Question: The commandment to love your neighbor as yourself is known around the world. Then, how is its original interpretation different from the conventional one?

Answer: It’s all about the difference between Abraham and Babylon. In Babylon, it was accepted to keep the uncorrected egoism and, at the same time, shout about love. On the other hand, the method of Abraham, that is, the property of mercy (Hassadim), is self-correction on the path to bestowal where the other becomes more important than yourself.

This can be achieved only through group work based on and constructed by Abraham. At the time, having gathered people, he began to teach them self-denial, self-nullification, and unity to the point of love for the other as for oneself. One must carry out this work precisely in the group where we build our environment on practice.

So, I do not see people engaged in this anywhere else. In recent generations, no one except Baal HaSulam, and Rabash in particular, wrote about the decisive need for unity and mutual guarantee.

Do various religions and beliefs, circles and organizations that preach love for the other facilitate the correction of egoism or do they just implant these or those collective attributes? For example, Nazi Germany also united people.

So, the question is the kind of unity we are talking about.

We have a methodology that enables a person to become united with others, to give himself to the environment in order to reveal mutual bestowal and love for the sake of all of humanity—not just some part of it that shields itself by fascist or protectionist methods—and ultimately, to achieve an absolute, abstract form of bestowal and love, in other words, to bring contentment to the Creator.

You can find a huge amount of material online about love for the other. Everyone talks about it, without mentioning Israel and Abraham, as if it is his personal invention or the property of his religion. When egoism covers the eyes, people do not understand the depth of the question, do not know the history, and claim that they know the ultimate truth. There is nothing you can do about it.

On our side, we already are based on the method of Abraham. He discovered love for the other as for oneself and, having exited Babylon, adopted this methodology. Then, Moses developed it by means of unity at Mount Sinai and so on. In general, we are talking about the task of the people of Israel, about its foundation. It was originally formed on this base. If there were no foundation, there would have been no nation.

All other nations came into being naturally, but Israel is “not a people” in this sense. It is not among other nations because its foundation is bestowal, love for the other as for oneself, separated from the reality of our world. Israel is the people connected to each other by the desire to find between themselves bestowal and love, and to rise in this love above their egoistic desire. There is no nation of Israel without this foundation. In other words, it cannot be called “a people” while it is in exile from the spiritual world.

The Jews in Egypt were not a nation until they came out of slavery and accepted the means that allowed them to live as one man with one heart, in common mutual guarantee. Only then did they become a people. Today, they are again not a people but a gathering of exiles.

It is no coincidence that throughout history Jews were so concerned about education. We also want to establish the method of integral education in our midst and then pass it to the entire nation and the entire world. There is only one reason: It does not exist without the nation.

The very concepts of “people,” “country,” and “society” among the Jews followed education. Before Abraham educated—taught those who escaped with him from Babylon—they were not a people. After all, it is necessary to have “glue” that will connect people into one; otherwise they are strangers to each other. It is the education on the principle of love for the other as for oneself that brings them together into a unified group or a unified nation. Of course, it is a unique people, different from all the others. They are united according to the conditions of our world, and in order to unite, Israel must accept the terms of the spiritual world.

This is the origin of its complete oppositeness to the rest of the world in terms of education and the essence of love for the other. If others are willing to distribute this principle to their nations, Israel cannot be limited to itself because this is not love as it should be. We must initially be aware of the goal of creation and carry it to the world. Otherwise, instead of love, there will be “people’s ego,” “national ego,” or, as it is called today, “national pride,” which is nonsense. Israel can have nothing like this. It must limit its ego and connect spiritual, higher values to it instead of boasting its differences in the matters of this world.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/3/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: What does it mean to use the teacher in order to connect with the upper level?

Answer: To use the teacher means to follow the teacher’s recommendations and commandments. The teacher recommends that the student should work on his connection with the friends and engage in the dissemination of this method, of integral education—this includes working on preparing the material and disseminating it—and a person’s incorporation in the group. But he should do all that thinking that by this he brings his teacher contentment.

It’s a very simple system. There is my group of ten and we have to be impressed by one another in order to connect together to a higher level, which is called a teacher, Rav (Rav stands for one who is greater, which means an upper level). We want to overcome and to fulfill the gap between our level and his, which means to ascend.

But how can I ascend if I am repulsed by the upper level? I have to see it as grace, as extremely attractive, and so I have to be impressed by the friends as for the greatness of the upper level. If I can imagine by myself that this level is great and that it contains everything that is good, then I probably don’t think about it correctly, but quite the opposite.

This is called using the teacher’s body, which provides external help which you are sure is his desire. The teacher says what and how we should do it: how to study, how to connect, how to disseminate the method, and according to which criteria we should exist.

Question: How can we check that we are already in contact with the teacher?

