The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Lesson (Morning) June 12, 2024.
Part 2: Part 2: Baal HaSulam. The Arvut [Mutual Guarantee]. #21
Reader: (00:05) Reading from the writings of Baal HaSulam, the Arvut article. We are in item 21.
Reading Article: (00:21) The Arvut [Mutual Guarantee], #21
These are the words of Rabbi Eleazar, son of Rabbi Shimon, who said that the world is judged by its majority. He was referring to the role of the Israeli nation to qualify the world for a certain measure of purity, until they are worthy of taking upon themselves His work, no less than Israel were worthy at the time they received the Torah. In the words of our sages, it is considered that they had attained enough virtues to overcome the side of sin, which is the filthy self-love.
Clearly, if the side of merit, which is the sublime attainment of the benefit of loving others, transcends the filthy side of sin, they become qualified for the decision and the agreement to say, “We will do and we will hear,” as Israel said. But before they obtain sufficient merits, self-love will certainly prevail, and they will refuse to assume His burden.
Our sages said, “He who performs one Mitzva is happy, for he has sentenced himself and the whole world to the side of merit.” This means that an individual from Israel finally adds his own part to the final decision, as one who weighs sesame seeds and adds them one by one to the scale until the balance shifts. Certainly, everyone takes part in this shifting, for without him, the sentencing would never be completed. Similarly, it is said about the acts of an individual from Israel that he sentences the whole world to the side of merit. This is because when the matter ends and the whole world has been sentenced to the side of merit, each and every one will have a share in this shifting, for were it not for his actions, the shifting would have been deficient.
Thus, you find that Rabbi Eleazar, son of Rabbi Shimon, does not dispute the words of our sages that all of Israel is responsible for one another. Rather, Rabbi Elazar, the son of Rabbi Shimon, speaks of the correction of the whole world in the future, whereas our sages speak of the present, when only Israel have taken upon themselves the Torah.
M. Laitman: Questions? No. none, fine. Then let's continue.
Reader: Item 22 “And this is what Rabbi Elazar …”
And this is what Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon, quotes from the writings: “One sinner destroys much good.” It has already been explained in Item 20 that the impression that comes to a person when engaging in Mitzvot between man and the Creator is completely the same as the impression he gets when engaging in Mitzvot between man and man, since one is obliged to perform all the Mitzvot Lishma [for Her sake], without any hope for self-love, meaning that no light or hope returns to him through his trouble in the form of reward or honor, etc. Here, at this exalted point, the love of the Creator and the love of his friend unite and actually become one, as said in the article, “Matan Torah,” Item 15.
In this manner one affects a certain measure of advancement on the ladder of love for others in all the people of the world in general, since that degree, which that individual caused by his actions, whether large or small, ultimately joins the future in shifting the world to the side of merit, since his share has been added and joins the shift.
As written in Item 20 in the allegory about the sesame seeds, one who commits one sin, meaning he cannot overcome and conquer his filthy self-love, and therefore steals or does something of the sort, sentences himself and the whole world to the side of sin. This is because with the disclosure of the filth of self-love, the lowly nature of creation is reinforced. Thus, he takes away a certain amount from the sentencing to the final side of merit, like a person removing from the scale that single sesame seed his friend had put there.
Thus, to that extent, he slightly elevates the side of sin. It turns out that he regresses the world, as they said, “One sinner destroys much good.” Because he could not overcome his petty lust, he pushed the spirituality of the whole world backward.
M. Laitman: Clear? Questions?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (08:04) How could there be one sinner in a system of Arvut?
M. Laitman: Well, let's say you have a very expansive system. But in it there is one who is flawed and there is no connection, general connection, between everyone.
Student: What is that one individual that is in a flaw if he's in a connection of Arvut with others?
M. Laitman: How could it be that he's brought to such a situation?
Student: Yes?
M. Laitman: Well, he says let's think let's think about it, it seems so.
Student: But he's part of a system.
M. Laitman: Part of the system.
Student: Because also in the allegory, and also here, he says that the friend is drilling the hole And if that one sin in took his sesame. It's like a personal calculation.
