Convention Association, “Day Two,” Lesson 4
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Convention Association, “Day Two,” Lesson 5
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Convention Association, “Day Two,” Lesson 6
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Convention Association, “Day One,” Lesson 1
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Convention Association, “Day One,” Lesson 2
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Convention Association, “Day One,” Lesson 3
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The main thing learning is not the study of separate phenomena but of the connections between them: how one phenomenon depends on the other in a direct and an opposite manner. This means that studying provides us with a picture of the connections between all the parts of reality.
This is what we pay most attention to during the lessons. We learn more about the connections between the elements than about the actual elements. It is impossible to study only one thing.
It turns out that a person cannot study by himself. Therefore it is written: “I have learned from all my students.” The teacher doesn’t learn by himself but actually from his students. So if we disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah or teach the integral method, we learn from our students and thus advance.
But if I don’t teach and have no students, I cannot advance. One can only learn from his students, and it is an essential condition. Now we may understand why Kabbalists call us to disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah. We are not doing anyone a favor by that but are helping ourselves.
Teaching a student means establishing a connection between him and the Creator. This is actually what a teacher teaches his student: how to connect to the Creator. This means that the teacher is between the Creator and the student as a mediator, a guide, a conductor.
A student connects with the Creator through the teacher whether he wants to or not. Every time he renews his connection with the Creator, whether in a positive way or a negative way, all the changes are through the conductor, through the teacher. No matter what the student does, whether he ascends or descends, he activates this conductor and the teacher gains from that.
It is impossible to connect to the Creator unless you are a guide, a conductor that conveys to the group or to a student. This goes together with the fact that there is no need to correct a person himself, but rather his attitude towards others, including the Creator.
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From the Congress In Verona “Day Two” 11/22/14, Lesson 4
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Question: What benefits do I get when I contribute to the dissemination of knowledge of Kabbalah in the world? What rewards do I get from the Creator when I tell the whole world that we need to achieve adhesion with the Creator?
Answer: There is only one soul that broke and fell into many pieces. And now each part, each of us, restores its part of the whole vessel of the soul. I put together the entire vessel according to my properties, you organize and put it together according to your properties, she does it according to hers, etc.
So, it’s important to bring a lot of people in this world to study and to correction. For instance, I was able to bring 50 people to study Kabbalah with Rabash.
We are one integral soul where everyone is included in each other and every one contains parts of all the others. Obviously, what is good for me is awakening some fragments of the soul lifelessly lying on the floor.
I wake them, ignite them, revive them, and convince them that it is worth studying and striving towards the goal, and they then start to do something. Thus, I awaken others, and they make a correction for me!
It’s not that I’m doing them a favor by pushing them to the correction, to the purpose of creation and the Creator. On the contrary, by prompting others, I persuade them to perform work for me, since they correct my soul.
Suppose I come to a convention and teach you. Believe me, I gain a lot, more than all of you, to the extent that I pass knowledge on to you and an awakening. I awake you and you begin to correct yourselves, but, in fact, you are correcting my soul.
We do not understand this and therefore neglect dissemination. It seems to us that no matter how many people know about Kabbalah, we aren’t personally affected. Internally, I possess such properties that I can never correct directly, but only through someone in a roundabout way.
If the group is awake and affects me by inspiring me with the greatness of the Creator and the spiritual goal, then I awake and start working while being fueled by friends.
I take a student and begin to teach him, and while studying, he corrects my soul. If we had only known how much a person benefits from dissemination, everyone would have rushed excitedly to the group to disseminate. It’s like opening a factory where your employees work for you. Students correct the teacher’s soul.
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From the Congress In Verona “Day Two” 11.22.14, Lesson 4
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Congress in Verona “Day Three,” Lesson 6
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Congress in Verona “Day Two,” Lesson 4
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Congress in Verona “Day Two,” Lesson 5
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Congress in Verona “Day One,” Preparatory Lesson 1
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Congress in Verona “Day One,” Preparatory Lesson 2
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The Upper Light, the Creator, made a desire, “something out of nothing,” that is completely opposite to Him. This desire is the only creation that was ever made.
Later, the desire expanded under the influence of the Light and at some point started acting on its own. It aspired to become similar to the Light and considered the Light to be a remedy for achieving this goal through the act of accepting the Light for the sake of bestowal to the very best of the desire’s ability.
The desire is called the soul (Neshama). The maximum amount of Light that the desire can receive for the sake of bestowal is called Nefesh–Ruach–Neshama. The desire cannot receive other Lights, as yet. Only later, at the end of correction, the Lights of Haya and Yechida will enter the desire. Now, the desire is called Neshama, as it bears the name of the maximum Light that it can accommodate.
It means that all of us represent one soul, one desire. In order to make this single desire act independently and acquire similarity with the Creator, it was shattered into many pieces. In essence, it is still the same common desire, but now it perceives itself as being broken into 600,000 splinters. We regard ourselves as one of the fragments of the common desire.
The pieces of the desire continued to splinter to the extent that each creation in this world bears a tiny particle that once constituted a big vessel. Our goal is to get people voluntarily to reconnect all the elements.
