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I guess one of my worries is going through this learning experience “alone”. I do wish to engage with the online community here, but I am currently a student at a graduate college that would be very against me engaging in this. I feel very isolated. And yes, one of my fears was that maybe this process would drive me “mad”, so I laughed out loud and appreciated when that was addressed. I feel ready for this experience in the sense that I’ve become so aware of my soul’s thirst that I must find water, but I hope to still drink the water with self-control so as not to drown myself. I long to stay in my right mind, without letting my mind wander into deep seas where I lose my footing or cannot anchor myself. I’m not sure if that makes much sense at all. I hope that we can do this “alone, together”. Thank you.
Hi Ashlyn,
We learn from the Kabbalists that “there is no coercion in spirituality.” So no one can force you to follow the spiritual path.
But if you do have the desire to follow this spiritual path, just try it out and you’ll see for yourself that there is nothing to worry about and nothing scary about what we do.
As for learning together virtually, there are plenty of opportunities for that as well, but this will be more relevant in the advanced semesters.
Albert @ KabU
Hi,
thank you for this wonderful teachings. As we ascend through the 125 degrees of separation to meet with the creator – how does one know which degree we are on? Like would we know we are on Degree 55?
thank you
Daniel
Hi Daniel,
We’re still in the preparation period prior to the spiritual ladder. But once we start to do real spiritual work, we can measure our progress in our attitude towards other points in the hearts. That I’ll feel how my attitude towards them changes, from complete indifference, all the way until I feel them as pieces of my soul. We’ll learn about this in the more advanced lessons.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Thanks for this first lesson it’s very interesting and full of gems.
Are the books required to get or we can get them as we delve into the teachings in a later moment?
Tnanks
According to the Kabbalah teachings, we just need to practice and embrace the will to receive and by doing so, we give back or bestow (like the guess at the dinner party who accepts and enjoys the food of the host.)
Now, if Kabbalah is not a Religion nor Jewish Mysticism why Michael Laitman, Anthony Kosinec and many other Kabbalists who teach and study Kabbalah keep practicing the religion of Judaism for example they keep using a kippah?!
Is Kabbalah not enough or it isn’t fullfilling that they need to practice a religion that is a creation of the lower world and it’s based in the five senses?
It is the same with many other Jewish schools or centres that are teaching Kabbalah like the Kabbalah Centre (I studied with them in Toronto) and the Kabbalah Mashiah (in Spain) all of them keep practicing Judaism and are very strict if they don’t follow the holidays or prayers, etc.
Also, I noticed that even though all of them are open to the general public, there is a different treatment to the Jews and the no-Jews.
Hi José-Carlos,
1. The Kippah is a Kabbalistic symbol. It shows us that there is something above us, that we’re under the dominion of a higher force. And that our thoughts are not our thoughts, but everything comes from this one force. This is called “there is none else besides Him”.
Keep in mind that these are just symbols. There is no obligation to carry them out in a religious manner. Why then do some people that study Kabbalah with us choose to wear a Kippah? It’s either out of respect for the culture and traditions they grew up with or because such an action helps them remember about the inner meaning of the Kippah and ultimately reminds them of the Creator.
2. As for Kabbalah and Judaism, Judaism essentially sprang out due to the concealment of Kabbalah. Let’s put this into perspective:
Kabbalah is the method of correcting our egoistic nature and thereby revealing the Creator, the general force of love and bestowal. The first one to actualize this was Adam. His name gives us a hint at this since Adam comes from the Hebrew word “Dome”, meaning “similar to”. He was not the first one alive, but rather the first one to reveal the Creator by becoming similar to this quality of bestowal.
This wisdom gets passed onward from Adam until Abraham who adapted it to the people of his generation and made the wisdom more practical. Abraham put together a large group of Babylonians who were interested in actualizing this method. These people later on became the Israeli nation. The word Israel comes from the Hebrew words “Yashar” “El” meaning straight to God. These are the people who had an active point in the heart in those days and were interested in revealing the Creator.
These people greatly succeeded in this method. The peak of their success was symbolized in the building of the first and second temple, which reflected the level of unity and bestowal they were able to reach. At a certain point, they lost the spiritual connection between them (the destruction of the 2nd temple) and what remained was just these external symbols of their connection.
