Question: Can we cross the Machsom during the forthcoming convention?

Answer: It is what we all expect and desire to do together! The “Machsom” is the barrier between this world and the spiritual one, that is, the replacement of the egoistic intention in man with the intention to bestow. The gap between them, the border line, the impenetrable divider, is regarded as the “Machsom” (a barrier, a roadway bar).

We all live in a unique time. Until our generation, everybody passed this barrier, the “Machsom,” individually, accumulating one’s internal efforts until a sufficient measure was collected, the “cup overflowed,” and a new state suddenly became revealed for a person.

Today we exist in a global world unfolding before us more and more. And our Kabbalistic group is not just a few people, as it used to be in the distant past when only ten Kabbalists would gather together; now, we have millions of friends around the world.

Therefore, I think we live in a new epoch when crossing the Machsom becomes as it is described in the Torah: “by the entire nation,” or en masse. I expect that revelation will occur to the whole world group or at least to some part of it that remains in constant connection with us in studies and work. That is, it will not be just a few individuals selected from the crowd, but all of us together.

After all, the process of correction has reached such advanced stages that Kabbalah has come out of concealment and become open to all. It must bring transformation not just to some small isolated group as it used to be time ago, but to a large-scale world group like ours.
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From the Lesson on Inner Preparation for the WE! Convention 3/10/2011

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Humanity’s evolution demonstrates that development is a gradual and multifaceted process. It follows a specific program and direction where each element joins the general process, is “deposited” in the collective account, and thereby changes gradually accumulate.

Our internal transformation takes place in a similar manner. And even though we yearn to complete it as quickly as possible, it still takes time and requires multiple actions: We move one step ahead and one step backward, undergo ascents and descents. But transformation doesn’t occur in an instant; it is an entire process of accumulated changes where each “penny” is added into one account. And that is why it takes years.

The most effective remedy for correction is work aimed at unification. Therefore, Kabbalists place an immediate condition on a person whom the upper force brings to the group: He has to decide that the most important job is to connect with the group and unite with the others, while the studies are only the means for our unification.

In other words, it is totally contrary to what we think when we enter the group. We initially think that the group is just a place where we can study, as at a university, in order to gain knowledge. But it is the other way around, and years go by before a person starts to gradually understand that the key is not to receive knowledge, but to change one’s inner properties. By studying with the group, he receives a special, reforming force and experiences its influence specifically in his relations with the group.

Authentic results of advancement are evaluated by how much closer to or further away from the group a person feels, to what degree he needs, is able to bond with, and what value he assigns to it. Everything is measured solely relative to the group because in the end, it is they whom he must unify with in order to experience the spiritual world within their correct connection, by uniting as one man with one heart.

Around him, there aren’t just fellow students; they become parts of his soul. In fact, there is no soul within man, and scientists are wasting their time seeking it somewhere inside the body. The human soul resides in all the others. To the extent that one is able to step out of oneself and unite with the friends surrounding him, to this extent all of this “external” desire becomes his soul.

This is why we place so much importance on our conventions and similar activities, when a great number of people from around the world get together and a powerful force of oneness emerges. During each hour of the convention, we are in fact performing corrections—specifically in our mutual unification.

So, we should value such gatherings as the most important means of advancement, among all others. Nothing is more effective in terms of bringing each of us and all of us together closer to transformation and revelation of the upper world than the convention.

Even during the convention, not everything occurs at once, but “penny by penny, it is accumulated into a big sum.” It is necessary to undergo several such meetings, until we uncover the true connection between us and the upper Light becomes revealed in our unification, which is regarded as the revelation of the Creator to the created beings.

Hence, before physically going to such gathering, a person needs to prepare himself or herself mentally. One needs to attune himself so as to be ready to enter this place: get familiarized with all upcoming activities, study materials, songs, themes for discussion, and to generally learn about the convention as much as possible. Later on, it will be easier for us to focus on our internal experiences and not get distracted, not waste emotional and mental forces on the external, technical details.

