We need to understand that the more we advance, the more difficult the work becomes. Now when we don’t see a reward, it is easy for us to work. We only have to believe that we will get a reward. The friends tell us that there is a great goal ahead, the Creator’s greatness, for which we should work, and I run to it as if I see how great He is.

Actually I don’t see that; it is the environment that has persuaded me, and I receive energy and fuel from that. I need to keep only one condition in order to work for the right cause: to annul myself before the friends. This means that of all the conditions, I have to keep only one condition: to lower myself. Then the group will begin to impress me and to evoke the greatness of the goal in me, the greatness of the Creator, the reward, to motivate me. This is enough to make me run forward.

It is the easiest condition. After all, when later the Creator’s greatness is really revealed to me, how will I be able to work not for myself as if there is no reward if you know that at the end of the month you will get a million dollars? And it is for the easiest work, like opening the door for someone once a day, for example, and that’s it. How can I get rid of this thought? Now I have to work very hard, against my desire to receive.

The whole way, from one phase to another, to the extent that we advance, we discover what big and important business we are dealing with, the most profitable business. We will have to overcome this notion, as if we have nothing and to detach ourselves from our egoistic desire and hide.

It is very difficult. The first current condition that we have to keep is much easier; it is the simplest of all. So we finally have to keep it and to end this phase! I have to annul myself in order to receive from the environment the greatness of the goal, the greatness of the Creator, and the group, so that it will give me the fuel to advance. Only one condition is required, a small concession of my ego.

Then all these concessions will gradually grow and won’t be just self-annulment, but I will start working with the desire to receive. Each time I will have to agree or disagree, until I draw the Light upon me.

If I don’t manage to annul myself, I have to connect to the Light that Reforms. First I try to subdue myself by myself, but then I see that I cannot do that and that the resistance in me only increases. Then I begin to look for a way to annul myself and only then do I feel the need to draw the Light to help me. Now I already know what I have to look for during the lesson.

We have to write down the principles we will work on, so that this work will be shared by everyone. Everyone has to make efforts and to care about mutual guarantee and the collective fulfilling of the principles.
[95851]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/18/12, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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From Baal HaSulam’s article “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot”: …it is the path of Torah, meaning the extensive preparation one must make to prepare the purification of his body before he is actually rewarded with keeping Torah and Mitzvot.

This is talking about the so-called “preparation time.” A person comes to study Kabbalah, but he doesn’t yet understand where he is. He starts with some introductory lectures, then he gets acquainted with a group; he participates in various workshops and common work. If he joins a group, he picks up new values and attitudes from his group whether he wants to or not. This is how one’s preparation period begins; it lasts until one reaches a state called “Lishma,” meaning that the Reforming Light begins to impact him in a way that his desires are altered.

“Completion of the Path of Torah” stands for “asking for a miracle,” meaning enjoying the process of bestowal. One has to wish to rid himself of selfish interests. However, he has to aspire to this condition not because he wants to escape sufferings, but rather to become capable of bestowal. Giving must become one’s only pleasure. When a person rises above his egoistic desires, he is still preoccupied with various problems, but it will be for the sake of caring for others. He regards only this kind of behavior as “life.”

Once while driving with Rabash to a sauna, I asked him about the way to check my level of “Lishma.” He explained it to me as follows: “A friend of yours is returning an envelope with some money that he owed you. There is $1,000 in the envelope. You count the money and see that there is $999. You think it’s not a big deal and decide that most likely your friend simply miscalculated the amount and overlooked that it is short by $1. You think that it’s not even worth mentioning it to him. So, you seal the envelope and close the deal.

This is called “acting within reason.” If you count the money or if you are driven by any sort of calculation, it means that you are ruled by your mind. If you count the money, and still accept your friend’s estimation, (it’s obvious that he wanted to return the whole amount of $1,000), then you accept the envelope without any hesitations whether or not it contains the whole amount you are supposed to receive back. It means that you go beyond your own opinion and above your mind.

It doesn’t matter, how much your friend has returned to you. You accept any amount from him as if it is a thousand dollars; there is no minimum that you would accept. You don’t bring up any conditions, nor do you even think of his possible mistake. It is simply impossible! By accepting $999, you are $1 “above reason.”

