Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)” Section 20: Thus, each and every Mitzva that each person from Israel performs in order to bring contentment to one’s Maker, and not for any self-gratification, helps, to some extent, with the development of all the people of the world. This is because it is not done at once, but by slow, gradual development, until it increases to such a degree that it can bring all the people in the world to the desired purity. And this is what our sages call “shifting the balance to virtue,” meaning that the necessary weight of purity has been reached. And they compare it to weighing on a scale, where the shifting of the balance is the attainment of the desired weight.

These are very serious conditions. There are people who are more ready to comply with them, and there are those who are less ready. This depends on their previous preparation. It depends on their past and the root of their soul. There are people who cannot comply with this, and they leave. When a person comes to study, in the first years, he doesn’t hear what they say to him, and it is good that he doesn’t hear! Therefore the wisdom of Kabbalah was concealed for so long so people wouldn’t know about the serious conditions.

Specifically because of this condition, the Shevira (Breaking) happened, the destruction of the First and Second Temples. Therefore, we needed to move away from the place of Shevira because we were not ready to withstand it. So, we were forced to endure exile for 2,000 years to gradually get closer to the condition due to which the great people fell in the days of the Beit ha Mikdash (Temple).

In our day, we have reached readiness, and we have received all the explanations from Baal HaSulam in the article “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)” so directly and openly that it places us facing this condition such that there is nowhere to flee. But even after all of this, people who come to study don’t absorb what is said at all in the first ten years.

But at least they are near these things because throughout previous incarnations they were far from discovery, and the message has been revealed now, even though, in the meantime, they are not absorbing it. There is still resistance. There is contact, but it is not yet internal. And later these words gradually begin to penetrate into a person through disappointments, various unpleasant problems. and events.

They must continue in spite of everything, and the Light will continue to work.

The environment obligates a person, gives him various tasks, sending him to disseminate, to various duties. It awakens and obligates him. He must do his duty, otherwise they won’t let him rest. So, this is very influential on him and advances him, hastening his development, and finally he begins to see that he has no choice and that spirituality is not at all the way he used to think about it, and he doesn’t attain and is unable to attain true spirituality.

He begins to understand that everything is determined by emotion and not intellect, but it is impossible to control emotions. He is not dependent on us, but only on the Light that Reforms, which changes a person’s feelings, his desire. So, gradually, he digests these concepts: what the love of others truly is and how impossible it is to attain it on one’s own; it depends entirely on the Light that Reforms.

So, he begins to organize all of his activities so that the Light will influence him and correct him. This is a great revolution that happens in a person after many years within the group in the process of correction, study, and dissemination, and the entire world must go through all of this.

But it is up to us to understand that every action we make adds to the favorable balance of the entire world. In the integral system, nothing happens to me individually without being felt by everyone. At the end of correction, what we did for everyone and what everyone did will be revealed. We will have a common understanding and common sense, and all of us will be able to feel this entire system together. Each one will be equivalent to the entire system.

Then, in exactly what form each one within this entire system acts for the good of others will be discovered. They will not take into account how they brought the person down from above, pushed him, and what the conditions were that he was given. Rather, it will be what the efforts were that he invested in the conditions that they gave him and whether he realized his freedom of choice.

All of this will be revealed at the end of correction, and each one will be ashamed of himself due to the achievements of his friend. This is how we correct the shame that is rooted in us and is the cause for the evolution of all the worlds.
[129011]
From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/4/14

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Question: What does one need in order to be as closely in an equivalence of form with the teacher as possible?

Answer: Everyone feels this according to the sublteties of his soul. But if we decide to perform some general action, everyone has to participate in them, otherwise a person is neither with the group nor with me and it is as if he is thrown off the boat into the stormy sea, although he may not feel it.

Besides, if I work with someone on a certain project, no matter what one does: one can take care of the electricity, another can prepare excerpts from articles, etc., and there are others who have to see what is required of them. They come to me to clarify what I want exactly and why I think so, an expert may explain to me that it should be done in a different way and then I may change my mind.

But the student has to care that his opinion and my opinion should be one! If he doesn’t agree with me, let him come and convince me. This often happens, I am not so stubborn that I don’t listen to reason. It’s usually about corporeal matters, including dissemination because there can be different local conditions I am not aware of. But the principle is “make your desire his desire,” which means that there should be an agreement between the student and his teacher and the fulfillment of the desire.

