A spark of bestowal is attached to my huge ego, a tiny spark above this entire mountain. This spark is only there on condition that I raise it above the ego, that is, want my head to be in the clouds. So, how do I tear away from the egoism and be in this spark instead of being inside the huge ego, the traits, desires, habits, and upbringing that make up the whole of me?

Of course, this is impossible; everyone sees this. A person finds that he is completely incapable, yet he understands that he must achieve the purpose of life. He does not wish to die an animal! He wants to reveal the spiritual world, to attain the meaning of life, and to feel the entire universe. He does not agree to waste his entire life and die as an animal, with no reward, goal, knowledge, meaning, understanding, or love.

So, how can I break out of this cycle? I want all of this egoistically, but even so, I am unable to maintain these thoughts. Everyday life is burying me under its weight, and even egoistically it will not allow me to think about the spiritual reward, to look even slightly above this world.

It is written that “a prisoner cannot release himself from prison.” In other words, I am unable to pull myself up by the hair from the swamp that I am in. However, I must exert as much effort as possible and try to do this many times in order to understand that I must unite with the environment.

This is possible only on condition that I see that nothing can help me. I will continue to live this dog’s life until I die, devoid of any satisfaction, love or meaning, and without having achieved even one of my egoistic goals. Only if I try all possible means will I achieve such pain.

No special intelligence or ability is required, only stubbornness. As it is said: “Do whatever you want, but don’t leave.” You will reach complete disappointment in your strength and realize that only the group can help you. That’s your only hope. No one else can save you. Your refined feelings, mind, experience, education, money, and strength are nothing! You just need the group.

I see that I have done everything I could with my strength, money, mind, desires, traits, and habits. I have tried thousands of different things, and nothing has helped. I have completely lost hope in them. The only thing that remains is for me to change myself. Instead of everything I have, let the group come and fill me. Let it give me its desires, thoughts, intelligence, feelings, mind, and heart—everything! Let the group even transplant my organs; if I stay with what I have, I will end my life as an animal.

If I reach this kind of despair, this is the start of unification with the group. This great achievement comes only after completely despairing in my own strength. I can see that nothing helps. Thus, I am willing to rise above myself to the place where my friends are situated, to the heart and the mind of the group.

Now, everyone understands that nothing else can help him, and he must depend on the others. Mutual guarantee is our salvation. If the friends leave me, I am finished. It is as if they are holding me up over an abyss. If they stop holding me up, I will fall into it. I depend on them 100%. My spiritual life and death are in the group’s hands.

In this situation, a person certainly requires mutual guarantee and is willing to go for it. He is willing to pay for it with all the strength that he has. He is willing to give to the group, support it, and sacrifice everything just so that the group would hold him up.

It turns out that the individual spiritual life of every person depends on the group, and the group includes everyone. That is what we call mutual help. Everyone must give to the group, and this group must support everyone. This is the mutual guarantee.

Mutual guarantee does not exist among individuals. The group is a higher concept, not our interaction at our level.
[62144]
From Lesson 2, Arvut Convention in the Arava Desert 11/18/2011

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Question: It is said: “The end of an action is in its initial thought.” Can you draw us a picture of the end of the last day of the convention, a complete whole picture, with the Machsom (barrier)?

Answer:

I have nothing else to say.

It will be mutual guarantee fully realized between us, when we discover the system of mutual interconnection between the souls. It is already instilled in us, and we only have to discover it at its smallest level. This will be enough in order to enter the first spiritual degree and to start bestowing the Light upon the world. Thanks to this, other people will also begin to discover the wires of mutual connection between them, and so we will heal the whole world. Humanity will stop its hard and steep fall and will immediately see that there is a solution.

This is because the current crisis is actually a great opportunity to rise, and people will feel that immediately. The system of mutual connection will be revealed between them, and they will understand where the solution lies and why all this is happening.

I really hope that this is what will happen. On our part we have to add only the intention: We want to realize all that in order to become equal to the upper force, in order to repay the Host with the same goodness He wants to give us.
[62256]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/1/2011, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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Convention Preparation
The only thing that will help us is unity. You depend on others and you know it. You know that the mind and the feeling won’t get you anywhere. They will keep changing, inclining in one direction or another, but with no result. You are like a dead body in a society of friends.

This society buries your egoism in the ground and raises your soul upward. So let it do that. Believe us, you really are dead. So give us the chance to take care of you, to bring you back to life.

