Question: Before we attain love is it necessary to attain hatred regarding a friend? What is this hatred in spirituality?

Answer: We never yearn to discover hatred. In no way or manner! Not in a family, not at home, not with the children, not with anyone!

We don’t need to yearn for anything bad! Only through yearning for good can we understand our true nature. By trying to love a friend, we begin to discover that we hate him. Therefore on the path to “And you shall love your friend as yourself,” we discover big problems. And all the time by overcoming them, we fall into hatred again.

If you want to know your nature, you need to direct yourselves only towards love, which is to say, to be incorporated maximally with the other: “What do you want? What are you missing in order to attain the goal?” You try to push him towards this goal, even though you yearn for it yourself. It is not according to your egoistic calculations; rather, it is specifically because he wants this.

By trying to do everything for the sake of a friend artificially, you begin to discover that you hate him: “Why do I need to help him? How can I wish that he achieve this? Where am I in all this?” The hatred appears here very quickly and we need to work on it.

But this first discovery of true hatred beyond the efforts that we made in approaching each other, this is already spiritual hatred. This is not as it is in our world. In our world we don’t take positive or negative emotions into account.

Everything that is in our world comes to a person through his ego, so we don’t take this into account in the spiritual world. And working on approaching the friends in a group, to the degree of our effort to approach them, to fulfill them, and to elevate them, we begin to see how much we are completely the opposite of this; this is our work. And hatred will appear there and this will already be spiritual. All spirituality is attained only beyond yearning for unity—solely and only—both positively and negatively.
[111203]
From the Preparation for the Convention in Krasnoyarsk 6/13/13

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Question: Are there degrees during the period of preparation or is it one degree in total, and only by entering the spiritual world, will we begin to ascend the 125 degrees?

Answer: Even on the zero degree from which we start, we go through different stages. Every degree consists of ten Sefirot, no more and no less. And each Sefira has its own ten Sefirot and so on to infinity.

There is no such condition which is completely solid and does not include all the elements, the entire reality. There is only one picture of the universe but it is seen in a different resolution as if on the map with a different scale.

For example, we are going to the convention in St. Petersburg. If you look at the map of Russia, the city is just a point. But if you get closer and increase the scale, then this point turns into a big city. You get closer and see all the streets, even every building, etc.

Thus, our current state seems to us just a point. But in reality it includes the entire universe. Everything depends on the scale in which we view it and see all the details in it. The revelation of all the details is the ascent of the 125 degrees.
[111211]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/30/13, Writings of Rabash 

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It all depends on our efforts. We have reached such a level that we are able to prepare ourselves by the path of Light with accelerating time and by helping each other, as is said, “Help a fellow man.” But this requires unity, inner mutual demonstration, total inspiration, and passion.

Everyone should try to be impressed by others, even artificially. You are watching a lesson and it does not touch you today. But make even artificial attempts to cling to what is said there and this will happen. Thus, we achieve a common desire.

The path of Light means that I received the ready desire from friends because my soul is in them, and I, myself, have only the point in the heart of my soul, everything else is egoism. I do not have to use it all but to be constantly above it. This is called faith above reason when I am in the group instead of my mind and egoism, and I absorb all their desires and fulfill them.

Today, we can talk about these deep things because you have been in good preparation for a week. There is the desire to reach the spiritual vessel, even if it’s not very clarified, but I feel that your efforts give me the opportunity to reveal some details of preparation, connection. Thus, we will advance, we still have time before the convention.

These remaining days are the most important, not the convention itself. You will later understand what it means “to eat what has been saved for a long time,” that is, to be nourished by what you have revealed during the preparation. As egoists, we think now we’ll reach the spiritual world and get everything there. But we will come to the revelation of the feeling to what extent we were in the perfect state before, although it seemed flawed to us. Exactly as The Book of Zohar describes this, “The holy Zohar also spoke about it, saying that one who is rewarded with repentance, the holy Divinity appears to him like a soft-hearted mother who hasn’t seen her son for many days, while they made great efforts and experienced ordeals in order to see each other, because of which they both were in great dangers.” (Baal HaSulam, Letter 25). Then, time disappears and all the states come into one because what we reveal is that we initially were in the most perfect state.

