Question: If friends from different countries were to unite over the Internet, would they generate the same kind of force they would have generated during a physical participation at the Convention?

Answer: Absolutely. We are speaking about forces that are very important to us. We do not yet realize that in the spiritual world, the force comes from quality, not quantity.

The representatives of so many countries and nations create an entire palette (Babylon). They are different, and this difference along with the connection above it is the attainment of our correction. The difference is caused by the breaking of the soul of Adam followed by the flood of Noah and the Tower of Babel or the separation above which we are now uniting.

Every person represents a part of the common whole which is different from everyone else. By gluing these parts together, we correct the breaking, the Creator’s work of “I have created the evil inclination,” with the Light. This is why the virtual participation of all our friends is so important to us. Under no circumstances should they leave us, and they need to be with us at the Convention the entire time.

The number of people gathering in one place does not matter: It could be two hundred thousand or two people, or individual students from all over the world. In the spiritual world, it is not the quantity that matters, but everyone’s individuality.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/7/10, Writings of Rabash

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Question: How should we work with the quality of Esau (the egoistic desire) so it won’t awaken during the Convention?

Answer: It won’t awaken, you can be sure about that. We are coming to the Convention prepared, “warmed up,” having the understanding that we are gathering in order to unite.

We are leaving all problems, doubts, and opposition at home because we know that we are unable to overcome our egoism, Esau, directly. The only way we should act is by going around, according to the method of Jacob, which comes from the word Akev – to go around.

This means that it is useless to fight your nature head on. We have to come out of it, ascend above it, and acquire a new nature of bestowal. Then, with its help, gradually and in parts, we must gradually use egoism for the sake of bestowal. Our egoism is a special force existing inside us that we have to take into account. However, we shouldn’t fight against it, but only worry about unity and mutual guarantee, constantly increasing the right line, the force of Jacob, the force of bestowal.

Then we will reveal the Creator and will be able to oppose Esau. However, this doesn’t mean that we will be fighting him. For now we are correcting ourselves by strengthening the line called Jacob inside us – bestowal and mutual unity. The Esau that is in us receives blows from the whole process and starts to understand that he should also unite with Jacob.

Therefore, there won’t be any threats or wars. He will desire to interact with the right line himself since he will see that the opportunities at his disposal do not enable him to be fulfilled. He lacks Jacob, bestowal, in order to advance in life.

That is why we should think only about attaining unity and consolidation. All the other problems will be corrected by becoming attached to the right line and strengthening it even more.
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From the “Weekly Torah Portion” show on 11/5/10

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Question: What do we lack before the Convention?

Answer: I don’t think we lack anything! I heard that you “sold everything and decided to put everything at stake.” So what else is there? Now, when everything you have is in your hands, you must only decide where you are placing it. Everything depends on you.
This is the choice we have to make. For a start, take part in the preparation that is infinitely important. Don’t see or hear anything unrelated, don’t think about anything but the goal. We are leaving everything behind and going “va-banque.”

In spirituality, just like in corporeality, a child asks for something, and the adults have to give him what he desires. This is what happens with animals and with people. This is the natural order of things in nature.

We shouldn’t be too smart. We have to be ourselves and that’s enough. Don’t try to jump out of yourself, trying to fine-tune your desire until it is crystal clear. Rather, we have to unite in the place we are in and ask for help in a childish way.

The Creator doesn’t need anything besides simple readiness. He will teach us everything else in a wonderful way, step by step, caringly, gently, and lovingly. Only simple things are required of us, without any special wisdom. We just have to desire, and that’s enough.

Let us hope that in the hours we have left before the Convention we will warm the hearts so as to correctly welcome the guests and attain what we desire. After that we will begin doing completely different kind of work. We will see a new picture of reality, and behind it the Creator. Then it will become clear that all parts of the picture are governed by a single Force, the all enveloping Nature.

This Force is a common field that permeates and fills everyone. We are inside an inseparable net and it moves every person in every regard, down to the final detail. Then we will work in a different way, trying to join this Force and pour into the dynamic development, the harmony, the range, the flow that is called unity. On this path a person’s soul teaches him.

In any case, we are moving in the right direction and are already standing at the threshold. I really hope that this time we will be successful. I also feel this by the desires of the hearts. Even those who have joined us in the last year or two are also ready. It’s amazing how quickly a person grows in our time.
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From the lesson on Shamati on 11/5/10

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Question: I suddenly found out that most of my friends will be attending the Convention in the city of Dnepropetrovsk. And I am staying in my local city together with two beginners. How many people have to get together in order to create the interesting situation that you describe with such optimism?