Here is what Chaim Vital writes in the book, The Gates of Reincarnation: My teacher (the Ari) warned me and all the friends that were with us in the group that we should take upon us the commandment of love for the neighbor as oneself, and to aspire to love for every person from Israel as to oneself. By virtue of this, one’s prayer is accepted, which is gathered from all of Israel and able to perform a correction above. In our love of friends, every person can become included in the friends like an organ in a body. Our teacher warned us about this very much.

If a person understood that he has no other way to go, that he just has to give himself over to society, he would join the friends and would benefit from it. There is no Kabbalist who did not write about this or pass this on to his students. This is the foundation of our Kli.

We are beginning the practical preparation to the Convention. This is an unusual convention. Everyone sees how special it is, what inner and outer preparatory work we have already done. So let us try to spend the last days and hours before the opening in connection, in unity, in understanding that it’s impossible without this.

I advise you to print out all of the excerpts that we used at the Convention in the Arava desert. Let the friends read them and translate them for one another, let them discuss it in their free time so we won’t have a minute free of unity. These words of Kabbalists are wondrous messages of unity and they have great power. So let them be a basis, a foundation of everything we are doing.

I summon you to understand that no one here is exempt from mutual guarantee. Every person is responsible for everyone. Whether he wants it or not, he was brought to the group, he was appointed a messenger and a responsible person. Even if he is out there, in the external world physically, instead of here, this doesn’t matter, he is responsible for everyone.

Therefore, let’s constantly hold on to the unity, in which we attain the Creator. Let’s not leave this goal for a moment. Let’s wait every moment for the upper Light to come, to illuminate our small, flawed desires and unite us. Then it will enter and fill this unity it created, and we will attain the revelation of the Creator to the creation. I am sure that this is exactly where we are headed.

And once I have acquired this above-mentioned clothing, sparks of love promptly begin to shine within me. The heart begins to long to unite with my friends, and it seems to me that my eyes see my friends, my ears hear their voices, my mouth speaks to them, the hands embrace, the feet dance in a circle, in love and joy together with them, and I transcend my corporeal boundaries. I forget the vast distance between my friends and me, and the outstretched land for many miles will not stand between us.

It is as though my friends are standing right within my heart and see all that is happening there, and I become ashamed of my petty acts against my friends. Then, I simply exit the corporeal vessels and it seems to me that there is no reality in the world except my friends and I. After that, even the “I” is cancelled and is immersed, mingled in my friends, until I stand and declare that there is no reality in the world—only the friends. (Rabash, Letter #8)
[62519]
From the lesson on 12/2/11, Shamati

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Love towards friends is necessary for achieving the similarity with the upper force. To the extent that we connect with each other, we change our state.

All the time, we are in the state of creation and gradually reveal more and more of it, and thus advance. In essence, we return to the understanding and feeling of what it means to be similar to the Creator, and how to come from disparity to similarity. This is our path.

That is why, we never have bad states on the way, they are always in the direction of good. Every action, which we perform for connection, is aimed at the achieving of a good state, toward when we break the barriers that divide us, the walls of egoism, and inside the common circle reveal what happens there in reality.

Concealment, created by partitions, separating us from each other, is disappearing, and we connect more strongly. When these walls fall, which is called the end of correction (Gmar Tikkun), in our unity, we will reveal ourselves as one creature. Through this, we will achieve equivalence of form with the Creator, who is also One.

All the laws of the group and our corrections follow from here. All corrections are intended for the correction of these partitions, which should stop dividing us. And while we are all different, but despite these differences which we do not destroy, we rise above all the barriers, differences, and there reveal the Creator fully.

We are now in the final state, only this infinite spiritual state is concealed from us, and we see only a material group in front of us. But if we begin to connect with the group without any barriers that hinder our unity and connection, then it suddenly turns into a structure similar to the Creator.

The first time we can feel, instead of an average group a single formation, similar to the Creator, we discover His manifestation at least to a small measure. This means to rise above the Machsom to the first spiritual degree.

There are 125 degrees of ascent or the likeness with the upper force, the Creator, due to our connection with each other.

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Question: After two years of studying, I realize that intention is the main thing on the spiritual path. How do I overcome my unwillingness to become included into the group? It has suddenly pounced on me and won’t let me keep the intention.

