A person becomes filled with sacred spiritual sparks, and connection is always sanctity when it is for the sake of the mutual guarantee, adhesion with the Creator.

Now we have slightly moved away from this state because we have to do other things, and we no longer have the tight contact we managed to achieve at the convention through our efforts and help from Above.

And today once again, we need to look for this common thought, the feeling of community so we would maintain and strengthen our connection even though we have returned to various parts of the world.

All our friends around the world need to feel how we keep strengthening our connection from day to day. It should not be something accidental, which appears several times a year from one convention to another. Otherwise, we will not get the desired results.

Therefore, we need less empty talk and more work every single moment on preserving the attained connection. And moreover, we need to turn our aspiration for the past unity into a current, real state. The moment we remember something from the past, our memory should not be nostalgic sadness.

This sadness about the past needs to be felt in the present and lead to a new state of increasing connection between us. And even though my friends are not in a physical contact with me now, I feel our true, inner contact: the same feeling, the same nature, but with an even greater strength than before.

And the main thing that now needs to be added to the connection we had there is our mutual responsibility to keep and continue to increase this connection. This responsibility towards each other is called the mutual guarantee. This way we keep guaranteeing more and more for one another, as if we were signing guarantees for even greater amounts every single day.

We guarantee for one another that we will overcome all the obstacles of time, movement, and space, and of all forgetfulness, that special force that operates in us! We do not need anything else: just to maintain the attained unity in new difficult conditions. And we understand that for this we constantly need to keep increasing its protection and our mutual guarantee, our connection; only this will allow us to rise.

After all, the only difference between all the degrees of ascent is only a more detailed realization of details of every new degree. Every higher degree is greater than the previous one because I consider more elements of bestowal, connection, and mutual guarantee than before. Thus we need to evaluate what we have attained today in relation to yesterday.

It seems to be the same feeling, the same state, the same friends, but I recognize more details and better understand how much I need the mutual guarantee and support, for others to support me, and for me to support them. The increase in the number and significance of all the details is a good sign, which shows that we have really risen.

We need to very precisely distinguish a simple nostalgia from building new advanced states on the foundation of past state.
[71182]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/28/12, Shamati #25

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Question: How do I check that I strengthen my connection with friends during the lesson?

Answer: First of all, this is most important. Our spiritual gain increases when we constantly strengthen the connection even more than at the last convention in the Arava. You need to add new efforts to what you felt there. The Light that Reforms comes when during the lessons we listen to the story about the spiritual system on a whole and about its structure. However, emotional inspiration is higher during mutual actions of unity. And this is why we need to connect one with the other.

In any case, we have to feel like we are together at the lesson. Even if we hate each other, like the friends from the group of Rabbi Shimon, we nevertheless feel the state of our interconnection.

Question: A certain image might be appearing in me, but how do I turn it into a common asset and reward?

Answer: The group, the system, and my attitude towards my friends, everything must merge into one, into a single image besides which nothing else exists. Until you focus on it, the target will not be in your cross-hairs. However, you must work on strengthening your interconnection even at the expense of comprehending the material. This is the difference between wisdom and acting smartly.
[71197]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/28/2012, Questions and Answers

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We should be very happy that we have come to the most important work, the most important analysis that exists in all the worlds, even in the spiritual ones. Baal HaSulam writes that there is no happier moment in a person’s life than the moment when he discovers that he is unable to exit his ego and no effort of his own can help him. Then he comes to his first prayer, his first cry for the Creator.

This first cry is birth. An infant cries as soon as he is born into the world. And this means that a person was born.

Let us hope that we will attain this cry and become Human. This is why the effort we make towards it is called birth pangs. And we must be happy that we have come to this. After all, who do these birth pangs reach? We have to be happy and serious at the same time. But joy has to come from the status, the mission. This is where spiritual life begins.

