Our spiritual study and dissemination are derived from correction of the shattering of the entire Kli, the Kli of the collective soul. This process can be divided into three stages of development.

When I came to my teacher, Rabash, I met five or six people who had studied with Baal HaSulam.

They had a particular approach to studying: sitting quietly, reading, and speaking between them a little. They exchanged only a few words between them because they understood what was said in the books, and while reading, they were doing internal spiritual actions. That is how they advanced. Like people who walk together in the woods or in a field, that is the way they exchanged impressions about what they “saw” on the way while they were reading.

The tension among them and the internal work during which they corrected their desires was palpable. That is, they were working both together and separately.

At that time we studied only The Study of the Ten Sefirot and The Book of Zohar with the Sulam Commentary. There were no articles or letters by Baal HaSulam and Rabash then.

When I brought new students to Rabash, he began to write articles because this created an opportunity to speak about the correction of people, and the main thing, what we could add to the Upper Light.

The Upper Light presses on us and moves us through those stages that we must go through. If we aren’t ready for it, we receive its influence as a blow and against our will; we twist and dodge to reduce the suffering. After all, when you press something, the object that is being pressed will adopt the most suitable form for its condition.

On the other hand, I could put myself under the influence of the Upper Light and attract it in the most effective way. The Light doesn’t change, but in this way I change its influence on me.

In addition, my position, my location, taking on the most comfortable and correct form appropriate for the Light is not found artificially; rather, I must more or less accommodate myself to what I must get to. I don’t merely dodge and run away somewhere, instead I intentionally search for the influence of the Light.

How can one do this when, after all, we don’t see, don’t understand, and don’t feel spirituality? So the group helps me since in it I can find my most optimal position regarding the Light. I don’t accommodate myself to the Light because in our world, in the same plane in which I am found, I have the most clear and precise possibility of directing myself towards the Light. This is not in regard to the Light, but in regard to my friends.

This is the reason for the “Shevirat HaKelim” (the breaking of the vessels); it is so that I will have the possibility of working with them. Accordingly, I don’t force myself on the Light, instead I can reach it through opposite characteristics because I am not working with it but with my friends. That is how this works.

The main thing is not to miss the opportunity to choose each time the optimal form of mutual accommodation between us. Each of us begins to perceive his maximal position towards the others, and in this way he enters into a unified picture like a mosaic or a kaleidoscope.

I already begin to think about how my friends will reach their optimal form. This “togetherness” is called the “center of the group.” Where everyone is involved in this, they stabilize themselves with each other to aim towards this state. When we enter into it, it will close, and at that moment we become like the Light and immediately feel it. The shared characteristic of bestowal—this is the Light, the first level.
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From the Convention in Sochi “Day One” 6/11/14, Lesson 2

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