Question: We have pledged to take care of one another in order to uphold the standard we achieved in the Arava and to keep moving further. But what should a person do if he suddenly discovers that he has “fallen out of the loop”? Should he feel that he is drilling a hole in the common boat?

Answer: Of course. And this should be a source of great distress for him. First of all, it’s not simple to reach the sensation of unity, but he should at least regret the fact that he is separated from it. Secondly, let him feel bad from knowing that all the friends are already there. Thirdly, his absence harms others, and this entire harm is recorded in his account.

This way, he misses out on much more than his personal concern because his part is idle in every one of the friends and does not complete each one of them. It turns out that his harm is multiplied by the number of members in the group.

Until now we talked about the egoistic calculation, but now let’s look at the problem from the other side. A person does not support his friends with mutual guarantee, does not become similar to the Creator, and does not attain bestowal to Him by working in the group. This spiritual damage is not as obvious, but we have to remember about it as well.

Question: Can we say that by doing so a person shifts not only the whole group, but also the whole world to evil?

Answer: If you have received the opportunity to enter mutual guarantee with your friends, then by participating in the common work, obviously you shift the world to goodness. After all, every person is part of the common network and we are its central part. Therefore, by strengthening the group, I strengthen the whole world in its spiritual ascent. And the opposite is also true.
[61337]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/21/11, “Mutual Guarantee”

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Question: How can we bring our common prayer into the study?

Answer: Everything that we study is revealed in the connection between us. We reveal the picture of our connection, the one soul.

The soul is the connection between all of the parts, which we can only imagine. The soul is everything that was created, all of creation together, the whole of reality, including our world. Even though our world is “imaginary,” it is also part of the same unified soul.

There is nothing except this one soul, which is the vessel that the Creator, the Light, created. But we can imagine this soul and discover its inner power only by connecting all of the parts and turning it into a living organism.

The Light is the life animating force. To feel life, we must connect all the internal parts into one body, putting each part in its place: the brain, the heart, the liver, the kidneys, the legs, the arms, and so on. If a person is able to perceive all of them as one body, even in the simplest form where most of the organs still do not function, but all of it connects properly, then the spiritual picture on the first degree is revealed to him.

We cannot discover half or a quarter of the soul. In the spiritual world this does not exist. There is no “partial” in spirituality, but only a whole structure of ten complete Sefirot, not nine and not eleven. So I must reveal the full picture.

In this complete picture I reveal every part of reality that I see before me. I see the place of all nations and the entire universe, all the first ten Sefirot, what belongs where, and what force operates everything. I see all this within myself. I discover myself and nothing besides that.

The wisdom of Kabbalah is the study, the discovery of oneself. In this way, I reveal reality. All of creation is me.

Through the study, we need to accept this picture and imagine it correctly. Then it will become clear to us that Kabbalists write about what’s going on inside them. After all, a person is the whole world. Everything you see now is portrayed from within, and it is only an optical illusion that it exists outside.
[60923]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/16/2011, TES

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It is known from the wisdom of Kabbalah that the only means that can change anything is the Light that Reforms. It sustains our lives, it gives livelihood to everything, and it executes all the changes. In accordance with the qualities of the Light, desire and the entire path of creation from the beginning to the end is instilled in the nature of the Light—how to change the matter, the desire to receive, in order to bring it to equivalence of form with the Light itself.

We constitute this matter in the hands of the Creator, the Light, and we can awaken and intensify its influence on ourselves and in doing so, accelerate our development. Since we accelerate our development ourselves, by wanting it and revealing our desire more, the Light influences our evolution more and executes a more meaningful act on it. Thus we feel our advancement as something good and desirable. Indeed, we add to the process of evolution that flows “in its time” (Beito) our own part, the addition called “hastening time” (Achishena) since we yearn for that same place and form that the Light wants to bring us to.

