In the articles “The Giving of the Torah” and “The Mutual Guarantee,” Baal HaSulam explains that the rule of “love thy neighbor as thyself” is the formula of our correction. We can correct ourselves only in the connection with others.

Conversely, without this connection, you have no opportunity, no place for correction. What can a person deprived of the connection with others do? This is exactly why the breaking occurred and the evil inclination was created so that above it, we would extend our threads to one another. This is all that is required of us.

In the first stage, we unify as Hillel, the sage, taught: “Do not do to the friend what is hateful to you.” And then we move on what Rabbi Akiva advised: “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” Thus we reach the end of correction and realize ourselves according to the Thought of Creation.

“The Torah,” the method of correction, is given to us if we agree to become as one man with one heart. With this method, by working in a group, we can demand correction from the upper force, the Light, or the Creator.

Essentially, the process of correction can be called attainment of the mutual guarantee, which is a certain connection between all souls. “Souls” are the giving desires in people. If people forge a bond and desire to bestow to each other, the form of this connection is called “mutual guarantee.”

There are people in the world whose desire lights up with a spark, a seed of altruistic desire. If they unite to blow these sparks up in each and all together, if they support and help each other to grow the sprouting forces in order to tie them together, then they form a system that fulfills the conditions of guarantee. In this interconnected, integrated system, all of them are as one man with one heart, according to the condition on which they had received the method.

Thus they reach the property of mutual guarantee, and in it, the upper force is revealed. It was specifically this force that gave them the desire, planted the sparks in it, and presented them with the method of correction that enables the friends to become similar to it in properties. It is revealed in them precisely according to the magnitude of this equivalence.

Hence, in the collective work to correct the world, some people wake up before the others. These people aspire to correct themselves, to achieve the unification and guarantee, a fusion between them, and merge with the upper force accordingly. They are aspiring directly to the Creator (Yashar El) and want to realize their desire in their relationship, as well as all together before Him. This is why they are called Israel; they are special and must lead by example, as an education force for the rest of the world.

In all other people this spark, the impulse to bestow, does not emerge from within. Only sorrows of life will make them realize the necessity of self-correction, but even then, they cannot do without those who are called “Israel,” those who attain some degree of connection, who implement the method of correction. That is why at the end of the article “The Mutual Guarantee,” Baal HaSulam quotes the Bible that the sons of Israel must become the “kingdom of priests” and a “holy nation.” Priests do not have possessions: They only nurture the people, assist, and organize it.

Thus we, those yearning toward the goal of creation, have to understand that by transforming ourselves into bestowal to each other, we are merely preparing ourselves for the real job, for bestowal to the world. This is our destiny, and for this we were awakened before the others.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/27/2011, “The Peace”

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