All we need is to follow the condition of the mutual guarantee between us. From the moment we start observing it and to the extent of our compliance with it, we begin approaching the goal. All 125 steps of the spiritual ladder, from the world of Assiya to the world of Infinity, are the levels of our mutual guarantee, of our increasingly stronger connection with each other.

Our entrance to the first step, the first spiritual level, depends entirely on our achieving mutual guarantee as at Mount Sinai. The Giving of the Torah comes from Above, and the mutual guarantee must come from below, from us. Then, the “awakening from Above” and the “awakening from below” occur together, and the Creator and creation start getting closer together. The Creator approaches His creations and the creation moves towards the Creator until they merge into one that is called the state of Final Correction (Gmar Tikkun).

Therefore, our task is to attain mutual guarantee. If we want the Light that Reforms, i.e., the Torah to impact us, we have to know that It manifests Itself only to the degree of the mutual guarantee among us.

Until we start creating internal pressure to become a part of each other, to connect and reach the mutual guarantee, the Light won’t start influencing or correcting us. The Light modifies only our desire to connect and reach the state of mutual guarantee to the extent we pursue it.

All we need is to try to push. It is called a “prayer,” a desire, a demand, a request to reach a special connection that is called “mutual guarantee.” The more we want to be closer to each other, the stronger we will feel that we are unable to attain unity.

The Light impacts us with Its opposite side: It gives us an initial desire, a chance that is called “placing our hand on the good fate and directing us to take it.” It gives us the tools: a teacher, books, and pulls us to connect.

At the same time, the Light repulses us from each other by creating a tension between us. On one hand, we are told that we have to connect; even though it is not attractive to us, we have to play as if we try to unite. Only if a group comprehends this principle and understands that this step is essential, can it advance.

It takes time. Sometimes it takes years to regard this condition as a serious prerequisite. It is the hardest condition since it is opposite to our nature. If we assemble around the notion of “mutual guarantee,” it means that we finally have caught the end of a thread, the end point of a beam that is spread from the world of Infinity to this world.

We are beginning to realize that only through our connection and to the degree of our reaching mutual guarantee can we stretch to a spiritual vessel in which we will eventually reveal the upper world, eternity, and the Creator. All of these things reveal to us here and now, in this life.
[124356]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/31/13, Preparation for the Convention

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Question: Why do we read The Book of Zohar?

Answer: We use it as a means of spiritual advancement in the group.

First of all, receiving desires manifest themselves in a certain group of people. Discrete, shattered desires regard each other in their physical form; it allows them to establish a primary contact. They gather in a group and study The Book of Zohar.

A shattered desire sort of “aspires” to the ones that are higher. Common studies and correct joint exploration of the higher level under the guidance of a teacher triggers further changes in friends. They try to obtain vessels of a straight line; then, the Light from circular vessels will become ready to enter them. So far, the Light comes out of the circles and goes to the emptiness of their desires from afar in the shape of the Surrounding Light until they transform into a straight line.

This, in fact, is the purpose of our studies. When it happens, we will study the same texts and Lights that transition from external states into internal ones and turn from circular vessels into straight line vessels in our modified, corrected vessels.

Thus, The Book of Zohar is a special remedy that we use without having a clear idea of exactly how it influences us. However, it is not important, since it still works.

Question: Why is the Zohar more powerful in this context than the Torah?

Answer: The Book of Zohar is stronger than the Torah because its style and form are due to the period that followed the destruction of the Temple.

Before, the people of Israel were at the level of Mochin de Haya, i.e., at their personal end of correction. Then, they fell from this height to concealment. As a result, the Kabbalists were in the broken state of all and at the same time, they rose above all. They rend this difference between the two “ends” of reality, between the world of Infinity and our world. The sons of Israel fell to the very bottom, into the toughest egoism, whereas the Kabbalists of Rabbi Shimon’s group were at the top. As a consequence, the gap between them and the people of Israel stretched from minus infinity to plus Infinity.

Later, throughout the exile until its full completion, the vessels of the people of Israel had to mix with other nations and bring spiritual sparks to them.