Answer: You can only check this when you have the recognition on the level of the teacher.
[109270]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/05/13,  Writings of  Baal HaSulam, “A Speech for the Completion of The  Zohar”

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Preparation to the Lesson

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Writings of Rabash, “Igrot,” Letter 16

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The Book of Zohar — Introduction, “The Vision of Rabbi Chiya,” “You Are Partners with Me,” Item 68, Lesson 29

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 3, Part 10, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Item 19, Lesson 56

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Writings of Baal HaSulam “Peace in the World,” Lesson 2

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Question: How can we acquire the integral approach with regard to the whole world to all of reality?

Answer: Imagine that you tell someone about your work place, about the place where you live, and about the world in general. You are not required to make any special efforts since it’s your life, and you feel that the world is yours. You “breathe” it and so you can wander around in this inner picture mentally and describe it in words.

We should also see the inner picture of the integral world in which we discern all the details and the connection between them. The same rules operate here too. There are states in which I can follow the general connection between certain phenomena, but the details of the mutual cooperation are still unclear since I have not yet entered this area. I see certain parts in general lines and they are relatively understood, but when it comes to individual parts, there are problems and I am not sure about what is going on.

This is the process in which I gradually penetrate more deeply and discover more subtleties. It’s as if I fly in a spaceship towards earth or check the scale of a map on the Internet until I “land” in a certain part.

But there are also exceptions: In our world we see bigger areas but fewer details, and when we get closer, we see more details but a smaller area. In spirituality, however, it’s not so, there both the characteristics of quantity and of quality of the picture of the world gradually increase. I encompass the whole system at the same time including its separate attributes; it’s because in this system every detail includes all the other details.

By this wonderful spiritual “patent” I see the general picture and each of its details as one, exactly the same.

Question: How can I become more integral? How can I increase the sensitivity of this perception in me?

Answer: Ask for it. There is no other means. No matter what you do, add a request to it that is as clear as possible and you will see how it works.
[109190]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/05/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Rabash,” According to What is Explained Concerning: “Love Thy Friend as Thyself”: If everyone is nullified before his friend and mingles with him, they become one mass where all the little parts that want the love of others unite in a collective force that consists of many parts. And when one has great strength, he can execute the love of others.

And then he can achieve the love of God. But the condition is that each will annul before the other. However, when he is separated from his friend, he cannot receive the share he should receive from his friend.

Thus, everyone should say that he is nothing compared to his friend. It is like writing numbers: If you first write “1” and then “0,” it is ten times more. And when you write “00” it is a hundred times more. In other words, if his friend is number one, and the zero follows it, it is considered that one receives from his friend ten (10) times more. And if he says that he is double zero compared to his friend, he receives from his friend a hundred (100) times more.

However, if it is to the contrary, and he says that his friend is zero and he is one, then he is ten times less than his friend 0.1. And if he can say that he is one and he has two friends who are both zeros compared to him, then he is considered a hundred times less than them, meaning he is 0.01. Thus, his degree lessens according to the number of zeros he has from his friends.

If I want to receive something from someone in our world, I have to pay for it in return or to take it by force like the big takes from the small. In this case the bigger I am, the more I can extort the other and receive more from him. That’s the way it is in the corporeal world, when we speak about receiving in the desire to receive.

But if it’s about receiving spiritual powers, it works according to an opposite law. The more important I consider my friend and the greater I see the friend, the more I can receive from him.

I cannot receive anything from someone who is equal to me since he is on the same level as I am. But if he is even a little bit higher than me, I can already receive something from him, and the more I raise him the more I can receive.

It has nothing to do with the friend himself but only with how I treat him with regard to me. It’s just like the students of Rabbi Yossi Ben Kisma who had no idea how their teacher worked with regard to them. He saw himself as relatively smaller than his students and so he received spiritual powers through them.

Everything depends on how great your friend is in your eyes. The greater he is, the more I can receive the force of bestowal from him. But if it’s about receiving egoistic powers, then it’s about a different principle according to which the greater I am the more I can extort the other in order to fill my ego.

So the spiritual power you will receive from the environment is only up to you whether it’s 1000 or 0.001. We have to be in a group of ten that is working on connection and in which each one is somehow connected to the desire to bestow like the students of Rabbi Yossi Ben Kisma. But this is enough since everything else depends on you and the extent to which you subdue yourself!

You will never have the power to advance if you don’t receive powers from the environment. So the rule of subduing yourself before the friends, even by physical actions is the most efficient means to advance. We mustn’t think that Kabbalists tell us about this only to establish good relations the way we teach kids in our world to behave morally since this approach is opposite from the wisdom of Kabbalah.

