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.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/26/12, “The Purpose of Society”

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I hope that at the last convention we all felt the absolute necessity in the system that must be connected together, like “one man with one heart” in order to reveal the Creator in it. From now on, we should see the entire reality through the prism of the group as the most corrected structure that exists in this world. And all the faults, existing in it, are its peculiarities that are necessary to reveal the upper program and goal, like the “advantage of light from darkness.”

From that moment and on, our task is to strengthen this perception and strive to remain in it. Through the group, the system of relationships that became very important for us, we can relate to ourselves as to its parts. Everyone no longer has anything personal: He feels as an equal member of the common system. The correction of the whole world, every part of it, depends only on the degree of inner connection in the total system.

Studies and dissemination are just factors that contribute to increasing the inner connection. Thus gradually, we will understand the things, which are still distant and concealed from our perception, and discover what the entire reality means and why we should reveal it in this form: experiencing the feeling of separateness and unity. And we have to extend the feeling of this unity further, into a more interior space, into the higher dimensions: in the perception of the Creator.

We have achieved a great deal at the convention, and we need to appreciate this attainment and be afraid of losing it. On the contrary, we constantly need to strengthen and reinforce this sensation so that it becomes clearer to all of us together, in some more, and in some less.

In the coming days, this feeling can still grow and change depending on the extent to which we hold together in relation to the entire world and treasure the feeling of unity that we have achieved and understood in our feelings and mind and the realization that only through it we should view everything. All that happens in the world is only the external manifestation of a lack of unity or its attainment.

We need to use all the opportunities given to us and use all the corrupt and corrected states so that each time we scrutinize our connection more accurately, and through it: the upper Force that is the goal of everything.

We face our daily, special work with which we will advance further. Our reality is not a sequence of conventions; it consists of daily effort to relate to the entire work as a manifestation of our fragmented perception. It depends on how much we want to bring together these separate pieces of the world in order to see, feel, and perceive them as coming together into a single complete mosaic of the world.
[71031]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/26/12, Writings of Rabash  

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We have come back from the convention in the Arava desert, where we rose to a very high level and began to feel the real essence of the group. From now on, we can look at the whole world, all of reality, all of life through this group, so everything taking place in this world will be a result, an imprint of our connection with one another.

In reality, Kabbalah says that first there was a single reality, one spiritual system. Then it broke into many parts, which feel that they are separated and do not belong to one another, that they are unconnected.

Next, this sensation of a lack of connection disappears as well and is replaced by the opposite feeling: the desire to use others in every way possible, since they seem completely alien to me, and to mercilessly exploit them for one’s own benefit. Because of this, our desire started being called egoistic.

Accordingly, I began seeing a different reality: Instead of the spiritual one, where everything within my field of vision was connected together and was mine, the world became disconnected, partitioned, fragmented, and threatening to one another. And it was so to such an extent that I began perceiving all these parts as not living in my heart, but as external, felt through vision, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. It’s as if they are living their own life, separate from me, and therefore I can use them. There is me and there is them. That is how we start relating to one another.

We have to return from this broken state to the sensation that everything assembles together again, connects, grows closer, depends on one another, and connects one with the other. Reality becomes closer to me and enters my feelings, uniting into one whole. Then I begin to see that there is a group of people in it who are close to me in spirit, and in connection to this, are called my friends. Together, we make joint efforts, trying to unite and to really become the image of one man with one heart.

This kind of unity is called mutual guarantee. Like in a human body where all organs are connected together and work in total harmony, we too want to unite our thoughts, hearts, and all our actions so all of this would exist as a single organism, one system.

We see that the whole world is also moving closer to this opinion and understanding, even though it is doing so under the influence of material blows, which are far from the spiritual goal. But we want to help everyone else come closer and turn into our partners in seeing the causes of what is happening, so we would all unite together.

Then we will understand that all of human history is a goal-oriented process, leading us only to unity. As we advance toward unity, we will begin to see that the world was not created of iron and stone, the way it appears today in our five senses, but that it submits to one goal, one process. Everything else is just matter that carries out actions according to one program, which aspires to bring everything back to a single form.

The more we yearn for this program ourselves and desire to become active, involved, sensitive, and useful participants in it, the more we bring our consciousness and involvement to a higher level, thus bringing ourselves and the whole world to unity.
[71037]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/26/12, “Purpose of Society”

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Question: If we succeed in keeping the mutual guarantee conditions during the convention, what will happen after the convention ends?

Answer: The mutual guarantee conditions do not exist, not before the gathering at the foot of Mt. Sinai, not during the receiving of the Torah, and not afterward. If we manage to fulfill these conditions for just one moment, that would be enough! It is just as it was then at the foot of Mt. Sinai.

You are not responsible for how you will change. All the changes take place in us due to the Light. I can only ask for strength from Above to be able to fulfill these conditions below. And we are ready for that.

