Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”: Only when they came out of Egypt and became a complete nation, only then was there a possibility to guarantee everyone’s needs without any care and concern. … as long as the individual is troubled with concerns for himself, he is unfit to even begin to keep the commandment, “Love thy friend as thyself.”

Thus, we begin to understand the meaning of the “Egyptian exile.” After all, the fulfillment of the conditions of mutual guarantee starts from the receiving of the Torah, according to the amount of the Light that Reforms that we draw. Until then, the children of Israel were not able to accept these conditions but were in the of system of establishing mutual guarantee.

On the whole, having come out of Babylon and set off on this path, we are constantly establishing the mutual guarantee relationship between us. First, our egoistic desire is still weak and we really feel that we are one family. But later, different conflicts begin; then, the hate builds up between us and we find ourselves in Egypt, that is, in different egoistic accounts. Here, “Pharaoh” becomes revealed to us and we gradually discover that there is no mutual guarantee between us.

Eventually, we reach the exact polar opposite of bestowal of the level of Bina. Instead of mutual guarantee, the force of bestowal, we acquire the force of receiving. This is the last phase before the exodus from Egypt. We discover all the evil among us in the group—and there is nothing else for us to do in Egypt.

Now, we need the Torah, the method of correction. Eventually, after the parting of the Red Sea, we receive it before the mountain of our hatred, Mt. Sinai (“Sinah” means “hatred” in Hebrew).
[106166]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/25/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Mutual Guarantee”

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Question: Can we expect to cross the Machsom at the New Jersey convention May 10^th – 12^th?

Answer: If you know exactly what it means to cross the Machsom and you want to do it, then you will surely succeed. To cross the Machsom means to enter into the group and to be born into the spiritual world.

In order to be born, the point in the heart, the drop of spiritual semen, has to be moved upward and turned into a “white drop,” the embryo of your soul that belongs to the Light. Through it you will feel spirituality and in it you will feel self-annulment: first, in regard to the group; next, in regard to the attribute of bestowal; and then, in regard to the Creator. This will be the first feeling of the spiritual world: self-annulment.

Then, from this drop of spiritual semen, the embryo will begin to develop and more and more ego will be added to one’s self-annulment, which you will correct and turn into a matter for connection to the group. Then you will build your vessel, meaning the spiritual body, and will continue to move your entire ego to the other side, beyond the Machsom.
[105806]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/23/13, Writings of Rabash

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A person is taught from Above to rise above his desire to receive. This world brings me different surprises, all kinds of states, induces me to do foolish things, influences me through my family and friends, and I must respond. According to my response, I am tested as to whether I keep the rule of “there is none else besides Him,” “the Good who does Good,” and whether I can confidently say that everything comes from the Creator and not retreat from this decision.

Other than that, I do not ask for any changes. I want everything to remain the way it is, I want to feel the worst states as the best states. I want to correct the actual state, not to escape it. I want to correct the desires in which I feel pain at the moment.

Otherwise I will not be able to justify Him. How else can I direct myself at bestowal, justify the evil, subdue myself, and bless the upper force if I have no contact with it? The shattering occurred in order to give me this option.

It is precisely for this reason that this whole world was given to me, like a tuning fork according to which musical instruments are tuned, so that I will attune myself to the Creator. Otherwise, without subduing myself and serving others, without the connection with the friends, I will not be able to do that. I have to feel that I receive all my thoughts and feelings through them, that I use the collective mind together with them.

I discover that the group is the vessel outside of my ego. My inability to connect with the friends shows me to what extent I cannot exit my ego. My fault is not my sophistication or my intelligence, but the hatred and the detachment, meaning the shattering. A person was given a group in order to give him a clear understanding, an example, a means to measure where he is with regard to the Creator.

You can feel hate, envy, pride, and ambition with regard to the group. You can annul yourself before it or not, you can shout at them or beat them, and they can do the same to you. But you cannot do that to the Creator since the Creator is the general, absolute force of nature. Only according to your equivalence to Him do you reveal the opportunity to be in contact with Him, to connect, since it is a perfect, fixed system.

