Question: Israel is constantly under the threat of a military confrontation or war. Hundreds of missiles with conventional and nonconventional warheads are aimed at us. Not long ago I participated in a drill practicing an emergency situation. People may be complacent regarding what is happening, but the situation is actually very worrisome. How can we tell people about the external threat and about our message and the urgent need for internal changes?

Answer: This threat is actually hovering over us all the time. So first of all you have to be sure that the inner work is the key to all the problems. In addition to that, you have to bring this about in your connection with the friends. You have to connect and to unite with them and to fulfill the necessary actions in order to connect and bring the Creator contentment.

We have to tie these things together: If we brought the Creator contentment, we wouldn’t be facing the threats and the problems we are speaking of now. This is what we have to do: to discuss this, to “chew” it well and to finally “swallow” it and understand it. Then we will put together the general picture and see that first we need to correct ourselves internally. If we correct ourselves, we will correct the world.

As for the missiles, our nation has been in similar situations in the past. But now we have a chance to be saved from all the troubles and save the nation and the whole world. We have to examine this opportunity as a purposeful opportunity: when we act not in order to save the bodies but for the Creator’s sake. We have to raise ourselves to the level of this state, of this perception. Otherwise, we will not attain bestowal and will not be able to fulfill anything in the right direction.

It’s wrong to complain and to cry about the threats not knowing where to run to escape them. We mustn’t confuse the cause and the effect. It’s because the real cause is to reach adhesion, and this is what we have to attain. The means to attain that is to reach bestowal, which we can attain only by rising above our ego. In order to draw and to obligate people to do so we find ourselves in this situation.

We mustn’t stick our heads in the sand since by that we forget about the whole thing. There is no point sitting together and crying over this situation, it won’t help. Another response is required here, a different approach.

The whole point is how we accept these problems. They are not coincidental. So why do they happen? Instead of being overwhelmed by animal fear, we have to connect everything to the cause of all the results, to the Creator, to “There is none else besides Him.” Only we can do that; only we can turn everything around.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/21/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Mutual Guarantee”

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Question: What is the “Nation of Israel?”

Answer: The “Nation of Israel,” just like any other nation, is a collection of different people, but, unlike other nations, they are united according to a special principle of “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”

Once, people used to live in tribes in ancient Babylon, and then they split up and dispersed in different directions and different nations that are corporeally connected, they were created by their corporeal desires.

In those days, Abraham collected about four or five thousand people out of several millions that made up humanity during the Babylonian age. Those who joined Abraham were people in whom the spark that yearned for something else was burning, the spark that evokes people to ascend above nature. They followed him with great hopes and expectations of finding the Creator.

They received from Abraham the method for the revelation of the Creator that allows a person to learn to love others in order to attain the love of the Creator thanks to this.

This group left Babylon even before the great dispersion and over time became the nation of Israel. First, the sparks were not united and everyone had different desires and could not unite.

However, Abraham began working with them and uniting them by a common idea and one goal, a perception that is above the egoistic desire.

He operated according to the principle that “Love covers all transgressions.” However, people can feel love only if the desire for pleasure grows in them. They acquire a sufficient power of rejection when they overcome it and ascend to love. Otherwise, the uncaring and alienation between them can extinguish any spark.

The dynasty of our forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob begins here. The group fulfilled its measure of initial unity, and then a new wave of ego covered it, and as a result, the successful and unsuccessful attempts to unite turned into a kind of work that we call the “exile in Egypt.”

It is the same group. No matter in which tent it dwells, what it studies, and in what it engages, its current state is simply called “Egypt.” “Pharaoh” appears between the friends, mutual hate, and the Torah, the method by which Joseph sustains the group, and later on, Moses.

Finally, the “study group” reaches an unbearable state because the ego simply tears them apart and they don’t know what to do with it. They really want to connect and to establish the mutual connection between them, but the ego separates them so much that they reach a dead end.

Then, they not only understand, but also enter a new state of the essential and vital need to escape from the “king of Egypt,” to exit self-love and transcend it.

Just imagine how strong you must be to hate the ego, how repulsive and unbearable it must seem so that you would “leap” and hold yourself above it. You simply don’t have the power to contact it, and this hate raises you. This is the meaning of the “exodus from Egypt.”

