Question: The people who prepared the Novosibirsk Convention cannot get together in a good organized physical group. They communicate virtually, watch the lessons every day, each from his own home. This is how it has been for five to seven years. How can we help them unite in a group?

Answer: If they really want to move forward, they need serious obstacles. For this, they should get together. Only by overcoming obstacles, uniting above them, will they begin to move forward; otherwise, all their studies are just theoretical. If they have an opportunity to get together and they do not want this for their own reasons, then they impede themselves. They can be nice children, organize everything perfectly, but for each of them to stay in his place is impossible.

If they were separated by long distance, for example, hundreds of miles, then it is another matter. But they live in the same city and have to meet. They simply must!

Probably, they cherish their egoism and are afraid of losing it. The Creator pushes them on purpose, gives them such nice workouts as a convention.
[95435]
From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/8/12, Lesson 4

Related Material:
Don’t Hide Behind A Computer Screen
The Group: Virtual Or Physical?
To Be Born And Grow Up In The Group

Filed under: Conventions, Egoism, Group Work, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: What is a group as a spiritual unit, spiritual entity? How can I properly interact with the group so that we derive the maximum mutual benefit for spiritual growth?

Answer: A group, as a spiritual entity, is the common desire that seeks likeness with the Creator, the property of bestowal. If people who are in the group act contrary to their egoism, then above it, over their general contradictions, they build the property of love and bestowal that they direct at the Creator.

This is called a group. Constant work should be carried out inside it. If a person joins the group, becomes included into it, dissolves in it, he loses his “I,” and he wants to disappear in the group, to give himself fully to what takes place in it; this means that he is a member of the group.

Our “I,” originally created in us, exists only as a black dot, above which I have to accept all external desires as my own. This is called “love your neighbor.”

To love means to perceive all his desires and properties as my own. I restrict my own desires, do not feel them. I exist only in order to feel everything that exists in others as my own. In reality, all our common desires are my field, my Kli, vessel. I will feel the upper world in it; I want to bestow upon the Creator through it, and in it I will reveal Him. And my dot will remain a black dot. In this way I should perceive myself in relation to the group.
[95353]
From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/8/12, Lesson 4

Related Material:
Correct Intention
Know Yourself
A Particle In A Giant System

Filed under: Conventions, Group Work, My Similarity to the Creator, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: How can we build the correct intention with respect to the group? How is it expressed? How can one understand that he is in the correct intention?

Answer: The intention relative to the group should be very simple: I came to the group to get rid of my egoism, to rise above it, to adhere to the Creator, to reveal my next level, become a human being. This is how I should view the group and do everything that leads me to this goal.

We need to remember this and to adhere to this rule. Moreover, I do not look at the faces, characters, anything; I do not care; they can say whatever they want. First of all, I want to eliminate my “I,” I just want to go along with them. And then, we will move on.

I can actively engage in the work of the group above the fact that I have annulled myself only after I have succeeded in elevating them. Usually people start to enforce everything with their egoism, begin to change everything by force, as it is customary in our world. It cannot happen in the group.
[95350]
From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/8/12, Lesson 4

Related Material:
The Group As A Spiritual Entity
Know Yourself
A Particle In A Giant System

Filed under: Conventions, Egoism, Group Work, Prayer and Intention, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: Can the lower bestow upon the upper, a student upon a teacher? What stops a student from receiving bestowal from the teacher?

Answer: The student bestows upon the teacher by allowing the teacher to bestow upon him, to give to the lower. The lower bestows upon the upper by his prayer (MAN).

The upper wants to give to the lower. He doesn’t need the lower for any egoistic purposes. The lower can give the upper the chance to give to him. What can a baby give his parents except for the pleasure of taking care of him? After all, it is a pleasure for them.

