Question: After we have split up into groups of ten, we seem to be starting a new process. After many years of working together with the friends I have already built up quite a few inner “charges” both positive and negative….

Answer: All this has nothing to do with the real concept of a group. In a real group there is a mutual commitment since it is one. We are all in the same boat, and you have to work out the relations between you. It isn’t just an obligation, but it’s simply impossible to manage without it.

Today, you are just friends. You choose those you feel more comfortable with, but you have an obligation with regard to the real group framework. If you don’t, then it’s not a group or a group of ten yet.

We feel the group by our commitment; it’s as if I worry about a baby who needs endless caretaking. It isn’t about feeling pleasant but about the commitment that I have since I am committed to my friends. We have to develop these two aspects since otherwise everything is lost; there is no other way.

It’s a real wonder; we were shattered and each of us was given a spark that allows him to connect to other people, to connect artificially, to try to connect on the corporeal level. Without the corporeal reality all our sparks would be scattered infinitely distant from one another and we would never be able to get close to one another. But we live in corporeal bodies that enable us to be in mutual bestowal and receiving between us. The protein corporeal bodies help us establish ties and connect, although the sparks are still infinitely far from one another.

Our current ego belongs to the bodies and not to the sparks, since it isn’t the real evil inclination yet. But if we start getting closer to one another even a little despite the rejection that our bodies feel, we begin to evoke the Light that brings our sparks together.

So you should understand what a relief, what great help it is along our spiritual path. With the help of such a lowly, coarse system we can begin to connect the sparks. The Light that Reforms influences them, and in the meantime we go through the current phase which is the longest and the most difficult of all the phases. We will get through the other levels much faster, but this level is the coarsest, since here everything is done with the help of the bodies. It’s the preparation for the direct work with the Light and the desires, a wonderful stage, the Creator’s greatest benevolence. Although I hate the friend, I still connect to him; it’s an opportunity that is in contrast to nature. Nature operates according to honesty and the truth, while here there is a mechanism that is based on a lie.

So you have to yearn and to expect the moment that you will be pleased to see your friends like your own children and even more than that. Yes, yes, you will feel that the friend is more precious to you than your own baby.
[107922]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Mutual Guarantee”

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Question: Israel is constantly under the threat of a military confrontation or war. Hundreds of missiles with conventional and nonconventional warheads are aimed at us. Not long ago I participated in a drill practicing an emergency situation. People may be complacent regarding what is happening, but the situation is actually very worrisome. How can we tell people about the external threat and about our message and the urgent need for internal changes?

Answer: This threat is actually hovering over us all the time. So first of all you have to be sure that the inner work is the key to all the problems. In addition to that, you have to bring this about in your connection with the friends. You have to connect and to unite with them and to fulfill the necessary actions in order to connect and bring the Creator contentment.

We have to tie these things together: If we brought the Creator contentment, we wouldn’t be facing the threats and the problems we are speaking of now. This is what we have to do: to discuss this, to “chew” it well and to finally “swallow” it and understand it. Then we will put together the general picture and see that first we need to correct ourselves internally. If we correct ourselves, we will correct the world.

As for the missiles, our nation has been in similar situations in the past. But now we have a chance to be saved from all the troubles and save the nation and the whole world. We have to examine this opportunity as a purposeful opportunity: when we act not in order to save the bodies but for the Creator’s sake. We have to raise ourselves to the level of this state, of this perception. Otherwise, we will not attain bestowal and will not be able to fulfill anything in the right direction.

It’s wrong to complain and to cry about the threats not knowing where to run to escape them. We mustn’t confuse the cause and the effect. It’s because the real cause is to reach adhesion, and this is what we have to attain. The means to attain that is to reach bestowal, which we can attain only by rising above our ego. In order to draw and to obligate people to do so we find ourselves in this situation.

We mustn’t stick our heads in the sand since by that we forget about the whole thing. There is no point sitting together and crying over this situation, it won’t help. Another response is required here, a different approach.

The whole point is how we accept these problems. They are not coincidental. So why do they happen? Instead of being overwhelmed by animal fear, we have to connect everything to the cause of all the results, to the Creator, to “There is none else besides Him.” Only we can do that; only we can turn everything around.
[108013]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/21/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Mutual Guarantee”

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The preparation for the general spiritual work consists of several stages that are described as fables. The spiritual work in groups of ten is described in the Torah in the section about Jethro. Jethro was the chief priest in Midian, as well as Moses’ father-in-law, the father of his wife Zipporah. Moses lived at Jethro’s home when he escaped from Pharaoh and it actually is according to his instructions that the structure of the nation of Israel was formed.