So the preparation can only be by the influence of the environment, and it takes place on every level until the end of correction. Until the very end of correction we prepare for the revelation of the Creator in its fullest form.
[106072]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/24/13, Writings of Rabash

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Malchut feels reward or punishment according to its connection or separation from Bina. Generally two states exist: a good state (the corrected Malchut) and a bad state (the corrupted, shattered Malchut). The whole question is whom does it want to please, where does it find reward and punishment: in its own benefit or the benefit of the other?

It’s one of the two; there are no intermediary states: I either care for myself or for the other. The criterion for reward and punishment corresponds to it: “Do I enjoy or not?” or “Does the other enjoy or not?”

It is clear that in the shattered state reward and punishment are felt only within the shattered Malchut, and in the corrected state they are verified by the Creator. This is the entire difference.

Baal HaSulam writes in Talmud Eser Sefirot (The Study of the Ten Sefirot), Part 10, “Inner Reflection,” Item 15: The main correction of the world is through reward and punishment. And all reward of the righteous starts from there, meaning from an ascent, from attaching the AHP to Galgalta ve Eynaim. Certainly, the Creator could have created the world with one saying. However, He caused a shattering. What for? It is the meaning of the inclusion of the property of mercy into the property of judgment. Thanks to the shattering, there appeared multitude forms and ways of connection, joining, between Malchut and Bina.

The “one saying” includes ten complete Sefirot , and that’s it. But instead of this, there is a need for various combinations of properties so as “to increase the reward of the righteous.” Now that the evil shattered, egoists appeared, they are capable of becoming righteous. And their reward will be even higher because they, so to speak, “attained their names” in similarity to the Creator. By joining Bina, Malchut assumes its form, and this is the reward for the righteous.

“To attain the sacred names” is to be clothed in them, to be like the Creator in regard to others in one way or another. Thereby I adhere to Him. It’s because a “name” is a form, a manner of bestowal. It is as if I clothe in these garments, become like Him, and this is my reward.

The shattering gave  a multitude of aspects to the Creator. It is correct that He created the world with “one saying,” but everything is concealed, closed, bound within these ten Sefirot, impenetrably. Ten Sefirot of Malchut of the world of Infinity or the four phases of the Direct Light don’t give anything. The creature doesn’t exist yet; that is, it cannot manifest or attain.

For a person to truly understand something he has to take on the appropriate form internally, “to clothe” in it. If I understand how an engine runs, it is as if I am within it and feel with my “nerves” all that is happening there. This is true knowledge, true attainment.

Therefore, before the shattering everything was wonderful, except for one thing: The creature didn’t exist yet. It remained motionless at the very bottom of the still level, similar to an angel, meaning a simple force, devoid of the evil inclination and feeling, and totally activated from Above, without any independence. The shattering made it possible for it to acquire various “garments,” “letters,” and “names” of the Creator, different forms of behavior, based on inner opposition to the Creator and external similarity to Him.

This is the reason for the creation of the evil inclination—everything begins from this.…
[105872]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/22/2013, TES

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All of our work is to acquire the property of bestowal above the property of reception so at every moment I clarify that all that happens within me and around me, in all my thoughts and desires, in the entire picture of reality, comes only from the Creator.  I clarify this despite all the disturbances that come to me from the world. The world shows that, allegedly, a multitude of various extraneous factors and forces work in it, establishing my state and affecting me. But behind all of this I have to see the Creator.

It is easier to do this if the world relates to me with hostility and I try to flee from it.  But when I become strong enough, I’m being sent forces that seem good, attracting me to this world.  I have to oppose them saying that this is evil, even worse than what was before.

I need to at least be as thankful for the evil as for the good and to be grateful for the suffering more than for the temptations that attract me to this world.  Behind it all I must see the rule of one Creator, the Good who does Good.

This work is called the work of the Creator because, through it, I learn how the Creator relates to me, teaching me his “customs.”  I discover that the Creator surrounds me with all this virtual reality so that through this world, above this reality, I will discover the force that activates me and creates all of reality for me.

I need to always see that this is the Creator’s finger that directs me to choose, to be in the Klipat Noga, in the middle third of Tifferet.  With this I recognize that everything comes from one source only, from Keter, from Sun. I must adhere to Him like Moon, to reflect to Sun the Light that I received from it.

