Question: If the external world is a reflection of my inner world, is this saying that the Kabbalistic group is also a part of the reflection of the soul, of the inner state? If so, why exactly is it important to work in a group? And what is the importance of the external world in all of this?

Answer: The importance of the external world is secondary compared to the group. Because you have a group, your reflections appear, mutual work is done with you. You work with people, you influence them reciprocally, and you feel how the Creator puts them opposite you. It could be that you don’t know exactly why He put you in such an opposite way to them, and they against you. But at least this is the result of your interaction with the Creator.

In what is the uniqueness, the specificity of our world? Let’s depict this in a sketch. There is the Creator; there is this world, within it is a group, and there is me. In principle, I must find the Creator. I must connect with Him; I must be like Him, to be equivalent to Him. Therefore I am called Adam, from the word “Domeh” (similar). I must reach the Creator.

And therefore this world was created such that through an immense amount of people, the group, I can find the Creator. Today I don’t see Him and don’t discover Him because I am opposite to Him: I have “minus” and with Him there is “plus.” We don’t understand and don’t feel each other. He indeed feels and understands me; you see He created all this, whereas I don’t understand and don’t feel Him.

So how can I find Him? In what convoluted way can I pass from “minus” to “plus”?

For this I was given interesting “information” called “this world” and the “group.” If I direct myself in adapting to them, then by going outside of myself to them, with this I direct my desires, oversee them, specifically oversee my intentions regarding them, I approach the Creator in this manner.

I only need to be sure that I am going outside of myself and entering this world, that I devote myself to the friends, am concerned about them.

But how is it possible to attain this? How to oversee my departure from the intention “for my own sake” to the intention “for the sake of the Creator”?

Therefore it is said: Do everything not for the sake of the Creator but for the sake of this world. So specifically to that degree, I approach the Creator. But essentially He is concealed behind the friends, and the moment that I position myself correctly regarding this world, I will immediately discover Him.

My integration into this world in 125 levels is absolutely identical to approaching the Creator with 125 levels. The moment that I rise to the first level of connection with this world, I immediately will begin to discover the Creator. He will be revealed to me in our world! He cannot be revealed in anywhere by itself.

Therefore, it is said: “From the love of the Creations to the love of the Creator.” This is not some kind of charitable condition. This is because the Creator is situated behind this world and is linked with it specifically with a link like this. It follows that through work in a group, I erase the boundaries that existed between the Creator and this world.

Why was this given to me? It is so that I will find Him independently and will advance independently, I will “adhere” to Him. Only for this was I given the external envelope of the Creator, which is called “this world” and the “group.”

From here, the words are understood, that the friend must be as important to me as the Creator. The group must be important in my eyes to the same degree as He is. In other words, everything that is outside of me, I must attribute to the Creator.
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From the Moscow Virtual Convention “Unity Without Boundaries” Day Two 12/14/13, Lesson 2

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Question: I feel that I am overwhelmed by internal sensations that are incomprehensible to me: great enthusiasm from which I could explode. What must I do with this, set up some kind of a barrier and say to myself that I don’t want this?

Answer: I think that this is only the beginning stage of your familiarity with the wisdom of Kabbalah, with the group, with those forces that act in this society. As a rule, a state like this typifies new students. They are found in some kind of overexcitement, overdrive, in a unique kind of transitional phase.

In general, when we connect a device to an electrical or electronic network a first surge passes through it, so at first sudden transient processes happen and after that everything calms down and enters into a normal state. I think that it could be that you are still in a state like this, and so it’s necessary to wait until this passes. If the study influences you in this way, then as a rule, in this state it’s very important to talk with the friends more, to try to balance emotion with action.

I would advise you to dedicate more time to studying “The Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” or The Study of the Ten Sefirot, where dry, scientific Kabbalistic language explains what happens with the desires, with their shattering into five stages, into five worlds; in other words, go into the science more. It really relaxes a person because it has a very deep and positive influence not on the emotions but on the mind. Try to balance the heart and the intellect.

