Comment: The great Kabbalist Baal HaSulam writes that there is no difference between giving to your neighbor and giving to the Creator.

My Response: That is absolutely correct. If you acquire the quality of bestowal and there is no benefit to your egoism from it anyway, then it does not matter to you to whom you give.

Then it makes no difference to you whether you make an agreement with a friend or with the Creator. It is only in the fact that the Creator is the common, whole, and perfect. Our relationships in the group and between us are private, and come and go. That is, the Creator is the goal and friends are the means.

Question: What is the meaning of the contract? What do we sign?

Answer: You enter into an agreement about a request to the Creator that He will help you become like Him.

Question: And is this is the whole contract?

Answer: Yes. And what else could there be? All you need is His help you rise to His level. But all this is solved in connection with the friends.

Question: It turns out that I cannot directly enter into a contract with the Creator. Will it always be through other people, through society?

Answer: This will always be expressed in your good connection with others.

Comment: But in the primary sources it is written only about a direct covenant with the Creator. For example, Abraham made a covenant with Him directly, and so did other Kabbalists.

My Response: There it is about the highest spiritual laws. And in our world, in our state, it is possible to achieve love of the Creator only from love of friends, from love of others.

Only in this way can I turn to Him and reach Him.
[293926]
From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 12/28/21

Related Material:
Making A Covenant With The Creator
We Shall Do And We Shall Hear!
The Great Assembly At The Foot Of The Mountain

Filed under: Group Work, Mutual Guarantee, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

In order to reach greater importance of the mutual guarantee and to be filled with love of friends, we must feel how much we are interconnected, interdependent, and responsible for each other and that we are getting closer and closer to each other.

There is me and the Creator, and all the people on earth connect me to Him. Basically, this is my group, this is the ten, which, as a central thread, connects me to the Creator. And all the others join in more and more. Thus, my connection with the Creator becomes broad, infinite, and unlimited.

The Creator gave us only one small point of connection with the group, and by this He inspires each of us to connect with Him. All the rest we have to do ourselves.

This is the meaning of mutual guarantee: We begin to feel that we are all tied together for one spiritual action, connection between us, and from between us to the Creator.
[294271]
From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/9/22, “Working in Mutual Responsibility” Lesson 6

Related Material:
What Is Mutual Guarantee?
Mutual Guarantee Is A Response To Nature’s Challenge
Mutual Guarantee—The Law Of Nature

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Events, Group Work, Mutual Guarantee, Spiritual Work, The Tens - No Comments →

Question: A woman feels that she gives a lot at home and to the family. All that giving makes her feel that she gives and gives, but has nothing, that she has no air to breathe and that she does not receive anything. How can this be explained?

Answer: There must be mutuality. The family members need to learn what they are doing in order to receive from her so that she feels that they receive from her and thus fill her as she fills them. This is something that we need to learn since we lack the common feeling.

This is what usually happens in relations between a husband and wife; each one thinks that he or she gives to the other, but does not receive anything, or does not understand what he or she receives.

Question: Is there perhaps an exercise that each of us can do in order to advance?

Answer: We need to learn every day, constantly, since it is about a person’s attitude to life. During our life, from the moment we were born, we receive tips only as to how to develop our ego, that is, a one-way system. What we need is to constantly see the mutuality in our relations, how we connect between us. And actually, in the middle, between us, we need to reach such relations in which we do not need anything from each other.

We need to develop give and take relations so that, besides the ability to give to you, I receive from you only in order to show you how I feel, since I need you.

Question: What do we actually give to each other?

Answer: Only a desire; each one gives others a desire, and thus we develop good and right connections between us. In fact, none of us needs anything except the right attitude.

Suppose everyone has everything, but one needs someone to give to, someone to care about, and from whom to receive mental fulfillment. I need to look at the other and try to give him the feeling of participation on my part in order to fill their desire. My participation is not in a material sense, this is not important, but rather, it is mental fulfillment. By doing that, we will feel that there is not only a connection between us, but also a relationship in which we cannot live without each other.

Today we already feel mutual dependence between us, and we are going to reach a state in our evolution in which each one really feels that he needs all the people in the world in order to give to them, to open their hearts, and to give them his care. And what will the person himself be filled by? By the fact that others are ready to receive from him and vice versa. Then we will reach the state in which we will all truly provide each other with unlimited fulfillment.
From Kab TV’s “New Life” 10/31/21

Related Material:
A Man And A Woman – Mutual Completion
The Woman’s Correction
It All Starts With A Woman

Filed under: Mutual Guarantee, New Life - No Comments →

Question: What is the difference between the guarantee we can give each other in our current state and a spiritual guarantee? Is the difference quantitative or qualitative?

