Question: In the group, we need interaction, contact. That is the only way I can reveal love and hate for my friends. When we work together on dissemination, I receive a real inner response. But in all other regards, we just sit together at lessons or meals, sing and dance together. I don’t find any interaction there….

Answer: Still, try doing this together with the group more and more. In reality, this is the work: to sit together with friends, to eat with them, to dance and sing with them. This will cause greater repulsion to be revealed inside of you. Overcome yourself and try to submerge deeper into the group—and you will discover your weakness.

This is already the expression of the truth. The more you try to take control of yourself, the more negativity you discover toward the friends. This is the entire essence and nothing more is necessary.

The sons of Israel received the method of correction only when a strong egoistic desire ripened in them. This was no longer a clan or a family, but a great number of people who felt that they didn’t belong to one another. That is how a nation emerges: I am part of a group, I was brought to it, and I participate in the life of the friends, who are connected by a common goal. But to be perfectly honest, I don’t harbor any warm feelings for them.

And now I must form the deepest connection that can possibly exist in reality—the same as the connection with the Creator. Can you imagine: to cleave to the friends like to the Creator, without any excuses, and to feel them closer than myself. Is this possible? Yes. You make efforts, and in response, Light comes from above and corrects you.

In mutual actions, everything that’s important is inside. You can take physical measures only if you can vest the intention into them. Otherwise, you shouldn’t. We need actions that will become an expression of our interconnection. This includes conventions and dissemination work. But in reality, if a person is really dear to me, then I invite him to a coffee shop or to my house to socialize with him in a friendly setting. I try to be as close as possible to him.

The gist of the matter is not for every person to prepare for the convention in his own niche, hoping that these external efforts will unite us. Rather, we must feel a much greater proximity, which is what we were slightly able to achieve at the convention in the Arava dessert. After the December convention, we will continue acting in this direction to come even closer to one another.
[61440]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/22/11, “Mutual Guarantee”

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Question (from the Italian group): We want to pass joy onto our friends. Do you feel it?

Answer: It’s not just joy because joy can be frivolous and carefree.

I feel a long lasting joy that is based on facts, a solid matter, a strong group, on the current condition of the world. My joy is the joy of a person who stands on very solid ground. He knows that his joy is constructive, that it opens a new path for humanity. Surely, everything is done by the upper force, but we are involved in the process. We participate in it, and that is why I feel great joy.
[61328]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/21/2011, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Question: What should I do when I feel elevated and awakened during the reading of The Book of Zohar? How can one request correction in this state?

Answer: During the reading of The Book of Zohar and any other authentic source (the articles, letters, and The Study of The Ten Sefirot), I first of all need to build the correct picture of where I am. The picture of the reality I exist in arises in my senses, in my desires. It is the Light that forms me so that I feel and think that this is reality: me and my world. This way I have a connection with the Light, with the upper force, that wants to teach me to identify exactly where I am. This is because from the beginning, I don’t know or see anything. I am like a baby that has just been born.

Therefore, I need to first of all design this picture correctly. There is the desire and the Light operates in it, which wants to awaken the desire within and to become revealed in it according to the law of equivalence of form. The Light is within the desire, not outside of it. In its relation to this desire, it is called the surrounding, inner, external, distant, circle, line, and so forth. These are the forms of the Light that are revealed in relation to the desire. After all, we are talking about everything from the side of the desire.

If I understand that the entire world, all of reality, all the worlds, all the Light, is in me, then I now need to rearrange myself correctly. That is, I need to clarify how and in which way do I act in order to arrive at the maximum understanding and consciousness possible in my present state, and each time to discover more.

Thus, when I read the various authentic sources, I want to perceive the picture of reality and discover it in its most true, correct, and powerful form. And it’s not important which sources to read and in which styles. If these are the books that awaken the forces of my soul from the side of the desire and also from the side of its fulfillment, then it doesn’t matter. It can be The Study of the Ten Sefirot, The Zohar, the letters, or the articles. The essence is to awaken my development.

And then I understand the importance of my involvement in the Torah: the Light in it reforms, that is, it brings me closer to the revelation of the real picture of reality, where I reach adhesion with the Creator—a state that is concealed from me.

Thus, we first of all design the picture: There’s me, and everything is concealed within me. I must awaken the forces of my soul and in them discover the real reality in which the Creator and I merge into one.

After I have molded myself in this form, I work on the next step: How do I awaken myself through the studies? And then everything that I read speaks to me about my advanced states. They can be distant from or close to me, it doesn’t matter. What is important is that with the help of the story that I read, I try to identify these forces within me, these forms.

