Question: What is the elevator by which we rise to the center of the group?

Answer: I rise by absorbing the desires and aspirations of all the friends. I subdue myself and raise the others by seeing them as more important than me, and thanks to that, I receive power from them.

This power pushes me and enables me to adhere to the center of the group correctly. First, it helps me imagine this center, because I am always confused and keep losing this concept. I have to hold on to it like to a gun sight and constantly correct myself.

We started from this central point because we will deal with it all the time. We grow only on its basis, starting from this point and rising higher and higher. The growth doesn’t simply represent a physical height, but an increasingly growing concentration of the inner connection.

Therefore, in the future workshops, we have to clarify what a desire, a feeling, and an attainment are, how they are connected and to what extent, so that we can attain our root in them, the Creator.

This is practical work which we have to perform all our life and not only in the workshops. I am constantly in a workshop with myself: before the lesson, after the lesson, 24 hours a day, in order to connect “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator.” I have to listen to the friends, not just when they say certain words, and hear what their hearts say. I receive all these impressions through the center of the group, through everyone.

The Creator treats us as a corrected system, but I can’t see it this way. Instead I judge it according to my deficiencies. If I correct my egoistic defect just a little, I will join the corrected concept of the group, as the Creator sees it. In order to do that there is no need to wait for the specific time of the workshop: Our whole life is a workshop called internal work, the work of the Creator!
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/24/12, ”Talk About the Workshop”

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Question: What do we give birth to together in the common center of the group?

Answer: Every time in the center of the group, we give birth to the force of connection, unity, guarantee, bestowal, and love above our egoism, on its foundation, but rising above it. And so, we create the condition for the revelation of the upper Light, a place for the revelation of the Creator. It is called Shechina, because Shochen, the Creator, ascends the throne in it.

The center of the group, from the perspective of desires, is a sensation of the extent to which we want to connect all these desires together. Man sees that the whole world depends on him, and on the other hand, he sees the extent to which he depends on the whole world. It is a twofold feeling. One moment, I feel myself standing in front of a perfect system; the next moment, I see that the system is all broken because of lack of my participation in it.

We always reveal two polar opposite qualities. But by reconciling them by compensating with the upper Light, we reach the middle line. This middle line includes in itself a multitude of components; it is not necessarily a direct path but something in the middle between the right line and the left line. It is not simply their averaging-out but their compensation of each other to 100%. A 100% thief and a 100% altruist-philanthropist connect in the middle point and use both qualities in all their force, not by half.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/22/12, “Talk About the Workshop”

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Question: What is the center of the group?

Answer: The center of the group is the center of our reality, its utmost spiritual point. Reality doesn’t exist on its own, but exists in regard to the person who attains it. It is only possible to attain reality in the center of the group where I annul my ego and connect with the others equally so that it is stabilized inside me.

At the same time, I change the relationship between us on purpose, sometimes I subdue myself before the friends by seeing them as the greatest in the generation, and other times I rise above them in order to bestow something from myself. Eventually, by looking at the group once from above and once from below, I find an equal attitude towards it. This equality doesn’t exist at first; it is a result of my exertion.

On the one hand, I yearn as much as I can to be above the friends in order to help them, but on the other hand, I place myself below them in order to live and to be the one who receives through them. By these two poles, I suddenly discover what it means to be equal, although I didn’t aim towards this before and didn’t see this point. I see myself in Ein Sof (Infinity) higher than everyone else (+∞), and at the same time in Ein Sof lower than the friends (–∞); suddenly I find the center of the group where everyone is equal and discover that it actually exists. My corporeal life is left behind and only the devotion remains, the mutual guarantee, adhesion with everyone. I feel that I increasingly summon the Reforming Light, the Surrounding Light, which fills the whole “space” of my attributes. By discovering more powers, more support, more care from the outside, I feel that I am being stabilized, and that is the center of the group.

In the center of the group, I really discover the group, the friends, and no matter what they discover, in my reality everything is completely accurate. This is because the world of Ein Sof already exists, and the descent into this world is only meant to build the steps of the ladder of the spiritual revelation, the recognition, the understanding, and the feeling in us. When these steps appear in a person and he begins to climb them, he doesn’t depend on anyone: Everyone is in Gmar Tikkun (the end of correction). I am in front of the place where the Light of Ein Sof exists and everything depends on me, everything and all of reality are in me, and there I discover the truth. But this truth depends on my own investment, on my loyalty to the group, to the teacher, and to the sources, and I need to reveal it in practice.

