On May 20, 2012, the club “Zappa” in Tel-Aviv held the premiere of the children’s musical “In The Class with Marshmallow,” created by our friends, played by our actors, to the music of my student Arkadi Duchin.

More than 300 people laughed, sympathized, sang songs together with the actors, and most importantly, became closer to each other. We hope these performances will become a good tradition, carrying the spirit of unity to children and grown-ups.

[Show slideshow]

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Opinion (Barry Schwartz, Psychologist): “Barry Schwartz tackles one of the great mysteries of modern life: Why is it that societies of great abundance — where individuals are offered more freedom and choice (personal, professional, material) than ever before — are now witnessing a near-epidemic of depression? Conventional wisdom tells us that greater choice is for the greater good, but Schwartz argues the opposite: He makes a compelling case that the abundance of choice in today’s Western world is actually making us miserable.

“Infinite choice is paralyzing, Schwartz argues, and exhausting to the human psyche. It leads us to set unreasonably high expectations, question our choices before we even make them and blame our failures entirely on ourselves. … Too much choice undermines happiness. …

“‘Clinical depression has exploded in the industrial world in the last generation. I believe a significant — not the only, but a significant — contributor to this explosion of depression, and also suicide, is that people have experiences that are disappointing because their standards are so high, and then when they have to explain these experiences to themselves, they think they’re at fault. And so the net result is that we do better in general, objectively, and we feel worse. …’

“‘If some of what enables people in our societies to make all of the choices we make were shifted to societies in which people have too few options, not only would those people’s lives be improved, but ours would be improved also. This is what economists call a ‘Pareto-improving move.’ Income redistribution will make everyone better off — not just poor people — because of how all this excess choice plagues us.’”

My Comment: In any case, rational integration and redistribution (equilibration) always brings benefits to everyone—even according to the laws of economics.
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Question: Is the method of integral upbringing something essentially new?

Answer: This is the method for overcoming the crisis. This is a law of nature that modern studies confirm. They show us the picture of the transformation of society to a certain state. For this reason, let’s be ahead of this development and prepare for the changes that it’s assumed that we will overcome through the path of suffering, meaning being pushed towards happiness with a stick. And we do this through conscious advancement and thus, on the contrary, see a good and wonderful ascent in this.

Question: When can we move on from the educational stage towards the upbringing stage?

Answer: It is only possible to transition towards the upbringing process when people who take the integral education courses understand that the crisis is unavoidable and constant. It will bring us towards a common collapse and bankruptcy. This means that the only solution to the crisis is reorganizing the individual and society. When people complete studying this topic and, in general, understand, agree, and are inspired by it, then we can move on to upbringing.
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From KabTV’s “Experimental City: Education” 3/3/12

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Question: Small towns have a special demographic: teenagers who have dropped out of social life.

Answer: They need to be immediately recruited for training courses to become teachers and instructors of integral education and given a full stipend. Ultimately this will cost much less in the local budget than what they’re doing presently. The teenagers need to be turned into truly serious specialists.

Question: Senior citizens are another important and active part of the population. One thing to note is that 70-80% of seniors are women because men live shorter lives.

Answer: Female seniors are the most fruitful members of society. They are devoted helpers in every aspect and especially when it comes to children and grandchildren, that is what is most precious to them. They will gladly toil to change their lives even a little bit.

I don’t see the male retirees being quite as active or useful as women when it comes to being educators. Men are somewhat rigid, whereas women are flexible even into old age. Men over 50 are very difficult to work with, as they are unresponsive. In contrast, women don’t have these age-related restrictions.

Therefore, I think that this demographic of female seniors makes a fertile soil to work with city populations. They will do everything. They will change everything. You can lean on them with nothing to fear, for they are a veritable army.
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” #23, 3/3/12

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Question: Does a feeling of irritation and hatred towards each other appear during the workshops?

Answer: Not necessarily. We shouldn’t wait for it. But if it appears, it means that we can rise above it. But, in general, we can be in such a good field that it will not appear.

