KETER: TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN
Baal HaSulam. The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)
Morning Lesson March 17, 2022, Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 2:
Baal HaSulam. The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)
1. R. (0:12) We see that all of the writings of Kabbalah they either explain to us how about the corporeal reality which Baal HaSulam writes about in a few of his articles, or they explain to us the spiritual system which was written about as well by many Kabbalists and also the connection between this and that. How the person who exists in a corporeal nature and wants to accept the spiritual nature how does he rise from one to the other. Those are essentially the topics that we discuss in the wisdom of Kabbalah. How do we attain this spiritual form that is not perceived by our senses? For that we have to work on connection between us and then on top of the perception that we have in our corporeal sensation in our desires in order to receive we need to install a new perception of in order to bestow, a spiritual perception and then how can we juxtapose these two perceptions and work in such a way that all of corporeal reality will gradually rise all the way to the upper spiritual reality.
The force by which we raise the corporeal reality to the spiritual reality is called the force of Arvut, mutual guarantee. Essentially it is the main thing that we need to realize between us. This mutual incorporation between all of the broken pieces of Adam HaRishon after the sin, how do we bring it back to the state it was in before the sin. Meaning how do we draw the force of the Creator between us as an addition to all the forces of the shattering that appeared and thus we achieve the final correction. Now the force, this force that we need to reveal between us, is not like the instinctive simple connection we had before the shattering but rather it is a force of Arvut. Which means each one is incorporated and included in the others and provides the others with force to keep us together. Let us see what Baal HaSulam writes in this very important article.
Reading (03:25) “This is to speak of the mutual guarantee…”
2. R. (04:00) What is he telling us here? He tells us that we need to discover between us and our correction, we need to discover the force of Arvut which means this force of mutual incorporation that will dwell between us. Only in this way, we come to correction and for us it manifests as the force of love that is in our emotions meaning that I love the other even more than I love myself. Why is it more than me? It says love my friend as thyself, but it is explained as being more than yourself. Why? Because we have to rise above the will to receive between us which does not disappear, it remains and it exists, but we need to make these ties between us above it, so love covers all crimes and it turns out that the force of Arvut has to be stronger, stronger than everything. The connection that we build above us, between us needs to be more than we can imagine, that all the good and bad forces we need to bring them together and the connection needs to be greater than that. As it says love thy friend as thyself to its fullest extent.
Reader Continues (06:02) “This means that each and every one of Israel…”
3. R. (06:22) So this is the condition, it is called Arvut. That I care for the others in order to provide them with all of the opportunity, possibilities, to fulfill their needs in regard to the mutual connection.
Reader Continues (06:43) “Once the whole nation unanimously agreed and said…”
4. R. 0(6:49) Meaning that we will achieve Arvut and maintain it so that it does not stop.
Reader (06:57) “Each member of Israel became responsible…”
5. R. (07:05) Whatever he needs in order to exist and maintain the Arvut.
Reader Continues (07:11) “Only then did they become worthy…”
6. R. (07:18) In this way when they are in Arvut meaning they are responsible that no one will lose and fall from this force of connection then they can receive the upper force from above that will fulfill them and that is called Torah.
Reading Continues (07:44) “With this world like that was responsibilities…”
7. R. (07:55) So he can give 100% of his forces in order to bestow and ask the Creator to make the connection happen.
Reader Continues (08:05) “And give everything he had to every needy person…”
8. R. (09:25) Meaning that in a small group it is very difficult to carry out the condition of Arvut because there are such commitments between them and states that each one is somewhat detached from the other but in a big society which is more like a big ocean that has many different aspects of an interconnected system they can set up such systems for them that can certainly enable them to carry out the condition of Arvut in full.
9. S. (10:08) How to love the friend correctly in order to keep the condition of the Arvut?
R. We have to achieve connection with the friends in such a way that we begin to feel that we cannot live in spiritual progress without connecting between us. That we also need to reach a state in spiritual connection that I cannot save myself without this connection between us that leads us towards the Creator, and I see that I cannot maintain the connection unless the Creator dresses into us and gives us the strength for that and His force because He is one when He dresses into us he connects all of us into this form of one and that is what we need. So the more we want to see ourselves connected together and we are moving towards that and seeing that as a goal and only the Creator can connect us and hold us with his strength with his force so that we do not even feel that, let’s say from ten bodies or ten desires, egoistic and separate we would rather become more and more connected to the point that each one does not feel himself but feels connected to the friends and we are all supportive of each other and we are all in a single body, a single desire, a single intention. So we begin to feel that we are close to the single Creator that becomes closer to us and unites with us. That is our work in the ten. We need to achieve such a state. We have all the conditions for that. We are given all the conditions from above and it depends only on how we more and more depict it to ourselves and feel that besides connection between us and across the world between all the created beings and through love that covers all crimes. With all the forces that appear between us of rejection and hatred, above them we have to cover them with that force of love between us.
