The Mitzva, “Love your friend as yourself,” is more important than one who makes the sacrifice (Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut [Mutual Guarantee]”).

What does the act of “sacrifice” represent? A person corrects one of their 620 desires and turns it toward bestowal; this is called “offering a sacrifice to the Creator” because through this correction, they draw closer to the Creator (the Hebrew word “Korban”—“sacrifice” comes from “Karov”—“close”).

Thus, any sacrifice from the still, vegetative, or animate levels brought by a person in this world symbolizes the gradual correction of all 620 desires with the intention to bestow.

Naturally, this is not about what to do with animals, wheat, wine, water, or blood, whatever was used at the altar. All these things do indeed take on physical form in our world, but their true meaning lies in the spiritual realm where the soul, made up of 620 desires, is being corrected.

In the process of correcting the desires, the commandments between a person and their friends are more effective than those between a person and the Creator.

Why? Baal HaSulam explains that we must correct our desires by shifting their intention from receiving to bestowal. In working with friends who are close to us in quality and in sharing the same goal, we can do this more effectively than with the Creator. He is concealed; His response is not directly felt by us. But our relationship with Him must be constant, just as His laws toward us are unchanging.

However, we are still in uncorrected vessels. Our states constantly fluctuate and disappear, so we are not yet able to enter into a connection with Him that would influence us effectively.

Therefore, only our relationships with friends remain the most effective means for advancing toward correction. In other words, the commandments “between a person and their friend” take precedence over those “between a person and the Creator.”

Put differently, the commandment “Love your neighbor as yourself” is far more important than all sacrifices and all other forms of relationship between a person and the Creator because it contributes more to the correction of the soul.
[344656]
From the 1^st part from the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/14/2025, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

Related Material:
What Is Sacrifice?
Sacrifices That Bring Us Closer To The Creator
The Most Important Commandment

Filed under: Commandments, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

In our work, we must always stress the importance and greatness of the Creator in our eyes, so that it is clear to the group that everything we do is to achieve this. In the meantime, we perform various actions to control our desire to receive in order to achieve adhesion with the Creator.

Control over the desire to receive is expressed, first of all, in the fact that we break free of its power and begin to control it. This is possible only through being in a group, with support within it. True power over the desire to receive is achieved through work called “love your neighbor as yourself.”

“Love your neighbor as yourself” is the process and final state in correcting the vessels of reception to bestowal for the sake of bestowal, with no self-interest and concern only for others.

After all, Baal HaSulam does not say, “What you have, others will have.” He does not offer to share with everyone equally, or have this requirement. No, my requirement in the work according to the principle of “love your neighbor as yourself” should be that I give away the only pillow, the only chair.

It is not about a fifty-fifty split, no. Why? Because then I just work with my receiving vessels and see that in order for me to feel good, I need to fill everyone. Otherwise, they will come and take away what I have. So let everyone have an equal share.

This, among other things, was the mistake of the social undertaking, introduced in Soviet Russia or kibbutzim. They had a motto: “Everyone is equal and everyone receives equally.” This is not enough to correct the desire to receive.

The desire to receive must be disconnected from itself, because its ultimate goal is to merge with the Creator. The Creator has no thought of Himself: “So that I can be like them, and they can be like Me.”
[344950]
From the 1^st part from the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/14/2025, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

Related Material:
Love Your Neighbor As Yourself
Love Of Friends (3)
A Person Will Help His Neighbor

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

If a person relates to creation as the Creator does, it means they build the same attitude as Him and enter the same state as Him. If they shape the same desire, and the Creator’s only desire is to give, then they reach His level, His state.

One could say, to achieve something, it must be important to me; otherwise, I will have to wait for blows. The blows will come, I will change, and in the end, I will still feel that I should strive for something where there are no blows, only pleasure.

So maybe I shouldn’t wait for blows to decide to move toward my goal. Instead, I should elevate its importance now. At this moment, it seems reasonable to not pay too much for it; it doesn’t seem that significant to me. However, I know that if I wait, I will pay three times as much. That is, even now, I should recognize its full importance.

How can I increase the importance of my goal? For this, I turn to a group, which is a kind of advertising agency that provides me with “brainwashing,” and explains why it is vital to me and why I should invest now and achieve it because later it will cost more, later there will be suffering.

Thus, advertising replaces the blows that would have made me realize the importance of “escaping” toward this goal, and brings me an awareness of its significance right now. Therefore, I need the group to supply me with the same energy and the same sense of necessity to achieve the goal, just as the blows would.
[344996]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/12/2025, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

Related Material:
The Group Is an Amplifier of the Importance of the Goal
The Saving Force of the Group
The Force Leading to the Creator

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: How does mutual guarantee fit into the pyramidal structure that also exists within the group?

