Question: Taking into account the role of Germany in the European Union, what is the correct role of the German group in the European Kli (vessel)?

Answer: There are several groups in Europe, although there could have been many more and more strong groups, but what can you do? This is what we have today. We must try to bring all these groups into a single entity so that they will help each other in dissemination, studies, and mutual support. If they study all together at the same time—desirably, together with us—then a connection will develop between them.

I hope very much that they will understand this. It is not in vain that Europe was selected as an upper management in the capacity of that part of world civilization on which so much depends, and thus, we need to understand that much can depend on our European groups—in particular, on the German group that is organizing the upcoming convention—and can set an example for all the other groups as the center of Europe.

I very much hope that, through this convention, we give a serious beginning to a united European group.
[103159]
From the Virtual Lesson 3/17/13

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Question: How can we rise above the language barriers and unite at the upcoming European Convention?

Answer: I do not think that the problem is with languages. The fact is that we do not have to talk to each other much, but we need to think about each other and try to feel each other; language is not to blame. For example, many of you have pets that cannot talk, but you feel them and they feel you. So, what kind of language can we speak here? It is sign language, body language. A language is not speech, but the transfer of emotions. So, I do not think the problem is in different languages.

The problem is that we do not think about each other because we do not feel the importance of this. We have not realized, yet, the need for each other for spiritual attainment and do not feel dependent on each other in the spiritual ascent.

There are hundreds of my friends in front of me. If I understood that just by approaching them an inch, I rise up an inch. If I felt this clearly inside of me, I definitely would try to do that and think about how to be closer to them. However, since I do not have this confidence—the feeling that moving upward means moving toward them, and not even upward, but just inside the group, in its consolidation, unity—then I do not do that. I still do not understand that it is precisely internal compression between us that will create that pressure in which the Light will kindle.
[103156]
From the Virtual Lesson 3/17/13

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Question: How can I serve the friends with my thoughts? How can my thoughts support the convention participants in Germany?

Answer: What happens when you worry about someone you care about? All your thoughts are focused on his success, on his getting well and on his succeeding in his mission. Your heart aches for him since it is as if you are acting with him, in his place.

This concern is enough even if we don’t know the mechanisms it operates. The friends all over the world should prepare in advance for mirror conventions so that we will not only be spectators but will actually support the general connection. Here we have to exhibit determination and concern in unity, in genuine exceptional concern. By that we connect to the convention in desperate concern for its success on a global scale.

If we all connect around this convention, then all of humanity will feel a special force of connection and this will change reality. Then our method of connection will be accepted all over the world, and it will be as if we “change rails” so that the train we are all riding will move from the path of suffering to the path of the Torah.
[103091]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/18/13, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Question: How can a person feel that he is not only part of his local group, but also part of the whole global group? What concentrated attention, efforts, and thoughts are needed for that?

Answer: Our egoistic nature doesn’t let us think about real values or to feel true reality. It doesn’t let us worry or think about those that we don’t feel naturally. Some distant group that I don’t quite even know the location of, I can’t feel it close to me and it can’t be the focus of my concerns. I don’t have the same deficiencies and needs that they have, so what can I do?

We have to work on this artificially according to the advice of Kabbalists about the work with the environment. We don’t feel any attraction to the environment either, and it’s only later that we begin to feel that we depend on it. If you don’t drown in the friends and don’t throw yourself into their arms, you will not be able to advance. All your spiritual development depends on them, and it’s only from them that you can receive spiritual bestowal. This understanding comes as a result of years of careful work with the environment.

We mustn’t wait for the feelings of all the groups to reach us on their own; we have to work on it artificially. This is why we were given this Mitzva (commandment): Go and start working, “Go and make a living from one another,” start connecting!

It is written, “Love thy friend as thyself,” a commandment. Is it possible to force someone to love? On the contrary, if you love, then it’s impossible to detach from this. Here, however, you are pushed and told, “Love!” How can that be?

It means that there are certain actions that we have to perform in order to attain the love of others. This commandment has nothing to do with your emotions; you are not obligated to love, but to perform an action by which you will attain this love. This action has to be performed against your will. If they were compatible with your will it wouldn’t be necessary to command a person to love.

Suppose, I serve you gefilte fish, which is a traditional Ashkenazi food, and I tell you “love it!” However, you are used to Sephardic food and you are disgusted by the cold tasteless fish. But if there is a commandment, then you have to start getting used to this against your will so that a habit will become second nature.

So you force yourself to eat this fish, although you feel like throwing up. But you try again and again together with a prayer. You curse the fish but you eat; you start from totally mechanical actions. In your emotions, you curse me for having given you the fish. Clearly you have no control over your heart, but you curse me and eat the gefilte fish again and again because you are obligated to love it.

The commandment of “love thy friend,” is worse than any disgusting fish. This commandment includes all the strange and hated dishes, but after you exert yourself enough, the Light that Reforms influences you and the unbelievable happens! You suddenly begin to get used to that fish. It seems that it has a different flavor and that it’s not as disgusting as it used to be. You are not repulsed by it as you were before and you begin to accept it.

This is thanks to the performance of physical actions above reason, against your will, by following the advice of Kabbalists. By having fulfilled their orders and in general the orders of the Creator that were passed on to you by Kabbalists, you receive the Light that Reforms through them. Thus, you receive new attributes and begin to love gefilte fish, the friends, others, and the Creator.

The commandment “to love” has nothing to do with emotion but with actions. Now we have a chance to perform such actions in the form of an attack! There is always an option for such actions, but especially now, when the European convention and Passover are approaching; it’s a special time that we can attack. In the next two weeks, starting today, we all rush to this attack.
[102954]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/15/13, Shamati #38

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On Sunday, I gave a lesson about the European convention. I think it was a very good lesson; I am really pleased with myself. I spoke from the heart about the importance of the convention, about the need for such a meeting especially in Europe—at the current epicenter of the global crisis, in the modern Babylon where the greatest risk of mutual hatred has been created.

I ask everyone who considers himself my student to listen to the Sunday lesson. It is not only for the Europeans. After all, at the convention, we want to achieve greater correction. If we achieve some unity in Europe, it will affect the whole continent.

You see yourself how our initiatives permeate “underground” and spread everywhere through the invisible “root system.” Join us at the European convention, support, strengthen us from everywhere, and a good echo will spread around the world.

In general, every convention is very important, but this one is special because it will take place where the world’s problems are concentrated, and there we can realize global correction.
[102485]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/11/13, ”Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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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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