Question: Can the group forbid a friend to participate in the convention because of improper behavior?

Answer: We must check every case separately. On the whole, these are the criteria:

• participating in the lessons every morning;
• paying Maaser (tithing);
• participating in the gatherings of friends,
• participating in dissemination as much as one can.

These four conditions are mandatory. If a person fulfills them, he has a place in the convention.

But we made some mitigations and we don’t check the participants according to these criteria. Many of them don’t pay tithe, do not participate in the morning lessons, and so on. Surely, these people don’t quite understand what we have in mind and what we do. However, it doesn’t mean that we won’t be able to succeed in the convention and that it will only be a “practice.”

Besides, different people come from different parts of the collective soul of Adam HaRishon, and for some of them it takes twice or three times longer to master the system. They can advance in some particular aspect, but it is more difficult for them to change internally. There are those who even become worse: coarse, careless, and so on. Don’t judge your friend until you step in his shoes.

On the whole, we don’t judge the friends according to their external behavior unless it is related to dissemination work. The main thing is that a person doesn’t show disregard.

Question: Does this mean that in the meantime these criteria are a recommendation and not a demand?

Answer: This time we don’t impose them, but a person should know that not fulfilling them keeps him behind. He can participate in our activities, but he won’t advance. He won’t disturb us in the convention, and he will feel an ascent, but not as a “man” who comes out of Egypt.

We give these people a chance to be with us, at a lower level that limits the feeling and the advancement. There is nothing we can do about it.
[70373]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/20/12, “Advice for the Arava Convention”

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Question: How is it possible to enter happiness while reading The Book of Zohar?

Answer: We have the greatest means that promises us success. If you are near it, it only remains for you to use it.

It is like you had been searching for treasure for many years, you crossed continents and oceans, and then in a remote cave you found it, and now the chest with the gold is in your hands! All that treasure is yours! You only need to use it.

We have found the treasure: The Book of Zohar, and now we only need to use it correctly, it is already in our hands.

Also to use it correctly isn’t simple. You need to invest these “gold coins” making sure that you are doing so in a good way.

We are near the force that can also transform into a great destructive force, the “angel of death” instead of a “holy angel.” That is why The Book of The Zohar wasn’t revealed to people during hundreds of years, only during our times when man is really capable of using this power for good and when all of humanity arrives at a hopeless state and must change.

Therefore, we should rejoice that this force is in our hands. And now, with great caution, we need to learn how to use it correctly.
[70357]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/20/12, The Zohar

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Opinion (Fred Spier, Vice President, the International Big History Association): “What supports the complexity of the universe? The flow of energy! However, the problem is that the more complex the system becomes, the higher the entropy is, and the disorganization of the system increases. What is the solution? To minimize the entropy of the materials is the immediate task of humanity.”

My Comment: Only the behavior of man, who includes in himself all other systems of nature as his subsystems, can bring the whole system of the universe in order. The balance and peace of the universe depend only on man.
[70422]

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Opinion (Dr. David Hookes, Department of Computer Science, University of Liverpool, UK): “The triple crisis—credit, ecological, and technological—cannot be regulated by digital technologies.

“Humanity exists in the old paradigm, and only the quantum paradigm will help to avoid disaster. The meaning of the new logic is the transition from a consumer society to a knowledge society. In some sense it resembles… neo-socialism based on equitable redistribution due to the abolition of the principle of financial markets and bubbles.”

My Comment: Unfortunately, no specific plans follow the bold statements that recently are growing in numbers.
[70428]

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In the News (from Google News): “Hundreds of thousands of people, many waving red and white union flags, protested across Spain on Sunday against sweeping labour market reforms that make it easier to slash pay and lay off workers….

“Union officials said 500,000 people hit the streets in Madrid, 400,000 in Barcelona, 150,000 in Valencia and 50,000 in Seville.”

My Comment: This is only the beginning of the protests. They can be stopped by other reforms: by the fair distribution of income and the transition of the economy into reasonable limits. But this can be only implemented under the condition of educating all the population with explanatory programs for everyone.
[70425]

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Question: In what way is the most delicate, the most emotional request, expressed for that single image that has to manifest between us?

Answer: Begin to think: There is one reason, one force, one desire, and the concept of “One” includes all of that. This attribute-force-thought dwells above us.

We attain it from below, from the separation between us, since otherwise, without the initial division into parts, it is impossible to attain the whole. You can’t speak about one without knowing what two are.

This is why we attain perfection from within a lack thereof. And then, as the Kli (vessel) or desire discovers an increasingly greater shattering, meaning separation from the others, as well as a greater number of differences between us and this One whole, we attain His unity more and more.

It is impossible to convey this feeling. A person doesn’t lose himself, but becomes included into a new level, that of the single Thought.

Try to describe this to yourselves. At least we are already able to talk about it a little. The more we try together, the faster we will reveal this. But this is the discovery of a real force. And then you feel everything that exists below it, in our world, like a children’s game, like something fictitious.
[70360]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/20/2012, The Zohar

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The Book of Zohar, Weekly Torah Portion “HaShavua,” Selected Excerpts
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

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Before reading The Book of  Zohar, we have to clarify the most important thing for us and to turn it into a plea. If we think correctly, the plea will only be one, and it will be the same for everyone. This happens automatically, by itself. After all, if a person really, very seriously clarifies the most important thing, he arrives at the same plea that the others have. And then it is called a “prayer of the many.”

