Question: How do you suggest we prepare for the convention in Germany at the end of the month?

Answer: We should understand that on the first level we are in now we are operating in the framework of time, motion, and place. These are corporeal limitations against which we are powerless for the time being and are under their strong influence.

When we get to the spiritual levels it will be much easier and we will not have to feel the corporeal presence. We will already live in a different reality; the spiritual life will be part of the corporeal life.

In the meantime I don’t see any way of leaping over time and distance. This problem is only on the current level of preparation.

The first spiritual level already brings us together internally, totally freeing us from corporeal limitations. But in order to break through to the spiritual world, we have to work on this current level and to connect as if time and place do not exist.

It is exactly for this reason that we have workshops and conventions, which unite us, connect us physically, and strengthen the ties between us. There is no other choice since this physical feeling still operates on us. It isn’t by chance that this world was created, and it isn’t by chance that we feel this first level in it. Without any contact between the shattered desires, without being able to feel one another, we wouldn’t be able to advance.

It is just like a corporeal couple in which a man and a woman have to be together, not just next to one another, but actually enter one another. We have to learn from these corporeal examples that the new continuity is born of this close connection.

So we have to come to the convention and reach this strong embrace. It doesn’t matter if we actually embrace one another or not, what’s important is that we will actually feel the closeness by sitting next to each other, by studying together, by eating, singing, dancing, and having discussions. There has to be a physical contact of at least two or three days a year or every couple of months. This already leaves an impression that enables us to later feel it over and over again as and to feel one another better.

If we never see each other, we don’t use the means we were given. It is impossible to advance without it. Kabbalists were always together. Baal HaSulam brought equipment for tanning hides to Israel and wanted to open a small plant for tanning in Jerusalem. He thought that his students would work on these machines, make a living, and also study there.

Tanning is a dirty work accompanied by a terrible stench. It is impossible to be near a tanner because of this smell; Baal HaSulam wanted to open this plant so that people would keep away from his group. Usually such plants are far from the living quarters of a city.

He worked as a rabbinical judge in Warsaw, but he decided to deal with this dirty work because he dreamed of a close Kabbalistic group.

This means that it is impossible to succeed without physical contact. I cannot imagine a student who refuses to come to the convention and meet with me although he can. If a person has a will, then he will be ready to walk for a month if he has no money for a plane or train ticket. I remember that many times on the way to Rehovot (where I used to live) my car would get breakdown since it had a problem with the carburetor. Then I would leave the car on the side of the road, hitchhike to a certain point, and then walk the rest of the way. All this is also part of one’s exertion.

But without physical contact, without sitting next to each other at the table during the lesson or in a workshop, singing together or dancing, it is impossible to advance.
[102023]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/5/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: How can we come to the European Convention in order to create a common field there?

Answer: We must make every effort to succeed.

We must rise above all our differences and laziness, rejections and other things; just close your eyes, strive to organize the convention, and participate in it.

We have only three weeks left, even less. Let’s make this convention really successful. After all, you only win from this: both in material and spiritual matters—I promise you.

I am looking forward to seeing you and hope that no one is left behind a computer screen, and all together we take part in this convention.
[102008]
From the Virtual Lesson 3/3/13

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I didn’t expect that we would experience what we did in the past convention. It is a very important stage: We felt what it is when one says to rise above ourselves, to make room for the friend, for the other in your place, to be integrated into the other, to connect with him. We experienced all kinds of feelings like these: When all of us enter one point and no one takes any room, and thanks to self-annulment, there is room for everyone. The same thing was said about the holy temple: Everyone stands closely in a crowded mass, but when everyone had to bow down, then there was enough room for everyone.

We went through many states. First, we tasted them, and this tasting is very important. Since, actually this accompanies the entrance into the transition stage. Until now we didn’t know how to interpret, how to feel our state. We said words without knowing what lies behind them.

And now a sensation was created: We feel that we are standing next to a psychological barrier, near a barrier that we cannot pass with our own strength, and here without doubt help from Above is needed. It is simply essential, but we must invite it since the Light doesn’t arrive if the Kli is not ready for it.

This is the way Lights and Kelim are built. For the first level that we want to rise to, the law is the law, and we advance to such a desire that will be compatible with the Light of this level.

We don’t stop. It is forbidden to do that. We still need to discover this gate, the gate of tears, the gate of entrance, the request for correction, MAN (Mayin Nukvin). We ourselves form them: since there are no Kelim nor ever will be that are immediately ready for work. We are the first in this. Our fathers greeted us, those who laid the foundations of Kabbalah, those who created the Kabbalistic system, who discovered the upper force and all the levels that are between the Lights and the Kelim. But we are the first in actualization from below to above, real pioneers.

