At The Threshold Of Eternity

We have to create a society that will let all the people in the world move correctly into tomorrow. Otherwise, we will not survive. We see what is happening today, especially in developed countries. And the rest are rapidly approaching them. People are starting to feeling that “there is no tomorrow.” But in fact, this is a wonderful state where we are egoistically breaking away from the past and are entering a neutral state, like being “in limbo.”

Now is exactly the time to show people the following system of relationships that will lead us into the feeling of a completely different state. We are entering the next stage of our development. Just as we evolved from monkeys and gradually developed within our animate state, similarly, today we are beginning to develop within our inner, human state.

Today we are rising to the level called “Adam”—a human being, who is similar to the Upper Force of nature. This force wants to teach us to become integral with it, and that is why this crisis is global and integral.

We have to become similar to nature. By accomplishing this, we begin to understand the internal mechanism that drives us. The inner program of nature is taking us toward a specific goal, while we are not even aware of it. We die without knowing what we lived for. We are born and do not know where and why. We do things instinctively because nature forces us to do them, and nothing more.

In reality, there is a whole program of actions, a causal relationship! Every part of nature has a cause, consequence, and goal. Nothing exists without a purpose. And likewise, we do not exist pointlessly either. We can see this because nature is now raising us to this level now—to the next level of development.

At the current level, we are still just realizing our animate egoism in which we were created and which develops in us. By ascending to the next level, which is global and integral, and becoming globally connected with nature, by changing ourselves in accordance with it, we gradually start perceiving the inner mechanism, the internal thought of the Upper Force of nature. As astrophysics say, the entire universe is a thought. When a person becomes conscious of it, he begins to feel eternity.

Can Development Happen Without Destruction?

Question: The new trends make it seem like the nations of the world will have to disintegrate from the inside in order to be built anew….

Answer: The whole world has to be destroyed, but the destruction can either happen on the physical level or on the level of understanding and realization. Either we will have to completely destroy ourselves in the physical sense in order to understand that we must also destroy our egoistic spirit, or we can circumvent the physical component of collapse and immediately start working on its spiritual realization in order to then correct the situation.

One way or another, you have to reach the breaking, inner destruction. And it’s possible that to reach it, you will also need the external collapse.

For example, today in Israel we are trying to add our message to the wave of the social protest about the need for unity and for constructing an integral society. The question is: How effective are our efforts? Maybe some amount of suffering will also be required here for people to understand that this is the only thing missing in reality, and the only way to achieve fair distribution of resources.

The people really want social justice, but how can it be achieved? It can’t be done by imposing whatever you like, but others don’t like. Social justice must envelop everyone, all of society. But is it really possible to actualize this without first attaining mutual guarantee?

It would be good if people realized this. Otherwise troubles will be necessary. There are no other alternatives: either the good path, or the path of suffering. If we are unsuccessful on the good path, then the second path will have to join. That is what will happen in all areas of our lives.

However, the more we can influence the environment, the more chances there are that we won’t have to go through real wars, which the world can slide down to in case of a bad turn of events, as Baal HaSulam writes.

There Is No Love Without Hate

When we are talking about spiritual concepts, if there is no hatred in the beginning, there will be no love later on. It is written, “I created the evil inclination and I created the Torah as a spice because the Light in it returns one to the source.”

The good source is love. But it cannot be revealed unless evil, hatred, and rejection are disclosed first. We should get used to the fact that love and hatred are always revealed and work together.

This is why we discover both hatred and love in our society, and we should understand that one is impossible without the other. We are not perfect angels, preserved at the inanimate level, but people with all of our cruel egoism.

To the extent that you yearn to feel love, you will discover only greater hatred. That is the only way you will become worthy of “the exit from Egypt” and will come to “Mount Sinai.” The mountain of hatred, “Mount Sinai” is the result of our previous work.

The Tower of Babel is only the beginning; nothing was revealed there. Therefore, 20 generations from Adam HaRishon until Abraham, being the first generations of Kabbalists, are called the forefathers. This is only the initial preparation because a strong desire was not revealed there yet.

The first time that the desire was disclosed was in Babylon, which is where the science of Kabbalah originated. There was already a small mountain of hatred there: “The Tower of Babel” above which it was possible to rise. The science of Kabbalah, the science of connection, was born there, and people who were capable of connecting emerged there as well. Thus, is always revealed above hatred.

Therefore, there is no need to be afraid of the fact that the world today is revealing hatred. We just have to let it be revealed naturally and precede the blow with a remedy so that hatred will be revealed with understanding consciously. And we have to be confident in the fact that we have the precise instructions on how to use it correctly.

Mutual Guarantee Is For The Whole World

Question: I am reading reviews of some of the articles published by the “Mutual Guarantee” movement and many say that you simply want to expand your circle of adherents, as if “Kabbalah isn’t that interesting anymore, so now Laitman has started a new movement.”

