Baal HaSulam writes in the article “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)” that all those who aspire to the Creator are one nation where everyone is responsible for one another. This is called mutual guarantee. The Torah (the Light of Correction) was given to this nation only after every person was asked: Do you agree to carry out the commandment of love for the neighbor?  “Love your neighbor as yourself” means to take care of others no less than our nature forces us to take care of ourselves. This is the condition that enables us to draw the Light of Correction upon us. The Light will come and correct our spiritual vessel only if we reveal that we want to unite in this way.

Mutual guarantee is when, having ascended above our own desire, we already comprise one unified body, one organism, and we all depend on each other. To do this, every person must have an anti-egoistic screen and be in the spiritual world on the level of bestowal (Hafetz Hesed), while also treating his material life as a necessary component for his spiritual life.

Operating in mutual guarantee, every person fulfills another and understands that he has to be connected with the others. His entire life takes place for the sake of this, like it happens with the cells within one’s body. Every cell and organ of the body lives in order to carry out its function in relation to the common organism. The meaning of its life is love and bestowal. When we perceive this connection among us, this is called spiritual life.

If we desire to unite in this way, then we will receive the force to carry this out!

From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/18/10, Article “Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

Related Materials:
Laitman.com Post: Revealing Our True State
Laitman.com Post: The Spiritual Center Of Humanity’s Common Organism
Article: “One Law” – Lesson 2

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

A Question I Received: When I read The Zohar, my mind keeps seeing superficial images. How can I remember that all these things are happening inside me as the text speaks about connections between us?

My Answer: To tell you the truth, it doesn’t matter. "Time does what the mind does not." The time is for studying and growing closer with the friends. When, during the lesson, a person isn’t able to think (with his head) about the goal (with his heart), let him listen to his heart.

Most important is to constantly hold on to the thought of what you want from the study. Torah does not have an affect without this. The Torah influences according to one’s intention. As it is written, "I created the evil inclination and gave the Torah as a spice." Do you have an evil inclination? Bring it and then you’ll receive the Torah as a spice to it (the means for its correction).

However, how does having this spice help you if you lack the evil inclination? Kabbalists give us simple examples. Do you have soup? Would you like to add pepper, salt, and all kinds of seasoning? Go ahead, but how will you benefit from having salt and pepper if you don’t have the soup? By themselves, salt and pepper taste disgusting.

In our case we first need to prepare the "soup." Without it, there’s no need to ask for seasoning; we wouldn’t even be able to ask for it. It’s during the process of making the soup (in the group) that the need for seasoning arises (for the Light to unite us). Only those who need Torah have (discovered) the evil inclination.

This is why we need to approach the reading of The Zohar and all our lessons with the proper intention, with  knowing exactly what we desire, or, in other words, with a prepared evil nature. With the evil revealed in you, you have something to correct; you will receive correction for it. If you haven’t discovered the evil within, you first need to look for it. If you feel righteous, the Torah is not for you; it is for the sinners for their correction. This is why the one who is greater than the others is the one who discovers a bigger egoism within, a greater evil, and he has something to correct.

Thus, it doesn’t matter how much one understands during the lesson. "It’s not the wise who studies" (Lo ha-Hacham Lomed). What matters is feeling that one has something to correct in the connection with his friends.

We need to unite into one desire, the soul of Adam, and we must become brothers in our goal. Even though we now hate one another, don’t want the others, and disdain them, we understand that unity is the goal. This is why we wait for the Light to come and bring us back to the source where we will become one complete desire, and the Creator will become revealed among us.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: How Do You Define Good And Evil?
Laitman.com Post: Preparation For Receiving The Torah: The Light Of Correction
The Zohar: "The Intention in the Prayer"

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

As we analyze our desires we need to penetrate deeply into them in order to understand that they, along with their egoistic intention, come from the Creator. We need to reach the uttermost depth of the recognition of the desire and from its root attain where this desire comes from.

When we reveal that the desire itself and its egoistic intention are sent to us by the Creator, we’ll understand that there’s no choice. We have no one else to turn to with a plea to correct it except the Creator. Otherwise, a person doesn’t need the Torah as he doesn’t scream out or appeal to the Creator. He doesn’t yet perceive himself as a creature governed by the Upper Force to which he may appeal.

