Audio Version Of The Blog – 5/31/25
Posted on May 31st, 2025
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Arvut is a force that grants the ability to annul oneself, that is, to subdue one’s will to receive and accept the opinion of the group.
Question: But how can one come to Arvut without first performing annulment?
Answer: In myself and in the group there is no power to accept this force called Arvut. But through our effort aimed at making it happen, we draw the surrounding light from above upon ourselves.
Where do we draw it from? From that state in which we are already united with each other at the end of correction, whether we are on the first or the third stage. Through our yearning, the surrounding light comes precisely from there. And only with its help do we begin to rise.
Naturally, neither in the individual nor in the group is there such a force. That is why we speak of a “readiness” for this to happen, and then the light shines from there.
Question: Does Arvut mean that we are guarantors for one another through the Creator?
Answer: Of course, Arvut is given by the Creator. This is what distinguishes a group that advances toward correction from a group that may resemble Sodom or other kinds of communities.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/14/2025, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”
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Arvut (mutual guarantee) takes place when each person passionately desires to return to the corrected state. This means being connected with others as one man with one heart.
Kabbalists advise us to engage in study, dissemination, and group work with the intention of drawing the surrounding light, advancing, and coming closer to the Creator. All of this is done solely to gain strength and personal corrections in order to integrate with others and form a unified Kli (vessel).
We have nothing else to think about except the correction of the Kli. Its correction means connection with its other parts. The light is in absolute rest, and only the Kli needs to be corrected.
The result of our personal work should be inclusion into the general Kli and becoming an inseparable part of it where everyone is included in each one and each one in everyone. When I reach the necessity to precisely realize this, it is called my personal advancement.
And the general correction is realized through the connection of all. We must agree to this because by practically implementing Arvut, we become a Kli for the light to dwell in. The light begins to reveal itself within us. This is called crossing the Machsom (barrier), and to the extent of the Arvut between us, we reveal spiritual degrees.
The more united the Kli becomes, the more parts join it, the greater the desire, the ego within it grows, and at the same time, the Arvut, the mutual inclusion and devotion of one to another, increases, the Kli becomes stronger and more effective in its intention for bestowal.
Then a greater light is revealed within it, which is defined as ascending spiritual degrees.
What does ascending mean? There is no movement up and down! When we increasingly reveal the desire to receive between us, and against this background reveal unity, Arvut, this is what creates the Kli.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/6/2025, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”
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Question: From what Baal HaSulam writes in the article “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”, it seems that spirituality is passed down genetically. Once, thanks to the merits of the forefathers, their sons received it, and now we do as well. What does “the merit of the fathers” mean? Is it something passed on through genes?
Answer: Attraction toward spirituality is not hereditary. It is clearly stated that the Torah is not inherited. So what is the merit of the fathers?
The merit of the fathers means that within a great Aviut (coarseness of egoistic desire), there are sparks through which even a person immersed in deep egoism feels an attraction to what lies above the ego.
If a soul is in a state of zero-degree Aviut (Aviut de Shoresh), it naturally feels drawn to spirituality, to the Creator, to adhesion, to striving for mutual guarantee, for connection. Where does this come from? From the closeness of the properties of the Kelim (vessels) to the lights.
In this case, no prior actions or special limitations are required because it is clear that under such conditions we receive the Torah, spiritual life, and attain bestowal, which is felt as something special and exalted in a pure vessel.
But when the Kli (vessel) has a high degree of Aviut, meaning its desire to receive is more developed, it becomes difficult to understand how bestowal could fill the Kli and bring satisfaction. It is hard to imagine that the condition of Arvut—exiting oneself in order to serve the other, to unite with the other, to connect specifically with their vessels in order to fill them instead of one’s own desires—could be something good or elevated. This is not felt as something real in a coarse Kli.
However, if this coarse Kli is a result of the development of “refined” vessels, then it contains a pure part that has truly been close to the light and has fulfilled the condition of Arvut at the level of zero Aviut.
And even if the Kli now has a first-degree Aviut (Aviut Alef), it still has a foundational base called “the fathers within it.” It can be awakened through certain actions or, alternatively, suppressed, as if returning to zero Aviut.
This is what it means to “make use of the merit of the fathers.”
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/8/2025, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”
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How Can We Be Concerned about Improving the Society?
As much as it depends on us, we need to prepare ourselves and act. We must be sensitive to what is happening among our friends. Perhaps everything they lack is already there among them, but they do not see or feel it, like a cat walking around between people’s legs, unaware of the changing states around it. Therefore, before anything else, we need to awaken our sensitivity to everything happening in our society, be impressed by our friends, and not dismiss them.
