Baal HaSulam, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar“: In the generation of the Messiah anyone can reach adhesion and attainment. 

We are in the days of the Messiah and can enter the spiritual world, although we will have to sweat in order to do that.

After millennia of evolution, the desire to receive has been revealed in its fullest on the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature. Only the speaking level is left, which we uncover thanks to the wisdom of Kabbalah. This is the reason that it is revealed to everyone unexceptionally. We can attain all the 125 levels and reach the end of correction.

In the past, in the generation of Rashbi, Rabbi Shimon’s group, who wrote The Book of Zohar, were given this chance. Today, however, although we are small and worthless, lowly and weak, the structure of our vessels is fit for The Book of Zohar.

It is just like an embryo that is not a ripe human being yet, but still belongs to the same species and only must develop. It is the same with us who, unlike previous generations, “fit” The Book of Zohar and can use it to draw the Light that Reforms, and this is why it is revealed.

Anyone who thinks that it is forbidden to study the wisdom of Kabbalah should understand this. Things have changed since new human desires are appearing that belong to the generation of the Messiah.

“The generation of the Messiah” is the name of a period when the Light called “Messiah” comes and acts on the vessels. On the previous levels, we advanced by the egoistic evolution, according to the principle of “go and make a living from one another,” in the egoistic sense. Today, the desire of the fourth level, on the human level, is developing, and thus we all depend on each other. After all, a human being (“Adam” in Hebrew) is someone who feels that he depends on and is incorporated in the whole. This state is expressed in the global crisis of the modern world.

Everything begins from the Light that flows upon the first three levels of humanity: the still, the vegetative, and the animate. These levels are not mutually connected as they should be. They are not compatible with the upper system and the Light that comes from there. After all, the Light brings us the wholeness of the ten Sefirot, while the vessels are dispersed, their Sefirot are dispersed and separated, and so they experience a shattering, a crisis in different forms.

So, what should they do? We should unite, but how? Using their logic, they try to unite and correct where they feel the crisis—in cultural life, in education, in industry, in technology, in finance, in commerce, and so on. And, indeed, why not? “Wherever things are bad, this is where we must correct the situations so that it will be better.”

Yet, as a result, we experience even greater troubles. After all, the problem is not where we feel the emptiness, but in the means of filling this void. So, there is no point settling for a struggle in trying to fill this void.

Here, humanity faces a new source of pressure: the need for what we call Masach (screen). After all, the only way we can receive the Light correctly is if we connect with others in ten Sefirot. When you develop mutual bestowal in this connection, you become similar to the Light and its attributes, and then it fills you.

So, a totally different approach is needed today. The crisis is felt as an empty void, but the solution is not in egoistic fulfillment, but in unity.

People generally understand that together, they can manage in life. At the same time, in their attempts to unite without the integral system, they only contribute to worsening the situation. It is because the point isn’t just connection, but connection with the Creator, through Israel, according to the spiritual hierarchy.

In the past, the vessels of Israel were above the nations of the world. After the shattering, they fell, and now the nations of the world are above them, seem more prosperous, and of course don’t feel the need for Israel in order to come out of the crisis. It is because they are actually above Israel; they are not shattered, while Israel is, and so they see themselves as the religious authority, as responsible for the world and for everything in general.

In the current circumstances, this feeling is natural, and the correction must come by understanding the general picture, which will lead the nations of the world to the method of correction. Until then, all their efforts will lead to the opposite results, as is happening in Europe that has created a common market. Today, the Europeans should understand that unity is only possible according to the integral method thanks to the power of Israel in it.

This is the reason that many forms of unity in the world get stuck. We are the reason for that, those who represent the level of Israel. We must be ready to pass on the message about that to humanity: The real connection can only be through us. Otherwise, if they will begin to unite by themselves, this only will make things worse, and wars will immediately start all over the world.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/28/13, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

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Question: Why does Baal HaSulam hardly mention the group in his articles?

Answer: There is hardly anything to say about the group since it is an obvious condition. If you don’t work on the connection with the group, you don’t have a spiritual vessel.

