- This topic has 809 replies, 333 voices, and was last updated hace 2 semanas, 5 días by
.
- Respuestas
why 125 steps down and not 130? why 12 desires and not 20? why 600 pieces? so maybe I share the spark with 10k people? I am 1/10000?
Hi Nat,
The numbers all have their own significance. When a person attains spirituality, he begins to research it, and discovers all these numbers from his research. But what exactly is he researching, what is spirituality?
Essentially we’re always talking about a desire. Our current reality is based on our current nature, the desire to receive. Spirituality on the other hand operates according to a different desire, that of pure bestowal. The different numbers are just a different way to divide up that spiritual desire. This desire can be divided into 613 parts, or 620 parts, or 600,000 pieces, or 125 degrees, or even 10 sefirot.
It’s just like how we can study a person based on his behavior, or based on his anatomy, or based on his external appearance, or his internal chemistry. Ultimately we’re studying the same person, but from different angles. Same with these different divisions, they are all talking about the same spiritual desire but from different angles or a different scale.
Regarding the 125 steps, the number 125 comes from the structure of the upper worlds. This structure is just a division of the spiritual desire that we need to correct into sefirot, partzufim, and worlds.
The most basic division of the desire is 1 Sefira. 5 Sefirot compose 1 partzuf. 5 Partzufim compose 1 world. There are 5 worlds in total. So 5 worlds each with 5 partzufim each with 5 sefirot equals 125 (5x5x5) steps on the spiritual ladder. This number symbolizes the gap, the delta, between our nature and the Creator’s nature.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2010/11/numbers-indicate-quality-not-quantity/
Regarding 600,000, this is less of a quantitative number and more of a qualitative number. It represents the strength of the spiritual desire after it’s been fully corrected.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman to see how this number is derived:
https://laitman.com/2010/09/love-and-hatred-of-600000-souls/
Albert @ KabU
Hi Albert,
do we look into our own nature on the inside to correct our desires? does this mean we are teaching, creating and healing ourselves/ what are the 613 desires?
Hi Nicole,
We’re all part of a single system, like cells within a single body. Correcting myself, my desires, means that I fix my connection with others in that body. So the focus is less about me and digging within myself and more about my connection with others and how to properly connect back into a single body.
It’s like we’re trying to solve a 8 billion piece jigsaw puzzle, where each person is one piece of that puzzle. Each piece of the puzzle (each person) is perfect by itself and does not require any correction. Meaning that we don’t need to recolor any of the pieces or cut off any seemingly excess parts. The only thing we need to do is find where each piece fits relative to all the other pieces. And by that we correct everything.
Check out these blog posts from Rav Laitman for more details:
https://laitman.com/2014/05/puzzle-adam-harishon/
https://laitman.com/2015/09/compliance-with-the-613-mitzvot-commandments/
Albert @ KabU
Hey Albert,
I was wondering how you know each time you’ve corrected a desire? In other words, how do I know each time I ascend one of the 125 spiritual degrees?
Also, a more personal question— I have bipolar disorder and for instance, when I had my first really bad manic episode, I began correlating things that don’t go together in reality (or so I was told) with my life directly. For instance, I’d be watching TV in the hospital and be 1000% convinced everything on some random TV show is my life being played out before me. That being said— a lot of things in spirituality, I’ve noticed, depend on these seemingly “random” correlations between things, like the example I gave from when I was in the hospital. My question is— how do I make the apparent distinction between the two, without leaning into mania?
thank you in advance for your insight 🙂
Hi Zori,
1. Spirituality works according to the law of equivalence of form. To the extent that we become similar to it, to the spiritual qualities of love and bestowal, to that extent we reach spiritual attainment. And to that same extent we reveal the Creator in practice. In other words, if we truly made a correction and rose to a spiritual degree, then accordingly we would reveal the Creator on that degree.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2012/04/when-all-doubts-will-dissipate/
2. Kabbalah requires of a person to make strong inner efforts. For a person with a mental health disorder, such efforts could worsen their mental state and ultimately harm them. For this reason, a person with an untreated mental health disorder should not study Kabbalah without first consulting their doctor and getting it treated. It is also not recommended to study Kabbalah while taking any psychiatric drugs.