There is nothing but the center of the group. I discover that it must become the center of the whole world, the place where all the souls assemble, all the corruptions and all the corrections. This is Malchut of Ein Sof with everything it is going to collect and include in it. In other words, when a person devotes himself to Malchut of Ein Sof, Divinity, by wanting to be an inseparable part of it, he becomes Malchut of Ein Sof himself, and by that connects it with the first nine Sefirot, meaning with all the worlds until Ein Sof, and so we advance.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/22/12, “Talk About the Workshop”

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The center of the group is the point in which we become free from all the fragments of the breaking and want to concentrate only on our sparks uniting them together. And the more we seek to unite these sparks, the higher we rise on the spiritual ladder.

Due to these efforts, we reveal a new depth of desire in us, and a greater Light is revealed in the unity of sparks. The connection of sparks is the “Reshimo de Hitlabshut,” and the depth of desire, above which we want to connect, is the “Reshimo de Aviut,” and thus we begin to connect in our first common spiritual Partzuf in which we will feel one soul.

The first time we will feel ourselves in the integral reality where we are all connected to each other, and inside it we will feel spiritual life—one for all. As it’s said: “There is none else besides the Creator,” one for everyone: one thought, one light, a unified system. We will feel ourselves living inside one upper force.

And then, we will begin to recognize it more and more, distinguish more features in it, different attitudes towards us relative to the size of Partzuf. But the very first point from which we have to begin is the point of our unity, called the center of the group. It consists of two elements: The first one is overcoming of our egoism, the Reshimo de Aviut, and the second one is our desire to unite through our sparks, which determines the Reshimo de Hitlabshut.

If I install them correctly relative to each other, it’s called faith above reason. It all comes down to one reality, to a single state. Faith is the connecting sparks, and knowledge is the force of the egoistic desire, above which we want to build our connection.

It doesn’t matter if we fail to reach the desired and connect in the center of the group. The main thing is how much effort we have put into it. The extent of efforts determines the successful state.

We will never achieve success directly through our actions, but only will attract the Light to ourselves, so that the Creator finishes this work for us! After all, “a prisoner cannot free himself from the jail;” everything happens due to the help from Above, through the prayer and the answer to it.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/24/12, “Talk About the Workshop”

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Man feels the desires, which arise in him, and based only on them he perceives reality, feels it and lives in it. The perception of the world depends on the informational data (Reshimot) revealed in a person, and that is why people don’t understand each other. Indeed, each person sees, feels, perceives, and interprets what’s going on according to his own needs.

Besides this, there are no two similar moments since new desires emerge in us all the time and in accordance with them so do thoughts. That is, the perception of reality changes constantly: A person never remains that same person. From this, one needs to understand that we have no possibility to judge ourselves in our own states, or even more so to judge others.

This is because each person is controlled by that sprout of desire that awakens in him at that moment. The only decision is to learn how to aim towards commonness and unity, above all of these desires. And if all of us are mutually connecting into each other, then we can reach the “common denominator,” which is called the center of the group, unity, the point of connection, Malchut, the collection of all of the souls, longing for the Creator.

It is impossible to judge particular qualities and perceptions of each person at a given moment since this is predetermined from Above. There are people who come to study because they want to receive knowledge and automatically memorize what is written. There are those who are searching for new perceptions and possibilities to discover the upper Light, angels, and spirits.

There are people who by their nature are closer to this method and instinctively long towards unity, while others, having perfectly studied all of the articles about the group, nevertheless, cannot understand that it relates to them and that they need to realize this on themselves. Alternatively, they agree to realize it, but purely externally, like religious rites, instead of investing their heart into this.

All people are different, and based on this, we cannot judge a person. His behavior is derived from the root of his soul and there are many roads which lead to the Creator. That is why only longing is needed for each person to be under the maximum influence of the correct environment, which will help him move on his own path at his own pace, and what will happen, will happen.

