Writings of Rabash, “Steps of the Ladder,” Item 21

The Book of Zohar, Selected Excerpts — “Correction and the End of Correction,” Item 482

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 6, Part 15, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Item 200

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 4

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You help the group when you try to keep the feeling of belonging to the general connection. Someone may fall, but it is his own private fall, while at the same time, you can remain in the same state you attained in the convention.

For example, I don’t feel that I have left the convention. In the days after the convention I have only grown stronger, acquired the experience of the new level that was attained in the convention, and have thus discovered new discernments.

It is because such a state did not previously exist in our reality, in the process of correction, or in today’s world. We have actually begun the correction of the souls! Up until this very moment, everything previous to this time was just preparation. The sin (the shattering of first man), Babylon, the slavery in Egypt, the destruction of the Temples, and the exile were all necessary in order to prepare the desires for correction. Now we begin this correction!

The connection we have attained among us is the first level of correction. It isn’t clear as yet, but we are already on this level. It is like a newborn baby who doesn’t understand but who is already living in this world. I am telling you that you are already in spirituality, but now you have to discover it in practice and actually feel it.

We need to develop our senses. When a baby is born he also doesn’t see or hear anything at first. He doesn’t feel this world, and only after a while does he begin to respond to sounds and light. We also don’t respond at the moment, but we are actually in the spiritual world and now everything depends on how much we want to grow within it.

A baby has a natural instinct to grow. We don’t have it and instead of using natural instincts, we must, on our own, establish our nature and the Creator. It is only thanks to our connection that we stabilize this body by adding more and more to it.

We are constantly being given new desires and attributes and if we don’t process them correctly and don’t attribute them to the general unity, they become a burden in the form of different problems and hardships. Therefore we should try to process them in a very quick and correct manner. Otherwise, we will have to do double the work we do today that we didn’t do yesterday. Everything that wasn’t done the day before yesterday will grow and become three times more work and much more difficult to complete. If we go on this way, we will eventually give up and surrender. Then it will be necessary to start everything anew.

We have to reach a state in which we will not have to hold conventions. We will keep on ascending higher and higher even without them. If we keep the state of connection we have attained, we will not need anything. We will develop within it more and more and begin to feel one another. The daily lesson will be enough for us and we will begin to perceive it on a different level and not through the words that are transmitted through the Internet. All this is very near.
[112526]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/17/13, Writings of Rabash

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Workshop

Writings of Rabash, “Steps of the Ladder,” Item 21

The Book of Zohar, Selected Excerpts — “Spiritual Attainment,” Item 60

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 6, Part 15, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Item 200

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 3

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Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”`: With this collective responsibility, each member of the nation was liberated from worrying about the needs of his own body and could keep the Mitzva, “Love thy friend as thyself” in the fullest measure, and give all that he had to any needy person, since he no longer cared for the existence of his own body, as he knew for certain that he was surrounded by six hundred thousand loyal lovers, who were standing ready to provide for him.”

I will succeed in attaining mutual guarantee on condition that I will feel personal security. This security comes from the environment that shows me that it is concerned about me so much that it neutralizes in me any need to think about assuring my existence. So I depend upon the environment. The main thing is to find an environment that will influence me with the power of mutual guarantee, for through this they neutralize my ego and force me to forget about myself and to love others.

This means everything is found in the hands of the society that can transform me into a lover of all people, only if I want it. It is possible to take the most cruel and unruly person, and if all of us surround him with mutual guarantee, he will be forced to reach love of others.

A person depends on the environment one hundred percent. But his work is to obligate the environment to influence him with the help of the power of mutual guarantee. To the degree that he does this, to that degree he becomes sensitive to receiving the power of mutual guarantee from others and in that way he reaches love of others.

But this is a closed circle. Even the best environment will not be able to convey the power of mutual guarantee to a person if he has no sensitivity. We recognize in ourselves how much we are insensitive to external influences. In childhood our parents tried hard to influence us, but we discounted them. So from his side, a person must influence the society, and to the degree that he does this, he becomes more and more sensitive to the influence of the society.

