Some of the friends in the group of ten are in a state of ascent and others are going through hard times and descents and have an additional Aviut (coarseness). We are not responsible for these states, and so whether I like it or not, I simply have to take advantage of every state in order to advance. All the states come from Above and we mustn’t criticize them, and no matter whether we feel them as good or bad, we have to use them all as a means to advance.

Every group of ten is one cell, since it can generate only one unit of bestowal. One person in a group of ten or two or three people don’t count. Only if all the group of ten is connected correctly does it become one unit of bestowal, and then it begins to reveal its first Light of Nefesh.
[107932]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/13, The Zohar, Introduction

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Question: Why isn’t a prayer for self-correction effective?

Answer: It is only a prayer of many that works. A prayer for oneself is needed so that a person will finally understand that it doesn’t help and that it is ineffective. This world confuses us since people who think about themselves succeed. A person starts a business, engages in sports, and the more efforts he makes, the greater his success. This is a real fact.

However, spirituality is opposite from corporeality. The more I think about myself and do certain exercises, the more it proves that I cannot succeed this way. The laws that operate in spirituality are opposite from all the laws of this world: It isn’t the wise one who succeeds thanks to his wisdom, and it isn’t the brave one who succeeds thanks to his bravery. Whereas these qualities are very helpful in our world: The more power, brains, or money you have, the more successful you are.

This world is based on egoistic bravery. However, in the spiritual world it is the opposite, and everything depends on how much I exit myself and remain powerless, brainless, and totally unable to succeed by myself, but only by investing in others, subduing myself before them, and being influenced by them. Thus, I teach myself that this is the way to advance.

It is a very delicate issue. We work in the integral system, and only through my connection to everyone else—to the extent that I can attribute myself to them—can I succeed. I never will be able to exit my “circle” and to be aloof with regard to the others, and I don’t want that! Advancement indicates a greater penetration into the group in order to be equal to everyone else.

It is actually opposite to the laws of this world. So, all the rules we read about in Kabbalistic texts are not just good advice and suggestions of a concerned granny to a child trying to persuade him not to jump around, not to fight, and to sit quietly. Rather, these are iron-clad rules of the upper system. We have to forget all the habitual egoistic systems and try to get used to and accept the laws of the upper system where everything goes through the group, through the “ten,” only through the environment.

You will attain everything, but the means, the rules for success, are different from the ones that are accepted in this world. Your success depends only on you to the extent that you subdue yourself before the environment, your wanting to bestow everything upon the friends, to worry about them, and to love them like the people who are dearest to you and most beloved. Even if you don’t feel that, you force yourself to act that way, as if each of them is a great person, the greatest of our generation, the one who is closest and dearest to you, even more than yourself.

Soon, you actually will feel that this is so and everyone will become very important and dear to you: his state, his health, and his success. You will understand and feel that you depend on this and will have no other worries except for their well-being and health.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 05.20.13, Writings of Rabash, “Concerning Love of Friends-2”

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Question: What does “the ascent of the lower to the upper” mean?

Answer: The ascent to the upper depends on how much the lower can annul himself before the upper. He does it, of course, thanks to the Light that Reforms and not because of inner manipulations. He only has a clue that the Creator brings him to the right environment, to the good fate and tells him “take it!” If you manage to hold on to that point and to start working with it, you will succeed.

The ascent depends on what you consider an ascent. If you think positively about one of the friends at least once a day, unlike you have thought about him before, it’s already a great joy, since it indicates a qualitative inner change in you. You should worry that each of the ten friends in the group of ten will constantly aspire for such an ascent, and this is the mutual support and mutual guarantee. If you worry that all the friends should feel the same way and worry about one another, then your concern is conveyed to them.

This is easy for some of the friends and more difficult for others, and so we complement one another when we gather and connect. Those who find it difficult because of the hardening of the ego add power of Aviut (thickness) to the group of ten. Those who feel the ascent, which means the influence of the Light, pass this Light to the group.

The “shattering” of the vessel allows us to do this. I cannot draw the Light in my current shattered state since there is no connection between us. But I connect with the friends into one unity in which one adds the power of the coarse egoistic desire and another adds the spiritual ascent.

