Question: What does it mean to “love your neighbor as yourself"? What do I actually have to do?

Answer: Loving your neighbor as yourself means that our entire world (the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature, as well as humanity) and our entire universe become an integral part of you, "as one man with one heart." You connect everything to yourself and perceive it as your "self." Otherwise, you don’t exist!

Our egoism separates us, but above it we must receive a force from Above, the desire and ability to feel every person as myself and even more than that. I have to feel that this is all me. However, this "me" is not an egoistic feeling because the hatred between us remains and even grows. I unite with others precisely above this hatred, and in that case they are called my "neighbors," or the people close to me.

A "neighbor" is a person whom I hate, but at the same time I "love him as myself." "Love will cover all sins" means that the previous hatred remains, but love is added above it.

In our world everything is driven by one egoistic desire, whether in reception or bestowal. In the spiritual world, however, we find ourselves between two opposite forces: bestowal and reception. Egoism grows, but the quality of bestowal emerges parallel to it. These two qualities enable me to reach the sensation that I am standing before a mountain of hatred (Mount Sinai, which comes from the word Sinah – hatred). However, prior to that I have to go through "Egypt" – the slavery of egoism, the Pharaoh. I have to come to hate it and then run away from it, searching for the force to correct it.

When I stand at the foot of the mountain of hatred toward my neighbor, I have to say whether I really am ready to unite with others, to love them above my hatred, and to become as one man with one heart. If I have gone through all the blows and plagues of egoism (Pharaoh) and I feel that I have suffered sufficiently, then I agree to it! That’s because I hate my egoism even more than I hate my neighbor.

I agree, thinking that this will enable me to reveal the Creator. Eventually, however, I understand that love and bestowal to my neighbor is what fulfills me. I no longer demand anything but this. This action in itself fulfills me, and that is how I become equal to the Creator.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/3/10, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

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The purpose of education is to explain that to “love thy neighbor” is a common law of nature. Only this forms a child into a human being. This needs to be reflected in every subject being taught; all of them should incorporate the notion of the unity of nature and governance (“there is none else beside Him”) and the absolute interconnection of all the parts of creation (“love thy neighbor as thyself”).

Then the entire course of study will be based upon and governed by the single law, it will move in one direction, and this is exactly what the child will grasp. If it is written that the law of “loving one’s neighbor” is the “main rule of the Torah” (meaning the common law of the universe), then we must educate children based on this law and show that everything that happens in the world is defined by this condition.

The children will grasp this singular law, and both the upper governance and their proper behavior will become obvious to them. When we show that the best and the most horrible events in the world only happen in order to reveal to us the place where we need to fulfill this law, children will begin to have a different, purposeful attitude towards reality.

Those who want to correct themselves and, through themselves, the world are called human. This is how we raise human beings from animals.
[22190]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/27/10, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

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Question: What motivates me to keep the covenant I made with the Creator?

Answer: Nothing does! Suppose I fell in love with a girl. A month later I don’t want her anymore. What should I do? People tell me, “You have to stay with her for life.” But why should I? It would be a lie, not the desire of my heart. If I hate her now, how will I be able to live all my life with her? How, then, do we commit to marriage? We realize that we won’t be able to live with the same feeling of infatuation forever and it will be a lie.

Marriage has an Upper Root: the union of the Creator and the created being, founded on attainment of the Higher Goal, not corporeal love. Love is defined as mutual support and assistance toward achieving this goal.

If I understand this principle, I can rise above my desire to receive pleasure and walk my path of life by way of bestowal. I don’t sign a promise saying that I will love bestowal all my life; this is impossible and therefore we can’t even talk about that. Rather, I sign the promise saying that I will always treat the Creator as Great, and I wish to attain Him by way of making a covenant with Him. That is why it is written: “Husband and wife, and the Creator between them.” Otherwise, there won’t be a marriage.