What will happen a moment later? I am not responsible for that. If you were given a spiritual vessel and Light, you’ve reached revelation. Immediately after that there is a greater fall, to the golden calf. But never mind. There are many different stages ahead, but they take place in the revelation and the concealment of the Creator. It isn’t the way it is now when we don’t understand who we are, where we are, and who we are dealing with.

You will then be either in concealment or in revelation. Even if there is concealment, you will already know that there is the Creator who is concealed from you. This is already a revelation, the revelation of the concealment! Now I already know that He is concealed from me. It is as if we are playing hide and seek. I have signs of His presence, a feeling.

Suppose on the levels of 0-1-2-3 (Shoresh, Aleph, Bet, Gimel) He is revealed, and on the fourth level (Dalet), he is concealed. Therefore I feel it. If He weren’t revealed in all the other levels of my desire, I would exist like an animal. He is revealed a bit, once here and once there, on different levels, through different attainments, at a certain level of recognition, and so I feel His presence. Even when I don’t feel Him clearly and am not in contact with Him inside my vessel, it is called concealment.

The concealment is a certain revelation, when He is inside me, but I can’t perceive Him. I feel how He turns me, but I can’t operate mutually with Him.

The concealment can be in the fact that I only pay attention to different signs but don’t reveal Him as a clear feeling.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/22/12, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Arava Convention, Lesson 6
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Arava Convention, Lesson 7
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Arava Convention, Lesson 3
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Arava Convention, Lesson 4
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Arava Convention, Lesson 5
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Arava Convention, Lesson 1
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Arava Convention, Lesson 2
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From the lesson before the Arava Convention, Writings of Baal HaSulam, Igrot, “Letter 17″: …there is he who walks, who is worse than he who sits idly. It is he who deflects from the road, for the path of truth is a very thin line that one walks until one comes to the King’s palace.

One who begins to walk at the beginning of the line needs great care so as not to deviate to the right or to the left of the line even as much as a hair’s breadth. This is so because if at first the deviation is as a hair’s breadth, even if one continues completely straight, it is certain that he will no longer come to the King’s palace…

But how is it possible not to err? Of course we will err! Imagine that we are playing a game where you have to shoot and hit a target, like from an electronic rifle or on a computer. But this game is arranged so that you cannot manage to aim, and the sight is always veering off the target, as if deliberately. You place it on the target, but it suddenly jumps to the side. You place it there again, and it runs away again.

This is, essentially, our nature. There is no doubt that I cannot aim precisely at the center of bestowal. After all, in reality, there, at the center of the target, is where the Creator is, the quality of bestowal, love for the neighbor, which is 100% opposite to me. I am unable to go towards it directly, without adding some kind of error, at least a small deviation. And it’s never aiming straight at the target.

Even when I am already rising up the spiritual levels, I am able to achieve the intention of bestowal only in a small part of desires, like in a “very thin line.” And the rest of the “circle” is my huge “stony heart” (Lev HaEven), which I am unable to correct for the sake of bestowal. At every level there are desires that I can correct for the sake of bestowal and advance with them, while being unable to do so with all the other ones. So how can I advance precisely towards the goal? After all, what is required of me is something that I am definitely unable to do!

That is when we are rescued by the notion of the group. Every one of us, with his “sight,” meaning from the very depth of the heart (from the Light of Hochma dressed into the Light of Hassadim, by virtue of which “the heart understands”) aims at the goal. And no single person hits it precisely, because each one has some kind of error, a deviation in some direction from the central point.

But if everyone unites together, each one with his error, then we mutually correct the errors of others. That is how it is arranged. And then we aim precisely at the very center. By virtue of our efforts to unite together, even if they are not sincere, it’s as if we step over the breaking.
[70787]
From the 3rd part of the Lesson in the in the Arava desert on 2/23/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam, Igrot, “Letter 17″

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From the Constitution of the Arava Convention: During all the days of the convention I commit to disconnect internally and externally from the physical world and to forget about myself. I disconnect myself and am ready to escape from the present state, to jump into the Red Sea, to lose my head, to leave everything, remain naked and destitute, and to accept whatever comes, only because it comes from Above.

We should rise above everything that we are. Constant efforts are required here.

It says: “They helped every one his friend.” If the whole group aspires towards this ascent, to faith above reason, it will work on everyone, and it will be easy for everyone. Now we find it hard to connect, but if we want to use the power of unity, we will suddenly feel a relief.

When the general force operates on a person, the difficulties disappear. He stops fearing, and the current sweeps him away. This is what we must attain.

Actually, all the conditions are easy if we carry them out through unification.

In the convention everyone is responsible for all. It is mutuality, mutual guarantee. Everyone worries about the others, about unity. Inside me I should constantly pray for the friends so that they will connect, so that their desire will finally come true. If this prayer lives inside me, then undoubtedly I am also inside.
[70538] 
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/21/2012, Constitution of the Arava Convention  

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