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- Respuestas
I’m trying to understand something more fundamental about why a person would choose the path of Kabbalah at all.
For a while I thought I first needed to become more stable in corporeal life — to work through psychological and emotional issues, build stable relationships, develop more agency, and generally become capable of functioning well in ordinary life — before seriously continuing with Kabbalah.
But this has created another question for me.
Suppose I actually do all of that. Suppose I become psychologically stable, have meaningful relationships, can regulate myself well, have a stable life, and can function normally in the corporeal world.
I’ve heard several times that Kabbalah itself does not promise to improve any of those things. It does not necessarily improve relationships, finances, self-esteem, emotional health, or ordinary happiness. Those belong to corporeal life and may require their own work.
So then I find myself asking very simply: why should I pursue Kabbalah?
I understand intellectually that the goal is revelation of the Creator, correction of the desire, equivalence of form, and acquisition of spiritual perception. But I’m trying to understand what that actually means from the perspective of the person who has not attained it yet.
What does spiritual attainment give that makes a person genuinely want it?
If a corrected person can still have the same corporeal difficulties, what is fundamentally different in their experience of reality? What is the “reward” that the ego is supposed to be able to orient toward before it has any direct experience of the spiritual world?
I think underneath my technical question there is a very simple one: if Kabbalah does not promise me anything I currently recognize as fulfillment, why should my heart want to walk this path?
Kyro,
If a person could be satisfied by food, sex, family, money, honor, knowledge and power then good for him. There is no commandment to suffer.
If a person, no matter what he has, there is something else in him that remains empty, then that person goes and searches what can fill this emptiness. And if he doesn’t want wrappings but he is looking for the essence and if his soul went through preparations in previous incarnations, then he will find the wisdom of kabbalah.Regarding your other questions, you’re right, the heart, meaning your natural desires won’t want the wisdom of kabbalah. At first, of course it will…you tell it that the spiritual pleasure that you will get will be many many times greater than all of the corporeal pleasures and you should absolutely tell yourself this, because indeed it is so.
But then after that, when the ego feels that it must relinquish his own rule, so then he doesn’t give you any fuel to move. We can only move if we know there will be some benefit, we don’t even lift a finger if there is no benefit, so if you continue beyond that you will need to be in a strong spiritual society that advertises to you the spiritual goal and raises the importance every time anew and you need to study from the authentic books to draw the reforming light and then slowly slowly you are given from above a second nature.All very good and strong questions. I look forward to seeing your progress.
Seth@KabUWhen you say that eventually the ego must relinquish its rule, this actually frightens me a little, because from my present perspective I am the will to receive. My desires for intimacy, belonging, freedom, aliveness, creativity, adventure and a home are what currently make life meaningful to me.
I understand that Kabbalah says the desire itself isn’t destroyed, but the intention over it changes. Could you explain what that means experientially?
Am I eventually supposed to stop valuing these corporeal desires because spiritual fulfillment becomes greater, or can I continue genuinely wanting and living them while acquiring an additional spiritual desire?
I think this is where I am stuck. I am curious about what lies beyond corporeal perception, but I don’t yet experience spiritual fulfillment, whereas I do experience these human desires directly. So when I hear “there is a much greater pleasure,” part of me asks: why should I exchange what I actually know and love for something I cannot yet understand?
Is the path asking me to choose between them, or am I misunderstanding what “relinquishing the ego’s rule” means?
Kyro,
The nature of your questions is very developed. You’ve thought through everything clearly and honestly.The Creator takes into account only your intentions; He does not look at the body, at what you do. The intention. That is what is received by Him. What is the intention? That you have pleasure, and this pleasure is from the fact that you bestow to Him, yes? As you have intention and Returning Light, and after Returning Light you make a zivug d’hakaa and receive, and then that reception comes out in order to bestow.
Seth@KabU
Hi Seth, thank you again for your previous answers. They’ve helped me clarify a lot, and I have one more question that I think is underneath many of the others I’ve been asking.
