Question: What does mutual guarantee mean? What does mutuality in the group entail?

Answer: Mutual guarantee is when we provide each friend with an absolutely complete feeling of security and confidence to such an extent that we cover his entire egoism and he doesn’t need anything. That is, we give him our respect and love, and treat him in such a way that he no longer thinks about himself and automatically becomes free for the work for everybody.
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From the Georgia Convention 11/6/12, Workshop 2

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Baal HaSulam, “The Peace:” … practically determined as “bestowal upon others,” meaning that the actual manifestation of love of others is bestowal of goodness upon others, love of others should be determined as bestowal upon others.

Question: What is “bestowal good upon others?”

Answer: It is bestowal that suits the other, according to what is good for him and not according to what I think is good for him. The good of others is determined by the service to the Creator. Without these three points: “I,” “the others,” and “the Creator,” we are lost. If I work according to the notions of others, I will be under their control, and if I work for myself I will be enslaved to my ego, I need someone who is even higher so that the right formation will be created: the lower, the upper, and the uppermost, only then can I be sure that I am holding on to the right line.

Question: Where am I while I bestow upon others?

Answer: In the last link of the chain, in the Creator, since from there I can relate to others and to myself correctly.

Question: And where is my “self” then?

Answer: Outside myself and outside the others, looking for what is good for others in order to reach adhesion with the Creator. I see the Creator as my goal and then the adhesion with Him is the only good thing.

Question: And what if others don’t know what they want?

Answer: A baby doesn’t know what it wants either, but I take care of it, and by that I understand that it needs to grow, to become strong, healthy, wise, etc. So if I bestow upon someone, he is like a baby for me, he is smaller than me. In that case, I am the one who bestows and he is the one who receives my bestowal. This means that he has a deficiency that I fill. This means that I have to discover a deficiency in him that suits my filling, since I cannot give him bread if he wants milk. And besides, I have to discover a deficiency in him that is in his favor, a deficiency by which he will get closer to the Creator.

In order to do that, I have to connect to others and together attain a connection with the Creator. In other words, I have to bring about the connection of others with the Creator, and then I will be able to fill them. After all, what can I fill others with? I am not the source of the Light, but I bring others to adhesion with the Creator, and that means that I fill them. This is why it is impossible to manage without the formation of the three levels.
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From the 4^th part the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/30/12, “The Peace”

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The process of correction is divided into several stages that determine the order of our advancement. If we were allowed to feel now in our vessels of receiving the pleasure that comes from the Creator, that He is good and benevolent, we will never be able to correct them so that they will be in order to bestow. They would understand what pleasure there is in the upper Light and it would be impossible to restrict and to correct them.

So during the first stage, a person must attain faith, which means to acquire the force of bestowal that is born in him by the influence of the Light if he makes efforts in working in the group, yearning for bestowal, to the extent of his understanding of this attribute. Then the force that suddenly obligates him to feel that bestowal is good is gradually stabilized in him.

It seems that he prefers bestowal for egoistic reasons too, but it’s not so. He enjoys the fact that he isn’t selfish. The Light, due to its influence gives him this inclination, such values, that force him to value bestowal. Then a person is ready to perform actions of bestowal for the sake of the actions themselves. He only asks to be able to perform such actions towards those around him.

To the extent that he acquires the force of bestowal, he begins to understand how to work with his vessels, which is called observing the 613 commandments, which means the correction of the 613 desires to which a person’s general desire is divided into. Then, of course, he uses his whole desire only in order to bestow.

To the extent that he can use his own desires in order to bestow, he begins to feel not the force of bestowal anymore, but the force of love. Thus, as a result of keeping the 612 commandments, he reaches the last commandment, the 613^th commandment, love of the Creator.

Then the permanent eternal pleasure is revealed to him by all these commandments, which was the goal of creation, by which the Creator initially intended to fill man.

It turns out that not one step along this path is possible without a person’s deficiency that precedes it. In that a person totally depends on the environment. So to the extent that it directs a person and increases his deficiency for bestowal, he raises his environment so that these deficiencies will be their common goal.
[94394]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/30/12

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Question: What happens to the individuality of each one during the unity of the world group? Is there any importance to our attributes when the Creator separates us, connects us, or requires some kind of effort from us? Or do they not make any difference?

Answer: Imagine that once there was a body and it broke into small parts. How is it possible now, from all these parts, to create the same body?

Each one of us is responsible for a certain part of this general body that is called Adam HaRishon (the first human). I am a small part of his liver, and you are a small part of his lungs, and someone else is a small part of this heart, etc.