10. S. (13:41) If the ego is the deceiving me, the false me, what should a person lean on to build the right intention?
R. We are advancing towards corrections with the amplified ego that shows itself as separating between us and creating these riffs between us, tears us to pieces, weakens us, fails us and we go through such states where we cannot hold on. Then we understand that these states happen, so we recognize the force of connection and how vital it is, how it enlivens us and positions us correctly towards bestowal and the Creator each time, that is how we advance.
11. S. (15:00) It is written here that he is not concerned with his own body anymore because he is certain that around him there are 600,000 loving people that are concerned about him, meaning the ego is constantly thinking about being taken care of, otherwise it will not stop worrying about itself.
R. Right. If we are not sure that there are more friends around us then how can we come closer to correction? I can come closer to correction only on the condition, the assumption that the friends are thinking about connection. That they all want me to incorporate with them, and everyone else also thinks the others are thinking about this, because without these feelings that we receive, especially during the time of descent and despair and laziness and discouragement from being able to connect and no inclination to spirituality, when a person just wants to lie down and sleep or even die, that he doesn’t see any benefit to the states he is going through in his life and just how to fill it up in a way that he doesn’t feel anything and specifically from these states through the force of Arvut that exists between us and the Creator sustains it, through that we reach a state where a person begins to receive an awakening and regains the sense of life, comes back to life. By that we begin to feel that what I thought before was so incorrect and under the rule of the will to receive of our ego and I could not do anything against it but now I have found a new spirit, a new momentum, some illumination that shines on me and once again I can come to a state where I connect with the friends and I can support them again and this is how we go through these states of ups and downs and all that we attain is with this force of Arvut. In this force of Arvut lies the Creator and he livens it and by the force of Arvut we overcome all of the descents and then we go down and up and ascend and descend and that is all of our work.
12. S. (18:36) If, on the animal degree, animals are concerned about their kids, their offspring, why should my ego be concerned about the friends? What is the reward for the ego in that?
R. You receive from the Creator a sense of detachment, a point in the heart which feels that there is a certain goal and perhaps it wants that goal but it cannot or than it can but there seems to be some sort of an issue with it, right? So the sense of the goal awakens in you that you want to attain the purpose and reason of why you live. That is how you advance so it’s not like when your mother fills you up with all the necessary things in this world, but the Creator begins to awaken you and he awakens a lack in you towards a higher level of life and now you can begin to arrange all of your things if you want. Please get closer to that. I recommend most importantly not to let go of our daily routine in life, the daily lesson, the daily conversation with the friends which might be more important than the lesson and the daily scrutiny and measurement, how much am I clarifying the Arvut more than yesterday and maybe I have less Arvut but more precision, more precision in regard to measuring the Arvut; Meaning, that I found a few more discernments, subtle discernments and so on. Okay?
13. S. (21:14) It says that we will do, and we will hear when each one in Israel became responsible for the other members of the nation and then they were worthy of receiving the Torah. What does it mean we will do until no friend will be lacking anything? What does it mean, physically? spiritually?
R. Because we are in a single vessel that includes all of the parts, all of the pieces of all of the souls, and don’t look at the faces, look at the souls, you do not see them but imagine to yourself thousands of souls that you are obligated to bring together. Why? Because by that you compose your own soul. So you have to be concerned in your thoughts, not physically of course but in your thoughts you have to care about how connected they are in your inner desire, in your prayer towards the Creator, in this lack that you awaken. If you awaken the Creator through your lack so that He brings about connection to all the created beings to some extent that you are able to awaken it then you have already done your correction, there are no other corrections, that is the only thing because by that you bring back, from your end, all the Kli of Adam HaRishon to a corrected state.
S. So it is in thought you are saying, to only be concerned in thought even if a friend needs help?
R. I’m talking about billions of people all of whom I want to be connected in a single system as they all belong to Adam HaRishon. Why am I talking about such a large vessel? Because we are in the generation of the final correction.
S. So what do I need to think of?
R. So I’m thinking about my ten and how to practically connect with them and then the next circle, how to connect with all of our world Kli which is thousands of people around the globe and more than that I think about all of humanity that has to be connected in this entire vessel of Adam HaRishon.
