There is a certain unification, preparation, that only men can carry out if they detach themselves from their families, from the women, and seclude themselves. When you go beyond the boundaries of our world and exist only in unity with the friends, this produces a special prayer, special sensations. We felt it. It is really so, and it cannot be described in any other way.

Women’s preparation is not in order to connect themselves, but to help the men to do that, to try to create all the necessary conditions for it, and to quietly push them towards connection. Women can help men overcome their ego and reach unity.

By the way, our women, all over the world, understood this point very well. They supported us and I am grateful for that. Their support was felt throughout the Arava convention, and by that they performed a great service for us.

The December convention already entails the state of standing at the foot of Mt Sinai, where there are women, children, and the elderly. However, the foundation is the men, 600,000 souls, not by their quantity, but might.

In the wisdom of Kabbalah everything is measured by its power because Kabbalah talks about uniting into one general desire. This one mighty desire is expressed as the number 600,000, which symbolizes the power of our unity. To rise to the level of 600,000 means to reach the complete revelation of the upper force, the Creator.

I hope that we will attain it because we have all the prerequisites for that. At least we are doing everything that is in our power. The whole world also needs what we are doing, and it is thanks to this that we receive support from Above. We succeed not because we are so special and talented, but because the world needs a group that will lead it forward.
[61708]
From the Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 11/20/2011

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The decisive week before the convention has arrived. These are special days preceding the reception of the new state. In order to demand the new state, we need to correctly prepare ourselves, to feel sure that we will receive it, and to be ready for it. And then it will happen.

Everything depends on us. The opportunity is given to us, everything is ready, and it depends only on our desire, on how successful we will be in demanding this.

We hope that we will join our forces and succeed in reaching a cry. Essentially, this is all we need, nothing more. The other half will come from Above.

Therefore, there is no need to go all the way and try to be nice in order to do it all by ourselves. We can’t be nice, we only need to want it to happen.

Half is already easier. We only have to think about this: how to make an effort and to cry out. And after that, the upper force will come. We only need to draw the boundary and understand where our part ends. This will make it easier for a person to prepare for the first revelation of the Creator.
[61881]
From the Talk During the Meal 11/25/2011

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Question: Why do I face so many obstacles to attending the convention? Maybe I’m not ready for it yet?

Answer: Obstacles are put before you on purpose. In “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” there is an example about how we climb the mountain where the castle of the Creator stands. The higher you climb, the more roughly the guards push you away and throw you down; you have to clamber up again. This continues until you make enough effort and finally overcome the obstacles.

You will suddenly see that the obstacles did not really harm you. They merely awakened a true desire in you. This is like a flirt, when the desired distances away from you and thus fires an even greater desire. This exists at all levels of fulfillment. That is, to come into contact with the Creator, you must reach a true desire.
[61840]
From the Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 11/6/2011

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Question: What is the psychological change that we have to go through?

Answer: The transition to feeling the upper world is merely a psychological change that a person goes through. He still feels our world, he continues to live as usual. Nothing disappears or escapes him. He remains an ordinary person: in the family, at home, at work, and everywhere. Yet in addition, he receives an “inner snap,” a change of phase that enables him to start feeling another quality existing in our world: the quality of bestowal.

This attribute is much higher than the attribute of reception on which our world is based because it is unlimited, infinite, and perfect. It is free! It is omnipotent! Thus it is called “the Creator.”

The attribute of bestowal keeps our world and nourishes it like a mother, including our egoism, our attribute of reception. Everything in our world: the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking levels of nature, all of them, are attributes of receiving. We, being the attribute of reception ourselves, perceive only these types of egoistic existence.

When we acquire the attribute of bestowal, we begin to feel totally different forces, fields, and attributes, which are much wider and more sublime than our world.

When we enter the field of bestowal and begin to feel it, then our whole world, cosmos, and the entire universe immediately shrink to a minimal dimension. Everything outside of our world begins to feel truly infinite and unlimited, like the attribute of bestowal itself. We feel that we live in it and develop along the 125 degrees that we study about in the wisdom of Kabbalah.

I hope we will reach this state in the coming convention. It all depends only on the preparation of the people who will assemble there. Even if accidental people with minimal egoistic desire or beginners who don’t really understand what they came for participate in this gathering, they will not disturb us.

