Question: What can I do if the fear of losing my individuality doesn’t allow me to connect and unite with the friends?

Answer: Individuality is a natural state of the ego. All of its existence, all of its power, is in this.

However, when I am involved with spiritual work, I don’t lose my individuality. On the contrary, I multiply it by the intensity of the group with which I am connected. This is because I discover myself by way of the group. I take from the group, dissolving into it.

The idea is that the desire to receive doesn’t disappear anywhere. It is elevated all the time, and I only correct it for the right usage. It grows and grows all the time, as it is written, “Everyone who is greater than his friend, his inclination is greater” (Talmud Babyli, Sukkah 52a).

So, the wisdom of Kabbalah is called the method of reception. I work with the same ego only this time it is a naked desire that is not designed for egoistic usage. So, I don’t nullify myself but only the ego, the intention to receive for myself, and the desire itself remains. I begin to use it correctly. I understand that I could not use it at all before this.

Think about how much can we use our ego in regard to the world? Suppose that I want people to disappear and the world to exist only for me. I want the sun to shine only from six until seven in the morning, and after that it would be evening all the time because I love the evening, it’s quiet and tranquil. What an ego.

So, to what degree can I fully use the ego in my life? A tiny fraction, one billionth of a percent. I don’t know how much and what I can change egoistically. In fact, it is nothing.

However, here, I have been given an unlimited possibility of using those desires, not in an egoistic style, but in an altruistic style with its full intensity plus the intensity of all of humanity, something that multiplies my desire many times, and so I become equal to the Creator because, in relation to me, all of humanity is the intensity of the Creator.
[142890]
From the Convention In Sochi 8/25/14, Lesson 2

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Question: During the work in an “aquarium,” from our perspective, the married couples were completely rediscovered. Their arrival and departure had an immense influence on dissemination and group relationships.

Both partners in every couple carried out their activities like “trucks” in comparison to “bicycles.” How much of this is a perspective? Is it worthwhile to nurture this, or the opposite, is it preferable to suppress it?

Answer: We are now moving into a very serious conflict, not even a conflict, but continuous crisis and difficulty in familial relationships. It will continue until people will completely lose attraction to married life, not maintaining sexual relationships, what is called a “family,” or taking mutual obligations into account: education for children, common housekeeping, etc. The ego will not let a person submit to any of those foundations, and we are seeing how all this is collapsing.

And after this a serious reversal will happen. People will begin to understand that to attain spirituality there is no partner more faithful and close than a husband or wife: He or she, will build a spiritual connection only on a basis of spiritual ascent. Specifically this, and their mutual acceptance will determine their relationships, the love between one another. Their dream will be the appearance of a spiritual baby among them, meaning the discovery of the Creator.

I hope that now we will begin to pass through this breaking point in humanity and then a spiritual attitude towards marriage will appear among us. Currently, it is possible only to dream about a situation like this. I don’t think that today this is an actuality among us.

We are still searching and running around with a lack of understanding, with a “lack of order” between outside and inside. We have not yet established the collective illumination of Light that would show us that specifically the first nucleus, which is not social but spiritual, is prepared between a man and a woman.

It could very well be that today there are couples who can cooperate mutually like this, but in general this is very difficult. We have not yet reached this level because we are in stages which are torn apart by the ego. In the meantime, we have no awareness that the truest, most spiritual and closest partner, where there are no secrets, is your husband or wife.

I don’t know how much time will be required for this. At present, humanity is passing through more difficult situations than familial problems. Today the question of freedom in Africa generates more interest than family matters. Very gradually we will reach this, too.
[142848]
From the Convention In Sochi 8/25/14, Lesson 3

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Question: The people of Israel lack unity, a common goal. What is the reason for this detachment? Perhaps we are too carried away with the Western way of life, where everyone has his own ideology and goals?

Answer: We have come out of exile and carry all of its features within ourselves. But this does not mean that we should remain like this. Why did we come back to this land to live as the people of Israel in the land of Israel?

