Question: How do I measure my readiness for the St. Petersburg convention?

Answer: According to the level of sufferings that you feel. After all, I suffer when I lack something important.

I see a fancy car in a store window, a shiny Rolls Royce that costs a million dollars, the type of car that attracts everyone’s attention on the street and stops the traffic. It is in front of me, I am captivated by it, and I feel that my life is meaningless without it. I ask people to help me raise a million dollars. I beg them to help me as much as they can…

I don’t sleep at nights, cannot eat, drink, or relax because of the image of the shiny vehicle; “I would rather die than live without the “Rolls Royce.” I suffer desperately when I see my dream car through the window that separates us.

So what should I do? Break the window? Start a revolution and split up everyone’s property? Rob a bank? I look for different solutions so I can purchase what I lack. It is because I have a strong feeling that this is the only thing that I lack.

It is according to such sorrow that we measure our preparation for the convention, but in our case it is not enough. I also need a point in the heart, the spark in the ego in relation to which I measure the goal that the friends and I are yearning for. The spark illuminates the sublime and wonderful goal and although I really long for it, I don’t want to blur or to erase it. On the contrary, I am sure that it will be mine and that I will attain it. Therefore, I am full of joy along with the feeling of sorrow.

The combination of sorrow and joy is the middle line which I have to form. So I measure my preparation according to the level of sorrow that I feel as a result of not having attained what I want. I check the sorrow that I feel in my heart, in my ego, from the point in the heart.

So before the St. Petersburg convention we put a great emphasis not on the greatness of the goal, but on the preparation that determines the reward. You will receive exactly what you have prepared.

In ordinary life we bring the vessel to a source of water and fill it. In spirituality it is different; there you receive exactly what you have prepared. Your vessel becomes the filling and you don’t ask for anything else. The yearning, the deficiency, the longing for the goal is what fills you. There aren’t any changes on the outside and nothing enters you; the deficiency becomes the reward. The preparation formats the deficiency in such a way that it becomes the filling.

What are these tricks? An empty vessel in return for our efforts?

No, it isn’t empty any more, it is actually full… this is bestowal.

Baal HaSulam speaks about that in Letter No. 19: “During the preparation, the beauty and grace appear and the essence of perfection that one yearns and longs for. However, at the time of correction, when ‘the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord,’ then, ‘I shall see an opposite world,’ because only fear and longing are the essence of the desired perfection. Then one feels that during the time of preparation, one was lying to oneself.”
[111731]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/8/13, “They Shall All Know Me From the Least of Them to the Greatest of Them”

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From the book The Light and the Sun: Most important in the gathering is that all are unified together and ask only for one thing—to find the Creator. And may everyone listen to his friend, and be small in his own eyes, and desire to hear something from the friend—how to serve the Creator and how to find the Creator.

It is necessary to make a distinction: There is I, there is the goal, the Creator, and there is a means of achieving it, our gathering, our unity. There is nothing else. Consequently, the means is as important as the goal because it leads me to the goal.

Everything depends on the realization of the importance of the goal. That is why we must constantly talk and think about it, raise it in our eyes. The realization of the importance of the goal is where it is revealed how much I can invest into it, to what extent we can work against our egoism.

The question is where my expectations are, where my eyes are turned: upwards or downwards? Towards the Good that Does Good or towards evil? Where am I heading? Everything depends on the realization of the importance of the goal that I take from the group.

And the problem is that this importance is not yet “spread” among the friends. The situation has undoubtedly improved, but the air between us is not “ringing” yet, not “sparkling,” not “charging” me….

I have to help the group, sparing no efforts, and when I am not able, I will be “nourished” by it.
[111777]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/5/13, “Love Your Neighbor as Yourself,” Lesson 3

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Shamati #225, “Raising Oneself”: One cannot raise oneself above one’s circle. Hence, one must suck from one’s environment. And one has no other counsel, except through much work and Torah. Therefore, if one chooses for oneself a good environment, one saves time and efforts, since one is drawn according to one’s environment.