If you open the envelope and see that there is only one dollar ($1) enclosed in it, but you still accept it as if it were one thousand dollars ($1,000), it means that your “faith above reason” is $999 worth. It is quite significant…

It is the kind of faith that doesn’t let you get anything in return. You take the Creator’s judgment or your friend’s estimation for granted; thus, you feel as if you received the whole amount back. You feel “as if” your friend returned to you the full amount of $1,000, 100%. This situation fulfills you and empowers you to rise from the level of “Lo Lishma” to “Lishma.”
[95501]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/12/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Question: What do we do if the importance of the goal is missing? It happens all the time: People come to class and fall asleep. What methods can a group use to elevate the greatness of the Creator and the importance of the goal?

Answer: It doesn’t matter if someone falls asleep. It happens sometimes! He came to class with his last strength and fell asleep. So what? What can you do about it? How can you awaken him if he is “dead”?

At this moment, he is not a human being, but rather a “plant.” You cannot inspire him at this time. People have the need for sleep, nutrition, and other natural necessities. You cannot do anything about it; you just have to take it into account. You cannot demand anything of your friends unless they sleep at least 5-6 hours and eat a couple of times a day.

Question: This is clear. Although it’s still not clear to me how the group should take care of increasing the importance of the goal.

Answer: The group should take care of this issue on regular basis, but not by promoting tedious slogans that people are bored of hearing. We need to see that people “feel it in their bones.”

How do you do that? Just try! Think of it all the time. If you keep thinking of it, it will make an impact.

This is our work, and we cannot escape it. We are driven by egoism. In this we are opposite to the Creator.

When we advance to the next level, we’ll be dealing with totally different and extremely severe conditions of spiritual work: hatred, difficulties, letdowns.

They all come from the Creator!  We have to agree with them, unless someone is “drilling a hole in the boat,” which may harm our spiritual work. In this case, we have the right to take this person off the boat and expel him from the group.

However, if he falls asleep, you should put a pillow under his head as you would do for your little son.
[95444]
From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/8/12, Lesson 4

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Question: What does it mean that the nation of Israel needs to give the world the method of the middle line?

Answer: There are two lines in nature; one force is our ego that constantly grows. In general, it is called “Pharaoh.” And on the other side, there is the positive force through which we need to correct this ego.

Thus, there are two forces facing each other, and a person needs to bring them into balance so that the evil force will transform into a good force, “The angel of death transforms into the holy angel.” And a person does this by pulling this force towards him on his own. This means that “he learns the Torah,” the wisdom of Kabbalah, in the correct way, which is called the “Torah of Light,” since in it is found the Light that Reforms.

But the Light affects us only if we long to connect. After all, the whole of the Torah is discovered in the connection between people when they desire and long to rise above the ego that separates them. It is just as it happened in front of Mount Sinai when they were asked, “Are you ready to connect as one man in one heart?” If yes, then the Light that is called the “Torah” appears and connects us. And then the Creator is revealed, the upper force. If “no,” then here is the place of your burial.

It is specifically in this state that we actually are in now and we need to choose where we want to go, with which force?

For this, everyone is not required to study the wisdom of Kabbalah, but everyone will attain the wisdom of connection that is called integral education, through television or the Internet. It teaches us how we need to connect, meaning, through which kinds of actions. If a person would only want to imitate the example that integral education gives him and to participate in it according to his ability, passively: listening to lessons, to discussions, then in that, he is added to everyone. And in the end, everyone together strengthens the positive, internal force within the nation, and in whose surroundings it will consolidate more and more.

And from us, this force will begin to spread all over the world, to all of humanity. And then we will begin to feel how the whole world calms down, leaving its complaints about the nation of Israel. And afterward, it begins to approach us positively by asking how to help us, just to receive the Light through us.
[95072]
From the Weekly Torah Portion 12/4/12

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From Baal HaSulam’s article “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 78: “Even if the whole world says you are righteous, be wicked in your own eyes,” specifically in your own eyes. In other words, as long as you have not attained “opening of the eyes” in the Torah, regard yourself as wicked. Do not fool yourself with your reputation in the entire world as righteous.

People are not at will to do good or bad deeds. Regarding spirituality, the natural qualities of a person, which he was born with, don’t count: how nice and polite or how rude he is. Until one merits a revelation and the Creator’s testimony, that will guarantee his good intentions, until then, one will remain wicked.

