Question: How do you develop the sense for feeling others?

Answer: The sense for feeling others develops by our attempts and efforts force ourselves to bow before the right environment and to attach the external environment to it so that they will connect, and I will serve them. By my good and benevolent attitude towards them, I discover the Creator according to the law of equivalence of form.

The more I try to do good to the environment, the more I will discover the Creator, because He is good and benevolent to the wicked and to the good. So I also need to try to treat everyone that way.

The wicked are those who try to be good but at the moment are dominated by evil. By discovering my attitude towards them in different ways, I discover the Creator and to what extent I have to adjust myself to Him.

The examination and the clarification are only possible with regard to the environment. There is no other place I can meet the Creator, to see Him and to measure in what way I am different from Him. His form is revealed in the general public or in the group, that is, in the environment, in the world, so the world (Olam) is the concealment (Alam – which has the same root in Hebrew) of the Creator.

To the extent that I try to treat the world better and accordingly change myself, I discover the Creator there. There is no other place I can feel Him, since He has no form. By changing myself, I begin to treat the world differently, which means in a better way, and then accordingly I begin to discover that the world is the Shechina where He, the Creator, dwells (Shochen).
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/26/14

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Question: What does it mean to be responsible for everyone else?

Answer: There are simple formulas in which all parameters and the relationships between them are known and there is only one unknown, for example: x + 3 = 5.

In that case it is easy to calculate the unknown: x = 5 – 3 = 2.

But how can we solve an equation in which there are two unknowns y + x = 5? We need another equation, but we don’t have one. I get such a result at the output of a certain system and I have to know how it works, with what parameters. It can be whatever you want 4 + 1, 1 + 4, positive parameters or negative ones, but the final result is 5, and I cannot determine them.

This is the result we come out with. We have a group in which there are seven billion people and there should be harmony among them, perfect unity, which means 1.

How can we reach that? I can only say that this one depends on me and all the other seven billion are in a fixed state. I am the only one who changes; I am not constant. I am responsible, I am independent, I work for everyone, and the whole world is inside me.

I determine the general state for everyone and am responsible for it to the extent that I can take upon myself the responsibility for the whole world. I am independent and can tilt the scale for better or for worse.
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From the 5^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/27/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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The feeling of the external world was given to us on purpose in order to develop the sense of knowing others. I can use others egoistically by bringing them closer to me or distancing them depending on their benefit to me. I can also use others not according to my own benefit but according to their benefit and thus change myself and use myself.

One time the friend is important to me and I change everything inside me that needs to be changed in order to make him feel better, and another time I am important and I bend the friend in my direction in my own benefit.

The struggle is actually between these two perceptions: who is more important and who determines everything. This struggle is very important to me because it helps me understand what I lack in order to build the sense for knowing others.

The others are in fact the Creator, and this whole picture—this world and the upper worlds, which are seemingly external to me—are only tools to discover the Creator. At first we don’t have such tools but only their initial form, the point in the heart. However, by working in the group, with the friends, in dissemination, in the larger world, I build this sense.

One time I imagine that everything is inside me and that all these parts are depicted as external to me, and that it is my illusion. If I step through this perception, I correct it and begin to establish the sense of bestowal, the sense of feeling others.

And again, I imagine that there is “I” and there is “they” who are external to me. My egoistic desire grows and lets me know that I have to take care of myself at their expense. This means that I have to remain constant and the others change for my own benefit.

I imagine things this way, and at another time, I imagine them another way, and thus I determine my ascents and descents and I develop additional senses. When it begins to work, it is called Shechina, a sense by which I perceive the one who dwells (Shochen, which has the same root in Hebrew), the Creator. I reveal Him as this sense develops, and I feel and understand Him.

Therefore, the most important engagement in this world, which is the reason that we are on this planet, is to develop the sense of recognizing the good and the evil during our lifetime, to duplicate and to improve it, and by it, to attain the sense of recognizing the Creator.

All this is attained by working with the public according by which I can accurately measure how far I have advanced towards this goal, towards the development of the vessels, the senses for the revelation of the Creator, which means to the revelation of the attribute of love and bestowal. To the extent that the group and all the world that is external to me become more important to me than myself, so that I see them as constant and myself as changing with regards to them, I can estimate and measure my advancement.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/26/14

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Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut” (Mutual Guarantee), Item 18: Therefore, the Tana (Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai) described the Arvut as two people in a boat, when one of them began to drill a hole in the boat. This means that they are already connected and are in one vessel, in a boat, which is already a spiritual level of connection, but still there is a problem, a malfunction in their connection.

“His friend asked, “Why are you drilling?” He replied, “What business is it of yours? I am drilling under me, not under you.”

