Israel is a high degree. Every person who has separated himself from material interests and is only directed at adhesion with the Creator, with the force of bestowal according to the law of equivalence of form, and devotes every moment to this is called Yashar-El (straight to the Creator), Israel.

One of the stages on the path is to enter into a pact, when a person integrates the others, those who are also called Israel, into himself. Once they were already united, but the desire to enjoy, the evil inclination, entered between them and separated them. And now, in spite of the fact that they reveal it, they nonetheless work on their connection all the time in order to reach connection, and to provide the Creator with the vessel for the reception of pleasure.

The goal of creation is the delight of the created beings. This is the action on the part of the Creator, so why was it given as the task of creation? Because the creation has to bring itself to such a state to give the Creator an opportunity to bring it pleasure. Our work is to reveal this vessel for receiving pleasure. And the pleasure is to give the Creator an opportunity to bestow.

As is it said about the miracle that happened at Mount Sinai: “Today we have all gathered here,” that is, from this point forward we receive the ability to connect and be worthy to be clothed in the upper force. And now we are called the chosen people; this general vessel is called the people of Israel. And He who fills this vessel according to the law of equivalence of form shall be called our Creator.

Therefore, there is a condition: “Today we have all gathered here,” that is, we should all get together to become as one—one common vessel for the realization of the goal of creation, to benefit the created beings.

It is said: “And the people stood under the mountain,” that is, having broken all doubts (Har – mountain, Irurim – doubts) to achieve unity. We need to take care of our common connection so that none of us forgets about it.

Real mutual guarantee is needed for that. That is what we lack, and this is the reason why we have not yet succeeded in building the common vessel. This is all because of the lack of mutual participation, care that each friend is concerned about connecting everyone into one, so that we “have ALL gathered here!”
[94579]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/03/12

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Rabash, “Self Love and the Love of the Creator”: There is self love and there is love of the Creator. And there is the transitional phase, which is the love of others, and by the love of others one arrives to the love of the Creator. This is why Rabi Akiva said: “Love thy friend as thyself; this is the great rule of the Torah.” And as Hillel said to the convert who asked him, “Teach me the whole Torah while I stand on one foot.” And he said to him, “Don’t do unto your friend what is hateful to you. The rest is commentary.” Since by the love of others one comes to the love of the Creator, and then all the Torah and all the wisdom are in a person’s heart.

It is very difficult for a person to agree internally that the road to the Creator goes through the love of others and that it is true that it is the same love, but in two different vessels.

The others don’t exist, but it only seems to us that way so that we will have a chance to perform actions in order to expand our vessel. Later, it will be revealed that there is nothing but a person and the Creator.

He corrected, fixed, and connected to himself the desires that he previously thought were the others, all the huge world that surrounds him. First, he found more and more connections in this world. He has seen that he is increasingly more connected and, eventually, he understands that this is all his vessel, and, thus, he connects to the Creator.

So, “From the love of others to the love of the Creator” isn’t just a nice slogan, but the fulfillment of the desire, which is the only place where a person can reveal his upper world.

This path is a result of the “shattering of the vessels” that took place especially in order to allow us to expand our feeling and, at the same time, to be independent and loyal to the Creator forever.

“Love thy friend as thyself” is the great rule of the Torah, which includes the entire general desire in which all the Light is revealed. We can study it “on one foot” (in brief), which means that by just one action, we can acquire the whole attainment. We discover that behind what seems to us, like the others, there is the whole reality.

The only problem is to perceive it internally. This is all our work, and, here, we need mutual guarantee since we can hear about it for many years before we even begin to get close to it. Then, a few more years are needed in order to decide to implement it. Thus, many years go by, and only mutual guarantee, mutual responsibility, pressure, envy, lust, and using all the means a person has, can help him become committed to and to internalize this principle as deeply as possible into his heart.

We have to measure how deeply it enters us and brings us to internal agreement and by that to value our advancement.
[94519]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/2/12

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Our spiritual path is divided into two parts.

The first part is rather difficult since we don’t exactly see what we are doing. But this is precisely what helps us renounce our egoism. If we could see what we are doing, then our egoism would participate in this process and only grow, and we would never be able to break away from it. So since we can only go forth with our eyes closed, that is, through separating from our egoism, gradually severing it from ourselves and transitioning to connection with the friends by exiting ourselves into the property of bestowal, then of course this is difficult for us.

