Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself

Love Thy Neighbor as ThyselfTwo questions I received on bestowing upon one’s neighbor

Question: I’ ve been studying with you, and I just don’t have the words to express my gratitude. It’s as if you take each of us by the hand and lead us to realize where we are. With your help, I’ve merited attaining a small but unmistakable glow, and working together with you.

I’d like to ask you the following: Suppose that I receive for the sake of bestowal, and the more I enjoy, the more I bestow. Or in other words, the more Light I reveal with the intention, the more I bestow. If I want to pass the Light on to my neighbor, and the Light has to go through me, through the Guf of my Partzuf, to my neighbor, so that more Light will be revealed in him than in me, then in order for this to happen, do I have to reveal more Light in the Guf of my Partzuf, or can it also happen without me revealing it, since I don’t want anything for myself except correction?

My Answer: Everything will happen automatically if you will think (and accordingly act) about everyone’s connection together into one Partzuf, and you desire and act for it to be filled, like the Creator. In this case, this Partzuf becomes filled with Light. And then you’ll perceive not only the Light of fulfillment, but also the pleasure of those whom you have fulfilled. The latter is a different kind of Light. It’s like a mother who perceives her children’s fulfillment, rather than what she fulfills them with. However, the Light that you pass to them also fulfills you, as it is written: “Every person who asks for his neighbor, receives first.”

Question: Suppose that a person has started perceiving the influence of the Upper Light and how to bring his neighbor to the same perception using the simplest words and notions – is this possible? If yes, then wouldn’t he be stealing his neighbor’s individual attainment? After all, he’s making the task easier for him, since the main thing is to start perceiving?

My Answer: It is written in the Torah: “Go and earn from one another” – all of us together need to adapt the harmony of the common mechanism of Adam, the common soul. By oneself, a person can never attain even a single spiritual state. It’s because, in essence, all of them are an even greater connection between the souls, the restoration of our breaking of the single soul of Adam into billions of pieces or souls. And everything has been prepared for you by the Kabbalists and by your friends. You’ve arrived when everything has already been prepared for you. Maybe you don’t feel it, but the entire world has been prepared for you by all the previous generations, and then you appeared in it as a baby. It is written: “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” and this is how you should act, in order to help others in the same way that you want to be helped. However, you shouldn’t do this coercively, but the way you would treat a child – show them the sources, introduce them to the foundations, and then leave it to them to understand themselves, their path, and Kabbalah.

Related Material:
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Laitman.com Post: Practical Advice by Rabash
Laitman.com Post: On Love
Laitman.com Post: Love of Friends, Love of the Creator

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