What Does The Creator Feel?

On the Sukkot holiday I hold in my right hand and in my left hand the “four species of plants,” connect them to my heart and sway, meaning that I seemingly attract Lights. All of these things are certainly symbols of internal activities for attracting the bestowal of the Creator, which I summon into myself.

Then, I raise myself, correct myself, remove the concealment, and reach revelation in its place.

All of the ceremonies of the Sukkot holiday are no more than signs and symbols of what is happening in the heart where a person makes his characteristics compatible with the Creator. So, he is called an Adam (man), from the word “Domeh” (similar) to the Creator.

The Creator is fully the giver. He is the characteristic of bestowal and love. There is nothing more than this. There is only complete bestowal, complete love, absolute, pure, perfect, and infinite, and it is revealed in us to the same degree that we are ready to absorb it, to bring ourselves in line with it.

In general, I can understand and feel every characteristic only if it is found within me.

When I look at some cockroach, I don’t feel that it lacks something, that it loves its children and right now, is running to them with crumbs of food. I don’t share any characteristics with it to be able to feel it.

However, if I would begin to go deeper to penetrate and explore, ultimately, I would feel the needs of the beastly level. People are able to be sensitive to animals they are close to, including pet owners or scientists who devote themselves to research.

For example, in my childhood, I had a friend who always had small animals living in his pockets: here a mouse, there a bird. He even would come to school with them, and, much later, he went on to study zoology. So, he understood them. He would find a white mouse and pet it, and the mouse wouldn’t run away.

He would say, “You know, he is not afraid to approach you,” as if he was whispering to it.

However, we need to develop other feelings within us to be able to feel the Creator. If my friend recreated the feelings of the mouse within himself, so we need to give shape within us to a feeling of the Creator, bestowal and love.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 10/5/14

Rehearsals In The Theater Of The Creator

Question: What do the four plant species (Arba Minim) that characterize the Sukkot holiday symbolize for us?

Answer: The Lulav (palm branch) is bestowal, consisting of myrtle and willow (three branches of myrtle and two branches of willow). This is the Yesod that we connect to Malchut, the Etrog.

This is combining the characteristics of the Creator—Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet, Netzach, Hod, Yesod—with our creature characteristics, Malchut. If we were to say this differently, it is a connection of the forms of bestowal that typify the Creator, all the various expressions of His love for us. However, this is not Him Himself. Rather, this is how we perceive Him in our Kelim, in our desires.

Question: Where exactly does a person realize this whole process of adapting himself to complete bestowal and love? Toward whom does he direct his love?

Answer: In order to attain the Creator, I must learn what bestowal and love are. So, I must build a group, acquire friends for myself, so that there among them, I can manifest my attitude. From love for the creatures, the person reaches love for the Creator.

I relate to friends with love just as I would relate to Him. My relationship to the Creator cannot be better than my relationship to the creatures, and only through the friend, through the other, can I attain the Creator.

Question: Why?

Answer: Because a relationship with others is the work that the Creator places in front of me. The entire surrounding world is His “theater” in which I can rehearse, practice, and try to attain the same attitude toward the world like the relationship to the Creator should be.

The way toward Him must pass through this world. Individually, I don’t discover the Creator. Rather, it is only within this world, through it. I practice in a group of people that are conducting a search all the time, and then we pass through the world, through all of its coarseness, in order to attain the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 10/5/14

The Start Of The Countdown

I feel immense joy in the fact that now most of my students in the world are beginning to understand and feel that the spiritual world is discovered in the connection between us.

Although we have been studying the spiritual system for many years, and in spite of all this, the heart does not want to hear about the shattering of the Kli of the collective soul, its descent and fall into this world, the division into a multitude of people, the expansion of the Kli, the equal distance from the center to the periphery all over the Earth, and the growth of the ego. Generally, this takes a lot of time, and many years pass before the heart understands and reaches the awareness that something is not okay, and it will then respond to problems with connection, with unity.

From the very moment that the person begins to hear this, he enters into the way towards the goal of creation and goes forward at a constantly increasing the rate, amassing experience and gathering the distant, scattered and shattered parts of his soul. He already knows that everything is concentrated only in his group of ten, in a hundred, in a thousand, and that the upper world, the Creator, and the completion and goal of creation are found precisely in this place.

If he automatically turns to the group, no matter what happens, this is a sign that he is standing firmly on his own two feet and is facing the goal correctly. I hope that the results of our convention will become a feeling like this for many who are here and those who are together with us throughout the world.

