We need to try hold ourselves within one Kli (vessel), a general boat, and constantly think about the existence of this Kli, of our mutual baby. It is as if you have a daughter who got married and now lives far away from you, and you constantly worry about the baby she gave birth to.

You think about him being in the hands of silly and frivolous children, who are lazy and don’t care for him as they should. You suffer from this and can’t see how they treat him. Your heart is torn when you hear his crying on the phone when they call you. You are full of concern.

There are those kinds of worries in life, i.e., worrying about the welfare of someone outside yourself. And in this way we need to worry about the group.

Question: It turns out that I have to work not with the friends, who are fine with the group, but with those who want to leave the group and thus harm our unity, harm our collective boat?

Answer: Yes, but only if previously they were aimed toward unity. However, if they heard that one has to unite and immediately ran away, then it was before any commitments to Arvut (mutual guarantee). In the meantime, they are not called friends.

Friends are only those who work for the attainment of Arvut (mutual guarantee). And the others don’t.

Comment: But we know that this is hard work, and many run away in the middle of the path.

Answer: It isn’t in the middle, since they, after all, haven’t even begun. They saw the beginning of the path, understood that it wasn’t for them and left.

Question: So why did they come if it they didn’t have a “point in the heart?”

Answer: Everyone has a point in the heart, but in the meantime it doesn’t burn in such a way that a person needs to invest all of himself in it. But if they were already part of this connection, and left, then one needs to fix the gap that was left through our even greater and stronger connection.

Question: Should such people return?

Answer: You are not able to force them to return because there is no coercion in spirituality.
[136515]
From the 5^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/2/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Baal HaSulam, Shamati #53, “The Matter of Limitation”: This is called the main part of the degree, which is a discernment of Katnut. This discernment must be permanent, and the Gadlut is only an addition. Also, one should yearn for the main part, not for the additions.

The goal is to reach wholeness, and a sign of wholeness is the joy that fills all of our senses, all desires, and all thoughts, which means our heart and mind. It is because wholeness and joy come from the Creator; when in the smallest state, I am adhered to Him and thus delight Him, and then it is the greatest state.

At the bottom of the ladder it seems that a person has to be as great as the Creator: to know, to understand, and to feel everything, to control everything, to swallow the whole world. The Creator seems as a powerful ruler that dominates all of creation and a person thinks that he also should be the same. The ego inside me constantly grows and expands so that I will advance.

But then I begin to understand that no matter how much new desire will be added and no matter how great it is, I have to make myself a zero and another zero, as many zeros as possible. I cannot do that with regard to the Creator, but I can make an effort and do it with regard to the friends.

Annulling myself and not wanting anything for myself but from the point of annulment to delight the Creator is actually the starting point of every level, of every state. This is the attribute of Bina, to bestow in order to bestow with nothing of its own.

This is called Tzimtzum (restriction), Masach (screen), and the Returning Light. To the extent that greatest discernments are revealed to me, I annul them when it comes to my own benefit and I don’t want to exist on my own if I cannot delight the Creator above this state and not demand anything else.

My perception of reality is always divided into two. I want to delete all the desires and the thoughts that are for myself and to restrict them; I cannot get rid of them completely, but want to feel as if they don’t exist. It is because I begin to feel that every thought and desire for myself in any way doesn’t let me focus on delighting the Creator.

Thus I establish my bestowal by restricting all my desires by which I am blown up with from Above, to zero. I return to nothing, and then above that establish my bestowal. These are already the next phases of my ladder. The sign for these states is the ability to ascend above all the ascents and descents and to turn them into means of bestowal, as if I don’t have a volume of my own but convey everything above myself.
[136490]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/2/14, Shamati #53 “The Matter of Limitation”

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Aaron was completely free of error, except for the incident with the Golden Calf. This error was a heavy burden on his soul. He was concerned that the Creator would reject his sacred work and his priesthood. Moses said to him, “You don’t have to be afraid! The Omnipotent forgives you!” It was only then that Aaron went up to the altar. (M. Weisman, “Midrash Mispar,” Parshat “Shemini”).

