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Jun 21, 2025 6:23 PM -

238.01Question: Do we, in our current state, influence the balance of the scale toward good?

Answer: Every moment of our existence we are in the realization of only one thing—mutual guarantee (Arvut). Whether we want it or not, we and the whole world are advancing toward the realization of its importance either through suffering or through the path of Torah.

There is nothing else toward which humanity is being led other than mutual guarantee. We must see that it is a necessity, that mutual unity leads from “Love your neighbor” to “Love the Lord your God.” This is the process that all souls must undergo.

Therefore, everything that happens to all the souls and to each individual every second of their lives is essentially a movement toward the fulfillment of this law.

No matter how confused we and all of humanity may feel—not knowing where we are, what we are doing, and what we are occupied with—it is all just clarification so that we ultimately come to the final conclusion: it depends on each person which way the scale will tip.

In other words, everything depends on the degree of responsibility each individual takes for fulfilling the law of mutual guarantee.

And even now, when you are not yet corrected, to the extent that you are in some form approaching the understanding of this law that we are obligated to fulfill, you affect the entire world through your inclusion in all souls. In this way, the law becomes more revealed in them, and you help others reach its fulfillment.

However, there are people who, due to the state of their point in the heart, are incapable of striving for adhesion with the Creator and cannot fulfill the law of mutual guarantee on their own. But since all other souls are included within them, they will receive some illumination and, as a result, will fulfill this law.

They will say: “If everyone else is doing it, then of course we must too.” But internally, they will not feel it because the penetration of other souls into them is really minimal.
[343988]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/11/2025, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Jun 21, 2025 6:15 PM -

926.02Comment: The mysterious Japanese soul is very different from the European one. Their sages are very different from European ones and so is their wisdom. If possible, please comment on some sayings of Japanese sages.

“It is better to be the enemy of a good person than a friend of a bad one.”

My Response: That is true; it is more beneficial for you. You can learn a lot from a good person. But being a friend of a bad one is certainly the worst.

Comment: “Whoever strongly wants to rise upward invents a ladder.”

My Response: Yes. He will find a way to rise.

Comment: “Husband and wife should be like the hand and the eyes: when the hand hurts, the eyes cry, and when the eyes cry, the hands wipe the tears.”

My Response: Beautiful!

Question: “The sun does not know the righteous. The sun does not know the unrighteous. The sun shines not with the goal of warming anyone.” Is that so?

Answer: It all depends on how you look at it. It is all relative to a person—with a goal or without a goal.

Question: But if we speak of the warmth of the Creator emanating from Him, is there really no purpose?

Answer: It is all absolutely thought out and foreseen in advance. Based on the final goal, the final state, all the intermediate states come to us and move us toward that goal.

Comment: “Even if a sword is needed only once in a lifetime, you must carry it always.”

My Response: Yes, that is true. Precisely because you always carry it, you will be ready to use it that one time in life.

Comment: “Grief, like a torn garment, should be left at home.” But a person cannot help but show grief.

My Response: It is a cultural attitude toward the world, toward life, meaning nothing will shake me.

Comment: “When there is love, smallpox scars are as beautiful as dimples on the cheeks.”

My Response: Yes, love smoothes out absolutely everything. “Love covers all transgressions.”

Comment: “No one stumbles while lying in bed.”

My Response: Best of all is to lie down.

Comment: “Yield the road to fools and madmen.”

My Response: Yes, that is true. Because others may understand you, but these ones will not.

Comment: “When parents work and children enjoy life, the grandchildren will beg for alms.”

My Response: That is true. Children must not be given anything for free. You have to push them with all your strength toward acquiring a profession and mastering life, so that while you still exist, they are already building themselves. That is what love for children means.
[241211]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 1/24/25

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Jun 21, 2025 5:56 PM -

281.02Question: Every desire to receive is a Reshimo [spiritual record] from the withdrawal of the light in which we receive the letters of the Torah. Is this a feeling of fulfillment or a feeling of new emptiness from coming closer to the Creator?

Answer: I think it is emptiness that presses on a person and drives them toward the Creator.

Question: It is said that when the people of Israel gathered at Mount Sinai, they had one intention and one thought. Does that mean we unite in intention and thought even before receiving the Torah?

Answer: No, before receiving the Torah, we cannot unite in intention and thought.

But this is already a step forward. People begin to feel how the Creator corrects them, and how they gradually draw closer to one another into one body, one heart.
[344872]
From Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/2/2025, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Concerning the Giving of the Torah – 1”

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Jun 21, 2025 5:52 PM -

Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 144

Why Do We Feel No Taste in Spiritual Work?

If we were to spiritually progress according to the same pattern in corporeality, we would prefer spirituality because it is better for us, or immediately afterward we would prefer corporeality, because it is better. We would thus increase both within our will to receive.

However, if we have faith in those who have already attained spiritual fulfillment, who advise us that it is worthwhile for us too, and convince ourselves that in this world we can taste only fleeting pleasures anyway, and that it is better to yearn for spirituality, we join a group engaged in Kabbalah and begin to learn from them how to be fulfilled by spirituality instead of toiling in vain chasing the pleasures of this world. We perform brainwashing on ourselves and intensify our desire for spirituality.

Does this mean we think “in order to bestow”? No, we constantly imagine that spirituality will give us something, just as all pleasures give us something. This is called growing in Lo Lishma. How do we move from Lo Lishma to Lishma? It is with a special remedy (Segula), because we cannot think for the sake of the Creator by ourselves.

We should not deceive ourselves otherwise. That is the reality. We each think only of our own benefit, and beautiful, elevated words do not change that. We are built in such a way where we think only about ourselves. Not only do we think, but we are truly programmed and structured so that our whole body, brain, hormones, discernments, every cell, and everything at all levels, from mechanical movements to biological ones, move solely in the direction of self-benefit. This is ingrained in our nature. We can say “in order to bestow,” but we will act only for our own benefit.

Therefore, only through a special remedy do we move from Lo Lishma to Lishma. The remedy was given to us by the Kabbalists in their books, and because we are engaged in what the Kabbalists wrote, and they wrote about the spiritual world, we are truly engaged in the concept of the giving of the Torah. The giving of the Torah is the means from above through which we can prepare ourselves to cross the barrier to the spiritual world.

That is, the constant growth of our desire is only one part of the picture. Our desire grows from desires for animalistic pleasures, to money, to honor, to knowledge, and finally to Godliness. But as we approach Godliness, there is a special addition: not only does one desire replace another, but the desire for Godliness needs to acquire an additional form called “in order to bestow.”

It does not matter whether a desire is positive or negative. All kinds of desires grow continuously, from the lowest state to the highest that is revealed in us. If, for instance, our soul has one ton of desire, we are shown only a part of it at a time, one gram, five grams, another ten grams, another twenty grams. It is as if each time a slightly wider opening is made in our box of desires, and we feel more and more desires.

The desires already exist within us. They are simply revealed slowly, and each time they appear as stronger and greater desires. We grow from below upward, from this world up to the end of correction, in the absolute measure of desire. However, besides this, if we want to grow beyond the specific plane called “this world,” the desire must be directed not for our own benefit, but for the benefit of the Creator.

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