We need to be more patient and tolerant of each other regarding the things that have to do with spiritual development. For here a person possesses the freedom of choice only in joining the correct environment. And this depends on the kind of Reshimot that will be revealed in them and which kind of Light that will be influencing him. And the pace and order in moving forward in joining the group are very different from person to person.

There are people who grasp these principles very quickly and are ready for unity. However, this may be because they have a weak desire, which does not cover up the value of unity from them. While in others there may be a very large and rigid egoistic desire, and that is why it is so difficult for them to accept that the whole spiritual goal is revealed inside unity with others.

They are not able to attach importance to commonality and that is why they move forward in another way, the larger part of it in darkness, in concealment, with much hardship. However, at a later time, suddenly, a leap forward happens.
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From the preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/23/12

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By our efforts to be included in the center of the group, we will learn what mutual guarantee is. This isn’t a theoretical concept and not some static state; it is a method, a plan, of the connection among us. It absolutely determines how we “stick” to one another, like cogwheels.

But we must constantly remain both close and separate from one another because it is this state that enables us to keep the uniqueness of everyone and to find what everyone’s part is in the general life. Everyone adds and enriches the others by wanting to adhere to everyone, despite the feeling of separation.

It is like a living organism in which every organ keeps its uniqueness and doesn’t annul itself among the other organs, forgetting the special job entrusted to it. On the contrary, it performs its job faithfully by using all its special attributes and discernments and by them expressing its uniqueness to others.

One is green, another is yellow, and a third one is blue; everyone keeps his color, but we all contribute our colors into one whole wonderful picture. Therefore mutual guarantee and the concept of connection itself are revealed only in the center, where we learn to combine the two ends—personal freedom and our collective dependence.

We begin to respect our separation and understand why the Creator created us with an evil inclination. We see how He helps us by standing in our way to connect. The ego is no less important than the force of connection, standing directly in front of it equally. Only by the gap between the two—on the one hand, the feeling of my oppositeness and on the other hand the equality—do I acquire an understanding, recognition and mind.

I remain separate and still adhere to the center. Thanks to that, all the infinite space between the separation and the adhesion, the whole distance between the point of this world and the world of Ein Sof, becomes the place for the revelation of the essence of the Creator. Otherwise, I would never be able to attain Him. I would remain as one point that was lost and melted into the Light.

Therefore our main constant work is to clarify the center of the group, in order to find our place and to discover this concept more clearly until we reach Gmar Tikkun (the end of correction). On the way we attain the worlds, Partzufim, and the upper Sefirot because they all symbolize our relationship.

Everything the wisdom of Kabbalah speaks about, the whole path, starting from the point of unity that exists thanks to the upper force until the point of unity that was created by our efforts, is the revelation of different ways of connection among us, called the worlds, Partzufim and Sefirot.

But when we clarify the system of connections among us, we discover that it actually determines the conditions for resembling the upper Light. So our connection is increasingly more adapted to the upper Light and accordingly the Light is revealed in this connection as the force of vitality, the force of attainment and understanding. This feeling of life grows stronger until all the connections among us are corrected and then the Light, the force of life, is revealed in its full measure.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/22/12, “Talk About the Workshop”

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 141: “Now you can understand the meaning of the words, “Forsake Me and keep My law.” They interpreted, “I wish that they had left Me and kept My Torah—the Light in it reforms them.”

There is a link between you and the Creator, the Light, which is your corrupt desire to receive. If you correct it, you will feel the same result called Light or Creator meaning “Come and see” (Boreh in Hebrew) in the same material. The Creator is revealed in your corrected desire according to its correction.

On the whole the method by which you gradually correct your desire in order to feel, understand, and reveal the Creator is called the “Torah.” With its help you evoke a special force, the force of bestowal, that is external to you and which corrects your desire. To the extent that you ask for it, this force changes the desire dressed in it and you feel the Light, the Creator, your sublime state.

This is the only way you can advance. If you don’t ask for the correction and turn to the “Creator” that you have invented, your work will be futile, since it doesn’t match reality.

Question: What is meant by “keep my law”?

Answer: It means that all your actions should be aimed only at the correction of the corrupt vessel according to the principle: “I have created the evil inclination, I have created the Torah as a spice for it.”