We have a great responsibility for the whole of humanity. We hope that we will be able to lead them correctly via the way of the light and not by way of suffering. Exactly now, according to the events in the world we see, we are approaching the decisive point of choice between these two ways. It all depends on us.

And the main thing is to check oneself by the desire of the upper. Even though we advance according to the spiritual laws, above them stands the desire of the upper, which we can oblige, by rising above the way of “in its time,” above the permanent opposition between the Lights and the Kelim, and can accelerate the way with the help of Hassidim (mercy). To the extent that we are drawn to this, to this extent the mercy will operate bestowal, love, renouncements, completion, and self-annulment between us, to this extent we will invite on ourselves the influence of the Light above the law. Since in this, we show our correct readiness to bend our head and receive the way before the Light commits us to do so. We ourselves force ourselves.

We hope that we will quickly make the breakthrough and discover the Light’s influence on us. It is clear that this needs to turn into a habit where each one feels that everyone belongs to the Kli, one desire, one family, one soul. Only this is the creation and we are parts of it. Now our perception is cloudy, and in our world it seems to us that each part exists as if by itself. But in spirituality, there only exists a perfect whole.

If we can connect and unite, like two liquids or like drops of molten metal that merge into one, in essence, it will be the spiritual state between us. Within it there is no one who is separated, only all of us together. And afterward the concept “we” also disappears and what is left is only one Kli for the Light.

[98928]
From the Arava Convention 1/18/13, Workshop 5

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We have completed the convention, “have come to our senses” a little. Someone experiences ascent, someone else descent, it is hard to say, everyone is in his own state.

Now, each of us must give an account, “What will happen to my soul?” and try to start to rise with all the weight that we have gained as a result of the convention. Where are all the discernments regarding a person’s relation to the group, to self-nullification, to the assessment of the importance of the goal, which is already close, and we begin to feel the first spiritual qualities of perception in practice?

How can we quickly get prepared for the next convention? We have two upcoming conventions:  the European convention in Düsseldorf, Germany, and the feast of Passover in Israel, and we have to work hard, intensely, so that this unity brings real spiritual ascent.

We have to move so that through our effort we can enter into real spiritual attainment, not just lightly feel it from the outside. Therefore, we have to learn, take lessons from the past, and prepare for the future. As many inner discernmenst of spiritual properties we can go through now, this will be our preparation for the next convention.
[98843]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/27/13, The Zohar

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Question: Is the prayer our aspiration toward the Creator every moment? A prayer is not words, is it?

Answer: Certainly not. Why do we need words if the Creator exists in my heart, forms it, and demands from it a conscious response, a reaction to Him?

He exists at the very depths of my heart. I sense what He is doing within me and I have to respond to it right there in the heart. The group, humanity, the world, my family, and everything else exist only so that in the depth of my heart where He is saying something to me, I will respond to it.

Thus, there is no need for words here. However, my correct reaction to what He is initiating within me means connecting and merging with Him.

I form my response to the Creator through the group, through humanity, through everything that happens to us.

Therefore, the world is called “concealment” (Olam). It will start being revealed when my properties become completely similar to His, when I start acting together with Him at the level where He awakens me. As it is said “I am for my Beloved, and my Beloved is for me.”
[95739]
Novosibirsk Convention 12/9/12, Lesson 5

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Rabash, “The Entrance into the Work”: The beginning of the work must be in Lo Lishma (not for its sake), which means that by believing in the Creator one will have a life of pleasure. This means that if he does this, which is called faith, then he feels elation and has higher mental powers than he has when he doesn’t perform this action.

It turns out that this is a unique quality by which he can taste greater tastes in quantity and in quality than he tastes when he performs other special actions that bring him pleasure… pleasures and unique qualities bring him limited pleasures in quantity and in quality. However, the unique quality of faith brings him greater pleasure in quantity and in quality. And all this is called Lo Lishma since his entire intention was only in order to attain a greater pleasure.

Only after he attains the level that is called Lo Lishma, is he rewarded with other phenomena and comes to a higher state. This means that he has no self-interest, but all his interests and thoughts are true. This means that his entire intention is only to annul himself in the true reality, feeling that he only has to serve the King since he feels the King’s supremacy and His importance.

Then he forgets, which means that he has no need to worry about himself in any way, since he annuls himself like a candle before a torch because he feels the Creator’s presence. Then he is in the state of Lishma (for Her sake), to bring contentment to the Creator, and all his worries and desires are as to how he can bring the Creator pleasure. And his own reality, which means the desire to receive, does not exist at all. Then he is considered one who bestows in order to bestow.