And I don’t forget that it talks only about my desires, about my soul’s inner forces: reception and bestowal. It isn’t important if they are called strange names or names that are familiar with my present reality. I constantly think: How do I discover all these forces as components of my connection with the Creator?
[60899]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/16/2011, The Zohar

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Question: We have pledged to take care of one another in order to uphold the standard we achieved in the Arava and to keep moving further. But what should a person do if he suddenly discovers that he has “fallen out of the loop”? Should he feel that he is drilling a hole in the common boat?

Answer: Of course. And this should be a source of great distress for him. First of all, it’s not simple to reach the sensation of unity, but he should at least regret the fact that he is separated from it. Secondly, let him feel bad from knowing that all the friends are already there. Thirdly, his absence harms others, and this entire harm is recorded in his account.

This way, he misses out on much more than his personal concern because his part is idle in every one of the friends and does not complete each one of them. It turns out that his harm is multiplied by the number of members in the group.

Until now we talked about the egoistic calculation, but now let’s look at the problem from the other side. A person does not support his friends with mutual guarantee, does not become similar to the Creator, and does not attain bestowal to Him by working in the group. This spiritual damage is not as obvious, but we have to remember about it as well.

Question: Can we say that by doing so a person shifts not only the whole group, but also the whole world to evil?

Answer: If you have received the opportunity to enter mutual guarantee with your friends, then by participating in the common work, obviously you shift the world to goodness. After all, every person is part of the common network and we are its central part. Therefore, by strengthening the group, I strengthen the whole world in its spiritual ascent. And the opposite is also true.
[61337]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/21/11, “Mutual Guarantee”

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Question: Very often on the lectures you mention that Bnei Baruch is the most powerful group in the world now. My question is: What does this mean, “the most powerful group”? Can a student choose a group? And if one can, then how to do that?

Answer: In their impact on the world, the world Bnei Baruch group is a powerful educational organization, both in terms of the amount of its members and its affect on human development.

Question: I have done some research, so would you be so kind as to answer the following: The main authors of Kabbalah books in English are: 1. Eliphas Levi, 2. MacGregor Mathers, 3. H.P. Blavatsky, and 4. A.E. Waite. These are inherently men of questionable backgrounds. How can I trust this material?

Second, I see there has never been any copy of The Zohar found earlier than the Middle Ages. Why is this?

Answer: These authors are not Kabbalists, that is, they have not reached the revelation of the Creator, and they describe their own visions. The Zohar was discovered by the masses in the Middle Ages because previously it was handed down only from Kabbalist to Kabbalist. The Zohar was revealed because the widow of the Kabbalist Moshe de Leon, due to lack of means, began to sell his books, including The Zohar. Baal HaSulam writes about this in “Introduction to The Book of Zohar.”
[61256]

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Question: How can we bring our common prayer into the study?

Answer: Everything that we study is revealed in the connection between us. We reveal the picture of our connection, the one soul.

The soul is the connection between all of the parts, which we can only imagine. The soul is everything that was created, all of creation together, the whole of reality, including our world. Even though our world is “imaginary,” it is also part of the same unified soul.

There is nothing except this one soul, which is the vessel that the Creator, the Light, created. But we can imagine this soul and discover its inner power only by connecting all of the parts and turning it into a living organism.

The Light is the life animating force. To feel life, we must connect all the internal parts into one body, putting each part in its place: the brain, the heart, the liver, the kidneys, the legs, the arms, and so on. If a person is able to perceive all of them as one body, even in the simplest form where most of the organs still do not function, but all of it connects properly, then the spiritual picture on the first degree is revealed to him.

We cannot discover half or a quarter of the soul. In the spiritual world this does not exist. There is no “partial” in spirituality, but only a whole structure of ten complete Sefirot, not nine and not eleven. So I must reveal the full picture.

In this complete picture I reveal every part of reality that I see before me. I see the place of all nations and the entire universe, all the first ten Sefirot, what belongs where, and what force operates everything. I see all this within myself. I discover myself and nothing besides that.

The wisdom of Kabbalah is the study, the discovery of oneself. In this way, I reveal reality. All of creation is me.

Through the study, we need to accept this picture and imagine it correctly. Then it will become clear to us that Kabbalists write about what’s going on inside them. After all, a person is the whole world. Everything you see now is portrayed from within, and it is only an optical illusion that it exists outside.
[60923]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/16/2011, TES

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Question: How can we explain to the friends that it is impossible to attain correction by oneself and that we need a group?