Answer: Now we can accept a purely mechanical guarantee and somehow it exists between us in the group.

In principle, mutual guarantee is the basis of any society, even the most barbaric one. All the same, there are some elements of mutual obligations.

Throughout the history of mankind, it can be traced that only the degree of even selfish guarantee determines the level of development of social ties that encourage us to build huts, cities, and states.

This comes from an inner awareness of mutual guarantee. Then there are peoples, nations, and so on.

We must take it to another level.
[293087]
From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/9/22, “Working in Mutual Responsibility” Lesson 6

Related Material:
Spiritual Help
What Are We Responsible For?
Spiritual Not Material Arvut

Filed under: Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Events, Mutual Guarantee, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: When we are in the state of descent and concealment, how can we keep mutual guarantee between us?

Answer: If we are in the state of descent and concealment, then we ourselves need to hold on with the help of the friends. And when I am not in a descent, I need to think about the ways I can support my friends.

This is how we work gradually, alternately, in waves: I for the friends, friends for me, and so on. We always position ourselves in such a way that all our negative and positive states mutually add up, and we advance straight to the goal.
[293128]
From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/9/22, “Working in Mutual Responsibility” Lesson 6

Related Material:
Concealment And Closeness Of The Creator
Between Light And Darkness
The Kabbalistic Revolution And The Darkness Before Dawn

Filed under: Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Events, Group Work, Mutual Guarantee, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

How can we change our egoistic intention, which was given to us by nature and always exists within us, without any doubts or clarifications? It is called the evil inclination, which was born first. And now we need to give birth to a good inclination.

And that is why we are working together on our evil inclination in order to build a good inclination within each of us through mutual guarantee. We turn to the Creator. as if to a bank, and say that we want to build a building of bestowal.

Each of us has not a penny to his name, but we sign the mutual guarantee. There are nine friends backing me up, ready to sign a guarantee that I will be in bestowal because they will support me. Since I am in their complete power, whether I want it or not, I will certainly be in bestowal.

This is how we come to the Creator, and everyone signs a guarantee for their friends. No one can be a guarantor for himself because he does not have such powers; where will they come from? But he can be a guarantor for a friend, and in this way we come to mutual guarantee. Then the Creator begins to invest His upper force in this mutual guarantee that we have signed.

What have we invested in this mutual guarantee? After all, no one has anything, so no one can pay anything for the other. But since we want to help each other, this very guarantee helps us start building a common building.

None of us can be the foundation of this common building, nor is anyone its owner. Only due to the fact that each supports the other, due to our mutual support, does this entire building stay upright.

This is how we build the spiritual building. There is nothing in it; it is maintained only by our mutual guarantee and by our appeal to the upper force. That is why this building is spiritual.
[293160]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/30/22, “Faith Above Reason”

Related Material:
Arvut Obliges Bestowal
Mutual Guarantee—Support And Example Of A Group
Caring For Friends Means Caring For Your Correction

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

Question: There is a law of mutual guarantee. A lot has been written about this in Kabbalah. Because we are all interconnected, everyone can change the fate of others, but one can never change one’s own fate. That is, if I want to change my destiny, I have to change my environment.

How does it happen? How can I interfere in the fate of another person?

Answer: By giving him an example. The most important and most effective thing is to show a person an example of correct behavior according to the laws of nature: how to unite, how to approach others, how to interact with them, how to change your attitude to the Creator, to His governance, and so on.

Our future directly depends on it, moreover, the nearest future as well as the global one.

Question: What law of nature that must be complied with are you talking about?

Answer: About absolute love and connection of everyone with everyone.

Question: Nature obliges all elements to connect. There was even a period in cosmology when all the simplest elements were uniting and more complex substances and states were obtained. Likewise, people at a certain level must unite through feelings. Is this what you call love?

Answer: Yes. And then a new essence will emerge, full support of each other, when people create among themselves such states that never existed, which arise precisely from their direct, open aspiration to each other.
[289869]
From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 10/26/21

Related Material:
Love Is A Union
Mutual Guarantee Is What Love Really Is
The Perfect Formula For Life

Filed under: Mutual Guarantee, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Toward an Economy of Mutual Guarantee

Question: Baal HaSulam in the articles “The Solution” and “The Last Generation” writes that the consumer economy, which is experiencing a crisis, will be replaced by an economy of mutual guarantee. I would like to understand what this economy is based on?

Answer: On the fact that it is one single system. We are connected to each other and completely dependent on each other.

