Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 4: The Creator Himself puts one’s hand on the good fate by giving him a life of pleasure and contentment within the corporeal life that is filled with torment and pain, and devoid of any content. […] there is no greater placement of one’s hand by Him than this.

And one’s choice refers only to the strengthening. This is because there is certainly a great effort and exertion here before one purifies one’s body to be able to keep the Torah and commandments correctly, not for his own pleasure, but to bring contentment to his Maker, which is called Lishma (for Her Name). Only in this manner is one endowed with a life of happiness and pleasantness that come with keeping the Torah.

However, before one comes to that purification, there is certainly a choice to strengthen in the good way by all sorts of means and tactics. Also, one should do whatever his hand finds the strength to do until he completes the work of purification and will not fall under his burden midway.

How can we understand this? In fact, these words paint a terrible picture: The Creator holds me “by the ears” or “by the shoulders” and directs my every step through pleasures or suffering, that is, He can do with me whatever He pleases. And besides that, there is something in which I have to “strengthen” myself above that which He sends me.

As a result, I have no choice in everyday life because I am relentlessly driven by pleasure and suffering. My nature automatically obeys their dictates, and there is nothing I can do about this. Some mechanism in me always turns my face towards pleasure and my back towards suffering. The “car” can only dodge evil and turn towards good.

In what can I strengthen then? How can I gain power over the “body”? How can I resist the “orders” of the Creator Who directs me from above on the “animate” degree? Is this possible?

The fact is that apart from the will of the Creator, there is another factor that I can use: the influence of the environment. Thus, I go against the Creator, against His nature, obtain something above the “animate” degree, and become something greater.

Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”: Therefore, he who strives to continually choose a better environment is worthy of praise and reward. But here, too, it is not because of his good thoughts and deeds, which come to him without his choice, but because of his effort to acquire a good environment, which brings him these good thoughts and deeds.

Hence it is clear that we have freedom to build, above the “animate” level, the human degree—the human being, who will saddle an “animal” and will manage his nature. To do this, a person will also use two forces, but they will be different: Now he will define good and evil by means of a good environment that fulfills him.

Thus, the Creator controls a person at the level of “reason,” but self-management is realized “above reason.”

The key here is the extent to which I become integrated in the correct environment and absorbed by it. My good future depends only on this.
[111719]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/7/13, Preparation for St. Petersburg Convention, “Principles for Building a Better Environment,” Lesson 4

Related Material:
Who Will Ascend To The Throne?
Instead Of Looking At Others, Look At Yourself
Faster Than Time

Filed under: Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Group Work, Inner Work - No Comments →

Baal HaSulam, “A Sage’s Fruit:” It is forbidden for the individual to leave the public and ask for himself, not even to bring contentment for his Maker other than for the public, for he who leaves the public and asks for his own soul individually is not constructing, but rather is bringing destruction to his soul, and one needs to gather all his might, the general of Israel, in all his turnings to the Creator, in prayer and work, and integrate himself in the root of the entire Israel.

It turns out that I do not want to do anything good, even for the Creator, if it is not for the benefit of community, through the benefit of community, and in connection with community. If there is something sacred, then first of all, it is community, all of humanity, and if I understand the importance of community, then based on this, I can reach the importance of the Creator.

Our common soul is already broken in our perception. However, praying for oneself, a person turns into impurity; that is, he descends in the negative state that is much worse than the original one.

Why would it seem so? After all, a person who “leaves the public to ask for himself individually” does not do it at the expense of others. He just says to the Creator, “I want to be corrected, settled. I want to reach bestowal. So, please give me strength to bestow and bring You contentment!” Does he really cause the “destruction of his soul?” How could this be? He is praying from his heart. It is his sincere feeling for which he cannot be responsible. The heart is crying; What can you do?

However, no, I must make all kinds of external actions to make my heart want something else, and this is within my ability. Our work is carried out from the heart, above the heart, so that it does not call for evil and wrong things, so that it does not ask for itself even if the person wants to be corrected and bring contentment to the Creator. This request is already impurity, the destruction of the soul.