It is up to the student if the teacher can bestow upon him. The ordinary interruptions are the distancing of the student from the teacher, his pride, his disrespect, and lack of connection. In such a case he cannot be considered a student. There are special rules that determine what it means to be a student of a Kabbalist, and they are explained in TES. The vessel must annul itself and open itself to the filling and agree to remain only in Light of Hassadim.

This is according to the three phases of growth of the lower level with regard to the upper level: Ibur (gestation), Yenika (suckling), and Mochin (mind). This is called being a student—a lower level with regard to an upper level from which it receives fulfillment.

This form hasn’t changed; there is a hierarchy that, once revealed, remains forever. The structure of the general soul doesn’t change, and so everything depends on the student’s efforts. The teacher has to be very patient because the students go through many states until after several years they begin to understand what they have reached.

The moment the student is ready to annul himself, he receives influence from the teacher. But first he has to annul himself before the group, and only then before the teacher. Otherwise he will not enter the spiritual work. One doesn’t work without the other.

He will not be able to receive what he needs only from the group, from the friends, if at the same time he isn’t adhered to the other side, to the right line, to the teacher. There has to be a balance here, the right approach to the middle line, which he determines with the help of the two sources he has—the teacher and the group.

Sometimes the most important thing for a student is the group and sometimes the most important thing for him is the teacher. It depends on a person’s character. But the perfect form of work involves the balance between the two.
[95359]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/12/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam 

Related Material:
“Red Light” And “White Light”
Every Lesson Is Like Bleaching The Soul
Group -> Person <- Teacher

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Q&A, Spiritual Teacher - No Comments →

Question: In what way is Hanukkah, which is related to the date of the Maccabee’s victory over the Greeks relevant today? What is its symbolic meaning?

Answer: This holiday symbolizes the fact that eventually unity wins. This is the reason that the Maccabees won, and we have to act in the same way.

The meaning of the holiday is very simple: If the people of Israel unite and draw the Light, they win. It isn’t by force. All the evil forces cannot be beaten but only by unity, although many are close to this approach. In essence, this is our message in mutual guarantee, but it leaves out one key factor. After all, our enemies are also united and even more so than we are.

In fact, Israel can win only if its unity draws the Light. Then through Israel it is passed on to the enemies and changes them from enemies to supporters. This is the real victory.

Thus the war takes place on a totally different dimension. We don’t operate external factors but rather nature’s internal forces and by that win the battle. Here we mustn’t forget that we are dealing with a force that holds all matter and suddenly begins to operate in an opposite way.

The force of receiving, dominance, and cruelty rules our world. In our world, the strong take over others and use them to their advantage in their understanding and feelings, according to their own concepts.

But there is a small, weak group, small and weak according to usual standards. No one takes this group into account, although it can be like a magnifying glass and pass the Light through it—the great force of bestowal. This force will illuminate not the group itself, but its enemies, and then they will calm down, and be corrected; for example, they will suddenly feel that they have to deal with something else in a totally different place.

The nations of the world think that Israel makes the world go round, and Israel really can do that—for the good of the world, of course. If it doesn’t do that, then it is bad for the world. So it turns out that the people of Israel always bring the world either good or bad. By that they have freewill: Like “switchmen,” they direct the Light of Ein Sof (Infinity) one way or another, determining by that its influence on the world and the form it will take.

The question is whether we can dress this Light with the right intention of in order to bestow, or whether we don’t have the right intention. It depends on us, on the Bnei Baruch organization (BB). The Light drips, and we are with it—but are we holding on to the right intention?

If we do, the Light that Reforms reaches everyone and the world is corrected. Then, of course, our enemies also disappear, or, in other words, the hostile desires and forces disappear. This happens if we are united, since then we give the Light the right attire of unity.

If we are separated we don’t give the Light that goes through us the right “wrapping” and it turns into darkness for the world, to its opposite from. It is bad both for the world and for us, since humanity turns back to us, feeling that we are the source of all its troubles.

This response will continue until we finally understand that there is no other way and that we have to correct ourselves to make ourselves and the whole world part of the Creator and to bring Him contentment.