So, we should get familiarized with all the materials and the entire schedule in advance and come there with a single desire: “I wish to unite with the others with all my heart and soul because the spiritual world will be revealed only in the connection between us, and not in each of us individually. I want this empty cosmos between us to be filled with warm and kind attitude toward each other since it is precisely the place where the upper force, the Creator, is revealed to the created being!”
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From the Lesson on Inner Preparation for the WE! Convention 3/10/2011

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Our entire work is in revealing an inner ability to perceive the true reality where we exist. Reality is permanent and eternal, and the only thing we lack are the senses to recognize, feel, imagine, and reveal it.

But to do this, one needs to possess the proper desires, the spiritual vessels (Kelim), he himself has prepared within. And the preparation happens in two stages: The appeal for the correction of desire, the prayer (MAN), comes first, followed by the reception of Light from Above (MAD), the upper force that comes and corrects us.

We need to sense within both the prayer (MAN) and the response to it (MAD) in all their actions because they specifically build the organs of perception within us that will enable us to reveal the Upper Light, the Creator. This is why it is written: “It is impossible to attain anything without the force of a prayer.” This is because we need to consciously go through this process, with our own desire preceding it.

But the question is where do we get the proper desire for the revelation of the Upper Light, the Creator, an opposite quality that we are absolutely not prepared for? How do we ask for and want something like this?

We already seem to want spiritual development and to search for a way to advance, but in most cases, we discover ourselves to be in absolute darkness and fog, as if we have waken early in the morning and were unable to understand what is happening to us: Where do we come from, what is our purpose, and what we are to think and want? I open the book or listen to the lesson, and nothing responds within. How am I to prepare and direct myself in the right way, at what expense? After all, a prayer must be suffered, it must be my true desire, coming from the very depth of my heart.

And here we need to understand that our entire work consists of preparing the conditions for a fast emergence of Reshimot (informational genes). To do this, one needs to try to create proper conditions for him: organize the study, participate in dissemination, have a connection with the group, receive the influence from the environment. This is because only a strong influence of the environment will help accelerate the emergence of Reshimot from concealment, from the breaking.

When we join an environment like this, we attract the general Light through it, and it begins to influence us, like the ground influences the grain in it. And when this grain feels the ground’s influence on it, it begins to awaken to life.

Our grain is already planted in the ground and all the necessary Reshimot, their entire chain, are implanted in us. Our objective is only to awaken this ground around us so it will start influencing us. The only thing expected of us is to properly and intensely operate, taking advantage of all the opportunities.

It turns out that my prayer is not directed straight at the Creator; it is as if there is no one to pray to since I don’t know who He is. A prayer begins with properly placing oneself under the influence of the given conditions. And once I am in this environment, I, together with everyone else and my aspiration for spiritual development (my Reshimo), turn to the force that influences the “grain” from the “ground,” meaning my Reshimo through the environment.

This is the force that I want to awaken, and my proper prayer is directed towards it. And remember that the Upper Light, the environment, and the Creator are in an immutable state and at rest. A person activates all these means and uses his desire to launch this entire system so it will start working with him. Otherwise, it will remain in a frozen state of anticipation.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/9/2011, What is Prayer?

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Question: When the authors of The Book of Zohar Rabbi Shimon and his disciples studied together in the cave and later on when there were small Kabbalistic groups, they were very well aware that one depends on the other in thoughts, desires, and intentions. They were the only ones in the world. But today we study along with hundreds of people whom we see on the computer screens and thousands of others whom we don’t know at all….

Answer: I perceive the entire world as parts of my soul. Obviously, I don’t see the world this way, but I should visualize it so and treat it accordingly. And despite the fact that the world is full of rivals, foes, and what have you, all of it is my internal properties. If they were reformed, I would see a perfect world before me, the world of Infinity.

Hence, I have to treat everything around me as sent to me to correct my perception of reality and finally experience myself in the perfect desire filled with the infinite Light. To do so, I am provided with the environment, a relatively small group. And although it may contain a few million folks from around the world, I still must strive to feel all of them since they are my desires, the parts of my soul, which wake up to spiritually.

I can collect them, unite them within into a single force, and with their help, reform the other parts of my soul. After all, the whole world is my single soul. This is the way I should view reality.

