Here’s a letter I received from my student about the newspaper dissemination event at the Black Sea:
Dear Rav,
I just got back from Sochi where I participated in the dissemination of our newspaper Kabbalah Today. I’d like to tell you about my impressions from talking to people while giving out newspapers. As you extend your hand to give someone a newspaper, people already know you and say things like: “Give me one, I want to read it,” “We already know Kabbalah,” “Thanks, but we already have a copy,” “We already read it yesterday.” You suddenly realize that most people you see already know about Kabbalah, have read our newspapers, accept and agree with it, are interested in it, perhaps they don’t understand everything because of the complexity, but they support it and recommend it to others. And you suddenly find that you’re surrounded by a society where everyone knows about Kabbalah!
Here are some more responses I got: “Give me three copies, because I had to give mine to a friend,” “Where can we buy your books?” “Do you have other books, because we already read this one?” “What do I need a newspaper for? I’m reading the books,” “When is the next issue coming out? We’ve already read this one.” One woman told a group of teenagers who were walking past our newspaper, “Take a copy, read it!”
One time I saw two men with our newspapers looking for somewhere to sit down. I thought to myself, “What a shame! They’ll use the newspapers as something to sit on,” but no – they sat down, read for a while, then carefully folded their newspapers and put them in their pockets. Another time I saw a boy of about fourteen years old walking down the street and reading, with his eyes glued to the newspaper even as he was walking. I saw all kinds of people – white, gray, black, dressed or half-naked, with long hair or with no hair at all, wearing crosses and covered in tattoos – and they all opened up the newspaper, read it, and then carefully folded it back up and took it with them wherever they went!
After a day of giving out newspapers, I walked along the boardwalk to gather up any copies that people may have thrown out. But out of 1500 newspaper that I gave out, the number of copies I found lying around didn’t even come up to ten, and five of those were carefully folded up and placed somewhere where others could find them. Then I looked at the beach and – wow! Almost every person had our newspaper!
The strange thing is that when you start disseminating (at 7:30AM), you keep looking at your watch to check how much time is left, but at the end of the day (11:30PM), despite the scorching hot sun that beat down on you all day, you feel like you don’t even want to leave.
One of the guys who was with us, Kolya, managed to make a few rounds every shift, checking up on all of us, taking pictures, giving moral support, bringing us cold drinks, and cooling us down with an ice cream cone!
And don’t forget that all of this is happening right by the sea. After a day of dissemination, we jump into the water. The impressions are simply beautiful – the water here is crystal clear, warm and not very salty…
I was there for a week, but felt that it was too short. It was so difficult to leave. In fact, it’s even easier to leave a congress. On the way there I drove from Moscow making three stops to rest, and the trip just dragged on and on. The trip back was a breeze – I was so excited that I drove for 25 hours straight, only stopping for gas a few times, and didn’t even think about sleeping!
But the most important thing is that this dissemination event probably won’t happen again next year, because there will be new events waiting for us! So this is a once in a lifetime chance that every person has for himself and for the GROUP! It’s only here right now! I’m grateful to the Creator and the Group for giving me the strength to rise above all the obstacles, and for giving me such a priceless gift – a chance to participate, to go through this, and to be a part of it!
P.S. Right now this dissemination event is at its halfway point – it will still keep going for the rest of August and all of September. Everyone who was able to has already been there. But it’s still too early to relax! We have to put everything we have into this until the very last day! The team is replaced by new people every 7-10 days, and then everything happens again like it’s the first time! The vacationers who still have to receive our newspapers are only now booking their tickets.
So let’s keep up the pace!
L’Chaim Gelenzhik – Sochi – Crimea!
Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Hello From the Black Sea Resorts
Laitman.com Post: Kabbalah Radio
Photo album of dissemination efforts in Sochi
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