Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article 69, “First Will Be the Correction of the World”:

“Israel” are those who are drawn to Yashar-El (straight to the Creator), those who have the “point in the heart.” In the past in Ancient Babylon, a group of people discovered this desire and broke off from the others, and named itself according to its direction to the goal. Later this group became a nation that went through ages of development.

Now history is repeating itself, and again there is a group that organizes according to the same principle and is also called “Israel,” according to the direction of its development. It belongs to the interior part because it is the desires of Galgata ve Eynaim, the vessels of bestowal.

This is the meaning of “for ye were the fewest of all peoples.” However, by correcting the interior, the exterior is corrected too, though in small pieces. And the exterior will be corrected every time, until all the exterior is corrected.

Thus, it is enough to correct the “one percent” in order to correct the whole world, bit by bit, part by part.

This means that we have to find people who feel the importance of the goal of creation, of the interior development. They should connect so that they will feel and understand where our evolution is headed. By connecting and correcting themselves, they will pass on the correction to the exterior part as well and influence the whole world.

This is why we are having a convention in America, not for external dissemination, but for people who yearn to discover the upper force. We should provide them with the necessary conditions to unite, so that they will be able to fulfill the correction and then it will flow from them to the world.

They have to feel that they are responsible for that, since the exterior part cannot operate independently. Ordinary people, from the leaders to common folks cannot correct themselves. Only those who have the point in the heart can do that. We turn to them by explaining to them what the correction depends on and what they should do in order to help the world.
[77466]
From the Lesson in New Jersey on 5/10/12, Shamati #69

Related Material:
A School You Don’t Drop Out Of
Israel’s Role In The World
Israel: By Birth Or By Goal

Question:

Answer: I think that we felt these things after conventions we had in the past. We shouldn’t feel this way now because we don’t work from one convention to another any more, which is the reason that we used to fall after each convention, like after receiving a temporary gift, which we couldn’t hold on to.

Now we have to work continuously at building our collective vessel, and so we shouldn’t feel such deep descents although there will be descents and ascents on this way too, as there should be. This is because the upper Providence is revealed by the “round” and “straight” impact. During the straight influence, the upper Providence is revealed a bit and during the round influence, it summons periods of exile.

Every individual, whole groups, and even the whole world go through such “exiles” and “redemptions” alternately. These states are sequential, and nature is constantly changing: The seasons change, the geological eras, and the ecological eras all change in the endless process we are in.

We have to go through all these processes, but our advancement should be in a straight line, in the “middle line.” We will have to clarify it since we are the first to start this process, like the “last generation” of the egoistic world. So I don’t think there will be any special descents after the conventions. Our conventions will be of a different nature, which will be determined in the next few months.

I doubt whether the question about the descent after the convention will be relevant. But if someone still feels a descent, he should ask the friends for help. If the whole group is in a state of descent, it should turn to other groups for help since it depends on them as one man in one heart.

Thus everyone should help one another, keeping the finger on everyone’s pulse, taking care that not one friend will disappear and not one group will fall if it isn’t a purposeful fall.
[78384]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/12, “Talk About Past Conventions”

Related Material:
The Era Of A Round Correction
The Convention Is Never Over
The Last Variable In The Equation 

The last conventions indicate the beginning of a new era in which we have to practically fulfill everything we’ve learned for so many years, what we’ve read in the letters and the articles of Baal HaSulam and Rabash: the connection in the group, the unity with friends, and the clarification of the place inside the group where the spiritual world, the Creator, the building of the collective vessel, and the correction and the shattering are revealed.

Actually, all the descriptions refer to one action: the connection of all the shattered, distant, opposite desires that hate each other with the help of the Reforming Light, which we draw by our collective prayer, raising MAN, during the workshops, the different activities, and all the time until we perceive the spiritual goal of our life.

We should see this as a general trend that affects every aspect of our lives: educating children and adults, our groups, and the whole word, everyone, from the individual to all of humanity, and seeing this trend to connect in “circles,” which is the major trend leading to the correction of the shattering and the attainment of the goal of creation.

We can regard the whole way we’ve made so far as the time of preparation, and from now onward we and the whole world must start to build such circles.
[78387]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/12, “Talk About Past Conventions”

Related Material:
Keeping The Finger On the General Pulse
Working In Circles
Feeling Yourself Inside Mother Bina

Today, gradually, a deeper and stricter interconnection between countries, nations, and people is being revealed.

The modern crisis is expanding and encompasses the world. It will not end even though many are promising that soon things will begin to improve.

