Rabash,” According to What is Explained Concerning: “Love Thy Friend as Thyself”: If everyone is nullified before his friend and mingles with him, they become one mass where all the little parts that want the love of others unite in a collective force that consists of many parts. And when one has great strength, he can execute the love of others.

And then he can achieve the love of God. But the condition is that each will annul before the other. However, when he is separated from his friend, he cannot receive the share he should receive from his friend.

Thus, everyone should say that he is nothing compared to his friend. It is like writing numbers: If you first write “1” and then “0,” it is ten times more. And when you write “00” it is a hundred times more. In other words, if his friend is number one, and the zero follows it, it is considered that one receives from his friend ten (10) times more. And if he says that he is double zero compared to his friend, he receives from his friend a hundred (100) times more.

However, if it is to the contrary, and he says that his friend is zero and he is one, then he is ten times less than his friend 0.1. And if he can say that he is one and he has two friends who are both zeros compared to him, then he is considered a hundred times less than them, meaning he is 0.01. Thus, his degree lessens according to the number of zeros he has from his friends.

If I want to receive something from someone in our world, I have to pay for it in return or to take it by force like the big takes from the small. In this case the bigger I am, the more I can extort the other and receive more from him. That’s the way it is in the corporeal world, when we speak about receiving in the desire to receive.

But if it’s about receiving spiritual powers, it works according to an opposite law. The more important I consider my friend and the greater I see the friend, the more I can receive from him.

I cannot receive anything from someone who is equal to me since he is on the same level as I am. But if he is even a little bit higher than me, I can already receive something from him, and the more I raise him the more I can receive.

It has nothing to do with the friend himself but only with how I treat him with regard to me. It’s just like the students of Rabbi Yossi Ben Kisma who had no idea how their teacher worked with regard to them. He saw himself as relatively smaller than his students and so he received spiritual powers through them.

Everything depends on how great your friend is in your eyes. The greater he is, the more I can receive the force of bestowal from him. But if it’s about receiving egoistic powers, then it’s about a different principle according to which the greater I am the more I can extort the other in order to fill my ego.

So the spiritual power you will receive from the environment is only up to you whether it’s 1000 or 0.001. We have to be in a group of ten that is working on connection and in which each one is somehow connected to the desire to bestow like the students of Rabbi Yossi Ben Kisma. But this is enough since everything else depends on you and the extent to which you subdue yourself!

You will never have the power to advance if you don’t receive powers from the environment. So the rule of subduing yourself before the friends, even by physical actions is the most efficient means to advance. We mustn’t think that Kabbalists tell us about this only to establish good relations the way we teach kids in our world to behave morally since this approach is opposite from the wisdom of Kabbalah.

We do this only in order to receive the force of bestowal from the Light, from the Creator, through others. Since I subdue myself, the Light can flow into me through the friend. If I treat others as if they are really greater than I am, I will receive the power of bestowal through them. It’s enough to treat them with the intention of in order to bestow and in the relations between us I will begin to feel the Creator and will be able to bring Him contentment. Through the bestowal upon the friends, I will be able to feel how I can reach bestowal upon the Creator. He will be revealed to me through the image of the group that I will see in the Light of my bestowal. Thus the rule “love thy friend as thyself” is the main goal of our work, which is a constant feeling of humility towards the friends, and accordingly we build up the powers of bestowal.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/24/13, Writings of Rabash

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