What to expect at the Zohar Convention 2010

The Zohar Convention 2010 is a focused three days of studies, workshops and activities on The Zohar.

Lessons:

The main feature of the Zohar Convention 2010 will be the lessons on The Zohar, guided by Kabbalist Michael Laitman, PhD. There will be a total of nine lessons in the three days (three lessons per day, one hour each), based on specifically chosen excerpts by Dr. Laitman that speak directly to the changes people can make at the Zohar Convention in order to leave the Convention with a renewed approach to reality.

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- contains Zohar Convention 2010 schedule, lesson program, preparatory texts, and excerpts from The Zohar that will be studied at the Convention.

Other Activities:

Together with the lessons, there will be activities aimed at creating a friendly, warm atmosphere supportive of spiritual attainment among participants. These include meals, live music and cultural evenings.

Opening The Zohar - Birth of a New Reality

You're invited to join over 6,000 people to reveal Heaven on Earth together. The Zohar Convention 2010 is an intensive three days of studies & workshops on The Zohar with Kabbalist Michael Laitman, PhD & the Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Education & Research Institute, open for all who wish to sense what the eternal, complete reality is really like.

When? February 22-24 2010

Where? Trade Fairs Center, Tel Aviv, Israel

What? Three days of intensive Zohar studies & workshops

Schedule

Times are listed in Israel time (GMT+2)

Monday, 22 February 2010
08:30 - Gathering
10:00 - Zohar Lesson: Intention Reveals the Upper World
11:45 - Stands and activities
12:30 - Lunch
13:30 - Stands and activities
14:00 - Opening Ceremony
14:15 - Yeshivat Haverim (Friends' Gathering)
15:00 - Stands and activities
16:00 - Zohar Lesson: Unity is the Kli for the Revelation of the Creator
17:30 - Stands and activities
18:15 - Dinner
19:00 - Stands and activities
19:30 - Cultural Evening
20:30 - Stands and activities
21:00 - Zohar Lesson: Freedom-Only by Uniting with Others
22:00 - End

Tuesday, 23 February 2010
09:00 - Gathering, stands and activities
10:00 - Zohar Lesson: Advancement in Three Lines
11:30 - Presentation of media distribution activities of Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Education & Research Institute
11:45 - Stands and activities
12:30 - Lunch (with authentic songs)
13:30 - Stands and activities
14:00 - Yeshivat Haverim (Friends' Gathering)
14:45 - Presentation of the Kabbalah TV Channel in Israel
15:15 - Stands and activities
16:00 - Zohar Lesson: Israel's Role in the World-Being a Light of the Nations
17:30 - Stands and activities
18:15 - Dinner with a Moti Mor concert
19:00 - Stands and activities
19:30 - Cultural Evening
20:30 - Stands and activities
21:00 - Zohar Lesson: The Last Generation
22:00 - End

Wednesday, 24 February 2010
09:00 - Gathering, stands and activities
10:00 - Zohar Lesson: Perception of Reality
11:45 - Stands and activities
12:30 - Lunch
13:30 - Stands and activities
14:00 - Presentation of groups in Israel, All Together gatherings, and Kabbalah Campus
14:30 - Yeshivat Haverim (Friends' Gathering)
15:15 - Stands and activities
16:00 - Zohar Lesson: Educating the New Generation (not just the young of age)
17:30 - Stands and activities
18:15 - Dinner with a Moti Mor concert
19:00 - Stands and activities
19:30 - Zohar Lesson: The Day After the Congress
20:30 - Stands and activities
21:00 - Performance by the band, Dor Acharon (The Last Generation)
22:00 - End

Why A Zohar Convention?

We were born into this world without knowing where we came from before we were born, where we are headed after we die, into a family we didn't choose, to a school we didn't choose, into beliefs and values we didn't choose, and into a society with values that silence any questions about the above.