Question: How should I know that I have made my desire his desire? Not everyone can come and ask!

Answer: If it is a personal project you may come and ask. If it is a general project in dissemination, I count on the people in charge of this project. I hope that they understand the responsibility they have to guide everyone according to what has been decided. It is as if we all reach one desire, one intention, one direction, and then we go out and disseminate. There you have to make sure that things don’t divert in other directions, and if this suddenly happens you should consult me.

If we don’t hold on to the accurate direction, it is like two connected pipes where one suddenly shifts and then nothing can flow through them. I have to make my desire his desire for the Light to flow.
[128631]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/27/14, Topic of Lesson “Teacher”

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Question: I always hear that the Creator is good that does good, but in the meantime I don’t feel this. So how can I be happy?

Answer: We are used to being happy when we feel that we have gained. If the ego gains at every moment, if it is comfortable, good, warm, and pleasant for me, money drips into my account, “One penny and another penny accumulate into a great sum” (Baba Batra 9b) and I enjoy. Thank God everything is okay, soon I will take a vacation, sail on a luxury liner, on Shabbat my favorite soccer team is playing; there is something to enjoy in life!

This is what we call “pleasure,” but this is joy now or in the future within the desire to receive. That is how we live. If I don’t feel joy in the present or in the future, I am ready to die. A person is not able to exist without joy, if not now, then at least from hope for joy in the future. Otherwise, “it is better for me to die than to live” (Jonah 4:3).

Now the question is asked, how can we be happy in a situation where we really want spiritual revelation but don’t have it? If at the moment we don’t have it, then everything depends on hope for the future; am I confident that ultimately I will have it? It is clear that in the present I don’t have anything! “A judge only has what his eyes see” (Sanhedrin 6b), and I see that I have not yet discovered the spiritual world, don’t understand and don’t feel it.

But am I sure that I will discover it? If I am in a group and the group radiates confidence to me that we are going towards revelation and we will reach it, then I will be happy! The friends give me the confidence that we will succeed. Without this, I won’t succeed in advancing; rather, I will simply sleep all day so I won’t suffer, because at the moment I have no joy and also don’t expect it in the future. It is impossible to die, and what is left is just to sleep, at least not feel anything.

This is exactly what happens to a person. This is natural; there is nothing to do about it. The question is how do we deal with this? How is it possible to stimulate the environment so that it will influence us and we will be happy and full of energy? For this it is up to us to appreciate the friends and to be connected with them. And in addition to this, we must awaken the Light that Reforms together so that it will stimulate us all the time and provide excitement. And then I will not only be excited by the words of the people, but I will receive illumination from above through them.

This illumination is called “faith.” Faith is power that I invest without getting anything in return. It seems that this is impossible, but the Light will influence me and will give me the possibility of doing it. This is called, “faith above reason.” According to my nature, I am not ready to bestow without receiving anything in exchange! But if the Light will give me a characteristic like this, then I can. And then my happiness will not be connected to fulfillment within my Kelim. As it is said: “Who is rich? It is the one who is happy with his lot” (Pirkei Avot 4:1).

And what is his lot? He doesn’t have anything! But he is happy. Maybe he is crazy or stupid? No, he is truly the richest and happiest person! The rich don’t feel happy because they are pursuing even greater wealth all the time, and they are not “the one who is happy with his lot.” This is called feeling rich and happy. He doesn’t need anything more; imagine what a wonderful feeling this is. Even billionaires don’t feel this way because they want more and more money. They are the poorest people of all! If an ordinary person doesn’t have a thousand dollars, they don’t have millions, billions. So which of us is poorer, who needs more? It means that everything depends on the environment and the illumination of the Ohr Makif (Surrounding Light).
[129162]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/5/14, Writhing of Baal HaSulam

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Question: To reach prayer, is this the individual work of a person or the work of the entire group?

Answer: Of course this is the shared work of all of us. From where would I get the strength for it? If I don’t identify with the sorrow of the community, I wouldn’t be able to reach prayer.

Otherwise I will scream for myself, but for this won’t receive an answer from above. I must transmit to the Elyon (Higher) the request of others, the Prayer of Many. It is called this because I scream for the many, and not because many people scream.

The “many” are my own desires that are portrayed to me as strangers. I scream because I want to approach them, feel them like I feel myself, reach love of others as myself, and connect.

