All the preventions and delays that appear before our eyes are but a form of nearing—the Creator wants to bring us closer, and all these preventions bring us only nearing, since without them we would have no possibility of approaching Him [the Creator]. This is so because, by nature, there is no greater distance [than us from the Creator], as we are made of pure matter while the Creator is higher than high. Only when one begins to approach does he begin to feel the distance between us [between him and the Creator. And let him not think that this abyss has only appeared now. Absolutely not! It was there, and only now is it revealing itself to him.] And any prevention one overcomes, [it – only in connection] brings the way closer for that person.

(This is so because one grows accustomed to moving on a line of growing farther. Hence, whenever one feels that he is distant, it does not induce any change in the process, since he knew in advance that he is moving on a line of growing farther, since this is the truth, that there are not enough words to describe the distance between us and the Creator) (Baal HaSulam, Shamati 172, “The Matter of Preventions and Delays“).

Initially, we need to accept the condition that we are extremely, polarly, maximally distant from the Creator, and that every new state of ours—whatever it may be, according to a module, in absolute value—is always closer to the Creator, although it seems to us to be further away. After all, I reveal my true state and then correct it—left step, right step, and so on.

We see that only the environment can help a person to hold on and not to stray away from this path. How, when feeling worse, can he convince himself that in reality he is now closer to the Creator? Everything  inside them tells them they are further away and worse. They curse and condemns themselves.

But in fact, what has been revealed to him is simply what was there before, only he saw it now in order to correct it and thereby draw closer to the group and unite with them despite other calculations.

Therefore we need the habit of walking at an increasing distance. After all, if we become great specialists on our path, then every little twist and every small obstacle will appear as big to us.

When we are small, we do not see these obstacles, we do not notice them, and it seems to us that they do not exist at all. And then every small deviation, every minimal change, will be felt as a huge barrier. This is the difference between a specialist and an ordinary person.

Therefore as we approach the Creator, we will repel each other more, and hate each other more, like the students of Rabbi Shimon.

We will not want to get closer; we will begin to condemn the ten, to believe what we feel and see: “How can I be around these people?! They used to be different! I need to get away from them!” And so on. Only mutual help, mutual support, mutual guarantee can save us.

How many friends we have had along the way who fell off our “wagon”! Is it a pity? Of course, they will come back. But we need to think about how every time, with each step, to create such a ten, such a Kli (vessel), that no one would fall from it.
[255013]
From the Congress in Moldova 9/8/19, Lesson 7 “The Matter of Preventions and Delays”

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Praying does not mean gathering together at a certain time, weeping, kneeling, and crying out.

Prayer is a collective, huge, purposeful, correct desire that arises in us under the influence of the upper light, Ohr Makif (surrounding light). Such a desire can manifest itself at any moment, and we will feel it as one common whole, in which the Creator will reveal Himself immediately without any intermediate actions.

The spiritual world is not like ours where people gather in one place and mechanically pray. We work together, attract the upper light, and it tightens the final screw in our common system, “seizing” us as we desired.

Somewhere we acted on it correctly, locked ourselves together, and the upper light manifested in us, which is the quality of bestowal and love. In principle, we achieved this ourselves, and the light appeared because we developed a similarity of form with it.

Therefore, this is not an ordinary, conventional prayer, but a joint action of Kabbalists to create one unified desire, which must be connected, woven, and glued together from their individual desires.
[188414]
From the 3rd Lesson of the Moscow Congress, 5/2/16

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The ascent of the soul and its completion are primarily when all the souls merge and become one, since then they rise to the Kedusha[holiness], since the Kedusha[bestowal] is one. Hence, the prayer [appeal to the Creator for correction], which is the soul, depends primarily on the unity of souls (Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, Likutey Halachot, “Synagogue Rules,” 1).

A prayer is mainly in public [must be in the group, in the ten] and not alone…(Likutey Halachot [Assorted Rules], “Synagogue Rules”).

Of course, we cannot compare all our requests with one another; we are not yet oriented enough to see our efforts—how our vectors are shaped, what they are directed, how we correct each other, how we support each other, and how we form them all into a single flavor.

Therefore it is said that:

A prayer is mainly in public and not alone, so that one will not be separated and alone, as this is the opposite of Kedusha. [bestowal to the Creator]…we must unite the holy congregation together and become one (Likutey Halachot [Assorted Rules], “Synagogue Rules,” Rule One).

This ascent of a common desire precisely from one’s own attempts is complete prayer.

