Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 155: Therefore we must ask, why then, did the Kabbalists obligate each person to study the wisdom of Kabbalah? Indeed, there is a great thing in it, worthy of being publicized: There is a wonderful, invaluable remedy to those who engage in the wisdom of Kabbalah. Although they do not understand what they are learning, through the yearning and the great desire to understand what they are learning, they awaken upon themselves the Lights that surround their souls.

Many ask why we should study. Not everyone is attracted to the study and most people don’t even like to study. It’s especially difficult when you have to study the same thing every day not seeing the spiritual world before you, not feeling this material. All this is true but we study in order to draw the Surrounding Light upon ourselves.

It’s the only means that has been prepared for us by the sages in the time of the Talmud, who gave us the power of the Torah instead of sufferings so that we will be able to correct our ego, the evil inclination. Thanks to this we gradually weaken the powers of our ego, time and time again, through ascents and descents, by discovering additional layers each time and neutralizing its powers.

Thus, we advance thanks to the right preparation until we correct a certain part of our nature which is ready to accept the Surrounding Light that already arrives as an inner Light, thanks to the Zivug de Haka’a (mating of beating) and the right intention, the Light spreads into the spiritual vessels. A vessel in the spiritual world is the intention of in order to bestow, the Light of Hassadim. Thus we already begin to receive the Light.

Kabbalists wrote books for one another, which means for people who understand the spiritual meaning and who can use these texts in order to draw the inner Light, so that they will discover the connection between the corrected souls of people who lived in different generations and in different periods and thereby bring more Light, the awakening to all the corrected desires. They also thought about us, about those who yearn to discover the upper Light in order to bestow but who cannot do so in the meantime because of lack of the right intention and organization. If a person can exert himself with the right, pure intention, and yearn to understand what he doesn’t understand at the moment, he evokes upon himself the influence of the Surrounding Light.

There is no need for the right intention and the right overcoming, the restrictions of the ego, a Masach (screen), and the Returning Light in order to bestow this way since the Surrounding Light responds to every slight awakening of a person to bestowal. So Kabbalists give us the advice to connect among ourselves first. We receive a shattered vessel and we first have to work on connecting it, on attaining mutual guarantee, self annulment, on being incorporated in one another, and on awakening, strengthening, and supporting one another without falling or escaping from this work that doesn’t seem to lead to any results.

To the extent that we perform the simplest physical actions we evoke upon ourselves the Surrounding Light. It’s because the spiritual worlds and the corporeal worlds do not exist separately, and there is only one reality. So we constantly evoke the Surrounding Light in every action that we do instinctively or on purpose whether it’s on the level of the animate for improving my health or on a higher level with an intention.

We live only thanks to the Surrounding Light. Even the worlds of the still, the vegetative, and the animate live thanks to the Surrounding Light, which automatically becomes the inner force of vitality that provides matter with the energy to exist. But a person lives only thanks to the Surrounding Light, which he evokes by his desires. So everything depends on the preparation.
[110674]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/23/13

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Question: Among my acquaintances who went through the war in Afghanistan, very clear memories of the war remain. There was death, blood, and mud there, and suddenly they have memories of these things. Is a class, a platoon, or a company a kind of Kabbalistic group in which they pass “crimson balls” among the friends?

Answer: Among people there are those who are connected with these kinds of relationships. It’s when they see that they don’t have anything to think about except their mutual salvation in common, when each sees he cannot save himself but is completely dependent on the others. So feeling each other, they have become in some way a form of a Kabbalistic group.

It doesn’t matter that they don’t know and don’t understand the spiritual method. Some kind of transformation happens here, a detachment from the ego which no longer has a place, and you understand it’s either you or someone else, it makes no difference if you are better than someone else. Those who experience extreme moments like these recognize the feeling of self-sacrifice that appears due to interdependence.

They experienced pleasure through rejection of the ego and therefore remember this kind of warmth from it. This kind of freedom, this kind of respite is impossible to feel in everyday life, we go back to it and it clicks with us again.
[110660]
From the Conventions in Krasnoyarsk 6/16/13, Lesson 5

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Question: When we work with people who don’t have a point in the heart, we feel that it brings them joy. Is this feeling spiritual work?

Answer: On the whole I transfer myself into the other. I transfer my point in the heart into the desires called “my soul.” Everything that is external to me among the seven billion people is all my soul, one desire, and if I discover all of it, I will reach the end of correction.

In other words, I fill my soul and what fills it is called the “Creator” in its infinite form. So my goal is to exit myself and enter the other and at the same time to feel everyone. This is impossible in our current state!

