The Bond (Arvut), Talk 1
Lesson by Rav Michael Laitman, Bnei Baruch, Israel
November 17, 2005
· Bold and indented: Original text of Baal HaSulam
· Regular: Commentaries of Rav Laitman
· lowercase italics: emphasized words
· Capitalized Italics: transliteration from Hebrew
In the previous lesson we finished with you the article Matan Torah (The Revelation of Godliness). In fact, it has a continuation, which is called The Arvut (The Bond) on page118 in the book, Kabbalah Le Matchil (Kabbalah for Beginners). It is called, "The continuation to the article Matan Torah."
You really can’t separate the two articles, because with these articles Baal HaSulam wanted to turn to people, to the wide public, perhaps to the whole world. That was the period when he went to Poland in order to participate with Polish workers in the celebration of the 1st of May, their Labor’s holiday. He wanted to feel and to understand if in all of these people’s inclinations there is any possibility to connect Kedusha (sanctity) to them. He made several such attempts approaching the public all over the world.
This is an example of how Baal HaSulam didn’t discriminate by assuming that Kedusha should first go to Jews and then to the nations of the world, but rather the wisdom would penetrate like water wherever it could; he tried to check if it was possible to instill it and then act accordingly.
Therefore it might have been his intention to turn to the entire world with these articles at that time. This is from a long time ago, back in the 1930’s. In fact other than this artificial division between the articles, they are but one article. They even continue the items, the numbering of which continues the sequence from the previous article. We finished the article, Matan Torah and the Revelation of the Godliness, item17. Then here we begin with the end of item17 and continue to item 18.
Kabbalah Le Matchil page 118, article Arvut.
All of Israel is responsible for one another (Sanhedrin, 27, 72)
This is to speak of the bond when all of Israel became responsible for one another because the Torah was not given to them before each of them was asked if he would take upon himself the mitzvah (precept) of loving others in the full measure expressed in the words: “Love thy neighbor as thyself." That means that each and every one in Israel took upon himself to care and work for each member of the nation and satisfy their every need; no less than the amount imprinted in him to care for his own needs.
This means that the correction of creation is for all the souls to connect into one soul, as it was prior to the breaking, and by that the world will reach the desired correction. All of us are in a system called Adam ha Rishon and each one of us feels separated from the others, meaning each doesn’t feel the needs of the others, doesn’t feel the general system and wants only his own good and own benefits. This is called the breaking, the corruption, while the correction is the opposite. Everyone must connect to all the others and thus live in the general desire. Instead of his own individual desire he has to connect to the general desire. In this way one acquires the whole system of Adam ha Rishon with all the fillings in it. The filling is the Upper Light or the Creator in the general Kli called Adam ha Rishon of the general soul.
Drawing No. 1
Everyone of us is an individual soul or individual desire. Adam ha Rishon is a general Kli; it is the general soul. Other than that in this topic there is nothing. That’s why it says "love thy friend as thyself," which is a great rule in the Torah, where by loving, through love we connect to one another. Love means that one soul acquires desires of another soul as its own, connects to them, and by that they become one. As he writes here, for everyone cares for the needs of his friend “no less than what is imprinted in a person to care for his own needs.” So, we have an example: as much as I care for myself, I should also care for the other.
How do I know how much I should care for me? That’s why I have the left line. It can appear every time and show me how egotistical I am, on condition that I want to work in the right line, in giving. Then in between them I will build my attitude to the others, which is called the middle line. The left line will appear to the extent that I can work with it.
Drawing No. 2
Thus "he who is greater than his friend, his desire is greater than him." To the extent one can work and can turn the ego that appears into giving, then his desire is greater than him. Then his desire appears more and more and more. By that one ascends and then one recognizes just how much by his own nature one wants to care for himself. As it is written: “To care for the others’ needs as he cares for his own."
This way in Gimel Kavim, in three lines, as we learn, this process of correction happens.
And once the whole nation unanimously agreed and said: “we shall do and we shall hear (Exodus24, 7)," then each member of Israel became responsible that nothing shall be missing from any other member of the nation...
"Became responsible," does not mean that they provided for each one as we might imagine. That’s impossible. They became responsible, that no one will be lacking anything. In what? In his own desires.
What is Baal HaSulam saying? After they unanimously agreed and said, “We shall do and we shall hear." They have to unanimously agree out loud, and the condition being “We shall do and, we shall hear." It’s a condition that I don’t understand. I don’t actually do it.
We learned that in order to do it I have to first be in the sensation of the Arvut. In order to give to another I have to first of all receive from everybody else the sensation of the Arvut. But I haven’t received it, so before receiving the sensation of the Arvut what can I do? I say: “I agree to it" ”and we shall do it.” So once we do this, everyone from Israel becomes responsible that nothing will be missing from any other member of the nation. Then this act happens with respect to everyone. Everyone out of this mere verbal consent receives from everyone, from the general system, the sensation of the Arvut, that no one will be missing anything.