It is a wonder why some priest of Midian, one of the sages of the nations of the world, brought such knowledge to the nation of Israel and knew how to form each of its camps so that they would better understand the laws and behave correctly according the Lord’s sentence. What do these subtle concepts that have to do with the inner corrections of the nation have to do with a priest of Midian who tells them how to organize the nation?

Jethro advises Moses after he already has received the Torah! This may seem very strange, but the method of organizing the nation stems from the wisdom of the nations of the world, as it is written, “If a person tells you there is wisdom among the nations of the world, believe him.” Besides, Jethro is not a stranger. He actually connects the desire to receive to the Torah to the desire to bestow.

We advance according to the steps that the Torah dictates, and it determines how we should divide into groups of ten, and then into groups of hundreds, thousands, and thus, advance in our spiritual work. It is a natural division according to the nation that should exist in a group. A simple crown came out of Babylon, and Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob began to organize them into a nation.

They did not wander from one place to another in their journeys. The group came out of the general ego, from Babylon. It had broken off from the Babylonians and settled in one place surrounded by Babylon on all sides. In this place, they went through all the stages called Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Then, they reached the stage in which they began to feel that the ego is separating them—the exile, the distance—despite their strong desire to connect as they learned from their forefathers. After this group had received the method of connection from their forefathers, they already knew the stages of advancement to the revelation of the Creator. They understood that it is all revealed only in the connection between them, in “Love thy friend as thyself,” from which one comes to the love of the Creator.

However, when they actually began to work on the connection between them by following the advice of the three upper levels of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they began to feel how hard it is to fulfill this. They understood how exhausting this work is and how powerless it leaves them. They go through 400 years of exile and totally lose hope.

We try to fill ourselves through different external actions just to find new powers. However, all these innovations are always external, even if we learn another new thing and organize another convention. It is all fine and right, but it doesn’t lead to meaningful advancement. We are still building “Pithom and Ramses,” which means that we make efforts in order to discover that there is no hope!

Then, a more intensive, efficient and focused type of work begins in the groups of ten, and we see that if we want to be incorporated in the spiritual work, we first must split up into groups of ten.

There is a stage in which we must split up. The work in groups of ten already advances according to the regulations that stem from the advice of Kabbalists and especially Rabash who formulated all the principles of working in a group based on the method of Baal HaSulam. We have all we need for this work, but we must learn the special structure of the group of ten, how to build it and how to fulfill the method of connection that is the method for the revelation of the Creator.
[108201]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/23/13, Talk About Tens

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The “Israeli Nation” is a collection of people in whom there are burning spiritual sparks. Whoever has this spark feels an uncontrollable urge to ascend. The spark that is ignited in a person pulls him towards the revelation of the essence and then he is called “Israel” which stands for Yashar El (straight to the Creator).

The sparks or the points in the heart (•) connect a person with the Light that Reforms. Such people can draw, summon the Light, and thus be corrected; whereas without the spark, this correction is impossible. Besides, by the connection between the points in the heart, they can awaken those in whom the points in the heart have not been ignited yet.

On the whole, the spark, which means the force of bestowal, is ignited in our ego, in the shattered desire that is the force of receiving. If I correct this desire, then it all becomes one big point in the heart, which means Israel, a vessel of bestowal, with regard to the nations of the world, who are vessels of receiving.

Thus, Israel is the corrected part of the general vessel and only through it can the special Surrounding Light be passed to the nations of the world. The Light comes in a different manner to desires that don’t have the spark, by “transmitting vessels” who prepare and organize them, and introduce integral education to them, and on the whole operate in order to improve their earthly life. Only Israel can fulfill this mission and only though Israel does the Light pass. Israel is the link between the Creator and the nations of the world.

This is why we are in this world since it’s here that we find such a connection between the different vessels. As for the negative urge and incentive, it’s the Creator who provides them in the form of the current global crisis.

[108303]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 05/26/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Mutual Guarantee”

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Question: What does “the ascent of the lower to the upper” mean?

Answer: The ascent to the upper depends on how much the lower can annul himself before the upper. He does it, of course, thanks to the Light that Reforms and not because of inner manipulations. He only has a clue that the Creator brings him to the right environment, to the good fate and tells him “take it!” If you manage to hold on to that point and to start working with it, you will succeed.