Answer: This is what our sources say. I only have a shattered vessel, so what should I do with it? I have to absorb my friends’ desires in order to draw the Light that Reforms.

Together with the friends we raise a common prayer, and as a result we receive the force of correction. I will not be able to receive this force if I am alone. At least ten people are required in order to attain it. Only then will we begin to connect to each other and to build the common vessel between us.

It seems that we are together now, but actually it isn’t so. So how can we unite? We activate the force of the mutual prayer for that. No one operates on his own. The common desire to correct ourselves connects us, and in it we want to reveal the special force that will dwell between us, to reveal the Light, the Creator. When He is revealed, we each will disappear as an isolated entity, and one desire filled with one Light will arise.

Can I reveal the force of bestowal by myself? What or to whom will I be able to bestow? I must simply have someone else there too. My point in the heart (•) is my first urge for correction, in other words, for connecting with someone. This means that I have to absorb his desire. Then I have two desires: a desire to draw away from egoism and a desire to draw closer to bestowal.

So I have to receive my friend’s spiritual desire and to attach it to mine. Without this I will not really want to bestow. This is the only way I can raise MAN, a request for correction.

“The minimal multitude is two,” but actually, two is not enough. The more friends there are around me, the more chances I will have to be impressed, to attach their powers to me, and to demand correction. By that, I demand namely the connection with them. I supply the “territory” in which the connection will be realized, my wishes about what needs to take place here, and our common force. In short, I have to prepare the most possibly correct “mold.” It can be done only together. All our work takes place in the group.

Besides, women also support this group, and human society surrounds it on the outside. These factors also have either a positive or negative effect in pushing us towards connection.

Question: What does one feel when the Light fills our desire?

Answer: One of the points is me. All of us together is we. The yellow part in the drawing symbolizes our connection, and the red color symbolizes the upper force, the Creator. We have to unite Israel, the Torah, and the Creator into one, and this has to be revealed in our feeling. The Creator is the upper force, the source. The Torah is unity, the vessel. And we are the parts moving toward unity.

Let’s hope we will succeed in this.
[60797]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/15/2011, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Question: If it is impossible to go against one’s desire on the inside, then what actions can we make against the desire, only physical ones?

Answer: Physical actions also count. After all, before we are able to do spiritual actions, we can only act physically.

For now a person studies, disseminates materials, and connects with the friends in a physical group by working together. This is the way he acts, even though he is not yet capable of inner actions. And this really helps.

Even the strongest and best inner actions still do not replace physical ones, which we do in the corporeal world in a large mass of people. We see how dissemination in this world, and especially being in touch with people in different countries who went out to the streets to protest, advances students in their inner understanding.

A person goes out to give out leaflets, and he spends time between people who know nothing about the inner structure of the universe and scream demanding bread and other necessary material things. And then he returns to his books and his inner development, and he suddenly sees that he feels more, understands more, and advances.

All this is because I have received an impression from them; I absorbed their desire. And even though these are corporeal desires, it does not matter. They still advance me because this external desire impresses me.

This external desire rises to a higher degree in me, the degree I am on. It is written that the “Creator dwells among His people.” Thus it turns out that I reveal the Shechina inside the people on the exact height that I am able to reveal it.

This pertains to the greatest Kabbalist: If he comes with his desires with the purpose of connecting to the desires of the people, then through their desires, he receives an impression inside his own, at the height accessible to him. This is why it is written that one must not distance himself from the people.
[60996]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/17/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question (from the Hebrew blog): The advice is to expand dissemination and to educate the public. We should not rest on our laurels just because people come to the mutual guarantee centers. We should organize various study groups in schools for a nominal fee and through them introduce the values of mutual guarantee.

I have no doubt that parents will be happy to send their children to these study groups. It is desirable to do this namely in secondary schools because teen’s behavior begins to deteriorate at this age. Of course, children should be stimulated by prizes or awards. I would be glad to hear your opinion.

Answer: This needs to be worked out and carefully implemented so that people gradually realize the need to unite in order to solve all our problems.

Question: Do I have to hate my ego all the time? It’s all I have. If I go after the things I want, I am nothing.

Answer: If you use it correctly in order to rise above it, you should appreciate and love it as help against you.

Question: What is the “stony heart”?

Answer: Our desires that we can never correct ourselves. They are corrected by the general Light of all the souls at the end of correction.
[60469]

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