Question: What characterizes patience, which is necessary in our work?

Answer: To show patience means to stubbornly go towards the goal. As it is said: “Do anything, but just don’t leave!”

It is told about how Rabbi Akiva was the only one to survive a sunken ship and did not drown in the turbulent sea. He grabbed onto a wooden plank and lowered his head before each oncoming wave, and in this way he reached land.

We need to do the same thing. Whatever happens, I continue my path. I may be suffering and worrying, possibly, I am not even able to do anything, but I continue to go to the lessons, to listen, and to participate in the work. I may not be burning and inspired now since times can be different, but I am doing everything that I am capable of. Most important is to be yearning forward. That is a very important quality.
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Question: The point of the convention is born in the first moment of the convention. But I know for myself that it is not always possible to immediately enter into it; one should definitely go through some intermediate states. How can we shorten this way to grasp this point to become a true source of importance for the friends?

Answer: I think it should already appear during the preparation for the first talk, but not when people sit and listen to my lecture. They must be included into each other before that.

If you are going to be included in the convention after half a day or a day, it doesn’t work. We must make every effort to prepare, so that when you arrive there, you are so to speak “hot,” and immediately join in the general flow, the general excitement; otherwise, we will lose time.

Don’t talk yourself into that, say, coming and getting in the mood in the evening, or maybe tomorrow. You will have no time to recover, and then it’s over. On the contrary, it is necessary to connect at once and stay at a pace that you are always experiencing more and more states.

So, I beg you, do not waste your time.

For what are we doing all this today? Just for you to be more and better prepared, to come to the convention and not to think: “I will tune in later, when I gradually learn everything.” We have no time for this! You have to arrive there fully prepared and become included immediately. I beg you.

The same goes for all of our friends who are connected with us virtually: don’t relax! If you sit in front of the screen, try to “enter” in it with your soul and don’t be distracted no matter what. You have to control yourself twice because there may be no one else next to you: You are alone.

So, prepare in advance everything you need: to drink, eat, and do not disconnect from the lectures and workshops, which are two and a half hours. Do not turn off! Just sit there and that’s all, as if you were sitting in the center of our lecture hall. I hope for your seriousness in understanding the state the world is in, all of us.

This is a very important event not only for us but for the whole world because it depends on how much we go the right way: by accelerating the process and easing it, or the slow and harsh way. Everything now depends on this turning point. This convention, I would say, is something historic.
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From a Virtual Lesson 8/12/12

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Shamati, Article 138, “About Fear that Sometimes Comes upon a Person”: …And if one sees that fear overcomes him, he should say that there is no such thing as chance, but God has given him an opportunity from Above, and he must contemplate and study the end to which one has been sent this fear. It appears that it is so that he will prevail and say, “There is none else besides Him.
But if after all that, the fear has not departed from him, one should take it as an example and say that one’s servitude of the Creator should be in the same measure of the fear, meaning that the fear of God, which is a merit, should be in the same manner of fear that he now has. That is, that the body is impressed by this superficial fear, and exactly in the same way that the body is impressed, the fear of God should be.

When fear comes upon a person, he should understand that it is sent from the Creator so that we will change the animal fear that is felt in our ego to the fear of God. In the fear we should look not at our desire to receive but at our desire to bestow.

A person’s role is to take this example from Above, although he cannot fulfill it by himself and it is later fulfilled by the Light that Reforms. He has to at least to cope with these clarifications. This is why he has to prepare the environment and himself, in order to be ready to receive the problems and the fears that will come.

It all begins from fear, since the desire to receive feels only pleasure or sufferings. The greatest sufferings for it are the fears: from the smallest fears to the greatest threat.

If the desire is opposite from the Light, the Light summons a feeling of darkness in it. Here we should understand that in answer to this egoistic anxiety that we feel now, we have to draw the upper force with the support of the environment, the society, and prayer. We have to summon the Light that Reforms so that it will turn our vessel of receiving into a vessel of bestowal.

Then we will still feel fear, but it will be fear from not knowing when we can bestow, connect, and resemble the Creator when we can adhere to Him, to give Him a chance to reveal Himself to the created beings. Thus we will turn the darkness into Light and the night into day.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/14/12

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Question: How can we keep the feeling of workshops during the breaks, meals, and so on, at the upcoming convention?

Answer: We must prepare such external conditions so that they always keep people in this state. A person comes to the convention in the morning and leaves in the evening. During this time, he must go through many spiritual states and, in the evening, leave not as he came in the morning. He goes to bed and literally turns off.

Tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, it is the same thing; that is, these are three days of very serious work. We must do everything to ensure that the entire convention is held at this pace and in such a sequence that people are constantly moving forward. Even the breaks and meals must influence him in this way, forcing, moving him forward.

A convention is a very serious event. Alcohol is absolutely prohibited. We must rise to a level where it will not be necessary. We have enough adrenaline at the workshops. You will feel that you are all together, in “one skin”; the Creator will clothe into you.

Question: How can I see the world as one creation? How can I see unity above the breaking?

Answer: It should be opened to you not mentally, not in the mind, but manifested in your feelings. The internal connections of the world will be revealed, and you will see this within yourself.

Question: How do I feel the common need, Hissaron?

Answer: This arises out of a total inclusion into each other because all of our left, meaning all kinds of egoistic feelings stem from the mutual inclusion.

Question: What Kli, vessel, would you like to see in front of you?

Answer: One ready to do anything for the sake of unity. Nothing else is needed! With this, we come into accord, in balance with the upper Light. It is manifested in us, and that’s all. The implementation really is not easy, but the principle is very simple: There is a force that will work in you if you give it this opportunity.
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From a Virtual Lesson 7/29/12

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Question: Could you give a specific example of a correct family relationship? I do not yet fully understand it.

Answer: For example, the wife thinks that her husband is not supporting her; she feels lonely. However, she needs to treat him and speak with him like she feels his support one hundred percent. Instead of becoming upset that he gives her no support at all, she thanks him for being so helpful and supportive, and how will the husband respond?

At first, he will be shocked because he thought that she was going to start fighting with him. He will think that she is being sarcastic, but this situation is not just turned upside down, here we have an opposite that comes from another opposite, and from another opposite. This is because she sees faults in you, then she applies them to herself, and tells you what she would have actually seen in you if her egoism was not getting in the way.

Question: I do not understand how I can say the opposite from what I feel!

Answer: Please understand that we do not see the world. We only see ourselves! Every person has a filter before their eyes that only allows me to see what is good and what is bad for me.

This is so that I could distance myself from the things that harm me and become closer to the things that are good for me. I see the world very selectively.

I do not know and am not familiar with the real world, which exists outside of me on the other side of my hands that I am using to cover my eyes. I do not understand it and do not know anything about it.

It presents itself to me the way my egoistic desire paints it, but when I begin to perceive this egoistic desire as an enemy and I wish to see the world as good, then I wish to remove these egoistic, distorting glasses, and to do this, I speak well about all the things I see as bad.

This does not mean that I am lying to you because I treat you as a mother treats her child, and I like all of your qualities. This is how I will see you once I remove the egoistic glasses because only a perfect world exists outside of me.

Question: But I am still wearing these distorting, criticizing glasses!

Answer: However, you wish to see beyond them. Rise above your knowledge. Your natural egoism is soldered in these lenses. This is why you only see faults in your partner when you look at her.

If these were regular glasses, you would simply take them off and throw them out, but these lenses are implanted in you, and this is why you must accept everything that is bad as good. Remember, you are looking through distorted glasses.

“Love covers all transgressions.” This means that there will be no crimes left, only love, instead of them. You love everything in your partner. You simply do not notice any faults in her because habit becomes second nature. Try as hard as you can until it becomes a habit!

Let us decide that, from this moment on, we will behave at home as if we were both perfect and there are no contradictions between us, like we really want to do as much good as we can for one another and be like one body, not physically, in bed, but emotionally, internally. You will see all this materialize after a multitude of these kinds of exercises.

However, naturally, here you cannot do it without social pressure from the environment. You never leave this never-ending seminar. You simply exist within it, and then you will suddenly see the nature inside and outside you begin to change. You will see the world to be different, as well as yourself and all your relationships. Everything will change. As it is written, “I saw an opposite world.”

This seems to be a psychological exercise, but there is a lot of depth to it. We need a collective force to influence us and help us begin these exercises. However, there is a very important condition here: The teacher in this group needs to come from the community of Bnei Baruch.
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From “A New Life” 7/12/12

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Humankind develops from small to large egoism. Sometime ago, a person naturally discovered that he needs a family; moreover, the bigger the family, the more secure he is. This way, he instinctively started to unite with others, as he came out of a barbarian state.

Families would grow and become tribes, and they expanded so much that people who used to be distant, became close. Villages and cities appeared, family ties gave way to more extended formations, a nation, living in their own country and connected by their belonging to their common destiny, a common mentality.