If he had understood and felt that he is in a collective vessel, then everything would have been fine. And yet once he was  attracted to it and he had built the collective boat with everyone, but now an additional evil inclination has been revealed in him and he doesn’t feel that he is in one vessel and that he is connected to the others. He thinks that he is by himself and doesn’t care what the others do. It is as if he is on a day off, free of the whole business of mutual guarantee. This happens to each and everyone.

So he replied, “Fool! We will both drown together!” He doesn’t just leave the group, but also drowns it since he is also incorporated in the connection.

From this we learn that since those rebels wallow in self-love, by their actions they build an iron wall that prevents the observers of the Torah from even beginning to fully keep the Torah and Mitzvot in the measure of “Love thy friend as thyself,” which is the ladder for reaching Dvekut (adhesion) with Him.

Since we are all incorporated in one another and depend on one another, then of course if someone leaves, he corrupts the whole structure. We cannot glue a patch on the side of the boat instead of him. After all, he is connected to everyone and is incorporated with everyone. Therefore, it is a great problem if someone leaves or even if he is temporarily not connected to the group.

He is severely punished for the harm he has caused to all the friends that he has left, for each and everyone. One should be very careful about the general incorporation.

If you come to the lesson and you sleep, it means that you don’t add your intentions. This isn’t a serious transgression as yet, and it does happen sometimes. However, there are much more serious transgressions.
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From the 5^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/02/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: It turns out that I depend upon everyone and anyone can make a hole in our common boat? This is a serious problem!

Answer: What did you think? This is called mutual guarantee. You sign guarantees for everyone and everyone signs for you, all of those who are in mutual guarantee.

You make a hole, and then correct it. After that, you make a hole again and repair it again. This is our work in strengthening and maintaing the boat.

Since our boat is at sea, water enters into it through some openings, or the waves are high and they enter over the sides of the boat. And we must work constantly to get this water out. All of this happens with any ship. Even though it seems that the ship is quite tight, there is always seepage of water through some openings in the body of the ship.

Question: What does it mean that I fall into narcissism throughout the day? How am I making a hole in the boat?

Answer: You simply forget about your mutual connection with the friends, you stop being concerned about it, scrutinizing and praying for it, meaning for the friends. You don’t yourself exist; you are a result of what happens with them. This is called guarantee.
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From the 5^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/2/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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“Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Article “The Night of the Bride,” Item 132: When this happened to King David, fear enveloped him. Right then, Duma ascended before the Creator, and said: “Master of the world, it says in the Torah (VaYikra, 20:10): ‘And the man that commits adultery with another man’s wife…’ David broke his covenant, is it not so?” The Creator replied to him: “David is righteous, and his holy covenant remains pure, for it is known to Me that Bat Sheva was destined for him since the creation of the world.

You are not allowed to bring death upon him….” Then Duma immediately gave up his complaints, and returned, despondent, to his place.”

Question: Why did the angel Duma want King David to die so much that he “returned, despondent, to his place” when this was unsuccessful?

Answer: Duma only helps in making clarifications. He is an angel of the Creator, he is a spiritual force.

It is written that Duma “returned, despondent, to his place” because a Klipa (shell) must also grow to be in balance with Kedusha (sanctity). Otherwise we won’t have free choice or the power of clarification. How can I clarify something if facing me is nothing that opposes me, not even someone who is as wise and strong as I am and who has nothing against me?

Duma acts against Uriah and not against David. While thanks to both of them, David clarifies his true state.

Everything that Kedusha receives, Klipa can suck and extract from it afterward. The benefit here is enormous. Thanks to this, we clarify more and more new Shevirot (shatterings). So we are compelled to perform transgressions thanks to which the Kli, vessel, the desire, is revealed to a greater depth, greater density.

This is somewhat like a well full of water. This water is Ohr Hassidim (Light of Mercy), Hesed (mercy), and the well is the Kli, the desire. As long as the desire is full of Hassadim, we don’t see it.

But when we err, we are performing a transgression and the Hassadim disappear, meaning that the water leaks out of the well, and then we see its walls. And it turns out that there are still other cracks through which we are drawn to a greater depth. The water streams even further away and you sink more deeply into desire and that is how the Kli is discovered and that is how you become familiar with it.

It is impossible to investigate the Kli while it is full of Hassadim. For Hassadim is Hesed, mercy. So the entire desire is full of Hassadim and everything is wonderful. The Hassadim cover everything like the water and don’t make it possible to carry out clarifications. Even love can be blind.

So transgressions specifically help in examining our desires. We see this in particular in regard to the wanderings of the people of Israel in the desert where they committed transgressions every step of the way. They hauled these transgressions from Egypt because they took the Egyptian vessels from there.

If your sack is full of silver and gold vessels, then you discover one vessel after another, another bad desire, and yet another. The discovery of an egoistic desire is called a transgression, yet then it becomes possible to correct it.

