Question: An example of mutual guarantee at the cellular level is very convincing. One can easily imagine how the cells act for the sake of the body, leaving for themselves only life’s necessities. But why is it so hard to imagine mutual guarantee at our human degree?

Answer: It is because we do not see this system with our own eyes. If we saw it now, we would have no freedom of will and would be forced to comply with its laws. If the necessity to bestow is suffocating me, if I have two options: to die or to give myself away for the benefit of others, then I surely agree; “Take everything I have.”

I as though feel a gun against my temple:
“Give everything you have!”
“Take it, I can’t help it.”
Death is not an option—they would take everything anyway. This is the absence of choice.

This is why our interconnection is hidden from our sight, and we are unable to comply with it. What can be done? With the help of the environment, I have to come to a state when I will put a gun against my own temple.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/24/2011, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Our main problem is to establish our attitude to the Creator. Clearly, it is subjective and depends entirely on us, on how we think and feel. It does not change depending on the Creator’s attitude, which is unknown to us, but is determined by what we think about Him.

On one hand, we are talking about nature, about the environment in which we develop. Once upon a time man began revealing nature, thus ascending in our world from the animate level to the human level as he researched the nature around him. After that he began to research the spiritual world, once his desire grew to that level. Thus, to the degree his desire grew, a person delved deeper and deeper into nature.

However, a person consists of two parts: one that feels and one that understands, and the two have a specific connection and influence upon one another. Precisely through them, feeling and reason or the heart and mind, he researches what he feels. Anything that does not enter his senses remains unknown to him. He researches only his impressions, whereas the things that are inaccessible to one’s sensations cannot be discussed at all because that would be empty philosophy and fantasy.

Therefore, our ideas of the Creator are not based on how He actually is, but on how we perceive Him. We will never know who He really is! We only know that there is an upper, external force that is perceived as the nature around us.

We call its closest part “this world.” But there is a greater nature which becomes revealed to a person when he undergoes a special development. It is called upper nature. Yet, no one knows who the Creator Himself is.

Therefore, the science of Kabbalah talks about everything in relation to man. It is written, “There is none else besides Him!” That is how a person feels and what he discerns as a result of his research.

Kabbalists tell us about their impressions of this single upper force, and it turns out that the Creator seems to get angry, or to get happy, or to enjoy something. But this is how a person feels. This is how he senses the upper force! However, we do not know what really happens to it.

Nevertheless, it is very important for us to establish our attitude to this upper force so we would know where this form, picture, impression, or sensation comes from, which we receive from Him. Whom do we feel: Himself or ourselves? Or do we perceive ourselves on the background of His Light? Or do we feel something that’s common to both of us, some interaction between us? That is something I have to know!

When I feel good or bad, then whom does this sensation depend on—on me, or does it come from the Creator? Or perhaps it depends on our similarity to each other, on some special connection?

If I perform any action, whether in words, thoughts, or physically, is He forcing me to act that way or do I have some kind of freedom? But where can I get that freedom if I am a result, a product of His work?

That is to say, we must somehow define ourselves in relation to our connection with the Creator. Otherwise we will constantly get confused. This bears great significance for our attitude, our inner work, and our connection with Him. This is also reflected on all of our relationships with one another, inside the family and when a person is one on one with himself.

Therefore, this is not an abstract question for us. Establishing our state, connection, and attitude to the Creator influences all the layers of our lives. This is the most fundamental thing there is. That is why Baal HaSulam’s opinion is so important to us in this regard, which he lays out in the article, “There Is None Else Besides Him,” the very first article in the book Shamati.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/26/11, Shamati

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Question: You said that nature will force us to change if we don’t wish to do it by choice. What change can our small Kabbalistic group make in the world if the majority of it don’t want to think about anything whatsoever?

Answer: It’s much easier for the majority of the world to change than it is for us since they don’t have free will. You do have free will because you possess an egoistic heart and the point from another world.

There are two forces in you, and that’s why you are in constant argument and struggle between them. This pertains to you but not to the whole world! They are fine: When they feel bad, it’s bad, when they feel good, it’s good, so what spiritual world are you talking about?

