If you want to explore the upper force, the wisdom of Kabbalah says that you must create a tool appropriate for this. This is just like scientists who create measuring instruments: microscopes, telescopes, particle accelerators, and the like. But they are appropriate only for physical substances. So how can we explore the force that works within us, in our essence?

For this the Kabbalists recommend building a structure of ten people (Minyan) who try to create complete interconnection between them. They stabilize the characteristic of Light in their environment, whether they are ready for this or not, by wanting to make a single whole of themselves above their egos.

Such a structure already contains two forces within it: our natural egoistic force and the general force of bestowal, meaning the Creator. And the calculation here is simple: The more we overcome the force of separation with the help of the power of unification, to this degree we match, resemble, and equalize with the Upper Light.

Even when bestowal rises to a value of one percent, to that degree we resemble the Light and feel it. We feel it to the degree that the desire to bestow dominates the desire to receive.

If we try making an effort, in spite of our inability to overcome our egoistic desire, we begin to pay attention to where there is a shortcoming, how weak we still are, why we don’t succeed. And then a scream, a request, a prayer develops in us for the Light to help us, give us strength, and then we connect. Certainly we don’t have the power to connect on our own. It comes only from the Light.

That is how we advance: The Light acts and influences us according to our request; we overcome our desire to receive, absorb more of the desire to bestow; we connect between us more strongly again and again…. It is written about this: (Baba Batra 9b) “A penny and another penny accumulate into a great sum.”

And then the moment comes when we truly can unite. Then everyone feels how he disappears into the common connection between us.  “I” and the “friends” no longer exist; all merge into one. And at the moment in this state of “togetherness,” we feel fulfillment, the Upper Light, the Creator dwelling among us.

And then we can investigate Him. In other words, we have built and activated a device called a “group,” a “group of ten,” (a Minyan); and we can now advance forward by stabilizing ourselves more and more in various forms of connection. And the Creator, in accordance with our mutual connection, will be revealed more and more.

Through its influence, the Light will also awaken us to deeper and deeper layers of ego. We feel resistance, descent, and all kinds of disturbances, that makes it possible for us to turn towards the Upper Light with even greater force so that it will come and acquire the power for us to see our defects and the methods for their correction.

This is the way, 125 levels, that by ascending through them we ultimately reach “equivalence of form” with the Creator. And in this way we discover how important the characteristics of fear and anxiety are to us. After all, it is only concern and fear, “Am I capable of bestowal?” which pushes us forward.
[147099]
From the Convention In Los Angeles “Day Two” 11/1/14, Lesson #3

Related Material:
A Whole Group Of Ten
A Group And Groups Of Ten
Work With Groups Of Ten: A Permanent Threshold Of Comprehension

Filed under: Conventions, Group Work, Spiritual Work, The Tens - No Comments →

When we read books of Kabbalah, we are able to attract the Upper Light that Reforms. So it is very important at the time of the lesson to keep the right intention at every moment by remembering what one wants with each and every word that is read.

It could be that I don’t understand anything in these words about the subject itself. I came to the lesson and heard that it was necessary to open some book. I open it, read, and don’t understand anything because the things written there are completely new to me. But this is not important, I think only about my intention: What is it that I want to attain by sitting and learning?

Baal HaSulam writes in the “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot” Item 155, that the Kabbalists also designed their books for people who are not yet on spiritual levels and don’t understand what is written. But precisely thanks to studying texts they don’t understand and not for the sake of understanding but to receive the Light, they advance.

It is said, “It is not the wise who learns.” During the lesson, it is important to decide that I don’t aspire to knowledge.  “Knowing” means connection, rising to the appropriate level. “The Study of the Ten Sefirot” talks about such high levels that it will take me a long time to achieve them.

But I demand the Light that Reforms, the higher power that will influence me and correct, elevate, purify, and connect me. I ask it to differentiate between desires that are possible to correct and desires that are impossible to correct within me, so that it will be clear to me what I must work with.

This is because there are such desires and thoughts that are worthwhile for me to distinguish and not touch them. And others, on the contrary, must be awakened and discovered. By means of them, I can communicate with the group and with the Creator.

Likewise, I need to discover in what way it is possible to help the group: It is not for my desires but for the desires of the friends. So I turn to the Creator and specifically ask for strength regarding these desires, to bring the Light that Reforms to the group.
[147085]
From the Convention In Los Angeles “Day Two” 11/1/14, Lesson 4

Related Material:
Am I Smart Enough To Not Be Too Smart?
I Want The Light!
Can We Understand The Study Of The Ten Sefirot?

