Lesson Series in NYC 2006,

Lesson 2, Part 2

Talk About Kabbalah Circulation

Lesson by Rav Michael Laitman, PhD, Brooklyn, NY

May 19, 2006

Regular: Commentaries of Rav Laitman
Capitalized Italics: transliteration from Hebrew
Bold: Questions and comments from the audience

Perhaps, it seems to you that in Israel there are more possibilities. You should know then, and you can take other groups as an example as well, Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Southern Russia. You saw those who came to us, how big these groups are from Ribinsk, for example, from Sochi, and from other places. Currently, groups develop widely throughout Ukraine. We have to see. Their surrounding environment is no better than yours. And you should not think that it can be better or worse. An appropriate environment is created for every person or for every group, and the correct interaction with this environment will raise them a little to the next stage of their development. We should never blame the environment. It is not one of the best in Israel, that is for sure.

Question: Maybe the reason why we are not so successful in circulating Kabbalah to a large number of Americans, is that we have not Americanized ourselves enough inside the group…?

Well, if Hebrew speakers did not come to Bnei Baruch… In the beginning it was mostly a Russian speaking group. At first, I taught at my house in Russian. It was right in the living room. But there were maybe about thirty people, Russian speakers. Then, on the radio “Channel Seven,” we gave daily speeches and even more Russian speakers came. We gave speeches in Russian. When did Hebrew speakers come? I do not even know.

I started giving lectures in Tel Aviv at a friend’s house. He had some kind of a room for gymnastics not for spiritual learning. In short, I started giving evening lectures at his place, and from there-- Israelis started coming to study with us—serious men. That is how the Israeli backbone was formed. Later, they started, according to their advancement, and obviously we started working with the Israeli public.

Obviously, until you have serious Americans in your group, you will not have the circulation among Americans. But at least you need an environment that is close to you. You do not have a strong nucleus—you live too far away from one another. You will not succeed with all these distances. There is no way! You kill yourself with these distances. To drive for two hours to listen to a lesson, and then to drive two hours back—24 hours a day will not be enough for you. You will not have anything left. Shulchan Aruch states very simply, "A Jew has to live close to the synagogue," the place where he studies; for work, he can travel far away. Because egoism will help you to travel distances for work, but not for study. Your arrangement is simply wrong.

Comment: Most of the group members live not far away from the center.

Regardless, first and foremost, one needs to live close. According to your standards, it might be a half an hour drive from each other, but not further away than that. We do exactly the same; everything is located within a walking distance. People walk 40 min to an hour; through very few walk for an hour by feet. This is normal. Until you have this, you will not succeed. There are not enough of you for circulation, for anything really. Plus, you do not even basic things for circulation.

If I were you, I would buy books through the bookstores at their prices, and then would resale them. Naturally, you would lose on this, but still, these books would go through the distribution network, would be noted (and simultaneously, by being there, would be noticed and bought by others), and in addition, you would sell or give away as presents afterwards. You can sell them, you should not necessarily give them away. In this way, you would enliven this whole business; you would also attract a lot of people. Many people came to me because of the books. What other kind of circulation can there be? To give targeted lectures somewhere is very difficult, each lecture takes so much energy.

Question: Does it matter in what area the center is? In other words, either in Manhattan or…?

No, it does not matter where the center is. It depends only on what you want to do with it. We wanted to start working with people who live in Tel Aviv, with young people, to bring them to our group, and we opened an additional center in that area, accordingly. But the other center Nekuda Shebalev works only to attract the general public. We appointed an appropriate manager who can work with them, with the support of a few other people, we gave them relative freedom. I do not give lectures there, and the curriculum that they have created by themselves, various lessons, are on the level of people who come from the street. But it is not our center. This center is intended for receiving young people. And our center, you have seen it yourself—it is in a completely different place, it is only for us. Those who already want to study seriously come there, to that doghouse. Well, that’s it.

You have to look at it the same way. In other words, no matter where you are, your center should be close by. Or after you find a center, you have to move closer to it. It always surprises me that you spend so much time traveling. You have all sorts of excuses: “I listen to the lessons for two hours a day or even four hours while I am driving my car.” It is nonsense. What's next? All right, you have heard the lesson once when you came to the lesson, and again after that—when you were driving. Then what? You do not have any time for anything else, no time for sleep, no time for the family, not even time for your work, and if you work, no time for studies.

Question: Because of our schedule we manage to do circulation after the lesson. People either circulate after the lesson, or leave in the middle of the lesson. Or, some people leave after the first part, and spend the rest of the time on work. Is it recommended, is it Okay to do this?

