Bnei Baruch Internal Group Regulations

Published: Apr 29, 2026 Updated: Apr 30, 2026 20 min read

A linkable internal page based on the original DOCX from the takanons folder.

What This Document Is

This is a working translation of the internal rulebook for members of the Bnei Baruch group. It is not a public promotional page and not an ordinary study-center schedule. It shows what a person accepts when entering the inner circle: daily lessons, attendance duties, a role in the group, maaser, service shifts, limits on outside spiritual material, submission to the society’s decisions, and control over what may be said or taken outside.

Its meaning is not in one strange clause. The force is in the chain: the participant is tied to the group through time, money, language, duties and responsibility before other members. Doubt is framed as a “descent”, disagreement must go to the social committee, and silence about a violation becomes complicity. Spiritual language becomes a system for managing behavior.

This document is used in the dossier as a source for “The Path Inside: How the System Is Actually Built”.

With God’s help

“Rules are threads, ropes by which I connect to the society.”

“There are restrictions and limitations by which I enter the society.”

“These procedures are meant to bring a person into the group and into mutual guarantee.”

“A regulation is the skeleton of our inner, general vessel.”

“These are conditions with which you enter the framework, and if you do not keep them you move away from them and leave the vessel.”

“Your desire to be precise and to check what is wanted from you shows your readiness to be together with them (with the group). This is the purpose of the regulations: to give a person points by which he ties himself to the group.”

1. Selected Passages From The Rav’s Words

The opinion of the society is the upper opinion.
After the society’s decision, it is better to be mistaken together with the group than to be right alone.
The personality of each friend must be preserved, so that the friend does not lose his selfhood.
The group exists so that I will contribute and invest in it in order to reach bestowal to the Creator.
What I want to give the Creator must be given to the society.
If a friend has a clear opinion and does not say it, that is theft.
The morning lesson is the workplace.
The best means of giving inspiration to the friends is personal example.
Do not speak with others about personal feelings connected to inner states, in order to prevent a friend’s bad influence, even subconsciously.
The state of the general society is measured by the last friend in it, by the weakest one.
The environment must bring awareness that without the light you will not recognize your bad qualities.
To choose a better society each time means to see the friends in a more corrected state, compared with what the will to receive shows me.
Only actions directed toward connection between us will bring us to the purpose of creation.
There is no finer action than bringing a friend out of a state of descent.
The direction in thought should be: how to give others strength to reach spirituality.
We must be concerned not with the size of the desire, but with the quality of the intention.
It is forbidden to judge the friend’s spirituality, only his external actions.
The society must establish its values and demand their observance.
A friend should be shown that good treatment and care for him are the result of the greatness of the goal.
You must be responsible for every word that comes out in the society and remember that in thoughts and actions we influence the society.
The friends’ mood must be raised, even artificially.

Who Is Considered A Member Of The Group

We want to make an agreement among the friends and build a group whose purpose is to attain the qualities of the Creator.

Who is in the group? Anyone who is ready to submit, to step on himself in order to receive help from the group to reach the Creator.

One who enters the group must take responsibility for the spiritual advancement of the entire group.

One who forgets his friend even for a moment causes the advancement of the entire group to stop.

Who is worthy of joining the group?

Anyone who is ready to take upon himself such a measure of responsibility.

2. Relations Between Friends And Work In The Society

Each of us must relate to the studies and the joint work as an opportunity to create a common vessel, and not as a means of adding knowledge and wisdom.
Any absence from studies, holidays, Sabbaths, friends’ meetings, joint work, group action, etc. is considered disconnection from the society and harms the creation of the common vessel. In cases of illness, vacation or necessity/no alternative, the friend must inform the person responsible for attendance.
Each one must support his friends gently and in a friendly way, with love and self-sacrifice.
Every friend must try to bring another friend out of a descent in his mood.
The attitude of a person who is in a fall should be as though he deposits himself in the hands of the friends, as the only thing that can help him.
The members of the group are obligated to care for each of the friends in every respect: financially, emotionally and more. Therefore, if a friend falls into trouble or distress that may endanger his spiritual path, God forbid, he must report problems of this kind (emotional, health-related, financial, etc.) to the person responsible for this on behalf of the group.
A member of the group asks the group members to assist him in the difficult states in which he will lose the importance of the goal. The group members are permitted to use various means in order to bring the friend to the group’s actions (lessons, Sabbaths, friends’ meetings and more). The group member asks the group members in advance not to take into account the claims he will raise in this state, no matter how logical or convincing they may be.
It is forbidden to hold inside any resistance to anything that happens in the society; rather, the problem must be brought to the attention of the social committee. Otherwise it causes harm to the entire society.
A group member must have a role in the group. If a friend remains without a role, he must find a role immediately. If a friend took on a task and, in the group’s opinion, does not perform it properly, the responsible person must replace him.
Every friend must build for himself a framework of actions for the group and also for dissemination of the wisdom, which will pressure him all the time, and especially in a state of descent will enable him to carry out mechanical, simple actions. The friend must demand, and the group must provide, a framework.
Everyone must protect the group and himself from other “spiritual” movements and the like. If someone deviates from the group’s way, he must inform the friends immediately, and the friends need to help him return to the good.
During gatherings, when a friend speaks before the society, quiet must be maintained and friends must not talk.