The main point is that if we, all the active members of the Bnei Baruch movement and the friends from overseas, will gather together and all those who will not be able to come will connect to us virtually, then we will easily be able to incorporate into ourselves all the new visitors and those who just happened to be there, and they will participate in this connection involuntary. We are the key, the core, and the principal part of this great connection for the attainment of the upper one.
[61710]
From the Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 11/20/2011

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Right now we are on the threshold of great unification: the December convention. To prepare for it, we need to constantly worry about our connection, about revelation of a common desire between us. To the extent that this desire will truly be common, we will be able to feel the spiritual force in it. After all, unanimity of desires creates the condition, the so-called “vessel,” the Reflected Light, the screen, because we connect together against our ego.

The more egoistic we are in the relationships between us, the more each one puts pressure on himself in spite of his ego and requests for the Light to influence him and help him connect with others, the stronger the screen and the greater the force of overcoming is that we activate to rise above the ego that separates us and pushes us apart from each other.

This common force of overcoming, referred to as the force of mutual guarantee, becomes our common force. The Creator created the forces of rejection between us purposefully, as it is written: “I created the evil inclination,” and we feel how we repulse each other. But we try to overcome these forces of rejection through our common actions and our study so as to attract the Light that Reforms, as we wish to connect despite the forces that constantly push us away from each other like little demons between us. We must prevail over these evil forces and connect.

To the extent that we try to be together as hard as we can so as to eliminate all the differences between our desires, thoughts, and actions and to truly be like one man with one heart, to that extent we reveal that only we can help each other acquire this common aspiration for connection, as it is written: “Man will help his neighbor.”

Then in this common aspiration we discover that we are not able to connect. But we already uncover our common desire to unite, instead of individual separate desires to connect with others. This common desire is called the prayer of many, a common prayer. And then our request for the Light, the Creator, rises specifically out of this common prayer. And help from Above comes only in response to these mutual efforts, which means that it comes from within, from unity above our degree. This is called MAD, the correcting Light that creates a connection between us despite the forces of rejection.

These rejecting forces are called “Aviut” (the thickness of desire), and the forces of connection are called the “screen.” These two forces together, which we form to bestow to a higher degree, the Creator, are called the Reflected Light since we wish to be exactly like the Light that has corrected us, that is, we wish to bestow. And then we realize the condition under which the Creator, the Giver, becomes revealed in us.

We complete all these stages only with the help of the Light that Reforms. This Light may shine on us even when we do not ask anything of it, like an infant who does not know why he is screaming, but he is taken care of. Alternatively, we can begin to distinguish what exactly it is that we need, and then our prayer becomes more directed and thought over. Or we really consciously raise our request in the right direction, knowing clearly that we demand the ability to bestow to the upper degree.

But everything is done by the Light that Reforms. To tell you the truth, what could be better than constantly reading The Zohar and doing all these actions…This is the ideal state. But reality is such that man must go to work, go about his daily business, and then come for a few hours and raise his prayer. At first he collects different problems, desires, aspirations, and hopes within him, and afterwards he comes to The Zohar. And then we connect together and raise our common prayer through studying together.
[61527]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/23/2011, The Zohar

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In order to prepare for the convention in the best possible way, it is necessary to go over the talks we had at the convention in the Arava desert. Clearly, we will still have interesting talks and events, where we will continue to develop our common aspiration towards one single desire to bestow, which consists of a multitude of little individual aspirations and mutual help. A person really needs to watch everything attentively and feel it well.

It is recommended to become acquainted with the songs, the program of the convention, and the materials we will study ahead of time. Simply read the specified materials, watch clips, and join the common preparation. If you are coming with an entire group, you can work on these elements of unity together.
[61621]
From the Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 11/20/2011

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Question: What actions at the convention will help focus on the goal in the best possible way?

Answer: When people are internally aspiring to unity, they almost don’t express it on the outside. They can stand, hug, sing, do something together, but they don’t express on the outside what they feel inside. The inner work is the most intense one.

Therefore, you have to decide for yourself where it is better for you to be, with whom, and how. Certainly, you should try to be together with the mass, both with your body and soul. However, if this is an obstacle for you, if it’s hard because of your age or health, you can stand aside and not participate physically in the activities. This is not so important. What is important is that all the time you are trying to feel the highest point of unity with others and within it, the upper force that exists and becomes manifested in this point.
[61613]
From the Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 11/20/2011

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Question: How should we work before the December convention in order to deliver our message to the masses? Should we intensify the dissemination on the Internet, or should we focus more on internal work on unification?

Answer: Of course, we should work on the Internet so that as many people as possible from around the world will know about the convention.