So Baal HaSulam has only several articles about the group. A Kabbalistic group is a concept known since the days of Abraham, who was the first Kabbalist who had to work in a group. Before him, there was no need for that since the idea of the connection of the souls was not revealed. The souls were so pure until then that they didn’t need to connect to one another in order to connect to spirituality.

Although we know the history of Cain and Abel, this connection is still on the level of the roots of the evil inclination. So, Abraham was the first who needed a group although he had already attained spirituality.

He was the first link in a chain of twenty generations from Adam Ha Rishon (the First Man) until Noah, and from Noah until Abraham (ten Sefirot of the Direct Light and ten Sefirot of the Reflected Light). He was the first who started to organize a group, and so he is considered the father of the nation of Israel. This nation is a Kabbalistic group.

The concept of the group was then formed, and it is impossible to reveal spirituality without it. The more we advance, the bigger the groups become. First, the groups were only a teacher and a student, as it says: “The minimum of many is two.”

There were different stories throughout the time periods in history, but the end result is they are all eventually meant to be as one. During the events before Mt Sinai, when Egypt’s desire to receive was revealed, the unity of the group of the whole Israeli nation as one group was crucial. The conditions of the gathering before Mt Sinai were the conditions of a Kabbalistic group: To be “as one man with one heart,” “each man shall help his friend,” “don’t do unto others what is hateful to you,” “love thy friend as thyself,” and “all of Israel are friends,” connected in mutual guarantee.

These are the conditions for the existence of the group because the “nation of Israel” is a Kabbalistic group.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/28/13, Shamati #25

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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).
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/25/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Mutual Guarantee”

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Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”: “When all of Israel became responsible for one another.” [In other words, each individual is completed by others.] “Because the Torah was not given to them before each and every one from Israel was asked if he agreed to take upon himself the precept of loving others in the full measure, expressed in the words: “Love thy friend as thyself.”

Here we see the description of the situation when everyone feels that the main question surfaces in him. Everyone asks himself: “Do I really agree to love the other?”

This is a principal question and it determines my whole life. After all, I don’t want to go on living in this “interest club”; I am here in order to attain something. I’m here all the time, and put a lot of money and energy into it, although I could succeed in many other areas. In fact, there are many very talented people here who can have everything the world can offer, but they have given up the rewards of this world, and sit in the lessons motionless. Is that right? Is this the way one should live his life?

So, we have to ask this question about love persistently: “When will it finally surface?” “When will the need of loving the other as myself grab me by the throat?” Why do I need to analyze the current situation as to how much I love myself now and how I relate to others?

After all, I see myself as part of the nation of Israel, which means those who want to reach Yashar-El (straight to the Creator), to be similar to Him by actions of bestowal. This is the only way we can reach adhesion with Him, which is the purpose of creation. What can I give Him? The only chance I have to learn the attribute of bestowal from Him is to be like Him in my attitude to others. I have to discover that He loves everyone and bestows upon them. Then by operating in the same way towards others, I become like Him, I am in adhesion with Him, and I evince Him in my action that realizes the love of others.

This means that each and every one in Israel would take it upon himself to care and work for each member of the nation, and to satisfy all their every needs, no less than the measure imprinted in him to care for his own needs.

This is already the measure of my attitude towards the friend: to care for him as much as I care for myself. It’s similar to how a mother constantly worries about her baby. Until I reach that, I don’t fulfill the goal of Israel, don’t have the minimal equivalence of form with the Creator, and I remain on the “animate” level. But if I care about others more than about myself, I am called “human.”

Question: What is the “nation of Israel”?

Answer: These are people who have to reach adhesion with the Creator. Practically, I identify them by their ability to act mutually, to make mutual efforts. With whom can I stand before Mount Sinai? With all due respect, it isn’t with members of parliament and not with my neighbors, but with people who understand me and who are ready to step forward with me on the path of mutual concessions and mutual connection in order to discover the upper force in it and to bring Him contentment. They are my “nation” for the time being.

