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Connection Convention Day 2, “The Next Step,” Lesson 3

Connection Convention Day 2, “The Next Step,” Workshop 3

Connection Convention Day 2, “The Next Step,” Lesson 4

Connection Convention Day 2, “The Next Step,” Workshop 4

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All our work is in making the right choice, as it is written: “Choose life!” We constantly have to ascend the ladder to a more qualitative choice. The Creator wants to be revealed to the created beings. He wants them to reveal Him and to feel that He is the only force in the world, good and benevolent. However, we have to discover this by ourselves, in our desires, that is, we have to change ourselves so that we will see that the Creator is good and that is nothing else in the world but His goodness.

Our first choice is by trying to see the revelation of the one upper force in everything that happens in the world. A person should picture himself standing in the middle: On his left side, there is this lively, active world, and on his right side the Creator. A person stands in-between the two and chooses which one will win and who will conduct this entire orchestra: the world itself or the Creator, or perhaps alternately, the two of them together, or perhaps it is the Creator that operates through this world?

It takes quite a while until a person clarifies this. His first choice is that “there is none else besides Him.” And after he determines that there is nothing but the upper force, he then will clarify that it is good and benevolent.

This means that it isn’t enough to see the world under the rule of the single Creator. It’s also necessary to justify His governance of the world and be sure that it is absolutely thanks self-correction.

A person faces this double choice. Later, he begins to clarify even higher levels by “faith above reason,” but the main thing is to make this first decision. This is what the phase of preparation is about, when a person must change himself since nothing changes but the person himself. Thus, he attains the spiritual world.
[105880]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/24/13

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Rabash, “We Shall Do and We Shall Hear (2)”: … And since a person must annul his reason and his thoughts before the Creator, he must accustom himself on the outside. This is called “doing,” which is called, “We shall do.” And all those annulments will enable him to annul his reason and thoughts before the Creator.

Thus, it turns out that one who has more knowledge has more work annulling himself before the Creator. But one who is a fool doesn’t need to annul his reason, since he has no reason. It follows that the only merit of reason is that one has something to annul, and this is the only reason why one should aspire for knowledge. And one who is not ready for that, it is better for him to have no knowledge.

This is called “His wisdom is more than his deeds.” This means that he has more knowledge than he can annul, since the annulment is considered doing and not hearing. “Hearing” means understanding, and doing is only by force, without reason. This is called, “We shall do and we shall hear.” Therefore, if he has the power of doing, he will be able to receive hearing because his basis is faith and not knowledge.

We should attain a state in which we can control at least some of our sensations and our mind. If my heart and mind will be under my authority, in my hands, I will be able to use only the part of my desires and intentions in which I can bestow and not receive for myself.

Of course, this is not easy, but we should try to achieve  this. This means that a man is riding on a donkey (Hamor), meaning that he controls and managers his material (Homer).  This means that he controls his matter and allows his thoughts and desires to work only on such a level of quality and quantity that builds the form of Adam (Man) from them, that is similar (Domeh) to the Creator. He does it so that they are all in bestowal and love of others, beyond his selfish interests.

He uses the thoughts and the desires that are aimed at his self-benefit only for basic needs and only if he intends to sanctify them eventually so they will be “in order to bestow” in the next state.

If a person doesn’t let go of this state, it is called “we shall do and we shall hear” and it means working by “faith above reason.” Of course, it is impossible to do this immediately after a person hears about it—if he hears about this type of work at all. It takes quite a while to be under the influence of the Light at the stage of preparation so that the Light will help a person sort out everything that happens in his mind and heart. Eventually, he begins to differentiate between the actions and the intentions, reception and bestowal.
[105867]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/22/13, Writings of Rabash

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Question: What do I need to do with the thoughts that come to me?

Answer: I need to become an independent, objective judge about what happens to me, without any craftiness or emotion, like an external, unbiased observer. This means that I try to be within my point in the heart, outside my body, outside of my present “self.” Every desire or thought that is awakened in me I accept as coming from the Creator, from “there is none else besides Him,” as a game that He plays with me. On the other hand, I need to decide what to do with this and begin to work accordingly.

Everything that happens is given to me as obstacles. It simply cannot be otherwise since as a rule, before the Machsom there are no good sensations. So, first of all, I need to be thankful for all that comes and accept that all this is for my own good and given to me for the work. And then, I need to start working and to try to build something practical above this obstacle.

While the obstacle remains, I rise above it and build an opposite relationship with it. In this manner, through the group, I search for the source from which I received such thought or desire. I want to unite this thought or desire with its source so that “Israel, Torah, and the Creator will be one.” Israel is myself, acting with my thoughts and desires to transform everything that I receive from the Creator, both good and bad, into material, an area, for our adhesion, connection.

This is called acting according to the condition of “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one.” And then I wait, being ready to receive a new obstacle. Someone screams at me, or something happens, or even without an external event my soul feels bad—that’s the Creator is acting on me directly or indirectly. Again, I have to work on this. That is, I search for every opportunity to combine all that happens to me, all the states, with the Creator so as to ultimately accept any state with my heart and soul and to see in it only one thing: His desire to embrace me.

Success depends on whether I see it in this particular way, do I thank the Creator, and do I hurry to embrace Him? To embrace means to come to complete agreement, up to self-sacrifice.
[105864]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/22/13, Writings of Rabash

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Question: How can we amplify the influence of the Light upon us during the study? What exactly depends on the students?

Answer: We only study about what depends on a person. What isn’t brought into effect by a person doesn’t relate to us, and we cannot understand it for the time being.

It depends on a person to come to the group, to be among his friends, to prepare for the lesson, and to connect to the lesson together with the friends so that everyone will realize that they need to feel what they study. This is the meaning of the lesson, and we can only feel it in the connection between us.

This means that the books tell us about the connection between the friends who desperately want to connect under the influence of the study, of the Light, so that in it, to attain the Creator or their general collective soul in which they will discover Him. This is the meaning of our existence, our development, the study, and of all our activities.

In order to do that, we have to study the articles of Rabash and Baal HaSulam about the connection of the friends in the group, about how the study should be conducted, and about how we should connect in our thoughts and intentions. It is actually very simple: a person, a group, and the Creator who is revealed in the group. And that’s all. Only the right general concentration can generate the desirable result.
[105852]
From the Virtual Lesson 4/21/13

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