Our path is based on the fact that we draw the upper Light, which influences and corrects us. In other words, I am unable to correct myself, I cannot rise above my egoism, I can’t do anything with it at all, but I can draw the upper Light upon myself.

Therefore, exertions in the wisdom of Kabbalah are very interesting and differ from exertions in our world where I directly affect an object, an area, or the properties that I wish to change:  Here it is different. If I want to change something, then I have to draw the Light upon that object, that dimension, or those properties, so that the Light would change them. Thus, I’m constantly addressing only the Light so that it would change these properties.

How does the Light know which properties to act on?

It’s very simple. If I’m advancing toward the property of love, of mutual bestowal, toward the property of connection with the friends, if I’m trying to unite with them, then I discover that I’m an enormous egoist who wants to exploit them, who wants only personal gain, and who couldn’t care less about everyone else. When I discover this in myself and it evokes enormous suffering in me, then I begin to ask the Light to correct me. In revealing my inner egoism, I begin to turn to the Light and ask for it to change me.

That is, I prepare an enormous uncorrected desire, reveal it in myself, and I feel how disgusting it is to me, how repulsive, how much I don’t want for it to exist inside me; it’s like a cancer that I want to cut out of myself—and then I turn to the Light so that it would perform this surgery on me.

Thus, we have a very clear progression on our path: I’m moving all the time toward connection with the friends, towards the purpose of creation, the property of bestowal and love. I’m always moving towards exalting these properties, parameters, and definitions above myself, to make them my highest values. In the end, I reveal how opposite I am to that, how much I don’t want it, how artificial it all is in me, and so on. And then, from this bitterness, I cry out to the Light.

So there’s a big problem here: People who aren’t capable of realizing this and who aren’t capable of suffering will not be able to go through this path. Moreover, the suffering is qualitative. A person feels it during normal life, even when everything is going really well for him. This is the suffering of love, when I would like to connect with the friends, when I know that it’s necessary, but I see that I can’t. Only this kind of suffering is meant here—no other!

It’s not about whether or not I know the subject well, not that I’m a wise guy or say, impatient—no! The only thing that I need to reveal is my rejection of connection with others. Only this! Bestowal! When I’m repulsed by connection with others, when I suddenly begin to despise it, to not want it, this is precisely the property that I need to grab onto and to ask for its correction. This is the entire secret of Kabbalah. There is nothing else!

Therefore, the first part of our path is a gradually increasing revelation of evil within us, and then, in a single moment it becomes corrected. This is why there are two phases to our advancement.

The first phase is when throughout a few years we accumulate enormous, heavy, and lengthy suffering.

And then, in a single moment it becomes corrected, and we open our eyes and see a completely new picture around us. It turns out that the entire creation functions in the property of bestowal and love: The entire world works this way, while to me in my egoistic properties it appeared that it was built on properties of egoism, conquering, violence, brutality, and so on.

This is similar to how laboriously a rocket heads for its orbit in outer space, but afterwards, during orbit, in weightlessness, a calm suddenly sets in: Everything is quiet, the engines stop working, and you are out in space.
[94372]
From the Virtual Lesson 11/18/12

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Question: What does mutual guarantee mean? What does mutuality in the group entail?

Answer: Mutual guarantee is when we provide each friend with an absolutely complete feeling of security and confidence to such an extent that we cover his entire egoism and he doesn’t need anything. That is, we give him our respect and love, and treat him in such a way that he no longer thinks about himself and automatically becomes free for the work for everybody.
[93685]
From the Georgia Convention 11/6/12, Workshop 2

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Baal HaSulam, “Exile and Redemption”: Hence, I hereby propose to the House of Israel to say to our troubles, “Enough!” and at the very least, make a human calculation regarding these adventures that they have inflicted us time and time again, and here in our country, as well. We wish to start our own policy, as we have no hope of clutching at the ground as a nation as long as we do not accept our holy Torah without any extenuations, to the last condition of the work Lishma, and not for oneself, with any residue of selfishness…

As long as we do not raise our goal above the corporeal life, we will have no corporeal revival because the spiritual and the corporeal in us cannot dwell in one basket, for we are the children of the idea. And even if we are immersed in forty-nine gates of materialism, we will still not give up the idea. Hence, it is the holy purpose of for His name that we need.”

Of course, the Israeli nation can exist only if it is in mutual guarantee. This is the basis and the foundation of our nation by which we will be able to determine the right form of our state since otherwise we will not be able to exist. This cannot be if we don’t have the intention to bestow Lishma (for her name).

