The Constitution of the Convention in Arava: Our brother, the physical and spiritual conditions that you must observe are before you. Prior to joining us, check carefully: Are you ready, do you realize and feel the importance of the stage to which you connect; do you understand that the Torah, the Reforming Light, will change you so that you love and serve everyone? Do you want this? You should be clear that you come here not to receive, but to receive the force of bestowal.

Even while just reading the story of the Torah about the exodus from Egypt, we see that it involved people of all types: elderly, young, children, men, and women. They differed, some with a great desire to receive, others with a great desire aimed at bestowal. All of them, including Moses and Aaron, were still in the receiving desire. However, the Creator was revealed to them; we will discover what revelations they were.

This is why we open the convention in the Arava to all the men. We do not check whether they participate in all our activities. A person may arrive at the convention but he will not be able to take part in it fully if he does not study during the morning lessons, if he does not pay Maaser (tithe), if he does not participate in the meeting of friends, in their connection, and if he is not involved in dissemination. These are the four conditions according to which a person is my student and a member of Bnei Baruch, a friend for everyone.

First of all, we are talking about physical actions that are followed by deeper levels to the extent a person invests one’s heart and really wants to exert in order to reach the goal. So, there are different gradations.

However, it is never too late to start. We see that this month, more and more people study during the daily Kabbalah lessons and many began to pay maaser because they understood that these funds are dedicated to the dissemination of the method of Kabbalah in the world. In essence, this is our correction. We exist for this purpose: to perform the role of Israel for the world, to receive the method from above and pass it down.

Thus, understanding and awakening are growing in our community; finally, people take the straight path. However, we do not need to be great, we just have to realize the opportunities that we are given. This is what is important.

Many kinds of desires came out of Egypt: children, old, young, men, women, slaves, goats, and sheep. There were all levels: still, vegetative, animate and speaking, but each desire wanted to participate in this fully. A child who is completely ready to take part is also included.

Therefore, we open the convention for everyone. A man can say: “I have been watching the lessons on TV for a long time, and I will try to do the rest.” And he too can come. We turn no one away. In spirituality, only a person can check his heart before the Creator, no one can interfere in this.

However, we ask—and it is very important—that people at least try to be with us during the days of the convention with their whole heart and soul. That is why we put material terms and conditions for the inner work that must be followed.

People who enter the grounds of the Arava convention are obliged to observe the Constitution. They are given all the conditions for participation. If they do not take part in the shared effort, they harm everyone, and this will cause them a lot of damage.
[70541]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/21/12, “Advice for the Arava Convention”

Related Material:
The Necessary and the Sufficient
Mount Sinai In The Midst Of The Arava Desert
Before Spiritual Birth

Filed under: Body and Soul, Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Mutual Guarantee, Unity - No Comments →

Question: I am in a virtual group. If a guarantee of two friends is required to attend the convention, who can sign it for me?

Answer: For now, be concerned about that.

Besides men who left Egypt, there were also women, children, and the elderly. Do you understand that you go to the convention as a “woman,” “child,” or an “elderly person”? Do you understand that your mission is to cancel yourself as much as possible? You do not know how to connect with the friends because a woman cannot connect. But you really want this to happen because a woman has to support this unity in every way.

And perhaps you are a “slave,” that is, you obey your egoism but are willing to serve and help in whatever way needed. You are looking for personal gain, want spirituality for yourself, and cannot disconnect from the egoistic concern about your own good future. However, you are aware of this and understand that you are a slave to self-love, and yet you want to join the spiritual attack.

A “slave” is under the external power; Pharaoh or the Creator rule over him, which is the same because Pharaoh is the Creator’s means. And if you still want to participate, then you come to the convention aware of your degree and put all your efforts to be with the friends.