Our egoistic origin is the same angel that brings us closer to the Creator. We receive blows, and consequently, we understand that they have a purpose and that they are sent by someone higher than us. We can reach this conclusion through suffering, and we can also reach it through the studies, the environment, and spiritual development.

“A sage sees the future”; he sees the arousal of a state before it is reached and he has the ability to change it. Physical suffering of this world turns into the suffering of love when I draw a little bit of the Upper Light and feel my state in relation to it. Then I begin to suffer from the fact that I have no love for the neighbor or love for the Creator. Herein lies the point of our free choice.

It is essential to get to the root of the suffering and understand that it is purposely sent to us from Above. If we understand that there is no choice and begin to scream out to the Creator, it signifies that we have reached the greatest depth. However, if we still attribute our suffering to various reasons in this world and to ourselves, we haven’t reached the very bottom.

I delve deeper and deeper into the suffering by its degrees of Aleph, Bet, and Gimel (inanimate, vegetative, and animate) and I think that I’m receiving a blow from nature. However, when I reach its last stage, Behina Dalet, I reveal there that its source is above nature, that it’s in the Creator, and is as if the Creator’s pointing a finger. Then, I scream out to Him.

Is it possible to speed up this process? Yes, it is. For this reason, we’re given the Torah in order to advance by a quick and simple path according to our own will rather than by the path of suffering. I can organize a group around myself and draw the Light from Above through the studies (for example, by studying The Zohar) and I quickly reach the same result. This is called the path of the Torah. The difference between the two paths consists of thousands of years of suffering.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/10, “What is the Preparation for Receiving the Torah?”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Importance Of Spreading The Wisdom Of Kabbalah, Part 2
Attaining the Worlds Beyond: “Eradicating Egoism”
ARIfilms: What Generates Movement? (1:45)

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

A question I received: From time to time I witness your discussions about the state of the group and everyone. I am amazed that you are still so uncorrected and low; that the group is not a group yet, and there is no feeling of solidarity. Where is your advancement?

My Answer: Thank you for the question. Perhaps it will help you understand your own state. The higher a person rises, the more corrupt and weaker he sees the group and himself. This is because the Upper Light (Ohr Makif) shines on a person and he and the group see themselves in relation to the higher levels. When they talk about themselves and a stranger overhears them, he thinks that he is at the same level with them and even higher. The stranger does not see such problems in himself because he is measuring himself against the level he is currently on.

With regard to this, it is said that "only righteous people can follow the straight paths of the Creator." After they discover all the corruptness in themselves they justify the Creator who reveals such states to them because "There is none else besides Him."

For example, look how the people of Israel sin with every step they take towards the Torah on their spiritual path. Yet a stranger believes that he is better than those who have devoted themselves to spiritual advancement. This is because he does not have the three lines to go above oneself, against common sense. As it is said, "Torah’s view is opposite to that landlords." (Da’at Torah Afucha Mi Da’at Baal-Abaitim). Their incorrect (earthly, egoistic) understanding of our states distances them from us and this is best for all of us.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Creator Stays Close To The Broken Hearts
Laitman.com Post: Alienation And Separation Are Nothing But Illusions!
Unlocking The Zohar: Relating Others To Me (2:10)

Filed under: Group Work - No Comments →

The Surrounding Light influences a person only to the extent of his desire for spirituality. He receives this desire from a Kabbalistic group. The group is his environment which exists on the same level with him; from it he absorbs everything, like a seed planted in the ground.

The seed itself is dead. It comes alive only when the seed is introduced into suitable soil. The enlivening happens only as a result of the environment. Without a proper environment the seed is merely a lifeless informational gene. In the appropriate environment where it begins to be influenced by the sun and other forces of nature, the seed comes to life.

The seed must interact with the environment in order for the general Upper Force to operate on it. The same holds true for a person. A person is influenced by his or her environment, just like a seed will grow and thrive only when planted in the appropriate soil with favorable surrounding conditions.  If a person does not place himself in the right environment, he shouldn’t expect any spiritual advancement.

This is a fact that ought to be clear to everybody. Only to the degree that a person absorbs from his environment does he receive the "sun" and "oxygen," (the requisite forces) which begin to cultivate him into a "tree." Then this force will be felt inside him even by those who are unable to clearly see it with their physical eyes. Since we are all connected within a single general system, other people will feel that within us lives a true and clearly felt spiritual charge: the Light within the vessel.