Problems will not end until we reach balance. After all, the cause of the crisis is imbalance, in other words, the lack of connection between us.

Here is where we discover the law of mutual guarantee. The Torah explains to us that in the end a person will love his neighbor as himself.

“Love” is proper systematic unity when every person works for the benefit of everyone, and there is absolute harmony between us. In the end, once we reach the final correction, all of us, once again, will become parts of a single soul, like organs of the body that operate in absolutely different ways, but exist in unified harmony, and this is why the body lives.

Every organ performs its own work, its own function, but within the framework of a common program that encompasses and obligates everyone to work together. To the contrary, when there is imbalance between parts of the body, illnesses appear.

We must treat our correction according to the same principle. Today, I exist in absolute, total egoism. I want everything to “spin” on my command, carry out my wishes, and think like me. We all begin our journey in this state.

In the first stage of working with myself, I must come to the degree of Hafetz Hessed. I do not get in the way of others. Like a cogwheel, I freely run on my axis, according to the desires of my neighbors. Do what you want with me. I am ready to “spin” at your request, as if I had no desires of my own, as if it were not me, but some supporting force intended for you.

We are speaking of a very high degree. After all, I must work with my egoism so that it will not get in my way of serving others.

To do this, I must know the desires of others and never get in the way of their realization, being absolutely neutral. We are referring to an enormous correction, during the course of which I set up screens of the zero, first, and second degrees over my desire.

Then, I rise to the next degree. I direct my desires, abilities, qualities, and the entire potential of my strength and energy, everything, toward the benefit of my neighbors. Now, my egoism is not just neutralized, I am not just freely running on an axis, but I am connected to my own engine that works for their benefit. This is the degree of love. I give you everything for the good of it.

This path stretches from our world to the world of Infinity (∞) through 125 degrees. Part of them I realize on the degree of Hafetz Hessed, being neutral, and the other part I realize by actively putting my efforts into benefiting my neighbors.

During the first stage, I correct 248 desires and during the second stage, I correct 365. Overall, the correction of 613 desires is called observing the commandments. In this way, the common desire is divided according to my inner structure.

All this is to achieve complete and absolute mutual guarantee, a state where I will interact with everyone in harmony, just like any other person.

Hence, it is clear the kind of correction to which mankind must come: Everyone will perceive and include within them the entire reality to the point of fully identifying with it. This is why Kabbalah is being revealed now, because if we do not know how to realize this, then our path will be very difficult and painful; indeed, it would truly be the “path of suffering.”

However, if we try to act in the group, our path will not be easy, but it will be good (the red arrow on the graph). We get together, feel each other, evoke the Light, and it works on us, influences us, and awakens us. By mutually feeling each other, we allow the light to do its work.

This is the essence of the method. You neither know nor understand anything, you are not capable of anything, but you want to “swallow” all the pleasure, and you only need to learn to evoke the Light. If you learn, you will achieve success so easily and beautifully, together with everyone in joy.
[78220]
From the New Jersey One Convention 5/12/12, Lesson 3

Related Material:
Attaining The Creator’s Profession
Hanging On By Our Teeth Or Connecting As Cogwheels
Being A Cogwheel Doesn’t Mean Being A “Schmuck”

Today humanity is starting to look for methods that will enable it to manage life and to know something about the future.

The first eruption of the ego took place in Babel, and now we have reached the peak of its growth, but on a new level which is absolutely wild.

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, we understand what is happening to us. The point is that we are in a state of shattering which we must correct. There are only three states. In the first state, we are all together as one whole, and this is called the world of Ein Sof (Infinity).

From this state of unity, we descend into “this world,” and from it we have to rise to the world of Ein Sof again. The difference between these three states is that the first state of the world of Ein Sof is corrected, our present state is corrupt, sunk in a huge ego, and in the third state we must attain correction again.

The third corrected state which we have to reach now is special since in it we understand, feel, and attain everything that happens in the world of Ein Sof—the One who created us, His intention, the plan of this upper force, all of creation. We understand all this, feel it, and control it.

In fact, this is the goal of this whole big circle that we made. It’s a unique process: During the descent from the top down there is a shattering and corruption, and after the shattering there is the correction. So now in our world, we are in the worst possible state, in the most shattered state, under the control of the huge ego, which we have to correct. It’s corrected by the connection among us.
[77271]
From the Brazil Convention 5/04/12, Lesson 1

Related Material:
The End Of The Development of Egoism
Grateful clay In The Good Hands Of The Sculptor
Everyone Is A Point, Everyone Is Infinity

Question:

Answer: A convention is a leap through unity. If we have such exercises of unity once a week by having intensive workshops called “friends’ meetings,” we may not need to have big conventions in order to advance anymore. We will rise from one week to the next by preparing ourselves from one meeting to the next.

