Shamati #225, “Raising Oneself”: One cannot raise oneself above one’s circle. Hence, one must suck from one’s environment. And one has no other counsel, except through much work and Torah. Therefore, if one chooses for oneself a good environment, one saves time and efforts, since one is drawn according to one’s environment.

This is in the power of man: Either he gives himself to the power of the environment or nature, the Creator, rules over him. It’s one or the other.

Why am I called a man if I choose the power of the environment? It is because it is my choice that I make in spite of all the obstacles, in spite of my inner resistance, problems, and troubles. I determine who reigns in me.

Thus, I choose only the force that will act within me and I have no control over it. Either I am driven by the Creator, the individual force, or a good environment, the integral force, behind which He stands. And then, the integral force will become the head of the Partzuf that we depicted on the drawing as a “car.”

In fact, a person realizes nothing but this choice. If he chooses correctly, the group affects him, if he chooses incorrectly the “body” reigns over him, meaning the direct dictates of the Creator. One way or the other, the Creator acts in everything, either through the environment or personally.
[111716]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/7/13, “Principles for Building a Better Environment”

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Question: How can we prepare ourselves for the convention in St. Petersburg to a new state so it really comes? How do we prepare now, while there is still time?

Answer: The thing is there is no time. Preparation is the condition in which the main thing is to happen right now. Preparation means that I am acting just in this moment, and if I assign some future date or a future state for myself, it is only to spur my “donkey.”

Preparation is everything. And the results do not necessarily show up on the appointed day, they can come at any moment and even before. So let them come, let it happen sooner. Why do we need a convention if we can already reach the “first date,” the revelation of the Creator? Why should it happen on a fixed day? Let Him be revealed now and we will finish the current stage.

Are we going to St. Petersburg because the Creator lives there? No, if we are preparing properly, we want to get the desire now and we are not waiting for any date. What are we to do with the calendar and geography? Unity is what is most important. If I want to be a giver, there is no tomorrow, only now.
[111714]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/8/13, “They Shall All Know Me from the Least of Them to the Greatest of Them”

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Question: It is written “You shall love your friend as yourself.” Who is “your friend” for a person who has the point in the heart?

Answer: In general, we give the name of “your friend” to each person in the world who was a stranger to us and becomes close, your friend.

For a person with the point in the heart according to the hierarchy, “your friends” are those people who are with him on the path, friends in the group. We can be open with them, we can be involved in connection and unity, in mutual support, to realize the system of spiritual connection. We don’t find ourselves in this group by accident, we belong to one inner upper system, so we come together. Thus, first and foremost, we need to create between us conditions like “love for others.”

“Love for the other” is determined according to this: I begin to feel the desire of my friend, his needs above my own.

The concept,  “Love your friend like yourself” means higher than yourself, much more than yourself. Today, I love myself more than the whole world. This means, also in regard to my friends, that I need to relate in this way, that they will be more important to me than anyone. It is acquiring the attribute of bestowal when I grasp their greatest desire—reaching the goal, revelation of the upper system—as my personal desire and help them in that. If, for me, the spirituality of my friends is higher than mine, then at that moment, I reach revelation.

We mean by love, not what is thought of usually as love in this world, but specifically helping those who are with us on the path so that they will reach their goal. Love is called filling the desire of the other.
[111114]
From the Preparation for the Convention in Krasnoyarsk 6/13/13

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Question: Your comment during the morning lesson upturned all our plans! So how can we stay in groups during the convention?

Answer: All these conditions are for the 1%, not for the 99%:

1. Groups are divided into men’s and women’s parts and isolated from each other. Due to man’s weaknesses, women distract men from the goal. It is better for the men to spend all three days together. You need to prepare everything in advance. Usually, the men gather at their center. Their older sons from the age of 13 who have gone through the preparation can be with them.

2. Women can gather in homes or in a separate room in the center; they can come and go (women are freed from the actions that depend on time).

3. Don’t invite strangers and even former students who have not participated in the preparation for this convention. We have studied that preparation is most important!

4. Those who are engaged in the preparation should feel what it means to be in a collective intention and what factors may become a hindrance to success, which we all hope for.

Good luck to us all,
Dr. Michael Laitman
[111694]

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 4: The Creator Himself puts one’s hand on the good fate by giving him a life of pleasure and contentment within the corporeal life that is filled with torment and pain, and devoid of any content. […] there is no greater placement of one’s hand by Him than this.

And one’s choice refers only to the strengthening. This is because there is certainly a great effort and exertion here before one purifies one’s body to be able to keep the Torah and commandments correctly, not for his own pleasure, but to bring contentment to his Maker, which is called Lishma (for Her Name). Only in this manner is one endowed with a life of happiness and pleasantness that come with keeping the Torah.

However, before one comes to that purification, there is certainly a choice to strengthen in the good way by all sorts of means and tactics. Also, one should do whatever his hand finds the strength to do until he completes the work of purification and will not fall under his burden midway.

