Question: Why do I have to make such great efforts not to fall asleep during the lesson although I exert a lot of efforts in the study and in dissemination?

Answer: I will tell you a secret: People who are attracted to spirituality, who want to reveal the Creator, don’t like to study…. It’s because they want to feel! They may even seem a bit stupid and sleepy. They can read the same passage ten times and not understand what it says. I have experienced it myself.

If you let someone on the outside read this passage, he will immediately “understand” what it says. This is very typical of the wisdom of Kabbalah since the point in the heart is awakened in a person when he reads, the point of feeling and not the mind. A stranger perceives the text in a totally logical way, and so he has no problem understanding what it says.

This is the reason that we sometimes see how new people come to the group and apprehend and master the material easily. It’s easy for them to understand what the text says, they immediately begin to study TES, and in a month or two already begin to discuss the most complex theory. People with the point in the heart, however, who have studied for ten years, cannot understand what it says since they are looking for a feeling and not for logic, like a clever donkey.

We should understand that there are two main obstacles for students. The first obstacle is when we discover problems in the group, in the relations between the friends, but we don’t understand that these problems are actually the springboard forward and we escape them.

The second obstacle is that a person reads the text over and over again and already knows it by heart, but feels that he doesn’t understand what it means. This is true not only with regards to the theory in “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” or TES, but even with regards to Shamati and other articles. Certain articles may sometimes move a person, but most of them seem dry and do not touch the heart.

This is actually a good sign. It is said: “It isn’t the wise who learns.” It doesn’t mean that I am giving you permission to sleep during the lesson, but in fact I do understand it. I have never made complaints to students who sleep since I understand them. It isn’t just feeling tired, but a result of wanting to feel spirituality. If they don’t feel that, they don’t understand why they sit in the lesson.

It’s said about this: “Time does what the mind doesn’t do” since the mind cannot really help us here, but time can! This means that with time the Light influences us when we are in the group or even when we sleep during the lesson. You should just let the Light work on you, and the sensation will come.
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From the Convention in New Jersey 5/10/13, Lesson 1

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Question: You said that it’s necessary to try to see the Creator behind everything, including my thoughts and emotions. But when something bad happens, it’s very difficult to hold onto Him, not to speak about getting out of such states. Why does the Creator put us into conditions above which we are unable to rise? Intellectually, I understand the need to surmount this, but it’s impossible.

Answer: There are no states above which we are unable to rise. Every state accurately matches our present level, which makes it possible for us to overcome it. If we make the effort and fail, this says that we have not sufficiently prepared a base.

Suppose you have to take a test, and you want very much to succeed in this test. But you haven’t prepared enough, and therefore, no matter how much you “sweat,” no matter how much you try to answer the questions, this doesn’t help. So, what’s the point of complaining that you invested all your energy and failed?

So, humanity and each individual evolve according to a program, and if we prepare ourselves and our environment correctly, it cannot be that we will not succeed in overcoming all the states that we encounter on the way. For these states do arrive in stages according to a precise program, and we receive everything necessary to be ready for them.
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From the Convention in New Jersey 5/10/13, Lesson 1

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot” Item 19: The angel of death comes with a drawn sword with a drop of poison at its tip; the person opens his mouth, he throws the drop inside, and he dies.

The angel of death is our ego that cuts us off and distances us from spirituality all the time. And obviously, it does so according to that method, according to that general plan by which we must advance. It has to grow in order to justify its name, the angel of death.

We see that, in our day, a global crisis has been revealed. Humanity is gradually coming to understand that the problem is not in bad economy or finances, not in the broken family, but rather in human nature itself. This means that we will not escape the crisis through a simple change of the external system. Ultimately, we reach an understanding that the angel of death lives within us and is killing us. We must kill him ourselves before he kills us. Time after time, he intentionally cuts us off from the good life more and more so that we will feel that we have to kill him.

The sword of the angel of death is the influence of the Sitra Achra, called “Herev” because of the separation that grows according to the measure of reception, and the separation destroys him.