It is the Host who matters to me, not His table full of delicious treats that stands between us. The “treats” serve as the first contact between us, until I am able to build a higher connection with the Host in order to attain that higher connection. In other words, the covenant we make with the Host does not happen at the level of love between us, or because He provides “treats” for me, as in the case with a young man and a young woman who marry because of the animate love between them. On the contrary, we value each other because the connection between us allows us to reach the Upper Root, the exalted spiritual goal.

Now, a question arises: How can one remain focused on this exalted goal? That is why we need the group. It is the place where you have a guarantee, and it can give you the force of faith which will always serve as your “fuel.” You can’t achieve this on your own. Even the Creator won’t hold you up if you don’t make the effort.
[21431]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/17/10, “A Transgression Does Not Put Out A Mitzva”

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In a few days we will observe a special day called Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement). However, no one knows what inner state a Kabbalist will feel on that day and when the state called “Day of Atonement” will happen for him. One’s inner states do not occur according to the calendar.

The states that any person goes through can be personal or general. On the general level, people follow the common traditions of each holiday. When a group of Kabbalists reaches unity and through it achieves a certain internal state called a “holiday,” that state will not be related to the general holiday observed by all people. The inner holiday happens in accordance with one’s personal, internal state, whereas a general holiday takes place according to the calendar. Traditions and customs, as well as every single “specific” day, have a higher spiritual root. Therefore, a Kabbalist also wishes to follow the tradition together with others, as it is written: “The Creator stays with His people.” However, at the same time, a Kabbalist also remains in his own personal internal state.

Religious people follow customs and traditions, whereas Kabbalists perform inner actions in their souls by connecting to other souls into one common soul of Adam. By doing so, they please the Creator and correct themselves. Correction is possible only by way of uniting with others, as it is written: “Love thy neighbor as thyself, this is the great law of the Torah.”

People all over the world pray to the Creator (each of them addressing their Lord) and request “forgiveness.” But maybe it is worth explaining to them that repentance works only in respect to “love thy neighbor” and depends on whether you are “for it” or “against it.” We can figure out whether we sinned or not only by comparing ourselves to this rule. This is the only law we have to follow, as it is written: “Love thy neighbor as thyself is the main rule of the Torah.”

If the whole of humankind would virtually get together in order to clarify what is “love thy neighbor,” how powerfully the Creator demands it from us, and how far we still are from this state, that would be a real Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) and it would lead us to Purim (in Hebrew “Kippur” means “as Purim”), the complete correction.

When people pray for forgiveness, it is very important for them to know what to ask for. We weep and beg for so many years, but it doesn’t help. The Creator cannot hear our prayers in this form. That’s because this kind of appeal is opposite to the correct cry: We are not begging to feel love for our neighbors, and the Creator doesn’t listen to any other requests. Thus, we turn our back to the One who can redeem us and scream in the opposite direction. This is what most people’s Day of Atonement is like.

From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/14/10, “Preparation for Slichot“

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What we are creating between us is interconnection, interdependence, mutual guarantee, love, and a definite necessity to be together. This is the connection (or the "place") we have to create so that inside it we will reveal the Creator who hides from us. He will speak to us from this place we create, "the tent of revelation."

Without having this communication system between us and the Creator, we are just crying out into empty space. We can only turn to the image that we form through our connection: the Creator’s Temple.

It is written that love for the Creator can only be attained through love for others. That is why we are building a spiritual system of mutual guarantee and mutual support among us. Its purpose is to reveal the Creator.

Therefore, our primary necessity is to work on building the group. The first condition for receiving the Torah, the Light of Correction at the foot of Mount Sinai (the state of revealing mutual hatred) was the impossibility yet the willingness to bond together as one man with one heart, and to work on this unity by the principle, "we shall do and we shall hear."

No matter how small our willingness to do this, if we have it, then we have a common point, a "window" through which we can turn to the Creator. This common point is already Malchut of the World of Atzilut, the Shechina.

