Taking After The Collective

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “The Freedom,” Taking After The Collective: Our scriptures say, “Take after the collective.” That means that wherever there is a dispute between the collective and the individual, we are obliged to rule according to the will of the collective. Thus, you see that the collective has a right to expropriate the freedom of the individual. … And we can see that there is no other arrangement by which to live in society except following the law of “Taking after the collective,” which sets every dispute and tribulation in society in order.

How can such a thing be? The collective doesn’t have the imaginative thoughts that individuals do because they are the masses. The lofty things in the world are not each one’s concepts and are not easily comprehended. The more lofty, delicate, and specific an issue is, fewer are the people who are able to understand it. It is just this uniqueness of attainment that built the human pyramid. Thus the understanding of the collective, according to its definition, is found beneath that of the understanding of the individuals.

So what is Baal HaSulam talking about? From his words, it appears that if in a certain place more people have gathered, then justice is with them? Or is it the opposite, that the special, unique people are not justified only because they are a minority? Are the millions always justified and I should I follow them?

This is a great question since we are talking here of a person’s realization of himself, about how to realize his free choice and to find “the eye of the needle” through which one exits to the spiritual world. Could it be that on the way there I must “take after the collective?” And this was said by Kabbalists, by those who attained the Creator and knew the upper laws of nature.

In order to clarify this, let’s check: In what part of creation do we see the “hand of the Creator” directly? It is, of course, in the nature of the inanimate, the inanimate level. There, nothing resists Him. There are no desires there, not even the weak desires of the vegetative force. In the vegetative level there is already a special development that characterizes it. And at the level of animate, this independence is clearly revealed even more. If the vegetative only grows in the earth, then, in comparison, the animals can already move from place to place. And man can go even farther: He objects to the upper Providence and as if says to the Creator: “Move over to the side a bit, I want to take Your place.”

So it turns out that only at the base of the pyramid, among those that have no understanding or feeling but simply live because they are alive, reigns the undisputable authority of the Creator. Their life flows at the developmental level of the inanimate.

So to implement our uniqueness, we have to serve the level of the inanimate. Thus we don’t oppress ourselves and don’t diminish thoughts and feelings. No, in this way we follow the collective; we follow the norm and arrangements of the level of inanimate in order to bring them our abundance and to serve them, wherever they are.

It is said that the voice of the majority is the voice of the Creator. And the level of the majority is not lofty, but it especially here that the goal of creation needs to be realized. About this it is said:” You are from the dust and unto the dust you shall return.”

As the Ten Sefirot of the direct Light and the Ten Sefirot of the returning Light complement each other, so it must be here. Therefore, if our development doesn’t suit the needs of the inanimate level, meaning the needs of all of humanity, then we are not developing correctly.

Question: Does that mean that we need to give people what they want at any given moment?

Answer: No, you need to give them what is helpful to them. It is just like a doctor who gives a bitter medicine to a small child who doesn’t understand. In this way you too must understand from your spiritual level what is the most helpful for people And then you go to them and serve them in order to lead the entire system into a single connection to the source, until all the differences of the levels disappear into this general integration and everyone will be included in everyone, into one desire. This is the meaning of “He is One and His name One.”
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/3/12, “The Freedom”

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