When an infant is born, adults are happy even though he is crying and screaming. Likewise, the Man within us (the one who did all the work and all the analyses) rejoices, and the infant, now being born, is still suffering from the pressure, sadness, and the perception of disturbances. They both must be together.
[71174]
From Lesson 1, The Arava Convention 2/23/2012

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Question: Does a person feel the effect of the Light that Reforms? And if he does, how does he feel this influence?

Answer: The Light that Reforms constantly affects us. But its effect is revealed after a number of stages through which it puts us. It’s just like in the four phases of the expansion of the Direct Light—only when Malchut reaches its completion and the entire realization of Keter occurs in it, only then does a leap to a new degree take place and Malchut of the upper Partzuf becomes Keter of the lower one. And once again there is a multitude of inner actions from Keter to Malchut, the degree becomes completed, and a birth on a new degree takes place.

This is why the Light always acts upon us, but naturally, as strongly as the power one uses to activate it. But even when the Light affects one in a good way, there is still a need for certain inner actions, until one begins to recognize Keter, the root, inside these actions: Why things happened the way they did, who did it, and so forth.

This is why when we begin to feel Who works with us, what for, what He wants from us, how He created us, how we need to react to Him, and the way we react to Him now, this means that we have reached the point of Malchut within us.

This way in the four phases of the expansion of the Direct Light Malchut suddenly feels: “Keter is an absolute giver, and I am an absolute receiver. I cannot tolerate myself the way I am! What do I do with myself?! I want to restrict myself!” Malchut has the power to restrict itself. Kabbalists tell us that on such a high level the power to restrict oneself and to stop working with the egoistic intention really exists.

But we do not have this power. Why not? It’s because we need to attain love and bestowal. This is why we have to connect with others. This is how we learn what bestowal is, and together we demand for the root, Keter, to give us this power.

Everything fully corresponds to the four phases of the Direct Light, either directly, from Above downward, or in the opposite direction, from below upward. There is nothing else.

Hence, when a person feels within him that he is beginning to perceive where the influence of the Light is coming from, this means that he has not only attained the realization of evil, but also the root of this realization.
[71171]
From Lesson 1, The Arava Convention 2/23/2012

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Question: If we intend to receive only for our own sake and wish to come out of this intention and bestow, what can we give? We have nothing to give because we only wish to receive….

Answer: We can give our desire to bestow to the group. This is enough. The fulfillment comes from the Creator, and the desire to bestow comes from us. I have nothing to give, nothing to bestow. I will give you what He will give me to give to you. This way we examine the connection between the Partzufim: The upper one, the one who receives first, gives to the lower one what it has received from its upper one.

We only need to build the intention between us, for me to desire to bestow instead of worrying about what I can bestow.
[71165]
From Lesson 1, The Arava Convention 2/23/2012

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Question: We have achieved a certain power at the Arava convention. How can we use it to help every one of us to raise their inner bar? How do we keep this spirit so we can advance and for everyone to make an inner effort?

Answer: There are three conventions before us: in Lithuania, Brazil, and the US. We are speaking about adjacent events, which will take place within a two month period and will concentrate on one topic: our unity and mass dissemination, which comes from it. In other words: internal and external mutual guarantee.

From now on we must help with the right organization of these conventions, so they would not turn into “events of local significance” as we strengthen the connection with the degree we have achieved in the Arava. A regional approach is not enough; every convention must be universal: Everyone sits in front of the screen; everyone participates in the conventions and advances. Then these conventions will help us all rise to a new degree together.

This cannot be done in turns; we cannot allow ourselves to take turns playing with a toy, like children do. This will harm us. All the groups were connected to us during the Arava convention: we need to continue this way.

The program of any convention pertains to everyone without exception, and for this reason all our groups, all our friends from around the world, must do everything in their power to make every convention as powerful as possible. This pertains to external forms, and mainly the inner essence and preparation for the action. A person must enter the convention one hundred percent prepared, so full that adding a drop becomes impossible. This pertains to all the participants, no matter where they are.

