Question: What does it mean to be responsible for everyone else?

Answer: There are simple formulas in which all parameters and the relationships between them are known and there is only one unknown, for example: x + 3 = 5.

In that case it is easy to calculate the unknown: x = 5 – 3 = 2.

But how can we solve an equation in which there are two unknowns y + x = 5? We need another equation, but we don’t have one. I get such a result at the output of a certain system and I have to know how it works, with what parameters. It can be whatever you want 4 + 1, 1 + 4, positive parameters or negative ones, but the final result is 5, and I cannot determine them.

This is the result we come out with. We have a group in which there are seven billion people and there should be harmony among them, perfect unity, which means 1.

How can we reach that? I can only say that this one depends on me and all the other seven billion are in a fixed state. I am the only one who changes; I am not constant. I am responsible, I am independent, I work for everyone, and the whole world is inside me.

I determine the general state for everyone and am responsible for it to the extent that I can take upon myself the responsibility for the whole world. I am independent and can tilt the scale for better or for worse.
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From the 5^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/27/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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The feeling of the external world was given to us on purpose in order to develop the sense of knowing others. I can use others egoistically by bringing them closer to me or distancing them depending on their benefit to me. I can also use others not according to my own benefit but according to their benefit and thus change myself and use myself.

One time the friend is important to me and I change everything inside me that needs to be changed in order to make him feel better, and another time I am important and I bend the friend in my direction in my own benefit.

The struggle is actually between these two perceptions: who is more important and who determines everything. This struggle is very important to me because it helps me understand what I lack in order to build the sense for knowing others.

The others are in fact the Creator, and this whole picture—this world and the upper worlds, which are seemingly external to me—are only tools to discover the Creator. At first we don’t have such tools but only their initial form, the point in the heart. However, by working in the group, with the friends, in dissemination, in the larger world, I build this sense.

One time I imagine that everything is inside me and that all these parts are depicted as external to me, and that it is my illusion. If I step through this perception, I correct it and begin to establish the sense of bestowal, the sense of feeling others.

And again, I imagine that there is “I” and there is “they” who are external to me. My egoistic desire grows and lets me know that I have to take care of myself at their expense. This means that I have to remain constant and the others change for my own benefit.

I imagine things this way, and at another time, I imagine them another way, and thus I determine my ascents and descents and I develop additional senses. When it begins to work, it is called Shechina, a sense by which I perceive the one who dwells (Shochen, which has the same root in Hebrew), the Creator. I reveal Him as this sense develops, and I feel and understand Him.

Therefore, the most important engagement in this world, which is the reason that we are on this planet, is to develop the sense of recognizing the good and the evil during our lifetime, to duplicate and to improve it, and by it, to attain the sense of recognizing the Creator.

All this is attained by working with the public according by which I can accurately measure how far I have advanced towards this goal, towards the development of the vessels, the senses for the revelation of the Creator, which means to the revelation of the attribute of love and bestowal. To the extent that the group and all the world that is external to me become more important to me than myself, so that I see them as constant and myself as changing with regards to them, I can estimate and measure my advancement.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/26/14

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Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut” (Mutual Guarantee), Item 18: Therefore, the Tana (Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai) described the Arvut as two people in a boat, when one of them began to drill a hole in the boat. This means that they are already connected and are in one vessel, in a boat, which is already a spiritual level of connection, but still there is a problem, a malfunction in their connection.

“His friend asked, “Why are you drilling?” He replied, “What business is it of yours? I am drilling under me, not under you.”

If he had understood and felt that he is in a collective vessel, then everything would have been fine. And yet once he was  attracted to it and he had built the collective boat with everyone, but now an additional evil inclination has been revealed in him and he doesn’t feel that he is in one vessel and that he is connected to the others. He thinks that he is by himself and doesn’t care what the others do. It is as if he is on a day off, free of the whole business of mutual guarantee. This happens to each and everyone.

So he replied, “Fool! We will both drown together!” He doesn’t just leave the group, but also drowns it since he is also incorporated in the connection.