This is in the power of man: Either he gives himself to the power of the environment or nature, the Creator, rules over him. It’s one or the other.

Why am I called a man if I choose the power of the environment? It is because it is my choice that I make in spite of all the obstacles, in spite of my inner resistance, problems, and troubles. I determine who reigns in me.

Thus, I choose only the force that will act within me and I have no control over it. Either I am driven by the Creator, the individual force, or a good environment, the integral force, behind which He stands. And then, the integral force will become the head of the Partzuf that we depicted on the drawing as a “car.”

In fact, a person realizes nothing but this choice. If he chooses correctly, the group affects him, if he chooses incorrectly the “body” reigns over him, meaning the direct dictates of the Creator. One way or the other, the Creator acts in everything, either through the environment or personally.
[111716]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/7/13, “Principles for Building a Better Environment”

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Question: How can we prepare ourselves for the convention in St. Petersburg to a new state so it really comes? How do we prepare now, while there is still time?

Answer: The thing is there is no time. Preparation is the condition in which the main thing is to happen right now. Preparation means that I am acting just in this moment, and if I assign some future date or a future state for myself, it is only to spur my “donkey.”

Preparation is everything. And the results do not necessarily show up on the appointed day, they can come at any moment and even before. So let them come, let it happen sooner. Why do we need a convention if we can already reach the “first date,” the revelation of the Creator? Why should it happen on a fixed day? Let Him be revealed now and we will finish the current stage.

Are we going to St. Petersburg because the Creator lives there? No, if we are preparing properly, we want to get the desire now and we are not waiting for any date. What are we to do with the calendar and geography? Unity is what is most important. If I want to be a giver, there is no tomorrow, only now.
[111714]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/8/13, “They Shall All Know Me from the Least of Them to the Greatest of Them”

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 4: The Creator Himself puts one’s hand on the good fate by giving him a life of pleasure and contentment within the corporeal life that is filled with torment and pain, and devoid of any content. […] there is no greater placement of one’s hand by Him than this.

And one’s choice refers only to the strengthening. This is because there is certainly a great effort and exertion here before one purifies one’s body to be able to keep the Torah and commandments correctly, not for his own pleasure, but to bring contentment to his Maker, which is called Lishma (for Her Name). Only in this manner is one endowed with a life of happiness and pleasantness that come with keeping the Torah.

However, before one comes to that purification, there is certainly a choice to strengthen in the good way by all sorts of means and tactics. Also, one should do whatever his hand finds the strength to do until he completes the work of purification and will not fall under his burden midway.

How can we understand this? In fact, these words paint a terrible picture: The Creator holds me “by the ears” or “by the shoulders” and directs my every step through pleasures or suffering, that is, He can do with me whatever He pleases. And besides that, there is something in which I have to “strengthen” myself above that which He sends me.

As a result, I have no choice in everyday life because I am relentlessly driven by pleasure and suffering. My nature automatically obeys their dictates, and there is nothing I can do about this. Some mechanism in me always turns my face towards pleasure and my back towards suffering. The “car” can only dodge evil and turn towards good.

In what can I strengthen then? How can I gain power over the “body”? How can I resist the “orders” of the Creator Who directs me from above on the “animate” degree? Is this possible?

The fact is that apart from the will of the Creator, there is another factor that I can use: the influence of the environment. Thus, I go against the Creator, against His nature, obtain something above the “animate” degree, and become something greater.

Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”: Therefore, he who strives to continually choose a better environment is worthy of praise and reward. But here, too, it is not because of his good thoughts and deeds, which come to him without his choice, but because of his effort to acquire a good environment, which brings him these good thoughts and deeds.

Hence it is clear that we have freedom to build, above the “animate” level, the human degree—the human being, who will saddle an “animal” and will manage his nature. To do this, a person will also use two forces, but they will be different: Now he will define good and evil by means of a good environment that fulfills him.

Thus, the Creator controls a person at the level of “reason,” but self-management is realized “above reason.”

