All of Israel became responsible for one another. Because the Torah was not given to them before each and every one from Israel was asked if he agreed to take upon himself the Mitzva [commandment] of loving others in the full measure expressed in the words “Love your friend as yourself” [Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut” (Mutual Guarantee)].

First, there is no such nation as the people of Israel. They came into being out of people who wanted to rise above their egoism because they realized it was impossible to exist within it. That happened in ancient Babylon 3,500 years ago. People understood that if they continued to act egoistically, they would destroy themselves and each other. There was great turmoil, mutual hatred flared up, and the inhabitants of Babylon did not know what to do next.

Therefore, Abraham, the son of the high priest Terach, saw problems, internal strife, and various conflicts among the people, and began to study this phenomenon. He realized that it stemmed from the growth of egoism in each person and that the only solution was to rise above the ego and somehow balance it.

Abraham began to preach this idea among the ancient Babylonians and urged them to unite and rise above egoism to achieve proper mutual understanding, to stop killing each other, and to bring themselves to a normal state.

His father Terach also supported this, but the Babylonian king Nimrod was against it. Nimrod thought that he would lose his power because when people become closer to each other, less aggressive, and kinder, they generally do not care about authority. However, if they become hostile toward each other, a king can intervene and control them.

Therefore, Abraham had no choice but to call upon all those who agreed with his idea of unification and lead them out of Babylon to the so-called land of Canaan. Today, this is the State of Israel. Thus, they came to be called the people of Israel (Yisra-El) from the phrase “straight to the Creator” (Yashar El).
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/18/20, “The Arvut [Mutual Guarantee]”

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If the total ruin that they are destined to bring upon the world is still not evident to the world, they can wait for a third world war, or a fourth one. The bombs will do their thing (Baal HaSulam, The Writings of the Last Generation).

Question: The current situation in the world is such that Baal HaSulam’s words about third and fourth World Wars sound especially relevant. What should people hear every day to move away from this state?

Answer: In the words of Baal HaSulam, people should see precise instructions for the desired actions that will reveal the secret of creation to them, and then everything will be settled. We are working in this direction.

Question: Baal HaSulam writes that everyone should take only what is necessary for existence, and direct the rest of their efforts to benefit their neighbor and the Creator. How can those who want to use nuclear weapons today suddenly change and begin to take care of the welfare of their neighbor?

Answer: This will come to a person from above, “they will turn their swords into plowshares.” All this will come, but not in the way we think. The Creator will put other thoughts into a person’s head, and people will start acting that way. So much so that if you tell the person, “You thought differently yesterday,” they will not believe you.

Question: What kind of understanding should be conveyed to the public every day?

Answer: After consulting each other, we must test our conclusions on some group and then bring this knowledge to the world so that people do not reject what we present to them.

We must give them an understanding that our evil nature, egoism, pushes us away from each other and is the cause of all our suffering. That is the first one.

Second, we cannot correct egoism through any political, economic, or other decisions, but only with the help of our connection and the desire to reveal this point within ourselves that unites everyone with the others.

In this form, we will begin to get closer to each other, and to this extent, we will feel how drawing closer saves us and lifts us above all nature.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/18/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Writings of the Last Generation”

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Question: You wrote in your blog that the Coronavirus is nothing yet. There are more serious viruses in store for us, next-generation viruses that will affect our psyche, psychology, and bring chaos to the world.

Why? Won’t our work somewhat affect the positive outcome of events? Or are there things in the world that cannot be stopped in any way? We still keep moving forward, and you said that in the near future, at least one ten will break into spirituality.

Answer: If one ten breaks through—all of them will break through. This is first of all.

Secondly, we will, of course, be able to convert all future viruses into positive ones, and I am sure we will do this.

But we must understand that humanity’s development is the development of egoism. It goes on and sometimes gives positive results. However, all the positive results have run out, and there are only negative results in store for us. No matter how wonderful science or technology is, we no longer expect anything good from technological progress; humanity has finished this path.

Now it’s up to us. Therefore, Baal HaSulam writes that we are in the last generation, that is, in the generation when egoism has reached such a state that it must be corrected. That is what we are doing.

I do not think that we will be able to completely stop viruses because humanity still needs a “whip” to push them, to somehow make them aware of the insignificance of their nature and state and the need to do something.

