Baal Hasulam, “The Arvut” (Mutual Guarantee), (abridged version): “The impression that comes to a person when engaging in Mitzvot between man and God is completely the same as the impression he gets when engaging in Mitzvot between man and man. He is obliged to perform all the Mitzvot Lishma (for Her name), without any hope for self-love. Here, in this exalted point, the love of the Creator and the love of his friend unite and actually become one. Thus he affects a certain measure of advancement on the ladder of love for others in all the people of the world in general. And one who cannot overcome and conquer his filthy self-love, sentences himself and the whole world to the scale of sin”

We don’t know what bestowal is. We only know it is the opposite of us, opposite to our nature, our desire, our tendencies, and all our attributes. So how can we go against our nature? How can we resist the main force that is imprinted in us?

Fish swim upstream to the place where they lay their eggs. It is hard to swim against the stream, but nature obliges them to, and this is a hint for us: If a person wants to be something worthwhile, he has to go against the stream.

It is hard work to overcome one’s nature. Where do we get the power to do it? How can I demand them to? Do I only want to rest and not ask where I can get the power to do that? Even if my power grows, according to egoism, it is only in order to make a double profit from it. What about the damage? It is the opposite; I am up to my ears in egoistic desires. If I cause myself harm, it can break me, but sometimes it can make me go even through unpleasant situations.

But we are talking about practical bestowal here. How can I actually advance towards it, if nature has denied me the possibility to do so? My “car” doesn’t run without fuel, meaning without calculations of egoistic gain.

In fact, Kabbalists tell us that we can’t reach bestowal by ourselves, and that we can’t ask for the power of bestowal, but we can ask for bestowal egoistically, so that there will be something left in it for us. Such an intention to reach maximum detachment from ourselves is called “Lo Lishma,” (not for its sake).

How can one reach that? In order to do so I have to be in a group. There is no other way. The group is outside me and I want to act in its favor. What for? I am told that I gain the upper World this way. “Wow! A whole eternal world? It’s worth it!”

And so I make great efforts to bestow hoping for a reward in return. Everyone wants to gain something; it is natural and legitimate. I don’t operate alone, but with the friends who also want to gain the upper World. And even if we, like “healthy egoists,” are ready to give each other something in order to get something from Above in return, I still study together with the friends, bow my head before them, and hear from them how important bestowal is.

At first I translate everything into self-benefit: “Of course bestowal is important. After all thanks to it I will get the upper World.” This means that instead of bestowal, I hear the words “to receive.” But I still hear, and gradually this idea takes on a form inside me and turns into something that I didn’t actually ask for. Thus, I gradually move from “Lo Lishma” to the altruistic intention of “Lishma,” (for its sake).

“Is that possible? I really didn’t ask for it….” True, but now I see the benefit it brings. The values inside me begin to change, and suddenly the attribute of bestowal itself becomes a treasure for me. “It is better to get rid of the attribute of receiving. It brings me nothing but trouble. It is better to bestow.” In the meantime it is “Lo Lishma,” but I continue, I want to get rid of the problems and the troubles, I am looking for the true meaning of life, and the Light that is concealed in the method of Kabbalah reforms me a little.

All my actions and my intentions are egoistic, inside me I think lightly of the whole world and deride everyone. I only have to grab the feet of the Creator… and yet, by all this I reach the reforming Light.

It makes no difference which attributes I was given from the start, because it is the Creator who created them. It doesn’t matter what thoughts and desires awaken in me, after all they all come from Him. What’s important is to make as many efforts as possible to connect and to study. Then I draw the Light and it changes me, it actually performs an operation in my heart, in my soul.

And so bestowal becomes a value for me. I think less and less about receiving. I find bestowal in its pure form attractive. A new perception ripens in me: There is nothing better than to live in bestowal and to forget about myself.

At first I expect to get rid of all the troubles with the help of the upper world, but soon this personal reward will also disappear. We should simply let the Light do its job, and I will not be able to believe that I was such an egoist. The Light performs this long operation and gradually implants the attribute of bestowal in me.
[61342]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/21/11, “The Arvut”

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Rabash, Letter #42: “Their opinions differ as much as their faces”—so how can they become “like one man with one heart?” The matter is that when everyone cares for himself, it is impossible to be “like one man,” because they are not alike. However, if everyone cancels his own domain (all the egoistic interests of man), and everyone only cares about the Creator’s benefit (everyone’s point in the heart), then they no longer have private opinions, everyone’s separate opinion becomes eliminated, and everyone enters into the domain of the One.

In other words, we can only connect under the condition that everyone cancels himself. But am I really capable of giving something up and doing something with myself in general? We see that we remain as we were.