Question: Once, I came to the workshop downhearted and left it full of happiness. Now, I am always looking for this sadness before the workshop. Is it correct?

Answer: No! Why should I look for something, especially something bad? You shouldn’t! I rise from good to better.

Question: Is it desirable that there is no walking around during the workshop?

Answer: No! Only if a person has problems with the functions of the body, then there is nothing you can do; it’s above nature. There are no other excuses!

Naturally, all the phones must be turned off; everything is absolutely quiet: Now, we are working on the ascent to the spiritual world, to the next degree. It is possible that this will happen during one of the workshops, or between them; it doesn’t matter, but in general this action is the ascent to a spiritual degree.

Question: How should you respond if the group suggests that you should leave the workshop because they think that you are disturbing them?

Answer: If the group thinks so, a person must obey. Later, he may require an explanation, but at the moment he has to leave the room, and most importantly quickly, without arguments, to let others continue to unite.

Question: Sometimes pauses occur during the workshops.

Answer: They arise because you don’t want to empathize! You don’t include what the friend says into yourself. Then you would just get a complete picture.

The same is true in the classroom, unless it’s a lesson that is perceived solely by the mind.

Question: Does one need just to hold this center of the group within himself?

Answer: You do not need to hold this center. If you are always trying to be included in the others, you inevitably find yourself at the center.
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From the Virtual Lesson 5/20/12, “Fundamentals of Kabbalah”

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Question: Some friends cannot stand the intensity during the workshop because it is physically difficult for a person.

Answer: It’s not only physical but also mental stress because you have to hear, respond to, and evaluate everything. You are pulled into and held there, and it is a high-quality action.

Question: How important is it to stay and make this effort, rather than release tension by taking a smoke break?

Answer: No, not in any case. No smoke breaks! A person must overcome himself and not be worried about his heart or head. Nothing will happen to him. The tension is really strong, but it happens under the influence of the upper Light, so there can be no unpleasant side effects.
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From the Virtual Lesson 5/20/12, “Fundamentals of Kabbalah”

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Question: After several workshops a feeling emerges that everything has been said, and there is nothing more to talk about, and only the same words are repeated. Is this normal?

Answer: It’s not normal. We should try to see always entirely new feelings, a new meaning in the same words.

The fact is that the ten Sefirot are constantly repeated, but by changing the conditions, we experience completely new levels, that is, new fulfillment, experiences, events, and internal connections between all this. It cannot be the same even if I speak constantly about the same topic. It must be completely different because I am constantly changing. If it seems to me unchanging, the problem is in me. If a person doesn’t change, he should ask himself, what’s the matter?
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From the Virtual Lesson 5/20/12, “Fundamentals of Kabbalah”

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Question: How can I “clean” myself from all the worries in my private life and only focus on the internal work towards the center of the group?

Answer: This is a question of a person who separates his private life, meaning his job, home, and family, from the group, which means separating corporeality from spirituality.

On the whole, we are in our desire to receive in which we feel all of reality. This desire is divided into many kinds, into four phases, in which we feel all of reality divided into the levels of the inanimate, vegetative, animate, and speaking. We live only in the desire, and we feel whatever is evoked in it; “it looks like this is my life and my world.” We can’t feel anything but this desire, nor think or understand anything else. Everything takes place in it.

If I understand that and stabilize myself this way, my whole life becomes one endless workshop and not just the hour a week when I come to a special discussion. In the workshop, I make an effort to attain a truer reality with the help of the right environment in which I will feel the source and the root of reality, the upper force, the Creator.

Here everything depends on how strongly I can connect with the right environment. In the workshop it’s easier to do that because I see all the friends in front of me. But I can also imagine myself in this situation all the time. If I perform this work all week long, I will eventually feel that there is still a difference when we gather in order to connect. I will see that the connection that I felt all week long, which was created in the workshop, is different in quality, in the level of unity.

