The Intention of the Group
45) Is there such a thing as the intention of the group? There is no group if the group is not united in the intention and solely in the intention. The group cannot unite in anything else. Unification in desire is called "gathering of scorners". Unification in intention, striving for the Creator is called "the sacred society"; this is what the group of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai is called. Unification is carried out only in the common intention, turned only towards the Creator. We are talking about the intention, not the desire. We are not capable of examining the desires. Truth be told, the same goes for the intentions; however, following our desires, our actions can divert us in many directions. In contrast, if the intention is the same and directed towards the Creator – everything else welds accordingly.
(Lesson of February 25, 2005, The Steps of the Ladder, Part 1, Article 503)
46) How can I acquire the strength to have the intention 24 hours a day? The group can obligate me, doing so not by force but rather by its ability to influence me in such a way that I will want it. I will be “stuck” on this day and night. In other words, this perception will simply always be with me.
It is necessary to begin living in the intention, rather than performing actions. This is a different dimension. In other words, I do not live in actions and relationships, but rather in the intention. “He and I; how do I relate to Him” – we have to constantly be present in this intention. If you are immersed in this during the entire 24 hours, this means that you have passed the Machsom and have entered the spiritual world. The spiritual world is my relation to the Creator. This is a relation that corresponds to my intention, which is directed at Him. That’s all. Of course, in this case you become filled by something else, you have a different concern, and this is how you live. Do not be afraid, because in this case it does not matter what animal aspect you are dealing with, whether it is studying, eating, drinking, or entertainment; you nevertheless preserve the intention. This means to ascend from the animal level to the spiritual level, and to live according to the intention and according to your relation to the Supreme Force. In this case you reveal it, perceive it, live in it and you exist in the perception of eternal life. We are talking about the dimension that gives you a totally different relationship towards everything. If you are always goal-oriented towards the Creator over the course of all 24 hours during your entire life, then you are living in the same realm as He. Obviously, this is a different form of existence.
How should one address the plea to the group? Demand; do not ask. Demand! Bring this necessity into the group. Press on the group, and it will come back to you in the form of a conviction.
(Daily Article, February 14, 2005)
47) “The end of the action is contained in the original thought”. We cannot begin any action if we have not placed the final goal as the most important thing. The final goal must be present in the beginning. We have to place in the beginning that which will exist in the end; otherwise, the action, intention or thought will be simply animalistic. A person is called “crazy” if he does not know why he acts, nor has a clear goal. He is called a fool, a child, or a crazy person.
You should imagine the final goal to yourself, to the extent that you have analyzed it. It is not important whether this is little or a lot; the most important thing is that you at least catch it by its tail and say “I am working for its sake. Now I have to carry out certain actions, in order to ultimately reach the goal”.
A question arises: if I better clarify the goal for myself, will I acquire more strength, perceive the necessity to enter a mutual-guarantee in undertaking the work in the group, and put my efforts into it? This is built on a mutual basis. No matter how captivated you are by the final goal, you will not be able to receive much from it without first receiving the realization of the importance of your final goal from the group.
Do you understand? You do not have the strength, and you do not have a connection with the Creator that would shine for you and show you who He is and what He is. However, you do have friends who can tell you that the Creator is great.(Daily Article, February 10, 2005)
48) What the Creator has given to you is, very simply, a priceless gift: conditions that have never existed in the world, both internal and external. You have support from other countries, people join us from all over the world, you are given a teacher who explains to you how you should act; you have everything.
Rabash told me that when he would leave to go to his father’s lesson, his wife would remind him that there is not even a piece of bread for the kids at home. His youngest daughter would come to him and say: “Daddy, I want to eat”. “What would you like?” he would ask. “Anything” she answered. This is the way he would leave his family when he went to study with Baal HaSulam. Those were the conditions at that time.
You do not value your state. Your families agree; even the world agrees. This is some kind of a heaven or a madhouse. I don’t know what to call it; this is something abnormal. I am afraid to say or not to say “Thank you”.
However, this weakens us at the same time. You fall into being carefree. There are no obstacles on the path, there is nothing that would obligate you, prick you, irritate, scare and threaten you. The conditions are such that I simply don’t know what to say.
So what is left for you to do? You are only to sit and connect with each other. You are left only with the net spiritual work! Imagine to yourself that, God forbid, right now none of you had a piece of bread at home. Now begin to think about the spiritual and about the unification of friends. Not to mention even greater misfortunes.
You are required to direct our necessity towards the Creator, do this not on the material background, but on the spiritual. You should ascend from good to better on the spiritual background and above various pleasures. Therefore, you should imagine that your state is bad and horrible because there is nothing Divine in it; and then ascend up from this. The only thing left for you to do, is to do something inside of yourself.
(Daily Article, March 13, 2005)
49) We will have to work together a lot. If we will act jointly, if we direct the intention for the good of the whole Kli and will unite together thanks to this, if people will have these kinds of intentions, then we will extract benefit. However, if not, then just the opposite will happen. It is said: “It is better to sit and not do anything”. In other words, if you do not have the right intention, don’t begin to do anything.
Let’s suppose that right now someone will create a lot of activity in different areas in the group. If this person does not have the right intentions while doing this, then he, and we together with him, will suffer a loss. That is why it is said: “It is better to sit and not do anything”.
…We do not understand the extent to which we have no control over the situation. By ourselves we practically do not promote the correct advancement. The disproportion is huge: 99% or even more. At the same time, however, we are allowed to do so much from above. It is simply scary to look at what is happening. If we were just sitting and studying by ourselves, like everyone else, then this would not go anywhere. However, we are in more potential danger than they. There are many groups: they are sitting on their own and studying or praying. However, in reality nothing is happening there, they are not working on unification and therefore are not performing any actions. We are in a more dangerous situation.