But we need to begin to connect our points in the heart. This point does not pertain to everyone’s personal universe and all his special qualities, which are different from the qualities of others. The connection between us is only possible through these points in the heart, because they do not belong to us—they are a “Divine particle from the Above” in every one of us! And if we were to connect these points, we would be able to unite through them.

Hence the condition: ascend in faith above reason—it’s the only way to connect. When we connect the points in the heart, we reveal their source—the Creator!

If everyone cancels himself, “his domain,” then our spiritual points reveal the reality where they exist to us—and they exist in the Creator. And we enter Him through them. The moment I cancel myself, my point immediately connects with the points of my friends, and together they take me and bring me inside the Creator.

And then we reveal that instead of existing inside the vessel, inside the desire—we exist inside the Light that fills this vessel! My entire perception flips upside down: I was inside my desire and I thought that this was what I am—everyone on his own, in his domain.

But the moment we cancel ourselves, our points reveal fulfillment to us in the same place, the same state, where we just were. Only, instead of perceiving the vessel—we perceive the Light, which exists inside the vessel.

The change is only in our perception and nothing else. We have gone from perceiving the desire to perceiving the Light. We have canceled our egoism, and started feeling the source of the point in the heart, the Creator, through the points.

These points were merely a little way to hold on to Him while we existed in our domains. And now we have used them to transition into His domain.
[61597]
From The Arvut Convention Lesson 2, 11/18/11

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Question: If I am very envious of my friends, how do I transform this envy from being destructive to constructive?

Answer: A person does not hear words about the spiritual vessel being a common vessel. “I will do something now and advance,” he thinks. Our egoism keeps convincing us that a spiritual goal can be attained the same way as a corporeal goal—individually and personally. This is only needed to give us the force of resistance, which drives man inside himself. The stronger the material drive, the more it will give later because the person has taken advantage of it. It is written: “One has swallowed an abundance and then expelled it.”

However, we must accelerate the time, and the only opportunity to do this is to resist the centripetal currents. Otherwise nothing will come out of it.

“It is not the smart one who learns.” The spiritual path is not intended for the sharp ones, but for those who invest themselves. This path consists of simple actions. It is the same way that a computer carries out very complicated calculations through a sequence of elementary operations.

There can be one advice for man: Cancel the mind and do the deed. Your small steps will make a pathway, which will lead you to the feeling of belonging. It is like a father becomes imbued with love for his newborn child as he takes care of him. Daily care rouses feelings. And this applies to everything: Your heart attaches where you invest yourself.

And this is why you need to close your eyes and invest all your energy into the group. This is the only way for you to feel like it is close to you, like it is yours—and then you will be able to build a common Kli (vessel) together with it. Your investment, switched from an egoistic account over to the group account—is your spiritual vessel.
[61604]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/21/11, “The Arvut”

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Question: How can I awaken the group to such a great deficiency that they’ll be ready to go to the desert to connect by tomorrow?

Answer: The only thing that we need is an internal worry. All other things stop working. Our perception of our world transforms into being closer and closer to spirituality, and we notice that there are subtler, so to speak, “not corporeal” forces operating in it.

There are such actions, which can not be described as simply mechanical—they are already more “spiritual,” relating to the force of thought, and emotional care and concern that takes place in both heart and mind. In our world today there are forces that cannot be attributed to physical forces or electromagnetic fields.

If you want to bestow to others, the main influence is executed from within the thought and desire, and through them we are all tied to one another.

Of course it’s possible to attain this also through some physical actions, but that’s very difficult. We see that according to the coarseness of the force, more time and energy is needed in order to activate it. We observe this from the development of the planet Earth. For example, on the still level, the creation of Earth took millions of years to create. For the appearance of vegetative level, another millions of years, and then for the animate world, a little less time than that was required. And when the stages of development reached man, then in total, only a few tens of thousands of years were required.

To the extent that the force is of more quality, so the time of its development is shorter: the quantity changes to quality. If you want to influence the friends in a fast and strong way, then it’s worthwhile that it happens already tomorrow. The main thing is the worry from the heart, from thought and desire.

We don’t use this enough. And it’s especially here that the force of Arvut is concealed. It’s not signatures on paper contracts or in having common property. Everything is clarified internally, with the help of the shared force: our desire, as learned in concern, and with intellect, as learned in intention, in order to shake up and awaken the network that connects between us. It’s like when you take a piece of clothing and shake it; we also need to shake the connection between us, so that the vibrations from our heart and mind will pass through it.

All of this happens as in a game. It isn’t real, after all, as we haven’t yet reached it. We only want it to happen, until in the end, it really happens. And work like this with respect to the friends, we must carry out in relation to the Creator. This means to bring to spiritual mating (returning the crown). We are coming closer and closer to this until we receive one direction in seriousness and thoughts even though we are opposite to it. The spiritual coupling is called Zivug de Haka’a, “mating by striking.” This is because it’s a real collision. Otherwise it won’t be felt.

