If a person understands the nature of his work, he begins to treat his environment differently because he sees that he has no desire of his own and everything comes from the Creator, and that is why it does not allow him to be considered a creature.

He will be called a creature when he turns to the environment and receives the desire from it. Then these desires will be written on his account.

That is, he needs to bow his head and understand that only the desires that he receives from the environment are called Shechina, the place for the revelation of the Creator, who is called Shochen (Dweller). That is why inclusion in the group is absolutely obligatory for spiritual advancement.

It is said that it is necessary to love friends: “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” After all, in this connection between everyone, which is called love, a person reveals the spiritual world, the Creator.

In fact, I don’t choose friends. My choice comes later. In the beginning, the Creator brings me to a group, and I don’t have any freedom here. My choice starts later when I really connect with them and must answer the question: Why do I need it and what I want to receive from them?

Thus, I advance, each time choosing friends because I have to see all of them as great, despite the fact that they appear to me more and more insignificant and empty. This means that I choose them because now I choose precisely these friends whom the Creator gave me for spiritual advancement.

In this way, I move forward and build on my own, a new desire. This very desire that I receive from the environment and in which I want to become similar to the Creator, to reveal the force of bestowal, is called a human being.

Everyone is obliged to show his love for the group because we must support each other, which is called mutual guarantee. Everyone becomes a guarantor for the rest that they all will have enough strength to reveal the force of bestowal and achieve similarity with the Creator. That is why, I am responsible for everyone, I signed their guarantee. Their spirituality is in my hands, as well as my spirituality is in their hands.

And if one of us drills a hole in the common boat, then we will all drown in our egoism, our self-serving intentions, and will not be able to reveal the Creator.

That is why, the further we advance towards revealing the Creator, the more stringent and demanding the conditions will become. We need to understand that we are facing the laws of nature of the Light and desire, and there can be no compromises and concessions. Everything is done according to the laws of the relationship between these two forces.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/5/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Is my stubbornness worth anything? If everything depends on the Creator and tomorrow He can throw me off-track, where is my work here?

Answer: It doesn’t matter whether the Creator throws me off or not; I have to be stubborn. I have to make sure that even when I feel as if the Creator is throwing me, I don’t leave. I receive such support from the environment that it enables me to stay and not run away.

The more we advance, the more the Creator will reject us. I will feel greater disrespect for Him, and the relationship between us will become worse. I will not understand why the Creator repays me with such ingratitude. This is the work, and this is its reward? Is this fair?

New, corrupt, egoistic desires constantly will be revealed, and as a result, our relationships with the Creator will become worse; they will be unpleasant and illogical. The friends also will seem worse and lower, and the way will seem meaningless. I will not find the powers inside me nor the logical explanation to respect the Creator, the group, and the way.

In the meantime, we are in a state where everything seems sublime and important in our corporeal beastly mind, in our ego. We see that the corporeal world isn’t worth much compared to this great goal and that we have a foundation that is above everything else.

However, this is how we see it today, and tomorrow, if we are stronger, we will be shown a totally different picture that there is nothing to hold onto along the way. The Creator will seem as a foolish illusion that doesn’t really exist; the group will seem like a gathering of empty, useless people, and the study as a meaningless occupation that hasn’t led anyone to success so far.

There is a kind of “eye opening,” and it is a miracle that a person can hold onto the way and continue. It is only in the meantime that, considering our weakness, we are given such a feeling that the group is important, and the friends, the teacher, and the books are important.

However, imagine that the teacher has left you, the group has become unimportant, and the books just stand on the shelf covered with dust, and that’s it. That’s the end. So, we should prepare ourselves for the advanced states that may be very difficult.

I see that people escape minor unpleasant situations and cannot justify their exertion. Even before they are confused from above and rejected from spirituality, they already escape.

We must understand that the Creator is behind the whole picture that we perceive, and behind the way we feel ourselves and the world. The picture of this world not only is what I see before me, but everything that I feel. After having accepted this picture and trying to feel it to its full depth and in every direction in the mind and in the heart, I have to say that there is none else besides Him and that it is He who depicts this picture for me on purpose so that I will respond to it correctly.

As it is written, “From Your actions, I will know You.” His actions are me and this world. I know Him since through all this, I want to reach Him and to know Him as the force of bestowal, as the good and the benevolent.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/3/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: What is Arvut (Mutual Guarantee) from the standpoint of a woman? Is it support and raising the importance of the goal?

Answer: Since the world has begun to discover the general crisis, there is no difference between men and woman as far as attaining the upper world, in the work between them. Women also sit in workshops and participate in them just like the men, and they experience the same feelings no less than the men. So, I don’t think that there is any difference between the men and women.