From this we learn that since those rebels wallow in self-love, by their actions they build an iron wall that prevents the observers of the Torah from even beginning to fully keep the Torah and Mitzvot in the measure of “Love thy friend as thyself,” which is the ladder for reaching Dvekut (adhesion) with Him.

Since we are all incorporated in one another and depend on one another, then of course if someone leaves, he corrupts the whole structure. We cannot glue a patch on the side of the boat instead of him. After all, he is connected to everyone and is incorporated with everyone. Therefore, it is a great problem if someone leaves or even if he is temporarily not connected to the group.

He is severely punished for the harm he has caused to all the friends that he has left, for each and everyone. One should be very careful about the general incorporation.

If you come to the lesson and you sleep, it means that you don’t add your intentions. This isn’t a serious transgression as yet, and it does happen sometimes. However, there are much more serious transgressions.
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From the 5^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/02/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: It turns out that I depend upon everyone and anyone can make a hole in our common boat? This is a serious problem!

Answer: What did you think? This is called mutual guarantee. You sign guarantees for everyone and everyone signs for you, all of those who are in mutual guarantee.

You make a hole, and then correct it. After that, you make a hole again and repair it again. This is our work in strengthening and maintaing the boat.

Since our boat is at sea, water enters into it through some openings, or the waves are high and they enter over the sides of the boat. And we must work constantly to get this water out. All of this happens with any ship. Even though it seems that the ship is quite tight, there is always seepage of water through some openings in the body of the ship.

Question: What does it mean that I fall into narcissism throughout the day? How am I making a hole in the boat?

Answer: You simply forget about your mutual connection with the friends, you stop being concerned about it, scrutinizing and praying for it, meaning for the friends. You don’t yourself exist; you are a result of what happens with them. This is called guarantee.
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From the 5^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/2/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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“Introduction to The Book of Zohar, “Night of the Bride,” Item 131: And so it says, ‘And several myriads of angels of destruction are with him. And he (the angel Domeh) stands by the door of Gehinnom. This is because the thoughts that he brings to a person are several myriad without end. And all of these are by the door of Gehinnom.’

Question: What types of desires are called “angels of destruction”?

Answer: The angels of destruction are the desires that remove me from the environment. After all, I have no other work. The choice of the person, all of his work, is only to arrange an environment and invest as much as possible in it so that the environment will help him to give contentment to the Creator. This is mutual work and is expressed in his praying for the friends so that they will be able to give contentment to the Creator through his efforts.

This means that a closed system is created. The prayer is from him and the Kelim (vessels) are theirs. This puts him in a position where he is greater than they are since he is responsible for them, their “father and mother.” So he reaches repentance first, for this truly raises him to the level of Abba ve Ima (AVI) (father and mother ) in regard to ZON (which is the Kli, vessel, the deficiency of the others, of the environment).

And this is how each one must act: In his deficiency in regard to others, he should feel himself as small, like a mother who bows down towards her baby to feel what he is lacking. Her deficiency must be greater so that she will be able to feel his particular deficiency in her general deficiency. She must then be greater in order to bestow to him. This is how we work.

From here it follows that we don’t have anything more important than work with the collective, with the public.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/27/14, The Zohar

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Question: How can I connect in thought with the friends when reading The Book of Zohar if I don’t feel their thoughts and emotions but only feel myself?

Answer: We need to try to do this, and, as a result of our persistence, Kelim (vessels) gradually will begin to be arranged in us. There is nothing else to be done. Everyone begins from a lack of feeling, and the feelings come through habit.

It is as if you come to a new workplace and they ask you to do something. However, you have never have done this, and you don’t have any skills. So, you try doing it one way or another, and gather experience. Through repeating the same work again and again, suddenly, a new intelligence and new emotions come to you. You begin to feel the material, that your human observations and scrutinies are relevant to the still, vegetative, animate, and human.

This is derived from your connection. Everything that you see in this great world is a part of your soul; it only seems to be external. So, you receive impressions from them.

It is like an artist or a professional who talks about the material with which he works as if it were a living being. He incorporates this material into himself and attributes all of his characteristics to it.

So, I begin to think more and more about the group, about the friends. It is not important if they are far from me and not next to me. However, through permanent and constant thoughts about them, I sharpen and develop my senses.