I don’t scream about it being bad for them and the Creator needs to help them, even though this is also prayer, as it is said, “One who prays for his friend is answered first” (Baba Kama 90b). The main thing is, when I see them as parts of myself and am connected with them, to that degree I am connected with the Creator.

After all, if I ask the Creator to be merciful to them and to solve their problems, then in this way I blame Him that He is abusing them and am thinking He is cruel and am asking Him to do something good for them. But I cannot turn to the Creator that way and I will not have equivalence of form with Him if I don’t decide that He is merciful and gracious.

So a true prayer is not a request that something good should be done for others. How can I ask the Creator to do something good if He is also good that does good? I ask Him to make such a correction in us that all of us will adhere with Him. This is the entire prayer, there is nothing more for which to ask.

If I see something bad, this is because there is a gap,; the forces of Shevira (Breakage) are discovered. And the Shevira is within me, so I see reality as being so bad. So I ask that all of us will be able to adhere to the Creator and give Him pleasure. After all, we are so despicable that we are not prepared to accept Him as He truly is: good that does good.

It means that we don’t ask Him to do good for us because in every case we are found in an optimal situation for us. We ask for correction of our distorted vision and sensation, so we don’t blame the Creator like little children who scream, “Bad Mommy!”

Question: But what is to be done with an evil inclination that constantly proclaims that everything is bad?

Answer: A person must try to rise above his evil inclination and not annihilate it. We need to rise above it and be higher than it because desires of bestowal must be above desires of reception. Yet it is forbidden to extinguish the desires of reception; for then the desires of bestowal cannot exist.

Without the Yetzer HaRa (evil inclination), what are we left with? The Yetzer HaTov (good inclination) cannot exist in us because this is the Creator, the desire to bestow. I cannot be the Yetzer HaTov; the Yetzer HaTov can exist within me only to the degree that it rides on the Yetzer HaRa.

The Yetzer HaRa assures me of detachment from the Creator, independence. And the Yetzer HaTov that controls it gives me the form of the Creator. However, I can only ask for the Yetzer HaTov to dominate over the Yetzer HaRa within me. Only the Upper Light can carry this out; I myself am not able to. This is not at my power.

I can only clarify that this is what is required from me. I get such a possibility as a result of the Shevira, which builds the connection between the desire to receive and the desire to bestow. So I get the ability to clarify, to analyze, to differentiate between one and the other. The Upper Light begins to illuminate these concepts for me and I see what is good and what is bad.
[129215]
From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/6/14

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Question: How does our dissemination qualitatively develop our desire?

Answer: It is thanks to the dissemination that I become one who bestows. There is no other action in our world that can make me resemble the Creator except dissemination.

I go somewhere in the evening and have a workshop there, a lecture, talk to people and gradually bring them closer to one another, encouraging them to think about the meaning of life, and telling them how we can improve our corporeal life.

Our corporeal life is only an excuse to participate in mutual bestowal. After all, the whole world is just an excuse, the internal motive to start building the right relationships above it. I tell people how we will be able to get rid of all our troubles and problems thanks to the right relations between us.

They care about what will happen to them in this world. They want me to draw a picture of the wonderful tomorrow for them and I have to draw for them the wonderful future we will have if we are more connected to one another. Having no other choice, it is a compromise for people, and the means to improve their corporeal future, while for me the corporeal life is temporary and only the stimulus, the excuse, the reason, to ascend to spiritual states.

This means that our goals and means are opposite from those of the public, but this is the difference between the levels: for me this is the state on the upper level and for them it is different on the lower level. But I perceive their corporeal desires and in order to fulfill them I suggest that they establish better relations between us and people already begin to think about improving the relations between them since without this our corporeal life will not improve.

I use their desire to correct the relations between everyone and actually raise them to my level. From my level, I already raise these desires to the level of the relations between people that belongs to the thought of creation and ask the Creator to give us the power to overcome the obstacles so that the connection between us will heal the painful wounds of humanity. After all, the fact that they feel blows is a sign of the lack of connection between us. Thus everyone reaches a state of harmony. An ordinary person reaches a certain level of connection with others and a corporeal filling. I get a chance to bestow unto them and thus to bestow unto the Creator, and the Creator enjoys! This means that all these three levels have advanced in the right direction. Thus I intensify the glory of the Creator in the world.