When connected, each of the fragments, every single person, feels as one common soul. Each one merges with the rest of the 599,999 particles, thus the entire structure to a full 600,000 is obtained. Through our relations with the rest of the particles, each one of us builds one’s general soul out of 600,000 pieces.
It applies to everybody who merges with other pieces or splinters, followed by one more fragment and then another. So, when we all reconnect, we recreate our soul and together we constitute just one common desire.
By reattaching, we reach a state when we constitute one vessel. Each of us has to correct ourselves completely, i.e., merge with the rest of the pieces. So far, we are trying to connect in tens, but in fact. the same approach applies to the entire vessel, all souls, all of creation, every single person in this world, to those who lived before us and to those who are not yet born and who will show up later, after us. It doesn’t matter when.
All of them are parts of one soul because we connect to them in accordance with our personal qualities. If each of us connects to the rest of the 600,000 parts, we’ll recreate the original unique soul. Each one of us connects with others in a way that nobody else can and every person merges with others in a way that no other particle can do in the same fashion. This is why each one of us is so important!
During the process of linking with each other, we have to constantly keep in mind that even though at this time we merge with a small ten, we still are preparing to bond with the rest of creation through our tens. This is called one soul.
If we act within our group of ten with this intention, it will be sufficient for attaining the revelation of the common soul within this group.
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From the Convention In Los Angeles “Day Two” 11/01/14, lesson 4
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On the spiritual path I will always discover how much my group, my group of ten is awesome and terrible.
I don’t agree with any of the friends; I am ready to tear them all to pieces, and together with this, afterward, with the help of the Light that Reforms, we merge to such a degree that there are no limits to our unity. Nothing separates us even by a hair; all of us are welded and consolidated together with one heart.
It is said about this in The Book of Zohar: (Psalms 133:1): Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity also. These are the friends when they sit together and are not separated from each other. From the start they seem like warriors who want to kill each other. And after that they return to being with love and brotherhood. The Creator, what does He say about them? “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity also.” The word “also” comes to include the Shechina (divinity) with them. (Zohar, “Acharei Mot,” Item 64-65, HaSulam Commentary).
The Shechina is the place where the Creator is revealed, the shared desire of the friends, their common heart.
“And not only that, but the Creator listens to their words, and He has satisfaction and is happy with them.”
About this it is said: (Proverbs 10:12) “…love covereth all transgressions.” In the beginning it is necessary to discover all the oppositions and above them love, the Light, (Ecclesiastes 2:13) “…as far as light excelleth darkness.” Otherwise, without feeling the intensity of the separation first, we don’t feel the intensity of the unity.
We can see the result of this approach when according to the principle of the unity of the Creator, that (Deuteronomy 4:35) “…there is none else beside Him” and He is the “good and beneficent,” we begin to behave differently at work, in the family, with our children, with our neighbors. In general we begin to look at the whole world differently. In our group we hold this line permanently, and in other places as much as possible.
It is necessary to expand the circles of the right relationships to what is around us more and more such that ultimately in all of reality we will see only the Creator who manages everything, sends everything, and finishes everything.
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From the Convention In Los Angeles “Day Two” 11/1/14, Lesson 3
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If the troubles in life are what drive us, if we are just looking for where to hide from them, then this is the very long and difficult way of suffering. In this case, I actually want to flee from what the Creator is doing to me. I am apparently fighting with Him, so certainly I won’t attain anything this way.
But if I don’t forget that I am specifically dealing with the Creator, then I react differently to any disturbances. I don’t eliminate them, instead I prepare myself so that through “equivalence of form” with the Light, through the bestowal that I radiate, I neutralize and transform every bad factor into a good one, and that is how I succeed.
In that way, success is being a “hero among heroes.” It is about a double overcoming: I transform my hater into a neutral state, after that I transform him into my partner. And about this it is said, “Who is a hero? It is someone who transforms his hater into his lover.”
From here we see that in our work we shouldn’t completely hold onto the same direction typical of ordinary life. I must make an effort to see that behind every person there is a force that activates him. I arrange a contact with this power through every object or entity. It is specifically that with which I am involved and not the person as he is.
How does one do this? I try to connect with a person so I can be closer to the force that motivates him. That is basically how I put all of humanity into a network that is connected to me and I discover the collective power, the Creator, the Infinite Light that is revealed in the entire Malchut, all in the same Kli, which I ultimately combine with me.
The beginning of the way, the ascent on the spiritual ladder, and the final state are all hidden in this yearning. So in everything that we go through, everything that we discover, we must only keep this direction. In every situation, in every detail that appears in front of me and generally in reality that singular, good and beneficent power is concealed.
I cannot keep this direction by myself. But by working with my group of ten and in relation to it, it molds in me this approach of “there is none else beside Him” and the “good who does good,” and I advance towards revelation.
And in addition to this, it is self-evident that we must go out to disseminate because we need to discover the Creator in all of reality, meaning, to discover Him in His entirety.
And this is our work, our advancement.
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From the Convention In Los Angeles “Day Two” 11/1/14, Lesson #3
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