A friend who sees another friend violating the laws of the society - the laws of mutual guarantee - is obligated to report to the social committee or to the court. If he does not do so, he is a partner in the offense, and if the society learns of it, he will be dealt with according to the laws of the society.

Mandatory Points

Read a passage before sleep (a passage that inspires you)!
Do not speak before the lesson at all!
During study, try to disconnect from thoughts about this world.
Think and clarify before every action: for what are we doing it?!
In every meeting with friends, give inspiration, the greatness of the goal and uplifted spirit.
Sleep no less than 5.5 hours in a 24-hour period.
In TES, next to the words of the Ari, write a reference to the definitions and to the table of questions and answers.

3. The Commitment Of Each Person In The Society Toward The Friends

Participate every day in the morning lessons!
Find a source to raise the importance of the goal in his own eyes and in the eyes of the friends.
Be part of the very purpose of the society’s existence.
Study and receive the articles of Rav Baruch on the topic of the society.
Regard and accept the group’s decision as obligatory for execution.
Not take upon himself tasks that he cannot fulfill, and inform the group if he cannot fulfill a task he accepted.
Relate to the place of study as the most precious place in life, and preserve the equipment, cleanliness and order.
Not participate in and not accept any other “spiritual” direction.
Not read any material except what is accepted in the group.
Not listen to another Rav.
Pay the monthly payment: tithe and all obligatory payments on time (maintenance expenses, food, etc.). If there is a financial problem, it is obligatory to contact the social assistance department.
Work, or try to find work. See Work.
Be married. See Bachelors.
Participate in the friends’ meeting.
Participate in duty shifts and in all group events, group actions and shared meals.
Participate in Sabbaths and holidays.
Connect to the reading of the article at 13:45 by mobile phone.
Go to sleep no later than 21:30. (Except for material work and urgent dissemination with approval from a department head)
Read a passage before sleep.
Anyone who knows he will be absent from the studies (travel, etc.) must inform the person responsible for attendance.
Speak with his wife about what happens in the society, and study with her at least once a week (according to her wish).
Devote one evening a week to the family.
Buy his wife flowers for the Sabbath, and buy her a gift on her birthday and on the wedding anniversary.

Sabbath

Anyone who is in the Bnei Baruch center on the Sabbath, including interns and guests, is obligated to keep all the laws of the Sabbath. The following are several emphases:

It is forbidden to turn on or turn off a light, or any electrical device.
It is forbidden to light a fire.
It is forbidden to smoke.
Dress on the Sabbath: white shirt, black trousers and dark shoes/sandals.

It should be remembered that one of the conditions of membership in Bnei Baruch is observance of the religious laws accepted in Bnei Baruch wherever you are. Note: you represent Bnei Baruch at all times. You must be careful about your behavior both in public and at home (for example: turning lights off and on, listening to music or television, and the like), out of caution not to harm the image of “Bnei Baruch.” A person who does not conduct himself this way violates the conditions of membership in Bnei Baruch and harms himself and the society.

Take care not to harm the Rav, the group and the way of Baal HaSulam and Rav Baruch Shalom Ashlag.
Behave and dress respectfully wherever he is, with the knowledge and understanding that he represents the group.

According to the preparation booklet - the law of mutual guarantee.

Work

A group member must be a working person even if his livelihood is already in his pocket. Every friend must work full-time. In cases in which a friend is dismissed from work, all the friends in the group undertake to help him find work: first, because he violates the conditions set by Baal HaSulam and Rav Baruch, and second, for reasons of existence and livelihood. A group member who does not work undertakes to try to look for work to the best of his ability. If the friend does not succeed in finding work, he will work in a job close to the type of work he sought. The friends undertake to treat the friend’s job search as though it concerned themselves, and to assist actively, emotionally, physically and spiritually, so that the friend fulfills the above obligation toward our spiritual path.