We don’t even have to ask each other: “What are you thinking about? What are you asking for?” Even if we express our prayer in different words, still in our inner feeling, inner clarification, it really has to be the same plea. This means that inside we feel the desire, the need, for the single, shared form for everyone.

And then this inner deficiency, desire, longing, this inner hunger, is called a “prayer of the many.” Let us try to reach this. For this we also need the Light that Reforms.
[70363]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/20/2012, The Zohar

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Rabbi Elimelech from Lizhensk, “A Luminary and the Sun”: The main thing is to unite with each friend in love, serve the Creator with the single heart, to give a hand together, to extend connection among us and solder with each other’s hearts to become one whole and serve the Creator wholeheartedly.

In general, all our work is in one action: to unite as one man with one heart, to solder with each other’s hearts to become one whole and serve the Creator wholeheartedly. This is how we correct the breakage created specifically for us in order to reveal the degree of our separation and to build a bridge of love over it.

It’s in this manner of working with the help of an obstacle given from Above, the height of a bridge extending over the abyss of our egoism, that we build our common spiritual Partzuf and reveal the eternal reality in which we are to live. Thus, we’ll be getting even more blows of separation on the way and will be building a connection of love in mutual guarantee, unity, and complement like a perfectly tuned mechanism of an integral system. Each time we have to aspire toward perfection. Malfunctions and new details that need to be added to our system to become perfect will be revealed to us. And we’ll be happy to find and fix these details because corrections lead us toward true perfection.

We have to be happy with the evil being revealed. I am happy and rejoice in these apparent and appearing impairments, writes Baal HaSulam in the Igrot (Letters) 5, P. 11. He continues: I do indeed regret and complain about the impairments that are still covered, and are destined to be uncovered, for a covered corruption is in no hope…. Thus it’s very important for the flaws to be revealed. And they have to be accepted with joy. When a person is connected to a group in the right way, he accepts all the obstacles, problems, and difficulties with joy because he understands that by overcoming them and building a proper connection above them, knowledge, wisdom, and love will become revealed above evil. To the extent of an evil abyss’s depth, he climbs a spiritual height and perceives the Creator’s eternal world.
[70281]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/19/12, “Advice for the Arava Convention”

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Rabash, Shlavey Hasulam (Steps of the Ladder), “The Need for the Love of Friends:” There is a special power in the adhesion of friends. Since views and thoughts pass from one to the other through the adhesion between them, each is mingled with the power of the other, and by that each person in the group has the power of the entire group. For this reason, although each person is an individual, he contains the power of the entire group.

When children are together they learn good things from each other. Actually they sometimes “infect” one another with bad things, and in general, if a person is ill he infects others. Can this be happening in the group too? What do I need this for? Isn’t it better to stay at home?

There are those among us who think that it is better for kids to stay at home, and not be with children their own age, although this is absolutely contrary to our approach. Of course they receive both good things and bad things from the environment. There is no doubt about that, but a person can’t grow without the two things.

Therefore there is a special power in the adhesion of friends, if it isn’t a society of criminals or a gathering of jokers, of course. It’s said that dispersing the evil is good for them and good for the world. But we’re talking about those who want to reach adhesion with the Creator. In such a case, adhesion, the connection among them is only for their own good. In the mutual connection among us we want to discover the upper force, the force of bestowal and love. If we discover it among us, according to the law of equivalence of form, we will discover its root, the Creator.

The views and the thoughts pass from one to the other, if we are on a certain level of adhesion, in connection. Therefore each one is mingled in the power of the other, and that is the main thing. I need the power of the friends. Alone, no one has enough powers to attain spirituality. Whoever sits by himself and doesn’t connect with others has a problem. It could be that he hears talk about unity, but he doesn’t act and doesn’t carry it out. Many hear, but they don’t actually listen, they don’t connect to the action. I understand that it’s necessary, that there is no other choice, but something inside stops me. I don’t know what to do. I make “Herculean efforts,” come very close and retreat again. Everyone has this strong internal psychological barrier. No one can approach others easily.

The external ease doesn’t reflect what is happening inside at all. A person who finds it easy to hug the friends will soon discover that it’s actually very difficult. There are people who are very easy going, they connect, and converse with others easily. But in fact they can’t even imagine what an internal connection is.

Therefore, we should understand that it’s about working on internal unity. Even if it’s very hard, it’s thanks to this that a person begins to receive spiritual powers from all the friends. Rabash says, each one is mingled in the power of the other and by that each person in the group has the power of the entire group. When I am incorporated in the group I acquire its power. If I had the true power of the group now, even one gram from each one, it would be my net profit.

Therefore, although each person is an individual, he contains the power of the entire group in which he is incorporated. Everyone becomes equal to the group in his powers. Then we connect again and not just to connect or multiply our powers, but we actually raise them in the power we have attained, for example, one thousand in the power of one thousand. Thus it isn’t just power but the power of a “nuclear explosion.”
[70278]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/19/12, “Advice for the Arava Convention”

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