Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom,” Taking After The Collective: Our scriptures say, “Take after the collective.” That means that wherever there is a dispute between the collective and the individual, we are obliged to rule according to the will of the collective. Thus, you see that the collective has a right to expropriate the freedom of the individual. … And we can see that there is no other arrangement by which to live in society except following the law of “Taking after the collective,” which sets every dispute and tribulation in society in order.

How can such a thing be? The collective doesn’t have the imaginative thoughts that individuals do because they are the masses. The lofty things in the world are not each one’s concepts and are not easily comprehended. The more lofty, delicate, and specific an issue is, fewer are the people who are able to understand it. It is just this uniqueness of attainment that built the human pyramid. Thus the understanding of the collective, according to its definition, is found beneath that of the understanding of the individuals.

So what is Baal HaSulam talking about? From his words, it appears that if in a certain place more people have gathered, then justice is with them? Or is it the opposite, that the special, unique people are not justified only because they are a minority? Are the millions always justified and I should I follow them?

This is a great question since we are talking here of a person’s realization of himself, about how to realize his free choice and to find “the eye of the needle” through which one exits to the spiritual world. Could it be that on the way there I must “take after the collective?” And this was said by Kabbalists, by those who attained the Creator and knew the upper laws of nature.

In order to clarify this, let’s check: In what part of creation do we see the “hand of the Creator” directly? It is, of course, in the nature of the inanimate, the inanimate level. There, nothing resists Him. There are no desires there, not even the weak desires of the vegetative force. In the vegetative level there is already a special development that characterizes it. And at the level of animate, this independence is clearly revealed even more. If the vegetative only grows in the earth, then, in comparison, the animals can already move from place to place. And man can go even farther: He objects to the upper Providence and as if says to the Creator: “Move over to the side a bit, I want to take Your place.”

So it turns out that only at the base of the pyramid, among those that have no understanding or feeling but simply live because they are alive, reigns the undisputable authority of the Creator. Their life flows at the developmental level of the inanimate. [Read more →]

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Question: Israel is facing the question of free preschool education, which will require great cutbacks in other areas. Each time we are faced with a choice between one thing and another and it is always one at the expense of the other. How can such conflicts be solved?

Answer: We don’t see things correctly. Actually there are such surpluses that we could build another state of Israel, but we don’t see them. The point here is not how to save, but to distinguish where our resources are being squandered uselessly and wasted.

On the whole, we shouldn’t touch the budget and increase the deficit. We only have to find the billions that are wasted, go nowhere, and help no one. It all stems from negligence and carelessness, from the fact that we aren’t concerned about the situation as a whole. Each one considers and loves himself and as a result great wealth is being squandered.

There is no secret here. Observe yourself and how you use electricity at home and somewhere else, how organized and thrifty you are when it comes to your property for which you pay dearly, and how indifferent you are to wasting at the expense of strangers. In another’s place we are happy to splurge, but at home we are happy to save. So if we treat the whole national economy like the home economy, we will find such excess that we didn’t even imagine.

If you really check things in the Ministry of Education you will find such breaches into which not just some but a great percentage of our resources are pouring. Sift everything that isn’t for the benefit of the students, shake the system, and you will see how much will “fall” out.

On the whole, the attitude is that we don’t have to sacrifice one thing for another. No aspect of life should be deprived in order to strengthen others. If our major concern is mutual concern for the state like as for our family, then by changing our attitude and as a result of our desire to be efficient, we sill discover such great surpluses that we will have to think of how to spend them.

But since we don’t do that, the crisis will do it for us. It will “shake” us against our will. If we don’t put things in order, it will be done for us.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/9/12, “The Freedom”

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Baal HaSulam: “The Freedom”: The truer and more developed views are never in the hands of the collective in authority, but rather in the hands of the weakest, that is, in the hands of the indistinguishable minority. This is because every wisdom and everything precious comes into the world in small quantities. Therefore, we are cautioned to preserve the views of all the individuals, due to the collective’s inability to tell wrong from right among them.

