I am receiving many letters where people share their impressions of the last Convention:

“The Convention was incredible, something totally new! For the first time I felt that we are truly one. In comparison to the previous conventions when I felt that I was involved in something, this time I felt we all became this something. Yet, not everything is fully clarified and discerned: What is right and how to make it right?

I didn’t feel disappointed; rather, I felt that our work wasn’t complete and the place where we got stuck was not discerned. I got to experience and realize (after your explanations) that the goal of our unity was incorrect, for the ‘Pharaoh’s sake,’ for our egoism.

It is absolutely unclear how to acquire the clue and the aiming point in order to make a correct request, although some hint seems to have been evidently provided, and it just has to be excavated from under the heap of all that we have received. And it is quite possible that we received only one clue but from different angles and for the time being we are unable to connect the points to see the whole and clearly comprehend it.”

“I would like to describe just a few things I experienced consciously. The greatest one was right after the program on the second day of the Convention: We were sitting in the hotel room way after midnight and didn’t want to leave; there was almost a physical sensation of some field between us, like the dough that glues us together and fills all the space with love. Once it has manifested, it either increases or practically disappears, yet we clearly feel that it exists and there is a chance to uncover it. This also brought up many questions about the essence of oneness and how we may merge with this field if we are totally unable to do so.”
[26807]

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Question: I feel that we can increase the speed and raise our unity to its true height without waiting for the next Convention. How can we do that?

Answer: We are not waiting for the next Convention. We must overcome all the gaps and distances right now. Every person must imagine the place inside of him where our desires unite, and inside them we will reveal the spiritual world, the Creator!

Our common effort to unite together through our desires, our points in the heart, and the demand for the Creator to be revealed between us and to unite us, will make it happen. We don’t have to wait for a Convention to make it happen!
[27193]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/21/10, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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Question: In the book A Vision of Goodness, it is written: “And know that man has to study the four levels of PARDES: Pshat, Remez, Drush, Sod, and reincarnate until he fulfills them.” Do we really need to go through so many reincarnations until we learn the entire PARDES (the simple explanation, the allegory, the hint, and the secret), in order to reach the end of correction?

Answer: We need to reach “Pshat,” the simple explanation of the Torah. So far we have been studying “Sod,” the hidden, secret meaning. “Sod” means that I am studying, but I understand nothing; it is a secret to me.

When the secret becomes slightly clearer, it turns into “Remez” (a hint), then into “Drush” (the allegorical explanation, an allegory), and then into “Pshat” (a simple explanation). There are four worlds: Assiya, Yetzira, Beria, and Atzilut. Right now I am studying the entrance into the World of Assiya; I still do not understand anything, and this means that I am studying the secret, “Sod.”

Once I transition from the World of Assiya into a higher world, the World of Yetzira, I will study “Drush.” In the World of Beria I will study “Remez,” and in the World of Atzilut “Pshat.”

“Pshat” is the greatest attainment, when there is no concealment at all, and everything is clear, open, simple, and obvious. All the Lights fill all the Kelim (vessels), I know and understand everything!

Every person needs to attain this in his or her soul, but on his own level, until his complete correction.
[26779]
From Lesson 3, World Kabbalah Convention 2010, 11/9/10

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Question: How do we resume the aspiration for spirituality after the Convention?

Answer: At the Convention you felt an obstacle that is getting in your way – Pharaoh. This was the first time you encountered it and you understood what the ten plagues are: We want to achieve the connection with others, but we are being pushed back.

Now we need to understand that in response to the blow that we received, we must develop our own desire equal to the force of rejection. This only comes through unity with the friends while studying, where our study becomes an appeal for the unity of desires.

We already have a deficiency and impression from the collision with egoism (Pharaoh), the egoism that separates me from spirituality. It’s as if I literally hit a wall that’s between myself and the Upper World, and this wall is that potential negative force that has pushed me back.