Aaron considered himself unworthy of the sacred work and the priesthood because he felt within him the previous breach, the previous crisis, the previous shattering, from the sin of the golden calf.

So, he had to pass through a turning point in order to rise up again. Only then was he ready for the correction of the sins committed at the time of the worship of the golden calf.

He began to feel that the sin of the golden calf was arranged intentionally for his present correction. This means that this problem had to be revealed precisely in this way  otherwise it would not have been revealed. Now it was possible to reveal it and correct it.

This happened when Aaron connected with Moses, and in their work together, they reached a state during which the Upper Light descended on them clothed in the characteristic of bestowal. In this way, by approaching each other, they acquired the characteristic of bestowal.
[136398]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 1/15/13

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In the News (from Vedomosti): “We received new information only when nothing threatens our outlook. Negative facts brought to the supporters of the regime cannot be digested by them and will not change their views. By virtue of these features of our consciousness, the existence of independent media and the Internet does not solve the problem.

“People perceive information that does not constitute a threat to their worldview and filter out all the rest. It is incredibly difficult for politicians and peoples to accept a dead end of the chosen path since changing a course undermines the worldview system.

“Having realized that the chosen political course does not lead to the expected results, the country often does not change, but on the contrary, intensifies the realization of the initial program, which worsens the economic situation in the country and leads to a tightening of the wrong political course. A mental trap brings a country into a vicious circle.”

My Comment: Although opposite to its course, the correct decision can be accepted only when it is viewed objectively. This is possible only in a workshop which is organized according to the principles of integral education, in a circle where people are equal and cancel themselves. They must be ready for full connection for the sake of revealing unity (the Upper Force) within it, adhering to the Upper Force through similarity of properties (mutual bestowal) in order to create contentment in it.
[136819]

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Question: What is Gehenna (Hell)?

Answer: Gehenna depends on how a person defines it. There are those who suppose that Gehenna is when everything that they had in this world disappears and they regret that life passed by without any benefit.

There are those who suppose that Gehenna is not here in this world from an emotional point of view: good or bad, with all kinds of observations. Rather, it waits for us in the future, after the body dies. They think that after the body dies, Gan Eden (the Garden of Eden, heaven) or Gehenna waits for them.

In Kabbalah, what is called Gehenna is the most undesirable state. Through our study and work in a group, we strive to reach a state where values are changed so that hell and heaven take on a different identity in comparison to what is conventionally accepted. Regular people think that when the body dies, some kind of door opens to hell or heaven for a person.

But is this wretched beast at fault for having died or because it was alive? This is speaking about life or death of the desire to receive in the same situation when we have free choice. This illusion that I am found in a physical body and feel this world is intentionally given so that I will leap above it and see myself as alive and existing only in a spiritual Kli (vessel) in relation to Light.

It is very good and beneficial to imagine hell Gehenna and see it in a different form all the time. When I am under the control of the desire to receive, which doesn’t let me bestow, this is called hell. Then we have such a Gehenna!
[136471]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/30/14, The Zohar

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Question: Is it possible to say that a workshop is a conversation without arguments?

Answer: A workshop is an “accumulative clarification” where everyone adds to clarify the answer, the problem, the phenomenon, with the power of connection.

For every problem there is a key, which is called the wisdom of the crowd, where through taking an average of a large number of answers, a correct solution emerges, despite the fact that all of the answers were not correct. So let’s solve our problems with the help of the wisdom of the crowd, the wisdom of the group.

If we don’t argue with each other, but gather together our knowledge and sense of unity, then we suddenly begin to discover a unique phenomenon within our connection. In this way we clarify a particular problematic question or phenomenon that becomes understandable.

