Baal HaSulam, Shamati 99: “He Did Not Say Wicked or Righteous”: 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, 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.

If a person finds himself inside a group and those people whom he sees in the group are pleasant to him and do not repel him, then by being with them, he is gradually imbued with their goals, aspirations, desires, and ideals.

Therefore, we must be aware that we are in a Kabbalistic group and humble ourselves before our friends in order to envy them and to draw near them.

Question: What does it mean that people who strive for spirituality are pleasant to me?

Answer: You love them, respect them, and you want to be like them and be with them because they, like you, yearn for spirituality. And you realize that without these people you will not reach spirituality.

Question: Are they pleasing to me only because they yearn for spirituality? I don’t care what they are really like?

Answer: Of course not! What difference does it make whether they are black, white, red, have a beard, or are lop-eared! The main thing is that I have same desires as them and strive for the same goal. I understand that without them I will not achieve it.

Imagine that you are in a raging sea in the same boat with ugly, scary people. But you will not reach the shore without them! What can you do? Anyway, you gradually realize that this is what your egoism depicts to you.
[293036]
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: Do we attract the reforming light when we strive to connect with the ten?

Answer: Certainly. How else? I can realize this connection only if I attract the upper light, the upper force, the quality of bestowal, love, and connection. It cannot be otherwise.

We somehow separate ourselves from the group and the Creator and cannot imagine all this together. And at every moment of our life we must envision this to ourselves as the goal. What I am advancing to? What should I achieve? What should I see in front of me as the next state?

Me, the group, and the Creator—this is called “Israel, the Torah and the Creator are one.” That is what I have to imagine. And then there will be no problems and mistakes.
[293071]
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: If I need to annul myself completely before the ten, how can I be sure that the ten does not deviate from the course even by one degree?

Answer: That is none of your business. The ten is under the rule of the Creator. You cannot start examining it to check how correct or incorrect it is and whether it has flaws or not. You have to annul yourself toward it.

I mean, if it is organized and everything in it is arranged according to the system of Baal HaSulam and Rabash, and you want to advance in it, you have only one option: to annul yourself. The one who does not annul himself falls. He goes back to his animalistic life.

Question: Why do I need to annul?

Answer: So that you become similar to the Creator. We must annul our egoism and acquire the quality of the Creator, the quality of bestowal and love. Then we will begin to feel eternity, infinity, and perfection, to feel absolute nature. The Creator wants to bring us to this.

Question: What should I do when I see that my friends awaken hatred in me that I cannot control?

Answer: Very good! It means that you need to work with this up to the point when you will like everything that your friends are doing the way you would like it in your little child.
[293074]
From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/7/22, “Annulling before the Friends” Lesson 2

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Question: Is it appropriate to sign the mutual guarantee in writing or is it enough in words?

Answer: Not in words and not even in writing. Mutual guarantee must exist between us when we feel that we are all in the same Kli (vessel) together, depend on each other, and must support each other.

Only through helping a friend can I realize myself. I cannot raise anything from myself to the Creator except by carrying it through the group.

Therefore, understanding the structure of the Kli leads us to realize why we need such laws of commutation with the Creator through the ten, through mutual guarantee, and by raising above ourselves.
[293279]
From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/9/22, “Working in Mutual Responsibility” Lesson 6

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Preparation to the Lesson

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 10

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 127

Lesson on the Topic: “Faith Above Reason”

Selected Highlights 

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Rabash, Letter No. 42: We know what our sages said, “As their faces are not similar to one another, their views are not similar to one another,” so how could they be as one man with one heart?

Answer: If we are saying that each one cares for himself, it is impossible to be as one man, since they are not similar to one another. However, if they all annul their selves and worry only about the benefit of the Creator, they have no individual views, since the individuals have all been canceled and have entered the single authority.

The most important thing for us is to annul ourselves, our authority. No matter what we do in the group, in the spiritual area in which we want to develop, there should be no authority of our own.

Our power should be in not having our own authority. That is, a person must control himself in such a way as to annul the egoistic desires of his heart. This is very important!

We are all different. Everyone has different desires, different intentions. But by annulling ourselves, we become similar to each other in the direction of annulment. And although we are all very different, even opposite in some things, it does not matter.

If we annul ourselves, we all become the same—annulled. And when these annulled ones connect together, the Creator reveals Himself in them because an empty place remains in them, they have opened themselves for the attainment of the Creator.
[293029]
From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/7/22, “Annulling before the Friends” Lesson 2

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Question: How can we perform actions above reason?

Answer: You must imagine life in the quality of bestowal, connection, love, and reciprocity, care in a group. In this case you will be able to show your friends that you are striving for this and that you are in it. This is the obligation in order to realize the condition of guarantee or the condition of faith above reason.

A loner cannot fulfill the spiritual law in any way, it is only relative to others.

Therefore, concern for the fulfillment of the condition of faith above reason must be accepted by all the friends, each in his own measure and in the form in which he can imagine it. This will lead to the revelation of the upper world in you.
[293047]
From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/9/22, “Working in Mutual Responsibility” Lesson 6

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Question: If a person makes efforts to connect, but at the same time it becomes more and more difficult for him to establish an internal connection and get closer to the group, how should he act so that this connection is nevertheless strengthened and the connection of the group with the Creator is strengthened?

Answer: Pray, ask, and act together, we have nothing else. Actually, everything is very simple. The more we advance, the simpler the method becomes.

We just need the connection between us, in which the Creator will be revealed. In fact, nothing is easier than that. It is just difficult to implement because we act against our egoism.

Yet, there is nothing difficult in the method itself. It is said that the Creator made everything very simple and people complicate it with their calculations.
[293270]
From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/7/22, “Adhering to the Friends” Lesson 3

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Question: It is written: “One who truly wants to serve the Creator must include himself with all creations, connect himself with all the souls, include himself with them, and they with him.”

If there are quarrels between friends, but at the same time they understand internally that they need to unite, how can a person take a step toward a common ascent each time and not stick to fears that friends may push him away?

Answer: Everything depends only on the importance: to what extent is the Creator in my mind higher than me and my friends, how important is He in my eyes, how much am I able to rise above myself to merge with Him even if for the sake of this I have to annul myself in front of my friends up to the point of annulling my “I.”
[293026]
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: Is prayer to the Creator and building relationships with friends on top of it the basis of our work?

Answer: Prayer is the most important action because egoism can be corrected only to the extent that it asks for its correction. It is said: There is no coercion in the spirituality. Therefore, only to the extent of our desire can we receive help from above, and the upper light will correct us.

So without prayer we go nowhere. We will remain small selfish animals, like those that exist around us. We are no different from them except for the ability to rise to the next level.

But this possibility depends only on how much we can unite and, in our unity, beg the Creator to raise us to unity. Then we will enter the next level of existence. But nothing else.

Therefore, we analyze the very necessary, very important points of our spiritual advancement, and we will try to reach the next level. In practice, it is already among us, it just needs to manifest itself clearly.

Question: Should a prayer be passed through the group to correct the connection, which includes family members?

Answer: We do not normally include a request for family members in group prayer. We cannot disconnect from our egoistic desires, motives, and connections in it. Therefore, such a prayer will not, at least at our stage, be truly spiritual.
[293001]
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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