Therefore,  Rabbi Shimon’s disciples, students of the Ari, and we perceive reality in a relatively similar way. The world is still the same, as are the attitude and the method. There are differences in terms of technology, a more developed connection between us, and in the global approach to the primary sources and the awakening of the world. But personal work and the attitude remain the same.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/8/2011, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar”

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The task of the created being is to move toward new, unexpected, and unknown states by arranging for itself all the necessary conditions to attract the upper force which can transform it. Hence, these actions are regarded as the “miraculous remedy” (Segula).

The acts that the created being must carry out are clearly defined: It has to rouse its own desire, cultivate it, enter the group, and “purchase the friends for himself” by starting to bestow to and lower himself before the group. One needs to get inspired by their exalting the spiritual goal, “make a teacher for himself” to learn from him with the friends, and unify into one integral desire, one vessel (“Kli”), in order to correct the breaking.

The breaking is the place within which we reveal our correction: our reformed state and the upper Light that fills our restored collective vessel. That is, we are dealing with the actions that can be accurately described and practically applied while still remaining in one’s egoistic nature, in a still uncorrected state. This stage exists at each step of the ascent, even at the spiritual degrees.

As to the acts of the upper one, it’s the upper Light (the Light of AB-SAG or the Surrounding Light) which expands to us in the manner we can’t comprehend and affects us without our feeling or being aware of it. We only feel the effects of its work.

This is why there is a gap between the creature’s actions and the Creator’s work in response to the former if they are arranged correctly. That is, there is no cause-and-effect chain on the part of the created being, and we neither understand how the breakthrough occurs nor can foretell it. Hence, this entire work is regarded as the “miraculous remedy.”

But it is all due to the fact that the created being is preparing to receive a new nature that it presently lacks. And hence, we cannot see or feel the forthcoming transformations. That is why this is described as a miracle. However, when a person receives these inner transformations from Above, the entire chain of events he went through becomes clear to him, and now he says about the past: “I labored and I found!”

A find is exactly what Segula, a miraculous force, implicates. We must constantly strive to do whatever we can, as it is written: “Do all that you are able to do” and you will find! This is precisely what determines the gap between my present and future states. I am completely in charge of my current state: I am aware of it, understand it, and organize everything in it: “I do everything I can.” But then I “find” a completely new state that comes as a miracle. After all, I receive a totally new nature that I didn’t expect or predict in advance.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/8/2011 on The Importance of the Study

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After all of his searches, a person reaches a state where he asks for just one thing: the ability to make the right decision. And that means he has reached the right prayer.

The most important thing that we will discover by studying the unification of the forces of reception and bestowal is how the Creator makes decisions while being above them, what He bases His decisions on. We will attain Him by His actions. But by researching everything that happens inside of us under His influence, through this we want to attain His mind, His plan, intentions, and thoughts. This is our entire work.

And to do this all that is necessary is prayer. With our own forces we cannot attain His mind and head, the place where decisions are made and from which all actions come. That is because we are also His actions.

And since a spiritual action is always done “for the sake of bestowal,” we cannot understand how the upper mind could have made that decision. This always happens as a “finding” or miracle, as it is written: “I labored and found”! It is impossible to understand the Creator’s mind directly by observing the combination of two forces: reception and bestowal. This is where the difference lies between the Creator Himself, His decision, and all the actions that follow from His decision.

Therefore, a person who reaches prayer asks for the ability to understand precisely this: the plan and thought of the Creator, who makes the decisions. Similarly, Moses was told, “You will see me from behind, but you will not see My face.” This prayer emerges continuously.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/10/11 on Prayer

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Question: Is a Kabbalist able to measure precisely the “miraculous force” of the upper Light like in a scientific experiment, or is it an axiom for him, like it is an axiom for us?

Answer: No, we never know how we rise to the next degree. It is like in the example of Rabbi Shimon who fell so low right before attaining the highest degree, the final correction, that he became a regular person, just Shimon from the market.

When it comes to the next degree, we always operate through faith above reason, and we never know what will happen there. Since I already have experience, I can say that greater bestowal and greater love and unity await me there, but because I do not yet actually feel it, I have no ability to predict anything with even a 1% accuracy.