This is the most difficult starting point of the countdown. Nobody, anywhere was ever was able to attain this. Many have tried to do this through all kinds of conditions for thousands of years, but only individuals succeeded, even though people were ready to sacrifice everything for the sake of this. So a gradual approach, recognition and discovery of the starting point and investment of much effort required subtle and continuous work.

It seems to me that we are seeing its beginning. The sensation that everything begins and ends with contact, connection within the group, that everything is determined there and besides this there is nothing, will show us later how to operate in the world, and how to manage nature through our unification. This is because we are raising MAN, our desire for connection, unity, and correction.

The world will then advance forward towards harmony, unity, happiness, and fulfillment of the law of equivalence of form at the same rate as us. In this transition from  “me,” the yearning for the Creator that I imagine, to the we, where within this we is one single whole within our separated we, the general power of connection called the Creator is discovered.
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From the Convention In St. Petersburg “Day Two” 9/20/14, Lesson 4

The Secret Of Unity

Rabash, Letter 40: And when one begins to feel the love of his friend, joy and pleasure immediately begin to awaken in him….because he always knew that he was the only one who cared for his own well being. But the minute he discovers that his friend cares for him, it evokes within him immeasurable joy, and he can no longer care for himself, since man can toil only where he feels pleasure. And since he is beginning to feel pleasure in caring for his friend, he naturally cannot think of himself.

We can never satisfy ourselves, even though it seems to us that we are doing everything for the sake of this. Our common general Kli is built such that only what we get from outside can fulfill us and not what each one of us produces. So we need to fulfill each other.

This is the most essential secret of unity, when people begin to feel that they can fulfill each other: each one includes within himself the desires of the others and begins to work on them, and the Light fills everyone. To the degree that each one is integrated in the desire of the other, the Light fills these desires.

The main rule for true elevation in the way of the Creator is a condition of unity amongfriends. And when are the friends united? This is when they gather together and each one humbles himself before the others by seeing the greatness of the friends. Even if someone doesn’t see the friends as great, he must obligate himself to see their greatness. If a person doesn’t see the others as higher than he is, he must examine himself.

In a Kabbalistic group, a person who studies correctly must always see the others as higher than he is. This is not some kind of unique state of elevation, but the normal state of the group.

He is envious of the friends with a good envy; he is drawn after them, takes an example from them. And if there is no envy, this is bad. A person must be afraid that everyone will discover that he is valueless and nothing, and will begin to despise him.

This feeling must be permanent, for it is very helpful for advancement. Everyone must be happy that he is given such a feeling, which is a useful means for advancement. So it is necessary to be concerned that it will be constant: seeing how dedicated the friends are, how they sacrifice themselves by being in much worse situations than you, and at the same time they are investing greater efforts than you do.

From small examples like these are created a yearning from “me” to “we,” because if the friends are higher than I am, I want to be with them, to be included with them, so that I will dissolve in them completely.
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From the Convention In St. Petersburg “Day Two” 9/20/14, Lesson 4

Under The Power Of Trepidation

Rabash, “ ,” Article 31: It is said: What does the Creator demand from us? – Only trepidation in front of Him.

It means that the Creator (a system of higher nature that has only one force that manifests itself through the system) inputs “something” into our thoughts… i.e., He asks us a question.

There is no other force in the universe except “none else besides Him.” Of course, the Creator would never make a creation that would go against Him; however, He created the thought (against Himself) so that trepidation in front of Him appears…

It is as if a person follows the Creator in his desire to find and reveal Him by scrutinizing in what kinds of interactions between us He can be found.

We cannot imagine how easy it is. Everything is right in front of us, but we look into the distance and don’t see what’s next to us. There is nothing but a psychological barrier. As soon as we switch and get out of ourselves, we begin sensing the Creator in the connections among us.

I move towards others and go outside myself. All of a sudden, it turns out that the natural force that connects, regulates, and holds everything together in the form of a perfect balance exists right here, together with us.

We are the ones who distort the balance and harmony by our egoistic intentions, desires, and relationships. We feel that it is us who are spoiling the balance and harmony. So, it’s clear that the world is something that is created solely by us against the background of perfection.

Attainment is about searching for the Creator using faith above reason. Attainment happens when we find the properties that are beyond this material level, above our earthly considerations and contrary to our logic. All our perceptions stem from the desire to receive for our own sake. That’s why we can’t agree with anything that contradicts this desire.