M. Laitman: Yes, it may be.
Student: There is no It's a common calculation?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, there are no borders, you can't separate or scrutinize on a certain resolution that it happens on?
M. Laitman: According to what we learn, no. According to what we learn, everyone is responsible for everyone with no limits.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (09:29) Also, that one sinner, I guess it's not this guy, oh, I'm going to ruin the whole system and create a flaw?
M. Laitman: No, clearly not, here it's a different question: How could it be that in a system which was, well ordered, interconnected? How could it be that such a thing happens, what caused it? What caused this separation? One individual from the rest of the system.
Student: That's also a right question but about the flaw. What, the person just wasn't paying attention? Or he didn't do the maximum, he got an opportunity to bestow, and he missed it. What's that drilling in the boat, that flaw he's doing?
M. Laitman: He doesn't want to be connected by the law of Arvut, mutual responsibility with everyone, with all the friends.
Student: He doesn't want it that moment, or doesn't want in general? Because everyone on the path really wants to advance?
M. Laitman: If they're already tied together, is that what you want to say?
Student: Yes.
M. Laitman: If they're already bound together through the law of Arvut, how could it be that someone drops off, yes? Because the general law is that each one holds the others, and here is seemingly, one drops off and then everyone falls. Well, let's see as we continue the reading.
Student: That, and I'm also asking what the fall is. He just goes into an unconsciousness, or is it a state that he does it on purpose? Or did he get an opportunity and he's not taking it? What is the fall, that flaws the Arvut, because there could be a lot of degrees in that fall.
M. Laitman: Yes, I don't know.
Student: It's not like some alien force takes control over him, what is this fall?
M. Laitman: So, meaning where does it come from, this negative impact.
Student: Yes, also what the intensity is, it could be on all kinds of levels because to be with everyone incorporated it's supposedly something whole.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, what's the lack of wholeness that this person is causing?
M. Laitman: I don't know, I can't tell you exactly what's happening here, but it is clear that each one is responsible for everyone else. And everyone is responsible for him, as well. It cannot be that someone falls, that's it.
Student: So that's a state we always have to depict in front of our eyes?
M. Laitman: Yes, it's either 100% or it's nothing.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (13:11) We're speaking of Arvut, and in the previous letter, we talked about bringing the friends into our heart. It seems that these two things are a bit contradicting because the work of Arvut is mutual.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And to put the friends in the heart sounds like a person's private work, before the friends?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Can you explain where exactly on this scale between personal work and collective work. What's the work that each one has to do before friends? Meaning, how much of it is mutual and how much of it is personal? That, supposedly, I'm not depending on the friends. There's like the example of Rav Yossi Benkisma that brought all the friends into the heart, no matter what degree they were on. He only demanded of himself, he supposedly didn't need their mutuality and he did all the work. In the Arvut, it sounds that it is very mutual, so where is it truly?
M. Laitman: It is found in the Arvut.
Student: So, in a mutual way?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: What are we actually saying here that I don't have to demand anything of them, only from myself? Because I am asking something of them from this mutuality.
M. Laitman: Yes, yes, you demand.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (14:59) Baal HaSulam writes and then also asides him that a person isn't always successful in going in faith above reason. And he can fall into self-love, the place of stench, that he could have gone above reason but suddenly he falls. Does that also mean that he does damage to the whole system?
M. Laitman: Of course, of course, how could it be, otherwise?
Student: But it's an addition of coarseness, it's not that he right away can't overcome and go above reason. He right away has to do it?
M. Laitman: No, no, there are falls, there are ascents, there are descents. But ultimately he needs to see before him the necessity to incorporate.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (16:04) Who's responsible for that one sinner, him or the environment?
M. Laitman: The Creator.
Student: So, when you say one sinner, so we're all sinners.
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: Can't be that there's one sinner, everybody falls.
M. Laitman: Well, here you're opening another sphere of conditions and corrections.
Student: The fact that the Creator is making someone sin.
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: So why is he sinning?