How can we understand this? In fact, these words paint a terrible picture: The Creator holds me “by the ears” or “by the shoulders” and directs my every step through pleasures or suffering, that is, He can do with me whatever He pleases. And besides that, there is something in which I have to “strengthen” myself above that which He sends me.

As a result, I have no choice in everyday life because I am relentlessly driven by pleasure and suffering. My nature automatically obeys their dictates, and there is nothing I can do about this. Some mechanism in me always turns my face towards pleasure and my back towards suffering. The “car” can only dodge evil and turn towards good.

In what can I strengthen then? How can I gain power over the “body”? How can I resist the “orders” of the Creator Who directs me from above on the “animate” degree? Is this possible?

The fact is that apart from the will of the Creator, there is another factor that I can use: the influence of the environment. Thus, I go against the Creator, against His nature, obtain something above the “animate” degree, and become something greater.

Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”: Therefore, he who strives to continually choose a better environment is worthy of praise and reward. But here, too, it is not because of his good thoughts and deeds, which come to him without his choice, but because of his effort to acquire a good environment, which brings him these good thoughts and deeds.

Hence it is clear that we have freedom to build, above the “animate” level, the human degree—the human being, who will saddle an “animal” and will manage his nature. To do this, a person will also use two forces, but they will be different: Now he will define good and evil by means of a good environment that fulfills him.

Thus, the Creator controls a person at the level of “reason,” but self-management is realized “above reason.”

The key here is the extent to which I become integrated in the correct environment and absorbed by it. My good future depends only on this.
[111719]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/7/13, Preparation for St. Petersburg Convention, “Principles for Building a Better Environment,” Lesson 4

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Baal HaSulam, “A Sage’s Fruit:” It is forbidden for the individual to leave the public and ask for himself, not even to bring contentment for his Maker other than for the public, for he who leaves the public and asks for his own soul individually is not constructing, but rather is bringing destruction to his soul, and one needs to gather all his might, the general of Israel, in all his turnings to the Creator, in prayer and work, and integrate himself in the root of the entire Israel.

It turns out that I do not want to do anything good, even for the Creator, if it is not for the benefit of community, through the benefit of community, and in connection with community. If there is something sacred, then first of all, it is community, all of humanity, and if I understand the importance of community, then based on this, I can reach the importance of the Creator.

Our common soul is already broken in our perception. However, praying for oneself, a person turns into impurity; that is, he descends in the negative state that is much worse than the original one.

Why would it seem so? After all, a person who “leaves the public to ask for himself individually” does not do it at the expense of others. He just says to the Creator, “I want to be corrected, settled. I want to reach bestowal. So, please give me strength to bestow and bring You contentment!” Does he really cause the “destruction of his soul?” How could this be? He is praying from his heart. It is his sincere feeling for which he cannot be responsible. The heart is crying; What can you do?

However, no, I must make all kinds of external actions to make my heart want something else, and this is within my ability. Our work is carried out from the heart, above the heart, so that it does not call for evil and wrong things, so that it does not ask for itself even if the person wants to be corrected and bring contentment to the Creator. This request is already impurity, the destruction of the soul.

That is why I need the actions that will set before me the only task: unity. I am not able to turn with the correct request on behalf of my own heart, which is broken and disconnected from the collective. I cannot bring contentment to the Creator unless I unite with others because I will not have the true desire to bestow, and from what place will I turn to Him? From my own “self?” It is impossible because it is cut off from the whole and lies beneath all the spiritual degrees, below the spiritual ladder. I am not standing even on the lower edge of the ladder that goes to heaven, to Malchut of the world of Infinity.

So, the main thing for us is to unite. If I constantly care about unity then everything that comes from this will be correct. Conversely, if I do not think about unity, then even the best intentions, the most correct words and complete devotion is the essence of impurity, the destruction of the soul.

This is the most important thing for us during the days before the convention in St. Petersburg. Preparation should direct us at the only action, to unity, and everything, no matter what, will be good in it.

“In all turnings to the Creator, in prayer and work,” we, first of all, ask for unity for the collective, oneness all the time and nothing else. Thus, we “integrate ourselves in the root of the entire Israel,” that is, the center of the group, aimed directly at the Creator (Yashar El). All our efforts are directed to its unity and interconnection.
[111575]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/5/13, “Love Your Neighbor as Yourself”

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Question: What stops me from starting to live in the friends?

Answer: You have everything that you need in order to do that, but you shouldn’t wait for it to come from above by itself.

The only thing you lack is the recognition in your mind and heart that spirituality is attained only in connection, that spirituality and connection should be integrated into one, and the Creator is revealed in the connection.

There is nothing but these three elements: you, the connection, and the Creator. We should understand all this more internally.

Connection is called “Torah,” and it is also the vessel and the Light that should consolidate and connect the two points, me and the Creator, into one.

Everyone should check himself with regard to this and see where he is and worry about friends who grow weak and have less power. If we notice that a friend comes to the lessons less and to the assembly of friends, or that he comes but constantly tries to engage in other things and finds justification for that, he should not be left alone. Only a serious reason can justify being absent from the lessons and only occasionally.