Conversely, the real world is outside us; it is in our external perception. That’s why faith above reason is a condition to which we all have to eventually arrive through sensing things that happen outside of our natural egoistic needs and aspirations.

Because of the sinner’s question, one has to agree to the power of the Creator over us again and again. This process is called “trepidation.”

The sinner’s question are the constantly arising needs, demands, and thoughts about the ways to please ourselves. It is a permanent movement towards ourselves. It’s when we take care only of ourselves in every possible way and at all levels. Sinners’ questions are given to us on purpose so that after we shake them off, we again start advancing.

And so on without end we fall into egoism by taking care of ourselves in our thoughts and desires. Then, we make efforts and rise again. This process continues until we get tired and refuse to fulfill this job. It goes on until we come to understand that only the environment ​can support us in this process and help us learn how to think of others.

If we stayed in the state of mutual guarantee and maintained the thought about helping each other, not just ourselves, everything would be very good. Why is that so? It’s because we are unable to think of others. We keep falling into desires of our own. However, if we are able to think about others and at the same time ask the Creator to help us, He will extend His help to us since He responds only to ​these kinds of thoughts and prayers because they are similar to His properties.

So, as soon as we begin aspiring to serve others and ask the Creator to grant us assistance, He responds immediately and helps us, since we, the group, and the Creator are on the same wavelength and in one joint movement. If we do it on our own, without the Creator, nothing will ever happen. Even if we are together with the group, it won’t happen. There must be a system of a triangle: Me, the group, and the Creator.

This structure must also be accompanied by trepidation. We have to be careful and watchful so that we won’t turn away from our path or lose the correct direction. Our egoism will tear us apart, split us from the inside and whisper: “Please forget about the Creator and the group. Nothing is wrong with abandoning them! The main thing is to either think of yourself or just about the others without involving the third element.”

At this point, we need tremendous support. The more of us that participate in this movement, the better it is. The general mass of people who secure an absolutely correct advancement is called 600,000 souls.

It is a conditional number that is not even a number, but rather a general advancement that causes the impact of Zeir Anpin on Malchut. Since Zeir Anpin consists of six Sefirotthat influence Malchut, by influencing a point in Malchut with the Light of Hochma, its level multiplies to 600,000.

Thus, by getting support, we really become able to feel trepidation and constantly stay in the state of permanent aspiration to advance.

This explains the meaning of the phrase: “The Creator made everybody fear Him.” Every bad state that one feels is essential to keep one in one’s current condition.   

In other words, if one has not yet climbed the stairs of the Creator’s greatness, one has no chance to overcome oneself. Only when one feels the greatness of the Creator, one’s heart surrenders. It means that one has already ascended the steps of trepidation.

How can one understand that one has reached the state of trepidation, attained the correct level of excitement, and knows how to take care of others? It happens when a person realizes that in his care for others he feels the Creator’s fulfillment. One’s Kli(vessel) becomes corrected only when it receives fulfillment. Until then, we have to continue searching for the fulfillment both in quantity and quality so that our concern, trepidation, and intention will be correctly formulated and will match the level that is above our ego.

For that, we are given the greatness of the group, the importance of our friends, as a means of connection among us, as an exercise tool. It is done solely to feel the Creator’s fulfillment at the end of the process; the gratification inside our ten Sefirot that we can sense only together in the connection between us. When we tie ourselves into this knot, we begin feeling ourselves as a unity inside the unified.

Naturally, one vanishes when one reaches a state of an overall connection. One loses one’s “I-ness.” From one’s individual “I,” one transitions to “we,” from “we” to unity in which “me– we – the Creator” are one whole. It is said: “He and His Name are One.” The Creator is the Light and His name is a Kli (vessel).

So, all these questions and other numerous obstacles bring one to sense the need in the Creator, in His help.

In other words, we are not capable of asking questions and we can’t even make correct mistakes since when we let ourselves go, we commit errors that immediately make us fall. In order to make correct mistakes, we have to aspire forward. It is said: “I created the evil inclination and the Light to correct it.” How does the evil manifest itself? Where can we detect and see it?

It turns out that these words are not about the evil that exists in this material realm and it is not the evil of our relationships with each other. Not a single person in the world knows what the evil made by the Creator is in fact. The wickedness that has to be corrected reveals in us only when we aspire to unity in the right way.

If we aspire to unity and strive to correctly connect in mutual advancement and if by sharing trepidation, we manage to help others not only ourselves, then we begin sensing our egoistic nature, we realize how strongly we are repulsed by it and how extensively we hate, not only each other, but also ourselves. This revelation is so disgusting that we repel it. We stop searching for other internal negative qualities.

