Question: Small towns have a special demographic: teenagers who have dropped out of social life.

Answer: They need to be immediately recruited for training courses to become teachers and instructors of integral education and given a full stipend. Ultimately this will cost much less in the local budget than what they’re doing presently. The teenagers need to be turned into truly serious specialists.

Question: Senior citizens are another important and active part of the population. One thing to note is that 70-80% of seniors are women because men live shorter lives.

Answer: Female seniors are the most fruitful members of society. They are devoted helpers in every aspect and especially when it comes to children and grandchildren, that is what is most precious to them. They will gladly toil to change their lives even a little bit.

I don’t see the male retirees being quite as active or useful as women when it comes to being educators. Men are somewhat rigid, whereas women are flexible even into old age. Men over 50 are very difficult to work with, as they are unresponsive. In contrast, women don’t have these age-related restrictions.

Therefore, I think that this demographic of female seniors makes a fertile soil to work with city populations. They will do everything. They will change everything. You can lean on them with nothing to fear, for they are a veritable army.
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” #23, 3/3/12

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Question: Does a feeling of irritation and hatred towards each other appear during the workshops?

Answer: Not necessarily. We shouldn’t wait for it. But if it appears, it means that we can rise above it. But, in general, we can be in such a good field that it will not appear.

Question: Once, I came to the workshop downhearted and left it full of happiness. Now, I am always looking for this sadness before the workshop. Is it correct?

Answer: No! Why should I look for something, especially something bad? You shouldn’t! I rise from good to better.

Question: Is it desirable that there is no walking around during the workshop?

Answer: No! Only if a person has problems with the functions of the body, then there is nothing you can do; it’s above nature. There are no other excuses!

Naturally, all the phones must be turned off; everything is absolutely quiet: Now, we are working on the ascent to the spiritual world, to the next degree. It is possible that this will happen during one of the workshops, or between them; it doesn’t matter, but in general this action is the ascent to a spiritual degree.

Question: How should you respond if the group suggests that you should leave the workshop because they think that you are disturbing them?

Answer: If the group thinks so, a person must obey. Later, he may require an explanation, but at the moment he has to leave the room, and most importantly quickly, without arguments, to let others continue to unite.

Question: Sometimes pauses occur during the workshops.

Answer: They arise because you don’t want to empathize! You don’t include what the friend says into yourself. Then you would just get a complete picture.

The same is true in the classroom, unless it’s a lesson that is perceived solely by the mind.

Question: Does one need just to hold this center of the group within himself?

Answer: You do not need to hold this center. If you are always trying to be included in the others, you inevitably find yourself at the center.
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From the Virtual Lesson 5/20/12, “Fundamentals of Kabbalah”

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Question: Some friends cannot stand the intensity during the workshop because it is physically difficult for a person.

Answer: It’s not only physical but also mental stress because you have to hear, respond to, and evaluate everything. You are pulled into and held there, and it is a high-quality action.

Question: How important is it to stay and make this effort, rather than release tension by taking a smoke break?

Answer: No, not in any case. No smoke breaks! A person must overcome himself and not be worried about his heart or head. Nothing will happen to him. The tension is really strong, but it happens under the influence of the upper Light, so there can be no unpleasant side effects.
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From the Virtual Lesson 5/20/12, “Fundamentals of Kabbalah”

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Question: After several workshops a feeling emerges that everything has been said, and there is nothing more to talk about, and only the same words are repeated. Is this normal?

Answer: It’s not normal. We should try to see always entirely new feelings, a new meaning in the same words.

The fact is that the ten Sefirot are constantly repeated, but by changing the conditions, we experience completely new levels, that is, new fulfillment, experiences, events, and internal connections between all this. It cannot be the same even if I speak constantly about the same topic. It must be completely different because I am constantly changing. If it seems to me unchanging, the problem is in me. If a person doesn’t change, he should ask himself, what’s the matter?
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From the Virtual Lesson 5/20/12, “Fundamentals of Kabbalah”

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Question: How can I “clean” myself from all the worries in my private life and only focus on the internal work towards the center of the group?

Answer: This is a question of a person who separates his private life, meaning his job, home, and family, from the group, which means separating corporeality from spirituality.

On the whole, we are in our desire to receive in which we feel all of reality. This desire is divided into many kinds, into four phases, in which we feel all of reality divided into the levels of the inanimate, vegetative, animate, and speaking. We live only in the desire, and we feel whatever is evoked in it; “it looks like this is my life and my world.” We can’t feel anything but this desire, nor think or understand anything else. Everything takes place in it.

If I understand that and stabilize myself this way, my whole life becomes one endless workshop and not just the hour a week when I come to a special discussion. In the workshop, I make an effort to attain a truer reality with the help of the right environment in which I will feel the source and the root of reality, the upper force, the Creator.

Here everything depends on how strongly I can connect with the right environment. In the workshop it’s easier to do that because I see all the friends in front of me. But I can also imagine myself in this situation all the time. If I perform this work all week long, I will eventually feel that there is still a difference when we gather in order to connect. I will see that the connection that I felt all week long, which was created in the workshop, is different in quality, in the level of unity.

Therefore, I should constantly see myself inside the desire to receive, which depicts reality in the form of this world for me, and through this reality, I should look for its source that is attained through the center of the group.|
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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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Question: What exactly are we to speak about during a discussion in a circle?

Answer: First of all, it is best if the circles consist of ten people. Women separately and men separately, but everyone does the same kind of work.