The Torah is different. Moses wrote the Pentateuch from the level of final correction. He was above everybody else; however, the rest of the nation was not in the same state as him at that time. The people had just exited Egypt; the state called “Egypt” is not yet the shattering. In “Egypt,” one simply reveals one’s small stage, not the entire destruction during which sanctity mixes with impurity, “shakes” it up, thus letting people correct their flaws, and “swells as on yeast.” Due to the fact that people had not reached these states, Moses could not reveal and explain the entire process of correction in the Pentateuch. He only revealed what had happened until then.

In general, each step includes all the others. A part and the whole are equal. That’s why the Torah, of course, contains everything, but, it is presented in a way that is impossible to use to the full extent for correction of souls. One cannot extract the Light that Reforms broken souls from the Pentateuch, since the exodus from Egypt happened prior to shattering. Only a small part of it was revealed in Ancient Babylon; it allowed connecting the “forefathers” (GAR), a burdening of their hearts, and then giving birth to the “sons” (the tribes of Israel) after the exodus from Egypt took place. The eras of two Temples and the last exile followed these events.

Thus, The Book of Zohar is written from a totally different, polar state with the maximum differnce between the height of one hundred and twenty five steps and the final shattering of the sons of Israel. Let’s not go into details and spiritual conditions of that epoch. All that matters now is that this book completely corresponds to what’s inbuilt in nature.
[123513]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/19/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Everything stems from the connection between the Light and the desire. The desire that was created by the Light as something from nothing goes through several phases of evolution: the root phase, phase one, two, three, and four. Only on the fourth level of level four does the created being begin to feel that he is a created being in relation to the Creator, like a guest before the host, with all the necessary feelings and discernments in order to be independent.

Until we attain this level of development through the Upper Light, we cannot feel that we are independent and cannot feel ourselves, our state, at all. Until then, it is simply the action of the upper. It is like the debate over when an embryo is considered a human being and not just a collection of cells. Then it is impossible to kill it since he has every right to exist like every human being.

This happens through the process of our development. Unless the fourth level is finally stabilized, it isn’t a created being yet. Unless it begins to perform independent actions, even a certain action according to its level, it isn’t considered a created being, but is totally under the domination of the Creator. It doesn’t feel itself yet, and so it is impossible to attribute any actions to it, neither good nor bad, no sins and no Mitzvot.

Then the ten Sefirot develop from this first HaVaYaH. Malchut begins to operate in order to bestow “its darkness will illuminate as the Light,” which means that Malchut begins to illuminate, to give, and thus receives attributes that are similar to the Light, and therefore it is called Sefirot (from the Hebrew word “Sapir” – “sapphire,” “illuminating”). There are exactly ten Sefirot, not nine and not eleven, since it is there, where the last Sefira ends, that the created being can act independently.

The same is true with regard to our exertion. We have to reach the accurate full level that matches the measure, the state we are in. We never know what state we are in, since it is possible to know that only from the upper level that gave birth to the level we are on. Only on the upper level that gave birth to us do we begin to control what is lower than it, and thus understand the state we have been through.

It turns out that a person never knows his real state. Unless he completes his last measure of exertion, it is as if he hasn’t done anything! Even worse, the greatest darkness is revealed at the end, which means the difficulty, the despair, the helplessness, all the unpleasant feelings come just before we complete our exertion. It is like the exodus from Egypt, the resistance to the ego increases until the ten plagues are over and there is the escape. We are ready to do anything in order to detach from it and the redemption occurs only at the end.

This means that we have to exert ourselves until the end of the last measure, and the redemption will appear suddenly. All the last phases and especially the final phase are the most difficult and exhausting, like in a juicer. Only the patience and the stubbornness which totally depend on the environment help us here. Let’s hope that we will manage to hold on till the end; as Baal HaSulam says in the “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot“: “And only the heroes among them, whose patience endured, defeated the guards and opened the gate. And they were instantly awarded seeing the King’s face.”
[124838]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 01/07/14, Lesson on the Topic: “Preparation for the Convention”

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If a person doesn’t have persistent spiritual yearning, doesn’t aspire to the Creator but simply tries to be saved from suffering, then, from the start, it is not worthwhile to tell him about the evil inclination, about the ego. We must first  engage him in activities that develop and expand his absorptive Kli, his perception, understanding, feeling and capacity for inquiry.

