Our attitude to the neighbor, to the environment in the world where we were born, which we feel inside of our egoism, is called the preparation period. When we go from love for the environment or love for friends to love for the Creator, this is already the time of the real work, when we acquire the qualities of bestowal.

As a result of acquiring these altruistic qualities and going through the degree of bestowal for the sake of bestowal, we finally attain love. But since this path leads to the attainment of love for the Creator, that is how the entire path is called.

And even though today we are working in our realm, in our world, with egoistic qualities, this is still considered work on love for friends, for the neighbor, even though all of it is very far from real love.

Love for the Creator, love for the creatures, and love for friends are the same thing because it is directly opposite to love for oneself. That is why it requires so many qualitative changes inside of a person. But the value of love for friends is very high because it allows us to acquire additional desires and sensations, to reveal the true reality we are in, meaning the Creator.

To the extent that a person values the Creator and the final goal, that is how important he considers the means leading to it, such as the exercises in the group, with the friends, and the studies because without these means he could never attain the goal.

On one hand, this entire world is imaginary and there is no one around me: not the still or the vegetative levels, nor animals or people. All of these are my own desires, which divided into these parts and therefore present the Upper Light to me in this way.

This is also how I must treat the group – as if nothing exists besides me. And everyone I feel around me: the environment, the group, the teacher, and even the Creator, are inside of me, in my sensation. I received this illusion that everything is outside so I could learn what the sensation of the neighbor means: so I could feel him, have relationships with him, and attain bestowal and love.

If a person perceives all of reality this way, then he does not err. Clearly, he still has to discern new details all the time and supplement the common picture with them, but he is already on the right path.
[62050]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/29/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: I have my own opinion regarding what’s going on around the world and the revolution that people are starting all over.

Now there’s this new wave around the Internet where people post about their problems. I read some of them and came to the conclusion that people grab anything bad from their life and post it. This starts to look like a Hindu custom, when people indulge in self-flagellation by hitting themselves with a rope.

Isn’t there a reason behind everything that happens in our life? Sometimes things happen, and we don’t know whether that was to avoid another big problem, an accident, and so on. We are the creators and the cause of our life.… My question to you is: Why is this happening?

Answer: This happens because our egoism is constantly looking for fulfillment and demands it if it is missing. When we acquire the property of bestowal, we can always enjoy, like a mother enjoys her baby.
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The work begins with the question: “What is the meaning of our life?” This point already contains the desire to attain the goal of creation, whose meaning is adhesion with the Creator. This is the final point.

We have no idea what this adhesion means, what kind of understanding and sensation it brings. But it is written that we have to cleave to His qualities. There are qualities of the Creator, which He gradually reveals to us, and we have to bring ourselves to similarity with them.

All of the Creator’s qualities are essentially just the single quality of bestowal, “absolute good.” This is the quality that a person has to adopt, “good that does good.” To the extent the Creator reveals His goodness to him, this is what a person should become like.

This goodness becomes expressed in relation to the neighbor, in order to allow us to attain true bestowal and not to bestow for our own sakes, egoistically. Therefore, we have to go through a rather lengthy preliminary path, advancing gradually, step by step along the chain of cause and effect states.

We begin from the state that is diametrically opposite to the Creator and we move with the help of the upper force, with the help of the Light that unnoticeably acts within us. This is called the Surrounding Light, the concealed illumination that returns us to its source.

By attracting this illumination to us, we correct ourselves and advance. And it can only be attracted by equivalence of form. Just as the Creator conceals Himself from us for now, allowing us to perform the correction and attain the true quality of bestowal, so we have to agree to work in concealment. In that case, we can aspire to His quality of bestowal rather than the pleasant fulfillment it gives us.

Yet the final correction, the goal of creation is to delight the creatures, where delighting is above our egoistic quality of reception.

Therefore, this work takes place in the “desert,” on barren land, meaning we do not feel any pleasant results from our efforts. This was done deliberately, so a person would look for possibilities to work without a reward, above reward. One must agree with this and desire only this because one aspires to the truth, to the quality of bestowal, rather than trying to attain a pleasant sensation this way.

This entire preparation is called the preliminary correction, before entering the Land of Israel. First we receive the force of correction, the quality of faith and bestowal, which is called “40 years of wandering in the desert.” And after that, we begin working with the desire to enjoy itself, and even this desire works in the direction of bestowal. This is called working in the Land of Israel.

Work on correcting our desire and raising the quality of bestowal above the will to enjoy is called work in the desert, the preparation phase. It is described by the commandment, “Do not do to another what you yourself hate.” This is work with the bestowing desires (Galgalta ve Eynaim), the small state (Katnut).

