A letter from my student: At seven in the morning on Saturday, several people from our “Arvut special forces,” Wall Street, New York, traveled to Boston, one of the oldest, most beautiful, and enlightened cities in the USA. We were invited by our friends at the Boston group who had spent several weeks establishing a relationship with the organizers of the “occupation” camp there.

The sympathizers at the camp were eager to take leaflets, but the movement wasn’t growing and mutual inclusion was not happening. We were told that the Boston movement was a small scale movement. It was unclear what work was needed and how to incorporate the message of mutual guarantee in the masses since there weren’t any “masses.” However, since our friends said, “You have to,” Arvut responded, “You got it!”

After all, four hours spent shaking in a double decker bus was not the end of the world, and it was an opportunity to catch up on the sleep we missed while connected to the convention in the Arava desert. We arrived on location at noon, and our friends greeted us with so much warmth that we had no choice but give back at least double what they had given us!

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Opinion (from New Scientist): “The eurozone, like the rest of the world economy, is a complex networked system. That gives it properties economists rarely consider but which could help us understand the current crisis.

“What is a complex network?

“Complex networks have many interconnected components which influence each other’s behaviour. These changes then feed back on each other. A famous example is the numbers of predators and prey in a given environment, which vary in a complex interdependent way. The eurozone – the 17 countries that share a common currency, the euro – is similarly interdependent, with similar feedback mechanisms.

“All complex networks are governed by a balance between negative feedback, such as interest rates, which is stabilising, and positive feedback, such as the self-reinforcing erosion of trust in markets, which is destabilizing.

“How does that help us understand economic crises?

“In certain circumstances, one type of feedback can end up dominating the system, causing it to change so dramatically that it flips to another state. Examples include the way animal populations can suddenly collapse or the way economies can slip into recession.

“These tipping points tend to be highly unpredictable. Even so, computer models of the system can still show how the system can change. Yet leading economics journals, he Len Fisher at the University of Bristol, author of Crashes, Crises and Calamities: How we can use science to read the early-warning signs] says, do not accept computer-modelling studies.

“Can we understand complex systems well enough to control them?

“Maybe. The diversity of a network’s components and the density and strength of its connections – called its connectivity – affect the system’s resilience, or resistance to change. More connections make a system more resilient: if one component fails others can fill in. But only up to a point. Go past a certain threshold and more connectivity makes the system less resilient because a single failure can cascade to every other component.

“The trick is to get the balance right.

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Question: Regarding the problem of revealing our connection within group activity and practicing love of friends: What does it mean to “judge our friends with a scale of merit” and everything will fall into place naturally? Does this mean that if a problem is perceived regarding love of friends, judging with a scale of merit will fix things? Can a scale of merit be used as a personal tool for correction? (from the article “One should Always Sell the Beams of His House”)

Answer: The key is to reach unity first and only then judge others, already treating them like your children or relatives. That is why it is said that the basis of correction is the principle of, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” and after this property is mastered, the correction is in reaching the property of “love the other as thyself.”
[61714]

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The world needs to unite and is looking for a way to do so. In the meantime, unity seems unfeasible to it.

We see that Europe cannot unite: Different conflicts and new cold wars are going on there, only to keep the people busy somehow, to distract them. Lots of various egoistic motives arise, and people need to overcome them, yet they don’t understand or feel that.

Undoubtedly, it is important to set some kind of an example for the world and to introduce the altruistic force into it.

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, we exist in the one and only desire that was created. We are a certain part of that desire, and if we fill this part with the attribute of bestowal, it will begin to spread gradually to all other souls, people, societies, counties, and cultures.

We are all connected to one another, and what happens in one part in the world “infects” its other parts virtually. Our unification includes a great number of students from all the continents, nations, races, religions, and different mentalities. Since we are a great mass of people who are aimed precisely at a certain goal, we certainly make up one big, strong whole.

When, for example, our friends in New York go out to the streets, we see that people meet them with interest and ask questions and that university professors bring their students to talk with them and to learn about what our friends offer. This means that we are a strong influential group that has its own goal, outlook, and idea based on serious scientific data and not on mysticism or different beliefs. This group actually penetrates the different levels of humanity and gradually shapes it according to its own form.

We should definitely reinforce our dissemination because the world is about to collapse. Undoubtedly, we will eventually reach a state when people will begin to listen to us. We can already see that.
[61706]
From the Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 11/20/2011

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Kabbalah for the Nation Introductory Lecture Series, “My First Congress”
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There is a certain unification, preparation, that only men can carry out if they detach themselves from their families, from the women, and seclude themselves. When you go beyond the boundaries of our world and exist only in unity with the friends, this produces a special prayer, special sensations. We felt it. It is really so, and it cannot be described in any other way.

Women’s preparation is not in order to connect themselves, but to help the men to do that, to try to create all the necessary conditions for it, and to quietly push them towards connection. Women can help men overcome their ego and reach unity.

By the way, our women, all over the world, understood this point very well. They supported us and I am grateful for that. Their support was felt throughout the Arava convention, and by that they performed a great service for us.

The December convention already entails the state of standing at the foot of Mt Sinai, where there are women, children, and the elderly. However, the foundation is the men, 600,000 souls, not by their quantity, but might.

In the wisdom of Kabbalah everything is measured by its power because Kabbalah talks about uniting into one general desire. This one mighty desire is expressed as the number 600,000, which symbolizes the power of our unity. To rise to the level of 600,000 means to reach the complete revelation of the upper force, the Creator.

I hope that we will attain it because we have all the prerequisites for that. At least we are doing everything that is in our power. The whole world also needs what we are doing, and it is thanks to this that we receive support from Above. We succeed not because we are so special and talented, but because the world needs a group that will lead it forward.
[61708]
From the Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 11/20/2011

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The decisive week before the convention has arrived. These are special days preceding the reception of the new state. In order to demand the new state, we need to correctly prepare ourselves, to feel sure that we will receive it, and to be ready for it. And then it will happen.

Everything depends on us. The opportunity is given to us, everything is ready, and it depends only on our desire, on how successful we will be in demanding this.

We hope that we will join our forces and succeed in reaching a cry. Essentially, this is all we need, nothing more. The other half will come from Above.

Therefore, there is no need to go all the way and try to be nice in order to do it all by ourselves. We can’t be nice, we only need to want it to happen.

Half is already easier. We only have to think about this: how to make an effort and to cry out. And after that, the upper force will come. We only need to draw the boundary and understand where our part ends. This will make it easier for a person to prepare for the first revelation of the Creator.
[61881]
From the Talk During the Meal 11/25/2011

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Writings of Rabash “Concerning Love of Friends”
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The Book of Zohar – Selected Chapter “Beresheet (Genesis),” “The Brightness of the Firmament,” Item 10, Lesson 6
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 16, Item 43, Lesson 1
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Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose,” “The Essence of Religion Is to Develop in Us the Sense of Recognition of Evil,” Lesson 4
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Question: Why do I face so many obstacles to attending the convention? Maybe I’m not ready for it yet?

Answer: Obstacles are put before you on purpose. In “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” there is an example about how we climb the mountain where the castle of the Creator stands. The higher you climb, the more roughly the guards push you away and throw you down; you have to clamber up again. This continues until you make enough effort and finally overcome the obstacles.

You will suddenly see that the obstacles did not really harm you. They merely awakened a true desire in you. This is like a flirt, when the desired distances away from you and thus fires an even greater desire. This exists at all levels of fulfillment. That is, to come into contact with the Creator, you must reach a true desire.
[61840]
From the Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 11/6/2011

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