Everyone must receive the content and schedule of the convention together with the preparation materials ahead of time before every convention. A person must strive and aspire towards it; we do not have other methods of advancement.

The program of the convention must be well planned to avoid listening to the same thing several lessons in a row. You must hear new things, and I still have things to tell you, but in reality the only way you will hear something new is if you will be ready for it. Only then will I be able to uncover more and more, due to your union and your new desire.

I really hope that you will become serious about it. This refers to common work; the responsibility is not limited to the organizers and physical participants. There were hundreds of thousands of people with us in the Arava; It is a great power.

So, this week we will repeat materials from the Arava Convention, and then we will move on to a very fast and intensive preparation for the convention in Lithuania. Moreover, we need to prepare a complete program from the beginning of the convention in Lithuanian through the end of the convention in New York, including my meetings with the Columbia and Chile groups, as well as the convention in Brazil.

There will be an enormous amount of hours, which are an incredible opportunity to break forward. Everything depends on the preparation.
[71105]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/27/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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After the convention that was held, we still slightly lack the final points for the ultimate discernment. But it is very close because we are already at the last degree. Yet, in order for it to become revealed, we have to go through 4 phases, as it happens on every degree, starting from its preliminary phases: 0-1-2-3. And only when we reach the last, 4th phase of this degree does it begin to come through and be felt practically, which is called “the harvest of the crops.” We did not harvest the crops yet, but we are very close to it and are already on a new degree.

Therefore, I advise you to spend several days, until the end of this week, devoting all your free time to going over the Convention lessons again. This is my advice to every student, no matter where he is located in the world. Try to listen to all the lessons again 2 or 3 times, and to watch the other events at least a little, such as the friends’ assemblies, songs, dances, and everything that took place there, returning to that state again and again.

Until the weekend, we will actively tune into the state of the Convention. Again and again, we have to listen to what was discussed there and maintain the same sensation that we had when we were together with the friends. Try for all of this to settle into you and to come through in the mind and feeling.

You will begin to hear many things there that you did not hear before, during the lessons. And in the new vessels of perception that you received just now, you will reveal what we went through then in a new way.

That’s because we have now entered the second phase. The first phase is the Inner Light, which is called “tastes” (Taamim). And the second phase is the Light’s exit from the spiritual Partzuf, “points” (Nekudot). It is precisely when leaving that place, when parting, that you build new vessels.

Therefore, we have to return to the same states once we have already grown distant from them, because you are no longer in them practically. And by that you build new vessels, which are increasingly deeper.

The first vestment of the Light into the Partzuf is phase 0, “tastes” (Taamim), Keter. Next, the Light gradually leaves, growing farther and farther along the degrees, going through phases 1-2-3-4, Hochma-Bina-Zeir Anpin-Malchut, which are called “points” (Nekudot)
.
“Tastes” are what we received at the place of the Convention. And then come the following stages: “points, crowns above letters, and letters” (Nekudot-Tagin-Otiyot) during the Light’s disappearance. And it is very important to work with this disappearance of Light, having already parted with this place and action, with the sensation, but returning to it again and again. In essence, we have to return to it 4 times, but we should do it at least twice.

Thus, we build our vessels (letters of work), and then we can already talk about what to do next, when we finish this action that we began at the Convention. This action has to be realized in 4 stages, when we again go through everything anew and try to assimilate it in our vessels, which have already been emptied of the initial filling and have moved slightly toward the next level.

These are the phases along which a spiritual Partzuf works: the Inner Light clothes from Peh until Tabur, which is called “tastes” (Taamim), phase Keter. Then the Light comes out along 4 degrees: Hochma-Bina-Zeir Anpin-Malchut, along “points” (Nekudot).