At this point, the recognition of evil occurs. The Creator warns us beforehand that it is He who made the evil inclination and that it is us who should reveal it by aspiring to Him. So, we need a special kind of trepidation. We have to make efforts not to shy away from them, and to control, inspect, and check ourselves regularly.

We have to take a close look at whether we subconsciously avoid the revelation of our egoism as something very unpleasant for us. On the contrary, we have to enjoy the process of revelation of the evil inside us since it is an essential stage in our advancement.That’s why we have to be prepared to deal with very unpleasant sensations and enjoy them because they are accompanying our advancement towards the Creator.

At the same time, we should never forget about the Creator’s greatness. We cannot imagine what the upper force is, what, in fact, exists in the universe and not just in the limited picture that we sense now. It is impossible to understand to what extent the picture that dwells in our thoughts and sensations is artificial.

Scientists have already figured out that we are in a dormant state, that we live in illusions and inside a matrix that creates a distorted picture, a dream. Our egoism locks us inside ourselves, which is why we regard everything that happens as if it takes place inside us. Only when we go out and stop sitting in the shell of our own selves do we begin sensing the real world.

Before it happens, it is very difficult to visualize what the upper reality is. It is not at all like our universe, nothing like the solar system, and the Earth or its surface. We just visualize these things as if we are asleep, in our dreams.
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From the Convention In St. Petersburg “Day One” 9/19/14, lesson 1

First – Thanks

Question: If the group is feeling darkness, is it right to use the ego, meaning envy, lust, and honor with respect to unity and connection?

Answer: On every level darkness is called something completely different. Darkness can be a lack of getting something, and it could be a lack of ability to act, that I am powerless, or it could be the opposite: I am grateful for this darkness since I can act with “faith above reason,” and so forth.

Comment: I see that I cannot rise above myself, find a connection with the friends, and feel that a single power manages us. I don’t have anything besides the ego, and I begin to work with its help so that the friends will begin to be included within each other.

Answer: Here, it is necessary for there to be a tremendous prayer of thanks to theCreator that He gives you the opportunity to do something in a state of darkness like this.

This is the first right action. If you, at least, have some kind of opportunity to do something correctly, you must immediately thank the Creator. Then, you will come in contact with Him. It won’t be apparent and clear, but it will be a contact.

You have received the opportunity to turn toward the Creator correctly and to thank Him, so you turn to Him with a request to help the friends, and everything will already be in the chain.
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From the Convention In St. Petersburg “Day Three” 9/21/14, Lesson 6

Tears Are An Excess Of Light

Question: We were given an opportunity to be in a good group of ten. During the three days of the convention, we understood how strongly we love each other. Why do we cry when we confess our love toward each other?

Answer: This is a very good feeling. There are a number of articles on this subject in the wisdom of Kabbalah that explain when and why tears of happiness or sadness for friends, for emotions, and everything else are created. A person cannot contain an excess of emotion within himself, and this becomes tears.

In Section 13 of The Study of the Ten Sefirot, it is explained where tears come from, in what manner they are created. Tears represent an excess of Light that comes into a Klithat cannot hold it, and the Light apparently overflows beyond the limits of the Kli.
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From the Convention In St. Petersburg “Day Three” 9/21/14, Lesson 6

The Awe That We Feel

Question: Is the connection of fear and love one of awe for the Creator? Or is that a new feeling that, in the meantime, isn’t revealed in our world?

Answer: We are not talking about what is revealed in our world, meaning in the egoistic desires. Since there is nothing in them except for the animal fear for their corporeal existence and love for the pleasures that fill their animal existence.

We are not at all speaking about what is felt in the animal body, but trying to imagine ourselves existing in bestowal where two attributes reign: love and awe. We only think about what is happening outside of us, which means on what directs us externally to others and through them to the Creator, to the attribute of general love and bestowal.

Question: Why don’t we feel that awe you are speaking about?

Answer: That is a sign that you still haven’t gone through the required discernments of your advancement.

When a person is very concerned about something, is shaking and worried, then a feeling appears in him that he is investing strength and is not receiving what he should. And then he begins to think, “What’s the matter? It should turn out, but doesn’t.”

