Question: Judging by the sensations of the last few days, we are entering the next state after the convention and can already make a new attack. In the near future we are planning to concentrate internally, to unite together quietly, to enter the picture of the spiritual reality. What would you advise us to focus our efforts on?

Answer: There is the current state and the desirable one, and there is the transition between the two, which we have to overcome. The means to go from one state to the next can be similar to a convention: a focus of our efforts, hopes, forces, joy, actions, and events, where we are all together and we focus all our efforts over a few days and try to realize them non-stop.

But there are also other means that can help us go from one state to another. Kabbalists used them mainly for more internal concentration, which they attained by making external actions only in order to concentrate everything in the inner actions.

That is to say, they assembled together, preparing all of the external conditions so they would not interfere and would help them focus, such as by meeting in a cave, an isolated, quiet place, away from all possible external disturbances, and in a special state of day or night, which also influence a person. In short, they arranged everything so the friends could unite with one another internally, with the help of inner, more spiritual efforts.

Obviously, we must also make actions like that. But for that we need preparation and the realization of the great importance of this event, so we don’t end up with something boring or useless, something that doesn’t provide fulfillment.

Every person must understand that progress is possible only by virtue of efforts, that “penny by penny adds up to a great capital,” and that in the sum of these efforts, in the efforts to unite them together, in one place, in one Kli or vessel, we attain the common might that is called a cry, a demand—and then the gates open up to us.

We carried out a great preparation in Israel and in the whole world during the convention, and now we must perform several opposite actions—in more internal concentration, in humility. Let’s try to do this. How effective this will be is up to us.
[63955]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/22/11, The Book of Zohar

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Question: After the convention, I feel more and more emotional at every meeting of friends, sometimes to tears. Is this indeed happiness and an ascent?

Answer: After the convention, we certainly have begun to relate to unity differently. It is easier to return to it now. It became more exciting and attractive; it no longer seems artificial like before.

We have reached this spiritual reality, the beginning of a spiritual degree. And now we need to join a little more of our effort to it so that it would penetrate within us and grow “flesh,” thickness of desire, on this point. Then in this thickness, we will feel real, spiritual reality.

Every person should exert effort, constantly returning to that understanding of unity that has already permeated into his sensations. In spite of the current emotional rejection or blurriness of feelings, I try to return to the state we have achieved.

What for? Maybe in order to feel good or in order to proceed further, even without positive sensations. And maybe I feel obligated in regard to the friends with whom we are in mutual guarantee.

The reward can vary, but overall, we all require a craving for unity. This is the most important thing: to aspire to unity constantly no matter where you may be at a given time.
[63326]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/16/2011, “The Peace”

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Question: The point of unity experienced at the convention felt like a tremendous jolt of bliss, freedom, and optimism, alien to our world. It was literally like a separate world, toward which my ego ran with great joy. And yet you were saying that the ego should be resisting this?

Answer: Don’t worry about your ego. It will come and start dragging you away from this state “by the ear,” and you will need to aspire to it again and again. It is precisely your ego that will now start distancing you from the point of unity, and you’ll need to actualize and reconstruct it within all the time.

This reconstruction is necessary not because it’s fun, but because all your friends are standing behind it. You must gradually come up with brand new motivations for what you do so as to support your friends because without you, they will not be able to locate this point.
[63282]
From the Sunday Virtual Lessons Series 12/11/2011

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Question: While we go through different forms all the time, how can we keep aspiring to the same unity with the group and the Creator?

Answer: A descent between two adjacent levels gives me a new force of aspiration. For example, yesterday I ate, but today I am hungry again. In the same natural way, I must aspire to unity.

While standing on my current level, I dream of the next one. It is the ideal for me. Then I grow and rise to my ideal. So how can I keep moving on now? I need a desire that corresponds to the new ascent —a desire that is twice as big as the previous one. In other words, in order to ascend one level higher, I have to lose twice as much.