Answer: Two.

Question cont’d: Does quantity matter?

Answer: Quality is more important.

Question cont’d: Of course, we will make every effort we can to be connected with the central Convention in Israel. After a discussion with my friends, we all liked the following idea: by focusing our thoughts on one thing simultaneously (having agreed on it ahead of time), we want to cause some external, physical event that is not connected to us in any way. In other words – a miracle.

The purpose of this miracle is to be sure that we really are thinking about the same thing simultaneously, and obviously, to give more power to our union. Do you have any advice about this? Maybe there already exist ways to do this? What external effect should we choose so it won’t collide with the will to receive too harshly?

My firm advice: Get together, follow our Convention, repeat everything just like we do it, think together and eat together with us, as if you are among us in every way, with your body and soul (or rather, as if you are without a body), but most importantly, be together with us in your thoughts.

That is the only way you will increase your desire with the help of others and will receive an answer from Ohr Makif. Other exercises, such as meditation, are psychology and training in the plane of our world, and it won’t bring you to any place higher than that. Good luck!
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Question: How do I reach the Creator more quickly with my prayer without judging Him?

Answer: The Creator does not care if you judge Him or not. Neither does it matter whether you bless or condemn Him. What is important to Him is that you don’t forget Him. You don’t forget that the Creator exists, that He is Good Who does Good, and that He is the cause of all events of your life.

Therefore, no matter what you are receiving at the moment it is for the best. And not only that, but it also propels you toward the goal. Even if the experience is dreadful, you receive it with the understanding that it is necessary so that from this point you can aim at the goal.

How do I aim myself at the goal? I connect to the group. How do I bond with the group? I do it by performing various actions. What will come out of it? I will receive stronger desires from the group. Yet, it is here where I will realize that I am worth nothing and won’t be able to progress.

The powerful desire received from the group will seem to have caused an opposite response. How can that be? Let’s take a twenty-man military troop, for instance. In this case, everyone receives support from all, and the team, empowered by the strength of twenty, goes into combat.

But in a group of Kabbalists, it is quite different. Instead of multiplying their strength by the strength of the friends and plunging into attack, I feel twenty times weaker while the goal becomes twenty times more profound in my eyes.

We think that we will get stronger having entered the group. In truth, we feel weakened, but at the same time absorb the importance of the goal from the friends. Now I look at the goal as if I am hypnotized, but…clearly see no chance to achieve it.

This is exactly how it is, contrary to what takes place in our world. The group has to support me by demonstrating to me that it is a desirable state. I must come to it, and the Creator “will not knock me off my feet” and “will not beat me cold,” leaving me “dead in the battle field.”

In its time, the scouts sent to the land of Israel got stuck in this kind of trap. All transgressions of the people of Israel (or those who are striving for the Creator) described in the Torah were committed solely because of the people’s inability to evaluate (comprehend) the impressions of themselves, the group, the Creator, and the path to the goal that emerge in them.

Despite the exhaustion, the goal is exalted and profound in our eyes. Now the time has finally come when due to this exhaustion, we have the right to cry out: “Where is the Light? You promised it to us!” The Creator loves when we demand from Him, which is described as, “My sons have defeated Me.” Then, we will receive strength.

In this way, along with weakness and importance of the goal, the group must pass confidence in our success to everyone.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/4/10, ““What is the Foundation that Sanctity is Built Upon”

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Question: Why do we start spiritual work in the Torah and commandments with the egoistic intention of Lo Lishma (not for Her Name)?

Answer: Our matter is the evil inclination. It is described as “I created the evil inclination, and I created the Torah as a spice.” It turns out that the evil inclination is coated in some kind of seasoning, as if in some cream. The Torah carries the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif) that “tiles” our matter and returns it to the Source. In other words, the Torah is the Light that corrects the intention and re-directs it from aiming at the personal benefit to the benefit of others.

The “evil inclination” is the desire aimed at evil, meaning personal benefit. The Light arrives and turns in into the “good inclination” or desire aimed at the good, the benefit of others.

Thus, the Torah becomes a “spice” since it adds just a “dab” and spices the will to receive with the correct intention. Previously, you were employing it to harm, and now you are using it to do good. As to the commandments, they are actions through which you realize the goal so as to make your desire similar to the Creator.

