Question: How do I check that I strengthen my connection with friends during the lesson?

Answer: First of all, this is most important. Our spiritual gain increases when we constantly strengthen the connection even more than at the last convention in the Arava. You need to add new efforts to what you felt there. The Light that Reforms comes when during the lessons we listen to the story about the spiritual system on a whole and about its structure. However, emotional inspiration is higher during mutual actions of unity. And this is why we need to connect one with the other.

In any case, we have to feel like we are together at the lesson. Even if we hate each other, like the friends from the group of Rabbi Shimon, we nevertheless feel the state of our interconnection.

Question: A certain image might be appearing in me, but how do I turn it into a common asset and reward?

Answer: The group, the system, and my attitude towards my friends, everything must merge into one, into a single image besides which nothing else exists. Until you focus on it, the target will not be in your cross-hairs. However, you must work on strengthening your interconnection even at the expense of comprehending the material. This is the difference between wisdom and acting smartly.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/28/2012, Questions and Answers

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We have come back from the convention in the Arava desert, where we rose to a very high level and began to feel the real essence of the group. From now on, we can look at the whole world, all of reality, all of life through this group, so everything taking place in this world will be a result, an imprint of our connection with one another.

In reality, Kabbalah says that first there was a single reality, one spiritual system. Then it broke into many parts, which feel that they are separated and do not belong to one another, that they are unconnected.

Next, this sensation of a lack of connection disappears as well and is replaced by the opposite feeling: the desire to use others in every way possible, since they seem completely alien to me, and to mercilessly exploit them for one’s own benefit. Because of this, our desire started being called egoistic.

Accordingly, I began seeing a different reality: Instead of the spiritual one, where everything within my field of vision was connected together and was mine, the world became disconnected, partitioned, fragmented, and threatening to one another. And it was so to such an extent that I began perceiving all these parts as not living in my heart, but as external, felt through vision, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. It’s as if they are living their own life, separate from me, and therefore I can use them. There is me and there is them. That is how we start relating to one another.

We have to return from this broken state to the sensation that everything assembles together again, connects, grows closer, depends on one another, and connects one with the other. Reality becomes closer to me and enters my feelings, uniting into one whole. Then I begin to see that there is a group of people in it who are close to me in spirit, and in connection to this, are called my friends. Together, we make joint efforts, trying to unite and to really become the image of one man with one heart.

This kind of unity is called mutual guarantee. Like in a human body where all organs are connected together and work in total harmony, we too want to unite our thoughts, hearts, and all our actions so all of this would exist as a single organism, one system.

We see that the whole world is also moving closer to this opinion and understanding, even though it is doing so under the influence of material blows, which are far from the spiritual goal. But we want to help everyone else come closer and turn into our partners in seeing the causes of what is happening, so we would all unite together.

Then we will understand that all of human history is a goal-oriented process, leading us only to unity. As we advance toward unity, we will begin to see that the world was not created of iron and stone, the way it appears today in our five senses, but that it submits to one goal, one process. Everything else is just matter that carries out actions according to one program, which aspires to bring everything back to a single form.

The more we yearn for this program ourselves and desire to become active, involved, sensitive, and useful participants in it, the more we bring our consciousness and involvement to a higher level, thus bringing ourselves and the whole world to unity.
[71037]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/26/12, “Purpose of Society”

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Question: What are we doing wrong if we can’t attain what we desire?

Answer: You have everything you need. You only have to aim yourselves correctly using different tricks and every possible means that will help you imagine the connection between us as a vessel in which we receive the filling.

Look at your life and imagine that everything that you want is attained, not thanks to the money in your pocket, but thanks to the connection. You should feel that all the means for attaining the fulfillment are in the connection: the fork you eat with is the connection, the glass you drink from is the connection, and so on. Otherwise, without our connection, you will get nothing. You need it in order to breathe, in order to live! Life is only possible through our connection; it is the vessel for the filling.

Here the key is mutual guarantee. A minute from now you will forget what I’ve said if everyone doesn’t think about it and worry that others won’t forget. We will be able to eat only if we feed one another.

This is the whole problem you feel about your desire. You really want to, and you are not the only one! Everyone wants this, but the point is that everyone thinks about himself, without thinking about connection. Thinking about connection means to worry about the success of others.