I have been studying so many years, so many years working on myself, doing a lot of disseminating. I have done so much. What haven’t I yet completed? Where have I made mistakes? Why don’t I see some advancement? And it could be that the advancement is that I don’t see it!? But I also need to know that. This means there is a demand that appears to a person, but it appears according to his efforts.
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From the Convention In St. Petersburg “Day One” 9/19/14, Lesson 2

We Must Not Allow Love To Cool Down

Baal HaSulam, Letter No 2: I advise you to fear that your love might cool down even though our minds reject this possibility.

When we are in love, it seems to us that it will last forever. However, we know that in this world, everything is temporary. This state of affairs applies to spirituality as well since, there too, we continue climbing the next steps. So, it is natural that current states will disappear there  as well. That’s why there is nothing permanent whatsoever and why any condition will always be replaced with another one, either a bad one with a good one, or a good one with a bad one.

Still, make every possible effort to multiply love. If there is a way to increase love, but one doesn’t take advantage of it, it is considered an “omission.” It’s “as if” one gives a great present to one’s friend: the love that reveals in his friend’s heart at the moment of giving is different from the love that remains in his friend’s heart after the deed of giving is over.

In other words, love gradually vanishes. It “cools down” every day to the extent that it goes away completely and reaches a stage of oblivion. That’s why the recipient of the gift must search for the ways to regard the act of giving as recurrent and new every given day.

That is, we have to constantly renew the sensation of love and never allow our feelings to cool down. Everything happens inside us. To keep this sensation, we don’t necessarily have to receive new gifts each time. This rule also applies to unity among us that has to be instigated on a continual basis.

We have come to a state when each one of us cares for others as if they are our little children, our closest and most beloved ones. Thus, we strive to give them everything they want. If we manage to do so, we will provide others with everything they really need, and the Creator will manifest Himself among us as a result of our similarity to His properties.

Our attitude to each other and His property of absolute bestowal and love will somehow coincide. At least they will reach the first level of similarity of the 125 steps. It is the most important issue for us. We are in a state of a constant readiness and everything is in our hands.

We should persistently beg the Creator to give our friends everything they want, i.e., correction and revelation. Revelation is the property of bestowal and love among us. This is exactly what we mean by the term trepidation: a state of caring about our friends that is similar to taking care of our own children from two sides by judgment and  by love.

On the side of judgment, we should really worry that we will lose a chance as did the ARI’s students when he invited them to Jerusalem to bring the world to a state of correction. At that time, everything supported the upper force to be revealed to them, as the upper force was ready to act in this world and correct it. However, the ARI’s students found excuses not to obey their teacher’s invitation. Some of them didn’t show up because their wives wouldn’t let them go and others were busy.

This explains why we have to maintain the state of trepidation and be concerned that we won’t succeed. In every moment and every minute, we have to clarify how we should treat others and support the general Kli (vessel) in a way that it finally reaches a certain condition that will allow the Creator to reveal Himself to us.

It’s as if we are currently facing the Judge, and as if we are given the last opportunity, or granted the final word. Imagine yourself in this state! Visualize that we are facing judgment and that we have to fill it with mutual love. We will be able to do this only if we ask the Creator to fill the gaps between us.

It’s not us who get closer in our hearts, rather it is the Creator who fills the egoistic emptiness between us with love. When the distance between us is multiplied by love, a connection of tremendous intensity emerges. That is why our closeness happens only due to the Creator filling the ​empty spaces between us. He connects, coordinates, and unites us. That’s why our work is called the Creator’s work (Avodat a-Shem).

We only invite Him to do the work of correcting and strengthening our connection.
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From the Convention In St. Petersburg “Day One” 9/19/14

Spiritual Fear Cannot Be Without Love

In The Book of Zohar, it is written: Evoking fear on both sides of love (during the periods of “trials” and the periods of mercy and benevolence) is essential. During the time of mercy and success on His Paths, it is necessary to trepidation awakened before the Creator to avoid committing sins and to prevent our love for Him “cooling down.”

There is no such thing as the fear of punishment. There is no retribution whatsoever. Only to our egoistic desire does it look that we are being punished for our wrongdoings.

Similar to how we egoists relate to each other in this realm, we assume that there is either a reward or a punishment for everything. Our whole life goes by between these two categories and clarifications: “How can I feel better, how can I reward myself? How can I hide from punishments?”

​The ​spiritual path lies above this level. There is no egoistic reckoning whatsoever, neither with the plus nor minus sign. There, it has nothing to do with rewards or retributions. In spirituality, we are the ones who create a scale of spiritual recompenses and paybacks.