You will find some friends with whom you can learn the wisdom of Kabbalah together, and not be involved in all kinds of psychological activities within the group. They are compulsory, but it’s necessary to balance them. I know this from my great experience and from learning with Rabash.

When I brought 40 students to him and we began to work with them, there were also similar abnormalities among them. Part of them were involved only with “dry” learning, others felt an emotional overload like this` such that they could not do anything with themselves. There was a problem with these and with those. In cases like these, Rabash always gave an order: add one thing, subtract a second thing, and so forth, like a good cook who knows precisely how many grams of spices or other additives are necessary to provide the dish with the final taste. If you will learn in a group with friends and balance your emotions through serious study, you will see what a leap you will make.
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From the Moscow Virtual Convention “Unity Without Boundaries” Day One 12.13.13, Lesson 1

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The world will come to its prearranged final good state anyway, but according to the nature’s program of management it is possible to come to this state not forced by suffering but by motivating ourselves independently, consciously. However, in this case, we must precede our nature, egoism, intention for oneself in all our actions, and act against egoism, towards the intention to aim for the benefit of others, bestowal in all our actions.

This is impossible because our nature is only egoism, the desire to act only for oneself in everything. But we were given this world to correct our nature, and even being in this world we can act, deceiving our egoism.

We can give to friends, although our intention will be to bestow for the sake of ourselves. We can unite with them, although our intention, our goal, would be to benefit only ourselves. But if we act like this while studying the state of “bestowal, love, for the benefit of others,” which is described in Kabbalistic sources, then we attract and awaken in ourselves the property of bestowal and love, which is called the Upper Light.

Therefore, we need friends aspiring to the same goal and we have to appreciate them to the extent of how much this goal is important for us because we cannot achieve it without them. Thus, our main task is to form such an environment that will pull us to good aspirations, instead of pushing us from behind by suffering, painfully, unconsciously, as is happening to the whole of humanity as it moves toward the same goal.
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Virtual Convention in Moscow, Day 3, Lesson 5

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Virtual Convention in Moscow, Day 2, Workshop 4

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Virtual Convention in Moscow, Day 2, Workshop 5

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Virtual Convention in Moscow, Day 2, Lesson 2

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Virtual Convention in Moscow, Day 1, Lesson 1

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Virtual Convention in Moscow, Day 1, Workshop 1

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Question: There is a bit of time left until the Moscow convention for the graduates of the Moscow Kabbalah Academy. How can we help the friends who study virtually recognize the great advantage of the physical contact during the convention?

Answer: If a person lives in a remote place and doesn’t meet physically with friends on the path physically, he has no chance of discovering the upper world. After all, the upper world is revealed in the connection between us.

Virtual connection alone is not enough. This kind of connection is not enough even for people in this world. Even with the wonderful means of communication today, scientists go to conventions several times a year. Why isn’t it enough to communicate via video conferences? Why is it so important to meet and speak in person at least once every few months?

The main thing in these symposiums is actually the personal talks, the live communication. It isn’t the lectures that are given from a stage that matter but rather the interpersonal contact that conveys the spirit of the event. It isn’t about information but about the spirit, about the atmosphere. This is the reason that they meet in conventions: a word here, a couple of comments there, face-to-face conversations and even fleeting ones are valuable.

And all the more when it comes to our conventions. If we don’t connect when everyone arrives physically, then there is no point wasting our time on studying in front of screens, it will lead to nothing. There must be a personal contact, since it is through this kind of contact that the spiritual urge is conveyed.

So we are all going to meet in Moscow on the 13^th of December. All our friends from all over the world will connect to the convention and some will actually come. This pleases me very much. We all connect more strongly and adhere to one another this way. Let’s hope that the Creator will be revealed in this mutual connection.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/06/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Teaching of Kabbalah and Its Essence“

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Upcoming Events in Israel

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Our friends are parts of our souls. The fact that we have joined the group is not accidental: We were brought to the group from above. We should realize that it is the Creator who gave us this particular set of friends. He is the one who “placed our hands” on a good destiny, and said: “Take it!” From now on, all we have to do is strengthen our connection and unity with others.

