Currently, humanity has reached a new stage of development and now must work together to correct the world. There is no alternative because the current troubles are caused by the revealed Light that urges us to start to unite. Otherwise, it will still continue to move closer to us, but in catastrophic ways, like an asteroid that threatens to collide with the Earth.

The Light is really getting closer and day by day we are confronted with the consequences of it. Jobs are cut, diseases and problems multiply, the perversions of human nature are growing, mutations; in other words, serious changes for the worse are taking place in human society and the surrounding world.

Moreover, the elites and governments lose their means of influence that allow them to manage the world, and they don’t know what to do. Previously, it was possible to pull one or the other “rein”: money – army, money – army. But in these days, money has lost its aura of omnipotence, and the police and military methods are not efficient in the conditions when more and more countries are knocking on the door of the “nuclear club.” In my opinion, about twenty countries possess nuclear weapons today.

As a result, we are faced with a big problem because we are required to initiate the correction of the world. I am talking about all those who are together with us, who feel the point in their heart: We must awaken unity. And if we are not able to unite before the Light approaches us, we will advance by the path of suffering.

The situation is this: If we are drawn to the Light, we feel the positive (+) and move by the path of hastening (Achishena). If we do not want that and remain in our egoism (Ego), we see the opposite side of the Light (-) and advance as “scheduled,” “in due time” (Beito).

Thus, today we have found ourselves in a state of choice, at the point of the question mark, from which we can rise or fall. At this turning point, people who have an attraction to spiritual development, who have felt the point in the heart, who have received from Above the desire to think about this and learned about the program and the goal that is beyond our normal life, can make all of humanity follow them. And they must do this. Kabbalists of all generations have written about it.
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From One America “Virtual Convention” Day One 11/16/13, Lesson 1

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There are two steps in human development: the highest and the lowest. Moreover, we (WE) represent the higher one because we have the point in the heart (•). We worry about the development; we feel and understand its importance; we care; we are not indifferent; we have a connection with the Light, which we do not know about ourselves.

On the other hand, humanity has no direct connection with the Light, and people live in the framework of our civilization, taking care of common needs for food, sex, family, money, honor, power, and knowledge. They don’t need anything else.

However, today there is a special situation: The world is being plunged into crisis. Practically everyone feels this and can’t do anything. Here, we should understand that this crisis is caused by the steady approach of the Light, which is manifested in us, undermining the family institution, destroying children’s education, depriving us of empathy in relationships between people, and weakening us. In general, the many facets of the crisis bring us to a point when the former welfare and old hopes seem to “slip through our fingers like water.” This is happening because we are not able to enter in contact, in connection, with the Light that is being revealed more and more.

So, we have a reason to reach out to people and explain why they feel bad. Baal HaSulam writes about this, that we must become “a kingdom of priests,” to reach out to people and tell them how to correct the situation, how to deal with the crisis. After all, the exit of it is in unity (Σ) by the method of integral education (∫).

If we unite, the crisis will disappear because in our unity we will begin to reveal the Light. It’s us now, but we don’t match it; it’s concealed even more, and as a result, we feel the growing darkness. If we match the Light, then we manifest it in the original quality, illuminate life with goodness, which builds all the connections between us and fulfills us.

Thus, we have only two simple opportunities:

• Either to unite, becoming similar to the Light so that it’s revealed in us;
• or not to unite, and then it will be revealed anyway, but in its time, on the path of pain and suffering caused by our growing divergence between it and us.

However, humanity itself cannot understand the method of correction or feel something because it doesn’t have the most important thing, the point in the heart. Thus, it’s up to us: Due to the point in the heart, we have a connection with the Light. So, precisely we have to become a connecting link between it and the whole of humanity.

Moreover, if in all the generations since Adam until now, Kabbalists created only certain groups, today, it’s not enough. In the past, the spiritual power of the group was sufficient to reveal the Light. There were various times when groups were comprised of only a few men, or dozens, or hundreds, or thousands. However, we have to integrate our small groups into everyone else.

We, our group, cannot obtain connection with the Light if we don’t take into account all of humanity. We have a great desire and yet we are not able to realize it. Years pass and we are seemingly “idle.” Enclosed in our groups, we are like a dog that runs around trying to catch his own tail. There are plenty of efforts and little effect.

Why? It’s because we lack the need, the feeling of lack. We don’t have that big minus with which we could reach the Light. And we will not have it no matter how hard we work.

That’s why the groups “tread water” for years. They must have all of humanity connected to them, not billions people at once, but it’s necessary to begin to work in this direction. They need to “go to the masses” and connect them to us.

Then in response, we will get a great desire, a great need. Yes, it’s just a simple “earthly” natural need based on the ordinary necessities; however, we turn this into a spiritual impulse and ask the Creator for spiritual fulfillment. We raise their desire and ask: “Give us the Light! Give us unity!” This spiritual desire awakens the Light that affects us in response, is revealed in us, and we bring it to the people.