…Does it turn out that it really is better to sit and not do anything? What should we do in reality? We have to continue our activity, since these actions will ultimately evoke the realization of evil in us. Various problems and disappointments are possible on the way. It is necessary to continue, even if we will not see the results of our work after several years. The results may not be what we wanted, but they will follow the natural laws.
There is no way out of this. If we also restrict the actions then nothing will be left of us. Our group arrives at the intention through actions. We cannot study, as it is customary to say, “for the heavens”, that is, by looking into emptiness. If we will not work and perform actions, then by this we will finish off Bnei Baruch.
However, we nevertheless have to understand the importance of the intention. Everything that we will do has to turn into a group action with a group intention, directed at the Creator.
(Lesson of February 25, 2005, The Steps of the Ladder, Part 1, Article 503)
50) Each member of the group has to build the intention during every action. When a person does this, then his existence, activity and every second of his presence in the group increase the group’s ability to unify with the Creator more and more. If the intentions are such, then everyone is under the umbrella of the Upper light. Ultimately, all of reality is built with correspondence to the Upper law. It is necessary to reach the goal, and if the society as a whole as well as each person individually aspires towards this, then the Upper law works together with them. In this case, the group obviously cannot fail in any way. There is no force that is able to do anything against it.
However, if the members of the group have in any way forgotten about the goal, then the Upper Force that pulls everything towards the goal, collides with the irrelevant thoughts that do not aspire towards the goal of unifying with the Creator. Thoughts that do not aspire towards the goal lead to the failures of the group and become perceived one way or another. As these kinds of deviations multiply, a crisis occurs.
We have to understand that, in reality, there exists only one force; this is the force that pulls everything towards the goal and towards unification with the Creator. This has to become the law and the upper debt for every person in particular as well as for the group as a whole. We have to think only about the desire for the goal, and determine all of our actions based on this.
(Excerpt for Reading, February 21, 2005)
51)The Surrounding Light that comes from the study and the group results in my acquisition of a certain desire.I study and exert all kinds of effort in the group, simply by participating in its life, because I’m told that I’m obliged to do so. Personally, I have no urge for such actions, but gradually, thanks to them, I start realizing that I have to go beyond my nature. In order to achieve this, I commit to establishing a connection with the others.
The group, in essence, emerges at the moment when a few people come together and decide among themselves that each of them wants to elevate above his nature. It’s possible to achieve this only if they cultivate love, love for the others, which is the expression of coming out of oneself. And this is why they make an agreement between each other about their readiness to perform actions that would help them to acquire a property of love - coming out from the desire for delight into the spiritual, the desire to bestow.
If people like this come together ready to help each other, they realize that, thanks to this mutual help, each of them acquires a joint power that is the result of their combined endeavors – they are called a group. If, say, ten people come together, and each of them wants to come outside of himself, then each receives a power that is ten times greater than his individual power, and it helps him to attract the Surrounding Light. During the study, when they gather and study with the right intention, to attract light - that helps them. The light acts upon each of them, say ten times stronger than the light an individual would be attracting by himself. And this is enough to develop a point in the heart, transforming it into the spiritual world.
But if an individual or a society does not perform such an action, then it is impossible to reach the spiritual. There is no other chance. You will never have the power to individually attract the Surrounding Light in the quantity and quality sufficient for correction. This is possible only through the help of a group. Why? Because through this you not only express your love for the others, but also show that you really want to attract the Surrounding Light, so that it corrects you. It all comes together: I want to come outside of myself and I express this desire by trying to love my fellow man. And if we study together in order to express in reality my desire to come outside of myself, then, obviously, the Surrounding Light acts upon me and helps me. Both factors form this action of mine, this tendency. If, on the contrary, I think about how to extract benefit here and there, asking for the spiritual, asking for the Surrounding Light – what will come in response? After all, my state is opposite to it.
So it follows that you have to aspire to bestowal, to aspire clearly and unambiguously, in confidence that you are aspiring specifically to it, and not to something else. You can display this for your fellow man before you. If you demonstrate your desire for bestowal and really want this force to come and grant you this property – the light appears and provides this. This is what is called action, performed in a group. In essence, this is the system. There is nothing else but this up to the Final Correction. May you be blessed later with being part of a group like that of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, however, the same work will be performed there. Until the Final Correction, until the last interaction in the world of Infinity, an individual is engaged in the same kind of work in relation to the other souls, until he gathers them all together into the Infinite Kli called Adam HaRishon.
In essence, all of the 125 degrees that we ascend on our way upwards represent the acquisition of love directed from an individual towards a fellow man, towards the others. There is nothing else beside this. Through this we acquire the nature of the Creator, Who emanates exactly the same attitude to the creation. You become equivalent with the Creator in your properties, and, as a result, you really attain His level, His form. He wants to give you what He has – and you really come to the point when you receive what the Creator has, that which exists in the degree called "the Creator". This is what the purpose of the creation is – to bring good to His creatures. And, of course, the fulfillment that a created being ultimately receives and senses has absolutely no connection to his original desire for delight. A created being acquires something that lies beyond his desire for delight.
(From the lesson of December 12, 2004)
52) Without work in the group it is impossible to determine what it means to "receive" and what it means to "bestow". People come together and start working among themselves, because this work allows them to clarify their position in relation to the goal, which is invisible to them.
Now we exist inside of a ball, a sphere, in an enclosed space. We have to direct ourselves outward, to some far-away star, setting our course precisely for it. Kabbalists tell us that if we work on love for each other, if each thinks about the others then the target, that is, our inner inclination, will be directed exactly towards this star, the goal, the Creator. You do not have to see the star that shines for you – just start building such a relationship inside your nature. We have ten, twenty or thirty people. The Creator arranges it so that we have a group of friends who also aspire to discover the right direction.