We need a group in order to allow us and to give us the means, the skilled work of exiting ourselves and entering the other. This means that the group is our first tool. In Kabbalistic terms it is called GE.

We have to study the “Introduction to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” in order to understand these terms correctly. We have to take the courses in our campus since otherwise we will have no common language and you will even find it difficult to understand what you attain.

Thus you will get to know what is revealed to you and will understand what each attainment is called. You will integrate everything that is in you with what is revealed to you in spirituality.

We have to reach adhesion with all of humanity, to exit ourselves and enter the world. So we have to first organize our vessel, our tool, in order to prepare it for working with the world. In order to do that we were given a group of Kabbalists and the method of the wisdom of Kabbalah, and we have to study this work in the group and then advance from the group to everyone else.

The main work is done in the group, and with the help of the group, we work on everything else. This is the place where all the fears, the assumptions, and just a little bit of knowledge are revealed since it is only now that everything begins to develop and is ready for work. It is there that totally different worlds are revealed, full of the Light of Hochma, which means with the deep attainment of the Creator.

In the group, we attain the vessels for working with the Creator. With His help we begin to understand Him a little, but only externally since in our global group we only process the desire to bestow, GE, the attributes of bestowal. These are very small egoistic attributes on the root level, level one, and part of level two.

When the whole global group begins to work for the benefit of the global vessel, we will begin to work with great egoistic desires that cannot be revealed now since they are much greater and stronger than ours and are therefore so distant from spiritual advancement.

It seems that many people like the Europeans, Africans, and others are impossible to reach. It is impossible to reach them since they have the greatest spiritual ego. But when we begin to work for their sake, we begin to connect their huge desires to our desires, to fill them, to rejoice for them about their state. So this is where we work not just in order to attain actions of bestowal but also the Creator’s attribute of bestowal in its depth.

I don’t know what I can compare it to. There are people who enjoy listening to music. I remember I had a subscription to the philharmonic orchestra of Leningrad but since I am not an expert I asked some young musicians to tell me a little about how they perceive “Swan Lake” for example, or Rachmaninov.

It is a totally different world, a different feeling including feelings and a process that go together when people understand everything in depth. You have a totally different feeling. By the way, in Kabbalah you don’t know this feeling, you don’t penetrate it, but live in it; you become the feeling. So the goal of the whole correction of humanity is the deepest attainment of the Creator that ends in absolute adhesion to Him.
[110587]
From the Conventions in Krasnoyarsk 6/16/13, Lesson 5 

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There is nothing we can do. We cannot sit idly and torture ourselves, but we must exert ourselves. But we don’t work according to what we feel since otherwise we wouldn’t move. If I obey my feelings and my sensations, I will always remain in the same state and won’t be able to do anything.

My feelings, my desire to receive is in a certain state and while I am immersed in my desire, in my matter, I can’t act against it. Luckily I have a mind by which I begin to study my feelings, so I understand that my state, my feelings, are bad and that I must change them.

By using my mind, which is totally opposite from my feelings, I begin to imagine the next state, the upper level that operates on me and influences me if I yearn for it, like an embryo for his mother. I begin to think about how I should hide myself, how I should “hide under its wings,” and how I can enter the upper level and adapt myself to it.

I think only about the form of the embryo, about the impression that I will receive from the upper if I penetrate it even egoistically and provide myself with its protection and concern. So I imagine what the mother’s womb that I want to enter is like and I understand that it’s the group that is established by my relations with the friends. I gradually begin to do my best to establish such relations with the friends.

Thanks to these small efforts that stem from the mind, I begin to advance, “everything is cleared in the mind” since when it comes to feelings, I am simply dead. But by using my mind, I can think about it a little and imagine this picture: the order of the states of the two levels, the lower and the upper. I imagine how the lower enters the upper, how it’s possible to arrange such a state with the help of the group and how to lower myself before them so that they will become the part of the womb that will pass the upper Light on to me. If I lower myself before them, I will be able to receive the Light by them and not even know it.

So I repeat that we mustn’t remain under the total control of our feelings that tear us apart during the descent. We have to imagine the relations between the levels and where you are with regards to the upper, to use the mind a little in order to exit my feelings and to look objectively at the state I am in and what can be done in it, even if it is artificial.

A person begins to imagine levels and states and influences his feelings by his mind and thus has food for thought. This is how he begins to establish his new state. The Light that Reforms comes and takes a person out of the bad mood by implanting in him hope and confidence with which he returns to the friends.
[110919]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/21/13, Shamati #40

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Question: What do the  groups of tens need to do in the framework of preparation for the convention?

