We need certain means in order to go from one state to another. The transition from reception to bestowal occurs as a result of a process of turning, whereby Malchut of the upper one becomes Keter of the lower one. For this reason one should always see how to best utilize this transition.

Most important is the transition. The states are already predetermined, but our work consists of speeding up the transition from one state to another as much as possible.

All states are determined by a link of informational genes called Reshimot, and all the degrees are already established in the process of the descent of the worlds from Above to below. The key is to hasten the transition from one state to another. The hastening occurs when we connect to the means that aid this transition. All of our work is focused on this interval.

A person senses a lapse: He still belongs to the lower level but at times he’s able to ascend to the higher level, and then once again he descends to the lower one. He fluctuates back and forth, as though leaning on a staff that turns into a serpent and then turns back to a staff again. A person has to know how to catch the serpent by the head or by the tail, and what action to make with his “hands” (in the desire to receive) in order to reveal one’s egoistic intention and correct it, meaning to clarify whether your intention is for the sake oneself or for the sake of bestowal.

We must understand that we are tied by external conditions as well. If we are in a transitional state, we are subject to certain danger, like during childbirth. While a fetus is in the womb, it is safe because its mother protects it. After a child is born, he is also safe because his mother will take care of him. However, the transition from one state to another, like the birth itself, is quite dangerous. This is due to the fact that many opposite force are engaged, and the proper combination of these forces allows us to be born, or transition from one state to another.

The difficulty is in the fact that while a person is in a transitional state, he is controlled by the external disturbances and can fall under their influence. Therefore, he must always protect himself from them. If one is surrounded by people that aren’t involved in the inner work and are not interested in anything other than soccer, then they don’t present any danger. However, if they are involved in something that resembles your spiritual work and wish to pull you to their side, they can influence you, especially if they are the majority.

This is particularly dangerous during the transition from one stable and fully realized state to the next state, which pertains to greater bestowal, giving yourself to the society, and connecting with friends. Between these two states a person is in danger, and he needs the realization of the Creator’s greatness, the importance of the study, the teacher, the friends, and the group. Then all of these factors that contribute to his birth will guide him correctly so that he can penetrate the narrow pathway between the levels and be born.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/17/2012, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Although the method of uniting into the group and attaining the upper reality through it has existed for more than 5000 years, it has never been described in any of the sources. People just had no need for this since our ego hadn’t developed enough for us to demand change within us and in the world. Egoism had to discover its insolvency by itself; it had to realize that it has reached the dead end in its development, when we together, globally, on the entire planet, began to feel that it’s impossible to continue this life.

Despite the fact that a lot of people and societies believe that we still have a future to aspire towards and something to attain in our development, no one thinks about this seriously. In the meantime, the movement continues by inertia. The governments and economists are helpless but continue to maintain that everything will be over soon and life will be normal again. But actually, everyone knows that there is no way out.

We need to find this way out, to realize it, and become an example for everyone. Since nowadays there is such a need, the method is being revealed as well, which in the past was transferred only from teacher to student, through a chain of separate individuals in each generation up until our times. Therefore, my teacher was the first in history to write about the group in his articles. No one ever wrote about the work in the group before him. It’s possible to find only a few phrases and sections in the ancient sources of 300 to 500 or even 1000 years ago, but they are only small commentaries and nothing more.

My teacher Rabash was the person who first described the systemic work in the group, clarifying how to connect between us in order to create a sensory organ for feeling the upper state. Everything began from that famous piece of silver foil from the cigarette pack on which he wrote the first article that begins with the words: “We have gathered here to establish a society for all who wish to follow the path and method of Baal HaSulam, the way by which to climb the degrees of man, and not remain as a beast….” And this is what we do.
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From the Vilnius Convention 3/23/12, Lesson 2

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Question: Why was the last convention in Israel held in the desert? Is symbolism really that important to Kabbalists?

Answer: We saw that it does matter and make a difference. The first time we went there because we have a big, serious group of 40-50 people there, who are scattered throughout a number of smaller spots in the desert. They live in their small houses in the middle of the desert and farm for a living, growing tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, figs, bananas, and so on.

It virtually never rains in the desert, you have a few drops once a year at the most. Therefore, what we have witnessed was a supernatural phenomenon. Even the people who were born in that area and have lived there for 40+ years have never seen anything like it. Let alone the fact that the rain was accompanied by thunder and lightning, which is entirely unnatural for the desert. We view this as a good omen.

Why the desert? It’s not the desert in the traditional sense. There were mountains there. Essentially, it’s empty land, but not sand.

Interestingly enough, there are huge reserves of water underground: from saltwater, like in the Dead Sea, to water with salt concentrations, like in a regular sea or ocean, to plain, so-called sweet water. Depending on where you drill the earth’s crust, you can produce a different type of water. And while there’s an ocean of water underneath, above ground is the desert.