It is recommended to spend up to 30 percent of the working time, the time that you are present for the lessons, circulating Kabbalah. We practice it in Bnei Baruch—25 percent of our working time, or the time that we study. However, we practice it because people also do not have time—that is the first reason; the second reason for this is to have a constant rotation. In other words, we work on a project, and then we rotate those who get to leave during the lesson to work on it. Today it is me, and tomorrow—you, and so on, if possible.

However, under no circumstances should you disconnect from the lessons. If one disconnects, in the end he leaves us. He will work, it will be interesting for him; he will think that he participates. However, he will not receive the Surrounding Light, despite the fact that he works. The Surrounding Light influences him, revels itself to him, and only then does he study together with the group to the extent of his annulment before the group, to the extent of his participation in the circulation, to the extent of the mutual work, and so on. However, all of this is the means, the preparation during the studies; when he sits in class and studies his higher states, and then from these higher states the Surrounding Light influences him. There is no substitute for that.

However, we are talking about people who strive towards the Upper World, strive towards the attainment of the Creator. However, the entire humanity does not need it. We do not tell humanity that they have to read the books and sit down to study. People will not even think about it. They have to be educated, and they will be given the method, but not in the same form as we have it. First of all, not in the form of the revelation of spiritual work because it would be revealed in a negative way because a person’s antithesis to the Upper World is first revealed in the most unpleasant way, as emptiness, detachment, darkness. Therefore, it is an unacceptable way for the masses of people.

The masses should be told, on the contrary, about positive things that lie ahead: comfort, harmony, infinity, eternity, perfection, anything you want—you will get everything. And gradually, like Rambam writes, they say to women, children, and the elderly, in other words, to those who do not have enough strength to develop, for them it should be revealed gradually at first, so that for them it sounds like: “It is for your sake. Everything will be fine. Just strive to it, look what good there is for you in it.”

We do not shut down a person's spiritual desires with red strings and holy water like others you know. We carry people forward to connection, unification, globalization, integration, love, involvement, and promise them that through all that they will receive the Higher--the Highest. And, in reality, one also has to reveal that his egoism is opposite to all that, one needs to turn it inside out, to correct it—this part is not told because, first of all, one will not be able to understand it if he is not yet into it, and, on the other hand, it will stop him.

Therefore, you tell about the starting point: “You feel bad now because of this and that. Do you want to attain something?” You tell a person about the final point: “It is possible to attain this, and that. Start advancing.” Then you tell him about the part that corresponds to his stage of egoistic development. And the next stage, where he starts revealing the evil in egoism and that it is completely opposite to the goal, you do not explain it to him. When he comes to it, you slowly start explaining, and the explanation should obviously be about the group and about the work. It will already be… we do not know how big groups that study according to the method will be revealed in the world. I cannot tell this in advance, just like anything that has not been realized yet in our world. However, we have to approach it in that way.

Therefore, you have to act in the same way. When you participate in public events and lectures, you have to tell only about something that can attract people. And after that, when one comes to study with us, then, gradually, he has to hear something else as well. Nevertheless, it is said: “A thousand people come to study, one stays and goes towards the Light”—“Elef Nichnasim le Heder Ehad Yotze le Oraa.”

However, it is safe for them. They have already come and have already started to desire, but they discover that something here is not for them yet. Not a big deal, you do not kill them for that. So, they leave quietly. However, they have already caught a little bit inside, and they leave. After some time they will return—after 10-20 years, or maybe after 100-150 years, it does not matter, maybe in next Gilgulim—they will come. Everything will stay with them.

Moreover, this method has not been invented yet, has not been written. We are yet to do all that in the coming years because with this method we draw closer to the adaptation of Kabbalah for the entire humanity. I do not take the liberty of asserting that I see all that, understand, and know. It will be revealed gradually how we can do it. If we keep trying, it will be done through us, if not through us—then we will help with everything we can. But so far we see that it is all coming to that.

Question: Is it possible to simplify the texts that exist, to make them more…

Any of our texts—you can work on them, on translations, simplifications, shortenings, make summaries out of them, various annotations—anything you want. It only matters what you do with them after that. Are you going to publish them and sign them with someone else’s name, not with the name of the author because you have changed them already. Is it what you mean?

In many of my books, it is written “Laitman,” even though all the ideas are of Baal HaSulam or Rabash. However, I cannot write it. I write that it is from what I have learned from them, it is my understanding of them because maybe I have misinterpreted it, and do not even know how much or in what way. I cannot say that I have understood Baal HaSulam correctly; I am not on his level. I say it and let it pass through myself to the extent of my understanding.

