The Great Commentary is a book that was written close to 3,600 years ago. Much later it was amended again and again, but the beginning of its creation coincided with Abraham leaving Babylon and the subsequent destruction of the kingdom of Babylon. The Great Commentary is a book of chronicles that accompanied the history of the people throughout the many years before they went into the Egyptian exile.

There it is said that when the sacrificial animals were ready, it was Aaron’s turn to begin the sacred service. But he stood and didn’t move. “Aaron, go out!” shouted Moses. “Why are you stalling? Indeed you were chosen to be the high priest. Find the courage to begin the sacred service!” But Aaron continued to stand hesitantly, because every time he looked at the altar, the altar took on the outline of a bull.

Question: How does a person feel inside himself when the altar takes on the outline of a bull?

Answer: For me these words don’t evoke any associations with bulls. First of all, this is all about one person. But because it is difficult for us to describe the actions that are considered as happening within one person, let’s describe them as people who identify and feel everything as one person, how their feelings are mutual and their sensations acute.

As one person, they begin to elevate themselves, dividing themselves into the people (Israel), Levites serving the people, and the Cohens, the highest level of service in a person. For in a person, meaning in the general image of an Adam (human), in the general Partzuf there are three levels, NHY ( Neshama. Haya, Yechida), HGT (Hesed, Gvurah, Tifferet), HBD (Hochma, Bina, Daat).

In principle, they are always gathering and assembling the image of the whole person, of Adam. So they begin to feel whether they rise to the level of Aaron, coming into contact with the Creator. Their mission is to reach adherence between them, for only in connection do they rise sequentially to the level of the “people,” to the level of the Levites, and after that to the level of the Cohens, and from the level of Cohens to the level of Aaron, and after that they attain the level of Moses.

That is how they solve the problem of connection for themselves, and in their common unity, which is called Mishkan, the dweller (Shochen) is discovered. The dweller is the Creator who is felt in a person as having descended to this place and filling it, like a fog that fills a valley.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 1/15/13

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Baal HaSulam, Article, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”: And once the whole nation unanimously agreed and said, “We shall do and we shall hear,” each member of Israel became responsible that nothing shall be missing from any other member of the nation. Only then did they become worthy of receiving the Torah, and not before.

“Exodus” 24:7 “We shall do and we shall hear” at Mount Sinai refers to accepting the guarantee. Only to the degree of revealing the vessel of the damaged desires that we agree to connect to help each friend to correct the desires and approach the goal of creation, reaching adherence with the Creator, do we attract the Light that Reforms. It corrects our vessels and we put them in the framework of mutual guarantee.

Meanwhile, all the rest of the desires that cannot enter into the framework of guarantee are left out. This means that a guarantee is the condition that we must reach on every new level.

In accord with the guarantee between us, time after time, we receive the Light that Reforms that corrects us, and then we discover the Creator, the Master, we carry out the action for the sake of bestowal, reach adherence, and continue onward. On each and every level there are the conditions for guarantee that must be maintained according to the level that is attained. And in that vessel that is called guarantee, we receive the Light that Reforms.

But how can I be a guarantor for someone if I don’t have any power; I am not found beyond time, I don’t see the past, the present, and the future, and I have no possibility of changing them? I cannot change my desires. So how can I be obligated to be a guarantor for someone?

The guarantee means that I am ready to join with you with all the available forces, but I must attract the Creator to this. Because who am I to be able to be a guarantor?

At the bank I sign a guarantee for a friend hoping that he will be able to pay it. In the worst case, if he cannot repay the loan, I will somehow pay it. While here, I am simply not able to cope. How can I be a guarantor for attaining connection, for attaining adherence, for attaining the spiritual goal? I must, in place of the Creator, sign guarantees like these, otherwise this is a lie!

How is it possible to demand something like this from me if even in this world I have difficulty understanding what is happening here? All the more so, I am not responsible for what is happening on spiritual levels. So we need a higher power within our guarantee.

I don’t attract more Light than what I need to be a guarantor for others. I ask for the help and cooperation of the Creator to help everyone. This is what we can realize today!
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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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Rav Kook’s Letters: Even the lowest person, when offered to do kindness with the whole world, which includes everything infinitely, will powerfully rejoice to do good.

