Question: We have a great need to have morning workshops. We would like to learn how you compose the questions that are difficult to answer and that force us to go beyond our limits in order to find it.

Answer: In general I ask two types of questions during the workshops. Either it is a question that has no answer for which you need to strain, like during childbirth, in order to find the common “fruit” between yourselves. After all, when such a necessity for everyone all together arises, then the center of the circle is born.

Thus, the question needs to be such that the person feels it tearing him apart inside and that he can solve it only if he gives up everything he has and merges with the others, hoping and making efforts to connect with the friends to find the answer.

Or it is a question where we need to clarify something from within that same common point that we found. And then the questions come in a certain order of the system and should follow in a logical way one after the other.

Here people need to support each other and connect even more. Technical questions might be interwoven with sensation questions, but people constantly need to work in the center of the circle.

There are circumstances in the workshop, when it is effective to draw a person out from the current process of the discussion. Suddenly a question is asked that seems to be from a completely different world. This is good too because confusion causes a reaction in people, one needs to find a foothold. People need to find it in the center between them.

These workshops are necessary for us; they are not meant for the external public. After all, we don’t want people to knock their heads together where each person is within himself. For those, we need to pad it with something soft so that they will not fall.
[138121]
From the Sochi Convention 6/10/14, Lesson 2

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Now everyone is equal, there are no exceptional people in the group and it may remain that way in contrast to all the previous generations since eventually we have to reach a certain Assembly of Kabbalists (“Sanhedrin,” a spiritual guidance).

Although there were differences among the Sanhedrin, we can imagine what hasn’t been fulfilled yet, but we can’t know anything in advance.

We have to act where we are now, find out what our role is and fulfill it. We shouldn’t worry about what may happen in the future. We shouldn’t ask about the future because that would be for our own benefit as our desire to receive is involved.

But with regard to the teacher, you must annul yourself when it comes to spiritual matters, as if you don’t exist. Otherwise, you will not be able to advance. Our advancement is only by annulling ourselves before the upper, so you have no other choice.

It says: “A blow from the elderly facilitates building, while building by the young leads to destruction.” Even if you think that the teacher is wrong, it makes no difference. Let him be wrong, and later you will see how the Creator turns this the other way around so that this mistake becomes a benefit.

There are states in which you have to accept everything that the teacher says without any doubt, to annul yourself, and follow his advice without clarifying why it is so and without wanting any proof. This is a small level of faith.

On a higher level of faith you’ll want to hear explanations as to why the teacher advises you to do certain things; you’ll criticize and see how much you object to a decision because you think differently, but yet you’ll still do it. You should fulfill it as if you have no complaints; you agree with him, and are totally adhered to him. Then you will be adhered to the teacher with entire your ego, especially if before you were against him.

But this is only true for great people. You should always listen to your ego until you can completely adhere to the teacher. It may be only minimal participation when you listen to what you have to do and do it. Perhaps you can invoke your own criticism, see how much you are against it, and still adhere to his opinion more and more. Thus, you grow inside the teacher like an embryo.

The more you annul your ego by fulfilling everything that the teacher wants while you are in complete disagreement, the more you turn yourself upside down like an embryo before leaving its mother’s womb. This is how you are born.

After your birth there is even greater work with more serious doubts and problems. They are typical of the state of smallness, the period of childhood, the wrath of childhood, the different Dinim, and it is always directed towards the upper. All our work is in annulling ourselves before the upper.
[138146]
From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/23/14

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Question: If everyone has a spiritual mother and father (AVI) through which he receives the power of the Light, who is the teacher who conveys the method to the student?

Answer: The spiritual father and mother are the upper system with which you have to work. Later you will learn what it is, that it is a level that is higher than you.

You will learn how to connect to your spiritual teacher, what level he is on, and how he equates himself and incorporates in the general vessel that you are part of and with the upper Partzuf that is above you. You will discover all this.

We don’t yet see the spiritual hierarchy according to which we are built, and therefore all the students are equal. There are no differences between them. In our current state I don’t see any differences between their souls and cannot see anyone who is higher or anyone who is lower.

There are people who are not mature enough yet in order to advance to spirituality and so they drop out and leave the group. They come for a short while and then leave. But at the moment, I don’t see, among the students who stay, any souls that are closer to correction than others.

Everyone has to make an effort and then he will understand his role better. At the moment we are only getting close to the right effort that is focused on the connection between us. If a person dedicates his soul in order to connect to others in a circle, he actually fulfills himself. Then according to his fulfillment, we may be able to see that the root of his soul is higher.

But this refers only to those who really are “love sick” with regard to the friends.
[138140]
From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/23/14

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Question: If it is necessary to apply the spiritual law of Arvut (mutual guarantee) twenty-four hours per day, why were we given this entire world with all of these concerns—work, family, and children—that take up 95% of our time?

Answer: Everything is arranged such that, from all these conditions, you will reach the realization of the goal. If it takes 95% of the time, then 5% of the time is probably enough for spiritual work.

