Now, after all the corrections and all the damage that souls have undergone in their descent to the lowest degree, we must fulfill the law of mutual responsibility (Arvut). Through this, we will merit receiving the Torah, correction, and final correction.

Indeed, the greatest degree of Aviut (coarseness) is revealed in us now, and if in this state we implement this law, we will complete the entire work that souls were meant to carry out while clothed in bodies.

It turns out that mutual responsibility is the only correction we must implement. It includes all other conditions we are required to fulfill and all the qualities we must acquire in order to become a single vessel for containing the upper light.
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From Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/4/2025, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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One should not fall into despair on the path. Yet, on the other hand, despair is precisely the state that brings a person to the right decision.

That is why despair is one of the most beneficial states on the spiritual path. A person despairs, makes a decision, and moves forward.

The moment of despair is the point of contact with the upper force.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/5/2025, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Things that Come from the Heart”

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And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord your God took you out from there with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm; therefore, the Lord, your God, commanded you to observe the Sabbath day (Torah,  Deuteronomy 5:15).

Every chapter of the Torah describes the gradual ascent of a person through the degrees of the spiritual worlds toward the level called “the land of Israel.” Although the laws of the Torah may seem to repeat themselves, each time they speak of new spiritual levels and are therefore perceived entirely differently.

All spiritual work is considered in relation to the exile that the people of Israel experienced for the first time when they rose from an unconscious state into awareness of where they truly are in relation to the Creator, that is, in relation to the desire directed toward connection with Him, toward His revelation.

This state is called Eretz Israel—the “land of Israel.” “Eretz” means desire (Ratzon), and “Israel” means Yashar-Kel—straight to the Creator. It is the desire aimed at revealing the Creator, at a living connection with Him, in which one can feel Him directly, just as we now feel each other.

In fact, this feeling is far more vivid and intense. It arises precisely from the feeling opposite to it: from total detachment, incomprehension, ignorance, and lack of desire for spirituality. This state, known as the “darkness of Egypt” or “Egyptian exile,” is not typical for an ordinary person in our world because the average person does not feel they are far from something or that there is something they need to reveal.

Egypt is a state where the Creator does shine, but He shines with inverse light. Instead of evoking understanding, enlightenment, attainment, love, and warmth, He impacts us from His reverse side by bringing about darkness, confusion, rejection, and a sense of worthlessness.

Thus, darkness is also a form of influence of the Creator from above, and in order to feel and understand that you are opposite to the Creator, a great deal of inner work is required.

For example, my mother was a gynecologist and for many years conducted scientific research in the field of medicine. In the evenings she would share her states with my father, and she burned with that darkness, with the lack of understanding, with the desire to find the meaning, the method, the mechanism, behind certain transformations in the human body. I was 12 or 13 at the time, but even then, I could see how someone can be consumed by such a search.

That is why, to truly feel the darkness, one must work deeply and persistently. People like that are characterized by an inner emptiness that is formed by the light that shines upon them from afar but does not yet fill them. It just prepares the vessel in which it will later be revealed. And so, they search.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/16/16

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There is only one counsel then: to cling to his teacher and to the books… Only by clinging to them can he change his mind and will for the better. However, witty arguments will not help him change his mind, but only the remedy of Dvekut [adhesion], for this is a wondrous cure, as the I reforms him (Baal HaSulam, Shamati 25, “Things that Come from the Heart“).

If a student wants to adhere to the teacher’s thought or desire, then he joins in them and unites with that thought and desire, which then become close and dear to him. As a result, all of one’s own thoughts and desires undergo correction and bow before the new desire and new thought.

Everything depends on how much one can perceive the teacher’s attitude and inner intention, cling to it, and separate from any other form of connection, whether with friends or the outside world. Then one begins to feel how tightly he has managed to adhere to the teacher, and from this, strength and desire to cling to the Creator will arise.

Any student, in any condition, has the opportunity to realize this aspiration. And to one who truly desires it, as it is said: “It will be revealed to him.”

If you yearn for adhesion, that very yearning begins to influence you and draw you closer.
Everything depends on a person’s desire, on their willingness to detach from the self-centered core and to stick to the new center of adhesion, one that is internally closer to the friends.