All of creation makes up one Partzuf which is divided into five levels of coarseness (Aviut). The Lights are dressed in it in the reverse order: The greatest Light is dressed in the purest vessels, the weakest ones. This is also reflected in the structure of human society: The smallest, weakest Lights are typical of the coarsest forces and the strongest ones, while the greatest Lights are in the upper levels, those that have the greatest forces but are the finest.

The potential of a mechanical collision is negligible compared to the intensity of an atomic explosion in which sublter processes take place. So obviously, in one kilogram of an atom bomb there is much greater energy than in many tons of ordinary explosives. It all depends on the quality of the material, not on the quantity.

So the individual and the general are opposite to each other. But they are within one structure and thus have to complement one another. This way, in whatever relates to the general, one must take after the collective, while in whatever relates to the particular and the picture as a whole, it is namely an individual who examines it, and so one should take after the individual.

This contradiction is only an apparent one. When we understand that it is one form, we immediately see what belongs to what, meaning to what important people have to lower themselves by caring for their people, and to what the people have to lower their heads and listen to the great ones.

First and foremost, we must acknowledge the fact that we are all united by one form (Partzuf). Later we will be able to understand the principles of mutual dependency and its parts and the cooperation between them on the way to the general success.

First we must realize that we are all connected to one whole. No “poverty line” can divide us into upper and lower. No one can look at others indifferently and pretend that it doesn’t concern him. This means that we can’t “break” anyone, on the contrary, everyone should be taken into account and we should understand that we cannot manage without one another. Our success doesn’t depend on oppression but rather on mutual completion.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/8/12, “The Freedom”

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Our dissemination should be simple: We need to bring humanity to a realization of the fact that the present economy is collapsing due to reasons that are beyond our control, due to objective circumstances. No one is to blame; this stage is implanted in the nature of human society itself, and it is meant to unite us and cause us to create a new integral society that will live according to laws of mutual guarantee.

First we begin to study, and meanwhile our thought process and approach change: From narrow and straight they become complex. And then we begin to understand how to build systems of interaction among people, business partners, systems of government, and so on.

But first of all is learning: an integral education. As Baal HaSulam writes, up to three generations may be required before humanity begins to practically build a new society. That’s how much time is needed for a person to realize the changes and begin to think differently.

But until then, we will live by producing everything that is necessary for our basic needs and gradually advancing to an integral worldview. The crisis will do away with all the overabundance and lower us to the level of producing the vitally necessary goods. It is already clear: Rising unemployment in a single complex world economy gradually takes away profits from everyone, including those at the top. Yachts, diamonds, and huge bank accounts—all this will disappear. Whether we want it or not, the world will come to a different economy.

And we, in turn, need to prepare every person for the upcoming turn of events as much as we can. Of course we need to explore how to build the new economy, but generally it will construct itself. After all, the economy is a replica of the interconnection between people. The financial and economic system is essentially a copy of our egoism. Therefore, by changing ourselves we will automatically begin to change our relationships in all spheres, including the economic.

We don’t need sharp movements. We don’t need to speed up the wave. We don’t need revolutions or methods of force. Everything will occur naturally; it is precisely as Baal HaSulam wrote in “The Works of the Last Generation”: “The concept of collectivism needs to catch up and ripen in the human mind in no less than three full generations of peace and mutual agreement. Thus the world has yet to experience many rotations and experiments before it reaches the final stage. And there is no simpler path for the maturing of ideas than the path of Kabbalah.”
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/8/12, “The Freedom”

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Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut” (Mutual Guarantee), (abridged version): But the end of the correction of the world will be by bringing all the people in the world under His work.

Indeed the world will be corrected when it reaches complete adhesion with the Creator. This end is guaranteed.

But the role of Israel towards the rest of the world resembles the role of our Holy Fathers towards the Israeli nation: Also, it is upon the Israeli nation to qualify itself and all the people of the world to develop until they take upon themselves that sublime work of the love of others, which is Dvekut with Him. Thus, each and every Mitzva that each person from Israel performs in order to bring contentment to one’s Maker, helps to some extent with the development of all the people of the world, until it increases to such a degree that it can bring all the people in the world to the desired purity “shifting the balance to virtue.”