In the state when you do not see this direction, build the right attitude inside your sphere, your closed space. Direct yourself. You have all the conditions needed to set a course in the right direction.
(Daily Article, December 29, 2004)
53) A million actions will bring you to the right thought, if you perform them specifically for this purpose. It is impossible to miss. However, alone you are unable to know unable to analyze yourself. But if this is done by the surrounding people, you will definitely start thinking and acting the way they do.
Our problem is that each person feels free and does not become a "slave" of group interests. The group does not influence a person and does not transform him into its integral element; it does not imply that this is necessary in relation to each member of the group. Our intention does not involve building a common Kli. Otherwise, each person would be chained to the group as if with handcuffs; sturdy shackles would hold him inside, and he wouldn’t be able to leave, wouldn’t be able to think differently. Such a state would become mandatory for a person, if such were the thoughts of the group. After all, these thoughts would certainly subdue the thoughts of the rest of the world.
Look at the examples in history: communists, Nazis, socialists in Israel, Kibbutz adepts of the past – how strongly the thought united them. Was anyone able to escape this? If the thought is strong, it is very hard to escape from such a society. And where to go? You would immediately fall into the abyss. If the group has a desire, it is able to create such conditions for everybody.
(Lesson of February 25, 2005, The Steps of the Ladder, Part 1, Article 503)
54) We are charged with a collective mission, and we will be worthy only in regards to it. No one is on a personal mission. Not a single person here deserves anything on his own account. Forget this; I warn all of you. It is a pity if any of you think that he has some personal business with the Creator. No! Only all of you together. I simply point your attention to this and lead you as a group. By himself, no one will be worthy of it.
We have no one to turn to in this world, no one to lean on, but the Creator. This is how it has to be. I also teach you not to rely on me, but only on Him. We simply have to unite together. Then we will see what we become worthy of, by doing this. If we work hard now, focusing on the forthcoming Congress, trying to unite the World Kli and ourselves, if we attempt to leave our "womb", - this narrow, cramped place in which we exist, if we exit through this narrow passageway and enter the illuminated world, aspire to cross over into it and live there in adhesion with the Creator, having lost ourselves – then we would really become worthy of exit from Egypt.
I really hope that this will actually happen to us in the near future. Believe me, I want to accompany you to the very opening, lead you to this crossing and bring you through, to welcome you on the other side and show you what this is – show you all the light and abundance, all this order that exists beyond the limits of that narrow passageway, which a human being passes through, as if experiencing death in this world. This is very hard. I even heard, from those who were close to Rabash, how he used to scream. They said that there was a period when Rabash screamed a lot and was very tense. Observing from outside, they did not understand what was really happening with him. This is a very hard thing, but I hope that I will be worthy of leading you to the other side. And when you are actually on the other side, then, I feel, my mission will have been accomplished.
(New Month Meal, October 14, 2004)
55) Only bestowal to the group is unconditional. If, through a group, a person "contacts" that which he calls "The Creator" – it is not the Creator. It is a certain source of filling for his ego. A person has to constantly augment his receptivity in regard to the group, checking what he is doing in order to receive. He has to relate to the group as to the force that bestows to him. When a person constantly reduces the limits within which he allows himself to think about issues that do not relate to the adhesion with the group – he is approaching the state called "love sick". If a person can imagine the Creator as the One Who Bestows and is ready to advance through the group, if advancement through the group is, in his eyes, the real advancement towards the properties of the One Who Bestows, then he reaches the state called "love sick". Based on the equivalency of form, he loves the Creator, desires Him. This is still an "artificial" state, still mixed with Lo-Lishma, however, in some respect this state is directed towards the correct goal. Then the Creator moves away the slumber, takes it out, and a person starts coming home.
(Daily Article, January 10, 2005)
56) Whatever gets revealed to us is revealed in relation to the Creator. The environment can only provide me with a place to exert efforts and accelerate my development. However, the intentions have to be linked to the Creator. There are four levels: still, vegetative, animated, and speaking. The speaking level possesses an affiliation to the Creator, and for it, this affiliation is the means, the place where the Creator gets revealed; this is the condition for His revelation. The Creator is revealed in the inter-connections among the souls, outside of oneself, not in me, but in the connection between us. The environment itself is not a separate topic for discussion. There is no holiness in it unless it becomes the place for the dwelling of Shechinah, for the revelation of the Creator. Only then it relates to the Holiness and is called "the Holy Society", but only under this condition.
If a person prescribes the society a bigger value than the means of attaining the adhesion with the Creator would deserve, then it becomes the Klipa, similar to Sodom and other negative examples in the Torah. The same goes for the adepts of the Kibbutz movement, communists, and the like. However, if the Creator is on top of everything, and the group serves as the means, then it becomes the only, indispensable, and compulsory condition.
It follows that, obviously, everything should go through the group. However, any thought about the group that is not linked to the Creator is absolutely of no use. This applies to everything, no matter what we do, and especially to people who occupy the leading positions in the group in terms of decision-making process and implementation. In the "Holy society" these have to be great people, in a spiritual sense. Their actions in the group can have a tremendous effect – such have to be their intentions as well.
For this reason, Baal HaSulam never wrote some special external specialists should lead the society. The enterprise can play a role of a consultant – but only to up to a certain point and in the areas where the actions are still separated from the intentions. This is feasible in intermediate stages when our society comes into contact with other layers of the population. However, in the corrected society the intentions define even the simplest actions of a human being, working on a farm or in a factory. A human being cannot be appointed a director due only to professional considerations. He must incorporate intentions into his professionalism. If the intentions are not adequate for a given position, his professional qualities can destroy the entire society. This is the so called case when "actions exceed intentions".