A person is not prepared to refrain from using his ego. We see people continue to behave egoistically even though they know that they are harming themselves. However, they are compelled to use their desire to receive, and finally: One is compelled to open one’s mouth, since one must receive the abundance for sustenance and persistence from her hands.

So, we are killing ourselves from generation to generation, returning to this world again and again with an even greater desire for pleasure and again, swallowing that deadly drop”: In the end, the bitter drop at the tip of the sword reaches him, and this completes the separation to the last spark of his breath of life.

People must finally understand that using the desire to receive kills them. No matter how much we burn with new hope of exploiting it, looking for different forms, and trying to overcome it, in spite of all this, we understand that our nature is compelling us to kill ourselves.

The angel of death kills itself by showing us what is causing us to die. It arouses us to fight against it. This is reminiscent of the story of the Egyptian exile. At first, it seemed that Pharaoh was good! With seven years of plenty, absolute abundance, it seemed that we had succeeded in controlling the angel of death and that was on our side.

However, in the end, we began to feel the seven years of famine. This was no longer the same Pharaoh. The angel that led us through life suddenly became cruel. We used to think that all of life is in front of us: With all the opportunities of the “American dream,” we would continue to progress and get more and more from life. It seemed to us that the entire world opened before us for our benefit.

Suddenly, we discovered that we are locked within this world. Every day becomes darker and darker, cramped and horrible, threatening to kill us and, at the end of the matter, we realize that the problem is not in the world. Rather, it is in us, in the egoistic nature that is found within us and inspires us to life, in our angel, meaning our internal power.

So, it essentially is fulfilling its role, like Pharaoh who brought the children of Israel closer to the Creator. This is that angel that, through opposition, carries out its faithful work. An angel is a force of nature that has no choice, a part of the overall program that operates until we finally feel that we have no choice and must flee from it.
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From the Men’s Convention “The Next Step” 4/26/13, Lesson 1

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Our ego has grown for many years until a spark suddenly awakened in it, a glimmer, a starting point of the perception of the upper world. When such a spark is ignited in a person, he begins to feel discomfort and worry. He feels that this world is not enough for him and that he needs something else: There is something else in this life above the corporeal existence, a more sublime goal.

He cannot go on living like everyone else anymore, and he yearns to understand the meaning of life, its essence, its basis. What is the inner force that manages him and what is the purpose of his life?

This spark undoubtedly exists in each of those who have gathered here in this convention since otherwise you wouldn’t yearn to come here. Yet, there are many people who come to study and check themselves when the spark in them is ignited. We have to make great efforts in order to fulfill it, and this is something for which they are not ready yet. In the meantime, the gap between the force of the ego that pulls a person into his own body and the force of the spark that pulls him out of his body, calling him to transcend, is very big.

A person’s ego is very heavy and it keeps the spark inside it as if in a prison cell. Therefore, such people surrender to their ego and agree to remain in this prison. They find different excuses, according to which they eventually leave the spiritual path since they must justify themselves. And thus, they leave.

Rabash says that there are sparks of the love of others in each of the friends; that is, there are anti-egoistic forces. The ego hates the others, and the force that is opposite the ego is called love of others. But one spark cannot ignite the Light of love, meaning to make me feel someone else’s desire as mine and fill it, just as I fill myself. In other words, I cannot exit myself and be incorporated in the other, which is called “love of others.”

Therefore, we gather in a group and agree to work and empower one another in order to collect all our sparks and, in the connection between them, discover the upper world.
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From a Talk on The Importance of Gathering 5/10/2013

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A person can reach the general love for all of humanity, all of nature, and all of reality from the love of friends. Then, he sees that our world also takes on a form in which there are only attributes, where there is no matter, but only a force. This force is the only thing that operates in the world in its different variations.

There is no separate corporeal and spiritual world, but only one world. If a person looks at himself and at the entire world correctly, he understands that there is nothing that was created against him, that everything was created only for the benefit of the connection between us and the ascent to mutual bestowal, connection.