It turns out that I continuously take two steps back and one large step forward. That is because it isn’t enough for me to return with a desire to the previous level; I need to feel a double descent, a double loss. I can acquire this new necessity only from the environment, and only then will I be able to rise to the next level.
[63227]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/15/11, “The Freedom”

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Question: At the convention we felt life, but now descents are depicting a completely different picture for me. I want to return to the basis, the middle line, to that which I have to rely on. Or should we tread forward blindly until we come out to the Light? Do we have any source of support?

Answer: Besides the group, all other details of perception, qualities, and foundations disappear and do not provide support for a person.

Moreover, by delving into the group, a person also sees that he cannot really rely on the friends’ mutual guarantee either because they are also part of the conditions that bring him to a greater need for support. Gradually he loses firm ground in the group as well, until a person’s searches bring him to the need to reveal the Creator. Only in Him will a person find the true support, the root, and the answer to all his problems, failures, questions, and troubles.

We have to go through many steps on this path, and we begin with what is realistic for us. A person always stops in the place that seems safe to him. And therefore, the best thing is when all the hopes come from him through the group to the Creator, when he understands that the solution, fulfillment, and correct analysis will come only from there. And everything else are intermediate phases.

For example, today our hopes end with the group, “We are together! That’s great! How wonderful my friends are!” We still don’t discover the need for something higher, we still don’t demand a higher force to be revealed in the group more than simply a circle of friends. But this will gradually come.

Question: Baal HaSulam writes about how easy it is to control our desire with two reins: pleasure and pain. Then why is it so difficult for us to direct our desire in the spiritual direction in the group? What are we missing?

Answer: You cannot connect to the friends. Your pleasure lies in suppressing others and holding your ground. But others are also holding their ground, so how can you unite? Envy, passion, and pride—all of these initial qualities separate us from one another.

You suppose that you can unite, but I don’t think so. This is possible only with the help of the Light that reforms, by means of very difficult work. This requires the force of the Torah, the Kabbalistic method.

By uniting, we will reach Malchut of Infinity. Besides unity, there is nothing. Unite the friends in the group and you will get the world of Infinity. Everything begins and ends there.

You think this is simple. You are asking why we aren’t succeeding, what is wrong? But it can’t be any other way because you don’t demand for the Creator to dwell among you. You don’t even see that you are incapable of unity by yourself, and you even suppose that you are capable of it. You still haven’t revealed the truth.

Question: So how can we help each other do this?

Answer: There can be many external actions. The question is: How much do they incite a person to inner effort? This is our problem. So keep trying.

We still don’t have the need to connect ourselves, the group, the world and the Creator into one whole. We have to reveal this need faster since otherwise it will expire and the world will be in trouble.

The Reshimo of Malchut of Infinity, which becomes revealed in the group, is the result of many efforts that we make. And this work has to be done precisely in the group. It is the field where all fruits grow. It contains everything necessary, and our efforts determine how quickly we will be able to connect everything into one. The faster we do this, the easier and more pleasant our path will be.
[63122]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/14/11, “The Freedom”

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Question: After the convention, I feel enormous separation and repulsion, which I never felt before. Can this be a result of my working incorrectly at the convention?

Answer: After the kind of unity and ascent that we felt at the convention, if a person feels separation, repulsion, and confusion, these are correct states. Resistance from our egoistic nature has to mount, and to counterbalance it, we have to fight these states.

If we maintain ourselves in that same point of unity that we attained, then by virtue of egoism which becomes attached to it, this point will start to grow. We received an example, and we must live in that same inspiration. We already contain a state called “unity,” which we attained at the convention in the clearest, most vivid form. I must preserve this state, trying to remain in it at every moment of my life.

True, now I will immediately receive all kinds of disturbances, but they are all intended for me to strengthen myself more in the same point that I attained at the convention. Then this point will grow based on all of these disturbances. They will enter it and will support it with the help of my efforts. And then this point will expand. That is how I grow this point to the size of the first spiritual level. I don’t have any other opportunity to grow in spirituality, but only by virtue of the disturbances, “help against me.”
[62921]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/12/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: After the unity we felt at the convention, should a person studying with us virtually or online go look for a physical group to be in?

Answer: Going to look for a group today is not the same it was 200 years ago, when a person would leave his home with a staff in hand and go off to search. Today a person enters the Internet and is already together with us, in the common group. He already attended the convention and understands what this is.