However, escape is not enough. How should we unite now? We still must coexist with the ego. In this state, the children of Israel stand before “Mt. Sinai,” not above hate, but rather, around it. Then, the Light comes, and thanks to it, they acquire the understanding of how to unite correctly, which means to use and to what extent to use the hatred in order to unite above it.

They begin to work mutually in different ways, and it is impossible to do so without incorporating the negative force. In order to receive the positive force, they make a covenant with each other, and between them and the Light, the Creator. Thus, their self-correction begins.

The group is the same group, but from now on it is a nation since now they really are united just like any other nation, but they are united in a collective desire, in sparks of bestowal.

The basis of their unity is not the ordinary corporeal desire for a good life in this world, but the necessity to live in the Creator, in the upper. In fact, the children of Israel also are attracted to the “good life,” but behind these words, there is already a different meaning. The term of what actually is “good” changes.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson  05.22.13, “The Mutual Guarantee”

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Question: What does “the ascent of the lower to the upper” mean?

Answer: The ascent to the upper depends on how much the lower can annul himself before the upper. He does it, of course, thanks to the Light that Reforms and not because of inner manipulations. He only has a clue that the Creator brings him to the right environment, to the good fate and tells him “take it!” If you manage to hold on to that point and to start working with it, you will succeed.

The ascent depends on what you consider an ascent. If you think positively about one of the friends at least once a day, unlike you have thought about him before, it’s already a great joy, since it indicates a qualitative inner change in you. You should worry that each of the ten friends in the group of ten will constantly aspire for such an ascent, and this is the mutual support and mutual guarantee. If you worry that all the friends should feel the same way and worry about one another, then your concern is conveyed to them.

This is easy for some of the friends and more difficult for others, and so we complement one another when we gather and connect. Those who find it difficult because of the hardening of the ego add power of Aviut (thickness) to the group of ten. Those who feel the ascent, which means the influence of the Light, pass this Light to the group.

The “shattering” of the vessel allows us to do this. I cannot draw the Light in my current shattered state since there is no connection between us. But I connect with the friends into one unity in which one adds the power of the coarse egoistic desire and another adds the spiritual ascent.

One pulls upward and another downward, but we are connected. Those who pull upward are influenced by the Light that Reforms and thanks to the fact that we are connected in one system, they also influence me. How is that possible? The point is that we have shattered the Machsom (barrier) between us, in our relationship we have worked and made efforts to overcome the gap between us. It’s as if we have placed a Masach (screen) over the egoistic receiving of the Light and now it can influence us.

The Light influences those who deserve it since they are in a state of ascent at the moment and through them it affects me. Even if we are not as close as we were before and not connected as strongly into one as we were, we have made a covenant and agreed that we will hold on to the connection between us as strongly as we can and will break down the wall between us.

It turns out that the shattering is simply a gift from Above; it’s a stick that we constantly have to kiss. It allows us to be constantly connected to others and to be in contact with the Light even in the worst state. If I lose contact with the others, there is the covenant by which I stay in contact thanks to those who are in a state of ascent and can draw the Light.

Thus everyone operates with regard to the others. This special connection of the shattered desires is called “this world.” It’s not what we see and feel at all, it’s not our corporeal ego, but a system, special conditions that allow us to connect to the upper. Although we don’t deserve anything judging by our state, we still accept this connection: either according to the conditions of the covenant between the friends, thanks to our connection, or thanks to the mutual support.

The friends may lack the willpower and I add it to them by my descent, and they help me convey my deficiency and hold on, just like healthy people treat those who are ill. The mutual help that we provide for one another, this shattered state, all these conditions are called “this world,” thanks to which we contact the Light that Reforms. So the advice and guidance of Kabbalists are focused on one point: How to connect to the Light in a state of detachment.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/13, Introduction, “Mother Lends Her Clothes to Her Daughter”

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Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut“(Mutual Guarantee): The purpose of Creation lies on the shoulders of the whole of the human race, black, white, or yellow, without any essential difference.

But because of the descent of human nature to the lowest degree, which is the self-love that unrestrictedly rules over all of humanity, there was no way to negotiate with them and persuade them to agree to take upon themselves, even as an empty promise, to exit their narrow world into the wide spaces of the love of others. The exception was the Israeli nation because they were enslaved in the savage kingdom of Egypt four hundred years in horrible torments.

