Question: In the conventions, especially in America, there are people who stand on the side and don’t connect easily. What is more, since they know in advance that they will spend three days leaning on the wall, it sometimes deters them from coming to the convention. What would you suggest that they do? How can we help them?

Answer: I definitely suggest that they come and be included in the crowd as much as they can. As it is written: “Educate a child according to his way.” People who find it difficult to connect in a circle will find one another. They may form their own circle, and within it, there may be someone who will shake them up a little.

Don’t object to the convention and don’t force yourselves. Everyone has a place there. After all, we are all different, and there are people who cannot connect with others. They sit on the side and listen, absorbed in their own thoughts. Or on the contrary, there are those who make too much noise. These people still don’t feel where they are and in what they are included. Their inner pace isn’t synchronized with everyone else yet, and either the euphoria or their introversion is controlling them.

Most of our friends already know and understand the method. They are working on advancement in a more or less methodical manner and are experiencing ups and downs. If a person really understands that he is detached from the general flow aimed at the goal of creation, it is especially important for him to come because it is a sign that in the meantime, he is going through special preparatory states. The influence of the environment will help him through it. I strongly recommend that you register.

On the whole, there are special people with special sparks. This is how they were created, and it isn’t a matter of heroism or weakness. The main thing is to realize what is within you. Just carry out the role that nature has given you, and eventually, if everyone makes his special and unique efforts, we will all become truly equal, with no traces of the previous differences.

Ultimately, everyone does equivalent work. We simply don’t understand yet how perfect the general system is.

But on the way, there are differences among us. Some people have special jobs; it is as if they have their own history, their own development. Accordingly, they should be treated differently. They look different from others, and their ups and downs are different. They act differently externally and go through different internal states—in contrast to any logic of our world.

Similarly, in the scientific and philosophic community, there are exceptional geniuses. Quite a few clever people have demonstrated exceptional attributes. In our case, it is even more prominent. However, for such people in particular it is very important to be with the community because in relation to them, we are like humanity in relation to us.

The sparks in the heart are divided into two parts: GE (Galgalta ve Eynaim) and AHP (Awzen, Hotem, Peh). Those of us who belong to GE are special. Sometimes, they feel a strong aversion toward society, but it is very important for them to come to conventions even though they feel no need to mingle with the friends, regarding them as humanity. It is still essential.
[75970]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/22/2012, Writings of Rabash

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While reading the articles, we have to learn to follow the thought of the author, to yearn to enter the states our teachers describe. When a person begins to watch a captivating movie, he forgets about the entire world and lives with the heroes on the screen, experiencing everything they go through.

This is how we have to relate to reading the texts. We must annul ourselves and adhere to the author, to his states at the time he was writing the article, and to his thought, and to constantly flow with this thought, hold ourselves within it. It is as if I don’t exist, which means that I cling to the books and their authors.

We have no other way to reach our teachers. At this time, I don’t see such readiness on the part of the students. Even before the lesson, before reading the text, we should think that we are about to do something special. By reading or listening to a text written by a Kabbalist and by making constant efforts to hold onto his thoughts, we cling to the Creator.

We mustn’t think about anything or have any calculations, but simply flow with the Kabbalist on the same wave. It doesn’t matter whether I understand what the text says or not. I feel like a baby in the arms of an adult. Someone lifted me and is taking care of me. Thus, I gradually begin to grow and understand why and how everything happens.

First, I simply find out what is going on, and afterwards I will understand the reasons. This attitude is essential while reading the articles.
[75959]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/22/2012, Writings of Rabash

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From Rabash’s lesson: It’s impossible to work without fuel. A person must receive something, he can’t work without a goal. Thus, our goal is to feel for whom we work.

People often ask how they can check how close they have come to spirituality. This is determined specifically according to the clarification for whom I work. I have advanced if I begin to act not as if I am standing against the Creator, but next to Him, on His side, trying to help Him, serve Him, and work in line with His program.

I think about how to give the Light the possibility to influence me more strongly, how to help the Light enter all my desires more deeply, to connect them. I feel that I am the slave of the Creator, connecting to Him stronger and stronger under the influence of the Light.

According to this sign, it is possible to feel how a person changes. Instead of thinking: “Me, me, me,” he now worries about how to assist the Light in entering the desires and correcting them.
[75956]
From Preparation for the Lesson 4/22/2012

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Question: Why is it so difficult to imagine the next level?

Answer: It’s not a lack of imagination, but a lack of interaction between people. If we were playing in the yard with friends, we would imagine everything clearly since there is mutual interaction between us. One person says something, another adds something, and in this way, a game is created.

