It is known from the wisdom of Kabbalah that the only means that can change anything is the Light that Reforms. It sustains our lives, it gives livelihood to everything, and it executes all the changes. In accordance with the qualities of the Light, desire and the entire path of creation from the beginning to the end is instilled in the nature of the Light—how to change the matter, the desire to receive, in order to bring it to equivalence of form with the Light itself.

We constitute this matter in the hands of the Creator, the Light, and we can awaken and intensify its influence on ourselves and in doing so, accelerate our development. Since we accelerate our development ourselves, by wanting it and revealing our desire more, the Light influences our evolution more and executes a more meaningful act on it. Thus we feel our advancement as something good and desirable. Indeed, we add to the process of evolution that flows “in its time” (Beito) our own part, the addition called “hastening time” (Achishena) since we yearn for that same place and form that the Light wants to bring us to.

From where do we know this? It is thanks to the efforts we make in trying to see ourselves as connected together, as one man with one heart, so that our desires merge into one. And then, to the extent that we try to awaken our hearts to connect, to perform various actions so that they connect into one heart, with no differences between them, to that extent we awaken the Light that will bestow on this connection, on our efforts to connect with an even greater intensity than when it works according to its usual evolutionary plan called “in its time.” In this way we accelerate time.

In order to awaken the influence of the Light on the desire, we ourselves need to imagine that we are trying to connect the hearts and adopt the form of the Light, the attribute of mutual bestowal. We have to envision this to the extent that each one of us loses his own feeling of existence, and all of us together acquire oneness that includes everyone within it: the group, the soul, composed of the individual hearts. And then the Light bestows on us and completes the act.
[60664]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/14/2011, The Zohar

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To develop our spiritual sensation, we unite and connect. We have to attain the kind of unity that is called, “mutual guarantee.” Essentially, this is the vessel for feeling the spiritual, eternal and perfect life that is outside the body.

For that we have to do what Kabbalists, who are people that have already gone through this path, advise us to. They are our teachers and are therefore called “Rabbanim” in Hebrew, which is the plural of Rav, meaning a “great” person before whom I bend down my head like before an experienced instructor that is worthwhile to listen to.

He accomplished the transition from the sensation of just this world to the sensation of the upper world, and moreover, he went through many states and levels there. Therefore he can help me with advice throughout the whole path, until I complete my development in the true world. By virtue of Kabbalists, I reveal the gates to the world, enter it, and advance.

Kabbalits advise us to unite, and in that unity, by making great efforts in spite of our egoism and natural disregard, to look precisely for the feelings we disregard. I reject the neighbor and hate him, I am unable to even think about how we can be truly close to one another. But Kabbalists tell us that we have to be as one man with one heart, uniting in the mind and feeling to such an extent that no boundaries will remain between us in thoughts or desires.

This is all painfully opposite to our nature. We are being offered such conditions that we would be willing to trade them for anything else. We are nauseous from this and are thrown away from it at every moment in different directions—anything but unity. We just want to cover ourselves up with half-hearted advice and actions, lie to ourselves and others that everything is normal…But we can’t.

What can help us here are demands imposed by physical unity: We act all together and no one can evade his responsibilities. That is exactly why we are in this world of actions that are not defined by intention. In spirituality, the thought is the action, but in corporeality they are divided: I can think about one thing, desire another, and do a third.

This is the wonderful quality of our world: Here we can start the path to spirituality without even yet thinking about it for real or wishing for it sincerely. We are able to make actions that pride, passion, ambition, envy, and shame incite us to do—everything that is inherent to our egoism.

Therefore, being in the group, at the end of the day, I must carry out what it obligates each of its members to do. After that, by virtue of that, I advance involuntarily. I must only push myself into the group, take on obligations, and sign a “unified agreement” with the friends that under any circumstances, they have obliged me and I have obliged them to need one another. That is how we advance, using our egoism.

Thus, in our world we have the opportunity to start the spiritual path from zero, from pure ambition. We activate its negative qualities, connecting with one another by the unity of mutual help, and use all the negative qualities just to observe this unity. In this case, you obligate the friend and he obligates you, and you both advance, having no other choice.

This is exactly what we saw when we went to the convention in the Arava desert. We found ourselves together without external influences and discovered that the group can obligate every person to rise and come closer to the sensation outside the body, where a person begins to discern details hitherto unknown, a different existence “outside of the skin of his body.” It turns out that “outside of us” is really possible. That is how we advance.

Today we can unite with one another in this world by means of the right egoistic actions. However, now every one of us has to “jump out of his skin,” rise above his personal egoism, above his entire being, and unite with friends into a single whole. Stated differently, every person must rise above himself and go from the material group to the spiritual one.