Answer: Pay somebody to bring you to the lesson every day. Sign a commitment where you will lose something if you don’t perform certain tasks in the group. If you are capable of building your life only inside the corporeal framework, bind yourself to the group in the same way you are bound to your family or job so that a failure to fulfill obligations will lead to a real loss.

“Marry” the group and provide for it the same way you provide for your wife and children. A person must work on himself. You are waiting until you have a desire to take the spiritual path. Well, you may take your time. Such desire will never appear. On the contrary, it will become even easier to justify your idleness with a sober and realistic approach.

You probably will be sent more sufferings and spite toward this world. One way or another, something will happen. If your desire doesn’t burn now, then wait and see.

The world is going through such stages now that it is much easier for people to rise above everyday life. This is being done on purpose in order to help the spiritually weak layers of society come closer to the upper world. The current crises are required exactly for that purpose, but strong people are being given opportunities to fight their matter during times of material bloom and prosperity.

The spiritual world is built on freedom of choice. If a person doesn’t commit to the group and the group doesn’t commit to him, then he must not be pressured because he is not in the family. He hasn’t taken the burden. Thus, nothing can be done. He is free to make his choice.

What kind of requests can a person who has not bound himself physically to the group make? How can he ask the group to become an elevator raising him to a higher degree? It is silly to complain about a lack of desire. It is better to act physically. Catch a brief moment of bursting desire and sign an agreement with the group, which will obligate you later when desire ceases.

Put yourself into a hopeless position, trick yourself just like a bitter enemy, so as to continue with the path even when you don’t want to. Do you like your boss? Nevertheless, you go to work since you have no choice.

If we don’t work on binding ourselves hard to the group, we won’t be able to build a vessel of mutual guarantee. At the Arava Convention, we achieved an important preparatory step toward the December convention; we gained a common feeling. Now, we must sustain it. We must commit to holding onto this feeling with all our might, bring it to the convention, and with it, light up thousands of participants and the millions of people around the world who are connected to us.

To the degree that each person invests physically into this preparation, he binds himself to the group. It is not accidental that Kabbalists from the groups of Ramchal and the Ari signed customary agreements among themselves. After signing, you cannot escape. You must fulfill the obligation. The same happens in life: You sign an employment contract to receive salary. However, here, instead of money, you will receive a different kind of reward, a higher and more valuable one.

Let us hope to meet at the convention prepared and united. Then, we will be able to actually rise and become a Light for the entire world.
[61773]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/20/2011, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Question: How should we work before the December convention in order to deliver our message to the masses? Should we intensify the dissemination on the Internet, or should we focus more on internal work on unification?

Answer: Of course, we should work on the Internet so that as many people as possible from around the world will know about the convention.

On the other hand, when we get to the convention, we will have to worry about the world in a different way: through the network of our internal interconnection. At the convention I should forget about the Internet, about everything I left behind. My whole attention is focused on the friends who are here physically or are connected to us through virtual channels. In our network, we should manifest the connection and in it, reveal the image of man similar to the Creator, the vessel of Adam. Then the upper force will be revealed to us.

This vessel is called Arvut (mutual guarantee). After all, its attribute is reciprocity, mutual reinforcement, interconnection, and mutual care so that no one falls out from the common circle.

Imagine that we are standing on some sharp spire. If we don’t hold each other’s hands and don’t keep the general balance, we will all fall. We are like petals, surrounding the stem of a flower. It is enough for one of us to lose his balance and let go of someone’s hand, and all the petals will “fall.” This is the feeling of mutual guarantee.

Question: What is that “sharp spire?”

Answer: It is the Creator’s supportive force that manifests if we are connected. In the connection among us we find the One.
[61535]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/23/2011, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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The society of mutual guarantee is built in such a way that it obliges me to be its active participant all the time because with every effort directed at benefiting it, I receive huge fulfillment and enthusiasm. Every person working for the good of the society and helping it deserves respect and encouragement: medals, prizes, and praise, all of which give him huge pleasure.

I’m not filled by the dollars that I have in my Swiss bank account. I’m filled by the feeling of what I’ve got, a feeling of dignity, importance, usefulness, and wholeness. This is much more! And nobody can take this away from me.
[61418]
From a TV Program “The Integral World” 10/30/2011

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Essentially, we have nothing more to learn except the concept of Arvut (mutual guarantee). Our entire life and everything that would help us on the way to another life, to another existence, everything is attained within the vessel called “Arvut.”

