While reading The Zohar, we mustn’t forget that that it is only speaking about the connection among us in its different forms. The Zohar tells us how we can rise by this connection to higher levels each time, how we can strengthen it through the “three lines,” the new Reshimot (informational genes), awakenings, illuminations in the levels of Ibur (conception), Yenika (nurturing) and Mochin (maturity), and so forth.

This is all in order to tighten the connection among us, which means to connect our vessel more and more tightly by correcting the shattering and according to the intensity of the connection to discover the attribute of mutual bestowal that resides among the parts that were separated, and which are now connecting to each other above our ego. This is called the upper Light that is revealed among us.

If the parts annul themselves only in order to connect, it is called the Light of Hassadim, but if they also work with their ego in order to connect, it is called the Light of Hochma. This is connection, and there is nothing but that.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/21/12, The Zohar

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Question: What is the difference between a lesson and a workshop?

Answer: The workshop serves as preparation for the lesson. And so, each lesson should also be similar to a workshop since we must prepare the common intention, the desire to become one, the one corresponding to the unified desire of one force. Without any preceding preparation like this, it would not be the learning of the Torah, but the study of wisdom.

The study of the Torah symbolizes the disclosure of the evil inclination that needs to be corrected. The correction of the evil inclination is the connection with others and the attainment of love, the correction of the breaking. Thus, each lesson needs to become an addition to the workshop and bring us to a higher level.

In the workshops, we learn how to prepare quickly for each lesson. Then, all of our lives will transform into one incessant workshop. This is so that we never lose the feeling of unity and constantly connect more and more.

In this way, we examine all the details in the common Kli and solve all the problems in life as a whole, both corporeal and spiritual. By our acting from within the center of the group, from within our shared feeling, we can perform real miracles.

The workshop is a clarification of our intention, the connection, our necessity to connect between us, mutual guarantee, responsibility, the commitment of each one for the other in the general group, and the obligation in regard to our teachers, the sources, and the entire world. Everything together determines our responsibility and the only obligation to the Creator.

Through our uniting in a circle, we create a place in this central point through which it is possible to break out of the material borders. Everything is in the hands of the group.

Thus, the subject of the discussion is not so important, but the main thing is how we try to connect via the subject. This means that it is just a means of searching after a greater connection.

All the worlds, Partzufim, Sefirot, and Reshimot are clarified only in the center of the group where the steps of the spiritual ladder are revealed. Nevertheless, only now are we starting the work from the beginning.

All of these workshops will go into the archive so that every person in the world can use them to emotionally participate in this work and advance. In the end, the entire world will become one group around one round table, one family.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/12, ”Talk About Past Conventions”

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Question: How can I check that I have returned to the center of the group during the workshop?

Answer: The center of the group is our only upper point, the upper desire, the place, where all our desires unite and wherever we look we see Divinity, the revelation of the Creator.

We will learn to check this in more “professional” ways in the future, according to the three parts of the existence of reality “world-year-soul,” according to the three lines. But as long as we cannot hold on to all these spiritual discernments, I check that I have reached the center of the group when I begin to discover that there is something outside my “I.”

It is as if I am under the influence of the force that is above me, which controls me, but only according to my desire, only if I let it control me! It doesn’t enslave me as often happens in other methods when a person is hypnotized like a “zombie” under their influence and cannot escape.

Here I am constantly conscious and fully understand: I understand that I can disconnect myself from this influence. Yet, I constantly choose to stay under its control. Every time I choose a greater connection, I add finer discernments to this state, both in feeling and in the mind. This means that I am at the most central point.

This central point begins to grow in relation to me and to clarify different discernments that are in it: my attitude to the friends, to myself, to the study, to the teacher, and to the whole world. I feel that all my relationships and my connections with everyone are centered in this one point. This means that I begin to work on it in every situation in my life.

In order not to detach myself from this center, I have to invest emotional and mental efforts in the mind and heart. According to these efforts I will discover what the true mind and heart are, because these are not ordinary corporeal attributes, but rather special spiritual attributes.

All my work is to clarify to what extent I can adhere to the center, to the upper, in every situation. I am like an organ that is returned to its place that feels that it isn’t simply stitched on to the body, but begins to live in it, to use its powers, and to bestow something on my part by taking part in the collective actions. This is already the feeling of life!
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/22/12, “Talk About the Workshop”

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By our efforts to be included in the center of the group, we will learn what mutual guarantee is. This isn’t a theoretical concept and not some static state; it is a method, a plan, of the connection among us. It absolutely determines how we “stick” to one another, like cogwheels.