But when a person achieves a revelation and the Light keeps holding him up, from then on, he will be a good, righteous. Therefore, we don’t make calculations about each other, who is bad and who is good. Regarding the spiritual path, everything is determined by crossing this cherished border—the “Machsom.”
[95665]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/16/12, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Question: Egoism is the engine of progress. How do I get to the essence of it?

Answer: Start relating to it properly: Egoism is assisting you; it is “help against.” It unfolds so that you transform it into its opposite, and then it will become a helping hand. If we look at things properly, life will stop feeling like tough resistance and an “unbreakable wall.” On the contrary, you always keep playing with your egoism, constantly “juggling” it. You befriend each other, and it already knows that it’s the right thing to do.

And suddenly, behind egoism the Creator appears. It turns out that He is pulling the strings, and now He becomes your partner. Try to view everything not only from below upward, but also from above downward as well, not from creation’s point of view, but from the Creator’s angle, meaning how He has to restrict Himself, what He should send to you and how.

Suppose you have received something from Him. Now you consider how to work with it from below; besides, you can take a glance from His point of view and visualize how He sends you certain conditions and how they descend downward until they form the exact situation you find yourself in.

And what am I supposed to do now? You must appeal to Him from below upward, give Him credit for everything, and patiently start studying while discerning how to arrange things so as to reinforce the awareness of two principles within:

1. There is none else besides Him.
2. Good Who does good.

This is the key. After all, no matter what the Creator is giving me, every case comes down to this, and this is what I must be aiming at all the time. As a result, each time, my response should be as follows: to carry these two principles (1, 2) from state to state, enhancing them more and more. This is the sole purpose of all that happens.

Clearly, in order to implement this, I need a guarantee, support, the Light that Reforms (Surrounding Light, Ohr Makif – O”M), and in general, the Kabbalistic method. But one way or another, everything occurs solely in order to give me a chance to come closer to revealing the Creator, as there in none else besides Him, who is Good Who does good.

[95582]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/14/12, “The Peace”

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Instead of holding on to the principle of “there is none else besides Him,” my thought depends on different factors, which I see before me. Instead of looking ahead to see beyond people, beyond the mechanism, beyond all the natural phenomena, and to see just the Creator and myself, I, like a shortsighted person, look at objects that are close to me and see them as the factors my freedom depends on. Just like Don Quixote, I fight windmills, lifeless “scenery.”

As a result, the Creator has to intensify the evil and the sufferings, so that I will have to take a better look at what my life depends on. He does it so that I will not be able to stop this search.

We see this in the example of the state of Israel: Ahmadinejad, the Hamas, threats, missiles, Mubarak instead of Sadat, Mursi instead of Mubarak…the Creator constantly hardens the heart of Pharaoh. Why is that? Because the Jewish People don’t want to see the real reason for what is happening. In the meantime, all the minor reasons were only meant for one thing—to bring Israel to the Creator, so we have to be grateful to them for that. They are merely means.

Accordingly, the people are required to be a bit more clever in order to see who they are dealing with and who is managing the world. The troubles only remind us what the goal is, and it is easy to get rid of them if we turn to the Creator. But we don’t turn to Him in order to receive “rewards,” but in order to correct ourselves, in order to adhere to Him and by that bring Him contentment. Then the current “reminders” will be annulled, and then the “angel of death” will turn into a “holy angel.”

Question: So whom are we working with, with the group or with the external world?

Answer: All of reality, including the external world, including me and the group, are in the Creator. The external world gives me a negative impulse (1), by constantly evoking me to turn to the Creator (2). But I know that I cannot turn to Him directly. First I have to turn to the group, and then together with it to the Creator. Only then will I have a vessel, a desire for it, while nothing will help me if I work individually.

[95523]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/12/12, Writings of Rabash 

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Question: One of our friends from the virtual group was going to come to the congress but at the last minute he returned his ticket. How should we support friends in such groups?

Answer: This should be regarded simply: The Creator wants to show him whether or not he chose the right path. Let him check.

You have to treat him as a friend: There are ascents as well as descents, and they both come from the Creator. You have to truly be helpful and supportive of a friend and the rest is up to him.