I received a blow, but I have to discern that I am egoism, and if I am able to rise above this blow through faith above reason and develop an opposite force, then I will advance into this structure, into the wall. Then the next blow will come, and so on, and this is how I will pass the Machsom (the barrier that separates us from spirituality), which has five levels of depth (Aviut) or ten Sefirot, just like any phenomenon in spirituality.

We have already begun this attack, and every time it will become clearer to us what we need to attain and what we need to fight. Now I need to distinguish the disappointment, pain, the blow, and the rejection in me, and instead of relating it to me, relate it to the Pharaoh within me.

When I am united with the group, the blow does not hit me, I am above the rejection and disappointment. This helps me distinguish the “I” who strives towards the Creator and the Pharaoh (the “I” in me).

But what should I do with the disappointment and helplessness? Ask the Creator for help! I finally need Him now, but not before. Before we used to think that we can attain unity with the group, the mutual guarantee, and the revelation on our own.

We never accepted the Creator as the third main force which does the entire work. That is what it is called: the Creator’s work (Avodat Hashem). We only evoke it.
[26782]
From Kabbalah for Beginners, “Yearning” 11/15/10

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Question: How does the science of Kabbalah say I should relate to the things that threaten my life, such as war, a terrorist attack, falling rockets, or just a regular criminal attack?

Answer: While we are still uncorrected, we have to live in this corresponding, uncorrected world of ours while correcting ourselves and thereby correcting the world. In the meantime every person should behave according to what is accepted in society and the world.

At the same time, each of us must correct himself and thereby reveal the Upper Force, the quality of bestowal and love inside him and in the world. To the degree he makes this revelation, our enemies will gradually become our friends and all the bad things will disappear.

However, for now we have to behave in accordance with our uncorrected qualities. All my haters and enemies are the evil that’s inside me, which becomes revealed on the outside in this manner. I project them to the outside and that is why they exist.

However, if instead of them I see the Creator standing behind them, then they suddenly become inseparable parts of me. Therefore, we shouldn’t be afraid. What we have to do is perform corrections.

I am certain that nothing bad can happen to a person if he is always aimed at “there is none else besides Him.”
[27109]
From Lesson 7, World Kabbalah Convention 2010, 11/11/10

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Shamati #1: It is written, “there is none else besides Him.” This means that there is no other force in the world that has the ability to do anything against Him.

There is a single Upper Force that governs the whole universe. And what man sees, that there are things in the world that deny the Higher Household…in other words, it seems to us that there are many opposing forces operating in the world that overpower one another, and that it is possible to receive help from one force in order to oppose another, using this “multiple power.” …the reason is that this is His will.

This one force, which has total power, wants us to become so confused by the multitude of forces, desires, kinds, and qualities, so that from within this mess we would start to gather the only existing force ourselves. It seems to us that this life is multi-faceted and complex, but we have to bring it to one desire, one goal, and one operating force.

It’s similar to how we teach children by giving them exercises where they have to assemble and fix something that’s broken, not ready, or incomplete. They have to correct it and complete it on their own. That is how we have to act at every moment of our lives.

It seems to us that it is very difficult to work hard in life and to make efforts, but if we did just one thing behind all of these material actions — if we completed the Upper Force in order to see that He is the only one who acts, then we would not need to do anything else!

We work in the material world to produce many things, but in reality we are simply running away from solving the only, tiny problem: to discern that behind all of these problems, details, thoughts, and discernments, there is one force standing opposite me. There is me and Him, and between us He has built all of these decorations that confuse me so that through them I would find my way to Him and feel that they come to me form Him! This is called clarification.

If at every moment of my life, no matter what I do, whether I am talking to someone, someone is attacking me, or on the contrary, someone approaches me in a good way, or something happens to my health, money, or status at work or in my family, if behind every occurrence I try to reveal the Creator, then I will begin to unite everything into one net as if making an embroidery. I will begin seeing and revealing this system of connections: His program and attitude to me through all of these people and all the possible life situations.