This is a law of nature. In our world, there is no other possible way to advance besides returning to these thoughts time after time. This is the difference between someone who learns after 100 times or after 101 times.

This does not mean that I must learn an article by heart. Rather, the investment in learning brings a new feeling.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/30/14, The Zohar

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Question: How do I zero out this expansion of egoistic desires with which I am inflated and convey everything to the Creator?

Answer: It is necessary to go through this by way of the point of the Tzimtzum. Rabash writes that a person must make as many zeroes out of himself regarding the friend that he considers to be one and put these zeroes after him, and that is how he will grow: 10, 100 …

This is all of our work. But if he considers himself to be one and the others to be zero, with this he reduces himself: 0.1, 0.01, ….

Man is sent all kinds of signs of advancement and success, but he must attribute all of this to the Creator. He must feel himself as a conduit that transfers everything and in himself nothing is left. There is entry, exit, and in the middle there is just a conduit.

If the person makes a conduit of himself like this, this indicates that he is approaching the Creator.

Question: When I succeed in some activity, then I swell with pride, like an inflated balloon. And I look for a pin to make a hole in the balloon and bring a contribution to the group, spiritual benefit, to attain connection with the Creator, but I cannot find it.

Answer: You will not find this pin by yourself; you must ask! This is what is called making a sacrifice after success is attained, meaning that you approach the Creator after your success, in the face of this swelling with pride.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/2/14, Shamati #53 “A Matter of Limitation”

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 71: And then, each and every one of us will be rewarded with intensifying his own internality, meaning the Israel within us, which is the needs of the soul over our own externality, which is the nations of the world within us, that is, the needs of the body.

That force will come to the whole of Israel, until the nations of the world within us recognize and acknowledge the merit of the great sages of Israel over them, and will listen to them and obey them.

Also, the internality of the nations of the world, the righteous of the nations of the world, will overpower and submit their externality, which are the destructors.

And the internality of the world, too, which are Israel, shall rise in all their merit and virtue over the externality of the world, which are the nations.

Then, all the nations of the world will recognize and acknowledge Israel’s merit over them.

From here it follows that everyone who yearns to discover the Creator and is called the internality of the world, Yashar-El (straight to the Creator), must know that even through his work within the group, he influences the external desires. If he goes out to the general public, then he discovers and receives an even greater imperative to connect with the inner part.

So even though it seems to us that our going out is required in order to connect the external public to us, essentially this is designed to strengthen the inner connection and unity. In this way, we attract more Light, which through the inner part of the group reaches the external public. But in fact we did it in order to connect with the Light. Here all the time is this mutual work.

It is said that “Someone who saves one soul of Israel is as if he saves the entire world,” since through the shattering, mutual integration of all in all is maintained, and in every person among the seven billion there is his own part and parts of all seven billion.

The truth is that this is not seven billion but many more, for this is about the integration of all the generations, all the incarnations of the souls who already finished their correction and those who have not yet begun their correction, of everyone totally. The mutual integration works above time, because this is talking about the structure of the soul.

So the person must say that the world was created for him, and he should be concerned about correction in this form. And this correction cannot be individual, rather it must be related to all according to the structure of the soul. So every moment one must act exactly according to this principle: “What am I thinking about, what is it that I yearn for? Is my yearning spiritual or completely egoistic if I don’t take into account the integral picture of the entire world?”

Here the work of scrutiny is very important, that in principle, the entire world is found in each one of us, and each one, in order to correct himself, must take into account the entire world. It is necessary for you to pay attention that the awakening that is given to you is not for yourself but in order to submerge yourself in the world, in all the others.

Through your doing the work with your influence on the entire world, in that, you aspire to bring the whole world to correction and to discover the Creator within it; you prepare your individual vessel for giving contentment to the Creator.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/29/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: When we look at the problems that are ripping modern society apart, how is it possible to believe that there is any chance of reaching mutual Arvut (mutual guarantee)?

Answer: In society, what happens is what the Creator arranges for us from above, even the most negative things. Believe me, everything is sealed by the Creator Himself and not by any Prime Minister, President, head of the American Congress or the European Union. Everything, down to the last atom, is managed from Above.