Related Material:
The Spiritual Meaning of Hanukkah
The Nations of The World Are Telling The Jews: “Do Your Job!”
Correction From An Inner Need

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Holidays, Israel, Mutual Guarantee, My Similarity to the Creator, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: Why, according to the whole historical process, does the rescue come as a result of big pressure, at the most difficult moment, after a long time that we were preventing ourselves from hearing about it? For what purpose are all these difficulties?

Why is it required to reveal the Creator, the connection between us, in such torments and tension that we see ourselves at a dead end and only at the last moment, suddenly the answer is revealed? Why wouldn’t we all begin to occupy ourselves in the integral education, in the wisdom of Kabbalah, and walk comfortably toward the goal by having such a solution in hand?

Answer: You know yourself that our ego is working as “help against us.” And only under tremendous pressure do we agree to separate from it. And also this is not immediately, but only after many blows— the ten plagues of Egypt, in darkness, under terrible tension, and in haste—are we finally willing to escape from it. Otherwise, no.

And this is not because we are so weak, but because the ego is very strong. This ego helps us later to reveal the whole eternal spiritual world. Once we connect, we immediately begin to reveal and feel it. Right here in this life we reveal the upper world; about this it is said: “Your world you will see in your life.” I hope that we will reach it.

If we will now perceive all this pressure as force that is given to us precisely as help, then we will see that it works on our side. One needs only to receive it in understanding and we will succeed.
[95055]
From Weekly Torah Portion 12/4/12, The Zohar

Related Material:
We Need A New Point Of Unity
Salvation Comes In A Blink Of An Eye
The Eternal Engine

Filed under: Egoism, Q&A, Suffering, Unity, Zohar - 1 Comment →

Question: There is a rule: “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” and in it, love for oneself is not cancelled by love for one’s neighbor. Is it possible to love one’s neighbor without loving oneself?

Answer: Love for one’s neighbor is impossible without self-love! Therefore, egoism is not destroyed. I always have to check relative to myself: I love myself, and the neighbor—just a bit more.

Why more? Now you love yourself more than you love others, so, based on the rule “love as yourself,” you have to love others a little more than yourself. Moreover, you need to constantly watch, compare, and take an example from how you love yourself. Thus you begin to know yourself.
[95347]
From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/8/12, Lesson 4

Related Material:
Love Your Neighbor As Yourself
“Love Your Neighbor” Is the Condition Nature Has Set for Us
To Love “As Yourself” Is To Love More Than Yourself

Filed under: Conventions, Inner Work, Love, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: Why does Baal HaSulam say that a person is thrown from the friends to the teacher and back again like a “slingshot” and by that the right vessel for receiving the Light is built in him?

Answer: A person receives wholeness from the teacher and through the group he discovers his evil. Despite his reluctance, he is incorporated in the group and makes great efforts to become part of the environment and to connect with the friends.

Thanks to that, in response to all his efforts, he discovers aversion, hate, and anger. This is how his egoistic desire is revealed in him; it isn’t his friends that he sees, but himself in the friends, as if in a mirror.

When all these negative feelings are revealed, the question is to what extent he acknowledges that this evil is revealed in him and not in the friends. At the same time he comes to his teacher, to the lesson, and receives treatment from the teacher, a correction.

If he has the right connection with the Rav and with the study, he has to come out white. As all the evil that he felt towards the friends takes on an opposite form, and he understands that it is in his favor. Instead of cursing he now gives thanks for it. Instead of feeling the evil in the friends, he feels good; instead of feeling good and proud about himself, he now feels bad. This means that everything turns upside down.

The opposite definitions that he now understands and feels in his attributes compared to the friends is called “a slingshot,” reverse, a trigger.
[95282]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/12/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
Group -> Person <- Teacher
“You Are Carved… On My Heart, All Day And All Night!”
Humiliating Pride And High Self-Annulment

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Group Work, Q&A, Spiritual Teacher - No Comments →

Question: How does the system of: person – group – teacher work? What is the function of each component in this formula?

