Question: To what state must preparation for the Saint Petersburg convention bring the world group?

Answer: Before the convention the entire world group must be in a state of arousal and excitement where awe, happiness, elevation, expectation and despair exist together.

This must not be something external, but internal. Each one must experience these states within himself.

Our friends throughout the world must prepare such that they will become softer, more flexible. Just as we work on dough, kneading it, so we also must work on this mass.

Besides this, we want to put ourselves under the influence of the Creator, so that He will make of us something that can be digested. This is our mission. We want to become active participants in this activity, and not spectators.

As it is said in the wisdom of Kabbalah, everything depends upon preparation.
[143518]
From the Convention Preparation Webinar, 9/4/14

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Question: In what way should our covenant be revealed in the convention?

Answer: In warmth. Effective communication that must occur between us. It has to simply explode so that we will begin to feel a warm void among us that opens us up to one another and doesn’t let us restrain ourselves in order to express our love.

Moreover, it is mutual support, a mutual effort all over the world when the friends all over the world express their support and their awe and confirm their oath of loyalty to our covenant.

Therefore, we must feel some tension. Of course, the upper force can do whatever it wants with us, but each of us is committed to the friends, to keep all the advice and the commands of the Kabbalists and do everything in our power to keep the covenant with the others.

A person should understand that if he doesn’t accept this condition, he is not part of our stream, and he doesn’t float onward in our common general boat. He can stay in the convention but nothing will happen to him.

Everyone must realize and recognize the fact that taking an oath is the central issue in starting the spiritual path. Just like on Mt. Sinai: “Do you agree to be as one man in one heart? If not, this will be your burial place!”

If we are going to make a covenant now, it should include everyone by stretching a hand over the ocean, over the continent, no matter where. Everyone has to feel that they are with us in a continuous two-way connection.
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From the Lesson on the Topic: “Preparation for the Convention,” 9/4/14

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Question: How can we use the gathering of friends (Yeshivat Haverim) to unite at the convention?

Answer: The gathering of friends is a part of the day when we are tuning to receiving a new portion of the Upper Light because these meetings precede the lessons and workshops, i.e,. our upcoming spiritual actions.

To do this, we must get ready, unite, and remind each other about our goal that it is achieved in unity, that it is the mutual support that is our freewill, and this is our only free action; all the rest does not depend on us. The gathering of friends should remind us about this.
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From the Lesson on the Topic: Preparation for the Convention, 9/9/14

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Convention in St. Petersburg, Preparatory Lesson 1

Convention in St. Petersburg, Preparatory Lesson 2

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Question: Should the groups of “ten” that are formed at the convention be composed at random from unrelated people, or is it possible to keep those groups of ten that have already worked together for a few years?

Answer: If people want to be together, maybe it’s good. But I would like to warn them that this shouldn’t be habitual. This could nullify what we could attain.

We must attain connection above all possible problems, especially beyond the place where we connect, where we are not familiar with each other. This doesn’t mean that we must choose people who are our opposite.

But still, when we come from somewhere with our group of ten where everyone has been acquainted with each other for some time, has discussed various subjects in circles and workshops hundreds of times, what kind of innovation can there be here?! What is there to work on? Everything would roll along on our habitual pattern. I don’t think this is good.

A group of ten that is shaped and created in a convention must maintain one composition from the beginning of the convention to its end. But if this will be a group of ten that has worked for years, then it creates a problem. I personally would not want them to put me in a group of ten like this. I am familiar with these guys, we have talked about everything among us; one could say half a word and I already know what another will add. I have no surprises with them, I don’t need to change and adapt myself; this isn’t good. So I don’t think that this is the way it should be done, to the contrary.

It is said that we should always see our friends as new. As new! I am going to discover them on a new level. And this begs the question: “Will this work for me with those same faces I have seen in front of me for years?” I work well with them; we have gone through many conventions together. It could certainly be that because of this I will not be able to struggle with myself to approach them, for even in this way they seem close to me.

So I would not recommend being included in a group of ten that has more than two very close friends.
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From the Convention Preparation Webinar, 9/9/14

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Question: What state must a person reach when the convention opens? What must he experience?

Answer: He must feel that it is as if he has entered into a blender within which he wants to mix his thoughts and feelings with the thoughts and feelings of others, so that he has nothing left.

From this mixture of desires in the heart and thoughts in the mind, something emerges that can be called a “spiritual Kli,” a “spiritual Partzuf.” This is because a desire is the “body” of the “Partzuf,” and the thoughts are its “head.” In this way we create a pattern (model) of an Adam (one person), a single image of all of humanity.

The role of each one is to mix with everyone so there is nothing left of him, neither in the head nor in the heart. And what results will fill his heart and mind.
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From the Convention Preparation Webinar, 9/9/14

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Question: We will be conducting work in groups of ten in the upcoming St. Petersburg convention. Should a group of ten be together all the time including mealtime, the friends’ meetings, the workshops, and the lessons?

Answer: I don’t see the point in walking around in groups of ten holding hands.

