Baal HaSulam, Shamati #56: …brought in Masechet Ta’anit (p.20), that Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon, came from a fenced tower from the house of his Rabbi. He was riding his donkey and strolling along the riverbank, feeling great joy. And his mind was crude, as he had been studying much Torah.

A person who was very ugly came by his way. He told him: “Hello Rabbi,” but he did not reply. He told him: “Vain, how ugly is that man, perhaps all your town’s men are as ugly as you?” He replied, “I do not know, but go and tell the craftsman who made me, How ugly is this vessel that you have made?” Because he knew that he himself had sinned, he descended from the donkey…

Because he saw that he had come into a state from which he could not ascend. For this reason Elijah appeared and told him, “go to the craftsman who made me.” In other words, since the Creator created you so ugly, He must have known that it is with these Kelim (vessels) that the goal can be achieved. So do not worry, go forward and succeed.

At the end of the matter, everything is gathered for work in a group, in our connection. In this connection we need to learn the inner Torah (the wisdom of Kabbalah), in order to summon the Light that Reforms to the place of connection. For we want this to exist in such a form that within it we already begin to discover and feel the Creator. We must attain a deficiency for this and give it shape both through work between us and from external Kelim also, through involvement with dissemination.

This is to say that it’s clear to us that there are three circles here. The outer circle is the world, which must improve its condition but is found to be severed from spirituality. After that is us, the conduit, the accommodator. We always want to be connected with the Creator and yearn for spirituality; that is, we want to be the bestowal part of creation. And the third component is the higher force, the Creator, our higher level, which is clothed within us and manifests this entire process.

If we are found in the right group, with the right study and the right intention, then to the degree that we advance, the Upper Light influences us, and we definitely feel ourselves (our characteristics) as more and more “ugly.” Even so, it’s necessary to continue to learn about these states, about all the feelings of our ugliness, each one of us separately and all of us together; to undergo descents, to endure our nothingness, to comprehend ourselves and everyone as complete nothings. But in regard to all of these emotions, the Light appears again and brings us to connection and to fulfillment. This is how we advance.

Therefore, Rabbi Elazar overcame it and continued on his way. And we must also do the same thing: overcome and go on.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/14/13, Shamati #56 “Torah Is Called Indication”

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Baal HaSulam, Shamati #3, “The Matter of Spiritual Attainment”: In order for us to attain what He had wanted us to attain and understand as “His desire to do good to His creations,” He created and imparted us with these senses, and these senses attain their impressions of the Upper Light.

The created being sees the one Light of Ein Sof (Infinity) and the one vessel as divided to different levels of Aviut (thickness), to many discernments in which it is possible to differentiate between the mutual relationships between the Creator and the created being.

It seems that we are advancing toward a simpler Light, but it isn’t so. After all, we collect more and more vessels, desires, that are more clarified, discrete, separate and singular and, at the same time, mutually connected by billions of ties between them. In this infinite versatility, we reach the Light of Ein Sof.

It turns out that our work doesn’t lead us to simplicity, but rather to complexity, and it is from this complexity that we reach simplicity.

We need all these multiple discernments, which actually increase in the ascent to Ein Sof. They increase in the form of a cone that gradually expands because our desires keep on growing, and, accordingly, newer Lights are revealed: NRNHY in each and every part.

At first, we rise and are only a point, but later each one is multiplied by ten Sefirot, and they are also multiplied and so forth. According to the old legend, the rice grains were also multiplied, and the governor used them to pay the wise man for every square on the chess board by multiplying their amount each time until it became a great amount. This is only a small example as to what we reach in the clarifications of the Lights of NRNHY of NRNHY, and so on, and thus we rise and discover new discernments.

On the other hand, it becomes increasingly simpler since every ten Sefirot from the lower level unite and become one on the next level. So, the picture of this world doesn’t disintegrate, but paradoxically grows clearer since there are more discernments. It is because we receive the simple Light from above and our vessels become more closely united.