Without these two forces, there is no free will to choose between them; there are no upheavals and descents; there are no thoughts how to move forth; there is no faith above reason. Reason and faith above reason? Malchut and Bina atop of it?! Most folks have no connection between these two worlds. The connection between them exists only in us, in every one of us! It’s our problem, and the rest of the world doesn’t have it.

Hence, as soon as you make a choice, you impact all the other souls who don’t have free will; you “pour” your choice, will, and yearning into them and lead them on like a shepherd who leads a herd of a thousand cows. Obviously, it’s easier to be a cow than a shepherd since he has to know the way. But it’s not up to you; you will have to become a shepherd!
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From Lesson 6, WE! Convention 4/3/2011

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Our egoism is “help from the opposite,” which we have to use in order to ascend to the Creator’s level. And it works in two areas. The first is a person’s connection with the group where his egoism works against “Israel” (the intention “straight to the Creator”). The second is when our ego comes forth against the only force that controls the world, meaning against the Creator. Our ego rises up against these two forces and resists them by every means possible and at every moment. That is why all of our work is aimed only at this.

The more we aspire to attain a connection among us in bestowal, love, and mutual guarantee, the faster we will reveal that we are incapable of this! And then we will have to turn to the Creator and deal with Pharaoh who stands against Him. We know from the story of Egyptian slavery that Moses, the leader of the nation of Israel who spoke with the Creator, did not appear right away. All of this occurs after many years of exile in Egypt when the nation of Israel already cried out from the difficult work and screamed out to the Creator. Only then did one Jewish woman give birth to a boy Moses, and then this entire story begins to unfold. This new force called Moses rises up in a person.

That is where the work against Pharaoh begins. We discern whether it is worth it for us to attract the upper force in order to create a connection in the group that will fuse us together as one nation with one heart, so much that we will reveal the Creator inside of that unity. That is to say, the work takes places in two areas. First of all, this is difficult work that made “the sons of Israel cry out,” which is when we want to build our spiritual vessel (desire) and are unable to. And then we scream, not knowing what to do.

That is when the second phase begins, where we discern: Whom do we yell at and how? We have to reveal the upper force. We want it to be present inside of our union, and not just in order to make our connection with each other come true. Our entire connection has to happen in order to reveal the force fo the Creator, the force of bestowal and love.

We work through these two phases, and as long as we don’t complete them fully, uniting all of Israel and attracting the Creator instead of Pharaoh inside of us, we will not be able to come out of Egypt. This exodus occurs as an escape in darkness, extremely rushed.

There are several steps that we have to make in the direction of this exodus. The Light that illuminates these steps leads us to realize that there is just one upper force, “There is none else besides Him.” Only He influences us and leads us through all of these steps and all of the states. All of our sensations, thoughts, and desires comes to us from above. What depends on us is only one single point of freedom: To relate everything that is happening to the Creator.

We realize this free choice in the group by uniting as one man in order to reveal Him, and He is present inside of the group. That is how we prepare for the exodus from Egypt in order to ascend above our ego and to shift to being ruled by the force of bestowal.

This is the greatest event in a person’s life. It’s not an accident that the whole Torah starts with the Exodus, and the month when it happens is called the beginning of all the months. The beginning is enumerated from the exodus from Egypt because all of the Torah and all spiritual life is built only on this foundation. This is the beginning of a “human being” who starts to grow up from the animate existence, the growing force of faith called the force of the Creator, which rises above the earthly, animate knowledge. All of this begins with the exodus from the egoistic Egypt.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/10/11, Writings of Rabash

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The higher the frequency at which we make our choice, again and again, in favor of the point in the heart, in favor of unity, the faster is our path. When we get together at large conventions and become included in one another with our desires, then I perform one action and all the others perform a multitude of other actions which join mine. If I remained alone, I would never complete this work!