A few decades ago, I belonged to one nation, you to another, and he to a third. We lived in different cultures and in different geographical locations. And then we came to Israel, but nothing has changed. This is a gathering of exiles, every one of whom comes with his own baggage, protecting what is inside. Or will we want to open this baggage and ourselves from within to unite and become one nation?

The force of unity is the main force of nature, by which we live. But the force of separation confronts it. These two forces must be in equilibrium. This happens everywhere and always: pluses and minuses, hot and cold, tension and relaxation.

The two opposites seem to always be fighting with each other, but in fact they become connected. Life is the combination of these two opposing forces.

But the human being has only one negative force, egoism, and he has no force of connection. Even if we become united, it is also due to the egoistic force. I just want to use someone for my own benefit and that is why I do something good for him, in order to get closer to him.

We have nothing except the negative egoistic force. But it is said that I have created the evil inclination, and I have created the means of correcting it, the Light that Reforms. There is a force opposing our evil inclination, which is the Light, a special internal force of nature, which is revealed to us when we are united.

If we come together to seek this force, connecting with each other, we will find it. It will allow us to rise above our egoism and subdue it. That is, this power of unity should be revealed more than our egoism.

By making an effort to connect with each other, we increasingly reveal the inner force of unity. As a result, this force of unity becomes stronger than the force of separation and begins to dominate. Thus, we become bearers of two forces: the force of separation which acts internally and the unifying force which acts externally.

Human society will live a special new life because we have two forces, not just one. Through the wisdom of Kabbalah, we will achieve a special connection and gain the true force of unity. This force will not be egoistic, as in a gang of terrorists, but will raise us above our ego. The force of connection and the force of separation will exist simultaneously and balance each other out and raise us to a new degree, to a new life.
[142877]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 8/27/14

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Question: Let’s go back to the stages of how people get closer to each other internally. How does this happen?

Answer: The first step is when I do not want to use a stranger, another person, any friend of my people, i.e., in the group with which we go to the spiritual ideal, to the principle of “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”

When I ascend to this degree, I feel I do not want to do anything bad to another; I do not have bad thoughts about him. I can overcome my egoism, restrain myself in all its forms, and all my energy is focused on being absolutely neutral to people, desiring to be connected with them, wanting to be with them. That is, I do not think and do not take care of myself in spite of all the rest.

This is called the “restriction” of one’s egoistic desires and is seemingly a neutral state: Do not wish for and do not do to your neighbor what you would not wish for yourself.

And the next stage is “love thy neighbor as thyself.” That is not neutrality but a positive action. Because originally a person discovers that all his actions are directed only at his own benefit, and he cannot do good to others, except for his own profit.

Thus, we are talking about three stages:

• First, there is recognition of egoism;
• Then, its neutralization;
• And then, its correction, implementing it for the benefit of others.

And this final action is the essence of love.

Question: Can we say that Abraham built a perfect society?

Answer: Yes, of course. Abraham built a perfect society of those people from Babylon that he took with him.

But here we consider, in general, not the people but their desires! This also applies to the followers of the work of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Yes, they are his direct descendants, but all in all, his followers are called “sons,” disciples. Hence, there are such concepts as the “house of Abraham,” “house of Isaac,” and “house of Jacob.” The “house” means the community of people who continued to grow and develop.

They grow in a physical sense as well, but the main thing is they grew spiritually until they united fully in their mutual aspirations, in connection with each other on the first spiritual degree, which is called “Jacob.” This first spiritual degree is already considered the degree of “Israel,” with a hint of the future land of Israel, which will be reached. Although there is no land yet!

After all, “Israel” means “directed to the Creator.” That is, when you are in some place and aspire to the goal, then you are called “Israel,” “straight to the goal.” To reach this goal means to enter the land of Israel.