The general structure of reality is divided into several levels: the forefathers, the sons, Israel, and the people of the world.

The forefathers, according to their nature, yearned for the Creator. They didn’t need to be a people. It was enough for them to be in a small group. Some of them perhaps even managed without it, like Adam HaRishon, the first Man, for example. In Abraham’s time there were already groups, and his students were connected like one family. Still, it was a person’s individual work.

Later, since the days of the exile in Egypt, it was the sons’ turn. The egoism grew and now working with it demanded not just a group but a people, the people of Israel, that corrected itself by the Torah in the states called the desert, the Land of Israel, and the first and second Temples.

Then the people of the world join this process with the shattered part of Israel that is incorporated in them. Today we are all on this level together, and we should do the same thing the Fathers did for us. First we have to correct ourselves, and then pass on the correction to the people of the world.

We should remember that the people of the world will not begin to operate on their own. All those who belong to the other levels, the shattered part of Israel and the part of the people of the world that were mixed in it, awaken towards the correction. The ten lost tribes about which we know nothing are also incorporated here.

Thus, the people of the world come closer to the correction by those who can wake up, those who have the spiritual point lit in their hearts. There is no point to sitting and waiting for the general awakening of the people of the world. It won’t happen by itself, not now and not in the future. Our participation is needed here: We correct ourselves, and according to our level of correction, the Light passes to them and thanks to it they are corrected.

It is a relatively passive part of the general soul. It says that the people of the world will carry the children of Israel on their shoulders to Jerusalem, but we have to begin the correction. There are always two parts: the part that corrects and the part that is corrected by the forces that come from Above.

Of course, great preparation is needed for that, which is done by dissemination. Passive readiness to receive help and to take part in the process as much as they can is required on the part of those who are corrected.

But the correction itself comes from the people with the point in the heart who can pass the necessary forces though them from the top down.

So we shouldn’t expect only “an awakening from below.” Even the smartest and most intelligent people will not wake up by themselves. They may only agree to some extent, join the work a little, but passively.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/16/11, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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“Forefathers,” the highest degree of the common soul, have made the main corrections in the system in order to activate it (marked in red). Others, “sons” (marked in green), can also join it.

They already have something to rely on, that is, the teachings of our forefathers who have left a functioning, interconnected system, which operates according to the laws of similarity of Lights and vessels. This is the “teaching,” the Torah. And the “Creator” is something that is revealed in the system.

Overall, the system that exists on a certain degree of inner balance and unity is called the “Torah.” Moreover, it can manifest on different levels, ascending as we gradually manifest it and more clearly reveal the Creator in it.

So who are “we?” We are the components of the spiritual system, which we want to reveal.

Baal HaSulam writes in the “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot” that the forefathers have prepared a system and left us a method. This now enables us to evoke illumination from the degree they have attained. No matter where you are, you have an ability to establish a connection and connect to this system that they have built between them.

How do you connect? Through Kabbalistic books, the group, the study, and the teacher. By using these tools I connect to the system, and it begins to influence me until I completely connect with it. And this is so for all.

We build a test system between us in order to do this, and in this way we begin to correspond to the forefathers, which activates very powerful forces. On the other hand, it is very difficult to do this individually; only a few individual souls were capable of this.

Thus, there are people with a point in the heart (•) who aspire towards a connection with the common system, even though they do not know for sure what drives them. By building a net, similar to the system of the forefathers, they connect with them, and then both nets merge into one.

And then the correction of the third level—the nations of the world—begins until this entire space becomes completely filled, without leaving a single empty space.

So how do the nations of the world become corrected? They are corrected through connection. At first they are drawn towards education, a message about correction is spread through them—and then they are pulled up. In the end, the vessels of the AHP support the vessel of Galgalta ve Eynaim, and everyone merges into one single Kli, which becomes entirely filled with Light: the revelation of the perfection of the Creator by His creatures. This is the purpose of creation.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/17/11, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Question: These days the tension between the Orthodox and the secular is growing. Your dissemination doesn’t pay enough attention to explaining to the non-religious community the essence of religion, its spiritual roots, etc. How do you help society deal with this “civil war” in a practical way?

