The subject of the second lesson at the convention in Saint Petersburg is “The Cyclical Nature of the Evil Inclination.”

In my opinion, everything is clear here. Wherever I turn, I am immersed in my own evil inclination. Whatever I do, whomever I think about, it is only to exploit this person, to benefit myself somehow, and after that forget him, in that I remove him from my mind completely.

If I become familiar with the force of my ego, I will gradually be able to feel how disgusting and despicable the discovery of this evil within me is to me, how much I would like to be released from it and transform it into good. For in fact, it won’t leave me, I simply transform it into a yearning for others, into bestowal to others, into love for them.

That is how I value my foul and terrible evil inclination, even though strangers don’t see anything wrong with it.

First, I reach awareness that I have maintained and cultivated my ego, I have thought about how I can fill it. After that, I see that it enslaves me and I don’t enslave it. So what am I wasting my life on? Now I begin to hate it, because it connects me to it, obliges me to do everything for it. I must work for its sake all the time, because it, like Pharaoh, secretly reigns over me.

And then I reach a state where I discover this control, feel how the ego is choking me to the point I can no longer remain in it; it is killing me. As a result, I am released from its clutches.

And when I am detached from it, from its control over me, I will begin to control it. I will begin to manage it with the help of the Upper Light.
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From the Lesson on the Topic: “Preparation for the Convention, 9/9/14

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 Question: What kind of result must we reach at the convention? With which thoughts and feelings do we disperse? And what does this line amount to in us?

Answer: We must connect internally to all the participants in the convention so that the convention will not end. We continue to go forward, upward; within us we feel what we attained from the connection all the time, and distance only compels us to increase and strengthen this feeling. In this manner we rise to the next level.

You cannot imagine what kind of tension exists today among our groups abroad, especially in North and South America. They are preparing for the convention and are doing everything possible and impossible.

We connect and separate, again connect and separate, all the time. This separation is necessary so that above it we can maintain the previous connection.

When we disperse, each person going on his separate way, we are given some opposition, and above it, we return to feeling the previous unity. And then the unity that is multiplied by the opposition will give us new intensity, a new spiritual level.

Question: You said that in the American and European groups there are very intense tensions. But there are also other places in which there is an absolutely different attitude towards the convention. Aren’t we infected by “viruses” from them?

Answer: I am not afraid of this. The same intensity that is gathered at the convention itself becomes such a shield that no viruses can frighten us and no hackers can disturb us.

But if you have information that some groups or isolated individuals are opposed to our idea, we should try to explain to them before the beginning of the convention that unity is the condition for attaining the spiritual world. They simply haven’t heard this yet. Each one of us knows that on their own. How much time must pass until we began to hear it? So don’t be afraid; everything will be okay.
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From the Lesson Topic: “Preparation for the Convention, 9/9/14

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Question: To what state must preparation for the Saint Petersburg convention bring the world group?

Answer: Before the convention the entire world group must be in a state of arousal and excitement where awe, happiness, elevation, expectation and despair exist together.

This must not be something external, but internal. Each one must experience these states within himself.

Our friends throughout the world must prepare such that they will become softer, more flexible. Just as we work on dough, kneading it, so we also must work on this mass.

Besides this, we want to put ourselves under the influence of the Creator, so that He will make of us something that can be digested. This is our mission. We want to become active participants in this activity, and not spectators.

As it is said in the wisdom of Kabbalah, everything depends upon preparation.
[143518]
From the Convention Preparation Webinar, 9/4/14

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Question: Is there any chance that a person who studies can succeed simply by the power of inertia ? He doesn’t leave because corporeal life doesn’t seem attractive either, but on the other hand, he sees that the wisdom of Kabbalah is too much for him and he cannot believe that he will ever reach the revelation of spirituality.

Answer: It is impossible to study with the power of inertia. Every moment in our life requires our energy. Therefore, if a person studies, it means that the Upper Light operates on him and sustains him. He probably has to go through this period. There are such periods in which a person becomes like a corpse, a lifeless body: He cannot live in the corporeal world anymore, but he hasn’t started living in the spiritual world yet.

Question: It seems that one can wander on the border of the spiritual world for years and not reach a request, a prayer.

Answer: No, that depends on you; it depends on the environment. Believe me, I speak from my own practical experience. The preparation period cannot go on forever, no state goes on infinitely.

