Please know that if you go alone, you will never have the forces needed. The same path that is possible to pass within a year will take you fifteen years to pass, and, in the end, you won’t reach any result, except for recognizing that you need the group.

However, if I work correctly with the group, then always at the time of a descent, it will awaken me. And it is not necessarily through obvious physical methods, but it will come from above as an inner awakening after I have joined myself in connection with the group. At the time that I am able to, I constantly think about it: How can I attain connection where there is my exact place, within which I am included, like in a “puzzle?” I want to feel my place in this puzzle and constantly think about it, only about the connection. After all, this is the place with which I associate the future revelation of the Creator, which will connect us.

If I constantly invest my efforts in this, then it can’t be that I will fall and am left without any forces. My friends will help me.

Imagine that, like an element of a mechanism, I am a part that is included in a system. I constantly insert this force within this system, the desire to connect, by awakening the others. And, at a certain moment, I die; in this element, the ego suddenly grew, and it can no longer do anything, standing still like a car with a flat tire. And, then immediately, to the extent that I “inflated” the others, they now begin to work on me.

In our body are the same processes; all the time there are ascents and descents, contractions and expansions, absorption and emission of various substances in different systems. So the body constantly operates, and that is called being alive

To live means that there is a time to give and a time to receive. This is how each cell in the body operates, large or small. And, if I do not, then there won’t be any life. I can receive awakening from above, but only in order to awaken myself and return myself again to work with the environment. The environment is like a battery for my efforts, which then return to me.

First, I need to do everything in my power. I can’t say that now I am in a descent and wait until the group will give me strength. In any case, I need to invest efforts according to how much strength I have left, and then begin to receive forces from the friends. I just can’t fall into their arms in advance.

You will be convinced from your experience that it works specifically in this way, and huge accumulations of strength will be revealed to you. Take as much as you want. It’s like on a long run when your strength is gone, but you continue to run anyway, and then you pass the critical point when you get a second wind.
[89831]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/7/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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We have to examine which conditions and rules and which types of connection should be among us, so that we will generally feel the mutual connection as a spiritual system. In this system everyone nullifies himself and connects with others by incorporating in their desires and impressions, their thoughts and goals, as if they were his own.

Everyone changes and nullifies his desire; it becomes formless. “Personally, I don’t need anything. I want to receive your desires and to fulfill them for you.” This means that I am “dressed” in the form of bestowal like in a new outfit. My desire becomes raw material, a shapeless mass. It has power and potential, but now you are guiding me to where you want, to what is good for you.
This is a “servant of God;” a person that dedicates himself to the service of bestowal. This allows us to be mutually connected with one another in the spiritual network where everyone fulfills only the desire of others.

Then I discover that these are not strange desires at all. Thus I begin to exit myself, and I immediately feel that there is only one general collective mutual desire.

It turns out that the system is harmonious, and this special desire is not typical of the “leg” or the “arm,” or any part that I imagined, but of the whole. I discover that the system has a mind, an internal part. I discover it and receive instructions from it through the whole system and connect to it in a reverse connection.

This is the connection with the Creator, but it comes after I feel the general “body,” the general harmony of the mutual bestowal.
[89755]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/5/12, Writings of Rabash

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Only our persistence in feeling the necessity for connection can save us. Stop playing with other things hoping that something will change with time, enough of dealing with other things. All the related activities are necessary only in order to support the main thing: understanding the need for connection.

Here there must be an unceasing collective effort until we succeed. We mustn’t run away or divert from this goal in any other direction. Whatever we do is only meant to reinforce our efforts to connect. We should feel concern that goes from heart to heart, until we succeed. There are no concessions here and the conditions are known: constant fulfillment of the Reshimot (informational genes) according to the principle “I have labored and I have found.” If we can, we overcome, and if we can’t, we don’t. It must be a clear goal before our eyes and we must all mobilize for the mission.

There are new students who don’t understand yet and do not feel total despair; there are old students who have grown too weak and have found themselves caught up by routine. But on the whole, we have to strengthen one another. The prayer can only be for connection; otherwise, it isn’t heard. If we don’t yearn for connection, for mutual bestowal, to bestow upon the Creator, then everything else is all the “potion of death.” We must clarify this thoroughly.

The main thing is the general concern. Even if I don’t actually feel the concern in my heart, I must still show it to others. Even if I don’t feel enthusiastic about the goal of creation at the moment, I must still act before others. Otherwise I must not be part of the society.

It must be the main condition: A person is in the society in order to strengthen the hearts of the friends on the way to attaining the goal by increasing the importance and the greatness of the goal. If he doesn’t do that, there is no room for him here. It is better that a few people reach the goal, since otherwise what is the use of all the millions around us if they don’t attain anything and if the spiritual force doesn’t rule the corporeal level?

So the society should demand from everyone: You either keep your obligation in strengthening the friends as to the greatness of the goal, the greatness of the connection, or you leave. Just like that.

As for beginners, the mission should also be clarified to them to the extent that they can perceive it, since other than that there is nothing.

