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”

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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”

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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

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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

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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

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Question: After the first integral discussions in circles, people who participated in them said that the more they use this method, the more egoistic they become.

Answer: They begin to see their nature as egoistic, begin to see themselves. This is good. That is, there is truly a reason to connect. Don’t be afraid of this. They will not have any negative phenomena, deviations, or depressions. Their ego is just being revealed in its integral form. And this is good. This says that a greater need to connect is appearing among them.
[111277]
From the Convention in Krasnoyarsk 6/13/13, Lesson 3

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Question: Our virtual women’s group of ten gathers after every lecture. We share our impressions, read Shamati together and there is a feeling that we recharge one another. Is there anything spiritual in that or are women exempt from doing that?

Answer: First of all women need everything that men need. Second, a person is where his thoughts are, so you are doing a great job. Connect and think that it’s very important.

If you are not connected you will not be able to impress the men. Each woman is powerless by herself. Only if you are connected, at least in a group of ten, will you be able to impress the men. They will begin to subconsciously feel that you are pressuring them, that you demand of them just like a woman demands of her husband.

This is how we are made! And it’s very important! So encouraging and demanding at the same time is a woman’s work along two lines. We have to use that. Men who don’t perceive that will deprive themselves of the strongest means to advance! They mustn’t refuse that. Otherwise they will have no incentive.

It’s the female nature that can obligate a man to act. Even psychologists and historians speak about the fact that a man can do anything for a woman. Such mutual cooperation is part of our nature.

So you have to act together and to impress the men’s group together and actually demand that they pay attention to you and take your yearning seriously. It is serious work. I see that wherever there is a strong women’s group, the men are also successful.
[111274]
From the Convention in Krasnoyarsk 6/13/13, Lesson 3

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Question: A person who is studying Kabbalah, with time begins to feel heaviness, in particular when he watches the morning lessons or reads something serious. The Creator gives us “intentional obstacles” like these, which we call disturbances. Why? What do they mean?

Answer: Apparently it’s so that life will not seem sweet like honey, even though this never really seems to be so. We say this all the time, that all of our ascents take place only above the growth of the ego. There is nothing else! You do something good, this is a sign that you can increase your ego, and so the system immediately adds this. You attract the upper Light onto yourself through your unity, through further yearning for the goal, and immediately the ego is added from the left again, and so forth.

You call the constant burdening of the ego “intentional obstacles.” And the person really feels: “What is this dirty trick?!”

I remember how I came to Rabash about this for the first time: “Look at what is happening to me! You see it’s impossible to endure this…” I worked as usual all the time, I did everything, and suddenly there was a descent for a few weeks. I really couldn’t see the light of day.

What do I want to say about this? The growth of the ego is compulsory. Imagine that you now have five grams of ego; in regard to spirituality it is not considered to exist. But in order to leave it, to hate it, to strangle it, you would need a few hundred kilograms. How can you attain such a state of hatred so you will be ready to flee from it, when “my death would be better than my life”? When you begin to feel like this, only then will you be able to carry out a transition to this phase.

This is really an internal revolution within you when you are ready to die just so you won’t remain with it: “Take everything that you gave me, I don’t need anything, just get me out of this ego!” Moreover, this is not incidental, rather it’s truly a serious decision.

How is it possible to reach this? In this way they bring you to it gradually. But you can hasten your advancement only on condition that the group helps you, and you will search constantly for a state contrary to the ego, meaning connection, bestowal, and love.
[111198]
From the Convention in Krasnoyarsk 6/13/13, Lesson 3

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The topic of the first lesson of the convention in St. Petersburg is “There is None Else Besides Him.” This is the main topic that we always study.

In principle, we are in a special reality called the “Creator” and have to reveal Him. The “Creator” (Boreh) means to “come and see” (Bo-reh in Hebrew). If we already dwell in Him, in the upper white Light, then only He acts and there is none else besides Him. Only He “outlines,” forms us; He is the first and He is the last. All our thoughts and deeds stem from the actions of this upper Light. Nothing exists but Him.

We observe still, vegetative, and animate forms in which the Creator acts wholly, obliging them to make any movement. They have no freedom of will at all; they are entirely under His direct influence.

On the other hand, we ourselves have a certain point, created by Him, existing seemingly outside of Him. This point gives us the opportunity to know the Creator—the only one who affects us. In fact, in this way we do not go somewhere outside, do not become distant from Him, and do not violate any of His actions. The reality remains the same: There is no one else besides the Creator. However, due to this point that seems to be abstracted from Him, I can analyze myself and Him, I can deliberately and consciously lead myself to the only existing state in which there is none else besides Him.

I attain the Creator due to this work. I attribute every fragment of reality to His oneness, and thus I attain all His deeds, all the steps, direct and opposite Him, that He undertakes. So, returning to the state of unity and oneness of the Creator, I stand in all the power that He has given me and realize that really there is none else besides Him.

Thus, I bring Him pleasure, and this is the greatest pleasure that I can bring Him, and this means myself. After all, there is none else besides Him.

So now we need, against our desire, to reasonably and deliberately become included in the concept: “There is none else besides Him.”
[111373]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/3/13, Preparation the St. Petersburg Convention, Lesson 1

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Question: How can we acquire additional deficiencies that we need in our preparation for the convention?

Answer: We shouldn’t ask for deficiencies but for their correction and for the completion of those that we already have. You are asking how you should prepare and enlarge your vessel, but what we have is enough and we don’t need additional deficiencies. We only need to connect what we have now in one integral manner.

We don’t need anything else but that, and this is the only thing we should think about. Then different thoughts, disappointments, confusions, rejections, and other interruptions will come along that will help us grow stronger and complete the general connection into one whole on the first level.

We only have to connect, to unite Israel, the Torah, and the Creator; that’s all. The deficiencies that we already have are enough and we don’t need any more. We don’t need to look for new troubles and confusions or unpleasantness, leave this work for the Light. Our work is to yearn to unite everything into one concept.

Then we will suddenly encounter new interruptions, which is a sign what they were missing in order to complete the Aviut (thickness) for the first level. Then we will work with them too as we acknowledge and are grateful for the help we have received. This is called “being grateful for the evil as well as for the good,” to thank and to bless both the Light and the new deficiencies.

Question: How should we prepare for that?

Answer: I want everything in me to unite in one direction, I prepare myself for that and don’t sit and wait for the beginning of the convention. The right preparation wants it to happen now and not leave it for tomorrow. I expect the Messiah to come at any moment and bring us to the end of correction. This is called preparation.
[111233]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/30/13, Writings of Rabash

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