At this point the wisdom of Kabbalah became concealed. People still had the holy books, Torah and etc, but they did not know how to use them. Since the Torah is written in the language of roots and branches. Meaning it uses words of our world to describe spiritual phenomena. But if a person does not have this spiritual connection through which he can see this, then he thinks this book is talking about this world, history, morals, commandments, etc. From this emerges the Jewish religion.
From all the above we see that Kabbalah itself is not connected to any religion and that the modern religions came out due to the concealment of Kabbalah. At the same time, Kabbalah is not against religions. In fact we have millions of students worldwide, from many different backgrounds and religions. Many of them do choose to maintain their religion or to perform certain religious customs while studying Kabbalah and there is nothing wrong with that. Just like with any other science, a person can be religious and also be a chemist or physicist. Likewise a person can be religious and also study the science of Kabbalah. Baal HaSulam writes that even after the full spiritual correction people can still keep their religions.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2015/12/the-wisdom-of-kabbalah-and-the-other-religions/
Albert @ KabU
Hello again Albert,
1, It doesn’t matter if they do it out of respect for the culture and traditions they grew up with or because such an action helps them remember about the inner meaning of the Kippah and ultimately reminds them of the Creator. That is still a symbol! A symbol based only in the world of branches, of the “reality” of the five senses. It shows they cannot let go from the material perception of the world to the enlightenment of the spiritual world.
You are basically saying that adults keep baby-talking (agoo daa daa) and using pacifiers out of respect to the babies and to help them remember the inner meaning of the pacifier and remind them of the creator. See, babies would be near the world of branches while adults have already touched the world of roots. They don’t need to go backwards, it is meaningless!2. I am sorry, but I disagree, Judaism is totally connected to Kabbalah. Judaism as a religion came to exist after the fall of the temple and as a corrupted residual of the knowledge of Kabbalah. And I have no problem with that.
Hello,
OK, if Kabbalah is a science,
1.- where is the observable and measurable data or evidence, the experiments, the measurements or observations? Where I can find the empirical evidence?
2.- A science must use the scientific method meaning,
a- formulates hypothesis
b- test them trough controlled methods
c-analyze the results
c- draw conclusions that are open to revisions or proved wrong. If the claim, in this case Kabbalah cannot be challenged by evidence, then it is not scientific.
So, Kabbalah must be systematically investigated by using empirical, testable and reproducible methods producing outcomes or knowledge that can be criticized, improved and verified for others.
Hi José-Carlos,
Kabbalah is a science because it uses the basic scientific method to research reality. The Kabbalists are the scientists of Kabbalah. Everything we know is based on their research. This is similar to how other sciences work. The Kabbalists are those researchers that have performed a certain experiment and reached a certain result: the correction of our nature, the revelation of the Creator, the force of bestowal, etc. So if we are to replicate their experiment, to follow their procedures we should reach the same results.
But if a person is not yet on the degree of a Kabbalist, how does he relate to everything he’s learning? Like to any other science. For example, when I read a physics textbook, I see different formulas and experiments that research our reality. If I’m reading this textbook in 8th grade, then I have no choice but to accept the things written there since they come from a credible source. If I’m reading this textbook in college, I’m already given some tools with which I can measure and verify some of these things for myself. And yet there are some concepts that are so advanced, that I have no way to verify them until I become a physicist myself and get access to all the tools that will help me research these things.
Same with us here. There are some things I can verify for myself even when I’m just starting in the fundamentals of this wisdom, and then there are things that I can verify only when I myself have reached attainment.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2011/01/kabbalah-and-other-sciences-philosophy-and-religion/
Albert @ KabU
Hi Albert, thank you for answering me back. What you are describing is pseudoscience and not science.
Nevertheless, Kabbalah cannot be a science since it studies/observes the spiritual world, the world of roots; while science requires observations and measurements only of the material world through the the five senses meaning, the world of branches.
In the example you give, it doesn’t matter if you read a book of physics in 8th grade, and later on in college and later as a physicist, every time you will get the same result based on the experiment, the observation and the measurements.
Kabbalah follows the laws of the world of roots and its causes and the things you can verify for yourself even when you are just starting with the fundamentals of this wisdom, and then the things that you can verify only when you have reached attainment are all and each just in your consciousness and that cannot be measured and observed with the five senses.
Thank you 🙂
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