It is written, “There is none else beside Him.” This means that there is no other force in the world (there is no other power, beside the one Upper Force, neither in the smallest of deeds, nor in the entire universe in general), that has the ability to do anything against Him. And what man sees, that there are things in the world that deny the Higher Household, (the Creator’s power over me), the reason is that this is His will.

We become confused when we supposedly think that there are friends, a group, people, a big world with its supposed “rulers,” and even I, who makes decisions. The Upper Force wishes for me to think this way, to think that I control things, and that there are other people and another power beside Him.

And it is deemed a correction, called “the left rejects and the right adducts,” meaning that which the left rejects is considered correction. In other words, also the things which appear bad to us—rejection from the spiritual, the path, and the group, when I forget about the goal and do not want it, when I think that the group does not want me—all of these problems come only from one force, which rules over everything, regardless of whether I can see it. The Creator controls the external world and inside of me, all my thoughts and desires.

I want to advance, join a group and to attain the Upper Force through it, I want to reveal Him, cling to my friends and reveal the Upper Light within them, the quality of bestowal. But even when I strive towards this in the most direct and sincere form, with my whole heart, I still experience descents and confusion in the most sincere point, which I rarely manage to attain through hard work. I suddenly fall from my very direct path.

I could understand it if I were to go in some wrong direction and I were being returned to the direct path. But no, it is when I am already standing on the very direct path that I deviate and fall.

A person is pushed away from the goal and the group, suddenly becomes confused and loses the desire. He thinks that his friends are no good, the path is wrong, and the entire system does not work, and it is unclear who has ever reached and attained the spiritual world. But it is this kind of rejection that helps him acquire an absolute desire. Next….

And this is exactly what we need. Right now I have a small desire for spirituality, but I do not feel that it is not enough. Everyone thinks that his heart is about to explode and that he is ready for anything! But in reality, in order to achieve spiritual power, we need a much stronger inner pressure, inner desire, and thirst.

And we become rejected in order to increase our aspiration to the sufficient level—to acquire a complete desire and understand that there is nothing we can do without the Creator’s help.

We need to reach a state when our scream passes through our unity, our connection, and is directed towards the Creator—with the request for the upper force, the Light which returns to the source, the common force of bestowal, which encompasses all of nature, to help us! Let it correct my only egoistic part in nature and pull it forward.

Otherwise I see that I am doomed. In other words I must reach a state where I see that I have done the most I could for the sake of my connection inside the group, that I have put all my effort into attaining unity, a connection with friends, those with who I wanted to reach the connection with the Creator, to reveal the power of bestowal, so it would reign in us and fill us with this unique quality.

And here we lack a common cry to the Creator, the upper force. We must feel lost so that a single scream of ours would be enough. But it must really come from a state of despair, when we see that we will never achieve success without His aid.
[63568]
From Lesson 4, The World Arvut Convention 12/7/11

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Question: This year I didn’t feel a descent after the convention. Is there something wrong with me?

Answer: The ups and downs aren’t measured in of itself, but by feelings. Baal HaSulam says that a coarse person can steal openly before everyone, believing it is acceptable since “everyone steals.” A more refined person will stealthily take something he’s not entitled to and feel “it’s no big deal.” An even more sensitive individual is unable to possess something undeserved.

So, you check and determine the magnitude of the descent yourself. It doesn’t have to be a blow, after which you can barely recover. It is enough to simply feel somewhat detached from the excitement we felt at the convention, and with this decrease in enthusiasm you already see it as a descent.

It is the same on spiritual levels: You receive a slight blow, but it is felt as real pain. “Who gave me this blow? Why and what for?” The quantity turns into quality; otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to withstand it. We always advance with the help of qualitative additions.

So try to raise your sensitivity of the current state in order experience it as the worst. Then you will begin to ascend: “Why do I feel good? Everything is fine and nothing hurts. Okay, so am I checking myself according to beastly feelings? Am I connected to the friends just as I was during the convention? But I don’t care. So does it mean that I’ve become indifferent and have waved the convention goodbye?”

