From the book The Light and the Sun: Most important in the gathering is that all are unified together and ask only for one thing—to find the Creator. And may everyone listen to his friend, and be small in his own eyes, and desire to hear something from the friend—how to serve the Creator and how to find the Creator.

It is necessary to make a distinction: There is I, there is the goal, the Creator, and there is a means of achieving it, our gathering, our unity. There is nothing else. Consequently, the means is as important as the goal because it leads me to the goal.

Everything depends on the realization of the importance of the goal. That is why we must constantly talk and think about it, raise it in our eyes. The realization of the importance of the goal is where it is revealed how much I can invest into it, to what extent we can work against our egoism.

The question is where my expectations are, where my eyes are turned: upwards or downwards? Towards the Good that Does Good or towards evil? Where am I heading? Everything depends on the realization of the importance of the goal that I take from the group.

And the problem is that this importance is not yet “spread” among the friends. The situation has undoubtedly improved, but the air between us is not “ringing” yet, not “sparkling,” not “charging” me….

I have to help the group, sparing no efforts, and when I am not able, I will be “nourished” by it.
[111777]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/5/13, “Love Your Neighbor as Yourself,” Lesson 3

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Comment: In preparation for the convention in St. Petersburg, we asked all the women to create a common prayer for the men.

Answer: To send a letter to the men is a good idea, but you should not link with them your hopes to succeed if you cannot bring yourselves to match the spiritual quality of bestowal. It is impossible to convey the spiritual property from one to another; even from the husband to the wife, who are considered as one body, because in order to be really one body in spirituality, they need an internal integration into each other. The woman is a person, not an addition to the man!
[111638]
From the Workshop for Women, 7/5/2013

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Question: How can we prepare ourselves for the convention in St. Petersburg to a new state so it really comes? How do we prepare now, while there is still time?

Answer: The thing is there is no time. Preparation is the condition in which the main thing is to happen right now. Preparation means that I am acting just in this moment, and if I assign some future date or a future state for myself, it is only to spur my “donkey.”

Preparation is everything. And the results do not necessarily show up on the appointed day, they can come at any moment and even before. So let them come, let it happen sooner. Why do we need a convention if we can already reach the “first date,” the revelation of the Creator? Why should it happen on a fixed day? Let Him be revealed now and we will finish the current stage.

Are we going to St. Petersburg because the Creator lives there? No, if we are preparing properly, we want to get the desire now and we are not waiting for any date. What are we to do with the calendar and geography? Unity is what is most important. If I want to be a giver, there is no tomorrow, only now.
[111714]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/8/13, “They Shall All Know Me from the Least of Them to the Greatest of Them”

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Question: It is written “You shall love your friend as yourself.” Who is “your friend” for a person who has the point in the heart?

Answer: In general, we give the name of “your friend” to each person in the world who was a stranger to us and becomes close, your friend.

For a person with the point in the heart according to the hierarchy, “your friends” are those people who are with him on the path, friends in the group. We can be open with them, we can be involved in connection and unity, in mutual support, to realize the system of spiritual connection. We don’t find ourselves in this group by accident, we belong to one inner upper system, so we come together. Thus, first and foremost, we need to create between us conditions like “love for others.”

“Love for the other” is determined according to this: I begin to feel the desire of my friend, his needs above my own.

The concept,  “Love your friend like yourself” means higher than yourself, much more than yourself. Today, I love myself more than the whole world. This means, also in regard to my friends, that I need to relate in this way, that they will be more important to me than anyone. It is acquiring the attribute of bestowal when I grasp their greatest desire—reaching the goal, revelation of the upper system—as my personal desire and help them in that. If, for me, the spirituality of my friends is higher than mine, then at that moment, I reach revelation.

We mean by love, not what is thought of usually as love in this world, but specifically helping those who are with us on the path so that they will reach their goal. Love is called filling the desire of the other.
[111114]
From the Preparation for the Convention in Krasnoyarsk 6/13/13

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Question: Your comment during the morning lesson upturned all our plans! So how can we stay in groups during the convention?

Answer: All these conditions are for the 1%, not for the 99%:

1. Groups are divided into men’s and women’s parts and isolated from each other. Due to man’s weaknesses, women distract men from the goal. It is better for the men to spend all three days together. You need to prepare everything in advance. Usually, the men gather at their center. Their older sons from the age of 13 who have gone through the preparation can be with them.

2. Women can gather in homes or in a separate room in the center; they can come and go (women are freed from the actions that depend on time).

3. Don’t invite strangers and even former students who have not participated in the preparation for this convention. We have studied that preparation is most important!

4. Those who are engaged in the preparation should feel what it means to be in a collective intention and what factors may become a hindrance to success, which we all hope for.

Good luck to us all,
Dr. Michael Laitman
[111694]

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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

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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”

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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”

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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”

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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

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