Should he look for a physical group? I don’t know if he has that opportunity. The closest group might be several hours away from him.

Yet one should try to stay connected to people nevertheless. Sometimes you have to feel how much you don’t want that connection. Maybe by connecting to others virtually, you idealize the situation, thinking that you are already united with them completely, while in fact you are hiding behind the computer screen. So come out from behind the monitor and connect with them in reality. Go and see whether this is possible….

Obviously, now, after our unification at the convention, we are starting to feel confusion, repulsion, and separation—states that are opposite to unity, one against the other. That’s because in order to grow, we must always advance on two legs. Therefore, don’t be surprised that we are suddenly finding ourselves in opposite states. We must finally get used to the fact that these states have to alternate and follow one another.

Therefore, if a person does not have a close connection with a certain group, then he doesn’t go through these states dramatically, quickly, and intensely. All of this gets drawn out and “smudged” for him. He must nevertheless have some sort of physical connection with others. After all, we are in this world and cannot annul it completely. We cannot turn this world into a virtual world. We are here in our bodies and all sorts of connections between us because this is important. We accelerate time by having a physical connection between us.
[62923]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/12/11, Writings of Rabash

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Just now we were able to reach unity. We made a great effort and this happened. But soon we will feel how difficult it is to hold on to this state. And that’s good because it means we are already great, strong, and can handle a more difficult task where as a result of my efforts, I do not attain everything, and instead I discover that I can’t do it.

I see that I cannot unite myself, the group and the Creator above all of the events that occur in my life. I seem to be confused, disoriented, and helpless, and unable to connect everything together the way we just did. The problems seem greater than my concentration, the force of my thought and desire. I seem to forget everything that happened during the Convention and cannot focus to reunite with the friends and to unite all of us with the Creator.

The problem is that among us, we do not sufficiently demand a connection with the Creator, with our root. But the goal of creation is to attain precisely the root, meaning His level. That is why the Creator sets up these situations for us where we cannot unite without Him, so we would need Him and understand that we can’t do anything without Him.

“Without Him” means without the Light that reforms, without Him appearing and revealing Himself. That is how we reach the need to reveal Him, to demand this.

Therefore, I ask of all the friends: If you have problems reaching unity and connection with the group, being in the same desire and sensation as at the Convention, and even increasing it more and more every day, then you have to write about this, discern it, and work on it.

We do not return to the same habitual routine between one Convention to the next. There is nothing habitual and customary. These states are given to us from above so we would increase the sensations and thoughts we had at the Convention by many times and would grow by virtue of them.

Now, thanks to our confusion and disorientation, I have to understand: The Creator has to help me and appear inside of our unity. In this form we reveal the upper force and exist inside of it.

That is, we have to see that there is none else besides Him, and we are involved in active interaction with none other than the Creator. All of the occurrences on the way, this entire world, including the most serious of problems, are relationships between us (all of us together) and Him, which He continually reveals to us in this special form. He wants for us to feel how we need Him and to want for Him to appear and give us the force to unite, to become revealed and to rule as the Light of AB-SAG, which discerns, corrects, and unites desires, and then becomes revealed inside of them.

This way, step by step, we realize the goal of creation, and I very much hope that we will get there.

At the Convention we were sure that we are going to a specific, clear goal – that we are attaining unity and revelation. We revealed this initial point and now we just have to keep developing it and be sure that these phases of development are standing before us like drops of semen, which we attained.

The goal of our entire work, of our unity is to reveal the Shechina between us. That is, to aspire for all of the gaps in which we feel repulsion, confusion, and separation from one another to be filled by Light.
[62832]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/11/11, Writings of Rabash

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In the spring we will hold a convention in America, and we have to aspire to make its level be no lower than the international Convention in Tel Aviv that just took place. I hope its level will be even higher. All countries have to join this Convention so we will feel that we are together.

Even if not everyone will be able to come to the United States to attend this convention and even if it will have much fewer attendees, yet by virtue of our unification and preparation, we will try to attain an even higher state. We have to work hard to get there.