Nowadays this mutual connection is revealed more and more vividly and fully. It indicates that we must be connected by good ties because we cannot break this connection. If we remain dependent on each other through egoistic connection, then we will lead ourselves to annihilation, to mutual destruction.

Therefore the wisdom of Kabbalah is now being revealed in the world in order to help us correct ourselves, to come to a good dependence on each other, instead of what we already see now that the whole world is becoming global, integral, and everyone only wants to destroy each other.

Therefore in order not to bring ourselves to a Third World War, we need to think now about the way we will organize a new society.
[254753]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 1/3/19

Related Material:
Kabbalah And The Consumer Economy, Part 7
Kabbalah And The Consumer Economy, Part 6
Kabbalah And The Consumer Economy, Part 5

Filed under: Crisis, Economy, Globalization, Mutual Guarantee - No Comments →

Question: Is the concept of guarantee something through which we can gain resistance to selfishness?

Answer: Of course. One nullifies oneself in relation to others in order to create a joint common desire.

When a person annuls one’s animal component (receiving for oneself) and wants to include only one’s human component (transmission to others), a single common desire arises in which the Creator is revealed.

Question: Suppose seven or eight thousand people gather, as is usually the case at congresses, and they try to enter the state of Arvut (mutual guarantee). It will work, it will not work, we do not know, but we really want it. Will so many people help you achieve the result?

Answer: Of course, both quantity and quality. The quantity is irreplaceable, it is necessary. But even more important is the quality, the tension of the bond between us. Everyone’s egoism tries to tear him away from others. Therefore everything depends on the strength with which we connect with each other.

The meaning of spiritual work is to find in our common connection that property of bestowal and love that is higher than our nature.
[287402]
From KabTV’s “The Power of The Book of Zohar” #20

Related Material:
What Is Mutual Guarantee?
A Package Deal With The Light
Mutual Guarantee Is What Love Really Is

Filed under: Conventions, Events, Mutual Guarantee, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

My new article on Linkedin “No Desire for Children – China as an Example”

Recently, China lifted the cap on births from 2 to 3 in what it now defines as a “three-child policy.” According to a story by David Stanway and Tony Munroe published on Reuters, the reason for the policy shift is that “recent data showed a dramatic decline in births.” Although China canceled its one-child policy back in 2016 and raised the cap to two children, it “failed to result in a sustained surge in births,” state the writers. Now, Beijing has not only raised the cap once more, but added various incentives for married couples to have more children.

I don’t think the birthrate is a matter of policy. The Chinese, like most people all over the world, want fewer and fewer children. Humanity is growing increasingly selfish and people find no pleasure in raising children that they know will ignore them as soon as they can sustain themselves. Zhang Xinyu, a 30-year-old mother of one from Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan province, clearly articulated her characteristic attitude: “Thinking of the big picture, realistically, I don’t want to have a second child. And a third is even more impossible.”

In light of our growing self-absorption, we are going to see a decline in the world population. Personally, I see nothing wrong with it. Technology will make up for any shortage in working hands, and there will be fewer mouths to feed and fewer people populating the already overpopulated planet. A hundred years ago, humanity was about 2 billion people; now it is close to 8 billion. I see no harm in returning to more sustainable numbers.

However, the more important question is not how many people there are in the world, but what they do here. If people are as hateful of each other as they are today, the fewer of us the better for everyone. But if there is love and unity among people and nations, we can sustain as many people as we want, and we won’t feel any crowdedness or shortage. Therefore, what is important is that we begin to invest not in birthrates but in shifting the attitudes of those who are already here from animosity to amity.

Everything that is happening now—the tensions and pandemics, the crises and upheavals—should lead us to one conclusion: We must deal with the root cause of our problem—our relationships. Nature’s laws dictate that we will operate in an integral and integrated manner, as does nature itself. Our relentless efforts to destroy one another economically, socially, and even physically, put us at odds with nature. We are opposite from the environment we live in, so how can we expect to feel good? Would you expect a fish out of water to feel good? Would you expect it to survive? This is what we are doing to ourselves: We’re living in an interconnected and interdependent environment, yet we are behaving as though we are independent and self-sustaining beings. In such a state, we cannot feel good here, and in the long run, we won’t be able to survive.

We have come to a point, not only in China but the world over, that we must build our connections as an interdependent and interconnected network, just like the world around us. We are too big and too influential for nature to tolerate us at our current level of disruption of its structure. Since we are inside of nature, and since nature created us and sustains us, if we insist on fighting it, it will eradicate us just as it eradicates any being that is incongruent with its laws. Therefore, instead of worrying about the quantity of people, we should worry about their quality, the level of our connectedness and mutual concern.

Filed under: Mutual Guarantee, New Publications, Unity - No Comments →