Therefore, what you do with the text, you can do whatever you want with it, change it in any way you want, but never pass them off as originals.

Question: Except for internal activities—like unification, our mission—the most external mission is circulation in America. What are we trying to achieve with the circulation in America?

What are we trying to achieve with the circulation in America in general? Well, we would like one of our students to sit in the White House. [Laughter in the auditorium] What do we want for American and the rest of the world? I do not understand the question.

We should knock the self-righteousness, the self-confidence, the sense of self-significance within the world out of the Americans for what everyone dislikes them so much. Knock it out, so that they will strive to the spiritual goal willingly, and not through disasters, which might even be the natural course of things. If a person, a society, a nation, or a civilization lags behind the requirements of nature, the demands of the Creator, then a blow will happen. When a distance, delta, or difference between the level that we should currently be on (being already spiritually developed) and our actual level exceeds a certain rate, then blows occur. If it does not exceed the rate, then small blows will occur anyway, but if it does, then bigger blows will happen.

In order to not drive ourselves towards the big blows, we have to, at least, pay attention to serious circulation, and obviously, to bringing the country to a different spiritual state. Here, by the way, a great number of people are currently ready for it. You simply cannot find the way to approach them. You are not searching for the ways to approach them. We will find them from Israel, we will not wait for you, and we will lead America to what it should come to.

I do not see any problems here, it might be even less problematic here than in Europe or in any other part of the world. There are no problems related to past historical incidents like fascism, or anti-Semitism, or anything like that. The society is open, it is quite equal, one can act freely in it without worrying about how he is perceived by the local circles, different religions, or someone else—something that is very evident in Europe.

Question: It’s not that we aren’t doing anything physically. But maybe we are doing things that are incorrect. For example, at our center, after a 40 minute lesson or so, six people often work during the lesson every day. Maybe we are simply doing something incorrectly? Maybe we are not doing things in the right direction and do not imagine…

Guys, you are asking the same questions for years. Every person is asking the same questions. What’s the use of answering them? You know very well how we work and how all of this is structured at our center. It’s true that you have slightly different specifics. But in principle, the methodology is the same. What else can you invent here? This is a rhetorical question that absolutely does not require an answer. The same thing stands before every person, in every group. But ultimately, we have to derive all of the answers from what we go through in life.

Question: Rav, our unification greatly depends on the money we spend on dissemination.

This is absolutely incorrect. This means that you do not understand anything about dissemination. It is because we asked many people for advice, and they all said that this completely does not depend on placing articles in newspapers or on anything else. Nothing gets disseminated this way, only the PR employees earn money from this.

Dissemination depends on one person’s disseminating to others. This is even how big books are disseminated, not to mention best-sellers and exceptional cases, which are singular cases. We are not counting on this to happen, at least for now. Neither our books are ready for this, nor people are ready to appreciate them.

But with regard to everything else, and we talked about this with great specialists (Avihu can tell you about this), they all say that this depends only on passing it from mouth to ear and from ear to ear. That’s all. They advised us to buy books this way through stores, in order for this to light up in stores everywhere so people will know these books and so these books will stand on the shelves. People who drop huge sums of money for a small article, even if it’s in the “New York Times,” do not gain anything more from doing this. At least this is what the people working in this field explained to us, as I understood it. Maybe my understanding was incorrect. This is the first thing.

Secondly, "don't beat a dead horse" There is no money. What can you do? Life is hard. So, what else? Act in the conditions that you have. I do not have other conditions for you. What can we do? There is the Internet and there are huge opportunities to disseminate in other ways. I don’t know. Search.

Question: To earn money and spend it on dissemination.

You should not earn money to spend on dissemination, because this does not depend on money. In general, you should know that in principle now we are also chasing after money. We want wealthy people who would give us millions or billions for dissemination. This will not be necessary.

When our efforts reach success, we will suddenly see that none of this is really necessary, we’ll see that it turns out that everything gets done for pennies, that maybe all of this is done by other means that turn out to be accessible to us and by which we can exert an influence and bring all of this to every person in the world. At the same time every person in the world will suddenly begin having heightened attention to us. It is thanks to us supposedly having made efforts in searching for millions in order to disseminate correctly.

Question: I will ask this question differently. The group unifies stronger when performing a concrete action of dissemination, besides the regular things that we already practice for years. What else can we do? We are doing everything that’s necessary: we are thinking about this and we send text messages. Are there any logical actions that can increase our unification, so this desire will really become collective? What is there? For everyone to participate in a process in order to…

It’s better for all of you to leave all this. Compared to the problems it’s causing, it’s better not to do anything. I am saying this to you seriously. You become obsessed with sitting together with a heavy mind, spending all your time like this, instead of simply and easily beginning to do something. You cannot get rid of these heavy thoughts. That’s all.