Answer: First of all, you need the materials for the convention so you can create a connection with what is happening there with all your might.

Question: What kind of environment, what kind of an atmosphere, do we need to create in the World Kli to help every friend have ready access to the convention, to raise all of us together to a new level?

Answer: Remember how you prepared for the birth of your child or your wedding, externally and internally. Understandably, the main thing here is inner preparation: “Where are we going? Towards connection. What else can we do to succeed in connecting and with this connection discover the Light, the characteristic of bestowal, which is discovered to the degree that we become equal to it?”

Ultimately I need to come to the convention completely ready, without expecting any surprises except for one, our connection, and nothing more. I don’t need new wisdom, I want connection. And with this I will feel the text with a new depth and in general everything will seem new to me, sparkling, and bright.

And on the contrary, if there won’t be connection, I must feel that I am left with nothing.

That is, we must see and understand that everything depends on connection, and connection depends on preparation.

Question: About whose connection should I be more concerned, my preparation or that of the friends in the  group of ten?

Answer: That of the friends. If we are speaking about spirituality, first of all I need to be concerned about the spiritual needs of the friends. This is called the “prayer of the many,” a prayer for the friends. It is said, “Whoever prays for his friend is answered first.”

Question: What will we require at the convention for a transition to a complete inner scream?

Answer: The preparation. Specifically we don’t scream because we are not prepared, we don’t add a “penny and another penny,” so that they will combine into one great scream. Instead of this we wait: “So, when will the breakthrough come already?” This will never happen without preparation.

Question: How can we avoid falling into a lack of participation at the convention?

Answer: This again depends on the atmosphere and the preparation. If the person is ready, then he apparently sinks into a force field that won’t readily let him go.

Question: Do we need to see a passage through the “Red Sea” at the convention in St. Petersburg?

Answer: And even Arvut standing before “Mount Sinai.”
[110818]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/25/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Peace in the World”

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Question: At present I am found in a virtual group of ten that includes women from different regions with great time differences. What should we do?

Answer: A woman is exempt from all time-bound occupations! She can learn quietly and independently without any connection to other women. And when she has spare time she can be in connection with us through our Sviva Tova website, through a chat, Skype, and so forth.

Question: I heard that everyone needs to be with an inner mutual responsibility including the women for six minutes per hour, everyone is responsible for this time. Does that make sense?

Answer: I don’t know what to say; I didn’t say something like this. It’s forbidden for both women and men to do this. This is because you will be tense all the time and ultimately neglect everything. This process needs to be much more smooth and acceptable to our lives. Imagine an engineer who would stop the train for six minutes to be involved with spiritual work. This is hyperbole.

Each one of you needs to do it at a time that is convenient for her. It’s clear that it would be good to work according to the clock, but understand that you will be tense all the time. It’s a waste of nerves. And for what? Eventually this will lead to a nervous exhaustion, and instead of getting a good impression from spiritual work you will feel the burden of its obligation and be anxious all the time. It’s forbidden to do this!

Question: I heard that women, like men, must read articles by Rabash in their group of ten after the lesson or at another time.

Answer: Gather once per week when everyone is free without disturbing anything (the family and so forth) and read something. At home prepare some coffee, sit relaxed by the computer, and read an article together with everyone. This is pleasurable and this is good.

Question: Is it worthwhile to connect to groups of ten according to the same time zones?

Answer: If you connect with each other only on weekends and this is easy for you, then you can even take ten time zones, and if you cannot, then there is no need. Spiritual work needs to be relaxed! It needs to be as easy and systematic as possible!

The only thing that is not easy is the departure from the ego. We do everything else without effort. It’s possible to be in connection with everyone and to be lying relaxed on the couch because we are engaged in spiritual work. Therefore there is no reason for people of different regions with different times to be connected at the expense of their hours of work and sleep. A connection like this cannot last for long, for at the end of the matter the person will break. This has no connection to the work in the groups of tens.

It’s enough for  groups of tens to meet three times per week for 15 minutes. With us at Bnei Baruch in Petak Tikva, the  groups of tens meet for ten minutes after every morning lesson and this is all. If in your region there is the possibility of meeting for ten minutes in the evening and clarify something, even if this is through a virtual connection, this is good and is enough. This is the life of the  groups of tens.

Question: But we don’t meet physically, rather we communicate every evening, read an article and observe the time of six minutes. Everyone is sitting at work or just concentrates on thinking about the  groups of ten and this doesn’t disturb his work. Is it worthwhile to stop these exercises and to do what you said now?