Either way, you are making every effort, and your possibilities do not depend on you—they are categorized by degrees. If you have exerted a little bit, you are a “child,” if more, you are a “slave,” even more, an “an elderly,” more, a “woman,” and even more, a “man.” You are given strength from Above, but you have to apply it completely in order to try to keep up, to become involved. It is not about your level that is important. A person who is trying his best to be with us, similar to a child clinging to adults, does not interfere at all, but only helps. So, wherever you are, come.

Question: Under what conditions does a person go to the convention as a “man?”

Answer: If a person attends all the morning lessons, pays Maaser (tithe), participates in the gatherings of friends, in all the group activities, and is fully involved in mass dissemination, then he follows the advice of Kabbalists. These are the minimum, physical conditions, not related to the spiritual work yet. This is necessary.

And beyond that, does he really in his soul cancel himself before the group in order to feel the need for unity? This need should give rise to his cry for help, to which the upper Light will respond.

Thus, the external conditions say nothing about a spiritual level; they are necessary, but not sufficient. They can be observed regardless of the spiritual states. And besides that, there are sufficient conditions that you must perform internally.
[70376]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/20/2012, Constitution of the Arava Convention

Related Material:
A Chance Of A Lifetime
Four Conditions
Putting The Cards On The Table

Filed under: Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Maaser, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: How do we reach the correct plea during the congress in the desert? Various desires are constantly changing inside of me and I am afraid that I won’t be able to arrive at the correct thought.

Answer: A person arrives at Mount Sinai in such a state when inside of him there are Moses, Aaron, the Cohens (priests), Levites, and the nation of Israel—600,000 men, it would seem such a force. Even though it exists, it is not yet clear for a person that it exists inside. Besides this, there are women and children inside of him. There are even Egyptians, completely unrelated to the nation of Israel (Yashar El – straight to the Creator), who fled along with them.

Even the mixed multitude (Erev Rav) is intermingled within them, meaning that there are impure forces (Klipot) concealed inside, which cannot be corrected now, but will only be corrected later after all of the corrections. And all of them are standing and facing Mount Sinai before receiving the Torah.

Who must receive the Torah? Everyone receives it to the extent that he needs it, according to these levels. And so, there are strong men under the leadership of Moses who is standing before everyone (the point in the heart), and there are desires that are simply connected to them. While there are also ones who, as soon as possible, even as soon as tomorrow, will cast the golden calf, and will act against the Creator, against Moses, and in general will want to return to the Pharaoh, to make such a revolution.

Such different desires coexist inside a person, yet he still reaches Mount Sinai. He cannot arrive there otherwise! He carries Egypt inside of himself, even Babylon, the whole of the path he has traveled, all of this is inside a person. While now he reaches the so-called resistance before Mount Sinai, bringing the entire burden with him, as yet, he has never corrected anything in himself! He only occasionally felt these qualities inside of himself, one against the other: Babylon and the land of Canaan, and bad and good deeds.

He was imprisoned, confined to a pit by the Pharaoh, and he was also the young Moses who sat on Pharaoh’s knee and grew up in his home. He escaped from Pharaoh’s palace, slew the Egyptian, and suffered from his nation Israel. Everything that is written in the Torah is contained inside of this person who is now standing in the desert of Arava: All of this happened to him.

Therefore, it is important for us to prepare ourselves for unity as best as possible. If you want to be in the mutual guarantee, then you will receive the Reforming Light. You may not receive the correction yet. The giving of the Torah is only the beginning. You are now given the methodology of correction, and from here, you begin to realize the corrections according to this methodology.

This is the receiving of an instruction book that explains how to correct yourself! This is precisely what we should be ready for. There is no need for something more. I must know that I am going to receive the force for such a correct connection with the group, inside of which I will reveal the Creator, the spiritual world, the higher system, the higher dimension.

It is not demanded of us to be righteous people and real friends, feeling love for each other already. I only need to be ready for it, to have the willingness to do so, the need for me to make this calculation and cry from the bottom of the heart that I want to change. That’s all.