So from the love of friends we reach the love of the Creator, that is, the love of all of reality—the desire to bring the Creator contentment. To bestow upon the Creator means to bestow upon everyone. The term “together” stands for the Creator. A person serves all the created beings and the inner force that created them and enlivens them, and through them he bestows upon their Maker who exists in them.

Therefore, we see that the wisdom of Kabbalah is a very practical method. We can study it as a theory for many years and not advance at all. The main thing is the actual implementation, and it can be implemented only in the connection between us.

So, when we gather in these conventions, it allows us to connect and absorb the general spirit. The amount of people coming together helps us to reach a great intensity. They don’t necessarily have to be old students with great experience. The main thing is the general force when each one wants to exit himself and enter the other, to “pour” himself outward, and burst into their arms. Thus, he opens his perception to the world and begins to discover nature, regardless of his five physical senses.

There is a special quality in the connection between the friends: Since their thoughts and opinions are conveyed from one another thanks to their adhesion, everyone is incorporated in the forces of the other, in his attributes and his perspective. Thanks to the general incorporation, each one receives the power of the whole group.

Every individual is small and weak with limited powers. But everything is arranged so that if he is incorporated in the group, which wasn’t given to him by chance, he completes himself through it. This is enough in order to fully feel the whole spiritual world. None of us can feel spirituality, but through the connection, everyone can acquire it.

Of course, a person has a chance to acquire a great spiritual desire in a big group. It is easier to do so because it is easier to annul oneself before a big society when many people influence a person. We must pressure only a little, and it can happen. We will be able to transcend ourselves and attain the upper reality in the incorporation between us. I do hope that we will fulfill that and together discover the true reality in which we are living.

It isn’t mysticism but a science, a higher psychology. By revealing the upper world, we will discover the upper laws of nature that modern physics only now is getting close to. Modern physics is on the borderline of matter, where the corporeal laws disappear, and this is why physicists cannot discover what is above time, motion, and place. We, however, will reveal all of this since our senses will be ready for that. Then, we will discover how we should behave correctly in our world and how to control our fate. We will have the key to success, not at the expense of others, but for the benefit of everyone!
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From a Talk on The Importance of Gathering 5/10/2013

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Convention in New Jersey, Day 3, Lesson 6

Convention in New Jersey, Day 3, Workshop 4

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We gather in order to unite and help one another overcome self-love. Everyone has to think about canceling their egoism, stop worrying about their own fulfillment, and strive only toward loving their neighbor when it is possible. In other words, throughout the entire convention, from this moment forward, we need to think about rising above ourselves and exiting our egoism. This is the only way for a person to feel the need and the desire to acquire the new quality called the desire to bestow.

When egoists like us connect and I look at others, I begin to realize that my egoism is very wisely made. Essentially, it is made in a way that helps me come out of it. In reality, nothing in my personal life interferes with spirituality. With the right attitude toward my nature, I will reveal qualities in it that help me attain the spiritual world.

The rejection I feel for others is given to me to show me how far I am from having spiritual qualities. Moreover, there is envy in me. When I see how others connect, and how every person tries to come out of himself and become closer to others, I envy them. Envy is a huge, egoistic force but essentially, it begins to work to my benefit, helping me to rise above my egoism.

Also, ambition—my desire to be higher and more successful than others—works to my benefit. I see the success of others and feel ashamed. I want to have what they have, at least not to fall behind, but to surpass them. It turns out that there is not a single quality in our egoism that we could not use to liberate ourselves from our egoism. This inner work is called “help against him.”

We need to delve into this work with our friends, but in reality we discover that there is nothing in our lives that we need to fight. Overcoming is spending every moment trying to be sensible toward heading in the right direction. Then, we will see how all our natural qualities help us attain the goal in a direct or an indirect manner.