Answer: It does not matter. It is like asking if all souls are different, how is it that all exist in one soul “as one man with one heart,” and there are no differences between them, and each receives the full measure, and each contributes as much as all the others? After all, they are all different from each other.

If we are in a single system, mutually interconnected, one in all and all in one, where the structure of each is the same as all, then there are no differences.

Of course, there are differences in the basic points of souls. That is, the point in the heart is different in each soul, but the other “first nine” that a person acquires are the same: me and inclusion, you and inclusion, he and inclusion, and it turns out that the structures of all are the same.

Question: What is this difference?

Answer: This difference comes from the Creator, about whom you say: “Go to the Master who made me.” You can not change this.
[344488]
From the 1^st part from the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/14/2025, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

Related Material:
The Structure Of The Soul Of Humanity
Everyone Lives for Others
Two Inseparable Parts

Filed under: Adam-The Common Soul, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Mutual Guarantee, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: In order to maintain an intention, does a person need to perform some actions and be active?

Answer: An intention can be cultivated only to the extent that it is important for a person. I can develop this degree of importance only with the help of a group, after having understood with my mind how to convey this knowledge to the body in the form of feelings. After all, the body reacts only to feelings, the mind has practically no effect on it.

No matter how much I awaken feelings with the help of my mind, it will not bring results. I must be moved, frightened, and this is achieved through the environment. It is not in vain that Baal HaSulam claims that this is my only choice.

But this is my choice; after all, it is I who choose and direct the group so that it affects me in this way. It is as if sick people come to me who do not understand that they are obliged to “brainwash” themselves.

Therefore, systems are built around a person that would help him, influence him, and give him importance.

You see how much we are obliged to work against our nature, which erases every impression. Yesterday we experienced a blow, and ten minutes later we forgot about it. The moment we hear about an incident on the radio, we look for a way to forget about it. At that very moment!

And what then? Then we ask, how can it be that millions of people were sent to gas chambers? It is very simple, a person builds himself a system that erases the connection between cause and effect.
[344771]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/13/2025, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

Related Material:
A Simple Action
What Does Intention Depend On?
The Role of Intention in the Work for the Creator

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Prayer and Intention, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

A person who comes to study Kabbalah eventually begins to understand that we are talking about the process of changing the Kelim. This happens only if he advances along the spiritual path.

What he thinks, understands, and wants now, because his goal is to fill himself, tomorrow will be different. If he understands this, then he himself plays with his desire to receive so that it allows him to advance.

This is where it starts: they awaken in themselves a feeling of shame before the group. “How can I not show up for the lesson, act differently from the others? How can I feel proud in relation to the group if I have not done something for it?”

This is good—playing with yourself in such a way. As it is said: “Envy, lust, and the pursuit of honor remove a person from the world.” Meaning they elevate one from the current degree to a higher one. Without this, nothing will help.

And so it continues until instead of receiving pleasures in the vessels of envy, lust, and honor, people gradually begin to value the pleasures that come from their relationship with the Creator: “What is my attitude toward Him? How does He relate to me? I want to resemble Him in qualities, to be close to Him,” and so on. A person begins to gain self-respect in accordance with their respect for the Creator.
[344881]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/13/2025, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

Related Material:
You Can Play With Egoism
The Most Important Game
The Game Of Life

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Until today humanity still perceives that there are many forces, many purposes in the world, that there is no single thought, no single force, no single desire, no single goal; that we are driven by various impulses, urges, and that over us stand numerous “commanders” and causes for what occurs.

But suffering, both in previous generations and in ours, on the good path and on the bad one, gradually purifies the Aviut (coarseness).

Precisely because on the one hand a person becomes more “coarse,” and on the other investigates more and more, and comes to understand that he is incapable of understanding and investigating, this brings him to the revelation of the truth that he does not understand how creation is structured. This gives him the prerequisite to demand the revelation of the Creator, just like the demand that arose in Abraham.

Therefore when Abraham began to seek the Creator, he was alone. Later others joined him, those spoken of in the Torah, people who grasped this idea and went along with him: his sons, grandchildren, and students who constantly joined him.

All of this became a special system for educating future generations within Abraham’s group.
[344159]
From the 1^st part from the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/14/2025, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

Related Material:
The Spiritual Development of Abraham’s Group
Abraham—The Great Reformer
Abraham Is The Property of Bestowal

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Group Work, Kabbalah Study, Religion, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

If a person clarifies the final goal better for himself, does he thereby acquire more strength and a greater sense of the necessity to engage in Arvut (mutual guarantee), in work within the group, in investing in it?

