The Light is a certain occurrence in the vessels (Kelim), their reaction. The Light, per se, does not exist, as Baal Hasulam explains to us in the article “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah.” We experience only the Kli’s (vessel’s) reaction to something. The vessel’s reaction to the stimulating factor is called the “Light.” It’s namely a reaction.

We do not attain the Light itself. Its essence is out of reach. We get to know only the forms acquired by the Kli after the Light’s impact. We perceive each other in the same manner. Are you truly familiar with and understand me? Do you know who I am? Actually, I am not familiar even with myself; it’s impossible.

Only the following is possible: Everyone perceives another in their own way, putting his image together from their own inner reactions. Therefore, as it is written, “Everyone judges according to his flaws.” Based on this, we can understand that the best we can do is come “to the place.” But what is this place?

Our uncorrected desires face an example, a visual illustration of the corrected Kli. It is called Elokim (God) or ZAT de Bina (seven lower Sefirot of Bina). We are speaking of the desire to enjoy that has emerged in the second phase, Bina, and wishes to bestow, to become similar to Keter.

This is what we call the beginning of the creature, “the Creator’s presentation” which demonstrates what it means to be in bestowal, to receive in order to bestow. This is what the lower part of Bina does by generating bestowal in relation to the others. We wish to reach it, learn from it how to receive pleasure from the Creator, and pass it on.

We can bestow only what we receive from the Creator. To whom do we bestow? We bestow to the others. Thereby, from love of others, we gain love for the Creator by way of that very “place,” ZAT de Bina.

All our actions on the way to it present Mitzvot (commandments) which define the relationship between man and the Creator (“Makom” in Hebrew, lit. the “place”). This is the place of revelation, bestowal, unity, and guarantee.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/9/10, “Introduction from The Book of Zohar,” Article “Mother Lends Her Clothes to Her Daughter”

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Question: How do we strengthen the responsibility of every friend in regard to the mutual guarantee?

Answer: If the Light does not affect me to a sufficient extent and does not bring me to a state where I begin to care about the friend’s state, will I really think about him? Never! On the other hand, if I receive an awakening from the Light, suddenly I will feel such a desire. Either I have it or not. However, I need to contribute to having it.

Therefore, I do not eat myself up for not loving the friends. I don’t love them, don’t care about them, and don’t think about them because I am not connected to them. In order to change this state, I need the influence of the Light. If it affects me, I will think about others; if it doesn’t affect me, I won’t think about them. I need to determine exactly where and how I can cause a change.

Right now, I don’t love you, but the Light comes, and, suddenly, I do. Why is that? I don’t know; the Light does this. We only need to rouse its influence, and everything else is a consequence. However much desire, concern, and worry He gives me is how much I will have.

Hence, the most important concern is to awaken the Light, and this can happen only in the process of mutual studying. We await this phenomenon precisely from studying since there is no other means. During the studies, we think together, “When will the Light finally change and unite us?” This is the intention.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/26/10, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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After Tzimtzum Bet (Second Restriction), every upper Partzuf moves its lower part into the lower Partzuf. The lower part of Bina submerges into Zeir Anpin, and the lower part of Zeir Anpin submerges into Malchut. This is why the upper part of every Partzuf is visible, and the lower part is hidden inside the lower Partzuf.

This is the structure according to Tzimtzum Bet, and this is precisely how we are connected with one another: Every person has a part of him included in another person. Everyone is inside everyone.

We are not able to visually imagine a holographic image like this. There is no person who is not included in everyone, and there is no person who does not include everyone, a part from every person. This integral image is similar to one big cloud without a beginning and an end or separate parts. Simply, everyone is included in everyone.

This is what Tzimtzum Bet does to us when Bina connects with Malchut. For this reason, regardless of whether we want it or not, we have an absolute influence on one another. Once we understand this and use the consequences to properly influence each other’s thoughts and desires, then we will quickly attain the mutual guarantee and the common Kli (vessel).

The system is already built according to this principle. The question is only whether we want the system to operate according to it. This is the entire difference between the world where we exist and the spiritual world. Our world is what we want to see in it, while the spiritual world completely corresponds to the Creator’s desire.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/25/10,, Beit Shaar HaKavanot

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Question: If, while reading The Zohar, I can’t keep the intention and don’t understand why it is needed, does it mean that I am “drilling a hole in the boat?”

