Question: Does a convention hold a greater potential for attracting the miraculous force of the Light than at regular times?

Answer: Yes. It is precisely at such great gatherings as an international convention and generally during all the special gatherings and assemblies of friends that we make very big efforts with our mutual forces, and that is exactly what is necessary for attracting the miraculous force of correction.

That is why Kabbalists advised us to hold such gatherings, and we act only according to their instructions. After all, we want to attain something through miraculous means without understanding how it happens, without seeing the cause and effect connection between the next level and the one we are on, and without knowing all of the conditions that we have to observe to achieve it.

That is why we follow the Kabbalists’ advice and they tell us that we have to become included in the society, to unite with others as much as possible, to study together with everyone with the intention to attract the Surrounding Light, meaning by expressing our desire to ascend to a higher level, to bestowal and unity. And it’s clear that the more of us that get together, the greater is our might in quality and quantity, and the more significantly we can advance.

The sum of all such actions and the accumulation of efforts is what finally brings us to the “finding.”
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/8/11

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Our world started with a tiny spark of Light that broke into the void and embarked on its evolution. Thereby, the Light made, begot, created, produced (the four stages of the Direct Light, corresponding to the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking levels of nature) everything there is in our Universe.

And the further development suggests that man, meaning all of us, must reach the root from where this initial spark once came. Now we are passing through the last stage of evolution so we may rise to this spark all together, and break through the tiny opening in our system into the place where our root is.

This return is possible only by way of our unification: We must come so tightly together that we may become as small as this spark. Therefore, people who attained the spiritual world strove to tell about the necessity of reaching oneness, the unification of sparks that reside in everyone into one spark.

This development has continued since the time of Adam HaRishon, up to Abraham in ancient Babylon, followed by the exodus from Egypt and further on; until two thousand years ago, we hadn’t come to an undesirable state. In truth, Kabbalists who lived throughout those times, starting with Abraham, lost their spiritual root and fell from brotherly love to unfounded hatred. This fall occurred in the time of Rabbi Akiva.

The region of the Dead Sea, Qumran and the nearing areas, is the place where people used to flee, unwilling to succumb to the descent that occurred in Jerusalem when even the post of the High Priest could be bought and everything had taken a low, despicable form. This remote place remained the last sanctuary for those who desired to keep unity and love between them in order not to lose spiritual connection with one another. So they fled there since they felt that they could stay together, far away from all those relations that were coming in force in Jerusalem.

That is why, almost two thousand years later, we have gathered here in order to continue this process. After all, there is no time in spirituality! We came from a sacred state where we were all bonded and felt the spiritual world, spiritual life, and another dimension, but then lost our awareness as if we were hit on the head and stopped sensing the spiritual world in which we lived. Today, we wish to return to that reality.

To achieve this, all we need to do is arrange the same kind of society that existed years ago since the spiritual laws haven’t changed. As we did then, so do we now need to become as one man with one heart and achieve brotherly love and oneness in accord with the laws that the Light and desire obey in the spiritual world. And then we will find ourselves in it!

Our corporeal bodies have to accompany us until we attain the spiritual world fully. But for the time being, we have to reside in these bodies; after all, we haven’t received the right to live in spirituality permanently and must remain the permanent residents of this material world. As to the spiritual one, we will ascend to and descend from there until we have established ourselves in it for good.

At that point, we won’t have to live in these corporeal bodies, and they will dissolve from our perception. This world regarded as “illusory” will dissipate as well, and we will start living in the new reality eternally.
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From Lesson 2 Metzoke Dragot Congress 2/25/2011

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Question: During the lesson I am constantly thinking about the upcoming convention and it’s hard for me to focus on the lesson. Am I losing something as a result of this?

Answer: Of course not. We always feel the pressure in the process of preparing for such massive events. Once a year we get together at a convention in the United States, and we should see this as a unique opportunity to unite with each other. There is no other opportunity to receive more Surrounding Light, support, and strength to advance than at gatherings such as this.

This is exactly what I personally expect. I remember how when I began studying with Rabash, literally a few months later we traveled to Tzfat together. In a small yard by a little house, all of Rabash’s students gathered who had studied with him at different times and suddenly they wanted to join us. About 40 people gathered, which was a pretty big group before I brought new students to him.

I saw how excited he was by this trip and by being there. I asked him, “What is so special about it?” He explained that these gatherings are the most effective means in our world for spiritual advancement when a person comes in order to unite with others, works for this sake, makes efforts, and desires to receive the forces from others, to gather and absorb them inside of him, to literally drink up this might. And this depends only on him and his sensitivity.