If the Creator is described in Kabbalah as the absolute quality of bestowal and as “the good who does good,” how should we understand the radically unequal suffering of individual people, especially suffering that begins before a person has any conscious ability to do spiritual work?
For example, one child may grow up with protection, belonging and emotional support, while another may spend many years in an abusive or psychologically confusing environment, feeling ashamed, isolated and unsupported, and may need years simply to become stable enough to participate normally in life.
I understand that we should not interpret this as punishment or karma from a previous incarnation. But does Kabbalah teach that such specific corporeal circumstances are individually arranged according to a soul’s root or Reshimot, or would that already be an interpretation that we are not able to make from our present level?
I also struggle with what kind of relationship the Creator has with the individual. In some Jewish and Hasidic teachings, God is spoken about very intimately, almost as if He has a particular concern and need for each person. In the Kabbalistic language I am learning, the Creator often sounds more like the general law or quality of bestowal in nature. How should I understand the difference? Is there, in Kabbalah, an intimate relationship between the Creator and an individual created being, or is that way of speaking primarily a corporeal metaphor?
And one related question: I have heard instructors say that if someone has trauma or psychological problems, these should be treated on the corporeal level, just as one would go to a doctor for a broken leg. That makes sense to me. But then KabU also teaches about marriage and relationships from a Kabbalistic perspective. How should I understand the boundary? When is Kabbalah speaking about spiritual correction, and when is it simply offering guidance for living more healthily in the corporeal world?
I think what I am really trying to understand is this: if a person has a point in the heart but also carries very difficult human circumstances, what does Kabbalah actually say about the meaning of that person’s individual life, rather than only about the general system of Adam HaRishon?
Kyro,
These are not answers that just enter your ear and that’s it.
You’re asking about the secrets, the concealed work that belongs to the Creator.
We are confused and don’t understand. On the one hand, from the side of his vessel which is completely empty and is in lack of awareness and purpose and forces, this is called the point of Malchut. And he also discovers, on the other hand, the point of Keter: that the Creator can and is able and is all-good, and that is the goal, the highest and most desirable .When a person discovers these two opposite things in full, this is called that he is worthy of this degree in actuality, and then the Creator does these hidden things. But a person needs to reveal preparation for this, and preparation is to reveal these two opposite points: the importance of the Creator, so to speak, and the lowliness of the created being.
The answer to these kind of questions is not simple, it comes from much preparation, that is why it is called hidden wisdom, not because you can’t find the book. The book is on Amazon, and free on our website. It’s hidden because we can’t yet feel the light that is righ now filling the room you are in, filling all of reality.
Just as now we look at the world and see the externality of things, the corporeal garments, because our senses are only corporeal — add to this spiritual senses and we will also see spiritual garments that exist in reality.
You are on the right track. Be patient. It takes at least as much times as it takes to learn piano. A person does not become a surgeon in a day or a few weeks. In order to hear these things, to work with them, to internalize them, it takes a little time.
Keep going ,you have a good grasp of things, you need more experience so that they can settle in your internality.
Seth@KabU
I have been so attached in life to “understanding”, of “getting it”, and here – this material is so elusive, you have a minute of it almost living inside of you, and the next day I am looking at the same page as I have never seen it! I am trying to reconstruct its flow almost daily. It is difficult emotionally. Sometimes I just want to blame my age 🙂 Sometimes I experience various sensations while listening to the material, and I am aware of the attachments to these sensations, and I also become aware of the reactions to the absence of the sensations or emotional response.
I also tried to practice all my life an honesty towards what I feel and how I act and I have done my best not to hide from myself and make excuses. This work is, on the one hand, very forgiving and accepting, on the other hand it is quite brutal because this life-long practice of mine is really intensified. Experiencing not so lofty of an emotion just takes my breath away.
Yelena,
You can write the advertising copy for KabU :))))
Yes, you are correct and you communicated the situation very clearly.
We are dealing with spirituality after all.