It is said that one should be lifted twice. If you see your friend with his “donkey” (egoism) and this “donkey” is weighted down by his load, meaning that the egoistic desire of a friend didn’t withstand the load and fell, then you must help the “donkey” to free himself of this load, to lift him back up, and load him again. If the “donkey” falls again, then you have to repeat this action. However, if he falls for the third time then you can leave him.
[95516]
From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/8/12, Lesson 4

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Why is our world special? On the one hand, it’s the last and worst of all the worlds. On the other hand, it’s necessary since here we are in a totally still state, which means breathless, and we can begin to advance as we “play” with each other, with the bodies and not with the forces, which we still don’t know how to manage.

This is why our world is called “the imaginary world.” It doesn’t actually exist, but is only felt that way in our egoistic desires. The moment we rise above it, we begin to feel that it’s an absolute replica that is opposite from the upper level, and then this world simply loses its meaning for us. This is what we have to attain.

First we have to internalize the fact that the soul is the general vessel, which is the only thing that was created and which is constantly in contact and in adhesion with the Light. We are in that state, in that vessel, in that desire. Imagine that it has layers, we are on the most “coarse,” darkest layer, and above us there are 125 layers until the real state. We have to go through these 125 layers gradually by rejecting our ego, which is inside us, in the gradual, constant connection between us.

Do the plants, animals and the still nature have a soul? Every small desire that exists in nature is already part of the general soul, but without freewill. It totally depends on us, on those who fulfill the correction of the soul.

There are many different levels in the soul. There are people who are on the human level, who have started their correction ages before us, who have attained where they really are, and saw that everything is one soul, one Light. There are people who carried on this mission, and there are people like us who are reaching this level now.

But we are special. The development of our world is the development of the same ego on the lowest level. Throughout the ages it developed egoistically and eventually has reached a “round” form, its maximum size, and at the same time, it is global and integral (∫) in its quality.

Now, too, this ego is the state we are in. It cannot grow any further, and it has become global and closed. So we don’t understand what is happening to us. Being egoistic and individualists, we cannot understand this “round” state.

We have always grown and aspired forward. Each of us was pushed forward by an egoistic force and we tried to fulfill it. We felt good. Even 50-60 years ago we used to praise the consumerist society, the benefit of competition, and we called it “general democracy.”

Now the same ego, that has reached huge dimensions on the last level of its existence, has “exploded.” It doesn’t work as it used to, and we are trapped. The only way out is if we understand how the integral system of the general soul operates.

What does humanity feel today in the general system that is becoming evident? It actually feels the first level of the general soul that hasn’t been revealed yet and that should illuminate upon us here, the level at which we have to acknowledge the fact that we are connected.

On the whole, there are 125 levels in this ascent and now the very first level seems to illuminate upon us from a distance. This is the reason that we feel that the world is global and integral and we cannot do anything about it.

We study about this in the wisdom of Kabbalah: When two Partzufim are made of ten Sefirot, from Keter (K) to Malchut (M), and are one under the other, this illumination flows from one to the other. When one Partzuf “dresses” in another that is next to it, it illuminates through it.

On the one hand, we receive factual data about our world that is in a crisis today and can’t do anything about it. After all, it’s an upper level that illuminates upon us, the first level of my soul, which means of the general vessel.

On the other hand, we suddenly find ourselves tied to one another, connected through the whole world: What people think in one place, people also know in a second and third place and so on. We are mutually interdependent. We suddenly discover that we can’t get rid of any part in the chain, whether we like it or not. On the whole, this mutual network is expressed in the states being one on top of the other or one below the other.

In any case, it’s a special state: We are now experiencing the solution phase of the general soul.
[95243]
From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/7/12, Lesson 2

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Question: The people who prepared the Novosibirsk Convention cannot get together in a good organized physical group. They communicate virtually, watch the lessons every day, each from his own home. This is how it has been for five to seven years. How can we help them unite in a group?

Answer: If they really want to move forward, they need serious obstacles. For this, they should get together. Only by overcoming obstacles, uniting above them, will they begin to move forward; otherwise, all their studies are just theoretical. If they have an opportunity to get together and they do not want this for their own reasons, then they impede themselves. They can be nice children, organize everything perfectly, but for each of them to stay in his place is impossible.

If they were separated by long distance, for example, hundreds of miles, then it is another matter. But they live in the same city and have to meet. They simply must!

Probably, they cherish their egoism and are afraid of losing it. The Creator pushes them on purpose, gives them such nice workouts as a convention.
[95435]
From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/8/12, Lesson 4

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