Question: The conventions force us to connect and to unite, to act quickly and efficiently, to reach incredible results. What can help us do this everyday?

Answer: A feeling of responsibility. Imagine tired parents or even sick parents whose child is crying and asking for something; they still get up and do everything for him. It isn’t easy since no one wants to do that; there is only the obligation. It’s the same in the group where everyone must feel the obligation and the responsibility. I have to feel that I am in the same boat with them and I can’t drill a hole in it.

Of course I can say, “Friends, I don’t feel well today, please excuse me I am sick,” and sleep some more, but how can I do that if I know that they are waiting for me? If you think that no one will notice your absence since you are not that important and not outstanding, you are wrong.

I am telling you this from my own experience of feeling the upper world: Each of you is no less important than I am. So your inaction is a lack of investment in the general vessel. You should understand this, and not forget; remind one another of this responsibility so that it will always be your priority.

It’s the first condition since the Creator created one man, me and all the others, only so that I will be able to stabilize myself with their help. On the other hand, the Creator created my friend and me so that I will help him and only will serve as a means for his ascent to the Creator. It is indeed so!

Therefore, we must mutually complement one another and constantly hold on to that since by that we create mutual guarantee among us. We mustn’t forget that. I can’t allow myself any concessions; I can’t pretend that I am sick or make up any excuses for my inaction. On the contrary, despite the obstacles that the Creator places before me, I have to participate as much as I can in everything. On His part, He will add different excuses for my ego, of course, but the group must remind me that this is how the Creator plays with me.
[98143]
From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/9/12, Lesson 7

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In the News (from The Guardian): “America may be one of the richest countries in the world, but its people are less healthy and more likely to die early from disease or accidents than those in any other affluent country, a damning official US report has found.

Even the best-off Americans – those who have health insurance, a college education, a high income and healthy behaviour – are sicker than their peers in comparable countries, says the report by the US National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine. …

“For many years, Americans have had a shorter life expectancy than people in almost all the comparator countries and for the past three decades the gap has been widening, particularly for women.

“The US does badly in nine specific areas. It has the highest infant mortality rate of any wealthy country and also does poorly on other birth outcomes, such as low weight babies.

“Deaths from injuries and homicides are far higher than elsewhere and a leading cause of death in children, adolescents and young adults. US adolescents have had the highest rate of pregnancies of affluent countries since the 1990s and are more likely to acquire sexually transmitted infections. The US has the second highest HIV rate and the highest incidence of Aids among the 17 countries.

“Even taking out drunk driving, Americans lose more years of life to alcohol and other drugs than people in other affluent countries. The US has the highest obesity rate and, from age 20, one of the highest levels of type 2 diabetes. The death rate from heart disease is the second highest in the 17 countries. There is more lung disease and more deaths from it than in Europe and older people report more arthritis and other limitations on their activity than in Europe or Japan.”

My Comment: Nature makes no exceptions to anyone, and everything has to be paid for, even a feeling of superiority, which leads to such disastrous results.
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Starting now and going forward, we need to advance independently. And here a very interesting point is revealed. Up to a certain moment, I felt that I was completely influencing my students. During that time I taught my students according to the same system that our spiritual fathers learned.

But lately it is revealed that without support, without connection, without general mutual work, I can no longer teach them. For this, the students’ efforts, their assistance, and mutual work are required. All of this is essential. If from their side, there is a desire, a deficiency, then I can speak and explain in an approachable way. If there is an effort, then accordingly we can advance forward. This means that here an exact process of correction is taking place. We have arrived at this point.

It turns out that we are dependent on each other. Thus I turn to the entire world group since I am not able to do anything alone. If in the past I pushed you and could do something, now everything is closed. The general desire transforms into being truly mutual, and unity and connection are revealed in it.

This is not yet our attainment since in the meantime everything is taking place without any connection to our desire. But we must understand that it’s only through the general mutual effort, both yours and mine, that we will be able to advance forward. There will appear before us new opportunities to express our ideas, new explanations, and although the system remains the same since everything comes from the Light and the Kli, a new form of submission and recognition will appear, its sensation.

Thus, I very much request for you to be more active, to participate more in everything, to connect to the lessons. The general advancement depends only on our mutual actions! Let’s solve this problem together since acts of correction are possible only through our efforts that are aimed at taking charge of our ego and rising above it through an opposite attribute. If there is no effort, then there is no correction.