If I prepare for the convention the right way, then when I come there, I receive everything I possibly can. It all depends on me. It is because we are standing in front of Infinity. I can come to the convention and not receive anything, scorning others, and leaving there even colder than before. Or I can come there and be impressed, touched, and inspired. I can absorb so much strength and Surrounding Light that I wouldn’t receive during years of study. Everything depends on my preparation.

Therefore we must already be preparing for the upcoming convention. Before such a huge event, when a person is planning to connect with others, he must experience worry and fear, feeling that he is standing at the threshold of great inner changes. This pressure-filled expectation and preparation is even felt physically.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/8/11, The Zohar

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Baal HaSulam, “The Last Generation”: The world is one family, and the framework of altruistic communism should ultimately encircle the entire world with an equal standard of living for everybody.

Question: So it looks like Kabbalah must bring communism into the world?

Answer: Our problem is that we don’t understand the true meaning of words. When we utter the word “Torah,” we visualize a “holy” book; when we speak of “commandments,” we think of some physical acts that we have to perform; and the word “faith” for us is when we blindly believe some stories we are told.

In other words, we replace the truth with false ideas. In fact, commandments are steps of correction of the egoistic desire, and the Torah is the force that reforms them.

The same pertains to the word “communism” that derives from the word “a commune” and reads equality, unity, and brotherhood. But great egoists used these words for their low purposes opposite to communism.

They established the worst dictatorship in history: a dictatorship of the minority over majority, a regime of complete spiritual suppression and violence, which not only used a person as a work force, a slave, but attempted to completely and forcefully eliminate in man the desire for pleasure, egoism.

But in fact, “communism” is a very exalted, beautiful word. It implies brotherly love among humans who live according to the law of mutual guarantee bonded by one desire.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/2/2011 Lesson on Money

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Man undergoes different stages in his perception of his relationship with the society: from wishing to use it in a coarse, material form to falling into despair and wanting nothing at all any longer. In other words, somewhere on the way to a “global world,” there comes a “halt” accompanied with a total disappointment from the previous use of the environment.

This is why divorce is so popular these days, and man strives to break all connections with society to be left alone. But while we are going through this crisis, we arrive at a new use of society, and hence, are willing to acknowledge it as an instrument to achieve the spiritual goal.

Even though our intention is still egoistic, society is becoming important for us indeed. We begin to perceive the environment and the global, unified humanity as a more exalted state of existence, a means for achieving a better life: eternal and complete. This is the next stage in the evolution of our perception of reality.

After it, there comes a more advanced stage when because of my engagement in the environment, I discover an even deeper, more exalted state. The environment for me transforms into the place where the Creator gets revealed.

Now I understand that everyone only seemed small and despicable, divided and individualistic, in my corrupted properties, my uncorrected view. I realize that it’s not true at all! They have always been unified and lived in love and perfection, together with the Creator and the Light that was filling them.

And I, in the degree that I bond with them, influence them, and receive their influence by starting to interact with them, also become part of them. I get to value them as much as I value the Creator. After all, He is revealed within them (“come and see”), in the corrected state of the society. And hence, I discover that except for this single state of integral unity, there is nothing else!

So it seems that our attitude to the society is the only device, measurement, and place of our work, the only thing a person possesses. And the Creator is there, inside it! The transformed society is the Creator Himself.

The corrected human society contains the entire nature within: the still, vegetative, and animate ones, and all of it together are regarded as Malchut of the world of Infinity. Therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to whether we are transforming, advancing, beginning to value our environment, and seeing in it great potential more, as pertains to us. Our transformation is determined by the transformation of our attitude to the society, and it is the only way to evaluate our advancement.

It may look very odd, but that very humanity that you wanted to save and do good for, considering them as little people with beastly interests, is gradually revealed to you as Shechina, Malchut of Infinity that has always been before you, but you couldn’t see it with your corrupted eyes.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/3/2011, Writings of Rabash

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The Importance of the Study
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The Book of Zohar — Introduction: “Heaven and Earth,” Item 56, Lesson 3
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Talmud Eser Sefirot 3, Part 9, Item 3, Lesson 3
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Topic Lesson: Woman, Lesson 3
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The first commandment that was given to us is the commandment of fear. This means fearing whether I am advancing down the spiritual path, whether I am acquiring the spiritual world, whether I understand what I read the right way, and whether I really act in the group.

