Baal HaSulam, Letter No 2: I advise you to fear that your love might cool down even though our minds reject this possibility.

When we are in love, it seems to us that it will last forever. However, we know that in this world, everything is temporary. This state of affairs applies to spirituality as well since, there too, we continue climbing the next steps. So, it is natural that current states will disappear there  as well. That’s why there is nothing permanent whatsoever and why any condition will always be replaced with another one, either a bad one with a good one, or a good one with a bad one.

Still, make every possible effort to multiply love. If there is a way to increase love, but one doesn’t take advantage of it, it is considered an “omission.” It’s “as if” one gives a great present to one’s friend: the love that reveals in his friend’s heart at the moment of giving is different from the love that remains in his friend’s heart after the deed of giving is over.

In other words, love gradually vanishes. It “cools down” every day to the extent that it goes away completely and reaches a stage of oblivion. That’s why the recipient of the gift must search for the ways to regard the act of giving as recurrent and new every given day.

That is, we have to constantly renew the sensation of love and never allow our feelings to cool down. Everything happens inside us. To keep this sensation, we don’t necessarily have to receive new gifts each time. This rule also applies to unity among us that has to be instigated on a continual basis.

We have come to a state when each one of us cares for others as if they are our little children, our closest and most beloved ones. Thus, we strive to give them everything they want. If we manage to do so, we will provide others with everything they really need, and the Creator will manifest Himself among us as a result of our similarity to His properties.

Our attitude to each other and His property of absolute bestowal and love will somehow coincide. At least they will reach the first level of similarity of the 125 steps. It is the most important issue for us. We are in a state of a constant readiness and everything is in our hands.

We should persistently beg the Creator to give our friends everything they want, i.e., correction and revelation. Revelation is the property of bestowal and love among us. This is exactly what we mean by the term trepidation: a state of caring about our friends that is similar to taking care of our own children from two sides by judgment and  by love.

On the side of judgment, we should really worry that we will lose a chance as did the ARI’s students when he invited them to Jerusalem to bring the world to a state of correction. At that time, everything supported the upper force to be revealed to them, as the upper force was ready to act in this world and correct it. However, the ARI’s students found excuses not to obey their teacher’s invitation. Some of them didn’t show up because their wives wouldn’t let them go and others were busy.

This explains why we have to maintain the state of trepidation and be concerned that we won’t succeed. In every moment and every minute, we have to clarify how we should treat others and support the general Kli (vessel) in a way that it finally reaches a certain condition that will allow the Creator to reveal Himself to us.

It’s as if we are currently facing the Judge, and as if we are given the last opportunity, or granted the final word. Imagine yourself in this state! Visualize that we are facing judgment and that we have to fill it with mutual love. We will be able to do this only if we ask the Creator to fill the gaps between us.

It’s not us who get closer in our hearts, rather it is the Creator who fills the egoistic emptiness between us with love. When the distance between us is multiplied by love, a connection of tremendous intensity emerges. That is why our closeness happens only due to the Creator filling the ​empty spaces between us. He connects, coordinates, and unites us. That’s why our work is called the Creator’s work (Avodat a-Shem).

We only invite Him to do the work of correcting and strengthening our connection.
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From the Convention In St. Petersburg “Day One” 9/19/14

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From “Who Are You, People of Israel”:

Once the people of Israel, Abraham’s disciples, left Babylon, they lived in unity for approximately 2,000 years.  During that period, they experienced troubles, but throughout those years, unity was the key tenet that kept the people together, and their conflicts were meant only for the purpose of intensifying the love among them.

However, approximately 2,000 years ago, the ego erupted among them with such intensity that they could not maintain their unity. Unfounded hatred and egotism broke out among them and inflicted an exile upon them. This exile, more than anything else, is exile from unity.

The alienation within the Israeli nation caused them to disperse among the nations. In addition, the separation among them caused Kabbalists to conceal their wisdom, which then became the secret of a chosen few Kabbalists in each generation.

The complete text of the brochure is here.
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From Baal HaSulam, Letter 2: “Therefore, I shall advise you to evoke within you fear of the coolness of the love between us. And although the intellect denies this depiction, think for yourself, if there is a tactic by which to increase love and one does not increase, that too is considered a flaw.