Every moment you exist and somehow get closer to the spiritual advancement, the Light operates on you and fills you with the spiritual force drop by drop, like an intravenous infusion. But it has to accumulate to the right measure and therefore it takes time.

If you want to reach the spiritual revelation sooner, hasten time. But it cannot be that your measure will never be filled; there is no such thing. On the whole I have to know only one thing: How to connect the group with the goal.

I want to eat some soup and I am told: “Get a bowl!” But I have no bowl, so what can I receive the soup in? The bowl is the group. If I am not incorporated in a group, I have nothing to receive spirituality in. I have to tie the group very tightly to the attainment of the goal, to the revelation of the Creator.

We still think and hope that there is some vessel where the Creator can be revealed somewhere inside us. But there is no such place in a person. There is only one black point that cannot receive any revelation. But still, drop after drop, the Light operates on a person and he gradually begins to tie his success with the connection, with the friends.

This is already a great accomplishment; it is a switch from the earthly, corporeal individualistic path to the spiritual ladder. You already begin to subconsciously tie yourself to the group. You get closer and closer to it, and the moment the first contact, the first connection, is formed, you enter the spiritual ladder. This is called the ladder of spiritual ascent.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/11/14, Shamati #56

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Question: In what way should our covenant be revealed in the convention?

Answer: In warmth. Effective communication that must occur between us. It has to simply explode so that we will begin to feel a warm void among us that opens us up to one another and doesn’t let us restrain ourselves in order to express our love.

Moreover, it is mutual support, a mutual effort all over the world when the friends all over the world express their support and their awe and confirm their oath of loyalty to our covenant.

Therefore, we must feel some tension. Of course, the upper force can do whatever it wants with us, but each of us is committed to the friends, to keep all the advice and the commands of the Kabbalists and do everything in our power to keep the covenant with the others.

A person should understand that if he doesn’t accept this condition, he is not part of our stream, and he doesn’t float onward in our common general boat. He can stay in the convention but nothing will happen to him.

Everyone must realize and recognize the fact that taking an oath is the central issue in starting the spiritual path. Just like on Mt. Sinai: “Do you agree to be as one man in one heart? If not, this will be your burial place!”

If we are going to make a covenant now, it should include everyone by stretching a hand over the ocean, over the continent, no matter where. Everyone has to feel that they are with us in a continuous two-way connection.
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From the Lesson on the Topic: “Preparation for the Convention,” 9/4/14

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Question: How can we use the gathering of friends (Yeshivat Haverim) to unite at the convention?

Answer: The gathering of friends is a part of the day when we are tuning to receiving a new portion of the Upper Light because these meetings precede the lessons and workshops, i.e,. our upcoming spiritual actions.

To do this, we must get ready, unite, and remind each other about our goal that it is achieved in unity, that it is the mutual support that is our freewill, and this is our only free action; all the rest does not depend on us. The gathering of friends should remind us about this.
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From the Lesson on the Topic: Preparation for the Convention, 9/9/14

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Question: Should the groups of “ten” that are formed at the convention be composed at random from unrelated people, or is it possible to keep those groups of ten that have already worked together for a few years?

Answer: If people want to be together, maybe it’s good. But I would like to warn them that this shouldn’t be habitual. This could nullify what we could attain.

We must attain connection above all possible problems, especially beyond the place where we connect, where we are not familiar with each other. This doesn’t mean that we must choose people who are our opposite.

But still, when we come from somewhere with our group of ten where everyone has been acquainted with each other for some time, has discussed various subjects in circles and workshops hundreds of times, what kind of innovation can there be here?! What is there to work on? Everything would roll along on our habitual pattern. I don’t think this is good.

A group of ten that is shaped and created in a convention must maintain one composition from the beginning of the convention to its end. But if this will be a group of ten that has worked for years, then it creates a problem. I personally would not want them to put me in a group of ten like this. I am familiar with these guys, we have talked about everything among us; one could say half a word and I already know what another will add. I have no surprises with them, I don’t need to change and adapt myself; this isn’t good. So I don’t think that this is the way it should be done, to the contrary.

It is said that we should always see our friends as new. As new! I am going to discover them on a new level. And this begs the question: “Will this work for me with those same faces I have seen in front of me for years?” I work well with them; we have gone through many conventions together. It could certainly be that because of this I will not be able to struggle with myself to approach them, for even in this way they seem close to me.