I told you the simplest thing. There are perhaps hundreds of you in New York. In reality, it may be hundreds of people. If every person spends $15 or so a month, because I think that this is not a problem for each person and you do not have to earn money on purpose, as you said, then in one month, you would buy 100 different books of ours. After that you would distribute them, even by giving them as gifts or reselling them. By doing this, you would be performing the greatest and best action of dissemination.

Uri is sitting in Toronto and he cannot do anything there, nothing. Either he does not know how, just like you, or simply… after all, he’s not going to travel around to all the stores by himself. He pushes all of this to the level that he can push it to. He says, “What else can I do?” He is having some decent sales on the Internet. But, what does “decent” mean? We also need good dissemination and advertisements throughout the Internet. I do not know how to do this. Maybe he also does not know everything. Now he is in Washington, where he traveled to study something. That’s all. What can I ask of him? He is not a student. I cannot pressure him as I would a student. He has his own job, he is working on different small publications and earns his regular salary this way, and that’s all. I cannot do anything else. If I could, I would also give his work to someone else. He does it in the best way. There is simply no one else to do it.

Question: There exists a whole large group called “New Age.” These are people who desire and aspire for the spiritual, but they have gotten stuck somewhere, in different methodologies and different things. Is it worthwhile to bother them?

You shouldn’t bother or not bother anyone. We are not addressing anyone in particular. We are not turning to any audience in a goal-oriented way, such that we are pushing our idea specifically on them. Do you understand? Perhaps we can sometimes touch on some religious people, sometimes and somewhere; we are doing or trying to do this in Israel right now with the new book about Rav Kook and Baal HaSulam. Everything else should be simply placed where it can be seen so it reaches the maximal number of people, so it goes through the maximum number of websites, for example, in different forms, I don’t know what else, besides indecent forms. That’s all, nothing more.

I do not know who will take an interest in this. If you ask me personally, I completely don’t like this whole “New Age” idea. These are some kind of idiots who are obsessed with something, whom you cannot get out of this even if you pull them by the ears, who think that they have already caught the devil or god by the horns or by the tail, and that’s where everything ends with them. Each of them thinks that he is doing something spiritual; they have depicted the spiritual for themselves in some kind of form and are holding on to this. Speak to any person, and he will tell you how spiritual he is and what spirituality means to him, beginning from him being a fan of some baseball or football team, and ending with something else. Each person imagines spirituality in his own way. So, what “New Age” can we be talking about? This is all nonsense.

That is, humanity has to go through all of these states in order to eliminate all of this Klipa and choose the internality. We should not look at how this appears externally, looking at what they are doing and thinking that they are close to this. We met with those altruists on all of those meridians and altitudes. And what are they truly? They think that if they dance in a specific rhythm or something else, the world will improve because of that. Each person imagines it differently. What can you do? And they are called “altruists” on top of everything because they travel to different conferences, and everything is so pleasant and good for them.

Therefore, we should not look at this or pay any attention to this at all. You have to gradually advance your idea in the best possible form that’s accessible to everyone. People will gradually become convinced. To the degree they develop in your direction, they will become convinced that precisely this idea is really the true idea of the general Universe, and that you are practically telling them about how everything functions, and nothing more. “Guys, you can disagree with this. What’s the difference? This exists, and that’s all. Where can you run from this? You can say that it is not true, fine. Jump from the 10^th floor in spite of the law of gravity. Well, go ahead.” Except here it is still not as obvious. But it will become obvious.

The spiritual world is concealed, and it becomes revealed and influences a person to the degree a person is able to become aware of it. If it became revealed to us like the law of gravity, then we would cease to exist, we would immediately be annihilated. It is concealed, and this concealment allows us, egoists, to exist. Do you understand? This gradual revelation of the spiritual world causes great suffering, allowing us to nevertheless gradually adapt to it, bear it, and even to gradually change, perceive it, and desire to become equal to it. The spiritual world becomes revealed very gradually.

This is how we must act with all of humanity. Whether they desire it or not, who can say anything? What do they know or understand? We have to relate to everyone gently. It is different with you, I can reproach you because you are already on the path as people who advance, and I can do this in order to slightly shake you up. These are already different calculations. But we cannot do this with people who are somewhere on the street and far away from this. We should not do anything special for anyone. We should simply show this as the true and only law of the Universe, as objective reality, and that’s all.