All the laziness and the weakness is only a result of lack of faith in the greatness of the good that can be done to the whole universe when engaging in the Torah, the Mitzvot, the work and the purity of our measures. This is depicted by understanding the spiritual unity, which means knowing that the light of the soul of every individual is connected to the general soul of the whole existence.

Every person should say that the world was created for him. When a person does his work he generates a change in all the other souls. It is because we all belong to and are included in one mechanism, and when a person corrects his connection with the whole world, he brings the parts of his soul back to him and thus helps others connect.

It is like fishnet that was thrown into the sea during the shattering. As a result of the shattering, I am left with only a point in the heart, and my other parts dispersed in the water and remain external to me. I was born this way; it is a fact.  Now I need to take the fishnet out and to gather my lost parts and connect them back to me.

By working with the public, I connect my parts back to me on one hand, and on the other hand, I give each and everyone the spiritual force to start working with his own net. It seems that I speak to strangers but really it is me in different forms.

When I draw people to this idea, it turns out that I bring the parts of my soul closer to me. All of humanity are parts of my soul. But except for this, my part, each one has his own personality. By attracting my parts, I convey the spiritual force to them by which they can work in their own circle, with their own world.

It turns out that when I pull this net out of the water, I awaken all the parts of my soul that were connected to this net, and each one pulls out his own net and clarifies its content because everyone has his own world. Thus we understand that working with the public enables us to connect the parts of my soul; the quantity becomes quality and so each one advances toward implementing the establishment of the ten Sefirot of his own soul.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/30/14

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When working on corrections we have to work in the opposite direction of the shattering and to understand that everything depends on our mutual incorporation. Therefore, the correction begins from having an inclination, a deficiency, a need, to unite for different reasons.

There is a purely pragmatic aspiration to unite in order to make a living from one another in the corporeal sense, and there is the commandment to connect in order to earn from one another spiritual advancement.

All the corrections are performed by mutual incorporation. So when we want to put the shattered vessel together again, we should make sure that a person feels that he is an inseparable part of the world. That is, he has to correct the whole world in order to correct himself.

This means that a person will not be able to correct himself unless he corrects his connection with the whole world, with all of humanity. Although it may seem impossible, we depend on one another in the correction to the same extent that we depend on one another in the shattering.

To the extent that I depended on everyone during the shattering, as is being revealed now, I also depend on everyone during the correction. So even if I only perform minor personal corrections that I manage to carry out, I thus touch every person in the world. It is because we are in an integral system in which there are no detached parts, but where everything is connected and everyone influences one another.

Of course, everyone operates according to his level and according to his Reshimot (spiritual genes), according to the depth of their fall during the shattering and after the sin of the Tree of Knowledge. But still, if we pull a certain thin wire at the end of the system, the whole system rocks and moves, and is accordingly invoked either for better or for worse.

That’s why it is said: “He who saves one soul of Israel, it’s as if he saved the entire world.” It’s because he who is called Israel (according to his yearning for the revelation of the Creator, the force of bestowal and love in the desires) corrects his attitude to the system he encounters at least to the first level of Nefesh, and by that he certainly influences the whole system.

For this reason it is said in The Book of Zohar that when Israel corrects themselves, the Upper Light that comes into their vessels pours outside and fills the whole world. This means that we don’t have to take care of the world, but it is enough to take care of those who can wake up.  Although we can go out to the public and hasten their development.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/29/14, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Why does a group that reaches guarantee attract the Light that Reforms?

Answer: The guarantor creates a vessel that resembles the Light. When we are still connected with external connections, this is called guarantee. So through mutual guarantee we receive the Torah, meaning the Light that Reforms, the elixir of life, the Light of correction.

The Light of fulfillment doesn’t yet reach the first guarantee because the vessels are not yet ready for it. You left Egypt only now; Pharaoh still sits within you. You brought these vessels from Egypt and these vessels are terrible: They are all just hatred, envy, lust, honor, and dominance. Everything that is in you is comes from your ego.