The ascent depends on what you consider an ascent. If you think positively about one of the friends at least once a day, unlike you have thought about him before, it’s already a great joy, since it indicates a qualitative inner change in you. You should worry that each of the ten friends in the group of ten will constantly aspire for such an ascent, and this is the mutual support and mutual guarantee. If you worry that all the friends should feel the same way and worry about one another, then your concern is conveyed to them.

This is easy for some of the friends and more difficult for others, and so we complement one another when we gather and connect. Those who find it difficult because of the hardening of the ego add power of Aviut (thickness) to the group of ten. Those who feel the ascent, which means the influence of the Light, pass this Light to the group.

The “shattering” of the vessel allows us to do this. I cannot draw the Light in my current shattered state since there is no connection between us. But I connect with the friends into one unity in which one adds the power of the coarse egoistic desire and another adds the spiritual ascent.

One pulls upward and another downward, but we are connected. Those who pull upward are influenced by the Light that Reforms and thanks to the fact that we are connected in one system, they also influence me. How is that possible? The point is that we have shattered the Machsom (barrier) between us, in our relationship we have worked and made efforts to overcome the gap between us. It’s as if we have placed a Masach (screen) over the egoistic receiving of the Light and now it can influence us.

The Light influences those who deserve it since they are in a state of ascent at the moment and through them it affects me. Even if we are not as close as we were before and not connected as strongly into one as we were, we have made a covenant and agreed that we will hold on to the connection between us as strongly as we can and will break down the wall between us.

It turns out that the shattering is simply a gift from Above; it’s a stick that we constantly have to kiss. It allows us to be constantly connected to others and to be in contact with the Light even in the worst state. If I lose contact with the others, there is the covenant by which I stay in contact thanks to those who are in a state of ascent and can draw the Light.

Thus everyone operates with regard to the others. This special connection of the shattered desires is called “this world.” It’s not what we see and feel at all, it’s not our corporeal ego, but a system, special conditions that allow us to connect to the upper. Although we don’t deserve anything judging by our state, we still accept this connection: either according to the conditions of the covenant between the friends, thanks to our connection, or thanks to the mutual support.

The friends may lack the willpower and I add it to them by my descent, and they help me convey my deficiency and hold on, just like healthy people treat those who are ill. The mutual help that we provide for one another, this shattered state, all these conditions are called “this world,” thanks to which we contact the Light that Reforms. So the advice and guidance of Kabbalists are focused on one point: How to connect to the Light in a state of detachment.
[107942]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/13, Introduction, “Mother Lends Her Clothes to Her Daughter”

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Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut“(Mutual Guarantee): The purpose of Creation lies on the shoulders of the whole of the human race, black, white, or yellow, without any essential difference.

But because of the descent of human nature to the lowest degree, which is the self-love that unrestrictedly rules over all of humanity, there was no way to negotiate with them and persuade them to agree to take upon themselves, even as an empty promise, to exit their narrow world into the wide spaces of the love of others. The exception was the Israeli nation because they were enslaved in the savage kingdom of Egypt four hundred years in horrible torments.

All of humanity clearly has to reach the end of correction, and no one can escape this. But the process is gradual. We begin from easy discernments, and then by using them, we move on to the correction of more difficult discernments.

The easiest part is called “Israel” and it seems to “hasten time.” Only now in the point of transition between the 20^th century and the 21^st century has humanity reached the eruption of the ego that is becoming round. On the other hand, Israel has preceded this process and reached the level of the great “ego” back during the exile in Egypt. Then they fell from the level they had attained and eventually descended to the last exile that has lasted until our times.

The current ego is much greater than the ego in Egypt. In addition to that, it has become round, it has become global, and is similar to the form we will have to enlist on our way to the correction.

Back in Egypt, the desire to receive that opposes the connection in the general circle was revealed among the children of Israel and it doesn’t allow them to be one whole. This is the only thing that is called “the evil inclination.” It isn’t about the size of the desire but rather about its objection to connection.

But the rest of humanity has developed on the basis of the ordinary desire to receive that belongs to this world and is meant to exist in it.

 

 

Now Israel, with its evil inclination, is finally ready to be in a circle. We already understand what is going on and how to correct the situation. But humanity doesn’t understand that yet since it has arrived at this circle with the help of its ordinary “linear” ego and not with the help of the evil inclination.

As a result, it’s very difficult for the nation of Israel to connect. No other nation is as divided as this nation. This is how the evil inclination, which no other nation has, is revealed within it. It’s very difficult for the nation of Israel to perform the correction, although they have already been through this path. Today they only have the shattered Reshimot (reminiscences).

On the other hand, the nations of the world are ready to learn about the connection that will improve their life. Because they have no shattered Reshimot they don’t object to connection and if they see that the “linear” connection will provide them with a better future, they accept it.