So, do not forget that your desire is in the other, in the collective vessel. Now, everyone is getting ready for the convention and if you are integrated with them and want to receive a desire, hopes, and inspiration  from them, then it’s in this way that you discover your true spiritual vessel. You need to look inside yourself less, if possible do not look there at all, and take your emptiness as salty appetizers or spicy seasoning and become included in the friend right away. He contains all the main courses, fulfillment, both the vessels and the Light. And I have only additions that incite my appetite from my inner emptiness.
[111141]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/28/13, Shamati #117

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Question: You said that you can talk for ten hours and not get tired. How can we make sure that we do not get tired and do not fall asleep during the lesson?

Answer: It depends on importance! If this is important to me, then I will not fall asleep. So, you constantly need to excite yourself. Importance is taken on purpose from above, or rather egoism is raised, and that is why it is “jammed.” And we need to raise it again in our eyes. This depends on the environment.

It is not a problem to stay awake in class after a good rest. The problem is to raise oneself in spite of fatigue. This is very important! One needs to work on this.

The friends around you also have to charge the atmosphere. Now, I am saying familiar words that you have heard many times before. Do you see anything new in them? If not, then it is a problem. A person should not remain indifferent to the fact that he does not feel novelty. It depends only on him. And the words are all the same. We must be angry with ourselves!
[111117]
From the Preparation to the Convention in Krasnoyarsk 6/13/13

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Question: If we do not know the next state, how can we prepare for it?

Answer: We will never know the next state even when we are already on spiritual degrees. Let’s say you are on the 80^th rung of the ladder. This is a wonderful degree, believe me. But before you get up to this degree with the previous one, you are in a state a million times worse than it is now.

You have no desire, no interest, you do not hear a single word of what we are talking about now during the lesson, you are sitting just like a piece of wood, even worse, like an impenetrable rock. You cannot think at all about spirituality, you cannot even remember when it happened to you, where and how. What is the spiritual world anyway? You cannot recall a single feeling, any word from there.

Instead of this, you are overcome by the most primitive thoughts: What is in my belly, in my bank account, in the fridge. You are turning into a real animal. How can you get out of this state to rise to the 81^st degree? Only through very gradual and difficult movements.

No one from above will give you energy, the importance of the goal, so your eyes will open wide and sparkle. On the contrary, you are totally deprived of the spirit of life. You will fall into egoism, will hate the friends. Now, you start getting out of this inner state if you even remember what it is about. They talk and you do not even hear. It is not that you are “for” or “against,” you just do not react, it’s as if you are made of stone.

It is written about this, “Everything in your power, that do.” The greater a person is, the more egoism he has. Therefore, he experiences a terrible burdening of the heart that leaves him no opportunity to do anything. Now, you do not depend on anyone: You have neither a good nor bad connection with the friends. And then you will fall together because of your connection and the fall will also be global, of the group.

What can you do? Take advantage of the mind? But there is no mind; you have turned into a stone. Playing artificially does not work either. Bow to the environment? But you have nowhere to bow; you have already fallen so low and you cannot fall from the floor. Turning to the group? But you do not see it in front of you. What can help you? Only a prior preparation! If you have approached a spiritual state without the necessary preparation, you have no chance to advance.

And if you still were not able to prepare, the only thing that helps you in this situation is a daily schedule. If you are accustomed to a particular routine, a habit becomes a second nature. You need to use it and make it a habit as much as possible because a habit enters your nature, and if you feel that you are even dead, habits revive you. You must get up for the lesson because your body is used to waking up at this hour. You must perform certain habitual actions. It does not refer to the soul, the body got used to the physical activities that you do at the same time and under the same conditions.