Thus, this Light resolves all problems. In our world we lack nothing but the connection between people. Through the correct interconnection, we will be able to arrange everything. The only thing is to build the relationships between us correctly.
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From One America “Virtual Convention” Day One 11/16/13, Lesson 1

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Question: All our actions, everything that we do, must be aimed at the revelation of the Creator. This is the only way we can determine the effectiveness of our action. And if, after the analysis, it turns out that it is not aimed at the revelation of the Creator, then is it better to “sit and do nothing,” as it is written?

Answer: No, no matter what state you are in, you should still act. There are cases in which a person seems to be “dead,” but he still must come to the group, to be present in it  even if he sleeps during the lesson, he still must perform certain basic actions.

A mechanical action isn’t really mechanical. If I can perform even the tiniest movement, it means that my desire participates in it since otherwise I wouldn’t be able to move.

Not a single molecule or atom could move if there weren’t any desire active in it. The electrons that spin around the nucleus are desires since all of matter is a desire to receive. In all the atoms, molecules, and electrons, there is a great desire to reach a state of saturation.

A state of saturation that is achieved in elementary particles—as a result of the big bang, for example—descends from the spiritual level and operates the whole universe in all the stages of its evolution. This is why they are moving ceaselessly in search of pleasure for fulfillment since it is only this way that they can express their need for fulfillment. They think that they are chasing fulfillment.

We are made of these elementary particles, so we chase pleasure all our life. This yearning is revealed on a different level but in the same direction. So, we must perform mechanical actions, even though they cannot be performed on the emotional level yet.

Sometimes, we think, “Why should I sit with these people? What have I got to say to them? I don’t want that at all. How can I lie to myself and to others?”

Lie to yourself and to others. Pretend. Act like you are their friend! However, remember that it is an act, a lie, since you are doing this consciously. This is part of your development.

“How can I do that? After all, I am an honest person! Why should I sit with them, eat with them, and hug them? I don’t care about them at all. If we loved one another, it would different, but I don’t feel that they are my friends this way.”

That’s right! You don’t feel them, and you even will hate them like Rabbi Shimon’s students. What will you do then? Should everyone leave because of the way they feel? On the contrary, you should be aware and rise above this as you understand that this is how our ego speaks inside us.

Act, although you don’t want to, because your desires are inside you, and the actions are on the outside. After the actions, there will be new desires since the Upper Light influences even actions without a desire. As it is written, “Mitzvot do not require intention.” Even if you perform them mechanically, they summon the Upper Light.
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From the Talk about Group and Dissemination 10/21/13

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We don’t need to demand that other people know and understand the method. They simply must understand that the crisis will continue for many years. Today many are writing about this, but in the meantime nobody comprehends that the fall will continue for years until the last drop of normal existence is squeezed out of us.

This is a law of nature that is understood by those who see a little more deeply than others; there are no miracles here. If we look at the future under the right light, then a terrible picture will open before us: the cruelty of people, spiritual and material emptiness, withdrawal and degeneration of the younger generation, deserted cities, and the complete indifference of human beings who are not ready for anything. The ego will begin to devour itself and will end its existence, like a cancerous tumor that kills the entire body and it itself dies afterward.

We must explain all this to the general public, arrange integral workshops for them, and not just speak about love and friendship, but solve our material problems together. Together with this, they are solved with great ease because within them a higher force participates. People don’t need to know this, it is not necessary to frighten and confuse them. It is enough for them to understand that within connection and unity is found a unique force of nature that helps us. And they will feel this through our workshops.

It is said that there is a quantitative hero and a qualitative hero. A quantitative hero extends in width while a qualitative hero extends in height. Therefore in order to be a quantitative hero, we must connect the masses, to ourselves. And then we can go upward.
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From the Bulgaria Convention “Dawn Of A New World” Day Three 11/3/13, Lesson 5

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Baal HaSulam, “The Love for the Creator and  Love for the Created Beings”: …here comes Hillel’s statement to the foreigner who came before him and asked to be converted, as it says in the Gemara, “Convert me so that you will teach me the entire Torah while standing on one leg.”

He told him “That which you hate, do not do to your friend.” This is the entire Torah, and the rest means just go and study. We see that he told him that the entire Torah is the interpretation of the verse, “Love thy friend as thyself.”

The Torah tells us of the methods to ascend to the step of “Loving your neighbor as ourselves.” From the very first word until the very last one, the Torah clearly explains how we should act and what we will be going through in order to completely implement this principle.

Question: What kind of accuracy is it if nobody understands what it’s talking about?

Answer: It’s a process. When one begins to perform the method in the group, little by little one begins realizing and sensing what hatred and love are, which is completely alien to us now.