Start checking yourself and you’ll see that you are in a state far worse than previous descents: “Last time I felt awful and was ready to explode. And now I’m in a descent and feel fine. Then I was sick and wanted to get well, to get up. Even if I cursed everyone, I still wanted something. Today I am satisfied, as if retired and free of all obligations. I am a living corpse.”

This is the deepest descent. Awakening such forces will cause pain no less than the pain felt previously. It is very difficult, and you’ll feel that you cannot raise yourself by your own powers. This means that you have to turn to the group so that the friends will start working on you and inspire you toward the importance of the goal. When you touch their unity and love, you feel your lowness.

In general, our state following the convention is indeed different from what we are accustomed to. It isn’t the same bad feeling that many felt in the past. Today a qualitative examination is required. A person can feel good, and he sees no reason for advancement. But don’t be fooled—work.
[63330]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/16/2011, “The Peace”

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Question: What can you say about our state now that nearly two weeks have gone by after the end of the convention where we revealed true life?

Answer: Our entire group, the “world Kli,” has to awaken and understand that this entire fog in which we have found ourselves after the convention is given to us on purpose and we could do nothing to resist it. Every person felt it in his own form and at different times.

Some people are still in an elevated state, even though it might not be precisely connected to the goal, in unity with others. But the sensation itself has remained. After all, there was a reason that caused the sensation, and there is the actual feeling that I feel good. And I already forgot why I feel good, but the pleasant sensation still remains.

It gradually cools down more and more, like along 4 levels, returning back to the previous state. First I was very inspired by the goal, then simply from being connected to the group, then from attaining some kind of success at the convention, and at the end I am simply left with the sensation that I still feel good, until this feeling disappears as well.

First of all, we have to value all of these phases, which are necessary for building a new desire. And the new desire has to be such that we will begin to live in the same intention, in the same sensation all the time, and this will become our constant state!

If at the convention we achieved this through an attack, a break-through: dancing, different events, and never-ending songs, then now we have to reach the same state internally, quietly. I have to feel this state introvertedly, inside of me, and that will be my convention.

Maybe we will soon get there and will hold conventions precisely in this way: without saying anything for three days, without doing anything besides inner intentions, and by getting impressed and inspired just by seeing one another. And afterwards, we won’t even have to see each other, and thus will gradually reach the true realization where we won’t need words, vision, hearing, or jumping and embraces. Let’s advance towards that.

But now we have to hold a convention inside of us, so this will become our permanent state—calmly, quietly, with a more serious, more internal attitude.
[63579]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/19/11, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Here some additional pictures from the World Arvut Convention in Tel Aviv, December 6-8, 2011.

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Question: There were plenty of people at the last Arvut convention who attended physically or virtually and did not feel the point of unity you and many others talk about. Could we say that the convention was useless for them and gave them nothing?

Answer: Of course not! They are also co-participants of this achievement, and it is in them, only it has not been manifested clearly, personally. It’s similar to how children live with us in one world, but cannot feel everything that adults do. If these people make necessary efforts, they will feel the point of unity that was achieved by everyone with their participation. It already exists in them in a hidden form.
[63390]

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Question: After the convention, we received a “gift” of distance, heaviness, and tiredness. Since to some extent, this is a consequence of attaining the common Kli, is it possible that some friends will receive such intense heaviness and tiredness that it would throw them off the spiritual path?

Answer: Of course, why not? Everyone receives a precisely calculated measure of Lights against the Kelim (vessels). No one receives it without a reason and there is no protection here.

Everything occurs in accordance to the balance between forces and desires since we are situated within a system of laws. Although we say that this or that is done according to the Creator’s desire, these are merely words. However, if you exist within a system of laws, then it simply cannot be that He just decides to do something.

The Light is at absolute rest. Desires change according to their Aviut (thickness or coarseness), according to the Reshimot (the informational genes) that are revealed in them. Therefore, there is no particular desire from Above that wishes to do anything. By praying and asking, we prepare our desire so that it becomes more acute, and thereby we perceive more than before.

