Luckily, we were born in the era of transition. After billions of historical processes that took place in our universe and on Earth, we have found ourselves at the turning point from the past to the future, when we ourselves have to realize the transition from an egoistic, individual, and detached system to an altruistic, integral, and analog one.

In all past generations, we existed in an egoistic desire acting linearly, each for his own sake. Now, under the influence of nature, we are forced to feel that we must change our entire outlook and all the actions in our world for our future existence.

Since humanity has become globally connected, we cannot continue to act individually because in this case, we will inflict harm on ourselves. Each day this new system, this general, global, and integral relationship becomes more revealed to everybody and apparent to thousands of people in the world.

In the science of Kabbalah, we do not guess but actually investigate how the next spiritual level of humanity will rise in our time and how this system is created. Moreover, we study not only the system itself, but also the method of reaching it: how one can rise to it, without waiting for nature to start pushing us from behind as usual.

During all the previous stages of our egoistic development, nature only propelled us from behind. We were given a bit of egoism and rushed forward in attempts to satisfy it. We felt more egoism and ran in the other direction in search of another fulfillment.

We were advancing in a zigzag manner: We built society, an education system, and family, brought up children, created states, technology, industry, and so on. All this was caused by the development of egoism which urged us to seek more and more contentment.

But now we have a problem: Egoism no longer drives us. However, we are pulled together by the unfolding integral system, integral nature, which compels us to connect together to continue our existence.

That is, technology, families, social relationships, politics, countries, and schools, everything that has been created suddenly stops working because we can no longer function in this world with our past egoistic drive. Now we can only advance using a different system, the system of general interconnection. But we enter it with our past actions, habits, laws, and our public relations.

We find ourselves in a completely different system. We have a different attitude towards the world than the way it should be today, different from what the world requires from us. It turns out that we have to do something with ourselves, and we don’t know what. We don’t know how to connect with each other in order to correspond to the world.

How can we achieve this connection? How can we convince ourselves that this is necessary? Although many people today understand this logically, they are still unable to find the answer to these questions.

So today we are in this transition from the lower degree to the higher one. This transition is not the usual shift from one formation to another, from one technological level to the other, how it used to be in the past. Now, we are in a qualitative transition, not a quantitative one.

A qualitative transition is not merely a change in the quality of our lives, in the quality of the relationship between us, but a complete change in everything that happened in the past. The world must become totally different. This is our problem.

The world has become different and closer to us, but we don’t know how to feel it correctly yet; we are still in the old ideology, consciousness, and perception. As if we found ourselves in an unknown space, and thus, cannot operate properly inside it.

Because of our wrong actions, all of our previous ways of experiencing life have led us to a so-called crisis today. Hopefully, we quickly realize that we need to change. The science of Kabbalah talks about this. I hope it will help not only us but all the people in the world to come to this.
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From the Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 7/17/2011

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The period of preparation is called the period of “sins and transgressions.” You can object and say: How was it a transgression if I had no understanding or knowledge of anything?

Yes, you didn’t know but you acted. And even though you tried to follow the instructions of Kabbalah, you studied and were in a group, you did it all for your own sake. This is why unknowingly, you carried out the actions in the group and studies egoistically, instead of performing them for the sake of bestowal. You tried to use your friends and Kabbalah for your own sake, and these sins are called either “intentional transgressions” or “unintentional mistakes, negligence.”

Later, when we rise to a spiritual degree and acquire the strength to act for the sake of bestowal, we correct these sins. At first we correct the “mistakes,” and by doing so we rise to the degree of Bina, bestowal for the sake of bestowal, trepidation. And then we correct the “transgressions” for bestowal and acquire the degree of love, absolute faith.

Where do the transgressions and negligence which we correct for bestowal and love on the degree of Bina and Keter come from? They were once saved in our egoistic desires, as it is written: “The beast will swallow and spew out.” And this is how we have collected a number of transgressions that we can now correct.

But a person who doesn’t enter the group and doesn’t begin to study to attain the goal with whatever intention he is capable of, doesn’t commit “transgressions” or make “mistakes.” He has nothing to correct at all; he lacks the “evil inclination.”

This “egoistic inclination” that Kabbalah speaks about is a special quality. We form it while in the group, when we study, when we aspire to bestow (Lishma), when we are certain that we currently exist in egoism (Lo Lishma), and when we commit horrible transgressions by wanting to attain spirituality for our own sake and to reap rewards in all the worlds.

