Today, gradually, a deeper and stricter interconnection between countries, nations, and people is being revealed. Even individually, we are connected through chains with several links. However, there is a certain problem: We are not yet capable of properly realizing this connection.

The modern crisis is expanding and encompasses the world. It will not end even though many are promising that soon things will begin to improve.

Problems will not end until we reach balance. After all, the cause of the crisis is imbalance, in other words, the lack of connection between us.

Here is where we discover the law of mutual guarantee. The Torah explains to us that in the end a person will love his neighbor as himself.

“Love” is proper systematic unity when every person works for the benefit of everyone, and there is absolute harmony between us. In the end, once we reach the final correction, all of us, once again, will become parts of a single soul, like organs of the body that operate in absolutely different ways, but exist in unified harmony, and this is why the body lives.

Every organ performs its own work, its own function, but within the framework of a common program that encompasses and obligates everyone to work together. To the contrary, when there is imbalance between parts of the body, illnesses appear.

We must treat our correction according to the same principle. Today, I exist in absolute, total egoism. I want everything to “spin” on my command, carry out my wishes, and think like me. We all begin our journey in this state.

In the first stage of working with myself, I must come to the degree of Hafetz Hessed. I do not get in the way of others. Like a cogwheel, I freely run on my axis, according to the desires of my neighbors. Do what you want with me. I am ready to “spin” at your request, as if I had no desires of my own, as if it were not me, but some supporting force intended for you.

We are speaking of a very high degree. After all, I must work with my egoism so that it will not get in my way of serving others.

To do this, I must know the desires of others and never get in the way of their realization, being absolutely neutral. We are referring to an enormous correction, during the course of which I set up screens of the zero, first, and second degrees over my desire.

Then, I rise to the next degree. I direct my desires, abilities, qualities, and the entire potential of my strength and energy, everything, toward the benefit of my neighbors. Now, my egoism is not just neutralized, I am not just freely running on an axis, but I am connected to my own engine that works for their benefit. This is the degree of love. I give you everything for the good of it.

This path stretches from our world to the world of Infinity (∞) through 125 degrees. Part of them I realize on the degree of Hafetz Hessed, being neutral, and the other part I realize by actively putting my efforts into benefiting my neighbors.

During the first stage, I correct 248 desires and during the second stage, I correct 365. Overall, the correction of 613 desires is called observing the commandments. In this way, the common desire is divided according to my inner structure.

All this is to achieve complete and absolute mutual guarantee, a state where I will interact with everyone in harmony, just like any other person.

Hence, it is clear the kind of correction to which mankind must come: Everyone will perceive and include within them the entire reality to the point of fully identifying with it. This is why Kabbalah is being revealed now, because if we do not know how to realize this, then our path will be very difficult and painful; indeed, it would truly be the “path of suffering.”

However, if we try to act in the group, our path will not be easy, but it will be good (the red arrow on the graph). We get together, feel each other, evoke the Light, and it works on us, influences us, and awakens us. By mutually feeling each other, we allow the light to do its work.

This is the essence of the method. You neither know nor understand anything, you are not capable of anything, but you want to “swallow” all the pleasure, and you only need to learn to evoke the Light. If you learn, you will achieve success so easily and beautifully, together with everyone in joy.
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From the New Jersey One Convention 5/12/12, Lesson 3

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Question: Why will the next stage of the work be unity among the groups? How is it connected to the unity within each group and to the individual work of a person?

Answer: In fact, unity begins from a group of ten people. A human is built in such a way that he can apprehend specifically this amount of people. Ten is a convenient “round” number, neither too large, nor too small. It is called the “Minyan,” meaning it’s what can be “counted” (Limnot). Our perception is structured in such a way that it comprehends only this kind of a system, since it completely enrobes our internal structure (the ten Sefirot).

However, at the lesson when we’re not talking about our own impressions, but in general are reading articles and discussing the material, a very large group can participate in this, including the whole world. Therefore, during workshops we sit in groups of ten, while at the lesson there is any amount of people who are capable of such a clarification and discussion using the Kabbalistic language.

We just need to worry that it doesn’t turn into a routine, and for this we need to constantly increase the desire inside of us and the importance of the goal. Each time we will be talking about another, new character of the revelation of the Creator.