I will suddenly understand what happened in the past and will start to see what He will do to me in the future. He slightly lets me see what needs to be done with various problems, teaching me like a small child. I have to accept this life only as a quest for Him — to look for Him and find Him! After all the efforts I make, I should always see that there is none else besides Him and everything comes only from Him!

This has to happen to such a degree that when I am in the most difficult and unpleasant situation, when I reach total despair and exhaustion, and I am completely unable to connect it to the Creator, I nevertheless begin to aim it toward the Creator and to look for the reason why this has come to me in this form and where it came from. Then I reveal how wonderful it is….

I begin to put all of the components of the general picture in order and suddenly discover that He has set everything up only for my own good to help me reach newer revelations! Eventually I reveal that everything around me is one interconnected net of His attitude toward me through the entire universe and through all the Upper Worlds. I am surrounded by a force field of His love, and I am at its center. This is called the revelation of the Creator to the creatures.
[27117]
From Lesson 7, World Kabbalah Convention 2010, 11/11/10

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Question: During the Convention we really wanted to attain the goal, and then we discovered that our ego would not let us do it. Why won’t the Creator answer our prayers and let us rise above this mountain of egoism? Why are we unable to do this?

Answer: The Creator is the general force of bestowal. He created our force of reception. These two forces stand one opposite the other like stringers of a ladder with rungs in between.

As you correspond to a higher step, you ascend to it, advancing to a new degree one step at a time. Everything is in your hands. You have been given a key to nature in order to change your own nature and make it similar to that of the Upper One.

You ascend as soon as you become similar to it, but when you are different from it, then you remain in the same place. It does not depend on the Creator, His desire is constant; He is Good and does Good. The Creator does not change, this force is absolute and invariable.

But in order to let you ascend, the Creator divided the entire path into steps or states. Every time that you are like the Upper degree, you ascend to it, and as you become even more like it, you continue to ascend higher. Between each step, you have to prepare yourself for the following step, and this way you continue ascending each time.

You have no one to pray to, no one to ask. This is why you can’t object: “Why won’t the Creator help me? Where is He? Where did He go? What is going on? What else does He want me to do?” Essentially, when you pray and ask, you are judging yourself in relation to the Upper Light that shines for everyone in an equal, constant, and unchanging manner. Everyone can take as much as he wants from it.

It is written about the Creator: “I do not change my HaVaYaH,” “There is none else beside Him,” “The Good Who does Good.” He does not change. When you correlate your properties to His, as if He were thinking about or reacting to your cries, then you are making all of it up. Throughout history people have been attributing human characteristics to forces of nature: the wind, the rain, the moon, as well as the Creator. But this does not exist!

We are working against nature. Kabbalists explain to us that Nature where we exist has its own laws. In Hebrew, the numerical value (Gematria) of “nature” and “Creator” is the same. We can use these laws and continue to ascend its degrees time after time until we reach the universal Nature referred to as the level of Bina, the Creator (Elokim).

This is why it is clear to me that if I have not yet received it, then the problem is in me. I have no one to fear and no one to ask.

It is correct to say that the Creator rules over us. Doesn’t nature rule over us? Yes it does. Tsunamis, hurricanes, and other natural disasters occur, and it is surely nature’s rule over us!

In nature, there are two opposite forces which constantly collide and battle: the force of bestowal and that of reception. It all happens according to the program that leads us towards the purpose of creation. In the beginning these forces are completely opposite, but they gradually become closer until they unite. This is the process of development in nature.

This is why you have no one to work with but the group. You can change yourself through the group and make your properties similar to those of nature. The group is an adapter between your desire, which you do not control, and the Creator, whom you cannot control either. The group, the society, the environment, is your only power; it is the only thing you can change.