When one is given a chance to care about others, it is a reward. If for some reason one is unable to take care of others, one considers it to be a punishment.

The true reality can be attained only when we bring our bodily sensors outside ourselves and begin sensing life not internally, but externally. We have to acknowledge and feel it. That’s why it is said: “You will see your world while you are still alive.” However, moving in this direction becomes possible only if we connect fear with love.

From Baal HaSulam’s and Rabash’s articles and from our own experience, we know that love never comes without fear. Real, spiritual fear cannot occur if it is not accompanied by love.  We shiver because we are scared that our love can weaken or love of those who care about us will diminish. We are in distress, not because we just enjoy being together as two egoists who are delighted to be with each other. Rather, we worry that we won’t let the Creator love us because we don’t please Him by loving our neighbors.

These are mutual sensations. We experience them only at the level of fear. Fear is necessary to make us rise above our egoism and work with it inversely.

… In order to avoid falling to wickedness and diminishing our love for the Creator, we have to connect fear with love.

The same happens on the “other side of love,” at the time of stringent trials when He judges us for our deeds. Awakening of fear before the Creator is essential so that we won’t fall in​to the state of judging ourselves according to egoistic criteria.
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From the Convention In St. Petersburg “Day One” 9/19/14, lesson 1

Awe: The Basis For Successful Work

Question: After two hours of work during the workshop, we received the feeling of fulfillment and joy from connection. What should our next step be? What should our prayer be for in order to not “squander” this state in vain?

Answer: We began our workshop with trepidation. We cannot forget that this is the basis for successful work. Everything that we do further needs to be grounded in this foundation. Whatever I may be doing physically, wherever my thoughts may take me, I am always monitoring my trepidation: “Do I quiver inside? Are my hopes and aspirations coming true? Am I moving forward or not?”

It is quite possible that I am falling into how I feel. Is this good or bad? In many I saw that many were not happy because they believed that here, they will be exalted on the wings of love. While others perceived it as the right state and correctly identified the degree of trepidation.

Thus, when we start to worry: “What is happening to me?! Why am I not ascending?! Why am I not in the correct connection with the others?! Where is my burning, outrage, dismay?!” Then there is a fear that there is something wrong with what is happening to me. This is an excellent state!

It is not for nothing that the first commandment is called the commandment of awe, of fear, worry. Only not about ourselves, but about whether I will be able to truly reach the property of bestowal.

What type of fear can there be in the property of bestowal? First and foremost, rising above yourself, annulling yourself, for only then the trepidation for others appears in me. I aim only to see where and how I can help my friends be connected with each other and sense this fear in a way that it would permeate everyone. Trepidation means mutual care, mutual worry so that each of us can be a correct element for the others.

At the same time, I direct my thoughts to the entire world group. Will we be able to achieve this? Will we finally be thinking about this constantly? I need to take care to fulfill my mission with respect to all the friends in the world! This is what my trepidation contains and not an egoistic fear for my own self.

I need to be concerned about everyone, to feel the friends the way a mother feels her children. It is internal attention and support. We will not achieve anything if we will sail on the waves of our egoism. And if it is not working out, cry, pray, ask. But we need to be doing something.

Right now, we received an addition of egoism. Before the congress, we were all inspired, subtle, ready to hold on to whatever it takes in order to not fly off. Now, on the contrary, we do not know how to rise up. Such are the rules: In order to overcome this degree, we are given added heaviness, and we must lift it.

We need to do this together. We should feel ourselves as interconnected, supporting one another.

I, too, invested a lot of effort, time, health, and life in order for something to work out. I also look at all of this, just like every one of you, from the point of view of implementation. We depend on each other. Just like my success is determined by you, so each of you determines the success of all.
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From the Convention in St. Petersburg “Day One” 9/9/14, Lesson 2

Where Do We Find The Connection Between Us?

Question: At the workshops we reached such a connection in our tens that a question arose. What more can be done? What else can we add to this?

Answer: I think that it is impossible for us to come any closer to each other on our own. We have experienced the limit of coming closer on our own and now we need to attract the Creator to this.

We passed through a stage of feeling and understood what it means to be one whole to some degree, and now we need to learn what the upper force is, try to feel it, enter it, and dissolve in it with the entire ten so that it will rule over us. When we totally plunge into it, we will find the connection between us there.

Question: What does it mean to attract the upper force? Is it in thoughts or in actions?

