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Preparatory Lesson 1
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It is not accidental that we are spread across the Earth and separated by great distances. We are created so purposefully. This comes from the fall of the Tower of Babel.

We need to use these elements of separation correctly so that regardless of them, we increase the connection between us. Therefore, those who are located far away from us should not feel that they are distant from us.

Unity is above the framework of our world. A person who is located somewhere far away may experience unity with everyone else even more sharply than someone who is here physically. His urge, his bitterness about the fact that he is far away from everyone, his acute desire to feel everything that we are doing, intensifies his emotions to such an extent that he is with us completely.

He can absorb absolutely everything that is happening at the convention. The most important thing is tuning our hearts to the same frequency: unity.
[61698]
From Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 11/20/2011

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Unity does not imply difference and separation, nor the numerous opinions and forces, but the action of one force: the force of unity, one opinion, one idea. If a person suddenly jumps out of unity into his own egoistic calculations, recollections, or thoughts (let’s say thoughts about household worries), the force of unity quickly brings him back.

People feel the common force of unity. It slowly draws them in, corrects, and engulfs them in such a way that later, on the basis of this, they begin to build their lives differently.

We need to understand that the force of unity holds us. It makes us and all of nature alive, up to the egoistic nature of our world, which only feeds off of the quality of bestowal. Otherwise, it could not exist.

By connecting to this force, we basically make ourselves healthy. I know of a lot of cases where a person really received a strengthening force, restoring his health.
[61704]
From Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 11/20/2011

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We are in a very special place, a desert. In fact, this is the same landscape, the same place where people who were willing to exit their ego (their Egypt) and reach a desire directed “straight to the Creator,” to the upper one, passed through.

This desert seems lifeless, but that’s not accurate as we find a land full of life. There is everything here, and people can live in a desert. There are underground waters, special air, animals, and plants here. It only seems to a person that there is nothing here because he is not used to living in a state when he has risen above himself. When he reveals this state, he sees that he doesn’t need anything else, only to rise.

Thus, there is a desert in an egoistic desire, but when we rise above it with our own efforts, we feel that it’s actually a land flowing with milk and honey, which has everything needed. Thereby, the desert turns into the land of Israel where we reveal the upper world.

Because this place is extremely special according to its root and branch, it has to help us. There are no foreign thoughts here, no foreign desires. Let’s try to do that! Everyone has to try to rise above himself internally in the common desire, the same way drops of water join together to become one drop, one whole, and not a set of a few drops. That is the nature of the quality of bestowal. In the same way, we have to feel that here exists just one desire, one thought, one intention.
[61425]
From Lesson 1, Arvut Convention in the Arava Desert 11/18/2011

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Question: After two years of studying, I realize that intention is the main thing on the spiritual path. How do I overcome my unwillingness to become included into the group? It has suddenly pounced on me and won’t let me keep the intention.

Answer: Pay somebody to bring you to the lesson every day. Sign a commitment where you will lose something if you don’t perform certain tasks in the group. If you are capable of building your life only inside the corporeal framework, bind yourself to the group in the same way you are bound to your family or job so that a failure to fulfill obligations will lead to a real loss.

“Marry” the group and provide for it the same way you provide for your wife and children. A person must work on himself. You are waiting until you have a desire to take the spiritual path. Well, you may take your time. Such desire will never appear. On the contrary, it will become even easier to justify your idleness with a sober and realistic approach.

You probably will be sent more sufferings and spite toward this world. One way or another, something will happen. If your desire doesn’t burn now, then wait and see.

The world is going through such stages now that it is much easier for people to rise above everyday life. This is being done on purpose in order to help the spiritually weak layers of society come closer to the upper world. The current crises are required exactly for that purpose, but strong people are being given opportunities to fight their matter during times of material bloom and prosperity.

The spiritual world is built on freedom of choice. If a person doesn’t commit to the group and the group doesn’t commit to him, then he must not be pressured because he is not in the family. He hasn’t taken the burden. Thus, nothing can be done. He is free to make his choice.

What kind of requests can a person who has not bound himself physically to the group make? How can he ask the group to become an elevator raising him to a higher degree? It is silly to complain about a lack of desire. It is better to act physically. Catch a brief moment of bursting desire and sign an agreement with the group, which will obligate you later when desire ceases.

Put yourself into a hopeless position, trick yourself just like a bitter enemy, so as to continue with the path even when you don’t want to. Do you like your boss? Nevertheless, you go to work since you have no choice.

If we don’t work on binding ourselves hard to the group, we won’t be able to build a vessel of mutual guarantee. At the Arava Convention, we achieved an important preparatory step toward the December convention; we gained a common feeling. Now, we must sustain it. We must commit to holding onto this feeling with all our might, bring it to the convention, and with it, light up thousands of participants and the millions of people around the world who are connected to us.

