All we need is to follow the condition of the mutual guarantee between us. From the moment we start observing it and to the extent of our compliance with it, we begin approaching the goal. All 125 steps of the spiritual ladder, from the world of Assiya to the world of Infinity, are the levels of our mutual guarantee, of our increasingly stronger connection with each other.

Our entrance to the first step, the first spiritual level, depends entirely on our achieving mutual guarantee as at Mount Sinai. The Giving of the Torah comes from Above, and the mutual guarantee must come from below, from us. Then, the “awakening from Above” and the “awakening from below” occur together, and the Creator and creation start getting closer together. The Creator approaches His creations and the creation moves towards the Creator until they merge into one that is called the state of Final Correction (Gmar Tikkun).

Therefore, our task is to attain mutual guarantee. If we want the Light that Reforms, i.e., the Torah to impact us, we have to know that It manifests Itself only to the degree of the mutual guarantee among us.

Until we start creating internal pressure to become a part of each other, to connect and reach the mutual guarantee, the Light won’t start influencing or correcting us. The Light modifies only our desire to connect and reach the state of mutual guarantee to the extent we pursue it.

All we need is to try to push. It is called a “prayer,” a desire, a demand, a request to reach a special connection that is called “mutual guarantee.” The more we want to be closer to each other, the stronger we will feel that we are unable to attain unity.

The Light impacts us with Its opposite side: It gives us an initial desire, a chance that is called “placing our hand on the good fate and directing us to take it.” It gives us the tools: a teacher, books, and pulls us to connect.

At the same time, the Light repulses us from each other by creating a tension between us. On one hand, we are told that we have to connect; even though it is not attractive to us, we have to play as if we try to unite. Only if a group comprehends this principle and understands that this step is essential, can it advance.

It takes time. Sometimes it takes years to regard this condition as a serious prerequisite. It is the hardest condition since it is opposite to our nature. If we assemble around the notion of “mutual guarantee,” it means that we finally have caught the end of a thread, the end point of a beam that is spread from the world of Infinity to this world.

We are beginning to realize that only through our connection and to the degree of our reaching mutual guarantee can we stretch to a spiritual vessel in which we will eventually reveal the upper world, eternity, and the Creator. All of these things reveal to us here and now, in this life.
[124356]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/31/13, Preparation for the Convention

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Question: Why do we read The Book of Zohar?

Answer: We use it as a means of spiritual advancement in the group.

First of all, receiving desires manifest themselves in a certain group of people. Discrete, shattered desires regard each other in their physical form; it allows them to establish a primary contact. They gather in a group and study The Book of Zohar.

A shattered desire sort of “aspires” to the ones that are higher. Common studies and correct joint exploration of the higher level under the guidance of a teacher triggers further changes in friends. They try to obtain vessels of a straight line; then, the Light from circular vessels will become ready to enter them. So far, the Light comes out of the circles and goes to the emptiness of their desires from afar in the shape of the Surrounding Light until they transform into a straight line.

This, in fact, is the purpose of our studies. When it happens, we will study the same texts and Lights that transition from external states into internal ones and turn from circular vessels into straight line vessels in our modified, corrected vessels.

Thus, The Book of Zohar is a special remedy that we use without having a clear idea of exactly how it influences us. However, it is not important, since it still works.

Question: Why is the Zohar more powerful in this context than the Torah?

Answer: The Book of Zohar is stronger than the Torah because its style and form are due to the period that followed the destruction of the Temple.

Before, the people of Israel were at the level of Mochin de Haya, i.e., at their personal end of correction. Then, they fell from this height to concealment. As a result, the Kabbalists were in the broken state of all and at the same time, they rose above all. They rend this difference between the two “ends” of reality, between the world of Infinity and our world. The sons of Israel fell to the very bottom, into the toughest egoism, whereas the Kabbalists of Rabbi Shimon’s group were at the top. As a consequence, the gap between them and the people of Israel stretched from minus infinity to plus Infinity.

Later, throughout the exile until its full completion, the vessels of the people of Israel had to mix with other nations and bring spiritual sparks to them.

The Torah is different. Moses wrote the Pentateuch from the level of final correction. He was above everybody else; however, the rest of the nation was not in the same state as him at that time. The people had just exited Egypt; the state called “Egypt” is not yet the shattering. In “Egypt,” one simply reveals one’s small stage, not the entire destruction during which sanctity mixes with impurity, “shakes” it up, thus letting people correct their flaws, and “swells as on yeast.” Due to the fact that people had not reached these states, Moses could not reveal and explain the entire process of correction in the Pentateuch. He only revealed what had happened until then.

