The word “Klal” (collective/rule) indicates a sum of details that, when put together, form the above collective. Thus, when he says about the Mitzva, “love thy friend as thyself,” that it is a great Klal in the Torah, we must understand that the rest of the 612 Mitzvot (precepts) in the Torah, with all their interpretations, are no more and no less than the sum of the details inserted and contained in that single Mitzva (singular for Mitzvot), “love thy friend as thyself. (Baal HaSulam, “Matan Torah” –  “The Giving of the Torah”).

This means that the entire Torah is given in order to attain the general rule of loving our neighbors as ourselves. The rest that is written in the Torah except this one concept “Love thy neighbor as thyself” is just a clarification of this rule.

Everything is included in this one rule. That’s why when we forget this rule, no spiritual path is possible for us, nor are we connected with the spiritual process or continue pursuing the spiritual goals any longer. If we attempt encompassing this principle, we can even stop checking the level we are at or trying to find out where we actually are.

The whole Torah was given to us and is meant to help us to attain connection that is called love in our lives. There are two ways of doing it: One is by following a long road full of affliction that represents the natural developmental way, and the other is a pleasant shortcut that is ensured by the Torah. One way or the other,  the entire humanity, from the very beginning to the very end, is engaged in advancement that leads us to loving our neighbors.

If we understand and acknowledge that we are now just practicing and playing games, we follow a relatively easy and comfortable way of reaching the goal. Still, we’ll have to go through some troubles and problems, resolve and explore them so that we get a better feeling of their essence and origin. We will have to resolve various situations in our minds and sensations because this process lets us to better understand and feel things.

In order to make this path easier and more pleasant for us, there is the Torah with the help of which we reach the state of loving our neighbors. From this phase on, we eventually will come to loving the Creator. However, there is nothing we can achieve by just following the path of suffering. Everything depends on the awakening on our side.
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From the 5^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/14/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: How do we reach a request that the Creator will control our desire for pleasure?

Answer: In fact, it is possible to reach this only through work with your environment. Before Abraham, the process of true correction had not yet begun, rather the shattering continued. The twenty generations from Adam until Noah and from Noah to Abraham were designed for revealing the evil. From the times of Abraham and on, the revelation of evil also continued, but this was evil in relation to connection.

There is no other method. The soul of Adam HaRishon was shattered into many parts that were scattered in thousands of directions, and their entire correction is in their connection. So only our inability to be connected in the face of all the attempts to do this is called evil. The power that opposes unity is called the evil inclination. If we feel that the correction of the world depends upon this, it follows that this is the only thing for which it is necessary to yearn.

We are already behind schedule by just about one century since the first Aliyah to the land of Israel; in that period this problem began to appear. All of the troubles of the first settlers and all of the wars were caused by the fact that the first pioneers of the Bilu movement who immigrated to the land of Israel called themselves by the first letters of the song of the prophet Isaiah: (Isaiah 2:5) “Beit Yaakov Lechu Venilcha” (“O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk”), but they cut off the end of the sentence, “in the Light of the Creator.”

That is, they intended to establish a common Kibbutz in the nation of Israel and this was the reason for all of their failures. It was necessary only to add the Light of the Creator to this, as the prophets wrote.

The essence of Passover is connection in the readiness to become a people. Beginning from Babylon, the desire for pleasure grew in one family. Ultimately its ego rose up so much that it separated between them and transformed them into strangers to each other; Pharaoh entered and lodged between them, as well as the Egyptians and the evil inclination.

Even though they discovered the evil inclination between them, nevertheless they wanted to connect; yet they were not ready. This means that the Pharaoh dominated them; the Egyptians subjugated them and didn’t allow them to unite. In spite of all this, they yearned for connection with all their strength and so they understood that they had to break away from this condition, to rise above the Egyptians that were among them, from the forces of separation.

The reception of the power to rise above their separation is called the Exodus from Egypt. If we in our world group accept the power of unity that will connect us, then this will be called the Exodus from Egypt. Everything is measured only according to the level of connection that the power of the Creator is said to give to us.

When the Light arrives, that is, its power is revealed in us, this means that the Creator is helping us and we are getting the possibility to connect. The right form of connection that we attain is comprehended by us as the revelation of the Creator to the creatures. According to this form, we feel the Light.