Praying means judging ourselves. The correct interpretation of the word “praying” is when I do something with myself, rather than with Him. Who do I affect with my request? In my prayer, I think about how I may change so that I may perceive all the goodness from Him. After all, the upper Light is “the Good who does Good to the wicked and to the righteous” and no changes come from Him.

Thus, if some of our friends were thrown off the path after the convention, if some descended, others became a bit tired, and yet others got confused, this indicates that everyone was granted heaviness of the heart according to their Kelim. If he is able to manage this heaviness and return to the same degree of excitement and inspiration that he felt at the convention, he truly will reveal the soul.

At the convention, he achieved the point of unity and was thrown off it into the outside circle purposely. Now, if he returns to the same point of connection, the entire external circle will join this point. It will acquire “flesh,” meaning that it will have a Kli and Aviut.

Within this Aviut, he will reveal the world of Infinity. This will be his very first, minimal spiritual degree, but in his sensations, it will be revealed as infinity.
[63322]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/16/2011, Preface to The Book of Zohar

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Question: After the convention, I feel more and more emotional at every meeting of friends, sometimes to tears. Is this indeed happiness and an ascent?

Answer: After the convention, we certainly have begun to relate to unity differently. It is easier to return to it now. It became more exciting and attractive; it no longer seems artificial like before.

We have reached this spiritual reality, the beginning of a spiritual degree. And now we need to join a little more of our effort to it so that it would penetrate within us and grow “flesh,” thickness of desire, on this point. Then in this thickness, we will feel real, spiritual reality.

Every person should exert effort, constantly returning to that understanding of unity that has already permeated into his sensations. In spite of the current emotional rejection or blurriness of feelings, I try to return to the state we have achieved.

What for? Maybe in order to feel good or in order to proceed further, even without positive sensations. And maybe I feel obligated in regard to the friends with whom we are in mutual guarantee.

The reward can vary, but overall, we all require a craving for unity. This is the most important thing: to aspire to unity constantly no matter where you may be at a given time.
[63326]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/16/2011, “The Peace”

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Question: The point of unity experienced at the convention felt like a tremendous jolt of bliss, freedom, and optimism, alien to our world. It was literally like a separate world, toward which my ego ran with great joy. And yet you were saying that the ego should be resisting this?

Answer: Don’t worry about your ego. It will come and start dragging you away from this state “by the ear,” and you will need to aspire to it again and again. It is precisely your ego that will now start distancing you from the point of unity, and you’ll need to actualize and reconstruct it within all the time.

This reconstruction is necessary not because it’s fun, but because all your friends are standing behind it. You must gradually come up with brand new motivations for what you do so as to support your friends because without you, they will not be able to locate this point.
[63282]
From the Sunday Virtual Lessons Series 12/11/2011

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Here are some pictures from the World Arvut Convention in Tel Aviv, December 6-8, 2011.

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A leading news portal in Israel NEWSru has published a report about the World Arvut Convention that took place December 6-8, 2011 in Tel Aviv.

“The Arvut Convention In Tel-Aviv: A Union Of People Determined To Unify The Whole World

“Even without the knowledge of Spanish, French or Turkish one can understand what the participants of the World Arvut Convention, along with almost two million people actively studying Kabbalah around the world, talk about and try to achieve. But the convention wasn’t just a three-day holiday and happy get-together; there were lessons and lectures there. Arvut Olami in Hebrew means global mutual responsibility. The idea is that when each one of us is able to be responsible for his friend, neighbour, and even a stranger, our world will truly become better. While some people see this as utopia, Kabbalists consider it a science.

“Dr. Michael Laitman explains, ‘Mutual guarantee is a strictly accurate method of balancing inner nature with outer one, and it has a huge number of formulas, graphs, numbers, and relationships. It is practical physics, the physics of balance, of our homeostasis with the external world. One the one hand, what Kabbalah says seems to be just another utopia, but on the other, we’ve reached a massive crisis in our economic relationships, the breaking up of the family, divorce, and drug abuse, an all-round crisis. So there is really no other way for humankind other than to transform itself into a society of mutual responsibility.’

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