But work in the Land of Israel is already work with the actual desires: not above them, but directly inside of them. This is called “work in three lines.” This work is done with the actual receiving desire, which is called AHP, in the great or adult state of the soul (Gadlut).

When working with the receiving desire for the sake of bestowal, on its four levels, we reveal the names of the Creator. That is, we are already able to express qualities inside of us that are equal to His quality and to impress His name inside of us. The desire begins behaving like the Light, and that’s how a person attains similarity, unification, and adhesion with the upper Light until he goes through all the levels of the soul’s maturation and attains total equivalence and absolute adhesion, which is the goal of creation.
[60788]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/15/11, Writings of Rabash

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Baal HaSulam, “Mutual Guarantee” (abridged version): The merit of the forefathers is that from the height of their souls, they realized the principle of love for the neighbor without preliminary actions, which they were unable to realize. Thus, only the nation of Israel entered the mutual guarantee.

The Creator made one receiving desire, consisting of four “layers”—four levels of depth or Aviut. We start to discern the layers of egoism from light to heavy. The souls that have already completed the analysis and correction then help to perform the work on the following, coarser layers of desire of the common, single, broken soul.

First the souls belonging to the level of the forefathers are corrected. We also call them “the house of Abraham.” This is talking about thousands of people who attained the spiritual world under his leadership. Their Aviut was very small and therefore they did not need to attract the Light that reforms during the study. It was enough for them to unite with one another a little because there was no repulsion between them as they did not fall into egoism yet on all of its four levels.

The fall happened later, in the Egyptian exile, and only then did Israel start needing the Light that reforms, meaning the method received on Mount Sinai. After all, a person corrects only what surfaces in him. The Torah, the method of correction, is intended for work with the evil inclination. When it became revealed in Egypt, the force of the Light capable of correcting it became revealed.

However, on the level of the forefathers, there was no need for this yet. This is the most “transparent,” purest degree of level zero of Aviut, comparable to the state of conception. At this stage, the Torah and the Light that reforms are not necessary for correction since there is nothing to reform yet.

Next comes the level of the sons, with the Aviut of the first and in part, the second level. And then comes our turn, the second, third, and fourth levels of Aviut, belonging to the “period of the Messiah.” Every generation in this lineage corrects its own layer of the common desire, the common soul.

Thus, the forefathers did not need the study that evokes Light, being in states of “the desert.” It was enough for them to be in the situation that surfaced in Ancient Babylon. Each of them revealed his evil somewhat, which the Torah describes metaphorically by talking about how Abraham and Sarah came down to the Land of Canaan, how Isaac solved problems with Esau, and other issues.

Next, Jacob and his sons came down to Egypt and died there, in this great, receiving desire. Then the sons of Israel went through the burdening of the heart and wanted to work on unification together to rise above hatred. However, first they descended even lower in their Aviut, which is called “visiting the cities of Pitom and Ramses.” Stated differently, by attempting to unite with each other, they did not build wonderful unity, but instead created something petty, sordid, and dangerous.

That is how they reached the need to run away from egoism and then went through the “ten plagues,” meaning unsuccessful attempts to escape. Every time they asked Pharaoh to “let them go,” they were denied, until the sorrow became unbearable. Only then, in the state of pitch darkness, does a person run away from his egoism, ready to rise above it at any price, “Better death than this kind of life.” A person reaches the final decision, really wishing to unite with others, as one man with one heart in mutual guarantee, and then he receives the method of correction.

This method leads him along the stages of the spiritual path: Tme after time, he discovers destruction inside of him and corrects it with the help of the Light that reforms. As a result, he reveals and corrects his entire, enormous egoism.

This process does not occur in all of humanity, but in a small group of Abraham’s descendants. On the path, it goes through breakings, analogously to the spiritual world, and falls down. And only later, in our days, does the true work of correcting the common soul begin.

Thus, even though since the times of the sin of the soul of Adam HaRishon, the forefathers and sons completed their work and attained their end of correction on the level of the First Temple, nevertheless descents followed after that, corresponding to the spiritual breakages. Both Temples were destroyed, similar to the two Partzufim in the world of Nekudim.

Now, after millennia of intermixing, we are reaching the analysis and correction—the self-realization. Precisely now, after all of the necessary “introductions,” the real work begins. The preparation is finished, and all that’s left is to correct ourselves.
[60804]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/15/11, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Baal HaSulam, “Mutual Guarantee” (abridged version): Once the whole nation agreed, they became guarantors…

What is the meaning of this nation-wide agreement? Did every person just shout out like a child, “I want!” Or do we have to understand where we are going and how far?