But I bless the state of the new moon, which is completely dark and doesn’t shine.  It is enough for me to remain in faith above reason, in bestowal above reception. I bless this form specifically, the form to which I aspire in my work.
[106078]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/24/13, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Quite often I don’t understand what the lesson is about: Whether it is about spirituality or about the corporeal life. How can we distinguish between the corporeal life and spirituality?

Answer: On the whole, what enters me through the five senses, through the “inlets” of sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch, is called “this world.”

If I develop an additional sense in me, meant for feeling others, then in my perception this sensation is divided into five parts: Ketter (K), Hochma (H), Bina (B), Zeir Anpin (ZA), and Malchut (M). I develop this sense from the point in the heart, by wanting to exit myself and to exist in the group together with the friends. It is among them that I discover the five senses that are outside the body, that make up my spiritual “body.”

This transition requires a period of preparation that is carried out by the Light. We cannot attain this by ourselves, but all our efforts summon the Light that Reforms, and eventually we acquire the new vessel of the soul.

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A group is an assembly of friends, a gathering of desires that reject themselves in order to unite. And only in this unity do they find the right means, the right attitude, necessary for the revelation of the Creator.

This is the law: The Light is at absolute rest, but to experience it, I need a suitable vessel that is being filled to the extent of my integrality. I have to form this vessel, which is the sum (Σ) of all the friends’ desires.

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Question: What is my free choice in relation to my thoughts?

Answer: All thoughts that are within me at the moment, all sensations and understandings, all data that I as if “scan” and then process, through synthesis and analysis, all these parameters are given from Above. What I feel, how I feel, what kinds of decisions I make, all this is already predetermined from Above, right up to this moment. One can ask now: What will be from this moment on? In this “from now on” there is a parameter called my free choice.

With regards to thoughts, free choice is in the external desire and the external mind that belong to the group. After the shattering I am divided into two parts. In my sensations, one part is outside of me, whereas I perceive the second part internally as myself. Thereby my inner heart and mind appear, meaning myself, as well as an external heart and mind, meaning the group. All that I need to do is to begin to connect these two parts together, into one Kli.

Here my struggle and problems begin, and this comprises the order of the work and all corrections. By trying to come to terms with the part that constantly demonstrates to me its confrontation and opposition, I feel that I need the Creator, the only one who can connect these two parts together. The stronger I need Him to reconcile these two opposing parts together, to that degree I agree with the Creator, with His nature, with His existence, and with His rule, I agree that this property would govern me.

The more that I try to annul myself before the group, the more obvious it becomes to me that I am not ready to subdue myself before the others. Ultimately, I will “beat myself black and blue” to finally clarify that I’m not ready to yield under any circumstances. I reach such hatred that it’s like Mount Sinai (“Sinah” means “hatred” in Hebrew). But because I’ve tried to annul myself so many times I realize that I must do this, and therefore I feel the need for the help of the upper force.
[105639]
From the 1^st part to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/19/13, Shamati #68

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We come from the place of shattering, starting with the desire that has no idea of what bestowal, sanctity, spirituality, is. We build this understanding gradually, over time. The words that we use in the beginning and in the end of the path are the same: bestowal and love, but as we advance, we feel more depth, more accurate form in them.

It is as if you take a fruit covered by layers of skin and gradually peel one layer after another. It is only in the very middle, in the core behind dozens of coverings, that we find the fruit. We do the same when we peel shells from words, feeling what exactly each notion means and what is hidden behind them.

When we clarify one word or notion, it sheds light on other words as well. After all, everything is interconnected. Thus, we gradually begin to understand what Kabbalists write about.

We already comprehend these ideas with our mind, but we don’t feel them yet. It awakens in us a very strong desire to attain. As we advance we become “less smart.” If we didn’t strive to reveal spirituality and had no pronounced, burning point in the heart, we would continue our studies by using the power of our minds and would learn the theory pretty well. We even would think that we sense something. We would never go through the state of internal confusion, nor would we feel that there is a confrontation between our feelings and mind. Thus, we would progress in accordance with a stiff, one-way path and would be led solely by our intellect.

However, if our heart and mind act simultaneously and we develop our spiritual vessel, we will always be confused. We would feel that we lose the sharpness of perception and that our brain doesn’t progress as we study, but rather expands proportionately to our sensations.