S. So now that every day we have the prayers with the Ukraine and so on it is also a kind of thought together?
R. It is a prayer for a connection between everyone.
S. It is a kind of thought when we pray?
R. Yes.
S. So why is it relevant that he writes about the Israeli Nation? He constantly writes about that.
R. Israel means that group who received an awakening during the times of Abraham in ancient Babylon thirty-five hundred years ago and it called itself that group Israel Yashar Kel straight to the Creator and that group prepared the foundation for the wisdom of Kabbalah and the spiritual work that we are continuing.
S. He writes a lot about the Israel, about the nation, the Arvut that each one of the nation was asked, what does it mean about us the last generation?
R. It is not the nation that we are familiar with today in the sense of nations in the world, but a nation means a group that has a very clear ideology about its life and its goal.
S. What is quantity in spirituality and how do you increase it?
R. There is no amount in spirituality. It is very difficult to explain. There is no amount. In spirituality there is quality, and we cannot discuss qualities so we are explaining it like it is quantities but there are no quantities in spirituality. Spirituality is all one but in order to give some numbers to the intensity of the oneness then we refer to it as quantities.
14. S. (26:28) The scrutiny that we were speaking about before about the state of connection about the state of the Arvut, is it a scrutiny that the ten has to do together or each one has to himself, in front of the ten?
R. Both, Both, Both. Together and alone talk about these scrutinies of how connected we are, how much we lack and what especially we already have and what we want to attain.
S. What we are lacking, how to do it correctly so that it will not sound for some of the friends as the left line.
R. We are talking about what we are lacking only on the condition that we know how to use it to raise the prayer to the Creator and remain in a state where love covers all crimes. This has to be the condition otherwise we do not awaken the left. Only if we can cover it with the right.
15. S. (27:51) You said we have to scrutinize the Arvut more and more. You also said that if I am in less of the Arvut but scrutinize it more, that is better, so how do I scrutinize it correctly?
R. To the extent that we lack incorporating with a friend’s desire for connection and adhesion and connection with the friends and with the Creator and to help him with that and pray to him and that it will happen to him, by that we all begin to feel that we are moving towards the center of the ten. To the extent that I want to cause the friend to connect with everyone and I support and push him towards that, and he does that to me and so forth and by that we come to the center of the ten. This is called building divinity.
16. S. (29:09) What does it mean to be concerned about the friend’s needs? Because here he says that you shouldn’t be afraid of his body either so what should I be concerned about the friend with?
R. Provide him with confidence.
S. Every friend has different needs.
R. No, no, the friends do not have different needs, the friends have the same needs. Only to achieve Arvut and in it discover the Creator.
S. By asking for one another from the Creator, that is bringing the Creator to be a guarantor in the connection between us?
R. Yes.
17. S. (30:04) You said that the meeting between the friends is even more important than the lesson. I want to scrutinize that.
R. Maybe start with the first question and do it practical and short.
S. What is more important, to be with the friends or to disseminate but that it will make me miss out on being with the friends?
R. They are both important, there is no answer.
18. S. (31:00) Does a person who is in Arvut acquire the mind and abilities of the Creator?
R. If we realize the Arvut from one degree to the next meaning 125 degrees all of which you rise to by the Arvut so by that we acquire the mind and emotion of the Creator. The mind and heart of the Creator means our collective mind and heart. That we discover in our connection. So each one of us exists in his ego, in his shell and when we clarify the connections between us that is already the Creator. The Creator is called the inclusive, the totality and that is how we attain Him when everyone comes out of himself and wants to cling to the others by that we clarify the Creator, we approach connection with Him, adhesion with him, a sensation of him. The Creator exists between us. Come out of yourselves and begin to feel somewhat of the Creator.
19. S. (32:25) Why is everything standing on Arvut?
R. I just talked about it because attainment of the Creator is impossible without Arvut, Arvut is the Kli, attainment of the Creator is the fulfillment.
20. S. (32:45) Arvut is a system of giving and receiving mutually which are two actions that are hard to do, what can give us forces for Arvut?
R. Support of the friends. You cannot be a guarantor to yourself, only the friend, even in our world.
21. S. (33:06) Is it true that Arvut is a law that allows you to enter spirituality and is it also needed to help keep you in spirituality and develop?
R. Yes. Arvut is the general condition of all of the spiritual system.
Reader Continues (33:31) “Thus, the portion that is given into…”
22. R. (34:14) Meaning that if a person thinks how I will be in order to bestow, how will I succeed in spirituality, how will I succeed in love even, it is nevertheless a concern for himself. So here we need to pay attention to how much we want to be detached from ourselves. Detached from ourselves in such a way that, to that extent, we will begin to reveal what the spiritual sensation is, where it happens within us and under what conditions, when a person detaches.