From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/14/10, Article “Make Yourself a Rav and Buy Yourself a Friend”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Self-Contained System Of Connections
Laitman.com Post: Oxygen Button
Kabbalah Moments: What Influences Me (2:01)

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

A question I received: How should we work during the day on building a Kabbalistic group, a vessel that we prepare to be filled by the Creator’s Light and revelation? How do we assess our personal state and that of the world group?

My Answer: We should interpret the Creator’s message which we receive from Baal HaSulam and Rabash as a single appeal: to unite. Rabash discloses this state, this point of contact, and tells us what it involves. However, it can only be reached by combining in oneself all opposite qualities.

These qualities seem different to you because you are not perfect. Yet the more you engage in this work, the sooner you will see that everything contracts into the single point which is called unity. Everything merges in it: you, the Creator, your efforts, the group, correction of the evil inclination, the greatness of the goal, your own insignificance, and the intention for bestowal with the egoistic inclination below it. Everything unites into one whole.

It is incorrect to take one item from the article and lock onto it. Rather, everyone should work on the entire article during the day: Read it a number of times and prepare a summary. Suddenly you’ll discover that with the synopsis you’ve prepared the subject can be examined from many different perspectives.

However, simply engaging in this work is most important. It attracts upon us the Light that Reforms. A person is not required to make correct and clever conclusions. As we advance, we become less and less successful in making reasonable conclusions as we feel more shattered and unfit. It looks as we are moving in an opposite direction, but this sensation is given to us by the Light that comes to awakens us!

Every day we have to set  a new task for everyone of us. If someone fails to perform it, he immediately lags behind. By the next day, he won’t be able to continue together with everyone because we move consecutively from one state to another. One can’t leap over several states and make a running jump onto a high-speed train.

Now that we have started this work, we should make sure that we perform it every day, regardless of our mood. We have to support each other to ensure that nobody falls down because anyone who is in descent prevents others from the proper understanding and learning.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/16/10, Article “The Purpose of the Association – 1”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Light Of The Future
Intention Handbook: "The Intention of the Group"
Concept Group, Kabbalah (3:49)

Filed under: Group Work, Inner Work, My Similarity to the Creator - No Comments →

We have started our work on building a Kabbalistic group. If, throughout the day, we keep thinking about the day’s article we are studying, we will see enormous transformations within us. When so many hearts and desires act according to the method of Baal HaSulam, aspiring to and clarifying the goal together, this action itself already unifies us.

Together we attract the Light which begins to act upon us, and we feel tremendous changes. These changes, however, may seemingly be to the worse. So what? Their purpose is to teach us that advancement occurs above our egoism, above our desire to receive pleasure and sense an egoistic reward.

I worked so hard, but the next day I felt even more heaviness of the heart, my own insignificance, weakness, disregard, hate, and indifference. Nonetheless, I have to get up and continue walking. It is similar to the wandering in the desert described in the Torah. “You have discovered your evil? Great! Now you will learn how to correct it and continue on the path.”

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/16/10, Article “The Purpose of the Association – 1”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Before Reading The Book Of Zohar
Laitman.com Post: Questions From Pharaoh – Our Egoism (Advanced)
Ask the Kabbalist: Results of Studying Kabbalah (3:08)

Filed under: Group Work, Inner Work, My Similarity to the Creator - 1 Comment →

We have reached a state where it is essential for us to unite. However, we mustn’t unite in order for each one of us to feel better, but because by doing so, all of us together will feel better.

In the past, we were drawn to each other because of the benefits we received from collaboration. This is why we have developed a global connection among all the people in the world. We produce something in one part of the world, sell it in another part of the world, receive something else from a third part of the world, and all of this affects yet another part of the world. This is how people fulfill their egos, their individual desires to receive pleasure.

Now, however, it is time for us to switch from the egoistic connection between us to an altruistic one. We mustn’t do this in order to profit, but in order for everyone to benefit. We have to shift from a connection that’s “for the sake of receiving” to a connection “for the sake of giving.” We have to unite for the sake of the opportunity to bestow.

Of course, this sounds absolutely unrealistic, but Nature will oblige us to attain this kind of unification. Therefore, we will be better off if we take initiative and learn Nature’s law of universal bestowal and love. This law is a result of the fact that all of Nature is a single body. If we will, at the very least, begin to talk and think about this, then our thoughts will do all the work!