Everything depends on the preparation, which determines what level of unity we will be able to attain in the workshop. We need a big desire, the recognition of the importance of the goal and the uniqueness of such a meeting as a special action, as the only method by which we can create a place for the revelation of the Creator.

From one week to the next we will live with the feeling of the coming friends’ meeting and yearn for the lesson day by day. Before the lesson we can also feel as we do before the workshop. The lesson can be as intensive, because in the lesson we speak about the same internal work but in different words. On the whole, we are talking about the same topic—the revelation of the Creator to the created beings, where it takes place and under what conditions.

All our collective actions should be seen from this perspective no matter what we do. It all depends on how much a person appreciates every opportunity he is given. Therefore, we shouldn’t wait for conventions if we don’t prepare ourselves from one lesson to the next, from one friends’ meeting to the other, and from one convention to the next one.

Otherwise a big convention by itself will not be very useful—it will summon a temporary awakening but not an ascent. If a person doesn’t come with the previous impression, he will not be granted ascent, advancement, and a greater connection. This is because he hasn’t prepared himself for it; he hasn’t yearned for it and has no deficiency for it. He will simply be impressed from everything else, but will not attain a specific fulfillment.

So it turns out that we feel elated from one convention to another, but then we fall again. The elation should be before the convention and the convention itself should be a level upwards. In this convention we managed to do that to some extent. After having risen to the next level and having felt that we are in a state of descent, disappointment, and fogginess, we should immediately start preparing for a new meeting. This meeting can be in the next lesson, the weekly friends’ meeting, or a big convention.

Everything is determined by the preparation. There shouldn’t be any “dead time” in which I just sit and wait. I have to increase the deficiency inside me or to fulfill it by connection.
[78148]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/12, “Talk About Past Conventions”

Related Material:
The Success Of A Congress Depends On The Preparation For It
Guarantor For An Unlimited Amount
Let The Inner Convention Begin!

Question:

Answer: You are learning to understand what a group means. Before that you only heard what it is. But here, I hope, you began to feel that special properties are embedded in the group, which you won’t be able to scrutinize alone. By listening specifically to your friend—and it doesn’t matter what he is saying for he may not know anything (he may be in the group for one or two months), you will hear in his words what you need to hear.

Question: There is also another form of group work, when the text is simply read and no commentaries are given. What’s the difference? When do we apply this kind of work?

Answer: It is a very serious question.

In general, how do you discuss something between yourselves when you stand in a big circle and say something? You also speak about yourself, from yourself, about the greatness of the group, the greatness of the goal, of the gathering, or about why you came to the convention.

Most important is not to talk about what’s in your heart at the given moment. You do not give vent to what you feel at the moment. As in our world, you do not want to tell anybody about your deepest feelings, personal secrets, and the same is here. That is, I do not talk about my relationship with the Creator as it concerns only me. All the rest—it makes no difference.

Question: When we work independently in the group, who will help us stop on time and talk from the heart, not from the mind?

Answer: Don’t be afraid to err. It’s not important. It’s completely unimportant!

Those who study for a month or two can gather into the group and try to discuss something between themselves, to mumble like children—it’s not important. They will nevertheless grow, if they only do what’s needed. No preliminary knowledge is required from a person, nothing. Most important is to act simply, open heartedly, and naively, and then everything will work out.
[76899] 
From Vilnius Convention 3/25/2012, Workshop 4

Related Material:
Tuning In The Group
Ascending To The Top Of The Pyramid
A Seminar With The Creator

Question:

Answer: The group is “one” because only one soul has been created. And the more I reveal the structure of a single soul, the more I reveal the group.

A group is not a material concept, not ten physical bodies sitting in a circle. The group is what we build above our egoism through the connection between us, downplaying our ego and raising the importance of connection, the Creator, the Light. The farther apart we take these two opposite points, raising the importance of bestowal, love, and connection, there above, we begin to feel as one.

Everyone feels not himself but only this collective one, outside of his body, his thoughts and desires. We all feel just this desire and one thought “as one man with one heart.” This is called the group.

If everyone acts like this during the workshop, we build a common locator in our group, which begins to pick up all the other “units” in the hall, formed from each circle or approaching this. And then I will start to feel through this sensor all the souls of the righteous existing in the spiritual world. This becomes my vessel with which I work in the spiritual world.
[78229]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/12, “Talk About Past Conventions”

Related Material:
The Builders Of A New Reality
One Instead Of Billions
A Person Is Between Keter And Malchut

Question:

Answer: It is natural that we do not have a desire to connect. We live in a world where disconnection and disunity grow from one day to the next. People hide behind computer screens and mobile phones, and all other means that create an illusion of connection instead of real unity.