I have desires of all levels inside of me, starting from Moses and ending with the mixed multitude; all of them are with me. And the difference between Babylon and the land of Canaan, Egypt and the Mount Sinai is only in the clarifications. All of this is the same desire, only ever more clarifying itself, and that is why, instead of Babylon, it starts to be called the land of Canaan, instead of the land of Canaan, it starts to be called Egypt, instead of Egypt, the Red Sea, Mount Sinai, and so forth.

But all of this is the same desire, just passing through different states bearing such names.
[69496]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/11/12, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
Along The Path Of Correction
Getting Ready To Set Off
Farewell To Egypt

Filed under: Body and Soul, Collective Soul, Conventions, Mutual Guarantee, My Similarity to the Creator, Prayer and Intention, Q&A - No Comments →

Rabash, Shlavei Hasulam (Steps of the Ladder), “Purpose of Society 2”: To be integrated in one another, each person should annul himself before the others. This is done by each seeing the friends’ merits and not their faults. But one who thinks that he is a little higher than the friends can no longer unite with them.

For us to be integrated into one another, I have to “annul” myself, lower my head (the black arrow), rather than consider myself equal to the other. Why? After all, we unite and thus have to be equal (the green arrow).

The truth of the matter is that I constantly play with my egoism, which wants to “put me on a pedestal” (the red arrow) all the time. If I withstand and “play down the ego,” I have a chance to reach interconnection.

Question: A very fine work is needed here: On one hand, I want to give my maximum to the group, but on the other, I have to annul myself. One seems to contradict the other.

Answer: This is because we work in confrontation to our egoism. If my attitude towards the friends was neutral, I would have no problems. However, I am “in the minus” from the beginning, and I have to cover it.

The spring of my egoism constantly pulls me upward, to self-importance (a). And thus, to counteract it, I have to apply an opposite force (b). Then out of these two forces the third will be formed (c). This is how we arrive at the formula of interconnection: a­­−b=c. I don’t have any other choice.

Queston: Does it apply to the Arava convention as well?

Answer: You have to lower your ego before the group all the time and to constantly ascend, awakening the group towards the goal. To raise the group, you need to “come from above,” while your individual work demands self-annulment.

Related Material:
Don’t Be Afraid To Be Infected If You Want To Be Charged
A Bridge Of Love Over An Abyss Of Egoism
Plant Yourself In Fertile Soil And You Will Grow

Filed under: Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A - No Comments →

Rabash, Shlavei Hasulam (Steps of the Ladder), “They Helped Every One His Friend”: Rather, it is one person who can help another by seeing that one’s friend is low. It is written, “One does not deliver oneself from imprisonment.” Rather, it is one’s friend who can lift his spirit.

This means that one’s friend raises him from his state into a state of liveliness. Then, one begins to reacquire strength and confidence of life and wealth, and he begins as though his goal is now near him.

Rabash, Letter 34: The way is as one who goes to his friend’s occasion. He doesn’t think of himself—whether or not he is in a good mood—but must take part in his friend’s joy. He must not frown, but show a happy face.

One has to see that the friends already sense unity. And if he builds a circle, if he seeks connection with the group, if he wants to be in it, then he acquires joy and forces, both negative and positive. Everything comes to him with the necessary force and in the correct amount so that he reveals the Creator in the interconnection with the friends.

Unification with the friends is a necessary condition for receiving help. But it’s incorrect to think that the friends have to come to me themselves. First (a) I turn to them, and then I receive the strength from them (b):
a – inclusion into the group;
b – receiving strength.

Related Material:
Don’t Be Afraid To Be Infected If You Want To Be Charged
The Creator In The Center Of The Group
How To Help A Friend

Filed under: Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work - No Comments →

We should yearn for the one force, the one reality that exists so that it will begin to control us. This should be the result of our exertion.

People ask me: How is it possible to check and see if we’ve actually attained something? To attain a certain result means to feel that there is no self-desire or self-thought left in any one. It is as if we’ve embarked on a spaceship and have disconnected from earth.