Thus, we reach analysis and synthesis, which means separation and connection, and we reach it all at once. So, our perception isn’t split and it isn’t confused and doesn’t suffer from a schizophrenic syndrome, but we actually reach simplicity, although this simplicity is complicated all the time.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/12/13, Shamati #3 “The Matter of Spiritual Attainment”

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Question: No matter what I do, I feel that there is a wall between the friends and me, but I don’t have the power or the desire to destroy it. We cannot connect during the study because we lack connection with the teacher.

Answer: It doesn’t matter; you still have to act. Or do you want more suffering? If you are pressured strongly, you will feel that only the friends can save you, and you will immediately run to them, break the inner emotional wall that separates you from them, and want to connect totally with them, at least because you want to get rid of your problems of the pain, the fear and the worry from something that simply drives you crazy.

So, do you want such suffering? You feel that if it weren’t for them, you would never be able to shatter the wall between you and the friends. Don’t slander yourself. It is better that you act.

Others must help you feel what a friend is. On the one hand, they must show great love between them to show you that you are not part of that, so that you will feel great envy, “What is happening to me? Why am I not with everyone?” On the other hand, they should show you that they are a bit distant from you and show you some disrespect as if you are not part of them anymore so that you will feel some rejection. They should start shaking you a bit.

Question: There is a special modesty in our group.

Answer: It isn’t modesty! It is laziness! How is modesty expressed if I don’t help the friend?

I have to wake up, nag, and tease him, but to a limit, skillfully. Otherwise, how will I help him? Rabash says that we must show one another the importance of the goal. If I show the others that the goal is everything for me, then there is nothing but that! What else is there in life? What else is there in the world?

At the same time, when he looks at me, he will begin to envy me at first. Secondly, he may even hate me to some degree (depending on the level of correction he is on), and he also may thank me for showing it to him. In any case, he doesn’t remain indifferent anymore. This is how we continue to operate.
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From the Talk about Group and Dissemination 10/21/13

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Nothing can be changed in this world except our perception of the world. The world doesn’t change, but a person seeing himself inside it from a different angle, and the entire world appears completely different: positive, full of light, happiness, and absolute good.

Today our world looks defective, uncomfortable, uncertain and full of challenges and threats only because of our level of vision.

The only thing that really matters is our belonging to the group, including ourselves in it to the extent that there is nothing left of us, constantly submitting to its influence. It takes many years to convince ourselves that it is true; it takes a while before small portions of the Light begin influencing us. At the same time, it all depends solely on us.

We have to continue our efforts to connect at congresses and at the meetings of friends, seeing how we were before the meeting and how we’ve changed after it, as I was included in what the friends became. How can I do so, so that we can make a potential leap that will raise me to the next level and will allow us to see the world in the Light of the Creator, and then it will be absolute?

There is nothing we can change except our vision of the world, because the only thing that can be corrected is our vessels, Kelim, our bodies of sensation, and the world remains the same, the world of Infinity; we float only in it. Therefore, the only thing that we have to change is our perception of the world.

I would like you to feel the difference in the fulfillment that is a billion times stronger than the one we receive out of the best material states. In fact, it is the truth; it is not just another way to run away from numerous problems. All troubles and obstacles, everything that ever happens to us both internally and externally, will turn into the absolute Light. We will eventually achieve this state.

Again, I thank the entire world group for supporting this convention and particularly I would like to express my warmest gratitude to the central Israeli group that carries out a huge, dedicated work in the dissemination of our knowledge.

It’s not exactly the disclosure Kabbalah, but rather, a collective work that promotes human enlightenment in extremely complicated, critical conditions that are sent to us by the Creator. The Creator plays games with us by arranging extreme situations so that we go by “faith above reason” and advance with our eyes closed, above our calculations. This is what our Israeli group does. I am extremely grateful to the entire world group for their support. Thank you all.
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From the Bulgaria Convention “Dawn Of A New World” Day One 11/1/13, Lesson 2

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Question: How must we relate to pride?