Therefore, it is very important for a person to accustom himself to a daily schedule. Nothing will help but habits. Since I have included in my nature habits related to spirituality, then now, when I am doing these physical habitual actions, they remind me of spirituality. I developed them in myself because of the spiritual goal, and now when I have to abide by them in the physical form, they bring me back to a spiritual state.
[111030]
From the Talk About the Preparation for the Convention in St. Petersburg 6/26/13

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Therefore the student is committed to strengthen his faith in the Creator before the study, which means that he is headed towards bestowal. He must be sure that he has done everything possible to prepare corporeally since he has the environment that the Creator has arranged for him.

The Creator has brought a person to the environment and now he has to strengthen himself in it and to establish the right relations with the friends. Accordingly, he will at least have the powers to perform corporeal actions and this is already enough to evoke the influence of the Surrounding Lights. Thus, he begins to fulfill himself correctly.

If a person has doubts about the reason that he studies and why he comes to the lessons and gets up in the morning, then by setting for himself the goal to acquire the Light of faith during the day, which means the force of bestowal, there is no greater Mitzvah (commandment) he can perform. It already includes everything and there is nothing else we can acquire during our whole lifetime. This is the purpose we were created for, this is why we exist in this world, and our whole life revolves only around it.

Everything is ready and waiting for us and so the preparation for the study is an essential precondition in order to receive everything that has been prepared for us. We have reached a stage in which we have to pay attention and to focus all our powers, our thoughts, and our persistence on this one thing; we have to see that we are united around this one goal understanding that the preparation for the study and the preparation of every action we make is actually what determines its quality and its height, which means whether it will have a positive or negative impact, whether it will be good or bad for us.

We may perform an action that seems good from a corporeal point of view, but if it’s accompanied with the wrong intention, the quality of the actions will be the opposite. We know that before the destruction of the Temple, the position of the great priest was sold for money. Did the great priest do something wrong in the corporeal sense during the Yom Kippur ritual? He did everything correctly but his intention was to receive respect, fame, and wealth in return and so he entered the Holy of Holies and died.

This means that everything stems only from the intention. We are ready and can work on it consciously together in a special united manner so that it will be the main issue and goal every moment in our life. We should use every moment correctly!

We have already reached this point and especially now when we are before the convention in St. Petersburg, all our actions to get there should be with the right intention. It’s very important, it’s the guarantee for our success.

So like Baal HaSulam says: The student is committed to strengthen his fate in the Creator before the study. This means that we are committed to strengthen our yearning only for the force of mutual bestowal in every action in our life. And it makes no difference if during the day we have to do our basic daily chores that are not directly related to attaining the goal, to attaining the spiritual force, since that’s the way our life is arranged. These actions, which are very far from the goal must also be done with the right intention, since after all, we do them in order to reach the desired state. Every action should be done only in order to attain the force of bestowal, in order to exit the current desire and to acquire a new desire.
[110678]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/23/13, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Question: Among my acquaintances who went through the war in Afghanistan, very clear memories of the war remain. There was death, blood, and mud there, and suddenly they have memories of these things. Is a class, a platoon, or a company a kind of Kabbalistic group in which they pass “crimson balls” among the friends?

Answer: Among people there are those who are connected with these kinds of relationships. It’s when they see that they don’t have anything to think about except their mutual salvation in common, when each sees he cannot save himself but is completely dependent on the others. So feeling each other, they have become in some way a form of a Kabbalistic group.

It doesn’t matter that they don’t know and don’t understand the spiritual method. Some kind of transformation happens here, a detachment from the ego which no longer has a place, and you understand it’s either you or someone else, it makes no difference if you are better than someone else. Those who experience extreme moments like these recognize the feeling of self-sacrifice that appears due to interdependence.

They experienced pleasure through rejection of the ego and therefore remember this kind of warmth from it. This kind of freedom, this kind of respite is impossible to feel in everyday life, we go back to it and it clicks with us again.
[110660]
From the Conventions in Krasnoyarsk 6/16/13, Lesson 5

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Question: When we work with people who don’t have a point in the heart, we feel that it brings them joy. Is this feeling spiritual work?