In general, each step includes all the others. A part and the whole are equal. That’s why the Torah, of course, contains everything, but, it is presented in a way that is impossible to use to the full extent for correction of souls. One cannot extract the Light that Reforms broken souls from the Pentateuch, since the exodus from Egypt happened prior to shattering. Only a small part of it was revealed in Ancient Babylon; it allowed connecting the “forefathers” (GAR), a burdening of their hearts, and then giving birth to the “sons” (the tribes of Israel) after the exodus from Egypt took place. The eras of two Temples and the last exile followed these events.

Thus, The Book of Zohar is written from a totally different, polar state with the maximum differnce between the height of one hundred and twenty five steps and the final shattering of the sons of Israel. Let’s not go into details and spiritual conditions of that epoch. All that matters now is that this book completely corresponds to what’s inbuilt in nature.
[123513]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/19/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Everything stems from the connection between the Light and the desire. The desire that was created by the Light as something from nothing goes through several phases of evolution: the root phase, phase one, two, three, and four. Only on the fourth level of level four does the created being begin to feel that he is a created being in relation to the Creator, like a guest before the host, with all the necessary feelings and discernments in order to be independent.

Until we attain this level of development through the Upper Light, we cannot feel that we are independent and cannot feel ourselves, our state, at all. Until then, it is simply the action of the upper. It is like the debate over when an embryo is considered a human being and not just a collection of cells. Then it is impossible to kill it since he has every right to exist like every human being.

This happens through the process of our development. Unless the fourth level is finally stabilized, it isn’t a created being yet. Unless it begins to perform independent actions, even a certain action according to its level, it isn’t considered a created being, but is totally under the domination of the Creator. It doesn’t feel itself yet, and so it is impossible to attribute any actions to it, neither good nor bad, no sins and no Mitzvot.

Then the ten Sefirot develop from this first HaVaYaH. Malchut begins to operate in order to bestow “its darkness will illuminate as the Light,” which means that Malchut begins to illuminate, to give, and thus receives attributes that are similar to the Light, and therefore it is called Sefirot (from the Hebrew word “Sapir” – “sapphire,” “illuminating”). There are exactly ten Sefirot, not nine and not eleven, since it is there, where the last Sefira ends, that the created being can act independently.

The same is true with regard to our exertion. We have to reach the accurate full level that matches the measure, the state we are in. We never know what state we are in, since it is possible to know that only from the upper level that gave birth to the level we are on. Only on the upper level that gave birth to us do we begin to control what is lower than it, and thus understand the state we have been through.

It turns out that a person never knows his real state. Unless he completes his last measure of exertion, it is as if he hasn’t done anything! Even worse, the greatest darkness is revealed at the end, which means the difficulty, the despair, the helplessness, all the unpleasant feelings come just before we complete our exertion. It is like the exodus from Egypt, the resistance to the ego increases until the ten plagues are over and there is the escape. We are ready to do anything in order to detach from it and the redemption occurs only at the end.

This means that we have to exert ourselves until the end of the last measure, and the redemption will appear suddenly. All the last phases and especially the final phase are the most difficult and exhausting, like in a juicer. Only the patience and the stubbornness which totally depend on the environment help us here. Let’s hope that we will manage to hold on till the end; as Baal HaSulam says in the “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot“: “And only the heroes among them, whose patience endured, defeated the guards and opened the gate. And they were instantly awarded seeing the King’s face.”
[124838]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 01/07/14, Lesson on the Topic: “Preparation for the Convention”

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If a person doesn’t have persistent spiritual yearning, doesn’t aspire to the Creator but simply tries to be saved from suffering, then, from the start, it is not worthwhile to tell him about the evil inclination, about the ego. We must first  engage him in activities that develop and expand his absorptive Kli, his perception, understanding, feeling and capacity for inquiry.

It is as if he were expanded from within, and some kind of empty space is created there that begins to be filled with all kinds of new observations and definitions: the group, me, and all our relationships.

Then, there is something to talk about. The person is included in this picture, within the general plan, and already begins to work. If you just explain to him about the nature of our ego theoretically, then the person will be bored and dry up. He must first feel in his heart, and after that, this passes to the brain. The brain is a good addition to the heart that serves it. It is said that “the heart understands.” Otherwise, the learning remains like a dry, abstract theory.