However, family ties also kept their power, remaining necessary for existence until recently. Only during the last decades, we have destroyed these boundaries, providing people with services, which allow him to no longer feel the need for a family. This led to the crisis in the family institution because marriage no longer promises the same benefits. At the same time, the feeling of belonging to a nation is very important for a person.

However, we continue to develop, and today, like it or not, a new feeling is growing inside us, which now encompasses the entire globe. This is because modern technologies and communications have made the world small and accessible. Today, it is charged with great interdependence, distances become smaller, systems become unified, and we are approaching the state of a single whole.

This way, if before the notion of a “family,” though weakened, still extended all the way to the borders of the country and was as wide as the nation itself, now it encompasses all of mankind. Migration is increasing, nations are mixing, borders are being erased; today, everything is moving in this direction.

What can we say about the people of Israel in this connection? Its foundation was laid by a group of Kabbalists, created by Abraham. These people were not connected in any way, except for a single thing: At a certain stage of their inner development, they felt that unity was the way to attain the Creator.

The other residents of Ancient Babylon also strived towards the Creator, but in another way, they were building the Tower of Babel egoistically, wishing to become like Him. These ambitions kept growing over the course of all of history: “We will control our own lives, we will play with trade and production, we will conquer the cosmos, we, we, we…”

However, even back then, certain Babylonians already wanted to attain the essence of life, and not just to keep pleasing themselves in every possible way. After all, the purpose of life is the attaining of its essence. And this is why, when the crisis arose and the Tower of Babel was destroyed, these people heard Abraham and understood that there is a method that allows penetrating the essence and revealing the upper force.

And today we are in a similar situation. Individuals, among the modern “Babylonians” of the world, gather into the group of Bnei Baruch in order to reveal the Creator. They are called the “people of Israel.”

In addition, there are the “corporeal” people of Israel, the descendants of those who once came out of Babylon with Abraham in the first global crisis. The Reshimot, the “footprints” of the path they have traveled, remained in them, and we must take care of them. This is because every one of them has “marks” from the previous ascent and the breaking that followed.

This is the reason people hate them: On one hand, by breaking, they have passed sparks of bestowal to the entire world, and on the other hand, everyone feels that they are unique and that a certain darkness comes from them—unique as a consequence of the sparks, and darkness as a consequence of the current situation.

We will still reveal a lot along the way, but one way or another, today the time has come to turn to the nation, the descendants of the students of Abraham, the descendants of the Ancient Babylon. As Baal HaSulam writes in his newspaper The Nation, they themselves must awaken a national connection in their environment. And this connection can only be based on a single thing: the principle of loving one’s neighbor as themselves. The Jewish people were initially founded this way, and could they structure themselves any other way today? All the attempts only demonstrate that without their foundation, this nation is like a sack of nuts, ready to fall apart and spread around the world at the first opportunity.

And this is why Baal haSulam writes: “This is why I stated that we need to arrange for ourselves a special education through widespread circulation, instill in each of us a sense of national love, both from one person to another, and from the individuals to the whole, and rediscover the national love that was instilled within us since the time we were on our land, a nation among the nations.”

If the nation fails to acquire their foundation, it will not manage to stay within the borders of the country and lay its roots there. This is why the entire world does not agree with the return of the Jews to their land; it does not yet feel like they have the consciousness of a nation, which must live in the land of Israel. Jews are able to live anywhere, and many do not yet feel like they pertain to and are interconnected with their nation. This vice is felt in them and the entire world, which reacts accordingly.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/13/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: How can it be explained that the crisis is a consequence of our corrupt relations in the group?

Answer: There are two systems: the outer and the inner one. For simplicity we can define the outer system as the “Creator” and the inner, meaning us, as “creation.” The Creator is acting upon us and we are developing under the pressure of various factors. However, afterwards comes the time when we have to react with responses showing the Creator that we want to advance.

And here is where the problem occurs. Today we have to demonstrate our maturity and desire to join the Creator. Our “childhood” has ended. In reality the childhood ended back in the 15th century, at the time of Ari. Since then we are required to react to the influencing factors as adults, in a special way. We have to start growing independently until the inner sphere expands in its scale and properties to the size of the outer sphere. However, we are behind the schedule.

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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/6/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Question: How should we imagine this single field that exists outside of us? What do people need to do when training in groups of integral learning?

Answer: Let us imagine that we are connecting to the desire of another person. In other words, we do a regular psychological practicum. I try to determine the desires, intentions, and thoughts of a person.