A group of ten is considered a whole spiritual unit. In Hebrew it is called a Minyan. There is a condition that you cannot pray if you don’t gather in a group of ten. This means that you cannot appeal to the Creator if you are not in a group of ten. Therefore, the groups of ten are essential in all our events.

During the friends’ meetings everyone is present: the men in an inside circle and the women on the outside. We have to constantly emphasize that we are together with all of humanity, with the whole world group.

The groups of ten don’t have to show their excessive individualism. Their main role is to cultivate the intention: We have gathered here in order to merge into one, so that units identical to ours will connect into one huge unit that is equal to the Creator.

A group of ten is what raises you to the next level; it is a derivative. Those who have studied higher mathematics know that the breaking down of a derivative is shattering and death. If a group of ten breaks down, you cannot raise yourself to the next level any more.

Therefore, we should do everything we can so that the groups of ten will remain intact even while performing different duties in the kitchen or any service. This is important.
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From the Convention Preparation Webinar, 9/9/14

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Question: What is equality? A person is born, comes into this world, and everything that he sees, everything, is absolutely divided and separate beginning with what he feels inside and ending with what he sees outside. But in spite of it all, for individual people there is a particular desire for equality. Where does this come from?

Answer: All of our characteristics, observations, situations, and laws come from only one state, a state of unity, the state of the analog, integral system in which we are found.

The integral system is built on the principle of our full dependence upon each other. This means that all of us are absolutely equal. Perhaps for one, particular parameters are a thousand times greater than for another, but if the system is completely connected, then for this great person, somehow his greatness depends upon a very small person. This is because the entire system is integral, and if some kind of minimal disruption happens in it, it completely fails! This is the principle of equality.

This principle is not based upon who you were and who I was from the start. It is based upon what we must reach to bring the system to an integral state under our influence. In other words, nature created an integral system and created us completely opposite to this state.

Our role is to reach the ideal state, without connection to which of us is someone great, small, wise, foolish, weak, or strong. All of us must reach mutual dependence upon each other. Only in such a case will we discover ourselves to be completely equal.

Everything is derived from the principle of the wholeness of the system in its initial and final state. And we, in the middle, must bring it to its planned ideal through our efforts. From here are derived all of the laws of mutual cooperation in a group, in a collective, in a society, in humanity.
[143252]
From KabTV’s “A Talk About the Integral Method” 9/7/14

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Question: I increase my sensitivity in the group in order to feel my friends more and more. Do I have to do the same in the outside world?

Answer: No, under no circumstances! You have to connect with the outside world through a kind of a partition and to show that you are also coarse and insensitive and indifferent like everyone else. Otherwise people would think that you are an eccentric, a person not from this world.

You will be mocked and used. At work, your colleagues will not understand you. That is why I emphasize that you should consist of two layers and your exterior clothes should be identical to the outside world. You have to learn how to do that!

Rabash used to give a very good example. He used to work in paving roads from Jerusalem and Hebron. The workers worked from sunrise to sunset and in the evening when everyone used to sit down to eat and have tea they started long talks about politics and other matters until midnight and then went to sleep.

But when everyone fell asleep, he used to get up and study the wisdom of Kabbalah. If they came complaining to him: “Are you our friend or not?!”, he would answer that he had nothing to talk them about; that is, he showed some indifference and then they would leave him alone.

Even on the bus when someone sat next to Rabash and tried to speak to him, he would pretend to be asleep. But he behaved exactly like everyone else in every other sense.

Therefore, we should constantly put on this external shirt so as not to differ from others.

Question: But how can we feel the people more when we go out to disseminate? How do we attain this sensitivity? By increasing it among us and then feeling the public more?

Answer: This is a totally different matter. When you go out to disseminate, you meet people who are ready to be in contact with you. In that case you can use your spiritual figure in order to connect to them, in order to give them some spiritual filling, to fulfill the contact and the inner connection. This isn’t the external world anymore but people who are advancing towards an internal connection with you.

It is for them that you create different external faces by adapting yourselves to them, like working with children, for example. How do you usually speak to kids, how do you give them examples, how do you play with them? You constantly try to be like them by coming down to their age and to their level of understanding a little. It is the same here, but by that you begin to open up. This is the natural way of every teacher.
[142886]
From the Convention in Sochi, Lesson 2

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The wholeness of the group depends on its adhesion to those who advance and not on those who advance looking backward at the rearguard, at those who are at the end, thinking: “How can we slow down so that the others can catch up with us?” That isn’t right. We should only yearn to advance!

Many are still against integral education and against dissemination: “We study the wisdom of Kabbalah and everything else doesn’t concern us.” Of course, this is their own business, but they should know that they have no connection with me. How do they intend to keep on engaging in spiritual work? If their goal is to know what the books say, they can even learn it by heart, but they will never be able to attain and reveal spirituality!

If they are against our method, then actually they have nothing to look for in the group. I am very serious. All the smart-alecks, all those who only want to study but not to disseminate, can leave. They are not my students and I don’t see them as students.

Let there be a small group but a qualitative one. In spirituality quality is what’s important and not the quantity.
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From the Convention In Sochi 8/25/14, Lesson 4

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