We do this only in order to receive the force of bestowal from the Light, from the Creator, through others. Since I subdue myself, the Light can flow into me through the friend. If I treat others as if they are really greater than I am, I will receive the power of bestowal through them. It’s enough to treat them with the intention of in order to bestow and in the relations between us I will begin to feel the Creator and will be able to bring Him contentment. Through the bestowal upon the friends, I will be able to feel how I can reach bestowal upon the Creator. He will be revealed to me through the image of the group that I will see in the Light of my bestowal. Thus the rule “love thy friend as thyself” is the main goal of our work, which is a constant feeling of humility towards the friends, and accordingly we build up the powers of bestowal.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/24/13, Writings of Rabash

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Baal HaSulam, “The Love of the Creator and the Love for the Created Beings”: We should not be mistaken with deeds, for they are set before one’s eyes. We know that if we precede the needs of our own, it is bestowal. For that reason Hillel does not define the goal as “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might,” because they are indeed one and the same thing.

It is so because one should also love one’s friend with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, because that is the meaning of the words “as thyself.” After all, one certainly loves oneself with all one’s heart and soul and might, but with regards to the Creator, one may deceive oneself; and with one’s friend it is always spread out before his eyes.

We were given great help and a valuable chance to make the transition from the desire to receive to the desire to bestow in this world, meaning a state where we constantly see the corporeal reality, the corporeal desire to receive and all the boundaries that it depicts for us. Instead of the attempts to work with an attribute that is detached from us, which is the desire to bestow, we can work with what we actually discover, with what we can attain and feel, which is how another fellow being seems to us.

In other words, the spiritual world that is concealed from me appears before me in a corporeal form, and I am in contact with it. This allows me to change my attitude toward what I see and feel by mutually cooperating with the other. Together, we can reach such corrections so that through the corporeal world, in its depth, I will find the spiritual world.

Eventually, the attitude toward others and the attitude toward the Creator are the same thing, although if seems that these are two different things, they are actually the same thing. The more we discover spirituality, the more we see that it is totally “dressed” in corporeality.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/03/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Preparation to the Lesson

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Writings of Rabash, “Shlavei HaSulam,” “Concerning the Importance of Society”

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The Book of Zohar — Introduction, “The Vision of Rabbi Chiya,” “You Are Partners with Me,” Item 63, Lesson 28

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 3, Part 10, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Item 18, Lesson 55

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Rabash, “Come unto Pharaoh – 2”: For this reason, we mustn’t underestimate the importance of the work in love of friends, for by that he will learn how to exit self-love and enter the path of love of others. And when he completes the work of love of friends, he will be able to be rewarded with love of the Creator.

We should know that there is a virtue to love of friends: one cannot deceive himself and say that he loves the friends, if in fact he doesn’t love them. Here he can examine whether he truly has love of friends or not. But with love of the Creator, one cannot examine oneself as to whether his intention is the love of the Creator, meaning that he wants to bestow upon the Creator, or his desire is to receive in order to receive.

You need to train yourself to evaluate the success of your spiritual advancement by how much you think it depends on the relationship with the environment. The environment is not just a means of our advancement towards the Creator, but precisely inside it, within our unified homogenous connection with each other, completely as equals, we will find the Creator.

If our entire attention is directed at the center of unification, we begin to understand that this environment is Shechina, Malchut of the world of Atzilut, the central point of creation, in which our advancement, spiritual birth, and growth must be realized. The entire spiritual life is perceived only in the center of the group. And depending upon how powerful the unification is that we are able to achieve, both in quantity and quality, by this we measure our ascent on the spiritual ladder and correct the whole of reality from the point of our soul.

All the work is in preparation so with the help of the Reforming Light we bring ourselves to the feeling that we fully depend on and get life only from the point of our connection with each other, which is the center of the entire universe. This is the point that we discover as “the eye of the needle,” and the common force of bestowal and love that is the Creator is revealed in it.

We become the helpers, friends of the Shechina and the Shochen; the Creator is revealed. Everything is only there. The main thing is to understand that all the accidents and troubles are caused by a lack of correct connection between us and to concentrate all our responses and efforts on strengthening our connection in this central point. When a person binds himself to the environment in this way, this connection becomes more sensitive, energetic, and unconditional; he already begins to advance correctly towards the revelation of Shechina, becoming its inseparable part.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/6/13

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Our every action must be directed toward the final correction. Otherwise, this action is imperfect. We always seek the end and on this basis consider all the states.

In his time, Abraham sent envoys to eastern countries. The forefathers had to deal with Hagar and Ishmael (representing the right line), with Esau (representing the left line), and with Laban and other characters (symbolizing various properties). All this was necessary to introduce specific details of perception that will be manifested at the end of the generations. The wars with Amalek, with the nations who lived in the land of Israel, were not limited by that “place,”—that is, part of the desire—above which it was necessary to rise and overcome at that time. No, everything was initially aimed at the final correction. All the efforts are gradually accumulated and added to the overall total.