Then the common vessel will form, the common soul, the holy Shechina where we will reveal the Creator on the first spiritual level. We made a big step toward this and acquired a common sensation, and now we must strengthen ourselves.

Thus, we build the vessel of mutual guarantee: We pledge not to forget one another and all together we take care of our spiritual life. After all, this is the purpose of our current existence in the material world, the goal of all people and this whole reality. Only by virtue of mutual care will we rise to the level of spiritual unity.
[61241]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson on 11/20/11, “Mutual Guarantee”

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Question: If it is impossible to go against one’s desire on the inside, then what actions can we make against the desire, only physical ones?

Answer: Physical actions also count. After all, before we are able to do spiritual actions, we can only act physically.

For now a person studies, disseminates materials, and connects with the friends in a physical group by working together. This is the way he acts, even though he is not yet capable of inner actions. And this really helps.

Even the strongest and best inner actions still do not replace physical ones, which we do in the corporeal world in a large mass of people. We see how dissemination in this world, and especially being in touch with people in different countries who went out to the streets to protest, advances students in their inner understanding.

A person goes out to give out leaflets, and he spends time between people who know nothing about the inner structure of the universe and scream demanding bread and other necessary material things. And then he returns to his books and his inner development, and he suddenly sees that he feels more, understands more, and advances.

All this is because I have received an impression from them; I absorbed their desire. And even though these are corporeal desires, it does not matter. They still advance me because this external desire impresses me.

This external desire rises to a higher degree in me, the degree I am on. It is written that the “Creator dwells among His people.” Thus it turns out that I reveal the Shechina inside the people on the exact height that I am able to reveal it.

This pertains to the greatest Kabbalist: If he comes with his desires with the purpose of connecting to the desires of the people, then through their desires, he receives an impression inside his own, at the height accessible to him. This is why it is written that one must not distance himself from the people.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/17/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question (from the Hebrew blog): The advice is to expand dissemination and to educate the public. We should not rest on our laurels just because people come to the mutual guarantee centers. We should organize various study groups in schools for a nominal fee and through them introduce the values of mutual guarantee.

I have no doubt that parents will be happy to send their children to these study groups. It is desirable to do this namely in secondary schools because teen’s behavior begins to deteriorate at this age. Of course, children should be stimulated by prizes or awards. I would be glad to hear your opinion.

Answer: This needs to be worked out and carefully implemented so that people gradually realize the need to unite in order to solve all our problems.

Question: Do I have to hate my ego all the time? It’s all I have. If I go after the things I want, I am nothing.

Answer: If you use it correctly in order to rise above it, you should appreciate and love it as help against you.

Question: What is the “stony heart”?

Answer: Our desires that we can never correct ourselves. They are corrected by the general Light of all the souls at the end of correction.
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Question: Could you briefly formulate the purpose of the convention at the Arava desert?

Answer: We have one goal: having united, to reveal adhesion with the Creator. We have to reveal a close interconnection, a strong bond in reaching the goal, in ascending above our corporeal desires, above everything that appears to us in this world.

In our mind and feelings, we have to rise above the reality that we feel here and unite all our hearts and thoughts. Our goal is not to simply assemble the common “We” out of individual “I’s,” but to rise to an even higher degree and become one whole. It’s similar to drops of water merging into one big drop without leaving any boundaries between them.

The influence of the upper Light helps us achieve this state. We can’t imagine this state, but the Light can lead us to it. This ascent to the first degree of unity will be the crossing of the Machsom (the barrier separating us from spirituality). Further, we’ll find ourselves on steps of the spiritual ladder, and we’ll be able to climb to the very end of correction.

In addition to it, in our first spiritual state we want to reveal forces to correct the world and to help it on its path toward the purpose of creation where we all unite in order to merge with the Creator. We want the world to reach it peacefully rather than through sufferings, which also can push us forward.

Thus, all our work is in finding the spiritual world, that is, in degrees of merging with the Creator. Then, we will help humanity to reach a predestined state of perfection in a good way where we’ll all give pleasure to the Creator together.

Question: What kind of thought should each friend arrive at the convention with?

Answer: I want to lose my personal self-awareness. I want to rise in my mind and thoughts above the body and unite with the mind and feelings of all the friends who will form the collective head and the collective heart, as it is said: “Like one man with one heart.”

