Question: These days before the Arava convention, the friends are experiencing great pressure and fear of the unknown. How can I help them during the lesson to focus this pressure in the right direction?

Answer: A person should reach such a level of fear and pressure like at the foot of Mt. Sinai: “You either connect or here will be your burial place.” It is because a person should bury his desire to receive, not identify with it, and rise above it. This is called the receiving of the Torah. He asks the Light to perform an action that is the opposite of burial. But he must see that this is what he wants to do with his ego in order to connect with others and to reach bestowal.

Of course, at the same time he must feel tension and pressure. There isn’t a more tense situation in all our lives than this passage. It is birth and birth is a most natural process, but at the same time, it is the most dangerous and dramatic event in a person’s life.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/21/12, The Zohar

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The Constitution of the Convention in Arava: Our brother, the physical and spiritual conditions that you must observe are before you. Prior to joining us, check carefully: Are you ready, do you realize and feel the importance of the stage to which you connect; do you understand that the Torah, the Reforming Light, will change you so that you love and serve everyone? Do you want this? You should be clear that you come here not to receive, but to receive the force of bestowal.

Even while just reading the story of the Torah about the exodus from Egypt, we see that it involved people of all types: elderly, young, children, men, and women. They differed, some with a great desire to receive, others with a great desire aimed at bestowal. All of them, including Moses and Aaron, were still in the receiving desire. However, the Creator was revealed to them; we will discover what revelations they were.

This is why we open the convention in the Arava to all the men. We do not check whether they participate in all our activities. A person may arrive at the convention but he will not be able to take part in it fully if he does not study during the morning lessons, if he does not pay Maaser (tithe), if he does not participate in the meeting of friends, in their connection, and if he is not involved in dissemination. These are the four conditions according to which a person is my student and a member of Bnei Baruch, a friend for everyone.

First of all, we are talking about physical actions that are followed by deeper levels to the extent a person invests one’s heart and really wants to exert in order to reach the goal. So, there are different gradations.

However, it is never too late to start. We see that this month, more and more people study during the daily Kabbalah lessons and many began to pay maaser because they understood that these funds are dedicated to the dissemination of the method of Kabbalah in the world. In essence, this is our correction. We exist for this purpose: to perform the role of Israel for the world, to receive the method from above and pass it down.

Thus, understanding and awakening are growing in our community; finally, people take the straight path. However, we do not need to be great, we just have to realize the opportunities that we are given. This is what is important.

Many kinds of desires came out of Egypt: children, old, young, men, women, slaves, goats, and sheep. There were all levels: still, vegetative, animate and speaking, but each desire wanted to participate in this fully. A child who is completely ready to take part is also included.

Therefore, we open the convention for everyone. A man can say: “I have been watching the lessons on TV for a long time, and I will try to do the rest.” And he too can come. We turn no one away. In spirituality, only a person can check his heart before the Creator, no one can interfere in this.

However, we ask—and it is very important—that people at least try to be with us during the days of the convention with their whole heart and soul. That is why we put material terms and conditions for the inner work that must be followed.

People who enter the grounds of the Arava convention are obliged to observe the Constitution. They are given all the conditions for participation. If they do not take part in the shared effort, they harm everyone, and this will cause them a lot of damage.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/21/12, “Advice for the Arava Convention”

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Question: How do we reach the correct plea during the congress in the desert? Various desires are constantly changing inside of me and I am afraid that I won’t be able to arrive at the correct thought.

Answer: A person arrives at Mount Sinai in such a state when inside of him there are Moses, Aaron, the Cohens (priests), Levites, and the nation of Israel—600,000 men, it would seem such a force. Even though it exists, it is not yet clear for a person that it exists inside. Besides this, there are women and children inside of him. There are even Egyptians, completely unrelated to the nation of Israel (Yashar El – straight to the Creator), who fled along with them.

Even the mixed multitude (Erev Rav) is intermingled within them, meaning that there are impure forces (Klipot) concealed inside, which cannot be corrected now, but will only be corrected later after all of the corrections. And all of them are standing and facing Mount Sinai before receiving the Torah.

Who must receive the Torah? Everyone receives it to the extent that he needs it, according to these levels. And so, there are strong men under the leadership of Moses who is standing before everyone (the point in the heart), and there are desires that are simply connected to them. While there are also ones who, as soon as possible, even as soon as tomorrow, will cast the golden calf, and will act against the Creator, against Moses, and in general will want to return to the Pharaoh, to make such a revolution.

Such different desires coexist inside a person, yet he still reaches Mount Sinai. He cannot arrive there otherwise! He carries Egypt inside of himself, even Babylon, the whole of the path he has traveled, all of this is inside a person. While now he reaches the so-called resistance before Mount Sinai, bringing the entire burden with him, as yet, he has never corrected anything in himself! He only occasionally felt these qualities inside of himself, one against the other: Babylon and the land of Canaan, and bad and good deeds.

