Question: Let’s go back to the stages of how people get closer to each other internally. How does this happen?

Answer: The first step is when I do not want to use a stranger, another person, any friend of my people, i.e., in the group with which we go to the spiritual ideal, to the principle of “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”

When I ascend to this degree, I feel I do not want to do anything bad to another; I do not have bad thoughts about him. I can overcome my egoism, restrain myself in all its forms, and all my energy is focused on being absolutely neutral to people, desiring to be connected with them, wanting to be with them. That is, I do not think and do not take care of myself in spite of all the rest.

This is called the “restriction” of one’s egoistic desires and is seemingly a neutral state: Do not wish for and do not do to your neighbor what you would not wish for yourself.

And the next stage is “love thy neighbor as thyself.” That is not neutrality but a positive action. Because originally a person discovers that all his actions are directed only at his own benefit, and he cannot do good to others, except for his own profit.

Thus, we are talking about three stages:

• First, there is recognition of egoism;
• Then, its neutralization;
• And then, its correction, implementing it for the benefit of others.

And this final action is the essence of love.

Question: Can we say that Abraham built a perfect society?

Answer: Yes, of course. Abraham built a perfect society of those people from Babylon that he took with him.

But here we consider, in general, not the people but their desires! This also applies to the followers of the work of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Yes, they are his direct descendants, but all in all, his followers are called “sons,” disciples. Hence, there are such concepts as the “house of Abraham,” “house of Isaac,” and “house of Jacob.” The “house” means the community of people who continued to grow and develop.

They grow in a physical sense as well, but the main thing is they grew spiritually until they united fully in their mutual aspirations, in connection with each other on the first spiritual degree, which is called “Jacob.” This first spiritual degree is already considered the degree of “Israel,” with a hint of the future land of Israel, which will be reached. Although there is no land yet!

After all, “Israel” means “directed to the Creator.” That is, when you are in some place and aspire to the goal, then you are called “Israel,” “straight to the goal.” To reach this goal means to enter the land of Israel.

What are you lacking for this? For this you are lacking egoism, which you will correct and turn into the land of Israel. That is why they later had to come down to Egypt.

Question: So the group was already called Israel, and it still had to go through a century of descent before it would acquire the land of Israel, the desire, aimed at the goal?

Answer: Therefore, it is said that Jacob knew about the future and wanted to tell his sons, but he was not given…
 [142720]
From KabTV’s “Babylon, Yesterday and Today” 8/27/14

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 54: When the Creator sees that one has completed one’s measure of exertion and finished everything he had to do in strengthening his choice in faith in the Creator, the Creator helps him. Then, one attains open Providence, meaning the revelation of the face. Then, he is rewarded with complete repentance, meaning he cleaves to the Creator once more with his heart, soul, and might….

There is no patronage here, there is no reason to wait for the Creator to get fed up and take pity on us like a merciful father. We should not expect the Creator to be touched by our tears and have mercy and intervene in our situation and forgive our lack of investing efforts.

This means that hope is meaningless, that instead of our effort it is possible to wait a bit, cry a bit, and everything will take care of itself. In general, in our world a person expects exactly this kind of attitude towards himself from other people and from the Creator. But this doesn’t happen here.

We are obliged to carry out and complete the amount of effort required from our side. And this should truly be effort, meaning effort in building our spiritual Kli for revelation. As it is said: He hath made a decree which shall not be transgressed (Psalms 148:6). If you have a desire of ten grams, which is, suppose, the first degree of adaptation to the first compulsory level for discovering the Creator, then you will feel His presence, meaning He will be revealed.

And as long as your desire is less than “ten grams,” you are below the threshold and don’t feel the Creator. This means the Creator is concealed. All of the senses work according to this principle, including the spiritual senses.

Perception in the spiritual senses is divided into 125 levels that are divided internally into many other sublevels. And no matter what, we must reach the level of sensitivity matching the first level. And this depends on the measure of effort by which we raise our sensitivity, meaning expanding our Kli.

This is our sensitivity to the degree of bestowal because the Creator is bestowal, love, and connection. He is revealed to us as such. So we must prepare accordingly: bestowal, love, and connection among us. And we don’t even have to attain these characteristics directly but only have a yearning to acquire them. And if we specifically direct our desire and yearning towards this and have enough force, then we begin to discover the Creator. That is everything.

This is like a visual examination with an optometrist: “Do you see these letters?” – “No!” “And do you see them now?” – “Yes!” There is a sensitivity threshold for each and every sense, and when it is attained, suddenly the discovery happens.
[142437]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/29/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: I really don’t understand how scientific progress can hurt humanity?

Answer: Science is a search for the Creator through our material minds. Scientists conduct numerous studies and experiments with the help of our five corporeal senses in order to find the upper force. All kinds of scientific research are aimed at discovering the Creator and solving the mystery of life.

We intend to attain the upper force, understand the structure of creation, find out its goal, and unveil the secret of our existence using our physical brain and bodily senses. It is not possible. This road leads to a dead end. After thousands of years of scientific development we have ended up in a crisis that no science is able to fix. Science is not capable of ensuring even our material well being.