And you have a point in the heart through which you somehow succeed in connecting with others, and we are ready to reach mutual guarantee. According to this pre-condition, we only receive the Torah, the Light that Reforms, and only after this do we make a Zivug de Hakaa (binding by striking) with the Light, clarify our vessel, and receive within it for the sake of bestowal.

But the guarantee is the vessel, and the extent of our connection in regard to the law and terms of guarantee determines the size of this vessel.
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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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A group should create conditions to accommodate everybody who has a desire to develop their points in the heart. We don’t know in advance who has a point in the heart and who doesn’t. Spiritual desires by all means will gradually appear. It’s quite possible that at some point these desires may stop evolving and a person may abandon the path.

We have to support those who get into an “accident.” We need to help and strengthen those who are in need of our care. A group should constantly think about these situations and maintain everybody at their maximally highest level. The group must constantly feel if they are in the state of absolute integration or not. Currently, we sense one dissolved desire and one focused intention, and everything else is overboard. This state should be constant.

This  may result in all sorts of quarrels and misunderstandings on the everyday level regarding how we publish a book, issue a newspaper, etc., with anything that is not directly associated with spirituality. Things that are not a part of the spiritual path are not subject to spiritual laws. We can argue, fight, and disagree with each other, but still do everything in our power to detach these situations from our internal group relationships.

It is similar to a mother who reprimands and punishes her child even though she loves him to the depth of her heart. For her, it is vital to take care of her child. We should follow this example because in this world this is the only model that is abundantly clear to everybody.

Each one of us has to constantly ponder how he, as a member of the group, can create maximally optimal conditions to ensure others’ development and flourishing at each given moment in time.

Sometimes downfalls happen that trigger jealousy, resentment, negative thoughts, and a critical attitude between friends.

It is very good since it gives us something to work on. One has to evaluate one’s actions correctly. The group has to create the surroundings that promote immediate analyses of one’s attitude to others and its adequate and prompt correction so that one returns to the group at a new level of unity.

We have to work very seriously with our intention; it has to be directed towards the group as a whole, aimed at our collective unanimity and at creating an atmosphere that holds everybody afloat. Otherwise, nothing will work. It’s about a constant and yet benevolent tension. Our desire to have this kind of tension is so strong that we easily get used to it and don’t consider it burdensome at all. It should not trouble you. It won’t exhaust you! On the contrary, it will promote your spiritual life.

At the same time, when we study and go deep into the material we learn together, the group turns into one whole and thus grows. This is how everybody advances, step by step. Individually, each friend feels that he is an internal part of the group like a fetus in the mother’s body; each one sees the group at its new level and continues considering friends to be higher and better than him and experiences a good jealousy toward others. It’s a positive type of envy since it pushes one to connect with others.

A person starts understanding that attainment of the next level is generally very easy: there is something one can cling to, a place where one can be enclosed and where one can be dissolved. This process happens effortlessly. All we need is to tune into it and be in the environment that support this disposition. That’s it! This is enough to be brought into the flow.

Later, our entry into the connection that manifests itself as the Sefirot, all kinds of ties among numerous qualities, and becomes more precise and deep. There are 10 major properties. Besides the major 10 Sefirot, there also are private, individual Sefirot, i.e., each of the 10 Sefirot contains a new set of 10 Sefirot, etc. However, we need only the first 10 Sefirot. We have to start sensing them first.

Connection between us turns into a force that allows us to bestow. When we achieve this connection, we start sensing it as one whole even though it is comprised of totally different forces that oppose each other: Hesed, Gevurah, Tifferet, Netzach, Hod, and Yesod. They are as opposite to each other in love and hatred, and jealousy and kindness. So when we connect them together, we get exactly the mass that reveals spiritual states. We disclose spirituality in this mass.

A group has to relate to each of its members like a mother to her child so that each friend develops correctly, has the right mood and attitude and prepares for spiritual growth instead of being in a static state. Every new day cannot be similar to yesterday.