So the angel Duma carries out very good and great work by revealing the desires. We need to understand that “there is no cruelty in the palace of the king”; rather, all help and support each another. Yet without the understanding of Kabbalah it is impossible to understand this story that happened with King David, who seems like a criminal since he murdered a husband in order to take possession of the man’s wife.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/28/14, The Zohar

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“Introduction to The Book of Zohar, “Night of the Bride,” Item 131: And so it says, ‘And several myriads of angels of destruction are with him. And he (the angel Domeh) stands by the door of Gehinnom. This is because the thoughts that he brings to a person are several myriad without end. And all of these are by the door of Gehinnom.’

Question: What types of desires are called “angels of destruction”?

Answer: The angels of destruction are the desires that remove me from the environment. After all, I have no other work. The choice of the person, all of his work, is only to arrange an environment and invest as much as possible in it so that the environment will help him to give contentment to the Creator. This is mutual work and is expressed in his praying for the friends so that they will be able to give contentment to the Creator through his efforts.

This means that a closed system is created. The prayer is from him and the Kelim (vessels) are theirs. This puts him in a position where he is greater than they are since he is responsible for them, their “father and mother.” So he reaches repentance first, for this truly raises him to the level of Abba ve Ima (AVI) (father and mother ) in regard to ZON (which is the Kli, vessel, the deficiency of the others, of the environment).

And this is how each one must act: In his deficiency in regard to others, he should feel himself as small, like a mother who bows down towards her baby to feel what he is lacking. Her deficiency must be greater so that she will be able to feel his particular deficiency in her general deficiency. She must then be greater in order to bestow to him. This is how we work.

From here it follows that we don’t have anything more important than work with the collective, with the public.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/27/14, The Zohar

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In our time, other than the Kabbalists, nobody remembers the principle that once proclaimed the essential rule of the Torah, “And you shall love your friend as yourself.” Among the people of Israel, this principle disappeared in the days of the destruction of the second Beit HaMikdash (temple), which is in fact the destruction of this principle.

Going into exile means departing from the general rule of, “And you shall love your friend as yourself” to indifference and even unfounded hatred. But in our day, when we come to the period of correction, all those who belong to the descendants of Israel must return to it again along with all the others who feel within them an inclination towards correction of the world. This is a sign that spiritual Reshimot (genes) have already been clarified in them.

In ancient Babylon they appeared in only a small portion of the Babylonians, five thousand people out of three million. But today these Reshimot are awakened and clarified more and more.

For both these and the others, both Israel and the nations of the world, have become mixed together since then. They have developed and become perfected, and by passing through many different states, they have reached the recognition of evil and also some of the recognition of good. So today they are ready for correction.

Now in our state, that inclination, that Shevirah (breaking), that once was only in Babylon is appearing. Only toda.has Babylon spread over all of humanity. We need to pass through correction, and it is specifically Israel that must begin it.

So in the Book of Zohar it is written, “Happy are Israel among all the nations of the world.” This is because someone who receives an awakening has a wonderful opportunity to give contentment to the Creator. While for others who are not with this inclination, it will eventually come to them also.

The uniqueness of the people of Israel is that first they must begin the correction. They accept upon themselves the most difficult work, but they are happy about it and thank the Creator for having chosen them for the difficult task of being pioneers and going forward with correction of the world.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/29/14

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Preparation for the Lesson

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Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Mutual Guarantee”

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Question: How can I connect in thought with the friends when reading The Book of Zohar if I don’t feel their thoughts and emotions but only feel myself?

Answer: We need to try to do this, and, as a result of our persistence, Kelim (vessels) gradually will begin to be arranged in us. There is nothing else to be done. Everyone begins from a lack of feeling, and the feelings come through habit.

It is as if you come to a new workplace and they ask you to do something. However, you have never have done this, and you don’t have any skills. So, you try doing it one way or another, and gather experience. Through repeating the same work again and again, suddenly, a new intelligence and new emotions come to you. You begin to feel the material, that your human observations and scrutinies are relevant to the still, vegetative, animate, and human.

This is derived from your connection. Everything that you see in this great world is a part of your soul; it only seems to be external. So, you receive impressions from them.

It is like an artist or a professional who talks about the material with which he works as if it were a living being. He incorporates this material into himself and attributes all of his characteristics to it.

So, I begin to think more and more about the group, about the friends. It is not important if they are far from me and not next to me. However, through permanent and constant thoughts about them, I sharpen and develop my senses.

This is a law of nature. In our world, there is no other possible way to advance besides returning to these thoughts time after time. This is the difference between someone who learns after 100 times or after 101 times.

This does not mean that I must learn an article by heart. Rather, the investment in learning brings a new feeling.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/30/14, The Zohar

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