If you work correctly on the correction of the desire, it begins to take on the form of the Creator. Then you begin to understand, to acknowledge, and to adhere to Him. You have “material” that has taken on a new form, a form of bestowal and love. Thus, through the matter of the desire you reach adhesion with the form of the Creator.

Question: If we are speaking about having to find the point in the center of the group, what does that have to do with “keep my law”?

Answer: It is there, in the center of the group, that you correct your evil inclination. It is there and only there that you discover the Creator, your advanced spiritual states. There is no other place where the evil “matter” of the desire can be revealed except for the center of the group that should be revealed as a mountain of hate, as “Mt. Sinai.”

So by committing to mutual guarantee, to the alliance, and to mutual help, we begin to discover the Reforming Light. This is also called the “receiving of the Torah”: We receive it if we feel that we cannot correct our connection, but we don’t try to run away from the problem. Then we receive the Torah and correct the separation—and then the Creator is revealed.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Today, gradually, a deeper and stricter interconnection between countries, nations, and people is being revealed. Even individually, we are connected through chains with several links. However, there is a certain problem: We are not yet capable of properly realizing this connection.

The modern crisis is expanding and encompasses the world. It will not end even though many are promising that soon things will begin to improve.

Problems will not end until we reach balance. After all, the cause of the crisis is imbalance, in other words, the lack of connection between us.

Here is where we discover the law of mutual guarantee. The Torah explains to us that in the end a person will love his neighbor as himself.

“Love” is proper systematic unity when every person works for the benefit of everyone, and there is absolute harmony between us. In the end, once we reach the final correction, all of us, once again, will become parts of a single soul, like organs of the body that operate in absolutely different ways, but exist in unified harmony, and this is why the body lives.

Every organ performs its own work, its own function, but within the framework of a common program that encompasses and obligates everyone to work together. To the contrary, when there is imbalance between parts of the body, illnesses appear.

We must treat our correction according to the same principle. Today, I exist in absolute, total egoism. I want everything to “spin” on my command, carry out my wishes, and think like me. We all begin our journey in this state.

In the first stage of working with myself, I must come to the degree of Hafetz Hessed. I do not get in the way of others. Like a cogwheel, I freely run on my axis, according to the desires of my neighbors. Do what you want with me. I am ready to “spin” at your request, as if I had no desires of my own, as if it were not me, but some supporting force intended for you.

We are speaking of a very high degree. After all, I must work with my egoism so that it will not get in my way of serving others.

To do this, I must know the desires of others and never get in the way of their realization, being absolutely neutral. We are referring to an enormous correction, during the course of which I set up screens of the zero, first, and second degrees over my desire.

Then, I rise to the next degree. I direct my desires, abilities, qualities, and the entire potential of my strength and energy, everything, toward the benefit of my neighbors. Now, my egoism is not just neutralized, I am not just freely running on an axis, but I am connected to my own engine that works for their benefit. This is the degree of love. I give you everything for the good of it.

This path stretches from our world to the world of Infinity (∞) through 125 degrees. Part of them I realize on the degree of Hafetz Hessed, being neutral, and the other part I realize by actively putting my efforts into benefiting my neighbors.

During the first stage, I correct 248 desires and during the second stage, I correct 365. Overall, the correction of 613 desires is called observing the commandments. In this way, the common desire is divided according to my inner structure.

All this is to achieve complete and absolute mutual guarantee, a state where I will interact with everyone in harmony, just like any other person.

Hence, it is clear the kind of correction to which mankind must come: Everyone will perceive and include within them the entire reality to the point of fully identifying with it. This is why Kabbalah is being revealed now, because if we do not know how to realize this, then our path will be very difficult and painful; indeed, it would truly be the “path of suffering.”

However, if we try to act in the group, our path will not be easy, but it will be good (the red arrow on the graph). We get together, feel each other, evoke the Light, and it works on us, influences us, and awakens us. By mutually feeling each other, we allow the light to do its work.