It is like a person who gives a great gift to his friend. The love that appears in his heart during the act is unlike the love that remains in the heart after the fact. Rather, it gradually wanes each day until the blessing of the love can be entirely forgotten.

Thus, the receiver of the gift must find a tactic every day to make it new in his eyes each day. This is all our work, to display love between us, each and every day, just as upon receiving….”

From the side of the Elyon (Upper) nothing has changed from the beginning of creation, throughout all of the points in the process of evolution to the end of creation. Everything develops only according to our perception, so that we will gather all of these points during our development and in each of these points we discover Ein Sof, absolute love, “there is none else besides Him,” that He is the good that does good, and that besides this there is nothing but adherence with the beloved.

There are no changes in the attitude of the Creator towards us, and what we must achieve is that our attitude towards Him will also not change. So if a person sometimes feels the sudden emotion of love within himself, he should know that this comes to him as an example. And now he must awaken that same feeling in himself through the environment, study, and prayer by investing all of his energy and using all means for the sake of it.

He must focus all of his attention only on this one thing, for we must reach this love, not sometime later, but at each and every moment discover it within us. At every moment, we need to try to feel the love within us, using all means of belonging to adhesion with the Creator. We must be found in an incessant inclination like this, for at every moment our feelings change and we are constantly required to renew them again and again. That is how we adhere to the means that connect us with the Creator and then connect with the Creator through them with connections of love.

A person must remember all of his thoughts and emotions, renewing the memories associated with discovering the connection, the love, and the devotion. This is called making a covenant with the Creator. Forgetfulness comes to a person all the time, yet he must always renew his feelings and return to that love. According to the example that is given to him from above, he must try to reach the same devotion from below.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/19/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: It seems to me that the absence of a uniform opinion among the people of Israel is not a defect, rather it testifies to the advancement of the people. So, in what manner is it possible to reach a condition where the people will attain unity and, together with this, will maintain the wealth of opinions?

Answer: There is only one word that easily solves this problem: love! As it is written, “Proverbs” 10:12: Love covereth all transgressions. Love balances all the differences. Each one will remain with his opinion, but love will make it possible for us to maintain opposing opinions, feel our connection, and belong to a single whole above them.

The Arabs are trying to attain unity among people in which everyone thinks the same thing without deviating even a millimeter to the side, like robots. However, the wisdom of Kabbalah says the opposite. The more that people develop, their opinions become more divided and contradict each other.

About Israel, it is written, Talmud Babyli, “Masechet Berachot 58b”: To the degree that their faces differ, so their opinions also differ. And, this is good, as it is a sign of high development. It is necessary only to build love in the face of all of this, so that even though each one thinks differently, love will connect us.

We can take advantage of this heterogeneous condition that includes within it a multitude of different desires, thoughts, and opinions for the sake of our shared love, for the benefit of others, and for the benefit of all people. Each one will remain with a very rich view of the world and use it for the benefit of all the people.

Imagine how wonderful this will be. Our land will flower and grow immeasurably, for we don’t destroy the person and don’t make him into a robot who performs commands obediently.

Question: So, what will be the common denominator that will unite all of these different people?

Answer: The common denominator is our belonging to one people, and in order to elevate this unique people to a higher level, each one will use his unique opinion, “love covereth all transgressions.” Thanks to this, we will discover another level of reality, and will go out to a new, higher dimension.

Question: So, in what way is it possible to attain a stable existence of the people of Israel in the land of Israel?

Answer: It is through a tighter and tighter connection between us to the point of absolute love without any limits.
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From the program “A New Life” 8/27/14

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From the brochure “The Only Way Out”:

Israel is the nation of the idea, the idea of unity. This nation exists until now in order to implement the method of achieving unity and then pass it further along. Unity and love for the other—this is the example that it must show to the world. Beautiful slogans must become a reality.

Kabbalists have long been calling everyone, and especially Israel, to adopt this ancient method, which is proven in practice. This is only up to us.

“… If they accept the Kabbalistic method, this of course will prove to all the nations of the world that Israel was right in returning to their land. And even to the Arabs.”  Baal HaSulam
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Question: Why is modern humanity yearning again for religion?

Answer: There is a crisis in the world. After the last world war, which was less than three generations ago, the population of developed countries with predictability, stability, and confidence in the future. Whereas now, with the appearance of the global crisis, it feels uncertainty, instability, a lack of a quest, certainly lack of a future, and a lack of hope for success.

