The development in the group is surprising and beautiful because during a very short time I pass such states and details of perception that without friends would have required a few reincarnations in the physical life—long transformations of Reshimot. Among the wonderful friends we accelerate development.

Nothing on this path can be “passed,” “walked over,” “removed from the list.” The process of realizating Reshimot is set initially and I must go through this entire spiral. But the pace of progress depends on me and is determined by how much I integrate into the group.

Even if I sit in class emotionless “like a log,” devoid of understanding, it does not matter. Everyone goes through this.

The group is a wonderful system in which we complement, add, to each other. Some reveal new “thicknesses” of desire, others are imbued with spiritual impulse, and we interact as a whole.

The main thing is to live in the group as deeply as possible, and bow down before it with all, to bow down in any state: both when I am full of life, unity, and when I am “dead.”

Talents and abilities will not help here; it’s not the one who is wise that learns spirituality. First and foremost, I am required to surrender.
[125644]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/16/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
The Fate Of The Friend Depends Upon The Group
The Conditions Of Mutual Guarantee
How To Turn Destiny To Face You

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

When I listen to a friend who speaks during the workshop I am incorporated in his words without any doubts or criticism. I perceive what he says as the most important opinion and want to be incorporated in it, to connect so that it actually becomes my opinion. I want his words to touch my heart and to play on it like on strings.

This is how I relate to everyone who speaks. I don’t criticize what he says in any way but simply want to be incorporated in the same thought. We open up to one another and are totally candid as we speak from heart to heart. Everyone tries to totally annul his criticism so that there will be no barrier that blocks the friends’ words and so they will directly enter my heart as if I said them myself, fully confident that it is correct.
[125487]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/14/14, Workshop

Related Material:
Seeing The World Of Ein Sof (Infinity) Behind The Simple Words
My Friend, The Great Sage!
A Simple Law Of Revelation

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work, Unity - No Comments →

It is said, “A man and a woman, Divinity between them.” Who are this man and woman? In the spiritual world it all depends on a specific role: once, I bestow, another time, I receive. Indeed, in order to give, I also have to receive, and in order to receive, I must also give.

It turns out that each of us once gives to friend and once receives, that is, performs either the male or female role. Thus, it’s realized: “A man and a woman, Divinity between them.” If we are in this mutual connection, then the Creator is revealed between us. It’s within these transmission channels of reception and bestowal that we build the image of the Creator (Bore), meaning “come and see” (Bo-re).

If we build the correct relationship between us according to the law of equivalence of form, this channel of connection will be revived, will acquire vitality. We are required only to make an effort to make it happen, and within it, we will discover that it is alive.
[125637]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/16/14, Workshop

Related Material:
Communication Is Not Just A Wire And A Wave
Building Divinity
“Woman” And “Man” Are Two Forces Leading To The Creator

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work, Unity - 1 Comment →

If during the workshop I was able to connect with the friends’ hearts and spoke not external words, but directly from heart to heart, then I need to keep myself in the same state all day long until the next workshop. I have to keep the sense that our hearts are connected together and are not be separated from them. And, as well, I need to continually try to find within myself a stronger collective desire, more closely tied, more strong, in which we are united in one whole and strive to reveal this One, the Creator.We must remain in this state continuously so that the workshop never ends.
[125634]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/16/14, Workshop

Related Material:
The Union Of Hearts Is The Union Of Bina And Malchut
Seeing The World Of Ein Sof (Infinity) Behind The Simple Words
My Friend, The Great Sage!

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work, Unity - No Comments →

I must try to open my heart towards the friends and that all of their desires, thoughts, and expectations for spirituality will enter directly into my heart without any opposition and criticism from my side. For the right intention, we need the Creator in the center of the group all the time and to accept this state with an open heart. All of us must concentrate around this point and focus all of our efforts on it. Only in this is our free choice, which we must realize. This stance surrounding the Creator found within the group is similar to the stance around Mount Sinai. Exactly as there, Arvut (mutual guarantee) and mutual support is required of us; through them we can reach a constant intention.

In spirituality nothing is measured according to the quantity of power; rather, it’s according to the quality. A strong intention is an intention never stops. A weak intention can be stopped. But a strong intention cannot be stopped and is constant, and therefore it is said to be high. Certainly all kinds of disturbances will come, both general and particular, but in the face of all the disturbances we must be concerned about only one thing: such a strong intention that is never stopped. Precisely with this we must strengthen each other, and this is the mutual guarantee that is realized.