That is why this world was given to us, showing us all the clear examples of caring for the neighbor. I see how repulsive all of this is to me, yet I unite with others because I have to, not having any other solution in a time of peril or when I really need them.

Once the entire nation agreed, they became guarantors that no citizen will be deprived of what he needs.

Mutual guarantee by itself gives us energy. By the same principle, at the end of correction we increase the Light’s abundance by 620 times compared to what was there at the beginning of creation. Stated differently, instead of a very fine line that was filled only by the tiny Light of Hochma, we receive an entire circle in which the Light of Hochma pours, clothed in the Light of Hassadim, infinitely filling everyone to the depth and breadth of the mutual unification. When this happens, every person adds his part to others and becomes included in everyone himself.

So where does this miraculous addition come from? It comes from the fact that we involve the force of mutual guarantee, the force of mutual inclusion. By virtue of the breaking, the vessels were prepared to become included in one another, and now, in spite of our egoism, we must evoke this inclusion, this mutual guarantee, in practice. The resistance of our egoism and our ability to overcome by means of the Light that reforms, which leads to unity, create an inner pressure inside the vessel, a resistance, like in a resistor. The force of egoism inside of us constantly resists unity, while we stand above it and become tightly locked in all of the connecting points.

Eventually, the negative and positive forces that separate and connect us come together in one channel. That is how we attain a 620-fold increase of power.

Today we barely provide enough food for half of humanity. About a third of it has limited food, and another third is starving. But there is no doubt that by realizing the mutual guarantee, we will end up with the same abundance that the spies discovered when they were first sent to Israel and discovered a “land flowing with milk and honey.” It will suddenly become clear that there is no need for material investment because fulfillment is provided by the Light. Vitamins, minerals, calories, and everything else are vestments of the Light, which disappear to the extent we clear them away.

We always aspire to extract the maximum energy conversion efficiency from the energy resources. But here, what we have at our disposal is the Light, without any material vestment. That is an energy incomparably more powerful, which supports all of matter. Instead of fairy-tales about an eternal engine, we truly acquire an eternal energy resource.
[60548]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/13/11, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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On each phase of development I receive an “injection” and look for salvation out of helplessness. Hardships purify me, humble my egoistic desire, and bring me to goodness, meaning to the right decision, the right action. But all of it happens under the shower of painful blows, by the path of suffering.

On the other hand, I can use alternative remedies (forces and situations) that allow me to go through the process of correction without waiting for trouble. The difference is in my consciousness, awareness, and determination towards the Creator.

I can either crawl and take blows until they arouse a new desire within me at each given step, or I can generate a need to advance on my own. I keep searching for attractiveness and charm in my aspiration toward the Creator and bestowal.

Let this charm draw me forward with greater strength than the pinches that I get from behind. I will be the one who defines the speed of my development by moving faster than it is defined in the Thought of Creation which spurs me forward. It is said that in this case I am the one who “wakes the dawn, the dawn does not wake me.”

At this point we arrive at the only free choice that is available to us. It is about looking for additional powers to advance besides the Light and the vessel. Where do I get them?

It is clear that if I don’t use alternative powers, my authentic “I” would not even exist. I’ll remain a small beast that evolves only as a result of the blows nature sends its way.

We have all been progressing in this manner until now. Somehow, we think that only the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature develop in accordance with the laws of nature, but a human being advances independently of it. But why would it be the case? Isn’t evolution still in progress?

Is it really so that as soon as a monkey turned into a human being, it immediately got excluded from the laws of nature? Is it feasible that we are driven forward only by our own intelligence? No. We are intelligent, but we still comply with the laws of nature; we don’t oppose them. Our beloved intelligence comprises nature’s indispensable part.

Modern science discovers the miracles of developmental adaptability and explains interactions between various creatures: insects, birds, fish, and so on. However, we attribute all of it to instincts and at the same time continue to plume ourselves on our intellect. In reality, our brain only implements our instincts in an even more instinctive way. As a result, we destroy ourselves even more. Animals are defended by protective mechanisms, whereas we are deprived of a “safety device” and “go wild.”
[60058]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/7/2011, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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Opinion: (Mikhail Muntyan, Professor, Deputy Director of the Center for Strategic Studies, Member of the Academy of Information at the UN, from perspektivy.info): “The breathtaking pace of change has created a sense of “compression” of the globe and a belief in the real interdependence of nations and peoples, a growing collective responsibility for the destiny of humankind, caught up in the most acute environmental crisis of the planet.