But we like this more! 99% of all devices that are manufactured are designed to help a person avoid connecting with others. They create the illusion that we do not have to meet and look one another in the eyes, that it’s enough to look at a small screen and to press buttons. No one looks at one another. People walk down the street like zombies aimed at the destination point, and they practically do not talk to one another.

The whole world is growing more and more distant from one another. My ego forces me to restrict my connection with others to the maximum, so I need a separate apartment and separate food. I build my habitat so that I have all the household appliances in my home and so I don’t have to depend on anyone. Soon robots will do all of our housework and I won’t need anyone at all. A person feels best when he is alone. And if he suddenly gets bored, then he calls someone or sends an e-mail.

With this form of our egoism’s development, the aspiration to unite is simply opposite to our material nature. And it is clear that people coming to the Convention to unite feel uneasy. Moreover, the more developed a person is, the more resistance he feels, as it is written, “One who is greater than his friend has greater egoism.”

This pushes many new people away, as well as long-time, good, strong students, throwing them out of their boundaries. We must understand that this is every person’s natural reaction. And if someone leaves, that does not mean that he is ready for spiritual advancement, but he simply did not receive sufficient support and a patient attitude from others.

Every person should receive the opportunity to work at the Convention and to participate in some way, and gradually, time will do its work. If a person has a great egoistic desire, he cannot immediately accept the fact that we have to be connected.

The average person will happily agree to sit together with everyone and to sing. But for an individualist, who has strong desires – egoism, pride, and love of power – this is unacceptable and unbearable, and he runs away. Therefore, we have to give these people the chance to “cook over a low fire.” It’s like preparing a dish where every ingredient is cooked separately and at different times, and afterwards everything is combined together in one pot. Likewise, there are all kinds of people in the group, and every person has his own cooking time! But in the end everyone will unite and will cook together.
[78308]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/18/12, “Questions and Answers about past conventions”

Related Material:
There Is A Place For Everyone In The Convention
The Convention Is For Everyone Who Is Willing To Be Included
Four Conditions

The greatness of Kabbalah is that it gives us the method that enables us to evoke spiritual energy, which corrects our nature and miraculously unites us.

On one hand, there is an enormous journey before us, severe and difficult changes which require immense human effort. But on the other hand, there are no actions that we need to do on our own, the only thing we need to do is evoke the Light, which will do the work.

Many people try to correct themselves on their own, and they assume that this is possible. However, this will never happen; they will become disappointed, stop studying, and leave the group. This is because their efforts are not directed towards the Light, they want to do everything on their own instead of asking like a baby sitting on his mother’s lap asks.

I need to feel that I am in the Creator’s arms, feel that I am dependent on Him. And then, once I understand that any action begins with a request directed towards Him, I will stand next to Him, holding His hand, like a child who does not yet let go of the adult. I will pull Him after me to correct my faults. Once I discover uncorrected thoughts and desires in me, I will consciously and deliberately direct Him towards specific faults that require correcting.

So we grow by bringing out the things that are not corrected between us that are set up by the breaking and asking the Creator or the Light to correct them. Initially, before we know how to talk to Him, we simply point to the problem: “Correct!” Then we will explain to Him what we want just as parents demand for the child to tell about his “misfortune” as if we did not understand what he needs. Here there is a need for communication, reaction, explanation, and the child’s participation, more and more of it. He realizes part of the action, and the adult realizes the other part.

In this way we study the Creator’s “profession,” we put ourselves in His place, until we correct the entire system and acquire His status.

So, make a note in your heart: We do not perform any actions. Regardless of whether we feel bad or good, whether we see any faults, whether we want to correct something, first of all, we need to illuminate the damage as much as possible and then understand that only the Light will correct it. All the actions and connections in the group, the misunderstandings, fights, and other things are evoked by the Creator so we would invite Him to reveal Himself between us. It is written: “The One who establishes peace in His heights will establish peace between us.” The only thing we must do is raise MAN, a prayer, an appeal for correction. I “pray,” which means that I judge myself, become a judge to myself, and then I evoke the force of correction.

This is the way to act, by strengthening the connection between us. Groups must follow this principle and be like organs of a single body caring for each other. After all, everyone who falls also drags down the others. Sometimes events in a group are not caused by the strengthening of egoism before an ascent to the next degree, but by a descent of another group. After all, when a certain part of the body becomes sick, the sickness also transfers to the others.