The key here is the extent to which I become integrated in the correct environment and absorbed by it. My good future depends only on this.
[111719]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/7/13, Preparation for St. Petersburg Convention, “Principles for Building a Better Environment,” Lesson 4

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Baal HaSulam, “A Sage’s Fruit:” It is forbidden for the individual to leave the public and ask for himself, not even to bring contentment for his Maker other than for the public, for he who leaves the public and asks for his own soul individually is not constructing, but rather is bringing destruction to his soul, and one needs to gather all his might, the general of Israel, in all his turnings to the Creator, in prayer and work, and integrate himself in the root of the entire Israel.

It turns out that I do not want to do anything good, even for the Creator, if it is not for the benefit of community, through the benefit of community, and in connection with community. If there is something sacred, then first of all, it is community, all of humanity, and if I understand the importance of community, then based on this, I can reach the importance of the Creator.

Our common soul is already broken in our perception. However, praying for oneself, a person turns into impurity; that is, he descends in the negative state that is much worse than the original one.

Why would it seem so? After all, a person who “leaves the public to ask for himself individually” does not do it at the expense of others. He just says to the Creator, “I want to be corrected, settled. I want to reach bestowal. So, please give me strength to bestow and bring You contentment!” Does he really cause the “destruction of his soul?” How could this be? He is praying from his heart. It is his sincere feeling for which he cannot be responsible. The heart is crying; What can you do?

However, no, I must make all kinds of external actions to make my heart want something else, and this is within my ability. Our work is carried out from the heart, above the heart, so that it does not call for evil and wrong things, so that it does not ask for itself even if the person wants to be corrected and bring contentment to the Creator. This request is already impurity, the destruction of the soul.

That is why I need the actions that will set before me the only task: unity. I am not able to turn with the correct request on behalf of my own heart, which is broken and disconnected from the collective. I cannot bring contentment to the Creator unless I unite with others because I will not have the true desire to bestow, and from what place will I turn to Him? From my own “self?” It is impossible because it is cut off from the whole and lies beneath all the spiritual degrees, below the spiritual ladder. I am not standing even on the lower edge of the ladder that goes to heaven, to Malchut of the world of Infinity.

So, the main thing for us is to unite. If I constantly care about unity then everything that comes from this will be correct. Conversely, if I do not think about unity, then even the best intentions, the most correct words and complete devotion is the essence of impurity, the destruction of the soul.

This is the most important thing for us during the days before the convention in St. Petersburg. Preparation should direct us at the only action, to unity, and everything, no matter what, will be good in it.

“In all turnings to the Creator, in prayer and work,” we, first of all, ask for unity for the collective, oneness all the time and nothing else. Thus, we “integrate ourselves in the root of the entire Israel,” that is, the center of the group, aimed directly at the Creator (Yashar El). All our efforts are directed to its unity and interconnection.
[111575]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/5/13, “Love Your Neighbor as Yourself”

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Question: What stops me from starting to live in the friends?

Answer: You have everything that you need in order to do that, but you shouldn’t wait for it to come from above by itself.

The only thing you lack is the recognition in your mind and heart that spirituality is attained only in connection, that spirituality and connection should be integrated into one, and the Creator is revealed in the connection.

There is nothing but these three elements: you, the connection, and the Creator. We should understand all this more internally.

Connection is called “Torah,” and it is also the vessel and the Light that should consolidate and connect the two points, me and the Creator, into one.

Everyone should check himself with regard to this and see where he is and worry about friends who grow weak and have less power. If we notice that a friend comes to the lessons less and to the assembly of friends, or that he comes but constantly tries to engage in other things and finds justification for that, he should not be left alone. Only a serious reason can justify being absent from the lessons and only occasionally.

My heart aches when I see that this is the case. I am not worried about those who have left. If this is their faith, there is nothing we can do. However, we should ask ourselves whether we have done enough to awaken the importance of the goal in them. If we haven’t, then it is our fault and they will be missing in the connection among us later. We will lack that part in order to build a whole vessel.