He was imprisoned, confined to a pit by the Pharaoh, and he was also the young Moses who sat on Pharaoh’s knee and grew up in his home. He escaped from Pharaoh’s palace, slew the Egyptian, and suffered from his nation Israel. Everything that is written in the Torah is contained inside of this person who is now standing in the desert of Arava: All of this happened to him.

Therefore, it is important for us to prepare ourselves for unity as best as possible. If you want to be in the mutual guarantee, then you will receive the Reforming Light. You may not receive the correction yet. The giving of the Torah is only the beginning. You are now given the methodology of correction, and from here, you begin to realize the corrections according to this methodology.

This is the receiving of an instruction book that explains how to correct yourself! This is precisely what we should be ready for. There is no need for something more. I must know that I am going to receive the force for such a correct connection with the group, inside of which I will reveal the Creator, the spiritual world, the higher system, the higher dimension.

It is not demanded of us to be righteous people and real friends, feeling love for each other already. I only need to be ready for it, to have the willingness to do so, the need for me to make this calculation and cry from the bottom of the heart that I want to change. That’s all.

I have desires of all levels inside of me, starting from Moses and ending with the mixed multitude; all of them are with me. And the difference between Babylon and the land of Canaan, Egypt and the Mount Sinai is only in the clarifications. All of this is the same desire, only ever more clarifying itself, and that is why, instead of Babylon, it starts to be called the land of Canaan, instead of the land of Canaan, it starts to be called Egypt, instead of Egypt, the Red Sea, Mount Sinai, and so forth.

But all of this is the same desire, just passing through different states bearing such names.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/11/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: How can we achieve unity in such a diverse world?

Answer: There must be a new principle here: unity above all the differences. We are not trying to correct the differences among us or to delve into details of different streams, different parties, or any differences. There can be many peoples and cultures in one state, and that shouldn’t disturb us. European history, for example, is full of wars, hate, and mutual claims that go centuries back. But above all the differences and the conflicts, we open an umbrella of unity. We know that we are all different, and we work on a very high level.

It should be a systematic approach, on the level of a national plan: We cut down the edges from above and from below and gradually reach a fair and equal distribution of resources. Even if it happens two hundred years from now—it doesn’t matter. The main thing is that the process has begun. First we must raise all the poor above the poverty line. Let’s take care of this.

Education is necessary here. If we begin to save nationwide just as we save at home, we won’t need more than that. It will be enough to raise everyone above poverty. As for the economic resources there are very interesting data: For example 17% of the food produced is discarded while still in the original packages.

So it is all about attitude: If we provide a general “umbrella, then there will be some order. We must only change our attitude: The nation is the family. In the family I save, I worry, I keep, support, concede…this is how we should live on a national level, but without isolation and parasites, without waste and protectionism. Everyone is equal, and everyone connects to the common line.

Question: Can this connection start in Israel?

Answer: Not only can it start here, it must.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/16/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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All of our study and work are dedicated to the clarification of our deficiency, the clarification of our goal in life, to what it will lead us, and who I want to be. This is all a person is. Everything is determined only by a person’s deficiency, and only what one adds to what was received from nature.

If certain desires are simply evoked in me to go somewhere, to do something in the group or to connect with friends, these are not my desires. I am incorporated in a group that influences me now by its desire to go to the desert; I am impressed by the friends, but it isn’t me. In that I am like a rock. Does it receive anything from the environment?—almost nothing.

But if I want to invest my powers and am in the right environment, I begin to grow in it like a seed that was planted in the ground from which a whole tree will grow. I only need to add my own efforts and not just wait for those around me to wake me up.

I evoke myself and the others. I rouse all of them so that they will influence me. And what I receive from them is my spiritual vessel. A spiritual vessel is always received from the environment, and it is always the result of a person’s inspiration and working for the society.

There are those that are in the society but are totally isolated from others, as if they have surrounded themselves with electrical tape. So how can they benefit from the environment? In such a case, a spiritual vessel will not be formed in a person. He will be impressed together with the others from the general mood that the environment will put him in and will be swept away by it, but his individual spiritual vessel will not develop.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/16/12, The Zohar

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Question: Is it possible to pave the way to spirituality in a way that the disturbances will be of assistance and not seen as obstacles that we can’t respond to?

Answer: The problem isn’t the obstacles. You reveal exactly what you can overcome. We are speaking of a systemic formula of the connection between the Lights and the Kelim (vessels or desires). No one here decides anything according to his understanding. After all, the Creator is Nature. In the opposition between the right and left lines, you are always given from above the middle line, and you need to build from below an identical relation to what is happening.