Mind becomes a consequence of sensations. A person’s mind only works in accordance with the development on his feelings, the spiritual vessel, outlined only by sensations, desire. In other words, we become very primitive as opposed to highly intellectual people who think of complex matters and love to philosophize. We are smart to the extent that our heart can feel. It is called “being wise in the heart” since it is the heart that obligates us to be clever only at the level of the heart and no higher than that.

What’s good about it if we lose the sharpness of mind and become absorbed by our internal experiences, trying to develop only our sensations? By all means, we will do everything that is in our power to develop our hearts. Otherwise, we will stay obscure and incomplete since everything we receive comes from our spiritual vessels, through our sensations. In this world, no one considers a person who is driven solely by his sensations to be intellectual.

In the end, this ambiguity forces us urgently to expand our feelings since we understand only what we feel in the heart. The heart doesn’t feel much, and only in a very egoistic, primitive, one-way, and narrow form.

This explains why we don’t have a choice: We understand that we must open the heart. We experience a huge pressure that is getting stronger due to our jealousy, passion, and ambitions that push us to spiritual revelation in the heart. Our situation is hopeless since the Creator blocks all other forms of our development.

It is as if we lose our sharpness: We no longer hear or feel. There are people who have a very sharp mind and who know a lot about politics, science, about how to make good deals and so on. They turn into straightforward people who are driven solely by their hearts. In our world, it is called an animate level, whereas a human being is someone who is driven by intellect. But this limitation forces a person to open his heart and expand his spiritual vessel at any expense. Otherwise, he feels bad because he has no clue as to what bestowal is.
[102749]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/27/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: How does a student who learns Kabbalah need to relate to a world in which there are so many problems: terror (like the recent bombs in Boston), the economic crisis, and ecological imbalance? What needs to be done?

Answer: The truth is that the world is in a much more difficult state than we think lacking understanding and knowledge. There is a period of reaction from nature, which is accumulating our negative influences, all the destruction that we throw at it. The main destruction exists on the human level in the relationships between us since by this we directly influence the most vulnerable place, the system itself.

There was a time when the damage we caused wasn’t that great. This was when we destroyed something in the crude, mechanical part of nature. After that we began to destroy its more subtle systems, say like the electronic or electrical mechanisms that activate the whole of nature. We have finally reached the program itself, where every small injury brings terrible, negative ramifications throughout the system.

This is the problem. Today we have developed to a state where we destroy nature exactly at that level, the level of the program of nature. We must adapt ourselves to nature on this level: We need to understand it, to discover, and be sensitive to the upper force and together with it, participate in the management of all the worlds. But we are not doing this yet. This delay accumulates and accumulates and will ultimately explode on us.

So we see so many problems in the world: terror, natural disasters, and bankruptcy of entire nations. The United States is absorbing hard blows: Just as its influence on the world is enormous so is the intensity with which it will feel the corruption of the world. To keep this from happening, our friends in the United States must make great efforts to work together with us.

In general this is something all of our groups in the world must do. The entire world is facing great blows which we can prevent. We specifically can help in this, nobody else can do anything, not even a president. Everything depends on the upper force and on our accommodation to it. The more that we correct ourselves and attain equality with it, the more we balance and heal nature.

In this way we can transform every negative influence to positive. After all, every negative influence that we discover in this world due to our lack of accommodation to nature will be regarded as the realization of evil that we can transform to good. So instead of a disaster that may come if we fail to mollify it by bringing the Light into it, we will feel the opposite: a great ascent.

The evil is still accumulating now as a result of all of our deeds. The time is tight, it is becoming critical. Everything depends on one question: Do we have enough time to attract the Light to all this negative charge accumulated by humanity, transforming it into positive or not? This is where the decision is made whether we tilt the world from the scale of guilt to the scale of justification?

Hundreds of thousands of tons have already accumulated on the side of accusation, which we can transfer to the side of merit, meaning to transform the sins into merits. The higher a person is, the greater is his ego. The main thing is to turn towards correction. I very much hope that thanks to conventions like these, we will accumulate sufficient power to attract the Light that Reforms so that instead of the accumulation of negative energy in the world, we will discover its opposite: positive energy.
[105883]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/23/13, Writings of Rabash

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