That’s why we have to examine ourselves and analyze our internal states. If I don’t see what to work on today, it means that I didn’t work yesterday. It also means that a new prerequisite for my correction does not emerge in me. Our growth is based on a gradual and cumulative correction of the problems that arise among us in the group, in the connection between us.
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From the St. Petersburg Convention “Day Two” 7.13.13, Lesson 4

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Baal HaSulam, Shamati, article 33, “The Lots on Yom Kippurim and with Haman”: “Hence, one sees that all the greatness of the Creator that he had obtained was because of the Se’arot and the contradictions he had had. This is the meaning of, “the Lord on high is mighty.” It means that the greatness of the Creator is awarded through the Aderet.”

Of course it is impossible to manage without the support of the group, without the work that others perform. They may not even speak about it, but because we are all connected to one another, I grow stronger thanks to others. Therefore I can continue to go through all the Dinim (judgments) and accumulate the necessary clarifications until I reach the sufficient measure for the revelation of the Creator’s greatness.

The Creator is not revealed at first but rather the Creator’s greatness is. But then we see that we don’t even need that. A person reveals the Creator when he demands the Creator’s greatness and not when he demands to know Him.

I advance when I clearly discern and feel more and more sharply that this is the Creator’s greatness. I don’t demand to know the Creator in any way other than the force of His greatness that will allow me to advance to adhesion and to perform actions of bestowal that are independent of any discernment other than His greatness.

I want to think only about this and that I will see it as the greatest thing. I have no need for all the discernments and clarifications that follow this greatness anymore, so that they will not be excuses for my actions. Only one thing is enough for me: that the Creator is great.

This is called pure faith, without any self benefit. I don’t ask the Creator to feed me, to bring me health, peace, a good life, good relations with people, success, etc. It is actually above all these deficiencies, above the lack of success, above the fact that the Creator gives me nothing and that Pharaoh is revealed more and more, above all the great disappointment, above the darkness, that I ask for one thing only: the Creator’s greatness, which means the power to work for Him.

Accordingly, the rejecting of my ego is increasingly revealed. Here I discover the gap between the two ends: the feeling in the desire to receive and the recognition of the Creator’s greatness, which are two opposites.

I establish the Creator’s greatness, “the Lord on high is mighty,” above all the Se’arot (hair), the contradictions, that are rejected by the desire to receive, above all the Dinim I feel. This highness is established in the Se’arot. Thus I establish the two opposite discernments inside me, and the distance between them is the volume of my soul. That is actually revealed by this oppositeness.

“It follows that through the Se’arot one gradually discovers the greatness of the Creator, until one finds the Names of the Creator, called “the thirteen attributes of Mercy.” This is the meaning of “and the elder shall serve the younger,” and “the wicked shall prepare it, but the just shall wear it.”

Wicked refers to all my descents and disappointments, all the times that I caught myself with the desire to do something for  my own benefit, to go back to the previous calculations, not by being detached from myself and adhered to the Creator. Thus I gradually establish my new form.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/30/14, Shamati #33

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Baal HaSulam, Shamati #33, “The Lots On Yom Kippurim and with Haman”: We must know that what appears to one as things that contradict the guidance of “Good that Doeth Good,” is only to compel one to draw the Upper Light on the contradictions, when wanting to prevail over the contradictions…

It means that the contradictions can be annulled if one wants to overcome them, only if one extends the greatness of the Creator.

A person works and exerts himself, which means that he studies, teaches, and participates in different activities in the group, and simply falls off his feet because he is so tired. As a result, different questions come up: “Well, when? How? Why?” And there is no answer for these questions until he fills his measure.

Then he understands that he probably lacks quantity and quality in his exertion. The main thing in one’s exertion is the quality. But how can that be attained? In most cases a person feels helpless and doesn’t know what to do and remains idle.

Here he begins to feel that he cannot advance without the importance of the goal because he advances by the friends pressuring and pushing him, by feeling uncomfortable and ashamed and that he has no choice, not because the Creator’s greatness illuminates for him, and certainly not because a thought about delighting the Creator invokes him.

He begins to clarify things in order to understand what motivates him. Of course it is the ego that motivates him, but does he have to be connected to the goal of creation? Although I am an egoist, I am at least locked on and focused on the upper force, on the Creator, and not on the environment. So that it isn’t people who should compel him to advance but the Creator, since after all, there has to be some connection to the truth.