Filed under: Conventions, Group Work, Kabbalah Study, Spiritual Work, The Tens - No Comments →

Question: Are there rituals in the Wisdom of Kabbalah?

Answer: In the wisdom of Kabbalah there are no rituals! It is not involved with anything connected to the material world nor to a person’s physical body.

The wisdom of Kabbalah consists of a person’s inner work, which is directed towards connection and unity with others and through this correction, discovery of the Creator. There are no external actions in this, but assisting to each other toward successful spiritual work. This is work in a group, work in a group of ten (called a Minyan), gatherings of friends, shared meals, etc., in other words, all kinds of external activities that can help us to get closer to each other are welcome.

Here it is possible to immediately see the difference between a Kabbalistic group of ten and a Minyan of people who are gathered in a synagogue who are not moving towards closeness, but simply come to pray. They have no shared task to create a single whole between them and discover the Creator among them.

Whereas for us, connection in a Minyan, a group of ten, is a spiritual activity where we try to connect ourselves into a single whole, the image of one unit called Adam (Man), so our only image elevated above the ego and connecting everyone among them is built upon the characteristic of bestowal and resembling the Creator.

From this unity between us, from the common heart, we raise our request to the Creator so that He will be revealed in our unified desire, our unified heart. This is called a Kabbalistic prayer, a Kabbalistic Minyan, a group and a ritual.
[146663]
From KabTV’s “Short Stories” 10/22/14

 Related Material:
Worship Or Attainment?
Practical Kabbalah Has No Use for Red Strings
Practical Application of “Love Your Neighbor as Yourself”

Filed under: Group Work, Spiritual Work, The Tens - 1 Comment →

Question: How can a person feel that “there is none else beside Him” if he hasn’t attain bestowal yet?

Answer: Before I reach bestowal, I try to arrange in my mind and heart the opinion that “there is none else beside Him.” It is easier to do this in the mind; in the heart this is relatively more difficult.

It depends on my relationship with the group and how I build the new Kli together with them in which I am ready to decide that “there is none else beside Him.”

To the degree of the connection between us, we build our collective we, the raspberry ball, the sum total of us all. Yet in this point of we, I am not found; rather, I nullify myself. This means that in the center of this circle, I am found above my ego.

It is possible to multiply one by one all of the nullifications of ourselves: 10 times, 100 times, 1,000 times; more and more as we unite. It follows that I acquire new spiritual feelings and thoughts through which I will discover the Creator.

And to be precise, I will discover the Creator not within the group of ten, but in the connection between the groups of ten. The group of ten is said to reveal the ego within it and to rise above it to connect with the others. Indeed, the group of ten is not yet the outer circle.

When we connect with the other groups of ten, we create among us all kinds of forms of connection that are able to reveal to us particular images of the Creator and make it somewhat possible for us to see Him.

This means that there is no other place to look for “there is none else beside Him” besides the general point of connection. This is a simple job in the consolidation of all people, and so it is written: “And all nations shall flow unto it”. (Isaiah 2:2)

The feeling that “there is none else beside Him” depends solely and only on the degree of our self-nullification, because we build this above the ego, like the roof of a Sukkah. From me, I create we, and from we, we create the Creator.

The ability to nullify yourself is determined by the environment and how much you bow your head towards it. At every moment, the Creator gives a person opportunities; the Upper Light works incessantly, but everything depends upon your agreement to be nullified, and whether or not you will use the opportunities given to you.

If you have not prepared yourself, you will receive the Light from the opposite side, meaning that instead of His approach, you will feel distance. That is how it happens in regular life. You are given some kind of unique opportunity to advance, and you accept it as a disturbance and an obstacle. You have not prepared for a leap like this, and so instead of a springboard, you see a high and impassable barrier.

There is freedom of choice in only one thing: nullifying before the environment, being included within it, and being like the friends in everything. Try to realize this potential. You are ready to do this! Your freedom of choice is only in this and you don’t need anything more. The Creator brings you to the good fortune,  and from this point, there is no way back, only forward.

Begin to enter the group, be included within it, and build a common Kli with the others in which you will discover the higher power. Our world is a world of action. We are found within in because it is possible to carry out actions within it without the agreement of the heart. In this is the entire foundation for our imaginary world, but this game makes it possible for us to advance and build our spiritual independence, and this is specifically thanks to our being deceivers.
[145320]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/10/14, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
Rejecting Our Present Selves
The Concealment That Precedes Revelation
Two States

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work, The Creator, The Tens - No Comments →

Question: When in a large group, a group of ten helps the friends care for one another and support each other in their studies and dissemination, but on the other hand, it somewhat replaces one’s attitude towards the group and creates a certain egoistic formation within the group. There is even competition between the tens. How can we solve this dualism in a large group?

