Mutual Guarantee as a Condition for the Light

Hello dear friends and welcome to our lesson about the fundamentals of Kabbalah. We have a very special guest teaching today - Chaim Ratz. He is the foundation of our English department and thanks to him you have all the books and sources in English. He's literally given decades of translation to the group.

We're continuing with The Arvut - and we need to understand the terminology around the word Israel. And along with that he's also talking about the nations of the world. Sometimes in the wisdom of Kabbalah words can have a few different meanings.

Another term or approach of Baal HaSulam is talking about Rabbi Shimon and Rabbi Elazar - it appears to be two separate approaches. But he actually does that to talk about two parts of the same vessel. Rabbi Elazar was Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai's son. Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai wrote the Zohar. He's saying here that it's not enough for Israel to start the correction but the nations of the world must also be corrected. This is not what it sounds like being about countries - it's actually talking about different parts of the vessel.

In Letter 21, Baal HaSulam presents us with a statement: "The world is judged for its majority" - meaning that the Supreme Providence does not judge one person but all of them together. The Upper Light treats humanity as if it were a corrected humanity. We who are opposed to the Upper Light feel the Providence as bad.

He further expands that the role of the Israeli nation is to prepare all of humanity to correct the intention for the sake of receiving, until all are worthy and ready to accept upon themselves the work of the Creator.

Baal HaSulam claims that he did one mitzvah, "blessed be he who decided... for the sake of merit." Meaning that every private action that a person does for others is added to the general account and has the power to decide for the sake of merit. Why? Because we are included in one system. Therefore, everything depends on my work - Baal HaSulam calls it adding my sesame seed.

So what is it? Are we judged all together or one by one?

At the end of the letter it's clarified -

"Thus you find that Rabbi Elazar, 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."

We'll start with a clip where Rav is explaining the connection between Arvut (mutual guarantee) and the light that reforms.

Clip: Mutual Guarantee as a Condition for the Light

''And it was found that all the individuals in the nation were united together, and became one heart and one man, because only then were they prepared to receive the Torah, as explained."

This is the condition if we want to receive the light that reforms that will raise us from the level of this egoistic, animalistic world, the level of living beings to the level of the upper world, the level of the speaking, then we need a force that raises us. This is the force of the Torah called "receiving the Torah," and it affects us on the condition that we do try to establish among ourselves the "law of guarantee." That is, each one is a guarantee for the others, and as more and more people join in the observance of this law of mutual guarantee, they enter the same group on which the upper light acts and corrects them, and they become a real place for the revelation of the Creator, for devotion to the Creator, and so on.

And this condition is a condition of all reality, of all humans, of all souls, but there is a difference in souls, to the extent to which they were capable of bestowing before the breaking, and to the extent to which they are capable of receiving after the breaking, And whoever was higher fell deeper, and the clarification is from easy to hard. Therefore, these souls who were the smallest, they are clarified first, because the will to receive in them is weak and it is easier to correct them. Therefore, the correction is from easy to hard.

Therefore, although we see these things gradually, we need to understand that the righteous people of God are only the beginning of the path of the entire world, and He must thereby draw the entire world after Him to the fulfillment of that law of guarantee. Mutual Guarantee is the condition of the one soul that is corrected, united and ready to be unique, in adherence to the Creator. Michael Laitman

In the wisdom of Kabbalah, the correction is always from the purer vessels - from Israel to the nations of the world, or from Israel to all of humanity.

Today we are learning Letter 23:

23) With these words, we clearly understand what we said above in Item 5 about the Torah being given specifically to the Israeli nation, because it is certain and unequivocal that the purpose of creation lies on the shoulders of the whole of the human race, black, or white, or yellow, without any essential difference.

But because of the descent of human nature to the lowest degree, which is the self-love that rules over all of humanity without restraint, there was no way to negotiate with them and persuade them to agree to take upon themselves, even as a mere promise, to exit their narrow frame into the wide world of love of others. The exception was the Israeli nation because they were enslaved in the savage kingdom of Egypt four hundred years in horrible torments.

Our sages said, “As salt sweetens meat, suffering scours man’s sins.” This means that they bring to the body great refinement. In addition, the refinement of their holy fathers assisted them, as said in Item 16, which is the most important, as some of the verses of the Torah testify.

Because of these two prefaces, they were qualified for it. This is why the text refers to them in singular form, as it is written, “And Israel camped there before the mountain,” which our sages interpret as “as one man with one heart.”

This is because each and every person from the nation completely detached himself from self-love, and wanted only to benefit his friend, as we have shown above in Item 16 regarding the meaning of the Mitzva, “Love your friend and yourself.” It turns out that all the individuals in the nation had come together and became one heart and one man, for only then were they qualified to receive the Torah.

We need to remember that Baal HaSulam is writing these words in the 1930's when the whole world was divided - it was the rise of the Nazis and all the countries in Europe are fighting. There is so much institutionalized racism. The world is totally divided. And at this time, Baal HaSulam is talking about all of humanity reaching the goal of creation - he was revolutionary in his thinking. Groundbreaking actually to be envisioning peace at such a time of turmoil.

Clip: Article of the Covenant, Letter 23

''However, from the descent of human nature to the lowest level, as explained above, which is the matter of self-love, which rules without control over all humanity," which is a mandatory thing, which must be, that all humans will eventually reach the lowest state in the will to receive, "there was no way to negotiate with them and understand them, that they would decide and agree to accept upon themselves, even with a promise of alms, to go out of their narrow framework into the wide world of love for others." As our father Abraham tried to do in Babylon, and in this he only sought out the pure people who were capable, willing to hear about love for others.

"Except for the Israeli nation," the totality of these people are called "the Israeli nation." "Which by virtue of what preceded them, slavery to the savage kingdoms of Egypt for four hundred years, in great and terrible torments. And the words of the Sages are known, who said: "As salt makes the flesh sweet, so torments make a man's sins bitter." That is, that they bring great purification to the body. And in addition to this, that the purification of their holy fathers stood for them, as mentioned in Letter 16, which is the main thing, as several readings in the Torah testify to this."

That is, the beginning of the work was in Babylon. They began to work in connection, in kindness, in love for others, and received the heaviness of the heart called the "exile of Egypt." Despite this, they invested all their strength in connection, saw that they were unable to serve God in this way, so they entered into a struggle against their ego, against the desire to receive, against Pharaoh, "Let my people go, and let them serve me." This means that one must rise above the ego, cannot reach this great desire to receive together with the desire to bestow, there must be some detachment here from the desire to receive, a rise above it, and then they were granted this exaltation called the "Exodus from Egypt."

In a state of ascension, they corrected themselves, they brought the Egyptian vessels of reception, built the First and Second Temples, and broke. That is to say, they corrected themselves with the vessels of Bina and broke. In total, that part that came out of Babylon, it went through all the stages of correction and broke in order to be integrated with all the other vessels of Babylon. And now we are before the general correction." Michael Laitman