What are the stages that people and groups experience while they gradually enter these states? Primarily, people need to feel each other, like during regular psychological training. How do I feel the person with whom I am speaking? How do I connect to him? How do I determine what his desire is, to become involved with him, and reach a good attitude toward him, to learn to love him and communicate with him?

In other words, his desires, which are referred to as his heart, and his mind that leads these desires, must become critical to me, the way a mother feels regarding her infant when she desires to fully serve him with both her desires and her mind. The heart and the mind is what a person has. This way, it is as if I were taking a step toward all the participants of the group, radiating kindness at each one of them, and everyone does this in relation to everyone else.

This common attitude in the group, which we are constantly developing, must create such a level of reciprocity in it that begins to create a certain field between us. This field of mutually good attitude must acquire a certain foundation.

Why do we do this? We are not just doing this to have a good relationship between us. We now want to lift them to the next level so that we could exist in this mutual field of kindness, a field of mutual attitude toward one another and so that we would maintain it.

This common, good field between us—let us refer to it by its mutual quality of bestowal—needs to be created through our mutual guarantee when I think about you and you think about me. We must develop ourselves constantly this way through a good attitude. We must perceive this mutual warmth from everyone toward everyone in order to create something mutual, even independent from us, like a mutual child of ours.

We can refer to this common image of us, already independent from us, one we already are beginning to work for, a group. Life in this image, this group, must be the main thing for us. This group is what we actually assume a society to be.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 02/29/12

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From Letters of Rabash (No.16): It is known that it is impossible to see a small object and it is easier to see a large object. Hence, when a person commits a few lies, he cannot see the truth—that he is walking on a false path. Rather, he says that he is walking on the path of truth. But there is no greater lie than that. And the reason is that he does not have enough lies to see his true state.

But when a person has acquired many lies, the lies grow in him to the extent that he can see them if he wishes. Thus, now that he sees the lies—that he is walking on a false path—he sees his true state. In other words, he sees the truth in his soul and how to turn to the right path.

It follows that this point, which is a point of truth—that he is treading a false path—is the medium between truth and falsehood. This is the bridge that connects truth and falsehood. This point is also the end of the lie and from here on begins the path of truth.

We constantly strive for goodness, truth, and bestowal. However, when our efforts reach a certain degree, we feel exactly the opposite. We reveal that we exist in the lie: We don’t bestow and don’t wish for bestowal, but we care only about ourselves.

However, the realization of this deceptive state means the revelation of the truth! Although it’s not pleasant and a person doesn’t know what to do, if despite everything he once again strives for bestowal considering it to be good, if he is thirsty for the truth since truth is bestowal, then once again he finds himself even in greater deception. But this is truth! It’s true that he exists in the lie. So it continues until the lie becomes so huge that it becomes unbearable to stay in it. Then he screams in such a way that salvation comes to him.

There is the state by itself and there is a realization of one’s state. The closer our states come to be true states the more polarized they become.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/7/12

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From Rabash’s Letter No. 13: One must always make efforts that the descent won’t become an obstacle for a long time and last for too long, but to immediately strengthen, trust in the Creator, and pray from the depth of his heart. That is, if you fell to the bottom of a deep well, pray to the Creator. 

But from where should we take the strength during the descent so as to ask for help from the Creator? It’s here that we need the support of the society since man has no strength of his own. Otherwise, it wasn’t a descent if he had the strength to pray. On the contrary, it was the best situation for him.

A descent is not when a person feels that he has entered an unpleasant state, into darkness, but when he has separated from the Creator. Any state where he has separated from the Creator is bad. If he feels a connection with the Creator, it’s good without any connection to the situation that he encountered, whether it was pleasant or not.

However, if he feels separated from the Creator, how can he turn to Him? Thus he needs the influence from the side, from the environment that will support him. And if a person has disconnected from the Creator, doesn’t feel the importance of spirituality, is ready to degrade it, just waste his time, if he doesn’t have the strength to rise above the descent to prayer, but rather he agrees to remain “dead,” then at some level he needs to use the desires of the friends.

It’s similar to the father of a family who is tired, not healthy, but he has no other choice: He must get up and go to work to make a living for his children. It’s the same way for a person who uses the desires of the group and awakens to prayer.

And if there is no such connection to the group and he’s not able to receive desires from it, then he agrees with the situation of being “dead” and continues to lie down as he is doing. Everything depends on the connection to the group, as it is written: “It isn’t the prisoner who releases himself from prison.” One needs others to save him.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/8/12

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