Question: Not long ago they proved the existence of group intelligence scientifically. Several of the leading universities in America arranged an experiment in which they divided people into small groups. It was established that one of the essential factors that influenced the results was the amount of women in the group. Perhaps you can respond to this?

Answer: I have not learned about these experiments, therefore I cannot respond to them. I personally have no data on this subject.

I can say only one thing: Since our society is composed mostly of women, we certainly need to include them in discussions. Groups could be divided into groups of men, women, and mixed groups.

The idea is that it’s desirable to divide the groups composed of ten people according to sex. In spite of it all, differences between the sexes influences the course of our thinking too significantly; therefore, it’s necessary to try to do this so that the men will not divert their attention from the discussions because they feel obliged to play a particular role regarding the women or the women regarding the men.

We need to accommodate them to this kind of condition, where they won’t pay attention to each other’s sexual character, but will see only friends in front of them in order to form a new level of mutual relationships that doesn’t depend on sexual relationships. By the word “sexes” I am referring to both mental and physical characteristics, everything connected to the terms “man” and “woman.” This is not just external, rather it’s a complete image: a form of thought, approach, everything. We are very different from each other.

Therefore, it’s first necessary to conduct separate workshops for men and for women and only after this, to the degree that they rise above themselves and connect to the importance of the task, will it be possible to have mixed groups. This will happen only after discussing many times questions about education, knowledge, relationships within society, the relationship of the person and nature, or even better, what is uncomfortable for them.

If a woman is facing me, I immediately pass to another level of communication; I try not to hurt her, to relate to her with respect, in some kind of discussion in the meantime, to listen….This is a complete system. Completely different levels of communication are included here, which are not according to the intellect, not according to the essential nature. We are different and a special communication adapter appears between us. We need to rise above this difference so it will not exist in this form so I will look at a person with whom I am conversing as “unisex.” This means that we become equal in everything despite our physical differences.

Sometimes it’s the opposite: Suppose when we are discussing questions like family, we need to “highlight” problems. So we are no longer equal in building something higher, we clarify in what way we still remain unequal on the level of our integral unity: men – women, husband – wife. After all, we don’t completely rise without a body! We rise within our nature and this will give us a whole range of problems. We clarify differences between men, women, and children in a format different from the “roundtable” and gradually bring them to where they will rise above their differences and begin to work for the sake of the next goal, integral unity.
[108253]
From KabTV’s  “Wisdom of the Crowd” 5/14/13

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Baal Hasulam, “The Peace”: These are the words of Rabbi Akiva: “The book is open and the hand writes.” Any state that the generation is in is like a book, and all the evildoers are as writing hands because each evil is carved and written in the book until they accumulate to an amount that the public can no longer bear. At that time, they ruin that evil state and rearrange into a more desirable state. Thus, each and every act is calculated and written in the book, meaning in the state.

And he says, “All who wish to borrow may come and borrow.” This means that he believes that this world is not like an open store without an owner, but that there is an owner present, a shopkeeper who stands in his store and demands of each customer the right price for the merchandise he is taking from the store, meaning toil in His work while he is nourished by that store, in a manner that is certain to bring him to the purpose of creation, as He pleases.

His goal is to attain bestowal. However, a person requires powers to realize this, and he doesn’t have these powers. He takes them on loan, even though he intends it all for bestowal. What is more, this is even if he wants to repay, that is, not to use anything for himself. He uses the entire world for bestowal.

According to the standards of our world, it is impossible to declare that a person like this is taking something on loan. You see that we get a loan for personal benefit. Here, everything is otherwise. Incidentally, the Torah’s prohibition against giving a loan with interest is derived from this. In the spiritual world, no loan must be paid back with more than what had been received.

So, the forces that I don’t have from the start I take on loan, but I am not taking for myself. They are not mine, I only add to them a desire for the sake of bestowal. Instead of the Creator, I bestow to everyone, and my entire goal is only to convey this bestowal skillfully, as if it were from His hands. I have nothing of my own besides my altruistic self that contracts the egoistic desire within it and acts above it. Therefore, essentially, I don’t have anything to return.

Question: In spite of all this, it is not clear: How can a person ask for a loan for himself in spirituality?