One pulls upward and another downward, but we are connected. Those who pull upward are influenced by the Light that Reforms and thanks to the fact that we are connected in one system, they also influence me. How is that possible? The point is that we have shattered the Machsom (barrier) between us, in our relationship we have worked and made efforts to overcome the gap between us. It’s as if we have placed a Masach (screen) over the egoistic receiving of the Light and now it can influence us.

The Light influences those who deserve it since they are in a state of ascent at the moment and through them it affects me. Even if we are not as close as we were before and not connected as strongly into one as we were, we have made a covenant and agreed that we will hold on to the connection between us as strongly as we can and will break down the wall between us.

It turns out that the shattering is simply a gift from Above; it’s a stick that we constantly have to kiss. It allows us to be constantly connected to others and to be in contact with the Light even in the worst state. If I lose contact with the others, there is the covenant by which I stay in contact thanks to those who are in a state of ascent and can draw the Light.

Thus everyone operates with regard to the others. This special connection of the shattered desires is called “this world.” It’s not what we see and feel at all, it’s not our corporeal ego, but a system, special conditions that allow us to connect to the upper. Although we don’t deserve anything judging by our state, we still accept this connection: either according to the conditions of the covenant between the friends, thanks to our connection, or thanks to the mutual support.

The friends may lack the willpower and I add it to them by my descent, and they help me convey my deficiency and hold on, just like healthy people treat those who are ill. The mutual help that we provide for one another, this shattered state, all these conditions are called “this world,” thanks to which we contact the Light that Reforms. So the advice and guidance of Kabbalists are focused on one point: How to connect to the Light in a state of detachment.
[107942]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/13, Introduction, “Mother Lends Her Clothes to Her Daughter”

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Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut“(Mutual Guarantee): The purpose of Creation lies on the shoulders of the whole of the human race, black, white, or yellow, without any essential difference.

But because of the descent of human nature to the lowest degree, which is the self-love that unrestrictedly rules over all of humanity, there was no way to negotiate with them and persuade them to agree to take upon themselves, even as an empty promise, to exit their narrow world into the wide spaces of the love of others. The exception was the Israeli nation because they were enslaved in the savage kingdom of Egypt four hundred years in horrible torments.

All of humanity clearly has to reach the end of correction, and no one can escape this. But the process is gradual. We begin from easy discernments, and then by using them, we move on to the correction of more difficult discernments.

The easiest part is called “Israel” and it seems to “hasten time.” Only now in the point of transition between the 20^th century and the 21^st century has humanity reached the eruption of the ego that is becoming round. On the other hand, Israel has preceded this process and reached the level of the great “ego” back during the exile in Egypt. Then they fell from the level they had attained and eventually descended to the last exile that has lasted until our times.

The current ego is much greater than the ego in Egypt. In addition to that, it has become round, it has become global, and is similar to the form we will have to enlist on our way to the correction.

Back in Egypt, the desire to receive that opposes the connection in the general circle was revealed among the children of Israel and it doesn’t allow them to be one whole. This is the only thing that is called “the evil inclination.” It isn’t about the size of the desire but rather about its objection to connection.

But the rest of humanity has developed on the basis of the ordinary desire to receive that belongs to this world and is meant to exist in it.

 

 

Now Israel, with its evil inclination, is finally ready to be in a circle. We already understand what is going on and how to correct the situation. But humanity doesn’t understand that yet since it has arrived at this circle with the help of its ordinary “linear” ego and not with the help of the evil inclination.

As a result, it’s very difficult for the nation of Israel to connect. No other nation is as divided as this nation. This is how the evil inclination, which no other nation has, is revealed within it. It’s very difficult for the nation of Israel to perform the correction, although they have already been through this path. Today they only have the shattered Reshimot (reminiscences).

On the other hand, the nations of the world are ready to learn about the connection that will improve their life. Because they have no shattered Reshimot they don’t object to connection and if they see that the “linear” connection will provide them with a better future, they accept it.

It turns out that if Israel helps the connection of the world, their connection becomes closer. I cannot even imagine how they can start to connect without it.