I think that you have already felt these two states at the convention. The first is when a person yearns to receive the spiritual pleasure for himself, whether he admits it or not, and does it only for self-benefit. By that he hopes to attain a good life in this world and in the next world, to gain more and change his fate for the better. In all his accounts there is only: “I, I, I,” and he cannot take himself out of the picture.

This happens unconsciously. Even if a person tries not to take himself into account, the moment he doesn’t succeed, he gradually returns to himself each time. Then he finds out that self-benefit, personal interest, was always in the spiritual picture he yearned for. So his participation in the group, the inclination to the Creator, the work, and the efforts depend only on his feeling that all this would pay off.

The realization that he operates only for himself is already a revelation. In the meantime he performs actions without the right intention, which means with his natural egoistic intention, and not in order to bestow by not detaching the action from self-benefit.

But thanks to such actions of Lo Lishma, he goes through four phases of development: 1. to receive in order to receive, 2. to bestow in order to receive, 3. to bestow in order to bestow, 4. to receive in order to bestow, and all this is in the state of Lo Lishma.

Thus he clarifies what is “allowed” and what is “forbidden” in Lo Lishma since these four states are the ones that determine the combination of his actions and his intention. But due to the fact that a person performs all these “malicious acts” because of his innate ego since he has no choice, the evil inclination created by the Creator, the upper Light constantly operates on him, and gradually bit by bit, takes him out of the slavery to the ego, cleaning him from the intention of in order to receive for himself.

He attains the level in which he begins to think about self-annulment, he feels a great measure of grace and attraction, he begins to value devotion and self-annulment, not under the pressure of sufferings, but because he values the attribute of bestowal itself more and more to such an extent that he eventually annuls himself.

If a person delves into this and works on this persistently, then after a short while he receives the attribute of bestowal from the Light: Then he forgets, which means that he feels no need to care about himself in any way since he annuls himself as a candle before a torch because he feels the presence of the Creator.

But he annuls himself not for self-benefit, but by raising the actual state of self-annulment. “Then he is in a state of Lishma, to bring contentment to the Creator, and all his worries and desires are as to how he can bring the Creator pleasure, and his own reality, which means the desire to receive, does not exist at all. Then he is in a state of one who bestows in order to bestow.

We began the clarifications of self-annulment in the Arava convention. We felt it in the general mass of the participants as one. Now we have to continue by focusing more on this point so that all the distances and the interruptions that come up in the time between the conventions will help us. They will provide us with the thickness that we need to annul in order to annul ourselves.
[98658]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/24/13

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Question: How should we relate to the states of confusion and blurriness after the convention? Can we do anything or should we simply wait for them to go away by themselves?

Answer: Under no circumstances should you wait! In spirituality you should never wait for anything, you should only move forward!

Believe me, I am not lying to you. When I, just like any of us until the end of correction, feel a kind of fogginess, blurriness, lack of desire, and suddenly deteriorate into tough states, I don’t lose my head. We must clearly realize that it comes from the Creator, that I was given the next spiritual level, which is revealed with its thickness, as it says, “And the evening and the morning were one day”; thus, everything is fulfilled and so I am happy about that.

In fact I am happy when I go through such times, because for me it doesn’t take long. In the past it could last for two months, while now it takes a couple of minutes, but these minutes are very joyful. I feel what I will attain by what I have just invested, what my additional ego will bring me in attainment. I immediately rush to the computer and begin to work on some materials. I don’t see anything at all on the screen! But I work mechanically, correcting The Zohar texts or articles by Baal HaSulam and Rabash, adding commas and periods here and there.

I sometimes sit like an idiot and after several minutes everything passes. Now it takes a couple of minutes, whereas in the past it could take a week and even longer. Gradually it takes less time, but in order for that to happen, we should work on these states. They become shorter to the extent that you begin to understand that there are no descents and that this is the next level.
[98716]
From the Virtual Lesson 1/20/13

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Question: Due to recent changes (from the women’s convention), a big importance of women’s unity has emerged.

There are women who are more active and less active in our group. For the active women, we organize certain activities and separate workshops, thereby creating a few circles in the women’s community. As a result, there are many unhappy women who think that we have split this community. Is it right to do this in the women’s group?

Answer: I believe it is incorrect. The mass should be as uniform as possible. I do not divide anyone. Some women participate less, no matter for what reason, some more.  I never look for reasons, especially if we are talking about women, not men. Men can be pressed, but women should not be, and in general, women should be treated as equal to men. But they must not make any divisions between themselves. Absolutely no!