Later this concept will expand and envelop the whole world.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/22/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Arvut (The Mutual Guarantee)”

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Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”: This means that each and every one in Israel would take it upon himself to care and work for each member of the nation, and to satisfy all their every needs, no less than the measure imprinted in him to care for his own needs.

An approach like this sounds as something unrealistic. So in spite of all this, how is it possible to realize it? If this condition is already laid in creation, is means that whether we want this or not, we will have to fulfill it.

In general, there are many things that we do against our will, even if we sometimes naively suppose that we want it. But any intelligent person is able to discern what results from nature that arouses in us all kinds of drives, thoughts, and desires without asking for our opinion. We don’t decide about them beforehand, but rather we only discover them within ourselves post factum.

Today we already see that in the end, the system will oblige us to resemble it. Should we tremble in fear as if we are standing before the volcano eruption, something that cannot be prevented, and flee from it? Or can we do something in spite of all this?

Whatever the case, Kabbalists claim that we need mutual guarantee. And if we look at the whole world, we see that we probably won’t have other choice. If we begin to oppose this, we only arouse our entire ego and in the end, we will be finished with the entire earth. After all, nobody thinks that he is capable to truly unite. In our eyes this seems impossible; it is simply easier to die. But we won’t even be allowed to “get off” that easily….

So, if this condition is standing before us, it is a sign that we must learn how to realize it by way of hastening. It is already clear that this path will save us from sufferings that are worse than death since they are derived from something that I hate the most, something with which we are not prepared to agree.

And therefore it is necessary to consider all these seemingly unrealistic principles: loving one’s neighbor as yourself, mutual responsibility, brotherly love, and being as one man with one heart. After all, the solution is hidden here: It’s not merely a way to avoid troubles, to get off the path of suffering; rather, a surprising possibility is here—we didn’t even think that meanwhile, through love for another, the eternal world will be revealed to us.…
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/22/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Mutual Guarantee”

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Question: What is the role today of the global Bnei Baruch groups  in different countries?

Answer: The world  groups play a special important role because Israel cannot correct themselves if they are not focused on the world. The GE have no way of correcting themselves if they are isolated from others.

The Creator wanted to give the Torah first to the nations of the world . All the Light is opposite this desire, opposite the AHP and not opposite GE. In fact the AHP makes up the whole vessel, 99% of the whole desire. Therefore the nation of Israel, GE, is the smallest of all the nations. It has no right to exist except for serving all this great AHP.

The Creator wants to fill the AHP with the Light and He tests GE as the part that serves the Creator and these desires to receive. Israel are the slaves of their mission, and the nations of the world are not. We have to carry out our mission towards the Creator and all of humanity. Therefore, the two sides come complaining to us, and their complaints are just since we have to be the link, the adapter,  between the Creator and the world and between the world and the Creator. We, however, don’t fulfill our role.

In order to function correctly, we need a connection with the upper force, with the Creator, which is realized through the center of the group. On other hand, we need to be connected to all our groups and to all the friends who belong to the nations of the world since this is how the connection from them to us and from them to the nations of the world among which they live is fulfilled. Thus we all connect paving the path from Malchut of Malchut, the greatest desire of the created being, to the desire of Keter of Keter and all the way to the Creator.

The central group must treat all the groups around the world lovingly, with great concern and attention, to connect to them as closely as possible despite the language barriers and the geographic distance, and to accept them as closely as possible. It is through them that we can reach the other people, the other nations, and to pass on to them the method of integral education.

Our friends all over the world who live there as “converts,” which means that they also have a point in the heart, are part of Israel and fulfill the connection between AHP and us, GE. We cannot establish such a connection by ourselves, and it is our friends in other countries who do that.

It turns out that they belong to the main layer of the desire that is on the border between GE and AHP. Without this connection the GE and AHP are meaningless. For this reason, we have to pay great attention to our friends and to support them in every way we can, to hold conventions, to provide translation in every language, that is, help them as much as we can. It is because they belong to the layer of desire that allows us to answer the question: What do we exist for?