All of humanity clearly has to reach the end of correction, and no one can escape this. But the process is gradual. We begin from easy discernments, and then by using them, we move on to the correction of more difficult discernments.

The easiest part is called “Israel” and it seems to “hasten time.” Only now in the point of transition between the 20^th century and the 21^st century has humanity reached the eruption of the ego that is becoming round. On the other hand, Israel has preceded this process and reached the level of the great “ego” back during the exile in Egypt. Then they fell from the level they had attained and eventually descended to the last exile that has lasted until our times.

The current ego is much greater than the ego in Egypt. In addition to that, it has become round, it has become global, and is similar to the form we will have to enlist on our way to the correction.

Back in Egypt, the desire to receive that opposes the connection in the general circle was revealed among the children of Israel and it doesn’t allow them to be one whole. This is the only thing that is called “the evil inclination.” It isn’t about the size of the desire but rather about its objection to connection.

But the rest of humanity has developed on the basis of the ordinary desire to receive that belongs to this world and is meant to exist in it.

 

 

Now Israel, with its evil inclination, is finally ready to be in a circle. We already understand what is going on and how to correct the situation. But humanity doesn’t understand that yet since it has arrived at this circle with the help of its ordinary “linear” ego and not with the help of the evil inclination.

As a result, it’s very difficult for the nation of Israel to connect. No other nation is as divided as this nation. This is how the evil inclination, which no other nation has, is revealed within it. It’s very difficult for the nation of Israel to perform the correction, although they have already been through this path. Today they only have the shattered Reshimot (reminiscences).

On the other hand, the nations of the world are ready to learn about the connection that will improve their life. Because they have no shattered Reshimot they don’t object to connection and if they see that the “linear” connection will provide them with a better future, they accept it.

It turns out that if Israel helps the connection of the world, their connection becomes closer. I cannot even imagine how they can start to connect without it.

This also explains why an external pressure upon the nation of Israel is necessary. This pressure is already growing and it will increase and become an actual threat of annihilation. Otherwise, Israel will simply not understand what and how much is required of them and what is required of them in order to get rid of the external pressure. It’s about an essential external factor that allows them to think about correction.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/21/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Mutual Guarantee”

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Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut” (Mutual Guarantee): A person can help all the people in the world in the ascent up the levels of love of others. Thus he affects a certain measure of advancement on the ladder of love for others in all the people of the world in general. This is because that degree, which that individual caused by his actions, whether large or small, ultimately joins the future in shifting the world to a scale of merit…

And one who commits one sin, which means that he cannot overcome and conquer his filthy self-love, and hence steals or does something of the sort, sentences himself and the whole world to the scale of sin.

Thus we see that Kabbalists look at reality as a unified system. Of course, when a person sentences himself to the scale of merit or to the scale of sin, he sentences the whole world in the same way. His actions necessarily affect and influence all the other mechanisms and the other parts of the whole world down to the very last. Today we discover this in reality, but in fact, all the worlds including our world are a system that is interconnected.

So we have to acknowledge the responsibility for making the right choice, for sentencing myself to the scale of merit, in the dimensions of the whole system. I have to understand what I am responsible for right now, when I worry about the correction. I have to double my concern according to how I imagine the general picture.

This is because with the disclosure of the filth of self-love…, a person subtracts a certain amount from the sentencing to the final scale of merit. This is similar to a person removing from the scale that single sesame seed his friend had put there… Because he could not overcome his petty lust, he pushed the spirituality of the whole world backwards.

This is the system we are constantly in and the slightest movement by even one millimeter is enough to move the whole system. But there is a weakening mechanism, “filters” of concealment, or the worlds.

The system is totally revealed in the world of Ein Sof (Infinity) to its full size and depth. Accordingly, whoever is there has to be responsible for the whole system, as he feels it and fully manages it, without a flaw, just like the Creator. There we are totally equal to Him, adhered to Him.

On the other hand, it’s our responsibility and our obligation to enter the system integrally by understanding our mind and our feeling, which depend on the current level that is part of the levels that descend from Ein Sof. We are responsible for the system in general since it’s a qualitative characteristic and not a quantitative one, but to a lesser extent.