The influence must be mutual. We cannot take ordinary people and surround them with the power of our mutual guarantee because they will become even greater egoists. We must educate them so that they will understand that this works only like this: Me– towards the society, and the society – towards me. But if the group influences me and brings me the power of mutual guarantee, then it changes me and directs me towards love of others.
[136128]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/28/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Lesson on the Topic: “Preparation for the Congress”

Writings of Rabash, “Steps of the Ladder,” Item 21

Writings of Rabash, “Steps of the Ladder,” Item 29

The Book of Zohar, Selected Excerpts — “Spiritual Attainment,” Item 155

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Sulam Commentary,” “Rosh-Toch-Sof, Peh Tabur, Sium“

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar“

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Baal HaSulam, Letter #16: …Therefore, before one goes out to make one’s daily bread, he should remove his thoughts from private Providence and say, “If I am not for me, who is for me?” He should do all the tactics applied in corporality to earn his living as do others.

But in the evening, when he returns home with his earnings, he must never think that he has earned this profit by his own novelties, but rather that even if he stayed all day in the basement of his home, he would still have earned his pay, for so the Creator contemplated for him in advance, and so it had to be.

So, why should a person make an effort for nothing if he would get everything anyway? The effort and the nuisance are required to correct the Shevira (breaking). In his perception and his destroyed Kelim, it seems to him that he indeed does the work and it depends upon his effort.

This is to say that the gap between the two principles of “If I am not for me, who is for me?” and “There is none else beside Him” is precisely the same Shevira. If we close and nullify the gap, then we would return to adhesion.

This is the meaning of the unification of HaVaYaH Elokim. HaVaYaH means private Providence, where the Creator is everything, and He does not need dwellers of material houses to help him. Elokim in Gematria is HaTeva [the Nature], where man behaves according to the nature that He instilled in the systems of the corporeal heaven and earth, and he keeps those rules as do the rest of the corporeal beings. And yet, he also believes in HaVaYaH, meaning in private Providence.

By that he unites them with one another, and “they became as one in his hand,” and thus he brings great contentment to his Maker, and brings illumination to all the worlds.

This is like a horse and its rider who adhere to each other with an inseparable connection so that the horse guesses in advance and moves according to the desire of the rider. That is how a person wants to feel, that all of his internal movements are directed by the higher power.

The person feels internal resistance from his desire, but is even happy for this resistance. This is because then he has the possibility of ascending above this resistance. If he returns himself to the same movements where he would be like a shadow to the Creator, happily and agreeably obeying His guidance, even though this is the opposite of his desire, then with this he corrects himself and gives contentment to the Creator.

The strength of his adherence is measured through this: How much are the actions of the person precisely adjusted? The actions of the person are accommodated to the Creator precisely in movement and in rhythm. In this way, the person attains the Creator and is aware of His providence and guidance throughout all of creation.
[135113]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/15/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Baal HaSulam, Letter #16: “…prior to making a Mitzva [commandment], one must not consider private Providence at all. On the contrary, one should say, ‘If I am not for me, who is for me?’”
A Mitzva is the correction of a person’s desire since in the state he is in, he is detached from the Creator.

He wants to connect this state to the Creator as the one upper force, “There is none else besides Him,” “the good and the benevolent.” Thus, he restores this state to the state he was in before the shattering.

This is how he collects these states time after time, as it is written, “until many pennies accumulate into a great sum,” and he completes the correction of his soul.

We were given 613 corrupt desires to begin with, which we try to restore to adhesion. Before we perform a Mitzva—when I understand that I am in a corrupt state because I am not in adhesion, in unity, with the upper force—I mustn’t think about private providence, but, instead, we should say, “If I am not for me, who is for me?”

…But after the fact, a person must reconsider and believe that it was not by “My power and the might of my hand” that I made the Mitzva, …

This means that I perform a Mitzva, that I exert myself as much as I can and use all the means—the Rav, the group, the study, dissemination, everything—in order to please the Creator and to tie myself to “There is none else besides Him.” At the same time, I take into account only “If I am not for me, who is for me,” and that I must take all these actions by myself.
However, having succeeded in something, I must say that this success was predetermined and ready, and that the Creator has prepared this for me in advance. If I am adhered to “If I am not for me, who is for me,” and eventually to, “There is none else besides Him,” it is the complete means to reach adhesion.
[135117]
From the 1^st> part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/15/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: When my daughter was ten years old she crossed the street before a vehicle and I felt like I wanted to die. Can you call that true love?

Answer: It is a natural instinctive feeling you didn’t work for.

Question: But I have invested in her and raised her.