This is the essence of the method. You neither know nor understand anything, you are not capable of anything, but you want to “swallow” all the pleasure, and you only need to learn to evoke the Light. If you learn, you will achieve success so easily and beautifully, together with everyone in joy.
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From the New Jersey One Convention 5/12/12, Lesson 3

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The greatness of Kabbalah is that it gives us the method that enables us to evoke spiritual energy, which corrects our nature and miraculously unites us. We have nothing to worry about; we only gradually need to establish a connection in the group and maintain a fraction of unity and mutual guarantee in mutual actions. This is sufficient to evoke the Reforming Light.

On one hand, there is an enormous journey before us, severe and difficult changes which require immense human effort. But on the other hand, there are no actions that we need to do on our own, the only thing we need to do is evoke the Light, which will do the work.

Many people try to correct themselves on their own, and they assume that this is possible. However, this will never happen; they will become disappointed, stop studying, and leave the group. This is because their efforts are not directed towards the Light, they want to do everything on their own instead of asking like a baby sitting on his mother’s lap asks.

I need to feel that I am in the Creator’s arms, feel that I am dependent on Him. And then, once I understand that any action begins with a request directed towards Him, I will stand next to Him, holding His hand, like a child who does not yet let go of the adult. I will pull Him after me to correct my faults. Once I discover uncorrected thoughts and desires in me, I will consciously and deliberately direct Him towards specific faults that require correcting.

So we grow by bringing out the things that are not corrected between us that are set up by the breaking and asking the Creator or the Light to correct them. Initially, before we know how to talk to Him, we simply point to the problem: “Correct!” Then we will explain to Him what we want just as parents demand for the child to tell about his “misfortune” as if we did not understand what he needs. Here there is a need for communication, reaction, explanation, and the child’s participation, more and more of it. He realizes part of the action, and the adult realizes the other part.

In this way we study the Creator’s “profession,” we put ourselves in His place, until we correct the entire system and acquire His status.

So, make a note in your heart: We do not perform any actions. Regardless of whether we feel bad or good, whether we see any faults, whether we want to correct something, first of all, we need to illuminate the damage as much as possible and then understand that only the Light will correct it. All the actions and connections in the group, the misunderstandings, fights, and other things are evoked by the Creator so we would invite Him to reveal Himself between us. It is written: “The One who establishes peace in His heights will establish peace between us.” The only thing we must do is raise MAN, a prayer, an appeal for correction. I “pray,” which means that I judge myself, become a judge to myself, and then I evoke the force of correction.

This is the way to act, by strengthening the connection between us. Groups must follow this principle and be like organs of a single body caring for each other. After all, everyone who falls also drags down the others. Sometimes events in a group are not caused by the strengthening of egoism before an ascent to the next degree, but by a descent of another group. After all, when a certain part of the body becomes sick, the sickness also transfers to the others.

At first, the right kind of state needs to be established in the groups, and then among the groups. We need to take care of each other, we need to unite and be concerned for our common spiritual health, then over just a few months we will reveal the spiritual world, and in a few years we will complete the correction.

We have not yet begun this work; we don’t yet act consciously and correctly either in groups or in their interconnection. These things come out gradually, we need to be conscious of them and understand them, and for this we need an inner demand. Nothing will come on its own without your demanding it.

So, we need to clarify this rule of mutual guarantee through mutual unity. And we only unite through a common prayer, when we together understand that only the upper Light will establish peace between us.
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From the One Convention in New Jersey 5/12/12, Lesson 3

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Question: How can I advance toward bestowal if my aspiration is egoistic, for my own pleasure, stemming from this world? After all, I can’t do it any other way.

Answer: Don’t worry about that, for you have all that you need for spiritual advancement: a group in which to actualize your desire for the spiritual, where the Light (Creator) is revealed. What else could you possibly need? You have a system that helps you grow, like a caring family!

You receive support from our great world group, from lots of friends. Besides, the whole world in general supports you by revealing its worthlessness with each passing day. These conditions are so favorable that we really have nothing to complain about. It’s even a bit upsetting. Are we really so powerless that we must be clearly shown the breaking of the egoistic world to convince us that there is no other path but this? This speaks to our complete feebleness and inability to resist our desire to enjoy; that’s how small, destitute and hollow we really are.

In the times of Baal HaSulam, the world surged, chasing after pleasures and wealth, and aspiring to develop science and new technologies. But today the world feels only disappointment, as if we are being deliberately supported in our path.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/12, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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