The advice, “Make for yourself a Rav (teacher),” means a person’s inner desire is to get closer to the center of creation.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/5/2025, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Things that Come from the Heart”

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The force that can pull a person out of their egoistic prison arises from the difference in potential between their personal state and the collective attitude of the group, the environment. The force of the group’s desire, which is stronger than the force of a person’s egoism, passes the yearning to break free to them, as if throwing them a rope and pulling them out.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/5/2025, Writings Baal HaSulam “Things that Come from the Heart”

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Throughout history, spiritual corrections occurred in order. The first to do so was a man named Abraham and a small group of his disciples. At that time, they did not need a mutual guarantee since they had a small Aviut (coarseness), and they were very close to each other since the desire to receive had not yet been revealed.

Each one of them felt the upper force, and the “advice” conveyed by Abraham was enough to be one with the Creator because they fulfilled the entire Torah due to their purity. Other nations of the world had no need for religions. In their cultures at that time there was still a certain personal attitude to nature.

Then the people of Israel descended to Egypt where they absorbed an additional desire to receive from the Egyptians.

The increase of Aviut (coarseness) in the people of Israel after their exodus from Egypt and during the period of the First and Second Temples coincided with parallel processes in other nations: Rome replaced Greece; Greek mythology collapsed along with the previous level of Aviut. In Rome, a process of forming religion began; in India—Buddha; in China—Confucius, and so on.

In other words, it is precisely the growing Aviut throughout humanity that causes the corresponding human reaction—a person begins to search.

Therefore, as their desire to receive increased, the group that had been in Dvekut (adhesion) with the Creator since the time of Abraham needed a new method to remain in that adhesion and even strengthen it, or in other words, they needed a new method in order to take another step toward returning to the state of Adam HaRishon.

Thus it became necessary for them to receive the Torah and reach a new level of connection among themselves that was different from before. They now needed a method of how to preserve the same idea of adhesion with the Creator on a new level of Aviut. This method is called the Torah.
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From Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/4/2025, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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All of Israel are guarantors for each other. Guarantors for each other is our state when we are in Adam HaRishon, in a common soul. The state we initially existed in is a perfect state, created like this from above, and we must come to it ourselves, from below, from this world.

From the state called the soul of Adam HaRishon (the First Man), which is united with the Creator in perfection, eternity, in complete similarity to the Creator, all laws descend to us. And we, who are at the lowest level, the furthest from this state, must gradually implement, fulfill, and apply these laws to ourselves, and thus advance and return to the same state.

Thus, mutual guarantee (Arvut) is a common law that must exist between us if we want to come to correction, a state called “one soul,” from which this law, like all other laws, or “advice” for our corrections, comes to us.
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From Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/3/2025, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Question: How does spiritual ascent occur?

Answer: When a person begins studying Kabbalah, one starts going through various states. They do not know where these new states come from, but essentially, all changes come from the upper one.

There are two levels: the upper and the lower. In the upper, there are an upper and lower part (GE and AHAP), and in the lower also GE and AHAP. Together, they form the ten Sefirot, the structure of our soul.
As long as I merely exist in this world and have not begun to correct my soul, I perceive only myself, my current level, as my body, my life. And nothing beyond that.

But when I begin studying Kabbalah and join a group, I begin to receive the surrounding light. It is called “surrounding” relative to me because it is hidden in what surrounds me: in the books, the teacher, the friends through whom I receive this light.

I do not receive it just “from the air”; there is no upper light in the air. We are talking about the ladder of spiritual levels. But relative to a person, it so far manifests as a light transmitted to them through various means.

Sometimes this light awakens a person, and at other times, on the contrary, it gives them a sensation of darkness, the reverse side of light. The upper can explain something to the lower like a wise, adult explains something to their student. And the students enjoys what they hear and become wiser. They perceive it as receiving the light, knowledge and sensation.

Or, on the contrary, the teacher, relative to the student is in such a state, gives them such material and knowledge, such an experience that the student sees how little they understand of spirituality and how little they feel, how closed off and empty they are. And then, the more the teacher gives them, the darker it becomes for the student.

It does not depend on whether the light of Hochma is present or not but on how much the upper adjusts to the lower. Yet, if the upper adapts too much to the lower, it deprives them of the opportunity to perform any independent actions.
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From Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/27/2012, Writings of Rabash Article 195

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Question: What do you personally feel when you go from a noisy city into the desert?

Answer: You could find yourself in the taiga that stretches for thousands of kilometers in all directions, surrounded only by trees, or in a vast valley. But the desert is the most natural and expressive place for a person seeking an answer to the question of life’s meaning.