There is a chain of actions that follow one after the other in small doses, unfolding within you. You carry them out so that in the end, all your desires were aimed at bestowal. Thereby you do, indeed, perform the “commandments” or the Creator’s orders (your internal corrections).
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/4/10, ““What is the Foundation that Sanctity is Built Upon”

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Rabash, “What Is the Foundation that Sanctity Is Built Upon”:  When building a building in corporeality, we see that anyone who wants to build a building must first dig the foundations, and on the foundation he builds the building. The digging of the foundation into the ground should be according to the height of the building. The foundation is not dug at once. Rather, each day the foundation is built so that it will be deeper, and then one can build a higher building….

And since his whole construction is built on above reason, the digging is sealed again, meaning that his need disappears again and he has nothing to ask; that is, he has no need for the Creator to bring him closer. Thus, he must start digging again, meaning to work in order to find a deficiency, so he will have a basis upon which to ask the Creator to build his building.

Question: Does a person build a new world every day?

Answer: He does it with each moment. As a matter of fact, “day” is any opportunity used for advancement. If such opportunities arise only when the person feels illuminated, then he has the day and the night. However, the Psalms say: “The day is yours, and the night is yours.” Let the night also feel like the day to us, the place where we can work and advance.

In the darkness, a sensation of no light and no desire, when a person is tangled and keeps stumbling over obstacles within himself, he has to understand that he is receiving new desires at the moment, desires that he hadn’t worked with before. They too must be tied to the goal.

This means that we have to welcome the events with joy: I must be really strong if the Surrounding Light evokes in me deeper layers of desires that I can place in the foundation of my building. Having completed this foundation, I will reach the first spiritual degree.

Hence, I must strive to see all instants of my life as “days.” And it does not matter what sensations I am experiencing, bitter or sweet. If I always aspire to the truth, I will see everything as day.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/4/10, ““What is the Foundation that Sanctity is Built Upon”

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Question: We have decided that at the upcoming Convention we are going for “all-or-nothing.” Where is that “bank” we are going to storm, and, most importantly, where is the key to unlock it?

Answer: The “bank” is in the heavens. But it can be reached. It is the property of Bina, bestowal. And the key to it lies in the unity between us. In our unification, we will discover the true treasure, which is not a safe but an attribute with the help of which all treasuries of the world can be unlocked!

We will unlock the “bank” on one condition: that we will unify among us. In our oneness, it will be revealed at once. This is the wonder of spirituality: The Light starts illuminating as soon as we reach the first degree of equivalence to it.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/2/10, “Exile and Redemption”

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Question: Why don’t I feel the same degree of enthusiasm and spiritual charge with everyone?

Answer: There’s no question that I feel everyone differently. This depends on how close or far they seem to me in my current egoistic perception. I don’t even notice some of them; others I like to a certain degree; and others yet I reject.

In this regard, the key is my personality or mood, as well as various details, cases, and events I have heard about, witnessed or felt. Yet, this doesn’t matter. In truth, on the spiritual path we constantly experience an increasing feeling that we are all equal and that there is no difference between white, black, red, yellow, attractive, and ugly. Nationality, language, personality, and all other external attributes disappear since they are a sign of limited perception within the properties of our world. No matter how a person was raised and what he was taught, it is all a mere external cocoon. Coming in touch with another’s desire, I find a spiritual spark in it and its place in the integral system of souls. Then I experience him just like a part of my own body.

And then my attitude changes; all of us become equal. It’s similar to how a mother loves all of her children, paying attention to each of them to the degree it is needed. All of us are parts of the complete system, and in completeness, no detail can be more important than the others.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/5/10, Writings of Rabash

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Question: If a Kabbalist sees the real, spiritual world, how can he experience any doubts or even mistakes?

Answer: The spiritual world is not inserted into the lifeless scheme that is revealed in a ready form before you. The original spiritual data (Reshimot) manifest within you, and you build your attitude that is full of bestowal to those that surround you: the group and the Creator. The right attitude forms the Upper World within you.

Therefore, we shouldn’t be surprised that a Kabbalist in the spiritual world can experience doubts, theories, and hypotheses, like a scientist in our world. After all, it is precisely due to the unclarities and their elucidation that we develop.

I am always doubtful, and I already know from experience that I understand better today what occurred yesterday when I may have erred. Overall, any degree is attained only from the degree above it because it is born from and controlled by the higher degree. Every day one understands the Creator better, as it is said by one great Kabbalist: “Every day I have a new Creator!”
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From the 3rd  part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/4/10, Beit Sha’ar HaKavanot

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