It seems to me that all of that is gradually disappearing. All the previous differences will become more internal. This means that within each one of us there are two lines, a man and a woman, and we need to join them again into one common line, in that same Adam (human) that was created, not as a man or a woman, but as it included both from the start, it is understood that both the nature of the man and the woman operates in him.

When Rabash began to write his articles, he gave them to a group of women, and the women read and discussed them. This means that he was concerned about how they would perceive them.

In the time of Rabash, we had to enlarge the room made especially for the women where they attended and listened to our classes three times. I am convinced that nowadays, there is no problem with the presence of women in their support and their active and equal participation with the men. I simply don’t see any special differences, and with the years, we will see less and less. But in the places where the men connect and hug, there is no place for women, but this is because these disturbances exist in us.

And if the roundtables are arranged side-by-side, even in the same room, or in two different rooms, it is only so that we won’t be distracted on the corporeal level, so as not to disturb us. And so, there is no difference. I personally don’t feel inside that there is a difference. And besides that, I hear women’s responses in the workshops that we organize on Sundays and see how much they understand the essence and how much they grasp everything that happens, no less then the men. So, there is no need to pay attention at this.

We need to differentiate between women and men only in one thing. Entering the women’s organization and working in it is only for females. With all other things, there shouldn’t be a separation.
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From a Talk During the Meal in Toronto, 6/19/12

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On June 28, 2012, the Mutual Responsibility Toronto group successfully organized the first round table in Toronto. The topic of the roundtable was “The relationship between people in light of the global crisis.”

[Show slideshow]

The discussion began at the central roundtable that was attended by:

Ryan Dyment (the Zeitgeist Movement, Toronto), Executive Director of the Institute for a Resource-Based Economy, which distributes materials that help one understand the dependent nature of the modern economy, a holistic view of the future of humanity and its relationship with the environment;

Trey Winney, a senior organizer with Occupy Toronto;

Barbara Elizabeth Mercer, author, poet, and visual artist who since 1962 has completed work for TVOntario, CBC, the Canadian Opera Company, and the National Ballet of Canada, among others;

Julian Edwards, active member and spokesperson for Mutual Responsibility;

Eric Hellman, communications coach, writer, and consultant, whose past projects include co-coordinating the Sustainability Roundtable at the UN-Habitat World Urban Forum (Vancouver), co-organizing the first Spirituality at Work conference in Toronto, organizing the UN International Day of Peace event at the World’s Fair, and co-founding the first Blue Box recycling program and the Recycling Council of Ontario;

Tom Cooper, Director of the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction.

Patrick Legault, representative of Mutual Responsibility, Toronto.

After the central roundtable answered and discussed questions from the audience, all the participants participated at the roundtables discussions by answering two questions:

1. What are the two core values that you think should be at the head of our society in the 21st century?
2. What am I personally willing to do in order to begin this transition to a new, positive environment?

Impressions from the roundtable participants included:

• There was a feeling that those who were present there were not only ready for this event, but were waiting for it for a very, very long time. The roundtable participants said that it was the only right platform for everyone that allows one to be heard and to listen to others, to gather all that we have at one roundtable. People were very happy at the end of the evening and asked when our next meeting would take place. At the roundtable, there was a very precise feeling of how the world is becoming united, and everything that we have heard and learned thus far, suddenly became very practical.
• How can I explain what stands and hides behind the words? How can I convey the thought and feeling, which is deeper than the deepest social discussions and topics? It is impossible to convey, it is necessary to feel. Our answers are in the roots of our relationship with each other.
• Many thanks to all who put so much effort in organizing the roundtable yesterday! Everything was thought out, starting from paper and pencils on the tables, water and cookies, to the logistics, videos, moderators … As a result, all the participants felt our united intention. It was wonderful to see the faces and hear the voices of speakers who wanted to express the feelings that we wanted to convey to everyone.
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Question: When one is looking at what is happening in the world it is hard to draw conclusions about the roots of anti-Semitism, about the role of the people of Israel and their task that they are not fulfilling. Does it turn out that we should address all accusations only to ourselves or to those who already study the Wisdom of Kabbalah?

Answer: Accusations are directed precisely at us. We are obliged to bring the nation of Israel and the nations of the world to the understanding of what is happening. We are facing the manifestation of nature that is intended to initiate the correction of the entire world. As we see it today the world requires correction. This is why we have to explain to people how today’s problems are connected with the hatred toward Jews. All of these can already be revealed and corrected.

Today the nations are still not making the differentiation, but in the end, certainly, all accusations will be turned solely at us, at the worldwide Bnei Baruch association. After all, we are the source of the connection, the point of connection between the Creator and the creatures. We are the “bottleneck,” which does not pass the Light to the world. This is why we will be guilty in the eyes of the people. Subconsciously everyone will feel this way. In their view we will become the ultimate “sinners,” the “Pharaoh” enslaving them.