We rise and we begin to feel only the new collective field we are in. Just as every bird in a big flock doesn’t feel its own desire: where to turn to and what to do. There is one collective brain that operates everyone in synchrony. Even the birds that fly in the front and those that fly behind, on the right and on the left, no matter where they are, they all turn together, change speed and direction, and even turn in the opposite direction; not one bird turns too soon or too late.

A moment ago they were flying in one direction and suddenly all at once, they all turn 180 degrees, as if they were one body. This is called being one man in one heart, in general mutual guarantee. We cannot attain this attribute by ourselves, but only by the Reforming Light that ties everyone together into one system.

It is an analog system in which there is no “entry” or “exit,” there is no beginning or end, but everything happens at once simultaneously.

Modern physics is also discovering that the true reality is above time and that all over the universe different phenomena that are not related to time take place, but one process is tied to other processes that take place simultaneously. An ants’ nest operates according to the same principle in which millions of ants are operated by one brain.

We observe many such phenomena in the inanimate, vegetative, and animate worlds where each individual has no brain of his own, but all of them together seem to be receiving orders from a general brain that shows them what to do and that arranges everything.

This is the level we should reach. The difference, of course, is that when it comes to us, it has to happen in our feeling, in our understanding, in our recognition that in that “One” we attain our first spiritual degree. Then that “One” that we attain, that feeling, that brain, that life, is called the “revelation of the Creator.”

Then we are already in a different intention, in a different reality, in which one force controls the heart and the mind. We are incorporated in it, learn it, and get to know it to the extent that it can be revealed according to the thickness of our level.

Later our ego is revealed again and separates us from the “One,” so that we will attain it in greater depth, in greater, more qualitative, and clearer discernments. Thus we advance in our work: We connect, we ask for the Reforming Light, and are incorporated once more in the concept of the “One” more deeply.

This is how the Creator is revealed to the created beings in this world. I really hope that we are all on the verge of this revelation today.
[70389]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/20/12, “Pri Chaham”

Related Material:
Don’t Be Afraid To Be Infected If You Want To e Charged
Putting the Cards On the Table
A Very Serious Convention

Filed under: Collective Soul, Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Prayer and Intention, Unity - No Comments →

Question: The coming convention makes me feel fear and pressure that are way too strong. I don’t feel happiness and love, but only instructions and warnings. I don’t feel like going to the convention any more. Why have I reached this state?

Answer: It’s because you’ve never thought that a convention is not a picnic. You always came to our conventions like to a festival full of lectures, performances, dancing, and meals…. If a person awakens himself with the help of such activities, they are serious and beneficial for him. But if he doesn’t, he can simply enjoy life, without approaching what’s important.

In the past, too, people used to come to the Temple because there was always fresh meat and good wine there. While others used to come there with rather different thoughts.

Today we make people understand where they are. Everyone has to understand and agree to this; everyone should feel great fear. The Torah even describes the external signs of this state, such as ground shaking, thunders, and so on. It is really so.

At the same time, this very important situation should evoke happiness in us. You are in Gevurot (strength), but the upper level is revealed to you, if you deserve it, of course. If you don’t, here will be your burial place. So you should decide whether you should come or not.

The quality of the participants is more important than the quantity. Mass dissemination of the principle of mutual guarantee is one thing, while a spiritual ascent in the desert is something else.

If a person comes there as if to a picnic, he will cause himself great harm. He will diminish our power and will disturb us with his foreign thoughts and desires, and he will be punished for that in the future. Such a person shouldn’t come. There is room here only for those who are very serious.

I will understand if people decide to stay at home. It will actually be a serious attitude: A person is afraid, not sure of himself, understands that he is still weak internally.…

Well, so perhaps in another two thousand years you will have another chance ?
[70380]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/20/12, “Advice for the Arava Convention”

Related Material:
The Tense Silence Before A Battle
A Bridge Of Love Over the Abyss of Egoism
We Must Not Withdraw

Filed under: Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: The closer we get to the convention, the more we feel the emptiness of thoughts, feelings, and powers. What does that mean and how can we work with that feeling?