Answer: So, I said that this is another kind of loan. You see, I don’t have my own powers of bestowal. Additionally, I (specifically, I) want to give just as the Creator does. I have to transmit and give that which He wishes for the world.

This state is described allegorically with a metaphor that says that the Creator wanted to give the nations of the world the method of correction. However, they could not accept it. So, He used a transitional group called Israel, which means “straight to the Creator.” The people of Israel are like coordinators that connect the upper Light with the AHP. Thanks to this, Malchut can rise to Bina and be “sweetened” there so as to pass the Light from above downward.

So, this is called a loan only because a person doesn’t have the power of bestowal, and he receives this from the Creator. However, he doesn’t use it for himself, as it is customary in our egoistic world. In this world, a person seeks benefit for himself first of all, and afterward, he thinks about benefit for others, whether this is financial matters, well-being, or net pleasure. In spirituality, I ask not for myself. I want to participate in the life of the Creator. This participation is intended entirely for bestowal. For the sake of this, I activate all of my desire to the maximum possible level. Everything else I temporarily keep “locked up” under the restriction.

Question: So, how is it necessary to ask for a loan like this for the goal of bestowal?

Answer: This is called ascent, a request for correction (MAN). From the Creator, I request power to be able to examine, to correct, the deed itself. I want Him to do this, as it is written: “Be clothed in me and perform the deed of bestowal.” It is like an infant asks for help from his mother or simply cries, and the mother comes and helps. The entire problem is to turn into a “crying infant” internally. And it takes time to learn this….
[105531]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/19/13, “The Peace”

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Question: What is so special about the love of friends that allows me to cover all sins?

Answer: Love of friends covers all sins. After all, if we work on connecting our sparks in the group, then all the other desires surrender to the Light of love despite the fact that they are so opposite from one another to the extent that they actually hate one another. This Light operates on us from above, from the upper level, when it covers us with one blanket, one umbrella, a Sukkah of peace, and obligates all of us to unite, although internally we remain very different.

Question: Do I choose the friend once or anew every day?

Answer: I don’t choose according to corporeal criteria. In the meantime we don’t know why we have been brought into one group from above, he and I. It depends on the root of the soul, on the sentence of the souls, which we will learn about later. But because we are in a group we have to fulfill our freewill and to connect into one system, one group.

Choosing a friend means being loyal to him despite the repulsion and the doubts. I shouldn’t feel any difference between him and me. Every moment the thought and the desire change in me, I have to choose him in the exact same manner, I examine myself and him.
[108153]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/22/13, Writings of Rabash

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Question: What is the most important criterion I can use to check what kind of friends I should adhere to?

Answer: You should get closer to those who constantly attend the lessons, engage in dissemination, and take part in the duties. These people can be a role model for me even by their external behavior and by their corporeal earthly actions. Therefore, I want to adhere to them.

It makes no difference what a person’s character is and exactly what kind of work he does in the group. What’s important is that he comes every day and takes part in everything. It is best to adhere to such people who don’t stand out in the group because of their special attributes but are loyal to it and give it all their powers.
[108798]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/30/13, Writings of Rabash

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Question: What is it exactly that makes the group strong? What attributes should we work on?

Answer:  We shouldn’t value the power of the group by the number of people in it; that is a wrong estimation since there is a difference between the number of different people and their inner preparation. So, it is impossible to judge everyone according to the same parameters.

In Russia, for example, it is easy to organize a group of more than a hundred people while, in the US, it is difficult to gather even ten people. We cannot compare success by the size of the group. What’s important is the quality, which is hard to identify.

All of Eastern Europe, and especially Russia, is where Kabbalists were very active in the last generations. The most important Kabbalist in the history of the wisdom of Kabbalah after the Ari was Baal Shem Tov, who had many followers and students all over Belarus and the Ukraine who simply “plowed the ground” there so that their ideas were in the air. As a result, there were a great number of Kabbalists there from Poland, Galicia, and further to the east.