How can we achieve this? This is our primary question, because only through turning to the Creator, “raising MAN, that is, the desire to receive the quality of bestowal that will gather us and reveal the Creator in our unity, can we solve all our problems. And through us, the entire world will feel this revelation.

People will suddenly begin to understand that there is a quality of bestowal in the world, and it is greater than the quality of reception. The quality of reception, that is, our egoism, only conceals the vast, higher, infinite, perfect world from us.
[252976]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/19, Preparation for convention in Moldova “Turning to the Creator”

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Question: How or in what way is the quality of bestowal manifested and revealed in the group? Is it in thoughts, actions, joint work, or sensations? Could you describe the feeling of a person who is in a corrected group where the quality of bestowal has been revealed?

Answer: A group is in the right state if, at every moment, it finds the strength within itself to straighten itself toward the direction of the quality of bestowal. That is, there are always descents and ascents occurring in it, in different people at different times, but there is always an opportunity to grab onto one of the friends, to pull oneself up, and in this way two or three of them pull up the rest.

Your boat was wrecked? But even in this half-broken boat if one person remains, he saves all the others. That is called the right group.

If you act in this way, you are clearly moving toward the goal, and then everything will be fine with you.
[86054]
From the Kharkov Convention “Uniting To Ascend” 8/17/12, Lesson 3

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If one does not have any desire or craving for spirituality, if he is among people who have a desire and craving for spirituality, if he likes these people, (only under this condition!) he, too, will take their strength to prevail, and their desires and aspirations, although by his own quality, he does not have these desires and cravings and the power to overcome. But according to the grace and the importance he ascribes to (his environment) these people (who are around him), he will receive new powers (for the spiritual ascent) (Baal HaSulam, Shamati 99, “He Did Not Say Wicked or Righteous”).

This is simply a law. And if someone does not want to do it, I can repeat RABASH’s words to him: “Go back to your normal life and enjoy it. Enjoy food, sex, family, money, fame, power, travel, and entertainment.”

Either you put all your strength into spiritual attainment, as written in Kabbalistic sources, or leave this path and live an animal life, at least you will enjoy it as an animal. Otherwise, you will lose both. This is called “a fool sits idly by” unable to do what is required of him for spiritual attainment, and “gnaws at himself.”

Unfortunately, I see a lot of such people. Let us hope that from now on, we will change our perspective and move forward correctly.

Rather, it is one person who can help another by seeing that one’s friend is low. It is written, “One does not deliver oneself from imprisonment.” Rather, it is one’s friend who can lift his spirit (RABASH, “Each One Shall Help His Friend”).

That is, we should not forget that in spirituality, all our advancement is possible only through the strength we receive from the environment. All human strength is physical strength in this world. To ascend into spirituality, I must receive strength only from the group. I do not have an ounce of strength to move forward alone. Every bit of strength I receive from the group propels me toward the Creator.
[41825]
From the International Kabbalah Congress 4/3/11, New Jersey “We!” Congress, Lesson 8

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We all understand how important prayer is, which emanates from our connection with each other, from a common heart. It has the power to rise directly to the Creator and enter into Him so that He will feel that we are all directed in only one direction: toward the connection between us and Him. Let’s hope that we will be able to do this. May the Creator help us!

The main thing is to achieve the right prayer, the right desire, by uniting all hearts into one heart, and from it raise our request to the Creator. We will try to create this common force, which is all directed at the Creator, and it will help us rise to the Creator and embrace each other. And then we will surely receive the same answer from Him. The Creator will embrace us all together and unite us into one body with this embrace.

Proper prayer is a request that comes from our common heart and reaches the “heart” of the highest level. Each of us joins this common heart, which aspires directly to the Creator and is included in Him. We have no other desire, and there is no other place for us but to feel ourselves at this central point of connection between all of us and in union with the Creator.

The task of every person at the congress is to find a way to unite with his ten and all the other tens into one big spiritual Kli, and to unite this common Kli with the Creator. That is, to unite into “one man with one heart” and thereby reveal the Creator.

We all cancel ourselves out and want to unite together into one desire in order to feel and reveal the Creator in this desire. Even if we are still far from each other, our desire to unite will bring us closer and raise our bond to the height of “one man with one heart.” And from this point, we will feel fused with the Creator into one whole.
[349101]
From the International Kabbalah Convention 10/9/25, “In One Prayer,” Lesson 1

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Prayer must be in a group, otherwise the Creator will not hear it. We learn this from the structure of the ten Sefirot, from all of our spiritual work.

