I am going to the convention in St. Petersburg not to listen to the teacher and friends, to chat in a friendly company, to participate in festive meals, to watch the cultural program, etc. No, I have studied a long time now and the convention is a test for me.

There is a deep inspection before us: Who are we? What can we do? We are anxious with the feeling of awe, not jokingly, but in all seriousness. But we are not self-absorbed, we do not walk with gloomy faces, but as usual, we combine the two aspects: joy and seriousness.

I repeat: the convention is a test, not just a meeting. The essence of our gathering is work by means of which we check ourselves: Whether our unity is true and sufficient to get a “passing grade.”

This should not discourage anyone. We are seeking the opportunity to shake and motivate ourselves to the correct unification.
[111478]
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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Ramchal “Da’at Tevunot (Knowing the Reasons)”: The reality of man is built with an infinitely profound wisdom. The Creator has made many great creatures and all of them perform their functions. Nothing is in vain and everything is based on a single foundation: on what the Creator desires from man’s work, that he corrects all the deficiencies of creation and raises himself degree after degree until he cleaves to the holiness of the Creator. And everything has to endure great transformations to achieve universal perfection.

The purpose of creation is achieved through a very long, deep, and intricate process, not simple or easy, and it depends upon how the person manages to organize support for recognizing the goal for himself.

If he joins a group, becomes included in it, if he bows his head, then he hears the message that comes from the friends and tries to connect with them and the teacher, and he moves forward. Until he completes all these corrections, he obviously will not reach the purpose of creation.

This goal is achieved on all 125 degrees of advancement. Each of them contains all the really important ones and those who do good, and the only difference is to what extent a person perceives it.
[111466]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/3/13, “There’s None Else Besides Him”

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 39: Now we have shown that the Creator’s desired goal for the Creation He had created is to bestow upon His creatures, so they would know His truthfulness and greatness, and receive all the delight and pleasure He had prepared for them.

So there is something good that He has prepared for us and we have to develop in order to be ready to receive this pleasure.

At the moment we don’t feel it as pleasure, but rather the opposite, as the greatest sufferings and terrible darkness.

It is because the Creator has prepared the pleasure of bestowal for us, to be in the same state He is. The Creator enjoys bestowal and so we have to reach the recognition of evil of our own current state and the recognition of the goodness of the attribute of bestowal, of the desire to bestow. So all we have to do is to be equipped with a desire to bestow and to feel the pleasure of bestowal in it.

By discovering these things we begin to appreciate the greatness of the attribute of bestowal, the attribute of love, as much as it is within our power. We understand how sublime, great, and special it is and accordingly, we begin to value the Creator whose attribute it is.

It says: “We know you from your actions.” This is the way it works and the second phase doesn’t arrive until the first phase is fulfilled. By fulfilling the actions of bestowal by ourselves, we discover and get to know them and by that we get to know the Creator. It is only through this extent that we can respect Him, “to know His truthfulness and His greatness.”

This is the goal of creation.
[111391]
From the 4th part of the  Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/4/13, “There is None Else Besides Him”

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Question: Who can be considered a true friend?

Answer: “Friend – Chaver” is from the word “connection – chibur”. I don’t mean friends that connect in order to go out for a good time together at some sports club or a pub. In a Kabbalistic group someone is called a friend if he is someone with whom I connect in order to create a shared deficiency for mutual bestowal between us. From this I will learn what the characteristic of bestowal is.

After we know what the characteristic of bestowal is, we can expand our common Kli, vessel, and deepen it, seek the higher power within the characteristic of mutual bestowal that we have discovered. This advancement links us together with each other, soul to soul! We discover that we belong to a single system and that our souls are close to each other. This is a connection of the parts of a single soul, and therefore we are found together; for this reason the upper Light gathered us into a group.

I don’t look at faces, whom do I like and whom I don’t, according to which I will distance myself or approach someone. I accept everyone! If he has come, he is apparently part of the puzzle that is closest to us. Without him we cannot finish the puzzle. And with every friend who arrives, we assemble more and more of this puzzle, the structure of the collective soul.

This is what is called a friend, someone with whom we connect our souls and complete the collective soul between us. After we nullify our ego that separates us and disturbs us from sticking the parts of our puzzle together, we can adhere to each other. This is what is called a true friend.

Certainly we go through ascents and descents by mutually helping each other. I understand the friend, feel when he falls and needs help, and also when I fall, I need his help and support. Everything is permissible except for cynicism toward the group and the spiritual path. If some kind of mood or cynicism falls on him, this is already a problem. But difficulties on the way are unavoidable and we overcome them together; therefore we are called friends.
[111387]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/3/13, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Who completes a level and goes on to the next level, a person or the group?