By uniting with the group, we are creating a “One,” the commonality for all of us, not belonging to any one of us, but only to all of us together. It’s the higher essence, the “amalgamation.” It’s not simply our sum, but a kind of an addition to it. It’s because in order to have arrived at this sum, each one must have traded-off his egoism. The concept of One, being above us, is composed of all of these personal cancellations of egoism. This is how we build our higher level.

If we were to unite simply as egoists for a common profit in order to build something together or to win, like a football team, then the result would be an empty sum of our efforts. However, if we are cancelling our ego, then we are building a new common vessel above all of us.

It belongs to all of us; those ten who are sitting in a circle having a discussion are cancelling themselves out and are exalting the group and friends. The highest Sefira, Keter, is defined by how I listen to everyone else, how I place the group, the Creator, and the goal above myself. And I value myself as  low and I lower myself relative to my friends. This is the way my Malchut is defined.

After each one has clarified these two points, Keter and Malchut, we unite all of these Keters and Malchuts together. And if each one is doing it with enough capacity for the first level of revelation of the Light, then it reveals in this gap between the Keters, united into one, and the united Malchuts. An internal luminescence occurs between them, since we have cancelled ourselves out.

Although it’s not yet the constriction or a screen, the Light is already being revealed and is beginning to work to the extent of our opposition to our egoism and desire to unite. It’s because both of these principles are already spiritual. We are exalting the spiritual, bestowal, and we are disregarding the material, receiving; we’re taking the actions which we are capable of, like small children.

And then the ten people, supplementing each other and ready to unite, are creating a large tension, a distance between the united Keter and a united Malchut, building our common spiritual vessel in this way. And when we have built it among the ten of us, we understand that the rest of the friends around the whole world, are exerting the same efforts right now. All of our joint efforts are combined regardless of the size of each group.

If after our efforts to unite in our circle we want to include the rest of the groups inside of us, then we are uniting everyone together. And then a truly huge and powerful vessel is being formed, capable of revealing the first level of the Light, according to the similarity of qualities. The more distance there is between the common Keter and the common Malchut, the bigger the vessel, and possibly it will already be enough for the first revelation of the Light.

The Light is revealed in a discreet form, in portions: Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, and so forth. And if we reveal it, then it will be revealed in each group and in each person according to his personal efforts, more in some and less in others to the extent of the efforts invested.

That’s why we need to long to connect all of the groups and separated friends to us, and even the whole world since it has a huge vessel. It’s there that the true desire to enjoy lies, and if it will join us even in a passive form, then it will add a lot of material to us. And if we with our longing towards the spiritual are working on this material, then we are receiving a huge additional capacity.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/12, “Talk About Past Conventions” 

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Being on this side of the Machsom (barrier), we don’t see the reasons for our actions and we think that we are independent. However, the result actually is predetermined and it summons the actions that will lead to it.

Question: But it says that even if the reward is guaranteed, we still have to do our work. So is this our independence, our free will?

Answer: I wish we would come to that and see that the whole world of Ein Sof (Infinity) is spread before us. No matter what you do, the Creator gives you everything that is good, but like a guest sitting before the host, you are prepared to receive from Him only through “restriction” and a Masach (screen).

Question: And each time a person has to decide: “Am I now going to do what should be done?”

Answer: Of course. Then you discover bestowal on the part of the Creator.

He wants to teach you to receive in order to bestow. On the part of the Creator there are no limitations, but He does that in order to bring you to His level where you will acquire the understanding and the recognition and not just the filling that is only the means. If you receive more or less, it is only the means, while the goal is to reach adhesion.

Adhesion is not the filling, but the pleasure from being similar to the Creator. It is above the game of the “Lights and the vessels” and this is the fulfillment of the “point in the heart,” it is the utmost pleasure.

On the one hand, we say that the goal of our development is the adhesion. On the other hand, we say that the goal of creation is pleasure and delight. So it turns out that adhesion equals pleasure.

Actually, it is always about levels of pleasure, since the desire, the vessel, doesn’t feel anything but that. The pleasure is behind every detail of my perception. For example, I differentiate colors to the degree that they bring me pleasure.

In every situation we measure the pleasures and usually connect according to their forms because we have a similar form. Upward and downward, strength and weakness, heat and cold, we check everything according to this principle, and it all stems from the impression of the desire from the filling or from lack of filling.