Ninety-five percent (95%) of the time you must work in the material world, and 5% is left to you for inner work and dissemination. This means that you are under conditions where the Creator says, “I will take upon myself 95% of your spiritual work!” Instead, you go to work, the market, the bank, the family, and so forth, and all that comprises this 95% of your time will be considered as if you were engaged in spiritual work.

However, during the 5%, you must be involved with spiritual work with all your might. If you do that, then 100% of your life will be dedicated to attaining the spiritual goal and correction.
[137402]
From the 5^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/13/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Rabash, Letter 24: You know what Baal HaSulam said, that from the relationship between man and man one learns how to behave in the relationship between man and the Creator. This is so because the Upper Light is in complete rest, and it is necessary to always evoke the love, “Until the love of our wedding pleases.”

That is, it is shown to you from above that you have to keep awakening the love of the Creator in this way and that you must always stand guard, all day and all night, when you feel a state of day or feel a state of night.

It follows that you must evoke the heart of the friends until the flame rises by itself. By that, you will be rewarded with awakening the love of the Creator upon us.

It is known that in analog systems, all of their parts are absolutely linked with each other, as in the human body where the life of every cell depends upon the cells around it. This cell lives solely and only thanks to the sustenance that it gets from outside.

So a person cannot live alone either. If he throws himself into a forest and wants to live like a hermit detached from the whole world, he shouldn’t complain later that he cannot satisfy all of his needs. After all, we get everything required for life from the environment.

From the Shevirat HaKelim (shattering of the vessels) we see even more clearly how much each one of us is not personally ready to attract and receive any illumination, neither from the Light that Reforms, nor from the Light of fulfillment of a person who is already corrected. For all correction is in connection with others.

After this, connection is realized and exists to a particular degree, then it is possible to speak about fulfillment. So the only thing that we require is to be concerned about connection. This is because the inclination to connect is an inclination towards the Creator who is revealed within the connection.

Everyone must awaken the heart of the friend, provide him with an example of how he can himself be awakened and can yearn for the friends. It is necessary to awaken and ignite envy in each other’s heart, an inclination towards respect, and to use all means that will influence a person so that somehow he will push him forward towards connection.

We need to see our lives as a sequence of moments that come from the Creator to show us new observations all the time by placing us into new situations where we awaken our environment. For we have no other work besides awakening our environment with the goal of discovering the Creator within our mutual connection.

Serving the Creator becomes more and more concrete and concentrated in a very limited area. So Rabash writes that “all day and all night,” meaning in both of these situations, the good feelings and the bad feelings, we must understand that the Creator is giving us an opportunity at every moment to awaken the friends to mutual connection between us.

Only according to the manner in which I awaken the environment does the environment awaken me. I have no power to connect with the friends myself and I have no desire to ask for it. I get it only to the degree that I awaken them to connection. All of our work begins from this.

I cannot turn to the Creator by myself, I cannot yearn for connection, and I cannot yearn for correction. This is possible only through my awakening the others. Certainly, we first work on this within our inner circle. But we go out to external dissemination with the goal of awakening people so that they will also begin to move towards that point of connection.

To the degree that each one of us succeeds in awakening the friends, his inner circle, and the whole world, which is the outer circle, to this degree he will himself receive a desire to connect with them and will reach a place where the Creator is revealed.
[138163]
From the preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/24/14

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Question: We have a huge world group, but each one in his country or in his region doesn’t know what the others are doing. There is no cooperation between the groups so that we can carry out the same thing in parallel.

Answer: It could be that this isn’t bad. A more rapid scrutiny of all kinds of different questions is happening.

It is impossible to carry out something as an order. When you feel the necessity for each other, then this will happen. But the imperative will appear only from the need to increase the spiritual intensity of your mutual cooperation. You will feel that you cannot advance forward without feeling the other groups.

Certainly it is possible to adapt to this artificially, but the feeling of a necessity must still come from within. You can begin to work together, and after that you will see.

For example, when we organized a large dissemination activity in Israel, we began to feel how much all of our groups were necessary. We began to join them to a common work and they all went out together to the same activities, each in his own region. From this we began to feel closeness. We began to think: “How can we still connect?” Then we began to organize a convention.

We dedicated an entire evening to this. We sent buses all over the country at our expense, we brought people to us. We fed them for free, both physically and spiritually. We organized workshops, joint activities, and we prepared a nice artistic program. We began to feel that we were involved with one shared enterprise and we felt ourselves as one whole.

So first of all, you must share the same work: you with yourselves and other groups with themselves. This is because in the beginning you need to create a common basis, and only after, can you send one group to another group and exchange experiences.

Question: In this connection many contradictions appeared with us regarding what love of friends is.

