When I try to imagine what my spiritual level really has to be and whether I can rise to it by my feelings, my knowledge, and my efforts, I see that I cannot. If I come to the right conclusions, I discover that without the Creator’s help I will not manage. After all, I have to correct my intention in order to bestow upon the Creator and I can reach that only through the love of others, by connection with the friends.

Here I see to what extent I work in the opposite direction, forgetting all about the love of others, unable to constantly think about mutual guarantee, about connection and about the love of friends.

It seems that love of friends and the correction of my desires are two different things. I have to love the friends and then I will be ready to do them a favor and to get a bit closer to them. But the correction of my desires and the revelation of the Creator are intimate personal things that belong only to me. I cannot connect these two conditions, and this is our main problem.

So we have to constantly work on the connection of “Israel, the Torah and the Creator.” The Torah is revealed only by the Light that Reforms, which connects all these components. After all, the important rule of the Torah is “Love thy friend as thyself.” The Torah is all the vessels and all the Lights in which love is revealed—from such a strong connection that turns to love.

We have to imagine a common vessel called the “Torah,” which is all the desire to receive that was created and that is shattered to pieces that are very far from one another filled with mutual hate. I want all this to be covered with love; I really want this! So I need the Creator and I focus on Him through this collective desire.

In that case I really need the Creator. I summon Him not just so that He will bring me pleasure, but as a result of an unbearable pain that is caused by my inability to connect to the general love in the relations between us.

This love has to be expressed towards the group in some way, towards the friends, even if it is not openly but more internally. This already depends on a person, on time, on the height he is on. The Kabbalists of Kotzk used to express an opposite attitude externally; we follow the instructions of Rabash to display love and  concern for the friends openly.

We have to constantly worry only about the general vessel, about the general connection that draws the Light that Reforms and the Light that fills the vessel. The Creator is revealed only in that vessel, as the one who builds and sustains, heals, and fills it.

All this takes place in that state; the trouble is that we don’t imagine it correctly, but think that the Creator can be revealed inside us, will enter our individual hearts. This is how every egoist thinks, since he is used to drawing all the goodness and all the achievements to himself.

This is the whole problem. Only by mutual guarantee can we support one another in order to remain focused on the center of the group, the nation of Israel, and the whole world as one system in which everything takes place. There is nothing but that.

Otherwise we are simply not living in reality. All the other perspectives except this one are called “an imaginary reality.” It isn’t even as imaginary as our world but actually fictitious and totally egoistic.

So we have to discover the snake that stands in our way that constantly takes us back into our impure heart. In that case, it is impossible to manage without the group’s decision that this has to be our only concern, and only through the help of the friends can I remain focused correctly on the group in order to see my correction in it.

This is the reason we cannot think about the Creator’s benefit, about true bestowal; it all depends on one another, and our thoughts are aimed in the direction of receiving and not bestowal. The revelation of the Creator seems like a sweet candy.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/13/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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