We exist thanks to the fact that we have such connection to the AHP, thanks to our friends all over the world.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/15/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam 

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Baal HaSulam: “The Writings of the Last Generation”: It is a fact that Israel are the most hateful of all the nations whether it is for religious reasons, because of race, because of…or because of cosmopolitanism, etc. It is because hate precedes all the reasons, but everyone solves his hate according to his own psychology.

Once the nation of Israel was as one man with one heart, and hence although it’s dispersed all over the world today, the nations of the world treat us as one whole. In the world, this attitude is originally rooted between the desire to receive and the intention for the sake of bestowal, and we have to correct it only on the spiritual degrees.

There cannot be any correction in our world. Although there are attempts to “mediate” between us and our Palestinians neighbors, Turkey or others, there is no way these problems can be solved on the level of our world. It’s because our situation here is only the result of an action that stems from Above.

This is one of the fundamental laws. There is only a motionless desire to receive in this world. The only thing that can move it is the Light, the force of life.

When the Light comes in its time, it brings about trouble and evil (1). Why? It’s because it is then revealed through its posterior. But if the Light comes as a result of our request for correction (MAN), it’s revealed as the good and benevolent Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif, OM).

Thus the only difference is to what extent we can advance towards the goal faster than the forces that come from Above. Our free will is between these two options.

So there are simply no efficient means on the level of this world. Talks on all levels, politics, the UN, and so on are all useless. In fact, it’s all the outcome of the action of the upper Light that influences different factors in our world according to the first option.

No matter how many decisions are made in summit meetings and conventions, the Light actually determines everything. Essentially, the politicians are puppets, and the only thing that is really effective is our request for correction, which we raise before the negative force comes. Only then will the negative force be changed to the positive one—after all, we want to be corrected without waiting for trouble.

So how do we reach this request? We do so with the help of the group and the study (a prayer). The group connects us into one body, one vessel, and by praying during the lesson we connect to the one source of the Light, to the Creator.

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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/15/13, “The Israeli Nation”

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Question: What do the students who live abroad and are found in various cultures need to do if they want to feel that they are part of the people of Israel?

Answer: I will try to explain the difference between someone who is a Jew from birth, genetically, and a person who doesn’t have these genes, yet has an inclination to be “Yashar-Kel,” meaning belonging to the Creator.

It is said that someone who converts to Judaism is born again. This means that he is a Jew 100%, and even more because he originated with a more distant desire. And if he corrects it, he becomes closer and more internal than the rest. Rabbi Akiva, from whom all our Torah comes, was not originally a Jew. In the period when the people of Israel were on a spiritual level, there were numerous great Kabbalists who originated from the nations of the world.

There is no disparagement here, rather the opposite, because all of the desire that we need for correction is specifically found with the nations of the world. It is said that the Creator first wanted to give the Torah to the nations of the world, meaning for the correction of the AHP. And Israel, the Galgalta ve Eynaim are only a transition towards this correction.

Therefore, the people who approach the collective correction and don’t belong to the people of Israel according to their origin are the pioneering part of the AHP, those “pioneers” from the collective soul that require correction. This means that this is its most important part.

So, they come to us and serve as the conduit between us and the entire world. I hope very much that they will develop the system of integral education, will begin to teach it, and pass it on to the entire world. Each nation has a different culture and a different mentality. So, it is only in this way that it will be possible to help in the correction of the world.

These people are expected to get a much higher reward, and their work is much more important than those who belong to the people of Israel from birth because they are the true conduit and include within them the desires of the AHP. Along with this, they raise themselves to the level of GE.

This picture is still not completely clear, but eventually it will become clear how rich and important the idea of the “convert” is, how many roles it has. A “convert” is a concept, a role, serving as a conduit between GE and AHP that elevates the will to receive toward correction.

There was a time when the people of Israel also left all the other people in Babylon. The spiritual sparks were discovered gradually within the collective desire, layer after layer, beginning with Adam HaRishon. After that, the sparks that remained from the shattering and were called the “points in the heart” were discovered in Abraham and thousands of other Babylonians whom he took from there to the land of Canaan.