Moreover, this feeling encompasses the entire planet. This feeling summons waves of concern all the time. Nothing is stable, not the future, nor any plans. After losing all hope, only one hope remains, which is hope in the Creator, an image ready to take the first position in the world and  to stabilize it. So a person creates the Creator for himself.

The wisdom of Kabbalah says that there is nothing in the world other than nature, the force of bestowal and love that creates everything, directs and develops us to a state where we can understand our difference and opposition to this force and want to resemble it; which is to say, to acquire the characteristic of bestowal and love. Therefore the goal, “And you shall love your friend as yourself” (Vayikra 19:18) must become the principle for all of our activities.

Religions heard this commandment and forgot it, because in order to implement it, they had to change the egoistic nature of the person to an altruistic one (to bestowal and love for all). There is no profit in altruism; therefore all the religions speak about “And you shall love,” but not one of them implements it or understands its intent, because within the egoistic characteristics it is not possible to understand the characteristic of bestowal..

If they would understand what “And you shall love” means, then all religions would disappear and everything that separates people would disappear. The modern yearning for religion will lead to its reassessment by humanity and its replacement with a religion called, “love.”
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Also see the article, “The Essence of Religion and its Purpose”

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When going out to the external public, a person stands before them as before an exam: “A wonderful group in a world where everything is corrected except for me; I stand facing my uncorrected desires; all of this is a part of my soul.

My role is to convince this fragment of my soul or this fragment of my mind that we will converge into a single unified body. How can I do this and knock on the door of their hearts?”

That is what Abraham said to the inhabitants of ancient Babylon when trying to convince them that all were one single whole, that one should not quarrel with another, because if we separate, things will be much worse. Conversely, we need to come together.

So we go out to the general public with this plea. They need to feel our warmth, that we are not doing this formally, but whole-heartedly.

And people will respond to this. But we need to prepare ourselves internally. We need all the desires that were torn from us; we need to join them to us.

Question: So what touches my friends…?

Answer: The friends are also your desires who are already prepared to create one single heart together with you; whereas, the masses are not yet ready. But they all belong to one heart, one desire, your personal desire. Each one of you has his own private universe, his own private world. And everyone, except for you, is part of your desire, the entire nature of the still, vegetative, animate, and human. Connect all of this to you, i.e., love all.

You are going out to people because you need them; they must feel that your heart is open to them, that they are important to you, that your desire is directed towards them, and that through you a unique power descends to them. This is the first message.

And after that the Arvut will be revealed in the whole world. This is the condition for the right connection of all the shattered vessels.
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From the Sochi Convention 6/10/14, Lesson 3

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Question: Without a doubt many couples think that they are conceding to each other, without understanding that they are not doing this for another person but for themselves so that they will be left alone in peace. So what concessions should be made?

Answer: True concession is when I rein myself in, even though at that time I am ready to explode because I think I am right, but I begin to react to my partner according to how he or she would want me to respond. This means I am “clothed” in the other person.

This system should be developed and necessarily requires the support of the environment. Married couples must talk about these situations all the time and practice them in order to reach a state where habit becomes second nature.

Suppose the house is a mess. Why should you scold each other and say something superfluous? Go immediately to common ground, which is reciprocal and good. Begin to hug and kiss in the middle of this mess.

The main thing is that you should feel well. For with a feeling of happiness and love, you won’t even want to change anything and you will live in serenity all your life in the middle of this mess.

Sometimes you go into some apartment and everything is clean and spotless, but there is no warmth. Whereas at home, with you, there is warmth from an atmosphere of love, reciprocity, and  inner contact.

In a Japanese couplet it is written: “The child dies; how cold it will be at home; there is no longer someone who will pierce a hole in the window paper.” This means that as long as the child played pranks, warmth prevailed at home. Now the child is no more, and it will be cold.

That is how it is here also. Everything depends upon the feeling. This is the main thing to be done.
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From the program “A New Life” 5/28/2014

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The word “Klal” (collective/rule) indicates a sum of details that, when put together, form the above collective. Thus, when he says about the Mitzva, “love thy friend as thyself,” that it is a great Klal in the Torah, we must understand that the rest of the 612 Mitzvot (precepts) in the Torah, with all their interpretations, are no more and no less than the sum of the details inserted and contained in that single Mitzva (singular for Mitzvot), “love thy friend as thyself. (Baal HaSulam, “Matan Torah” –  “The Giving of the Torah”).