But we must constantly remain both close and separate from one another because it is this state that enables us to keep the uniqueness of everyone and to find what everyone’s part is in the general life. Everyone adds and enriches the others by wanting to adhere to everyone, despite the feeling of separation.

It is like a living organism in which every organ keeps its uniqueness and doesn’t annul itself among the other organs, forgetting the special job entrusted to it. On the contrary, it performs its job faithfully by using all its special attributes and discernments and by them expressing its uniqueness to others.

One is green, another is yellow, and a third one is blue; everyone keeps his color, but we all contribute our colors into one whole wonderful picture. Therefore mutual guarantee and the concept of connection itself are revealed only in the center, where we learn to combine the two ends—personal freedom and our collective dependence.

We begin to respect our separation and understand why the Creator created us with an evil inclination. We see how He helps us by standing in our way to connect. The ego is no less important than the force of connection, standing directly in front of it equally. Only by the gap between the two—on the one hand, the feeling of my oppositeness and on the other hand the equality—do I acquire an understanding, recognition and mind.

I remain separate and still adhere to the center. Thanks to that, all the infinite space between the separation and the adhesion, the whole distance between the point of this world and the world of Ein Sof, becomes the place for the revelation of the essence of the Creator. Otherwise, I would never be able to attain Him. I would remain as one point that was lost and melted into the Light.

Therefore our main constant work is to clarify the center of the group, in order to find our place and to discover this concept more clearly until we reach Gmar Tikkun (the end of correction). On the way we attain the worlds, Partzufim, and the upper Sefirot because they all symbolize our relationship.

Everything the wisdom of Kabbalah speaks about, the whole path, starting from the point of unity that exists thanks to the upper force until the point of unity that was created by our efforts, is the revelation of different ways of connection among us, called the worlds, Partzufim and Sefirot.

But when we clarify the system of connections among us, we discover that it actually determines the conditions for resembling the upper Light. So our connection is increasingly more adapted to the upper Light and accordingly the Light is revealed in this connection as the force of vitality, the force of attainment and understanding. This feeling of life grows stronger until all the connections among us are corrected and then the Light, the force of life, is revealed in its full measure.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/22/12, “Talk About the Workshop”

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Question: How can we reach the center of the group?

Answer: We must constantly think about our common force so it would correspond to the Creator. It has to grow forth from our equal cooperation, where every person bows down his head, joins the group, and raises the friends in his eyes since without them he would not be able to take one step toward the goal. His mind and feeling are born out of unification, and inside the unity, he finds his soul. Thus, aspiring to the center means aspiring to one’s soul.

No one has his own, separate soul. Baal HaSulam writes that only one soul, one common vessel was created. Therefore, without revealing the center of the group, we remain on the “animate” level, outside of the spiritual world, outside of our soul, and exist in the material bodies.

We must constantly form the center of the group. It is a point, like an elevator that rises up the spiritual degrees by the might of the unity of its constituent parts, rising higher and higher, to greater quality, to a greater concentration of our aspirations and desires. This enormous field is the “territory” of our common vessel.

The Creator endowed us with various qualities by means of the breaking, and with the help of intention we focus on the central point.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/23/12

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Question: What kind of an effort do we need during the seminar? Should it be a burst like that of an attack, or a fine internal search?

Answer: The seminar and our path in general are completely based on feelings, since we are clarifying everything inside of our material, the desire to enjoy. The desire perceives itself through feeling, but in order to realize the different states experienced, we need the mind. The mind comes to us only on the elevated levels, when we begin to unite desires in hope of reaching a corrected vessel. And this is when we begin to form our spiritual mind.

Prior to this we are only at the disposal of the earthly, animate mind, which helps us to better serve our egoism. This mind does not ascend higher than the level of this world because the lot of a slave adjusts to his master. That’s why those feelings and the mind with which we exist now are completely limited by the level of this world and don’t have anything pertaining to the spiritual. And here, it’s not important how smart a person is. This absolutely does not relate to the spiritual.

With the new feelings and mind, which do relate to spirituality, we now begin to develop in the search for our common point. This sensitivity must localize in the area where we are connected to each other, in the center of the group. The mind will appear in order to uncover the various subtleties in this and to help us unite. These are already the spiritual feelings and mind, belonging to the spiritual ladder.