We should imagine this picture at the time of the convention by trying to live it, to live inside of it. I’m no longer an owner of myself; I “sold” myself to the group; I’m loyal to it, and it takes care of me like the upper Partzuf takes care of the lower one, like the whole takes care of the individual, like the mind takes care of the body. From now on, I’m driven and governed by the group.
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From the 4th pat of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/16/2011, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Our current state is imaginary. Kabbalists compare the perception of this world with a person who has lost consciousness and is experiencing certain vibrations in the brain, certain random impulses that beget an illusionary and misleading image within him. And this makes him feel like he is alive and exists in a real world, perceiving it much like as it sometimes happens in a dream. But in reality, there is nothing from true reality in it.

There are a number of actions we can do to help us in this state, to make us wake up, or make an effort towards awakening. The idea is to try to imagine the true state, completely unrelated to our world, while being in our imaginary state.

We exist in this true state connected with one desire. No one perceives himself individually, but every one perceives this oneness. It’s neither “I” nor “we” because “we” is still a multiple sum of “I.”

But there is no sum; there is just that oneness where we exist with no differences between us! We need to try to rise from the image we now perceive to a “there is none else beside Him” state, where there is only One, and nothing else. And everything that is outside of Him is a consequence of the loss of consciousness. We need to try to imagine this situation.

“Everything that exists is one soul.” This is the formula of reality, and it determines the place of our work and the form of our life that we must attain. From it we begin to draw all the directions of our behavior, understanding of the method, and the true state. We will only be able to learn and understand what the upper world is from there. We will not learn about it in our world.

And regarding the economy of the future, it also must come from there. Otherwise it’s unclear how it’s possible for only one to exist. The laws of connection and behavior that exist in this oneness, the relationships and actions, all these things are only learned in a state where we exist as one. There are no physical bodies, this whole world does not exist; our heart and mind rise to this level of oneness.

As a result of everyone’s efforts, we will begin to perceive this reality and what’s happening in it. We will establish the relationships between us in accordance with it and understand the material we are studying and our attitude towards the world and dissemination.

Our head must be inside this One, while our body must be separated from Him and only follow instructions. Then we’ll see how uncomplicated this path really is. The main thing is the first contact with the reality of this one force called: “There is none else beside Him.”
[60760]
From Lesson 1, Israel Arvut Convention, 11/11/2011

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Our work is divided into several stages. In the first stage, a person is totally disconnected from the work. This period lasts for ages, throughout human history.

Then a person is awakened from Above and begins to feel how an initial desire to discover the purpose of creation, the Creator, the meaning of his life, begins to grow within him. He begins to work on it, comes to the group, and begins to study. In the meantime, he doesn’t understand what he does. Just like a newborn baby, he doesn’t understand where he is, who he is, nor who the people around him are.

Gradually, he advances to clearer and better understood states, although just like a child, he does many foolish things, not knowing and not feeling it. He follows the advice of the “elders,” Kabbalists, and repeats what all the others do, until gradually, he begins to understand these actions.

Clearly, he doesn’t learn by performing these actions. Rather, as a result of these exercises, even if he doesn’t know what he is doing, he draws the Light upon himself. Thus, a person advances just like a baby who doesn’t need to know what makes him grow. He develops according to nature’s plan.

But gradually, he begins to understand how he should advance and on what his efforts should be focused. He begins to understand that the advancement is against our nature and that we should put our desires aside, not waiting for the body to agree to spiritual advancement. After all, the interests of the body are absolutely contrary to it.

So, we have to look for advice as to how to perform actions that our desire does not support and that do not bring pleasure to his spirit. This is intentional, and a person faces tremendous internal resistance, and he doesn’t understand why. He doesn’t understand how it is possible to advance if it repels his desire so much. Why should he work if he doesn’t fill his desire the way it has been up until now?

Even if I wish to advance against my desire, I still have to picture some abstract reward, at least something. We often act against our will at work, in sports, in filling our family duties, and so forth. Here, at least, it is clear to us what the reward is and why we should do it.

You wouldn’t even be able to lift a finger if you didn’t feel that it is rewarding. Your body simply would have no fuel to perform the action. Where do you get this fuel?

The search for fuel, the request for this external power, is called the search for the power of faith. A person doesn’t want to work on his own fuel because it will undoubtedly be egotistic, and he really needs some external energy and motivation.

This search with the support of the group brings him to the revelation of the Light that gives him the power to advance above his bodily desires. Now, he advances not in order to fill his egoism, but in the Light of faith that enables him to work above his egoistic desire.

Here, one needs to constantly overcome his desire. These steps are called “forty years of wandering in the desert,” in which a person receives the power to work without any compensation for his desires. His actions are above his desires and against them, and the result doesn’t go together with his desires either because he doesn’t see any personal benefit in it.