For example, I am responsible for keeping the system “clean” and you are responsible for its “color,” and someone else for the “electricity,” another for the “air conditioning,” and so on. Thus I fulfill the uniqueness of my soul, since without me no one will make up the part I have to fulfill when I operate the system in my own unique style. Without me it will not reach wholeness, since it is integral by nature. So every level increases my responsibility: It’s as if I replace the Creator in different aspects, and when I begin to understand the system I begin to understand Him, to feel Him, and to resemble Him.

The system is actually the relationship between the friends. After all, there is nothing but that. We discover everything in the friends, in humanity, in the still, vegetative, and animate nature. This means that we have to discover all the parts of this world in addition to the world itself. This collection of ties is actually the spiritual worlds, mutual bestowal, the system of creation. It’s as if we put on special glasses and see all the mutual connections between all the components.

But this system is revealed gradually. First in the group of ten, and then it grows wider and deeper in discernments that we couldn’t discover otherwise. First it was difficult to notice the connection between us; it was hard to discern it, but with time it’s revealed more in our understanding and feeling and in the most varied forms.

Thus we connect and discover the system and the forces that operate in it that are actually the Creator who sustains this whole complex. We discover the form that He creates in the matter of the desire. He is revealed in matter and not in an abstract form and not in the essence.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Mutual Guarantee”

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Baal HaSulam, The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee): The Creator did not find a nation or a tongue qualified to receive the Torah, except for the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, whose ancestral merit reflected upon them….

Question: I am the one who has to make all the corrections that are expected of me from the very beginning to the very end. How can our forefathers’ merits help me?

Answer: We all are in the unified system of Malchut of the world of Infinity that is filled with the Light of Infinity. It’s all that creation has, nothing but it.

As the system continued to develop, a restriction occurred and circumferences emerged. There appeared a line that stretched from the circumferences to the center of the circles. Later, the line was shattered. The black circle in the very middle represents a corrupt desire with the intention to bestow. It stands for the real egoism that we still haven’t yet revealed.

We have been developing through the still, vegetative, and animate levels to the speaking level at which we now discover our evil inclination: a slightly spoiled human ego. However, only when we join a group do we begin to reveal authentic evil. It’s at this time that we discover exactly where the intention to receive in its genuine form hides. It’s while in the group that the evil inclination is disclosed to us, thus allowing us to correct it.

Personal correction happens in five “layers” of the desire (in the five levels of Aviut): from a level zero to level four, from light to heavy, from bottom up.

We all are included into a bigger system where the general process of correction is going on. We are very far from being the first link in this process. Our forefathers were corrected before everybody else, then it was their sons’ turn, and only at the end of this chain is it about me and my group.

In reality, our forefathers corrected the Aviut of level zero, their sons managed to correct the Aviut of the first and second levels, whereas we get to deal with Aviut of the third degree.

So, there are souls that have fulfilled a part of the work, and their efforts were not in vain. Today, when we get to the point of correcting ourselves, we don’t start from scratch. Rather, we continue what they started and in our turn we continue building a foundation for those who are yet to come and follow us.

This is how the general process goes: It starts with correcting “Israel” (Galgalta ve Eynaim) and extends to correcting “the nations of the world” (AHP). The first stage, the correction of “Israel,” splits into several phases: forefathers, sons, etc. “Nations of the world” also divide into 70 parts that are to be corrected in a certain order. This is how different parts help each other on their path to correction.

This explains why today we live in a global society in which everybody depends upon others.
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Question: According to the theory of integrality, in reality there are no other civilizations than those on the earth. The people who live on the earth are the only subjects in the huge picture in the space of Ein Sof (infinity). It turns out that all the universe was created so that we would grow and feel something else within ourselves.

Answer: The universe was created so that we would attain the next level of existence above this nature, that we would discover and enter into the next level, its thinnest. This is the level of eternity, perfection, complete harmony. In order to enter this level, we must study harmony from nature, its perfection, the mutual cooperation there, its interdependence, and imitate it.

Question: For this, should we educate children and adults, or is it already too late to educate adults?

Answer: We need to educate senior citizens and young people as well since each person is equal according to this level, each person is necessary. Since if you perceive nature as being integral, then each one of its components, like in an analog system, there is the same level of importance for each of its components.