Only then will we be able to be prosperous and secure in our state; it all depends on the inner intention, which determines all the other aspects of life. So, Baal HaSulam says that we should not think about a corporeal revival, and, what is more, try to be like all the other nations since we exist on a totally different basis and not according to the principles of the other nations.

The nations of the world live according to the laws of the desire to receive, and so, they know how to arrange their corporeal life in this world. They feel themselves and understand one another. The Israeli nation, however, doesn’t. We must have only a spiritual revival, and if we keep and fulfill our spiritual mission, our corporeal life will work out. We will not need to worry about it since if we attain the spiritual level, there will be such a balance of forces between the corporeal world and the spiritual world that it will determine the level and the form of our corporeal existence.

So, the only thing we need is spirituality: A solution that is as internal as possible. Everything else will work out automatically as the projection of the internality on the externality.

The same thing happens with regard to our entire global Kabbalistic group called “Israel,” which stands for the yearning to the Creator, Yashar El (straight to the Creator). If we want this group to grow and serve as a source of this knowledge by existing as a spiritual superpower, then we first must take care of our inner quality, and in addition, invest our power in dissemination as well.

However, the main thing that determines our success is the connection among us. We must go out into the world and be impressed by it so as not to lose our connection with it, to disseminate the method of Kabbalah and mutual guarantee in it. However, first, it must stem from our concern for unity and connection, for mutual guarantee among us, in order to focus this on bestowal Lishma, which means in order to bring contentment to the upper force.

As for Israel, we must yearn straight to the Creator since it is the internality that determines everything. So, here too, in the land of Israel, we first must worry about attaining the inner force. Once we have it, no one will be able to harm us.
[94045]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/26/12

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book of Zohar,” Item 69: But if, God forbid, it is to the contrary, and a person from Israel degrades the virtue of the internality of the Torah and its secrets, which deals with the conduct of our souls and their degrees, and the perception and the tastes of the Mitzvot with regard to the advantage of the externality of the Torah, which deals only with the practical part? Also, even if one does occasionally engage in the internality of the Torah, and dedicates a little of one’s time to it, when it is neither night nor day, as though it were redundant, by that one dishonors and degrades the internality of the world, which are the children of Israel, and enhances the externality of the world—meaning the Nations of the World—over them. They will humiliate and disgrace the children of Israel, and regard Israel as superfluous, as though the world has no need for them, God forbid.

Furthermore, by that, they make even the externality in the Nations of the World overpower their own internality, for the worst among the Nations of the World, the harmful and the destructors of the world, rise above their internality, which are the Righteous of the Nations of the World. And then they make all the ruin and the heinous slaughter our generation had witnessed…

If the Israeli nation stalls the process of correction, it gets back the blow of all the corruptions it hasn’t corrected in the world. But to the same extent that we fulfill the method of correction (and we have all the conditions to do so), we draw the upper Light for the whole world, the upper force that arranges all the desires and corrects all the souls. This Light comes to everyone, and so we will see how their attitude towards us will begin to change. So there is nothing to blame our enemies for, we are the ones who have made them that way. We suffer because of our foolishness as we don’t fulfill our role.

It says: “I have created the evil inclination; I have created the Torah as a spice to it, since the Light in it reforms.” If we correct ourselves, our corrections are passed directly to everyone else by open pipes.

But if we don’t do that, then the world remains uncorrected because of us, and will turn to us pressuring us and demanding it from us. Then we will still have to advance towards correction anyway, but by the path of sufferings, since we refused to listen right off and to fulfill our role.

We have no choice. Now after so many missile attacks we have understood this a bit more. We see that we are at a dead end and that we are totally helpless. There is no more time to think, and we are so far behind and have to make much greater corrections than the ones we have already made.

The main responsibility is ours, those who deal with the internal correction. If we made the corrections on time, there wouldn’t be any conflict in Gaza and there wouldn’t be any missiles. The corporeal problems would totally disappear; they would simply not be able to exist in our world. We would rise above all matter like a flying saucer.

We are all to blame for what is happening, all those who have the internality of the Torah. The same people who called themselves the “nation of Israel,” who left Babel with Abraham and who have founded the nation based on the principle of “love thy friend as thyself,” “mutual guarantee,” and “as one man with one heart,” now is the perfect time for them to connect and to perform the correction.

