The Principle #10

We must develop a sense of mutual responsibility (Arvut) toward the group.

33. Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut [Mutual Guarantee],” Item 18

"The Tana described the Arvut as two people who were on a boat, and one of them began to drill a hole in the boat. His friend said, “Why are you drilling?” He replied, “Why should you mind? I am drilling under me, not under you.” So he replied, “Fool! We will both drown together in the boat!”"

34. Baal HaSulam, “Matan Torah [The Giving of the Torah],” Item 16

"If six hundred thousand men abandon their work for the satisfaction of their own needs and worry about nothing but standing guard so their friends will not lack a thing, and moreover, they will engage in this with great love, with their very heart and soul, in the full meaning of the Mitzva, “Love your friend as yourself,” it is then beyond doubt that no one in the nation will need to worry about his own well-being.

Because of this, one becomes completely free of securing his own survival and can easily observe the Mitzva, “Love your friend as yourself”."

(based on a lesson from Rav Laitman on the Topic of Arvut - from 2021)

From Connection to Mutual Guarantee

We have integration, connection, and various signs that the broken vessels are approaching one another. we are not referring to people, but to desires that feel themselves as broken and distant from one another, and that somehow begin to draw closer.

Among them, there is a shared goal: to reach, as much as possible, the correct form of the corrected vessel, to become "as one man with one heart," and to reassemble the system of Adam HaRishon.

Connection already means that the desires are included within one another. Mutual guarantee, however, is not merely being included within one another. It means being ready to stand in place of the other, which is a more active condition than integration.

In integration, I may take the qualities of another and use them, and we often do this even egoistically. Mutual guarantee, however, cannot remain an egoistic action. It obligates us to truly act for one another.

Therefore, mutual guarantee is the action that completes, seals, and finishes our corrections.

When the General and the Particular Become Equal

Reaching complete mutual guarantee means that each one is included in everyone. Each one contains all the qualities, desires, thoughts, and everything else that the Creator created in the vessel of Adam HaRishon.

Every part then contains all the other parts. As a result, each particular part and the complete vessel can become truly identical. The general and the particular become equal.

The equality of the general and the particular is the sign of a vessel that has been truly corrected in a spiritual form.

Responsibility Before the Creator

We also need to understand that mutual guarantee stems from feeling our responsibility toward the Creator.

I can be a guarantor for each and every one in the entire vessel of humanity, in the entire soul. Within this vessel, I am ready to replace everyone and to be truly responsible for each and every one before the Creator.

This means that I am responsible for the correction of the entire general soul of Adam.

Taking Upon Myself the Roles of the Friends

In my desire to reach the level of mutual guarantee, Arvut, I seek ways to substitute for my friends. I seek to take upon myself more and more of their roles, including what they need to do toward the entire vessel and toward the Creator.

I am willing to assume these roles. This is essentially what mutual guarantee obligates me to do.

Here, the question arises: How can I replace them? How can I assume their roles?

However, within our aspiration to achieve mutual guarantee, everything is resolved, and we understand that we are capable of doing so.

Originally, in the vessel that the Creator created before the shattering, we were included within one another. Only the shattering created such distances between us that we are now able to understand how opposite we are.

All the desires, places, and distances that are revealed between us can be filled specifically with love. This is called "love covers all transgressions."

Then we reach a state in which we not only substitute for one another, but also attain a truly powerful vessel, 620 times greater than it was before the shattering.

Complete Correction of Adam HaRishon

The complete correction of the vessel of Adam HaRishon is the attainment of complete mutual guarantee.

In this condition, each part is responsible for all the other parts, and everyone is included within everyone else. Each part becomes included in all the parts, and through this we attain the perfection of the vessel.

This is how it is in spirituality: the general and the particular are equal, and there is no difference between them.

Therefore, mutual guarantee can exist only after complete inclusion. It is only through this complete inclusion that mutual guarantee is attained.

The Example of Two People in a Boat

The example given to us is that of two people in a boat.

We will discuss why this particular form was chosen. At first, it seems quite limited, as though it refers only to a transgression that one person might commit and to nothing beyond that.

We shall see.

What Mutual Guarantee Means

First of all, we need to understand what mutual guarantee is.

Mutual guarantee means taking responsibility. It means being willing to replace everyone and being capable of standing in the place of each and every one.

It is like being Keter and Malchut for everything contained in the general vessel. Then I am ready to stand for all my vessels.

Nevertheless, we know that there are large vessels, small vessels, limited vessels, and vessels of many different kinds. There is not one infinite vessel, but many broken vessels.

What, then, do we achieve through mutual guarantee?

Through mutual guarantee, every vessel, no matter how small, specific, unique, or marginal it may be, comes to contain all the vessels within itself through inclusion and mutual guarantee.

It then knows how to function in place of the entire general vessel. There is no difference between the particular vessel and the general vessel.

This is the extent of the attainment.

In spirituality, we will see how these things are fulfilled. Mutual guarantee is therefore a law that exists in spirituality in its complete form.

Discussion

How do you understand this state of Arvut?

How can we reach this state of Arvut to compel the Creator to be with us in the ten?

We do this through our prayers, because we ourselves are incapable of correcting anything.

When do we finally see that we are approaching correction? It happens when we despair of our own strength, of all the efforts we have made, and of all the actions we have carried out. We see that we have no chance of succeeding or attaining anything by ourselves.

Even this realization is initially egoistic, since it still comes from our egoistic desire. Nevertheless, we begin to understand that we have no possibility of doing anything unless the Creator does it.

"If the Lord does not build the house, its builders labor in vain."

This is when we arrive at a true demand.

Then it becomes clear that the Creator is the one who corrects us. He connects us, brings us the necessary conditions, and shows us what to do and how to do it. He shows us what He is doing with us, how He changes each one of us, and how He changes the connection between us.

We can truly feel this. We feel how we change from day to day, and sometimes even more quickly than that.

In this way, we come to feel that the Creator is, in fact, the guarantor.

After all, where do we receive the strength? Where do we receive the understanding of what to do, how to connect, or how I can stand in place of the friend?

I am incapable of doing any of this by myself.

It follows that the Creator is the guarantor.