Therefore, I should constantly see myself inside the desire to receive, which depicts reality in the form of this world for me, and through this reality, I should look for its source that is attained through the center of the group.|
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/24/12, “Talk About the Workshop”

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Question: What exactly are we to speak about during a discussion in a circle?

Answer: First of all, it is best if the circles consist of ten people. Women separately and men separately, but everyone does the same kind of work.

A circle must have a person responsible for order. For example, 15 minutes are allotted to the common discussion of a certain question, but someone spends over 10 minutes speaking; this means that his time must be stopped. This is done by the person responsible for order who passes the right to speak to the next person in order. This is first.

Second. It is possible that someone suddenly deviates from the topic, but he thinks that he is right on the topic. The person responsible for order also must stop him.

The person responsible for order in a circle must be elected, a new person is appointed every time.

For this reason, every person absolutely must express his opinion during the 15 minutes allotted to the discussion of a certain topic (for example: “the greatness of the group,” “the greatness of a friend,” “the greatness of connection,” “the need for attaining unity”). Moreover, exchanges of opinion, like in table tennis, are also necessary; these exchanges of opinion must be as close to the topic as possible, as close as possible to the center of the group, that is, to unity. Everyone must think about how the word he is now saying will help the common unity.

The seminar begins with the common instructor—I, or one of the students, for example—leads a preliminary conversation.

It does not matter who exactly leads the conversation, because the greatness, the attainment, is born out of the common effort of everyone in the circle: Here no one is teaching from above downward. This is why the fact that at first I take upon myself to lead these events is purely figurative, only to properly focus everyone on the matter at hand, and then it could be somebody else.

In other words, at first there needs to be a preliminary conversation, and then the actual training.

It is best to begin the seminar with a constant, perhaps even a familiar melody, as an introduction to the same program.

It is best for people in the circle to sit very close together even touching one another. This affects them in such a way that they automatically come closer to each other, wish to feel their collectivity, even physically. They can hug, have their knees touch: Human communication leads to this.
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From the Virtual Lesson 5/20/12, “Fundamentals of Kabbalah”

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Rabash, Letter 52: And by the exodus from Egypt they received the level of faith…and after Passover, the purifying work begins in preparation for the receiving of the Torah. And when the Torah is dressed in a person’s soul, this is the time of Shavuot, the time of the giving of our Torah.

Until Passover, the period of “the enslavement in Egypt” continues, which means a person feels troubles and blows because of his ego so that he will want to detach himself from it and rise above it to the attribute of bestowal. A person makes new efforts each time through the group, wanting to rise above his ego and be included in the connection. This is the labor in Egypt that continues until its full measure, and then the Light gives a person the power of correction.

But it’s only the ascent above his ego, which the holiday of Passover symbolizes. Then we begin to count 49 days until the holiday of Shavuot, when we detach ourselves from our ego and rise to the level of Bina. The dairy foods we eat in Shavuot symbolize bestowal—a holiday full of Light.

Therefore, in Passover we leave the “left line,” and in Shavuot we receive the beginning of the “right line.” Then we receive the Torah, which means the “middle line.” Then we can connect our ego with the power of the Torah, with the Light we receive from Bina which reforms, and continue to build ourselves.

The holiday of Shavuot seems light and “airy”: We wear white clothes and eat dairy foods; all symbolize bestowal, Light, and the “right line.” A person hasn’t acquired vessels yet; he hasn’t discovered the ego. The first contact with the “right line,” with the Light, isn’t real until we fulfill it in the “middle line,” which we have to build by ourselves. A person takes from the “left line” the parts he can attach to the “right line,” and with the help of the Light, fulfills this connection by receiving a soul, a vessel that will enable him to bestow.

Every holiday we have symbolizes a certain level at which, after having fulfilled the previous stage of development in one line, we move on to the other line, in order to form the third line. Then we dress these three lines in our perception of reality according to the timeline.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/24/12, Writings of Rabash

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