Question: The congress is approaching. This is my first experience, my first congress. Please tell me an effective, practical way to cancel my ego, my “I,”  at the congress?

Answer: Indeed, there is nothing more important. I would say that this is the only thing we need since the congress represents the power of unification of thousands and thousands of people around the world.

And everyone who flies, arrives, comes, or crawls to the congress must prepare to enter it. A person must know in advance that he or she is taking part in the congress with the purpose of canceling oneself, can not removing one’s ego as if it does not exist. This cannot be achieved; it is a lie. It is our nature, and the more we go forward, the more our egoism will develop in us.

We need to know how to rise above the ego, and at the same time begin to feel the opposite property in ourselves. That is, I am an egoist, I want this, I would like that. We need to reduce the action of egoism, its implementation, but in no case should we think that we should annihilate or destroy it.

On the contrary, it comes from the Creator. Egoism is a higher power. It is the only thing that we have. We cannot refuse it, because then we would refuse our nature. We need to create another layer over egoism, like a sandwich, which would turn it into its opposite property, altruism, into a connection between us.
Moreover, we are creating this connection only between world Bnei Baruch members, and not in relation to other people in the world. We are not ready for this yet.

Therefore, let us tune in and stop thinking about our egoism, it does not interest us now. Everyone is interested in how one receives such an impact from thousands of people to feel that one rises above one’s ego and consists of two layers: egoism and altruism, the property of receiving and the property of giving.

This is exactly how we need to prepare for the congress. And at the congress you will feel the force that exists between everyone. How to use it depends on your preparedness.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/2/19, “Questions and Answers”

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “One Commandment”

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2nd part of the Lesson — Lesson on the Topic “To Bestow in Order to Bestow”

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3rd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam “Study of the Ten Sefirot, Vol. 1, Part 1, Chapter 1″

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Selected Highlights

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Question: How can we build a desire in the ten so that we feel good and bring joy to the Creator?

Answer: First of all you need to think about what you do for the Creator and only then for yourself.

Question: I am happy that I have the Creator, the teacher, and the friends, and I do not want any more joys.

Answer: That is the correct state.

Question: It is written that the measure of joy testifies to the measure of truth contained in the faith. If we are not in joy for a long time, what does this mean?

Answer: It means that you have no faith.

Question: Is joy a consequence that arises after the correct connection and good deeds in relation to the ten or the Creator?

Answer: It does not matter. But joy is always a consequence of a good deed.

Question: I want not just to rejoice, but to deserve joy.

Answer: Try to deserve it by raising the Creator higher and higher and connecting everything that happens with Him.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/21/24, Writings of Rabash “Concerning Joy”

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 27

What Causes a Person to Escape the Struggle?

There are many reasons, but ultimately, they all come down to one: a lack of sufficient support from the environment. Baal HaSulam states that such a person has not exercised their free choice to surround themselves with supportive people, books, or study. Regardless of the physical environment they are in, even near a great teacher, they might still escape, depending on how much they connect with those who support them.

The “environment” is not the place that we are in, nor is it merely the company of a group of good and strong people who influence us. It is whether we want and allow ourselves to be influenced. The rule is that there is no coercion in spirituality. No one can change under compulsion from the outside. We change and are influenced according to our desire, and not by coercion. “No coercion” is not merely a prohibition that we need to observe. It is impossible to force anything even if no prohibition were in place. That is, even if we want to be forced and ask our friends to force us, and even if we receive blows to force us, even then, we cannot be forced. The person himself is the only one who can compel his own change.

All change can take place only with the person’s consent, willingness, and free choice. We will change when we open a way for the light to enter. Outside, there is the light of Ein Sof (infinity); it can be a large group, a great teacher, a society, even the “holy society” of Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai, but the degree to which we open ourselves up to it determines the extent of influence that the society can have on us. If we fail to make such an opening, then we can be sitting among friends, and they can be talking and making actions with a fire burning between them, but it will have absolutely no effect on us. We will remain cool and indifferent, can drink another cup of coffee, sit with them a little longer, and that will be it. Despite all good intentions, the friends will be unable to influence us.

Therefore, Baal HaSulam writes in his “Speech for the Conclusion of The Zohar” that everything depends on how much a student serves his teacher. It refers to the extent in which we serve the group, as this degree of dedication opens the door for the teacher or the group to influence us in return. This is called “free choice.” Free choice is the extent to which we let a positive environment influence us. We should engage in self-reflection and examine how genuinely we relate to our environment in order to receive strength from it. The extent of our progress depends on the strength we are willing to receive from the group.

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Question: We try to work in one desire, to bestow. How can we keep the feeling of the group in the right intention when there are constant changes of sensations and reactions that come from the difference in our friends’ properties?

Answer: Try to keep them in your common heart all the time so that it feels where it can lead, and you stabilize it.

You need this stabilizer that will keep you in the right state between you and with the Creator. I am sure you will succeed.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/29/24, Writings of Rabash “Discernments in States”

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Question: What is the repentance of the ten that leads us out of exile and brings us to deliverance from egoistic desire?

Answer: If the friends in the ten feel that they have fallen into their egoism and do not have the strength to rise from it on their own, then they have no choice but to turn to the Creator, to cry, and to pull themselves out of this state with all their might.

Question: How important is it to expect salvation every day, and what does this add to the ten?

Answer: This adds urgency that with each question, with each appeal, you increasingly desire that the Creator stays in your sensations.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/28/24, Writings of Rabash “And Isaac Was Forty Years Old”

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Question: Our ten experienced a very strong descent, and now we have risen. We decided to meet physically. What advice would you give us?

Answer: By all means, it is good. Physical actions give something, but, in principle, they do not symbolize anything.

Just pick a couple of good articles that talk about unity between you, and discuss them when you meet; you will feel how much you are already internally connected.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/29/24, Writings of Rabash “Discernments in States”

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By uniting among us, we enable the upper force to positively influence us. Previously, its light caused negative disturbances within us because it was opposite to our nature.

And since now we strive to resemble the upper force, these states of connection and bestowal become similar to it, and to the extent of this similarity, we begin to feel it, not only the effects of its influence on us, but the upper force itself. This we call the revelation of the Creator.

Although in essence little is required to achieve this, attaining the spiritual world is not easy. It demands many efforts and stages. This is how we progress.

Later as we unite more deeply with the help of the upper light, we begin to build conscious connections that we initially call a spiritual embryo, followed by small spiritual states, greater spiritual states, and transitions from one degree to another.

We constantly work with our egoism and strive to connect with it correctly. The Creator forms increasingly egoistic ties between us—oppositions, contradictions, and rejections of one another—and we continuously build positive connections above them. In doing so, we reveal the upper force.
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From Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/3/19

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Question: What does it mean to subordinate the force of receiving to the force of bestowal since there is no coercion in spirituality?

Answer: Yes, but you want the force of bestowal in you to be above the force of receiving.

Question: What makes it submit? Love?

Answer: The Creator does. A person can cause the beginning of the Zivug (combining the force of receiving with the force of bestowal), but it happens only under the force of the Creator.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/29/24, Writings of Rabash “Discernments in States”

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