Answer: On the whole I transfer myself into the other. I transfer my point in the heart into the desires called “my soul.” Everything that is external to me among the seven billion people is all my soul, one desire, and if I discover all of it, I will reach the end of correction.

In other words, I fill my soul and what fills it is called the “Creator” in its infinite form. So my goal is to exit myself and enter the other and at the same time to feel everyone. This is impossible in our current state!

We need a group in order to allow us and to give us the means, the skilled work of exiting ourselves and entering the other. This means that the group is our first tool. In Kabbalistic terms it is called GE.

We have to study the “Introduction to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” in order to understand these terms correctly. We have to take the courses in our campus since otherwise we will have no common language and you will even find it difficult to understand what you attain.

Thus you will get to know what is revealed to you and will understand what each attainment is called. You will integrate everything that is in you with what is revealed to you in spirituality.

We have to reach adhesion with all of humanity, to exit ourselves and enter the world. So we have to first organize our vessel, our tool, in order to prepare it for working with the world. In order to do that we were given a group of Kabbalists and the method of the wisdom of Kabbalah, and we have to study this work in the group and then advance from the group to everyone else.

The main work is done in the group, and with the help of the group, we work on everything else. This is the place where all the fears, the assumptions, and just a little bit of knowledge are revealed since it is only now that everything begins to develop and is ready for work. It is there that totally different worlds are revealed, full of the Light of Hochma, which means with the deep attainment of the Creator.

In the group, we attain the vessels for working with the Creator. With His help we begin to understand Him a little, but only externally since in our global group we only process the desire to bestow, GE, the attributes of bestowal. These are very small egoistic attributes on the root level, level one, and part of level two.

When the whole global group begins to work for the benefit of the global vessel, we will begin to work with great egoistic desires that cannot be revealed now since they are much greater and stronger than ours and are therefore so distant from spiritual advancement.

It seems that many people like the Europeans, Africans, and others are impossible to reach. It is impossible to reach them since they have the greatest spiritual ego. But when we begin to work for their sake, we begin to connect their huge desires to our desires, to fill them, to rejoice for them about their state. So this is where we work not just in order to attain actions of bestowal but also the Creator’s attribute of bestowal in its depth.

I don’t know what I can compare it to. There are people who enjoy listening to music. I remember I had a subscription to the philharmonic orchestra of Leningrad but since I am not an expert I asked some young musicians to tell me a little about how they perceive “Swan Lake” for example, or Rachmaninov.

It is a totally different world, a different feeling including feelings and a process that go together when people understand everything in depth. You have a totally different feeling. By the way, in Kabbalah you don’t know this feeling, you don’t penetrate it, but live in it; you become the feeling. So the goal of the whole correction of humanity is the deepest attainment of the Creator that ends in absolute adhesion to Him.
[110587]
From the Conventions in Krasnoyarsk 6/16/13, Lesson 5 

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Question: What do the  groups of tens need to do in the framework of preparation for the convention?

Answer: First of all, you need the materials for the convention so you can create a connection with what is happening there with all your might.

Question: What kind of environment, what kind of an atmosphere, do we need to create in the World Kli to help every friend have ready access to the convention, to raise all of us together to a new level?

Answer: Remember how you prepared for the birth of your child or your wedding, externally and internally. Understandably, the main thing here is inner preparation: “Where are we going? Towards connection. What else can we do to succeed in connecting and with this connection discover the Light, the characteristic of bestowal, which is discovered to the degree that we become equal to it?”

Ultimately I need to come to the convention completely ready, without expecting any surprises except for one, our connection, and nothing more. I don’t need new wisdom, I want connection. And with this I will feel the text with a new depth and in general everything will seem new to me, sparkling, and bright.

And on the contrary, if there won’t be connection, I must feel that I am left with nothing.

That is, we must see and understand that everything depends on connection, and connection depends on preparation.

Question: About whose connection should I be more concerned, my preparation or that of the friends in the  group of ten?