This is how we accumulate transgressions and mistakes within us. And until we gather a full measure of them over the “400 years of the Egyptian bondage,” we are unable to escape them and begin correction.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/19/2011, ”The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”: But the role of Israel toward the world resembles the role of our holy fathers toward the Israeli nation….

If it were not for our forefathers, there would be no nation of Israel, meaning the group who yearns for the Creator and correction. In the same way, we now have to take care of the world because without our help, people will not be able to correct themselves. Their desires are not capable of ascending by themselves, and people cannot even think about correction for the sake of bestowal.

Today, we see this in the work of scientists and prominent experts in various fields. They write correct things about the world, but they cannot utter a word about the solution. They have no aspiration “straight to the Creator,” no spiritual spark. Thus, they do not realize that this is the only possibility. They are helpless before the need for correction; they have no means for it.

Therefore, they avoid answers in their search and discussions. They cannot see further down the road; they only see what is happening. They understand the necessity to create an integral world, and they stop there. Consequently, their reasoning is vague. It ends in nothing or falls back on completely unrealistic proposals.

I do not reproach them. This is not a sign of their limitations. It’s just that without the addition of a spiritual spark to human desires in our world, people cannot see the future, the only development possible.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/19/2011, ”The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

The Freedom of the Collective and the Freedom of the Individual Are Equal

Mutual guarantee of all people in the world for their general well-being is similar to two people on a boat. If one of them drills a hole in the boat, he drowns the other as well.
– Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee),” Item 18

Every person in the world is responsible for all. If one corrects oneself in something, he brings the whole world closer to the general correction. And on the contrary, using his individual egoism, he worsens the state of the whole world.
– Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 110

Every person prompts elevation or decline of the whole world since one person’s actions lower or elevate the whole world.
– Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 68
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Shamati #39 “And They Sewed Fig-Leaves″
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The Book of Zohar – Selected, Chapter “Truma,(Donation) 2,” “Light, Water and Firmament,” Item 759, Lesson 32
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Talmud Eser Sefirot Part 1 “Table of Answers for Topics,” Item 102, Lesson 46
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Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, Item 38, Lesson 25
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“The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee),” Item 28, Lesson 9
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My Good Environment – Dr. Laitman’s Principles for the Week

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Question: We see our friends from Los Angeles and representatives of different nations on the screen. How well do they understand our Biblical language?

Answer: Both we and they must interpret this language in the terminology of desires and understand it according to the inner way of reading.

I have my inner truth. For example, in this world I am of Jewish origin, and sitting next to me there is a Chinese friend. I am separated from my truth by the confusion of the first order, and he—by the confusion of the second order.

Let’s detach from this material world. We both have a specific egoistic desire. According to his level of desire, he is called a “Chinese” person and according to my level of desire, I am called a “Jew.”

Thus, he and I both have to perform certain work in order to get to the truth. This is what the notion of “70 nations” points to. Each of them has its own work, but it is absolutely the same for everyone to a specific measure. We think that this is not so, but in reality, the work differs only slightly by its external style, although it is entirely identical by the inner specifics, by the relative depth and the phases of the path. We all have the same work.

It seems to me that it’s very difficult for another person, that a third is not making it at all, and a fourth was already born an angel and is attaining the goal offhand. But in reality, nothing is known to me and I do not see the general picture in which everything works equally.

Thus, the great egoistic desire is divided into the “70 nations of the world” and Israel. Don’t think that Israel has an easier time than others. It’s just that every person makes efforts from his own layer of the common desire.

The real work of Israel lies in coming out of all the “70 nations” to the truth. After all, it is included in them by means of the breaking. It is written about this, “You will be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation for Me.” That is why representatives of different nations come to us—desires that aspire straight to the Creator from the common receiving desire. They express themselves as Israel and are now called precisely that.

Everyone else who are not awakening are called “the 70 nations of the world” and will have to correct themselves later on. But one way or another, all the qualities and opportunities of every person are precisely “optimized.” Not one nation has precedence in spirituality.

You might object, “But the common ‘body’ of Adam HaRishon contains some organs that are more important and some that are less?” That’s true, but this relates to the order of correction: At first the purer desires start the correction, and then the “coarser” ones. However, perfection erases all disproportions.

Therefore, it’s enough to have a small wound, the absence of just one cell, and the whole body is devoid of perfection. In this sense, everyone are equal, by the principle of equality of the general and the particular.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/24/11, “Arvut”

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Inside of the head of every degree (Rosh) a collision occurs between the Light and the screen, meaning between the intention “for the sake of bestowal” and the pleasure that is directly felt inside of the will to enjoy. Direct pleasure is as if I feel something tasty in my mouth, and this taste is directly connected with my desire.