23. S. (35:13) How do we scrutinize what we are lacking while still remaining in the state of love will cover all crimes?
R. Only from experience, only from concern. Start doing it and you will see that you will have a lot more questions but eventually you will discover these things. How to realize it.
Reader Continues (35:45) “Last if you evidently find…”
24. R. (36:15) Meaning that until they understand that you cannot reach any action or feeling in spirituality unless you do it all together and only under that condition of revealing the necessity and connection then when they connect they will be prepared in receiving the upper light.
Reader continues (36:42) “If a handful from Israel…”
25. R. (36:59) Meaning if they center inside of themself instead of being inside the others.
Reader Continues (37:04) “Without consideration of others that same amount of need…”
26. R. (37:32) Meaning that everyone who falls in the system of Arvut falls from the system, causes damage to the whole system, to the general Arvut. In a way…
Reader Continues (37:48) “Thus these rebels cause those who…”
27. R. (37:57) Meaning if someone falls from the group, or a few people, obviously they cause the whole group a spiritual descent. That is why we have to all watch over each other on the wholeness of the group.
Reader continues (38:23) “For they will not be able to engage…”
28. S. (39:34) During our meetings, during the day between the friends, what would you recommend if we feel they are not so alive?
R. I recommend that you read the materials that we are studying in the morning. That is it.
S. We do read and discuss the material, but it feels like as time passes, and we meet more it loses some emotion it becomes very cold and dry. That is what we feel.
R. That you are becoming cold and dry because you are not working enough in the connection between you and being concerned about awakening each other. That is the work against the ego and that is it you have nothing to do. If you do not do it will get worse until you will leave.
S. What point would you recommend pressing? What is the precision here?
R. First of all to connect and check every detail in the connection between the friends. Try and be envious of the friends and not to disregard them, value every friend and as much as you don’t value him, raise your feeling opposite of that in which you feel. Describe to yourself that without this work that you are filled with appreciation for the friends you will not reach the Creator and at least that. Do that every day and then we will keep talking.
29. S. (41:45) The interdependence that he described here that without the Arvut that we cannot carry it out if not everyone participates, is it something that I have to imagine all the friends being in it or the other friends have to actually be in it? Does it depend on me or on everyone?
R. All the friends are in it except for you and you, to the extent that you are not there, well maybe not completely because the group exists but to the extent that you are not connected correctly with them you are causing the whole system of corruption and this corruption is being revealed to you, it is revealed to you.
S. Is there room, we say that we need to discuss when we have the Arvut, is there room to actually talk about some expressions of Arvut on the part of each of the friends or does it depend on each and every friend according to how I understand your answer?
R. It depends on every friend towards the whole group and from all of these commitments that each one feels whether in a negative way or a positive way, so it turns out that in our Arvut there is always something to correct.
S. Are there any external expressions that we need to check or is it all internal?
R. It could be that also with external changes you can cause the renewing of the Arvut between you.
S. Can there be a friend who feels that the friends are not in Arvut towards him? What should he see as the reason for it?
R. The cause is him, he could be asking from the friends to help him, but he still needs to be the one who starts the Arvut. Also the group needs to check if they are in Arvut in a general way and it could be that they are and then they can decide on taking some general action of connection, but you have to work on that, you cannot just neglect it. I think the problem is that each and every one when he invests himself according to that he also sees how he falls because the fall is a result of investing in your spiritual advancement, then you start praying and working with yourself, with the group and in this way it happens but that is the whole way until Gmar Tikkun. On this path we do not have Kabbalists that walk with their heads up, they always feel themselves under a burden of corrections and connections and they are not successful and that each friend his inclination is greater than him, but the main thing is not to stop even for one moment. Even though a lot of thoughts go through each and every one it is specifically thoughts of advancement. The Creator advances a person by rejecting him and the person needs in return to climb to that same height and cry and beg and grab the Creator and not let go and in this way advance.
30. S. (46:33) What does it mean to detach from oneself and live within the friends?
R. I have nothing to say. Ask your friends. Ask your friends.
31. S. (47:02) If the friend himself doesn’t want to add a commitment to the ten should the ten make sure that he does? How do you realize this in the ten?
R. The ten has to show everybody, each and every friend, how much they need the Arvut as much as they want to advance and in this way they advance. We need to be concerned that each and every friend will get the impression from the pace of the ten.