The very moment and to the extent that they fulfill the correction, it will pass on freely to everyone else and will spread throughout the system that ties us and that is expecting a filling. We are the valve that blocks the artery and which doesn’t allow the upper Light to go through it.

Therefore, all the nations, feeling the lack of fulfillment, exhibit hatred towards us in different ways.. Our neighbors on the other side of the border are dreaming about destroying us, and this is an expression of the lack of correction in them, which we haven’t provided them with.

According to the structure of the world, we had to pass this correction on to them. It is like a person to whom I owe a million dollars, why? Because that’s the way the world is made, according to all the conditions. If I don’t give him the million dollars, he will have complaints towards me, and I will reply that I don’t know anything about it and that I don’t know what everyone wants of me.

I turn to the UN and to the whole world for help, and the other countries say: “You know what, we think he is right.” It is because they also have a similar feeling, but they are more distant from me. They also feel that I owe them something, not a million dollars like the neighbor, but let’s say ten dollars, and so they can wait in the meantime.

But they feel that I have a debt that is growing from day to day and the interest is growing. So we shouldn’t hope that they will come to us with a bouquet of flowers next time.
[93872]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/23/12, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar” 

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In the News (from Euronews): “The President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso has answered questions put to him directly by EU citizens.

“In a special edition of iTalk, held in an interactive Google ‘hangout’, he spoke on issues covering the debt and employment problems facing Europeans, democracy within the EU and further European integration.

“He explained he wanted to see Europe develop into a federation of nation states, while at the same time sharing sovereignty between EU members. He also spoke of the need to focus on growth in order to bring sustainable employment, especially for young people.”

My Comment: Stimulating growth means creating bubbles; nothing will come of it, except deepening the crisis. Moreover, the crisis will not end until we understand that we need to transform the world community not competitively, but into mutual guarantee. And for this it is necessary to change the nature of man for which we need the method of integral education. This is the only way to save the world from falling into savagery.
[93718]

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Opinion (Kyle Bass, Larry Edelson, Charles Nenner, Jim Rogers and Marc Faber): “‘Trillions of dollars of debts will be restructured and millions of financially prudent savers will lose large percentages of their real purchasing power at exactly the wrong time in their lives. … We believe that war is an inevitable consequence of the current global economic situation.’

“‘Since the 1980s, I’ve been studying the so-called ‘cycles of war’ — the natural rhythms that predispose societies to descend into chaos, into hatred, into civil and even international war. …

“‘However, there are very few people who are willing to even discuss the issue right now. And based on what I’m seeing, the implications could be absolutely huge in 2013.’

“Former Goldman Sachs technical analyst Charles Nenner – who has made some big accurate calls, and counts major hedge funds, banks, brokerage houses, and high net worth individuals as clients – says there will be ‘a major war starting at the end of 2012 to 2013,’ which will drive the Dow to 5,000.

“‘For one thing, many influential people wrongly believe that war is good for the economy. … A continuation of bailouts in Europe could ultimately spark another world war,’ says international investor Jim Rogers.

“‘Add debt, the situation gets worse, and eventually it just collapses. Then everybody is looking for scapegoats. Politicians blame foreigners, and we’re in World War II or World War whatever.’

“Marc Faber says that the American government will start new wars in response to the economic crisis.

“‘The next thing the government will do to distract the attention of the people on bad economic conditions is they’ll start a war somewhere.’

“‘If the global economy doesn’t recover, usually people go to war.

“Faber also believes the U.S., China and Russia may go to war over Mideast oil.”

My Comment: Today, a strong shock is needed to begin a war. Everyone is afraid of it and agrees to suffer. It is profitable only for the elite… It should be brought to the attention of everyone that we all face one condition: the need to achieve mutual connection—mutual guarantee.

We, humanity, are a constantly and rapidly developing part of nature. New laws appear in our society. Since recently, the law of our mutual connection is manifested more and more. We have to observe it; otherwise, we will increasingly feel opposed to nature in the form of various crises, suffering, and disasters. Wars will not help; we will have nothing to share. Humanity will lead itself to death. This is one of the ways predicted by the biblical prophets.
[93728]

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If we want to reach true peace, we have to let everyone know that our people need to unite. Only this will solve our problem. It has been proven by history; after all, once we used to exist only thanks to the connection among us and the ability to reach mutual guarantee, and thanks to that we became a nation.