A circle must have a person responsible for order. For example, 15 minutes are allotted to the common discussion of a certain question, but someone spends over 10 minutes speaking; this means that his time must be stopped. This is done by the person responsible for order who passes the right to speak to the next person in order. This is first.

Second. It is possible that someone suddenly deviates from the topic, but he thinks that he is right on the topic. The person responsible for order also must stop him.

The person responsible for order in a circle must be elected, a new person is appointed every time.

For this reason, every person absolutely must express his opinion during the 15 minutes allotted to the discussion of a certain topic (for example: “the greatness of the group,” “the greatness of a friend,” “the greatness of connection,” “the need for attaining unity”). Moreover, exchanges of opinion, like in table tennis, are also necessary; these exchanges of opinion must be as close to the topic as possible, as close as possible to the center of the group, that is, to unity. Everyone must think about how the word he is now saying will help the common unity.

The seminar begins with the common instructor—I, or one of the students, for example—leads a preliminary conversation.

It does not matter who exactly leads the conversation, because the greatness, the attainment, is born out of the common effort of everyone in the circle: Here no one is teaching from above downward. This is why the fact that at first I take upon myself to lead these events is purely figurative, only to properly focus everyone on the matter at hand, and then it could be somebody else.

In other words, at first there needs to be a preliminary conversation, and then the actual training.

It is best to begin the seminar with a constant, perhaps even a familiar melody, as an introduction to the same program.

It is best for people in the circle to sit very close together even touching one another. This affects them in such a way that they automatically come closer to each other, wish to feel their collectivity, even physically. They can hug, have their knees touch: Human communication leads to this.
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From the Virtual Lesson 5/20/12, “Fundamentals of Kabbalah”

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Question: What is the connection between the center of the group and dissemination for the entire world?

Answer: First of all, we need to strive toward the center of the group to realize the great rule of the Torah: Love thy neighbor. Otherwise, it will not be the center.

And through this central point, which determines the beginning and ends at the end of correction, through these definitions, I relate to all of reality and the entire world (the 99%). After all, I want to see all of humanity in this central point, and I surely will see it there!

To the extent that I correct myself in the center of the group, in relation to the rest of the world (toward the ninety-nine percent), with all of the positive and negative qualities that I discover in it, with all of the opinions and perceptions already formed inside of me, to that extent, I will see all of humanity in the center of the group, already corrected and ready for my realization. In this way, I will act from the internal part of the world outward.

By these means, I will establish spiritual dissemination. Then, I will see how effectively it helps the world, and how the world is moving forward and changing.

While the external form remains, in the same way, this world is obliged to exist until the very end of correction, until all of this imaginary reality disappears from our perception. That is why we need to apply effort in external dissemination as well.

However, then we will be able to define the right relationship toward the internal and external and distribute our strength. Our evaluations will change.

So, the center of the group is a point toward which we are aiming before everything else, as if we were setting out from all of the worlds of BYA into Malchut of the world of Atzilut, and then from Malchut of the world of Atzilut, wanting to join into ourselves all of the desires of all of reality and raise them ever higher; we discover ever higher qualities called Zeir Anpin, YESHSUT, Bina, and so on. With these new qualities and understanding, we correct and build the Shechina, the collection of all of the souls.

This is because, when addressing it with my uncorrected qualities, it is as if I am building it; I am joining it as a beneficial, active part. The Shechina is rejoicing in the fact that she no longer needs to separate her organ from herself, but can return it and connect it to herself.
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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: Do we need to specifically prepare people to keep order during the workshops?

Answer: Any friend who has already participated in seminars, feels and understands their essence and meaning can do this.

The group can select a topic for discussion ahead of time, and the person responsible for order can sit outside the group and observe order during the discussion.

The main thing is for us to reach a common impression at the end of the discussion, not common consent: We do not have to share an opinion. All of us, together with our opinions, want to reach unity above these opinions, which can be absolutely different; we might not even be able to understand one another, but each one of us assumes that specifically this will help us unite and that is it: This is enough.

We must never try to convince one another! We might be speaking about a certain problem, everyone will express his point of view, they will be completely different and disconnected, but at the end we want for our common “I” to get together, for us to achieve this.

Question: We have examined many nuances, but all this disappears during a seminar. Where can we read and see a list of these rules and questions before a seminar?

Answer: In your heart. This does not exist anywhere; you cannot list it. And if you begin to list it, another thousand questions will arise, and this will continue without end.

Questions must appear in the heart, and the answer must be received there without a discussion.
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From the Virtual Lesson 5/20/12, “Fundamentals of Kabbalah”

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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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Question: Does the center of the group change constantly up to the end of correction, or is it that, once we have discovered it, we continue to work with it as it is?

Answer: Nothing stays constant. You must catch it, and it is lost immediately. You have understood something and suddenly nothing is clear again. However, you are happy about this; only then can you discover new details.

One needs to constantly apply effort. A person begins to enjoy what he has attained, the pleasant feeling of confidence and fulfillment, and he does not want to lose it. However, this does not benefit development.

If you want to retain the pleasant moment, then you will turn into a pillar of salt like Lot’s wife. This should not be done as according to the spiritual laws, it is demanded of us to constantly add additional clarification and understanding.

That is why we constantly need to aim to strengthen the meaning of the center of the group, not to calm down once something has been attained. We should not aim to return to the past moment.

I don’t need to be recalling now how I once felt and understood. On the contrary, I need to erase all of the old impressions and aim for new ones!
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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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