This is the property of the flipped pyramid.
[79831]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/5/12, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Baal HaSulam, “Letter 13”: … and this shall be your tractate of negligence ignoring my request to make efforts regarding the love of friends.

Baal HaSulam writes to his students that the problem of the group is neglecting the love of friends, which means the mutual help necessary for the spiritual birth.

How can you reveal love and unity? By taking a desire from every friend who wants to fulfill it; with the help of my attributes, my desire becomes an assistant, a “midwife” for the friend’s desire. Of course, I take the desires that are aimed at spirituality and constantly try to empower him and to raise him. Thus, mutually, we help one another according to the principle of “each one shall help his friend.”

To love the friend means to receive his desire instead of my desire. I constantly look for an opportunity to fill him and to empower him, to help him and to push him forward, to make the goal seem important to him, to give him energy and help him be in a good mood.

I explained to you in every possible way (in seventy languages) that this merit is enough to fulfill all your needs.

In other words, he used all the attributes, all the possible types of bestowal. According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, the upper Partzuf with regards to the lower Partzuf is like Zeir Anpin with respect to Malchut; Zeir Anpin has seven Sefirot while Malchut is one Sefira. Overall, ten Sefirot multiplied by seven is called seventy “languages,” which means the types of bestowal that Zeir Anpin can bestow upon Malchut. And besides, it also means the pivot that determines how the scale will be tilted.

This is what Baal HaSulam speaks about: “I constantly try to convey the feeling that it is up to you to raise the positive force above the negative force. So fulfill it, exert yourselves, it is in your power and it is enough in order to complete everything that you lack. Even if you are callous and lazy, even if you are egoists and individualists, it makes no difference; everyone has received his own nature. What matters is that you make an effort.”

And if you cannot rise to Heaven, I have given you those who walk upon the earth.

To “Heaven” is the level of bestowal, Bina, and we shouldn’t think that it is unattainable. Of course you cannot do it, but try and then your efforts will summon the Light that Reforms, the upper force. By trying to come closer to the Light, you draw its influence upon you that matches the tension you display. It is a law of nature: You receive the force to be born, by your efforts.

Why did you not add to this work at all?”

Because you are only required to try and the Light always completes the other half of the work. In our egoistic world we don’t see the beginning of our actions: where the desire stems from? Why do I want this in particular? Why am I drawn in this direction? Suddenly I feel an urge, suddenly a thought is evoked, but I don’t know where it comes from. The Creator says, “I’m the first.” But this initial factor that spurs me is concealed from us. I suddenly yearn for something, exert myself and see a result as in the case of success and in the case of failure. I don’t even see that it is the actions of the Light that are aimed at the goal that have brought about this result and not my own actions.

I don’t see the beginning of the process nor its end, and in the process itself I don’t pay attention to what motivates me. I am like a baby instinctively responding to the different stimuli.

There is no such thing in spirituality. The spiritual revelation that we want to attain is the revelation of the Creator’s actions, the actions of the Light. This means that with all our efforts I demand Its overt participation. I always fulfill my first half of the work by wanting to discover his second half. Thus I find my partner, the Creator, create a vessel for His stimulus, and thus advance time after time.

Now at the beginning of this process we don’t feel it and don’t understand it. In the meantime we have to discover the second half to such an extent that we can learn to work with the Creator, just as a horse and its rider operate mutually, like two dancers dancing arm in arm. Eventually I will discover that the Creator is dressed in me and fulfills everything, but only if I agree to it, if I want to discover His leadership, His control over me.

Then it is as if I disappear by filling everything with Light. My self and the Light become one whole if I rise above my ego and exit myself.

The whole Kabbalistic method is about that: how we can exit ourselves and feel the movement of our tango “partner.” The main thing it is to follow Him harmoniously. In order to do that we need to know His attributes, and the steps He wants to take with us.

The first step is called “submission”: We only try to annul our ego, that wants to go wherever it likes to, and create a place for the actions of the Light. Thus, we help it give birth to us; we enable the “force of midwife” to pull us out of this gloomy world.
[81357]
From the Miami Convention 6/23/12, Lesson 1

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Question: What can be done if, on one hand, I do everything possible, for example, studying, integrating into the group, and performing dissemination; and on the other hand, I see that I have stayed in my pride and haven’t taken anything else into consideration, meaning, have simply blocked myself?

Answer: You need to ask the friends to help you, to support you, to pray for you. “Prayer for the many” is the prayer for someone else, for others.

