In the article, “The Peace,” Baal HaSulam writes about the quotation: “All is in deposit, and a fortress spreads over all of life. The store is open and the shopkeeper sells by deferred payment; the book is open and the hand writes.” [Meaning the Creator records everything that happens.] “And all who wish to borrow may come and borrow,” [the access is unobstructed, and one can take anything one wants] “and the collectors return regularly, day-by-day, and collect from a person knowingly and unknowingly. And they have what to rely on,” [meaning that everything is documented] “and the judgment [a decision on what a person is charged with] “is true, and all is ready for the feast.”

This is the way Kabbalists expressed the essence of our relationship with the Creator.

On one hand, “all is in deposit,” meaning nothing is given to us for free. It’s the law of nature in which we exist in which all its parts are clearly linked in cause and effect relationships.

We judge nature according to ourselves, and so we think that there might be some inaccuracies, confusing and complicated things. But every time when we really explore nature, we discover that the laws are amazingly accurate and we marvel at the wisdom and the interconnectedness of nature.

Presently, scientists recognize that there are other universes and dimensions besides ours.

When I was a child, in school, we were told that our universe is endless and eternal. Then, it became known that it originated 14 billion years ago, and if we are talking about the time, then there is a beginning and end of the universe. This discovery was made by the American scientist Hubble after whom the space telescope is named.

Later, scientists discovered that our universe is not only expanding, that it emerged from a point, but also, that it disappears as evidenced by black holes, etc.

This points to the fact that everything is predetermined and defined in accordance with the laws of conservation, all is absolutely, clearly distributed.

Therefore, it’s said, “the judgment is true, and all is ready for the feast,” meaning for the final and correct state.

However, “a fortress spreads over all of life.” The Creator prepared an elaborate trap for humanity where the upper force guarantees that everybody will eventually return to the right state, but at some stage in the journey, we are given the freedom of will. Presently, we completely lack understanding of this fact. No science apprehends it because science exists in one plane, one line; there is no duality.

When faced with duality, science gets stuck. Science reveals certain properties in nature, as opposed to ours, but it never comprehends the duality. Today, only quantum physics approaches this phenomenon. That’s why it is considered as “out of this world” physics, but not more.

We should change ourselves, our mind, our feelings, and then we will be able to sense behind this a potential barrier, the boundary between the phases—it doesn’t matter what you call it. For us, this is transitioning the Machsom.

The law of nature says that “the book is open and the hand writes… and the collectors return regularly, day-by-day, and collect from a person knowingly and unknowingly” (according to the upper court’s decision) meaning that the whole system is in a state of a precise and sealed form.

However, we have two ways to go: Go to the shop and take whatever we want either knowing that everything is recorded and that we will have to pay the fee, or  without knowing or even thinking about it. If a person is unaware of these things, it means that he still is in a different developmental phase; in this case, he is not being “charged” too much, just according to his level of advancement.

People who study Kabbalah already understand that they are in a state where everything they borrow must be paid back and they automatically sign their names in the shopkeeper’s book. So, the very moment we receive anything, we have to start thinking hard about how to meet the owner, how to return the debt, and how to pay it.

Every moment of our lives is recorded in His book, every breath, heartbeat, and action, because all that we have we receive from Him. “Don’t consider any moment to be insignificant,” each moment of life has to be paid for.

But we have absolutely no way to keep this in mind, nor can we rely on the reminders to make us feel that we are actually marked in His book and that each of us will have to pay since we are in debt and that our debt constantly grows and accrues. And each subsequent time, our obligations become more demanding and rigorous.

We have arrived at an interesting phase where we need to learn this law and to get to know its source. We are led there gradually, as small children. This law of development treats us gently and gives us a chance to get used to it.
[98073]
From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/9/12, Lesson 5

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Question: The conventions force us to connect and to unite, to act quickly and efficiently, to reach incredible results. What can help us do this everyday?