So how can we change our foundation? It is impossible!

Therefore each one needs to remain with one’s initial attributes. He retains his character with all his innate attributes. It’s all his. It is precisely thanks to this individuality that he expresses himself.

However, this entire wonderful picture is comprised specifically from opposites, from the differences of each one of us who is completely opposite from his friend. And so they all can connect themselves and in this connection to attain this compound, like a general body that will be perfect specifically thanks to each one complementing the other. Under no circumstances do they need to be identical.

Only one thing is needed from a person, that is to connect with others in bestowal to all of the others! By following this condition, each one realizes himself in an individual manner towards the others. And from this comes forth one, huge, integral Kli (vessel/desire) which is complete.
[94202]
From a Virtual Lesson 11/11/12

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Question: Why do we devote all of our attention to the dissemination factory? When will we devote our attention to the most important part, the spiritual work?

Answer: We have to be concerned with the factory because we must study the consumer: what is best for him; what’s the best way to disseminate the material to him, to serve him, and so on. You become involved with the outside world and therefore have to sort out a thousand different questions regarding communications and dissemination. However, what questions can there be in a group if we have love? If there is love, then there are no questions. Then the problem is that there’s no love. Attain love and there won’t be any questions.

After all, the questions arise from egoism. “How should we organize everything? Maybe we should separate or maybe join together? Is there a place here for women or not?” When there’s an understanding of the goal and that it is reached together, then there are no more questions. That is why we should elevate above our egoism, and all questions will naturally disappear.

Are you following the lead of the Creator or egoism? What is driving you? You must be aware of this and then everything will be easy. I have a lot of problems with our world Kabbalah factory, from morning to evening there are meetings, deliberations, and so on. In my opinion, when it comes to the group, there shouldn’t be any questions.

The relationship between friends should be aimed only toward love. I don’t want to talk to my friend about anything other than the love between us and the exaltation of the Creator, because precisely in this regard, he is my friend. And if not, then there’s nothing to talk about. Try to be specific. That way your time and energy won’t be wasted on irrelevant things, everything will move forward, and you will see yourself advance.
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From the Virtual Lesson 11/11/12

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 42: Indeed, you should know that the reason for our great distance from the Creator, and that we are so prone to transgress His will, is for but one reason, which became the source of all the torment and the suffering that we suffer, and for all the sins and the mistakes that we fail in… “lack of our understanding in His Providence over His creations,” that we do not understand Him properly.

If we could understand the upper Providence, we would discover the upper force and learn what it wants of us, by clarifying the relationship between ourselves and the Creator, and then: Clearly, by removing that reason, we will instantly be rid of any sorrow and pain. We will immediately be granted adhesion with Him in heart, soul, and might.

But we don’t reveal the Creator Himself as people mistakenly believe. Any attainment is only possible by the comparison of attributes, and so the attainment of the Creator refers to resemblance and equivalence to Him according to our attributes. I can only check, measure, and feel Him in relation to myself.

If I want to reveal the Creator, I have to be equal to His attributes in some way, since otherwise I wouldn’t be able to feel Him. But the moment I draw close to Him according to the equivalence of attributes, I begin to discern Him, and then from that moment on I definitely make fewer mistakes and will necessarily change faster.

Even in order to advance towards the very first revelation, to the first feeling of the Creator, I have to change, so my whole way is divided into stages, the first of which is in the “dark,” when I operate and carry out Kabbalists’ advice, believing that by that I will get closer to the Creator. I believe what the books say, and incorporate and participate in the group, taking an example from the friends, and eventually I begin to feel and to discern the upper force a bit.

A kind of inner feeling and an inclination towards the Creator is revealed in me, and then it develops even more. Then I already begin to understand what the books say and what Kabbalists mean. Until then, it may well be that I have just been reading for a decade, but only now do I begin to somehow taste every word.

This text becomes close to me, as if part of me. I understand that it speaks about what is happening inside me.

It is for such moments, such situations, that we should yearn in order not to make mistakes and to understand what the upper force wants of us.
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From the 1^st part the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/29/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Question: If I am totally dependent on the environment, how can I influence it?

Answer: If you look closely, you will see that indeed everything you will be in the future is totally determined by the environment. This means that you are like clay in the hands of a craftsman, which is the environment, since the upper Light comes in an abstract form. The environment stabilizes you and then the upper Light goes through it and influences you, and then you can somehow imagine what the environment is like, what is should look like. Since it is your future, you want to look for this future form on the environment and thus relate to it. Then suddenly you begin to discover that your future attributes and the attributes of the whole world are in it, since the individual and the general are equal, and even if you delve into an individual person, you will see the whole world in him, all the way to the end of correction.

