Question: We’ve started our convention after having been through many things. How can we hold on to the goal like a bulldog that doesn’t let go of his grip? How can we find the vitality in our exertion and not demand a cheap reward in the form of an impression?

Answer: You should feel pleasure by your exertion. It doesn’t matter whether the convention is a success; I enjoy the fact that we are making an effort together.

You should understand that there are no pauses in spirituality. If you don’t put constant pressure, spirituality will disappear. It exists as long as the next moment is different from the present moment. You have to be on a constant ascent, and constantly add something. This addition, the gap between the moments is the feeling of the spiritual life.

A state can stop or freeze only here in our still world. This is why it exists, so that from here our way will start. Therefore, we have to receive pleasure by putting an increasingly stronger pressure, and get pleasure from our exertions.

Question: Do we fixate on the exertion?

Answer: You have to build the greatness of the one you bestow upon.

Question: How do I turn this effort into a collective effort?

Answer: It can’t be any different. You can’t locate the Creator by yourself, but only with others. After all, the “Creator” is the group; it’s its center: this is where you channel the growing bestowal and from this you receive pleasure. The pleasure is caused by the addition and not by the state itself. Thus, a person who has made a million dollars wants more the next minute and doesn’t stop at what he has achieved.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/20/12, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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Convention of Unity, Day Two, Lesson 2

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Convention of Unity, Day Two, Workshop 2

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Convention of Unity, Day Two, Lesson 3

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Convention of Unity, Day Two, Workshop 3

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Convention of Unity, Day Two, Yeshivat Haverim 1

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Convention of Unity, Day One, Lesson 1

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Convention of Unity, Day One, Workshop 1

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Question: What is the essence of the phrase “the one who prays for his friends receives first”? It’s a very confusing statement for me because asking the Creator to change my desire is still a prayer for my own benefit, since I already know that I will be the one who receives before others. It’s something that really bothers me.

Answer: It shows that you don’t pray for your friend yet. “The one praying for his neighbor receives first” implies that the one who prays doesn’t think of himself at all, nor does he concentrate on who receives first. Yes, he does receive before others, since the Light has to transcend through him to his friends. How else?

He simply rises to a level at which he prays for his friend without any thought about himself. There is nothing about one’s “self,” nor does one pray to improve his personal matters. All one wishes is to fulfill his friend’s appeal. He doesn’t have a desire of his own of any kind whatsoever!

In this case, one really receives before others because he conveys the Light to his friends. We have covered this material. Our souls are present in the worlds of Beria, Yetzira and Assiya. We have multiple questions and requests. If we raise them to Malchut of the world of Assiya, then Malchut raises them even higher, to Zeir Anpin of the world of Atzilut; the one who raises MAN brings up a request of his friends who are supposedly still staying “below.” Then, he becomes the first to receive the Light from Above. The Light goes through him first, and then it transcends through Malchut to other souls.

Question: So, it means that in order to obtain such a desire I first have to appeal to the Creator and ask Him to give it to me, to make it completely free of egoism, without even a drop of selfishness, right?

Answer: Certainly! In this case, it will be a prayer that precedes another prayer. Otherwise it’s just another egoistic loop, nothing more than that.
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From the Kharkov Convention “Uniting to Ascend” 8/18/12, Lesson 5

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Question: My question is related to time. Perhaps we are not achieving the unity only because we are unable to simultaneously aspire to Him? After all, individually all of us already have felt such an immense connection.

Answer: Time is a shortcoming of our world. If I felt completely secure in absolute confidence, and there were little or no difference in my current state every minute and my state in the next year, in twenty years, or in a thousand of years, if changes did not exist in my states then there would be no time.

Then what does “did not exist” mean? This means that no state would be better or worse than another one. How can it be? It can be if I have full confidence the Creator. Then on one hand the states can change, but on the other hand I totally don’t care how they change. Then time disappears.
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From the Kharkov Convention “Uniting to Ascend” 8/19/12, Lesson 7

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Question: In the past, in Ukrainian villages, they would build a house in one day. All the villagers would come together and build it. Is it possible in a Kabbalist group, when people would gather and give all their strength and all their energy in order to help others in some way?