Answer: That of the friends. If we are speaking about spirituality, first of all I need to be concerned about the spiritual needs of the friends. This is called the “prayer of the many,” a prayer for the friends. It is said, “Whoever prays for his friend is answered first.”

Question: What will we require at the convention for a transition to a complete inner scream?

Answer: The preparation. Specifically we don’t scream because we are not prepared, we don’t add a “penny and another penny,” so that they will combine into one great scream. Instead of this we wait: “So, when will the breakthrough come already?” This will never happen without preparation.

Question: How can we avoid falling into a lack of participation at the convention?

Answer: This again depends on the atmosphere and the preparation. If the person is ready, then he apparently sinks into a force field that won’t readily let him go.

Question: Do we need to see a passage through the “Red Sea” at the convention in St. Petersburg?

Answer: And even Arvut standing before “Mount Sinai.”
[110818]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/25/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Peace in the World”

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Question: At present I am found in a virtual group of ten that includes women from different regions with great time differences. What should we do?

Answer: A woman is exempt from all time-bound occupations! She can learn quietly and independently without any connection to other women. And when she has spare time she can be in connection with us through our Sviva Tova website, through a chat, Skype, and so forth.

Question: I heard that everyone needs to be with an inner mutual responsibility including the women for six minutes per hour, everyone is responsible for this time. Does that make sense?

Answer: I don’t know what to say; I didn’t say something like this. It’s forbidden for both women and men to do this. This is because you will be tense all the time and ultimately neglect everything. This process needs to be much more smooth and acceptable to our lives. Imagine an engineer who would stop the train for six minutes to be involved with spiritual work. This is hyperbole.

Each one of you needs to do it at a time that is convenient for her. It’s clear that it would be good to work according to the clock, but understand that you will be tense all the time. It’s a waste of nerves. And for what? Eventually this will lead to a nervous exhaustion, and instead of getting a good impression from spiritual work you will feel the burden of its obligation and be anxious all the time. It’s forbidden to do this!

Question: I heard that women, like men, must read articles by Rabash in their group of ten after the lesson or at another time.

Answer: Gather once per week when everyone is free without disturbing anything (the family and so forth) and read something. At home prepare some coffee, sit relaxed by the computer, and read an article together with everyone. This is pleasurable and this is good.

Question: Is it worthwhile to connect to groups of ten according to the same time zones?

Answer: If you connect with each other only on weekends and this is easy for you, then you can even take ten time zones, and if you cannot, then there is no need. Spiritual work needs to be relaxed! It needs to be as easy and systematic as possible!

The only thing that is not easy is the departure from the ego. We do everything else without effort. It’s possible to be in connection with everyone and to be lying relaxed on the couch because we are engaged in spiritual work. Therefore there is no reason for people of different regions with different times to be connected at the expense of their hours of work and sleep. A connection like this cannot last for long, for at the end of the matter the person will break. This has no connection to the work in the groups of tens.

It’s enough for  groups of tens to meet three times per week for 15 minutes. With us at Bnei Baruch in Petak Tikva, the  groups of tens meet for ten minutes after every morning lesson and this is all. If in your region there is the possibility of meeting for ten minutes in the evening and clarify something, even if this is through a virtual connection, this is good and is enough. This is the life of the  groups of tens.

Question: But we don’t meet physically, rather we communicate every evening, read an article and observe the time of six minutes. Everyone is sitting at work or just concentrates on thinking about the  groups of ten and this doesn’t disturb his work. Is it worthwhile to stop these exercises and to do what you said now?

Answer: I cannot advise a person to think about something foreign during work hours. I don’t know what his or her work involves. Perhaps it is complicated, dangerous, and illegal. You are taking everything that I say in a fanatical, irrational form.

There is no provision that a person must suffer from the spiritual work in which he is engaged. It is forbidden! The goal of creation is to enjoy, to benefit, only to bestow.
[110805]
From the Conventions in Krasnoyarsk 6/16/13, Lesson 6

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