This is because the connection is found above us and gives us additional wisdom, an additional I.Q. Suppose that everyone had an I.Q. of 100. From the connection of five, in sum we have 500. But through our connection, the result is 1000. That is how the connection between people works. There are experiments that confirm this phenomenon called collective intelligence.

Question: Is the wisdom of the crowd revealed only in a good connection at the time of the workshop or can there be disputes?

Answer: The wisdom of the crowd cannot be revealed during an argument, for there will not be a connection between opinions. Only when all of the opinions are connected do we attain the higher knowledge.

In arguments we don’t reach agreement between people. Someone simply surrenders due to all kinds of different reasons, but he doesn’t complete you. While in a workshop we complete each other.
[136114]
From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/28/14

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The whole world is my Kli. Only one person was created in the world. This is a paradox, also known in quantum physics. Our perception of the world can transform in a moment and the situation will appear completely different, like quantum superpositions.

There is no contradiction between the fact that I the only one in the world and seeing the whole world as parts of me. Because of some kind of psychological effect it seems to me that these parts are outside of me.

It is as if they gave me an injection of an anesthetic in my leg and I stop feeling it as part of my body. Now someone could come with a saw and cut off my leg and I would not react because I don’t feel any pain. My feeling is so clouded that I don’t see that it is mine at all.

We are under an anesthetic like this in relation to the whole world. All of the still, vegetative, and animate nature, and people are parts of my Kli, vessel. All of them belong to me, to my desire to receive. I am Malchut of Ein Sof (Infinity), the entire creation. So the whole world was created for me, to serve me. But my ego detaches me from the world and presents it to me as being outside of me and not as belonging to me.

The ego works like an anesthetic that disengages all of my organs from me and leaves me with only a small part of all of reality. So I must begin to correct my ego, and through the Surrounding Light, I return to myself my parts that seem to me as being cut off and distant from me, in that I work with them as if they are mine.

This is specifically what we try to do in a group: to come closer as one person with one heart and see all of reality as one. We ourselves invest effort to reach this and are not pushed backward by the crisis like all of the rest of the world is, which must be compelled to accept all of reality as one system.

I have the opportunity to not wait until the crisis will begin to push all of reality back at me, arguing that it is all mine and forcing me to recognize this through the way of suffering.

If I will begin to bring all of reality to myself, according to the advice of the Kabbalists, and relate to all of its levels— the still, vegetative, animate, and human—as my parts, then I will receive huge additional deficiencies. They will make it possible for me to see reality not through my small part, but through them, through the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking, which I bring close and adhere to me by leaping over my ego. In this way I build a bridge above all of my hatred, as it is said, (Proverbs 10:12) “Love covereth all transgressions.”
[136111]
From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/28/14

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Question: How do you develop the sense for feeling others?

Answer: The sense for feeling others develops by our attempts and efforts force ourselves to bow before the right environment and to attach the external environment to it so that they will connect, and I will serve them. By my good and benevolent attitude towards them, I discover the Creator according to the law of equivalence of form.

The more I try to do good to the environment, the more I will discover the Creator, because He is good and benevolent to the wicked and to the good. So I also need to try to treat everyone that way.

The wicked are those who try to be good but at the moment are dominated by evil. By discovering my attitude towards them in different ways, I discover the Creator and to what extent I have to adjust myself to Him.

The examination and the clarification are only possible with regard to the environment. There is no other place I can meet the Creator, to see Him and to measure in what way I am different from Him. His form is revealed in the general public or in the group, that is, in the environment, in the world, so the world (Olam) is the concealment (Alam – which has the same root in Hebrew) of the Creator.

To the extent that I try to treat the world better and accordingly change myself, I discover the Creator there. There is no other place I can feel Him, since He has no form. By changing myself, I begin to treat the world differently, which means in a better way, and then accordingly I begin to discover that the world is the Shechina where He, the Creator, dwells (Shochen).
[136035]
From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/26/14

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