However, he can do it! His desires support him, although everything in them resist it, which is called by “faith above reason.” When a person can work this way, he moves on to working with the actual desires, and he can even use them in the power of faith without any egoistic benefits, but only for the sake of the Creator.

That is, the way is divided into two parts. First, we rise above our desire to receive called the “desert.” Then, we begin to work with it and enter the “land of Israel.”
[60785]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/15/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: During the lessons, we attract the Light together. In dissemination, we work within the framework of managers  and subordinate relationships. How do I lower my head before the friends throughout the day?

Answer: I lower my head not before an external image of a friend, his name, qualities, or character. I lower my head before the concept of the group, which consists of the whole reality: worlds, vessels, and the Lights. I want to be there, included, in self-denial, without any feeling of myself.

It is not just a friend in his physical appearance. I only look for a spiritual form, I want to rise above my thoughts and desires. If I renounce myself, then my body, my origins, everything that I have is directed toward fulfilling the desires of the common heart and thoughts of the common head. That’s what self-denial is.

For example, before the convention I’m prepared to do anything in order for it to be successful. I reject any criticism; I don’t have any calculations regardless of where I’m asked to go or how much time and effort it will take. As soon as I see, hear, or feel that I can help, I immediately do that. If I linger even for a moment, that’s not right; that means I didn’t lower my head before my friends.
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From Lesson 3, Israel Arvut Convention, 11/11/2011

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Question: While reading The Book of Zohar, I constantly get distracted in my thoughts. I understand that it’s good because “from Zion (exit) will go forth the Torah.” But still, how do I hold on to the internal concentration?

Answer: We have to try. Let’s assume that I’m called in for a trial to investigate how much I care about the group. According to the outcome, I will receive either reward or punishment. Then, while reading the text, I will worry about attracting various good forces and alienating or sweetening the evil ones. I read The Zohar for that purpose.

First of all, the trial is evaluating me only in one direction: connection to or disconnection from the group, how much I’m bonded with or separated from it. Thus I have to awaken the influence of good forces that help me to connect to the group, and conversely, remove the obstructing forces.

Besides that, I have to see that all the actions that pass through me are meant to show me clarifications that I have to perform and various factors that strengthen my connection with the group in a direct or indirect way. It’s because in the end, both good and evil are meant to force me to strengthen my connection with the environment. Only on that principle is the trial being held.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/15/2011, The Zohar

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The level that a person is at totally determines his thoughts and feelings. We cannot think about, understand, feel, and plan something, or yearn for something outside this level. It’s all determined by our state, the height we’ve reached.

The desire to receive operates according to the amount of Light that is revealed within it: from the maximum amount in the world of Infinity to one of the 125 degrees that descend from it in which the Light diminishes and so affects the desire to receive less and less. As the Light diminishes, the desire gradually becomes more murky, corrupt, and distant from the Light in its attributes.

As the Light shines less upon the desire, the desire discovers its own attribute: egoism. It all depends upon the force of the Light that bestows upon the desire.

So we shouldn’t focus on our physiological body or our thoughts, but only worry about the desires that have to be corrected by the Light. Since the state of the desire is totally dependent upon the Light that shines on it and keeps it at a certain height, we have to think only about the influence the Light has on us: How we can constantly try to place ourselves under the influence of the Light in the maximal and most optimal way.

I don’t know how the Light will affect me and where it comes from. I only need to do what Kabbalists advise us and to perform actions that will uncover the way to the Light and will allow it to influence me—and then I will change. If I don’t do that, I will not change.

The main advice is to connect with my environment and the books according to the teacher’s instructions. Thus, I open myself to the influence of the Light, and all the rest depends on it. The Light will influence the desire, and the new desire will bring new thoughts, understanding, and sensations and will reveal the world to me anew. We have to feel all that in our desire.

A person’s desires, his heart, totally depends on the Light’s influence. A person’s connection with the Sefirot is determined by the degree that the Light reaches him and corrects his desire. This determines the height of his spiritual ladder. The Sefirot are the attributes of the Light in which it dresses when it goes through the worlds in order to bestow upon a person’s general desire.

The Light goes through filters that have certain attributes, and under the influence of the Light, the desire begins to change. Instead of the ordinary desire to receive, which lacks any character and direction, there is a concrete desire that belongs to a certain height and resembles the Light.

These desires can already be called by the names of the Sefirot because they “shine” when they want to accurately repeat the actions of the Light. This means that the Sefirot are dressed in the desire and a person begins to acquire the form of the Sefirot, the form of the spiritual body, and thus becomes similar to the Light.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/14/2011, Shamati #68

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