At first, the right kind of state needs to be established in the groups, and then among the groups. We need to take care of each other, we need to unite and be concerned for our common spiritual health, then over just a few months we will reveal the spiritual world, and in a few years we will complete the correction.

We have not yet begun this work; we don’t yet act consciously and correctly either in groups or in their interconnection. These things come out gradually, we need to be conscious of them and understand them, and for this we need an inner demand. Nothing will come on its own without your demanding it.

So, we need to clarify this rule of mutual guarantee through mutual unity. And we only unite through a common prayer, when we together understand that only the upper Light will establish peace between us.
[78217]
From the One Convention in New Jersey 5/12/12, Lesson 3

Related Material:
Hanging On By Our Teeth Or Connecting As Cogwheels
The Best – For The Friends
Obligate The Creator To Help Us

In order to be balanced with the Creator, to connect with Him, I have to change myself.

In order to do this, we were given an environment. Balance with the Creator is attained by balancing with the environment in which I discover Him. The Reshimot (reminiscences) that are awoken inside present the group to me, and my work becomes real, now I’m dealing with something that’s familiar, everything is solved among friends.

How is it possible to find balance with the group? Through mutual guarantee that is the force, the law of balance.

According to this law the entire world is mutually connected, just like cogwheels in a certain system. None of the cogwheels can turn independently without turning all the other wheels and being turned by them. It’s just like two clutch discs when they touch each other.

But the law of development operates in this mechanism. First, the clutch pedal is pressed and the connection between them is still weak. At this point we don’t disturb but rather help one another by spinning and not feeling that we are connected to one whole. The states and nations are separated; some don’t even know that others exist.

With time, the inner ego grows and the cogwheels become more closely connected. In other words the clutch pedal is released and the discs get progressively closer to one another, until they are very tightly connected. This is how all of humanity develops towards mutual cooperation: Countries establish connections, new continents are discovered, international commerce and industry flourish, societies change, the number of different professions grow, and people are becoming increasingly interdependent until they are totally interdependent.

This development is very difficult because the ego and the Reshimot that develop bring us closer together and crowd us, until at a certain moment when this overly tight connection begins to worry us. We can’t detach ourselves from one another to live without each other, even if we want to. Therefore, nature, the Creator, brings us to a new state in which we discover that we can’t break apart any more. If we don’t work out the right mutual connection among us, then we may be destroying ourselves.

Thus mutual guarantee obliges us to be mutually responsible for one another. We are like cogwheels: Any wheel that turns, turns all the others. The clutch pedal is left untouched and the discs come together, the teeth enter each other and we all find ourselves in one huge interconnected system, that doesn’t allow any cogwheel to turn freely. Now all the others have to agree with it, to agree about the direction and the speed. Without this agreement, no one will be able to move.

Eventually everyone will discover a “strange hand around his neck.” Imagine a person lying with an IV without which he may die, but there are several billion taps installed on the tube in which the vital fluid flows. Everyone can turn off his own tap and then, that’s the end.

We will soon feel that we’re in a very unpleasant situation. That is why the wisdom of Kabbalah is revealed to us in advance, in order to prepare our life to the new conditions. After all, everything comes for the purpose of correction; the question is only how to look at this whole thing. If we know in advance that everything comes to serve the search for the right mutual connection among us, meaning mutual guarantee, then the cogwheels will be arranged as they should and will turn in the right direction, in harmony. Moreover, the mutual balance will help them become balanced with the general force that locks them in the one system together with the Creator. This is how the world will reach the desired correction.
[77690]
From the One Convention in New Jersey 5/12/12, Lesson 3

Related Material:
Don’t Bother Me In My Comfortable Dungeon!
Where’s The Clutch Pedal?
You Chose The Land Where You Will Grow Up!

Question:

Answer: You can actually discover this if in spite of the friction, you try to connect and work together. Then you work on two levels: Below are arguments, hatred, rejection, and lack of understanding, in other words the ego that separates between us, and above, you are the opposite, connected in love.

In our maintaining both of these levels, you constantly rise in both of them: The ego grows above love, and you hate each other, and then love elevates above the ego, and this happens again and again; similar to how we walk on two legs. The positive and negative constantly substitute each other, like swallowing and regurgitation. The whole life is built on sequence, and it is impossible to advance in any other way.

But if the hatred that grew is depressing love and you agree to this, then the connection between you will be torn, and the group will be destroyed. Thus, one always needs to remember what the Creator says: “I created the evil inclination.” He constantly renews your ego, so that you constantly will rise above it to the good inclination.