What are you lacking for this? For this you are lacking egoism, which you will correct and turn into the land of Israel. That is why they later had to come down to Egypt.

Question: So the group was already called Israel, and it still had to go through a century of descent before it would acquire the land of Israel, the desire, aimed at the goal?

Answer: Therefore, it is said that Jacob knew about the future and wanted to tell his sons, but he was not given…
 [142720]
From KabTV’s “Babylon, Yesterday and Today” 8/27/14

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Question: Many times you have called the people who have gathered in Sochi a group even though externally this is not a group; rather, it is an activity composed of people who constantly change. How is it possible to understand better what a group is according to this example?

Answer: For me, Sochi is a group. This is a community of people who have not yet attained unity, but who are with an inclination towards this in all of its various parts: They alternate, change, and are replaced, but it is a group.

This is a group. It is a team that was not only present here but was also supported from afar. This is because there are people who weren’t in Sochi but made an effort to be inside with you. They participated virtually in your meals and in workshops. They tasted what you are feeling here and what those who weren’t here didn’t. And this is called the “Sochi Group.”
[142845]
From the Convention In Sochi 8/25/14, Lesson 3

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On the second day of the convention it is proposed that we examine the subject, “How do we get rid of the ‘stench’ of the rotten ego with the help of our efforts?” There are articles by Baal HaSulam and Rabash in which it is said that when a person looks at how his ugly desire gradually dies in agony, he is pleased by this because with this he is born. To the same degree that the ego rots, he feels that the Adam (man) is born in him.

The ego is like inverted, plowed under by the plow. This means it is reversed, reversed to altruism. The plow is the Light of the Creator. The fertilizer is our efforts with which we previously wanted to fill the ego.

Ultimately, under the influence of the Creator, the quantity of our efforts becomes qualitative. We receive an opposite ego in which the “flower bud from the ground” is revealed, the altruistic characteristic, our soul. This is talked about in the second article of The Book of Zohar, “The Flower Buds.”

After the true “self” grows in us, we must scrutinize if we are ready to connect to “we,” meaning to attain the same covenant about which we spoke in the beginning. Thus, the second day will finish with this, where we (individualists) are connected into a single “we,” meaning into our single “self.” With this we go to sleep joyful, satisfied, and happy.

The result of the whole day must be prayer, our gathered desire, as much as this is possible, yearning for the goal, for the power to realize this goal. Every stage must be accompanied by a better and better molding of this petitioning, this prayer.
[142775]
From the Convention In Sochi 8/25/14, Lesson 4

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One of the lectures planned for the St. Petersburg convention is called “the cycle of the ego in nature.” Is there anything else in nature but that?

Everyone should draw his whole ego out and tell us how much he loves to deal with it, like a dung beetle. We should not cry or beat our chest, but normally and seriously feel what the Creator said: “I have created the evil inclination; I have created the Torah as a spice.”

We have to bring out everything there is in us and compose a song about how ugly we are inside and how much we love our ugliness. Our greed, the inner lie, and our inability to see the truth, our inability to love and to bestow should be expressed in this song.

We have to feel it so well that we will really be disgusted by ourselves, but the most important thing in the revelation of our terrible primary attributes is that they don’t allow us to unite.

Question: We always try to end the day positively. But in this case is it better if everyone went to sleep in the shattered state, under the impression of the revealed ego?

Answer: No, I thing the revelation of our rotten internality should delight us. After all, we finally understand what our illness is, like a person who discovers the reason of his ill state. The next day he will come and get the medicine, but he will know the exact reason, and he will be glad about that.
[142771]
From the Convention In Sochi 8/25/14, Lesson 4

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We make a covenant at the convention because without the covenant we cannot reach the common desire by which we reveal the Creator. It isn’t anyone’s caprice but an essential condition that is necessary for the spiritual work.

According to the law of equivalence of form, a vessel (Kli) that discovers a certain attribute must resemble that attribute in our world too. Take physics, chemistry, physiology, or anything you like for example, it is the same on all levels.