It isn’t like the connection in the mafia where people connect for a collective profit. A Kabbalistic group is not a group of criminals. It is a union for the revelation of the Creator, the attribute of bestowal. Therefore, in this group everyone worries only about others and not about himself. Only thanks to this do we build our “boat.” Its sides are created by my concern for others. The moment I stop worrying about others I drill a hole in the boat.

We forget that, and it is all called mutual guarantee. Let’s hope that we manage to clarify this concept and actually attain it. If we attain it even to some extent, we will already move on to bestowal.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/9/2011, TES

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Malchut is separated into two levels of desire that differ by how quickly they react to the influence of the Light. All of the desire in Malchut needs to be corrected and returned back to Keter. This is called the nine Sefirot of the Reflected Light, the work of the creation. And when the construction of the whole upper system is completed, all the worlds and restrictions, all the examples of the relationships between Keter and Malchut, establishing complete conformity from above to below from the side of the Light, then it is creation and humanity’s turn, in other words, the total Malchut begins to awaken from the state most distant from the Creator.

In this awakening some awaken sooner and some later according to the law of similarity of qualities. The upper Light influences us and gradually strengthens its influence on the general Malchut, which is split apart.

Those parts that awaken before everyone else are called Israel, meaning those who aspire “straight to the Creator” (Yashar-El). While those who are not yet awakened due to their great depth of desire, for the time being are called the nations of the world. However, in the end everyone will arrive at unity with the Creator, as it is said: “And there shall be no outcast rejected from Him” and “Everything must return to its root.” However, there is a defined order according to which a part of the souls awakens earlier, and those awakened first are obliged to work on themselves and be a conductor of Light for the rest who are not able to awaken by themselves.

They will never awaken if the part of the souls that is awakened thanks to the Light does not exert influence on them. So it turns out that there is a part of the souls located under the direct influence of the Light and for this reason can awaken, while the other part can awaken only due to the influence of the Light through higher parts of the soul. This is how the Light gets to everyone.

That is why we separate these two groups in our dissemination. There are those, who awaken by themselves towards the Light and their relationship to it is studied by the science of Kabbalah. They need to take this system with its laws and explain it to the others using the language of that earthly system where we all are, using the language of “mutual guarantee.” And the relationships of everyone else to each other will not be called by the terms of the science of Kabbalah, but of the mutual guarantee.

In fact, this is the same science, the same methodology, but on two levels. The level for those who consciously aspire toward the Light is called Kabbalah. The level for those who simply long for a happy life is called mutual guarantee. But both of these parts are moving and getting closer to each other, egoistically (Lo Lishma) at first, and in the end will reach bestowal (Lishma).

That is why the problems and sufferings they experience are also different. Those who are in connection with the Light receive suffering relative to the Light called the sufferings of love. They are constantly judging themselves, searching and clarifying their relationship to the Light, how connected they are to it, and whether they love it or not.

While those who are at the other level will be obliged to check themselves relative to the mutual guarantee, whether they want it or not, whether they love each other or not. This is how the same aspirations, the same stages are realized in a concealed way, only on a lower level, in a somewhat similar way. Then they will at levels more advanced, more conscious and will even reach the revelation.

That is why for those, who are already in touch with the light, the following condition is given: “Be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.” Meaning that they must be in complete bestowal, in faith, “Lishma,” in unity with the Light, with the Creator. They are obliged to be the “servers of the Creator” relative to those, who are lower than them and do not have the direct connection with the Light, meaning, they have to be the teachers, educators, organizers of the whole necessary system of correction, to care about others. Thanks to this they will reach unity with the Creator. There is no other purpose of the people in whom the urge for spirituality awakens, besides working with the others and to serve as a transfer buffer for the correction of the world, and only due to this to become worthy of unity with the Creator. After those, who are called Israel, the whole of the world will arrive at such a union. This is how the world is built.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/19/12, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Question: On one hand we say that we should demand revelation now, regardless of our length of study, and on the other hand there is the notion of the necessary measure of exertion, which must be made in the preparation stage. How do the two things go together?

Answer: Reaching the necessary measure means reaching the true necessity. None of us can even begin to feel this. We simply feel bad in our ego and so we are ready to escape it to some extent. Not more than that.

Spirituality begins from the revelation of our mutual connection. We haven’t started that yet and haven’t reached it. We haven’t started this process and haven’t touched the vessel among us.