Answer: I cannot advise a person to think about something foreign during work hours. I don’t know what his or her work involves. Perhaps it is complicated, dangerous, and illegal. You are taking everything that I say in a fanatical, irrational form.

There is no provision that a person must suffer from the spiritual work in which he is engaged. It is forbidden! The goal of creation is to enjoy, to benefit, only to bestow.
[110805]
From the Conventions in Krasnoyarsk 6/16/13, Lesson 6

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Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”:  For although everyone has “his own source,” the forces are revealed openly only through the environment one is in. This is similar to the wheat sown in the ground, whose forces become apparent only through its environment, which is the soil, the rain, and the light of the sun…And as we have clarified above, only in the matter of the choice of environment is man’s reign over himself measured, and for this he should receive either reward or punishment.

We thus understand to what extent we have to worry about strengthening the environment in order to make it as big and as qualitative as possible, which means strong. It has to be invincible thanks to its size and quality, so no strange society or strange thoughts from respectable, influential people around the world, or large crowds will be able to affect us, our way, our goal, and our method.

The moment the feeling that our way just disappears, our connection with this process weakens a little even if we are not aware of it, and then to the same extent the upper Light weakens. Then a person loses “big time,” since he is not under the influence of the one force that can change his fate anymore.

So the only worthwhile engagement in life is to raise and strengthen the society. There is no freewill regarding anything else and there are no forces that can bring about any changes. The whole world will follow us if we keep our society on the right level. It is by the Light that Reforms that we draw upon our society that we manage everyone.

If there is no Light, then we immediately fall back into the path of suffering and return to the same path of corporeal life that manages the whole world. So we have to constantly raise our environment and expand it qualitatively, which is the only thing a person has. So integral education is meant to strengthen our vessel and to draw as many more new people as possible no matter if they are not totally aware of the method as long as they accept it and relate to it and get to know it.

Now, when it is “book week” in Israel, we have to invest in the public as much as we can, disregarding the expenses and the physical effort. Thus we invest in our own internality by raising our environment and strengthening it and its walls. Besides, we are also doing external work, outside our “walls,” by creating a different system of public relations and of bringing people closer to us, thus strengthening the public opinion.

The main thing, however, is still working on the connection between us since through it, in the network that connects all of humanity all over the world, like underground water, the Light that Reforms will spread and change people.
[109673]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/10/13

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You are deserving guys. You made a wonderful connection and can attain everything! But this requires seriousness from all of you.

Now we are dispersing. So in order for a person to not fall again into an everyday routine, he must seriously approach the question: “What can I do now to organize the learning process correctly in my region, in my group? How can I help all the others?”

This is the main thing. The person must seriously decide for himself, on what level he is going to hold a connection with everyone else, because everything is attained only through connection. Therefore the organization of a new more expansive and better connection is very important for us. Don’t forget all the friends,connect with each other, be concerned for each other all the time. With this the work of our method is supported.

Besides this, we must begin to be involved with dissemination. But do this wisely and not by “shooting from the hip.” For this it’s necessary to learn, to consult, to write serious and nice articles, then check them. We do not publish anything without censorship, not even my blog! You might think, what do our censors understand better than I about the ideology? They understand more! This is because they are familiar with the outer world; whereas I am not familiar with it. We don’t need to spoil our name; otherwise we will damage dissemination, meaning damage ourselves. There is no greater damage than the damage that is derived from excessive enthusiasm.

For everything there must be a precise and clear structure, it’s not a good idea to go out anywhere with your proposals before you have assured yourselves of support and approval. Sometimes you need to demand written approval for the group or from higher bodies since you are turning to various elements on our behalf. Everything must be very serious. I am no longer talking about your personal spiritual ascension; for by not carrying out these conditions, you are delaying your spiritual advancement and afterward you will wonder why this is happening.

You are involved with the most serious thing in life, which is also the one thing that depends on people. Everything else doesn’t depend on people. The Creator only plays with them, creating the illusion that they are doing something as if they are destroying something. They are not destroying anything; they are not correcting anything and are not doing anything. It’s very simple, in this way the ego is methodically being elevated, as if it’s ruining the world. This will continue until we all get sick and tired of it and then people will be able to pass to correction of the ego.

And we want to do this in our way, quickly. This is our entire function. Therefore I strongly urge you; you are very serious guys and suddenly fall into childishness with some kind of demands. First try to organize everything nicely and well, and after that you will make demands of that structure that you have organized.