“Points” are the most important aspect because it is the beginning of new vessels. And every time the Light disappears, we have to go through the same striking adhesion with the Light (Zivug). That is, precisely in these points, we have to return to the same Light that was there in the beginning and merge with it. This is what will happen when we come back to the same material, the same actions and gatherings, as much as possible. But the most important thing is to come back to the lessons.
[71114]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/27/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: After the Arava Convention, we are returning to our groups. What would you suggest in order to strengthen the connection we attained even further?

Answer: We need to carefully consider what took place at the convention, the feeling generated there. If we watch everything that happened over and over again, we might be able to feel those things once more, to relive them, in order to proceed forward with them. Most important is not to descend from that level, to realize that the obstacles are particularly designed for us to ascend. We can’t spend our whole life being at a convention, that doesn’t do us any good. It is no coincidence that everything is arranged so that now, after the convention, we can include in the degree that we attained all the rest of the masses who couldn’t participate in it, who couldn’t be inspired themselves.

We are situated at the fourth degree of sensitivity of matter (material desire), at the speaking degree. The animate, vegetative, and inanimate now need to join that same degree in order to build this degree in its complete form. This is called “obstacles,” coming from all of humanity, meaning from the animate, vegetative, and inanimate degrees. They have to bring us the complete comprehension of the progress we have attained and we must view these obstacles as “help against him.”

Overcoming these obstacles can be divided into two stages:

1. I try to constantly remain in the perception of reality that other than the group, nothing exists. There is a system, I observe it, and through it I view the world. This system is the group, and everything taking place in this world is only the result of the quality of connection among us. Hence, I want to try to constantly remain in this perception. That’s because it’s true, it’s correct. The more we try to feel it, we will see that truly, that is how the world is governed.

2. I can maintain that to the extent I ensure that everyone is a part of it, all the friends. Here, there should be mutual concern. If I am concerned for them, I receive the concern from them, and then I don’t exit the perception of the system.

That means, I should constantly maintain myself viewing the world and feeling the world through the prism of the group, accordingly regarding all my parts, all my friends, in order for that perception not to dissipate from them either: for us all to be together in such a perception of the world. If I want to maintain this form and if I am concerned for them, I receive the Arvut (Mutual Guarantee) from them. And this means that I sentence myself and the entire world to a scale of merit.

That’s actually a person’s point of scrutiny and the point of choice. For now, that’s how it’s becoming clear to us. If I can’t scrutinize anything with such an approach, I shouldn’t go out to the world. We should maintain it as much as possible. Going out to the world, other than through this system, eventually causes us problems, collapse, confusion, unpleasantness, until death. All the troubles come only from our suddenly ceasing to see the single, unified system, even minimally. Parting with it is death, that is, the lack of connection between its parts plunges us into spiritual oblivion.
[71008]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/26/12, “The Purpose of Society”

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Question: How do I look at the world through the group?

Answer: Our problem is that we cannot convey our feelings to one another, and this is a matter of feeling.

Just imagine: There is nothing but the desire. We study that the Creator created a desire, the four phases of the Direct Light, and then it was drawn downward and shattered. This is how “this world” was created. What is this world? It is what the desire feels in its shattered, separated, opposite parts that hate one another.

It is the same desire, just shattered. The inanimate, vegetative, and animate, and human levels that we feel here in our reality are the same shattered desire that feels this way. The “corporeal matter” is the desire that has the instinctive desire in order to receive. Therefore, we should have a stabilized realistic perception of reality and not a false one. The point is not that it is imaginary or not imaginary. If I know that it is imaginary, then it is okay. The main thing is that I don’t live in the illusion of the external world.

We feel the inanimate, vegetative, animate and human levels and we feel them in their shattered form. This is reality on the lowest level. Now we have to start collecting all these things in our perception and find the system that connects all of them. This is the system of the upper Providence, the goal, the process, and the trend. This is our work: to make efforts like a child, who through his efforts wants to understand the reality he is living in. This is the whole process we go through.

In this “every man shall help his friend.” We should support one another. This support is sometimes felt as negative and sometimes as positive. The main thing is the perception of reality, to be aware that everything that I feel, I feel in my senses, in my desire. My desire includes the parts of the inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human and so I feel reality this way.

