Question: What’s the use of the group’s seclusion at the Convention in the Arava desert?

Answer: We have gathered here to lay the foundation for a new society, whose purpose is to attain adhesion with the Creator. In order to attain adhesion with Him, we have to attain adhesion among us. And in order to attain adhesion among us, we have to unite, disconnecting from the disturbances of the outside world. After all, we’re small and we have to strengthen one another, so let the world not interfere with our doing so. That is why we are going to the desert.

In the past, groups of Kabbalists took much more extraordinary measures to isolate themselves from the external environment. A person has to allow himself a bit more freedom from this confused and senseless world, to collect himself inside a bit more and understand what his predestination is.

In the whirlwind of life, under the roar of the radio and television, you can’t make out the fine voice of your soul or attain the fragile inner inspiration. You simply don’t have the energy for it. Even Kabbalists living hundreds and thousands of years ago in a completely different world, which did not know the “wonders” of mass media, still secluded themselves, barring themselves from their habitual environment, and even “going into exile,” leaving home without taking anything with them and going off to wander for years, getting by with occasional earnings and food.

You don’t even know what you are losing in the modern world, which is stuffing and miring you with its filth. Do you want to attain something exalted? If you do, then what efforts are you making to break away from the lowlands?

It’s worthwhile for us to find time for this kind of seclusion where we will feel only our own forces, without the disturbances of the outside world. Let’s separate a day in life to feel who we are instead of who they are.

Obviously, we don’t force anyone to participate and we don’t make lists of participants or deserters. We don’t put check-marks for the future. Whoever doesn’t want to or can’t come just doesn’t come. In this sense, everything is very liberal and open. But on the other hand, if a person comes there, he has to participate in the actions that the group has assigned to help us detach from everything and feel only ourselves.

Don’t you sometimes wish to be alone with yourself? That is how the group wants to be alone with itself, to feel itself. You enter a room, close the door, and remain with your own thoughts. That is how we want to remain with our thoughts. In reality, this is clear and commonly accepted. But for us it’s not just a minute of rest, but a detachment from “the degree of women and children” and an ascent to the “men’s level.”

In the article, “The importance of the group,” Rabash writes, “When a person works on the true path, he needs to seclude himself from other people. After all, the path of truth requires fortification because it contradicts common notions. The world’s opinions are built upon knowledge and reception, whereas the Torah’s opinions are built upon faith and bestowal. And if a person is distracted, then he immediately forgets about all work on the path of the truth and falls into the world of self-love. Only in the group do the friends help one another, and therefore every person receives forces from it to fight the commonly accepted notions.”

The upper world is our inner world. We have to shift our gaze from externality to internality. Therefore, with the help of the friends, I try to go inside, to look inward, to acquire a deep wisdom, to attain the inner meaning of the Torah. There is no other choice—I need this.

A person must constantly immerse himself inward, penetrate into his depths—and precisely there he reveals the true world. The external world deliberately confuses us so through the conflict with it, upon the resistance, we would build our direction inward. Our struggle is to penetrate deeper and deeper on the background of this world’s reality, which pulls us outward.
[60927]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/16/11, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Our main work is to rise above our thoughts and desires, to manage to separate from them, and to ascend to the height where we all exist together, where the soul is. There is only one soul in the world.

This is why it is written that before receiving the Torah, the sons of Israel had to abstain for three days. Each one was trying to rise above all their corporeal concerns, thoughts, desires, and calculations in order to dedicate themselves only to the higher goal.

It is very difficult and requires dedicated, meticulous work, similar to picking up tiny grains until we get all of them, one by one, and our egoistic calculations end, until useless thoughts and desires stop awakening in a person, which pull him in different directions. Then, he will be more or less ready to include himself in thoughts and desires of the environment.

This austerity and abstinence, the enormous effort a person makes to prepare himself, is not a simple thing. A person must break his ego, come out of himself, pull himself off his position with actual physical effort, and become physically included in others. Then, he has to try to lower his head and accept their spirit from them, which will influence him. He cannot allow any freedom to his thoughts because they can throw him back outside the limits of the society, the group.

A person must lower himself and force himself to concentrate so as to put everything under the power of the environment, in both the corporeal form and on the inside, spiritually, in thoughts, in the desire. He must lose himself! He must let that which exists in the environment influence him so that no heart or mind would remain within him, and the only thing controlling him would be whatever exists in the environment.

This is the first stage of preparation in becoming included in one another. If we are able to do this, we can begin to speak of the influence of the upper force, the power of the group.

The group is not the physical formation that we imagine; it is not a group of physical bodies. The inner force of the group will influence us together with the Light that Reforms that exists in the group, gives sanctity to everyone, and enables them to rise above themselves. Then in this ascent a person will begin to feel the general force that fills the universe, and he will be able to understand what was written.

For this reason, during our convention and at least three days before it (and we should begin to accustom ourselves to it today), the most important thing for us is to be above all foreign thoughts and calculations and to limit ourselves to necessities that leave us no choice. Act through faith above reason in every regard.