M. Laitman: I don't know, I don't think there's a problem, here. The problem is that one sinner causes many sins.
Student: When we talk about the Arvut between us, and one friend drills a hole. So, what do you have to say here? That it's a friend, him, or was it the Creator making him sin?
M. Laitman: What happens here is that the power of the Arvut vanishes. And of course, it's the Creator who arranged it.
Student: Exactly, there's no Arvut, it just relieves us from responsibility?
M. Laitman: No, it pushes us to determine and establish the proper laws of Arvut.
Student: What are the correct Arvut laws?
M. Laitman: It's such that we're responsible for each and every one regardless of the state of the friend.
Student: But, by being responsible of them, in the next moment the Creator is going to make me sin. So, there's a contradiction.
M. Laitman: Why?
Student: Either, I'm responsible about them, and whatever the Creator does, he'll do.
M. Laitman: You're responsible for them, and they're responsible for you.
Student: Can I ask again?
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: He wrote in the beginning that this is where the love of his friend and the love of the Creator connect into one. So, in which point?
M. Laitman: Of the general connection.
Student: In what point exactly does the love of the friend and the love of the Creator connect into one? Where is that point?
M. Laitman: In the general connection.
Student: What does he mean that the impression he gets when engaging in Mitzvot between man and man is completely equal to the commandments between man and the Creator?
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: How is that equal?
M. Laitman: Because to the eyes of the person who attains that state, there is no difference between him and all his friends, and the Creator. In the system, which used to be one, and the general system, there is no difference, whatsoever. We all come to be one man in one heart.
Student: There are like two streams, there is working before the Creator and working with the friends?
M. Laitman: No, no, no, here it already connects together.
Student: Before it connects together?
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: So, there’s engaging with the friends and engaging with the Creator. What's engaging with the Creator?
M. Laitman: Engaging with the Creator means that you attribute everything to the Creator.
Student: And that is possible without engaging with the friends?
M. Laitman: No, that's how we connect everything together.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (21:12) What is the sesame that a person puts on the scales?
M. Laitman: It means that his sentencing is in the same direction as everyone.
Student: What does that mean, what is he determining, what is that sesame? I want to make sure I took a sesame, and I implemented its potential. What am I doing with that sesame, what is that sesame?
M. Laitman: You add it to the stew.
Student: I still don't understand what this action is. I have a Ten and I want to know that, for sure, I put a sesame. I want to tangibly feel that I put that sesame, that I fulfilled the potential of that sesame before me, what is this action?
M. Laitman: It's where you agree with everyone else, to perform actions of connection, unity, Arvut. And you ask the Creator to protect them, guard them.
Student: Is the action of the sesame a group action in the Ten? It's not that a person deals with his own sesames. I have friends and each one calculated with their sesames.
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: So, is the result of that mutual guarantee, Arvut?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Right now, I don't feel, I hear the words of Arvut, sesame but I don't know what this feeling is. What is the feeling of Arvut that a Ten actually starts feeling? That everyone's sesames are revealed for everyone?
M. Laitman: You want me to convey that to you?
Student: I'm asking myself.
M. Laitman: You have friends, talk, connect. Each one should embrace the other and it will become clear to you.
Student: The feeling of Arvut, that's already a spiritual feeling?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: In any second, is there sesame before a person?
M. Laitman: Seemingly so.
Student: So, how can one give all his inner forces, constantly, to keep putting sesames in the right place? Because, he's not always in the lesson with the friends, being incorporated, people do a lot of things.
M. Laitman: Whenever it comes to him, until it comes to him every single moment.
Student: Is he dependent on the friends each one?
M. Laitman: Yes, yes. Well, we're done. Where are we?
Reader: We read 22 in the article of the Arvut. And we also have selected excerpts from the sources about Laila de Kala, the Zohar article.
M. Laitman: Until, when is the lesson?
Reader: It's until 8.
M. Laitman: Okay, so let's continue to that.
Reader: So next part of the lesson, from Zohar, Laila de Kala.
Song: (25:25)