Answer: Everyone completes the level. The completion of a level is called the general connection between everyone, Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one; everyone merges into one.

Question: Does everyone end the time of preparation together?

Answer: It seems that everyone ends it together. You cannot attain spirituality by yourself without the others. When you attain spirituality, you see that everyone is already there since otherwise you would not be able to attain it.

The only thing you lack in order to complete the current level is connection, mutual cooperation, advancing towards the same goal, when everyone reveals the one force as one. You have to feel what you lack in order to reach wholeness by yourself, relative to how you picture it. Perhaps your clarification is not accurate enough and incorrect, and so the upper Light shines on you and influences you a bit more strongly, evoking individual deficiencies in you that you were lacking in order to rise above them and grow stronger in the group.

We advance only “above reason.” Reason is the egoistic desires, the problems, the inclinations, and the egoistic passions, and they provide us with the “flesh,” the thickness and the depth of the vessels, above which we form the inclination for bestowal, love, connection, strengthening, justification, and appreciation of the other. We establish all that above our ego.

The Light that Reforms enlarges our ego so that we will have a chance to work above it. It teaches us not to remain on the animal level since we yearn for animal love, and for corporeal achievements. The Light teaches us to rise above them and to take more sublime values into account and to live a more purposeful life.

The Light clears and clarifies everything, it reforms us in many ways; it increases the attributes that you need, both the good and the bad. It navigates you and directs you in every sense, the Light does everything! You only have to do one thing: to justify the friends and to try to be in contact with them, to evoke them. That is enough.
[111297]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/30/13, Writings of Rabash

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Question: What actions can we perform in order to the draw the Light that Reforms more strongly?

Answer: The Surrounding Light is the revelations of the Inner Light, in ten Sefirot that complement one another. This means that every Sefira is incorporated in all the ten. Therefore there should be ten friends who connect. Thus everyone includes all the others inside him. Ten friends live inside me. Now they are all together. 10 x 10 make up a whole vessel.

Then in their connection “above reason,” above their ego, the Inner Light is revealed. The Aviut (thickness) remains below, the Returning Light (Ohr Hozer) above and in this Returning Light there is a revelation of a new degree, Direct Light (Ohr Yashar).

We have not attained such a state yet and are at the lowest point. Our job is to organize and arrange the right connections between us so that the Inner Light is revealed in us as Surrounding Light. The Surrounding Light includes the Light of Hochma that is dressed in the Light of Hassadim since it is the same Light that shines in our upper Partzuf, which we will arrive at soon.

We have to try to reach the same corrected form in which everyone is incorporated in everyone. This is called yearning for the love of the created beings. Such a connection, mutual incorporation of one desire in the other, a desire to fill all the strange deficiencies, is called love of others, love of the created beings. This is what we should yearn for, since by that we attain the love of the Creator. When the Direct Light shines and is revealed in the Returning Light, it gives us a feeling that we have attained connection, unity, and adhesion with the upper force of bestowal, which is called the “Creator.”
[111294]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/30/13, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Do we draw the Surrounding Light by participating in a certain dissemination activity?

Answer: By participating and engaging in dissemination we expand our vessels and by that the vessels of the whole group. Thus you ease the ascent of the group by expanding its infrastructure. All the people who received information from you join us as the still, vegetative, and animate levels of the same pyramid in which we are at the human level.

Thus you lower the tension in the group and change our efforts from quality to quantity. We lose in the distance but gain in power. It’s as if we use a pulley to lift a heavy load, and by turning it, by many motions, we can gradually lift a very heavy load. Thus we increase the distance but reduce the power that we have to invest.

It’s the same when we disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah or Integral Education: We lose with regard to the length of the path by putting forth small efforts, but we gain in power, as if we acquire the power to lift a ton with our hands. It’s the same principle of gears in a bicycle that enables us to climb a hill.

So the more groups there are that join us before the convention, the more we will all gain. It will be easier for us to attain the desired state.
[111291]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/30/13, Writings of Rabash

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Preparation to the Lesson

Writings of Rabash “Igrot,” Letter 33

Preparation to St. Petersburg Convention, “Love Your Neighbor as Yourself,” Lesson 3

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Today the Creator intentionally makes the whole world feel that it is hanging in the air. A person doesn’t know what to expect and what will happen next. Suddenly there are floods in Europe, hurricanes in America, fires, and mass killing. The whole world is shocked: “the Arab Spring,” “the Turkish Spring,” the uprisings in Syria, Lebanon, Libya, and Egypt. It is all happening when with modern technology and opportunities that we have, we could have solved all the corporeal problems and turned the earth into Heaven.