We must ensure that our sensory receptors are highly sensitive to things that can evoke admiration for the society. To achieve this, we should:
1) Awaken ourselves by reading Kabbalistic texts, listening to Kabbalistic music, and so on.
2) Demand from the society that, despite our sensitivity, the friends “perform” for us, that is, act in a way that stimulates our senses so that we can perceive their actions through our senses, to see and to hear them, and that the friends do not remain like hidden righteous ones. By making their actions visible, we can be impressed by them.
Indeed, this performance is somewhat of a lie, but through this lie, we reach the goal. Therefore, it does not matter if people act in front of each other. In Judaism and in Hassidut, it is customary for everyone to demonstrate to their friend how they pray and how they conduct themselves, because they learn from one another accordingly. However, in Kabbalah, this is done for the sake of attaining an internal state.
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Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
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Question: Besides spiritual work, which cannot be verified, what should we do: think about mutual guarantee, talk about it?
Answer: Talk about it, check and measure to what extent each one is advancing in understanding that under the influence of the group and the upper force, along with the ascents and descents, the feeling awakens more and more in a person: not thinking about oneself is possible. A person will become free to think about others.
Question: If we talk about this all the time, won’t it become devalued?
Answer: It will not become devalued because it is before us. Moreover, it is not some distant goal (final correction or our adhesion with the Creator, but a break from the desire to receive called the exit from Egypt. This is the first action; by carrying it out, we enter spirituality.
It is said that it is neither an angel nor a messenger but the Creator Himself who leads the people of Israel out of Egypt. We must unite, find the force of Moses within us, who will be able to speak with our Pharaoh, convince us, feel that we are in slavery, in darkness, and wish for the upper force to influence us and for the Creator to lead us out of Egypt. All of this is the process through which we achieve mutual guarantee.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/14/2025, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”
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Question: What is the “inner voice,” the “guiding hand of the Creator“?
Answer: The source of correct thoughts in a person—let us call it “the representative of the Creator within the person”—is the point in the heart. It is called “a part of the Creator from above,” a spark that fell into the vessel as a result of the shattering of the soul.
Before the shattering of the global soul, the light, sparks, and vessels existed in a corrected state: the desire to receive with a screen and the light filling it. But when they shattered, they became mixed; the lights rose upward to the source, to where the soul resides, while the vessels and sparks fell downward.
Therefore, a person is tasked with revealing the spark that exists within him. When it begins to manifest in a person, they must proceed with that spark as if taking a small candle into a dark, empty, vast space of the desire to receive and begin to discover who and what they are, to examine themselves, but only with this candle, with this spark.
And then gradually, the person finds a way to hold on with the help of this candle amid all 620 shattered desires, which make up the dark space of the soul, until they are able to connect them to the candle like oil to a lamp, so that from the candle, a flame may spread through the entire soul.
This is called “the darkness shall shine like light.”
Baal HaSulam gives the example of a wick and oil that produce light. When the Aviut (coarseness of desire) joins this spark, a true fire ignites because it turns into an intention for the sake of bestowal, giving it the same nature as the light, transforming Aviut (thickness) into Zakut (purity).
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/14/2025, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”
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In The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot, item 17, it is said: “Hence, the student pledges, prior to the study, to strengthen himself in faith in the Creator…”
I open the book in order to receive the power of faith, the power of bestowal, the power that allows me to be above my desire to receive. That is, to come to a connection with other souls and fulfill the condition of the mutual guarantee.
If we think that we will ever be able to fulfill the principle “love your neighbor as yourself” in a small group even if it is just me and someone else, this certainly seems unrealistic. It is impossible that someone has accomplished this. And that is indeed so.
But we can make a decision that we want this to happen, and we want to reach such a demand that, as Baal HaSulam writes, we revolve around it day and night. And that is enough.
Every second we must check to what extent we are in the force pulling us toward the center of the group so that everything external remains behind us, and everything internal unites in the center of the group.
Each one discerns this within himself. How can I check myself and how can the group check itself? Only in accordance with how much in quantity and quality a person cares to see himself and others connected at the central point of the group.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/10/2025, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”
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How Do We Choose a Society That Will Bring Us to the Correct Desire?
It is according to the extent by which we are impressed by the society, by the friends, and think that the spirituality they engage in is unique, great, and overshadows everything else. If we are impressed in such a way, then this is the right society for us. If we are not impressed by anyone in the society, that society is no good for us.
If we observe the friends carefully and, no matter how much we look, we are still uninspired, it might be that we simply have no desire to see these matters as good. Or it might be that we are truly seeking, but no one does anything that inspires us. In the latter case, we need to seek out another society.
In other words, we must constantly be concerned about improving the society surrounding us. Baal HaSulam writes that this is the only choice given to us.
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