The people of Israel are not an ordinary nation that exists because it came into being and developed in a certain geographical location. It is a group of people who left Babylon and decided to live according to the principle of “love thy friend as thyself.” It is only thanks to this that they became a nation, and this is our foundation. If there is not this foundation, we are not a nation and don’t feel that we belong to one another. It is only the hatred around us that brings us together and closes us as if in a sack of nuts. But in fact, if everything were okay with us, we would all disperse in every direction.

So we must understand that if it weren’t for our foundation, the general connection and mutual help, we wouldn’t be a nation living in its state. The whole world treats us as if there is something temporary in our country, but this is because we don’t build ourselves as a nation here, and we are not a nation by nature.

It is impossible, for example, to say that a Frenchman doesn’t belong to his nation. No matter where he goes he will feel that he belongs to his country. But a Jew who goes abroad stops feeling that he belongs to Israel to such an extent that he wants to vanish among the strangers and to be like them: a Frenchman or an American.

We lost the connection between us, the mutual guarantee, two thousand years ago. Now, after having returned to this land, we have to behave like we did in the past and only then will we be a nation!

Thanks to that we will achieve a lot. Now the whole world is in a critical state, affected by the general crisis in different aspects of life. The world is not connected either and so it cannot overcome the global crisis. It is already clear to everyone that we must unite. Everyone speaks about it, starting from prime ministers to all the media.

We are so connected worldwide that we will not be able to exist unless we have good relations. The whole world is in a constant decline and everyone is looking for a method that will enable us to connect.

Only the method that our nation has, that it used in the past and reached connection with, will help here. If we fulfill it now among our nation and return to mutual guarantee, we will serve as an example for the whole world.

This doesn’t mean that all the nations have to connect that way; they are already connected naturally. But by that we will set an example for them as to how the whole world should unite. There is no other solution. In order to overcome the general global crisis, we must all unite into one whole and the people of Israel should be an example for the whole world and present the method of connection to everyone.

There is a method of integral connection, which we are working on. This means that there is a solution, and all we have to do is bring it to the people and explain that this method is our salvation, the salvation is not only for the nation of Israel, but for the whole world. Thus we unite the nation not only within the borders of Israel, but we are also an example for the whole world, which is called “being a Light to the nations.”

By that we will see how the world overcomes the crisis. We will decrease the tension and the problems and solve the conflict with our neighbors, which is also caused by the lack of the right connection between everyone. The hate towards us, the forces, and the tension are all a result of the imbalance.
[93701]
From Talk 1 “The Solution is in Unity” 11/18/12

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It is now, with the country in such a tense state, that we need to invest maximum efforts in order to understand that all these events are only triggers that are intended to bring us to correct decisions, to mutual guarantee. The main thing is to not return to the same level of separation when tomorrow the firing ceases, but to remain at the same level of concern and mutual thoughts that we feel today. At least not to descend from this degree, then it will already be good.

The recognition does not come immediately. It’s like in an acoustic system: First a wave enters, shakes the system, and a certain period of time is required in order for the system to come to equilibrium and stabilize. Only in the end is a response formed at the exit. The same thing is happening today. We need to accept the state, and go through all the four stages of attainment, the recognition, the comparison, the whole process of development, that at the end we’ll finally understand it and make a decision. It will mean that we got this degree, integrated it within us and will no longer descend from it.

For this, we must go through many internal actions, and mainly go through them consciously. And this is not done quickly and easily. Our role is to help this process by constant dissemination in order to bring everybody to connection, to participation in workshops, to explain in all ways, by any means, where possible. This is the maximum that we can do.

We know that we are doing the right thing if we are acting for the sake of connection. The connection is required for us and not only so that the missile assault would stop. Otherwise, it turns out that we want to neutralize the upper force that pushes us forward. Rather we want to attain the goal to which this war is awakening us. It wants to push us to making the right decision and to advance. So let’s make this decision and advance, and then we’ll see that the threat disappears, resolved in a good way.

We constantly ask ourselves, “What next?” and obviously that further on it will be worse, in half a year, a year. The situation will only exacerbate and the conflict will not stop. So how can we finally resolve this problem? Do we have the opportunity or not?

We see how the upper Providence brings all these problems to us, forcing us to build the enemy before us. There is no decision here other than to first hold onto the goal to which all these calamities bring us. If we reveal the force of mutual guarantee between us, it will fulfill everything, and in our connection, the upper force, the Light, will begin to act. Then we won’t have any problems, and we’ll always have extra strength and will make the right decisions.
[93260]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/16/12, “Peace in the World”

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