That is how we should understand the preparation for the reception of the Torah.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/14/10, Writings of Rabash

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We are incapable of receiving into our desires all the Light of bestowal that is prepared for us at once. The solution to this problem is simple: to receive it in small “doses,” generation after generation, and let billions of people and not just one person work on this in each generation. In this way, we will receive all the Light into one joint vessel of our common soul.

The goal, however, is to collect all the broken parts of the common soul that were deliberately shattered from Above and now feel separated and hostile to each other. The hatred that exists between us encompasses the entire force of connection which was meant to reveal itself by us “receiving in order to bestow.” However, this failed to happen and led us to “receiving for our own sake.”

So, this dividing force transforms itself during the breaking into its opposite and is now at the disposal of the created beings. By correcting hatred in all prior generations and within the multiple parts in each generation, all we do is recover the connections between separated souls. In other words, our goal is not to receive the Light for the sake of bestowal, but to re-connect the splinters that emerged after the breaking. By attaining connection, the creature will reach the power of bestowal and, later on, attain “receiving in order to bestow.”

We have to realize that correction of the state of separation between us and construction of relationships based on bestowal and love is our distinction. Not only did the Creator shatter us into multiple particles; most importantly, they were separated by hostility. To correct them means to collect and connect these particles back together. We have to pay attention to this rather than concentrate on the Light that becomes revealed within us. The Light that corrects our desires, the Light of love and bestowal, has to descend to us before anything else.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/14/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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The desire that we need to rise above is as great as the Light that created it in terms of volume, depth, breadth, energy, and might. We are not able to correct it alone. For this reason, the Creator divided it into multiple parts so that each of us would have an opportunity to correct our individual part in this immense desire. As a final result, all parts come together.

At the same time, Kabbalah relates that we were separated in order to learn to rise above our hatred (separation) and love each other so that we would learn to love the Creator in the same way. That is, the purpose of our division into individual souls is to raise in us a new, caring attitude to others, not to make our work with the will to receive easier.

Both assessments are correct. The purpose of our separation is two-fold. We must attain love for others before we attain love for the Creator, as it is written, “From love of others to love of the Creator,” and the division into multiple parts makes our work toward the correction of the ego easier.

Actually, the Creator could have created two Adams instead of one so that they would learn how get along with each other. We have heard that the “minimum quantity is two,” so two would have been enough to learn how to step outside oneself toward the other. Still, the Creator divided the collective desire into the multitude of souls of mankind according to the density or mass of the egoism so that each of us could correct his individual part of the collective ego, restrict it, rise above it, and use it in order to bestow onto others.

Therefore, our work in correcting this massive ego is divided into multiple parts relevant to the number of souls (or people) in our world. Hence, the population on earth decreases or increases to match the density of egoism in this world at any given moment.

Beside the fact that this work is divided between a great many people living today, it gradually gets completed by each of us with every return to (reincarnation in) this world. Each time, we correct our ego in small portions, day by day, during our entire lifetime and multiple incarnations.

From Mega Congress Lesson 1, 7/23/10

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A question I received: Why is it said that the strength of spiritual Light brought to us by the wisdom of Kabbalah is bigger than an atomic explosion?

My Answer: We know that the most powerful forces in our world are obscure and hidden. Muscle strength, a stick in a clenched fist, or a knife in a hand are dwarfed by firearms and explosives. However, the principle remains the same: to inflict a blow.

An even stronger impact exists when we don’t feel the blow in and of itself, but rather its consequences such as with radioactivity. Nowadays, psychotropic weapons have been invented; they don’t impact the human body but our psyches. Humankind uses higher levels of energy as it develops. We don’t feel them, nor do we perceive them through our five senses. We only suffer from their consequences when they cause us harm.

Spiritual power is higher than all other energies. It doesn’t exist in matter, waves, or even thoughts. This force can’t be detected by any worldly instruments. It is impossible to use this force with evil intention. The law of the First Restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph) prohibits such use of this energy. It can be used only for the sake of bestowal, that is, for our neighbors’ good.