That is why I need the actions that will set before me the only task: unity. I am not able to turn with the correct request on behalf of my own heart, which is broken and disconnected from the collective. I cannot bring contentment to the Creator unless I unite with others because I will not have the true desire to bestow, and from what place will I turn to Him? From my own “self?” It is impossible because it is cut off from the whole and lies beneath all the spiritual degrees, below the spiritual ladder. I am not standing even on the lower edge of the ladder that goes to heaven, to Malchut of the world of Infinity.

So, the main thing for us is to unite. If I constantly care about unity then everything that comes from this will be correct. Conversely, if I do not think about unity, then even the best intentions, the most correct words and complete devotion is the essence of impurity, the destruction of the soul.

This is the most important thing for us during the days before the convention in St. Petersburg. Preparation should direct us at the only action, to unity, and everything, no matter what, will be good in it.

“In all turnings to the Creator, in prayer and work,” we, first of all, ask for unity for the collective, oneness all the time and nothing else. Thus, we “integrate ourselves in the root of the entire Israel,” that is, the center of the group, aimed directly at the Creator (Yashar El). All our efforts are directed to its unity and interconnection.
[111575]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/5/13, “Love Your Neighbor as Yourself”

Related Material:
A Prayer Just For Oneself Harms
Whom To Pray For: Each Or Everybody?
The Effort Beyond Human Power

Filed under: Adam-The Common Soul, Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Prayer and Intention, Spiritual Work - 1 Comment →

The Book of Zohar, “VaYiera” [And the Lord Appeared], Item 453: Man is created in utter wickedness and lowliness, as it is written, “When a wild ass’ foal is born a man.” And all the vessels in one’s body, meaning the senses and the qualities, and especially the thought serve him only wickedness and nothingness all day. And for one who is rewarded with adhering unto Him, the Creator does not create other tools instead, to be worthy and suitable for reception of the eternal spiritual abundance intended for him. Rather, the same lowly vessels that have thus far been used in a filthy and loathsome way are inverted to become vessels of reception of all the pleasantness and eternal gentleness.

Moreover, each Kli whose deficiencies had been the greatest has now become the most important. In other words, the measure that they reveal is the greatest.

The more we work, the more deeply we penetrate the thickness of the desire and discover more problems, an entire complex of interferences. All this is in order to give enough “flesh” to the evil that is inherent in us and between us. In other words, it is to reveal the breaking.

We are now working on unity and discover the forces that are oppose it until we reveal the breaking on the first, lowest level.

Then, we will have to overcome it. How? We restrict all the forces of separation and darkness. At the same time, they remain because it is impossible to cancel evil. We just rise above it. There is no need to correct everything that we have. It will only get worse. No, we lock our evil within and rise above it. It is said about this, “Love covers all transgressions.” It does not correct flaws, but covers them.

Evil must remain. It is not turned into good, but good is built above evil. Everything is arranged in nature in this way, and this is the key to perfection.

We want to get rid of evil. We do not understand what good is in the wolf eating the sheep. A person reflects on his qualities, lamenting what he has done in life. Don’t eat yourself up. On the contrary, one needs to accept the facts and think about something else: How can he form the opposite properties above it? This is the question: Where is the Light that Reforms? If evil has been revealed, then, obviously, I can build good above it.

In this case, good and evil must be of the same size, and then the middle line appears between them. We will achieve nothing without it and will not come to spiritual interaction (Zivug).

Therefore, we need to identify the necessary state more and more, looking for a way to achieve the first contact with the Creator.

Before the meeting in St. Petersburg and during the convention, we will face all sorts of obstacles, distracting circumstances, external impressions, or we will “soar in the clouds” instead of carrying out the right work. We will be sent various surprises from above, according to the order of our states, and, even if we all strive for unity, we still will face a descent. We can feel it even on the first day of the convention, moreover, in a stronger form provided that we have prepared ourselves well. Suppose, after registering at nine in the morning, I feel tired around noon and begin thinking, “Why, actually, have I come? What am I doing here?”