In this way you connect to Him again and again. He strengthens your self-love specifically so that you will stretch the connection and ask for help. This process must be as clear to you as the light of the sun. Only in this way, we advance as a group; otherwise, we can expect a collapse.
[77363]
From the Brazil Convention 5/06/12, Lesson 5

Related Material:
Refusal With A Hidden Message
The Only One Who Will Help Me
Penetrating Love Through Barricades Of Hate

Question:

Answer: The efforts should be not to judge any member of the group according to the state he is in. We are all “rags,” as Rabash used to say; we are all uncorrected. All the sins and negative attributes are in each of us.

A person who attains the high spiritual levels discovers on the way disgusting and repulsive desires that he has, and he is shocked by the fact that he can have such desires. It is even impossible to imagine! As a result of the shattering, everyone has all the kinds of desires inside him. Therefore, we mustn’t see anyone as corrupt.

“It takes one to know one.” If I see a flaw in someone, it is only because I am corrupt. If I were corrected, I could see the other according to my level of correction, as totally corrected, because all these degrees already exist. What I see now is the reflection of my ego. It is my ego that depicts this picture for me.

So the main work in the group is to accept every member as your beloved baby. No matter what he does: If he doesn’t let you rest, if he makes a mess, if he breaks everything, you know that it is your baby. This is how you should treat the friend. It is a sign of love.

I speak about a friend and mean that a person can treat others this way too and not someone who just came in and joined the group. Mutual help means to consider the personal states of every individual.
[77624]
From the One Convention in New Jersey 5/12/12, Lesson 2

Related Material:
A Bridge Of Love Over An Abyss Of Egoism
Don’t Be Afraid, We’re With You!
Whom To Judge And Why

Question:

Answer: This is not easy. If you had known Rabash, you would know how closed he was, concealing himself and not wishing to give any explanations besides the most necessary ones. Yet it is clear that he wanted to give as much as possible to his students, since it is written, “A cow wishes to feed more than the calf wishes to suckle.”

But the problem is the student’s readiness level. The teacher cannot give him an “unripe fruit” since instead of being help, this will harm him and bring him to a halt, a descent, confusion, and then it will take him a long time and great efforts to get out of this state. Everyone will pay dearly for that—both the teacher and the student, as well as those who have to unite with him into one system. This is a very complex calculation.

That is why it is written, “Raise a lad in his own way.” That is to say, the teacher should not give to the student according to the student’s infantile demand, “Give me!” But should do so correctly and deliberately, as befits his level of development.

Clearly, this constantly evokes pressure in the relationship between the teacher and the students. They are shouting to the teacher, “Give to us!” They don’t understand that he can only give them the method but not the actual fulfillment. They will have to receive the fulfillment themselves by realizing this method upon themselves.

Therefore, some people do not think that they are advancing well. Some cannot justify this method and perceive it. Or they might even understand it with their mind, but are not ready to agree with it in their heart. As a result, they start to disregard the teacher, the method, and the sources. And nothing can be done about it—that’s how life is.

I think that we already overcame very difficult stages, and whoever has stayed after this, out of the thousands of people who have gone through here, will go forward. And whoever left might still come back. We are waiting for everyone, the whole world, to join us.

But in the future there won’t be a choice either: all new levels will always be revealed from the side of the vessels, empty desires. Therefore, you must only strictly carry out the advice of the sources and teacher, and after realizing this advice you will receive answers and fulfillment yourself! Fulfillment cannot come from above to an empty place, if there is no vessel.

Let us hope that we have now gained a better understanding of these principles and the order of our work. Many new people took part in the Convention, who do not have the experience we do yet. But by tuning into the common unity, they will be able to learn these principles quickly, just like any new generation relies on the experience of the previous one and receives from it. And we will be happy to give them everything we have so that by tuning in to our world group, they will immediately become just as experienced and knowledgeable as us, and even more so.
[77945]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/15/12, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
Ask Yourself!
The Teacher Is A Spiritual System
The Creator – The Teacher

Question:

Answer: Three conditions must be met:

1) the greatness of the goal,
2) despair from one’s own powers,
3) connection with all the friends.

Then, all together, we will reach the feeling called “the payer of many” after having done everything we can in order to connect.

The Light comes and reforms us. What does it mean to reform? It means a true request. It is the Surrounding Light that brings us the true request.

Therefore, according to the wisdom of Kabbalah, there is the clarifying Light called the Light of AB-SAG, and there is the correcting Light. Here, too, everything takes part in two phases.