If this doesn’t happen, then that’s another matter. But in general, everything is realized optimally, according to various calculations. We live in a perfect world, in a complete system. At each moment, the best conditions for correction are created for me. Even if I forget and detach, it comes from me because this is the way my situation has to be right now. Thus, whatever comes to me, the problem is: How do I respond to it?

It could be that my lack of response comes from not worrying about the group, about the factors that need to awaken me.  But from above there are no delays and postponements. Ein Sof (Infinity) operates us. All of our requests (MAN – Mayin Nukvin – Female Waters) come from there. And all the answers (MAD – Mayin Duchrin – Male Waters) descend from there, at each moment. This connection never stops, but all the time the Reshimot (informational genes – reminiscences) are renewed. We envision a very long line of connection that goes through all the 125 levels, but actually everything is much simpler.

Question: What should our response be to the actions of the system?

Answer: We need to raise a plea for correction, MAN, and not more than this. I ask from the system to be similar to it, and I ask this according to my powers. After all, the entire system of Ein Sof is the Creator, perfection. We only yearn to Him.

Question: Let’s suppose that I encountered a serious problem: money, health or family. How should I respond to this with a correct request?

Answer: You need to operate on the physical plane in order to solve problems that awaken, even though it is clear to you that everything comes from above and that everything will be solved at the spiritual level. It seems to us that we encounter corporeal problems, but actually, it is certain that their background is spiritual.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/13/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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We have a Kli (vessel or desire) and the fulfillment is above it, not within it. The Kli is composed of broken pieces that we need to glue together. These pieces are my friends, however not just their bodies but the desires to connect together. We must connect, and to the extent that we connect together we actually realize and feel our connection, and thereby attain the corrected state.

It is in this manner that we receive the general desire to enjoy: We connect and receive the desire of the friend, meaning I feel them within me, am impressed by them, and grasp them as mine. In this way I “buy” friends and acquire a bigger desire. All of this I do rationally “within reason” as is said, ” A judge has only what his eyes can see.” This Kli becomes my work tool, like a screwdriver, pliers, or hammer.

However, the surrounding Light (the Light that reforms) is on a level higher than me. The Reshimo (reminiscence) of the dressing is always found one level above the Reshimo of Aviut (coarseness): Dalet (four)/Gimel (three), Gimel/Bet (two), and Bet/Aleph (one). This is found ” above my reason” according to the extent that I give more value to the upper Light and adhere to it above my intellect, since that is, after all, another level.

This means that the Kli has greater value according to the extent that we did more within the intellect in order to build it: we connected together, adhered to each other, we glued our bowl together. Whereas in the relation to the Creator, it’s preferred that He invite more problems, questions, fears, thoughts, doubts of His providence, and I, in spite of everything, will respect Him and try to adhere to Him. To the extent that my faith above reason is greater, it’s more valuable and I am attracted more to a higher level.

The greater the gap is, the greater the delta (∆ – difference) between the Light, the Creator, and the Kli, the desire. It’s more respectable this way. We must constantly maintain this relation and to see the friends as the greatest of the generation. I must feel, understand and see them only in this way.

While in relation to the Creator, everything is the opposite. The fewer doubts I have in relation to the friends, it’s better. And the more doubts I have in relation to the Creator (yet in spite of that I am attracted to Him), the better. In relation to the Light that reforms, it doesn’t matter how high it is. I am ready to adhere to it, to be impressed by it, to be assimilated in it, above reason. This is because I see that the Light that reforms will bestow on me, will control and execute changes in me.

But with everything that belongs to the Kli, meaning everything except the Creator, I must accept it within reason, in the clearest, most comprehensible, and examined way.

And thus the Creator will be revealed to me, each time more and more clearly within the Kli, and I will need to ascend and want to be higher in my relation to Him, to value Him even more than before.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/15/12, Writings of Rabash

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Study of The Ten Sefirot,” Item 97: For that reason, our sages warned us in many places concerning the necessary condition in the practice of Torah, that it will be specifically Lishma, in a way that one will be awarded life through it, for it is a Torah of life, and this is why it was given to us, as it is written, “therefore choose life.”

This is a very important condition and I would say a very scary one. There is a very serious warning in it that it is forbidden to use the Torah, meaning the method of Kabbalah, in the wrong way. After all, there is Light in all the Kabbalah books, and if a person uses them the wrong way, instead of the potion of life he receives the potion of death. It is a very strong weapon that is like radiation which can be used beneficially in different techniques and in medicine, but which can also kill. Fire too can be destructive on the one hand while on the other it can help us and warm us.

The power of the Light is the greatest power in nature. We have to know how to use it. Therefore the sages first forbade the teaching of the wisdom of Kabbalah to everyone, except for those who had the altruistic intention of Lishma (bestowal).

But how can one switch to this intention? There are several preliminary conditions here.