Question: So, on what principle could the women’s group be formed?

Answer: According to the principle of the circle—everyone is equal. If I want to advance towards spirituality, I do not need earthly levels: What honors I would be rewarded, how many stars they attach to me? What is important for me is spiritual ascent, and I do not ask anything for myself. If it is possible to invest my efforts, I invest them, if there is no opportunity, then there is none. But a person should wait for the highest reward for his invested efforts, rather than have power and position in the group. What for? This is incorrect!

There are people who have organizational skills; it is another matter. We appoint them to be responsible for this or that because we benefit if they are engaged in these duties or something else, but in any case, we should not divide the group.

We have people who work very hard for the group. So what? Are they supposed to get more? For what reason?

As for women, they are mostly not free; they have a husband, family, children, and parents. So, we cannot demand the same things from them as from men.
[98640]
From the Virtual Lesson 1/20/13

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Question: During the workshops and lessons at the Arava convention was the first time I was awarded with strong hatred for the group. It is difficult to overcome. How can I work with this; is it through work in the intervals between the congresses or work during the congresses? In other words, when we face this at a convention, do we overcome this by means of our work in between the congresses and there must be a constant effort to control oneself?

Answer: The effort should be in place. You need to prepare for falls in advance. There is nothing wrong with them. On the contrary, you need to meet these states with joy, despite the fact that you feel, “How can it be? I don’t want that!” This inner struggle is very good and essential.

In any case, do not try to remove it, do not erase it, but also do not dwell on it inside, do not beat yourself up, but rise above it correctly. It should be understood, in spite of feeling hatred, that the Creator sent it so that I recognize my egoism, how much more it is revealed in me now, and that is why, instead of love and agreement with the group, I feel hatred; I must rise above it and ask the Creator to help me. Don’t try to rise and get out of the pit you fell into by yourself, but ask the Creator to help you get out of it together with Him. Then you will have some contact with Him. This is why He arranged this fall for you.

We need to prepare for falls. Our workshops are especially good preparation for them.
[98637]
From the Virtual Lesson 1/20/13

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Question: I think that we proved at the Arava convention that everything is possible. What’s next?

Answer: The problem is this: In this world when I see a goal and it is important in my eyes, I have enough energy and vigor to attain it, but if the goal isn’t obvious or isn’t important, then I have no strength for the work: “Really, why should I work hard?”

In the end, our problem is recognizing the importance of the goal. This importance is deliberately diminished so that we will create new importance each time, so that there will be a new creation for us, a new spiritual world, everything new.

And we, with the friends, need to build this ourselves. They need to tell me how important the spiritual path is even though they themselves don’t feel it. But we are committed to each other, and this is called Arvut (mutual guarantee). This means that we constantly need to tell each other how important it is, as a mother or grandmother tells the same bedtime story to a child.

Tell me, what was so special at our convention? What were your deepest impressions? Was there something tangible there? No. Did you receive something in your hand? No. Do you feel, hear, see, or taste spirituality? No. Actually there was nothing there, simply “you were filled with hot air” like a balloon, and from your swelling, you began to fly upwards. That was your entire convention.

So what is stopping you from doing that now? Why can’t you rise even higher? Specifically now when you feel heaviness and lack of interest, when all kinds of calculations appear to you, and you begin to think in a more “realistic” way—specifically now begin to act.

Question: At the convention, we, as if, banged our heads against the wall in that we tried to attain something impossible until we discovered that it is possible, albeit at a minimal level. And that means that everything is possible.

Answer: Excellent. Now continue. But don’t think that a spiritual sensation was revealed to you to a small degree to give you a solid basis for further steps. The opposite is true, your heart will be burdened, difficulties will be added, you will be forced to forget it, as if it doesn’t exist at all. They will take back from you all the “advance payment,” otherwise it will turn into an egoistic basis for advancement: “It is worthwhile to go forward since it is pleasant and wonderful. I want that kind of life.” This isn’t spiritual anymore, but Klipot (shells). Previously it wasn’t there, and now it appears. It is also, of course, an attainment, but not the one you were waiting for.

In short, continue. It is especially now that we begin to work with spiritual discernments: a little virtue, a little self-annulment, importance… we passed the hardest period, and now each time there will be something real, concrete. You will feel these things, “in your hand,” you will “ taste” them, you will feel them as internal heaviness, as resistance. In a while, you will even begin to measure them.

We passed the hardest stage, where we didn’t know where we were, what is happening, like a baby who just was born and still doesn’t really hear, or see, or respond…. and now begins the new stage.
[98491]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/21/13, Shamati #213

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