The Unique Range Of Each Soul

Dr. Michael LaitmanArvut (mutual guarantee) takes force when I swear that from now on my part in all others will always be fulfilled. It seems rather simple, but for me to achieve this I need to spiritually adhere to everyone and sense their desires. Since we are connected in our souls, I have to discover where my part lies inside the desire of the other and he certainly must receive something through my soul, like it works in a common physical body.

Where then is that hollow area which I have to fill according to the system that exists in the World of Infinity? I have to take care of it, and so must each of us with regard to the others. There is no soul where I don’t have a part and need to fill the space. Nobody can fill it except me; it’s a special space, a unique range, which only I can fill. And I assume responsibility for it, just let me do it!

I don’t need anything but that. Like a mother who takes care of her baby who desires one thing only: an opportunity to provide care. Try telling a mother to pass her child to someone else. Even if she is a queen and has numerous attendants who would be happy to assist her, she still enjoys feeding her offspring. She receives pleasure from doing it herself. We too have to perceive our bestowal onto others as pleasure.

Thanks to our bonding with each other, within each soul there is a space that I must fill. My soul contains 7 billion parts; outside of it, there are an additional 7 billion souls, and in each one of them I have to fill my space (as do each of us). From my point in the heart, I fill in my parts in all other souls, and each of them has to fill his part within me.

The Unique Range

This is called the mutual penetration of souls. Each has a root from which one acts. And all other desires in me except the root are foreign. They are present in me only because I contain them all.

Originally, I am just a point. I need the others to give me fulfillment in all these desires and only then will I live! As for me, I have to use these desires to understand the others and repair the hole in them that only I can fill. When I plug these other desires into me, I see their needs and fill them from my point in the heart. You feel me through my desire plugged into you, and you fill in your space within me from your point in the heart. This is called Arvut. There isn’t any other opportunity for all of us to be fulfilled. It is the only way.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/18/10, Article “Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Ascend To A Higher Dimension

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhen the souls unite together, a person discovers a new reality. Currently we experience ourselves as living in this world, which is at the level of individual existence; each part is disconnected from the entire organism. Yet, despite the fact that all these parts are alive and

aware of their individual existence, there is a difference between a body that is whole and a body whose parts are disconnected.

Right now, each disconnected individual is receiving a lifeline and life support, like an organ extracted from the body for transplant into another organism. Consequently, they are like “ready-for-transplant organs” on life support, which ensures they don’t descend below the animalistic existence. These organs perceive themselves as living in this reality. That’s who we are.

If we, a group of such organs, desire to unite and we ask for it, then our collective desire (the prayer called MAN) draws from Above (from a higher level) the force that unites us. Subsequently, in our unity we perceive the spiritual reality, as a body whose organs begin to connect with each other.

Ascend to A Higher Dimension

Thus, the entire organism experiences a different life, not the existence each of them once lived separately by striving to survive on its animalistic level. We ascend from the animalistic level of existence to a new level called human.

The sensation of this collective life of all “bodily organs” (the collective soul) is called the spiritual world. We will no longer even be able to perceive the previous existence as life because we’ll no longer live to survive, but instead will support each others’ lifeline. The Light gives us a completely new and different reality.

Our previous life on the animalistic level will look extremely low and undesirable. We’ll need it solely in order to absorb the desires of others who are still living in our world as animals; these are the desires that haven’t joined our connection yet. Gradually they will also begin to ascend. However, once having attained our spiritual life, this lower level will be unnecessary since we will all have ascended to a higher dimension.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/18/10, The Zohar

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The Purpose Of Society – 2

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the article “The Purpose of Society,” Rabash writes that man is born as loving only himself, and hence he can’t make the tiniest move without serving himself. Yet without renouncing egoistical love in us, it is impossible to reach the adhesion with the Creator, the equivalence of His properties.

Therefore, the group is necessary for in it the desires and strengths of each add to one another. Everyone is then able to use this immense common force in order to renounce the egoistical desire that prevents him from fulfilling the purpose he is born for. This group must consist of people who have a common purpose. Then together, they will comprise one huge force that enables each of them to struggle with himself.

In order to receive the collective power from the group, everyone must contribute his strength to it and renounce himself, that is, only see his friends’ strengths instead of their weaknesses. If he considers himself just a little higher than them, he cannot unite with them, bring in his force, and receive the collective one.