We create basic rules of unity that include workshops, joint meals, and activities. We gather at least several times a week. By doing so, we establish and extend the threads that connect us. However, no matter how much we force ourselves to enhance our connection, we won’t be able to create a force that is strong enough to reveal the Upper Light. We simply won’t reach sufficient “voltage” to “turn it on.”

Why is that so?

Prior generations of Kabbalists were integrated in smaller groups, sometimes less than ten people. That’s how they revealed the Creator between them. However, our situation is quite different. Today, all of humanity is in a corrupt state; the entire vessel of the common soul has been shattered.

This explains why we have to receive as many desires and needs from each broken fragment as possible. Then we have to “digest” them, rise together with them to the Creator, and demand that He be revealed to us. We should do it not for our own sake (1%) but for the external audience (99/%).

Thus, we must be the Light guiding channel so that the Light of the Creator is revealed in us, and we pass It down to others.

To do this, first of all, we should strengthen ourselves (1), then, we turn to the needs of the general public (2), after that, we appeal to the Creator (3). Then, the Light and the abundance will descend from the Creator to us (4) and we transmit it down (5).

We study Kabbalah, and to the external audience we present Integral Education (IE.) Accordingly, we have to learn how to address the general public, in what form and style should we present IE materials, and what set of terms to use when talking with them.

It is said: “Educate the child according to his way.” In other words, we educate people in a way that they can understand so that they will be attracted to us and not repelled. And then, to the extent of how many people will be drawn to us, we can involve some of them into the groups. We should be very gentle with them so we don’t scare off those who are not ready to join us.

Kabbalists always spoke about working in small groups rather than about mass dissemination designed for those who are far from studying the science of Kabbalah. Because until now, the world had never experienced a global crisis and Kabbalists did not have to take this step; this wasn’t revealed in them. However, Baal HaSulam wrote about “the last generation” and contemporary problems; he issued the newspaper “The Nation,” but all this was just the beginning, a “draft.”

On the other hand, we are seeing the crisis, and we are obliged to address the entire world. Otherwise, we won’t reach spirituality; we won’t feel the necessity to appeal to the Creator. After all, we are only Galgalta ve Eynaim (GE), Hafetz Hesed, a very small part with very little “depth” of the desire, which is limited to the zero and first levels; whereas the entire humanity represents the AHP with the second, third and fourth degrees.

So, if we don’t receive this great “thickness” of desires from the rest of the world, we will have nothing to address the Creator with. There is no other choice. In contrast to prior generations, we are simply obligated to “go to the general public,” accept their needs, and raise them above.

In his articles “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)” and “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah),” Baal HaSulam writes that we have to serve the entire world as a transmission channel between the Creator and the nations. There is no place to learn how to do it; we are constantly developing the part of the methodology called Integral Education. Development is underway, and day by day we steadily advance.
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From One America “Virtual Convention” Day Two 11/17/13, Lesson 3

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The wisdom of Kabbalah is a very practical science. Adam discovered it and told us about it in his book, Sefer Raziel HaMalach. After that Abraham continued the investigation, and after him other Kabbalists in different generations.

In general, we are discovering something new in the world all the time. And what is discovered today was not discovered by the Kabbalists of the past. In the same way the physicists of the 21^st century also know more about the world than their predecessors. This is the character of the scientific knowledge of the world.

Here we , with you, are also developing the Kabbalistic method all the time, advancing forward, and as a result of this, we discover things today that were previously unknown. And what will be discovered tomorrow, we do not know. Personally, I can look at the future because I am ahead of you by a few stages, but the general development of the groups and of the world will be revealed only to the degree that they are ready for this. In general, the outlines of the picture of the future are known to me, but every level, every change is revealed only to the degree of the readiness of the group.

Therefore, the more strongly you become consolidated, the closer you will be to me, the more I can express. So all of us together are discovering the present, correct, and appropriate method of correction for our era, and in this way we will begin to realize it, we will enjoy its fruits…
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From the One America “Virtual Convention” Day Two 11/17/13, Lesson 3

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