In other words, one becomes detached from one’s will to receive and doesn’t feel that he is being drawn by this will to receive, so that he can exit out of himself and be incorporated with others. It’s all for the sensation of the Arvut.
Drawing No. 3
…and only then did they become worthy of receiving the Torah.
What does it mean “worthy of receiving the Torah?" If they all come together through the condition of the Arvut, which allows each one to care for the others as one would care for oneself, it then creates one general system, “as one man and one heart” and then in this general Kli, which is called the general rule of the Torah, there appears the general Light, which is called Creator or the Upper Light.
Drawing No. 4
With this encompassing responsibility each member of the nation became free of worrying for the needs of his own body...
“His own body” doesn’t pertain to the physical body. What does the physical body want after all?! The body means the will to receive. That’s the meaning of the body in spirituality.
…and could observe the Mitzvah of “Love thy neighbor as thyself” to the fullest extent and give each needy member everything he has, since he no longer cared for the existence of his own body, as he now knows that six hundred thousand loyal lovers stand ready to provide for him.
Through caring for oneself, a person knows how to care for others. He feels that six hundred thousand, meaning everyone, except for him (it's a complete measure is called six hundred thousands) cares for him, and this condition being fulfilled enables him to disconnect from oneself and care for the others.
Drawing No. 5
That’s what Baal HaSulam writes, "he no longer cared for the existence of his own body." Why? Because he knows and is certain that’s why he doesn’t worry; because he knows in certainty that all of these 600,000 give him that sensation that they love him and they stand ready to benefit him, to care for him. That’s the sensation of the Arvut.
This means that the sensation of the Arvut is aimed precisely against the will to receive of a person in the most intrinsic manner without clothing of “I’ll need food, I’ll need some chocolate or, I’ll need something else, I need a pillow to sleep on." No, (it is aimed against the will to receive) in the most raw, the most intrinsic way.
It’s like the Light that fills up the Kli. That’s how the sensation of the Arvut comes from the whole of society to a person and provides the sensation of fulfillment, in the present, without having actually received anything de facto, in clothing, in food or money or honor, clothes, whatever. It works on the spiritual level not on the corporal level, not in bodies but in desires. The desires are already a spiritual thing.
So what does a person feel? That six hundred thousands, meaning the entire world with no one missing, (there can’t be more than that) only loves me and only cares for me. That’s the sensation of the Arvut. That sensation neutralizes the wants in the will to receive. Does that sensation immobilizes the will to receive—then how will one advance further? No, because it comes to a person as a result of committing to “We shall do and we shall hear;” to love and be responsible for the other.
Thus, it is really a closed circuit. That same sensation comes back to that person on condition that he participates in it and, to the measure that he participates in it.
Actually what comes back to a person is what one is willing to send to others. The same package. That’s the meaning of according to the measure of the correction of the Kli, and to the extent of the preparation of the Kli, the Light appears into the Kli. Which Light appears in the Kli? The Kli discloses its own correction. Meaning, that measure of Arvut that one feels from everyone. It’s not that everyone sends one the sensation of the Arvut, but with one’s attitude to others one seemingly creates this sensation of the Arvut.
Here Baal HaSulam doesn’t specify whether we are or are not connected to the Creator. He doesn’t express it in words (in a clear way) here, but of course we are in that condition in order to reach the reception of the Torah. The reception of the Torah is called the "Revelation of the Godliness" in the corrected Kelim and for sure that’s the goal.
Because of that they were not ready to receive the Torah at the time of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,..
Because the ego still didn’t appear among them. And only vis-à-vis the ego, according to the resistance of the ego, can we activate the measure of love. In the same way if we have, let’s say a flow through a resistor, so how we can measure if it’s working or not? Only if we have some resistance. According to the measure of the resistance we can know the kind of work that happens here.
Drawing No. 6
If we had one’s ego here, to the extent of that ego, this resistance, we can say that he executes love for others vis-à-vis his ego. Against this ego he executes “We shall do and we shall hear” because it stands opposite Mount Sinai. Because the height of Mount Sinai expresses the ego, one’s thoughts and everything a person has.
And then truly, to the extent that one goes against the ego, resisting it, i.e. although there is resistance, because of this resistance, one can carry out the measure of love. Otherwise the love is expressed as it was in the time of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as love between relatives where ego doesn’t exist.
Drawing No. 7
Once they became a nation meaning they multiplied in the will to receive in Egypt, their will to receive grew, then, their egos grew enough to distance them from one another and over this distancing, the resistance between them, it became possible to show Arvut and love.
Question: Mount Sinai is the same mountain for everyone and for anyone under it?
Mount Sinai doesn’t appear to the individual but only to a collective entity including everyone. It’s not import whether it is the whole of the nation, the group. We are talking about the situation itself.
You are basically asking this, "when there is a group, what does it mean that it stands opposite Mount Sinai?" It means that it stands opposite the general problem of doing (implementing) the Arvut among themselves. This is called the general Mount Sinai where everyone stands around Mount Sinai.