Plan

  1. Human nature – love of self.
  2. The purpose of creation – adhesion with the Creator through the equivalence of properties with Him.
  3. It is impossible to fulfill the purpose of the creation on one’s own, but only within the group and through its power.
  4. In the group, all must be equal in the purpose, means, and one’s own annulment. Annulment is only possible by exalting the friends.
  5. The greatness of the environment is reached in words and actions.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/10, Article “The Purpose of Society”

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The Window Into The New World

Dr. Michael LaitmanMan is born loving only himself. This is our nature, and we can’t do anything about it. We always live inside it and cannot step out of it. All our actions are only for our own sake; otherwise, it is impossible to move forward. Therefore, I need a foreign force which would act against my nature and change it.

All my thinking and energy keep working for the purpose of filling and comforting myself. But there is one point in me that is pushing me to step outside of my nature, rise from the animate level, and reach the Creator, that is, to attain the human level. Only this point in me belongs to the human level, the level of the Creator since “man” is similar to the Creator.

I belong to the material world entirely, but this one point in me belongs to the spiritual one. If it doesn’t awaken, a human being lives solely in this world and doesn’t suspect anything more; he is satisfied with this materialistic life. If, however, this point is awakened in his heart, he feels uncomfortable in this world and strives to rise from it. He is influenced by two forces: One pushes him from behind out of the material world, and the other pulls him from the front, from the spiritual world.

Without renouncing oneself (one’s egoism) and rising above one’s nature, it is impossible to reach adhesion with the Creator. I have to decide which nature I wish to be related to: to the nature of the Creator or that of the creature, that is, to choose bestowal or reception.

Since giving is opposite to our nature, there is only one means to move from the material to the spiritual: a Kabbalistic group. The group has immense power because we work together and everyone annuls the egoistical desire that prevents him from fulfilling the purpose for which man is born. The purpose is to become similar to the Creator. The Creator is the force of bestowal, love, and annulment of self. This is why I need the group as an external foreign force that works as a lever which allows me to turn my nature around.

In order for this force to be great and invigorating, the group must be united and strong within itself and burn with the desire to fulfill the spiritual purpose. Then, everyone in it can use this power and step out of the enslavement of egoistic love.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/10, Article “The Purpose of the Association –2”

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A Game: Stepping Into The Unknown

Dr. Michael LaitmanMoving into a new unexplored state that we have yet to discover, create, and select the correct actions, is called a game. Playing, nonetheless, is a serious activity, which carries the element of the unknown. While playing, we study our capacities, inclinations, and goals, along with their outcomes. With each iteration, a person moves forward to an unknown state.

How does one advance into the unknown? If we know the beginning and the final states, it means that the program is already within us and we are merely implementing it as we move from state to state. However, in this way we are not growing. Moving toward a known state doesn’t translate into acquiring a new one, but is only an accumulation of experience. If a person knows what the next state should be, then it is within him, he is already in it.

“Growth” on the other hand, means that one acquires a totally new state and becomes the person they are not yet today. How can we accomplish this in the most rational, mature, and correct way if not with the help of a game, a simulation? Nature itself pushes us relentlessly to learn by playing.

The same process can be observed at the still, vegetative, and animate levels. In order to continuously advance, a plant employs similar processes within itself, just like a game. If we study the plant during its growth, it appears identical to ours on the animate and human levels.

A person has to imagine correctly the next state within oneself, so much so as to receive the force of growth from within it. Therefore, the Creator’s presence in each creature is mandatory. One can make a step forward only if it already exists in him. A person must consciously and purposefully draw the Creator’s Light, which comes from his hidden higher “half.”

Therefore, a person constructs a model of a more advanced state using the group, which is a simulator of the World of Infinity, spiritual states, and mutual bestowal. When a person performs various actions, one expects the Light to act upon him and to let him know that the most correct possible state has been found. When does it occur? When the Light clothes in it.

The Light remains in absolute rest. We only need to find our similarity to it. Out of all possible forms, as soon as we pick the form similar to the Creator, He immediately fills us and we become united with one another. This is called the next state. In this way, we advance.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/18/10, The Zohar

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Where To Search For The Creator

Dr. Michael LaitmanA question I received: Why do we constantly talk only about the connection among us, and say nothing about the connection with the Creator?