This also explains why an external pressure upon the nation of Israel is necessary. This pressure is already growing and it will increase and become an actual threat of annihilation. Otherwise, Israel will simply not understand what and how much is required of them and what is required of them in order to get rid of the external pressure. It’s about an essential external factor that allows them to think about correction.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/21/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Mutual Guarantee”

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Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut” (Mutual Guarantee): A person can help all the people in the world in the ascent up the levels of love of others. Thus he affects a certain measure of advancement on the ladder of love for others in all the people of the world in general. This is because that degree, which that individual caused by his actions, whether large or small, ultimately joins the future in shifting the world to a scale of merit…

And one who commits one sin, which means that he cannot overcome and conquer his filthy self-love, and hence steals or does something of the sort, sentences himself and the whole world to the scale of sin.

Thus we see that Kabbalists look at reality as a unified system. Of course, when a person sentences himself to the scale of merit or to the scale of sin, he sentences the whole world in the same way. His actions necessarily affect and influence all the other mechanisms and the other parts of the whole world down to the very last. Today we discover this in reality, but in fact, all the worlds including our world are a system that is interconnected.

So we have to acknowledge the responsibility for making the right choice, for sentencing myself to the scale of merit, in the dimensions of the whole system. I have to understand what I am responsible for right now, when I worry about the correction. I have to double my concern according to how I imagine the general picture.

This is because with the disclosure of the filth of self-love…, a person subtracts a certain amount from the sentencing to the final scale of merit. This is similar to a person removing from the scale that single sesame seed his friend had put there… Because he could not overcome his petty lust, he pushed the spirituality of the whole world backwards.

This is the system we are constantly in and the slightest movement by even one millimeter is enough to move the whole system. But there is a weakening mechanism, “filters” of concealment, or the worlds.

The system is totally revealed in the world of Ein Sof (Infinity) to its full size and depth. Accordingly, whoever is there has to be responsible for the whole system, as he feels it and fully manages it, without a flaw, just like the Creator. There we are totally equal to Him, adhered to Him.

On the other hand, it’s our responsibility and our obligation to enter the system integrally by understanding our mind and our feeling, which depend on the current level that is part of the levels that descend from Ein Sof. We are responsible for the system in general since it’s a qualitative characteristic and not a quantitative one, but to a lesser extent.

For example, I am responsible for keeping the system “clean” and you are responsible for its “color,” and someone else for the “electricity,” another for the “air conditioning,” and so on. Thus I fulfill the uniqueness of my soul, since without me no one will make up the part I have to fulfill when I operate the system in my own unique style. Without me it will not reach wholeness, since it is integral by nature. So every level increases my responsibility: It’s as if I replace the Creator in different aspects, and when I begin to understand the system I begin to understand Him, to feel Him, and to resemble Him.

The system is actually the relationship between the friends. After all, there is nothing but that. We discover everything in the friends, in humanity, in the still, vegetative, and animate nature. This means that we have to discover all the parts of this world in addition to the world itself. This collection of ties is actually the spiritual worlds, mutual bestowal, the system of creation. It’s as if we put on special glasses and see all the mutual connections between all the components.

But this system is revealed gradually. First in the group of ten, and then it grows wider and deeper in discernments that we couldn’t discover otherwise. First it was difficult to notice the connection between us; it was hard to discern it, but with time it’s revealed more in our understanding and feeling and in the most varied forms.

Thus we connect and discover the system and the forces that operate in it that are actually the Creator who sustains this whole complex. We discover the form that He creates in the matter of the desire. He is revealed in matter and not in an abstract form and not in the essence.
[107843]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Mutual Guarantee”

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Question: If people were to change themselves, by all appearances they would just stop wasting their power and energy. Today, two trillion dollars a year is wasted only for armaments. In this process an immense amount of waste and garbage is produced that must be processed, using great amounts of energy. People continue to live in places that are incompatible with life, continue to draw the earth’s resources that are not renewable. Humanity has no clear concept of what is occurring. Most people don’t want to talk about this because they don’t think about it but only about their daily bread….

Answer: The reason for this is that a clear solution to all problems remains hidden from people. Yet it exists, and in order to discover it, the leaders, the ruling elite, must be replaced so that a new humanity can take into their hands the process of organization.

Question: Are you sure that these people will not want to use their control over minds and will not create a new cycle of elite, a redistribution of wealth and government?

Answer: No, because our desires are changing. People have lost their relationship to life that they had in the past, which was to acquire and to accumulate without limit. The result has been a great disappointment in everything. It’s necessary to change a person and nothing else.

According to the assessment of the Red Cross, many people in the European countries like Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal, and Romania are starving; this is in spite of the fact that millions of tons of food are thrown away!