On the general human level, people have no need to study the method of Kabbalah. But sometimes the question comes up: “What is the meaning of life?” and then I turn to Kabbalah. Then another question comes up: “What am I studying for; is it in order for me to feel good or so that I can come to Lishma?

At first a person wants to know what the meaning of life is. He doesn’t know much about intentions yet. Baal HaSulam says that only the intention of Lishma, which is in order to bestow, is the condition that enables one to teach a person the method of Kabbalah. In such a case, there’s no doubt that he will study correctly. Although no one starts from this level, he should reach it!

Therefore a person should join a group where he finds a teacher and books. If all these factors come together correctly, then although a person isn’t worthy yet, he may be allowed to connect with the method of Kabbalah, which then can bring him to the intention of Lishma.

So there must be a very clear framework: friends, a teacher, and the study. Then a person won’t be confused and won’t get off track. Otherwise, the “elixir of life” will become the “potion of death” for him.

As far as the rest of humanity is concerned, they don’t feel the need for that. Abraham in his time gave the sons of the concubines “presents,” which were the Eastern practices that suited their level of development. He then sent them to the East to do those things that we now call “New Age.”

From here we should understand how things developed. As a result of the shattering, the Torah was disseminated among all the peoples and remained with the people of Israel. But what kind of Torah is it? How can the method of Kabbalah be studied during the exile, in the egoistic intention?

Finally, since we went into exile, we haven’t had the true Torah, but its “mock-up.” We continue to call Kabbalistic books “holy books,” but there is no Light in this Torah. Rabbi Chaim Vital wrote about this and so did Baal HaSulam.

But if a person needs the Torah in order to switch to the intention of Lishma, he is drawn to the wisdom of Kabbalah in which there really is the Reforming Light. It was forbidden to use this wisdom during the time of exile so as not to bring the Light to a person with the possibility of it becoming the potion of death for him.

It is only now when we’ve reached the general shattering and the last layer of the egoistic desire that we can discover the wisdom of Kabbalah and study it. Baal HaSulam writes about it in the articles “Time to Act,” “Messiah’s Shofar,” and others. It is about that part of the Torah that transmits the Reforming Light. Our generation is already in the “days of the Messiah” when we have to use this method.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/15/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Question: I want us to carry out the work at the Convention in the Arava desert in the best possible way. How should we act on the inside to attain success?

Answer: This is difficult. I must constantly conduct an analysis, ask questions and look for answers to them, fall and rise. And I must solve all problems only by uniting with the friends. In this way, I want to show an example for everyone.

Success is impossible for one person. It must be achieved for everyone together. And that means I only care about the common desire. What’s important is not what I feel, but what we feel. It’s not me who rises above something and reveals something, but we rise and reveal it. It’s always we, while I do not exist at all. I want to live in this “soup.” The word “I” and the sensation of oneself must be left behind at home.

Moreover, we is not just a gathering of friends or a “special forces unit.” All of that are toys, while in reality, “we” is a soul. It does not have any parts that join with one another; everyone in it are fused together into one. And this bears no relation to what we are today. This is a new creation that has just been created.

After all, the spiritual essence that we want to form did not exist before. Previously there was only a broken Reshimo leading to it. And today, with our efforts we are trying to form a soul from the world of Nikudim, which was supposed to be corrected at this phase, but was deliberately broken for our sake.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/8/12, “Introduction to the Study of Ten Sefirot”

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Question: Should we get rid of all our corporeal desires in order to reach the level of the “poor man?”

Answer: We shouldn’t get rid of any desire. We should only ask for correction, and nothing more. The upper Light knows what to do better than we do. I don’t have to get rid of anything. Even if I see my worst attributes, I mustn’t get rid of them because it’s as if I would be cutting off my arms and legs. I don’t correct myself; it’s the Light that should correct me.

If I come to you, and attack you, shout at you, and insult you, I mustn’t “shut myself up.” I have to pray for the upper Light to perform this correction because that will be a real correction and not something that is done under pressure. This is a huge difference.

Baal HaSulam says that if you suppress something by that you are destroying this part in the world, and due to that the world will never be corrected. It will require much more effort to bring it back to the way it was and to correct it.

Similarly, we sometimes use medicines in order to suppress an illness and to conceal it inside, and this is even worse than if an illness is seen clearly and thus can be cured. This is how a snake operates: It hides inside and you don’t see it, but then it crawls out.

Therefore our attitude to transgressions, to quarrels between people and to different conflicts is totally different: Let them be as they are, yet above them we should build the correction because now is the best time to correct them.

If a person wants to cover up the negative revelations and to hide them, it’s the worst thing. There are people who are afraid of quarrels and conflicts, they are afraid of such revelations, and it’s bad because that isn’t aimed at correction.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/2/12, The Zohar

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