My Answer: Right now we are talking about realizing our goal at hand, and this is why we devote so much attention to the connection among us. The final goal is adhesion with the Creator according to the law of equivalence of form, which means that we need to become “Human,” Adam (“similar” to the Creator).

First, we need to prepare our spiritual vessel (Kli) by making it similar to the Upper One. This is one vessel  for everyone; all of its parts should unite as one man with one heart. All our hatred, envy, ambition, pride, and thirst for power become included within it; we need to rise above it all and unite in order to become similar to the Creator, and thereby attain adhesion with Him.

It seems to us as though the Creator is somewhere outside of us, but in fact, He is revealed inside that common spiritual vessel which we build among us. Therefore, to have a correct perspective, we need to perceive everything as if it exists in one place. We build this space for the revelation of the Creator!

It is precisely there where we unite with each other above our egoism. Our egoism remains below, and above it, we build the connections among us. And if our connection is solid, based upon the force of the Light that Reforms, then in the connection, we will reveal the Creator (Boreh), which means “come and see” (Bo-Re).

This is different than picturing that He is somewhere high in the clouds and I am doing something here, below, in order to reveal Him in the sky. I reveal Him precisely in the connection between souls, between the organs of the spiritual body, as the inner Light that fills it.

Meanwhile, people think that when we speak only about uniting with each other that the Creator is separate from this. This is because internally they are not willing to agree that there is a connection between our work – the studies, dissemination, and unification with each other – and the Creator.

Each person perceives the Creator as something elevated and is willing to unite with Him, but we are unwilling to unite with another person. They don’t understand that this is the same thing. A more inner connection among people is called the “Creator,” the quality of bestowal, but the nature of man does not permit one to agree with this.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/18/10, Article “Arvut (The Bond)”

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We Are All Responsible For One Another

Laitman_420_05Baal HaSulam writes in the article “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)” that all those who aspire to the Creator are one nation where everyone is responsible for one another. This is called mutual guarantee. The Torah (the Light of Correction) was given to this nation only after every person was asked: Do you agree to carry out the commandment of love for the neighbor?  “Love your neighbor as yourself” means to take care of others no less than our nature forces us to take care of ourselves. This is the condition that enables us to draw the Light of Correction upon us. The Light will come and correct our spiritual vessel only if we reveal that we want to unite in this way.

Mutual guarantee is when, having ascended above our own desire, we already comprise one unified body, one organism, and we all depend on each other. To do this, every person must have an anti-egoistic screen and be in the spiritual world on the level of bestowal (Hafetz Hesed), while also treating his material life as a necessary component for his spiritual life.

Mutual Guarantee
Operating in mutual guarantee, every person fulfills another and understands that he has to be connected with the others. His entire life takes place for the sake of this, like it happens with the cells within one’s body. Every cell and organ of the body lives in order to carry out its function in relation to the common organism. The meaning of its life is love and bestowal. When we perceive this connection among us, this is called spiritual life.

If we desire to unite in this way, then we will receive the force to carry this out!

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/18/10, Article “Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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First Make The Soup!

Dr. Michael LaitmanA Question I Received: When I read The Zohar, my mind keeps seeing superficial images. How can I remember that all these things are happening inside me as the text speaks about connections between us?

My Answer: To tell you the truth, it doesn’t matter. "Time does what the mind does not." The time is for studying and growing closer with the friends. When, during the lesson, a person isn’t able to think (with his head) about the goal (with his heart), let him listen to his heart.

Most important is to constantly hold on to the thought of what you want from the study. Torah does not have an affect without this. The Torah influences according to one’s intention. As it is written, "I created the evil inclination and gave the Torah as a spice." Do you have an evil inclination? Bring it and then you’ll receive the Torah as a spice to it (the means for its correction).

However, how does having this spice help you if you lack the evil inclination? Kabbalists give us simple examples. Do you have soup? Would you like to add pepper, salt, and all kinds of seasoning? Go ahead, but how will you benefit from having salt and pepper if you don’t have the soup? By themselves, salt and pepper taste disgusting.

In our case we first need to prepare the "soup." Without it, there’s no need to ask for seasoning; we wouldn’t even be able to ask for it. It’s during the process of making the soup (in the group) that the need for seasoning arises (for the Light to unite us). Only those who need Torah have (discovered) the evil inclination.