Answer: What is bad about this characteristic? I must be proud. It is said: (Chronicles II 17:6) “And his heart was uplifted in the ways of the Lord.” This is to say, I am proud that I belong to the higher level of humanity which is created by the Upper Light, the part that the Creator wants to elevate. This is the next level of elevation, the highest of all of humanity, and it must enter into contact with the Creator now.

I want this, I am proud that I am on this level together with my friends. Why not? There must be the proper kind of pride, not the pride where you despise others, but rather, where you become the conduit of the Upper Light for all of humanity and begin to be concerned about them like the higher with respect to the lower. You are concerned about it with love, and this is a higher pride of a completely different type, like a father regarding to his children.

Question: But on the other hand, pride leads the person to isolation, to seclusion.

Answer: It depends on what kind of pride you are talking about. I am talking about the good kind of pride. Now choose which one of them you are fin, ask that only a good pride should remain in you.
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From the Talk about Group and Dissemination 10/21/13

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Question: You constantly use the word “unity.” What is this unity? Is it what the Nazis had?

Answer: We are talking about unity above our egoism.

We are all egoists. Egoism is my nature; there is nothing else. Hence, unity above it must be built in the direction of a completely different area where we become united as a single “we.”

What is meant by “we”? If each unites with their egoism against someone else, then it is fascism. If we unite above everyone’s individual egoism for the sake of everyone and for the sake of the Creator, then it is altruism. That is all.

In our unity, in “we,” I do not see any opponents except my personal egoistic properties. Every person in the end must analyze and reveal this himself.
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From the Talk about Group and Dissemination 10/21/13

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Question: What does it mean to “take everything through the group?” Is it to tell the group about all one’s problems?

Answer: To take everything through the group does not mean that you must tell it everything, although, of course, this principle is partially realized in this way. However, the most important thing is to feel that you are uniting with friends.

This is an internal movement. You hear them, talk to them, and sit with them, all the time trying to “enter” them, to be with them as one whole, up to the point that you start feeling how you begin to enter the upper world through them.

A feeling of the group begins with a simple physical feeling of the friends’ presence. The next stage is a kind of feeling of community.

Then, perhaps, a feeling of dependence emerges. Next comes a feeling of connection and love.

Thus, gradually, inside of this, a new entity, which we are, begins to show, and, inside  this “we,” the Creator begins to be felt. However, this “we” does not relate to anyone. It is not the sum of us, but one collective whole.

Similarly, a large drop of water is not the sum of all the previous drops from which it was formed because it is a drop by itself. If, for example, twenty droplets merge into one drop, then there are no divisions in it. It is not the sum of the previous drops, but one common whole including all of them. We have to come to this.

As soon as we gather ourselves in the first drop in which there are no divisions, the Creator will be manifested in it immediately. And if we are somehow divided in it, we cannot merge in a single drop; this means that there are the remnants of our breaking, and then the Creator cannot be revealed. This is how it works.
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From the Talk about Group and Dissemination 10/21/13

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Question: Today the united Americas integral convention begins. There will be more than 500 new students participating, students of the Education Center who will be joining different groups from North America to South America. For many it will be their first encounter with the right environment; how should we receive them correctly?

Answer: We must rise above the differences of this world; ignore them. We have a spiritual point that we should reach, it is exactly what we need to depend on it, so let’s take a leap above this world, leave and forget all our daily activities and accounts and all the differences between us for the next couple of days. Let’s not talk or think about corporeality at all, as if we have reached another planet where the convention takes place.

We should detach ourselves from everything that is unnecessary and leave all the accounts behind. I don’t intend to clarify what is happening in my ordinary corporeal life during the convention, and not even about what happens in my daily spiritual life. It is as if I move to another interface, erasing everything there was and entering a new inter-planetary atmosphere. This is the only place I want to be in for the next three days or at least during the time of the convention.

I connect to it as if there is no tomorrow. The past until yesterday is erased. Otherwise I will constantly be confused between myself and others, between yesterday and today, and I will not understand anything.

We have to establish the next new level of existence that is totally new and which has nothing to do with what we had before, not personally and not group wise. The history of the relationship of the people who were once with us and have left, etc., is irrelevant; we don’t want to remember anything. Now we see everyone on a spiritual level only and that’s it.