A person sees that he greatly exerts himself, he participates in everything that the society does, and he feels that he is utterly exhausted, but the reason for all his hard work is completely the wrong reason. His reason isn’t spiritual. So by that he reaches the right calculation no matter how unpleasant it is and he understands that he has to correct himself and continue. Thus he instantly corrects his route.

He sees that he advances by obstacles, problems, disappointments, and afflictions that are revealed. It is actually thanks to his overcoming the Aviut (thickness), the hardening of the heart, the complaints, the inner struggle, and the dissatisfaction that he can reveal the Creator’s greatness, as it is said about the exile in Egypt that the Creator seemed greater to Moses and the nation of Israel by causing Pharaoh’s hardening of the heart.

There is no other choice. We have to discover the rough, hard, and despaired egoistic desire, so that in contrast to it, the Creator’s greatness will be revealed. The main thing is not to allow yourself to escape and hide from the afflictions or to look for an easy way out since by that a person stalls and doesn’t reach the hard Dinim and the clarifications by which he can discover the Creator’s glory. This happens to everyone, but we have to learn from this experience and to do everything possible in order to avoid this natural inclination of slowing down and all the excuses to justify ourselves.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/30/14, Shamati #33 The Lots on Yom Kippurim and Haman”

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Question: How can I be responsible for others if I don’t succeed in being responsible for myself?

Answer: Specifically because you place yourself in the service and use of others you become responsible for everyone. You don’t exist for yourself, only for the others. That is how the law of Arvut (mutual guarantee) works; others have no free choice. I am the one who determines their situation and fate since I take responsibility myself and am ready to stand in their place.

Everything that happens depends only on me. Whatever may be, for better or for worse, everything depends only on me. I connect them to myself as my lower Partzuf and provide for them.

Isn’t this insolence for me to think like this? No, this is not insolence. If we are all equal, then each one of us has a personal connection with the Creator and that is not through others. All the others follow me.

This is because there is a “point in the heart” within me, my place in the source which nobody else has. And there is a special place like this for everyone. So everyone can say that from his point of view he is the only responsible, independent one in the root of his soul, and nobody else.

Everyone has his unique personal characteristic and everything else comes from mutual integration with others. But through this unique personal characteristic, I am directly connected by a thread with the Creator and in this I am ahead of everyone. If it were not for me, they would not be complete. Only I can correct this characteristic by connecting it with the rest of humanity, meaning with all the rest of the characteristics of Malchut of the world of Infinity.

Suppose that there are seven billion parts in Malchut of the world of Infinity and each part is connected with the Creator through its specific characteristic. And all the rest of the characteristics in me are derived from mutual integration with the other seven billion.
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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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When a person begins to study, he needs to go through all of the stages and to rise and fall so that he will feel how they influence him. One must begin to work and to deal with it. It is not possible to shout out all the time: “Why have you forsaken me, why am I helpless again, in despair and in darkness?”

These states come from Above, and it is specifically with them, that I progress, provided I go through them correctly. I must receive a feeling of rising, awakening, strength, and support from the group and must work correctly against the darkness, i.e., to transform the darkness into light.

This darkness is good, since to the extent that there is darkness, I receive freewill. I can be free! And if the Light illuminates me, then I surely am within His bestowal. The Light is higher than me. It comes, influences me, disables me, and I become anything that He wishes.

I am like a puppet on a string that plays and jumps as long as my strings are pulled, which is by the Light. The darkness symbolizes that the master has let go of my strings and I fall without any motion. I can receive awakening from the surroundings and play like that, as if I am being operated by the master.

But I will play that on my own. And of course I will receive strength from the group, but only to the extent that I invest my strength, and then I will begin to live. That is already me who is operating myself, similar to the way the Creator operates me.

One time He is operating me and one time it is me on my own. In the darkness, it is specifically me, and in the Light, it is not me but Him. This is the way I work, until the night becomes day and so that it will be me and not the Creator. I rise only to bestowal and it isn’t important what influences me, the light or the darkness.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/21/14, The Book of Zohar

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