It is as if he were expanded from within, and some kind of empty space is created there that begins to be filled with all kinds of new observations and definitions: the group, me, and all our relationships.

Then, there is something to talk about. The person is included in this picture, within the general plan, and already begins to work. If you just explain to him about the nature of our ego theoretically, then the person will be bored and dry up. He must first feel in his heart, and after that, this passes to the brain. The brain is a good addition to the heart that serves it. It is said that “the heart understands.” Otherwise, the learning remains like a dry, abstract theory.

But it is possible to teach about phenomena that will be discovered later on condition that we are equipped with mutual Arvut, and Arvut is possible not only among Kabbalists, but also among regular people as, for example, in an army or among mountain climbers, and certainly this is not spiritual Arvut yet, but this is somewhat like it.

Don’t we become guarantors with each other through the bank, or through an insurance or pension plan? Everyone in the nation is a guarantor for everyone else to some extent. These systems already exist in order to prepare us for entry into Arvut.

We once lived in a cave like one big family, and later this family began to scatter. Its parts lost the connection between them and didn’t feel close. Therefore, another social connection was inserted and added between them. This is also Arvut, only it isn’t on the same level as it is with Kabbalists. However, it also serves the advancement and correction of the world.

People are in connection with each other, even though it is egoistic. Everyone in the world is a servant of the Creator whether they want this or not. We came out of a natural, instinctive, familial, connection between us, but instead we created a new linkage: commerce, reciprocal services. Some people are ill and others are doctors. Some need shoes, and others work as shoemakers, and so forth. This is as it is written, “Go and make a living from one another.”

The livelihood through which we are linked with each other is a correction of the shattering. I repair shoes for you, and you sew clothes for me. We already are found in Arvut with this, even though this is to a small degree. Through the thousands of years of the evolution of its shattering, humanity is approaching a threshold where it must consciously enter into Arvut. However, before this, we already have advanced and approached Arvut on the still, vegetative, and animate levels.

This shows the greatness of this concept. We are only in Arvut all the time, and we build and measure ourselves according to this, consciously or not.
[124500]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 01/01/14, Lesson on the Topic: Preparation for the Convention

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There is a constant struggle in the group: to be together or not to be together. One member can be in a state of ascent and another in a state of descent, and one mutually influences the other. But we have to keep connected and to tighten and strengthen this connection no matter what, despite all the obstacles, whether internal or external, which make up the “flesh” of the next level.

The external obstacles come from people who are close to us or distant from us and from the whole world. On the whole, it comes from everything that happens on the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate nature and humans. All this operates on us as our external vessels, and it all belongs to us.

In order to adhere to our point in the heart, we take off our attires, the flesh, our individual characteristics and leave only the bare points in the heart, ignoring anything else, and thus adhere to one another. But then we to regain the forms that we previously rejected as well: this whole world.

There is no other choice. This is our vessel and we have to use it. At the end of correction, the whole world, the whole universe, everything that I see, feel, and perceive will become one body. All this returns to me in the form of different obstacles and I have to connect despite the interferences.

In a state of descent, which means concealment, the friends seem rude and coarse, and I have no desire to connect to them. In a state of ascent, which means revelation, they seem like perfect righteous and I want to hug them and not let go. Then I fall into concealment again and feel scared: What kind of a group have I fallen into? I have to escape it as soon as possible.

Thus I constantly ascend and descend. I see it this way through my attributes from inside my vessels. The movement between the ascents and descents determines my upper level. If I accept the ascents and descents equally, and don’t care about the state I am in, as long as I am adhered, connected, in mutual guarantee, trying to hold on as much as I can both during the ascent and the descent, my efforts build the next level in this amplitude.

When I want to remain connected to the friends during the ascent and the descent, it’s a state called yearning, or stiffening, since I really want to connect. When we complete the measure of our effort and overcome all the obstacles, the action of the Light takes place in the final phase that fulfills the connection between us and tightens our mutual guarantee.

Here we have to take the matter of distance into account: There is a reason for going out to work and for getting confused. All the actions in this world are very special. We should understand and realize that mutual guarantee is the point of connection from which we already find ourselves on the same ladder that comes from and rises to the world of Infinity.