Thousands of years of humanity’s development were needed to arrive at the conclusion that we shouldn’t use the power for evil. We should restrict our egoism by using it only for the sake of bestowal, for the benefit of other people.

Spiritual weapons are armaments of love. They are extremely strong and are meant to show a person that he must switch to a different perception of reality, the world, and his life. It is not about another “improved” stick in one’s hand, but rather it’s…a flower. It possesses an unusual strength under the condition that we know how to use it.

When we begin to use this spiritual power, then the Upper Force that rules the whole universe starts to act on our side and begins to fulfill the work together with us. All we have to do is to attract this power instead of looking for it within ourselves. We have to attract the Creator so that He acts for us. Everything in this world depends on the person who attracts the Upper Light, and his “weapon” is the dissemination of the wisdom of Kabbalah.

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A question I received: How can I direct myself correctly toward the goal?

My Answer: The Creator gave me binoculars through which I can see my destination in the distance and walk toward it. These binoculars are a handful of souls, which I join and through them recognize the goal. I start moving toward the goal with their help.

From all the souls, the Creator selected a group of souls for me. This group of souls is an organ of the collective soul, the organ to which I belong. The Creator not only selected the group of souls, He also led me to connecting with them so that the group of souls could become the unity of the souls that are intended for me. This unity of souls helps me advance. I attain it by connecting into it, and through it, I attain the general system of the single soul.

I am not yet connected with these souls and don’t recognize them. The entire connection is as if under water. Above the water, I see physical bodies like my own since the Creator brought me to a physical group. The Creator gave me an opportunity to begin entering the inner network of souls through my organizing the physical connection with friends, assuming various responsibilities, chores, duties, and the group statute.

In my intrinsic unity with them, “submerging under the water,” I discover that this group is already fully corrected while I am not. I see that through the group, I am given an opportunity to join the corrected system. Through this group, I am given the opportunity to enter a part of the entire system of Adam, of Malchut of Infinity.

I have to reach the attitude of “love thy neighbor as thyself” regarding my friends, while my attitude regarding all the other people in the world should be to “condone every man.” “To love the other” means to unite with the opinion and the will of this group the Creator has led me to.

I can either choose to accept the group that the Creator has brought me to or remain seemingly “free” (but which in reality is precisely following His orders). Herein lies my free will: to move consciously with the group or by force (seemingly free) like all others.

From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/28/10, Baal HaSulam, Letter 1 – 1920

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The Zohar, Chapter “VaYikra (The Lord Called),” Item 16: But now, after the Vav illuminated, meaning the middle line, when all four lights in the letters Yod–Kof–Reish–Aleph were opened, he [Moses] could come to the tent of meeting.

Only in the middle line can one enter the tent of meeting (Malchut) and pass the Lights into these desires (Kelim) through the three lines. This points to the main principle: One can receive the Light only by repelling it from oneself. If the Light of Hassadim, the Reflected Light, rises from the screen from below upward, we can receive the Light of Hochma into it.

In other words, if I desire to fill another person, and I give everything that goes through me to him (I push everything away from myself), then all the Lights can go through me, and I too will receive them. However, this will already be reception from below upward, with the help of a screen, which is in opposition to my ego. Then, as it is written, “Moses could come to the tent of meeting.”

If we wait for the Lights to be revealed in our desires, this will be for the sake of reception, and the revelation of the Lights will not be permitted. Therefore, the condition for receiving the Lights is “love your neighbor as yourself.” Everything can pass through you if you act for the sake of the neighbor. Then you delight by receiving both what comes to you and with what you fill the whole Malchut of Infinity. All these Lights are yours. This is the only way to receive them.

Herein lies the wisdom of receiving – the science of Kabbalah, a science about how to receive the Light by reflecting it. We are now situated in the Light of Infinity as well; it is present here and now. However, we do not see or feel it since first we have to acquire an ability to repel it, to arm ourselves with the Light of Hassadim. Only then will the Light of Hochma be revealed in the Light of Hassadim.

From the Evening Zohar Lesson 5/5/10

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