Many years go by before a person begins to hear to some extent and to perceive the message. But we have accumulated enough experience, powers, knowledge of the sources, and exertion in order to fulfill it. What is more, the external reality demands that we do it.
[89718]
From the Preparation for Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/5/12

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Question: What should we do so that the heart will decide to connect? We have decided to connect so many times, but we don’t know how to start?

Answer: We should build systems that will not let us escape. Imagine that we need to guard a very big herd in which there are many animals, cows, deer, bulls, sheep, etc. We have to know how to treat each type of animal: Some need watchdogs, and others need shepherds, and another type needs a fence so that they don’t run away.

We must provide each type of animal with the right kind of food: Some need grain, and others grass, and all need water. I have to take care of all these things. In the same manner, I also have to take care of the group and to provide it with everything that it needs so that we don’t escape but will successfully and securely achieve our goal.

We have to think about all that, and this is all our work. We have to attain the first ten Sefirot, which means the minimal connection among us. Even if it is egoistic and opposite from spirituality and holiness, it is already a connection. Now we are simply detached from one another, and no one wants to connect with others in any way. We are like cogwheels that do not connect by spinning independently.
[89712]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/5/12, Preface to The Book of Zohar

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Connecting with a friend does not mean following his mind. When I subdue myself and hear what he says, it isn’t in order to later do what he says. I have to subdue my ego, but it doesn’t mean that I have to accept his advice.

I subdue myself before the inner connection among us. It is a totally different thing. I hear what he says, and I have to accept it as something that comes from the greatest in our generation before whom I subdue myself, discovering his inner level there, where he is in his spiritual height. Ein Sof is part of each of us; I actually subdue myself before this spiritual level in my relations with the friend, but not with regards to his corporeal opinions.

This is a very important subtlety. We don’t understand that all the worlds are in the relations among us, including the actual world of Ein Sof.
[89708]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/5/12, Preface to The Book of Zohar

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Question: How do I manage my states? Do they develop automatically or can I evoke them?

Answer: I manage my states when I am with the friends sitting in a circle with them and discussing different problems and options regarding the connections between us: When does the ego help us and when does it distract us? How can we attract the attributes of bestowal and love, connection, mutual guarantee, and so on?

When we discuss these issues, I am involuntarily in different contrasting states, such as “I don’t want to listen to a friend, but I have to listen to him, “he is higher or lower than me,” “I agree with his answer or disagree,” and so on. Why do I agree with him? It may be because I simply like him, but someone else not, so I don’t want to listen to him and I didn’t even hear what he had to say.

So, it isn’t just the process, but the issue itself, the words, and the interactions, everywhere at every level, when I overcome the egoism and the altruism. Eventually there is a revelation, an intensive clarification of these two opposing attributes inside me.

What is more, when I am in a discussion with all the friends, I first intensify my attributes and, second, I expand myself by absorbing them. Thus, a person develops in many aspects by the integration of and communication between the two opposing forces.
[89285]
From “A Virtual Lesson on Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 9/23/12

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Question: Lately I have lost all interest in and desire for the spiritual. I have become distant from the group, but the group did not forget about me and continued to care for me with constant love. This is why, despite everything, I decided to come to the convention in Rome, and made enormous effort to do it. And now here, I feel shame before my friends who once again have taken me in their arms, and I have experienced the love of my friends with new strength over these two days. But what do I need to do to make sure I do not become distanced again after the congress? I am very afraid of it.

Answer: I’m sorry about all you had to experience. But there is no other way but accepting that everything comes from one source, and we need to be grateful for both bad things and good things. I am very grateful to your friends who worked so hard that they were able to bring you back. I hope that from this day forward, all of you will only see goodness and mercy, love and warmth, which await you.

But still, no matter what happens, you need to hold on to the group with all your strength because it is the life jacket thrown out into the sea for those who are drowning. We have nothing else to grab on to.

And believe me, you will still see the entire country hold on to your group as if it were a life jacket. So become stronger, help each other, and continue. I wish you success!
[89293]
From the 5^th meal at the Italian Convention  9/30/12

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I am very pleased that we have begun to understand the greatness of the altruistic force through the connection between us, because in general this is the only opportunity to master it. This happens when we get together in the group and begin to try in some way to recreate and cultivate the state of bestowal, love, and mutual connection between us. When we are in mutual guarantee, mutual union, then we gradually start feeling what this adhesion can give us and how unusual it is.

On the basis of my practice, I think that the most important thing is to feel something unearthly, special, what emerges in a person. Inside it, the feeling, the property that was not familiar to him before, begins to be formed. He knows that it can be only inside the connection with others.

Then this property can gradually vanish, disappear like in a fog, cool down, dissolve, but a person still retains the information record of this state, so-called Reshimo. And he will still strive to it, will know, understand, and remember it. However, this is not enough; we must stir this property constantly and nurture it, as any bodily organ grows, any property, if we take care of it all the time. If we stir it repeatedly, it shows its new properties, new connections; it is not the same as it used to be. When we make it appear from obscurity where it was lost, we discover its new dimensions.