This is why the locals grow special fruits and vegetables there. Depending on the concentration of salt in the water they use to irrigate their crops, they get a particular flavor. For instance, figs are very sweet by nature, but if you irrigate them with saltwater, they grow to be several times larger and several times sweeter because they need to as if fight the saltwater.

There is also a nature reserve where special horned animals are bred. Many international organizations fund the reserve because special genetic experiments are conducted there.

In short, it’s a very interesting place. In the desert you can truly isolate yourself from outside distractions. We’ve already gone there several times, and we liked it. But this time, obviously, the convention surpassed all expectations.

I think that the convention site and the timing were chosen well. We should all be happy with what we’ve attained. We felt ourselves as a single whole, and through that we can continue to develop within us the rudiments of viewing the world in an integrated way. And from there we can reveal the Creator, as per the law of equivalence of form.
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From KabTV’s “Foundations of the Integral Society” 2/26/12

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Question: You have said that we have to look at the world through the prism of the group. In other words, anything that happens to us in the corporeal life has to remind us that we must return to the thought about our friends and the degree of unity between us. Have I understood correctly that everything that happens is just a reminder? Is this the prism of the group?

Answer: There is no reminder here. You exist in an enormous integral infinite world. The Creator did not create anything but the world of Infinity. Everything that exists in our understanding and sensations, besides for the world of Infinity, is a partial perception of the same world of Infinity.

We receive the great Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif), the Light of correction, to the extent of our ability to pull ourselves towards the perception of the integral world. In other words, we have to try to be closer to it, try to sense it as a general, eternal, perfect Light, the way it actually is, and not the way we imagine it to be. We evoke the illumination from the upper degree upon us to the extent of our efforts, and thus we grow.

We have now reached a state when we are able to look at the world and begin to perceive it as a single whole, and perceive ourselves as those revealing it. This is necessary.

Why do we need a group? Our common Kli (desire) broke only in order for us to begin to put it together with our own efforts. These efforts evoke the Surrounding Light. On one hand, the Surrounding Light increases the sensation of our individuality, meaning our egoism grows (the left side, the left line). But on the other hand, the Light gives us the sensation of unity, the revelation of the quality of bestowal (the right side, the right line).

When we are not in the world of Infinity, but 125 degrees beneath it, by pulling ourselves towards it, by force, like on a high bar, to the extent of our aspiration, we attract upon ourselves the upper Light from that same world of Infinity. This Light increases both our egoism and the quality of bestowal—two opposite qualities.

This way you reveal the world of Infinity to be 620 times greater in its power than before. If before you were on the lowest, zero, level, then by attaining the 125th degree you increase yourself 620 times. You attain all the Lights of Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya, and Yechida, you rise from Malchut through Zeir Anpin, Bina, and Hochma towards Keter, and thus arrive at the state of Infinity from our world.

All these sensations are not physical; they are inside of you. It is as if you were inflating a sensory organ inside of you, which initially is only a point, and this is why it is called the point in the heart, where you are unable to feel anything. You gradually inflate it by using two opposite lines: a line of reception and a line of bestowal, the desires to enjoy and the intentions to bestow.

You grow as you ascend these degrees to the extent of your intention to bestow and your desire. Thus, everything depends on our pressure, on your aspiration towards the next and always greater degree.
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From KabTV’s “Foundations of the Integral Society” 2/26/12

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Question: I have understood more than I have felt at this convention. Is this normal or did I miss something?

Answer: Understanding without feeling is also good. At least you have seen the unity of people, you have seen their aspiration, you have understood that our attainment of reality is based on this specific aspiration.

Without uniting, we cannot create the sensor where we will be able to feel the upper world, the Creator. This is exactly why we are broken and exist at the very bottom: to start putting the pieces of the upper world together. And as we put it together, we will discover and feel new elements of the true, real, spiritual, world.

And we will see our world the other way around, as getting further from us, because essentially, it has nothing—it is smaller than a point. It is under the point of the straight line, under the “feet” of the Partzuf of Galgalta. There is Sium, or the end of all the Partzufim, and the point of our world is even lower, under it, meaning it is as if it doesn’t exist. And we exist in it, but it is like we are “nonexistent.”
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From KabTV’s “Foundations of the Integral Society” 2/26/12

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The Book of Zohar is the main tool that enables us to exit this world into the upper world. We should expect and hope that this will happen any moment.

The Zohar operates like a special mechanism. We can be ready to enter spirituality, but unable to draw the Light upon ourselves. Or we may seemingly draw the Light, but not be ready for it. This book is a system that creates the correspondence between the group, in which we first hate one another and then connect. But this also takes place only under the influence of the Light. Even to feel hatred, we need to sit together in front of the book.