Answer: We are busy explaining the next level of development to society in which everyone, every member of society, has to rise above all the differences and to unite by understanding the uniqueness of each individual.

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, we have to put all the differences among us below the unity among us as nature’s law requires us to unite despite and above our differences.

This can only be achieved by gradually educating people to mutual guarantee as each one is given a chance to live according to his own laws and unity is achieved above the different groups in society and above their customs. We should know how to separate the different communities that live according to different laws, as it is done between the Muslim and the Jewish communities.

City planners and public transportation planners have to take this into account. The external media should exhibit mutual respect. In a young state such as Israel, it is simply irresponsible to build cities without taking into account future potential conflicts.
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All corrections are done according to the principle of “from easiest to most difficult.” And this is logical: At first Light corrects the purer vessels, which are closer to it, and then with their help, it moves onto the coarser and more complicated vessels.

Every vessel has five categories, or ten Sefirot—the structure of HaVaYaH in other words. This structure divides into five parts according to the Aviut (coarseness) of the vessel: from part zero to part four.

The vessel is broken in a special way: The higher its parts, the lower they fell, while the lower ones, on the contrary, have suffered fewer changes. Now the reverse order of Lights and vessels determines the path of correction. Vessels are corrected by the Light, which returns to the Source or surrounding Light (Ohr Makif). It is activated according to the stable and invariable law of similarity of qualities.

Vessels are corrected one step at a time. The vessels, which awaken towards correction on their own—“light” vessels of bestowal—do not need any special system. They do not need any special instructions; they naturally are drawn towards unity on which the entire correction is built. These vessels of the zero and first degree of Aviut are called “forefathers.”

Vessels of the second and third degree of Aviut require a more methodic correction in the work of spiritual attainment. They are called “sons.”

And finally, the vessels of the fourth degree of Aviut, which cannot yet be corrected, are called “nations of the world.”

As Baal HaSulam writes, forefathers needed a “preliminary consent of the entire nation.” Their souls were neither coarse nor separated between them, and this is why it was enough for them to understand the need for unity without having to do difficult work on self-correction with Lights.

But sons are coarser vessels, which work with egoism. They received the method called the “Torah,” which allows them to correct themselves—at first in the vessels of bestowal (“forty years of wandering in the desert”), and then the vessels of reception the (“land of Israel”). Then, while they were mastering the “land of Israel,” they broke twice, as they fell from the degree of the first and the second Temple. In other words, they have created vessels with an altruistic intention, but they were not able to hold them.

Then the sons mixed with the nations of the world who did not participate in this process.

And today the time has come for a common correction. Accordingly, everyone who awakens towards ascent is called “Israel”—according to his aspiration towards the Creator (Yashar-El). In the past, forefathers referred to themselves as ‘Israel,” because they came out of Babylon and escaped to Land of Canaan—in other words they rose from the degree of egoism to the degree of bestowal. Then they fell into the state of Egypt and once again rose to bestowal, having passed Mount Sinai and having continued corrections in the desert and the Land of Israel.

However, after the final breaking, the notion of ‘Israel” disappeared, because no one had the intention for the sake of bestowal, except for separate Kabbalists who lived in every generation—the last islands in the ocean of egoism.

In our days, every person, who awakens towards correction, is called “Israel”—according to the desire, which the Creator has ignited in him, his future role. And the rest for now remain in the category of “nations of the world.” For now they neither want to nor are able to hear the message about unity. However, after thousands of years of mixing, everyone is basically capable of spiritual ascent.

Briefly speaking, this is what the process looks like. At first mankind was in the common state of “Babylon,” and then that state divided into two parts: “Israel” and “nations of the world.” Then Israel descended into Egypt from there, which means that it acquired the evil inclination, and four hundred years later it managed to ascend to the degree of the Torah, build a Temple on the level of its private end of correction.