However, the Creator helps us. He divided the huge desire He created into many parts. When each part carries out its work, it adds that work to everyone else.
It turns out that if there are say 800 of us, and over the course of several days at a convention each of us makes 100 actions, then it will turn out that each one made 80,000 actions. That’s because we are all connected together! And besides the people present in the convention hall, there are many more friends all over the world who join our broadcasts.

Before coming to teach this lesson, I received letters and greetings from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Israel, Germany, and many other places. Look at how many people have gathered at our centers worldwide. Right now on the screen we see Tel Aviv, the Galilee, Rehovot, Minsk, Columbia, Donetsk, Tbilisi, Chile, Odessa, Beer Sheba, Haifa, Ashkelon, Hadera, and many more.

There are many of us and if we use the days of the convention correctly, then we will leap onto the next level and will possibly realize the law that is called, “He made efforts and found!” This can happen. It all depends on us.

If a large amount of people join us and each person includes everyone, then each person receives a sufficient force. We have worked on our unity very well and have thus acquired knowledge. We studied and prepared for the whole year, constantly discussing that there is only “we,” that we are together, and that the spiritual world becomes revealed only in the connection among us. So let us hope that we will be able to implement that unity.
From the 1st lesson at the WE! Convention on 4/1/11

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Question from a woman: I have a very big desire to become perfect. What should I do: direct this desire towards the men or straight to the Creator?

Answer: Neither. You have to correct it yourself. You don’t have to “direct” your desire anywhere. Every person must correct his or her own desire. It’s just that the means for this correction is the mutual help we give to one another, our connection with each other.

No one can correct your desires. This would take away your freedom of choice, your independence, and the ability to attain the level that you have to attain, the root of your soul.

Only work in the group, both for men and for women, in the appropriate form for each to perform their spiritual work will help them become included in one another with their souls and to feel that all together we belong to one Kli, one common soul, just as before the breaking.
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From the 3rd lesson at the WE! Convention on 4/1/11

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Kabbalists try very hard to explain the main moment of our work: how we arrive at free choice. They start by explaining that we have no freedom whatsoever. Findings in biology, ecology, psychology, genetics, and other sciences make it evident. We are not free.

Every person is born into a family he didn’t choose, a society he didn’t pick, a nation he didn’t decide on, with the traits that were not his choice. He was schooled at a place that he didn’t select either. And how could he have made a choice himself? His family, kindergarten, and school provided the environment, under the influence of which he developed.

Very seldom, as if accidentally, a person finds himself or herself under a foreign influence, for instance, of the books, and develops slightly differently than his surroundings. There are very few people like this, and they being guided from Above.

With regard to everything else, as Baal HaSulam writes in his article “The Freedom,” I’m not independent in the way I sit, eat, sleep, dress, or speak. In general, it is not me. Everything is imparted on me by the environment, the priorities of which force me to hold myself and behave in a certain way even when I’m alone. I have internalized the values of the environment and they have become my own.

Initially, I was a drop of semen; I received everything else from the environment: my parents, the close ones, educators and teachers, friends, street, city, and so on. Even a drop of semen itself wasn’t me either, but a set of traits I inherited from my parents.

It follows that man has no freedom, has nothing that could be said to be his own. From one side, it is very hard to agree with this, but from the other, scientists have discovered it already and subscribe to it completely. Only in the human society we nevertheless judge a person by what he or she is, even though in reality, a person embodies the environment which “sculpted” him or her.

From the spiritual point of view, given the conditions in which we find ourselves, we can’t talk about ourselves as such. In spirituality, each of us begins with a drop of semen called the “point in the heart.” When a person begins to feel this point within himself or herself, he or she is brought to the appropriate environment.
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From Lesson 1, WE! Convention 4/1/2011

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Question: Essentially, I don’t have any freedom of choice. Nature rules over me. So does everything really depend on me?

Answer: Creation begins with the still level, followed by the vegetative, animate, and human degrees. The human degree, too, begins to develop from the still level and undergoes the same stages. This was the course of evolution on Earth over millions of years.

Finally, we have reached the degree of “human within human” and become accountable. We used to live like animals under a stick, but now we have to meet certain demands. Whether we like it or not, today we must undertake certain actions.