In each of us there is only emptiness, nothing. It isn’t a vessel, but merely a point. Besides that, everything else in you belongs to the beastly level and has nothing to do with spirituality. The “human” in you is just a point within which there is nothing. This point develops only by connection with other points, and thus it puts on “flesh” and creates a spiritual “body.”

The preliminary work for attaining the necessary measure is only needed in order to begin uniting with the friends. None of us has anything; no one understands anything. We come out of Egypt like some “crowd” escaping without knowing where to, in total darkness covering all our desires, thoughts, and intentions. This is the escape of the slaves of the egoism. Otherwise they cannot leave it. They are taken out after being in a state of having no choice, and nothing more is demanded of them. Then they start complaining to Moses, they build the golden calf, but this is actually the road to spirituality, otherwise you will not be born.

Therefore the measure of exertion is when you understand that the spiritual vessel is connection with others. It doesn’t belong to you. It is a very hard moment, because here you begin to enter through the wall in order to reach the spiritual world. On one side of the wall you are in the ego, in your individualism; and on the other side of the wall it will be clear to you that the spiritual “you” is what is between you and the others to the extent that you are in them, in their desires and their thoughts, when you leave your own thoughts and desires behind that wall.

Only the Light can do that for you, but you should imagine this and think about it. Nothing more than that is asked of you.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/22/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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The Creature is the force of our shared desire to enjoy, standing opposite the force of bestowal. These are two opposing forces, like “plus” and “minus,” the north and south poles of a magnet. The entire universe is the result of the interaction of these two forces.

And if these two forces meet and unite to carry out the work, to receive energy, it results in the form of the still, vegetative, and animate levels in our perception as they create the reality that is called our world.

But if, as a result of our development, we begin to feel the need to use these forces not with the force of reception ruling over the force of bestowal, but with the force of bestowal taking precedence over reception because the possibilities in this case are limitless, then our development will raise us to the level of the force of bestowal and we begin to feel the higher system, the upper world.

But instead of this, we still see the picture of this world, feeling the power of the egoistic force, and instead of forces, we imagine the material world. The egoistic desire paints for us the pictures of still, vegetative, and animate nature, which we call this world. From all this, it is difficult for us to imagine a spiritual reality.

The one who has experienced this revelation explains that it is not necessary to wait for natural development to occur, which will be achieved eventually by everyone: all parts of the desire to enjoy. But we can accelerate our development to reach the desired state in a matter of days, months, or years. As it is said: “You will see your world in your life time.”

Everything depends on how we try to reach unity, and not to reach unity in order to gather a greater collective force, but in order to achieve the force that is above us.That is, we unite not in order to add together the forces of all the participants, like in a sports team or military unit. In our connection, we want to reveal a new quality, which none of us has and which is called the property of bestowal.

If we reveal this property between us, not within everyone, but in our yearning towards others, which is called the Reflected Light, Hassadim, then in it we will discover the force directed at us, which is called the Creator. Inside the Light of Hassadim, the Light of Hochma is revealed; in the force of bestowal, coming from us, we discover the higher force of bestowal.

Thus, it all depends on how much each of us strives to exit himself and rise to the level of bestowing on others. You shouldn’t delude yourself that we are able to exit ourselves, unite with others in order to bestow, and reveal the upper Force in our aspiration to exit ourselves. It is impossible because we do not have these qualities in us, and none of my efforts can extract from me what I do not have. I do not have bestowal!

And what is inside of me? It is the directly opposite property, a consequence of the breaking, which was created in my root before my creation for this purpose. All of this was in order to reveal this contrast in me, for me to demand the real property of bestowal. I must demand it from the upper force because only It is able to turn my egoistic force, my ego, into bestowal and love,so the hatred will turn into love. But most importantly is that in the course of this work, I establish connection with the correcting force—with the Creator.

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From the 1^st part of the Daily Lesson 2/22/12, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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The Constitution of the Convention in Arava: Our brother, the physical and spiritual conditions that you must observe are before you. Prior to joining us, check carefully: Are you ready, do you realize and feel the importance of the stage to which you connect; do you understand that the Torah, the Reforming Light, will change you so that you love and serve everyone? Do you want this? You should be clear that you come here not to receive, but to receive the force of bestowal.

Even while just reading the story of the Torah about the exodus from Egypt, we see that it involved people of all types: elderly, young, children, men, and women. They differed, some with a great desire to receive, others with a great desire aimed at bestowal. All of them, including Moses and Aaron, were still in the receiving desire. However, the Creator was revealed to them; we will discover what revelations they were.