In short: Will I succeed? I have to be consumed with this worry all the time. If I relax, then I immediately get off the track leading to the goal.

In our world, psychology enumerates over 800 kinds of fear. Do I earn enough? Am I healthy? Will something bad happen to me?

However, in Kabbalah, we are not talking about derived fears, but the primordial fear: Am I going toward the goal? Will I be able to bestow? This is already worry for something for which I don’t feel the slightest need.

Will I feel this need? Will I acquire it sufficiently in order to make efforts and aim toward the goal? I have to carry out an entire process: from the smallest worry that isn’t even clear yet, to full fledged fear aimed precisely at the goal like an arrowhead, which brings me to the realization, “Do I sufficiently give to the Creator? Do we become equal in this way? Am I not in a lower position, like a guest who receives the host’s feast in a way that he isn’t ashamed?”

This fear is the first commandment. But it is something we have to acquire. We do not have it initially. The goal is invisible and I don’t care about the quality of bestowal. Do I really need love for the neighbor? But I have to come to need it to such a degree so as to feel fear, “What if I don’t attain it?”

This is simply an outrage from the perspective of egoism. It’s completely unnatural.

However, by means of the environment and the Light that reforms, we can attain this. Fear helps us attain the worry: Will I receive the Light so it will turn me into a person who worries about bestowal?”

Therefore, we are yet to go through a big process of building the necessary conditions. However, in reality it is possible to actualize it simply. In this regard everything depends on the extent of the efforts we make.

First of all, I have to really be scared for my spiritual path. “Am I advancing toward the goal correctly?” Secondly, only once I acquire fear does the quality of love come to me because there is no love without fear.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbaah Lesson 3/4/11 on Love

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Question: If the world was ruled by women, would it be better?

Answer: The world cannot be ruled by women. By nature a woman has to be in the possession of her father or husband. That’s because according to her spiritual root, she is Malchut, which can only act by virtue of what her husband gives her. She does not have anything of her own.

That is a woman’s role: By inspiring a man to do spiritual work, she receives Light from him. We have to understand that there is nothing belittling about this. A woman is not lower than a man, but on the contrary, without her desire, the world would stop moving forward. There would be no correction and we would not attain unity with the Creator. We unite with Him precisely by virtue of the female desire. That is how we realize the male force.

We shouldn’t look at the differences or search for the advantages one has over the other. We shouldn’t judge it egoistically. On the contrary, our approach should be altruistic: How to connect men and women in order to reach the goal. After all, the goal cannot be reached without perfect unity between them.

When each one bestows to the maximum, then they are both equal. If a woman gives all of herself and a man gives all of himself, that means equality reigns between them and they advance toward the Creator.

But does each of them do the same thing? Of course not. Opposite things come from them, but that means they are equal.

It’s a different matter in our world where both men and women are presented with the same demands. Is such a thing possible? This problem is yet to be expressed through a very powerful cataclysm because we thereby destroy the foundation of our being.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/7/11 on Women

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“Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “Yitro (Jethro),” Item 194: When this one speaks, he stretches the skin of his forehead and those lines are not very visible. He bends his head and walks. His right serves as left, and his left serves as right. He is always sad, gossips, considers himself smart in all his actions, and hateful toward those who engage in Torah.

The Zohar speaks about the forms of connection between us. A “human” within me is my attitude toward the others rather than I myself. By myself, I am not a “human,” but rather a beast, as it is said: “We are all like animals.”

However, if I begin to build relations with the environment, with my friends, in order to position myself under their influence and to reveal the Creator within the connection between us, then the place of our connection is called Shechina. This is where the Creator becomes revealed. A “human” within me is my attitude toward my friends, which I awaken within myself in order to build this place of revelation of the Creator.

Therefore, everyone by himself is not a “human” because to be a “human” means to be “similar to the Creator” in relation to other people, in bestowal and love. In Hebrew the word man (Adam) comes from the word similar (Domeh).

The Zohar speaks precisely about these forms of a “human,” the kinds of connection between us, meaning about the Partzuf (structure) of the soul. This Partzuf contains all forms (forces) described above: arms, legs, faces, and so on. These are the ten Sefirot with the 613 desires which we have to correct from egoistic into kind relations between us.

Therefore, when The Zohar is telling about people with certain face features, hair color, palm lines, and other characteristics, it speaks about the connection of each one of us with others, about the types of this connection based on the soul’s type, about the properties of a “human” within us.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/4/11 “Introduction of The Book of Zohar”

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