But it is possible to teach about phenomena that will be discovered later on condition that we are equipped with mutual Arvut, and Arvut is possible not only among Kabbalists, but also among regular people as, for example, in an army or among mountain climbers, and certainly this is not spiritual Arvut yet, but this is somewhat like it.

Don’t we become guarantors with each other through the bank, or through an insurance or pension plan? Everyone in the nation is a guarantor for everyone else to some extent. These systems already exist in order to prepare us for entry into Arvut.

We once lived in a cave like one big family, and later this family began to scatter. Its parts lost the connection between them and didn’t feel close. Therefore, another social connection was inserted and added between them. This is also Arvut, only it isn’t on the same level as it is with Kabbalists. However, it also serves the advancement and correction of the world.

People are in connection with each other, even though it is egoistic. Everyone in the world is a servant of the Creator whether they want this or not. We came out of a natural, instinctive, familial, connection between us, but instead we created a new linkage: commerce, reciprocal services. Some people are ill and others are doctors. Some need shoes, and others work as shoemakers, and so forth. This is as it is written, “Go and make a living from one another.”

The livelihood through which we are linked with each other is a correction of the shattering. I repair shoes for you, and you sew clothes for me. We already are found in Arvut with this, even though this is to a small degree. Through the thousands of years of the evolution of its shattering, humanity is approaching a threshold where it must consciously enter into Arvut. However, before this, we already have advanced and approached Arvut on the still, vegetative, and animate levels.

This shows the greatness of this concept. We are only in Arvut all the time, and we build and measure ourselves according to this, consciously or not.
[124500]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 01/01/14, Lesson on the Topic: Preparation for the Convention

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 9: And the only difference between the souls and His essence is that the souls are a part of His essence (Atzmuto).

This means that the amount of Light that they receive in their Kli, being the will to receive, is already separated from the Creator…Thus, the only difference between them is that one is a “whole” and the other is a “part,” as a stone that is carved from a mountain.

Here, without dependence on our present level, we encounter something that differentiates us from His essence (Atzmuto). We take the “substance,” meaning the desire to receive, and clothe the form of the substance. This is to say, in that the desire to receive reacts to His essence, it receives some kind of form. But this form is also substance and not the filling in the usual sense of the word.

We can pour water from a bottle into a cup and so instead of the form of the bottle, the water takes on the form of the cup. But this change happens only in the world of our imagination, and in fact doesn’t exist because there is no fundamental change in the essence of the material itself.

In spirituality this is talking about the desire to receive, where its change is its fulfillment. We give names to the vessels and the Lights that are extended into the Partzuf. Each name is a structure consisting of the four letters, HaVaYaH (Yod-Hey-Vav-Hey), meaning the four phases that we learn.

And in continuation, everything depends on which level these phases are found, how they are mutually divided and connected, which form they receive from the all-inclusive infinite Light. In this world of Infinity is found some kind of perception of reality, the desire to receive, which is distorted and bent and changed in a particular way by the Light.

In this way, the substance of the desire always remains and it has this form or another that it receives from the Light. The forms are divided into four general forms: still, vegetative, animate, and speaking, in the spiritual sense, but also get all kinds of sizes and characters in all kinds of forms of relationships.

Therefore the Light influences the desire in all the possible structures of HaVaYaH that are found in the general system and the desire takes on some kind of form. And we are speaking about this object, about the substance and about the form clothing the substance. And this form can be Klipa (impurity) or Kedusha (sanctity). But the substance remains the same substance, a desire to receive.

The question is asked: Why do we call the form “Light”? It’s because I receive the changes from some cause that influences me. And according to the changes in me ,I can gradually become conscious of it. Essentially, I become conscious only of the relationship to me. This is the reason that the Creator is called: “Come and see” (Bo Re). Only I can see, perceive, this, and nobody else, and I perceive the form clothing the substance. The Creator “clothes” the creature and this makes it possible for me to call Him the Creator. For, in this manner, I can feel Him, come into contact with Him. He gave me my form.

And according to this, “From your actions we shall know You.” “Your deeds” is me. And through what You do with me, I become aware of You. Only in this way is spiritual attainment realized. All the rest is philosophy and erroneous.
[124493]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/31/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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In the News (from France24): “G8 health ministers met in London on Wednesday to tackle what experts warn is a dementia time-bomb, with cases set to soar as the world’s population ages.