Albert @ KabU
Dear Albert,
A last question pertaining to lesson3: OK, I understand that there is a ladder of 125 degrees we have to climb in order to get the complete equivalence of form with the creator.( I do not think that we can achieve it in one reincarnation-at least not mine). But there are also 613 (types of) desires to transmute/ correct. How these 613 desires relate to the 125 steps of the ladder?
Thank you again Albert
I know that answering all these questions of us take much of your time,
My bests
Hi Lorie,
Essentially we’re always talking about a desire. Our current reality is based on our current nature, the desire to receive. Spirituality on the other hand operates according to a different desire, that of pure bestowal. The different numbers are just a different way to divide up that spiritual desire. This desire can be divided into 613 parts, or 600,000 pieces, or 125 degrees, or even 10 sefirot.
It’s just like how we can study a person based on his behavior, or based on his anatomy, or based on his external appearance, or his internal chemistry. Ultimately we’re studying the same person, but from different angles. Same with these different divisions, they are all talking about the same spiritual desire but from different angles or a different scale.
So rising up the ladder of 125 degrees is the same as correcting all the 613 desires.
Furthermore, we should keep in mind that numbers in Kabbalah are qualitative, not quantitative. Meaning that they are a means by which to characterize a state.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2010/11/numbers-indicate-quality-not-quantity/
So in practice we don’t work according to some quantitative list of desires. Rather the Kabbalists tell us to focus all of our work on one rule: “love your friend as yourself”. Through that we can reach our full correction.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2015/09/compliance-with-the-613-mitzvot-commandments/
Regarding achieving the correction in our lifetime, check out this blog post from Rav Laitman: https://laitman.com/2018/03/is-it-worthwhile-for-an-older-person-to-study-kabbalah/
Albert @ KabU
P.S. I don’t mind the questions as long as you don’t mind the extra reading materials 🙂
These are great questions and answers. But I will go back to the age-old question… I get that ego causes trauma and pain. But! How is it that innocent people were murdered systematically in the holocaust? I can’t believe 6+million were ?being corrected? Thanks for your time.
Dear Albert,
Your answer has been very helpful. Now I understand, (different way of expressing the same thing) and it will help me understand further notions I guess. And no I do not mind the further readings you propose, on the contrary. It helps get acquainted with the basic notions more deeply and in the right way. And I always love reading. After that of course is the matter of integrating these notions in oneself.
Thanks much!
Hi Robbie,
In the article the Peace, Baal HaSulam describes how we live in a closed system, in between two forces of nature: reception and bestowal. So when there is a lack of balance between these two forces, pressure builds up, and eventually looks for an outlet. Similar to how if you pump air into a balloon, if you put too much, it’ll eventually explode. So the lack of balance between the forces of reception and bestowal causes these types of things to happen.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2008/10/nature%E2%80%99s-commandments-the-creator%E2%80%99s-laws/
For more details on the holocaust, check out this blog post: https://laitman.com/2018/04/no-fear-of-another-holocaust/
Albert @ KabU
This article re the Holocaust is Incredibly offensive.
pain and suffering serve to help understanding and compassion and opens us to all that isJudgement like this is the worse form of ego ism
I am a different Maggie than Maggie in WC – though our challenges are similar I am in NC
Hi Albert,
Correct me if I am wrong. It is about the “screen” The way I see it, before enlightment (the growing desire to connect with the light in the point of the heart) the screen is conditioned by the distorted perception of our 5 senses. When the desire for connection in the light grows strong enough, this screen get gradually corrected with the development of the 6th sense which progressively enable us to perceive reality as it really is? I hope my question is clear.
Thank you for your answer and good day to you!
Hi Lorie,
Yes, you can say that. To the extent that we correct ourselves, to that extent we begin to perceive a corrected reality outside of us. It’s like I have these dirty glasses through which I see the whole world as dirty. The moment I clean my own glasses, I’ll look at the same world, but now it’s clean and perfect.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2014/04/in-neutral-gear/
Albert @ KabU
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.