Question: Regarding the website, I had a situation a month ago when I was speaking to some religious people. At first they thought I was talking about Berg. Then they entered the site. These religious people remained looking at the website for 40 minutes, asking questions, fidgeting around with it and looking. That is, I think that they have a huge desire because they were looking at the sketches and everything else. There is another possibility. There are networks of stores that sell religious books; we are always trying to do something with them and no one has turned us away. They have the greatest desire to receive books and everything else. What can we do, how should we begin working with them.

Do it.

Question (cont.): But how? In what way? After all, this is not our community; we do not have anyone from that community who studies with them and who could give us advice.

Do you expect me to tell you how to disseminate books in these stores?

Question (cont.): That’s not the issue. I am talking specifically about the Orthodox community.

No, no, no! I apologize. Definitely not! Do not enter any synagogues! Do not even step your foot in there! Only in stores, and nowhere else. Do not communicate with anyone personally. Not in any case. When you show them a book in English, and it’s even better if it’s in Hebrew (they probably read in Hebrew as well)…

Question: We have ten books in Hebrew…

We have a lot of very good books. We can do it in this way. Why did you not tell us about this?

Question: This just happened recently. In general, we wanted…

Good. So, we will provide you with these books and you should pass them on there. But only with books, and never enter into personal contact. Because after they ask you a couple of questions, they will see who they are dealing with and will discover such a “Kabbalist” in front of them that you will do the very best anti-PR that can exist for us, in their conception. It is because you have to be wearing a Yamulke, you have to know the whole Shulchan Aruch, you have to perform all the commandments and you have to act accordingly. You have to have a different manner of speech and communication. You do not even imagine what is missing from your upbringing and generally in your way of communicating.

Therefore, do not try to do more than this under any circumstances. They can find everything else on the website. That’s it. Let them read the books, and in no other way. That is, either do it through their distributor or you can do it yourself with a Yamulke on your head, but you must have such an appearance that you will not present or identify yourself as anyone. Put your books there and leave. Give it to them for the cheapest price that can exist there. Give the book a symbolic price, for example $2, it does not matter how much. That’s all, after that simply leave. As a rule, their books are cheaper than in regular stores.

Question: They were very interested.

Really? It doesn’t matter, you should know that we are not interested in earning money. Unfortunately, we made a mistake with the literature in English. Uri probably made the price $10 higher than what it should have been. We are generally correcting this now. We are not interested in earning money. Understand that if we sell 30 books a month, we will make either $100 more or $100 less.

We can send you the “Judaica” books. Moreover, we have very good books in Hebrew for their circle of people, as well as movies. We can provide all of this. You know that we are ready to do this under any conditions. We are completely not interested in money. We are not talking about percentages.

Question: Can you give any practical advice for a person who was born and raised in America, for example in New York, and who has read our books, wants to develop and understands that a group is necessary, but it’s difficult for him to merge into a Russian speaking group?

You understand that in any case, he cannot do anything without interacting with a Russian speaking group. It is because as much as you may like it to be otherwise, nevertheless Russian speaking people are the basis of our groups in Russia, Israel, and even in Europe and the US.

In Israel we are very gradually reaching a level when Hebrew speakers, locals, or people born in Israel are already beginning to participate in the work and to replace the Russian speakers. I am very happy about this because first of all, they usually speak English (at least on some level) and Hebrew. That is, they speak two languages. We can help them with our third language, Russian. In addition, no matter what you say, we exist in a Hebrew speaking environment, Israeli society. Therefore, I encourage this in Israel as much as possible. But we still can’t get rid of Russian workers and replace them with Hebrew speakers. Very often this is problematic. This involves a specific mentality and other things.

Therefore I don’t think that English speaking or American groups will instantaneously appear in the US. They will nevertheless somehow interact with or work around Russian speakers. We’ll see. I do not know. In general I think that maybe dissemination will soon go along slightly different paths, through a great informational network rather than for example Yan and his famous radio, or in some other way, and so on. We have to use other cables and other channels in order to bring this information to the level of the whole world.

I think that the most important thing for Americans is to give them books and the website address, and that’s all. After that, everything depends on the person. In general, as I understand it, everyone in the world today is connected to a cable and is trying to receive information only through it. If a person wants to receive a live explanation from another person, then he will be willing to deal with this and he will find you, or Mike Kellogg or Tony. We already have a few people like them to whom we can direct such people. In general, this is so.