Answer: This is a very good state but we have not yet fully experienced it, so it is hard to answer this question. Maybe we need to organize ourselves in a whole new way and create a different kind of connection between us.

It is easier to interact in a small group. But what can we do in a large group where, presumably, one hundred people divide into ten groups? There needs to be a connection between them as well.

When it comes to a common system, being in one common net, “One’s as good as none.” Only the ten is a Minyan.

Minyan translates as “count” from Hebrew (from the word Mune). In other words, the count begins with a ten.

In the spiritual system, a ten is a unit, one knot that contains ten people. But they are not a knot but a Minyan until they unite as one man with one heart. Minyan is a single unit, ten together as one.

Tens must connect with one another as a hierarchy: initially, ten people connect as one and on the next level ten groups connect as a single group, etc.

This has never before existed in the world. And so we must advance little by little as we learn by experience. And we will be given an example from above.

And so the question remains. I want everyone to feel that this is an open question and that we do not know what to do, because this makes it a sort of a request for a solution.
[145703]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/8/14, Writing of Rabash

Related Material:
Regarding Mutual Connection And Love
A Group And Groups Of Ten
A Whole Group Of Ten

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work, The Tens - No Comments →

Question: How should we invoke fear properly? Should it be from the center of the group by myself as an individual?

Answer: I can spur the group, not as a spiritual person, but as a corporeal egoistic individual. However, if I merge with the group, I am already a spiritual element because the group is a spiritual body, and it is possible to influence the environment on the next level through it.

Do you want to ascend to a higher level? It is possible only through the group of ten!

On the next level when you connect ten groups of ten into one, you will work on a level of a hundred, and so on. This is how the system is organized. Moreover, it works in depth rather than breadth, i.e., in the general deepening. We have to pay attention to that and constantly aspire for improving the quality of our connection. This is very important.
[145650]
From the Convention In St. Petersburg “Day One” 9/19/14, Workshop 1

Related Material:
Equality In The Group Is A Vital Necessity
Let’s Melt Into One Another
The Circles Of Life

Filed under: Conventions, Group Work, Spiritual Work, The Tens - No Comments →

Question: When we work in a group of ten, it seems that we are restrained because we are ashamed to reveal some things. In a relationship between two friends, we act with greater freedom.

Answer: It is not about freedom. Rather, in the meantime, there is no other structure through which it is possible to feel the next level before even entering it. It is discovered very sharply and suddenly, as a result of gathering immense internal potential.

Essentially, you are building yourselves. In the connection between you, you begin to acquire some new sensations, habits, characteristics, and intelligence, and to discover all kinds of different feelings. In this way, even before entering the upper world, you build within yourselves a system of consciousness and the perception of it.

When a person proceeds alone, everything happens differently. Today our world is moving in a different direction, only in the form of a group! If there is no group, it is very difficult to work in pairs, and it is even more difficult to work as a pair with the teacher. It is difficult because you begin to abuse him, belittling him and relating to him as a parent. In general, this is how we relate to parents, as if they owe us something.

My teacher, Rabash, had a similar situation. He told me how difficult it was for him to nullify himself constantly toward his father. So, it is also difficult to nullify yourself toward the teacher if you learn with him in a pair. This is called  student–friend, and this is not easy.

So, be thankful, and consider yourself blessed that you have a group.
[145000]
From the Convention In St. Petersburg “Day Two” 9/20/14, Lesson 3

Related Material:
Like My Ten Fingers
Two People Is Also A “Group Of Ten”
Let’s Share The Work

Filed under: Conventions, Group Work, Spiritual Work, The Tens - No Comments →

We must reach an absolute connection between us, and we are now beginning to feel that this is being realized through our shared actions.

The first true connection between us will give us a feeling of the upper world. This connection will be called the ten Sefirot of the Kli, and the mutual shared feeling that fills us will be called Light.

The first Partzuf will be created within us, consisting of the Sefirot of Keter, Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin, and Malchut with the Lights of NRNHY in which we begin to feel the higher, eternal, complete, and true state. We will then understand that the present state we now exist in is like a dream that is given to us so that we will be pushed, and in thrusting ourselves away from it, we will be awakened and begin to work in a practical manner.

To attain this, we must carry out a multitude of activities. But for the purpose of the appearance of a yearning for connection between us, our single group of ten or even a group composed of many groups of ten, is not enough.

If we want our spiritual needs to develop constantly so that we will be obligated to yearn for each other and the Creator, we must feed our desires all the time.