A person has to see that from one day to the next, he benefits more and more in relation to the connection that we attained. The point of adhesion, the drop of unity that we attained must now expand similar to how a drop of semen inside of the womb begins to develop and form into a fetus, a future embryo. With each passing day, it develops more and more. That is how we should see ourselves.

An embryo grows by virtue of the “meat,” meaning the desires, thoughts, doubts, and problems that deliberately come to us at every moment according to the program of creation. But we ascend above all of these problems that become revealed and attach all of them to one point of unity. That is how we form the body of the embryo.

This is already the body of our soul. We must only add more and more flesh to it. Now we are starting to prepare for the spring convention in America where we will spend a few days together again. It doesn’t matter who will be able to attend physically and who will join virtually. We will work throughout the next few months to get to this convention internally united.

We will see the extent to which this world will lose its significance, its might of desire and power. And on the contrary, the force of our unity will be unlimited and no boundaries will be able to separate me from the friends. That is how we will attain greater and greater unity.

But this will happen on the condition that we will work on this constantly, day by day, making it our objective that our next state, the American convention will bring us to a very powerful unity. That is how we will place the current objectives ahead of ourselves, like milestones on the path, and will work on them.
[62839]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/11/11, Writings of Rabash

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Shamati #72: Confidence is the clothing for the Light, called “life.” This is because there is a rule that there is no Light without a Kli (vessel). It follows that the Light, called “Light of life,” cannot clothe, but must dress in some Kli (desire). The Kli where the Light of life is clothed is usually called “confidence.” It means that he sees that he can do every difficult thing.

This means that if we don’t attain the state called confidence, we won’t be able to reveal the upper Light. That’s because the Light is attained and perceived in this vessel of confidence, meaning, we have to be sure that it is in our power to do this and it depends only on us. If this inner sensation arises in us, we will definitely be successful and reveal the Light.

The degree of life is defined by the degree of one’s confidence, and the stronger is the sensation of confidence, the more the Light becomes revealed inside of it. We are in an ocean of infinite Light even now, but due to the lack of confidence, the vessel for the Light’s revelation, we sense ourselves in this miniscule state – in a black central point, giving us the weakest possible sensation of life called “this world.”

If we want to acquire a greater sensation of life in ever-increasing spheres, until the last, infinite, unbounded sphere, this depends only on how sure we will be that we can attain it only inside of our unity.

There cannot be any doubts and lack of confidence, such as thoughts of this not being the right time to do it, that maybe we can do it tomorrow or the next day. The moment we attain this confidence all together, we will immediately break through the Machsom.

Even the sensation of our life here, in this world, also depends on the feeling of confidence. The greater the confidence, the greater the sensation of material life.

The Light and our ego are playing with one another, and we are in the middle, between them. Everything depends only on the level of our confidence: whether we will be able to rise above egoism at every moment and cleave to the Light, aspiring to be equal to it.

This war does not stop for a moment because as soon as we rise above a certain state, a greater egoistic desire is immediately revealed to give us the opportunity to rise above it to a higher level. This is why we need to be doing constant inner work: descents and ascents, alternating non-stop.

We have to understand that all the descents are given to us to overcome them and this way to attain unlimited confidence. And the only solution here is to separate from ourselves and cleave to the group. In it I must find the great force that can swallow me and bring me to the next level, like a mother’s womb, the AHP of the upper one.

To the extent I am able to cleave to this elevator, it will continuously elevate me to higher levels. I just need to cleave to it all the time above my egoism, which will get in my way less and less.

My task is only to rise above reception in bestowal, faith above reason, and this action is only possible in the group. I will continuously try to do this, while my ego will throw me to the side, distracting me with trivial matters, and then with matters that are larger and more serious, until I finally detach from it and will even stop feeling how far I have gotten.

Our entire work comes down to this. And if at every moment I don’t experience myself deeper inside the group, the society, and the common confidence that we acquire together, then I come out of my vessel, our common desire for revealing the spiritual world, and I don’t attain anything. That is how I lose confidence.
Our entire confidence is based on a person cleaving to the group and there finding the force that lets him continuously attain greater spiritual levels.
[62584]
From the preparatory lesson to the Arvut Convention, 12/4/11

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