We strip ourselves of everything by our mutual efforts and leave only the points in the heart and begin to connect. Now we are trying to do that above all the obstacles, when we are together, and especially when we draw away from one another and feel that we are dispersed all over, separated by the distance and the lack of connection.

We have to do our best to overcome all these interferences. So we gather in conventions and special events in order to feel what it means to be together when there is no distance between us. We seem to be testing to what extent the physical distance operates on us and how we can establish the condition that doesn’t cause any changes in our feeling and in the mutual connection between us.
[124446]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/31/13, Lesson on the Topic: Preparation for the Convention

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The way to exit the crisis (our ego), which means the method of the integral education is made of nine phases, stations, or lessons.

Phase one: Introduction to the concept of mutual guarantee by which we understand that unity is a wonderful thing.

Phase two: Overcoming the resistance of the ego with the help of a strong environment,

Phase three: Clarifying the center of the group, the “raspberry ball.”

The center of the group isn’t just a positive attitude towards the friends and the readiness to help one another. The raspberry sphere or ball means that I totally stop relating to others personally. This means that we seem to be free of our external attires, of our skin, of the body, of the bones, of all the inner innate characteristics, leaving only the spark, the Reshimo (spiritual reminiscence). Only the Reshimo is left of each of us, which means the inner spirituality of each one, his yearning for connection.

I don’t see faces anymore. If I see them, I have to work on myself so that I will not see anything. My friends are their determination and their effort to reach connection. This is the only spiritual part, the broken Reshimo that is revealed and the efforts of the friend, to reach connection, which means to bring it back to the corrected state despite this Reshimo.

So we don’t see any faces now, no personal characters, no gender, no behaviors or habits that people may have. If I still identify the differences in the relations of the friends towards one another, then it isn’t a group. In the group everyone is equal, which means that I don’t see any difference between them. All the friends seem like Reshimot and efforts to reach connection.

This is where the third lesson of the raspberry ball begins. It ends when everyone connects into one concept, rising above themselves, reaching connection and discovering in it the solution that no one had before. This is called the upper “all inclusive.” It is already a step forward in which Keter of the lower becomes Malchut of an upper level.

This state is called the raspberry ball in which all the sparks, the Reshimot, have melted and merged like drops of water that connect into one big drop.

I saw a report from a space station once where there was no gravity and where there was a leak. The astronaut placed a bucket there and when he shook the liquid out, it fell out like one huge cosmic drop, half a meter in radius, which was held together by the surface tension and the forces of the mutual molecular cooperation that connects all the molecules.

We should see the same thing in our raspberry ball. We find ourselves in space by nullifying all our forces and by building one ball of unity. Of course, we have to constantly support it, since there are interferences that constantly come along with regard to the unity. We struggle for our unity, since we want to go on living because our raspberry ball is the beginning of the spiritual ladder.
[124588]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 01/02/14, Lesson on the Topic: “9 Steps”

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Question: There is a feeling in the circle that by the self annulment of each individual and the yearning for one point, we reach the border line of the material reality. But what should we do next in order to breakthrough to an inner level?

Answer: You will not be able to penetrate any deeper unless there are additional vessels around you. Only the unique could advance by such limited forces as they had in earlier generations without the connection to additional external circles.

Now everyone must feel what you feel. It isn’t enough for you to think about everyone and that something will be conveyed to them automatically. We have to make an effort so that hundreds and even thousands will join you. We are in a state of the end of correction, of the general redemption. The time of the small groups or of a single student studying with his teacher is over. We must have additional forces: all the groups in Israel and in the world. They should all be incorporated in the same process.

If we do that in the coming month, it will be a good preparation for the convention and then it will really be a great assembly!
[124743]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 01/02/14, Lesson on the Topic: “9 Steps”

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We start to build the image of a human being in the “raspberry ball” and we don’t stop. This is our correction. The center of the group, which is established by our exertion and our mutual participation and is called mutual guarantee, becomes the ultimate point on the spiritual ladder by which we begin to climb.

The moment we become stronger, we will be able to understand and to do more. Then we will be given more opportunities to perform the corporeal and the spiritual work in humanity, which means to be “light for the nations of the world.”