It is very good because, then, we will have to work on ourselves, to “kiss the rod” that hits us and bless the evil as good.

Hence, one sees the extent to which he is worthy to build the screen (Masach) now. After all, the screen is formed above all the senses, interferences, and troubles that are manifested, and the main thing in this set is hatred. This is what love covers. Without these “transgressions,” we will not come to true spiritual love. It is built only above hatred.

That is why the technology of virtual communication is flourishing in the modern world. It is in order to reveal hatred. However, to prevent it from turning into a war, we must simultaneously provide people with the method of correction. Everyone will know and understand what is to be done under the circumstances.

This is the only means: unity above separation, love above hatred.
[111542]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/4/13, “From Hatred to Love by the Light that Reforms”

Related Material:
Asking To Love
The Path To Goodness: Step By Step
The Group Is The Ground For The Revelation Of Nature’s Secrets

Filed under: Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Baal HaSulam, “Matan Torah,” (The Giving of the Torah), Item 11: “This exaltedness and Dvekut, which is guaranteed to come to us through our work in Torah and Mitzvot, is no more and no less than the equivalence of the branches with their root.”

• All the gentleness, pleasure, and sublimity become a natural extension here, as we have said above, pleasure is only the equivalence of form with one’s Maker. And when we equalize in every conduct with our root, we sense delight.
• Also, everything we encounter that is not in our root becomes intolerable, disgusting, or considerably painful to us, as is necessitated by that concept. And we naturally find that our very hope depends on the extent of our equivalence of form with our root.

Thus we advance by pleasures and sufferings. On the whole we should establish the equivalence of form from both parts. I have to create of myself a form that is similar to the Light.

But the upper Light has no form; it is total bestowal and absolute love. So how can I create the form of the Light in my desire to receive that has a form?

I “undress” from all the egoistic relationships that I have and establish connections of love above them. So internally I am totally made of a desire to receive and its external expression becomes a desire to bestow.

As a result I find myself in front of the Surrounding Light, in front of the Light of Ein Sof (Infinity), and I make the image of the Creator for myself, by myself. This is why this level is called Adam (a human being) which means to resemble the Creator (Domeh in Hebrew).

The Creator himself has no form, but we discover Him by getting closer to Him and by that we “create” Him.

Baal HaSulam, “The Secret of Gestation and Birth”: It is similar to a Rav and his student, when the Rav’s only inclination is to empower his student to be like him and to teach other students like himself. In the same manner the Creator is content when the created beings create and renew His image. Our force of renewal and development is not really new, but a kind of imitation. And our level of development is measured according to the level that the imitation matches the work of nature.

We fulfill all that in the mutual connection between us. We were given a chance to overcome the ego between us if we use the means that we have correctly: the lessons, the workshops, the conventions, etc. The most important thing should be to reach connection, so that the connection will resemble the Light and mutual bestowal to some extent.
[111460]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/3/13, “There Is None Else Besides Him”

Related Material:
Either Him Or Me!
Cleave Unto His Qualities
The General And The Particular Attainment

Filed under: Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: You said that we shouldn’t pin our hopes on the convention, that we shouldn’t expect any pleasure, but that we should only work above it and set an example for others.

Answer: The goal of creation is to do good to the created beings! Therefore, we should expect to receive pleasure but pleasure from bestowing upon the friends and through them upon the Creator.

Pleasure is the goal of creation, I should enjoy. If I don’t enjoy but cry, I am opposite from the goal of creation and far from the Creator.

The closer we get to the Creator, the more we enjoy. All the levels of the spiritual ladder are the ascent to the feeling of increasingly greater and more wonderful pleasures! It seems that you have reached the top and then such sensations are suddenly felt that you can simply go mad. But you cannot go mad since you have a Masach (screen). If you didn’t have a Masach, the smallest spiritual pleasure would burn all your fuses.

The pleasure you feel is the pleasure of bestowal, the pleasure of loving and filling your beloved friend.