From where do we know this? It is thanks to the efforts we make in trying to see ourselves as connected together, as one man with one heart, so that our desires merge into one. And then, to the extent that we try to awaken our hearts to connect, to perform various actions so that they connect into one heart, with no differences between them, to that extent we awaken the Light that will bestow on this connection, on our efforts to connect with an even greater intensity than when it works according to its usual evolutionary plan called “in its time.” In this way we accelerate time.

In order to awaken the influence of the Light on the desire, we ourselves need to imagine that we are trying to connect the hearts and adopt the form of the Light, the attribute of mutual bestowal. We have to envision this to the extent that each one of us loses his own feeling of existence, and all of us together acquire oneness that includes everyone within it: the group, the soul, composed of the individual hearts. And then the Light bestows on us and completes the act.
[60664]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/14/2011, The Zohar

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To develop our spiritual sensation, we unite and connect. We have to attain the kind of unity that is called, “mutual guarantee.” Essentially, this is the vessel for feeling the spiritual, eternal and perfect life that is outside the body.

For that we have to do what Kabbalists, who are people that have already gone through this path, advise us to. They are our teachers and are therefore called “Rabbanim” in Hebrew, which is the plural of Rav, meaning a “great” person before whom I bend down my head like before an experienced instructor that is worthwhile to listen to.

He accomplished the transition from the sensation of just this world to the sensation of the upper world, and moreover, he went through many states and levels there. Therefore he can help me with advice throughout the whole path, until I complete my development in the true world. By virtue of Kabbalists, I reveal the gates to the world, enter it, and advance.

Kabbalits advise us to unite, and in that unity, by making great efforts in spite of our egoism and natural disregard, to look precisely for the feelings we disregard. I reject the neighbor and hate him, I am unable to even think about how we can be truly close to one another. But Kabbalists tell us that we have to be as one man with one heart, uniting in the mind and feeling to such an extent that no boundaries will remain between us in thoughts or desires.

This is all painfully opposite to our nature. We are being offered such conditions that we would be willing to trade them for anything else. We are nauseous from this and are thrown away from it at every moment in different directions—anything but unity. We just want to cover ourselves up with half-hearted advice and actions, lie to ourselves and others that everything is normal…But we can’t.

What can help us here are demands imposed by physical unity: We act all together and no one can evade his responsibilities. That is exactly why we are in this world of actions that are not defined by intention. In spirituality, the thought is the action, but in corporeality they are divided: I can think about one thing, desire another, and do a third.

This is the wonderful quality of our world: Here we can start the path to spirituality without even yet thinking about it for real or wishing for it sincerely. We are able to make actions that pride, passion, ambition, envy, and shame incite us to do—everything that is inherent to our egoism.

Therefore, being in the group, at the end of the day, I must carry out what it obligates each of its members to do. After that, by virtue of that, I advance involuntarily. I must only push myself into the group, take on obligations, and sign a “unified agreement” with the friends that under any circumstances, they have obliged me and I have obliged them to need one another. That is how we advance, using our egoism.

Thus, in our world we have the opportunity to start the spiritual path from zero, from pure ambition. We activate its negative qualities, connecting with one another by the unity of mutual help, and use all the negative qualities just to observe this unity. In this case, you obligate the friend and he obligates you, and you both advance, having no other choice.

This is exactly what we saw when we went to the convention in the Arava desert. We found ourselves together without external influences and discovered that the group can obligate every person to rise and come closer to the sensation outside the body, where a person begins to discern details hitherto unknown, a different existence “outside of the skin of his body.” It turns out that “outside of us” is really possible. That is how we advance.

Today we can unite with one another in this world by means of the right egoistic actions. However, now every one of us has to “jump out of his skin,” rise above his personal egoism, above his entire being, and unite with friends into a single whole. Stated differently, every person must rise above himself and go from the material group to the spiritual one.

Then the common vessel will form, the common soul, the holy Shechina where we will reveal the Creator on the first spiritual level. We made a big step toward this and acquired a common sensation, and now we must strengthen ourselves.