Hence, if instead of advancing unconsciously according to nature’s program that leads the entire creation towards unity with the Creator, I want to change something; if I want to advance towards Him on my own, and not by nature’s cruel forces, then I only have one choice: to work with my environment.
[26815]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/17/10, The Zohar

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What does it mean to reach Infinity? When I enter Infinity, I become Malchut of the World of Infinity, which means I contain everyone within myself. After all, “love your neighbor as yourself” means that all those whom I now see and feel as outsiders become essential components of my soul. My soul receives back all its parts, scattered and distanced from it, and it becomes a whole, completed soul.

Everything that seems to exist outside of me, such as still objects (imagine that you are swallowing all the stars!), are related to the still level of your egoistic desire, all plants are related to its vegetative level, and all beasts to its animate level. All of it is an imprint of your egoistic desire that is showing you all of these things as if they are located outside of you.

However, as soon as you start growing an organ, an attribute of bestowal, you start seeing them as existing within you. They are all your parts, and you feel that it is true. For the time being, however, it is difficult for you to comprehend since you live inside your ego and only inside it.

Physicists claim that even when you are watching some object from a distance, the act of observing affects what is observed. Hence, you see it not as it truly is, but as something that was averaged out from your own attributes and true reality. After all, everything you see, you perceive in relation to your own qualities. Everything depends on your sensory organs and how you decode what you have “seen.”

However, some day, after long contemplation, questions, and discernments, you suddenly will feel that everything is quite different. You will see it from a different angle, and then you will understand that this new vision is true. It is as if you put on a new pair of glasses.
[26526]
From Lesson 6, World Kabbalah Convention 2010, 11/10/10

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Question: Can one ask for the point of the heart to become revealed in a dear one?

Answer: Our development is similar to that of an embryo in a mother’s womb. Every part develops with a certain speed and in a certain order. We do not understand why this happens, but as we study the Sefirot and the three lines – KHB, HGT, and NHY – this development becomes more clear to us (this is explained in detail in The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Parts 11 and 12).

I cannot speak to the individual beginning of development as this depends upon the root of the individual’s soul. My children or grandchildren may have nothing to do with Kabbalah and may be indifferent towards the spiritual, while a person awakens somewhere in Alaska and cannot live without it.

This depends on whether the soul has reached its development. This is why I should not pray for the Creator to change this common “embryo’s” order of development. I should only work within the group as much as possible. Our main objective is to attain unity between us!

Through this we will pour a fresh, fast, and strong flow of blood into this developing fetus. We will accelerate the common development, and everyone will develop faster as they keep their proper order. This is why we must accelerate our development and through this accelerate the general development .

[26541]
From Lesson 8, World Kabbalah Convention 2010, 11/11/10

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The good and bad states are not defined according to the pleasure we feel from them. States can be good or bad either according to sensations or from the perspective of truth and falsehood. Every person who begins to develop his spiritual gene (the spark, Reshimo) perceives every state both ways.

According to his desire, a person perceives the state either as “sweet” or “bitter” because the desire is an “animal,” a simple matter. However, according to the spiritual spark, he perceives his state as true or false.

Further, everything depends on how important truth or bitterness is to us; it is more important to one person, less important to another. Our advancement depends on our ability to tolerate bitterness for the sake of the truth.

Let’s say that today, I can take ten pounds of bitterness and still I will hold to the truth. This means that I am ready to go forward. Tomorrow, I will be ready to take even fifteen pounds of bitterness. Bitterness means that it is against my nature, the desire to receive pleasure, as it happened during the last convention when we tried to connect and got scared, “Anything but this!”

However, when we know that the truth is in this connection and we want to rise over our bitterness, then we will be able to do it next time. We will be able to make a calculation according to truth and falsehood.

Even though I am not ready to connect, and it hurts and scares me to break my ego and rise over it, I still see that it is false, and I hate it. I can no longer remain in it.

So far, we do not have this hatred, but it will appear. Then we will break the impure shell, Klipa, and we will go on. We just need time to do this.
[26837]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/17/10, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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