Together with this, there is no difference in the language in which this theory is presented to children and adults. The point is that each person, by knowing themselves and by their efforts, enters into the level of mutual cooperation like the cells in our body.

Full mutual cooperation brings a guarantee for an absolutely healthy system, and then we feel ourselves at the next level. Also, the period of achievement is determined in advance. We need to reach it soon. And if we, ourselves, don’t long for this, then we will feel how the unpleasant forces push us from behind in a forceful manner.
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From KabTV’s “The Global Crisis” 3/19/13

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Question: Our mission is to hasten (bring to the state of “I shall hasten it”) the process of development. Are there any criteria according to which we can examine things?

Answer: We don’t accelerate the process. At best, we approach it.

Through our inner efforts, we have an impact on new relationships that reveal positive states in the nation of Israel and in the world. We sweeten and soften many states, but it isn’t hastening yet (the state of “I shall hasten it”).

The state of “I shall hasten it” is when the world begins to move by a new force that pulls it forward by going through us. This isn’t happening yet.

On the whole, we are a major part of the general system, the active part that influences what is happening and that brings goodness, but it isn’t enough to hasten the process.

I do hope that we will be able to become that missing part, the link between the upper and the lower, and that we will truly be Light unto the nations, the link to the world of Light,  and even if people will not feel this Light, it will not matter. Its force will draw them to the good and they will begin to make the right decisions, will start to come closer to us in thought, and will be able to hear our message, to understand, internalize, and accept it. “Even if we don’t fully understand it, we already see and feel that it is true.”

Then, we will attain the state of “I shall hasten it” and not just “I shall hasten it” but even what is called “The Messiah’s Shofar,” a level on which the message of unity spreads throughout the world.

The most important means to achieve this is integral education since the more we connect with the world, the stronger is our deficiency to turn upward for help.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/19/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Mutual Guarantee”

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Question: In homeopathy, there is a therapeutic component that is very hard to understand since we haven’t yet reached a state at which we can feel it. However, it can be developed in the course of integral studies and seminars where people get closer to each other and acquire similar tendencies in their desires.

Answer: It was always very popular in all countries and cultures. Today, there are countless people who light candles, perform various various actions, and believe in what they do. I am not talking about charlatans who simply make money on these beliefs; rather, I mean people who sense these things, believe in them, and practice them.

Several years ago, there was a huge fair of alternative therapeutic methodologies in Israel where a variety of stones, pendants, amulets, and candles that have particular scents were demonstrated… Anything you want!

It’s amazing what our civilization has managed to invent! People truly believe in it. But this is not the advertisement of some clinics or treatment centers. People were always attracted to these kinds of things. However, only a group that correctly interacts internally and manages to elevate above its own egoism, only a group that connects counter to its natural reciprocal repulsion, only such a group can be turned into a motivating and serious detector, into a research tool with the help of which we are able to really locate authentic causes of events and particular vibrations and sensations.

Question: What will the unified goal of such a group be?

Answer: The goal is to make others healthier, nothing but that. Such a group is in balance with nature, whereas the rest of the humankind stays imbalanced, thus ruining the general equilibrium. As a result, such a group would feel a tremendous desire to make others healthier.

Everybody will eventually realize that if they don’t “mend” the health of the entire humanity or if they fail to influence others in a positive way, they won’t be healthy themselves since we all are parts of one system. We feel these things at all levels; all of humanity is interconnected. So, a misfortunate event that happens in one place immediately travels to other areas. Until the entire system is corrected, nobody will be able to recover from illnesses.
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From KabTV’s “Medicine of the Future,” 4/7/2013

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Question: There are four fundamental interactions known in physics: strong, weak, electromagnetic, and gravitational. Is it possible to say that these four interactions are the individual expressions of the integral force (interaction)?

Answer: Yes, at the level of inanimate matter these are expressions of the integral force, which summarizes them at the inanimate level. It’s Keter (Malchut) with regard to the rest of the Sefirot.

Question: You are talking about the four levels: matter, energy, information, and interaction (in the spiritual form, meaning in the form of mutual bestowal, love). At what level does the integral force act?

Answer: The integral force, the Creator, is clothed in your single (summarized) integral desire. You built it from your individual egoistic desires by annulling your individual egoistic desires through the aspiration to the mutual guarantee in order to attain the revelation of the Creator in it.
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