Answer: We, collectively, need to imagine ourselves as existing in the property of complete bestowal that rules over us, envelops us, and governs us. By coming closer to my friend and desiring to become included in him, I prepare myself for the Creator to descend upon me. This needs to be clear in feeling, not in actions.
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From the Convention in Saint Petersburg 9/21/14, Lesson 5

Radiate Joy And Energy

Comment: I have this feeling that, in our ten, we do not observe therules of the workshop. If we were to observe them, then the connection would be achieved much faster. I think that, through it, we are just harming the other circles.

Answer: Look at how small children grow, how many falls they take, how many messes they make, and how much they break. We are going through very intense, very serious states.

First of all, we need to thank the Creator for what we are going through. Being unsatisfied and critical is not bad either. However, on the other hand, we need to understand that taking falls, getting bumps, getting back up, crying, and so on, all of this is necessary and natural. Without all that, neither humans nor animals can develop. However, for animals all that happens instinctively, while for us it is through trial and error.

Despite the sages’ advice, the original sources and instructions, a person still does not know what he is doing, what he is getting into, and where he is headed. He simply agrees with everything because he is being pushed toward it from above, getting switched on from within. Gradually, we are beginning to realize more and more what we are dealing with, the states we are going through, both against my nature and along with my nature.

We should not pass over them, for it is worthwhile to try to exit our original nature because going deeper inward is only possible when you are trying to come outside of it, only in the positive direction.

In so doing, one must not delve into their feelings, eat their own flesh, cry on someone’s shoulder, and reveal weakness to oneself and others, and if it might seem to you that you are a person of truth and acting according to your feelings, then you will not be able to move in this direction because it should always be toward the Light.

Therefore, we always should be playing in front of each other, enacting enthusiasm, support, happiness, and fulfillment. Everyone should have a huge smile and ooze vibes of happiness as if we have already received what we desire. We need to be firmly connected to each other and feel that together we are one indivisible whole.

In the Torah it is written that a large number of people came out of Egypt and divided into tens, hundreds, and thousands. If we begin to add up these numbers, we would get a population of many thousands, all interconnected.

Also, division into tens is necessary in order for us to band together in internal work. This is why I am asking: intermix among yourselves. However, most importantly, do so with an open smile and heart.

Each of us is responsible for everyone else. If someone is in a bad mood, has a void in their eyes, and so on, then I am responsible for whatever is happening to him. It means that I am not radiating the joy and energy that should fill everyone. If I am relating to everyone correctly and want to radiate positive energy, then I most certainly will start receiving it from above.

Thus, whatever we might be doing, we are thinking about how to fill everyone else with joy, happiness, confidence, and mutual guarantee.
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From the Convention In St. Petersburg “Day Three” 9/21/14, Lesson 3

Demand Explanations From The Creator

Question: We always say, “There is none else besides Him,” and use this everywhere like a plug. If, for example, someone hurt or angered me, I react accordingly, but then I remember “Oh, but this came from the Creator. Well, since it’s from Him, then it’s fine.”

How can we come to such a state when I would react to the friendwith the same awe as I do toward the Creator, “Oh, but this is my friend!”

Answer: This is incorrect. We cannot reach the Creator, and this is why you say, “Oh okay,” reassuring yourself and agreeing with whatever is happening. This is complacency, as they say, “Opium for the masses.”

In actuality, there needs to be attainment of the perfect absolute. When you truly understand, feel, and attain the Creator, then your agreement with Him will acquire a real force.

Until then, you will continue consoling yourselves with “There is nothing to be done. The Creator is….” As they write in insurance policies, “Struck by lightning; nothing could be done. Who is to blame? It is an outside force.”

Question: Maybe there is a lack of analysis here?

Answer: It is only a lack of attainment! This is not a matter of the mind, but of organs of attainment, the Kelim (vessels). A correct reaction is needed.

First and foremost, we need to demand that it become clear exactly what is going on. Demand, and not simply agree, since, through that, you gloss over everything that He is doing with you. He wants to challenge you to a serious mutual feeling, a clarification, but you pre-emptively agree, “No, no, no need for that; it’s all good.”

Demand clarifications from the Creator!
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From the Convention in St. Petersburg “Day Three” 9/21/14, Lesson 6

If I Am Not For Myself, Then No One Will Help Me

We need to use the phrase, “There is none else besides Him,” very carefully and not defer to it in all circumstances, justifying ourselves.

Did you attain the One of whom you say, “There is none else besides Him?” No. Yet, you use this expression whenever it is convenient for you. You have no right to use as a maxim what the Kabbalists derived from their Kelim(vessels) of attainment. You do not have them! Yet, you take this concept as a ready-made formula and begin to use it. This is incorrect; you cannot do that!