Science is a method of disclosing human weaknesses and a means of discovering mistakes in our quest for solving the mystery of life and finding out the goal and essence of our existence through our earthly sensors and brainpower. Science chooses roundabout routes; however, it still leads us to the right conclusions. Our task is to realize the incongruity of our efforts and learn to completely rely on the Reforming Light.

The goal of world development is to make us disappointed in ourselves. It is said: “There is no happier moment in one’s life than when one becomes completely disillusioned in one’s abilities.” In fact, it is really a huge discovery! Imagine that all of humanity undergoes this process.

When it happens, we’ll realize that nothing but a prayer can help us; in other words, nothing but raising MAN and acquiring the upper force’s help will let us act correctly and attain our goal. There is nothing we can do except realize that out of the darkness it is the Light that determines everything. Light is faith.

Today, we can talk about these issues openly. About fifty years ago, nobody would agree with these ideas, including me. I was the most zealous advocate of scientific progress. I thought that science was everything!

Years passed. Humanity became disappointed in science. Nobody expects scientists to make discoveries that humanity can really benefit from. All discoveries are doomed to bring us harm because they contradict the goal of creation and the means of its attainment since they urge us to rely on our brainpower.

This explains why we cannot expect science to help us achieve positive results. Unless we stop relying on scientific progress and discontinue our “enchantment” with the magnitude of our intellect, nothing can really move us forward. We’ll simply continue along the road of scientific advancement.

On the other hand, we cannot neglect science since it is a path that nevertheless leads us to the goal, even though it does so indirectly. Any road to the Creator is sacred. At the end of our path, the angel of death will turn into the holy angel. “The angel of death” will absorb all our mistakes including scientific evolution.

The problem lies not in science per se, but in the fact that we rely on ourselves and count on our pride, on our belief that we can reach a good life without connecting with the Creator. This mistake is common for those who study the wisdom of Kabbalah but turn it into a theory. It is the most serious error that is called Klipa (shell, the evil force).

Our task is to accurately follow all instructions and study the Torah instead of playing tricks with our minds. There is a very thin line between these two processes. Studying the wisdom (Hochma) of the Torah means revealing the Light of Hochma with the help of the Light of correction that is embodied in the Torah. The wisdom of the Torah is the Light of Hochma dressed in the Light of Hassadim.
[142314]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/27/14, Writing of Baal HaSulam

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Question: How is it possible to distinguish between fear and trembling?

Answer: In general, fear is a lower state, something relevant to our beastly body, our desire to receive. In contrast, trembling is felt according to the characteristic of bestowal, with regard to the Creator.

I work within my desire to receive. If I am afraid of phenomena within my desire to receive, this is called “fear.” If I suspect and am afraid about whether I will be able to bestow to the friends and through them to the Creator, this is called “awe.”

The difference between fear and awe is in this, that fear is a natural phenomenon that appears and takes place in me naturally as a result of the fear of the desire to receive if it will receive pleasure, and in this there is no difference between a person and a beast. And awe doesn’t depend on me, but in how will I receive the Light that Reforms? It brings me awe.

Fear is awakened in me naturally, by itself, whereas awe is the result of the influence of the Upper Light, the luminary, from awareness of the greatness of the Creator. That is, the main difference is that fear comes to me from nature and awe is above nature, under the influence of the Light that Reforms.
[142858]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/4/14, The Zohar

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Question: Many times you have called the people who have gathered in Sochi a group even though externally this is not a group; rather, it is an activity composed of people who constantly change. How is it possible to understand better what a group is according to this example?

Answer: For me, Sochi is a group. This is a community of people who have not yet attained unity, but who are with an inclination towards this in all of its various parts: They alternate, change, and are replaced, but it is a group.

This is a group. It is a team that was not only present here but was also supported from afar. This is because there are people who weren’t in Sochi but made an effort to be inside with you. They participated virtually in your meals and in workshops. They tasted what you are feeling here and what those who weren’t here didn’t. And this is called the “Sochi Group.”
[142845]
From the Convention In Sochi 8/25/14, Lesson 3

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Question: How can a woman begin to love the spiritual teacher?

Answer: I think that it is much easier for a woman than for a man since she feels no internal resistance or conflict with the teacher. To love the teacher means to love the source of your spiritual existence. In fact, the teacher is a kind of a transmitter of spiritual energy, but for you, it is the source. It is like parents who are the source for their baby because everything the baby receives, he gets from them.

It makes no difference whether it is a man or a woman with regard to the teacher. There were times when a woman for many years was the leader of the Israeli nation, its spiritual leader, the teacher, and those were actually years when the whole nation was on a spiritual level. This indicates that people are simply detached from their external wrapping. Today it is very hard to imagine it.

In the past many prophets were women: Deborah, Huldah, and others. A prophet is a person who is in a direct connection with the Creator. What difference does it make whether it is a man or a woman? We shouldn’t regard the teacher as a man, but as the source of the power, the information, and the filling, like an upper Partzuf. This will come gradually.
[142842]
From the Convention In Sochi 8/25/14, Lesson 3

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On the second day of the convention it is proposed that we examine the subject, “How do we get rid of the ‘stench’ of the rotten ego with the help of our efforts?” There are articles by Baal HaSulam and Rabash in which it is said that when a person looks at how his ugly desire gradually dies in agony, he is pleased by this because with this he is born. To the same degree that the ego rots, he feels that the Adam (man) is born in him.