This is why Baal HaSulam writes everywhere that society's leadership, including professionals, must consist of the most prominent figures of the generation. Obviously, it does not apply to us yet, however, the corrected society can be governed only in this way. Then, all actions of a human being will be directed towards Holiness, towards establishing a connection with the Divine revelation of the Creator in the creating beings. How can we entrust the important actions and decisions to someone whose intentions are directed towards self-love, lust for power or are not directed towards anything at all? Even if a human being is simply devoted to his profession and needs nothing else - for instance, computer programmers, who are totally immersed in their computer world – he becomes a real burden to a group, although he seemingly performs great deeds. Until our society is on the path, and while it and the entire world are not corrected, you can hire such a person as a contractor, pay him the amount he is asking for, and get done what you need. Since the entire world is still divided into our society and the rest of the world, you can maintain a buying–selling relationship with it that does not involve intentions. Doing so, you take people's desires and raise them to the level of your intentions, illuminating the world.
(Lesson of February 25, 2005, The Steps of the Ladder, Part 1, Article 503)
57) Every time that you gather with your friends, to be involved in various activities together over a few days, if it is a prolonged event – like in Sitrin – or over a span of a few moments, when we are singing and dancing together at a feast, you become inspired about how good it would be to exit the self. You feel the melting into boundlessness and sense the entry into the immensity of an alternative life. Such impressions gradually accumulate in you and you begin to understand that it is worth your while to live for this. This understanding is still egotistical; however, it is a type of Lo Lishma that leads to Lishma. It is already a certain perception of what it means to be outside of oneself. The perception is still evaluation using vessels of reception; however, you have already realized that it is worth it. Consequently, if you put your head into it and with the group working as it should, you gradually receive more and more of such impressions. Eventually, you attain a state that is called “better death than such a life.”
The Creator for you is that particular exit out of yourself. That is precisely the state for which you are heart-broken. The Creator is not a means, but a state that you draw yourself into – a picture of what it means to be the Creator. We use such a concept to imagine everything and this situation is no different.
You strive for the pleasure that is hidden in that state when you are on the outside of yourself. We weigh only the pleasure. A greater or a smaller state, submission and bestowal – we measure everything according to whether there is more or less pleasure. There is nothing else for us to weigh – my “weights“ are only useful for this.
When we begin to feel a calling – a desire to be unbounded by our vessels; to have good thoughts about and to experience good feelings towards others; to love them, when we get the opportunity to go beyond our constrains, our suffering and everything that is bad; when we feel that there is a very special pleasure being concealed – that is what brings us to a state of Lo Lishma. Then, within this Lo Lishma emerges the sensation of Lishma. You begin to sense that even if this state is meant for you, you still do not attain perfection in it. It is a matter of a sensation that I am not capable of describing. Gradually, such a state takes hold and these types of perceptions are formed. Within this desire to exit the self arises a wish not be associate with exist with the slightest thought for oneself, and that it should result in a totally new Kli – not connected to the previous one in any way. This type of desire development is analogous to the four phases of the expansion of the direct light. This is how the process works.
However, it progresses slowly, step by step, by means of actions in a group. There are no other ways.
The Creator is concealed. Even the fact that He is a Giver of pleasure is concealed and also that which He gives. Yet, this is what gives you room to develop your vessels of bestowal – if you so wish. No other place can be found. You are given that particular structure of the shattered parzuf of Adam HaRishon – go ahead and work. By beginning to work here, you will reveal the surrounding light that will gradually show you the true picture. It is very simple: at first you existed at the level of souls, connected with each other in one Kli, whereas now you can feel only the body and not the soul. This situation is no different. It is for your benefit. Now act.
The Creator has not created anything but this structure. It is just that in your uncorrected state, the vessel of Adam HaRishon appears to you in the form of bodies of your friends. Such is the system through which you are connected to correction. Furthermore, there are many bodies in the world that are not connected to you directly. You are not required to carry out any work in relation to them. You only need to be concerned that they should not spoil the work for you, whereas you include them indirectly in your efforts, so that in the future they would also connect to correction. The group represents the whole vessel of the parzuf of Adam HaRishon – given for your work.
In your efforts to go beyond yourself towards your friends, into your friends, you gradually receive an inspiration about how good and worthwhile it is. Then you begin to comprehend the extent to which it was important to fully be aspiring to go beyond oneself, without any expectation of a self-benefit. If a particular number of people think this way and the force of their efforts is adequate, then this is in actuality the condition of mutual guarantee.
(From the Morning Lesson of January 11, 2005)
58) The system is simple: it is the sum of all souls. If a person becomes convinced that he has no choice and makes an effort, then first of all he has to be sure that it is time to begin acting in order to awaken help from above. A person exerts himself, experiences failures, stops and runs away; however, if it is important for him, he is then prepared to tolerate great torments. He begins to think: “What is happening to me? Why am I not thinking about that which is the most important? Why am I ignoring that which my life depends on, lest I end life empty-handed”? A person begins to worry and if he channels his worry through the group, which also faces the same problem, then he will receive help from above and the importance of bestowal will be revealed to him; the importance of the external Kli that exists beyond his ego. Actually, that is not a Kli, but rather the intent for bestowal. In this way, step-by-step, a person begins to value this new state, being the ability to exit his own shell – and gradually he does.
