therefore, Kabbalists were happy about every opportunity to connect. They understood that thanks to this action we can attain correction and see the spiritual reality that is above us, to discover the force that manages us and leads us to a certain goal.

It’s the only way that we can look at ourselves from above, as at those who exist in the corporeal bodies, and to discover the upper worlds, the states that are above this world. It’s the only way we can see that this world isn’t real and to receive new attributes, new senses, that enable us to see the upper spiritual dimension that rises above the corporeal world, and to live in the two worlds at the same time. We feel this to such an extent that a person begins to feel eternity and perfection and isn’t afraid of death at all.

He will not feel when his body dies, just as he doesn’t feel when he has his hair or nails cut. This is because the corporeal body belongs to the animate level, while the hair and nails belong to the vegetative level, meaning a lower level. So if we rise to an upper level, called the human level, which is symbolized by the connection among us, we cease to worry about losing the beastly body, the body can live or die, while we exist on a higher level of existence, which we have attained.

This is what we should reach and this is the goal of the wisdom of Kabbalah: to raise a person to the next level, to eternal existence so that we will not live in a beastly body but the life of the soul. The soul is the feeling that is created within our connection. So the purpose of all these explanations is to attain the only goal—connection.

We perform the act of connection in the conventions so that through this connection, as a small part of the general correction, we will feel spiritual life. Thus, we create one system of Adam HaRishon (the First Man), by bringing his parts together and discovering the spiritual life in which the upper system, the general soul, lives.
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From the Brazil Convention 5/04/12, Lesson 1

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Initially in the world of Infinity we united as one, like one body all of whose parts are necessary to one another and totally interdependent. After descending from Infinity into our world, we became completely disconnected because all of the space between us was filled by egoism, which pushes us away from one another.

This egoism is constantly growing, and therefore, as history progresses we feel more and more flawed. But there comes a moment when egoism stops growing and reaches satiation. That is why people today are overcome by disillusionment and despair, and depression is becoming the most widespread illness in the world.

Man is losing the meaning of life. Previously he did not ask those kinds of questions since the egoistic desire constantly grew within him and pushed him forward. It deceitfully told him , “You want this, and this and that! You definitely have to get that and become bigger than everyone else!”

But today a time comes when we no longer want anything. And in addition, the general world crisis is unfolding, leaving us with no choice but to search for a way to change the situation and achieve correction, where correction lies in ascending back to the world of Infinity and becoming one man again. Yet this unity is already attained by our own efforts, meaning through work against our egoism, for the sake of unity.

This is the most hateful work to us, and we do not want it. I am willing to do anything but this – anything but to unite with the friends! I feel good by myself, this is comfortable! After all, my entire nature is the will to enjoy, and all I need is to fulfill it. I only want fulfillment.

Every person thinks only about how to make things better for himself at every moment. Our organism and brain works only to keep itself in the most comfortable state. And that is how our entire life goes by. Every person thinks only about how to make things better for himself now and in the future. All of our calculations revolve around this and we are incapable of thinking about anything else. All I care about is my own body. It turns out that I am doomed to a life of a poor, miserable animal that tries to support its body in every possible way so it would live for several decades and then die. But if all of life really comes down to just this, then what’s the point in it?

That is why it is so difficult for us to work against our egoism. There is a great psychological problem here, preventing us from reuniting with others in circumstances where our ego has reached the maximum mark. That is why the science of Kabbalah comes and explains to us how to do this by uniting into a small group.

Through the group we begin to attract this special force to us, which is concealed in nature and is called the Light that reforms. And if we try to extract this concealed force from within, it will surface and do wonders to us. It will correct us completely, will change us so we will be able to connect with others. And then a group will begin to come together among several friends, which will become a mini-model of the corrected humanity in which our unity is realized.

Instead of the previous, negative force of egoism, which separates us in a broken state and has various names (Pharaoh, Haman, Bilam, Balak, and all the “sinners,” meaning forces of disunity), inside of our connection we will begin to reveal the enormous positive force. This is the force of connection which comes to replace the negative force of disunity and is called the Creator. This is the force of bestowal, the force that gave birth to us and unites us. In it we reveal the program of creation and its goal.

That is why we have to unite into a group, since by virtue of that we will feel a higher state – the presence of a higher, concealed force, the Creator who is between us. We just have to reveal Him! Let us hope that we will feel this awakening inside of us during seminars, as a result of our efforts to unite with one another. This can even happen to a person who is at a convention like this for the first time.
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From the 1st lesson at the Brazil Convention, 5/3/12

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Question: What should a person do in order to annul himself? How can this be implemented practically in the group?

Answer: This is why there should be one instead of ten. Instead of millions or billions, there should be one. This means that we should feel like one. If you cannot annul yourself before the friends, you will not be able to advance, and to allow the Light to be revealed. The first restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph) is the condition according to which everything operates, and then comes the next part, the next stage.

Question: What should I do in order to annul myself? What should I think about?