32. S. (47:53) How can I be a guarantor for the friends on the one hand and also nullify before them?
R. Yes. I am willing in all my forces to be in guarantee to the friends and their spiritual path wherever I can add, and I add in awakening, in participation, corporeal, spiritual, as much as I can, and I hope that in this way I will also be rewarded that they actually come to help me. Man will help his friend is a must without that we cannot advance. The Creator gives his help only in the connection between us for help.
33. S. (48:48) Will eventually humanity take the shape of a billion tens?
R. Well let’s say so. What is the problem?
34. S. (49:25) If the Creator sends the person a state that makes the person fall from the system of Arvut how can you say that the person is causing the damage?
R. The person causes that with his pleas, even though he doesn’t feel that he is requesting our heart is constantly requesting.
35. S. (49:44) What state does Baal HaSulam call in the article filthy and how can I see the damage I do to the whole system?
R. Filthy meaning my will to receive, my egoistic desires but I also connect them to my whole spiritual work.
36. S. (50:15) How to detach from yourself?
R. From myself I can disconnect when I devote myself to the ten through the ten to the Creator and I ask for the Creator. I ask the Creator to connect me in the ten in a way that there will not be me. Just me who was included in the ten.
Reading Item 18 (50:48)
Reading Item 19 (52:21)
37. R. (55:32) In history it was like that. First of all the shattered souls needed to come that were less shattered than the others and from that we have groups of Kabbalists that were together in the past and the ancient past and then more and more through the light shining more it awakened more souls in corporeal advancement and also from those the purest souls, the most refined, go into spiritual advancement more and more. So it turns out that in this way the wisdom of Kabbalah came to a time for revelation let’s say from 5000 years ago and the times of Adam HaRishon until this day the process is still taking place, but we already see how more and more people are coming and connecting. It started from this group of Abraham from Egypt coming back to the land of Israel. That then many people from the nations that were here connected to them and from Rome and Greece, from the group of Israelites, that were there, they got the way they relate to Creation only they took it in a way that they took it to Christianity, the Christians, the Roman, and the Greek took a scientific advancement from it and then these three lines started developing the Romans, the Greek, and the Israelites. We will speak about it more at some point when we have a chance but until this day humanity still has all signs of that, still. What needs to be revealed is that we have to make sure that everybody now again connects into one process and reach revelation of the Creator to all.
38. S. (58:31) What does it mean that they carried out the Torah before it was given?
R. The Torah was given when they came out of the exile of Egypt. Meaning that, that group was in the world to receive in order to receive and when they started coming out of it, as much as they were able to they were and as much as they weren’t they weren’t. So that period is called the period of the exodus from Egypt. Coming out of exile, uplifting above the will to receive in order to bestow and that is it. From then we already have the group of Kabbalists whether more or less that are in a crisis and ascents and descendants, and they keep going until this day. Still in each and every generation there are Kabbalists that continue this process, and you are now connecting to them, and you have an opportunity to correct your souls and reach the general correction of the world.
39. S. (1:00:10) Just as you can’t start with all the nations you cannot start with the whole ten and then it starts with a few friends yes?
R. Yes some are more active, and some are less.
40. S. (1:00:43) We heard from the friends about the importance of the scrutiny, and we built a group question. How come we clarify what is missing in order to attain the goal in the ten?
R. You are only lacking connection. We lack nothing but connection then between us and the friend we could scrutinize what else we are lacking to reach a perfect connection and each time to ask for the advancement to that perfect state, the Creator, constantly ask from Him demand from Him and in this way we advance actually there is nothing except for that.
41. S. (1:01:36) He describes some critical mass necessary for the Arvut to happen, like some 600,000. What is that?
R. It is not in quantity but usually in quantity and just as it was in the days of Rabbi Shimon and all kinds of other states of the Ari, Ramchal, it is still not a matter of quantity. We today are able to get to Arvut in each and every ten and obviously if we are in many tens and think of that Mutual support so we will succeed quicker and more intensely, it is all before us.
S. What is the addition from connection to Arvut?
R. Connection isn’t Arvut, I don’t know what connection is.
S. What is the addition between connection and Arvut?
R. The addition is that in Arvut each one is for the other.
S. I didn’t understand, in connection also each one is for the other, no?
R. No. Where is that written? Connection means an external contact with one another that we have some sort of mutual interest, but this mutuality is not mutual guarantee yet. It could be that today is a good connection and tomorrow is a bad one and then today we are in peace and tomorrow is a bad one and tomorrow we are at war instead of peace and Arvut means that I, in all of my spiritual advancement, I am for the other and I am incorporated into everything. That we are Incorporated in one another. That is the difference.
42. R. (1:03:49) What I’m asking you throughout the day is to repeat these things please and also the previous article that we went through. We finished it and also this one.