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