The reason for that is disrespect for others, for the friends, when our attitude to them is like toward strangers. However, it isn’t a stranger but a friend that must be more important to you than yourself since your soul depends on him. I wish you a long life, but you should know that without the friend, your life will end on the animal level. If you want to take care of your soul, it is in the friend.

It is a fact, whether you like it or not, and it doesn’t matter whether you accept it or not. Now, you must decide and make a choice: Do you accept it or not? You don’t have the desire for that and no one says that you must want that. “To receive” means that, from now on, you must take that fact into account in every action you make, in every desire or thought.
[111562]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/4/13, Writings of Rabash

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Baal HaSulam, “600,000 Souls”: It is said that there are 600,000 souls, and each soul divides into several sparks. We must understand how it is possible for the spiritual to divide, since initially, only one soul was created, the soul of Adam HaRishon.

In my opinion, there is indeed only one soul in the world, as it is written (Genesis, 2:7), “and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.” The same soul exists in all the children of Israel, complete in each and every one, as in Adam HaRishon, since the spiritual is indivisible and cannot be cut—which is rather a trait of corporeal things.

Yet, saying that there are 600,000 souls and sparks of souls appears as though it is divided by the force of the body of each person. In other words, first, the body divides and completely denies him of the radiance of the soul, and by the force of the Torah and the Mitzva, the body is cleansed, and to the extent of its cleansing, the common soul shines upon him.

There is only one desire in reality. The Light has created a desire, and it operates on it. It restricts it, puts Masachim (screens) on it, and makes Partzufim and worlds of it. However, the desire remains the same desire. The word “worlds” (“Olamot” stems from the word “concealment” in Hebrew), and refers to the concealment of the Light in our perception and feelings. It is just like looking at the world without glasses and seeing a blurry world. The spiritual worlds are increasingly more accurate and clearer pictures that are revealed by “spiritual glasses” that I change each time as I correct myself, until I reach the world of Ein Sof (Infinity), which means the whole correction.

So, it is all about an individual perception and not about an external reality that actually exists. The picture of the world depends on the person who attains it.

On the whole, there is one soul, but each one perceives it according to his level of preparation. We are always in the same place, in the same system, but each one is connected to it emotionally and mentally to a different extent, according to his attainment and his understanding. It is like a newborn baby who hardly perceives anything. It is only after a couple of months that he begins to perceive some details of the whole picture. It is as if he is also in a state of concealment in some part and in a state of in revelation in another, and at first the concealment is much greater than the revelation.

A person gradually perceives more clearly where he is according to his advancement and his development. We are not talking about anything new, but about the revelation that is part of our perception. So, all our development is in order to awaken, to build, and to prepare such a vessel of perception that will be sensitive to the revelation of the eternal unchanging eternal reality.

Our basic assumption is that there is only one soul in the world, a desire of Malchut of Ein Sof, and we attain this state to a certain extent as if looking at it through different types of glasses that determine the level of our closeness to it.
[111582]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/05/13, “Love Your Neighbor as Yourself”

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Baal HaSulam, Letter 19: However, because of the breaking of the vessels, all the Otiot were ejected to corporeal conducts and people. When one corrects oneself and reaches the root of one’s soul, he must collect them by himself, one-by-one, and bring them back to the root, to holiness. This is the meaning of “to sentence oneself and the entire world to a scale of merit.” The matter of the unification of the Creator and Divinity…

You lack nothing except to go out to the “field blessed by the Creator” to gather all the members which separated from your soul and combine them into a single body. And it’s a perfect body where the Creator instills His Divinity in perpetuity, without any interruption.

We don’t understand how the world is connected and what is revealed to us, but in the meantime what is revealed to us every minute is exactly what we need to correct. Even if we cannot investigate everything deeply and make the right corrections, we must still keep returning to connections since connection is the expression of love on higher levels.

It also means “to cultivate the field, blessed by the Creator.” Working on the connection is what brings us to “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” We must see the picture of connection in all the friends, in all of humanity, and even in the still, vegetative and the animate nature. It is because Malchut includes all its previous levels, and its fourth phase becomes responsible for the root phase and for phase one, two, and three after the “restriction” and the appearance of the Returning Light.