The science of Kabbalah explains that none of us has the power to attain spirituality on his own. Alone, we cannot attain and become filled with the quality of bestowal, and thereby acquire peace. Rather, we can only accomplish this by creating the proper connections between us. And to do this, we should understand that by reaching the correct kind of unification, each of us will receive all of the common force. And this is something that can only be accomplished through love.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: We Were Created as Parts of One Whole
Laitman.com Post: The Path of Light Versus the Path of Suffering
Laitman.com Post: Egoistic Desires Are Those Not Aimed at Bestowal and Love for Others
Laitman.com Post: What Will Happen When People Understand the Idea of Unity

Filed under: Group Work, Love, Unity - No Comments →

News Report (from The Independent): In an article called “Scientists prove it really is a thin line between love and hate,” Steve Connor, The Independent’s science editor, reports: “Scientists studying the physical nature of hate have found that some of the nervous circuits in the brain responsible for it are the same as those that are used during the feeling of romantic love – although love and hate appear to be polar opposites … the ‘hate circuit’ shares something in common with the love circuit.”

My Comment: According to Kabbalah, the difference between love and hate lies only in the aim of one’s intention: “toward oneself” or “away from oneself.” Furthermore, if we begin doing systematic work to acquire the feeling of love, then we will feel that we “come out of ourselves.” There – “outside of ourselves” – we will feel a completely different flow of time, space and perception, to the point that we will cease perceiving ourselves, and replace “self” with “others.” By transferring the center of perception from “inside of us” to “outside of us,” we will feel the Upper World, the Creator. We will feel this precisely in the desires of others!

Question: What is the spiritual root of unrequited love?

My Answer: There is no such thing as unrequited love in spirituality! It exists only in our world, when one’s egoism doesn’t feel that it could be fulfilled by one’s partner. It’s because our egos distance us from one another, and everything is built upon using one another.

However, when there is a spiritual connection, then everything is built upon bestowal and complementing one another. To the degree we are corrected, this definitely happens.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Love Is Providing Others With the Means to Fulfill Their Point in the Heart
Laitman.com Post: Kabbalah Deals Only With the Actual Attainment of the Creator
Kabbalah Today Article: Love, Deciphered
Lecture: Unconditional Love

Filed under: Crisis, Egoism, Events, Group Work, Love - No Comments →

A question I received: Looking at Bnei Baruch, it’s clear that you practice “love for thy neighbor.” However, you do so only inside your group, and not toward the whole world. Why? Isn’t that similar to a cult?

My Answer: The Kabbalists of the past, our great teachers, provide us with strict and detailed instructions on how to arrange our studies, our life, and our attitude to ourselves, our friends, society, and the world. Naturally, we study and need only their advice, because besides them, no one else understands the Creator, the world in which we live, and the path that we are to walk.

And about the accusations that we’re a cult: some people benefit from it, and are thus ready to tar our reputation in any way possible. These are especially people who feel like they’re losing their stable grounding, because they’ve discovered that regular religion is inadequate, but they are still unwilling to replace it with Kabbalah.

Today, people aren’t the simpletons they once were, and as such, the attitude displayed by our critics only shows their ignorance in understanding the Creator’s Plan, and their rejection of the Torah as the method to correct man’s egoism. Could you show me anyone, besides Bnei Baruch, who also explains the necessity of “loving thy neighbor as thyself” as the main principle of the Torah? What other society have you seen that educates people according to this principle?

As for displaying an attitude of love only for our friends – we have the same attitude to anyone who’s moving toward the same goal; this is what makes a person our friend. And as much as every person will want to move toward the same goal, then anyone who wants to will be included in this principle and in our attitude of love!

Baal HaSulam. Igeret (Letter) 49 (1927). Pri Chacham: Igrot (Fruit of Wisdom: Letters).

I am giving you assignments, obligating you to carry out all my instructions in the observance of Torah and Mitzvot [1] properly and with dedication. I direct you to dedicate all your strength to loving others as yourself, to suffer when your friend suffers, and to feel happy when your friend is happy.

As for the love between you, I am talking precisely about the love between friends in our Kabbalistic group, since it is written, “to love thy neighbor.”

[1] Baal HaSulam considers love for one’s friend, for the sake of attaining love for the Creator – to be the main precept in the observance of Torah and Mitzvot.

Filed under: Group Work, Kabbalah Study, Kabbalistic Sources, Love - 2 Comments →