This is why we open the convention in the Arava to all the men. We do not check whether they participate in all our activities. A person may arrive at the convention but he will not be able to take part in it fully if he does not study during the morning lessons, if he does not pay Maaser (tithe), if he does not participate in the meeting of friends, in their connection, and if he is not involved in dissemination. These are the four conditions according to which a person is my student and a member of Bnei Baruch, a friend for everyone.

First of all, we are talking about physical actions that are followed by deeper levels to the extent a person invests one’s heart and really wants to exert in order to reach the goal. So, there are different gradations.

However, it is never too late to start. We see that this month, more and more people study during the daily Kabbalah lessons and many began to pay maaser because they understood that these funds are dedicated to the dissemination of the method of Kabbalah in the world. In essence, this is our correction. We exist for this purpose: to perform the role of Israel for the world, to receive the method from above and pass it down.

Thus, understanding and awakening are growing in our community; finally, people take the straight path. However, we do not need to be great, we just have to realize the opportunities that we are given. This is what is important.

Many kinds of desires came out of Egypt: children, old, young, men, women, slaves, goats, and sheep. There were all levels: still, vegetative, animate and speaking, but each desire wanted to participate in this fully. A child who is completely ready to take part is also included.

Therefore, we open the convention for everyone. A man can say: “I have been watching the lessons on TV for a long time, and I will try to do the rest.” And he too can come. We turn no one away. In spirituality, only a person can check his heart before the Creator, no one can interfere in this.

However, we ask—and it is very important—that people at least try to be with us during the days of the convention with their whole heart and soul. That is why we put material terms and conditions for the inner work that must be followed.

People who enter the grounds of the Arava convention are obliged to observe the Constitution. They are given all the conditions for participation. If they do not take part in the shared effort, they harm everyone, and this will cause them a lot of damage.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/21/12, “Advice for the Arava Convention”

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We should yearn for the one force, the one reality that exists so that it will begin to control us. This should be the result of our exertion.

People ask me: How is it possible to check and see if we’ve actually attained something? To attain a certain result means to feel that there is no self-desire or self-thought left in any one. It is as if we’ve embarked on a spaceship and have disconnected from earth.

We rise and we begin to feel only the new collective field we are in. Just as every bird in a big flock doesn’t feel its own desire: where to turn to and what to do. There is one collective brain that operates everyone in synchrony. Even the birds that fly in the front and those that fly behind, on the right and on the left, no matter where they are, they all turn together, change speed and direction, and even turn in the opposite direction; not one bird turns too soon or too late.

A moment ago they were flying in one direction and suddenly all at once, they all turn 180 degrees, as if they were one body. This is called being one man in one heart, in general mutual guarantee. We cannot attain this attribute by ourselves, but only by the Reforming Light that ties everyone together into one system.

It is an analog system in which there is no “entry” or “exit,” there is no beginning or end, but everything happens at once simultaneously.

Modern physics is also discovering that the true reality is above time and that all over the universe different phenomena that are not related to time take place, but one process is tied to other processes that take place simultaneously. An ants’ nest operates according to the same principle in which millions of ants are operated by one brain.

We observe many such phenomena in the inanimate, vegetative, and animate worlds where each individual has no brain of his own, but all of them together seem to be receiving orders from a general brain that shows them what to do and that arranges everything.

This is the level we should reach. The difference, of course, is that when it comes to us, it has to happen in our feeling, in our understanding, in our recognition that in that “One” we attain our first spiritual degree. Then that “One” that we attain, that feeling, that brain, that life, is called the “revelation of the Creator.”

Then we are already in a different intention, in a different reality, in which one force controls the heart and the mind. We are incorporated in it, learn it, and get to know it to the extent that it can be revealed according to the thickness of our level.

Later our ego is revealed again and separates us from the “One,” so that we will attain it in greater depth, in greater, more qualitative, and clearer discernments. Thus we advance in our work: We connect, we ask for the Reforming Light, and are incorporated once more in the concept of the “One” more deeply.

This is how the Creator is revealed to the created beings in this world. I really hope that we are all on the verge of this revelation today.
[70389]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/20/12, “Pri Chaham”

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Rabbi Elimelech from Lizhensk, “A Luminary and the Sun”: The main thing is to unite with each friend in love, serve the Creator with the single heart, to give a hand together, to extend connection among us and solder with each other’s hearts to become one whole and serve the Creator wholeheartedly.