Imagine, and it is truly more incredible than this, but imagine that you are a carbon based creature and then some force of “Bina”, let’s call it, some part of “Godliness” let’s call it from far away, somehow that spark awakens in you and instead of just desiring the regular things like the other carbon based creatures desire, things like food, sex, family, even money, honor, etc… now you start desiring something that is out of this world, eternity, wholeness.
That’s what’s happening, that’s how it is. We’ll learn about it in more technical, kabbalistic language in later classes, in the meantime, what you’re feeling is normal for a person on this journey.
We are and will remain a carbon based, biological creature with all of the things that entails and we have to maintain that in a healthy way. And also a kabbalist begins to live in another world.
This shouldn’t be so difficult to understand for a mom, who goes about taking care of life at home, work, etc but her children always live in her heart.
So we are like that, we go about our lives and in our heart we accustom ourselves to build this pipeline to the infinite more clear and more flowing.
The most important for you is to stabilize yourself in this world and then slowly add to the spiritual work and then to be able to discern the difference. Of course this will be confusing, it will continue to be confusing, don’t worry that it’s confusing, don’t be despaired by it, we’ve all gone through this, this work takes at least as much effort as becoming a dentist or a swimmer or anything else that takes time and effort.
I look forward to hearing from you again and about your progress.Seth@KabU
The concept of ‘love thy neighbour as thyself’ is something that I have known – in its intellectual state. If I can be disappointingly truthful, I have never deeply known/ felt/ lived this truth. I see I have at times- with the help of my ego – told myself that I have but now when I play it through me it is not so. I have been on a spiritual quest my whole life but now through working with kabalah in this way, I feel I have just played a game with myself for a very long time and dont feel like any of it has been real. This journey had made me confused , shaky , unsure and yet there is a strong sense of determination to keep reaching. What do I do with my state? I keep thinking sit with it, just sit with it and keep on. Is it enough?
Charlene,
We are in what is called the preparation stage of our study.
We are like children who saw some acrobats at the circus or who saw a singer or a cellist and we feel inside, that is what I want to do, that is how I want to feel.
So all of these things that we read about, like “love you friend as yourself”, you can’t just get up on the tight rope or pick up a cello and think that the master performance will come out.
All of the things we are learning about are spiritual concepts that exist in “place” where we want to exist.
Actually loving the other is not a goal, it is the method to get to the goal, it is a practice where we begin to associate with the 99.999% of reality that exists outside of our skin instead of absorbing it all for the sake of our selves.
For now I would recommend that you do two things.
First, dream big, why are you here? What do you hope to gain from this study? Write all of these answers down, fill a page.
Second, be very pragmatic, like if you were going to be an acrobat or a cellist, you need to work at it everyday, so I recommend making a glossary or definitions and important terms and concepts and continue to read and watch the course material when you are in different moods.
Good luck and I look forward to hearing about your progress,Seth
This week has been difficult for me in terms of the study itself. In fact, I have become triggered in a sense and experienced moments of despair last night over the study itself. Something in me rose up and protested greatly; perhaps it is all the talk of Satan and loving our neighbor that created an uprising within. I became aware that all I seem to do is give and give and give and give and give. And here I am taking a course telling me that all I do is receive. I became so angry with myself and honestly feel like a complete fool. Why am I learning to receive in order to give when all I do is give and give and give? I’m in a state of complete rejection of this teaching and I desperately need help.
Ellema,
Hi my friend. You don’t realize but you are advancing correctly.
Imagine what a todler would say when she is learning to walk and her mom takes a step back as she advances.
She would protest, how could she move away, doesn’t Mom see that I’ve never taken two steps before?!You actually are moving quickly if you are having all of these sensations, but let’s get some support, there is no mitzvah to suffer.
You need to understand what is happening and why, however the despair you feel is energy and we don’t want to lose the energy, just clothe it correctly.The Rabash describes your states in this powerful article.
https://kabbalahmedia.info/en/sources/amy4DrAi
Read this and make notes, write something for yourself.