Answer: A feeling of responsibility. Imagine tired parents or even sick parents whose child is crying and asking for something; they still get up and do everything for him. It isn’t easy since no one wants to do that; there is only the obligation. It’s the same in the group where everyone must feel the obligation and the responsibility. I have to feel that I am in the same boat with them and I can’t drill a hole in it.

Of course I can say, “Friends, I don’t feel well today, please excuse me I am sick,” and sleep some more, but how can I do that if I know that they are waiting for me? If you think that no one will notice your absence since you are not that important and not outstanding, you are wrong.

I am telling you this from my own experience of feeling the upper world: Each of you is no less important than I am. So your inaction is a lack of investment in the general vessel. You should understand this, and not forget; remind one another of this responsibility so that it will always be your priority.

It’s the first condition since the Creator created one man, me and all the others, only so that I will be able to stabilize myself with their help. On the other hand, the Creator created my friend and me so that I will help him and only will serve as a means for his ascent to the Creator. It is indeed so!

Therefore, we must mutually complement one another and constantly hold on to that since by that we create mutual guarantee among us. We mustn’t forget that. I can’t allow myself any concessions; I can’t pretend that I am sick or make up any excuses for my inaction. On the contrary, despite the obstacles that the Creator places before me, I have to participate as much as I can in everything. On His part, He will add different excuses for my ego, of course, but the group must remind me that this is how the Creator plays with me.
[98143]
From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/9/12, Lesson 7

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Starting now and going forward, we need to advance independently. And here a very interesting point is revealed. Up to a certain moment, I felt that I was completely influencing my students. During that time I taught my students according to the same system that our spiritual fathers learned.

But lately it is revealed that without support, without connection, without general mutual work, I can no longer teach them. For this, the students’ efforts, their assistance, and mutual work are required. All of this is essential. If from their side, there is a desire, a deficiency, then I can speak and explain in an approachable way. If there is an effort, then accordingly we can advance forward. This means that here an exact process of correction is taking place. We have arrived at this point.

It turns out that we are dependent on each other. Thus I turn to the entire world group since I am not able to do anything alone. If in the past I pushed you and could do something, now everything is closed. The general desire transforms into being truly mutual, and unity and connection are revealed in it.

This is not yet our attainment since in the meantime everything is taking place without any connection to our desire. But we must understand that it’s only through the general mutual effort, both yours and mine, that we will be able to advance forward. There will appear before us new opportunities to express our ideas, new explanations, and although the system remains the same since everything comes from the Light and the Kli, a new form of submission and recognition will appear, its sensation.

Thus, I very much request for you to be more active, to participate more in everything, to connect to the lessons. The general advancement depends only on our mutual actions! Let’s solve this problem together since acts of correction are possible only through our efforts that are aimed at taking charge of our ego and rising above it through an opposite attribute. If there is no effort, then there is no correction.

Under no circumstances should one annul the ego. We must rise above it. Suppressing the ego means not allowing it to command us, but together with it to feel it, live with it, and rise above it in our actions. This work must be aimed only at my worldwide group and at the Creator.
[98080]
From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/9/12, Lesson 5

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Arava Convention Day Three “Yeshivat Haverim“

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Arava Convention Day Three, Workshop 5

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Arava Convention Day Three, “Only Questions,” Workshop 5

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Question: I have arrived at the convention in the desert, and seeing such great friends around me, I am asking: why was I honored to be part of this great society because I myself have nothing special?

Answer: None of us chose this path by ourselves, but we were brought from Above. If we understand this, we have to give thanks for this. The Creator brings a person to the good fate and tells him, “Take this!” Everyone was brought here because the time had come for his soul to begin correction and become consciously included in the general mechanism, called Malchut or Divinity.

But if the Creator brings a person to this choice, it does not mean that everything will continue without our efforts. Our efforts have to become more and more conscious. Everyone has already been disappointed in his life, in his desires, and has gone through a lot: graduated from a university, worked in a few places, served in the army, got married and divorced.