I see that you have a sad face. Can’t you imagine that you fill someone that you love? Do you love anyone in this world, your son at least? Can you imagine enjoying giving him a present and that it brings you pleasure when you see his pleasure, as you actually feel the joy inside him? Do you feel the pleasure that he feels when he tastes something good or enjoys a certain game, as if you are right there inside him?

We have such corporeal examples that you can also use in spirituality. But in spirituality this love doesn’t appear naturally, since you have to ask for help, to build it up inside you by the Light that Reforms. But you should already understand that you can enjoy the fact that the one you love enjoys.

This means that all you need is love of the Creator! When He enjoys your actions, you will enjoy His pleasure from you to the same extent. By bringing the Creator your minor good mood, you multiply it by 620 times because the Creator is a bit greater than you and includes everything there is.

You multiply your efforts and your pleasure by transferring them to Him, since He enjoys you 620 times more and you receive from Him a pleasure that is 620 times greater. Thus we advance up the spiritual ladder and this is all our work: to fill the Light with 613 desires and 7 additional ones, Malchut itself, and on the whole 620 desires.
[111446]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/03/13, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
To The Congress With A Brick In A Suitcase
Charging The Air Of The Convention
Love As A Gift To The Created Being

Filed under: Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Rabash “Shlavei HaSulam,” Article 17, “The Order of the Assembly”: In the multitude of people is the king’s glory, it follows that the greater the number of the collective, the more effective is the power of the collective. In other words, they produce a stronger atmosphere of the greatness and importance of the Creator. At that time, each person’s body feels that he regards anything that he wishes to do for holiness—meaning to bestow upon the Creator—as a great fortune, that he has been privileged with being among people who have been rewarded with serving the king. At that time, every little thing he does fills him with joy and pleasure that now he has something with which to serve the king.

This should be the atmosphere of the convention in St. Petersburg. And we need to prepare for it. No “mechanism” will work for us. It is the people who gather at the convention that must form, generate the desired state, “warm up the air,” and feel that it is “charged” with our intentions. The realization of the greatness and importance of the work, the focus of joint efforts depend on us.

We are special; we are doing a special action of establishing contact, even the smallest with the upper force. It structures us, helps us, brings us closer by obstacles, and eventually propels us to the goal.
[111457]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/3/13, “There Is None Else Besides Him”

Related Material:
The Outlines Of Darkness And Light
Before The Dawn
To The Congress With A Brick In A Suitcase

Filed under: Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

I am going to the convention in St. Petersburg not to listen to the teacher and friends, to chat in a friendly company, to participate in festive meals, to watch the cultural program, etc. No, I have studied a long time now and the convention is a test for me.

There is a deep inspection before us: Who are we? What can we do? We are anxious with the feeling of awe, not jokingly, but in all seriousness. But we are not self-absorbed, we do not walk with gloomy faces, but as usual, we combine the two aspects: joy and seriousness.

I repeat: the convention is a test, not just a meeting. The essence of our gathering is work by means of which we check ourselves: Whether our unity is true and sufficient to get a “passing grade.”

This should not discourage anyone. We are seeking the opportunity to shake and motivate ourselves to the correct unification.
[111478]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/4/13, “From Hatred to Love by the Light that Reforms”

Related Material:
I Advise Look Less Into Yourself!
First And Foremost!
To The Congress With A Brick In A Suitcase

Filed under: Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: Who completes a level and goes on to the next level, a person or the group?

Answer: Everyone completes the level. The completion of a level is called the general connection between everyone, Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one; everyone merges into one.

Question: Does everyone end the time of preparation together?

Answer: It seems that everyone ends it together. You cannot attain spirituality by yourself without the others. When you attain spirituality, you see that everyone is already there since otherwise you would not be able to attain it.

The only thing you lack in order to complete the current level is connection, mutual cooperation, advancing towards the same goal, when everyone reveals the one force as one. You have to feel what you lack in order to reach wholeness by yourself, relative to how you picture it. Perhaps your clarification is not accurate enough and incorrect, and so the upper Light shines on you and influences you a bit more strongly, evoking individual deficiencies in you that you were lacking in order to rise above them and grow stronger in the group.