Answer: I enjoy these intense questions and objections because I would like people to understand my opinion. Kabbalah is a technique of correcting the world, which works at every social level:

• There are people who are interested in progressing spiritually.
• There are people who are interested in moving forward spiritually because they feel it is important for them and for their children to live in a peaceful, secure, and serene world.
• There are people who have very little concern for any of this. They are only interested in living a good, normal life, “I feel comfortable right now, and this is my task—to maintain the comfort and if possible, to increase it.”

Depending on people’s desires, some are engaged only in their personal matters, whereas others are engaged in society. Some people are attracted to power, fame, knowledge, and wealth, which means they have higher demands compared to those of a common man. Every person has certain properties and desires as a given essence that are present in him from birth.

Therefore, being a person who studies human nature and society, I make no claims to anyone because I understand perfectly well that the people who are engaged or interested in Kabbalah will, in fact, come to Kabbalah. As for the people who don’t have these aspirations, then no matter how much time I would spend telling them about Kabbalah, they will not come to it. However, they will see that mutual guarantee is the instrument that we can use to fix the crisis today, but in the internal personal realm, within our families, and on the scale of the country and the world.

That’s what I want people to know. And accordance to every person’s inner question or need, each will take his proper place in this hierarchy of correcting himself and humanity. Therefore, there is no attempt here to draw people to what they will not respond to. This is impossible.

This is not the usual political movement where people can be enticed by some goals, by telling them, “Let us go and conquer, let’s take abundance from someone else and divide it among ourselves,” and so on. On the contrary, this is a movement that is based only on the joint agreement of all members of society, and therefore, it involves everyone. In other words, it is there in order for everyone to come under the mutual guarantee in the world, to the degree of one’s innate properties, predispositions, and inclinations to this.

Don’t Be Scared Of Your Fear

Question: What’s the right attitude to have to the fear that I now experience when I go out to speak to people about Kabbalah?

Answer: This fear does not disappear until the very end of correction. If you read the Psalms, you will be amazed to discover that even King David, who was at the highest spiritual levels, felt fear. Obviously, it’s not the same kind of fear that we feel, but the fear of whether or not you will be able to bestow, whether or not you will perform the action correctly. One has constant doubts about this.

Every spiritual degree begins with these fears and doubts. And the same thing is true for us: Everything begins with fear, repulsion, aversion, and apprehension. This is Malchut, which reveals the lack of everything within her. This is the degree of entering the state of bestowal for the sake of bestowal, Bina, Hafetz Hesed.

The state of bestowal for the sake of bestowal is not the state of a fearless hero. For now one is just rising above his ego, above all of the fears, and he can only bestow for the sake of bestowal. And it is possible to rise to this level of bestowal only from fear and apprehension, the feeling that you don’t have anything – no strength or understanding, but that doesn’t matter!

The most important is to rise above all of these fears and cleave to the upper one, and thus to attain the smallest, initial adhesion that is called the state of an “embryo,” three days of the seed’s absorption, above all of these unpleasant sensations.

This is a state of crisis, separation, and weakness which is in fact, worse than death. After all, death would provide some kind of escape, but here there is no escape. All you can do is leap upwards! This is not a simple state.
[51490]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/16/11, “The Nation”

What Is ”Mutual Guarantee”?

Mutual guarantee is an interconnection between us where I have to consider all the other people just like members of my family.It’s difficult to imagine that this is possible, but we have to attain this inner state in our development where every person in the world will sense the whole world as being inside of him.

How do I sense my family? I feel every member of the family inside of me. They are like one whole with me. I feel what I have to give to whom, whom I have to take care of, and whom I have to support. I have my elderly parents, children, grandchildren, the household, expenses, responsibilities, debts, someone is sick, someone needs help, and so on.

According to this, when we hold our common family council, we take the needs of every person into consideration, make a list of priorities and rate how important these necessities are. We decide what we have to do first, what next, what comes after that, and so on.

If we act with the same attitude toward the world, just like in one family, then each of us will become a harmonious part of this world. This is the state that nature will bring us to, either by blows or by our understanding.

Why Do We Judge Others?

Question: Is it possible for one to strengthen oneself and the environment in order to stop falling into the trap of constantly judging and comparing others, whom I still see as separate from myself? Or is this part of the Creator’s plans for us to realize the error of our egoism and take the opportunity to correct ourselves?

Answer: You have to rise above all of the negative feelings and try to see everyone as righteous men, justifying them by the fact that you are seeing everything inside of your egoism. All of this judging is happening precisely to enable your ascent.

A Feeling That Can’t Be Mistaken For Anything Else

Question: When will I find out that I bestow and don’t receive?

Answer: You will know that you bestow when you feel that all of this is being done by the force of the Light that dresses into you and the Creator is acting through you, while you are an instrument in the hands of the force that has dressed into you. Then you really will be bestowing.

You bestow when you feel that you are happily outside of yourself, that you are in others, and there you perform upper actions. The Light operates within you. There is an inner spirit that pushes you and directs you. This is a sensation that cannot be mistaken for anything else!

But it comes as a result of all of the previous actions, which you make against your will. The most important is to desire bestowal! It’s as if you are trying to start up a car, again and again, until it finally starts working!
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/14/11, Shamati