But now I have to inflict a blow, meaning introduce a new calculation, implant myself in between the pleasure and the desire which are inside of me together. I have to stand between them and give them a new form of connection, because out of the two of them, I want to build the Creator so they would treat each other with bestowal!

This is called a blow (Hakaa) because I come forth against this direct connection between pleasure and desire. And by virtue of that, I build the head of the degree.

The “face” of the Partzuf is the form of its bestowal which a person has built out of the new relationships that he wants to establish between the pleasure and the desire. He stands between them and does not let them come into direct contact because he wants them to relate to one another only in the form of bestowal. That is how he builds the form of the spiritual Partzuf.

That is, the form of the Partzuf is built on the basis of the new relationships between the pleasure and the desire. And after that, the Partzuf does not want to accept all the others parts of the pleasures and desires which were unable to take on the form of bestowal, the form of the Creator. It turns out that he is left with an excess of desires and Lights which are beyond his calculation.

That is when a clash arises between this remaining direct form, this additional, separate Partzuf in which the desire and pleasure are connected directly – and the new, holy Partzuf that has been built, which contains the right connection between the pleasure and desire, creating a “face.” And the person senses the clash between these two forms: between receiving everything for himself, as the Creator persuades him to do, and the new form of bestowal that he has just created. The mutual collision of these two forces is called “the collision of the surrounding and inner Lights.”
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/20/11, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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We originate from the state of total perfection, called “the world of Infinity.” The only thing missing in it is the realization of this perfection. And it can only be revealed as “the advantage of the Light from the darkness,” meaning by first revealing the lack of perfection, and inside of it—the perfection.

In order to create the sensation of imperfection, many details of concealment unfold in the world of Infinity as a preparation for us. The greatest concealment is the one we are in now, in this world, at the last level of concealment after 125 levels of it. Therefore, these levels are called “worlds,” “Olamot,” originating from the word “Olama,” concealment.

All that we have to do is reveal the world of Infinity, the perfection we are in according to the plan of creation “to delight the creatures,” in order to understand that this state really is the most perfect, wonderful, and good out of every possible state.

At first it seems to us that our dark state of concealment is completely tolerable. We even enjoy it and do not want to move from it to any other place. But then, more and more, we reveal things in this life that do not satisfy us, and start discerning what is imperfect in our state and what can become perfect in the future.

That is how we find many things that we lack (meaning, imperfection): food, sex, family, money, honor, knowledge. And that’s how we reveal that inside of these sources of fulfillment, there definitely cannot be any perfection. Fulfillment is possible only if I come out of myself and fulfill others, thereby becoming equal to the Creator. That is, I have to reveal the Maker, my Creator, and become similar to Him.

After all, he is not present in my material state, in my current desires and needs. In order to find Him, I need a completely different aspiration—a need for bestowal. And as a result of my bestowal to Him, I will reveal Him inside of me and will attain adhesion. That is, I will acquire the same form, the same quality as He has. This will be my true, new desire—the only thing I lack, the thing that defines my imperfection. And there’s nothing more! There’s only the desire to reveal the quality of the Creator inside of me until I reach total adhesion.

When a person makes efforts to attain this desire, along the way he sees that he needs the means for it: the group, the whole world, the teacher, books, the study, and work above knowledge. But in the end he reaches the sensation of imperfection and understands that perfection means adhesion with the Creator, with the quality of bestowal that becomes revealed in a person. But now he does not have it!

This realization is called “I made efforts and found” because now he finds the right desire. And if he experiences his state as imperfect and lacks only the quality of bestowal (bestowal for the sake of bestowal, or even reception for the sake of bestowal), then a change occurs inside of him and he goes from a lack of perfection to perfection. And in this regard, everything is determined by his efforts.

However, the efforts shouldn’t be the ones he wanted to make from within his egoism, but according to what he hears from the teacher and carries out in the group. And on the way he sees many states like that, where he has to lower himself and carry out the instructions of our teachers, the guides on the path. That is how he tips the scale with his efforts, by lowering himself before the advice of the Kabbalists.

And then, from the “613 recommendations” (Eitin) he reaches the “613 instructions of the Torah” (Pkudin), meaning he corrects his desires and merits a “finding” – the revelation of the Creator inside of creation.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/24/11, Shamati

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