Answer: First of all, I have to discern if I need the “boat” at all, and do I intend to achieve something or not? The “boat” is the sum of our intentions, whereas desires without intention are nothing but a big hole. Intentions that we can create above desires build the “boat” for us, the beginning (Rosh) of a degree, the screen and the Reflected Light, the spiritual vessel (Kli). The Kli is not a desire, but the intention above it.

Question: What is my responsibility before the group?

Answer: If I am trying to think about the goal, thereby, I take responsibility for my friends that they will also be thinking about it. If I am protecting our “boat” with my intentions and want us to build it up as a complete Kli which has the screen and Reflected Light, and if I am taking care of it with all my heart so that my friends also constantly think about it, thereby, I keep them in the intention.

This is what is called the guarantee. What do I guarantee? I ensure that they won’t abandon the goal.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/24/10, The Zohar

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At the Convention we acquired a new sensation, and we now have to develop it. We feel that there is a wall before us and we have to break it with the help of the Upper Light, the Creator. He is precisely what we lack. Let Him say, “Let us go to the Pharaoh.”

To do this it is necessary to understand, and most importantly to agree that we are breaking the wall in order to give pleasure to Him instead of ourselves. We forget about the two most important aspects of the path:

1. The only way to advance forward is by means of His force.
2. We are advancing towards bestowal to the Creator.

All of this eludes me. For now I am thinking about myself instead of bestowal to the Creator. I try to break through the Machsom with my own forces rather than His. This way, the goal and the means are still locked inside my egoism.

Nevertheless, this is a good state because we start to understand the fundamental principles of spiritual advancement. A boundary emerged before us and we have to do something about it. It does not exist by itself, but constitutes a psychological barrier inside us. If we aim ourselves correctly, it will disappear.

The thought about the Creator’s benefit is opposite to my nature, and the friends also don’t have it. It lies precisely inside our unity. That is why we have to work on three aspects:

1. I am united with the group.
2. Together with the friends I have to define the right aspiration, which will enable us to break through the Machsom: By uniting, we elicit the force of the Creator.
3. All of this is in order to give Him pleasure or in other words, to attain unity with Him.

The common, unceasing care and worry must awaken everyone. This is the mutual guarantee; the group is not the faces of the friends, but the spiritual community which permeates every person with thoughts about the goal. We suddenly start to think about this and to desire it. When every person tries to build his desire into a line, then it expands across the whole world in circles, unbounded by any boundaries or distances.

Mutual guarantee means that I am responsible for the entire system in which the Creator has placed me. If I don’t hold on to the right thought, then at that moment everyone is thrown out of the right thought. By disconnecting, I stop providing for the common organism. Can the liver or kidneys go on vacation?

That is why I ask the world group to always think about the goal of creation, about bestowal to the Creator. Then I won’t lose the connection no matter where I am.
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From the lesson on 11/20/10

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Question: Does the mutual guarantee pertain to women as well?

Answer: Both men and women, regardless of their gender, must reach the state of the mutual guarantee. When we say that the men stood at Mount Sinai and the women surrounded them, this reflects the inner spiritual properties of each one of us.

The “woman” represents the desire to receive pleasure, while the “man” is the symbol of overcoming this desire. “Man” is “Gever” in Hebrew, which comes from the word “Hitgabrut” or overcoming. He is the desire to bestow, which discovers the opposite property of Mount Sinai, “the mountain of hatred” inside him.

But unity and the mutual guarantee pertain to everyone. Women need to try to connect with everyone internally, just like the men. But the men also need to express it externally, while the women experience it within.

Moreover, the women must “pressure” the men. This is because according to his nature, a man tends to listen to a woman, his wife. His wife is a mother to him; this is how he perceives her.

The prototype of a man is Zeir Anpin who is located between two women, two Nukvas: Malchut and Bina. His mother is Bina, and his wife is Malchut. He receives the desires from Malchut, and he turns to Bina for its fulfillment.

In other words, he is unable to turn to Bina without Malchut, and once he has turned to her, he is left with no other choice but to pass everything he has received from Bina to Malchut. This is the way a man operates. And this is why his wife replaces his mother subconsciously in many ways.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/12/10, Shamati #1

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Question: Where and how Arvut (mutual responsibility or guarantee) is described in The Zohar?

