According to the Kabbalistic method, it’s possible to achieve correction of the world only through education because with coercion nothing will change. Every person must enter into a unique system of re-education.

We have reached such a state that people can already begin to recognize the need for a change in their nature, because it’s specifically our nature that is the cause of all the problems, including the global, ecological, and climate problems. This must be explained to everyone in all kinds of ways, beginning with the masses that suffer the most because they are more sensitive to changes of their condition and are ready to listen to how to change it.

Therefore our mission is, first and foremost, to show everyone that the world has reached the extreme point of its egoistic development, has passed this point and is gradually beginning to deteriorate. Such a movement is inevitable, it doesn’t depend on us as we are activated by the internal program of creation and with every day that passes humanity will feel more and more that the world is collapsing like a house of cards.

Second, we must explain that the ego is the cause of all of our problems and suffering. Together with this, the problem is not in the nature of the still, vegetative, and animate, rather only in the human, in his constant movement towards himself, in an aspiration to improve his personal state at the expense of others and even to the detriment of others. This is basically the discovery of the reason for our descent.

We must show that even though the fall is inevitable, it can be controlled and managed by us if we rise above our nature and look at it from the side. Precisely in order to understand this we were given intelligence. Many agree with this, yet they cannot understand in what manner it is possible to change ourselves. And in truth it’s very difficult for us to change and it’s impossible for individuals to do this at all.

Therefore we don’t disagree with people who say: “This is basically utopian. It would be better for us to begin to be involved with something more realistic.” But instead of fleeing from this, in spite of it all, it’s necessary to examine whether this is utopian or not; there is no other possibility.

There are two ways before us, even though one of them, representing the continuation of the existence of the egoistic paradigm, is not the way at all. We are simply pushed from behind through suffering, fleeing from this in all directions, like someone who is sick who runs from one doctor to another, from one treatment to another. First he goes to doctors, after that to all kinds of healers, after that to a fortune teller, and in the end nothing is left.

We must show people that there is no reason to go in a direction like this, from the start it is doomed to failure. This is a dead end in which much suffering and many problems accumulate, including the possibilities of a third and fourth world war, where a pitiful remnant of humanity will realize the hopelessness of this dead end and will agree to change its nature.

And the second way is the way of awareness that we not only can, but also must change our nature with the help of the force that is discovered in our connection. If we at least yearn for unity, even with egoistic intentions, we will begin to feel within our artificial unity some kind of group force.

This is a unity between equals who yearn to exit themselves, and not just those who want to gather together. For you see that there are many revolutionary unions in the world and likewise various groups who simply gather together and feel the power of their unity. But this is the power of the total connection of all. Whereas here we are talking about our rising above ourselves for the sake of our common unity, melting, disappearing into it, and becoming one inclusive whole.
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From the Moscow Virtual Convention “Unity Without Boundaries” Day Three 12/15/13, Lesson 5

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The way to exit the crisis (our ego), which means the method of the integral education is made of nine phases, stations, or lessons.

Phase one: Introduction to the concept of mutual guarantee by which we understand that unity is a wonderful thing.

Phase two: Overcoming the resistance of the ego with the help of a strong environment,

Phase three: Clarifying the center of the group, the “raspberry ball.”

The center of the group isn’t just a positive attitude towards the friends and the readiness to help one another. The raspberry sphere or ball means that I totally stop relating to others personally. This means that we seem to be free of our external attires, of our skin, of the body, of the bones, of all the inner innate characteristics, leaving only the spark, the Reshimo (spiritual reminiscence). Only the Reshimo is left of each of us, which means the inner spirituality of each one, his yearning for connection.

I don’t see faces anymore. If I see them, I have to work on myself so that I will not see anything. My friends are their determination and their effort to reach connection. This is the only spiritual part, the broken Reshimo that is revealed and the efforts of the friend, to reach connection, which means to bring it back to the corrected state despite this Reshimo.

So we don’t see any faces now, no personal characters, no gender, no behaviors or habits that people may have. If I still identify the differences in the relations of the friends towards one another, then it isn’t a group. In the group everyone is equal, which means that I don’t see any difference between them. All the friends seem like Reshimot and efforts to reach connection.