Question: It seems that there is a slight contradiction between what you say, that we do not have a concrete audience to which to direct our dissemination. At the same time, we are observing a tendency to create books and films with a specific orientation. There are films for Hebrew speakers and religious people. It turns out that we seemingly don’t have a concrete audience, but at the same time we have to…

No. This is a concrete audience because we are oriented towards it in Israel and it remains practically the same in the US, its spirit does not change in the US. This is why we can simultaneously use here what we have prepared in Israel for our audience. Only for this reason. We are not doing this especially for this audience here. That is, that which has already been done for a specific audience in Israel can be used here for religious Jews.

Question: But here we have Americans who have a specific mentality. That is, the most recent news from “BB Today” said, “Let’s write songs and articles without mentioning the word Kabbalah,” that is, speak in a language that the audience can understand. This means that if we are speaking to one category of people, then we have to speak in one language, and use another language when speaking with a different audience.

No, this regards only the Hebrew speaking religious people. This regards only them. Exclude them completely, as if they don’t exist at all. We already have an entire line of products ready for them, so leave them alone.

Question (cont.): That is, someone before asked about the “New Age” movement, and there are other movements…

It is useless to do anything special for them. All other people are equal. The religious audience is a special category of people and we already have everything prepared for them.

Question: Evangelists are also showing interest when we communicate with them…

They are Evangelists, so what’s the point of dealing with them? I can only do the same thing with them, sell my books the same way…

Question: In their stores?

In their stores, if they desire this. Send them to our site. That’s all. I don’t understand what is the difference, whether they are Evangelists or anyone else? I do not want to address them specifically. In addition, when you begin dealing with them, you will become convinced that they are Evangelists. That is, they have their point of view about their role, the role of Israel, the role of Kabbalah, and everything else. They are not in favor of you barging right into their bedroom. Don’t think that they will accept you just like that with open arms; otherwise they would not be Evangelists. Do you understand?

This is an isolated group of people who think that yes, Israel has to exist and recreate the Third Temple and everything of the sort, because this affirms their theory and their religion. That’s all. That is, they support you because this is a means for them to reach their goal. Not more than that. As soon as you want to become their goal instead of their means, “Buddy, stay in your place. There are 80 million of us, and so on, and we will not allow you to go any farther.” And they are correct.

Therefore, the most correct dissemination is not coercion. Our approach should be, “Here guys, this is what I have. Whoever is interested—please.” That’s all. This is what Kabbalah demands. This is not new.

Question: Rav, should the men and women be together when discussing dissemination projects, or should the men make a decision and the women help them afterwards? Or should this happen at a collective meeting?

Right now there are for example 50 people sitting here. I think that there are many new faces here. I think that probably out of these 50 people, 20 of them never attend anything at all in any manner. At least, yesterday I had the impression that half of them suddenly appeared from somewhere because I appeared here. Tomorrow I won’t be here and they won’t be here either. Therefore, we are not talking about them.

We are talking about the people who are actively disseminating, whom we know to be active. Right? Such as Leah, Galya, and others here whom I know at least by face, especially the men. If we are speaking about these people, they should all participate. The activists! It does not matter whether they are men or women, everyone must participate in discussing actions of dissemination. This is obvious, especially when the group is small. At our place, women participate in dissemination on the level of executing the actions, not on the level of making decisions. But they fully and actively participate in deciding how to execute things on the level of execution. For example, we have a group dealing with dissemination and preparation. Now we are having the “Book Week.” Naturally, the women and men participate there as equals.

I think that in general everything should be done with great equality. The men see the extent to which women support them, help them and stabilize the group. It is because a woman’s feelings and inner states undergo much less drastic changes. She is much more adapted to facilitating than a man. This is necessary.

On the other hand, of course there is a difference in the studies and the group work. One thing must be distinguished from the other. Only men work in this regard, and the women study separately. Especially here, where you travel for two hours on the road or somewhere else, I would recommend especially for the women to necessarily listen daily to the lesson. By doing this you will also tune into the general world group. What else is possible today? These are the means that exist.

Question: I have a question about the collective meeting, about making decisions both by men and women. All of our meetings according to our time zone happen after the lesson, that is, meetings for dissemination and making decisions. How can we resolve this?

I don’t know. I think that you have to go to sleep after the lesson. Immediately, right away, without any words. The lesson finishes at 11 PM. Go home immediately, so that at 11:01 you are already out the door.

Question: But then when should we work and meet?

You should talk less. What’s the use of all your conversations for many additional hours? What’s the result? Show me the results. You know, this is called Tachles (practical consequences).