If the Light didn’t influence us, we wouldn’t feel such hate towards one another. But when the Light is first revealed, we suddenly understand how deeply we hate one another. And as a result of working on ourselves and using the Light correctly, we turn the hate into love and connection, and then we discover what is written in the book.

To study the Torah means to discover all this hate and our inability to connect, our helplessness, and, in the beginning, even a lack of desire. We should discover all the stages, all the attributes, and then change them and find out for what we should yearn. All this is done only with the help of the book.

It doesn’t mean that we have to learn the text by heart and to know what is written there. The degrees should connect correctly into one ladder so that AHP of the upper one will sink into GE of the lower one, and the connection between them will open up the route for the requests that rise upward and for the filling that descends from Above, which is the route to the upper force. All this is done by a system called “a book”: with the help of a book, a writer, and a story.

Those who read the book together and want to attain something must feel that they are equal. The sages of the Talmud made the study easier for us, and now in order to succeed we don’t need any corporeal restrictions, as it says: “Live on bread and water, sleep on the ground, and feel lucky.” Instead, they prepared this study for us by which we draw the Light that Reforms.

They have inserted into their books an influence upon us that brings us closer to the “pillar” by which it is customary to pray. This is the special, middle line that connects and balances the forces of receiving in us and the forces of bestowal that we want to acquire, by connecting all this to our request.

They managed to make things easier for us by building the system by their souls, to complete the initial spiritual system of the forefathers. And now we can connect to them through our teachers: Rabash, Baal HaSulam, and all the other Kabbalists throughout the ages, until we attain the sages of the Talmud and then the forefathers. Thus we will connect to the spiritual “pillar.”

The Book of Zohar enables us to connect to the space organized into a line (Kav). But in order to receive from this line, we have to build a circle. Part 2 of The Study of the Ten Sefirot is dedicated to this topic and tells us how the upper Providence passes from the circles to the line, and from the line it is possible to connect to the circles.

If we want to join the line of the great Kabbalists of the past, there is no other way but to form circles. It’s just like a baby who is in his mother’s arms. A mother treats him like a line: carefully and thoughtfully, by knowing exactly what happens to him. While the baby totally annuls himself and exists “in circles,” unable to appreciate her actions or differentiate that something is coming from above or from below. And this allows them to connect.

We have to act in the same way. This is possible only if we mutually annul ourselves in the group and organize the group correctly, as per instructions of Rabash. Then through the book, the system of the line that was formed by the great Kabbalists who pass the spiritual energy on to us, we will be able to receive this force, even if we don’t know how it operates. Let the upper Light do its job, and we will see the result.

We’ll see it in the same way a growing child feels the result of his development, not knowing where it comes from and how he develops. All that is required from him is the desire to grow up. We too have to demand only the right desire, meaning to constantly yearn for greater connection. This will indicate that we have annulled ourselves before the upper one and that we’ve connected to the line.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/8/2012, The Zohar

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We exist as parts of a system, similar to elements of an electronic system. Therefore, everything that happens to us conforms only to the way the entire system reaches the end of correction.

It says: “The outcast will not be turned back from Me” and “Everything will return to its root.” Everyone returns to their root, and together we all return to our general root. But we want to shorten the way, to reach the goal by hastening time (Achishena), here and now, quickly, to understand and to feel what we are doing as much as it is possible, in order to perform these actions of bestowal consciously, with understanding, and not to advance by the way of suffering (Beito, or in its time).

There are two problems. On one hand, I have to agree to perform actions of bestowal. On the other, I have to understand that I should calculate and prepare these altruistic actions. These two types of work are called “the work in the mind” and “the work in the heart,” and they are both opposite to nature.

Therefore, we do our best to organize the right system among us, as if we are connected, as if we love one another, as if we complement one another, as if we are cogwheels in a general system, and as if we connect with the Creator, in order to bring Him contentment, and with all of humanity, in order to correct them and bring them to the same action.

All this is “as if.” We do everything as if jokingly, like a little child who, having put the constructor pieces together, suddenly discovers that it is still a toy. He thought that he would build a tractor, he did his best, he assembled it, and then he discovers that it isn’t real, but made of plastic and doesn’t move at all.

But in our spiritual work, the moment we build this “demo,” this “counterfeit,” knowing that it is a game but building it correctly, according to the demands of Kabbalists, the Light that Reforms influences us immediately and makes it real.

This is the whole trick. We only need to understand that this is how it works. We try to put the parts together, in love, bestowal, unity, connection, by faith above reason—it makes no difference how we call it on our level. Clearly, everything is fake. But we try to put this construction set together, and according to our efforts the Light acts and turns it into the real picture.
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From the Arava Convention 2/25/12, Lesson 7

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Question: The convention in Brazil is approaching. What can it give those who will physically participate in it?

Answer: If a person has already taken part in our conventions and cannot make it this time, it may not be so critical. On the other hand, these people already understand that the convention is worth the effort. As for people who have never been to a convention, they should do their best to be there.