Thus we should attain the attribute of resembling and becoming equal to the Creator, and it is attained in the connection between us when we ascend above the ego. This is what we should aspire to. Such acceptance of the way, the intention, and the attainment of this state is called a covenant. Although we have not attained it yet, we commit ourselves to that.

We can tell people about that in advance. We are not hiding anything, and this is the reason we are holding the convention that has to bring us all to maximum connection and unity and even, hopefully, to the first level of resembling and being equal to the Creator, which means to His revelation.
[142769]
From the Convention In Sochi 8/25/14, Lesson 4

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We are setting a simple standard for the upcoming convention in St. Petersburg: Those who come here and who will participate in the convention have to dedicate themselves to the covenant between us, so that the Creator and the general correction will be revealed in them. This is not subject to debate.

We tell ourselves that we are in an ideal state and that the distortion of the harmony is inside of us. Everyone must find the deficiency inside him that conceals the spiritual revelation from him and from everyone else. So the main thing is to delve into myself in self-scrutiny.

All the answers are inside me since I am surrounded by wholeness and the world of Ein Sof (Infinity). So this self-scrutiny and looking deep inside ourselves comes down to a prayer to the Creator and in increasing our sensitivity to Him.

This means that we should understand that even now we are in an absolutely ideal state and that all the problems are inside of us, in our uncorrected senses. We need each other’s help and together we can reach the state in which we feel the real ideal world. This is our mission in the convention and our mission in life.

Every day will start with a friends’ meeting in which the friends from Sochi bring everyone to an emotional state. The preparation is rather long and serious, and it increases our feelings and the inner tension. As a result, each one composes his personal prayer, which is poured from him and is expressed on paper.

Then there is the first lecture about what the Creator demands of me. In the sources, it says that the Creator demands fear. We have to unite and to connect in order to gather, establish, and create the right form of tremble.

Why is that the precondition with which we enter the next state? Fear is the feeling of necessity, the feeling of having no choice, the feeling of something that is approaching, of something that is not understood. It has to be established in the form of a special necessity. It isn’t fear but an inner tremble because I have to reach the love of the created beings and through them the love of the Creator, but I cannot attain that by myself.

The final outcome at the end of the day should be a serious prayer that is attained by the broken hearts, extracting every drop of blood from the heart, everything there is in it. The day ends with a general prayer to the Creator.
[142766]
From the Convention In Sochi 8/25/14, Lesson 4

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Question: In Sochi we attained such a connection and unification that you are calling all the participants in the activity the “Sochi Group.” Is it possible in the upcoming Saint Petersburg congress that all will become one homogeneous group of Saint Petersburg?

Answer: Even without Sochi, what I have seen throughout this month in South and North America amazes me: The friends have made a breakthrough and moved ahead. I have never participated in such unique conventions as in Mexico and New York.

Suddenly I saw people who could tear themselves away from their daily lives, their families, and the external world and break through together into a common denominator. Moreover, this was in America, a nation where people are afraid to get close to each other and they protect themselves with fierce dedication. Then suddenly, something like this was revealed.

There were more than a hundred students there from the Education Center that until the convention had not participated in anything. They sat hugging each other, sang in a bar in the evening until two in the morning. People suddenly “disconnected” from their American mentality.

And with the full enthusiasm of the participants, the convention began with an ascent, and also ended with this enthusiasm. Never before had the Americans experienced this. They always traveled home quietly a few hours before the end of the convention, but there was never something like that there!

When I was leaving, everyone stood, cried, and watched the convention end. For America this was something indescribable. I am very familiar with this continent. Moreover, these were not Russians and not Jews, but really Americans! So we have a starting point for truly making our united Kli.

After what we have done in Russia, if we make the same breakthrough as the Americans, then there is simply an infinite state ahead for us.
[142713]
From the Convention In Sochi 8/25/14, lesson 3

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