Question: When I annul myself, do I begin to see the negative qualities of my friends as positive? Or do I still see them as negative, but it does not matter, I justify them nevertheless?

Answer: Negative qualities do not disappear. The Creator created them so that we could rise above them and begin to love them just like the positive ones. It is not that I agree with them; I rise above them and then connect with them. That is, here we have a lot of mutual, joint work.

Therefore, there is no need to do anything with both negative and positive qualities. We need to raise the importance of the group and the Creator in our eyes. Then all our egoistic qualities, both good and bad, will change accordingly. We will not change them, but our desire to come closer to the Creator, to the upper light, will change us.
[293276]
From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/8/22, “Deriving the Greatness of the Goal from the Friends” Lesson 4

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Question: What role does the property of patriotism play in achieving faith above reason in order to unquestioningly implement all the instructions of Kabbalists?

Answer: Devotion to the group is the most important and necessary part of our spiritual development. Otherwise, we will not have a Kli, that is, a place, that we create to reveal the Creator.

The Creator is called a place. The most important thing we need is to create a desire (place), as it is said: “The commandments of man regarding the place.”

If from various desires that are intertwined together we weave our common desire, we get a fabric that will be called the common Kli or Shechina.

Question: Should I love my friends first and then achieve mutual guarantee, or should I try to be in mutual guarantee and then I will come to love of friends?

Answer: Try to be in mutual guarantee through which this love is achieved, i.e., such interconnection, contact, and communication where you can completely seemingly replace each other. That is when the quality called Shechina rises, the connection between us in which the Creator can be clothed in.

We make from ourselves such a foundation, such a Kli, on our loom (weaving machine) where we intertwine all our desires to help each other. This is the mutual guarantee in which the Creator is revealed.
[292998]
From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/9/22, “Working in Mutual Responsibility” Lesson 6

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Question: If in my mind I can manage to see my friends way above me, how do I pull myself up to their level? What should be in this prayer so that it is not a prayer for myself?

Answer: It can be a prayer for yourself. I am trying to correct myself, I am praying for myself. But maybe before that I have a prayer to see my friends on a higher level than myself.

And then I pray to pull myself up to them, to adhere to them. I raise my friends above myself, and then I ask the Creator to give me the opportunity to connect with them.

In this way I pull myself up by raising the group in my eyes.
[292812]
From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/7/22, “Adhering to the Friends” Lesson 3

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Our methodology is very practical and concrete. I need to attune to the Creator. There is none else besides Him, and I must be aimed at Him. To do this, I have a device, the group.

If I attune to the group in such a way that my egoism gradually decreases and I see everything not through my egoism, but through the properties of bestowal, connection, and love, then I will be able to reach the state of revelation of the Creator. That is what we are doing. There is nothing else here.

In reality, the group is in an ideal state, it is absolutely harmonious with the Creator, in complete adhesion with Him. But in my view, it is a total zero if not a minus.

So, I must elevate this group higher and higher in my eyes each time, each friend and all of them together. And then I raise myself, my vision, my view, and my opinion to such a level that I begin to see the Creator through the eyes of the group.

Therefore, it is said: “From love for the created beings to the love for the Creator.” There is no other method. This is what we have in front of us in our world: man, society, humanity, and the Creator.
[292681]
From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/7/22, “Adhering to the Friends” Lesson 3

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Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut [Mutual Guarantee]”: On the positive side, if they keep the Arvut to the point that each one cares and satisfies the needs of his friends, they can fully observe the Torah and Mitzvot [commandments], meaning to bring contentment to their Maker, as mentioned in “Matan Torah.” 

The Creator is what stands behind my friends. As I treat the friends, so I treat the Creator. It cannot be otherwise!

If I care for my friends so that they realize what faith above reason means and all the time imagine that we are in the property of bestowal, that we are attracted and are not repulsed by each other, that we must help each other, and I do help; if I realize faith above reason in this way; that is, I raise the quality of Bina (faith) above reason, above the quality of Malchut (reception), then by affecting my friends, I affect myself back through them.

That is why it is so important to constantly take care of your friends. In principle, this is self-care in a hidden form because I am an egoist and would not wish for myself to become an altruist. I cannot love and bestow to others! And society cannot influence me either. It may prepare me for this state, but nothing more.

And if I influence the society by propagating the values of bestowal, love, and unity, then my own efforts affect me, and I correct myself through the environment. That is how it works.

Although it seems to me that I care about something else, it really means that I care about my own correction. I must show everyone my aspiration toward faith above reason as if I really desire it very much. By this I inspire my friends, although I do not possess this property, do not yet consider it necessary and mandatory, and do not know it at all, and I am just beginning to study what faith above reason, bestowal above reception, and love above egoism means.

Moreover, my influence on others passes through the common Kli (vessel) through all the souls and it returns to me. I receive it from everyone. It cannot be said that it is in quantity, because it acts selectively, but in terms of quality, it practically comes from the Creator.
[292694]
From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/9/22, “Working in Mutual Responsibility” Lesson 6

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Question: If we build the Creator between us by correcting the quality of our relationships, will the corrected humanity become the Creator itself or will there always be two forms: humanity and the Creator?