But in our era, more and more people are incapable of taming these questions: Why are we here? Who are we? Where are we? What's the point of it all? And the more pronounced these questions become, without getting answered, the more people feel their lives as painful, empty and confused.

The Zohar described this present situation in humanity 2,000 years ago. It explains that in our era, people would start feeling a new desire, one beyond our desires in this world for food, sex, family, money, honor, control and knowledge. Unlike these, the new desire would be incapable of becoming fulfilled in our world, because it can be fulfilled only by getting answers to the above questions. The answers to these questions lay in discovering the true reality we're in while we're alive in this world. Moreover, unlike our everyday desires just mentioned, which lead us to temporary, fleeting fulfillments, this new desire would lead us to unlimited, everlasting fulfillment.

The Zohar was written specifically for the purpose of fulfilling this new desire in our era. It was written by a group of Kabbalists who dedicated their lives to finding the answers to life's fundamental questions, and by doing so, attained the complete picture of reality together. With determination, inner discipline and hard work, these Kabbalists discovered the forces and laws upon which our reality is based, and wrote their discoveries in The Zohar.

The authors of The Zohar discovered how creation is constructed from its beginning to its end. They entered into the system of governance that operates our reality, and wrote how that system works, providing us with the tools for how to function in harmony with this system.

They wrote The Zohar in a hidden language. Its language seemingly depicts all kinds of pictures, fables and historical events related to people, places and times. However, this is an incorrect picture that we perceive only through our inborn, five senses. In order to discover what The Zohar truly writes about, we need guidance with the text, to properly aim ourselves toward it and not fall into corporeal perceptions, and by doing so, undergo inner changes that develop an additional perception of reality within us. Through this additional perception, we start seeing the spiritual world The Zohar describes.

The Zohar Convention 2010 is an intensive three days of studies, workshops and activities aimed at developing this additional perception of reality through The Zohar. Never before have Kabbalists opened the study of The Zohar to the public in such an intensity, because before today, there was never a need for it. Today, when questions about a person's purpose and role start intensifying, The Zohar starts opening up to the world, together with Kabbalists who provide the guidance for how to aim ourselves properly toward The Zohar.

A new reality of perfection, completeness and eternity doesn't have to come after much confusion and pain, but can be attained here and now, and The Zohar holds the key to discovering that reality in the shortest time possible. Everyone who wants this reality is welcome to attend the Zohar Convention 2010 in Tel Aviv to experience this deep, inner transformation together with 6,000 others.

Lesson Program

Lesson Program for the Zohar Convention, February 2010, Israel

First Lesson: Intention Reveals the Upper World (10:00am)

1. Intention is the main thing. The lesson will be based on central concepts from the "Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot," including:
   a.  Revelation of the spiritual world within 3-5 years, as an act of the right intention.
   
   b.  Focusing the intention before the study.
   
   c.  The desire is unchanging. Change is only in intentions.
   
   d.  To the extent that we will have correct intentions, a greater desire will be revealed to us, and with its help we will be able to advance more.
2. Selected quotes from The Zohar on the topic of intention during the study and the importance of intention.
3. Questions from the audience.
4. Importance of the intention during various events at the convention - meals, Yeshivot Haverim (Friends' Gatherings), cultural evenings, and activities during recesses - in order to derive maximum spiritual benefit from them.

Second Lesson: Unity is the Kli for the Revelation of the Creator (16:00pm)

1. The wisdom of Kabbalah as a means for the revelation of the Creator.
   a.  The revelation of the Creator in the mutual Kli, which is unity.
   
   b.  Selected quotes from the writings of Rabash and other Kabbalists on the correction of the Kli being through the unity among us.
   
   c.  Destruction of the Holy Temple - from brotherly love to hate among brothers.
   
   d.  The condition for the reception of the Light of Torah, Light of correction - based on the articles "The Giving of the Torah (Matan Torah)" and "The Mutual Guarantee (Arvut)."
2. Selected quotes from The Zohar on the topic of unity as the means for the revelation of the Creator.
3. Questions from the audience.