“Ministers from the Group of Eight wealthy nations gathered for their first-ever conference on the incurable condition, which afflicts some 44 million people worldwide — most of them elderly.

“They hope that by forming a common front, the summit will prove the turning point in tackling the disease.

“Sufferers of dementia, of which Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form, often end up needing full-time care as it attacks their memory, reasoning and other brain functions.

“Alzheimer’s Disease International warned in a report last week that the number of sufferers is set to surge, trebling to 135 million by 2050, as life expectancy rises around the globe.

“Dealing with dementia cost the world an estimated $604 billion (440 billion Euros) in 2010, according to the World Health Organization.

“The European Union’s health commissioner Tonio Borg announced a 1.2 billion euro budget for health research in 2014-2015, including dementia and neurodegenerative diseases.

“Dementia causes mood changes and problems with reasoning and communication as well as memory loss.

“Most types grow progressively worse and cannot be cured. Medication and therapy are used to alleviate the symptoms. …

“’As life expectancy goes up, our generation has a unique challenge: will those extra years at the end of our lives be ones we can look forward to with anticipation — or will they be ones we end up dreading?’ British health minister Jeremy Hunt said.

“One in three of us will get dementia. And if we don’t do better, for one in three those later years could be years of agony, heartbreak and despair — not just for those of us with the condition, but for our families, friends and loved ones too.”

My Comment: Nature is a global, integrated, closed system, and if we wish to receive from it more than we are supposed for rational existence, we pay for it with something else. Only bringing ourselves to the integral form—with rational instead of greedy consumption and with good connections between each other—will bring the entire system of creation into balance and will eradicate the problem of all diseases.
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Question: Should we seek to change the shape of new desires?

Answer: Of course, after all, we have to resemble the Creator. If I resemble the Creator, I will be called a human being, Adam, which means that I am similar (Domeh) to the Creator. This is all my work.

But how can I resemble Him? After all, I don’t know Him. “Bring me a statue, an image, and accordingly I will be able to…” and then what?

I actually have to look for His form. In order to do so I must first soften my matter, my desire, so that it will be ready for changes.

But our ego is as hard as a rock, how can I soften it?

First I have to restrict (Tzimzum) it, to ascend above the egoistic desire and constantly be above it, and then draw the Light of Hassadim. The form of the matter is actually called Light. The matter becomes flexible, elastic, like plasticine or cotton wool. The size, the softness, and the flexibility of the matter is called the level of Hassadim.

“Make whatever you want of me to the extent that I am ready and that I can”; this is called Hassadim, and this is the level I must first reach.

We understand that this is possible only with the help of the environment, in it, I gradually exit myself and experience deep relaxation and freedom from my desire, only in order to acquire the ability to devote myself to the group. Then I go through all the levels of flexibility on top of the constantly growing ego. This means that I am not a partition or an obstacle in the way of the Light. I resemble the Creator, whom we don’t see or feel, and who doesn’t reveal Himself in anyway.

We call it: “Don’t do unto your friend what is hateful to you.” But one way or another, the essence of the correction is to transform myself into flexible matter on the upper level, which is so flexible that there is nothing like it in our world. Here we have to encounter some resistance, some reaction, in order to feel something. In spirituality, however, I reach a total lack of response. I am not even rubber or cotton wool and not something that is even softer. I am so airy that I am hardly felt at all.

This great softness of my matter, of my Aviut (thickness), allows me to feel the Creator’s form. This means the whole corrected form that is dressed in me, on my matter, and that lets me become acquainted with the Creator.

But how exactly do I know the Creator? After all, I constantly become softer and softer, as if I don’t exist at all.

The point is that this disappearance is part of my previous egoistic form. To the extent that I work on my egoistic form and make it as soft as possible, I attain the Creator. Everything is attained by the oppositeness of two forms. It is in the connection between two opposites and the clarification between them that I begin to feel His thought, the thought of creation. He created a contrast so that I existed, and I follow this opposition to the Creator. I will begin to attain His feeling, His mind, and His plan, His line of thought, according to the way He has created me.
[124490]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/31/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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There is a constant struggle in the group: to be together or not to be together. One member can be in a state of ascent and another in a state of descent, and one mutually influences the other. But we have to keep connected and to tighten and strengthen this connection no matter what, despite all the obstacles, whether internal or external, which make up the “flesh” of the next level.

