Connection Between People in Mishkan Hakavana

Sometimes there’s no relation between our corporal relationship and our spiritual relationship. You can have an affinity to someone in the group that is almost chemical.

You like them, you find common sensitivities and language, but it’s very corporal. If you don’t transmute it, and cliques are being built on the grounds of mutual likes, they don’t work. Working well within a group is the understanding that those you feel 'allergic' to, who make you uncomfortable, represent the test for your work. Not in terms of how to be good but how to overcome the agenda which is to do with the will to receive inclination towards those who agree with us. You don’t want those who agree with your will to receive for oneself. They can be a comfort from time to time, but they are not the definition of why there is group study. So you need to differentiate.

The issue will always be with those who don’t fall within the category of your affinity, the will to receive, corporal affinity. Then you will find that as we move deeper, the feeling of a group becomes something that is beyond the individual that you speak with or relate to, as though the conversation is truly happening somewhere else.

This becomes clearer when there’s a clash of interests.

It’s a very delicate issue. When Moses tries to justify Israel, it’s not because he liked them. It’s not their most likable moment, it’s the moment when they’re at their lowest. True compassion appears because they lost something so important; the ability to perceive the presence of god. When you see that in another, you understand it in yourself, then you have compassion for humanity and for all of creation, that they lost this ability with you, and you will appreciate those who work with you to regain it for all of humanity.

This is your platform in relation to a true friend within a group. It’s someone you can work with because they have same memory of losing something so important and trying to regain it. It’s different than affinity. It has to do with with a common struggle, not comfortability. It’s a good friend for war.