The Creator created us with an egoistic desire to receive. This desire senses itself, thus we are, after all, vessels of sensations.

Prior to my coming to Rabash, I had studied Kabbalistic sources for a few years. I employed regular, rationalistic methods and tried to understand the material through the intellect as it is customary in other sciences. After all, the wisdom of Kabbalah is a science. But Rabash told me that in Kabbalah, it’s all a matter of feelings.

For me, “emotions” were something that lacked importance: Today I feel this way, and tomorrow I feel differently. I can drink a glass of wine and then life will be more cheerful, and I can listen to something sad and become sad myself. The emotions are something not real; they change, depending on the surroundings, on rumors, and many other factors.

I continued studying with Rabash and maintained the scientific approach: I used my intellect, but I used it on the emotions. The wisdom of Kabbalah researches the Light, goodness and pleasure, peace and movement, the overcoming, and drawing closer or distancing…. And all of this tells us what is happening within the desire. Although our work is calibrated according to various parameters, it is only in order to grasp and feel something within the desire. Our entire development has an emotional nature and is determined only according to the measure that we penetrate within our sensations.

Of course, feelings are accompanied by reason because we need to develop ourselves intellectually, consciously. When we feel something, we need to know how to measure this feeling, to be aware of what kind of sensation it is: Do we perceive it as external or internal, is it imaginary, how is it possible to examine it, and how do we go from current values and standards to other, more real values?

I need to objectively compare one with the other, outside of my current subjective feelings and understanding, which is called “above reason.” I begin to grasp that the “reason’’ is a vessel for the emotion, filled with the Light of Hassadim (Mercy) and the Light of Hochma (wisdom). When the Light of Hochma fills my vessels, my emotions, it gives me the facts, and the Light of faith enables me to broaden this “factual material” in me. But this way or the other, they are perceived within the sensation.

If a person penetrates a little deeper within the essence of his perception of his world, he understands that everything depends only on feeling. We are analog not digital systems.

When I served in the army, I discovered to my surprise that in the F15 jets, the instrument panels are full of indicator dials, despite that for the on-land equipment a digital control panel was used. The experts understand that man is an analog system. He can quickly identify situations, but not digits. When he quickly looks at the “control panel,” he immediately grasps their general picture.  When it comes to the value of numbers, he has to translate them within himself into some sensation, while the dial on the scale automatically instills in him this feeling.

Hence, we are sensual creatures, and all of our lives are built on feeling. Even if we measure our life according to money, power, or control, at the end, all of this is only to reach a correct conclusion: We need to develop our real vessels, vessels of sensations.

The politicians, bureaucrats, or technocrats who use the scientific, rational, “digital,” approach seem to us quite respectable. It is as if it is not worthy of them to develop feelings. However, the technocrats are very limited. They still haven’t moved from their personal, simple calculations, like “two multiplied by two” to the essence of the calculations. By experiencing another few small crises, they will understand what they missed. This is the way children grow up. But in general, it is desirable that the intellect and the feelings will develop reciprocally in a person, in harmony.
[61250]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/20/2011, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Question: We have pledged to take care of one another in order to uphold the standard we achieved in the Arava and to keep moving further. But what should a person do if he suddenly discovers that he has “fallen out of the loop”? Should he feel that he is drilling a hole in the common boat?

Answer: Of course. And this should be a source of great distress for him. First of all, it’s not simple to reach the sensation of unity, but he should at least regret the fact that he is separated from it. Secondly, let him feel bad from knowing that all the friends are already there. Thirdly, his absence harms others, and this entire harm is recorded in his account.

This way, he misses out on much more than his personal concern because his part is idle in every one of the friends and does not complete each one of them. It turns out that his harm is multiplied by the number of members in the group.

Until now we talked about the egoistic calculation, but now let’s look at the problem from the other side. A person does not support his friends with mutual guarantee, does not become similar to the Creator, and does not attain bestowal to Him by working in the group. This spiritual damage is not as obvious, but we have to remember about it as well.

Question: Can we say that by doing so a person shifts not only the whole group, but also the whole world to evil?

Answer: If you have received the opportunity to enter mutual guarantee with your friends, then by participating in the common work, obviously you shift the world to goodness. After all, every person is part of the common network and we are its central part. Therefore, by strengthening the group, I strengthen the whole world in its spiritual ascent. And the opposite is also true.
[61337]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/21/11, “Mutual Guarantee”

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