Today, we hate or love others only on the material plane, but here they are revealed in the concept of complete love, unity, and another spiritual step. Then, our self-measurement becomes totally different. Before, we just lived in this world, experienced numerous sensations in it, and entered into various relationships at an “animal” level.

But now we have started to implement unity among us. By doing so, we rise to a totally new level. We join the group that is not just an assembly of people but much more. In the group, we share diverse relationships between each of us with others. We build the connection that I call a “raspberry ball.”

Definitely, it’s not a “ball” per se, but rather a system that manifests itself among us. It exists and we have to awaken it and bring it to life by attempting to include ourselves into each other, connecting with each other, and hoping that the Returning Light comes and unites us.

We see that we are not capable of doing so on our own. Each time, when we try to become better (1) we see that we have become only worse (2). This will last until we reach a state that is called “49 gates of impurity” upon which we will acknowledge that there is nothing good in us whatsoever and that we are completely evil. Then, according to this understanding, we will feel a necessity to ask for the Creator’s help.

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Question: How is it possible to check if a person is in the state of Lo Lishma; what typifies the Lo Lishma from which we reach Lishma?

Answer: Lo Lishma, means that a person is seeking the truth. He has heard and theoretically has an idea what it is, but at the same time he still is in the intention to receive for himself.

If we measure Lo Lishma according to a scale from 0% to 100%, then in the case where a friend borrows $1,000 from me, 0% of Lo Lishma is when the friend must return all $1,000 to me.

1% of Lo Lishma is when he returns $999 to me, and I accept this as if he returned all of the $1000. And 100% of Lo Lishma is when he returns 0 dollars to me, an empty envelope. And I check this with my senses, see that there is nothing there and accept this as if he returned the entire debt to me. This is to say, this shows me how much I can go beyond the receiving desires.

But certainly all of this advancement is possible only due to the influence of the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif). But when we pass from Lo Lishma to Lishma, then we begin to operate the Direct Light (Ohr Yashar).

Baal HaSulam provides a definition of Lo Lishma in The Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot: “Indeed, practicing Torah and Mitzvot in Lo Lishma means that one believes in the Creator, in the Torah, and in reward and punishment. And he engages in the Torah because the Creator commanded the engagement, but he associates his own pleasure with bringing contentment to his Maker.”
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/15/13, Shamati #64 “From Lo Lishma to Lishma“

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Question: What is false humility in the relationships between the groups?

Answer: In our work there is no false humility because if you knew for sure that salvation is only possible through the connection with the friends you would not be shy. You would beg them for help.

Let’s say I know that I have a problem with my health and there is some remedy for it in South America. That means that I would connect with one of the groups living there and ask them to send this remedy to me. This is natural because we often help each other this way.

If so, why can’t you ask for the inner support? This would be help not only for you. Since you ask your friend about connection with him, you do the same service for him. For now, you still don’t understand the essence of the common work! If I know that my friend and I have the correct relations I have to accept a gift from him. By doing this I express my attitude toward him and I understand his attitude towards me.

When you love someone you want to give him gifts. If he says, “No I don’t need this, why?” So he doesn’t understand your action. He has to show that he is happy to receive your gift, “I wanted this so much! It is so great that you guessed what I wanted!”
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From the Lesson About “Group and Dissemination,” 10/21/13

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Question: What is the method of the internal work? How can I feel thankful to the Creator and joy when serious interferences and even blows keep coming? How can I truly justify Him without deceiving myself?

Answer: If a person is by himself, there is nothing he can do. He cannot understand and clarify his state correctly and reach the right decision if he doesn’t do it through the group. He has no tools, no instrument that analyzes things by which he can do that.

The group is the only source through which he can understand correctly the problems and questions that stem from above, from below, from the outside, or from the inside, and see all these states correctly, which means that I arrive at a certain solution and then I act. I can act only through this mechanism.

I cannot think about myself. If I am alone, I always think from inside my shattered ego. So, I must convey my thoughts through this instrument, through this mass, called the group, and only then will I have a chance to hear the questions correctly and respond to everything that happens to me correctly.

Only the ego rules inside me, in my mind and heart. I never can solve anything correctly. I say this based on my personal experience. I constantly need the group, the friends, my students, who may be on a much lower level than me, but it makes no difference. After all, they are many, and only when I pass the thoughts and desires that come to me or that I want to express through them, can I be sure that I do something right. This is exactly how I work and not any other way.

When I come to the lesson, I don’t know what the subject is and I don’t care. If I don’t feel the group, incorporate in it, and pass all the questions and answers, this whole analysis, through you, I will never be able to act correctly because my ego is not completely corrected yet. New egoistic attributes that are revealed in me guide me every moment, and it will be that way until the end of correction.

So, everything must be conveyed through the group, just like the students of Rabbi Shimon who wrote The Book of Zohar conveyed all the states they had been through only through the group and on each level turned them from absolute hatred to absolute love.