This is where the third lesson of the raspberry ball begins. It ends when everyone connects into one concept, rising above themselves, reaching connection and discovering in it the solution that no one had before. This is called the upper “all inclusive.” It is already a step forward in which Keter of the lower becomes Malchut of an upper level.

This state is called the raspberry ball in which all the sparks, the Reshimot, have melted and merged like drops of water that connect into one big drop.

I saw a report from a space station once where there was no gravity and where there was a leak. The astronaut placed a bucket there and when he shook the liquid out, it fell out like one huge cosmic drop, half a meter in radius, which was held together by the surface tension and the forces of the mutual molecular cooperation that connects all the molecules.

We should see the same thing in our raspberry ball. We find ourselves in space by nullifying all our forces and by building one ball of unity. Of course, we have to constantly support it, since there are interferences that constantly come along with regard to the unity. We struggle for our unity, since we want to go on living because our raspberry ball is the beginning of the spiritual ladder.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 01/02/14, Lesson on the Topic: “9 Steps”

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Question: There is a feeling in the circle that by the self annulment of each individual and the yearning for one point, we reach the border line of the material reality. But what should we do next in order to breakthrough to an inner level?

Answer: You will not be able to penetrate any deeper unless there are additional vessels around you. Only the unique could advance by such limited forces as they had in earlier generations without the connection to additional external circles.

Now everyone must feel what you feel. It isn’t enough for you to think about everyone and that something will be conveyed to them automatically. We have to make an effort so that hundreds and even thousands will join you. We are in a state of the end of correction, of the general redemption. The time of the small groups or of a single student studying with his teacher is over. We must have additional forces: all the groups in Israel and in the world. They should all be incorporated in the same process.

If we do that in the coming month, it will be a good preparation for the convention and then it will really be a great assembly!
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 01/02/14, Lesson on the Topic: “9 Steps”

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We start to build the image of a human being in the “raspberry ball” and we don’t stop. This is our correction. The center of the group, which is established by our exertion and our mutual participation and is called mutual guarantee, becomes the ultimate point on the spiritual ladder by which we begin to climb.

The moment we become stronger, we will be able to understand and to do more. Then we will be given more opportunities to perform the corporeal and the spiritual work in humanity, which means to be “light for the nations of the world.”

The most difficult thing is to attain this endpoint on the ladder from which we start our spiritual ascent. This is the point where the struggle occurs. From every level we fall down to the state of “Shimon from the marketplace,” which means to the corporeal level, to the animate level, and from this point we have to be born.

This state is not opposite the spiritual ascent, which is a beneficial state, the state of Pharaoh, which gives you a feeling of slavery and redemption. Rather it’s a fall to such depths that we feel totally disconnected from the right and the left lines, from the goodness and from evil, and deteriorate all the way to the bottom of the ladder.

This is the state we always begin from, and so we return to the notion of the raspberry ball, of the unity of the group. We can ascend to the highest level and still fall below the raspberry sphere and have to rise back to it.

This is our first point of unity that will always exist in any state, even in the highest state. From the raspberry sphere we will enter the state of Ibur (conception) and the state of Yenika (suckling) and Mochin (mind).

Question: How can we imagine the raspberry ball?

Answer: The only thing we should know is that it refers to being together, in mutual guarantee, the condition for receiving the Torah, which means to summon the Light that Reforms in order to become as one man in one heart. This means that we should always want and demand it, and the Light will come.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 01/02/14, Lesson on the Topic: “9 Steps”

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Question: When the person begins his spiritual path, he must have some kind of desire, “fuel.” To the degree of attainment, does this type of fuel change or does it remain the same? In which stage does the giver of the gift become more important than the gift itself, or is this significance also egoistic?

Answer: That “fuel” we work with (i.e., the reason why I exist, live, move forward) is changed both quantitatively and qualitatively. This reason improves all the time, becoming more qualitative.

If previously only your “self” was important to you, now, even against your will, the group becomes important. And this is not because you require the group to attain the higher goal, but just like a child is important to its parents.