The order of actions is as follows: to exert effort together with a group, through books and study; to ask that it should happen – and then it will. Efforts should be aimed only to this end and not to worry about anything else. As soon as this happens, we will be granted the mutual guarantee. As it says in the article “Arvut”, upon the satisfaction of this condition, the Upper Power immediately revealed itself to Israel and they received the Torah. Every thing is ready and awaiting your action.(Daily Article, January 23, 2005)
59) Once during the holiday of Sukkot with Rabash, we sensed a certain unusual high. I asked him: “What are we missing?” The group felt as though we were all with one desire. Despite the fact that we did not have any special connection, nevertheless, this one desire arose. “So what is missing?” He replied: “An attack”. You have to decide that you will now go to the very end, and that it is not important that one second later you will change your mind. Even if you know that you are not capable, and yet in that particular instance you decide to go through with it, that is enough. Baal HaSulam writes about it in the book “Shamati”: “A person is judged according to where he is now”. In other words, when a person makes his decision, it becomes the truth according to which he is judged. To that end, I recommend that you stop all foolishness. You are all here; there is nothing else available except for only one means – friends and a united group. You have to disconnect from everything else, while internally you immerse yourself, as deeply as possible, into that which you are now attempting to do – to realize it and remain only in it. This is what an attack is. An attack is a greater and great internal focus. Let us hope that we will succeed. Everything depends on you. To that end, together we must all maintain our internal concentration and desire for one goal. We want it, and we want it immediately.
How to maintain one’s concentration in view of various external circumstances? If you concentrate and wish to become a sort of “dark hole” that does not let any light out; if all of you who are gathered internally, all together exert an effort in your concentration so that no one would be able to lose his thought on something else – it will have such an influence on each one, as it happens sometimes in Sitrin. There is simply nothing else besides this. This is what you have to do. This is what concentration is, the force of the blown up balloon. None of the work is carried out by the Creator; all is from the part of man. There is no dominion over this from above.(December 2, 2004)
60) When you step out into the external world, and lose sight of your friends and the group, it becomes very hard to remain focused on the goal. Life goes on in the world right in front of your eyes, introducing into you a different spirit. Since you are already used to that which takes place there, and by engaging in it and thinking of something else, you come to be in a different state. In contrast, while here you study with all your group friends and you are immersed in a particular format. While, there in the outside world, you fall into different boundaries.
Therefore, we must be more focused and feel each other. Then, even if you are not capable, the others will exert their influence on you, and you will be able to go through many states and maintain the proper inner analysis.
During the lesson, you obtain an inner sensation – try to maintain this sensation everywhere. I remember how I tried to do it when I was with my friends. Overall, in our sensations, we should attempt to be able to disregard any changes in location.
Try to distinguish, in your external actions, the inner part. That is not easy. Possibly, it restricts the external actions, by removing from them the free impulse for physical pleasure. Yet, if parallel with this action you internally continue to maintain the filling, while on the outside you show happiness, so that others would not feel your internal seriousness, then you will suddenly discover that you are made up of parts and layers. This is a very effective exercise that must be experienced.
Be very careful not to spoil the mood for others with your seriousness and “righteousness”. Suddenly an “intention” arises in you and then you require some special concentration – this is certainly forbidden. You should behave precisely as recommended by Rabash, at the time of the gathering of friends: a blazing fire internally, joy externally, even along with revitalization and playfulness – this is our obligation.
Begin to play this out correctly, so that by way of consolidation, in particular with new friends, we would achieve the unification of the group and the connection of the parts of the Kli. Just like in an explosion: the stronger the pressure being exerted on the material, the greater is the release of internal energy.
(December 1, 2004)
61) Even though we see our many friends on the monitor screens who live far away from us, we need to be concerned only with the unification of our hearts and souls, as opposed to the intersection of our material coordinates. If we could feel the unification effected by the Upper light, if the Upper light would indeed unify us – we will become so close to each other, that we will feel ourselves as one person with a single heart. We will experience common feelings and thoughts. We will have a sensation that we are not sitting besides each other, but actually exist one inside the other, absolutely together. This is the result that we must arrive at, and it has no relation whatsoever to distance.
Our goal is to cover the distances separating us with the spiritual, not physically, and to unify by means of the spiritual, so that our thoughts and desires would become one in a single spiritual space.
(From the talk of the Tuv BeShvat Meal, January 24, 2005)
62) The calculations are not dependent on the experience or the knowledge of TES. There is only a single simple condition and it is as follows: whether we will be able to accept, so to speak, this naïve decision to successfully carry out that which arises in front of us. That is all. No amount of wisdom can help. Experience does not give a person any advantage whatsoever and, in fact, only serves as a liability.
There is only one simple requirement: anywhere that you may find yourself – at every point of your path, in any state – you should surely demand a connection with the Creator and achieve it. It can be said that we are ready. There is no need to arm ourselves with anything else; we have nothing missing in terms of various special diversities – everything totally depends on desire. We need to carry out an attack, and we will succeed. It all depends on our decision.
I think we are capable and we can achieve this, seeing that here we have people gathered that truly desire this with their hearts and souls. If we inspire each other, if we achieve this desire even for a few intervals, it will bring a tremendous benefit, since such instances accumulate until we come to the reception of the Torah. There is really little that is demanded of us, to desire this with the whole heart. All that is required is to want that the heart of each would open up to his friends without waiting for a response. You need to simply melt your heart and to pour everything you have inside on others – everything that you were preparing for yourself, give it to your friend. This is what will make us succeed.
(Virtual Congress, January 20, 2005)
63) How should I show myself to my friends, so that in response I receive a desire for the spiritual? Maybe, in order for him to express his desire to me, I need to awaken in him a call to action, directed at me? Or maybe he should not even pay any attention to me – perhaps it is only my approach to him that determines the possibility of extracting from him the spiritual desire? Both are true. We represent creation that experiences a reaction to the environment. I find myself on a material level, and it is imperative for me that my friends should exert influence on me. A friend is obligated thus, he is simply obligated to project all possible external signals and thus influence me. Otherwise, he is not a friend. Yet, that which I take from him actually depends on me. RABASH talks about it repeatedly: the key is how many zeros I place after the one of my friend; the extent to which and why I nullify myself for this goal; what I want in return – all these form the vessel, and the form of the vessel then causes the form of the light that fills it. It is irrelevant what you will be doing in relation to your friends. You only need to know that you depend on them in your desire to receive something from them, and if you are prepared to nullify yourself before them for this goal – that is enough.