Answer: This always happens before any important action, when a person loses all his previous, lengthy preparations. All the decisions a person has made and all his readiness suddenly disappear and there is a certain emptiness left, like while waiting for something.

It is true, it happens in corporeal life too. There is nothing we can do about it. It is very similar to the silence before a battle, when we know that in a short while a military operation is about to begin or even a war, but there is nothing you can do. We have been preparing ourselves, and have done everything in our power, and all that is left now is to wait. There is such a waiting period, a period of silence before the battle.

The same thing happens in both the corporeal and spiritual worlds, and it is true. It is a period when a person must make finer clarifications of the state he is going to.

It doesn’t mean that you should leave time for idleness and throw up your hands as if there is no choice and nothing that you can do, no matter what may happen. I should intensify my sensitivity, the sharpness of the clarification, up to the next level and prepare myself for finer discernments and frequencies compared to what I had before.

We should sharpen our sensitivity and try to feel what we couldn’t feel before.
[70387]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/20/12, “Pri Chaham”

Related Material:
On The Verge Of The First Revelation
A Chance Of A Life Time
Only One Step Until Disclosure

Filed under: Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work - No Comments →

Question: In what way should our intention in the Arava convention be different from what we had before? What should we prepare ourselves for?

Answer: Our intention during this convention is to add great fear, great anxiety: What if I don’t support the general effort correctly?

Just like in a poker game, I go all-in, wager all my resources, and put all the cards on the table. I am ready to give all of myself in order to attain the Light that Reforms. I am ready to give my share and to push everyone towards the goal. At the same time, in unification with all the friends, I want to receive through them the force that will connect me not with them, but to the One above them. We must do our utmost so that love will cover all sins. We must yearn for mutual guarantee and unity.

The difference is that this time we act on our own, without the external circles, in one thought, desire, and intention. We don’t leave it, we are constantly inside. We attack not only and not so much mentally as in desire and intention.

This is what we prepare, and everything else depends on the participants. They build this state.
[70369]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/20/12, “Advice for the Arava Convention”

Related Material:
A Chance Of A Lifetime
Four Conditions
A Letter With No Addressee

Filed under: Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Prayer and Intention, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: Can the group forbid a friend to participate in the convention because of improper behavior?

Answer: We must check every case separately. On the whole, these are the criteria:

• participating in the lessons every morning;
• paying Maaser (tithing);
• participating in the gatherings of friends,
• participating in dissemination as much as one can.

These four conditions are mandatory. If a person fulfills them, he has a place in the convention.

But we made some mitigations and we don’t check the participants according to these criteria. Many of them don’t pay tithe, do not participate in the morning lessons, and so on. Surely, these people don’t quite understand what we have in mind and what we do. However, it doesn’t mean that we won’t be able to succeed in the convention and that it will only be a “practice.”

Besides, different people come from different parts of the collective soul of Adam HaRishon, and for some of them it takes twice or three times longer to master the system. They can advance in some particular aspect, but it is more difficult for them to change internally. There are those who even become worse: coarse, careless, and so on. Don’t judge your friend until you step in his shoes.

On the whole, we don’t judge the friends according to their external behavior unless it is related to dissemination work. The main thing is that a person doesn’t show disregard.

Question: Does this mean that in the meantime these criteria are a recommendation and not a demand?

Answer: This time we don’t impose them, but a person should know that not fulfilling them keeps him behind. He can participate in our activities, but he won’t advance. He won’t disturb us in the convention, and he will feel an ascent, but not as a “man” who comes out of Egypt.

We give these people a chance to be with us, at a lower level that limits the feeling and the advancement. There is nothing we can do about it.
[70373]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/20/12, “Advice for the Arava Convention”

Related Material:
A Chance Of A Lifetime
Putting The Cards On The Table
A Letter With No Addressee

Filed under: Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Maaser, Q&A - No Comments →