And in general, everything went very successfully. I see a huge potential, serious people with great experience and high ability who know with what they are dealing, where they are entering, and in what way they are advancing.
[110799]
From the Conventions in Krasnoyarsk 6/16/13, Lesson 6

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We should know that everything depends only on our preparation. All the states are already prepared in advance and are registered for every day during the 6,000 years. The timetable of 6,000 years is called the “the press of evolution,” which pressures us and pushes us forward thus forcing us to perform all the actions that were prepared “in its time.”

But all our work is to move from the natural path of our evolution (“in its time”) to the path of the Light, of hastening time (“I shall hasten it”). By that we don’t follow the calendar by advancing from one day to the next automatically, but we advance only according to our preparation.

“I shall hasten it” is cleared only by our preparation and not in the state itself. We can say to what degree we are in the state of “I shall hasten it,” which means to what extent we are working in spirituality, according to the efforts that we make in order to attain a new state.

The spiritual work is done according to the action that comes from Above. It is very important to emphasize that everything is measured by the preparation that precedes the action: what we did, how much we did, what efforts we made, how we climbed up the King’s mountain, and what we did for Him, for the group, for the friends. All this comes first and foremost!

Thanks to our preparation we reach the desirable state, which we didn’t really understand. We simply determined that we want to reach it and it didn’t even matter that we couldn’t imagine it. It is because you cannot know what a certain state is before you reach it.

Therefore the preparation is so important and we need to do everything that we can. And what you have to do will become clear in the process: what exertion you have to make and how to fill your measure. A moment before that we don’t even know that it is about to happen.

Only at the end when we complete all the work we have to do, does a special action called “Rav pealim mekabtziel” arrive, which is like the end of correction, but with regard to the current vessels that we have prepared. This action connects all our small actions into one big account (as it says: “many pennies add up to a large account”) and then the next level is revealed. It is a small personal level of our correction, but it is the same process as in the general end of correction.
[110933]
From the Talk About the Preparations for the Congress of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/26/13

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Preparation is the key to success!

• From this moment, I have to imagine the convention in its ideal form. What do I need to do this? Gathering of friends—what should they be? Emotional experiences—what kind and by what external means can we achieve them? Lectures—on what topic? Perhaps, I will recommend my own. What questions do I prepare; what would I like to ask after the lectures and workshops? How do I connect with everyone? How am I getting ready to perceive everyone? As a guest? As a host? As a friend? As a student? As a teacher? As a servant? Who am I in relation to everyone? And how should I behave in each state of this spectrum?
• I am working on what is the most difficult for me. For example, if I do not like to dance with everyone all together, then I prepare myself to participate in this in advance, sparing no efforts and pressuring myself with all my strength.
• I will try to stay in the correct intention constantly, to hold myself in it all the time because everyone depends on my intention. It is true that I transfer the Light through my thin “pipe” to them and thus I have to stay “online” constantly. I need to talk to my group of ten: everyone supports everyone else, so that none of use loses this “pipe.” We share it, and we want to turn it into a wide channel of communication for the entire convention.
• I am concerned that no one is disconnected from the right intention—concerned to the point of inner trembling, in fear and anxiety. When something happens to the baby, it is a disaster for us, the “end of the world.” Now, I worry even more. The problem is that this fear is not in our hands; we cannot feel it well; we are not sensitive to the detachment from intention. So, I should be literally in a fever, shaking with fear for everyone so that they do not lose the intention. Success depends on this.
• No matter what the friends do, no matter what they say, what songs they sing, I want everything to turn out for them as it should. I constantly worry and care about them as the mother of a baby who started doing something. I look at him with anxiety—if only he will succeed. It is said about this, “a concern in one’s heart, let him tell it to others.” My concern is transmitted to all.
• I try to come as early as possible in the morning to prepare everything, to speed up everything, and to start uniting with the friends, to sit and sing together even there are only fifty people, but we are already starting to fill the “space” of the conventions with our feeling.
• Each time, on the way to the convention and back, I try to make sure that none of my friends lose the mood, the intensity.
• The gathering of friends must be moving, emotional, as much as possible to prepare us for the lectures, talks, or workshops that will follow them. This is very important. All the speeches and songs should have a clear program and in the right proportion. The gatherings may not be long, but should be heart-felt. Without this preparation, a person will not be able to be included in the overall atmosphere, to the “air” of the convention, which should be breathed in, lived. The main thing is to affect and touch everyone. We need to think seriously how to achieve this.
• We need to find a mutual feeling, a mutual heart—obtained with the help of mind. We are rationally working on the feeling to become united.

[111035]

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/27/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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