Answer: Every animal does the same. One way or another, this feeling comes without a purposeful exertion on your part. Therefore it isn’t true love of others. In your perception your daughter is not another but actually part of your own body; your connection and attitude to her remains on the corporeal level, on the animate level, and has nothing to do with the human level: man (Adam).

Question: So what is the human level? Do I have to love all of humanity like my own children?

Answer: No, not like that. First you have to check to what extent you love yourself, in every detail and in every situation. Then accordingly, you have to convey this love to humanity in every detail and in every situation.

Question: To be honest, I don’t only dislike them but I actually can’t stand them, and you speak about such love…

Answer: Yes, on top of this suffering you will learn to what extent you love yourself. Comparing to them, you will learn about your self-love.

Question: Today, the opposite is true: When I heard on the news that a certain leading politician would be going to jail I rejoiced and celebrated this. It seems odd that one can be glad to hear that someone else is about to suffer in the next six or seven years. I even felt pain as a result of my mercilessness. After all, what do I care if he goes to prison and sits behind bars?

Answer: The more others suffer, the better you feel. A person always examines himself compared to those around him. If you are in a place where people receive half a kilo of bread and a liter of water a day, a simple sandwich will make you feel superior to others. Now you don’t even look at it, but in that situation it would be very precious to you. Everything is relative.

Question: Does this mean that when someone goes to jail I should really hurt as a result?

Answer: Of course.

Question: Is this the love we speak about?

Answer: Yes, you should hurt as if you have been locked behind bars.

Question: Is that possible?

Answer: If you wish to feel that, the Light will do it for you. Then you will feel that you suffer with the whole world and then you will also be able to correct the whole world. Otherwise, you won’t be able to.
[135121]
From the 5^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/16/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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The Torah has existed for thousands of years and we must understand what it represents. Basically, there is a means in our world through whose help it is possible to attain the goal of creation. But what is the goal of creation? Come, let’s clarify this.

In front of me is a universe, stars, the sun, and the moon. Under my feet is the earth and on it all of the still, vegetative, and animate nature, and humans. All of this exists. Why does this exist? Where does this come from? What is it for? For what purpose does it exist?

The Torah explains all of this to me. It is designed to inform me why and for what I live, the reasons for my existence and what the result is, where I am going. In short, the Torah can teach me about everything without leaving any space or location empty.

So how does one acquire this knowledge? How does one penetrate into this vast and wonderful wisdom that is found above our reality and extends to the spiritual worlds?

It is possible to reach this by means of defined general rules that seem to me very far from nature and its laws, like: Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Zoology, and other fields of natural science. Instead of bringing me scientific facts, they say: “And you shall love your friend as yourself.”

This is not at all clear to me. Give me precise formulas! Love is a simplistic idea. Nobody knows what to do with it; each one pulls it towards himself in whatever way he likes, and “rolls” it out from one end to the other. Ultimately, we don’t grant any seriousness, stability, or real power to this characteristic.

However, if a person undergoes suffering, things become serious; this we understand. Whereas, love lacks all power in our eyes, it lacks clarity; it doesn’t underlie the foundation of the world. And therefore it is very difficult for us to internalize the concept that is called a “great general rule of the Torah.” We cannot seriously relate to it.

But in reality, an approach that moves through love possesses greater weight and cannot be destroyed. This is an “iron rule” from which it is impossible to deviate; it requires us to pass through all of the restrictions, all of the threats, through everything, so that we will attain that concept of “And you shall love your friend as yourself.” Specifically through attaining the characteristic of love, we explore the whole world, understand it, and attain all of reality.

And so true love is different from what we imagine to ourselves; yet we have a problem with this when we relate to this concept with the utmost seriousness and begin to realize it.

Once, many years ago I was present at the funeral of a young couple that were killed in an accident right before their wedding. While reciting the Kaddish the chief Rabbi of the city, a person who understood the wisdom of Kabbalah, then said with tears in his eyes that what we lack is love, that only thanks to that can we correct all crimes and defects.

I didn’t understand him then and I thought that probably this is how it is customary to say a eulogy. And only much later, after I studied for some time, I understood what he meant. Yet all the other people related to his words the way I did in the beginning, even though there were many spiritual people there…
[135124]
From the 5^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/16/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Writings of Rabash, Letter 28

The Book of Zohar, Selected Excerpts — “Middle Line,” Item 124

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 6, Part 16, “Table of Answers for the Meaning of the Words,” Item 45

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar“

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