So gradually a state is created when this is yours and after that this is more important than yourself. Gradually the higher component, the higher power, truly begins to be discovered in the group. You will see that essentially this is not a group, but that creature that we call by the name of “Malchut” and in it the Creator is discovered. But this will happen when you begin to relate to it exactly as the Creator relates to you, even in the smallest way.
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From the Moscow Virtual Convention “Unity Without Boundaries” Day Two 12/14/13, Lesson 2

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Question: What is velocity and acceleration in spirituality and how can we use this?

Answer: The idea is that nature pushes us towards development through suffering, that is, through a feeling of lack of fulfillment in the present state and the possibility of fulfillment in the next state. And these are the forces of evolution: the negative force from behind and the positive force from the front.

The more that we advance, more negative forces are gathered from behind and fewer positive forces attract us from the front. We see that since we advance according to our egoistic nature, very little is illuminated for us up front. Therefore the world is in a state of apathy and depression.

And here we are reaching a condition where we must explain to people that all the negative forces are not driving us so that we would flee from them, rather so that we can understand the new way of our development, meaning, to change the intention, the relationship to the other, to the world, and in this way, to the Creator.

The main thing is the intention. The desires are determined and arise and are realized only to the degree that it is possible to do them with the right intention.

In our world, the velocity of advancement is determined for us from behind, in that it moves and pushes us forward through negative influence and we move forward at a constant speed.

Studying Kabbalah makes it possible for us to carry out a hastening or contraction of time, which is the same thing, with the help of three components: the group, the study, and dissemination.

Speed is that parameter that doesn’t depend on us; nature moves us towards the goal. And on the other hand, acceleration depends on us.

Velocity is not a contraction of time. It is known that the way of correction takes 6000 years, from the first correction that was made by Adam 5780 years ago to the last correction that we will reach in another 220 years, whether we want this or not. This is called the path of velocity.

But at the same time, there exists the possibility of acceleration. To the degree that we accelerate our way, we change it qualitatively because we want this ourselves.

For example, there is a difference between a small child who is required to learn and is constantly under pressure, and a child who is interested in everything himself and successfully studies. He can quickly finish the lessons at school and feels that he is in this process himself as if he were in an easy and good game. And that is how it is with us, too.

If we choose a group and within it like in a small world, in a small society, we create all of those conditions that will advance us forward, then we will reach the goal much more rapidly than under the steamroller and pressure of nature.
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From the Moscow Virtual Convention “Unity Without Boundaries” Day Two 12/14/13, Lesson 2

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Question: In the first semester, I felt that something was happening within me; in the second semester, I actively participated in work; while in the third semester, I discovered that in fact I didn’t understand anything and no feeling remained other than the fear of getting lost. And even though I hear the morning lessons, I don’t hear them.

Answer: You personally, together with several other students, are passing through a unique internal period of preparations for the new state. So don’t hurry, this will pass. Suddenly an awakening will come to you and you will begin to feel something completely new. This will not be entry into the spiritual world yet, but already some kinds of spiritual sensations.

The idea is that the inner program is changing within us. It is being perfected all the time and everything is happening like in a computer: You are uploading new software and after that you must do a “restart” to pass from one level of work to another.

This is exactly what is happening to you now. The inner perfection of the adaptation of the program to this and to the spiritual world is being realized in you and soon you will begin to feel more.

And the state of confusion, emptiness, lack of understanding, and messiness, will return quite often; otherwise, you could not advance forward. This is typical for everyone, but gradually you will get used to it.
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From the Moscow Virtual Convention “Unity Without Boundaries” Day Two 12/14/13, Lesson 2

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Question: Why can’t I hold on to the feeling of unity, to the “raspberry ball,” it keeps disappearing?

Answer: It doesn’t matter if it disappears. We should look at the benefit of our actions and if I can add effort I am happier that it is lost than if I have it, because what I already have is mine. If I stall even for a second in the state that I have achieved, it begins to rot.

The moment I begin to enjoy my state, I should understand that it’s an egoistic pleasure. If I enjoy the change of states, the derivative, which means not the speed but the acceleration, the increasing speed of the changes, then it’s the right pleasure. If I simply enjoy the state itself, then it’s already a shell.