Consequently, the people who live there, and especially the Russian people, have a special sense, a special inclination for Kabbalah. That’s how the influence of the surrounding Light is revealed. Therefore, it is impossible to compare this region with Western Europe where just as many Jews and intelligent, educated people live and still the great inclination for spirituality has not been revealed. This is called “ancestral merit.”
[108790]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/30/13, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Why do some groups succeed in providing their friends with strong support and protection from external influences, while some groups find it very hard to do so? What should we focus on in order to strengthen the group?

Answer: The main thing that kills us is the routine. A person likes to calculate what he has earned at the end of every day when he comes back from work. We must understand what our profit adds up to, whether I can add things up and be glad although I don’t see any payment in my vessels of receiving.

However, I can value and praise the profit I have made, the work that was done, and the efforts that were made during the day. I didn’t get any corporeal profit as a result, but I helped to correct the world, and, through the world, I helped the Creator. This is the profit I should praise constantly, and this is where the environment should support me.

If a person doesn’t understand that he needs a strong group for that and doesn’t demand such support from it, he cannot advance since he has no fuel. We should check this and accordingly see if we feel enough energy and motivation.

We should establish the environment by our collective powers and not wait for someone else to do it for us. We are lucky to have the chance to study, to have books, the right intention, and a teacher. We should use all that as quickly as possible!
[108786]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/30/13, Writings of Rabash

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Rabash, “The Need For the Love of Friends”: Therefore, one must cling to the society…There is a special power in the adhesion of friends. Since views and thoughts pass from one to the other through the adhesion between them, each is mingled with the power of the other, and by that each person in the group has the power of the entire group.

In corporeal life a person is unconsciously drawn to society since his evil inclination pushes him to look for greater success and profit, and the greatest success for him is to establish himself in the eyes of others. Therefore, a person constantly examines what those around him consider good or bad and what is important for them. Accordingly, he establishes the parameters and determines his attitude to everything that happens. He is not even aware of that, but his opinion is totally based on what society appreciates, and without this a person would remain an animal.

The method of Kabbalah also raises a person from the animate to the human level but in a different manner. A person has to forcefully exert himself, in order to adhere to the right society; he has to know what it is exactly that he wants to buy from it. It’s only possible to acquire the values of society if one submits himself before it. Besides, he also needs to rise above the friends in order to bestow upon them the greatness of the goal and to uplift their spirits.

In these two ways of treating others, from below and from above, a person acquires the powers that he lacks. The powers that come to him are not egoistic, his ego isn’t increased like in this world where thanks to the influence of society a person receives an egoistic force that is ten times greater than his single egoistic force. Here he concedes and annuls himself, wanting to establish good relations and to convey joy and the greatness of the goal so that everyone, including himself, will submit themselves with regard to it and accept it by “faith above reason” no matter what. By that he doesn’t receive only a greater force than he had before, but a totally different force, the force of bestowal.

Thanks to his efforts, he receives the force of bestowal from the upper Light. If there is a group of ten (Minyan), then through it each one receives the force of bestowal from the source of bestowal above. Thus, a person acquires a force that is ten times greater, and is even corrected, with which he can advance.

This is the first phase of the spiritual path, and a person must constantly examine himself as to whether he really submits himself before the group. Perhaps it’s the ego speaking from inside him, thus confusing him in different ways. He should try to outwit this cunning snake that prevents him from being incorporated in the group.

This first level is the most difficult, and the sages say that “a thousand enter a room but only one comes out to the Light.” We have to take into account that our “school” is meant for unique individuals. The test is only in a group of ten. If we don’t look at the whole world, at yourself, and at the friends through the group of ten, you are always wrong.

A person can be part of a group, of some committee, or of some department, but if he doesn’t work in a group of ten, he cannot see anything but his ego.
[108710]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/30/13

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Question: What should I do when I see that a friend is harming the group? Is it an indication of my lack of correction or that he is really harming the group?

Answer: If a friend was very dedicated before and suddenly changes, we have to help him. Of course, we mustn’t throw him out now since he is wounded by his evil inclination. We have to take care of him and to lift him. We can take him to a bar and have a beer together, go for a walk, or have a social gathering with some friends. We can ask him to do some kind of work that no one but him can do, and so we have to turn to him and really ask for his help. This means that we should try to get close to him in different ways, to evoke him and to warm him up. It’s very helpful to turn to his family for help.