Indeed, the Light is something that we want very much and is now revealed in our desire for pleasure because according to our yearning for unity, we acquire its form. This means that the Creator is preparing His revelation that will bring us from exile to redemption.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/30/14, Shamati 41

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Question: Suppose I decided that I want to be responsible for everyone. What’s the point if I will fall in five minutes?

Answer: It makes no difference. Five minutes is quite all right. It means that there are already five minutes of our whole life that are worth something and which last forever. All the rest of your life is a waste of time, but you could have lived five minutes!

Question: However, I want to follow the example of Moses!

Answer: Moses is a spiritual level. The Torah doesn’t tell us about historical figures, but about spiritual levels. You also will reach the level of Moses at some point, and instead of your current name, you will be called Moses. Everyone who ascends to a certain level receives the name of that level.

Rabbi Yossi, Rabbi Chiya, and Rabbi Shimon, all these great sages, have names that indicate the spiritual levels they speak from. If we say that someone is someone else’s student, it means that he is on an adjacent level that is near the teacher.

Being a student of a Kabbalist is a very praiseworthy, respectable title. We know that the teacher is on a certain level and the student is one level below, nourished by the teacher.
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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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Question: Why does it say that all of Israel are responsible for one another?

Answer: If I am the only person in the world who determines the state of our general vessel, then of course everything depends on me.

Question: However, I am not alone in this game. The others also influence it, and there is the society!

Answer: The society also depends on me, everything depends on me. All the seven billion people are in a fixed state and I am the only one who is changing and who determines everything. I am the only one responsible for those who can act freely, but all the others do nothing.

I speak with the Creator and am responsible for them before Him, for better and for worse! If He has any complaints with them, he should talk to me. This is called mutual guarantee.

Mutual guarantee means that I am responsible for everyone. There is nothing I can ask them to do. I am responsible for everything that they do.

Start thinking from this point and don’t think that it is imaginary. It is really so. You actually are responsible for everyone.

When you listen to the news and see what happens on the streets, or when you hear the complaints of the friends who cannot reach a spiritual level to correct themselves, to connect among them, then you should know that, from this moment onward, everything is in your hands. You are responsible for everything.

You create and make everything that is good and everything that is bad, both in corporeal life and in spiritual life. The others are not responsible for what they do. They are passive participants. They don’t determine anything. You are the only who determines how the Creator will relate to them. They encounter hurricanes, tsunamis, wars, and disasters, and who is to blame? You!

All of Israel are responsible for one another, but everyone is responsible for his own attributes and for what happens to the world with regard to it. Everyone is responsible for the wellbeing of the society and the wellbeing of the world.

Don’t say that you depend on others. You must reach the state in which you determine that the entire world is in a state of absolute goodness.
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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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We go out to the public with our ideas as to what the good future of the nation depends upon. The good future of the nation depends only on the connection between people and we must explain this in order to reach the right connection: why it should be this specific way and how it can be fulfilled and carried out.

Then we have to actually fulfill this connection by different exercises and keep advancing towards the right connection and unity. They have to feel that they are really acquiring a unique intensity in life, real support, and a sense of security, thus we begin to heal many problems. They will find out that the whole situation is corrected and is worthwhile.

Question: Will the format of the daily lesson and working with the sources change when many new people join us?

Answer: The Kabbalistic sources will be revealed naturally. If we begin to bestow unto one another, we discover the connections between us that the wisdom of Kabbalah teaches: Reshimot (reminiscences), deficiencies ascend from the bottom up and forces descend from the top down, and the connection between us is revealed more and more. This is what Kabbalah tells us.

In the meantime, we study about phenomena that are not practically fulfilled among us. We don’t discover yet that we are all Malchut and that the connection called Zeir Anpin is inside us, and that there are even more internal connections and forces that are still concealed from us.

But all this is only in us. There is no other place or state; everything is in the connection between us. When we begin to reveal this, we will reveal it right here, just like the fact that there are no ghosts but different forces like Rabbi Shimon, Rabbi Yossi, Rabbi Aba, Baal HaSulam, and Rabash.