That’s why at the seminar the inspiration precisely for unity must reign, and not a simple enthusiasm in the hope of receiving new knowledge and for the development of the self. If I want my awakening and preparation for the seminar to join into this work, then from the very beginning I need to focus myself only towards unity. This means focusing on the importance of unity, the importance of the group and friends, and not to long only to attain something by and for myself. It’s a pity for those who exert such futile efforts, since they will be left out of the circle.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/21/12, “Talk About the Seminar”

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In the News (from Bloomberg Businessweek): “It’s just after lunchtime on a drizzly day in the Amsterdam suburb of Bos en Lommer, and the line of people waiting to fill their bags with free rice, juice, potatoes and bread is lengthening.

“The market is one of 135 food banks in the Netherlands bailing out people trying to survive on less than 180 euros ($234) a month, the threshold to qualify for the aid. Organizers say demand for the service rose 20 percent in the first quarter…

“Europeans everywhere are changing jobs, homes and habits to accommodate lower pay, shifting markets and slowing economies. …

“The crisis is now at the door of nations previously considered invulnerable such as the Netherlands. …

“‘The lines will get bigger and bigger as more people lose their jobs and have trouble paying their rent or mortgage,’ said Piet van Diepen, a food bank board member.

“In the Netherlands, more than 23,000 people get aid from the food bank, he said. The numbers also are increasing in places such as Britain, where figures showed this month that the economy has slipped back into recession amid the biggest budget cuts of any of the 10 largest EU countries.”

My Comment: This could be an opportunity to send these people to courses on integral upbringing. In a few months, the face of Europe could change. Social relations, mutual guarantee, communication, and sense of community would lead to the similarity to the fundamental law of nature of unity and cooperation.

To that extent, we would feel that social and political tension decrease, and we would discover new mechanisms of the regulation of social life. As Baal HaSulam writes, the country that decides to implement the system of uniting society through the education of its citizens will become the most prosperous and exemplary country in the world in a few months.
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In the News (from Business News Daily): “According to a study of co-author Bryan Bonner, an associate professor at the University of Utah’s David Eccles School of Business, ‘for groups to be successful, they must exploit the knowledge of their (individual) members effectively.’

“The research, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, proved this by looking at how both individuals and groups answered difficult questions. …

“’People find they often know more than they think they do. They realize that they might not know the whole answer to the problem, but there are a couple things they do know that might help the group come to a solution.’”

“Therefore, leveraging what individuals already know is the key to solving a range of problems, according to the research.

“According to Bonner and co-author Michael Baumann, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Texas in San Antonio, improving the ability to transfer old knowledge to new situations may be as simple as attempting to solve problems with others. This is because, when several people team up to solve problems, the group has several viewpoints to bring together in order to reach a solution.

“’Although the sheer amount of brainpower it takes to consistently and effectively transfer learning from old to new is beyond many individuals, groups of people working together can actually be very good at it,’ the researchers said.

“With that in mind, this research may not only change the way organizations go about solving problems, but also how organizations are constructed in the first place.”

My Comment: At all levels of unity, the likeness to the single organism of nature is good. Gathering separate people into a single organism immediately creates not only a simple sum, but more than the sum of them, precisely due to the force of the similarity to unity, the property of the Creator.
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Question: What is the best way for the virtual student to participate in the workshop?

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The last conventions indicate the beginning of a new era in which we have to practically fulfill everything we’ve learned for so many years, what we’ve read in the letters and the articles of Baal HaSulam and Rabash: the connection in the group, the unity with friends, and the clarification of the place inside the group where the spiritual world, the Creator, the building of the collective vessel, and the correction and the shattering are revealed.

Actually, all the descriptions refer to one action: the connection of all the shattered, distant, opposite desires that hate each other with the help of the Reforming Light, which we draw by our collective prayer, raising MAN, during the workshops, the different activities, and all the time until we perceive the spiritual goal of our life.

We should see this as a general trend that affects every aspect of our lives: educating children and adults, our groups, and the whole word, everyone, from the individual to all of humanity, and seeing this trend to connect in “circles,” which is the major trend leading to the correction of the shattering and the attainment of the goal of creation.

We can regard the whole way we’ve made so far as the time of preparation, and from now onward we and the whole world must start to build such circles.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/12, “Talk About Past Conventions”

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