Under no circumstances should one annul the ego. We must rise above it. Suppressing the ego means not allowing it to command us, but together with it to feel it, live with it, and rise above it in our actions. This work must be aimed only at my worldwide group and at the Creator.
[98080]
From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/9/12, Lesson 5

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Question: Whom should I aspire to bring contentment to: the group or the Creator?

Answer: You cannot bring contentment to the Creator without bringing contentment to the group. This is a necessary condition. Otherwise you will be deceiving yourself that you are aspiring to bestowal when in reality you care about your own pocket rather than about the benefit of others.

Imagine it so that you can please the Creator only on the condition that you bring contentment to His children, who in fact are the group. You cannot do anything for Him since all of His desires are focused only on the creature.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/10/13, TES

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Question: What does the term “place” mean according the wisdom of Kabbalah, both on the part of the Light and on the part of the desire?

Answer: The Creator created a desire to receive in its initial raw form. Then the Light began to work within the desire to receive. It gave birth to the desire to receive and then began to appear in it more and more. Then the desire to receive began to change in quality, and went through the five phases of development and began to take on different forms, enriched with different attributes and facets.

Thus it reached a state called “place.” It means that it’s different from what fills it. The filling is not the first and not the Light, but the “place” it enters.

They should have separated because it is said: Unless the Light separates from the vessel one time, it’s impossible to determine anything. But when it separates one time, they are already two separate things, and now it’s possible to identify a “Light” and “vessel” separately and also to study the connection between them. This is how the “place” is created, but it’s not enough; it’s possible to pour some drink into a pitcher, for example, and fill it to the top. The Creator wants this “place” to feel Him and who He is.

Imagine that you have made a clay pitcher, and now you want this pitcher to feel who made it and for what purpose. What’s more, it wants to receive the exact filling: Suppose it doesn’t agree to receive water, milk, or wine, but rather needs oil. Then according to what it chooses, it’s filled and rejects all the other fillings. This means that the “place” should also differentiate between good and bad, or in other words, be a “wise egoist” who depends on his ego that was created by the Creator.

Next the Creator wants this desire to prefer the opposite nature by itself, and to choose it by its freewill. It has to “format” itself, to arrange itself so that it can operate for itself in an opposite manner as it builds itself anew. If the desire acquires this ability, it begins to act again and to fill itself and then it’s called Adam who resembles (Domeh) the Creator.

It’s as if the desire gives birth to itself anew by its own freewill, and chooses every step it takes, every filling, and every manner. On the one hand, everything comes from it and does not depend on anyone, and on the other hand, everything is whole and in bestowal. This is called a “place.” This is the deficiency we need. Until then we are not even aware of how many states we have to go through to reach these discernments…

Question: Is there a connection between the “place” and the environment?

Answer: In order for the desire to be independent, to act freely in its discernments, in its perception, it’s divided into two systems: me and outside myself. In the internal system, there is only a spark, and in the external system, there is the whole world. To the extent that a person uses the “world” correctly, he increases his spark. To the extent that he wants to use the world in an opposite manner, wrongly, he diminishes the spark. He checks himself and learns according to his attitude to the world, to the environment.

In addition to that, a person has the wisdom of Kabbalah (a teacher, books, and a group), and this is all to help him fulfill himself consciously and not only by feeling. After all, if we learn from our feelings, it will lead to a whole chain of failures, to a very slow and cruel way of the five phases of development. If a person develops by the environment, then for him the environment becomes the teacher, books, group, and the Creator. Then he develops by the “path of Torah,” by the path of the Light that Reforms.

The difference is that by the path of the Light, he brings his own component of development and by that develops the image of the Creator within him. He begins to relate to reality not like a created being but like the Creator: “How do I use the group, the teacher, the books, and the Creator, all the forces that influence me, in order to stabilize myself correctly?”

Thus we develop the human in us and advance correctly in the easy and shortest way for all. Then the deficiency to advance that we stabilize anew each time is called a real “place,” and it’s such a place that we should reach.
[98011]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/11/13, “The Peace”

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Preparation to the Lesson

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Shamati #26 “One’s Future Depends and Is Tied to Gratitude for the Past”

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 The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpt, Parashat “Shlah Leha,” Item 68, Lesson 6

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 3, Part 9, Question 114, Lesson 19

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Arava Convention Day Three “Yeshivat Haverim“

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Arava Convention Day Three, Workshop 5

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Arava Convention Day Three, “Only Questions,” Workshop 5

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