Question: Even if there is a feeling that half of the nation should be in prison?

Answer: Not half of the nation, rather the entire nation. Half of the nation are thieves and the other half are to blame for the first half being thieves. So everyone should be in prison, including the police.

If all of us must be in mutual mutual guarantee, then each is responsible for the other. But because we don’t influence the others as is needed, they don’t receive enough influence. So what can be demanded from us?

Only on the condition that we influence others correctly and are concerned that our influence will succeed, can we rest assured that we will see the right response from the others. But if in the meantime, their response is incorrect, then our influence is incorrect.

So the Torah has a completely different approach to punishments in comparison to what is accepted in this world. The punishment must be correction, first and foremost through the environment.

Indeed, a person is a product of his environment. The legal system must be part of the educational system, but punishment must lead to correction. In contrast to this, our prisons are universities for training criminals.

Question: What does this mean: “After all, in your eyes all of Israel are guarantors for each other, both on the positive and negative side?”

Answer: This means that the influence of the environment completely determines human behavior, both positively and negatively. It follows that if the citizens of a nation behave inappropriately, this says that the nation is in a crisis of education. Other than education, nothing else is needed.

The only thing that a nation needs, besides the ministries of defense and health, is the ministry of education. And if the educational system is correct, then we don’t need the military or medicine.

If a nation were to function according to the laws of mutual Arvut, it would not need the military or the police—nothing. They would organize everything that is necessary for material existence for themselves, and they would direct everything else towards spiritual development.

Besides education, nothing is necessary. This stems from the law of mutual Arvut, which means that you are responsible for every resident of the nation and for his behavior as a person. And if he does something that is not good, this means that you have not influenced him positively, you have not given the feeling of love.

Indeed, if he were to feel the love of everyone, this would silence his evil inclination. He wouldn’t need anything and he would feel like a fetus in his mother’s womb, that he has everything: “A lamp is lit above his head, and he looks and sees from one end of the world to the other; and they teach him the entire Torah.”

This is truly an amazing state. Indeed, we are all connected in a single network and this is now being revealed more and more. If you think about the other and influence him, whatever your influence is, this is what will be in him. And as much as your good influence is lacking, you will see this according to his behavior.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/28/14, Writing of Baal HaSulam

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Question: When we are talking with the general public about Arvut (Mutual Guarantee), do we mean material Arvut and not spiritual Arvut?

Answer: If you are talking about material Arvut, this is a political conversation. But if we are talking about spiritual Arvut, then this is about the spirit that dwells within the people through which we can change everything. We are talking about the power that is found in the center of the group, in the center of connection.

We are not calling for people to gather and bring order to government offices, to human society, to physical life, to the schools, to the police, and so forth. We are talking about discovering a unique higher force within our connection. This power is called the power of connection, the power of Arvut, and it can organize our entire lives.

If we want to correct and organize everything through our physical powers, we need to struggle with someone and organize a civil war within the nation. But we don’t want to struggle with anyone. We only want to institute education for the people. And when the people connect and unite through this education, through studying the wisdom of connection, then they will discover the power of connection that organizes everything.

We don’t rely on anyone, not on ourselves and not on our powers. We are far from all politics, because the Light that Reforms will correct everything.

Question: But people don’t feel this Light.

Answer: The Light doesn’t interest people; what matters to them is having a good life. The lack of Light brings them all their troubles, whereas through Arvut they attain the Light that Reforms that will remove all troubles.

There is a provider of Light of great intensity, but it is found ten feet from you; and so you barely feel the vitality that comes from this illumination. But through Arvut everyone gets the power of everyone. In this way, the provider of the Light approaches us and we begin to better feel ourselves.

We turn to the same source that makes the troubles for us and attract Him to us so that He will correct everything for us. This works in a very simple form.

It is necessary only to attract this source to us and people will feel good. They also will not ask where this good comes from. Suddenly they will feel that everything is okay at work, in relationships with neighbors, with their children, in the schools, and in their family. But they will understand that this is done thanks to the Arvut, because there is a deliberate action between the Light and the Kli vessel) and people will begin to discover this. This is practical Kabbalah.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/30/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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