Answer: The role of the teacher is to correct the student, and the role of the environment is to evoke the egoistic desire in him, not for the corporeal filling but rather for the spiritual filling.

There are two systems: the system of the uncorrected desires, the left line and the system of corrections, the right line. (Although it is clear that everything is run from above and designated for correction).

The teacher is on a higher level since he passes the Light downward to the students and for him the good and the evil come from one source. With regard to the student, which means on the lower level, the good and the evil are perceived as coming from two different sources, a good one and an evil one.

The teacher’s goal is to pass the Light to the student by the help of the study and the Creator, so that it will correct him and the good and evil will become one whole for him. This means that on his current level, the student will reach a feeling that “There is none else besides Him, the good and the benevolent.” Thus he ends the current level and goes on to the next level, and so he rises time after time.

It turns out that all the components have to be divided into two parts: the right line and the left line. And who are you? You have to try and reach the middle line, the upper level, in which there is no good or evil and where there aren’t many factors, but rather, everything converges into one: the group, the study, and the teacher—everything belongs to the Creator, and there is none else besides Him.
[95279]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/12/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
To Feel The Desire Of The Teacher
There Is No Adhesion With The Creator Without Respect For The Teacher And The Group
Every Lesson Is Like Bleaching The Soul

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A, Spiritual Teacher - No Comments →

Question: How is it possible after the convention to continue feeling that I have no individual abilities, but only the abilities of the group?

Answer: Before you didn’t have any individual abilities either, and you were part of the group, but now it is clearer, and accordingly more is demanded of you. The more that is revealed to you, the more you are demanded to participate, mentally, emotionally, and actively in overcoming.

It is very clear that by very small efforts, we have already discovered that within our collective vessel an illumination is emerging. The problem is that we attained this by physical connection between us and not by spiritual connection. In the meantime it is a very big deficiency.

In addition, it happens thanks to the fact that I am incorporated in the group using the force to connect with them. This means that there is still al lot of work that has to be done on the part of our group in order to reach a true inner connection among the friends. Then the Light that is equal to this connection will arrive.

In the meantime it is lacking within the group and among the groups. We have to connect more strongly with one another. I think that this convention has shown everyone that we are closer to one another than we thought. All the groups felt close and people understood that we have no choice but either to advance toward an even greater connection or leave.

We will soon see how this happens: There will be people who will come gladly and there will be those who will leave cursing. This is how the clarification is done.

We now have to fulfill what we felt in the convention. In order to fulfill that, a person needs constant self-control with regard to his attitude towards the world that is managed by the Creator. Am I aware of the fact that I am in a world that is managed by the Creator? Do I perceive the world as a place where by focusing on the fact that everything is done by the Creator I will eventually find the Creator in this world?

World (Olam – also means concealment in Hebrew) is concealment on the one hand and the revelation of the Creator on the other hand. The world is concealed because I don’t reveal the Creator. But because I intend to reveal Him, to identify with Him, and to receive everything that happens as the absolute good and benevolent and there is none else besides Him, then by that I accept this concealment, and then the concealment of the world becomes a revelation.

This is all I have to say about this. Don’t expect anything beyond this and don’t think that as we advance I will have new words. But the same words will be clearer to you. If someone else begins to read, it would mean nothing to him, just like people who read the Torah and understand it literally. These are ordinary words, since in spirituality there are no words.
Besides, it is forbidden to reveal more than is allowed. We have to understand that the teacher is an educator who has to do his job.
[95274]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/11/12, “Questions and Answers Regarding Novosibirsk Convention”

Related Material:
After The Convention A New Day Begins
Close Your Eyes And Stay Connected!
Let The Inner Convention Begin!

Filed under: Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Mutual Guarantee, Perception, Q&A, Unity - No Comments →