We should try to do whatever we can, even if he speaks against the group. We should understand that this may be a temporary state of mind and should treat it patiently and wait until we see that there is no choice and only then break off from him, although it’s always a great problem if it’s an old friend who has been in the group for years. We should always rely on the group’s opinion and not on a personal opinion since you can never count on yourself when it comes to such matters.
[108149]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/22/13, Writings of Rabash

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There cannot be any difference between us during the convention: the young group, the old group, or an individual that studies virtually by himself. A convention is a special state so we have to break all the barriers between us—the boundaries of the groups of ten and other forms of barriers—and become one whole group.

You should feel the closeness that you felt in your group of ten with regard to everyone who participates in the convention. You should have the same attitude since you don’t break free of the framework of the ten, but actually all the thousand people become your group of ten. Try to relate to them this way and see if you can do that or not! If you can’t it means that your group of ten is still far from the spiritual state.

If a person melts and disappears into the group of ten, then it makes no difference whether it’s ten people, a thousand, or seven billion. The main thing is to lose yourself in order to find the force of bestowal and to find the Creator.

“The king’s glory is in the multitudes,” so it turns out that if we are a separate group of ten, we seem to be missing out since we can be more strongly impressed by a greater number of people. If everyone in a crowd of a thousand says half a word it will make a very big impression, but a group of ten is important since in it I can follow the reactions, the connection between us, and my self-criticism.

The group of ten is very dynamic and I can respond to it very quickly. But I expect to feel that we are all one group of ten during the convention so that everyone will influence me and that I will feel his vibes. I hope that it will shake my “donkey” and force it to follow its owner by submitting to a new mind and heart.

This should be our work during the convention compared to working in a group of ten. The whole convention should become one group of ten. The young groups have to be incorporated in everyone and all the boundaries should disappear. They should get to know the others as much as possible and to mingle with people that they don’t know. The main thing is to be impressed by others as much as possible.

Suddenly I begin to recognize and to feel the greatness of the friends about whom I haven’t thought before. It’s easier to be impressed by people who are more distant, since the impressions are doubled by the distance and create an exceptionally powerful impression.

Therefore the young groups have to totally lose their concentration in the general mass to disperse in different directions and keep physically away from one another. This is the whole point of the convention, to achieve such a mixing so that no one will remain with people who are already close to him and will be incorporated in everyone by accepting everyone as his group of ten. Let’s hope that we will succeed and attain a great powerful connection.
[108577]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/28/13, Writings of Rabash

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Question: What should we do so that the Light that Reforms will convince us that only through connection can we reach the attribute of bestowal?

Answer: This recognition may come by the path of suffering, “in its time,” when a person feels a big disappointment that he has devoted much energy and has reached nothing. This happens after many years.

It can also be by the ordinary initial connection with the group when a person begins to understand and feel that only the Light that Reforms can summon the change in him. It isn’t enough just to hear that; a person needs to already feel it in his heart, his heart has to hear.

When the heart perceives this information, we accept it as a fact that it is impossible to manage without the help of the Light. We don’t have to look up where it says so since this wisdom already will live in us, in our feelings and not in our mind. We need the mind only to support and help clarify the feeling.

In order for the heart to listen, we have to subdue ourselves before the environment. Our heart is deaf and cannot hear! We cannot do anything with it. We hear something through our ears, but it doesn’t penetrate the heart. It hits the “the stony heart” and bounces, like when hitting a wall, without penetrating it. Therefore, we must work on submitting ourselves—as it is written, “Buy yourself a friend and make yourself a Teacher”—submitting ourselves forcefully.

We do not control our desires, but we live in the world of actions, and so our physical actions also help, even if they are against the desires of our heart. Try to bring the friend a small gift everyday—anything. Buy a matchbox and give him a match everyday as a present. You will see how hard it is since you will have to constantly think about that. It doesn’t matter what the gift is worth, as it is written: “until many pennies accumulate into a great sum.”

Try it and see! You will have to think about the friend, to remember it, to justify your actions, and to value their benefit. Do you have the money to buy a matchbox? So you have nothing to worry about. You have the means to enter spirituality.
[108471]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/27/13, Writings of Rabash

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