I look forward to seeing you advance quickly and comfortably.
Seth@KabU
Hi,
so I didn’t know where to post these questions, but since these questions arose in week 5 I thought I post them here.
1. What does “death” mean in Kabbalah, exactly?
When we say “death is not real” or “death is only in the corporeal picture,” what is the exact spiritual definition of death? And how should a student relate to physical death without turning it into either mysticism or denial of corporeal reality?
2) What does “incarnation / gilgul” refer to: bodies, states, or both?
When we speak about gilgulim (reincarnations), do we mean:
(a) a literal sequence of human lives,
(b) spiritual “incarnations” as changes of states/levels in the desire and intention,
or (c) both, but in a root/branch relationship?If both: what is the correct way to understand the connection between spiritual state-transitions and biological birth/death?
3) What are Reshimot “remaining in the system” — what does that mean operationally?
So it’s said that when a person dies, Reshimot remain in the system and correction continues later.What does “remain in the system” mean in technical terms?
Are Reshimot stored in the general soul / spiritual network, and later awaken in another person’s desire?
What does it not mean (e.g., not “memories travel,” not “personality transfers”)?
Basically: what is the clearest, least-misleading way to imagine “Reshimot persist” without turning it into fantasy metaphysics?
4) What exactly persists from “my work” if individuality doesn’t continue?
Kabbalah says that nothing personal continues (no memory/identity), but corrected qualities remain in the general soul.What exactly counts as a “corrected quality” that remains?
How does that contribution integrate into the collective kli?
Is it correct to say: “the system becomes more corrected in that portion, and later awakenings build on it,” even though there’s no personal continuity?5) Numbers and scope: how do 613/620, 125 degrees, and “many people” fit together?
I get confused combining the “numbers language” with the fact there are billions of people and many generations.
When we say 613/620 corrections, is that structure describing the general kli (a universal map), or does it apply “per person”?
How do the 125 degrees relate to those corrections?
How should we understand “some awaken earlier, some later,” without imagining “8 billion × 620” as if each body has a totally separate checklist?
I’m basically asking: what is the correct model for the relationship between general structure (613/620, 125 degrees) and many human lives/awakenings inside one system?6) How does life and interaction look in a corrected system where individuality is transparent rather than possessive?
In Kabbalah we say that the final corrected state (Gmar Tikkun) is not about individual souls, identities, or narratives, but about the correction of the general soul (Adam HaRishon), where personal ownership, “my story,” and egoic selfhood dissolve, while function, relation, awareness, and participation remain.
I understand that the correction is not about the physical form (human bodies specifically), but about desire and intention—so theoretically, the form expressing the general soul could be any sentient vessel. What matters is not who exists, but how the connection operates.
So my question specifically is…
How do conflict, disagreement, or difference function when there is no egoic drama or personal ownership?
How does choice still exist if there is no “my interest” versus “your interest,” but only bestowal?
What replaces narrative identity (“this is mine,” “this is who I am”) while still allowing differentiation and function?
How do beings relate to one another when connection itself is the pleasure and not the fulfillment of a personal lack?
In other words, how does a corrected collective actually operate—not as an abstract ideal, but as a living system—once the illusion of separate selves is gone but awareness and relation remain?Kyro,
I copied your questions and answered them below:1. What does “death” mean in Kabbalah, exactly?
When we say “death is not real” or “death is only in the corporeal picture,” what is the exact spiritual definition of death? And how should a student relate to physical death without turning it into either mysticism or denial of corporeal reality?
A: A quote from Rav Laitman, “The spiritual reality operates according to different patterns that we see in our world. There is no cycle of life, death, and life in the spiritual reality as we understand it physically. Biological life, the physical protein body that we know in our world, has no connection to spirituality. It might live and die, but that has nothing to do with the spiritual process. We have no perception in spiritual matter, nor is it tied in any way to the physical.”