So when you look at the environment this way, you want to become dependent on it, and then you begin to discover that in all the friends there are the correct future states, although they don’t identify them yet. Thus the great Kabbalist, Rabbi Yossi Ben Kisma learned from his new students, as it written, “I have learned from all my students.”

This is the way you should relate to the environment, since it is the same wrapping that affects you. The more corrected you imagine it to be, the more it impresses you. It has no form of its own; everything depends on how you see it.

You may ask, so why does it say: “Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers.” (Psalms 1) It is good for the person who does not sit among the wicked and certainly good for a person who sits among the righteous.

Of course we refer to wicked and righteous in the right and good environment that advances to spirituality. But the point is that a person himself shapes his environment. By the way he treats it today, he determines if it is an “environment of wicked” or an “environment of righteous.” And accordingly he determines how this environment will affect him.

It is because we don’t know who is wicked and who is righteous. At first people yearn for spirituality—this is what I reveal by my corporeal senses (sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch). I see in my mind and heart that everyone yearns for spirituality more or less. The way I perceive them from now on depends on me. The different qualities I attribute to them and the more sublime and respectable they are, is how they will impress me.

I build my environment, the envelope that affects me. Then it determines not only this affect but also the form of the Creator. It is because the Creator has no form. The relationship between me and the environment stabilize the Creator’s image for me, and since He has no image, I simply imagine Him that way.

Later this environment becomes an external vessel for me in which there is the Surrounding Light, and this process continues until the end of correction, until this vessel unites with me and becomes my vessel, for my whole “self” that is filled with the Inner Light.
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From the 2^nd part the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/29/12, The Zohar

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Question: How is it possible to determine that the Creator is the one who arranges the problems between the friends if He is concealed and we don’t see Him?

Answer: There is none else besides Him. We simply need to believe that and act accordingly until He is revealed. Then we will see that it is so.

How do I act in a spiritual manner? When I work on closeness, I need to act that way, as if I am in front of the Creator. Do I believe that? No. I don’t believe it.

Religious people believe that they pray to the Creator. We don’t behave like that. We try to perform acts of bestowal as if the Creator is within us. The Creator is the attribute of bestowal, and we imagine that He, as it were, is in us, and in this way we act.

In this way we invite upon ourselves His acts of the Surrounding Light, until He really is revealed, is clothed, and acts on us.

Thus our acts are called a game since we play at it as if we were already in the upper world, like small children who play at being grownup, and in this way we attain all of His attributes. But if a child doesn’t play at this, he becomes an adult, and will be older, but still a child.

Thus, in comparison to various other methods, we don’t just see ourselves in our future state, but want to realize it now. Thus there can’t be such a situation that next to me there exists another group, and I wouldn’t want to come in contact with it. How could I imagine a future world, my next level, if at the same time, I wouldn’t want to be connected with another group? Is that the future?
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From a Virtual Lesson 11/11/12

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The main point we constantly should guard as our inner goal is the principle of “There is none else besides Him.” The Creator is the reason for every state, every thought, every perception, for everything that happens. There is only one force managing me and the world around me, and nothing but that.

It is all meant so that I, through my connection with the world, at every moment, in every event and in every action, both internally and externally, will reach the understanding that “There is none else besides Him” within the global circle. This is called adhesion within the general vessel. This is our work, and this is what we focus on.

However, the world is big, and, so, we begin with the group (1), and only then move on to the rest of the world (2). I must connect with the group through different cases and problems, and it should be the most important thing for me now. When I turn to the group, I also must remember the world as the second part of my work.

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Question: What actions are most effective for drawing the upper Light at the convention in Novosibirsk?

Answer: The most effective activities at the convention are workshops. There will be a lecture or talk before every workshop. We study a certain topic there, and afterward conduct a workshop based on this topic, and then questions and answers. This is the main “package,” which will be held twice a day. Thus, we will have six lessons in three full days.

In addition, there will be other very effective events. The most important of them are gathering of friends, necessary for “warming up” 15-30 minutes before the morning lesson. Then, there will be meals, held in the form of gatherings with speeches, group presentations and so on. In general, the convention will include plenty of activities. But gathering of friends and workshops are the key things.

The most important thing is your connection and I am within it. Together, we will draw the upper Light. So, get ready!
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From a Virtual Lesson 11/25/12

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