These people were a part of all of humanity in the beginning. After that they gathered into a group in accordance with their collective desire and readiness to love thy neighbor as thyself, so that in the center of this connection the higher power was discovered. This is how it is even now. So, this includes both those who were once part of this gathering, as well as those who weren’t in it yet, but are waking up now.

For every one of us, both those who belong to the physical people of Israel and the spiritual Israel, there is a task within the collective system. But it is still unknown to us. But in general, someone who comes from the nations of the world and joins with the people of Israel has a very important role that is yet to be discovered.

They are specifically the ones who establish movement towards the process of correction. GE cannot advance by themselves; they lack desire, lack the power of movement. Therefore, it is said that the nations of the world will carry Israel on their shoulders to Jerusalem to build the Temple.

It is impossible to reach the Creator, the spiritual Kli called the Temple, without the movement that is carried out by the nations of the world, those people who understand this task, this process, this goal. Israel cannot do this on their own. Therefore, our work with all the groups in the world and our concern for our brothers who are part of the nations of the world and are parts of all the groups in the world, is so important. The importance of these groups will be discovered more and more.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/15/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Baal HaSulam, “The Nation”: It is shameful to admit that one of the most precious merits we have lost during the exile, and the most important of them, is the loss of the awareness of the nationality, that natural feeling that connects and sustains each and every nation. The threads of love that connect the nation, which are so natural and primitive in all the nations, have become degenerated and detached from our hearts; they are gone.

[…] The only hope is […] to discover and ignite once more the natural national love that have been dimmed within us… This work precedes all others.

First, we shouldn’t forget that we are actually not a nation like all the other nations. The foundation of the world is the “70 nations of the world” (the ten Sefirot times seven) that stem from Zeir Anpin in the world of Atzilut. It gives Malchut different forms, and so every nation has typical attributes that project a certain attribute of the Creator. Ultimately, all the nations unite together in the image of Zeir Anpin, the Creator.

So where is the place of Israel in this picture? Israel is the intention, the yearning for that, the activating element and nothing more than that. “Israel,” which means “straight to the Creator” (Yashar-El), has to bring all the nations of the world to this form. Those who have a point in the heart, “sparks” of the shattered Masach (screen), carry out this mission.

We used to be a unique nation different from all the other nations, with special relationships that were based on the principle of “love thy friend as thyself,” or at least based on “don’t do unto others what is hateful for you.” This framework was already established by Abraham’s group and was kept at different degrees until the destruction of the Temple. During this whole period we lived beyond the Machsom (barrier), in bestowal.

On the whole, the condition for the existence of the nation of Israel, which allows us to transcend the Machsom and to enter the spiritual life, is a good mutual connection. When this connection is lost, we are not called “Israel” in the spiritual sense anymore and are not in the “Land of Israel,” meaning in the desire directed straight to the Creator.

Today we live among the nations of the world who hate us, and the reason is clear. When the vessels (desires) fall from the level of Atzilut to the level of the shells, to the impure worlds of  BYA, they find themselves under the “press of evolution” that forces them to constantly advance.

Generally speaking, there are Lights, sparks, and vessels. So the vessels feel that they depend on the sparks, that is, on people with the point in the heart, without whom it’s impossible to receive the Light. As a result they adopt all our customs: our religion, manners, morals, laws, and so on. On the other hand, they hate us since they don’t receive from us what they need. It is because subconsciously they expect something else.

This will continue until we begin to show the nations of the world that we seriously intend to fulfill our role in practice. Thus we will again be the nation of Israel that lives in the Land of Israel and fulfill its role with regards to the 70 nations of the world. It is because they in particular are the “matter” of creation that has to reach the equivalence of form with the Creator.

So we are merely a Masach, an intention, the attribute of Bina, while the main part is Malchut. So the right combination and cooperation between us and the nations of the world is the basis for our advancement towards the goal of creation. The nation of Israel cannot exist by itself without the nations of the world. We have to reach mutuality and correction, and it does not depend on the world, but on how we act according to the times and the current conditions that we have to fulfill.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/15/13, “The Israeli Nation”

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