Question: How do we achieve freedom of will from our egoism through the connection with each other? How can I consciously be free and develop freely, not pushed by a stick towards happiness or by being attracted by a candy to the same happiness? I want to become aware, understand, and realize myself and my free will, independent of these motives. How is this possible to implement in the group and by what conditions? After all, this problem exists even after the Machsom when I already know and understand everything.

Answer: A person attains independence from the Creator when he asks the Creator for the sake of the group and asks the group for the sake of the Creator. If he is one-on-one with the group or with the Creator, this cannot be achieved. This is a triangle.
[92977]
From the Georgia Convention 11/5/12, Workshop 1

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Baal HaSulam, Letter 9: Now I know that the Creator has granted me special preference over other people my age, which I have investigated for quite a while, to know why I was chosen according to God’s will, and after all the humiliations that stem from the wicked, which is the shell that dominates my time, and after I realize its true measure, I will be grateful to the Creator who is with me, for having distracted my heart now and always, from hearing the question of the wicked, “What is this work that you do?” Since I find that I am compelled and that I must be like an ox to the labor and a donkey to the load these days. I will not rest all day and all night looking for a way to bring contentment to my Creator, even on the day that I feel that I like the labor and the great load, even seventy years together, not knowing about its success, even all the days of my life, I will be following the way I was ordered to, to follow all His ways and to adhere to Him, having heard it all in advance.

At the same time, I cannot exempt myself by any reflection and contemplation not to do any kind of work for the Creator, because of my lowliness. And I think and yearn all day for the height of the Creator’s work, and the essence of the height is so that I cannot express it in writing now.

No one knows what he is destined to and what the root of his soul is. We all start from a small desire for spirituality, and we must develop it, each according to the extent that the desire in him operates. A person tries to listen to it and to carry out this requirement by fulfilling it through the environment.

A person’s role is to build the environment in which he can develop. For us it’s like a mother’s womb, but we have to build it ourselves. According to our advancement, we gradually build the motherly womb, building the environment, the group, constantly laboring in order to adhere to the teacher, the friends, and the books since these are the means to attain adhesion with the Creator.

If a person hears this and uses this only means correctly, building an environment that will take care of his spiritual development, it gradually enforces him and he is nourished by it. He adheres to the group and by this adhesion joins the power source that flows to him through the environment and raises him by bringing him new intentions each time, helping him to develop and see things from a new perspective. Then he advances.

Everyone begins this way, both great Kabbalists and ordinary people. No one knows exactly what his path will be. A person’s role is only to use the one means he is given, to build himself a group, to choose the right environment, and by that to realize his free will.

If a person makes such efforts only, he saves a lot of energy and has enough opportunities to achieve the goal. If he doesn’t do that, he will eventually find out that life has gone by, and he hasn’t managed to do anything. It all depends on how focused he is on this goal in order to subdue himself before the only means he has.
[92911]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/14/12

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Question: What is the influence of the women’s group on the men’s group? Where can women get the desire to have an impact on men?

Answer: A few years ago I was in Chile where there are much more women than men. I remember I asked a couple, our friends from the Chilean group: “Who commands at your home?” The husband answered: “Of course, when we are in public, in the street, at a party, then of course, the woman. But at home…!” The wife looked at him like at a small child, nodded a few times, and everything became clear.

This is given by nature that the woman commands everywhere. And that is correct. That is good.

That is why the women’s part of the group is the most reliable thing that exists in life and in the world. It is stability, balance, very strong support. And that is why it is necessary first of all to take care that the women’s group is strong. It is necessary to give women the opportunity to live, work, and take part in everything. Women’s voices must be taken into consideration when making decisions. A good future of the general group lies in this.

We are all adults and understand how impossible it is to be alone, how much we need support. And just because we are different, we reach the right decision and correct life.

So, it is necessary to solve the problem seriously, like adults. The women’s part of the group should be no less right than the men’s part.
[92990]
From a meal at the Georgia Convention 11/05/12

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It is needless to say that we all need to unite and especially in Georgia where a desire for unity, peace, and being good neighbors is considered the most exalted human desire. I think it is clear that we need to be together, study according to one methodology, and not look for anything else. Later, we will discover that all of that is one, indeed, but we shouldn’t dig into that or go away.

First of all, it is important to reach the level of attaining a spiritual world where we see its roots. Then, there will be no problems. I really want our friends who are in various searches just to put it aside until the time they can understand.

Then, it will be clear that all of us come from Babylon, and Kabbalah comes from there as well. Kabbalah embraces all the teachings. Then, there will be no more conflict and no searches.