“To nullify yourself” before your friends means that you are constantly ready to agree that they are higher and more significant than you, that their requirements in any instance are more important than your personal ones. They are valuable to you. And again, why are they so valuable? It is because you have the same goal – one Creator.
I form my Kli by defining my relationship with my friends, by taking from them that which I need, and then developing an attitude towards myself and the Creator – precisely that form determines everything. There is nothing else besides this. Later you will discover that you actually exist in an ocean of upper light. Your form is what the intent is.
(Daily Article, January 3, 2005)
64) How should one use the ascents and the inspirations in order to quickly attain the spiritual world, without cooling down? Rabash said only one thing: it is a question of an attack.
By “attack” it means that each one is attacking his heart, aiming it at others without any considerations for himself and nullifying all thought-up considerations with others. That is all. An “attack” is when it makes no difference what your friends are doing, but you feel an obligation to complete your job. In your heart you inspire others. That is what an attack is, and thanks to this we will succeed. I truly hope that we will accept this upon ourselves, that in our hearts each one will be able to infect others with inspiration.
(Virtual Congress, January 20, 2005)
65) Each one must feel responsible for the whole group. If he lets go for even an instant, then the whole group lets go of him also. If he weakens, then everybody also weakens. One should not lose even an instant by paying attention to anything else and must take into consideration how his next step will reflect on the group. It is difficult, yet it must somehow be considered. I understand that it is possible to have much faltering. I went through it myself. Yet, each has an obligation to think about and consider all, and to maintain oneself in a state of high preparedness. Even if a person is not capable of doing anything with himself, it is important that he see to what extent he is not capable, the depth of the crisis. He will learn from this for the future.
(New Month Meal, October 14, 2004)
66) We need more of the kind of thoughts that allow us to become connected.
Each of us is thinking about achieving bestowal – the Creator or the spiritual. Each person interprets this in his own way. However, what we are missing is the “prayer of the society”, that is, the understanding that a person will not receive an answer to his prayer without friends and without being included into the desire of the entire group.
When we turn to the Creator during study or at another time, we must not forget that all of us together are thinking and desiring the same thing, with the understanding that the Creator can become revealed only in the common Kli, in the common question, in the common prayer and in the common plea that includes all of the desires of each of us. The perception of this singularity has to become the basic point. We begin from it and then we raise our plea. First, we become inter-included below, amongst ourselves and in our desires. Then, with the understanding that we are all connected with each other, by way of the mutual guarantee, we begin to raise our plea upwards.
It would also be worthwhile for us to look for phrases and sayings that will make it clear that we include the entire society in ourselves and, from within it, we raise our common prayer – “the prayer of the society”. Then we will see and perceive how much more effective this prayer is, in comparison with all of the individual pleas and each individual’s personal efforts.
(The lesson of January 20, 2005)
67) We have to conceive of the Creator as Great and as the group’s Rav. We demand from Him to give us the details of perception and the attributes, and to help us have the mutual perception of love and bestowal. Not more than this. Each person has to conceive of the Creator as inside of himself. You have to perceive yourself, the group and the Creator together as one piece, without any difference in the details. You, your friend and the Creator are all together. If a person maintains this state as his goal and demands from himself, from the group and from the Creator for everything to be specifically this way, then this becomes realized.
(Virtual Congress, January 20, 2005)
68) We should focus primarily on the work among us. The stronger we are, the better media forms we will be able to produce. The force that we will have will be like a burning fire within us, felt stronger anywhere. So first of all we should work on our own unification and quality of our work: our desire and intention has to be clear, sharp, and directed towards one goal as much as possible – as one man with one heart. Everyone on the outside will feel it subconsciously. People who belong to it - to the goal - will come to us, and not just those, who still have to sort things down.
The more oriented we are on the goal, the more united we are with each other, the more our group, with its attunement to a certain "frequency", will affect those, who somehow belong to this, feel close to this. Only they will come. Not those still interested in magic and looking for miracles.
(New Month Meal, December 12, 2004)
69) Starting from today onwards, every one of us must feel his or her responsibility; feel that the light above is open to him, and that each moment has to be devoted to the adhesion with the Creator. Let him stand on the opposite side – the side of the Creator. In general, let him go into the place where he does not exist, where he can exist only being bonded with the Creator in his thoughts, desires, existence, and actions – without any reference to himself. He, as such, does not exist. This is what every one of us must feel, building this direction of thoughts every second. Then we will succeed.
(New Month Meal, October 14, 2004)
70) We do not have that which we are asking for. The light has to come and give this to us; it has to teach us what bestowal is and how to make the calculation correctly, as well as how to acquire the strength and the desire to give – all of this is only in the light. Therefore, we have to ask for this to be given to us.
But a question still remains: where can we acquire the desire to turn to the Creator with the plea that He give us the desire to bestow? This problem is solved only with the help of the environment. However, the problem first has to be understood. If the environment forgets that it is nothing more than separated vessels and that the unification of friends can take place only by way of attracting the strength from above that will connect them for the sake of bestowal to the Creator; if this is forgotten, then the work will not even begin. The Creator must be at the head of everything – in the beginning of every thought and every action as the Source of the desire, as the fuel and as the goal that is achieved through action.
(Daily Article, February 9, 2005)
71) The group must help you to attribute everything to the Creator. If you build your relation to the Creator through the group and if you come to bestowal to Him through the group, this means that the group is fulfilling its function. After all, ultimately the group is the vessel of Adam HaRishon, and through it we reach the Creator. The goal consists in performing bestowal to the Creator just the same way that He performs bestowal to us. The group is not the goal, rather, the group is a means that allows us to get to the goal.