Our desire is divided into many discernments and shades that are determined by our five senses according to parallel ranges and levels. One way or another, there is nothing but the desire. Everything is measured by my feeling, even the most neutral things. I don’t feel and don’t identify anything that doesn’t touch my feeling. Every discernment I make receives an “emotional sign” which I measure. Behind all the words and the names there are the emotions, the state my desire is in. This is what our language is based on.

Question: I know the pleasures that fill me. I know what I yearn for. But what does it mean “to resemble the Creator?” What kind of filling is that? The feeling of belonging to something great?

Answer: If you take the internality of your heart, something that is very deep and personal,   and try to connect this hidden spark to the center of the group, you will fulfill your “point in the heart.”

Question: And this means to resemble the Creator?

Answer: Yes. because the center of the group is the depiction of the Creator. This is the picture that is depicted in your vessels. You don’t know what Light is by itself. For you the Light is a phenomenon that you discover in the vessel. When our vessels are connected, when each one annuls himself and wants to reach the connection of all the points into one, this is the depiction of the Creator. This means that we are adhered to Him.

Thus, if I am adhered to the group, I am adhered to the Creator. There, inside among the friends are all the discernments of His portrait.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/12, Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Question: The island of Haiti very well demonstrates the irreversibility of laws of nature. For many years it had been a flourishing country with a wonderful climate and a relatively developed infrastructure. However, five years ago the earthquake hit, and the international community invested trillions of dollars in the island’s restoration.

The UN organized global help, and it seemed everything was going to be okay and life on the island would go back to normal. But it turned out that even tremendous resources that were pumped into it couldn’t prevent chaos and destruction.

This is a colorful example that once a certain point is passed, human nature becomes irreversible.

Answer: This once again confirms that first of all it is necessary to educate the population. And only then, depending on the extent of the education, direct the population further towards formation of the new social interaction. The Haiti Island’s problem cannot be solved merely by money injections. If those funds hadn’t been provided, the island’s inhabitants would have gotten out of the situation by themselves.

Comment: Not the whole island suffered damages from the earthquake. But those who still had homes and could feed themselves by fishing moved to UN tent cities where food was given out for free. Mafia-controlled clans put the entire island under its power. UN troops move only at daylight in tanks because gangsters are all around. And these gangsters annihilate the island’s every attempt to break away from the existing situation.

Answer: It’s what was once done to Africa.

I’m repeating again that education, a universal education system, must precede all transformations. If we do not want humanity to advance through crises and brutal world wars, we have to first of all organize an education system ourselves!

You say that the cause of everything is the crisis, and hence we must change the society and human nature, make them integral and interconnected. I think here our opinions differ on what is the cause and what is the effect.

From my point of view, the cause is the motion of the force of nature that is constantly pushing us toward the new evolutionary state. Since we already went through all our previous evolutionary stages, right now we are moving toward the next one. The next stage of humanity is integrality, globality. Nature is moving everything toward integration, toward equivalence with itself.

Just like everything in nature, for instance, pressure and temperature differentials, is moving toward coordination and entropy, the same process is happening to humanity. It has to move toward integration because nature is forcing us and thus causing in us the crisis that we have today.

It wasn’t us who caused it, but the contrast of our contemporary societal state with the state we must come to. This is what we feel as the crisis.
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From a TV show “Experimental City: Exiting the Crisis” 02/03/2012

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Question: Some of the population drinks alcohol, some need drugs, some are fanatical, some don’t see anything except their ideas, some feel hatred and fear, some think only about sex, some are ill and think only about their health, and some are completely ruled by money or power. However, there are the few, the rare others, who are focused on what is outside of themselves and have the intention to do good. Life is founded upon these few.

Tell a person who only worries about his health or sex to think about the world. Do you know what he would say in response? Try it.

Humanity is at the point of making a decision. Either it will perish or begin to correct the situation gradually. In a short time it will pass the point of no return. Can we only send to the earth and humanity our love and wishes for health and nothing else?

Answer: You are not taking into account two circumstances:

1. The world is governed by the upper force according to its plan and goal, and we can affect this force. It leads us to the goal, to our correction, in equivalence of form to it, either via suffering or consciously, by good, depending on our behavior.
2. According to our behavior, we, the one percent, have influence many times over as compared to the negative influence of the masses, the ninety-nine percent. However, it is on condition that we act correctly, in cooperation.