Especially during the last three days before the convention, we must begin a real attack, days of abstinence, both physical and in thoughts and desires, so that we have only one aspiration and feel the least amount of disturbances.
[60638]
From Lesson 1, Israel Arvut Convention, 11/11/2011

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Question: We only reveal the Creator, the force of bestowal, when we become similar to Him in our qualities. Then what is the meaning of the principle, “don’t lose hope in His mercy?”

Answer: It means that one has appealed a thousand times, like King David who symbolizes the collective Malchut, the collective vessel, one that is deeper than the Psalms reveal. Read them. They are all his appeals and requests, praises and lamentations. This is the meaning of “do not lose hope in His mercy.” Try to express and realize your lamentation the same way, and then you will come to a final blessing.

Question: So it turns out that the Creator is waiting for us to scream at the top of our lungs?

Answer: It is written that the Creator is waiting for prayers and a broken heart, that He likes people whose hearts are broken, and that He receives a lot of pleasure from your tears. This is because your tears are a sign of egoism’s weakness and your disappointment in it.

We receive blows from egoism, not the Creator. However, it takes time to understand that. Really, what do you want from the Creator if you are being hit by your evil inclination?

This is why we need to strictly determine that our place of work is the group. Only then will we reach a true prayer, and naturally, it will happen through a number of disappointments.
[60648]
From Lesson 3, Israel Arvut Convention, 11/11/2011

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Question: At the December convention, will it be possible to make a huge leap in the inner worlds?

Answer: We do not make a leap at the convention, but we go from our lowest state, which does not even have a name and does not belong to the spiritual ladder, to the first degree on it. This is not a leap.

We have to understand the difference between our preliminary work, which takes place before we step onto the ladder of the spiritual degrees, and work on these degrees. The preliminary work is very group-oriented. I include myself in others, they influence me and I influence them. I don’t have my own spiritual individuality yet. I don’t exist as a spiritual individual yet.

Therefore, if I include myself into thousands of people who are around me, I receive their opinions, desires and forces, and like in our world I use the capabilities that society has, which enables me to reduce my path a great deal. It’s analogous to taking an uneducated person from the jungle and teaching him to be a prince, like in the musical My Fair Lady.

We can all receive support from the common brain and the common heart, from our inclusion in one another. When I become included in the general field that others create and in which all Kabbalists of past generations take part, all souls, the entire common soul, then I receive the forces enabling me to make the leap.

It turns out that others worked for 20 years to attain the spiritual level while I came just a couple of years ago (or maybe 3 or 4 years ago, since every person requires a minimal time period), yet everything depends on my desire. I can become included in this common unity and ascend together with everyone.

There is a saying that goes, “Ask Me and I will render,” which means we can receive the spiritual state in advance and pay for it afterwards. This is possible.

But when a person already starts rising up the spiritual levels, a more individual development occurs there. Even though it also presupposes mutual inclusion with others, there a person starts consciously working with the Light and discerning desires.

Therefore, those who do not have spiritual attainment yet can adhere to society the way a small child holds on to an adult. Everything depends on a person’s efforts: He has the opportunity to participate in the convention and enter spirituality by virtue of the whole system.

Similarly, we also don’t repeat the corrections that the great people of the past generations completed. We are like little children they lift in their arms, allowing us to rise even higher. We are standing upon the platform they created.

And the same thing will happen with the beginners who join us at the convention: They will receive the same kind of support from us, from their “previous generations.”
[60635]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/13/11, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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The moment we enter the convention hall, we should immediately connect to the great, collective desire, be ready for connection, and expect that it will happen here and now! We must think that it will necessarily happen here and now (as it is said about waiting for the arrival of the Messiah everyday). This calls forth the action, and it really happens.

It isn’t enough just to come to the convention—we must prepare for it. It is a good idea to study the convention material. Surprising you with new ideas there is not part of my plan. Conversely, the more familiar you are with the material and the more I speak of seemingly known things, in response to our desire directed at what you have read, heard, and studied, I will be able to bring really new explanations.

I would like to see people at the convention who understand, feel the material, and know in advance what I am going to say. The topics of the lessons and sources they are based on can be found in convention preparation material. We have to study it because there shouldn’t be any surprises. All our advancement should take place internally, by connecting and revealing new states.

This is called advancement. The words of the material can be the same, but the impression they leave and the depth they reveal will be new. We will feel them in a new way and on a new level.

Hence, we should study the material and songs by heart so that they are familiar to all of us. This is very important. If having tasted something we then taste it again, it seems pleasant and new. But when we taste something for the first time, we barely sense the taste.

The same is said about a sin: The first transgression isn’t considered a sin because the person didn’t know what would happen and simply tried it. But as soon as one has “tasted” and wants to continue, like Adam who said about the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge: “I ate and shall eat more!”—then this is already a problem.

Hence, we should “taste” the materials of the convention in advance so that at the convention itself, we will “continue to eat” and discover the real taste. It isn’t enough that we read half a page and think we’re ready. We have to build the vessels, our tools of perception, and arrange them just like kneading and warming dough. This is how we must warm ourselves. The general preparation determines whether we will feel something or not.