Answer: Regarding what will always be, I cannot tell you. There are steps beyond final correction and even higher. But I think that there is no limit to our ascent in connection, adhesion, and similarity to the Creator.

However, we do not disappear, i.e., our initial egoistic point will never be lost. We must still remain created beings and not disappear in the Creator. This is what He desires.

However, I can correct this point and be similar to Him. Therefore, we become like the Creator even though there is a black point that He created inside of us. But it does not apply to us. He created it so I do not see any flaws in it.

It is thanks to this point that we can be in complete adhesion with each other; otherwise, we cannot. Adhesion implies that there is still some difference between one and the other and at the same time there is connection. This connection of opposites is wonderful. In principle, this is what gives such a range of feelings in our world—diversity and rapprochement at the same time.

Imagine, especially the female part of our global group, when can you experience the feeling of love? When you feel that there is someone against you and wants to connect with you. Then love appears.

And if such a difference in the black point, the only one that the Creator made, disappears, then the whole creation will disappear altogether.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/6/22, “Approaching the Creator Through the Network of Connections Between Us” Lesson 1

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Question: How can a person annul himself if he feels he is righteous and prideful toward his friends?

Answer: Let him pray and ask, and annul himself in front of his friends through any action. Thus, he will have the opportunity to annul himself before the Creator.

In this world he has the possibility to do everything with the group to annul himself. And he has the opportunity to pray, to ask the Creator to help him annul.

Question: When I see someone greater than myself, then I can annul myself. So should I pray to see friends as great?

Answer: You must see them as great. Try to see something special in each of them.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/7/22, “Annulling before the Friends” Lesson 2

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We ask the Creator to give us the strength so we can perform all our actions for You, meaning for the sake of the Creator. Otherwise, meaning if You do not help us, all our actions will be only for our own benefit. (Rabash, “What Is, ‘The Good Deeds of the Righteous Are the Generations,’ in the Work?”)

Our attitude to the future, regardless of whether it will be for our sake or for the Creator’s sake, depends only on the Creator’s help.

If He does not help us, we will automatically do everything within our egoistic nature and live within the limits of our world and will think only about ourselves without even realizing that it is possible to go beyond these thoughts. This is the lowest, the worst possible state of all in nature.

And vice versa, if the Creator shines His light on us, helps us to connect, and begins to fill the space between us, the emptiness, rejection, and distance, then we will begin to feel each other exactly in the way in which His presence between us will do it.

Our initial state can be compared to slices of bread or vegetables in soup. The soup is like the light of the Creator, which should fill all the distances between us, and we will be in it. This is called “creating Shechina,” the presence of the Creator that would fill everything between us.

In accordance with this, our attitude toward each other is changing. While we remain egoists inside ourselves, opposite to each other, we treat each other in accordance with the effect of the light, the Creator, on us.

By making a restriction on our egoism and finding a screen to turn the ego into bestowal, love, and connection, we thus get a multiple,  625 times the connection with each other. It turns out that all our actions are no longer for our own sake, but for the sake of our connection with everyone, between us and the Creator.

But if we cannot ask the Creator to help us with His force, to correct everyone’s intention from receiving to bestowal, from distance to connection, then nothing will help us. We ourselves will not be able to make a single correct move toward each other. In no way! Only if the Creator helps us.
[292750]
From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/9/22, “Asking the Creator to Fill the Place Between Us” Lesson 7

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Therefore, let me remind you the validity of love of friends in spite of everything at this time, for it is upon this that our right to exist depends, and upon this our near-to-come success is measured.

Hence, 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 (Baal HaSulam, Letter 47).

It is necessary to make all of us such a union that our different feelings, thoughts, motives, and goals, as it were, complement each other, up to one heart, one thought, which will include everything. This state will be called Adam, similar to the Creator.

Question: Is it enough to unite with some of the friends in order to reveal the Creator? Or do you need a complete union of the ten?

Answer: With all the friends who can participate in this, let it be half a dozen, it doesn’t matter. The main thing is that you strive forward together and realize the conditions for the revelation of the Creator. The rest will join when they can.

Question: By what signs can I evaluate the impact of the group on me?

Answer: By the signs that you want to bend your head and get only what your friends think and want and want to only be guided by this.
[293033]
From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/7/22, “Adhering to the Friends” Lesson 3

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It is impossible to receive the influence of the society if he is not attached to the society, meaning if he does not appreciate them. To the extent that he does, he can receive from them the influence without any work, simply by adhering to the society (Rabash, “The Meaning of the Strict Prohibition to Teach Idol Worshippers the Torah“).

Our work is not hard at all. You just need to connect with the group and everything else will come through our association. The revelation of the Creator will come from above. We don’t expect anything else. By uniting with each other we will reveal the Creator and thus reach the goal.

We see that the Creator does not leave us alone; He wants us to rise in our properties above ourselves as egoists and at least stop appreciating the state of egoism we currently exist in. I really hope that we will understand this and somehow start pulling ourselves out of the ego.

And then everything depends only on us. If everyone prays and asks the Creator to lower us in relation to the group and lift the group up, then through the ascending group we will be able to see the Creator who stands behind it.
[292864]
From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/7/22, “Adhering to the Friends” Lesson 3

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