This is built on a mutual basis. No matter how inspired you may be by the final goal, you will not be able to receive much from it without receiving an awareness of the importance of that final goal from the group.

You have no strength and no connection with the Creator that would shine upon you and give you awareness of who He is and what He is. Only your friends can tell you how great He is. Therefore you will not succeed if you delve into clarifying what final adhesion is while being alone. It will not add anything to you.

In order for the importance of the Creator to truly obligate you to action, you must turn to the group. It will amplify the awareness of the Creator’s greatness. For if a person has a goal, he must come to the group so that the group will exalt it, and he will constantly think about that goal.

Question: How can one clarify this goal in detail?

Answer: You cannot do that! Why do you need the details? For you, the main thing is to have “fuel,” pressure, a sense of necessity.
[344601]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/13/2025, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

Related Material:
Raise The Greatness Of The Goal
Prayer For Yourself
The Group Is a Means of Direction to the Goal

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Mutual Guarantee, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

To people who dwell within the desires of “slaves,” “children,” or “women,” the method must be explained gently, that is, in a way that the will to receive feels as though it is moving toward fulfillment, toward pleasure, toward what currently seems to it to be good.

But why do we play what seems like a kind of false game with those who are in these states? Because we know that by tempting them with today’s fulfillments, with these little “gifts,” things that the will to receive currently wants, we are, in fact, growing this desire, and it develops.

And as it develops, it reaches states in which the part of Bina within it begins to grow. Bina means “understanding,” from the word “Avana”—reason, critical analysis.

A person, besides his Malchut, besides the desire, begins to develop a part of Bina, and then, in the connection and clash between them, he begins to understand his state and analyze it, to the extent possible, from the perspective of Bina, which means more objectively, independently of Malchut, of the will to receive.

At that point, a person changes even his fulfillments; he begins to want something else. After playing various games, a child comes to understand that he wants not only games, but something more serious, and more and more so. For example, a girl wants to play with a doll, but not with a baby. Even though the baby is real, the doll suits her. It is the form of her pleasure. But for a mother, a doll will not do; she wants a living baby. That is her “game.” To each their own.

So it turns out we are seemingly lying to the will to receive and to the people who are with us at their first lecture or in their first year of study, and we tell them that everything will be fine.

Of course, we are not lying about the fact that it will be fine, but it will be fine, not for the vessels (Kelim) that they have now, but for the ones that will grow. And for the current vessels, you give some candy, a game of hide-and-seek, a car, or something else, for them that is good. So give them that now. Each time, give them these baits so they will keep progressing.
[344875]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/13/2025, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

Related Material:
Slaves of Desires
Phases of Development of the Will to Receive
How Can We Rise Above Animalistic Desires?

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Mutual Guarantee, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: Do we, in our current state, influence the balance of the scale toward good?

Answer: Every moment of our existence we are in the realization of only one thing—mutual guarantee (Arvut). Whether we want it or not, we and the whole world are advancing toward the realization of its importance either through suffering or through the path of Torah.

There is nothing else toward which humanity is being led other than mutual guarantee. We must see that it is a necessity, that mutual unity leads from “Love your neighbor” to “Love the Lord your God.” This is the process that all souls must undergo.

Therefore, everything that happens to all the souls and to each individual every second of their lives is essentially a movement toward the fulfillment of this law.

No matter how confused we and all of humanity may feel—not knowing where we are, what we are doing, and what we are occupied with—it is all just clarification so that we ultimately come to the final conclusion: it depends on each person which way the scale will tip.

In other words, everything depends on the degree of responsibility each individual takes for fulfilling the law of mutual guarantee.

And even now, when you are not yet corrected, to the extent that you are in some form approaching the understanding of this law that we are obligated to fulfill, you affect the entire world through your inclusion in all souls. In this way, the law becomes more revealed in them, and you help others reach its fulfillment.

However, there are people who, due to the state of their point in the heart, are incapable of striving for adhesion with the Creator and cannot fulfill the law of mutual guarantee on their own. But since all other souls are included within them, they will receive some illumination and, as a result, will fulfill this law.

They will say: “If everyone else is doing it, then of course we must too.” But internally, they will not feel it because the penetration of other souls into them is really minimal.
[343988]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/11/2025, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

Related Material:
A Critical Mass Will Influence the Course of History
A World-Wide Mutual Guarantee
Mutual Guarantee De-Facto

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Dissemination, Group Work, Mutual Guarantee, Spiritual Work - No Comments →