A few thousand years after what happened in ancient Babylon, we are handed the method of correction once again. Free will, as well as responsibility that comes along with it, begins specifically with the “human within human,” with our current level. Hence, we are talking about absolute goodness, about the purpose of creation, and about how to stay on course, in order to advance without cataclysms.

Conscious development begins now, while until this time suffering spurred egoism on to develop. Without these “injections,” it wouldn’t have made a single move.

The still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature do not possess free will. Neither does a human being who exists at the still, vegetative, or animate level. The possibility of free choice appears only now. After all, now you have the “point in the heart” and you can use it to connect with the friends and find Infinity in your unity.

Choice is impossible without inner struggle. You choose with whom you want to be: your friends or yourself. It’s either we or me.

Absolute goodness is awaiting all of us at the end of the path, but you have received the opportunity to choose, and hence you can already aim at it. For this, you have to always hold onto the middle line, using your “Self” and the environment together.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/25/2011, The Principles of Global Education

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Question: Can I motivate myself to unite with the friends by means of fear of suffering that will come in the future?

Answer: Suffering doesn’t affect the point in the heart! It affects my egoistic desire, my “donkey”! But it does not affect the human in me, my point in the heart. A person can only advance spirituality by moving forward out of his own free will.

Therefore, if I don’t develop the inner aspiration to move forward, meaning that I want to build the storage place for the upper Light with the help of the group, then I evolve as a mere animal that is being “kicked,” through suffering. These strikes make me contemplate: Why are they coming down on me, what did I do to deserve them, and why? Then I will probably start linking my point in the heart with the others.

Question: But how do I scare the human in me so I would get it to advance?

Answer: If you suddenly heard on the radio that our country is about to be covered by a radioactive cloud, your “animal” would start shaking at such tragic news. And you can receive a similar from the group.

However, we do not speak about what will happen to us because we do not advance by way of fear. We wish to move ahead by becoming conscious of the importance of the spiritual goal. The importance of the goal is quite virtual, intangible, and depends on how we depict it within. If we keep envisioning the goal as increasingly more exalted, then we will advance in accordance with that.

In other words, I am like a rabbit that runs after a carrot that is held in front of it on a string. Moreover, a human in me holds both the carrot and the string, while my “animal” is chasing it.
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From the lesson on Writings of Rabash on 3/18/2011

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On the path we reveal various flaws, and that is how it should be. However, it is a completely different matter when I am able to accept them with understanding by virtue of my preparation and the support I receive from the environment. Then I will see the flaws as a kind of exercise. And an exercise is no longer a bad thing.

When encountering a problem, I don’t panic, feeling weak and confused. On the contrary, I know that I have been given this problem in order to overcome it and receive a reward. It does not trip me so I fall down and does not cut me off from the path to goodness.

The entire matter lies in the preparation, which enables me to see everything as a chance for advancement, rather than an avalanche of troubles that we want to run away from or even to end our own lives.

The aim at the goal decides everything. If I am in a caring environment, then it “brainwashes me” and explains that all the defects are being revealed as exercises for a person who wishes to grow. Then I use them in order to advance. Moreover, I am happy about the flaws that become revealed.

And vice versa, without the appropriate upbringing, without the support and help of the environment, I cannot correct and turn every flaw into a trampoline for leaping forward. Instead of this, I am always immersed in evil.

In this regard humanity faces free choice: How to accept everything that becomes revealed on the path? If I recognize the problems in advance, if I prepare an environment for myself and desire to advance forward, then the flaws are revealed gently. I already understand them, am ready for them, and accept them as signs of advancement.

Question: What defects are you talking about? About the realization of evil inside of oneself, or about tsunamis and other natural disasters?

Answer: If you prepare, then you no longer need a tsunami. Then the flaws will not be troubles for you, but challenges. They won’t be unresolved problems, but tasks. Similarly, a diligent child does not need strict measures. Instead we let him gather a Lego or puzzle, and so on. He does not receive a difficult life from us, but exercises which he likes. Even if they make him sweat a bit, they also give him pleasure.
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