But I did not do all that. When I look back, I do not believe that I have done all that and it all happened to me. I start to realize that I was led through all these events from Above. Although I empathized emotionally, my sensations were evoked in me from Above.

But from now on, I am given freedom of choice, which I can use. There are many that come and go. As a result, they will come back some time in the future. Before the convention, I received many letters from my former students who have long left the study, became disappointed, but now decided to return.

This is also fate; we should not think that it was their own decision; the upper management ordered them. Therefore we need to accept them back, and so we opened this convention for everyone.

Everything that has been done with you until today happened because you were allowed to strengthen yourself and take care of others, and we need to give thanks for it.
[98229]
From the Arava Convention 1/17/13, Lesson 1

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Question: Some people are in great inner tension during the convention; others are joyful and going along with the flow. What should be our correct state?

Answer: Both are correct, and it is necessary to join these two states so with all your strength and great tension to try to go with the flow, to stay as close as possible to the center, and move together with it. We need to be included in the flow of the convention like two liquids that are mixed together.

But for this, I need to apply efforts, of course, because every moment I must feel that I move. I cannot go towards the goal without this movement, I must keep the same direction all the time, like a rocket which constantly adjusts its trajectory: alternately, once the force of reception, then the force of bestowal, the force of reception, then force of bestowal.

I keep balance between the two, without erasing any of them; I do not lose the awareness of my desire (Aviut), but connect all this together and advance.

There are people who naturally integrate into the general flow because their desire is lighter in comparison to others. No one is to blame or to be praised; everyone has his own natural character. And there are people with more severe, internal tension who cannot go with the general flow, and it takes them great efforts.

The first ones, who easily merge with the environment, add inspiration to everyone. And the second, for whom it is difficult to be with others, add effort. It turns out that there is the Reshimo from the screen and from the desire (Reshimo de Hitlabshut and Reshimo de Aviut), and thus general connection occurs.
[98226]
From the Arava Convention 1/17/13, Lesson

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We have been through an interesting phase of the general human evolution.

After humanity has evolved for hundreds of thousands of years, it has reached the end of its development. In our time, we feel it as a general crisis that is not just an individual transition in technological, political, social, and economic aspects of our life, but something that is totally new!

Therefore, we have no idea what this new world is, this new regime, this new state. It is impossible to see them in our ego because they have to be revealed in a totally different attribute, in the attribute of bestowal. For the first time in history we will go through such a change, such a transition phase, and we have to pass through it.

By evolving for ages, humanity has reached its full egoistic ripening, and if the fruit is not eaten on time it begins to rot. We have reached this phase, which according to the wisdom of Kabbalah is called the “recognition of evil.”

Negative states will force us to correct ourselves, either by suffering or consciously.

Until today humanity has evolved automatically, instinctively, as the ego pushed us from the inside and people were not free to do anything by themselves. People acted unconsciously by the force of desires and their formations that were revealed under the pressure of external forces, but this is over now.

The correction must be conscious. This means that first there is the recognition of the actions and the actions against one, since otherwise it will be automatic, egoistic actions again without any participation on our part. It is because the rest of our evolution is built only above the ego and in contrast to it. Here we have to develop a second component which is above the egoistic, an altruistic one, and to advance together.

We have come along a certain way in our egoistic development and now this phase is over. Starting from the 21^st century, the egoistic and the altruistic evolutions should be parallel.

The upper component (see the drawing) are our efforts and the lower component is the way by which the Creator pushes us forward by summoning uncompromising actions in us, disregarding our responses. Thus we advance.

Later, nature, the Creator, will push us forward, but it will already be by considering our efforts.
[98083]
From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/9/12, Lesson 5

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Arava Convention Day Two “Yeshivat Haverim“

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Arava Convention Day Two, Workshop 3

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Arava Convention Day Two, “Only Questions,” Workshop 3

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Arava Convention, Day Two, Lesson 4

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Arava Convention, Day Two, Workshop 4

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Arava Convention, Day Two, “Only Question,” Workshop 4

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Arava Convention, Day Two, Lesson 5

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