When a person begins to study the science of Kabbalah—when he still hasn’t entered into it and doesn’t realize what a spiritual world is and begins to match words and various expressions—all of that is not serious. He is sorry for the time and, most importantly, for bringing discord, dissention, and separation into a group and the entire world Kli.

He doesn’t even understand that by doing so, he creates a point of sickness that spreads this disease across all of our enormous body. Thus, he will suffer, not to a small measure due to the violation that he did, but to the extent of dissonance that he caused in the entire group. I feel sorry for these people. They just don’t understand why they are getting carried away somewhere.

Trust me; it is not worth doing anything except working on unity. Any theory and any direction that causes separation do not lead to holiness.

Thus, we need to put all of these attempts aside and hold onto each other as if for dear life! As in the ocean, if there is anything that disconnects us, we will sink immediately, and, if we stick together, we will stay afloat. That is how we need to see this.
[92780]
From a Meal at the Georgia Convention 11/7/12

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The Creator will not leave us alone because we have to become strong enough to lead the whole of humanity. Imagine what kind of preparation we need to go through.

So the main this is to grit your teeth despite the fact that the Creator will attempt to divide us in various ways, give us all kinds of reasons (moreover, so logical, so rational, that it needs to be done in a different way), but if this is against unity—reject it immediately! Any plans that appear to us as real and good if they tear the group apart, we should not take them into account, we should turn away from them. Our training is designed in this way on purpose because it all comes down to unity and nothing else.

That is why, you should not even listen to any other suggestions, but just check whether this leads to the unity of the group or not. There should be no fights. There needs to be even greater compression, even greater concentration, so that this compression lights a fire within. When this fire lights, it will unite all the hearts, all the desires in one common desire.

This is the so-called fire of love that burns all the impurities, all the waste, all the toxins. And what remains is only the purest of what exists in everyone’s heart. We do not even know what it is, but it remains only from the fire of love.

This fire is terrible, very harsh. If you go through it, then you reach the level when only one common desire is created in you, and in it, the group reveals the Creator.
[92777]
From a Meal at the Georgia Convention 11/7/12

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When I studied with Rabash, we had our meals in absolute silence. It was simply a state of silence; no one said anything to anyone, people didn’t even look at each other, but simply ate and drank in great inner tension, and it was absolutely quiet. He always demanded that and was very strict about any disturbances if someone suddenly made a noise or an interruption occurred. At that time we didn’t have many opportunities to gather, only during a lesson or a meal.

Today we have many opportunities. This may be the reason we forget the intention. It becomes such an ordinary event. We have to pay attention to the intention. Every action that is performed together, even if it is by two people, already leads to an immense outcome if it is with the right intention.

This is especially true when we gather in conventions in different places and make so many efforts to be together. So it is a pity if a minute goes by without an intention.
[92783]
From a Meal at the Georgia Convention 11/7/12

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Question: How can we assess the state that the group is in, and is it worthwhile to do so?

Answer: When a person is sad, angry or experiences some strong emotions, we say to him: “Relax, rise above yourself”, and so on. Meaning, we always invoke him to ascend above his emotions.

Our work in the group should all the time be based on us always ascending above our ego. We understand it, appreciate it, because it is precisely it that pushes us forward and does everything that is possible for us, so that we rise above it. Therefore, the ego is called “help against”. Meaning, all the thoughts, desires and intentions that pop inside us each moment, everything that we have internally, everything that flows within us in an unceasing current is required only so that we rise above it and “swim” above it.

When a person grasps and understands this and begins to work with it, he attains the goal very quickly. This is in the group and also personally in each one of us. Meaning, in the group we have to treat each other in this way, also towards the general state of the group, that includes all sorts of discernments and everything that is just possible.

What discernments can be in a group if we don’t rise above ourselves? Are we like scandalous neighbors in a building that begin to inquire into the relationships, or sloppy drivers that argue between them?!

We need to ascend above, to connect, and afterwards clarify what the problem is. And it could be that this is not a problem at all, but actually a special assistance that helped us connect. But without connection, it’s not a group, Kabbalistic discernment, but just a quarrel, a regular mundane condition.

Therefore, we must first and foremost connect. For this, a third person may be required, or some sort of additional conditions, but without connection we will never clarify anything. There will always be someone right and someone guilty.

I mean our group relationships, and not dissemination work, like in every enterprise there are those that understand more, managers and employees that are subordinate to them. In a group, we can solve all the problems only from the point of view of connection and unity.
When we connect together in the point of unity and hold on to it (since this is the main thing for us, and the Creator intentionally arranged everything for us so that we will attain this connection and hold on to it), then we will see what is bad, what the problem is, and not gloss over it, but try to understand its essence.