Answer: You should think that you want the friends to attain everything, and this is the only thing that makes you happy. How does a mother think about her child? “I want him to have everything. It doesn’t matter what will become of me, what’s important is that he will be okay.”
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From the Vilnius Convention 3/24/12, Workshop 2

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We exist as parts of a system, similar to elements of an electronic system. Therefore, everything that happens to us conforms only to the way the entire system reaches the end of correction.

It says: “The outcast will not be turned back from Me” and “Everything will return to its root.” Everyone returns to their root, and together we all return to our general root. But we want to shorten the way, to reach the goal by hastening time (Achishena), here and now, quickly, to understand and to feel what we are doing as much as it is possible, in order to perform these actions of bestowal consciously, with understanding, and not to advance by the way of suffering (Beito, or in its time).

There are two problems. On one hand, I have to agree to perform actions of bestowal. On the other, I have to understand that I should calculate and prepare these altruistic actions. These two types of work are called “the work in the mind” and “the work in the heart,” and they are both opposite to nature.

Therefore, we do our best to organize the right system among us, as if we are connected, as if we love one another, as if we complement one another, as if we are cogwheels in a general system, and as if we connect with the Creator, in order to bring Him contentment, and with all of humanity, in order to correct them and bring them to the same action.

All this is “as if.” We do everything as if jokingly, like a little child who, having put the constructor pieces together, suddenly discovers that it is still a toy. He thought that he would build a tractor, he did his best, he assembled it, and then he discovers that it isn’t real, but made of plastic and doesn’t move at all.

But in our spiritual work, the moment we build this “demo,” this “counterfeit,” knowing that it is a game but building it correctly, according to the demands of Kabbalists, the Light that Reforms influences us immediately and makes it real.

This is the whole trick. We only need to understand that this is how it works. We try to put the parts together, in love, bestowal, unity, connection, by faith above reason—it makes no difference how we call it on our level. Clearly, everything is fake. But we try to put this construction set together, and according to our efforts the Light acts and turns it into the real picture.
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From the Arava Convention 2/25/12, Lesson 7

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Question: We need to become imbued with desire from the group, but also to take desire from the masses. What is the difference?

Answer: There is our group, Bnei Baruch (BB), and there are the nations of the world. Even if a unity (∑) of the nations will arise in the future, it will only be able to beget a cry aimed upward. Their unity is good for joining into our unity. And our unity, in turn, will join with the One (1).

Thus, there is unification of the nations, there is unification among us, and there is unification of the nations with us, where masses become included in us like the seven lower Sefirot of Bina. It is necessary to have internal unity below and internal unity above, and then we all unite and merge with the Creator into a single whole.

In this manner, we, as the three upper Sefirot of Bina (GAR de Bina), should provide the correction of its seven lower Sefirot (ZAT de Bina).

Question: So there are two levels of correction: We unite for the sake of bestowal, while the masses need to correct egoism on the material level?

Answer: We don’t correct anything there among the nations. We connect to people and take their desire, which helps us band together even tighter and to establish a connection with the upper force, with the Light. And the Light acts on them through us.

Ultimately, we are the ones who are performing the work, and not the masses. Without being capable of doing it themselves, they give us the strength for correction, and no more than that. It’s true that they also need to try to unite; however, nobody is capable of real unity, not even us. Only the Light realizes it. And this is why the most important thing is for them to understand that without unity between them, there won’t be a good life. And we will take this demand, we’ll penetrate and absorb the depth of its bitter grief and transform it into a prayer.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/8/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: During seminars on connection, it is very important to speak from the heart without any slogans or clichés. If somebody feels unable to say anything, is it possible that support from the group moderator or someone else could help him to say a few words?

Answer: The thing is that the world we want to experience, the next level, is not verbal. There are no words or any information exchange besides nonverbal information on the level of frequencies that are called our thoughts and feelings. These are special frequencies.

There are people who can perceive them. Because when we don’t know a person, we instinctively tune into his frequency and sometimes capture his thoughts. There is nothing supernatural in that. Thus some people feel others at a distance. All of that is achieved through a connection to a higher common informational layer.

But we connect not just to an egoistic informational layer like psychics, but rather, to a higher informational layer that operates us and is called the upper force. It is called upper because, unlike our egoistic force, it is altruistic and is built upon bestowal, not upon reception.

It is important to understand that we influence each other without words on the level of this force. If our words do not correspond to our thoughts, then they have no effect. Results can be reached only when we want to be givers. Even though we are not yet altruists and don’t actually seek unity, but want to be so, then this desire works. Meaning, our thought and words shouldn’t contradict each other. There should be at least some desire and aspiration in them. Therefore, our internal thoughts, internal pressures, and aspirations, which are called prayer, are sufficient.

There are cases in our practical work when people sit a few hours in a row without saying a word. Rabash and I practiced the same approach during meals or other events when we sat for 30-40 minutes in absolute silence. I remember that millions of different thoughts swept through my head at that time. You wander somewhere in the deep corners of yourself, you are being thrown out, but then find the way into the right thoughts, and then get carried away again.

Thus a person gradually teaches himself the proper intention because only through a right intention, it is possible to penetrate, reach, and enter the next higher informational layer.
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From the Vilnius Convention 3/23/12, Lesson 2

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