Third Lesson: Freedom-Only by Uniting with Others (21:00pm)

1. "Evil inclination" means everything that acts against unity. Everything else is not called "evil inclination."
   a.  Only in the effort to unite reveals the opposition to unite.
   
   b.  Unity with others is the person's one and only free act. All of a person's other actions are operated by natural urges.
2. Selected quotes from The Zohar on the topic of the choice in being Adam (a man) - from the unity among us to unity with the Creator.

Fourth Lesson: Advancement in Three Lines (10:00am)

1. There is nothing bad in the world. Everything is necessary and fits its role. On the evil inclination as a "help against Him." To the extent of one's ability to adhere to the right, the force of the left reveals, for the purpose of its correction.
   a.  Based on the articles of Baal HaSulam: "There Is None Else Besides Him," "Thou Hast Hemmed Me In Behind and Before." 
b.  Every interpretation in "HaSulam (The Ladder)" amounts to work in three lines - about the shattering, and that everything is constructed so that we would be able to connect two forces - "right line" and "left line" - and create the middle line between them. However, the middle line is not only the sum or average between the two lines, but something new: a person equal to the Creator.


2. Selected quotes from The Zohar on the topic of the three lines.
3. Questions from the audience.

Fifth Lesson: Israel's Role in the World-Being a Light of the Nations (16:00pm)

1. The lesson is based on the article "Introduction to the Book of Zohar," items 60 to 71.
2. A collection of quotes about the Israel's role from the book Lirot Tov (To See Well).
3. Selected quotes from The Zohar on the topic of Israel's role.
4. Questions from the audience.

Sixth Lesson: The Last Generation (21:00pm)

1. The dissemination of the wisdom of Kabbalah is the correction.
2. Quotes from great Kabbalists on the importance of disseminating the wisdom of Kabbalah, and on how we are in the last generation.
3. Dissemination of the wisdom of Kabbalah is first and foremost for us to attract the Light of correction.
4. Dissemination is a means for us to be awarded with correction and the revelation of the Creator.
5. Selected quotes from The Zohar on the topic of the generation of the Messiah.

Seventh Lesson: Perception of Reality (10:00am)

1. Central concepts from the article "Introduction to the Book of Zohar" and the book "Shamati (I Heard)."
   a.  Everything is arranged and determined in relation to the souls.
   
   b.  Everything takes place in one Adam (man).
   
   c.  The Torah is within us - the internality of the Torah.
   
   d.  The right way to study the authentic wisdom of Kabbalah.
2. Selected quotes from The Zohar on the topic of how we perceive reality.
3. Questions from the audience.

Eighth Lesson: Educating the New Generation (not just the young of age) (16:00)

1. Words of Kabbalists on our need to teach and promote the wisdom of Kabbalah, and to open schools for the learning of the wisdom.
2. The need for the construction of a school, where the new generation will learn how to be an Adam (man).

Ninth Lesson: The Day After the Convention (19:30pm)

1. Unity among all people in the world - "For they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," "and the leopard shall lie down with the kid (young goat)."
   

a.  Our salvation depends on the dissemination of the wisdom of Kabbalah and in the unity among us - two concepts that seemingly contradict one another: one aims us internally, whereas the other aims us externally, yet it is up to us to connect them within ourselves.

b.  There is a "hero" in quantity, and a "hero" in quality - we need both the quantity and the quality.

c.  A short overview of the groups of the Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Education & Research Institute and Kabbalah L'Am around the world. The correction has been left to us and to our ability to help the whole world shift from the path of suffering to the path of the Light.

2. Selected quotes from The Zohar on the spiritual path.

3. Explanation of the structure of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson and on the proper relationship to each of its parts (The Zohar, Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah/The Study of the Ten Sefirot, articles of Baal HaSulam, The Zohar evening lessons).