My heart aches when I see that this is the case. I am not worried about those who have left. If this is their faith, there is nothing we can do. However, we should ask ourselves whether we have done enough to awaken the importance of the goal in them. If we haven’t, then it is our fault and they will be missing in the connection among us later. We will lack that part in order to build a whole vessel.

The reason for that is disrespect for others, for the friends, when our attitude to them is like toward strangers. However, it isn’t a stranger but a friend that must be more important to you than yourself since your soul depends on him. I wish you a long life, but you should know that without the friend, your life will end on the animal level. If you want to take care of your soul, it is in the friend.

It is a fact, whether you like it or not, and it doesn’t matter whether you accept it or not. Now, you must decide and make a choice: Do you accept it or not? You don’t have the desire for that and no one says that you must want that. “To receive” means that, from now on, you must take that fact into account in every action you make, in every desire or thought.
[111562]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/4/13, Writings of Rabash

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Baal HaSulam, “600,000 Souls”: It is said that there are 600,000 souls, and each soul divides into several sparks. We must understand how it is possible for the spiritual to divide, since initially, only one soul was created, the soul of Adam HaRishon.

In my opinion, there is indeed only one soul in the world, as it is written (Genesis, 2:7), “and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.” The same soul exists in all the children of Israel, complete in each and every one, as in Adam HaRishon, since the spiritual is indivisible and cannot be cut—which is rather a trait of corporeal things.

Yet, saying that there are 600,000 souls and sparks of souls appears as though it is divided by the force of the body of each person. In other words, first, the body divides and completely denies him of the radiance of the soul, and by the force of the Torah and the Mitzva, the body is cleansed, and to the extent of its cleansing, the common soul shines upon him.

There is only one desire in reality. The Light has created a desire, and it operates on it. It restricts it, puts Masachim (screens) on it, and makes Partzufim and worlds of it. However, the desire remains the same desire. The word “worlds” (“Olamot” stems from the word “concealment” in Hebrew), and refers to the concealment of the Light in our perception and feelings. It is just like looking at the world without glasses and seeing a blurry world. The spiritual worlds are increasingly more accurate and clearer pictures that are revealed by “spiritual glasses” that I change each time as I correct myself, until I reach the world of Ein Sof (Infinity), which means the whole correction.

So, it is all about an individual perception and not about an external reality that actually exists. The picture of the world depends on the person who attains it.

On the whole, there is one soul, but each one perceives it according to his level of preparation. We are always in the same place, in the same system, but each one is connected to it emotionally and mentally to a different extent, according to his attainment and his understanding. It is like a newborn baby who hardly perceives anything. It is only after a couple of months that he begins to perceive some details of the whole picture. It is as if he is also in a state of concealment in some part and in a state of in revelation in another, and at first the concealment is much greater than the revelation.

A person gradually perceives more clearly where he is according to his advancement and his development. We are not talking about anything new, but about the revelation that is part of our perception. So, all our development is in order to awaken, to build, and to prepare such a vessel of perception that will be sensitive to the revelation of the eternal unchanging eternal reality.

Our basic assumption is that there is only one soul in the world, a desire of Malchut of Ein Sof, and we attain this state to a certain extent as if looking at it through different types of glasses that determine the level of our closeness to it.
[111582]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/05/13, “Love Your Neighbor as Yourself”

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Baal HaSulam, Letter 19: However, because of the breaking of the vessels, all the Otiot were ejected to corporeal conducts and people. When one corrects oneself and reaches the root of one’s soul, he must collect them by himself, one-by-one, and bring them back to the root, to holiness. This is the meaning of “to sentence oneself and the entire world to a scale of merit.” The matter of the unification of the Creator and Divinity…

You lack nothing except to go out to the “field blessed by the Creator” to gather all the members which separated from your soul and combine them into a single body. And it’s a perfect body where the Creator instills His Divinity in perpetuity, without any interruption.

We don’t understand how the world is connected and what is revealed to us, but in the meantime what is revealed to us every minute is exactly what we need to correct. Even if we cannot investigate everything deeply and make the right corrections, we must still keep returning to connections since connection is the expression of love on higher levels.

It also means “to cultivate the field, blessed by the Creator.” Working on the connection is what brings us to “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” We must see the picture of connection in all the friends, in all of humanity, and even in the still, vegetative and the animate nature. It is because Malchut includes all its previous levels, and its fourth phase becomes responsible for the root phase and for phase one, two, and three after the “restriction” and the appearance of the Returning Light.

We should understand that we see everything in Malchut. From phase four of four, we observe the root phase, phase one, two, and three. Now, it is our whole world, and later we will discover the spiritual worlds by the Masach (screen) and the Returning Light.

However, on the whole, I am in Malchut, which seems shattered, and I must connect all its parts into one. All its parts are separate from me by my ego and my hatred, and I connect them above the hate.

I cannot annul my ego and my hatred, but as it is written, “Love covers all transgressions.” I leave the sins, hatred, repulsion and all the other negative attributes below, restrict them, and build a new vessel above them.
[111579]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/05/13, “Love Your Neighbor as Yourself

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