It is always something absolutely unexpected and new, a full “upgrade,” a complete change of all my components, improvement of the entire ten Sefirot. Usually, it is felt as a very strong renewal which gives such an overpowering impression that everything turns upside down in comparison to what it was before.

The entire perception of reality, sensations, and understanding change. This happens on every degree, regardless of where the person is. It is a new creature every time.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/8/2011 on The Importance of the Study

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Writings of Rabash, Why does it say that “The Creator heals broken hearts”? It is because the most important thing for a person is the heart because it is the vessel for the Upper Light. But if the vessel is broken, then everything filling it spills to the outside.

Therefore, if the heart is broken, meaning, if the egoistic desire rules over the heart, then the Light cannot enter it. Everything a person receives egoistically goes to the impure forces (Klipot). This is called “a broken heart.”

Therefore, a person asks the Creator to help and cure his broken heart because nothing spiritual can enter it and only the Creator can save him. That is why it is written, “The Creator is close to those whose heart is broken.”

The Creator created creation perfect. But then, in order to give creation the ability to understand, feel, reveal, and value this perfect state, He had to take it through states that are opposite to perfection in every form. Then creation will prepare, acquiring the force, sensations, and ability to reveal the perfection that was created in it.

States that are opposite to perfection are called “breaking.” They exist only in relation to creation, inside its sensation and understanding. That is to say, a person reveals that his heart is broken—that all of his desires are broken and that he is ruled by egoism. And just like in a broken vessel, all of the fulfillment he is given spills to the outside and goes to the egoistic desires.

A person feels that he passionately desires bestowal, but is unable to do it because his entire heart is broken. He suddenly reveals that all of his thoughts and desires, his entire aspiration to bestowal is actually aimed at the total opposite: at egoistic reception.

That is to say, he is torn apart in two directions. The first is his passionate desire to the Creator, which seems to come from the bottom of his heart. But he reveals that in actuality, from the bottom of his heart he wants the opposite.

Then, as a result of these two opposite directions that become revealed inside him, a person feels that his heart is broken. That is why he asks the Creator to cure his heart so his intentions would be aimed at the Creator, at bestowal, at the neighbor—only in one direction, without returning back to himself.

Then it is considered a true prayer that is accepted from above, as it is written, “The Creator is close to those whose heart is broken.”

This discernment is the only thing we need.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/9/11 on Prayer

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Question: Do Kabbalah conventions serve as a final result of our practical work? What can you say about the upcoming convention in North America?

Answer: My attitude to such gatherings is very positive, and I think they provide an opportunity for great advancement. I see that with every convention, I get better and better at giving simpler explanations which are easier for people to digest. They start to understand me better, and we become closer to one another.

Every such meeting is a leap up. One visit to a Kabbalah convention is worth a month of daily studies. It gives a person internal and external impressions and many positive results. Once a year, we organize a congress in North America, so try not to let this opportunity pass by.

If you do have the opportunity, but it appears to you like there isn’t enough time or finances, this is an obstacle that was placed intentionally before you. You should honestly examine yourself, being aware that you stand before a profound decision. A person who has such an opportunity once a year and doesn’t come will lose a great deal since he loses the bond with this path.

Surely, there may be objective reasons which prevent a person from coming, such as being incarcerated in prison. However, if one is able to, but it is difficult for him, that is not an excuse. It is a test from Above, and he should leap over the obstacle placed in his way.

Many groups and individuals will gather. It is a very different kind of power, and we connect to the whole world from there. I will do my best to pass an internal charge to the people who will be so close in front of me at that moment. People keep feeling it later, after the event, unlike those who could come and did not.

It probably doesn’t matter that much how one studies day by day, whether in the virtual group or a physical one. It depends on a person and the relationships in the group. However, neither a physical nor virtual group can replace a collective gathering such as a convention where hundreds or thousands of people get together and unify.

There are those who left a group for different reasons, but a convention is something else, and everyone should go there without making any calculations regarding attitudes within the group or what have you. He just comes in order to unify with the world Kli (vessel) and ascend the new spiritual rung thereby.

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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/4/2011, Writings of Rabash

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