The ego is like inverted, plowed under by the plow. This means it is reversed, reversed to altruism. The plow is the Light of the Creator. The fertilizer is our efforts with which we previously wanted to fill the ego.

Ultimately, under the influence of the Creator, the quantity of our efforts becomes qualitative. We receive an opposite ego in which the “flower bud from the ground” is revealed, the altruistic characteristic, our soul. This is talked about in the second article of The Book of Zohar, “The Flower Buds.”

After the true “self” grows in us, we must scrutinize if we are ready to connect to “we,” meaning to attain the same covenant about which we spoke in the beginning. Thus, the second day will finish with this, where we (individualists) are connected into a single “we,” meaning into our single “self.” With this we go to sleep joyful, satisfied, and happy.

The result of the whole day must be prayer, our gathered desire, as much as this is possible, yearning for the goal, for the power to realize this goal. Every stage must be accompanied by a better and better molding of this petitioning, this prayer.
[142775]
From the Convention In Sochi 8/25/14, Lesson 4

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One of the lectures planned for the St. Petersburg convention is called “the cycle of the ego in nature.” Is there anything else in nature but that?

Everyone should draw his whole ego out and tell us how much he loves to deal with it, like a dung beetle. We should not cry or beat our chest, but normally and seriously feel what the Creator said: “I have created the evil inclination; I have created the Torah as a spice.”

We have to bring out everything there is in us and compose a song about how ugly we are inside and how much we love our ugliness. Our greed, the inner lie, and our inability to see the truth, our inability to love and to bestow should be expressed in this song.

We have to feel it so well that we will really be disgusted by ourselves, but the most important thing in the revelation of our terrible primary attributes is that they don’t allow us to unite.

Question: We always try to end the day positively. But in this case is it better if everyone went to sleep in the shattered state, under the impression of the revealed ego?

Answer: No, I thing the revelation of our rotten internality should delight us. After all, we finally understand what our illness is, like a person who discovers the reason of his ill state. The next day he will come and get the medicine, but he will know the exact reason, and he will be glad about that.
[142771]
From the Convention In Sochi 8/25/14, Lesson 4

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We make a covenant at the convention because without the covenant we cannot reach the common desire by which we reveal the Creator. It isn’t anyone’s caprice but an essential condition that is necessary for the spiritual work.

According to the law of equivalence of form, a vessel (Kli) that discovers a certain attribute must resemble that attribute in our world too. Take physics, chemistry, physiology, or anything you like for example, it is the same on all levels.

Thus we should attain the attribute of resembling and becoming equal to the Creator, and it is attained in the connection between us when we ascend above the ego. This is what we should aspire to. Such acceptance of the way, the intention, and the attainment of this state is called a covenant. Although we have not attained it yet, we commit ourselves to that.

We can tell people about that in advance. We are not hiding anything, and this is the reason we are holding the convention that has to bring us all to maximum connection and unity and even, hopefully, to the first level of resembling and being equal to the Creator, which means to His revelation.
[142769]
From the Convention In Sochi 8/25/14, Lesson 4

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We are setting a simple standard for the upcoming convention in St. Petersburg: Those who come here and who will participate in the convention have to dedicate themselves to the covenant between us, so that the Creator and the general correction will be revealed in them. This is not subject to debate.

We tell ourselves that we are in an ideal state and that the distortion of the harmony is inside of us. Everyone must find the deficiency inside him that conceals the spiritual revelation from him and from everyone else. So the main thing is to delve into myself in self-scrutiny.

All the answers are inside me since I am surrounded by wholeness and the world of Ein Sof (Infinity). So this self-scrutiny and looking deep inside ourselves comes down to a prayer to the Creator and in increasing our sensitivity to Him.

This means that we should understand that even now we are in an absolutely ideal state and that all the problems are inside of us, in our uncorrected senses. We need each other’s help and together we can reach the state in which we feel the real ideal world. This is our mission in the convention and our mission in life.

Every day will start with a friends’ meeting in which the friends from Sochi bring everyone to an emotional state. The preparation is rather long and serious, and it increases our feelings and the inner tension. As a result, each one composes his personal prayer, which is poured from him and is expressed on paper.

Then there is the first lecture about what the Creator demands of me. In the sources, it says that the Creator demands fear. We have to unite and to connect in order to gather, establish, and create the right form of tremble.

Why is that the precondition with which we enter the next state? Fear is the feeling of necessity, the feeling of having no choice, the feeling of something that is approaching, of something that is not understood. It has to be established in the form of a special necessity. It isn’t fear but an inner tremble because I have to reach the love of the created beings and through them the love of the Creator, but I cannot attain that by myself.

The final outcome at the end of the day should be a serious prayer that is attained by the broken hearts, extracting every drop of blood from the heart, everything there is in it. The day ends with a general prayer to the Creator.
[142766]
From the Convention In Sochi 8/25/14, Lesson 4

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