To the degree that each person invests physically into this preparation, he binds himself to the group. It is not accidental that Kabbalists from the groups of Ramchal and the Ari signed customary agreements among themselves. After signing, you cannot escape. You must fulfill the obligation. The same happens in life: You sign an employment contract to receive salary. However, here, instead of money, you will receive a different kind of reward, a higher and more valuable one.

Let us hope to meet at the convention prepared and united. Then, we will be able to actually rise and become a Light for the entire world.
[61773]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/20/2011, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Question: When we try to realize the force that the upper degree sends to us, we discover that it’s impossible…

Answer: That’s absolutely correct. We are endeavoring the impossible, something that is beyond our ability.

Can we ask a donkey to sing us an aria from an opera? It is incapable of that both by its development and physical ability. But we are in a much more dire situation. A donkey at least has auditory and vocal faculties, while we don’t have anything from the spiritual world. We are absolutely cut off from it.

That’s because the spiritual world is the quality of bestowal. So how can we feel it in the egoistic desire? Can bestowal dress into reception? Can fire dress into water? Of course not.

Therefore, our enormous desire is not just aimed at an abstract idea, but at having the upper Light correct us. Three components must be welded in this desire: Israel, Torah, and the Creator. Stated differently: me, the group, and the upper Light. The Light is what corrects me; I will never achieve anything alone.

Therefore, at the Mutual Guarantee Convention, we raise MAN—a desire, a plea, a need for the upper force to correct us. This is the entire essence and objective of the convention.
[62266]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/1/11, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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Question: Each time after an intensive day, the morning lessons seem to “heal all the wounds,” opening a new page and giving us a new urge.

Answer: That’s right, throughout the day you do many things, prepare yourselves, and do your internal work so that the next morning we can make a breakthrough.

Question: How can we keep this trend from slowing down before the convention?

Answer: We will not slow down. After all, we’ve become a great global vessel, world Kli, and we have the power to unite and not to lose the deficiency. Besides, we should understand that we have to do only half the work: to create a deficiency, a vessel. The filling will come from Above, the Light that Reforms will do the work. We have to recognize evil, our lack of power, and this will be our greatest accomplishment. At the same time, we need hope, readiness, and confidence that the Surrounding Light will do its job.

So in order to raise a request for correction (MAN), we need two things: a feeling of helplessness and confidence in the power that comes from Above. You believe in Bina, which is called “faith,” “bestowal,” and at the same time you also see that you, meaning Malchut, cannot do anything.

Question: We are riding on a certain wave now. How can we not feel “drunk with success”?

Answer: Everything will be alright. We don’t have to be absolutely sure of ourselves, and at the same time we shouldn’t worry. There are always two opposites that operate here: How can I be worried if I believe in the upper force? I have to worry that we will all connect in one desire. We don’t need anything except for that. Only mutual guarantee will enable us, by the prayer of many, to demand the upper force to be revealed. The more we connect, the more we will reveal its Light.

Question: How can I fine-tune this yearning and not be satisfied with the natural joy from the gathering?

Answer: You cannot avoid the ups and downs. Someone my feel emptiness now, and someone else may be dancing with joy. This is how we complement each other. Thus, the shattering of the vessels manifests: By working on themselves, they connect and actually incorporate into each other.

We have to increase our efforts. The main thing is to reach the prayer of many that will burst out of our unified heart.
[62070]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/29/2011, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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There are two paths for attaining the level of “Adam”: the path of suffering and the path of the Light. Being in our world in the lowest state, we suddenly revealed a push that led us to the group, to the general system of uncorrected separate souls.

However, we have all the means: the teacher, the books, and the instructions to begin our correction and become similar to the system of Adam that exists in the world of Atzilut. If we unite and wish to be like Adam in order to bestow to the Creator and thereby become similar to Him, then from this general system of Adam, during our studies we receive the influence of the Surrounding Light or Ohr Makif. It gradually corrects us and connects us into one whole.

It all depends on the extent to which we try to gather into a group, study together from the sources, and strive to attain the goal of creation. These are the means for attaining our higher state. Altogether we must come to the state of Adam.

There are two paths of advancement toward the goal: the path of the Light, when we attract the influence of the Light, and the path of suffering, when we are in the group, but don’t really wish to advance. This creates great problems for us because as years go by, we don’t know what to do with ourselves and why we are not getting anywhere. Due to the fact that we aren’t using the means that are given to us, our advancement becomes slow, difficult, and lengthy. In other words, we advance by the path of suffering.

If we could only rise above ourselves and with clenched teeth strive towards each other, to see that only in this connection between us will we find a happy, perfect future, then we would instantly reveal the Light of correction within us, the Surrounding Light that connects us. In this connection we would instantly sense the upper world.

We lack an attack directed at lowering oneself and elevating the quality of bestowal and love for each other above ourselves. I hope that we will be able to achieve this at our forthcoming convention. We have all the necessary conditions to make it happen.
[61931]
From the Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 11/6/2011

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