First, we do everything that we can. We hold conventions, work in a group, and try to connect, thus summoning the Light that clarifies where we actually are. It lets us feel the greatness of the goal.

At the same time, it shows us how low we are, in a state where we don’t take even one step toward it. However, these two points, the greatness of the goal and the despair from our own powers, create two poles between which there are ten Sefirot.

Then, the potential between them activates the Light of correction. This state is called “prayer” since, in a prayer, there are the two points, the greatness of the goal and the recognition of our lowliness. This internal cry brings us the Light of correction that connects these two points through the ten Sefirot and presents us with the whole vessel.
[77627]
From the One Convention in New Jersey 5/12/12, Workshop 3

Related Material:
Reach The Limit
The Best – For The Friends
New Flavors In The “Creator’s Kitchen”

Question:

Answer: No. In each one of us there are two parts: female and male, and with them we advance. However, with respect to the unity in the group, the male and female souls are a little different in their approaches. Women unite according to their strength, whereas men must connect and unite with all their hearts, in the strongest brotherly bonds.

Here, the entire matter is the uniqueness of the soul: The male soul belongs more to GE (Galgalta ve Eynaim) and the female to the AHP (Awzen, Hotem, Peh). But both of these need to attain the most upper level, and along the women’s way, there are no special obstacles.

I very much suggest to and ask the women to worry about the men, push them to unite and connect, stand in a circle surrounding them in order to prevent them from withdrawing. After all the men stay as children all their lives. They don’t have the mechanism of giving birth and worrying about others. He doesn’t change, only grows in size.

On the other hand when a woman becomes a mother, she goes through very serious hormonal changes in one way or another. In her is concealed the same potential, the same longing, the same understanding. Thus she is more connected to life, to nature. She is more logical, more realistic. The ups and downs touch her less than they do a man since her body is used to “swallowing” these blows regularly.

This is the reason that women need to help the men, and this is spoken about a lot in the wisdom of Kabbalah. Without the help of women, the men won’t attain the goal. So take care of them like mothers who cherish their babies.
[77360]
From the Brazil Convention 5/06/12, Lesson 5

Related Material:
The Power Of Women And Men: A Condition For Spiritual Ascent
It All Starts With A Woman
Due To Women’s Desire

Question:

Answer: We do not have another place, another source, another possibility to receive the spiritual force. The group and studying, conversations, lectures and dissemination—these things are the daily “prose.” Naturally, it also contributes to our unity, however a convention (Kenes) represents something else, a convocation (Kinus) of hearts.

In spirituality, everything correlates with unity, where we draw our strength. Every day we try to speak about it and realize it, we build intentions, have gatherings of friends and special lessons every week; however, these are not the states where it is really possible to receive a big and powerful force that will push us forward like at a convention.

Malchut of the World of Atzilut is called the “gathering of Israel” (Knesset Israel) because it gathers and unites all our desires directed towards the spiritual goal. Essentially, a convention is the building of Malchut of the World of Atzilut, the creation of a corrected, united spiritual vessel. There is no alternative to this.

And this is primarily why I recommend everyone to participate in the convention and to make sure you do not miss it. A person has no other chance to receive the strength for spiritual advancement.

Moreover, based on experience, we know that conventions are followed by not very pleasant times, periods of descent. You need the convention to stock up on strength and gently pass this descent as if it did not exist. It is as if we were leveling the pressure between two poles. We receive the “plus” by gathering together and giving enormous strength to one another, and every one of us receives the “minus” individually after the convention; this negativity divides and separates us. However, I work with it with the help of the common force, which I have received from everyone else, and in the end I correct it.

I do not have another opportunity to correct my minus, my egoism, my “poison” my “angel of death,” my evil inclination. The only thing I can do is become inspired by the common ascent and use it to correct my personal descent. The same happens at the lessons and gatherings of friends; however, conventions are unprecedented chances to draw strength from friends, correct the private evil in you, unite, and support a unified connection with everyone, trying to bestow to them. Thus we advance.

There have been conventions, which were not really followed by descents. But lately we really started “to fall,” and we now understand that there is nothing artificial here. This is necessary for existence; otherwise, we will die spiritually.

The time has come: All our conventions are intended for collecting strength, which later allows us to correct ourselves. I am not going to have fun and enjoy myself, attend lessons and concerts with my friends. No, I need this unity to immediately following this unity, correct my evil inclination, the forces of separation that awaken in me.