It must be understood that suffering itself, no matter how unpleasant it may be, purifies a person. This is an undesirable path, but when it happens, it is still a cleansing. It causes one to awaken and start thinking about what he should do.

That is, suffering is useful, only it should not be physical, but the suffering of love when I have a feeling that I can achieve a connection with the Creator, but for some reason, I have not yet achieved it. Such a suffering of love is very useful. Let us try to have only this suffering.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/19/20, “Preparation for the Convention”

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Question: How do we find that point where we can interact among ourselves on the level of desires and aspiration toward the Creator rather than on the level of bodies and characters?

Answer: We do not speak at all about the animal body. It has no relation to spiritual work because it belongs to the level of our world. We do not speak about our characters because the Creator assembles us. This is His “problem.” He created us with these characters and gathered us together just the way we are, so that we understand that we can unite only with His help.

Moreover, He gathers very difficult people: nervous, angry, nit-picking ones that are inclined to criticize. Kabbalists in all times were the most dreadful people, the biggest egoists. Otherwise they would not demand knowledge of the meaning of life, its cause, its source. For this, a great egoistic desire is necessary.

These are people who cannot think about anyone but themselves. Not that they are rude or cruel, no. That is just how they are inside. And it is they who begin to reveal that they cannot unite but must do so.

Here arises a dilemma that humanity faces. If we do not unite, then eventually we will come to destruction. Look at what is happening today, what frictions between everyone, what calculations. Horror! So many sources of all sorts of conflicts!

The Creator deliberately awakens this among us so that we understand that there can be nothing better than unity. But we cannot unite. We do not even think about it because we understand that it is pointless, that every state cares only about itself. Moreover, within each state there are dozens of currents, parties, that tear it apart. Human society is tearing itself apart from within by its egoism.

And here we must demonstrate that against egoism there is a force that can unite us. In general, everyone agrees that revealing such a force is good. We just need to show through our own example that this is possible.

And then we will be able to convince humanity not theoretically and not with beautiful words, to aspire toward mutual guarantee too; we will show how it works. Otherwise, no one will take us seriously. This is what we must do.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/17/20, “Preparation for the Convention”

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The law of mutual guarantee is the law of life, the law of existence, the law of development. At every level where nature wishes to create something that exists, it creates its individual parts and compels them to coexist according to the law of mutual guarantee, which originates from nature itself.

In our world, we observe this at the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels. Man is the connection of people with each other, not each of us, but all people above our natural egoism. When we, as individual particles, are ready to connect to create a correct society, we are called “Adam” meaning “similar to the Creator.”

Therefore, the system of mutual guarantee is crucial in our time. We see humanity becoming increasingly confused, unable to find itself, and practically writhing in convulsions. Although everyone understands that connection is necessary, they also understand that it is impossible due to our egoistic nature.

The wisdom of Kabbalah comes to our aid and explains that we have no choice but to unite; otherwise, things will only get worse. On one hand, we increasingly need each other and cannot escape this planet to distance ourselves from each other. On the other hand, we must connect. The method of connection is inherent in nature itself and is called the wisdom of Kabbalah, which teaches us how to correctly receive all kinds of fulfillment from each other.

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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/17/20, “Preparation for the Convention”

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All of us, all of humanity, originate from one common desire that shattered into tiny particles, and each of them represents one of us. Therefore, we must reconnect these particles.

To the extent that we can rise above each person’s egoism and start working on our desires toward a collective connection to become similar to the Creator, the Creator will be able to clothe in us as we get closer to each other.

That is what we need to achieve. Essentially, this is the subject of the wisdom of Kabbalah. It explains how we ended up in our current state, how we can connect into a single system, and how the Creator fills us as we unite into this system.

In this process, our egoism does not disappear; it develops even further, and we must connect above it despite its presence. Then, we will represent a single unified desire composed of many desires.

Our connection is always above egoism. As egoism grows, we must rise even higher to unite our aspirations. Thus, egoism is called “help against you” because it pushes us toward greater unity, and in this way, we can reveal the Creator even more between us.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson 2/17/20, “Preparation for the Convention”

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People differ from animals in that in addition to desires for food, sex, shelter, and procreation, they also have so-called social desires for wealth, power, and knowledge, which can be satisfied at the expense of the surrounding society.

These additional social desires called the human desires of our world can be either directed toward subjugating society, suppressing it, being above it, or toward raising oneself, one’s development, in the likeness of nature, in adhesion with the environment, in connection with society for its benefit.