This means that the entire Torah is given in order to attain the general rule of loving our neighbors as ourselves. The rest that is written in the Torah except this one concept “Love thy neighbor as thyself” is just a clarification of this rule.

Everything is included in this one rule. That’s why when we forget this rule, no spiritual path is possible for us, nor are we connected with the spiritual process or continue pursuing the spiritual goals any longer. If we attempt encompassing this principle, we can even stop checking the level we are at or trying to find out where we actually are.

The whole Torah was given to us and is meant to help us to attain connection that is called love in our lives. There are two ways of doing it: One is by following a long road full of affliction that represents the natural developmental way, and the other is a pleasant shortcut that is ensured by the Torah. One way or the other,  the entire humanity, from the very beginning to the very end, is engaged in advancement that leads us to loving our neighbors.

If we understand and acknowledge that we are now just practicing and playing games, we follow a relatively easy and comfortable way of reaching the goal. Still, we’ll have to go through some troubles and problems, resolve and explore them so that we get a better feeling of their essence and origin. We will have to resolve various situations in our minds and sensations because this process lets us to better understand and feel things.

In order to make this path easier and more pleasant for us, there is the Torah with the help of which we reach the state of loving our neighbors. From this phase on, we eventually will come to loving the Creator. However, there is nothing we can achieve by just following the path of suffering. Everything depends on the awakening on our side.
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From the 5^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/14/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: What role do psychological tests determining the similarity of partners play with regard to love? We, indeed, have particular feelings toward one another which are different from an intellectual examination of someone with whom it is worthwhile for me to start a business. How do we integrate emotion with intellect?

Answer: This is already the second stage. First of all, intuitively, we always try to follow our feelings, and only after this, do we activate the intellect. However, emotions can change in a moment.

A first acquaintance is enough for me not to reject a potential partner. His external appearance, behavior, and manners must cause at least neutral feelings in me, and even attract me a bit. Indeed, a family that must exist together for many years cannot be based upon egoistic sexual attraction.

Comment: However, it is not enough for me that a woman doesn’t just repulse me. I want to find the most attractive woman in the world in every sense: beautiful, sensitive, wise, and sexy. It is a dream that I have looked for all my life!

Answer: Love doesn’t depend upon the external form. It is enough that the external appearance of the partner will not seem repulsive and will be somewhat pleasing to you. You need to be ready to eat out of her hands! You must feel pleasure from touching her, from her concern.

There must be some magic with her. This is not a maddening attraction where you lose your head because of her, rather simply pleasure from physical, intellectual, and emotional contact. You must have pleasure from this and nothing more!

This is not yet love. Love comes later as a result of developing all these connections. Love is a habit of attributing the pleasure that I get with the partner. So, I begin to love.

Here is a possible example: If I take a dog that begins to live by my side, and I feed him, take care of him, and am concerned for him, he will begin to love me. However, what is the difference between a person and a dog? It is known that people who adopt foreign children and begin to take care of them eventually love them no less and even more than they would loved them if they were their biological children. You see that they invest much more effort in these children because they are afraid that they might not love their adopting parents.

The same thing happens in relationships between couples. If we invest effort in one another and know how to develop this shared investment, the emotion that is created from it is called love. This means that love is my attitude towards the person next to me, where it is pleasant to feel him next to me all the time.

I love his friendship, his relationship to me, and his contact. I need to be connected with him. In fact, this is called love, and it is not connected to sexual attraction at all. This is talking about an inner feeling where I miss feeling this person near me.

Often, partners complain about the difficulties in building intimate relations. However, intimate relations are not built upon sexual connection. After a need for contact  with another person is awakened in me, I feel pleasure from his being near me. Above this, we build completely different sexual relationships.

These relationships are a wonderful addition to an even deeper connection between us, and then we truly can enjoy one another. I don’t use my partner, her body, but it is truly pleasant for me to feel that she enjoys me and my enjoyment of her.

This is the entire range of connections between us on different levels, and so the emotion from an intimate connection is absolutely different, for it is much deeper and intense. Specifically because I bestow to another, waves of love and union come to me. This is just as it is written in Psalms, Song of Songs 6:3: “I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine.”
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From the program “A New Life” 6/09/2013

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