On the other hand, when we get to the convention, we will have to worry about the world in a different way: through the network of our internal interconnection. At the convention I should forget about the Internet, about everything I left behind. My whole attention is focused on the friends who are here physically or are connected to us through virtual channels. In our network, we should manifest the connection and in it, reveal the image of man similar to the Creator, the vessel of Adam. Then the upper force will be revealed to us.

This vessel is called Arvut (mutual guarantee). After all, its attribute is reciprocity, mutual reinforcement, interconnection, and mutual care so that no one falls out from the common circle.

Imagine that we are standing on some sharp spire. If we don’t hold each other’s hands and don’t keep the general balance, we will all fall. We are like petals, surrounding the stem of a flower. It is enough for one of us to lose his balance and let go of someone’s hand, and all the petals will “fall.” This is the feeling of mutual guarantee.

Question: What is that “sharp spire?”

Answer: It is the Creator’s supportive force that manifests if we are connected. In the connection among us we find the One.
[61535]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/23/2011, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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When we try to connect, we start feeling that we lack some kind of help from Above because we cannot do it on our own. We can neither connect nor synchronize our movements, but this revelation gives us knowledge of the One Who can do this for us. It can only be the upper force!

And then we reveal the need for the upper one and the place in which He has to act in us. It always works this way in the spiritual world: I work, applying more and more effort, and at the end I reveal a “minus.” And from this minus I discover the “plus” that possibly has what I lack.

I always reveal a lack, a vessel, a desire, and against it I reveal the power, the Light, which can do what I couldn’t. No matter how much I tried, I didn’t manage. So I arrive at the conclusion that I’m unable to do it, but at the same time I see Who can.

That’s why our movements always start off in the negative direction and cause disappointment, tiredness, and anger in us. From the experience of our whole life we can’t understand how this can be. In our egoism we always used to act differently: He who makes an effort wins, succeeds, and receives a reward.

And about the spiritual world it is said: “I labored and found,” and not that I “won,” “earned,” or “stole.” This means that I didn’t achieve this using my own power when I start an action and finish it.

Here it works differently. Thanks to my efforts I reach a certain limit, when nothing turns out right and I fall into despair, leave it, and don’t want anything, feeling completely disappointed, and only then, if I move one millimeter ahead, I reveal that there is a force that can do this!

And this force hides itself deliberately, until I reach a state of total despair. Baal HaSulam writes in his letter: “There isn’t a happier moment in a person’s life than when he reaches the limit of his own powers and sees that there is no success” as only then can he raise a prayer and cry out. He will know Who he has to address—only then will it be revealed to him.

Furthermore, he knows that he doesn’t have a choice: He must cry out. And in reality, nothing more is required but this cry.
[61231]
From Lesson 2, Arvut Convention at the Arava Desert 11/18/2011

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The first person to reveal the secret of life was Adam. Just like us, Adam was searching for the meaning of his life. After his revelation, this secret began to spread from generation to generation, until it reached our time.

We develop constantly and our desire grows steadily. Since each new generation that came was new and possessed a greater desire for pleasure, it was able to add something to the method of revealing the secret of life.

On one hand, this is a very simple thing, and on the other, it’s incredibly difficult. It’s simple because it’s close to everyone, and it’s difficult because it lies beyond our capabilities. It’s as if the Creator stretches out a rope for us to jump over and then puts a wall right behind it, making it impossible to jump.

The thing is that all a person has to do is apply effort, and the Creator will complete the action. Moreover, the person’s action and the Creator’s action have to be synchronized with the group or the environment.

It is very difficult to connect these three components because they each seem to be turning in their own direction and performing their own movements. However, when they actually do come to unite due to the effort on all three parts, this is called “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one.”

A person called “Israel” (straight to the Creator), meaning he who wishes to attain the Creator, acts in accordance with his soul’s root and the program of creation. He overcomes his nature and wishes to act in sync with his environment, which happens to be a collection of individual movements that are in motion together.

The Creator has His own movement. After all, He governs everything. He has a predetermined plan that leads everything toward one goal. For this reason, it’s very difficult to connect all three components into a single point where the initial contact with the upper one occurs. This contact is called adhesion.

Adam was the first person to reveal the method of obtaining unity with the upper one. Clearly there are no coincidences in life, and it was no coincidence that he was called Adam (“similar” to the Creator), although his parents weren’t aware of why they named him as such. He was the first person to reveal the correct method of revealing the Creator.

If we connect all three components into a single point, then through that point we begin to see a different reality. We bring things into focus, similar to when one gets an eye exam, where the three lines in the optical device have to connect in order to see anything. Therein lies our work.
[61237]
From Lesson 2, Arvut Convention at the Arava Desert 11/18/2011

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