This is required only to realize that the connection solves all the problems. “Love will cover all sins.” Meaning, in principle nothing has to be corrected, because all the quarrels and oppositions are required only to rise above them and to connect. There is nothing else in them. There is no need to turn to them; you in any case won’t find the truth in them.

By the way, it’s the same thing in a family. Rise above all the problems and connect! And what happens with what was before? There was nothing, in any case you won’t be able to help. Each one of us is opposite to the other and most importantly, always different.

What is the point in you starting to inquire about something? The Creator deliberately arranged for you such conflicting new traits that cannot even be imagined. All our lives are composed of them. Everything that we see now around us is like a movie in which only all of our incompatibilities are shown to us, from which this picture of the world is composed. When you begin to ascend above, then you “swim” in a completely different plane: in unity.
[92392]
From the Georgia Convention 11/06/12, Lesson 2

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It is said that there is none wiser than the experienced. It seems to a person that he has been through a lot and that he understands a lot. However, there is none wiser than the experienced doesn’t refer to mere understanding, but to actually having been through all these states and feeling them. Who knows what other states are yet to come.

So a lot of patience and endurance are required of us no matter what happens. The main thing is to adhere to the environment that will help a person hold on in any situation and to not leave the path, to hasten time, and thus to turn all the problems that are revealed to help, for the good.

The evil that is revealed is detachment from adhesion, from the feeling that “there is none else besides Him.” This is what the person sees as evil and not the unpleasant bodily feelings, until all his organs begin to feel the same thing. This means that the Light that Reforms brings him an actual feeling of pleasure from the fact that there is none else besides Him that dominates him.

Until then a person has to go through many states in which he feels lost and wants to totally disappear from this reality. But eventually, he reaches opposite states when all the emptiness that is revealed turns into the one place in which he can value and praise the Creator’s domination, the dominance of the force of bestowal.

Then he is able to relate differently to all the states, relationships, people, and values that were previously hateful and caused him pain. He understands that “there is none else besides Him,” and that everything that happens is for his own good. Then he begins to love them until he attains complete absolute love.
[92695]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/12/12

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Opinion (Barry Schwartz, The Paradox of Choice): “Just how profound is this concern for status? A few years ago, a study was conducted in which participants were presented with pairs of hypothetical personal circumstances and asked to state their preferences. For example, people were asked to choose between earning $50,000 a year with others earning $25,000 and earning $100,000 a year with others earning $200,000. They were asked to choose between 12 years of education (high school) when others have 8, and 16 years of education (college) when others have 20. They were asked to choose between an IQ of 110 when the IQ of others is 90 and an IQ of 130 when the IQ of others is 150. In most cases, more than half of the respondents chose the options that gave them better relative position. Better to be a big fish, earning $50,000, in a small pond than a small fish, earning $100,000, in a big one.”

My Comment: That is, a person is willing to give up money, education, and intellect just so others have less! That is our nature: We perceive and appreciate everything relative to the environment. Therefore, the better environment we choose, the better options we envy, the greater achievements we can reach. It is useless to go against nature. You only need to learn how to use everything that it has invested in us.

How is it possible with these egoistic qualities to achieve integral interaction, brotherly participation, love for the other; what is required of us now at a new stage of human development?

That is why Kabbalah teaches us how to organize ourselves into small groups and create integral communities, like the connection of groups of cells into the organs of a body, and then the connection of the groups in the system, as in a living body, until everyone connects in a single organism—Adam.
[92816]

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Question: I live in Saint Petersburg. What can I give to the Georgian group while physically present at this congress?

Answer: This is a very good question.

First of all you can give your warmth and physical participation. You can leave them with the impression that many people from all over the world are with them, that they are not alone in the mountains, they are our big family and together we are advancing toward the goal; we can’t do it without each other, otherwise we won’t this goal. If the Creator aroused all of us that means we have to work accordingly, we cannot separate any part of ourselves and say that “we’ll deal with them later.” This can’t be done.

It’s like children in the family: Can one be taken care of at the expense of the other? You have to do something with each child and the same thing applies here.

The most important thing for them to understand is that we see them, we feel them, we’re watching them, and we want to see them growing stronger.

On one hand, we have to offer our help and support and on the other, show them that we expect them to become big and successful. This is the kind of impression we must leave them with and afterward we must constantly keep in touch with them.

This is really a good, serious group and these are good states. Georgia is a very important region. As strange as it may seem, it influences everyone else. There are a few places in the world such as the Baltic states and Georgia where the population is only a few million, but they are very sensitive.

This is why we must help the Georgian group and show great concern.

We have to understand that Georgia in relation to great forces such as Russia, Europe, and America is a rather delicate point. Thus, it’s here in particular that our fine work can give results in many distant places.
[92561]
From the Georgia Convention 11/6/12, Lesson 2

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