As long as the friend is not working, he must come to work at the center - not at the expense of looking for work.

Bachelors

Quote from the Rav’s words: “…Baal HaSulam did not permit young men even to begin studying. I say nevertheless that it is possible, and my Rav also said that it is possible. If it had not been accepted by him, then I also would not have done it, because at the beginning, in the first stages, until a person truly enters inwardly, until then unmarried men are permitted to study. Afterwards an unmarried man cannot advance. He does not even feel whether he is advancing or not; it seems to him that he is, but this is not advancement.”

The society decided to allow a person who is not married or does not work to sign the regulations like any other friend, provided that he fulfills all the other clauses and makes an effort to fulfill these two as well.

Conduct And Discipline Procedures For Members Of “Bnei Baruch”

1. Morning Lesson On A Weekday

It is obligatory to come to the morning lessons shaved or with a neat, fixed beard. [Except for Sabbath, days of mourning and Bein HaMetzarim]
One must come in a collared shirt, in respectable appearance. One may not come in sweatpants. A zipper is not considered a collar.
During the lesson one may not leave the study hall except for the restroom, and only for that purpose. Those sitting at the central table and in front of the cameras may not leave at all. In urgent cases for performing duties or dissemination, approval will be given only in advance by a department head.
During the lesson it is forbidden to prepare a drink or enter with a drink. Coffee will be distributed at 4:30.
Food may not be brought into the study hall. Except for chewing gum and candies whose wrapping does not make noise when opened.
The lesson starts exactly at 3:15, and ends at 06:00 after the announcer’s messages.
Anyone late for the morning lesson will move to the second hall, and will be allowed to enter the study hall during the transition segment: at the end of the first part of the lesson. All latecomers or sick people who are in the second hall must observe all the rules of the morning lesson.
It is obligatory to turn off mobile phones before the lesson begins.
Absolute silence must be maintained and there must be no disturbance before the lesson and during the lesson.
It is absolutely forbidden to sleep in the second hall during the morning lesson. In exceptional cases, approval will be given by the social committee.
It is obligatory to prepare all the necessary books before the lesson.
During the lesson every student must hold open the book being studied at the place where the Rav or announcer is reading.
Absence from the lesson:
- A. A friend will not be absent from the morning lesson from its beginning to its end; leaving the lesson is permitted only for performing work in the “Bnei Baruch” operation with approval from the department head, or for outside work.
- B. A friend may be absent from a lesson because of a severe illness of a family member requiring absence, or for childcare.
- C. Absence from lessons due to illness is permitted only with approval from the health department.
- D. The health department may require a friend to observe rules for taking care of his health, up to removing him from lessons, if the friend’s health condition harms his work at the center or the performance of his role.
- E. A friend who worked or taught until a late hour before the lesson will come to the lesson in any case, even if he sleeps during the lesson.

Notes may not be passed during the lesson. (Except for stewards and the person responsible for the morning lesson, in urgent cases)

2. Lesson On The Sabbath

All the rules of conduct for the weekday lesson apply to the lesson on the Sabbath (see above).

It is obligatory to observe the laws of the Sabbath. (See clause 3.24)
The Sabbath duty team may leave to prepare meals only with approval from the head of the duty team, without volunteers.
Sabbath duty members must sit close to the exit door.

3. Sabbath Meals

Rules of conduct:

Before the meal, one must arrive for Kiddush without delay.
Everyone stands until the end of Kiddush in absolute silence.
After Kiddush on Friday night, everyone washes hands and sits in their places.
The manner in which the meal is conducted is determined by the Rav or the person responsible for the meal.
If a friend stands to say “l’chaim,” all the other friends listen without speaking.
When the Rav begins to speak, all conversation must stop and everyone must listen.
Singing begins and ends only by a sign from the Rav or the friend responsible for it.
All matters of songs, such as melody, words and order, are determined by the person responsible for singing.
While singing, no one speaks. As much as possible, everyone tries to sing as one man, hearing the friends and not themselves. Friends who know how to sing well lead. On the Sabbath, whistling during singing is forbidden.
Keep kosher: do not mix utensils, etc.
It is forbidden to walk around during the meal outside the dining hall.
Friends whom the social committee has restricted in drinking hard alcohol are forbidden to drink.
The duty members must carry out all instructions of the shift supervisor.