The group is obligated to help me. It is searching for oneness – for the Only One and the Unique One, and the possessions of the Only One – and this common search helps each person to maintain the willingness to attribute every desire and every thought to the Creator. At first glance, this work seems simple to us. However, we do not know the extent to which it helps a new internal Kli to emerge in us. We transform our internal origins and begin to acquire the feelings and concepts that do not relate to this world. By doing this, we awaken ourselves from the inside, from the depth of our creation. That is, we awaken the vessels that already belong to the spiritual world.
This does not mean that you are playing hide-and-seek with the Creator who is hiding, when He says: “This is not I”; and you answer: “No, this is You”. Here, you are constructing a unique mechanism for each desire, which then transforms into the vessel for the Upper light. We do not have several kinds of vessels. The Creator created only one desire. If this desire is turned towards oneself, what’s called “inside of the skin” or inside of one’s own body, then this is Klipa. If, however, the desire is directed towards the outside, then this is called Holiness (Kdusha). This is where you truly clarify and correct the desire.
(Daily Article, February 6, 2005)
72) A person should take care of himself and the group, in order to become an integral and, in essence, an equal part. One without the other is impossible. The guarantee is mutual.
The time of single Kabbalists has come to an end. This was an intermediate phase between destruction and full freedom. Now a new era has begun. As Baal HaSulam writes, it is the "time to act". We have concluded the exile and now everyone has to ascend to freedom or the reception of the Torah. This is possible only by way of the mutual guarantee. Therefore, the first articles of Baal HaSulam, that were written for a broad audience, are the “The Granting of the Torah” and “The Mutual Guarantee”. In opposition to motiveless hate, the correction according to the principle “love your neighbor as yourself” is necessary, or “as one person with one heart”. We have to become guarantors for each other. This is what is called: constructing the common intention.
…A Kli is being made from us, in order to advertise Kabbalah to the world and to raise a big commotion, which will keep increasing. However, this does not say anything about our spiritual level. We should not fall into illusions – one thing is not related to the other. It is possible that we really are an example to the world in some regard, although I am not sure about this. We are simply the Creator’s advertising agency. There will be no negotiations in his regard.
(The lesson of February 25, 2005, The Steps of the Ladder, Part 1, Article 503)
73) There is no distinction between the manner in which a person relates to the group and how he relates to the Creator. A person's work in the group consists of developing love for his friends, and evoking his friends' love for himself. In other words, one has to be "easy-going in conversation", "pleasant" and so on. The same happens in relationship with the Creator. However, as we always say, we have to start with love for friends, because it is there that we can check ourselves: are we acting in this direction or not. Indeed, friends can demand from a person the desired treatment, in other words, to arrange their relationship in a manner that each one obliges the other, evokes in him a need for it and creates conditions that have to be fulfilled. Later, in accordance with his work, a person sees that his efforts awaken the Surrounding Light, and that his relationship with the Creator, or how the Creator relates back towards him, is revealed in this very relation with his friends.
Why are there two types of relationships: a person's relationship towards his friends or the Creator, and, conversely, his friends’ and the Creator’s towards him? Both of these types depend on a person. Outside of a person there is only the Upper Light of Infinity that fills all of reality, and is in complete rest, in its invariable relation towards a human being. If it seems to a person that he needs to relate to something and that there is something outside of him that relates to him, he himself conditions it all. In both directions the person determines the course of events. With regard to the group – it manifests in a person's work on his desires, in relation to the group, in bestowal to the group, in his desire to surrender his will to the group, and to receive the group's relationship towards him. To the extent that the person exhibits love for his friends in order to reach the goal, he becomes worthy of being accepted as a creditable part of the group. To the extent that he shows that he needs their love, a person demonstrates that he is an integral part of the group because he causes a lack in them by which they too can advance.
(Daily Article, March 16, 2005)
74) The truth is that other than carrying out Arvut in the group we have nothing else to do. There is nothing else with which to be occupied. From time to time we must open another phase, and the phase that we are now approaching is Arvut. It is up to us to come to a situation in which each of us would feel both being a part of the common Kli, and as an individual Kli. That is how it is perceived on a spiritual level. We lack only this feeling. If we perceive ourselves inside of this Kli, a spiritual revelation, the revelation of the Creator will happen there. The first spiritual level lies there.
…It is up to us only to enter that same perception, that same vessel. The light appears immediately after we start sensing the vessels. Essentially, sensing the vessels means that I feel everyone's desires, including my own, in their yearning for the Creator. And this bonds all. This means that we have to build the Kli. There are no other matters to operate in, no themes to develop. We will see in it the whole world, and how what we are learning is realized and implemented there. Whatever we do now, we transfer to our friends all over the world, instantly radiating our states onto them – and this is a great responsibility. If, through us, they get into a descent, this comes back to us in a very, very serious and awful way. Secondly, it is a lot harder to awaken them later on. We should feel a great responsibility towards our group and towards the world group. Basically, this is Arvut.
… If we start reading the material of Baal HaSulam that we have studied thus far through the prism of Arvut, we will see it in a completely different light, as if there is no connection whatsoever with all sorts of articles, letters, or even TES that we have covered. Working through the group, when you relate to our friends with Arvut and responsibility in order to support and advance them, you will see that by doing so, we acquire a new Kli - the future spiritual Kli. Then you will start to understand the meaning of the material that we study, and its relation to you. Overall, something new will be revealed.
…We don’t have to feel the desires of our friends towards the Creator. We should not inspect them, searching for their desire for the Creator. I first need to work on myself: how much do I do for them so that they will feel uplifted or inspired? How much effort do I put into saving or moving our whole ship forwards?
.. My relation towards others primarily consists of my efforts to do everything in order to help the group recuperate. Putting forth this effort, you will feel the sensation of a united Kli and understand that other than yourself everyone else is already corrected. Obviously, this makes it necessary to analyze people next to you. However, this is done only after you constantly check your own readiness to unite with the friends as "One man with one heart". …I only judge by the external appearance. Each person has to awaken and bestow to everybody; each - according to his nature, which you nevertheless understand on a human level. One is enthusiastic and runs as if crazy, while another is calmer, yet you know that his calmness does not come from indifference. He simply burns differently.