From a small and weak intention, we must come to a great and strong intention; that is, from regular breaks, from a loss of spiritual yearning, we must pass to one heart, to the center of the group, in which the Creator is discovered, so that all of us will connect together there in a single embrace with Him. We must help each other with mutual guarantee, that the intention will not be stopped in any of us. For with this he would be boring a hole in the hull of our common boat, in our common heart. If we approach the convention with efforts like these, then success is assured for us.
[125590]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/15/14, Workshop

Related Material:
My Heart Is In The Hands Of The Friends
A Battle In The Arena With The Ego
Increasing The Coefficient Of The Positive Action

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Prayer and Intention, Spiritual Work, Unity - No Comments →

In the idea of the intention, the principle: “Each one will help his friend” is active. For “A prisoner cannot free himself from prison,” but only the friends can get him out. The support of the friends is called, “Arvut” and if it is found, then even for a moment, I will not forget about the intention and my heart will always be open in the right direction.

I am not prepared to do this by myself but only with the friends. My heart is found in the hands of the friends, and only they can direct it towards the Creator who is found in the center of the group. Therefore, I depend on them completely. How must I compensate them in exchange for work like this? I compensate them with the same coin; that is, in an identical manner I think about them, I am concerned for their intentions. Not one of them is able to do this alone either, and he also requires the help of the friends.

If together we think and are concerned that the right intention will not cease in others, that their hearts will always remain open and ready for the discovery of the Creator in the center of the group, then with this we assure ourselves of that same concern and that same treatment from others. In the end, I will discover that everyone is already in the final corrected state and I did not see this with my corrupted eyes, as it is written: “Everyone who rejects something does so with his own flaws.” And if I direct myself correctly towards work with the friends, bestowing to them, then I will discover their bestowal towards me.

This is to say that all of the work that I do on myself I do through work on the others. In the meantime I do this for egoistic reasons (Lo Lishma), in that I am directed towards correcting myself in this way. But in spite of all this, it is already being done in the right direction: from myself outwards. From Lo Lishma like this, we come to Lishma, to bestowal.
[125588]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/15/14, Workshop

Related Material:
The Power Of The Intention Is In Its Constancy
A Battle In The Arena With The Ego
We Cannot Reach The Upper World Without Mutual Concern

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Mutual Guarantee, Prayer and Intention, Spiritual Work, Unity - 1 Comment →

Question: Why does the “raspberry ball” disappear all the time and the only way to hold onto it and grow it is to go to the outer community?

Answer: Every activity in spirituality is an innovation. Even in our world it happens this way, but we simply don’t pay attention to this. Nothing returns as it was: All the time new clarifications and corrections are happening, a new discovery of evil and its correction for the good.

In spirituality there cannot be a stop, there cannot be a static state. Every state must be renewed all the time. This is like in love, like in relationships between people, where we must constantly take care of our relationships. If we want to keep them, we must constantly develop and grow them, opening new states.

In this world, until the end of correction, we receive a gift, a favor, help in the work: We reveal broken desires specifically granted by the Creator so that we will have material for renewal. Thanks to this we can renew relationships and develop our feelings each time.

But if there had been no shattering, what would we rely on to build our innovations and changes? And when we rise from physical states to spiritual states, then we see that spirituality is constant change. Without them, the spiritual world doesn’t exist. Even in our world, according to quantum physics, the electron cannot exist without movement.

If we stop it, it disappears. The entire universe of elementary particles, which rotate around their axes at tremendous speeds and move in orbits, is in movement and change. The entire micro world works at higher frequencies that approach the speed of light.

In our lives the speed of the changes also grows, and all technical apparatus, electronics, computers, everything, works at greater and greater speed. This says something about the number of changes that we are ready to include in a unit of time, a unit of influence. Everything depends on the speed, the frequency, with which changes happen.

Every Partzuf includes ten Sefirot, and each one of them includes another ten, and so on ad infinitum. Therefore, there must be a very high frequency in every interval in order to include all these infinite changes of mutual integration of this into that and that into this, and so forth. The changes must be constant and at a very high velocity.

So when we reach the raspberry ball, we begin to feel that it’s impossible to hold. Here we begin to understand all of our psychology: If we don’t work on some kind of sensation, some kind of observation, all the time, then it disappears. It’s not revealed clearly in this life because we are becoming a unique compound of beast and human. And the beast in me exists without change, like all the rest of the beasts. And if my head is only involved with taking care of my beast, then I feel that everything is completely okay with me.

But if I begin to take care of the human in me with my mind, then I will need all the changes there. Then I constantly, incessantly,will need to decide what is more important for me, the beast in me or the human? Is the man riding the donkey or the donkey riding the man; who is carrying whom?
[125172]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/7/14, Lesson on the Topic: “Preparation for the Convention”

Related Material:
When The Sources Extend Outward
Move On, Don’t Stall!
Strengthening Unity Or Hindering It?

Filed under: Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: On the one hand, we must reach a permanent and strong intention. But on the other hand, it is written: “For the Torah shall come out of Zion”; that is, specifically from the “exits” from spirituality and the returns. How is it possible to combine the two opposites?