Question: [inaudible]

“Talk some more and then…” [laughter in the hall] You are not listening to the advice. Right after the lesson—to bed. To sleep. That’s all. You should spend just one hour a week talking, and not about studies, but about all of the other activities. You have Saturday and Sunday, two free days. We do not have this in Israel. Two free days! What do you do? For how long can you can admire your wife? I do not understand what you can be talking about. Two free days, and you should spend one hour a week talking about the business or the activities. Because this is nothing but chatter. It will not help. There is nothing more to talk about than to spend an hour on this. First you should make a list of what you need to talk about.

We have a directorial meeting twice a week for half an hour. That’s it, no more than that. Only on Saturdays, as you can see, when every group gives a report about what it’s doing, “This is what we did.” Did. Not about future plans, “great plans” as yours, but concretely about what you did, in order to inform all the other 250 people, and this is only counting the men. Besides them there are also women, as well as men and other groups in the world, and so on, everyone stands behind them and this is in order for everyone to be informed of what’s going on more or less.

But the decisions are made twice a week during half an hour in my office after the lesson, on Monday and Thursday. That’s all, just half an hour. All of the heads of departments come in, such as the broadcast department, the video department, and the radio department. They do not include the department of people who write, because I do not need to talk to them about anything. The base department (meaning the maintenance of the whole building), the Internet department, the dissemination department, the department dealing with external groups, “Nekuda She ba Lev” that we have in Tel Aviv, and so on, the heads of all these departments gather in my office. This is about 12-15 people. In addition, people who have questions come. Maybe there are special questions that do not relate to those supervisors, and in that case the person asks the secretary, the secretary rejects him or allows him to come, and so on. This is additional. And absolutely all questions are resolved in half an hour, this is the maximum time.

In addition, this is an organization where about 60 people work for a salary and besides that there are about 400 people who participate in the general work in a planned manner. It does not matter whether they receive a salary or not, whether they work during their time off from work or during “planned” time, as this is sufficient.

I do not understand, what do you talk about every day after the lessons? This is simply your egoism weighing you down after the lessons, and that’s all. You should never do this. Everything is gone a minute later. As soon as our lesson is over, that’s it. A minute later people are already sleeping, the rest of them go to work, and the rest went home. There has to be silence in the center. Or there is a place where people quietly whisper, or they go up on the roof to resolve any questions there, maybe several people here and there, perhaps. But in general there is silence, that’s all, people are sleeping. Work begins at 9 or 9:30. If a person does not get a good night’s sleep, he will not work productively.

Therefore, your organization is completely incorrect. And some people, like Fridkin for example, still drive home for two more hours. They chatter until 1 AM, and then he still drives home for 2 hours, so it’s already 3 AM, and he has to wake up at 6 or 7. Well of course, he can’t disseminate a great deal that way.

Question: Rav, in what other ways don’t we resemble Bnei Baruch?

Look for yourself. The schedule has to be very clear. Everyone comes in 10 or 15 minutes before the lesson, clears all of his brains and all of his heart from everything. It’s as if you just fell down here from the moon and that’s all, and you don’t know where you landed. This is the place and that’s it, I’m empty. I sit at the lesson without anything I contained before, and I completely tune in to it. I do not exist. I completely dissolve in this channel that connects me to Bnei Baruch. That’s all. There are no other thoughts. Nothing. Everything is cleared out and turned off. I do not remember anything and I do not know anything. It is this way for the two or three hours that you are with us. After that you get up, wave goodbye with your hand, and go home. That’s it. You go to sleep. You do the same thing on the following day. That’s all.

When do we talk about business? Maybe over the course of the day. Or, I repeat, during weekends for not more than half an hour. Then you will resemble us.

Question: If we go to sleep right after the lesson, then when will we really have time to disseminate? This turns out to be the only time we have to disseminate.

I do not know what you do after 11 PM. What kind of dissemination are you talking about?

Question (cont.): For example, I work in…

I don’t care about where you work. I am asking about what do you disseminate during that hour?

Question (cont.): He sits and does the design. Web-design on the computer.

Design. Very good. He has two free days a week.

Question (cont.): This is not enough.

Comment from a woman: What are you telling me? I simply can’t listen to this! This is some kind of kindergarten!

I also can’t, but I don’t complain. What can you do?

Comment from a woman (cont.): I can’t refrain from complaining, I haven’t matured to your level yet.

Ok, stop.

Comment from a woman (cont.): Turn to me, I’ll teach you.

No, I am trying to say that you do not need more time than what you are given. Everything is programmed from Above in such a way that you will have enough time if you distribute it correctly. And so, after the lessons, you all go to sleep without any conversations, and that’s all. Afterwards, I don’t know. After that if you will have time, then you will, and if you won’t—then you won’t.