The external obstacles come from people who are close to us or distant from us and from the whole world. On the whole, it comes from everything that happens on the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate nature and humans. All this operates on us as our external vessels, and it all belongs to us.

In order to adhere to our point in the heart, we take off our attires, the flesh, our individual characteristics and leave only the bare points in the heart, ignoring anything else, and thus adhere to one another. But then we to regain the forms that we previously rejected as well: this whole world.

There is no other choice. This is our vessel and we have to use it. At the end of correction, the whole world, the whole universe, everything that I see, feel, and perceive will become one body. All this returns to me in the form of different obstacles and I have to connect despite the interferences.

In a state of descent, which means concealment, the friends seem rude and coarse, and I have no desire to connect to them. In a state of ascent, which means revelation, they seem like perfect righteous and I want to hug them and not let go. Then I fall into concealment again and feel scared: What kind of a group have I fallen into? I have to escape it as soon as possible.

Thus I constantly ascend and descend. I see it this way through my attributes from inside my vessels. The movement between the ascents and descents determines my upper level. If I accept the ascents and descents equally, and don’t care about the state I am in, as long as I am adhered, connected, in mutual guarantee, trying to hold on as much as I can both during the ascent and the descent, my efforts build the next level in this amplitude.

When I want to remain connected to the friends during the ascent and the descent, it’s a state called yearning, or stiffening, since I really want to connect. When we complete the measure of our effort and overcome all the obstacles, the action of the Light takes place in the final phase that fulfills the connection between us and tightens our mutual guarantee.

Here we have to take the matter of distance into account: There is a reason for going out to work and for getting confused. All the actions in this world are very special. We should understand and realize that mutual guarantee is the point of connection from which we already find ourselves on the same ladder that comes from and rises to the world of Infinity.

We strip ourselves of everything by our mutual efforts and leave only the points in the heart and begin to connect. Now we are trying to do that above all the obstacles, when we are together, and especially when we draw away from one another and feel that we are dispersed all over, separated by the distance and the lack of connection.

We have to do our best to overcome all these interferences. So we gather in conventions and special events in order to feel what it means to be together when there is no distance between us. We seem to be testing to what extent the physical distance operates on us and how we can establish the condition that doesn’t cause any changes in our feeling and in the mutual connection between us.
[124446]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/31/13, Lesson on the Topic: Preparation for the Convention

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The Book of Zohar. Chapter VaYakhel (And Moses Assembled), Item 131: This is so because after the sowing off, ZA was established as entirely Hassadim, on the right line, and Malchut as all Gevurot, on the left line.

Hence, they are disputed as in the two lines—right and left of Bina—until ZA ascends in the middle line and establishes peace between them, uniting them with each other, so ZA and Malchut, which are also two lines—right and left—need a middle line to establish peace between them and unite them with each other.

It’s difficult to explain why we need the middle line and why Malchut cannot cling to Zeir Anpin. We come across a similar problem in this life when we want to draw other people to ourselves, as if they are “sewed” to us or belong to us. It happens in families and elsewhere.

Hence, we need to understand what the right approach really is; it occurs in the middle line where nobody annuls their personal natural qualities: Zeir Anpin and Malchut remain themselves, but they complement each other. And then they build and addition between them, a third component between them: the middle line.

The middle line includes both of them in a way that they complement each other. By no means do they suppress one another; rather, they act quite differently. They complement each other because each of them permits the other party to rule over them. They even fight about who should be more giving and who should allow the other party to rule over them, thus pleasing him or her. At the same time, each one of them is obligated to express themselves otherwise there won’t be a state of mutual love and merging.

This is a complicated system in which each consists of both male and female parts. When we study this structure, it will be clearer to us how people in the future will build their family lives, friendships, and general relationships. It doesn’t matter if it applies to interactions among men and women, since each of us plays either a male or a female role with regard to others: one either gives or receives. There is no third scenario. That is why there is no such thing as the neuter gender in Hebrew, only masculine and feminine. It is right, since because it doesn’t exist in nature.

A clear understanding of the system will be a good addition to the method of integral education. It will help establish peace in this world, in all its spheres: in politics, at work, at home, in family relationships… All kinds of connections among people can be understood from the middle line.
[124332]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/29/13, Preparation for the Convention

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