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Would my understanding be correct by thinking that we have no free will and firstly, that free will lies in the wanting to grow the point in our heart and that secondly, free will occurs in how we respond to a given situation?
Hi Charlene,
When we learn about freedom, we’re not talking about some philosophical concept of free will, but rather freedom from our egoistic nature. We can reach that freedom by placing our point in the heart in a strong spiritual environment.
Baal HaSulam talks about this in the article, the Freedom. He writes: “Harut (carved) on the tables”; do not pronounce it Harut (carved), but rather Herut (freedom), to show that they are liberated from the angel of death.
Throughout the article he explains how our current egoistic nature is that angel of death. Meaning although we are technically alive and surviving, relative to spirituality, our life is considered death. True life is within a completely different nature, that of bestowal. In order to reach freedom from our current nature, we need to choose and build a spiritual environment for ourselves which will influence us with the importance of acquiring the quality of bestowal.
For this reason, the Kabbalists equate our main freedom in life in choosing to be influenced by a spiritual environment. Not just any environment, but specifically a spiritual environment, since only through the spiritual environment can we get the importance of coming out of our egoistic nature and only through that environment can we draw the light that can help us to actualize this.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2012/10/bestowal-should-become-fashionable/
Furthermore, in that same article, Baal HaSulam explains that everything else, like our good thoughts and deed and responses to the current situation, is a RESULT of us placing ourselves in a good spiritual environment.
This is similar to a seed that if we plant it in fertile ground, then it’ll get all the right nutrients and grow. If we put it in the desert or just keep it on a shelf somewhere, nothing will come out of it at all. So all of our work boils down to finding the best spiritual environment in which to plant that seed. And what will ultimately happen to it is a result of the environment we put it into.
Here’s a quote about that from the article the Freedom:
“However, there is freedom for the will to initially choose such an environment, such books, and such guides that impart to him good concepts. If one does not do that, but is willing to enter any environment that appears to him and read any book that falls into his hands, he is bound to fall into a bad environment or waste his time on worthless books, which are abundant and easier to come by. In consequence, he will be forced into foul concepts that make him sin and condemn. He will certainly be punished, not because of his evil thoughts or deeds, in which he has no choice, but because he did not choose to be in a good environment, for in that there is definitely a choice.
Therefore, he who strives to continually choose a better environment is worthy of praise and reward. But here, too, it is not because of his good thoughts and deeds, which come to him without his choice, but because of his effort to acquire a good environment, which brings him these good thoughts and deeds.”
Albert @ KabU
Hi Charlene,
When we learn about freedom, we’re not talking about some philosophical concept of free will, but rather freedom from our egoistic nature. We can reach that freedom by placing our point in the heart in a strong spiritual environment.
Baal HaSulam talks about this in the article, the Freedom. He writes: “Harut (carved) on the tables”; do not pronounce it Harut (carved), but rather Herut (freedom), to show that they are liberated from the angel of death.
Throughout the article he explains how our current egoistic nature is that angel of death. Meaning although we are technically alive and surviving, relative to spirituality, our life is considered death. True life is within a completely different nature, that of bestowal. In order to reach freedom from our current nature, we need to choose and build a spiritual environment for ourselves which will influence us with the importance of acquiring the quality of bestowal.
For this reason, the Kabbalists equate our main freedom in life in choosing to be influenced by a spiritual environment. Not just any environment, but specifically a spiritual environment, since only through the spiritual environment can we get the importance of coming out of our egoistic nature and only through that environment can we draw the light that can help us to actualize this.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2012/10/bestowal-should-become-fashionable/
Furthermore, in that same article, Baal HaSulam explains that everything else in life, like our good thoughts and deed and responses to the current situation is a RESULT of us placing ourselves in a good spiritual environment.
This is similar to a seed that if we plant it in fertile ground, then it’ll get all the right nutrients and grow. If we put it in the desert or just keep it on a shelf somewhere, nothing will come out of it at all. So all of our work boils down to finding the best spiritual environment in which to plant that seed. And what will ultimately happen to it is a result of the environment we put it into.