That is why unexplored paths, degrees, and states are before us. And on this path, we will certainly see many victories, ascents, disappointments, and what seem like losses. From all this with our constant effort, with a certain number of workshops and conventions, we will reach a point when this force that will manifest itself in us becomes so clearly felt and attained by us, so much in our power that we will control it. We will begin to interact with it and feel it as two partners feel each other in the dance.

This mutual action between a person, the force of bestowal and the force of reception (the man is the middle line), is the state that I hope we will be able to reach by the next convention, and perhaps even earlier. It all depends on how intensively we will be able to develop in ourselves those states that we have experienced and did not forget. So, everything is before us.
[89232]
From a Virtual Lesson 9/23/12

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Baal HaSulam, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”: Indeed, know that for this reason, the Torah was not given to our holy fathers—Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—but was held until the exodus from Egypt, when they came out and became a whole nation of six hundred thousand men of twenty years of age or more. For then, each member of the nation was asked if he agreed to that exalted work. And once each and every one in the nation agreed to it in heart and soul, and said “We shall do and we shall hear,” it then became possible to keep the whole of the Torah, and that which was previously impossible became possible.

At first everyone participates individually in the group and not willingly but because he is compelled to do so. We see that we disrespect our obligations to our friends; we disrespect the option to be considerate of everyone and to follow the spiritual path. To what extent does a person understand that his advancement totally depends on his mutual cooperation and his connection with others, in rising above his ego, above his weakness and his laziness? Does he at least look for the powers of the general cooperation and the general doing?

If we keep these conditions, then out of a collection of just ordinary people we become a group. Then, like in the exile in Egypt, we experience different periods, good and bad, we work hard and we have to turn it into holy work for the Creator. Here everything depends upon how much people can identify the place in which they can fulfill the goal.

There can’t be an exodus from Egypt unless they find the deficiency within them which will enable them to unite more closely. This is because the exit from egoistic slavery is labor pains, when I simply have to reach connection, when I am better off dead than alive. Then I understand that I am buried in my desire, in my ego, like in a grave. From there I am born into the Light, but only if I connect with others. This is the only way the birth can take place. Then I reach the giving of the Torah, which means that I reach the instruction, the guide, the connection with others.

There can’t be any other kind of work and there can’t be an exodus from Egypt if I don’t cry out that I want to serve the Creator. It’s with this desire that Moses turns to Pharaoh: “I want to work for the Creator, to connect in mutual guarantee.” Therefore, I have to exit the ego, to rise above it, to escape from Pharaoh. It’s an obligation, since the next level is so desirable, so necessary, that I am like a developing embryo that can’t stay in its mother’s womb any more and must be born.

Baal HaSulam writes about it in the article “And This Is for Judah,” saying that the future redemption is already revealed in the previous level, in exile. The difference between exile (Galut  – גלות) and redemption (Geula – גאולה) is the letter “Aleph” (א), which symbolizes the Creator, the Champion of the world. The Creator can’t be revealed in exile—Galut since there can’t be a corrected vessel there. It’s because you are still in your ego, but when you rise above your ego, it’s called the exodus from Egypt, and then you acquire the first spiritual vessel and then you can reveal the Creator.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/24/12, “Matan Torah (Giving of the Torah)”

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It’s not enough to simply connect with our friends’ sparks. We also have to study; knowledge will shape us and teach us how to connect with the sparks. So far, we have no idea how to unite, since we are not familiar with the system of spirituality. So, we read about it, listen, and study. We learn that we have to connect and form a system that consists of 10 Sefirot, Partzufim, worlds, Surrounding Light and Direct Light. All these names describe the connection between us that we need to achieve.

The main thing is to tune ourselves to receive help from Above. It’s not enough just to think of connecting with our friends’ sparks; we need someone else who will tie us together. We have to appeal to the upper force so that It does this work for us. We bring our broken connection to the higher force and complain to It about our inability to unite. It’s similar to a crying baby who approaches his mother and father complaining that he cannot do something because it is broken and doesn’t work anymore.

The upper Light deliberately broke the bond between us so that we would demand it be restored. When one appeals to the upper force with this request together with his friends, it means that one is already inside the corrected system. It is called “Israel, Torah and the Creator are One.”

Israel stands for all of us, for those who are oriented “directly to the Creator” (Yashar – El.) The Torah is the Light that we search for in order to get glued back together. We study its actions with the books. The Creator is the upper force, a source of the Light that returns to the benevolence and assembles us back together. That explains why it is called the returning to the source of the good state that existed before the shattering occurred. This is how we attain correction.

We have to clarify numerous phases at this point. Although, we should understand that one is totally unable to do it on one’s own because he will always tend to work internally and presume that he has enough power and qualities to appeal to the Creator and scream to Him on his own.

But, I will never be able to address the Creator without presenting the broken vessel that consists of at least 10 friends who want to reconnect. I will be one of them. And if there are friends who understand that they need to connect in order to reveal the Creator and if they try to appeal to the Creator, for bestowal and love to reign between them, it happens.
[88770]
From a Talk at the Meal Commemorating Rabash, 9/20/12

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