So let’s disseminate! But before we subdue ourselves before this action and delve into clarifications in order to understand exactly:

• Why we do it,
• What people want,
• Why we have to absorb their desires,
• How we can make sure that we will provide them with a good life only if we are connected,
• How I begin to feel that I have to bring people the right filling,
• Why I need the group in order to do that, since otherwise I will not be able to fulfill my role in dissemination,
• How we need the Creator in this matter.

I actually go out to ordinary people who complain about their corporeal problems and finally I feel that without the Creator’s help I am totally lost. The people format this deficiency in me—the need for the Creator! After all, I see that I cannot give them anything by myself if the Creator doesn’t help me.

Thus we actually connect to the upper force by the people, and therefore, we have to really appreciate our work in dissemination since it actually gives us an opportunity for a spiritual ascent.
[129330]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/6/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: If the Creator controls both my heart and my mind, then how can I choose and change direction?

Answer: Me, I am just a part of the system, something that is included in the group, and with the help of the connection with it, am able to participate in the general prayer, MAN.

It’s not my body and not my present feelings and mind. All of that isn’t taken into consideration at all, thus this world is called “imaginary.” It is possible to completely erase everything that we feel since there is nothing real about it. Everything is fictitious. So what do I have left? The Reshimo (reminiscence) isn’t me either, since it also comes from above. Only my efforts to be integrated into the group are taken into account, with the goal to return the system back to what it was in the beginning. And this is called MAN.

Question: When I work in the group, do desires of another kind awaken in me?

Answer: Of course it is another kind of desire. My desire to be integrated into the group and the efforts I make in order to connect to the friends is already my effort to reach bestowal since when I do this, I must annul myself.
[129437]
From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/9/14

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Question: Why is it necessary to connect with friends and it is not enough simply to be involved with dissemination to the public?

Answer: Our dissemination to the wider public is an action that comes from above to below. It is necessary to come to people and to guide them, to become their head. But in order to be their head I must be the bestower. How can I acquire the characteristic of bestowal if I am not connected with another ten, or a hundred, or a few thousand people like me, in conditions of absolute equality?

I need the group to acquire the characteristic of bestowal with which I will go out to the wider public. So together with the group, I need to be connected to the Light that Reforms. Alone, I am not able to be connected to the Light. The Light doesn’t bestow to each one separately, there must be ten people according to the spiritual structure of the Kli. If there aren’t ten people, the Light will have nothing in which to be clothed, in which to be grasped; it will have nothing to fill. It is as if a Kli had only walls but not the tenth Sefira, the Malchut, meaning there is no bottom of the Kli. So it is called a Tsinor (pipe).

Without the group it is impossible to attract the Light, the power that will correct you. What can you bring to the public if you are not connected to a Kli and the Light that fills it? How can you disseminate if you don’t have any connection with the origin of the power? You can just sell books or work on the Internet in dissemination of articles and there won’t be any problem in replacing you with some paid worker who just works for a salary. For if you don’t have Light, what can you bestow other than papers?
[129420]
From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/4/14

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Question: If everything is done by the Light, what exactly depends on a person in attaining the love of others?

Answer: A person has to try to perform certain actions. Not everything is determined by the Light, it also depends on the person. He tries, sees, and understands that he is incapable of performing them, and so he asks for help, cries out, and disagrees. This is where he participates in the process: in the work of the group on a person and in a person’s work on the group.

It is true that the Lights move the vessels, but the person and the group are combined and also the group with the teacher, and there is still the personal effort that a person makes in this combination.

If I begin to perform different actions in the group, for example, if I take kitchen duties although I don’t want to at all, but I do it because I am ashamed of others, because I want to be loved and respected, it means that my motives are egoistic.

Otherwise, I feel regret because I did it as a result of my ego and didn’t act by myself with the intention of love and bestowal. The feeling of regret comes later when I don’t work in the kitchen anymore, but during the study. These actions accumulate: my regret because I operated egoistically and also the actions themselves in which my ego helps me. This means that the evil inclination helps a person, “Pharaoh brings the children of Israel closer to our father in heaven.”

The fact that we see a great profit in spiritual actions and rush to perform them in expectation of a reward is actually thanks to the evil inclination. Without it we could not attain anything. But later I regret the fact that I did everything for my own sake and this sorrow draws the Light that Reforms. These two forces operate in us in complete harmony, as it says: “the Creator has created them one opposite the other.” And so we arrive from Lo Lishma, which means for my own sake, to Lishma, in order to bestow. The actions are the same actions and only the intention changes.
[129415]
From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/4/14

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Question: Why does Baal HaSulam write in the article, ”Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” that in our generation we will no longer fear an indecent student, who will take the wisdom of the Kabbalah and sell the materials in the market to many people, but they won’t find buyers for this merchandise, as in their eyes, they have already had enough of it?