Whereas here, we can’t get together yet; we can’t imagine the next degree. We are missing the mutual help. I still don’t feel the support of the friends in this. It isn’t your fault or mine. For this, we need training sessions that will gradually give rise to the next degree.

This level doesn’t exist within us yet. We are not to blame for this. We simply need to put in effort, and the upper Light will begin to form it within us. It already is building it within us, but this takes time.

We constantly yearn for the next level like children; we don’t understand, play, and make mistakes—but we want it! It doesn’t matter what we want because it just might not be what we need. However, these efforts invite the upper Light that gradually forms the next level within us: At first, it does it in our imagination and then in cloudy sensations. Afterward, the upper Light forms together both the sensations and thoughts, certain understanding of what should happen. And then what we learn, feel, and hear from other friends adds together. We suddenly begin to receive their thoughts and desires, and all this connects together.

If it’s difficult for us to imagine the next level, it’s a sign that we haven’t attracted enough of the upper Light so that it can give us as least some kind of impression, some format of the next degree. However, I am sure that we will overcome this.
[75793]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/23/2012, Workshop 1

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Rabash, Shlavey HaSulam, (Steps of the Ladder), “The Need for Love of Friends”: There are many merits to it: 1) It brings one out of self-love and to love of others… since by that he can come to love the Creator. However, we should know that loving others or working for the benefit of others is not the purpose of creation, as the secular understand it…. Saying that we must work to benefit others is only the correction of creation, not the purpose of creation.

A person begins to study the wisdom of Kabbalah in order to be smarter and to find out what goes on in the upper world. He dreams about seeing, revealing, and feeling the upper force and governance, to attain his past, present, and future, and the system that manages the whole world, including us.

He perceives everything through his ego, the desire to receive pleasure, and so he hears selectively: only what can do him good or harm him personally. Concepts like “love of friends” and the “need of the love of others” just pass by his ear.

It takes a long time until thanks to the study, dissemination, and connection to the group, a person finally begins to understand that love of friends doesn’t mean to be good kids like in the kindergarten, but that it is a spiritual principle of a totally different level.

This principle stems from the shattering of the vessels, that is, from the unified soul that was shattered into pieces and by that laid the foundations for our whole world. And this is why we have to connect all the pieces of that one soul. To the extent that we manage to connect them, we begin to feel the upper world.

A person is willing to hear about love of friends only after many years. Therefore, beginners cannot understand Rabash’s articles about the group. The more advanced students will perceive them as a real, necessary, and desirable tool because they already understand how important and beneficial it is to attain connection by virtue of which we attain the whole world of Infinity.
[75909]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/20/2012, Writings of Rabash

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In our world, the spark of spirituality, the point in the heart, has not awakened in very many people. They are in the minority as compared to the rest of humanity who are attracted only toward the corporeal delights of this world. However, people who yearn to reveal the Creator have qualitative strength, and if they unite, they can attain a force greater than the force of the rest of humanity.

It is possible to be great in terms of quantity and in terms of quality. Quality is more important than quantity. Thus, if ten people, who scrutinize the goal and want to attain it, unite, a force created by them is greater than the external force of humanity, of all the billions of people around the world.

It is so much more meaningful that they are unaffected by the influence of broad society and its quantitative strength. Thus, by creating a not-so-large group, they can advance. A person falls under the influence of the environment—and his only free choice is to choose a suitable environment for himself.

If he constantly annuls himself before this small group more and more, he can be sure that he will reach the goal this way. To the extent of his annulment and connection with the friends in greater and greater concentration, he will constantly come closer to the goal. After all, the goal is found in the center of this small group.
[75906]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/20/2012, Writings of Rabash

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From Rabash’s lesson: A person must study on the basis that faith obliges him, not because others say that he is righteous, thus giving him strength and inspiring him to work. It’s because then this strength is based on pride and honor, not on faith, meaning on egoism instead of holiness.

Thus, one needs to be very careful not to receive any external endorsement. It is just the opposite: If the environment ignores the person, it is really a gift from Above because he is being given the opportunity to continue to work for the sake of bestowal.

And if one is honored, he thereby is given energy to work egoistically, for the sake of respect. And no matter how much you try to explain it to the person, nothing will help—this is the way our body, our ego, works.

Thus, it is not easy to detach from reward or punishment that comes from the environment, working only in one line directed straight to the goal of creation. But without this detachment, all of our work will benefit the impure forces, Pharaoh, our ego.