A person can’t pray for himself since that would be an egoistic request. Even if you convince yourself that you, as if, want the attribute of bestowal, in any case it would be egoistic since you want it for yourself.

When I am in the group, I only want one thing, to be a guarantor for everyone. I want to be their guarantor and that they will attain everything that they want! And in this way we are all mutual guarantors for each other.

Otherwise, we won’t be matching in our attributes to that of the upper field. We are within it like charged particles in a magnetic field that separates us instead of attracting and drawing us nearer. Because we want to take advantage of it for ourselves, it repels us.

How can we attain similarity with Him? For this we need to connect to the friends, and then I will have some similarities to this field. It is here that the exact laws of physics work as described in The Study of the Ten Sefirot; there is no mysticism here.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/21/12, Shamati #30

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Question: Why do I find it so easy to speak about the wisdom of Kabbalah as it happens as if by itself, but when I begin to tell people about mutual guarantee, it becomes so hard and I have to think carefully and make great efforts?

Answer: That’s great! Now you are discovering that when you speak about the wisdom of Kabbalah, you use words that are meaningless for you, about a world that you don’t feel yet. But if you begin to speak using this world’s language, about mutual guarantee, hate, closeness, alienation, and connection, you already begin to bring in strong emotions and then you understand how far away you are from these concepts.

Indeed, it really gets hard to speak about it because as long as you are using the language of Kabbalah, everything comes out very smoothly: Reshimot, Partzufim, Masachim (screens) that rise and descend from one place to another, restriction, Returning Light, Direct Light… it all seems to be great. You play with the words like a juggler in a circus juggling balls, but in the meantime, these are just words.

When you begin to tie the words to your feelings and don’t use the language of Kabbalah, but rather this world’s language, you discover how foreign it is to your heart. This is why it becomes so difficult.

We have to start using words that are closer to the heart, and then you will understand to what extent the heart doesn’t agree with them. Get your heart used to them gradually, bit by bit. This is what is happening to us now; we are advancing correctly.

We will advance at the pace the world opens up to us without forcing it, but simply by using the opportunities given to us: connecting different organizations, giving out brochures and leaflets, disseminating materials through the Internet, giving lectures, etc. Then we will see how the road opens up for us.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/21/12, Shamati #30

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Question: What exactly does our connection come down to?

Answer: Our connection is based on the fact that we are all part of one society and we want to make it a better, more just, kind, and compassionate society that listens carefully to every individual.

I want everyone to feel good! No one should be dispossessed of his assets and we shouldn’t take money from the rich. No one can neglect any of the weaker strata of society: the poor, the elderly, or women. One should not profit at the expense of another.

This is possible only if we first establish a fair society based on equality. From this perspective, we will treat everyone like in a family where there are children, elderly, and parents with many responsibilities, obligations, and problems. However, if we all sit at around the table, we understand what the child needs, what medicines grandpa needs, and what the household expenses should be. Now we look at what is left and we divide the rest among us and live on it.

If we could act and solve all the problems in society in such a loving attitude towards everyone, no one would complain about why we acted the way we did. Everyone would see that it is all done fairly since a baby has certain needs and an elderly has other needs. This means that we first have to attain connection like in a good family.

Then even if we don’t have great resources, they will suffice and no one will suffer and feel deprived, which is the main complaint people usually express as they feel that they don’t have what the others have and what is more, it is at my expense.
[81126]
From the Workshop in Toronto 6/20/12

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Question: What kind of exertion is the means for spiritual advancement, and can I help a friend exert himself or do I steal his work from him by that?

Answer: Exertion is whatever is above my human abilities. I cannot help another and complete his work, but I can set an example for him so that it will be easier for him to exert himself.

So I don’t steal his work, but rather help him. The more we help one another by setting an example so that it will be easier for a friend to exert himself even more, the more efficiently we will advance.

With this, we exchange the corporeal exertion with a spiritual exertion! Then the corporeal work seems very difficult and the spiritual work seems very easy because you add the force of the group to it. The result is that you have to move a load of a hundred tons and you move it, but you have the aid of a million people pushing the load with you.

You don’t have to feel the weight of the load that is 100 tons. These 100 tons are necessary only so that through them you will attain connection with a million people.

Therefore, there is no need for senseless sufferings; all we have to do is to understand why we suffer.

If you feel difficulty, pain, rejection, and sorrow in a certain place, it means that it isn’t the right exertion. As it says: “Thou hast not called upon Me, O Jacob.” If with great effort and sweat you carry the load that was given to you by the Creator, it means that you are not exerting yourself correctly, and this burden belongs to someone else and not the Creator.

The pleasure from work is knowing for Whom we are exerting ourselves.
[80884]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/15/12, Shamati #117

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