Answer: We must continue always towards a permanent intention so that the Creator will be discovered in the center of the group, within our connected hearts, without any dividers between them. This picture must always be before me. And I must be concerned that my friends will be directed towards that thing and will not abandon this intention. That is how I assure myself automatically that I will also remain in that intention. By this means I summon upon myself the Light that Reforms which strengthens me in the right intention.

But together with this, new desires, new conditions, are discovered and awakened in me all the time since in the meantime my Kli is not fully corrected. Therefore I am found in exits all the time. Additional density is discovered and it throws me out, and I must again and again return to the center of the group. But these exits must come from Above. I am not weakened in my intention; rather, it’s as if I lost consciousness: Every new egoistic desire throws me to the boards from which I must rise.

It’s said that the Torah specifically emerges from such “exits.” After all, I must overcome them and specifically above them I will construct the new me.
[125572]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/15/14, Workshop

Related Material:
The Power Of The Intention Is In Its Constancy
My Heart Is In The Hands Of The Friends
Do Not Waste Time

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Prayer and Intention, Spiritual Work, Unity - No Comments →

The Book of Zohar, “VaYikahel,” Item 141: Therefore, it is forbidden to kindle a man’s voice during prayer, so that the upper voice, ZA, will be in it, since the speech rises to Malchut and unites with ZA through the Malchut, receiving a voice that is mitigated from ZA. Then the prayer is fit for reception of the abundance, and the speech of the upper world need not be heard through a man’s voice.

There is a rule, “there is no vessel without the Light.” Everything is done by the Light only, while we only exert ourselves, which is the precondition for every action. Every single action is done only by the Light that works on the vessel.

We are only required to exert ourselves; we don’t do anything but only increase the intensity of the deficiency. This is the reason we are in our world, since this is the only place where we can perform different experiments and actions, which from a spiritual perspective are not considered actions. They only bring us to a state in which we can ask for the correction of the vessels and for their filling.

This is why our world is so special. If we didn’t exist in this reality we wouldn’t be able to influence our spiritual ascent in any way, since all the actions are performed only by the Light. So how can I, being on a certain spiritual level, influence something that is higher than that level? By which means can I do this? I have to be detached from the spiritual world in order to ask to be raised from one state to another, from one level of clarification and new correction to another.

There has to be a reality that is detached from the spiritual ladder, which is where I am, in which I can always prepare for the prayer before a prayer. This is the reason that the corporeal actions in our world are so beneficial to reach a certain state and to ask for the Light that Reforms. We shouldn’t think that we don’t need our world, that we can do nothing but simply connect internally and that this would be enough.

This isn’t enough. On the contrary, the more a person does in practice, the more desire, pressure, and experience he builds up inside him as a result of all his actions, which eventually add up to a cry, to a prayer before a prayer. The prayer before a prayer is addressed to the Light with a request to form the vessel, the desire. The prayer itself is addressed to the Light so that it will fill the vessels, which means that it will actually allow us to bestow.
[125415]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/9/14, The Zohar

Related Material:
I Am Dreaming Of Becoming A Slave Of Bestowal
Practical Actions Determine The Outcome
What Does Prayer Begin From?

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Prayer and Intention, Spiritual Work, Zohar - No Comments →

Question: I can imagine the great responsibility toward the friends in a sinking submarine. How can I feel this anxiety and this tension during the workshops when there isn’t such drama going on around us?

Answer: Listen, no one is asking you to do any tricks like a magician and pull a rabbit out of a hat. There is no need to perform any tricks, but simply try to tie your demand, your deficiency, with the upper force, and that’s all. Try to demand, to ask for anything. The moment you lack something for your spiritual advancement, turn to the Creator immediately with any request that you have. If you manage to tie it correctly to the Creator, you will have no problems.

Your work is to be the link, the adaptor, between the deficiencies and the source. No one is asking you to be the source of energy and not even to be the user of this energy, which means doing something by yourself. Your work is passive: simply to nag and keep on asking for what you want from the Creator. However, you should ask wisely. You should clarify accurately what it is that you exactly want, and then ask for it. You should understand that the Creator arranges difficulties for you precisely so that you should nag Him and, by that, learn from Him, and thus advance.

The problem is that you are leaving the Creator. Baal HaSulam says that the greatest sin a person can commit in this world is to forget the Creator and to be detached from Him. So, don’t be detached and keep nagging Him with your requests. That’s the only thing you are required to do.
[125340]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/7/14, Lesson on the Topic: “Preparation for the Convention”

Related Material:
Ask Whatever You Please
A Mother Will Come Running When Her Son Cries
Prayer: A Means Of Changing Oneself

Filed under: Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Prayer and Intention, Spiritual Work - No Comments →