In the desert, the earth (“Eretz” in Hebrew), which means desire (“Ratzon“), is bare; it is not covered or masked by grass or trees. The desert is raw, open egoistic desire in its purest form, and it is clear that nothing can grow from it.

When I see such a desert, I actually draw great strength and confidence that it is precisely from this point that we can rise. It inspires the search for a solution, for a goal. Other coverings on the earth’s surface hide the truth from us, and conceal our egoistic desire beneath them, which is the same desire that prevents anything fruitful from growing. That is why the desert speaks to a person much more directly.

Question: What do you mean by egoistic desire?

Answer: It is the desire to receive everything for oneself that is incapable of connecting with others, incapable of giving life to someone or receiving life from someone. In other words, it is a completely dead desire. A person’s desire for pleasure is so self-contained that it keeps itself in a completely dried-out state. It does not allow anything living to grow within it.

This is a very important point of realization because it is precisely from this awareness that one can begin to dig inward in search of the source of their life and its reason. Why do I exist? For what purpose? Who created me? The desert usually pushes a person to such essential, existential questions by its very nature.

I really love being in the desert because everything is revealed there. I have been in different deserts in Turkmenistan, in Arizona, but the Israeli desert gives the strongest impression. It has tremendous power. It is not a large desert by size, but it is incredibly intense.
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From KabTV’s “New Life – 924,” 11/28/2017

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Six days may you work, and perform all your labor, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall perform no labor, neither you, your son, your daughter, your manservant, your maidservant, your ox, your donkey, any of your livestock, nor the stranger who is within your cities, in order that your manservant and your maidservant may rest like you (Torah, Devarim, Chapter 5, 13-14).

Question: Does the Sabbath day apply to non-Jews?

Answer: No, it refers only to Jews, i.e., to those who are approaching correction.

All spiritual laws began with Abraham and his group began to penetrate into the property of upper nature and to tune themselves to exit from the egoistic crisis that engulfed Ancient Babylon.

Therefore, Kabbalah and Judaism—not earthly, but real, spiritual—are built on the fact that we rise above egoism, where our animalistic part is immersed.

To do this, it is necessary to build ourselves above our ego in order to exist at the level of “Love will cover all crimes (egoism).”

As soon as Abraham and his group began to unite and rise above the ego, they began to feel in their unity the properties of the spiritual nature: bestowal, love, interdependence, adhesion, connection, etc. And completely different laws operate in them. The description of these properties is the topic of all Kabbalistic books.

Abraham’s group sought to use this very system of interconnection among themselves, these laws, according to which they began to live.

The relationships that existed on a spiritual level between a man, a woman, children, between friends, the behavior of a person in relation to animals, in relation to plant life on earth, and the earth itself, they began to relate to everything around them. Therefore, all the laws of behavior come from the laws of the higher commutation of people among themselves.

When we begin to live by these laws, we gradually enter into them. There are personal laws according to which an individual fluctuates every second in his various changing properties. And there are laws in which we flow together in our society.

At the same time, we notice that one state is replaced by another, a third, a fourth, a fifth, a sixth and a seventh. And then the first state repeats again, the second, the third, the fourth, the fifth, the sixth, the seventh. And then again. But they are completely unrelated to natural cycles and do not relate to the sun, moon, or earth.

These are purely spiritual states that take place only between people. Therefore, at first the people of Israel performed them only between themselves, and then gradually they began to transfer them to phenomena and objects of material life.

In the spiritual world, there are forces that govern the sun, moon, and earth, and form certain relationships between them: the moon revolves around the earth for a month, the earth revolves around the sun for a year, and so on. Gradually, all this began to enter into one unified system for people.

They began to execute the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh day on the earthly level. Hence, there were six days of the spiritual week, which correspond to the properties of Hesed, Gevura, Tiferet, Netzach, Hod, and Yesod. And the seventh day, Saturday, Shabbat, the Sabbath, is a day of rest when they do nothing, because this quality is similar to final correction.

Since they were on the spiritual level, they began to automatically fulfill these laws on the material level. For them, both worlds were one common whole. And when, at the time of the destruction of the Second Temple, the people fell from the spiritual level, only the earthly remained. We are still fulfilling them today, although it has nothing to do with anything spiritual.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/9/16

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