Different languages and different cultures don’t matter. The people who have gathered here have only one burning desire, to connect in order to reveal the Creator. That’s all. I don’t want to know anything else about them, it is because the desire and the urge to connect with others and to reveal the Creator is a desire that has nothing to do with any differences on the level of this world. We simply need to detach ourselves and to reach something new, new relations that exist on the new planet. The old world remains far behind and disappears; we are in a new place, in new emotions and thoughts, only looking forward, disconnecting from everything there was yesterday. There is no yesterday. We are all totally detached from everything.

It says that a person should see himself as new every day, so let’s do it at least once.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/15/13, A Talk About the American Convention

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Question: What is the purpose of the united Americas integral convention?

Answer: The wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us that our only correction is to connect into one vessel. Its shattering has pulled us apart and so instead of the spiritual world, the spiritual dimension, everyone feels only the spark and the minimal vitality that is called this world. Now in order to return to the feeling of the real world and not the fictitious world, to return to this here and now without waiting for some illusionary existence in the next world, we have to connect. By that we reconstruct the vessel that existed before; we understand, feel, and love in it on a level that is 620 times higher than it was before the shattering.

Thus we attain the Creator and ourselves equivalent to Him, adhered to Him and so on. All this is attained only by connection.

Although we cannot connect, since we are all in an attribute that is opposite from connection, we can summon the Light that Reforms. The Light that used to fill us and that disappeared during the shattering can now come and illuminate on us and connect us. So if we perform actions that draw the Light that Reforms, we connect, and in the connection between us, we discover the upper world, the Creator. This is our work.

This is why we are so happy to be in this convention; understand how important it is, and pin great hopes on it.

We must be sure that no matter what happens, this step is very important. Later all of humanity will also have to go through these changes and today by doing it ourselves, we set an example for them. It is because we are in frameworks of one system together with all of humanity, so what we attain in the connection between us will be passed on to others, to all of humanity, and then suddenly all of humanity will also begin to think that way, without even knowing why.

This means that our work is very important for us and for the whole world.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/15/13, A Talk About the American Convention

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Question: You have said many times that envy, hate, and honor help friends in a group advance towards unity.

Answer: If friends in a group yearn for unity and begin to feel all kinds of disturbances between them, jealousy, hatred, and rejection, then they must understand that this is given to them by the Creator intentionally in order to add additional forces, yearning for unity, which they require in order to exist on the first level.

Therefore, whenever we go forward, we always receive disturbances because our capacity is not enough to rise upward. I rise a little, but it is not enough, and I am thrown down. Again I rise a little and I am thrown down, but after this, all of these small disturbances are connected.

We cannot reach the first level in one jump. Suppose I am on level zero and I must rise to the first level, how can I do this? The Creator shatters this level into a multitude of states where I go up and down, up and down.

I cannot rise above a particular level, and I am elevated but not in a meaningful way.

But after that, a connection is made by the sum of all my previous states which are required to ascend to the first level.

Therefore it seems to a person that the same thing is happening all the time, it can even be much worse than it was before, but in fact, it is all connected into one sum. As it is said, one penny plus another gathers into a great sum until all the pennies are gathered into one treasure, which is revealed all at once.

Therefore, patience is the most important thing along the way. And someone whose arrogance speaks from his throat is left with his own interests; nothing will happen for him. The main thing is to adjust oneself patiently.

Every state we pass, each convention, lesson, workshop, every time we disseminate, and so forth, everything is gathered. These activities don’t disappear; they are entered into your “account book,” which establishes how much is left for you until the first level.

And after this is attained, then everything becomes clear and you proceed with open eyes. But the first level is the most difficult; therefore, it is called the “exodus from Egypt.” All the rest of the levels are also not simple, but we pass through them with understanding, with awareness, with real movement. Whereas this level is completely closed off from us.
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From the Bulgaria Convention “Dawn Of A New World” Day Two 11/2/13, Lesson 4

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