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Convention in New Jersey, Day 1 “Importance of the Gathering” 

Convention in New Jersey, Day 1, Lesson 1

Convention in New Jersey, Day 1, Workshop 1

Convention in New Jersey, Day 1, Lesson 2

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Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam (Steps of the Ladder), “The Purpose of Society” (1984 part 1): And this is why we gather here—to establish a society where each of us follows the spirit of bestowing upon the Creator. And to achieve bestowal upon the Creator, we must begin with bestowal upon man, which is called “love of others.”

Thanks to this we will be able to bestow upon the Creator, the general force of bestowal. This is what we call the attribute by which we rise above our ego.

Mutual bestowal is love of others. If I love someone, I want to give him everything and I make sure that he feels good. It is as if I am constantly in him and I see myself only as a means to bestow upon him, which helps me transcend myself.

This is the reason that such a big world with so many people in it was created. It allows us to gather and establish a group where by the mutual connection between us everyone will be able to transcend his ego and see that he has the means to acquire a second nature: bestowal. In fact, this is what we call the exit from the ego, from its limited system.

And on the other hand, be proud that the Creator has given us the chance to be in a society where each of us has but a single goal—for Divinity to dwell among us.

Our goal is that the revelation of the upper world will fill us. This is called “the revelation of Divinity,” which takes place namely among us. Each of us is an egoist, but when we exit our nature and begin to rise above ourselves, a great collective force is created between us, full of mutual bestowal. We make sure that we achieve this mutual force when we mutually bestow upon one another, and our concern is called mutual guarantee.

We all feel the upper world in this general force. There we discover the forces of all the people who lived before us and who live in this world together with us, of all the people who transcend themselves and live in an eternal state.

This general force is one collective soul. There are no separate individual souls, but only one soul for everyone. But in it everyone feels the eternal world in different depth and width, to the extent that he rose above his ego.

We go through ascents and descents along this road that summon different states in which the eternal world seems to be changing. The truth is that it doesn’t change, as it says: “The Light is at absolute rest.” But we feel as if it changes since we are actually changing. Our ego is transforming all the time, we overcome it in different ways, and accordingly, the picture of our world and the feelings we experience are very dynamic.

Thus we advance until everything is totally revealed and this is the end of correction. All the people in this world must reach that. Even if the bodies change, our spiritual parts remain the same. The bodies separate us from the general feeling into individuals, but if we leave the body, we immediately feel one world and ourselves as one. This is precisely where we are headed.

The efforts that we make in the convention depend on us. We may experience this eternal sate for a couple of minutes. It may be temporary and it may disappear, but the actual phenomenon will remain and will draw us forward forcefully helping us overcome the future phases.

If we really make great efforts, then besides this world we will feel the spiritual world and live in two worlds. It is all up to us. If we can initially think about this and are getting ready for this, then whoever comes to the convention will join us and we will all advance together.

So let’s hope for the revelation of the upper world, which we must always see as the goal that is attained by our unity.

And although we have not yet achieved this goal, that is, we have not felt the upper world by exiting our ego, we have the desire to achieve it. And this, too, should be appreciated by us.

It is true that we have just started, but we hope to reach the goal, and it should be appreciated by us. It is up to us and depends on our efforts. It says: “A person can buy his world in one hour.” If people, who are part of a group, really want to transcend themselves, they will really feel this ascent.
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From a Talk On Preparation for the Congress in New Jersey, 5/10/2013

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Question: Why does the Creator send me “thorny” thoughts?

Answer: From Rabash’s article “What is the Lily Among the Thorns in the Work”: The Zohar says “As the lily among the thorns so is my loved one among the girls.” The Creator wanted to make Israel like its form Above, so that there will be one lily on earth like the upper lily which is Malchut, and a lily that has a scent and is selected of all the other lilies in the world is the one that grows among the thorns.

A lily can grow and bloom only if it grows among the thorns. It’s impossible to grow without the thorns. The thorns are the forces that help us advance. Otherwise we would peacefully fall to sleep in our desire to receive and would never want to rise above it.

The thorns are the forces of motion that push us forward and help us advance while we aspire towards rest, fulfillment, and pleasure. They appear when there is no choice, when a person disrespects the option to advance by his own efforts and tries to rest all the time, justifying himself, feeling that he does enough and that everything is fine.

Then his stubbornness and his laziness gradually accumulate until a serious thorn appears. Then he begins to cry out and to advance. Everyone will agree judging by his own experience and say that this is exactly what happens, sometimes more and sometimes less. This is how a person is taught that he should find the power to advance by himself and not wait for the thorns. But there will still be thorns since it’s impossible to totally manage without them.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/3/13, Writings of Rabash

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Question: What does it mean that a person should only present his “half a shekel” in the work and the Creator adds the other half?