Just like in physics, a body that moves at a constant speed which may be very high is considered to be standing still, and with regard to me, it isn’t moving. It can be considered to be moving only if its speed changes. So if your speed constantly grows, you can be glad, and it’s a good joy. It’s called “joy of a Mitzvah,” since you are constantly adding, which means that you are raising more and more desires to correction.

What’s more, you mustn’t enjoy in a constant state. You should advance like an old man who is bent, constantly looking for a deficiency in order to accelerate his speed.

Question: How can we hold the raspberry ball?

Answer: The raspberry ball can be held only by the group’s effort and with the help of the Upper Force. We must constantly play with this ball, like dough when baking matzah, which you cannot stop kneading even for a second, until you put it in the oven. It cannot be kneaded longer than 18 minutes: the nine Sefirot of the Direct and the nine Sefirot of the Reflected Light, and then immediately in the oven!
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/2/14, Lesson on the Topic: “9 Steps”

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In his article “The Peace,” Baal HaSulam writes: This is done by the law of development imprinted in Creation against humanity’s will, where the deeds of the wicked themselves necessarily instigate the good deeds, as we have shown above.

We are all under the influence of this law that drives us forward through suffering.

However, the Creator gave man the mind and power and let him control and guide the law. It is possible to accelerate and boost the process of development at will freely, independent of time.

How can we realize this opportunity that was given to us?

Our desires are irrelevant; they always remain absolutely the same and we cannot diminish, increase, or develop them in any way. We have to forget about them as if they do not exist, because we do not control them. Kabbalah says that it is only intentions that we can control. It’s not about limiting our desires, nor is it about what we should do with them. It is written so, but what’s implied in these words is the intention.

However, if we are able to somehow change our intention, how do we do it? For that, this world is given to us. We are in a very interesting state: As opposed to spirituality, we can kind of act altruistically, bestow, connect and love with the intention “for our own sake.” In other words, this world lets us deceive ourselves.

This interesting state is under all the spiritual worlds.

Five worlds descend from the world of Infinity to our world: Adam Kadmon (AK), Atzilut (A), Beria (B), Yetzira (E), Assiya (A), and the very last, our world.

Usually we think that it is a very primitive, worthless world. In fact, it’s not so. Here, we can act with intention. Intention and action exist in all other spiritual worlds, but there they are united and equal; there, they act only to the extent of their intention to bestow.

In this world, it is opposite: One can act both for the sake of receiving and bestowing simultaneously. At the same time, our intentions are directed solely at receiving for our own sake. In other words, in this world we can perform actions that are opposite to intentions and have intentions that contradict actions. It is a very interesting phenomenon.

When we watch a small child, we clearly see his simple actions and very plain intentions: He grabs everything only for himself. Animals act the same way. It’s obvious. That’s why we love them, since they don’t lie to anyone; their actions and intentions do not contradict. They totally lack guile.

A grown man acts externally with internal intentions. He can be very polite, respectful, and kind and at the same time pursue a goal that might hurt someone only for the sake of his own benefit.

However, this opportunity is given to us only in this world in which contradictory actions and intentions are possible, to completely objectively and independently start our ascent to the upper world. We are the ones who choose how to rise to spirituality because we are given the opportunity to act for the sake of bestowal, although our intentions remain evil—for our own sake.

How can we pull ourselves to the upper world? It’s very easy. We have to place ourselves in a community of people who are given the same opportunity to act and have intentions as other normal, egoistic and artful people in this world, i.e., those who understand their nature at least a little bit. They have a desire to change their intentions, although the only thing that we can actually change is actions, not intentions.

If we join this group of people and act supposedly for the sake of bringing pleasure and benevolence to each other, we would like to connect with one another in one unified whole and make mutual bestowal our goal; in this case, we act correctly, for the sake of bestowal, but our intentions are wrong. We cannot do anything about them.

However, if we study Kabbalah together, in a group, we learn how the unity of intentions and actions are implemented in the upper worlds. Then, a special illumination descends from the upper world to us and changes our intention.

Our actions are normal; we are oriented towards each other in order to connect, whereas our intentions remain “for our own sake” (Lo Lishma.)