4. Conduct In The Society (In The Center And Outside Lessons)

Foreign literature may not be brought into the Bnei Baruch center, except for dissemination needs.
It is strictly forbidden to wander around the center without an occupation: a role or group action.
Anyone entering the center must wear a kippah and long trousers.
Between 20:30 and 02:30 one may not be in the center at all, except for duty members and urgent cases approved by a department head.
Obey the instructions of those responsible who were appointed by the society.
On Sunday through Thursday, from 06:10 to 09:00, it is rest time. Do not make noise in the corridor or dining room.
Smoking is permitted only in the smoking corner on the roof.
Every Bnei Baruch member must take part in all duty shifts. Absence from duty shifts is forbidden.
Every Bnei Baruch member must have a role.
A friend who goes on vacation must notify the head of the attendance department and the head of the department in which he works.
No equipment may be removed from the center without approval from the relevant responsible person.
It is forbidden to leave equipment in the center that was not approved by a department head or the operation manager.
A Bnei Baruch member is forbidden to enter into financial dealings with other group members, meaning:
- all kinds of “employee - employer” relationship are forbidden;
- it is forbidden to employ a friend for pay or in any other form to perform any work;
- it is forbidden to enter into “seller - buyer” relations;
- it is forbidden to receive or give loans above the amount of 20 NIS;
- it is forbidden to “profit” from a friend: to bring him into various insurance companies in order to receive commissions, or into multi-level marketing - a “pyramid” (distribution of Herbalife products, cosmetics, magnets and the like).

Exceptional cases will be approved by the social committee.

5. Friends’ Meetings

A friends’ meeting is prepared by a team chosen by the responsible person or the social committee; any participation in a friends’ meeting must be coordinated with the meeting organizer.
The time of arrival for the friends’ meeting is 18:30 for the meal. The friends’ meeting begins at 18:45.
Obey the instructions of those responsible.

6. Telephone Connection

On weekdays, from Sunday to Thursday between 13:40 and 14:00, the group connects by phone to the “noon article.”

Participants:

Every Bnei Baruch member with an Orange phone that belongs to Bnei Baruch.

Each participant must connect from his fixed place in the connection system.

A new participant receives his place through the person responsible for connection.

To prevent disturbances during the conference, a participant observes the following rules:

Call mode: muted + keypad lock, if the phone allows it.
No connections outside the fixed order.
Do not answer side incoming calls.
The phone remains in “active” mode at all times and not on hold.
If a participant disconnects from the conference for any reason, he does not try to reconnect.

Those connecting are responsible for connecting the friends on time; if the call is disconnected, those connecting reconnect the group.

7. Social Decisions

A decision of the social committee, the court and the operation or social directorate will be accepted by the friend as law.
A friend who sees another friend violating the laws of the society - the laws of mutual guarantee - is obligated to report this to the social committee. If he does not do so, he is a partner in the offense, and if the society learns of it, he will be dealt with according to the society’s procedures.

8. Use Of Material

Unedited material may not be used.
No forms of media that are unedited and without censorship (video, audio, texts, etc.) may be released to outside parties.

9. Use Of The Name “Bnei Baruch” Toward The Outside

Anyone who has a sticker with the name Bnei Baruch on his vehicle will not use his vehicle on Sabbaths and holidays, and will not give his vehicle to relatives who may use it.
It is strictly forbidden to use the name “Bnei Baruch” in public places and advertising by anyone not appointed for that purpose (such as community centers, different communities, centers, halls, newspapers, etc.) for promoting dissemination or for any purpose whatsoever. Any activity of this kind is permitted only in coordination with the directorate of “Bnei Baruch.”

The present regulations bind each member of the group.

Any friend who signed the regulations may submit a proposal to change the regulations.

The present regulations may be changed only by agreement of the majority of the group members.

Pri Hacham, Essay: Love Of God And Love Of The Creatures …And To Cleave To Him

Now the matter of the purpose of “and to cleave to Him” is clarified for us: the exaltedness of that adhesion is nothing but the quality of the branch’s equivalence with its root. Opposite it, on the other side, the whole matter of lowliness is nothing but the quality of distance from its root. In other words, every creature whose ways are corrected more toward bestowing upon another is more elevated and more capable of cleaving to Him, blessed be He. And every creature whose way is more in reception and self-love is found to be lower and more distant from the blessed Creator.

And the remedy for this has been prepared for us in Torah and commandments: first to perform “not for its own sake,” meaning in order to receive reward, which applies in a time of smallness - as education. And when one grows, he is taught to engage in Torah and commandments “for its own sake,” meaning to give contentment to his Maker, and not for self-love.