The Duty To Follow A Guide

Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”: …as far as spiritual life is concerned, …here applies a natural law over the collective, to subjugate itself to the individual.

…And since the more developed in the generation is certainly the individual, it follows that when the public wants to relieve themselves of the terrible agony and assume conscious and voluntary development, which is the path of Torah, they have no choice but to subjugate themselves and their physical freedom to the discipline of the individual, and obey the orders and remedies that he will offer them.

Thus you see that in spiritual matters, the authority of the collective is overturned and the law of “taking after the Individual” is applied, that is, the developed individual. For it is plain to see that the developed and the educated in every society are always a small minority. It follows that the success and spiritual well-being of society is bottled and sealed in the hands of the minority.

This law is based on the original HaVaYaH, about which it is said, “I did not change MyHaVaYaH,” from the four stages of direct Light, the program of development of desire under the influence of the Light, which is the only thing that acts in reality and defines all its forms. Everything is divided into four stages and their root, Keter, the basis of the source.

Similarly, human society is divided into levels: still, vegetative, animate, and man. The human level in humanity, like the most developed of them, is the smallest in quantity because in these four stages (HaVaYaH) quality continually increases during transition from stage to stage.

In the universe there is an infinite mass of still matter, relative to which the vegetation that covers the Earth seems like a drop in the ocean. But the animate world is smaller relative to the vegetative world, and the human is smaller relative to the animate. Baal HaSulam explains that the entire still level is equivalent to one plant, all plants to one animal, and all animals to one human. Quantity transforms into quality. The development of the entire still level is necessary in order for one plant to come out of it, and the development of all plants is needed for one animal to come out of it. And the whole animate level has to develop so that one human comes out of it.

If we want to advance, then we need to rise to a higher degree, and therefore we have to cleave to someone who is on the next degree. Thus it acts with respect to humanity and with respect to every person who includes the whole world within himself. A person must gather all his qualities of the still, vegetative, and animate levels in a pyramid so that they ultimately cling to the human level and bow before him. The human level in a person is his aspiration to adhere to the Creator. If he organizes himself in this way, then he will not be scattered in different directions, but will save time and turn from the natural path of development to the path of the Light, the acceleration of time.

Everything within a person should be organized in this way, and within a small or large community the same trend should be observed. If a society is organized in this way, it will save a lot of time and will save itself much suffering. If we want to advance on the spiritual path, we have to connect to a developed individual who shows us the way. Infaith above reason, which exists on our lower degree, we have to accept his opinion coming from a higher degree and act according to it.

That is, we go forward with his head. Baal HaSulam writes, referring to the words of Rambam (Maimonides) that if a blind crowd has a guide who knows the way, then all the rest will certainly reach the same goal, although they can see neither the path nor the goal. All this comes from the very first HaVaYaH where the relations between quantity and quality have been established.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah lesson 12/9/13