Answer: My “half a shekel” means that I have to bring a vessel, a deficiency, while the filling comes from Above. This deficiency is necessary in order to acquire the force of bestowal. If my deficiency is right, I will receive the other half.

But usually we prepare the desire to receive for our own sake and cry out: “Give me, Give me!” Then we say: “The Creator doesn’t give us anything! He must be wrong and this whole method doesn’t work.”

We are not aware of the fact that our vessel is actually aimed at what the Creator doesn’t give. He only gives us a vessel of bestowal, the Light that Reforms, which is the only thing for which you may ask. If you really ask for that, you receive it.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/3/13, Writings of Rabash

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Baal HaSulam, “The Peace”: Rabbi Akiva depicts two kinds of people: the first are the “open store” type, which regard this world as an open store without a shopkeeper. He says about them, “The book is open and the hand writes.” Meaning, although they do not see that there is an account, all their actions are nonetheless written in the book, as explained above. 

We exist in a general system, and we influence it through all our actions. No matter what I think about or what I do, everything immediately influences the whole, of which I am an integral part.

This is done by the law of development imprinted in Creation against humanity’s will, where the deeds of the wicked themselves necessarily instigate the good deeds…

How is that possible? How can an evil deed correct me and generate good deeds? The path of suffering exists for this purpose. If I generate a series of troubles, if I don’t keep the direction of the goal of creation in order to judge myself and the whole world to the scale of merit, then my bad deeds and opposite goals bring the system to such distortions that as a result, it influences me like the source of evil and forces me to change my state and become a good and useful part.

This means that eventually, my bad deeds will surely come back to me twice as intensely as the harm I have caused to the system and will force me to change for the better.

The path of suffering is undesirable. It is prolonged and continuous since all my deeds go through the system until it responds. This takes time, but it surely will happen since the system doesn’t change.

So, my bad deeds surely will influence me eventually and correct me. However, they correct me only so that I will understand that I am a negative factor in the general system, and thus, I feel bad. It doesn’t change or correct me. It is said about this: “The Creator Himself puts one’s hand on the good fate and says to him, ‘Choose this for yourself.’” I am only brought to the place where I can choose, but the system doesn’t choose anything for me. It only brings me to the decision that I must do good deeds.

“The second type of people is called “those who want to borrow.” They take the shopkeeper into consideration, and when they take something from the store, they only take it as a loan.”

So, where do such good and clever people come from? Like the first type, they also have undergone suffering since no one receives any special treatment, and the same force of good and evil exists in everyone. If your evil inclination is big, then accordingly, you have enough brains, wisdom and persistence. So, at the end of correction, no one will feel that he is deprived as compared to others, but rather that everyone has his own special attributes and that they are compatible with each other, whereas in the ideal relation they are equal.

There are people who have been through great hardships in this or in a previous life and have become wiser—not in their minds, but in their internality. They already have the inner preparation that allows them to understand that they are in a general system and that they must be considerate of everyone since there is no other way. This is worthwhile since we will suffer less this way.

They want to heal the system or even to tie it to the Creator, depending on their current level which eventually is determined by the level of pain they have experienced. So, no wonder that relatively, the nation of Israel suffers much more than others. This is determined by the conditions of the general system.

“They promise to pay the shopkeeper the desired price, meaning attain the goal by it.”

This is the price. I ask, I demand, that the Creator give me a mind, feelings, and the power to do exactly what He demands of me. I will force myself, I will succeed in convincing myself, and then, I will see that it really is worthwhile to behave precisely this way. In the meantime, I advance under the pressure of the blows I receive, but later on, I gradually will change my perspective as I reconsider what is happening and will not advance “under pressure,” but for the uniqueness that is in bestowal, in love of others.

Thus, I ask for a loan. I ask for help, which is called raising MAN, a request for correction, as I want to fill the desire of the upper one. This always requires an ascent above reason. I make a decision that is not based on my egoistic desires, but on the desires that are above them.

The first type, whose debt is collected by the collectors of the development, pay their debt unknowingly, but stormy waves come upon them, through the strong wind of development, and push them from behind, forcing them to step forward.

Thus, their debt is collected against their will and with great pains by manifestations of the evil forces, which push them from behind. But the second type pay their debt, which is the attainment of the goal knowingly, of their own accord, by repeating the actions that hasten the development of the sense of recognition of evil.

It is clear that they receive the positive force that pulls them upward toward the goal, but they are the ones who awaken it as if they actually advance according to their own freewill.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/3/13, “The Peace”

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