If I begin to correct myself, to connect it all into one, I feel that reality begins to take on a more unified form. The moment I manage to connect these parts just a little, I begin to feel the power that operates them, which is called the “Creator.” If they are connected just a little, in a minimal way I already begin to feel the power that moves the system, which is Godliness, the upper force.

Then I begin to see how I relate to it through all of reality and how through reality I can bring this reality to connect. Then I understand the idea of the group most clearly.

On the level of the speaking are the most active parts that can share the same thoughts I have. I feel separated from them and at the same time we can work on our unity. It is as if there are other conscious parts beside myself who are aware that they should connect. We should work together against our mutual ego in order to connect. But if we connect ourselves, the parts that are distant and dispersed in my field of vision, if we begin to connect a little, everything else—the animate, vegetative and inanimate—also come along.

The main thing is to connect to the group. These are parts that are also ready to be with me in the same general system, in my perception, who also share my ideas and my feelings. Of course there is a great rejecting force among us, but we understand that this rejecting force is the corruptions in the system, which we must overcome. We should use them and by them we should get closer. By that we correct the whole thickness of the system, on the levels of the inanimate, the vegetative and the animate—so that it will all be connected.

This means that the negative relations among us are clearly what we should correct in order to be one, the one mechanism. Then I relate to these things with love and understanding and good will. It is like symptoms of an illness, that I should only pay attention to, and together with everyone else, with all the parts that share my thoughts, to start treating them. We should understand that there is no more than that, and nothing else will suddenly become clear. We will discover that nothing is revealed except the relations among us, and that all the rest of the world is only a result of what will happen among us. There are crises, and there is helplessness, there are great problems and all this is because we are not constantly connected to the extent that we can be connected.

If we constantly keep the connection among us according to the conditions that are revealed in the system, the world will advance in a really nice form of “I shall hasten it.” If we cannot, we will be behind in the process of development, the world will suffer more and we will suffer and it will hate us and blame us for all the troubles it is feeling, and rightly so.

So we should continually reinforce the form we’ve reached and by that express our mutual guarantee. I should worry not about being dependent on others, but on the fact that everyone depends on my worrying about them. There are two levels in this partnership:

1. I know that I depend on them and that I will advance if they will hold me and give me power.
2. They will give me power, they will wake up, they will be active and ready to the extent that I worry about them. This is called tipping the scales in my favor and in favor of the whole world. If I bestow upon them, the more I bestow upon them the more they will be in this process.

So I cannot say; “It’s their fault that I don’t wake up and that I forgot and have drawn away from correction, from the path of correction,” but: “I didn’t worry about them and so I didn’t feel the cooperation on their part.”

So immediately after having reached such a special level of connection—we should now continue seeing this system and the mutual worry for mutual connection, for mutual guarantee. Mutual guarantee is the main thing. Everyone is responsible for the whole system. It is like Baal HaSulam says, if someone falls from this, to this extent the system isn’t whole anymore and is weakened and the others cannot fulfill their role as they should.
[71003]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/26/12, “The Purpose of Society”

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Question: Is the level we’ve reached in the convention the credit we should work for, or is it the result of our previous efforts?

Answer: There are those who received it as a payment and there are those who received it as a down payment. Everyone has both aspects to some extent. Much of what we have received is in order to fulfill from now onward, like a down payment. We were given the opportunity to feel something in the unity, in the connection. We were given different special things from Heaven on purpose, and thanks to them we felt new phenomena in the connection among us. We should understand that this is a real gift. Now we have to process this gift internally and to fulfill it.

I personally see it more as credit for the future that we should fulfill now. I don’t underestimate all our exertion, but according to the state we were in, we didn’t deserve it. We received this credit because we made efforts, but we received it not as a payment, but as a down payment, with which we should now work.
[71000]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/26/12, “The Purpose of Society”

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