Answer: After all, you see how difficult it is to disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah. Do people snatch up books of Kabbalah from our hands?  Even for free it is difficult to distribute them. If we were to distribute colorful pamphlets, they would willingly take them and would even pay for them. People are willing to travel distances in order to pray on the graves of the holy ones, but they aren’t able to invest a little time to study in order to understand the internality of what those holy ones wrote.

To sell the wisdom of Kabbalah in the market is called searching for ways to profit from what belongs to holiness. Selling blessings, red strings, etc., means behaving according to the desires of the market and not according to truth, for example, instead of giving morning lessons according to authentic texts, giving evening lectures for the public to talk about mysticism, about reincarnation, about the influence of the moon and magical powers of man.

Question: But we also disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah and make it compatible for the public?

Answer: When we go out to the public, we must adjust ourselves to their desires, otherwise there won’t be contact between us. But this is not to say that we cheat people and sell them lies. We are speaking here of lowering the level, like for a child. After all, you don’t lie to a child, you only want to teach him. Therefore you lower yourself and begin to teach him bit by bit. That is something else. It is called, “educating according to the way of the youth.”

By disseminating are we telling them something that is not true? It is true that we choose interesting things in order to attract people, but in our explanations, there is nothing that is not correct. We teach spiritual subjects that have no connection to corporeality. And if it isn’t connected to corporeal life, then no one is interested in it!

The material of creation is desire, and if a person has no need for spirituality, then it is impossible to interest him. He has no Kli (vessel, desire), thus there is no place for the revelation of the Creator. A place is a deficiency. One must clarify what a person’s real deficiency is, what his needs are, and with that reach out to him. People want money, security, and education. One must reach out to them according to these subjects.

It doesn’t matter in what way the Creator presents our problem. I must work according to the conditions that He gave me. For me, these are the best and most optimal conditions to attain the goal. That is the main point. I accept, as given, that the Creator created these conditions for me. If I begin to work in the factory, I don’t complain to the boss about why he didn’t set up work conditions for me according to the way I want them and why the factory wasn’t built on the beach. I come to work and accept all the conditions and agree to the salary.

Thus, it is not important if the dissemination progresses with more difficulty or ease. I only need to accept the field of work in a more correct manner. I need to clarify the deficiencies in a more correct manner, find a better system in order to turn to people, to correct, to adjust, and to change myself in order to approach this task in a better way. This is the only thing I need to worry about: to accept all the data and to adjust myself to them.

The moment I succeed in adjusting myself to people, a connection is immediately created between us, like between a plug and socket.  Suddenly I discover that I am exactly suitable for the task before me. The only problem is with me, in that I don’t adjust myself to the world, to the nation, or to the conditions. There are no stupid, hopeless students, but only teachers who are not trained enough.
[129844]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/12/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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We are all parts of one general whole and mutually complement one another as a result of the differences, contrasts, and oppositeness between us. This mutual complementing is obliged to emphasize and expose all the rejections we feel internally towards one another.

It is only by the right connection between us that we can find the ideal unity that will allow the revelation of all the differences and oppositeness between us, and on the other hand, the absolute whole, harmonious, and mutual cooperation between us. All the differences between us connect through our mutual love, mutual bestowal, and mutual agreement. When all the parts work together only for the sake of others, it makes their connection possible.

Question: How can we attain this realization?

Answer: It results from the great desire that each of us has to be filled with the Light. We have been looking for this filling, not only for many years, but also in our previous lives. Within a certain life, we stop and begin to dig more deeply into the question of how I can fulfill myself.

If we were all equal, we would be as one, but there cannot be much of the same thing. We can make many identical tables in our world, but there is no such thing in the spiritual world. There is no uniformity inside us, and we see it in people around us. It is thanks to our differences that such a global orchestra exists. In the meantime, it is not yet an orchestra, but a terrible cacophony (a combination of meaningless sounds). But if we bring them all together under the leadership of an experienced conductor, there will be a wonderful, coordinated, and harmonious orchestra.
[164394]
From KabTV’s “Conversations with Michael Laitman” 8/5/15

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