Today our conventions are first and foremost about connection. People don’t just come to hear me lecture. The convention springs me into action so that I form a vessel, a desire, together with everyone. Then I feel the difference between my private thoughts and the thoughts of the general circle. These are two totally different levels of thinking and feeling.

The convention enables a person to feel the taste of unity a bit, which is essentially the “posterior” of the Creator. When unity takes hold of a person a little, he discovers that there is a special hidden sensation here, the “point of unity” that Baal HaSulam talks about. If a person discovers charm in the unity with the group, he reaches the path that leads to the Creator.

Thus, the convention is a rare opportunity thanks to which a person can continue marching safely onwards because he already has the right impressions. I don’t think it is possible to attain this without an actual, physical connection.

Therefore, it is very important to arrive in person. A person who has already been to a convention generally understands that he should go—at any reasonable price. But if you’ve never felt that, then listen to some advice: Come and that’s all. In a country like Brazil, the next convention will probably be in another two or three years. It is even worthwhile to take a loan and to repay it later in several monthly payments. By this you are buying yourselves a true asset, and if you miss it, you will regret it later. A reasonable debt isn’t so bad. Don’t postpone the main thing in life for later. I strongly recommend that you come.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/16/2012, Writings of Rabash

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Question: What if the group work and studying bring me egoistic pleasure? How should I relate to this?

Answer: A person cannot make a single move without pleasure. We don’t pull anyone into a monastery; we don’t call anyone to live in a barrel like Diogenes, sleeping on the bare ground, limiting our diet to bread and water. We are talking about internal changes, which we can realize in our nature solely by the external force, the Light that sustains the life of the entire universe. Together, through our collective efforts and with correct organization, we can influence this force so that it changes the inclination in us.

Today we are approaching the moment in human development when we do this ourselves, having formed a request, prayer, intention, in advance; otherwise, the Light will do this without our request. Here we have a choice. Having realized it, we will go ahead of the wave of change, desire it, and ask the Creator to give us the force of bestowal. If we do not realize our choice, disasters will come and take it away, systematically sending us series of suffering. Then there again will be a period when we will have to understand that it’s better to head towards bestowal than to remain in reception because here we get blows, and there there will be no blows.

Thus, we begin this path with a very primitive, “cheap” degree: with the calculation of gain. After all, a person lives by egoistic feelings. Later, however, when the second force is added to egoism, something new starts gleaming between them.

Our problem is that we don’t understand the nature of the spiritual vessel, don’t see its brilliance and uniqueness. It sounds as if we just move from one power to another. “It was bad there, and I have chosen something better,” is this a choice? And what is so special if earlier, when I suffered, I cursed the Creator, and now, when I feel good, I praise Him?

We don’t feel the point of freedom hidden in the middle of Tifferet, where we can act based on understanding (Daat). After all, “Man” is the Sefira Daat. We build it on two authorities, and then we begin to understand that the Creator has given us the highest “supernatural” gift that does not relate either to the nature of the receiving desire or to the nature of the bestowing desire.

After all, bestowal, too, is the power that obliges us to obey. But knowledge (Daat), which we form between the two authorities, cancels everything. It cancels the origin of the creature, inherent in the giving desire, and the necessity to go through the receiving desire in order to choose bestowal again and then to use both of these forces….

Daat raises a person to Keter, and thus we seem to soar above the point of creation. It’s true that we act within the parameters oriinally specified by the Light. But in the point of Daat we rise even above them as well.

Thus, a person who strives to the goal discovers that the Creator has created a special opportunity for him to rise above His own creation, ascend above the parameters, conditions, and laws acting between the two desires, between reception and bestowal, between good and evil, which leave him no choice. We rise above all this to a certain point, preceding the Creator’s decision about creation.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/15/2012, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Do you recommend us to pretend that we already are in spirituality in order to accelerate our advancement? How do we do it?

Answer: How do we play with children? We show them how to do things. They want to become big and they play! And we often play with them.

We need to do the same. All of nature, a person’s entire growth is based only on game. Even now we play big, great people who are equal to the Creator. We want to ascend by one degree and become equal to Him. Can you imagine the audacity of this behavior?! Yes, I want to be like this!

When I wanted to become a doctor, a driver, or a cowboy as a child, I played pretend. Now we also play. Anywhere you go, play is really the method of ascending to the next degree. A person begins to age as soon as he stops playing. This is why I need to play even now without being ashamed of the fact that I do not know or understand who I am, why I need the group, and so on. We must pretend and play, and then we will achieve everything.

We are like a child who makes an effort and evokes the same upper Light; after all, the same force develops all of us. Only we now wish for it to develop the next level in us, based on the example we draw from the upper nature, and not our world.
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From the Vilnius Convention 3/23/12, Lesson 2

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