Everyone knows that, politicians, scientists, and sociologists. We have reached such a level of progress that we could easily provide the whole world population with all the basic needs such as food and clothing. There is no problem except for man himself: Man is the only thing that needs to be corrected.

After all, for the time being we can promise ourselves corporeal prosperity in every area and we can solve all our problems, but at the same time half of the world’s population is starving and the other half is suffering from depression and is losing the desire to live, like in Europe where there are no food problems but there are other problems.

The only thing that can save us is changing human nature. We must all understand this and make this our main goal. There is no other way. We will not succeed in anything if we don’t change our nature. It has to be clear to everyone and first of all to those who engage in the wisdom of Kabbalah.

We can abandon all the other attempts to correct the situation since no matter what achievements we will make in supplying food and clothing, in heavy and light industry, in high-tech, it will not improve our state at all. Technologically we can do wonders, but we cannot use that for the benefit of mankind.

We can invent remedies for certain diseases. Even now there are already remedies for cancer, kidney and heart diseases that are much better than the ones that are used today, but it isn’t profitable to manufacture them and so they don’t reach the market. It is much more profitable to manufacture more expensive equipment and to create greater confusion in order to keep the doctors and the medical professionals busier. A whole industry revolves around this; the healthcare system is a healthcare plant.

So we cannot fix anything before we correct human nature. We have to focus only on that and then we will succeed. Otherwise it won’t work.

My practically new printer went out of order a while ago. I managed to print only 50 pages and it already stopped working. The manufacturers intentionally manufacture products that will break down immediately and we will have to buy new ones. Our nature intentionally makes us do everything in the opposite manner. It seems that technology is advancing but the bottom line is that we are regressing in every area. It is all meant so that we will understand the evil in us.

No wonder no one feels secure and there is no good and pleasant environment for our children. Eventually it will be impossible to predict what will happen from one moment to the next and you will turn into a little frightened rabbit hiding under a leaf. This will be our life: In the morning you will think about how to survive until the evening and at night you will wait for the morning.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to advance without fear. After all, I am an egoist, so the only way to impress me is by fear. There are endless types of fear: good or bad fear, fear of this world and of the next world, fear of not attaining the Creator, of not being able to perceive Him, of not being able to bestow upon Him. But in any case, fear is the most efficient stimulus. Fear can lead to what is desirable, as it is derived from the desire. I want to achieve a certain goal and I fear that will not be able to achieve it, which means that fear stems from fear and this is already a real motive , which is called “fear.”
[109781]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/11/13, Writings of Rabash, “Igrot,” Letter 16

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The topic of the first lesson of the convention in St. Petersburg is “There is None Else Besides Him.” This is the main topic that we always study.

In principle, we are in a special reality called the “Creator” and have to reveal Him. The “Creator” (Boreh) means to “come and see” (Bo-reh in Hebrew). If we already dwell in Him, in the upper white Light, then only He acts and there is none else besides Him. Only He “outlines,” forms us; He is the first and He is the last. All our thoughts and deeds stem from the actions of this upper Light. Nothing exists but Him.

We observe still, vegetative, and animate forms in which the Creator acts wholly, obliging them to make any movement. They have no freedom of will at all; they are entirely under His direct influence.

On the other hand, we ourselves have a certain point, created by Him, existing seemingly outside of Him. This point gives us the opportunity to know the Creator—the only one who affects us. In fact, in this way we do not go somewhere outside, do not become distant from Him, and do not violate any of His actions. The reality remains the same: There is no one else besides the Creator. However, due to this point that seems to be abstracted from Him, I can analyze myself and Him, I can deliberately and consciously lead myself to the only existing state in which there is none else besides Him.

I attain the Creator due to this work. I attribute every fragment of reality to His oneness, and thus I attain all His deeds, all the steps, direct and opposite Him, that He undertakes. So, returning to the state of unity and oneness of the Creator, I stand in all the power that He has given me and realize that really there is none else besides Him.

Thus, I bring Him pleasure, and this is the greatest pleasure that I can bring Him, and this means myself. After all, there is none else besides Him.

So now we need, against our desire, to reasonably and deliberately become included in the concept: “There is none else besides Him.”
[111373]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/3/13, Preparation the St. Petersburg Convention, Lesson 1

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