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Preparation to the Lesson

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Lesson: Talk About the Seminar

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The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpts “Beresheet (Genesis),” “He Carved A Carving in the Upper Light,” Item 1

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“Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot“

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Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
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Today humanity is starting to look for methods that will enable it to manage life and to know something about the future. It’s now that the wisdom of Kabbalah is revealed, and just like it was revealed to humanity in the days of ancient Babel so that they could correct themselves, now too it’s about to bring about a correction because we are at the second climax of the rising of the ego.

The first eruption of the ego took place in Babel, and now we have reached the peak of its growth, but on a new level which is absolutely wild.

Our ego is constantly growing, not gradually (linearly or exponentially), but in leaps. These sharp leaps bring about wars, revolutions, and hard times. Although a revolution can be an industrial or a cultural one, like in the Renaissance or the industrial revolution.

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, we understand what is happening to us. The point is that we are in a state of shattering which we must correct. There are only three states. In the first state, we are all together as one whole, and this is called the world of Ein Sof (Infinity).

From this state of unity, we descend into “this world,” and from it we have to rise to the world of Ein Sof again. The difference between these three states is that the first state of the world of Ein Sof is corrected, our present state is corrupt, sunk in a huge ego, and in the third state we must attain correction again.

It’s as if we return to the same state we were in before, the same world of Ein Sof, but in the first state we were unconscious. We didn’t understand anything, like a drop of semen in a womb that hasn’t yet developed into an embryo and which means that it hasn’t developed into the “human” level yet although there are all the necessary conditions and potential for that in that drop.

The third corrected state which we have to reach now is special since in it we understand, feel, and attain everything that happens in the world of Ein Sof—the One who created us, His intention, the plan of this upper force, all of creation. We understand all this, feel it, and control it.

In fact, this is the goal of this whole big circle that we made. It’s a unique process: During the descent from the top down there is a shattering and corruption, and after the shattering there is the correction. So now in our world, we are in the worst possible state, in the most shattered state, under the control of the huge ego, which we have to correct. It’s corrected by the connection among us.
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From the Brazil Convention 5/04/12, Lesson 1

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A Virtual Lesson on Fundamentals of Kabbalah

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Question: How do you preserve the permanent state of the convention from now on?

Answer: A convention is a leap through unity. If we have such exercises of unity once a week by having intensive workshops called “friends’ meetings,” we may not need to have big conventions in order to advance anymore. We will rise from one week to the next by preparing ourselves from one meeting to the next.

Everything depends on the preparation, which determines what level of unity we will be able to attain in the workshop. We need a big desire, the recognition of the importance of the goal and the uniqueness of such a meeting as a special action, as the only method by which we can create a place for the revelation of the Creator.

From one week to the next we will live with the feeling of the coming friends’ meeting and yearn for the lesson day by day. Before the lesson we can also feel as we do before the workshop. The lesson can be as intensive, because in the lesson we speak about the same internal work but in different words. On the whole, we are talking about the same topic—the revelation of the Creator to the created beings, where it takes place and under what conditions.

All our collective actions should be seen from this perspective no matter what we do. It all depends on how much a person appreciates every opportunity he is given. Therefore, we shouldn’t wait for conventions if we don’t prepare ourselves from one lesson to the next, from one friends’ meeting to the other, and from one convention to the next one.

Otherwise a big convention by itself will not be very useful—it will summon a temporary awakening but not an ascent. If a person doesn’t come with the previous impression, he will not be granted ascent, advancement, and a greater connection. This is because he hasn’t prepared himself for it; he hasn’t yearned for it and has no deficiency for it. He will simply be impressed from everything else, but will not attain a specific fulfillment.

So it turns out that we feel elated from one convention to another, but then we fall again. The elation should be before the convention and the convention itself should be a level upwards. In this convention we managed to do that to some extent. After having risen to the next level and having felt that we are in a state of descent, disappointment, and fogginess, we should immediately start preparing for a new meeting. This meeting can be in the next lesson, the weekly friends’ meeting, or a big convention.

Everything is determined by the preparation. There shouldn’t be any “dead time” in which I just sit and wait. I have to increase the deficiency inside me or to fulfill it by connection.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/12, “Talk About Past Conventions”

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