Answer: You don’t have any love of friends! You are now thinking about love for them because everyone says that without them you will not get what you want. But if you could get it, you would not remember them at all! We should really look at things. Therefore, it is necessary to develop mutual participation throughout.
[138118]
From the Sochi Convention 6/10/14, Lesson 2

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Question: How is it possible not to depart from an intention for a single moment and do everything for the sake of the Creator?

Answer: For this, you must be in full and absolute adherence with the friends so that, among you, the feeling called the Creator is revealed.

The Creator is your inner feeling, Bore (Bo Re), meaning come and see with your inner vision. Reach such a state, feel it, and remain within it. This is called adherence with the Creator.

However, this is attained only with a shared, collective Kli, in other words, in your right connection with the friends, with mutual wholeness, building a mosaic such that all of its borders merge into the creation of only a single desire.

This happens under the influence of the Light. From our side, only effort is required, half of the coin (the Shekel), and the second half, which is the realization of this effort, comes from Above.

Speaking about the Creator (about the love of friends) and being with the Creator (realizing the characteristic of bestowal and love) are two different things.
[138115]
From the Sochi Convention 6/10/14, Lesson 2

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Question: In order to leave the ego, is it necessary to want this?

Answer: The person does not want to leave the ego! I can play all the time, deceiving myself that I want to leave the ego. But in fact, I don’t want that, and every time in the next stage, this will become clearer and clearer, until the Upper Light will change me.

Question: Through involvement with integral education, we see how we advance and grow together with the external public, and here the sharpness of the goal, the intention, becomes blurred. It follows that we still are continuing to develop egoistically.

Answer: Every moment you must check yourself: “What is happening with me? What am I doing?” You need to watch all of your physical actions, every word!

This is constant internal work, “What motivates me? What for? What kind of conclusions must I draw from this? What kind of result will this bring me, spiritual or material?” In the end, it could be that we are slowing down our actions, but they will be more correct.

Question: What could the criteria for this truth be? Indeed, each one of us is found in his own truth, in scrutiny.

Answer: It is necessary to scrutinize the truth all the time. It is necessary to advance! In the end nothing just disappears, for all of the efforts will be gathered together.

So, it is not necessary to be clever. In other words, it is not necessary to draw conclusions on the basis of what you feel now, how you think. There could only be risk in this.

The main thing is to invest effort. If you cannot do this internally, then invest external effort. In the end, it will create a new level of consciousness.
[138111]
From the Sochi Convention 6/10/14, Lesson 2

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Our way is reflected in the reaction of the other nations to the people of Israel. When we see that our enemies and haters are strengthened in the surrounding nations and organizations, according to this we can identify the rate of our advancement. And we must understand that serious and strong work is required of us.

Against every new external wave we must strengthen the unity of the Jewish people. For the power that makes it possible to neutralize the external evil is found only in our connection here. And this is specifically what will bring the world to correction.

And as much as the nations want to “catch” us more and more, so our unity must be stronger. Then we can influence them and change them. This is exactly what our war is.
[137962]
From the 5^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/22/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: How do you attain simple faith?

Answer: Simple faith is absolute bestowal, Hafetz Hesed, when I try to be free of all my pragmatic thoughts, when I think about the friends and about the group and try to exist only in order to fulfill our connection.

The first phase is the minimal attainment of the level of mutual guarantee in the group. We begin to understand that different forces constantly are operating on us. Of course, they all come directly from the Creator’s trying to separate us and disrupt our connection, to divert our attention from thinking about the upper force, about connection, about unity, about the goal of creation, and about our obligations.

These forces arrive continuously in different forms, in different directions, confusing us, and dulling our senses. It isn’t in our power to resist them if there isn’t the right spirit in the group that can help us survive. Therefore, as it is written, “They helped every one his friend.” This is our obligation.

Otherwise, the days will go by, and everything will change, but a person will remain the same. So, each one must support the others and worry about them so that they will worry about him. A person cannot worry about himself since these forces operate on each one, pressuring him on all sides, trying to tear him from the others by forcing him to worry about himself.

The moment he focuses on himself, it is very easy to detach him from the goal of creation. It is because the real goal of creation is in the connection among everyone. Therefore the impure intentions are the Klipot; it is not thoughts that separate a person from the Creator. The entire world is ready to think about the Creator, to cry out to Him, to go and pray in different holy places. A person has no problem doing that.

The goal is unity, connection. As long as a person holds on to it, he is fine. However, the moment he breaks away from this form of connection, he is no longer a danger to the Klipot, and they leave him alone. He can study by himself, acquire knowledge, but that doesn’t disturb the egoistic forces. They allow him to observe all the Mitzvot (commandments) very carefully, everything but connection, everything but “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”

Everything else doesn’t disturb them. On the contrary, if he has no intention to advance toward the love of others, all the other actions pull him in the opposite direction.

So, when the point in the heart awakens in a person, it is important to know how to fulfill one’s freewill. The Creator brings a person to the good fate and tells him: “Choose!” And this is what a person must do, that is, understand that fulfilling the Reshimo (reminiscences) is only through connection.
[137432]
From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/15/14

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