It is written, “one’s seed is also blessed,” since from one side there is resistance and from the other side the connection breaks through. And both of these opposite attributes create the feeling of mating, the clarity of the connection, the point of unity, the spiritual orgasm.
[65170]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/2/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: If a person correctly implements the method of integral education and takes part in it, he then gets a feeling of joy that has become rare in every day life. Can you say a few words regarding this feeling?

Answer: We are created in a way that our desire is fulfilled through the integral sensation of one general desire and one general thought. The revelation of this next level, the Creator or Nature, fulfills absolutely all of our emptiness. For this reason, a person that is moving in the direction of integral fulfillment feels total comfort and most importantly, he rises above all the limitations of our world such as time, place, distance, and motion. He gradually stops sensing his body because he perceives everything in the integral desire and not his individual desire. He no longer senses death because he begins to exist on the next level prior to the death of his physical body.

There are discoveries ahead that every one of us subconsciously dreams about. We hope that we’ll be able to show it to people clearly and that they’ll understand that nature is presenting them with a great finding. Millions of years of our development have only been leading us to this. Now we are about to enter a new world.

The convention and everything that we’re doing today is meant to reveal our birth. Just like a baby has to make a transition from its mother’s womb to the world, we have to put in all of our effort in order to finally be born, and then it will become simple for us to explain this to others. I hope for this to happen soon.

Question: So we do have a reason to be joyful?

Answer: The interconnection and interdependence that the world is now discovering, its inability to exit from a dead end that egoism leads us to, and the method that is gradually being revealed to the world will all soon become connected within human consciousness. Thereby, we will be able to sense the solution to the problem and will begin to realize it in full force.
From the Fundamentals of Kabbalah Lesson 12/18/11

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Question: The extremist right wing movements in Europe are getting stronger. In general when a person doesn’t see a solution to a problem, he tends to accept the apparent simplicity of radical claims. How can we present our message in contrast to that?

Answer: First, there are many scientific facts. But scientists cannot provide a serious platform at the moment, and so we have to organize it in a way that will show the rational “grain” in our recommendations.

Besides, we shouldn’t forget that radical trends unite people on the one hand, but on the other hand lead to conflicts and wars. Here we have to explain that these tendencies are in contrast to nature. In the present conditions of total mutual connection, any conflict will lead to serious implications.

This is why Europe cannot break apart now. First, it isn’t in Germany’s favor. The Germans are ready to pay billion of Euros only to prevent that from happening. After all, they see where this will lead to: to losing their market. If you seclude yourself, the next day your economy will begin to suffocate. So everyone will lose as a result of the disintegration of the EU.

Day by day it becomes clearer that protectionism isn’t the solution to the current problems. It is used in a very limited manner, but on the whole, everyone already understands the fact that we are all mutually connected and that this connection cannot be broken. It can only be destroyed by war, meaning by extreme actions, but there are no intermediate ways.

I hope that we will be able to prepare our method and wrap it up in a way that will enable people to understand the basic idea. We offer, “Let’s check its effectiveness together,” “Let’s continue to develop it together,” as a result we need to create a platform that will lead the mutual connection among people to a new qualitative level, which is the basis for all the changes that will take place in the world, in humanity. [Read more →]

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Question: Why aren’t we able to unite?

Answer: You aren’t able to unite because you don’t have enough desire. You need mutual guarantee, meaning something mutual, through which you support one another.

There is the state itself, and there is its derivative—a higher level. When separate desires get together to create a common force, like in an army, a soccer team, or a gang of criminals, this results in a unified desire of a group. But that is not enough.

The fact that we unite still doesn’t make us rise higher. We just unite our forces, the way any group or military troop does. But we have to ascend to a higher level where our desires will become mutual and we will want to support one another.

But in what regard do we support one another? In a regular group there is no problem supporting one another. Psychologists work with soccer teams, giving them pep talks before the game so the players feel mutual support and unity.

However, we have to attain mutual bestowal and love, which is something we do not have and which does not promise us any real reward. I don’t plan on hitting a ball into the net and earning a million dollars for it, and I don’t risk my life, the way soldiers in an army do. Rather, the goal I am pursuing is one that gives me no response: nothing good and nothing bad. It’s some sort of bestowal, and I don’t feel anything inside at the thought of it—neither profit nor loss.

In the best case scenario, I only feel a loss because I waste my energy on this. And in the worst case scenario, I don’t have any idea why I am doing this and who I am planning to bestow to.

It turns out that we work together in the group to create inner support for one another, to create a force instead of the Creator, which will provide every person with the force of bestowal. And if we work on this persistently, then among us we begin to reveal that we lack an additional vital force for the realization.
[64906]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/30/11, Writings of Rabash

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Here is an inner exercise: We are far from each other in our qualities and thoughts—foreign and different ones; we are separated by everyone’s individual egoism. There are so many of us, and we differ so much from each other in order to reveal the Creator through our connection.