We should understand that we see everything in Malchut. From phase four of four, we observe the root phase, phase one, two, and three. Now, it is our whole world, and later we will discover the spiritual worlds by the Masach (screen) and the Returning Light.

However, on the whole, I am in Malchut, which seems shattered, and I must connect all its parts into one. All its parts are separate from me by my ego and my hatred, and I connect them above the hate.

I cannot annul my ego and my hatred, but as it is written, “Love covers all transgressions.” I leave the sins, hatred, repulsion and all the other negative attributes below, restrict them, and build a new vessel above them.
[111579]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/05/13, “Love Your Neighbor as Yourself

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The Book of Zohar, “VaYiera” [And the Lord Appeared], Item 453: Man is created in utter wickedness and lowliness, as it is written, “When a wild ass’ foal is born a man.” And all the vessels in one’s body, meaning the senses and the qualities, and especially the thought serve him only wickedness and nothingness all day. And for one who is rewarded with adhering unto Him, the Creator does not create other tools instead, to be worthy and suitable for reception of the eternal spiritual abundance intended for him. Rather, the same lowly vessels that have thus far been used in a filthy and loathsome way are inverted to become vessels of reception of all the pleasantness and eternal gentleness.

Moreover, each Kli whose deficiencies had been the greatest has now become the most important. In other words, the measure that they reveal is the greatest.

The more we work, the more deeply we penetrate the thickness of the desire and discover more problems, an entire complex of interferences. All this is in order to give enough “flesh” to the evil that is inherent in us and between us. In other words, it is to reveal the breaking.

We are now working on unity and discover the forces that are oppose it until we reveal the breaking on the first, lowest level.

Then, we will have to overcome it. How? We restrict all the forces of separation and darkness. At the same time, they remain because it is impossible to cancel evil. We just rise above it. There is no need to correct everything that we have. It will only get worse. No, we lock our evil within and rise above it. It is said about this, “Love covers all transgressions.” It does not correct flaws, but covers them.

Evil must remain. It is not turned into good, but good is built above evil. Everything is arranged in nature in this way, and this is the key to perfection.

We want to get rid of evil. We do not understand what good is in the wolf eating the sheep. A person reflects on his qualities, lamenting what he has done in life. Don’t eat yourself up. On the contrary, one needs to accept the facts and think about something else: How can he form the opposite properties above it? This is the question: Where is the Light that Reforms? If evil has been revealed, then, obviously, I can build good above it.

In this case, good and evil must be of the same size, and then the middle line appears between them. We will achieve nothing without it and will not come to spiritual interaction (Zivug).

Therefore, we need to identify the necessary state more and more, looking for a way to achieve the first contact with the Creator.

Before the meeting in St. Petersburg and during the convention, we will face all sorts of obstacles, distracting circumstances, external impressions, or we will “soar in the clouds” instead of carrying out the right work. We will be sent various surprises from above, according to the order of our states, and, even if we all strive for unity, we still will face a descent. We can feel it even on the first day of the convention, moreover, in a stronger form provided that we have prepared ourselves well. Suppose, after registering at nine in the morning, I feel tired around noon and begin thinking, “Why, actually, have I come? What am I doing here?”

It is very good because, then, we will have to work on ourselves, to “kiss the rod” that hits us and bless the evil as good.

Hence, one sees the extent to which he is worthy to build the screen (Masach) now. After all, the screen is formed above all the senses, interferences, and troubles that are manifested, and the main thing in this set is hatred. This is what love covers. Without these “transgressions,” we will not come to true spiritual love. It is built only above hatred.

That is why the technology of virtual communication is flourishing in the modern world. It is in order to reveal hatred. However, to prevent it from turning into a war, we must simultaneously provide people with the method of correction. Everyone will know and understand what is to be done under the circumstances.

This is the only means: unity above separation, love above hatred.
[111542]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/4/13, “From Hatred to Love by the Light that Reforms”

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