Question: Do we need a meeting of friends once a week, Yeshivat Haverim, where we won’t talk about business, or…

During Yeshivat Haverim (gathering of friends) you do not talk about business, but you talk about love of friends.

Do we need this, during our days…

No, we don’t do this either. No. You have a general meeting like this together with everyone. Why do you need to talk more than that? Do you have so much love that you just have to open everything and give everything away, otherwise your heart will burst, is that it? What’s the problem? Everything else is all inside of you. Superfluous discussions will not help anything, but vice versa.

Are there more questions? You see, everything comes to an end. And now all the questions will be repeated all over again.

Question: About disseminating Kabbalah in the masses. What if we simply had an image, “Kabbalah for the masses,” that is, without any lecture dates, but so it would simply say Kabbalah, books and the website?

Yes.

Question (cont.): And on a big scale.

Yes.

Question (cont.): Is this a good idea?

Nothing more is necessary.

Question: Can I continue? This is called “branding,” that is, this is precisely an image that simply…

This is what you need so people will perceive you correctly. “Here are our books, here is our information, this is who we are and this is our idea. If it suits you, accept it. If it doesn’t suit you, so it doesn’t. Look for something else. But this is who we are.” That’s all. If people will perceive us this way, this will be wonderful, it will be unobtrusive and solid. You are a socio-educational organization, an enlightening organization. Otherwise it’s a sale. We do not need this. All the same, people who will be interested in us are those who have already matured for us in some way.

Question: Is criticism with regard to work allowed, rather than in friendly relationships with each other? Because right now there is a situation when for example, there is a project, and you criticize someone, and immediately (I am talking about the men) people say that you are a bad friend. That is, it is all so mixed up in this regard that it’s simply impossible to work. If it’s not allowed, then if you can’t criticize and make suggestions, there is no work. People immediately say, “Get out of the group,” and that’s it.

If there is such a state (I will not even begin discussing whether it is present or not because it won’t help), if there is any tension and incorrect relationships, then they have to live themselves out, show their incapability and lack of correspondence to advancement, and then they will go away and die out. But you cannot coercively dictate this.

I can coercively say, “Guys, you have to observe this and that” when I am telling them about temporary boundaries. I can talk to them about the three parameters of time, motion and place. I can tell them that they must necessarily meet together, live closer to each other, and about how to organize the studies. Everything else comes from books. Let them open the books and see how the group should be organized, how to work and what to work on, how to relate to each other; all of this is there. I do not have to say anything about this. There is already enough translated and prepared material.

Therefore you can state or not state all of your problems for me, but this will not help and won’t give any benefit. Digging inside and trying to change things by forceful means with my current, momentary, supposed understanding, and sorting out what will happen will only worsen the state. I do this sometimes in order to take the situation out of balance. I start shouting and yelling, “Why are you doing this and that, dismiss this, collect this” and so on. It is to take people out of their sleepiness, and not more. I know in advance that I am performing a distortion against the distortion that’s already present. And it does not make it better. But it somehow speeds up the process, although it doesn’t resolve it. They will nevertheless resolve it on their own, absolutely without me, without any participation on my part. Therefore I cannot do anything about this.

But I think that, for example, if a person has some very big complaints for the group, especially a woman if we speak more concretely, then she has the opportunity to work in our common world system. What’s the difference? Is Leah Dondish a part of any American group? Practically daily I receive different small problems from her: what did I mean by this, what did I mean by that? And after that I receive entire lessons, translated and edited. Does she have a connection with any group, like a Canadian group or any other? No. You can do the same thing. This regards everyone and all forms of participating in work, of course besides disseminating in stores and so on.

Question: The question was about whether there can be criticism only in regard to the work, when working on a project?

If this is a person who is participating in this project, then of course, yes. It has to be this way for the benefit of the project. I don’t know why not. All kinds of things sometimes happen, I don’t know. I do not want to get into this matter. I repeat that it is because I will not resolve it anyway.

Well, should we conclude with this? It’s up to you.

קבלה מדיה

קבלה מדיה

איזור אישיכדאי להיכנס כדי להוסיף לייק לסרטונים, לשמור תכנים ולהירשם למינויים.

גורל

גורל

גורל

קבלה מדיה© כל הזכויות שמורות 2003-2026 בני ברוך - קבלה לעם

איזור אישי
כדאי להיכנס כדי להוסיף לייק לסרטונים, לשמור תכנים ולהירשם למינויים.

קבלה מדיה
© כל הזכויות שמורות 2003-2026 בני ברוך - קבלה לעם