Answer: The Book of Zohar describes it as follows:
שהשפעת ו״ק דחכמה, הנוהגת בקו האמצעי, מכונה עדות, which translates as: Expansion of small illumination of the Light of Hochma that occurs in the middle line is called testament. In other words, when a person develops a capacity to arrange the three lines, the Light within him holds him in spirituality, bestowal, and this is what guarantees that a person will not fall into egoism ever again.
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We forget that we mustn’t do anything besides asking the Creator to do it! Instead we think about how I should force my heart to open up, how I can connect with others, or how others can connect to me. However, we shouldn’t think about this at all! We imagine the connection inside our egoistic mind, yet it is nothing like what we think!

This is the level of the Upper World; we are revealing a new reality! We must only ask and that is all! We learn that everything happens by virtue of request. We raise the prayer, the MAN, and in response comes the Surrounding Light, MAD, and corrects everything, while we are simply present during the correction. Everything comes from Above, and on our part only a demand, plea, and aspiration are necessary.

The problem lies in this point: Do we turn to the Creator or do we try to do everything independently? This is the point where we make a mistake and get stuck for many years, unable to change the direction even slightly, to understand that there is nothing besides an address, a demand, a request!

In order to achieve this request we have to make efforts, but it is only to accomplish this. If we try to independently build the right social system based on love and friendship, this will be a lengthy path that will bring us to the understanding that we are moving away from the goal, that we are insincere, that we hate each other and do not move closer to unity.

Kabbalah has to bring us to a very precise analysis: Don’t try to connect to another person, you are unable to do this, you are an egoist and so is he. Only the Upper Light can do it; it has to come and meld us together – only it!

Therefore, don’t look for a connection with each other because it is written “husband and wife and the Shechina between them,” meaning there is me and my friend, and the Creator between us. “He who makes peace in the Upper will make peace in us” (Oseh Shalom BeMromav, Hu Yaseh Shalom Aleinu).

Any time we turn toward one another without the force that connects us together, it is a false address. When we hug, we do not want to hug or we do it on the level of our world. Do we really demand love, unity, or friendship from one another? It is only on the level of this world. Who of us can become a guarantor for another, or even for himself? Where do we have the strength for it? We can only aspire to each other through the Upper One, who fills all of the space between us.

If we demand for Him to fill the emptiness, to connect us together, and to always be present among us, then it will happen, and easily so. The science of Kabbalah is meant to bring us to this correct attitude, while we always run away from it, being inside our egoistic nature.

Let us not forget that “There is none else besides Him”! The Creator carries out the action, but in order for it to happen we have to precede His action with our desire. This is called “making a covenant,” where we sign an agreement with the Creator: We demand and He carries it out.

Similarly to how small children walk and pull adults after them, we are pulling the Upper Force so it will correct the nature it created; then we will become equal to the Creator. We cannot attain mutual guarantee or even really desire it. As soon as we start to talk about unity, we have to remember the condition: “Israel, the Light, and the Creator are one.” Myself, my neighbor, and the Creator between us; only the three of us together will be able to achieve true conciliation and perfection.

Precisely the aspiration to unite in the group will quickly bring us to the realization that we have to turn to the Creator for all the help!

From Lesson 8 , World Kabbalah Convention 2010,  11/11/10

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Today the world is becoming global, and everyone is connected to each other as one system. Therefore, joy is possible only in the case that I am sure that others are satisfied.

If everyone feels well, I will also feel well. Otherwise something unexpected can happen at any given moment, and no one has a sense of confidence or safety.

The world has become very close-knit, threatening, and hostile, and it is only possible to achieve happiness under the condition that we unite; this is called joy from good deeds or acts of bestowal. If I am sure that I am providing fulfillment to other people, then they have an egoistic interest in me. I am a source of their fulfillment, and this gives me a sense of confidence that I will be all right; I will be filled myself, and I will fill others.

From the show “Kabbalah For Beginners” 10.28.2010 “Happiness”

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As I take off to the Convention, I leave everything I have in this world at home in order to come to a place of unification, to be born there in a new life. There is no place to run, the ways back are cut off, with no connection to the world. The world does not exist.

We need to prepare for such a state. I plan to spend these days precisely and only in this manner. I don’t think about anything else but this.

At home, at work, at the bank, and at the store, I prepare everything so that I wouldn’t have to think about anything over the course of these three days, as if flying to Mars with a one-way ticket. Nothing is keeping me here anymore; the bridges have been burned.
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From the Talk on the Arvut, 10/29/10

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