Thus, we build the vessel of mutual guarantee: We pledge not to forget one another and all together we take care of our spiritual life. After all, this is the purpose of our current existence in the material world, the goal of all people and this whole reality. Only by virtue of mutual care will we rise to the level of spiritual unity.
[61241]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson on 11/20/11, “Mutual Guarantee”

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Question: Could you briefly formulate the purpose of the convention at the Arava desert?

Answer: We have one goal: having united, to reveal adhesion with the Creator. We have to reveal a close interconnection, a strong bond in reaching the goal, in ascending above our corporeal desires, above everything that appears to us in this world.

In our mind and feelings, we have to rise above the reality that we feel here and unite all our hearts and thoughts. Our goal is not to simply assemble the common “We” out of individual “I’s,” but to rise to an even higher degree and become one whole. It’s similar to drops of water merging into one big drop without leaving any boundaries between them.

The influence of the upper Light helps us achieve this state. We can’t imagine this state, but the Light can lead us to it. This ascent to the first degree of unity will be the crossing of the Machsom (the barrier separating us from spirituality). Further, we’ll find ourselves on steps of the spiritual ladder, and we’ll be able to climb to the very end of correction.

In addition to it, in our first spiritual state we want to reveal forces to correct the world and to help it on its path toward the purpose of creation where we all unite in order to merge with the Creator. We want the world to reach it peacefully rather than through sufferings, which also can push us forward.

Thus, all our work is in finding the spiritual world, that is, in degrees of merging with the Creator. Then, we will help humanity to reach a predestined state of perfection in a good way where we’ll all give pleasure to the Creator together.

Question: What kind of thought should each friend arrive at the convention with?

Answer: I want to lose my personal self-awareness. I want to rise in my mind and thoughts above the body and unite with the mind and feelings of all the friends who will form the collective head and the collective heart, as it is said: “Like one man with one heart.”

We should imagine this picture at the time of the convention by trying to live it, to live inside of it. I’m no longer an owner of myself; I “sold” myself to the group; I’m loyal to it, and it takes care of me like the upper Partzuf takes care of the lower one, like the whole takes care of the individual, like the mind takes care of the body. From now on, I’m driven and governed by the group.
[60930]
From the 4th pat of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/16/2011, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Our current state is imaginary. Kabbalists compare the perception of this world with a person who has lost consciousness and is experiencing certain vibrations in the brain, certain random impulses that beget an illusionary and misleading image within him. And this makes him feel like he is alive and exists in a real world, perceiving it much like as it sometimes happens in a dream. But in reality, there is nothing from true reality in it.

There are a number of actions we can do to help us in this state, to make us wake up, or make an effort towards awakening. The idea is to try to imagine the true state, completely unrelated to our world, while being in our imaginary state.

We exist in this true state connected with one desire. No one perceives himself individually, but every one perceives this oneness. It’s neither “I” nor “we” because “we” is still a multiple sum of “I.”

But there is no sum; there is just that oneness where we exist with no differences between us! We need to try to rise from the image we now perceive to a “there is none else beside Him” state, where there is only One, and nothing else. And everything that is outside of Him is a consequence of the loss of consciousness. We need to try to imagine this situation.

“Everything that exists is one soul.” This is the formula of reality, and it determines the place of our work and the form of our life that we must attain. From it we begin to draw all the directions of our behavior, understanding of the method, and the true state. We will only be able to learn and understand what the upper world is from there. We will not learn about it in our world.

And regarding the economy of the future, it also must come from there. Otherwise it’s unclear how it’s possible for only one to exist. The laws of connection and behavior that exist in this oneness, the relationships and actions, all these things are only learned in a state where we exist as one. There are no physical bodies, this whole world does not exist; our heart and mind rise to this level of oneness.

As a result of everyone’s efforts, we will begin to perceive this reality and what’s happening in it. We will establish the relationships between us in accordance with it and understand the material we are studying and our attitude towards the world and dissemination.