…Don't be so certain that we will keep advancing. The Creator does not waive the need for exertion; it is not possible because here we are dealing with a Kli. If we don't invest our efforts into building this Kli, nothing will happen. There have already been such groups and instances; also now, there are other groups besides us. If need be, another group will be made to advance very quickly, somewhere out there, and it will become what it has to become. The freedom of choice is not cancelled. And is it? Are you all standing here as one man with one heart? If you are ready – please, if no – no. Only this is asked before the granting of the Torah. Everything else has to do with subsequent realization at the spiritual levels. Standing at Mount Sinai is that very point, and Arvut is the Kli.
(From Rav's talks on Arvut, October 25, 2004)
75) …You cannot receive each one separately. You cannot turn to the Creator in an egotistical manner: “I accumulated the needs of all my friends, and now give me!” "Me" will not work. The prayer needs to be, what is called a public prayer, a prayer of many.
There is no point in turning to the Creator without an appropriately polished Kli. When you turn to the Creator from your ego, you simply sob about feeling bad. There are many others who do this, and they don’t receive anything from their lamentations. You need to turn to the Creator with the appropriate Kli: What am I asking: to reach adhesion with the Creator? This, the Creator hears. But how do you prove that you really came with this request? And how would you know that you came with the appropriate need to acquire the adhesion and bestowal? For this, the Creator asks that you prove to Him that you did something on your part.
Then the group is exactly the place of preparing the Kli to turn to the Creator. Otherwise, you will never know if you are turning to Him specifically. You can scream: "I have a desire! Can’t You see this!" This is out of the question. Quite the opposite, when you feel that you are beginning to understand, or that you have some taste for bestowal, this will turn you to the group. You will see that the path to the Creator is only through the group.
(Daily Article, February 3, 2005)
76) Our desire, our cry as a request to hold us, to do something with us – all of that can come only from the group. This is the only way we get uplifted and inspired for action. Why? This is so because, thanks to the group, we connect to the general system of Adam HaRishon. In other words, by performing actions in order to connect to this system and advance together with everyone, you are granted a possibility to make real progress together with everyone. Practically, this is the same thing. Then, you are ascending in the right direction. You won't have an opportunity to choose drawing closer towards the Creator, unless the environment, the rest of the souls condition this. How can you advance towards the Creator without connecting to them? You won't have the Kli! Therefore, to the degree you want to connect to such a group and form yourself in relation to your friends so that you get inspired by them and inspire them in return, to this degree you acquire an even greater ability and readiness to comprehend bestowal to the Creator. I repeat: this is the same. So it follows that whatever is natural to a newborn baby comes out as hard work among friends. A newly born baby has a natural urge for progress, development, to cry for help and support. Here, I acquire the same thanks to the group – forcefully, consciously, and sensibly, by working against my ego.
(Daily Article, March 15, 2005)
77) The truth is that we need to yearn for redemption from above. The problem is that we do not subject ourselves to the single, main, only, and special factor. This is the answer to all our problems and the correction of all the evil inside of us. Redemption will come only from there. We need to understand that whatever happens to us comes from Him, so that we will turn to Him. If we accomplished something in all our corrections, we would bring upon ourselves an awareness of this power from above. Otherwise these corrections will also not be corrections.
Why do these Corrections not occur in us? This is because we do not attract the main factor. We want things to work out, we think that if we write a statute, formulate various conditions and rules, they will be realized in the human mind, the human area of perception. However, this does not happen, and not because we cannot fulfill this, but because in these things the Creator does not reside. The Upper Power does not reside in these laws, and because of this the corrections do not occur. It is our duty not to forget this factor. All the conditions are only so that the Creator will come closer to us and reside in us. Only then do the Corrections take place.
(February 4, 2005)
78) The adhesion with the friends means that you become inter-connected with all the desires that are directed towards adhesion with the Creator. "Friend" is not someone who simply sits next to me: brunet, or redhead, with one personality or another. A friend is the power that exists in the other, the yearning, the power of the desire to reach adhesion with the Creator. This is called a friend.
Who is the "I"? From all that exists inside of you, you uncover only one thing: your desire for the Creator. This is called the "I"- the point in the heart. If so, who is the friend? Your friend is his point in the heart. His desire for adhesion with the Creator through the group, and your desire for adhesion with the Creator through the group, - these are precisely the desires that need to be connected. If we join them together, this will be the Kli in which the light will be revealed. This is how each friend needs to be considered, and to these points we need to connect. If you look at their points, you don’t care how they look or about their personality. Rather, you see these things as helpful obstacles that you need to get through and penetrate in order to reach the point in the heart in him. The things that disgust you in another person are given so that you will clarify the purity of your desire to connect to him.
This is why each one needs to see the personality and the negative qualities of his friend as problems that exist in himself, problems that it is his duty to overcome in order to reach the point in the heart of the friend. This is how it appears to you, and who is he himself, you don’t know. This is how you see him.
Question: So how is it possible to overcome this, what needs to be done?
We can overcome this only through the realization of the importance of the goal and the Creator, Whom we cannot reach without connecting with a friend. Then the friend becomes important as a means, and later, I see that he is important as the goal as well.
(Daily Article, March 14, 2005)
79) Is there an individual intention of a person without the group? Of course, but I would say that it is not for our times. I have an individual intention that is not tied to the group, so there is such a thing. However, I am sure that already in today's reality this cannot happen to a novice. As of today, we have entered a new dimension, a new period, when only in the group, only in connection with each other can we advance.
(Lesson of February 25, 2005, The Steps of the Ladder, Part 1, Article 503)