There are forces that are depicted on our inner Masach (screen), and there are forces that are not depicted this way. They have been purified and can be seen only in vessels of bestowal according to our equivalence of form.

There are forces that take on an egoistic form of in order to receive and so we identify them, and there are desires of in order to receive that disappear, which means that they have been purified and we don’t identify them since they are purer vessels.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/26/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: We keep talking about the love of the Creator and of the group. Where does the general public come in?

Answer: The entire humanity joins the group. Inside the shattered vessel, there is the part called Israel, and the part called the nations of the world. It all exists within the same vessel, in Babel.

The pure part of the desire came out of Babel, and out of this part, during the Egyptian exile and the First and Second Temples, the nation of Israel was established in a shattered form. The second part that came out of Babel wasn’t shattered, but was totally egoistic.

Israel ascended to the spiritual level from which it fell and was shattered, while the nations of the world are not shattered in the process, but already go through the shattering in their roots. We have no choice but to collect and to connect all the shattered vessels which is all of humanity, as it is written: “For they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them.”

The Creator connects to all of humanity as one whole, and Israel is the connection between the parts. Israel actually does not exist. Do you think that you are the main element to which everyone connects, the Creator from above and the general public below? You are simply a pipe that the Light that connects the two goes through.

The Creator actually wants to be dressed in the nations of the world, in the created beings that are external to Israel. This is His goal. They have a real desire to receive, while Israel is the connection between Bina and Malchut, and can only be a connector.

Israel feels the greatness of the goal in their attributes, but this action is in order to serve the Creator and humanity. This action is very important since without it, the Creator and the created beings will not be able to connect to one another for it is Israel that connects them, and only that. The Creator’s desire is directed toward the nations of the world. He looks at them since they have the real raw desire to receive.

The Creator is revealed in the great desires found in all of humanity. Israel is only the connector between them, which is a very respectable role since it is the mediator between the Creator and the nations of the world. Therefore, we should know that if Israel thinks that the nations of the world hate them, then the Creator “hates” them to the extent since they don’t fulfill their obligation.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/25/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: What is an inner voice? Is it the Creator speaking to a person?

Answer: Stop dreaming and imagining. It is said, “He has given a law that cannot be broken.” The wisdom of Kabbalah is a science like physics. If you are on the same frequency as the Creator, you hear Him. You convey your message to Him, and He responds.

However, if you don’t meet by the exact adaptability of attributes, in equivalence of form like a plug and a socket, you can cry out until you lose your voice—the Creator will not hear you.

Does He respond to people crying in this world or to our complaints about our suffering? He knows how you feel even before something happens to you since He is the one who causes this.

What can we ask of Him if He is the cause of everything? If you turn to Him, you should give Him something new of your own. Otherwise, there is no point in crying out. He pokes you a little in order to spur you, and you already cry out as if the entire world is falling apart.

Question: So, how should I respond when the Creator pokes me? What does He want to tell me by that?

Answer: The Creator wants to awaken us to work to connect with the group. Through this connection, you can make a demand to Him: “I did my part. I want to connect with the friends. Help me!” If you manage to carry this load on your back but it falls, you can cry out: “Help! Help me!” Then, the Creator helps out.

Question: Do I have to connect to the friends if the Creator sends me a certain illness?

Answer: Yes! You can turn to the Creator only with the right deficiency and the right request for correction, which means for connection. There is nothing but connection. You can feel endless troubles and problems, but they are all an outcome of the manifestation of the shattering since there is no other action.

We can say that every complaint, even without hearing it through, is:”This is the shattering, the shattering! And this is also the shattering!” So the remedy for every illness is connection, connection, connection.

Question: Is the Creator forced to arrange such a minus in the bank for me so that I will connect to the friends?

Answer: The upper Light operates on the vessel that it has to correct and evokes different deficiencies in it. It created the vessel so that we have banks, police, spouse and children, all sorts of illnesses, problems, and events, and it constantly evokes something in them. The upper Light is at absolute rest, but the Reshimot (spiritual genes) are constantly revealed. Every new Reshimo that is revealed makes you feel a new reality and thus moves you from one picture in the movie to the next.

However, if you yearn to connect with the Creator before something happens, it is called hastening time, Achishena. Then, you have no problems.