Our head must be inside this One, while our body must be separated from Him and only follow instructions. Then we’ll see how uncomplicated this path really is. The main thing is the first contact with the reality of this one force called: “There is none else beside Him.”
[60760]
From Lesson 1, Israel Arvut Convention, 11/11/2011

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Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)“ (abridged version): Arvut is like two people in a boat, when one of them begins to drill a hole in the boat they will both drown together, that prevents the observers of the Torah from even beginning to fully keep the measure of “Love thy friend as thyself,” which is the ladder for reaching Dvekut (adhesion) with Him, and so they shall both drown together!

Mutual guarantee is more than being responsible for others. The spiritual vessel is a common vessel. With the Surrounding Light, the Light that Reforms, the Creator awakens a certain amount of Reshimot (informational genes) and brings them to the first level of unity called “this world.” This is how the Reshimot see their reality: When they begin to draw closer, they appear to each other in the form of the friends.

Eventually we have to unite, and so we have to care for everyone. We don’t sign any strict contracts made by lawyers, and we don’t keep anyone by force, but we try to support every one by thoughts and desires.

As far as the spiritual vessel is concerned, we have to understand that it is common. It doesn’t belong to anyone, but is between us, in our unity. It isn’t strings stretched between us, although this is how we depict our mutual connection. Actually there is no separate you and me in spirituality. We are all like drops of water that merge into one big drop, and the previous state disappears without any trace.

From this example we can understand how different two adjacent levels are in their intensity. If a hundred friends on the first level, including me, unite into one drop, then on the next level the drop becomes me. The same thing happens to everyone: Each of us grows one hundred times bigger compared to the previous level. We begin to connect again in mutual guarantee, and then on the next level we grow ten thousand times bigger compared to the first level, and so on until we make up the whole Partzuf of Zeir Anpin.
[60690]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/14/2011, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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When a person already exists in a reality where “there is none else besides Him,” he must connect everything that is awakened as a disturbance with the concept of “one.” Then he will begin to see that he has really entered the spiritual world and included himself in bestowal, Bina, above himself. He, she, I, or anyone else no longer exist. Everything is merely one concept.

This “one” is neither the Creator nor the creature, but the only reality that exists, where everything connects into one. I can no longer say that he and I, and a connection between us exist. This is why we need to direct all our efforts, our purpose, and our true life toward the revelation of this only reality, the one soul.

When a person constantly tries to raise himself to this level of reasoning and feeling, the perception of his “I” in all his hopes and aspirations, and all his inner desires, he goes through a certain number of exercises, until he sees that everything he has outside of this “one” is only summoned to help him, to push him to connect with this “one,” and establish his place there.

It is written about it: “Habit becomes a second nature.” Thanks to habit, man begins to feel that he exists in another reality, and he makes decisions, reasons, and wishes in accordance with it. The higher reality where he includes himself determines and dictates everything to him.

His body and his entire corporeal life begin to connect to this One. In the end, he sees that there is nothing getting in his way. On the contrary, everything is helping him enter the true reality.

The entire world we perceive, everything connects and merges with this One whole. Then, we really discover that there is only one soul in the universe. The so-called “600,000 souls” are the yet uncorrected parts of one’s soul that one is not able to connect to the common concept for now. But later they too connect to him to strengthen and support this One single concept.
[60757]
From Lesson 1, Israel Arvut Convention, 11/11/2011

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Question: If there are no separate parts, what does The Book of Zohar describe, the way one soul corrects itself?

Answer: The Book of Zohar tells us how we connect into one soul. After all, there is nothing else to talk about. There is a perfect state, one soul, and there is an imperfect state when the soul is shattered. We have to return ourselves to the perfect state.