The more prepared we are, the faster we’ll be able to attain, both in heart and mind. If both are operating correctly, we will achieve revelation.
[59546]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/2/2011, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

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Question: How can we practically unite our sparks at the December convention?

Answer: You should arrive at the convention with the sparks already united. This is what is meant by preparation.

Why am I going to the convention? I am going there to evoke inner unity with others through various external actions, to be included in that spiritual vessel where we are all waiting for the revelation of the Creator. All our preparation is aimed at the unification of those sparks.

All my desires and thoughts are directed at the goal, at the revelation of the spiritual world, the upper degree, eternity and perfection, something great and boundless. I have to select all my hopes and bring them towards unity with others. Only by having united our yearning for the higher degree all together, will we feel the common vessel that is created from these individual impulses and the Light that fills it.

This is the preparation: to arrive at the convention with the desire that is already formed, clarified, and burning inside.
[60326]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/10/2011, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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Arvut Convention, Lesson 1
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Arvut Convention, Lesson 2
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Arvut Convention, Lesson 3
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Question: How can we connect the scheme of the universe that we have been studying in our lesson with making a decision about going to the convention in December?

Answer: Essentially, the structure of the universe holds the answer to all our questions.

When we unite our broken souls, we rise to the world of Atzilut. Our attempts to unite draw the upper Light of correction to shine upon us. It exists above the Parsa. It is impossible to receive the Light below the Parsa. Our only salvation is to rise to the world of Atzilut through common unity. Therefore, participation in the convention is an occasion to rise above the Parsa and sense the upper world.

You can invite all people to the convention, those who are distant or close to Kabbalah and mutual guarantee. The material at the convention will not be hard. We will study and realize the system of uniting. We will try to come closer to one another in order to reach such a potential, to reach such compression between us that will allow us reveal the upper Light. This is our task.

Therefore, any person who thinks that this is good for him has the opportunity and the right to come. I hope that we will succeed at this convention and will sense the beginning of the revelation of the upper Light within the mutual guarantee between us.
[60132]
From the Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 10/30/2011

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The Reshimot (informational genes) get activated, and desire, life, awakens in me. So, why do many students fall asleep during the lesson and lose interest? Where is their desire? After all, everything depends on our desire, and our desire depends on the Light.

The Light moves away, as it is written: “Hide not Thy face far from me.” And to the extent that the Light retreats, a person gradually falls asleep, until he finally dies. Everything depends on the extent of the distancing of the Light. We are only the result of the influence of the Light.

Therefore, there is just one action and means to influence us: the correct environment. Through it, we awaken the Light. Then, we will be ready for its influence, and our advancement will be faster, welcome, and pleasant.

We are drawing closer to bestowal all the time, to the point when we become similar to the Creator and merge with Him, with all His attributes. If we are within our egoism unconsciously and, without any preliminary preparation, need to receive the influence of the Light that advances us to bestowal, all stages of our development occur through suffering.

Our life is sweetened a bit just seldom, in childhood, when our advancement comes without blows on the way. In this way, nature helps us and lets us advance through the Light of Hassadim (Mercy). However, usually, we are pushed from behind toward advancement through blows and suffering.

If you prepare yourself to receive the future forms of development as desirable (since each new form is greater bestowal), then these future forms won’t appear to you as great darkness. This is similar to that same darkness and uncertainty that you feel now when you are in a descent.

However, even in the darkness, you won’t consider it a descent. The night (“Orta” in Aramaic) is the opposite side of the Light (Ohr), from which I now move to the right side, as it is written: “The night shineth as the day.” Everything depends on your preparation. Then, you relate to the same stages with understanding, awareness, and desire, and we can go through them faster.

You grasp these stages quickly. You need to stay at each state until you process it and feel that you must pass to the next one. Reshimot from the next level will begin to awaken in you. This is how we advance.

Let us hope that thanks to the preparation for the convention and during the convention itself, we will attain the great Light, process a lot of Reshimot, and build the Kli (vessel) on a spiritual level. This is really in our hands.
[59989]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/6/2011, TES

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Question: To what extent can the convention awaken the dormant informational genes (Reshimot) in a person?

Answer: We can only awaken our informational genes (Reshimot) due to the influence of the environment. Without the influence of the environment, the Reshimot awaken according to the driving force of natural development, which pushes us from behind through suffering, according to nature’s evolution. Everything arrives, as they say, “in its time (Beito).”

However, if instead of evolving at a natural pace we want to accelerate time (Achishena) and hasten our development through our efforts, then we need to draw the Light upon us. The stronger the Light, the faster our Reshimot awaken. And thus we advance faster.

The Light illuminates us from Above, and the Reshimot react to it and awaken from below. We can influence the Light by arousing it, and then it also awakens our Reshimot faster. This is our entire work; we are unable to do anything else.

From this we can understand that the convention can be a very effective means to awaken the Surrounding Light that reforms. If all of us want to reach our future state, the state of mutual guarantee and bestowal, then the great Light that is attracted by this desire will awaken the Reshimot in us. In this way we will accelerate our development.
[59996]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/6/2011, TES

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