In general, all our work is in one action: to unite as one man with one heart, to solder with each other’s hearts to become one whole and serve the Creator wholeheartedly. This is how we correct the breakage created specifically for us in order to reveal the degree of our separation and to build a bridge of love over it.

It’s in this manner of working with the help of an obstacle given from Above, the height of a bridge extending over the abyss of our egoism, that we build our common spiritual Partzuf and reveal the eternal reality in which we are to live. Thus, we’ll be getting even more blows of separation on the way and will be building a connection of love in mutual guarantee, unity, and complement like a perfectly tuned mechanism of an integral system. Each time we have to aspire toward perfection. Malfunctions and new details that need to be added to our system to become perfect will be revealed to us. And we’ll be happy to find and fix these details because corrections lead us toward true perfection.

We have to be happy with the evil being revealed. I am happy and rejoice in these apparent and appearing impairments, writes Baal HaSulam in the Igrot (Letters) 5, P. 11. He continues: I do indeed regret and complain about the impairments that are still covered, and are destined to be uncovered, for a covered corruption is in no hope…. Thus it’s very important for the flaws to be revealed. And they have to be accepted with joy. When a person is connected to a group in the right way, he accepts all the obstacles, problems, and difficulties with joy because he understands that by overcoming them and building a proper connection above them, knowledge, wisdom, and love will become revealed above evil. To the extent of an evil abyss’s depth, he climbs a spiritual height and perceives the Creator’s eternal world.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/19/12, “Advice for the Arava Convention”

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Rabash, Shlavey Hasulam (Steps of the Ladder), “The Need for the Love of Friends:” There is a special power in the adhesion of friends. Since views and thoughts pass from one to the other through the adhesion between them, each is mingled with the power of the other, and by that each person in the group has the power of the entire group. For this reason, although each person is an individual, he contains the power of the entire group.

When children are together they learn good things from each other. Actually they sometimes “infect” one another with bad things, and in general, if a person is ill he infects others. Can this be happening in the group too? What do I need this for? Isn’t it better to stay at home?

There are those among us who think that it is better for kids to stay at home, and not be with children their own age, although this is absolutely contrary to our approach. Of course they receive both good things and bad things from the environment. There is no doubt about that, but a person can’t grow without the two things.

Therefore there is a special power in the adhesion of friends, if it isn’t a society of criminals or a gathering of jokers, of course. It’s said that dispersing the evil is good for them and good for the world. But we’re talking about those who want to reach adhesion with the Creator. In such a case, adhesion, the connection among them is only for their own good. In the mutual connection among us we want to discover the upper force, the force of bestowal and love. If we discover it among us, according to the law of equivalence of form, we will discover its root, the Creator.

The views and the thoughts pass from one to the other, if we are on a certain level of adhesion, in connection. Therefore each one is mingled in the power of the other, and that is the main thing. I need the power of the friends. Alone, no one has enough powers to attain spirituality. Whoever sits by himself and doesn’t connect with others has a problem. It could be that he hears talk about unity, but he doesn’t act and doesn’t carry it out. Many hear, but they don’t actually listen, they don’t connect to the action. I understand that it’s necessary, that there is no other choice, but something inside stops me. I don’t know what to do. I make “Herculean efforts,” come very close and retreat again. Everyone has this strong internal psychological barrier. No one can approach others easily.

The external ease doesn’t reflect what is happening inside at all. A person who finds it easy to hug the friends will soon discover that it’s actually very difficult. There are people who are very easy going, they connect, and converse with others easily. But in fact they can’t even imagine what an internal connection is.

Therefore, we should understand that it’s about working on internal unity. Even if it’s very hard, it’s thanks to this that a person begins to receive spiritual powers from all the friends. Rabash says, each one is mingled in the power of the other and by that each person in the group has the power of the entire group. When I am incorporated in the group I acquire its power. If I had the true power of the group now, even one gram from each one, it would be my net profit.

Therefore, although each person is an individual, he contains the power of the entire group in which he is incorporated. Everyone becomes equal to the group in his powers. Then we connect again and not just to connect or multiply our powers, but we actually raise them in the power we have attained, for example, one thousand in the power of one thousand. Thus it isn’t just power but the power of a “nuclear explosion.”
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/19/12, “Advice for the Arava Convention”

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