Answer: I think that now the Creator will bring us to this. He will invite very big changes in the economy. Masses of people will become unemployed. They will understand that in order to survive, they will need to unite and in this way will find a correct system for connection and unity. With our help, they will find it, and specifically in this form they will exist, doing everything together.

But since this will already be unity at a higher level, it will feed everyone with enormous energy. Baal HaSulam writes about this in the book The Last Generation. Thus, I think, that we are approaching this. Or through our dissemination and consciousness, or via big blows, in any case, humanity will quickly discover that without the correct connection and unity, including the previous studying, education, and knowledge, it will be impossible to do anything.

This is what we see today in Europe. They wanted to connect between them without any inner preparation, and now are separating. And this was a great problem for them. These were normal blows: Everything will fall; everything will collapse just to show people the necessity of unity.

The movement itself is correct, only not in the capitalistic ideology where each one takes for oneself all that he can, but a different ideology. Thus, we will be building together.
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From the Kharkov Convention “Uniting to Ascend” 8/18/12, Workshop 5

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Will the time come when egoism is not against me, but “for” me, together with me?

This will happen when I move egoism completely away from me, put it in front of me, and separate us by restriction and the screen. Then, I will be able to begin to work with it like as help, and not against, but “for” me.

In other words, it is when we reach the state called Hafetz Hesed, the properties of Bina, and then rise further to the property of Keter.

After I fully master the property of Bina and I have the screen for this, when I can do with my egoism whatever I want, then I am starting to use it in the positive area. In the first stage, I only cancel egoism, and in the second stage, I begin to work with it for myself. This “beast” is already so tame that I simply use it for myself, and the darkness becomes the Light.
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From the Kharkov Convention “Uniting to Ascend” 8/17/12, Workshop 2

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The main and only role of the group, I would say, is to increase the importance of the attribute of bestowal in my eyes. Many articles speak about it. If I have to acquire this attribute and to yearn for it, but I cannot do it by myself because I don’t know about this attribute, then I need some external source that will spur me in that direction. This is the group.

So the role of the group is to raise the attribute of bestowal in me, or the Creator’s greatness.

In order to discover the Creator, we have to prepare a place for His revelation. Now this place of connection between us is egoistic, and so the Creator in them is concealed. This is why our world, our state, is called the concealment of the Creator.

In order to reveal Him, we have to create among us attributes of bestowal that are compatible with Him. The place for the revelation of the Creator is the altruistic connections, the attributes of bestowal among us. They are first revealed in the group where we can develop them by constantly raising the attribute of bestowal and thereby become attracted to it.

Originally this attribute is called Shechina, which means the place for the revelation of the dweller (Shochen in Hebrew). The root of the word Shechina (in Hebrew) means a place to dwell (Mishkan) or a vessel.
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From the Kharkov Convention “Uniting to Ascend” 8/18/12, Workshop 4

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Question: From a spiritual point of view do we have to divide our attitude toward the family, humanity, the Creator, and myself equally?

Answer: No. The most important is the group because within it we obtain the necessary condition, the basis, meaning the freedom of choice, intention, and connection with the Creator. Everything is determined within the men of the Kabbalistic group. Women and the rest of the humanity connect to them. The inanimate, vegetative, and the animal parts of nature are under all of them.

Everything is determined within the men’s group between the friends. Women add their desires, their pressure, and they participate in this. However, the network is made between the men’s desires because it is precisely they that are directed toward bestowal, although without the women’s part they lack the pressure for this. This is just like Zeir Anpin in relation to Malchut. This means that we need each other. Everyone knowing their mission complements the other one and we gain the integral Kli.
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From the Kharkov Convention “Uniting to Ascend” 8/17/12, Workshop 5

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Question: You said that a good, strong group can solve any problem inside of it. If death is threatening a man, we unite, we do not give this person up, and something works out for us. However, what can be done if a man is threatened by a spiritual death due to breaking away from the group?

Answer: Here, it is his freewill. You can come to him, talk to him, convince him, and shake him up, in general.

You have the right to do it since you used to be friends with him. Nevertheless, he must give you some kind of a possibility for this, for the sake of the past.

However, if you see that it is useless, leave him be. Time will do its job, perhaps not even in this lifetime, but he will return the next time and complete it.
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From the Kharkov Convention “Uniting to Ascend” 8/19/12, Lesson 7

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