Then a breaking took place, and the sons of Israel have fallen down, into a two thousand year exile at the end of which all of us will come to a common end of correction.

Our simple countdown begins at the point of the beginning of correction when the fallen qualities of Bina have combined and mixed with the qualities of Malchut: Whoever awakens is ready for the spiritual path. Correction happens according to the principle of “from light to heavy”—but not by the means of the Torah, which is the method of past generations, but with the help of the wisdom of Kabbalah, which is able to bring the Light to us, which returns to the Source (Ohr Makif), from the end of correction. This is why it is becoming revealed in our days.

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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/22/11, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Rabash’s Letter #8: Gather in a tight group of people in one place and under one guidance to withstand the attacks of the enemies with the power of overcoming, beyond any human limitations….

The power of overcoming beyond any human limitations—how is this possible? Does anyone really possess such power? Beyond human limitations—this is already the Creator!

This means that only the power of the upper one can help us rise, to withstand this condition and all the inner enemies (obviously, this does not imply external enemies). Every one of us has plenty of thoughts and desires, which confuse us and do not let us be even for a moment. We need to fight against all of them, which is impossible to do on our own—but can only be done by a power beyond human means, the power of the upper.

The power of the upper is the Creator’s power, which is provided to us through the power of the group. We cannot turn directly to the Creator—only to the group. He is in no other place—only inside of it.

This is why we need to try to always be together with our friends, in common thoughts and desires—simultaneously, on the same frequency and in one direction of movement, like singing or dancing together. And there we will find this power that will support us, regardless of all the disturbances that come from the “attacks of the enemies.”

“Of course they are courageous and strong spirited people, their decision is set in stone since they will not take even a single step back. They fight from the very first degree at war with the evil inclination until the last drop of blood. And they only aspire towards victory in this war in the name of the Creator.”

Well, who can say this about himself, which hero will that be? Maybe only a child would from lack of experience. It is impossible with any power except one beyond human means. In other words, it is impossible to achieve success without help from Above—this idea must get imprinted in the group.

A person is not able to hold on to this idea. It is a mistake to think that he can manage to remember it, even by writing it down somewhere…. I see that many people are writing down things during the lesson (I did the same when I was studying). They think that paper is their soul, and they are recording on it. But this will not help at all.

But when I want to record this knowledge in the group through mutual guarantee, I will really be able to make it my memory. Everything that exists in the group is my memory, and I can be sure that nothing will be erased from there and I will be able to use it.

I personally can keep forgetting everything, but my friends will keep reminding me about this knowledge: that I can only succeed through the power of the Creator, and not my own. And the power of the Creator exists inside the group.

And then I will be able to “be courageous,” like I need to be—if I manage to connect all of us together, find the upper force inside of us, and obligate it to help us. As it is written: “My sons have defeated me.” This is the Creator’s condition who is waiting for us to turn to Him, to appeal to Him.

The Creator becomes revealed under the condition that the appeal comes from the group. This is why we call the group a vessel for the revelation of the Creator.
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From the Arvut Convention Lesson 2, 11/18/11

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There is no good without bad and there is no bad without good. Only when the two are balanced does the feeling of life grow between them, prosperity. We see that in every “creation.” Even in music, minor and major don’t get along without one another. At the junction of notes it is constantly pulsing with the resistance in each chord, dissonance and consonance coexist. Harmony—this is the correct relationship between the discordant sounds.

Even at home you won’t be able to reach an agreement if you don’t bring two opposites together. How can you reach domestic peace? After all, peace is wholeness, the middle line, which is made of two contrasts. They gradually grow and the contrast between them grows stronger; you don’t annul them, but rather, connect them, bringing them together at the top.

This is mutual guarantee: Despite the differences, we look for the common upper force that will connect us to each other. We only want to summon it, to draw it so that it will be among us.

In fact “it” is the future “we.” Now we cannot treat each other correctly and so we want that power of mutual bestowal to be dressed in us, to be awakened inside us.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/2/12, “The Freedom”

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