We advance only “above reason.” Reason is the egoistic desires, the problems, the inclinations, and the egoistic passions, and they provide us with the “flesh,” the thickness and the depth of the vessels, above which we form the inclination for bestowal, love, connection, strengthening, justification, and appreciation of the other. We establish all that above our ego.

The Light that Reforms enlarges our ego so that we will have a chance to work above it. It teaches us not to remain on the animal level since we yearn for animal love, and for corporeal achievements. The Light teaches us to rise above them and to take more sublime values into account and to live a more purposeful life.

The Light clears and clarifies everything, it reforms us in many ways; it increases the attributes that you need, both the good and the bad. It navigates you and directs you in every sense, the Light does everything! You only have to do one thing: to justify the friends and to try to be in contact with them, to evoke them. That is enough.
[111297]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/30/13, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
Stairway To The Future
A Small Boat In A Stormy Sea
The Donkey Driver

Filed under: Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work - 1 Comment →

In spiritual work nothing goes smoothly. If you advance seriously then the ego will grow and will show you your true nature all the time. So how can you feel good along with this? Therefore the importance of the society and support from the collective are compulsory; they always go back and say: “This is magnificent that we feel ourselves in a form like this and that our terrible nature is revealed to us!”

And this is not an erosion of the self, it is because you are working on yourselves and therefore it is revealed to you that you can do this, you can ascend. On the contrary, you need to be happy about this.

Question: How long will there be evil?

Answer: Until this “evil” seems good to you.

It is bad for you now because your ego is very close to you, you love it, and when it feels a deficiency in itself, then this is bad to you. But when you are detached from it, the feeling of deficiency in it will seem like something good to you since you are passing from the characteristic of evil to the characteristic of bestowal and adhering to it, then you will be happy.

So the feeling of emptiness within the ego will become greater and greater. And all the time you will feel: “Oh, even worse!” as long as you don’t push yourself away from it again in the direction of bestowal. And that is how we swing like a pendulum, left, right, left, right.

Now it is bad for you because you identify yourself with your ego. So look at it from the side. So it will suffer; but you, your “I,” is not found in it.

You need to enjoy and be happy because spiritual happiness appears when emptiness and troubles are discovered within the ego. Otherwise you would not detach from it! If they were to give you some kind of pleasure within the ego, you would simply adhere to it.

For what are they giving you all these negative feelings? This is only to help you become detached from it. Draw the right psychological conclusions from this: Life hits us from all directions like pesky little animals so that we will gradually begin to understand that we must leave our egoistic nature.
[111279]
From the Convention in Krasnoyarsk 6/13/13, Lesson 3

Related Material:
Don’t Listen To The Ego’s Whining
Be Happy About The Evil That Becomes Revealed In You
Work With Resistance

Filed under: Conventions, Group Work, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: Do we draw the Surrounding Light by participating in a certain dissemination activity?

Answer: By participating and engaging in dissemination we expand our vessels and by that the vessels of the whole group. Thus you ease the ascent of the group by expanding its infrastructure. All the people who received information from you join us as the still, vegetative, and animate levels of the same pyramid in which we are at the human level.

Thus you lower the tension in the group and change our efforts from quality to quantity. We lose in the distance but gain in power. It’s as if we use a pulley to lift a heavy load, and by turning it, by many motions, we can gradually lift a very heavy load. Thus we increase the distance but reduce the power that we have to invest.

It’s the same when we disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah or Integral Education: We lose with regard to the length of the path by putting forth small efforts, but we gain in power, as if we acquire the power to lift a ton with our hands. It’s the same principle of gears in a bicycle that enables us to climb a hill.

So the more groups there are that join us before the convention, the more we will all gain. It will be easier for us to attain the desired state.
[111291]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/30/13, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
Carry The Light To All Of Its Consumers
How To Grow From Zero To Infinity
Genuine Dissemination

Filed under: Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work - No Comments →