And here a paradox arises: when I act for the benefit of society, I begin to feel everything that is in it, inside me, and I enrich myself internally. And if I exploit people around me, then I do not rise above them, but on the contrary, being on my animal level, I suppress human qualities in them.

This is where the difference appears in what a man spends his additional desires on. He does it either to improve his corporeal life—create comfort for himself, supposedly take care of the environment, develop engineering, technology, and so on—or none of this simply matters to him.

For him, only internal development matters—how to realize himself. After all, how many years does he live on this earth? Anyway, his body will rot, his house will fall apart, etc. Why should he think about something that is transitory? He should think about the eternal! About what he can develop in himself and what he really can achieve the next stage, his eternal state, which is realized only in our world.

Precisely in contrast to his preferences: “What should I turn myself into: for the benefit of others or for their detriment? For the benefit of my animal or spiritual state? So that I reach the Creator and become similar to Him through love for my neighbor or so that I love myself and indulge myself in everything until the last moment of my life? This is the choice!

But the choice is precisely in relation to the desires that are beyond necessities. Nobody talks about how much I should eat or sleep. I should not live in a cave. I must have a family, normal food, and clothes. That is all. Nothing more is said about this. It is said: “Where are you heading other than this?”

Man’s freedom of will consists in preferring the choice of activities. This is what determines whether he is a spiritual or an earthly person.

People who strive for spirituality feel haunted by the question about the meaning of life. A person must answer it; otherwise, he feels no point in living. In other words, there is no point in using one’s qualities to become rich, powerful, or even smart. So what? I will die and that is it. Why waste my life on this?

And many do not want to. They either fall into depression, drugs, and even alcoholism, or they are still looking for a way out.

And here comes a kind of luck, a quality of fate that leads them to the method of revealing their correct realization.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Dead-end Path of Human Development” 1/24/12

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The Creator created one desire, which underwent development and then broke into small parts. Starting with the shattering of the common desire into separate particles, egoism arose between them, a mutual rejection from each other, and they began to feel themselves placed in our world.

All the inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human desires that we began to feel, we began to see outside of ourselves in the form of the surrounding world. Our desires for each other consist of four levels we call still, vegetative, animate, and human, or 0, 1, 2, 3, 4.

Our job is to get off the egoistic degree because by staying on it we do not even feel where we are.

Egoism initially closes us inside ourselves—each and every one. While in it we feel nothing but our world. That is the lowest, most insignificant, and most broken part of the Universe. Therefore, we do not know who we are, what we are, what we are for—absolutely nothing! Perhaps we feel overwhelmed. And then, even this truth we do not feel.

But we are given the power that develops us. Gradually, more and more upper light descends on us, the quality of bestowal, which allows us to feel the need to unite with each other.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson 2/17/20, “Preparation for the Convention”

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Question: What does it mean to let the Creator into the mutual guarantee?

Answer: When we talk about mutual guarantee, we mean the right connection between people. That is, we ask ourselves how we should be united in order to represent a reliable earthly system of interconnected people.

There are people who understand that their egoistic desires play with them so much that they are unable to control themselves. If we look at humanity from the outside, what is happening to us simply defies any justification because we are trying to destroy, humiliate, kill, and suppress each other. We are motivated to do this by our inner desire, which does not allow us to exist in peace.

We need to neutralize the evil inclination in a person in some way. There is only one salvation for this—the force existing in nature that is able to balance our egoism. But we need to attract it to ourselves. This positive force is called the Creator.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson 2/17/20, “Preparation for the Convention”

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Question: Rabash did not want to let his friends or students read Shamati because they did not have the left line. We study that Israel is the lightest, purest aspirations and desires. So why do you say that they are the roughest and the heaviest ones?

Answer: The vessels (Kelim) that need to be corrected are determined by the amount of egoistic impurities, and therefore, they are felt as particularly selfish and in need of correction first. In others it doesn’t feel that way; it seems as though nothing serious is happening with them.

Therefore, it is evident that the people of Israel stand out in their egoism relative to other nations of the world, but only because they have different demands made on them.

If these demands were the same for both the nations of the world and the Israelites, then the people of Israel would not be the most egoistic.

So it all depends on how we approach it initially and by what standards we measure.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/26/24, Writings of Rabash “Concerning the Omer [Count]”

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