It turns out that if Israel helps the connection of the world, their connection becomes closer. I cannot even imagine how they can start to connect without it.

This also explains why an external pressure upon the nation of Israel is necessary. This pressure is already growing and it will increase and become an actual threat of annihilation. Otherwise, Israel will simply not understand what and how much is required of them and what is required of them in order to get rid of the external pressure. It’s about an essential external factor that allows them to think about correction.
[107948]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/21/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Mutual Guarantee”

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Question: Should an integral manager be above any integral community, for example, a factory or office?

Answer: A higher hierarchical level should be above any integral community. After all, if we deal with the law, where does it come from? The law of integrality itself, which is manifested in the group, is their correspondence to the level of nature that they occupy. But just as the group was created by its supervisor who has already attained integrality, it’s the same now when they are at this degree; they will not be able to reach the next level by themselves.

They need an educator who gives them assignments, checks everything, guides, and corrects everywhere and in everything. Without a leader, they are unlikely to be able to remain at the achieved level because their egoism is growing all the time. They are constantly experiencing micro-explosions of egoism internally. That is why they constantly need someone who supervises them. After all, they do not feel: Suddenly, they are carried away from common integrality thinking that they are still within it.

A leader corrects their integrality because they do not feel when they “drift” since their egoism is working constantly and pulling them in different directions all the time. That is why such disagreements, misunderstandings, and differences of opinion emerge in the group and people do not know where to go.
[107521]
From KabTV’s “The Wisdom of the Crowd” 5/6/13

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Question: On the level of the beast, the “wisdom of the crowd” or the collective intelligence is revealed very beautifully: a school of fish, flocks of birds, and the like. Why is it not revealed like this on the human level?

Answer: On the animate level, the collective intelligence works instinctively according to the general law of the integral behavior of all of nature. We see how much this law is realized instinctively and egoistically because essentially it’s carried out for the preservation of the flocks of birds, the schools of fish, and the like. It’s derived from some great integral intelligence, yet acts on an instinctive, primitive, and egoistic level.

A different kind of behavior is required among humans, one which is not egoistic. Everyone needs to overcome his personal ego for the sake of the interests of the society while being concerned for the preservation of all the conditions of integral existence in the environment, including the still, vegetative, and animate nature, and human society. In this case, the ego creates a problem, something that doesn’t exist in the animal world.
[107813]
From KabTV’s “The Wisdom of the Crowd” 5/14/15

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Question: What does it mean to be the Creator’s worker without any preconditions?

Answer: Suppose you say: “I don’t care what I do, I am ready to do anything from being your deputy or your chief foreman, to being the last, lowest, most despised cleaning man. I am ready to work for any wages from half the kingdom to nothing at all. I don’t care how pleasant the work is, whether I receive pleasure from it, or whether I am beaten. I am ready to be beaten every workday as long as you allow me to work for you. I beg you, take me without any preconditions!”

Everything depends on your tolerance here, on your patience, and on whether you are ready to withstand the unpleasantness and the pleasantness, the rewards and the punishment involved. Thus you advance above your “donkey,” above your ego that feels good or bad, and receive half the kingdom or blows in return for a day’s work. But the human being in you is totally adhered to the landlord. Do you agree to work this way?

You want to be given such conditions since it helps you attain the pure intention with regard to the landlord. But if you didn’t have such conditions you wouldn’t understand where you are and whether it is your ego that motivates you, lies to you; you are like the thief running before everyone shouting, “Catch the thief.”

You want to know exactly who is managing you, and it is possible only according to the changing states. You will attain nothing by feeling bad alone; there is no Light without darkness, and there is no darkness without Light; you need to feel both.
[107682]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/13, Writings of Rabash

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Question: The revelation of the ego in our daily life, especially in the economy, is expressed by the increasing aggressiveness of people towards other people and countries towards other countries, as each side tries to swallow as much as possible, building pyramids in every area by which they minimize the number of players. Will this trend continue?

Answer: On the whole, it’s for the best because people will understand what is going on.

We will reach the state in which everything depends only on me in whatever I do, and I play the leading role which eliminates the redundant play in the competition. It’s valueless anyway, and in fact, it puts me in a position where I can clearly understand what I do and whether it’s necessary or not.

The problem is that even if I can dictate whatever I feel like to the market, people’s desires change. Suddenly the need for what I offer them disappears, which in turn forces me to act differently.
[107611]
From KabTV’s “The Global Crisis” 3/19/13

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