There is no need to fight any of our inclinations. Instead, we need to study how nature plays us. If we use all our impulses wisely, we will be able to break through into the spiritual world.
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From a Talk on The Importance of Gathering 5/10/2013

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Question: I really would like the world to be a better place after the convention, a place where no one takes advantage of others, where there is no more pain, my bank account is fine, and life is good. Is that possible?

Answer: I think that it is in our power. Just imagine that many of our friends all over the world unite around this convention. These are the people who have the spiritual sparks, the particles from the upper world. If we connect them all, we can do anything!

Since our entire world is still, it doesn’t have the power to change anything. Now, when this becomes so clear, we see that no one can manage the world, and no one knows how to manage it either.

A century or two ago, we could do so since our ego was not so developed yet, and we could change the way we used it. However, now it is impossible. The ego has become closed, it has become round, and so no one in our world knows what to do with it.

Only we can take advantage of the fact that it has become round, which means connected and tied with others, while the egoists cannot since they are all separated. So, when the world becomes global, strongly connected, and mutually interdependent, everyone throws up their hands in despair, and no one knows what is going on. We see that they cannot manage even financial systems, not because they aren’t knowledgeable enough but because the rules in the world have changed.

The integral connection, the analog system that is now taking over, won’t let an individual or an egoistic group manage things. Only if you establish an analog system between several people can you change the world somehow, by using it like a management panel. The egoists cannot do that. Only we can, and this also includes your bank account.

So, everything is in your hands. If you ask us to connect to you, you will see how this happens. It isn’t mysticism or magic but real spiritual laws, which means that they are above our world. If you positively change the way the system works, you will see to what extent things change in the corporeal world since our world is an outcome of the spiritual forces. Nothing happens on its own. Everything is managed by an inner force to which you will have access.

Thus, you will understand why we need suffering in this world, including an overdraft in your bank account and everything else that is happening in the world. All this is meant to awaken us to rise to the upper force, even if it is in order to manage our corporeal life. From the height of this force, we really can do something; but as long as we don’t do that, the problems and troubles in our world will only grow. Therefore, the ball is in your hands.
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From a Talk On Preparation for the Congress in New Jersey, 5/10/2013

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When we begin to investigate our nature, the major breakthrough in discovering the truth is to stop focusing on our animal degree with which we usually identify ourselves: with our body and all its desires, thoughts, and longings. This is a primitive egoism, inherent in the whole human race, and every inhabitant of this world feels its manifestations to a higher or smaller degree, in various forms—everyone according to his nature.

We need to consider the history of humanity not as a life of animal bodies, but as the development of desire on the speaking degree. When we look at the world, we see how difficult people’s life is, how much they need to fight for it and apply efforts. Everyone is fighting for his existence. But why is it arranged so? It is all so that we understand the futility of our desire.

It’s no accident that we complain about life and suffering so much. This life intentionally forces us to suffer so that we decide that our egoism—our desire to enjoy—is killing us, and we then want to rise out of it to the next degree. If we don’t pay attention to bodies but look at the common desire, we will see that it grows from epoch to epoch and as it grows, it suffers more and more, more qualitatively.

Although a person has all the material things, his desire has grown to a more human level, and he doesn’t feel the satisfaction of a well-fed life. If once people were fighting for a piece of bread, today they don’t die of hunger but suffer from other causes.

In this way the common desire of which we are part develops and advances and, as a result brings us to the need to solve this problem. It’s impossible to continue living inside of this egoism that is born only to suffer. There is nothing else to do but to decide that we desire to rise above it, to grow in a different direction.

We don’t want to increase this desire further so that instead of a hundred we will want two hundred, and according to this, will double our suffering, then will want four hundred and will suffer even more. We need to use our desire differently, not to try to fulfill the animal body, but our true body that is outside of this animal: to rise above the animal—above the horse—to the level of the rider. This task should be the goal of our life.

Humanity reveals this and is now at a crossroads. It gradually begins to realize that it will bring itself to total destruction if it doesn’t change its nature. And we have the knowledge and understanding as to what needs to be done. We have the method that we try to realize for ourselves and to use as an example for the entire world, becoming a light to all the nations.