The most difficult thing is to attain this endpoint on the ladder from which we start our spiritual ascent. This is the point where the struggle occurs. From every level we fall down to the state of “Shimon from the marketplace,” which means to the corporeal level, to the animate level, and from this point we have to be born.

This state is not opposite the spiritual ascent, which is a beneficial state, the state of Pharaoh, which gives you a feeling of slavery and redemption. Rather it’s a fall to such depths that we feel totally disconnected from the right and the left lines, from the goodness and from evil, and deteriorate all the way to the bottom of the ladder.

This is the state we always begin from, and so we return to the notion of the raspberry ball, of the unity of the group. We can ascend to the highest level and still fall below the raspberry sphere and have to rise back to it.

This is our first point of unity that will always exist in any state, even in the highest state. From the raspberry sphere we will enter the state of Ibur (conception) and the state of Yenika (suckling) and Mochin (mind).

Question: How can we imagine the raspberry ball?

Answer: The only thing we should know is that it refers to being together, in mutual guarantee, the condition for receiving the Torah, which means to summon the Light that Reforms in order to become as one man in one heart. This means that we should always want and demand it, and the Light will come.
[124592]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 01/02/14, Lesson on the Topic: “9 Steps”

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Question: When the person begins his spiritual path, he must have some kind of desire, “fuel.” To the degree of attainment, does this type of fuel change or does it remain the same? In which stage does the giver of the gift become more important than the gift itself, or is this significance also egoistic?

Answer: That “fuel” we work with (i.e., the reason why I exist, live, move forward) is changed both quantitatively and qualitatively. This reason improves all the time, becoming more qualitative.

If previously only your “self” was important to you, now, even against your will, the group becomes important. And this is not because you require the group to attain the higher goal, but just like a child is important to its parents.

So gradually a state is created when this is yours and after that this is more important than yourself. Gradually the higher component, the higher power, truly begins to be discovered in the group. You will see that essentially this is not a group, but that creature that we call by the name of “Malchut” and in it the Creator is discovered. But this will happen when you begin to relate to it exactly as the Creator relates to you, even in the smallest way.
[124727]
From the Moscow Virtual Convention “Unity Without Boundaries” Day Two 12/14/13, Lesson 2

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Question: What is velocity and acceleration in spirituality and how can we use this?

Answer: The idea is that nature pushes us towards development through suffering, that is, through a feeling of lack of fulfillment in the present state and the possibility of fulfillment in the next state. And these are the forces of evolution: the negative force from behind and the positive force from the front.

The more that we advance, more negative forces are gathered from behind and fewer positive forces attract us from the front. We see that since we advance according to our egoistic nature, very little is illuminated for us up front. Therefore the world is in a state of apathy and depression.

And here we are reaching a condition where we must explain to people that all the negative forces are not driving us so that we would flee from them, rather so that we can understand the new way of our development, meaning, to change the intention, the relationship to the other, to the world, and in this way, to the Creator.

The main thing is the intention. The desires are determined and arise and are realized only to the degree that it is possible to do them with the right intention.

In our world, the velocity of advancement is determined for us from behind, in that it moves and pushes us forward through negative influence and we move forward at a constant speed.

Studying Kabbalah makes it possible for us to carry out a hastening or contraction of time, which is the same thing, with the help of three components: the group, the study, and dissemination.

Speed is that parameter that doesn’t depend on us; nature moves us towards the goal. And on the other hand, acceleration depends on us.

Velocity is not a contraction of time. It is known that the way of correction takes 6000 years, from the first correction that was made by Adam 5780 years ago to the last correction that we will reach in another 220 years, whether we want this or not. This is called the path of velocity.

But at the same time, there exists the possibility of acceleration. To the degree that we accelerate our way, we change it qualitatively because we want this ourselves.

For example, there is a difference between a small child who is required to learn and is constantly under pressure, and a child who is interested in everything himself and successfully studies. He can quickly finish the lessons at school and feels that he is in this process himself as if he were in an easy and good game. And that is how it is with us, too.

If we choose a group and within it like in a small world, in a small society, we create all of those conditions that will advance us forward, then we will reach the goal much more rapidly than under the steamroller and pressure of nature.
[124723]
From the Moscow Virtual Convention “Unity Without Boundaries” Day Two 12/14/13, Lesson 2

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