Here’s a quote about that from the article the Freedom:
“However, there is freedom for the will to initially choose such an environment, such books, and such guides that impart to him good concepts. If one does not do that, but is willing to enter any environment that appears to him and read any book that falls into his hands, he is bound to fall into a bad environment or waste his time on worthless books, which are abundant and easier to come by. In consequence, he will be forced into foul concepts that make him sin and condemn. He will certainly be punished, not because of his evil thoughts or deeds, in which he has no choice, but because he did not choose to be in a good environment, for in that there is definitely a choice.
Therefore, he who strives to continually choose a better environment is worthy of praise and reward. But here, too, it is not because of his good thoughts and deeds, which come to him without his choice, but because of his effort to acquire a good environment, which brings him these good thoughts and deeds.”
Albert @ KabU
In the video, Rav makes a distinction between our “little ego” in this world and a different “big ego” that grows as we work towards spirituality. The corporeal ego is not something for us to work with? Thanks!
Hi Mona,
We don’t need to correct the corporeal ego. In corporeality, we need to arrange our lives in the normal way (of course without causing harm to anyone and without breaking any laws).
But our main focus is on the spiritual ego. This is what stands in the way of our connection with the Creator. Normally we don’t even feel the spiritual ego. It’s something we discover only after doing some serious spiritual work.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2010/10/true-evil/
Albert @ KabU
My takeaway from this week is to create a spiritual environment and that this will help us achieve freedom.. Didn’t understand more. But no one in my vesinkty practices kabbalah, I go to church so I’m being exposed to simular ideas about being self sacrificing and giving without getting back… But idk if that’s enough
Hi Yeabsera,
Freedom means coming out of our egoistic nature. We can reach freedom by building for ourselves a strong spiritual environment which will influence us with the importance of coming out of our ego and acquiring the nature of bestowal.
For this reason, the Kabbalists equate our main freedom in life in choosing to be influenced by a spiritual environment. Not just any environment, but specifically a spiritual environment, since only through the spiritual environment can we get the importance of coming out of our nature and only through that environment can we draw the light that can help us to actualize this.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2012/10/bestowal-should-become-fashionable/
As for building the spiritual environment, this is possible to do virtually as well. In the advanced semesters of KabU, everyone will be placed in virtual groups of ten and taught how to build a strong spiritual environment in those groups.
Albert @ KabU
Hi,
Sorry if this is a little off topic, but it is part of my quest for deeper understanding.
Is it possible that what we perceive as “psychic phenomena” be a Hereditary Possession? I have precognitive dreams, as does my mother, her mothers mother, her father, etc. My mother and I have also shared the same dream in a night before, are born on the same day, even born on the same time (12hr clock, one PM one AM.) I am not sure where this all fits in with a bigger Plan, but it must be happening for some reason, and can’t surely all be coincidence, since all comes from the Upper force. Does Kabbalah have anything to remark on such things?Thanks so much
Hi Steven,
Our dreams, whether they are regular dreams or precognitive dreams, stem from our egoistic nature. As such, Kabbalah does not deal with these things. Rather, Kabbalah helps us to come out of our egoistic nature into the nature of pure love and bestowal.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2015/02/we-cannot-live-without-sleep/
Albert @ KabU
Hi Judy,
Not necessarily. Freedom means coming out of our egoistic nature. We can reach freedom by building for ourselves a strong spiritual environment which will influence us with the importance of coming out of our ego and acquiring the nature of bestowal.
For this reason, the Kabbalists equate our main freedom in life in choosing to be influenced by a spiritual environment. Not just any environment, but specifically a spiritual environment, since only through the spiritual environment can we get the importance of coming out of our nature and only through that environment can we draw the light that can help us to actualize this.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2012/10/bestowal-should-become-fashionable/
Albert @ KabU
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