This is why it is so important to go to the convention and also very important to maintain a maximum connection between us after it, trying to feel the fight that we are leading. If, after the convention, full of tension and torn by contradictions, I can still evenly pass this stage, keeping the strength I have received from everyone and maintaining myself in the group, if, when I experience a descent, I rise above it, then the “plus” and the “minus” merge into a single whole: The evil inclination—a big egoistic desire—manifests in me, but a screen—the power of unity, which I have acquired—reigns over it.

Let us hope that this is how we use our conventions.
[77442]
From a Lesson in New Jersey 5/09/12, Shamati #25

Related Material:
The Necessary Step
The Waves Of The Convention Are Washing Away All The Dirt
The Guiding Thread Of Conventions

Question:

Answer: In reality, there is no good inclination. There is just the evil inclination, which was initially created by the Creator. That is why He informs us that He created the evil inclination. But we correct it with the help of the Torah and turn it into the good inclination.

“Inclination” is desire. The desire remains. But “evil” means that I constantly want to receive for my own sake, and then it harms me because I close myself off in this world like a small animal, living out the years I have to live. This is the most miserable kind of life that is possible in reality.

The good inclination means that we try to unite in the group and see that we are incapable of it, and begin to scream in a common prayer. Then the Light that reforms comes and creates unity between us, and inside of that unity the intention to bestow, the Light becomes revealed. Then, instead of the evil inclination, we have the good one, the same desire, but with the intention to unite with the neighbor.
[77693]
From the 3rd seminar at the New Jersey Convention, 5/12/12

Related Material:
A Screen Is Very Simple…
Checking The Connection With The Group
The Levels Of Ascent

Question:

Answer: The Light comes through the group in response to my request and builds a screen within me, which helps me rise above my ego and connect to the group. A screen is a connecting link between myself and the group, or between myself and the Creator, which is the same thing. It helps me rise above egoism and, once I rise above myself, to connect with the Light, with the Creator, with the essence of the group that is revealed at the group’s center.

We don’t need anything other than the screen. There is my desire and there is the group within which the Light and the Creator are found, and the screen helps me connect with them. That is how I enter the spiritual world: at the center of the group.
[77696]
From the 4th seminar at the New Jersey Convention, 5/13/12

Related Material:
Turning Good To Evil
The Team Of Stage Builders
Who Owns The Screen?

Question:

Answer: Physical desires for food, sex, family, money, honor, power, and knowledge cannot stand in a person’s spiritual advancement. We shouldn’t deal with what belongs to the body separately.

We should only be worried about the hatred we feel towards the friends and then toward the whole world.

If you want to eat five servings instead of one, it is harmful for the body, but it doesn’t interfere with the spiritual path. The same goes for sex.

So think only about the connection with the Creator through the friends, and you can stop worrying about all the rest.
[77366]
From the Brazil Convention 5/06/12, Lesson 5

Related Material:
The Law Of Universal Balance
Progressive Double Vision
Get Down To Pure Egoism

Convention in New Jersey, Workshop 4

Convention in New Jersey, Lesson 5

One Convention in New Jersey,  ”Balance Through Connection Between Us as a Solution for the Crisis and Rising to the Higher Dimension,” Lesson 2

Convention in New Jersey, Workshop 2

One Convention in New Jersey, Lesson 3

One Convention in New Jersey, Workshop 3

By acting against our ego and connecting more strongly, we go through 125 degrees of ascent that are divided into Sefirot, Partzufim, and worlds.

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.
[77265]
From the Brazil Convention 5/04/12, Lesson 1

Related Material:
Jumping Out Of Your Skin
Maturing To The Title Of “Human”
Standing At The Beginning Of Glorious Deeds

Question:

Answer: When I sit in a circle together with other people, I must see every one of them as a puppet through which the Creator speaks. This is not a person, but the way in which the Creator presents Himself to me in various forms. No matter how silly the things they say are, that doesn’t matter to me; I bow down before them. No matter how unpleasant they may suddenly seem to me, how repulsive and unattractive, I must counterbalance this by understanding that He is awakening this outlook, this antipathy in me. And this is the place of work.

It is written about the great sage Rabbi Yossi Ben Kisma that he had a group of students who were total beginners, stupid and with no merits, but he placed himself even lower in relation to them, and then they suddenly became great in his eyes and he was able to receive all attainment through them from the Creator.

No one is higher or lower; all of that exists according to our evaluation. Therefore, I can sit with a group that came “from the street” – that doesn’t matter. Everything depends on how I position myself in relation to them.
[77448]
From the lesson in America on 5/10/12, Shamati

Related Material:
How To Start A Workshop?
Do You Like Seeing Others As Higher Than Yourself?
The First Stage