If you run ahead in order to connect with the Creator and to avoid problems, it is called Lo Lishma (not for Her sake). However, if you do it in order to delight Him, it is called Lishma (for Her sake).
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/25/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Baal HaSulam, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah),” Item 14: This is because the work in Mitzvot between man and God is fixed and specific, and is not demanding, and one becomes easily accustomed to it, and everything that is done out of habit is no longer useful.

But the Mitzvot between man and man are changing and irregular, and demands surround him wherever he may turn. Hence, their cure is much more certain and their aim is closer.

We cannot reach the Creator. We cannot feel Him and check if we are acting correctly or not in regard to Him, or how He reacts. As long as our desire is not really ready, we are not prepared to hear, see, or feel Him in any form.

Even to attain the first level of spirituality of Nefesh de Nefesh requires preparing a complete desire for the level of zero with its ten Sefirot. But we don’t know how to approach this, how to begin, how to pass through half or a quarter of the way in order to prepare a vessel in this manner.

We never have the ability to feel the Creator and His attitude towards us before we become ready for this kind of connection. So we work with the shattered vessel that was given to us. Through our gathering of its parts, connecting in the right form, and by relating to each other with a true intention, we discover our connection with the Creator through intentions of bestowal and connection with our friends.

Through mutual relationships with the friends, I attain a vessel that is more linked, more complex, more connected, and within it, I discover the Creator. We have no possibility of working directly with the Creator but only through the correction of the vessel in which we clarify our mutual relationship with the friends, all its pros and cons, and we understand only how to react and behave to achieve the right connection.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/25/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: How can one never lose confidence in attaining the goal?

Answer: It is necessary to receive confidence from the group. Confidence is an illumination from the Ohr Makif (Surrounding Light) from Above that, like all Ohrot (Lights), reaches a person via the environment.

The group must give you a feeling of confidence even before you feel the Light, even though it could be that the friends don’t have it themselves. But each one must connect and integrate with the others and show them that he is full of confidence. Indeed this is false, since none of them have confidence! But you must influence each other by showing that you do have confidence.

Basically, this is psychology, and you are in a psychological environment, so the group can successfully bestow complete confidence to you. You see that the friends are relaxed, so you are also relaxed. But you will feel this confidence only to the degree that you invest in them.

This confidence must be creative in building confidence about the rightness and justice of the way, the ability to attain the goal, and not that it is possible to do nothing and everything will come by itself. We need confidence so that if we do everything possible, we will surely attain the goal, instead of being relaxed and feel that everything will be okay without our efforts. This is not confidence but destruction and death.

Question: How do I remain confident when I come to a group thinking about my material problems all the time?

Answer: So would you want to erase the problems or have the confidence that you need to overcome them, rise above them, and go towards the Creator through connection with the group? This is not so that you would get rid of all problems this way, but so that problems will not disengage you from the way and from the goal. Otherwise you will start to ask the Creator to take away all the disturbances because you don’t want to advance.

Question: But this is my nature!

Answer: Certainly it’s your nature, but do you want to be above it? You have a choice to think about all your problems as an unjust punishment that you want to remove, or that you want to rise above the problems and go ahead by rising above them. Your free choice is found between this and that.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/25/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: How does the group help a person see that the Creator manages the whole world?

Answer: We cannot advance if we don’t build a support system so that everyone gets immediate support when he falls. It is forbidden to harm others by giving them a descent. If someone goes around with a sour face, another loses his good mood when he looks at him, and so does a third. Ultimately this bad mood extends to the whole group.

It should become a habit, a custom, to have a smile on one’s face. If not a smile, then at least you should show interest, vigor, and the greatness of the goal. Everyone must act and portray this to others. You cannot show others that you are tired, not externally but mentally, or  that you are drained and have lost energy and faith.

I may be physically sick, but I never show everyone my descents and the disappointments that come until the end of correction. They are not as they are with beginners; rather, the higher the level, the stronger they are. But in no way should one show this.

It is not allowed to have a bad mood or show despondency in a group. The group, which is designed to support each one separately and everyone together, thanks to a good connection, suddenly begins to operate in a completely opposite manner. This is very dangerous and eliminates many previous attainments. We must be very careful about this.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/21/14, Writings of Rabash

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