Essentially, the shattering exists only in our consciousness. When we discover what is corrupt, we will see that everything is corrected. I only need to correct my perception, my vision. This is why this wisdom is called the “wisdom of Kabbalah” (“Kabbalah” means “reception” in Hebrew)—it is the wisdom about how to receive, to perceive reality. That’s all! Reality is perfect, and there was no shattering—it is all with regards to those who receive, a person who attains it.
[60658]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/14/2011, The Zohar

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Baal HaSulam, “Mutual Guarantee” (abridged version): The merit of the forefathers is that from the height of their souls, they realized the principle of love for the neighbor without preliminary actions, which they were unable to realize. Thus, only the nation of Israel entered the mutual guarantee.

The Creator made one receiving desire, consisting of four “layers”—four levels of depth or Aviut. We start to discern the layers of egoism from light to heavy. The souls that have already completed the analysis and correction then help to perform the work on the following, coarser layers of desire of the common, single, broken soul.

First the souls belonging to the level of the forefathers are corrected. We also call them “the house of Abraham.” This is talking about thousands of people who attained the spiritual world under his leadership. Their Aviut was very small and therefore they did not need to attract the Light that reforms during the study. It was enough for them to unite with one another a little because there was no repulsion between them as they did not fall into egoism yet on all of its four levels.

The fall happened later, in the Egyptian exile, and only then did Israel start needing the Light that reforms, meaning the method received on Mount Sinai. After all, a person corrects only what surfaces in him. The Torah, the method of correction, is intended for work with the evil inclination. When it became revealed in Egypt, the force of the Light capable of correcting it became revealed.

However, on the level of the forefathers, there was no need for this yet. This is the most “transparent,” purest degree of level zero of Aviut, comparable to the state of conception. At this stage, the Torah and the Light that reforms are not necessary for correction since there is nothing to reform yet.

Next comes the level of the sons, with the Aviut of the first and in part, the second level. And then comes our turn, the second, third, and fourth levels of Aviut, belonging to the “period of the Messiah.” Every generation in this lineage corrects its own layer of the common desire, the common soul.

Thus, the forefathers did not need the study that evokes Light, being in states of “the desert.” It was enough for them to be in the situation that surfaced in Ancient Babylon. Each of them revealed his evil somewhat, which the Torah describes metaphorically by talking about how Abraham and Sarah came down to the Land of Canaan, how Isaac solved problems with Esau, and other issues.

Next, Jacob and his sons came down to Egypt and died there, in this great, receiving desire. Then the sons of Israel went through the burdening of the heart and wanted to work on unification together to rise above hatred. However, first they descended even lower in their Aviut, which is called “visiting the cities of Pitom and Ramses.” Stated differently, by attempting to unite with each other, they did not build wonderful unity, but instead created something petty, sordid, and dangerous.

That is how they reached the need to run away from egoism and then went through the “ten plagues,” meaning unsuccessful attempts to escape. Every time they asked Pharaoh to “let them go,” they were denied, until the sorrow became unbearable. Only then, in the state of pitch darkness, does a person run away from his egoism, ready to rise above it at any price, “Better death than this kind of life.” A person reaches the final decision, really wishing to unite with others, as one man with one heart in mutual guarantee, and then he receives the method of correction.

This method leads him along the stages of the spiritual path: Tme after time, he discovers destruction inside of him and corrects it with the help of the Light that reforms. As a result, he reveals and corrects his entire, enormous egoism.

This process does not occur in all of humanity, but in a small group of Abraham’s descendants. On the path, it goes through breakings, analogously to the spiritual world, and falls down. And only later, in our days, does the true work of correcting the common soul begin.

Thus, even though since the times of the sin of the soul of Adam HaRishon, the forefathers and sons completed their work and attained their end of correction on the level of the First Temple, nevertheless descents followed after that, corresponding to the spiritual breakages. Both Temples were destroyed, similar to the two Partzufim in the world of Nekudim.

Now, after millennia of intermixing, we are reaching the analysis and correction—the self-realization. Precisely now, after all of the necessary “introductions,” the real work begins. The preparation is finished, and all that’s left is to correct ourselves.
[60804]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/15/11, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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