Our differences, distance, and rejection show the distance to the Creator. I see how far I am from the people who study with me, who are my closest people in the world in spirit, purpose, aspiration, and understanding of life. And we are still so far from each other. I am even more distant from all the other people in the world. If I test myself in relation to every person, then this entire cumulative difference will be the distance between me and the Creator.

Now the meaning of the group becomes clearer. This is why we unite between us: We want to be able to achieve some kind of correspondence at least between us and become closer to each other, which means to be closer to the Creator. We aspire to at least overcome the difference between us. We push our egoism away, rise above it, and wish to connect only with our higher thoughts and desires, to become closer to the Creator in one form or another.

This way we begin the journey. And then we will see that there are no people here, there are no individual souls, there is nothing—only a blurry vision, which causes me to see people instead of the Creator. It is as if I am not able to focus; everything is blurry, and instead of one person, I see two, three, or four. And now I see billions of bodies before me. But if I manage to combine them all, I’ll get the Creator.

This is what I need the group for: to start this process one way or another. All our unity exercises must be directed towards the revelation of the Creator! After all, they are a means for revealing Him. There is no meaning in a group on its own, but only from the point of view expressed as: “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one.”

Baal HaSulam writes that there was a horrible crime done in the socialist Russia in starting to build an altruistic society and having completely deformed the principle of being one man with one heart, one desire, one purpose. Everyone was together; fair distribution, mutual guarantee, everything was wonderful, except for one thing: They have turned a means for attaining the goal into their goal. And this made them lose big time.

It is the same as focusing and combining blurry images in order to see them themselves, and not what stands behind them. And I will naturally miss because my focus is not on the image concealed behind these illusions, but on the illusions. And this is why Russia has failed.

We cannot allow for this to happen to us, and this is why there must always be three components present: I, the group (the place and the means for revelation), and the Creator, that is, the revelation of the Creator to the created beings.
[62147]
From Lesson 2 at Arava Convention 10/28/2011

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Question: A global, integral system is being revealed in the world today. Is it putting a person in front of a real choice?

Answer: Yes, and only before a material choice. A person has to unite with others through a good interconnection in order to continue his existence.

The integral system is leading us to a balanced material life in this world so we would properly satisfy our animate needs, rising above our own egoism. On the new stage, people will have to consume as much as they need and no more. They will have to abide by a balanced, rational approach. They will have to provide for their vitally necessary needs, agreeing with the fact that from now on, their entire life is life in society, in cooperation, in a balanced society, in social justice, in mutual guarantee. That is the only way we will create the right conditions for our existence on earth. This has to be the common law for the whole world.

Thus, our first worldwide task is to provide everyone with food so not a single person in the world is left hungry. Then we will go on to the following objectives, such as providing everyone with a roof over their heads, with clothing, heating, medicine, and so on. This way, we will create acceptable boundaries for people’s material life.

Why is this so important? It’s because a person has to annul his egoism. He has to take care of the neighbor, of the whole world. He has to take away from himself and give to others. He has to feel the common system in which we are all together. It turns out that this is spiritual for him.

The only thing missing in this picture is the Creator, the upper force, Nature. And that is where we come in: We must give the world the method of material existence, by virtue of which the spiritual force will flow to them as well. Then, in their activity to work together and take care of one another, to distribute resources and products, they will immediately feel something else – a new force, a spiritual essence. That is how it will happen.

On the other hand, without us people are simply unable to start moving in this direction. They simply have no way of finding out about it, unless we spread this message all over the world, like “the Messiah’s horn.” The process has to unfold precisely in this way – from above.
[64227]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/25/11, “The Freedom”

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Question: Today we are holding a Unity Day in the World Kli, which includes a special lesson, a seminar, and a friends’ assembly. On this day, how can we maintain the place of unity that we created at the Convention?

Answer: We have to renew this sensation on the background of the new conditions. We have to imagine the net of our interconnection, the state of unity we are in. We have to feel that this unity is working. I want to live it, and this sensation has to become constant for me. By being in it, I want to discern the feeling and the mind in it: how much we unite in feelings and intentions. I want to feel mutual guarantee from within, mutual support among everyone.

When being inside this net, I don’t have to yell to be heard. I demand from it that the friends, whom I imagine as its parts, won’t forget about me. After all, in essence, I am the one who needs help. Therefore, I want to join them, who are already united into one.

And let the Singular one be revealed in our unity, besides whom nothing exists. He created this system, formed and activated it so that in the end, by making our efforts we would reveal Him and reach unity with Him.

These thoughts must occupy a person constantly, until he sees this system with his own eyes.
[64217]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/25/11, “The Freedom”

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