The forefathers realized the necessary preparations to receive the Torah, and then the preparation continued by the way of correction of the people of Israel, with the same intention, to be ready to correct the world.

There are more calculations it seems. All the stages through which Israel has gone are caused not only by the needs of its development, but also by its purpose: to become the means of correction for the world. These people received the Torah not only to correct themselves, but also to be ready to help the world later.

Baal HaSulam writes about this in his articles, “The Giving of the Torah” and “The Mutual Guarantee.” Everything is interconnected and the end of action is inherent in the original plan, and that is why we must keep the course at Infinity (Ein Sof).

After all, at every rung of the spiritual ladder, at an increasingly higher resolution with higher definition, we attain the world of Infinity, a round, integral, analog system in which everything is interconnected. Be it a fetus in the mother’s womb, an infant, a child, or adult, we always are talking about a perfect system that has all the necessary parts. It’s only that some of them are incorporated in the potential for further development, while others already have been formed.

It does not really matter what is before us, a “spiritual gene” (Reshimo) in which the world is hidden or the entire world itself. They are one and the same. It’s just that first we attain the Reshimo, and then it opens in our perception.

So, the system is always perfect. It is the same Infinity. It only is revealed depending on the one who attains it. That is why in wanting to attain spirituality, I must imagine it completely corrected. Otherwise, I do not reach it through my desire, I do not intend bestowal.

The calculation is as follows: In the corrected state, I bestow upon the Creator. For this, I must prepare the receiving vessels, that is, the “nations of the world.” For this, I must prepare myself in order to be connected with them. Thus, stretching the thread from the end to the beginning, I proceed to any action.

Conversely, if in my every action I do not intend the correction of the world in order to bring it to the Creator, if I forget that He is revealed and enjoys precisely in the desire of the world, if I do not pervade my actions fully with bestowal, then I do nothing. Then I am like a plug that obstructs the path for everyone and represent the forces of impurity.

With every step, we must create this mental picture, this calculation, constantly adding to it and expanding it. At first, I calculate to benefit myself, then my family, then my city, then my country, and, in the end, all of humanity. As Baal HaSulam writes, today we are all one family. So, could I isolate myself from the world? In that case, I am not going toward bestowal.

So, every time, to the extent of my strength, I need to imagine the entire chain to the end. That is enough to become similar to the Light and draw it for correction.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/4/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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We must yearn to actually see the friend as the greatest in our generation, to actually feel it “within reason” as if it were the truth and not as it seems to a person’s desire to receive. The desire to receive always wants to feel good and comfortable and so it instinctively diminishes everything around it so as to be “on top.” The most important thing for it is to rule.

So accepting the thought about the need to connect with the friends as a means for reaching connection with the Creator is only possible in “faith above reason” since we certainly don’t see things as they really are. It’s only according to this minor external condition—that a person yearns for the same goal and is ready to accept all the necessary conditions to advance towards it—that we begin to relate to the other as a friend as a means of connecting to the Creator.

According to these external signs, we decide to start working on our attitude towards that person. If he is ready to work together we dismiss all the other demands of our ego and we get closer to that person and connect with him in order to actually discover the connection between us, not only in “faith above reason.”

To the extent that we actually communicate, we approach the building of the spiritual vessel in which the Creator is revealed. The connection can be “‘above reason” when I don’t see that the friend is “worth it,” but I still connect to him. I use it as a means, which is called the time of preparation when I respect the friends not because I see that they are great. According to my senses I feel that I am greater than them, but I work above my senses and don’t agree with them and imagine that the friends are greater.

In order to transcend from a state of “faith above reason” to the state of “within reason,” which means to truly respect the friends, I have to correct the vessels, my perception. The correction of the vessels is when we begin to work on the connection between us, despite the fact that we know the opposite. We establish a society in which everyone impresses the others with the feeling of the greatness of the group and the goal.

By working together, we draw the Light that Reforms, and eventually we move from “faith above reason to “within reason,” and thus we continue to rise. The next levels are more difficult, of course. First the friends seemed quite average, having some good sides and some bad sides. When I had to work “above reason,” I could easily do it and accept them as equal, as partners along the spiritual path and even as the greatest in our generation. Their goal seemed important, and they seemed great.

But then came the hardening of the heart and I began to see different flaws in them, it became difficult to accept them as great and to see the Creator behind them, to warm myself by the fact that I don’t pay attention to anyone except the friends who become the most precious of all for me. Thus, each time becomes more difficult until I manage to overcome these interruptions and fill my measure.

Then all my efforts of working “above reason” turn to “within reason” and become the right vessel in which the first revelation of the attribute of bestowal takes place, which means that a person is filled with the feeling of the Creator inside him. Thus “faith above reason” is a gradual process, as we ascend from one level to the next, but when we build our vessel we have to yearn to have it within reason as much as we can.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 06/03/13, Writings of Rabash

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