There is only one answer to your many questions: Solve everything and convey everything through the group, including what you hear and what you want to say. It isn’t you that wants to say something, but us. It isn’t you that wants to hear, but us. Then, you will succeed in doing things correctly.

There is no other instrument! You have no right to listen by using your own ears and feel in your heart and see by using your eyes; this is how animals feel and see the world. You do everything together, which means that there is the inner concept of the group inside you. You discuss everything together, and also consult one another.

Every day, except for the lesson, I take part in short, five to ten minute long group meetings. However, the lesson is also a group meeting for me. I feel the people. I try to connect to them and feel them. Do you think that you are just among some audience sitting before a lecturer during the lesson? If so, why should we gather in the first place?

The subject of the lesson isn’t so important, but the fact that we gather here as one is. The students of Rabbi Shimon wrote about how difficult it was to gather during the lesson and how much they hated one another and couldn’t look at one another, and  then gradually by their work on themselves, they reached the state of love! Can you imagine from what a low level to such incredible heights!

We are still very far from the state of the real hatred that they felt and barely managed to restrain themselves from burning one another and thus managed to reach the love they write to us about in The Book of Zohar.

What is The Book of Zohar and the Torah? What do Kabbalists actually reveal? They reveal what we can reveal by connecting. What is the spiritual ladder? It is the levels of an increasingly stronger connection of the one vessel that existed before the shattering. It is the reconstruction of this vessel and putting it together back into the same form, but by its own efforts. Putting together all the desires, all the thoughts of the group, into one whole is the correction.

Gradually, in this correction, in this connection between us, at some point, the Creator will begin to be revealed. First unconsciously and through some inner urges and movements more and more clearly. The Creator has no image. He will be revealed in the connection between you as you connect.

We should constantly remember this and develop the idea, and then we will succeed. If you keep rejecting this idea, then you are wasting your time and energy.
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From the Talk about Group and Dissemination 10/21/13

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Question: What are the signs of success or of failure in the internal work, and what is its revelation in our sensations and in the external work?

Answer: We cannot say what is in our favor and what is not because, for the time being, we operate from our ego, wanting everything to work out exactly the way we want it to without any problems. It is a natural, egoistic urge.

However, we should understand that this is actually impossible. Only great problems, sufferings, interferences, and clarifications can push us out of the ego. All the questions that you ask me refer mainly to this state.

“Why do we have problems in the group, in the family? Why do we encounter different interferences when we begin to engage in dissemination, in integral education? We don’t know what to do!”

Of course, these questions come up because we must correct all this. They come up along the way. Do you see them as external obstacles? They are not external and not foreign, but they are your inner interferences that are revealed in  now.

However, you shouldn’t pay attention to them. You should work only on connection despite the influence of the impediments and external blows. You should leave them and engage in inner unity. This is the only way you will overcome them.

As for signs of success or failure in the internal work, if you yearn for connection and unity, despite the interruptions—or actually thanks to them—it is a sign of success. However, if you suddenly begin to draw away from one another, then there is nothing good about it.

You simply don’t understand how all this works. We must focus ourselves correctly so that you will feel interruptions all the time, in every direction, that you will be beaten by your new attributes and your feelings. It is impossible to manage without them because this is the matter that you must correct and above which you must constantly rise.

Suppose someone acts against you or says something that is not objective and is unpleasant; suppose someone wants to leave the group, or you have a personal feeling of descent, these are all the attributes above which you immediately must unite. Then, these attributes will be fulfilled in you and will become part of your corrected state. Then, when you add a few more such actions to this state, you already will be able to approach the Machsom (barrier).
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From the Talk about Group and Dissemination 10/21/13

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Question: Are the interferences in dissemination a sign of our correct advancement, and is the great enthusiasm we get after these actions a sign of success?

Answer: Your unity and connection above the obstacles is a sign of success. At the same time, you don’t have to regard them as obstacles, but as forces that must be corrected since these are your inner problems, which you see as external, and you relate to them incorrectly.

However, this doesn’t mean that you must forgive everyone for everything. You must work internally on the interferences that are revealed as you attempt to connect, while externally, you somehow must get rid of them. You shouldn’t kiss the hands of your enemies under any circumstances, thinking that they lead you to spirituality. On the level of this world, you must work exactly like everyone else. If, at the same time, you can get rid of the interferences that come up, then you should do. You shouldn’t let people think that they can take advantage of you. However, it all depends on the external conditions.

Besides, everything should be done gently so as not to stain the good reputation of the wisdom of Kabbalah. We must consider the circumstances each time and decide how to act in the best possible way. However, in any case, we must act in every possible way.

King David, for example, who wrote the book of Psalms, reigned for forty years and fought for forty years, but his war was both spiritual and physical.
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From the Talk about Group and Dissemination 10/21/13

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