Our association is not organized for the purpose of attaining power or
intervening in the affairs of community or state, whether directly or indirectly. Quite the opposite: our goal is to gradually rise above the noise and tumult of the world, by steady incremental steps. It is not consistent with our goals to hand out awards as to who is advanced and who lags behind. The whole premise of our group is the vast human potential for both baseness and elevation. Our bodies and souls are currently quite unevolved, but our potential for holiness is very great. Holiness is our key and our primary value; honors and comparisons serve no useful purpose.
It is vitally important that we do not create, God forbid, any boundaries
that separate us from Jews who are not members of our group. The whole point of our association is to love each other as much as possible. If there were a fire in town, the fire company would come to put out the fire and save lives. They use the equipment that they have brought with them and the techniques that they have been trained to use. Will they ridicule and avoid the citizens of the city, who are trying their best to put out the flames? They have the same goal: put out the flames and save lives! Each one saves in the way he can, the fire company can be more effective. The techniques available to a group are qualitatively different than what an individual can hope to attain. This is our current situation. We are constantly distraught. What is the point of our existence? Day after day, I try to be conscious of God with every thought, every word, every deed. At the very least, I try not to fall further away from the Holy One, God forbid; I try not to become distracted by the confusion of daily life. Yet each and every day, I undermine my own efforts, not waiting until the Holy One withdraws the divine presence from me, God forbidno, I withdraw from God! I find myself unmoored, in uncharted territory, confused. What will we accomplish? We spend our days and years in emptiness and misery. Finally, as we approach the end, we wake up to the truth and cry in despair: Oh, God, what have we done? How have we come to this point with our spirits and bodies so rough and undeveloped? We have lived our entire lives as a lump of flesh. Demeaning fantasies, frivolous thoughts, and unworthy urges invade my attention. I am constantly preoccupied with meaningless illusions. I hold myself completely responsible for this tragic descentfrom the precious nearness of God to this unsettling chaos. This disturbing awareness eats away at our hearts and minds. We are distraught, but we do not know how to help ourselves. This is why we have banded together. We want to find out how to improve our desperate condition. If all of us work together and use these strategies to unite our hearts in the service of God, perhaps with Gods help, we will not live in total waste and despair. We may yet rest in the sheltering presence of God, even while we live this earthly life.