Everything I say stems from the Kelim I currently exist in. If I have these feelings and attainments inside me, then I proceed from this formula because I am able to operate it, and, if not, then what is the use of my words?

If I am not at this level, then why should I be thinking about it and imagining something? If I am simply studying theoretically, then this is a different matter. However, in practice, working in the group, if I always am going to be saying  “There is none else besides Him,” then I will not grow and will remain a small animal. All religious believers say that.

Question: How does the concept of “There is none else besides Him” link up with the fact that we must put forth our own efforts?

Answer: Prior to starting the work, one does not accept the principle of “There is none else besides Him” and does everything through his own effort.

In Letter #16, Baal HaSulam writes that each day before a person begins work, he needs to say, “If I am not for me, who is for me” and do whatever is necessary to earn his daily bread.

However, in the evening, having finished his work, he says, “There is none else besides Him” because the Creator thought about him in advance, and he earned everything not due to his own efforts, but because this was bound to occur.
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From the Convention In St. Petersburg “Day Three” 9/21/14, Lesson 6

The Good Luminescence Of The Holiday

Question: How can we begin to feel in the holiday of Sukkot all the concepts that you are telling us about: the surrounding lights, the upper force of nature?

Answer: By being among us and taking part in the holiday lessons, activities, and meals, one can sense this taste a little bit. However, in order to experience the true feeling of this holiday, an enormous preparation is required. As it is written, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”

One can taste, see, and feel the upper Light, or the Creator, the overall force of all of Creation only after the work of preparation in which a person forms a special, altruistic organ of perception within himself.

To perceive any natural phenomenon, a specialized suitable instrument, a detector, is required. The Creator is a force of love and bestowal. If, inside of me, there also would be even a little bit of bestowal and love for my neighbor, then I would be able to feel the Creator and to reveal Him.

However, if there is no love within me, it means that the Creator is concealed. It isn’t Him concealing Himself from me, but I conceal myself from Him since, as it is written, “The whole earth is full of His glory.” This force fills all of reality, except for me. I do not have the power of love and bestowal, and therefore I am unable to feel that such a force exists around me.

I am like a radio receiver that does not have the required wavelength range, and therefore I cannot catch His wave and do not know whether He exists or not. For me, it is as if He does not exist.

This is what the entire work of changing oneself and correcting one’s attitude toward others is dedicated to, and with it I tune myself like a radio receiver to the Creator’s wavelength, the wave of love and bestowal.

This is why the wisdom of Kabbalah has this name. It is the science of receiving (Kabbalah), receiving the Creator’s signal. A person cannot reach this instantaneously. He needs to study in order to first feel what properties he has right now and what he needs to change in himself in order to reach the state of revelation.

The correct process is, as it is written, “From the love of the creatures to the love of the Creator.” We exist in the world full of rocks, plants, animals, and people so that we can exercise our correct attitude to them so as to develop inside oneself the sensitivity to that wavelength on which connection with the Creator is realized.

Question: Why is it that, during a holiday, a special feeling appears and is experienced by many people?

Answer: During the holiday, there is a small, general light, spreading between everyone. It happens because many people are awaiting the holiday. Their desire acts in the world and generates this illumination. However, it is still very far from the action of the upper Light that Kabbalah is talking about.
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From KabTv’s: “New Life” 10/2/14

The Common Point In The Heart

Question: What does it mean to be Moses with respect to the friendsin the ten?

Answer: Moses (Moshe in Hebrew) is the one common point of the entire ten. You collect your points together and feel as one single point. This is your Moses which draws you out of egoism. The concept of Moshiach, that is, one who draws, pulls out, comes from the verb “Lishmoh,”to pull, to draw out.

Question: If one of the friends is in a descent, does it mean that the others are Moese for him?

Answer: They pull him out, yes. But this action is not called Moses.

Moses is specifically the sum of all aspirations of the points in the heart aimed at attaining the Creator. In other words, they are aimed so the property of bestowal and lovewill start to develop inside this point. But it is merely a point, and only to the extent that you begin to attach egoism to yourself, like AHP to Galgalta ve Eynaim, will you begin to grow.
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From the Convention In St. Petersburg “Day Two” 9/20/14, lesson 3

When The Heart Is Silent

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.
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From the Convention In St. Petersburg “Day Two” 9/20/14, lesson 3