We want to break away from egoism that states “I will reign!” and forces us to serve our animal body; we want to rise from its degree and connect to the human within us. This human being within us does not exist; there is only a point from which we must develop it. This spark, called the “point in the heart,” exists in every person. But there are people in whom it burns and requires its realization. That’s why, around us around throughout the whole world, there are people who are able to realize this opportunity and build from this point the rider, the human, meanwhile hidden within it like in a drop of semen.

It’s necessary to implant this drop in the womb, which is the group. And when we adhere to the group, like a drop of semen to the uterus, then from this adhesion we start to get the upper force, the revelation of the Creator. There are three components: my drop, my group, and the Creator, who is revealed in it. Then I start receiving nourishment nourishment and strength through this group, and thus I grow.

In reality, I grow due to the fact that through the group I receive the force of the Creator; my desire to enjoy is also growing and seemingly wants to intercept me. But due to the fact that I draw the Light that Reforms to it, this raw, formless material begins to acquire the form of man, Adam, similar (Domeh) to the Creator.

I don’t know what it means to be like the Creator, and I feel various disturbances. But these very disturbances show me the form in which I should resist them, to ask adherence to the group and demand the influence of the Creator. Due to this, my desire begins to take a human shape. It’s just as the embryo passes through the different stages of its growth, undergoes all kinds of changes and takes different forms until it finally looks like a human being. Thus, we reach a state of readiness to be born in the spiritual world. And the very first stage is to adhere to the uterus, that is, the group, and to try to get nourishment through it from Above, the Light that Reforms.
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From the Men’s Convention “The Next Step” 4/26/13, Lesson 1

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As we ascend 125 spiritual degrees, we return to an “embryonic” state again and again, at deeper and higher levels. This is the special ladder in which every level of self-annulment takes its own form, with its unique characteristics.

And this is why the embryo submits to constant changes throughout its growth until it becomes similar to the upper one in its self-annulment, thereby completing the first stage. In this stage, the lower one is carrying out only its first self-annulment: It accepts everything that the upper one does, sends, or says to it as something perfect, even though it may seem to the lower one that it’s against it, that it’s repulsive to its mind and feeling.

Then when it completes the stage of conception, it actually begins to nullify itself by constructing the head of its Partzuf. It is born with its head turned downwards, that is, in self-annulment, and it begins to raise it, that is, to accept the mind of the upper one instead of its own. In other words, now it works actively against its own mind and feeling, and not only nullifies itself, but checks with the upper one at every step.

And even if it doesn’t agree with the upper one, whose words seem to him absolutely illogical, contradictory, and inadequate, it still it accepts them; this is already actual self-annulment. Before, in the stage of conception, it acted without examination, and now it accepts the mind and feeling of the upper one in defiance of its own.

This way, gradually, it constructs the head of the Partzuf and becomes similar to the upper one in terms of its inner program, its vessels (desires). Eventually, on a certain stage it is able to replace the upper one in all acts of the latter.

This is the order of the degrees, and we rise in them through the power of resistance. Baal HaSulam tells a parable about a servant and the ministers, when the king wanted to place the servant as head of the ministers. In order to do this, he told one of them who was skilled in buffoonery to pretend that he was the leader of the enemies and the bandits so that, through fighting with them the person could examine himself as to what degree he could “protect the king,” meaning to adhere to the mind of the upper one. After all, when the king’s assistant dresses like a criminal, it is not easy to recognize this. On the contrary, a person always thinks that he is right, and he needs a strong power of overcoming to rise above reason, not like it was on the first stage.

And this is the state that we call the “second conception.” After all, even though the person matured, came out of the embryonic stage and infancy, the conception continues even here: the actions are the same but on a new level. Now he actually nullifies himself in order to be similar to the upper one in practice.
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From the Men’s Convention “The Next Step” 4/26/13, Lesson 2

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