The Creator is Keter (the crown), above which there is what is called Kutso shel Yud, the highest point of Keter, the highest Sefira. That is contact with Him.

Only after I “grasp” all my friends, am ready to include them in myself and do everything necessary for them to agree to unite, am ready to be the lowest, the smallest in relation to them, then I can hope that they will respond to me in kind and a group will be formed, i.e., a structure in which the quality of bestowal, the Creator, will be revealed.

In this movement it doesn’t matter how much I fall, because advancement cannot be continuous. It is always start-stop, like the swinging of a pendulum in a clock. We cannot swallow a great egoism and rise above it, then take on another great egoism and rise again. We can only work with milliseconds, microseconds. It is by such micro-doses that we move forward.

Therefore, to the extent that we have mutual guarantee (Arvut) and the support of the group, we can receive a greater descent from the Creator and accordingly make a greater ascent.

Our descent comes from the Creator. It is always calculated by Him in advance so that we can rise voluntarily and consciously. He never gives us descents in which we collapse without knowing where we have fallen. They are always, as in a mother-child relationship, measured and precisely calibrated so that by gathering ourselves a little after the fall, we can find some strength within and begin to rise again.

So we must not think that the Creator wants to break us. He only wants to lower us slightly so that we may see the next level of our already broken egoism and begin to raise it. Just as we draw water from a well bucketful by bucketful, lifting it upward, that is how we work.

The fact that we seemingly lose the higher degree is not a loss, but precisely the first stage of ascent, the left side. Movement forward begins with the left foot, with the revelation of evil that the Creator prepared in advance. Then comes its compensation by the right line. That is how we advance.

That is why Baal HaSulam says that as soon as we wake up in the morning, we must immediately take upon ourselves the work of uniting with one another and with the Creator, from that very moment. This is extremely important! If I keep this thought in me at all times, then everything works out quickly and easily.
[254251]
From the International Kabbalah Congress in Moldova 9/7/19, Lesson 4

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It is said in the “Assorted Rules” that “a prayer is mainly in public and not alone, so that one will not be separated and alone, as this is the opposite of Kedusha. Rather, we must unite the holy congregation together and become one.” And this prayer in the society, precisely when they gather together and wish to unite the souls, is the perfect prayer.

Now we are in a state where we can achieve the connection of our desires and form the common desire called a prayer.

This is not about the prayer that people raise in temples or churches. A prayer is shared common desire in spite of the egoistic separation, when we rise above it and try to connect our impulses toward the Creator, so that together, precisely together, between us, in the common desire, in which there is no longer each one of us, we reveal the Creator.

That is why we gather at such events as a convention. Its main essence is to create conditions that we may ask together. And everything else we can receive without coming to such gatherings.

We must correctly use every opportunity given to us: to rise every moment above all disturbances to connection between us, and in this connection to express the request to the Creator, that He reveal Himself in us as the quality of bestowal. My feeling of others and caring for them with all my natural abilities is what is called “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Therefore, Baal HaSulam writes: “Turn away from all the imaginary engagements and set your hearts on thinking thoughts and devising proper tactics to truly connect your hearts as one.” Then you will find yourselves in love, which covers all crimes.

I very much ask you: do this. Begin to unite in true love, and you will discover within yourselves the Ta’amim (tastes), that is, the lights, which enter into you.
[252996]
From the Moldova Kabbalah Congress, 9/5/19, Lesson 0

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Question: What happens to the heart? Why does it close itself off in prayer? Yesterday, it begged and pleaded with the Creator, and today, the mind dictates prayer. Does the heart really need pain and blows to make it speak?

Answer: If you felt real pain and blows, you would respond appropriately. But so far, nothing has been done.

Question: Is what we say from our mind considered prayer?

Answer: No.

Question: So how do you make your heart speak?

Answer: Force it. Put pressure on the heart.
[349080]
From the International Kabbalah Convention 10/11/25, “In One Prayer,” Lesson 5

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Question: What is the prayer of the ten? Is it to unite with one another and with the Creator?

Answer: It is a prayer when we, together in the ten, ask the Creator to unite us with each other and with Him.

In this case we truly unite in one desire directed toward the source of creation, that is, toward the state that the Creator has determined for us so that from this unified desire and unified intention we can turn to Him.

Then He will hear us, take our Hisaron, our common desire, and will fill it with His light, with Himself.
[348846]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/7/25, “Preparation for Opening the Heart at the Congress”

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