“The world is moving towards a state of increasing integrity. But will it first go through ‘leveling’ and then unification, or vice versa? Developing their own concepts of sustainable development, Russian scientists link them with Vernadsky’s idea about the sphere of mind (noosphere, a biosphere influenced by the activity of the human mind). Will humanity be able to overcome its egoism, its aggressiveness to create a new society?”
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There are two ways by which nature advances us: without our knowing or consciously, meaning by the Light (the Torah) or by suffering. The way we advance without knowing is by pain. Because our nature is a desire to receive, we advance and develop gradually from one degree to another under the influence of a good sensation or a bad one. So what do we sense as good or bad?

We were created by the Light, which created us with a desire to be filled. Through our process of development, we gradually attain everything that is in the Light, in the Creator, as good and everything that is in contrast to it we perceive as bad.

This is a very long way, and for a long time, according to our nature, everything seems the opposite to us. But as the power of bestowal teaches us, we begin to understand that our egoism is bad and that it is responsible for all our failures, and how wonderful it could be if we were in the attribute of bestowal, which could raise us above all evil.

This awakening comes gradually to each of us and to all of humanity. It is through suffering that we learn from the blows that the force pushes us from behind.

At the same time, we are given the opportunity to hasten our development by ourselves and to advance towards attaining the good. The good is only bestowal, and we should do different exercises and use different tools in order to develop the sensation of the recognition of evil by ourselves, not as a result of the blows but rather through the environment.

In order to do that we have to be more sensitive to good and bad, to bestowal and receiving, to love of others and to hatred. I can prepare myself even before the blow comes, by working with the environment so that I can begin to understand that bestowal is good and receiving is bad.

After all, this is how nature is. The Creator determined the goal of Creation: adhesion to the Creator, to His qualities; that is,  “As He is merciful and you are merciful too.” So we have to resemble His attributes in all our attributes. This means that I have to transform myself and to understand that my nature is evil and that the Creator’s nature of bestowal is good.

The tricks and the means I use in order to see bestowal as good, are called “Mitzvot” (commandments), “God’s work.” Working with the environment enables us to see bestowal as good and egoism as bad.

This is why the soul was shattered into many private souls and we can, thanks to our mutual work, attain that connection and love of others, which is good. From the love of others we reach the love of the Creator. It is the particular and the general expression of the same phenomenon.

All the descent from the top down, meaning all the preparation that was made for us was necessary so that we will be able to use it and to develop independently and consciously, so that eventually we will reach the goal.
[59903]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/6/11, “What to Look for in the Assembly of Friends”

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In order to get a slight idea of the difference between corporeality and spirituality, imagine that the world is a shop you have entered to buy something for yourself. And next to you there is a shop for newborns where you enter to buy something for your baby.

It’s clear that you will feel completely different in that store and will have a completely different attitude to the purchases. You will do it with a thought of bestowal. You will think only about making the other (the baby) feel good because by nature you love him more than yourself. You will always choose what this other one needs with this intention, whether it’s diapers or baby formula. Everything will be aimed only at the baby and how to give him the best possible thing.

Maybe you are able to think that way about someone other than your baby, such as your friends, the entire society, or even all of humanity, or perhaps even about the Creator. This depends on the height of your attitude to others.

This is the difference of working for your own sake and working for others. It’s just difficult for us to understand what the force of faith means, which lets us feel the importance and necessity of thinking not about ourselves, but about others, something we did not do before. In our world there are examples of that, but they are egoistic and we care about the neighbor only when we feel that we need him.

So how can we do the same thing, but against our egoism, above it, and build our attitude to the neighbor upon constant nullification of ourselves? We can understand this when it comes to the people close to us. If we love them, then we even experience pleasure by limiting ourselves for their sake. That is how we measure the force of our love and bestowal: by how much we give to them and take care of them.
[60136]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/08/11, Writings of Rabash

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It is impossible to enjoy egoistically. The moment a pleasure wants to enter the desire, we feel their contact for just a short moment, and then the desire immediately dwindles.

With small pleasures we don’t experience a very intense sensation that during the contact between the desire and the pleasure, the two immediately put each other out. They both disappear and are annulled. But in great pleasures, when a person aspires very strongly and dreams about them for a long time, or in special pleasures such as sex or sophisticated artistry, a person immediately feels that the pleasure comes for a fraction of a second and then disappears.

And we ask: Why?! It’s because the egoistic desire and pleasure are initially not intended to exist one inside the other. The will to enjoy cannot hold pleasure inside of itself. The two are opposite by nature and therefore, don’t wait for them to ever be able to be together!
[60030]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/7/11, Writings of Rabash

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