According to how influenced a person is by the world’s good or bad attitude toward him, by feedback he receives from the external world, we can see clearly where he is. If he doesn’t pay attention to this and continues on his way, he receives all sorts of criticism as help from Above. The more he is attacked from all the sides, the more they help him.  
[75854]
From the Preparation for the Lesson 4/20/2012

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We cannot imagine how much the distance between me and the Creator and the distance between me and my neighbor are the same. We call one who is close to us “neighbor,” while he is the same distance away as the Creator. At the same distance!

Try to reach the neighbor not physically but internally, and you will discover the same abyss. That is why we underestimate what has been given to us. “Well, why do we need the neighbor? All sorts of figures are walking around here. …” We cannot imagine that this is the absolutely accurate indication of our attitude towards the hidden in nature. Just as the Creator is concealed from me, so is my friend hidden from me.

Imagine, how much of this chasm we have not yet revealed between us. All the time we gloss over it, fill it with something superficial, but we don’t even see this huge black abyss.

However, if you seriously work in the group, then to the extent of your work, you begin to understand that you have to strike precisely at this point; here you’ll reveal everything. Just don’t forget that by working out the relationship with the friends, you work out the relationship with the Creator. The end of the action must be in Him; then we will get the upper Light.

This is the difference between the method of Kabbalah and any other method, because when we reach the end of the action, pointing at the upper force, we receive the upper Light that changes us. The main thing is not to forget that all our actions are aimed at getting closer to Him, to this upper force, at becoming similar to it, dissolving into it, acting like It, attaining at Its level, understanding, and connecting so that my entire inner part is absolutely equal to it.
[76025]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/25/2012, Lesson 5

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Question: You said that we have to imagine ourselves in a corrected state. How can I be sure that I imagine it correctly?

Answer: It’s impossible to imagine a correct state. The Light will gradually create this picture for us. This can only be done by the Light!

Our attempts resemble those of a child who does something with persistence, and even though he’s unable to accomplish a task, he still continues trying. You’ve seen the persistence of a  child who is playing or trying to do something. As a result, he acquires sensations, thoughts, and experience and thereby becomes an experienced adult. This is the only way it can happen.

We don’t reveal anything new here. We utilize the same Light as we did when we were children when we were trying to become adults. We are utilizing the same principles that are instilled in nature. This is the same exact law and there isn’t anything else.

You make attempts, you play with building blocks, but they fall down. You try to assemble a construction set, but you can’t. You do something, jump, and run around like a little monkey. However, these efforts evoke the upper Light, the concealed force of nature, which is responsible for your development.

This force developed us on the animate level and we became adults. Right now we’re consciously playing the next degree so that the same force will develop us and elevate us to that degree. Whatever it is you play, that’s what you will become. This is the way it works.

Today we’re playing a game of “Becoming Similar to the Creator.” If we continue playing this game, we’ll succeed! People develop through playing. You have to imagine yourself there. Imagine yourself as an adult; this is most important. You may ask: “What does it mean to rise to the next degree? After all, this is what we want to accomplish.” Go ahead and realize your desire! Fantasize about what it means and play this game, but base it on the knowledge you’ve obtained.

You read lots of articles and listen to the lessons: What is the meaning of the upper degree, the quality of bestowal, above egoism, a screen, Reshimot, Partzufim, the Light of Hassadim, the Light of Hochma, and so on? How do transitions become actualized? Try to constantly imagine that you are there and you’ll achieve it! All of nature operates according to this principle. There’s nothing new to add if you compare it to the development of a child.
[75898]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/23/2012, Workshop 1

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Question: The need for the women’s desire, without which men won’t come to the goal, was not felt at the seminars. Why is that?

Answer: In order for a man to feel a need for something, he has to realize that without that need or desire he won’t reach the goal. It means that they haven’t reached that state yet.

Assume I try doing something and see that it doesn’t work out. What do I miss? Aha, I need another tool. I start working with it and see that I lack some other device. Meaning, only to the extent I see myself not reaching the goal do I look for the ways to reach it.

Then I see the lack of a clear strong support. It must exist for sure! This is what is written in Kabbalistic sources and we see that in a real life as well.

Men have their own somewhat baseless pride. They forget their dependency on women due to their nature. That’s a man’s nature.

But by moving forward, they begin realizing how weak they are. And then feel a strong need for female support.

That is not a weakness, it’s just our nature; when we depend on each other with just the right combination, together we achieve the common goal.

By the way, I’m sure many men have this feeling—I see that in them. They really feel it.
[75941]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/23/12, Lesson 1

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