They do not appear within us by themselves; in order for them to appear, we must go out to the wider strata of the shattered Kli, meaning to all of humanity, to try and find additional desires among them. We must attract them to us, and in this manner we cultivate within us a yearning for coming together and elevation.

It is forbidden for us to forget about this, otherwise we will wither away. People who don’t find themselves in dissemination outside of their group withhold an incentive and drive towards elevation from themselves. They will begin to sit instead until they lose the general common drive, and the group will be disbanded.

So in the movement from me to we, we must remember wider dissemination. This could be the wisdom of Kabbalah or the wisdom of connection (Integral Education and Knowledge). It is not important what we call it; the main thing is that this is a wisdom about the right connection and unity, the restoration of the same collective Kli, the only desire that was shattered and destroyed from the start, even before the creation of our world.

We know that the authors of The Book of Zohar, when they gathered together to write it in a state of unity, were always discovering such hatred within themselves that they were ready to burn each other. And these were great people in the attainment of the head of the world of Atzilut. In this exact manner the shattering of the Kli of the collective soul was discovered in them.

But they had no other way to disseminate other than describing their attainments to help us with our correction, and in this was their correction. In this way, they departed from their ego and finished the work with absolute love. They then succeeded in describing great levels of elevation in The Book of Zohar.

If we turn to other Kabbalistic sources, they all speak about one one thing: issues about connection and the laws and general rules of unity between people in our world, and after that, unity between the souls until the discovery of the only corrected state.
[145306]
From the Convention In St. Petersburg “Day Two” 9/20/14, Lesson 4

Related Material:
In The Connection Between Us
The Start Of The Countdown
Everything Is Within The Group Of Ten

Filed under: Collective Soul, Conventions, Group Work, Kabbalah Dissemination, Spiritual Work, The Tens - No Comments →

Question: If a person in our group of ten is sick and suffering, can we help him somehow?

Answer: You must help him in any way possible.

A group of ten is Arvut—one for all and all for one. It is a clear understanding that only together can we attain the goal and that each friend is more important to me than myself.

Question: And so he becomes healthy?

Answer: If you want that very much, then yes.

Question: Perhaps there is some kind of algorithm about what to think. Advise us about what is important so that the person will truly become healthy.

Answer: I cannot do this because all of your algorithms will be egoistic. We are not on the same level so our requests to the Creator and our requests for the health of the friend will be able to be integrated. In the meantime, they cannot be integrated. So I cannot speak about something that is more than this so that you will not egoistically begin to use everything that comes up in your mind.

You must help a friend in healing or stabilizing domestic problems through your good desires and intentions on the normal physical level.
[145045]
From the Convention In St. Petersburg “Day Three” 9/21/14, lesson 5

Related Material:
I Am The Only One Who Is Ill
Divide The Collective Burden Between Everyone
Solving Problems By The Right Intention

Filed under: Conventions, Group Work, Mutual Guarantee, Spiritual Work, The Tens - No Comments →

Question: There is a sense of very strong unity in our ten, but, at the same time, there is a feeling as if the heart is covered with a crust, and nothing can shake it up. What do we do with this?

Answer: Kiss this state the way one kisses the stick that hits him.

In fact, it is a wonderful revelation, but a person perceives it like an unpleasant state since, with it, you fall into a silent, dull despair.

Moreover, the concept of the Creator is somehow blurred. You seem to hear what is said about Him, but do not feel anything. Right now, it is some abstract notion to you, not properties and forces. You cannot attach Him to anything because the Pharaoh (ego) fills your common heart.

Nevertheless, there is a small point from which you determine that you are under the influence of Pharaoh, and this actually is the very state of despair from which, seemingly, there is no way out. It is better to forget, erase everything, press some button inside yourself, and end up in a land far, far away.

Such states will keep taking hold of you over and over. This continues beyond the exodus from Egypt because you need to attach all these egoistic desires to yourself during the forty years of wandering in the desert and the ascent to Bina, and in conquering the land of Israel, which is the work with the vessels (Kelim) of reception. You will always have these descents, and each time they will be deeper and deeper.

What can we do? In such cases we immediately begin to read from our sources. If possible, one should immediately run to the group. It is the most effective thing possible. One can engage in any form of dissemination, but the best of all is physical contact. If you are alone and there are no other options, then try to listen or read, but do it very clearly and intensely. We need to plow our egoism.
[144987]
From the Convention In St. Petersburg “Day Two” 9/20/14, lesson 3

Related Material:
The Common Point In The Heart
Nine People Oblige The Tenth
Plagues For The Sake Of Future Life

Filed under: Conventions, Egoism, Group Work, Spiritual Work, The Tens - No Comments →