The problem is not that there is not enough food; the problem is in the relationships between people. If we correct the relationships between us, we will bring everything in the world into balance. Yet this cannot be unless there is concern for everyone.

Through integral education one acquires this sensation within weeks. Had those countries in Europe entered into integral education before the formation of the common market, everything would have been otherwise. It was necessary to begin not with a single currency, not with common economic rules, but with a uniform education, with an understanding that humanity is one whole body.

First they would need to create a particular commonality between people, to create a synergy of character, understanding, and communication. As in a family, everyone is different but it is, in fact, one family. This is the problem of Europe.

The same thing happened in the Soviet Union when they began to impose the new regime forcefully without the preliminary education of the population. And now this could happen again in Europe if they begin to use force. To our great sorrow, they are going in this direction at the present time; here and there, they have adopted various economic sanctions. Stalin did this much more simply with the Red Terror, and that was that. We see what is happening in Cyprus. This is also a type of terror against the will.

But there is a very clear program of development for humanity. We must reach the next stage of development, and we will reach it. The only problem is how to reach this in the softest, best, and fastest way. And this depends on the preparation of people, on education.
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From KabTV’s “The Global Crisis” 3/19/13

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Preparation to the Lesson

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Writings of Rabash “Shlavei HaSulam,” “What to Look for in the Assembly of Friends”

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The Book of Zohar – Introduction, “The Letters of Rav Hamnuna Saba, the Letter Samech, Item 28, Lesson 18

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 3, Part 10, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Item 4, Lesson 48

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Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Mutual Guarantee,” Lesson 18

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Having started to work in groups of ten, you can think about your big group only through your “ten.” The ten is now the cell through which you connect to the world, whether it is speaking to your wife or to your boss at work. Every action you make is through this group; you dress in them.

A group of ten is not about physical bodies, but about principles that we clarify and fulfill together. Gradually, you begin to feel that this invisible, airy formation becomes clearer, connects with the forms of your relationships, and takes on a certain weight, shape, stability, and a real, tangible existence.

Now, in the relationships between you and others, you feel things that you only heard of or read about before. It already becomes a reality.

A group of ten is a sensible, materialized image of your unity, like a family. Indeed, what is a family? There is a woman who lives with me, and I have several kids who live in the same house. A family, however, is not separate people, but something that is a single whole: our relationships, our dependence on one another, the mutual bestowal, and the concern. It is a whole system that is called a “family.”

I don’t worry about someone personally, but about the well-being of the entire family. This is the feeling I should have with regard to my group of ten so that I will approach every discernment and feeling only through it. Otherwise, I never will see the upper world. I must start looking at everything through this focusing lens, through an aperture adjuster.

It limits my sight, and I look at everything only through it, through this very narrow aperture. If I look through a very small hole instead of using glasses, I will see everything sharply just as with glasses since glasses merely limit and focus the ray of light. This is why this very narrow aperture also allows me to see well as if I had very powerful glasses. We can look through the group in the same way. If you don’t look through the group, you won’t see the world.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/13, The Book of Zohar – Introduction

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Question: What does a person get from the revelation of the Creator?

Answer: By revealing the Creator a person attains the one upper force that operates in all of creation. By that everything becomes clear and understood. He sees all of reality that has no beginning and no end but only one fixed state. This one state explains everything to a person. He attains the upper dimension and has no question left.

He lives above time, motion, and place, and there is no division to past, present and future; this is the reality that exists outside our physical body. Our body lives if there is a pulse, and thus it perceives reality, by feeling itself in time, meaning in the past, present, and the future, but when we exit the boundaries of our body, everything disappears. Then we find ourselves in the same state as the Creator.

Now you are asking: “So what’s next?” But there is no such question since all our questions stem from a deficiency, from the desire to receive, which we want to fill, but when we are incorporated in the desire to bestow, all the questions disappear. We merge with the one unique force. We have to feel it and this will provide you with all the answers to your questions that cannot be expressed in words.

When I entered the spiritual feeling it answered all my questions. This question doesn’t stem from mere curiosity, but from good will. You will discover spirituality and you will see everything. It says: “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” Before we taste this feeling, we cannot see Him and it’s impossible to explain it. When we attain Him everything will clear up by itself.
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From the Convention in New Jersey 5/10/13, Lesson 1

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