This is why we need to approach the reading of The Zohar and all our lessons with the proper intention, with  knowing exactly what we desire, or, in other words, with a prepared evil nature. With the evil revealed in you, you have something to correct; you will receive correction for it. If you haven’t discovered the evil within, you first need to look for it. If you feel righteous, the Torah is not for you; it is for the sinners for their correction. This is why the one who is greater than the others is the one who discovers a bigger egoism within, a greater evil, and he has something to correct.

Thus, it doesn’t matter how much one understands during the lesson. "It’s not the wise who studies" (Lo ha-Hacham Lomed). What matters is feeling that one has something to correct in the connection with his friends.

We need to unite into one desire, the soul of Adam, and we must become brothers in our goal. Even though we now hate one another, don’t want the others, and disdain them, we understand that unity is the goal. This is why we wait for the Light to come and bring us back to the source where we will become one complete desire, and the Creator will become revealed among us.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/10, The Zohar

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How To Avoid Suffering

Dr. Michael LaitmanAs we analyze our desires we need to penetrate deeply into them in order to understand that they, along with their egoistic intention, come from the Creator. We need to reach the uttermost depth of the recognition of the desire and from its root attain where this desire comes from.

When we reveal that the desire itself and its egoistic intention are sent to us by the Creator, we’ll understand that there’s no choice. We have no one else to turn to with a plea to correct it except the Creator. Otherwise, a person doesn’t need the Torah as he doesn’t scream out or appeal to the Creator. He doesn’t yet perceive himself as a creature governed by the Upper Force to which he may appeal.

Our egoistic origin is the same angel that brings us closer to the Creator. We receive blows, and consequently, we understand that they have a purpose and that they are sent by someone higher than us. We can reach this conclusion through suffering, and we can also reach it through the studies, the environment, and spiritual development.

“A sage sees the future”; he sees the arousal of a state before it is reached and he has the ability to change it. Physical suffering of this world turns into the suffering of love when I draw a little bit of the Upper Light and feel my state in relation to it. Then I begin to suffer from the fact that I have no love for the neighbor or love for the Creator. Herein lies the point of our free choice.

It is essential to get to the root of the suffering and understand that it is purposely sent to us from Above. If we understand that there is no choice and begin to scream out to the Creator, it signifies that we have reached the greatest depth. However, if we still attribute our suffering to various reasons in this world and to ourselves, we haven’t reached the very bottom.

I delve deeper and deeper into the suffering by its degrees of Aleph, Bet, and Gimel (inanimate, vegetative, and animate) and I think that I’m receiving a blow from nature. However, when I reach its last stage, Behina Dalet, I reveal there that its source is above nature, that it’s in the Creator, and is as if the Creator’s pointing a finger. Then, I scream out to Him.

Is it possible to speed up this process? Yes, it is. For this reason, we’re given the Torah in order to advance by a quick and simple path according to our own will rather than by the path of suffering. I can organize a group around myself and draw the Light from Above through the studies (for example, by studying The Zohar) and I quickly reach the same result. This is called the path of the Torah. The difference between the two paths consists of thousands of years of suffering.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/10, “What is the Preparation for Receiving the Torah?”

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Nothing Is More Whole Than A Broken Heart

Dr. Michael LaitmanA question I received: From time to time I witness your discussions about the state of the group and everyone. I am amazed that you are still so uncorrected and low; that the group is not a group yet, and there is no feeling of solidarity. Where is your advancement?

My Answer: Thank you for the question. Perhaps it will help you understand your own state. The higher a person rises, the more corrupt and weaker he sees the group and himself. This is because the Upper Light (Ohr Makif) shines on a person and he and the group see themselves in relation to the higher levels. When they talk about themselves and a stranger overhears them, he thinks that he is at the same level with them and even higher. The stranger does not see such problems in himself because he is measuring himself against the level he is currently on.

With regard to this, it is said that "only righteous people can follow the straight paths of the Creator." After they discover all the corruptness in themselves they justify the Creator who reveals such states to them because "There is none else besides Him."

For example, look how the people of Israel sin with every step they take towards the Torah on their spiritual path. Yet a stranger believes that he is better than those who have devoted themselves to spiritual advancement. This is because he does not have the three lines to go above oneself, against common sense. As it is said, "Torah’s view is opposite to that landlords." (Da’at Torah Afucha Mi Da’at Baal-Abaitim). Their incorrect (earthly, egoistic) understanding of our states distances them from us and this is best for all of us.

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