Under the influence of the Surrounding Light called Ohr Makif (O’M), which is a special energy, an extraordinary force, we start changing; to the degree of our transformation, our surroundings also modify from “for the sake of ourselves” to “for the sake of others” or “for the sake of our friends” and later on for the sake of something greater and higher. This is how we approach a state of Lishma and begin sensing ourselves in the intention to bestow.

To be in the intention to bestow is to exist in the upper world because in this intention we start perceiving totally different, higher properties of matter. We start exiting ourselves, from our state that is limited by sensations of this world, and as a result, we rapidly move ahead to the same goal nature leads us to.

By voluntarily aspiring ahead, we avoid suffering. Our sufferings are now called “afflictions of love” since now we think of how to move ahead more effectively, how to better trigger the Surrounding Light to us, and how to faster change our intentions.

We perform minimally required actions in regards to the group and humanity, since humankind has to rise to the same goal: to change from the intention “for one’s own sake” to “for the sake of others.” Physical actions do not matter much. We need them only to show the place where we can implement the power of the Surrounding Light, the force of the Light of correction.

Therefore, the study of Kabbalah, which tells us about what is perceived with the help of correct intentions—the so-called Light of Bestowal (Ohr Hassadim) and the Returning Light (Ohr Hozer)—helps us change our intentions and start sensing and attaining the upper governance, the upper force.

It explains why we need our friends so much, because only among them, only between us, can we make internal work that corrects our intentions.

This is why our main goal is to reach a desire to attain a new state that is pre-destined by nature and to pursue it. Nature wants to take us out of the state named “this world” in which we are present today and raise us to the world of Infinity. This is our final goal.

If we clearly understood these things, we’d know that it is most urgent and essential for us to create groups that interact with each other in all their parts so that all our actions are directed to some kind of bestowal. By acting this way, we can evoke the correct Surrounding Light to us during our classes and it will correct our intentions.

Kabbalah tells us that all the Creator made was just one desire— Malchut of the world of Infinity. Then, in this desire emerges the intention that goes through shattering (shevira) in the world of Nekudim.

Further, in the worlds of Atzilut (A), Beria (B), Yetzira (Y), and Assiya (A), it gradually starts to resurrect, whereas in this world, desires and intentions remain broken into 613 parts.

Our work is in the correction of the intention “for our sake” to the intention “for the sake of bestowal,” “for others’ sake” in each of our desires. Then a desire will be considered corrected.

In other words, when we study the science of Kabbalah, the Surrounding Light descends to our intentions; in their turn, they attach to desires, and then corrected desires enter the upper world. This is where we start sensing the spiritual world. Thus, by gradually correcting ourselves, we rise to the level of 613 desires until we reach the final correction.
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From the Moscow Virtual Convention Day One 12/13/13, Lesson 1

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Question: What is the difference between the concept of mutual guarantee and the raspberry sphere?

Answer: You can define the first state of unity in a dozen ways. The idea of this analogy simply occurred to me at a certain point. I wanted to express the special feeling of warmth that everyone feels which is pleasant and illuminating in itself.

Mutual guarantee is the connection between the broken vessels that connect above the breaking as they understand that we must be connected. The strength of the connection, the need for it, its vitality and the responsibility we feel for one another is called mutual guarantee. This shows to what extent I am responsible for others and feel them inside me as myself.

Mutual guarantee is an inner state of connection that takes into account all the conditions: how we connect, with what vessels, on what level of Aviut (thickness). It refers to the vessel that is about to connect. It’s because of the separation between these parts and their connection, the growth of the left line and the right line, one in contrast to the other, that we put together the concept called mutual guarantee.

In the mutual guarantee, that is our spiritual vessel, we begin to receive the Light that Reforms and see that we are corrected. Then our mutual guarantee is corrupted again and we have to correct it once more. Everything is included in this concept. Baal HaSulam wrote two articles: “The Giving of the Torah,” since we have no way to correct ourselves without the upper force, and the article that followed it “Mutual Guarantee,” which explains how we operate and manage the upper force in order to ascend to the goal of creation.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/2/14, Lesson on the Topic: “9 Steps”

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