So I would not recommend being included in a group of ten that has more than two very close friends.
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From the Convention Preparation Webinar, 9/9/14

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Question: What state must a person reach when the convention opens? What must he experience?

Answer: He must feel that it is as if he has entered into a blender within which he wants to mix his thoughts and feelings with the thoughts and feelings of others, so that he has nothing left.

From this mixture of desires in the heart and thoughts in the mind, something emerges that can be called a “spiritual Kli,” a “spiritual Partzuf.” This is because a desire is the “body” of the “Partzuf,” and the thoughts are its “head.” In this way we create a pattern (model) of an Adam (one person), a single image of all of humanity.

The role of each one is to mix with everyone so there is nothing left of him, neither in the head nor in the heart. And what results will fill his heart and mind.
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From the Convention Preparation Webinar, 9/9/14

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Question: It is written in the Torah, “In the field you catch an animal or a bird.” What does that mean?

Answer: A field, just like a desert, is a state in which it is impossible to determine where you are, since all your desires are not completely analyzed and have not been clarified in any way.

You don’t know them yet and don’t manage them, but only begin to reveal them operating like a hunter that catches what he can.

There are different types of hunting, but in ancient times people mainly engaged in farming and in raising domesticated animals. They began to tame animals very early and in fact hardly hunted at all.

Everything was very simple. No one hunted roots, wild fruit, or wild animals.

In Babylon, too, there was no hunting. It was a small, civilized society whose people engaged in agriculture and fishing, since there was solid black soil between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and an abundance of water and fish, and this is what they lived on.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/6/14

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The Torah, “Leviticus” (Acharei), 17:10-17:11: “And any man of the House of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among them, who eats the blood, and I will cut him off from among his people. For the soul of the flesh is in the blood, and I have therefore given it to [to be placed] upon the altar, to atone for your souls. For it is the blood that atones for the soul.”

On the one hand, blood is the vital force of the body, and on the other hand, it stems from the Hebrew word “Domem” (inanimate), the lowest part of the desire.

The point is that we have to use the attributes that we can raise to bestowal. Since we push ourselves from the lowest part of the desires, which are symbolized by blood, we cannot use them and have to release the blood from the body.

By choosing the different desires that we have, we see that the inanimate and vegetative desires are very weak, meaningless, and rather easy to use in order to bestow. On the level of the animate, they are very heavy; thus we feel that we exist in a corporeal body and see ourselves that way.

We don’t see the inanimate or vegetative states since they are concealed by our corporeal desires, which are more meaningful than the small desires. When we discover the animal states inside us, we encounter a lot of problems because we identify with them and see ourselves as them.

How can I distinguish between them and the human being in me? How can I raise the animal desires to the state of a man? “Kill’ your animal and “use it for food” so that the human level could ascend above the animal level.

What can we do in order to attain this? How can we properly tell the difference between my animal desires? Which ones can be raised to the human level and which cannot? What can I create the image of a man from? After all, he is born from an embryo that is given from above and all the rest of the nourishment comes from below, from the animal desires.

How does a human being differ from an animal in our world? It is that point in the heart, the seed that created the “I,” the self. I resemble the Creator and therefore I am called a man (Adam, stemming from the Hebrew word “Domeh” to resemble [the Creator]), and if not, I am an animal.

So the only problem is in what we call offering a sacrifice because we take the desires of the inanimate, vegetative, and mainly from the animate level, and constantly raise them to the human level. This means that we have to kill them on the animate level and raise them to the next level so that the human being in us will be nourished by these desires, by making them his spiritual work.

The Torah usually says that a person has to raise his desires to this level where there is a place to offer a sacrifice (the word “sacrifice” in Hebrew stems from the word “getting closer” to the Creator), and there it is possible to sprinkle the blood on the altar.

When you kill an animal (the lowest desires), the blood (these desires) has to be completely drained; you sprinkle the four corners (four phases) of the altar with it, which means that you bring your full desire to the Creator, you ascend to Him. Eventually, all the desires have to go through this change and ascend to the level of the great priest since only then is a person considered to be fully corrected.

There are only three levels in nature: inanimate, vegetative, and animate. A human being is what you create of yourself, and it doesn’t exist in nature. If an alien looked at us and at animals from the outside, he would say that people are animals that have been transformed, and nothing more than that. If we measure ourselves in comparison, then we are much worse than animals. Therefore, we have to aspire to make ourselves human beings.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/6/14

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