In short, in this physical world death is a very real phenomenon and there should be absolutely no confusion about that. If you squash a mosquito, so it was alive and now it is not alive. That is plain and simple. However as we begin to relate to our spiritual reality we understand that all of the phenomenon of this world are not objective and fixed, rather they are a result of our perception and that beyond this perception that is built according to my limited will to receive, there is much more, much much more to reality.2) What does “incarnation / gilgul” refer to: bodies, states, or both?
When we speak about gilgulim (reincarnations), do we mean:
(a) a literal sequence of human lives,
(b) spiritual “incarnations” as changes of states/levels in the desire and intention,
or (c) both, but in a root/branch relationship?If both: what is the correct way to understand the connection between spiritual state-transitions and biological birth/death?
A: You have many good questions, but to answer each of these questions neatly in a way that you can neatly fold the answer and put them in your pocket so know you now it won’t help. I will try to answer you but you must know that in the wisdom of kabbalah it is not learning some knowledge that changes the person, but the effort to bridge the gaps between opposites, the efforts that you make there build the inner system and there your soul will teach you. Then you will understand these things. Spiritual answers don’t enter the ear. At the end of the day all of matter is mostly empty space, but what good does that do to know, if I hit a wall it hurts, but really, I never touch the wall, my electric forces are repelled from the electric forces of the wall.
The kabbalists are talking about spiritual transformations and and even when we say the same same souls that were there at the flood were the same souls there with Abraham in Babylon and at the Exodus from Egypt, in spirituality there is no time it is all cause and effect, for us it all feels like time, but that is so we can determine where we are and where the goal is.3) What are Reshimot “remaining in the system” — what does that mean operationally?
So it’s said that when a person dies, Reshimot remain in the system and correction continues later.What does “remain in the system” mean in technical terms?
Are Reshimot stored in the general soul / spiritual network, and later awaken in another person’s desire?
What does it not mean (e.g., not “memories travel,” not “personality transfers”)?
Basically: what is the clearest, least-misleading way to imagine “Reshimot persist” without turning it into fantasy metaphysics?
A: The Upper Light was concealed through many worlds until it built Malchut and then there was many other stages until the first restriction and the complete concealment. All of that cascading down, which we call 125 degrees (5 worlds x 5 partzufim x 5 sefirot) is the exact same process that we must ascend. Exactly. As the light descended so to speak, it left records, reshimot at each step, we will learn about this process in great technical detail later how the light enters the kli and exits the kli and leaves reshimot behind each time, and our spiritual work is to ascend back up that ladder according to the same degrees that the light descended.
4) What exactly persists from “my work” if individuality doesn’t continue?
Kabbalah says that nothing personal continues (no memory/identity), but corrected qualities remain in the general soul.What exactly counts as a “corrected quality” that remains?
How does that contribution integrate into the collective kli?
Is it correct to say: “the system becomes more corrected in that portion, and later awakenings build on it,” even though there’s no personal continuity?A: Your inquisitiveness isn’t going anywhere, your taste for food or clothes, what will change. Only that you will not be a separate cell from the entire body of Adam HaRishon, instead all of our qualities will complement all of the others.
5) Numbers and scope: how do 613/620, 125 degrees, and “many people” fit together?
I get confused combining the “numbers language” with the fact there are billions of people and many generations.
When we say 613/620 corrections, is that structure describing the general kli (a universal map), or does it apply “per person”?
How do the 125 degrees relate to those corrections?
How should we understand “some awaken earlier, some later,” without imagining “8 billion × 620” as if each body has a totally separate checklist?
I’m basically asking: what is the correct model for the relationship between general structure (613/620, 125 degrees) and many human lives/awakenings inside one system?A: All of these numbers refer to qualitative measurements, not quantitative measurements. The population expands and contracts according to the development of the one soul. That same soul differentiates as the created being comes to know itself.
6) How does life and interaction look in a corrected system where individuality is transparent rather than possessive?
In Kabbalah we say that the final corrected state (Gmar Tikkun) is not about individual souls, identities, or narratives, but about the correction of the general soul (Adam HaRishon), where personal ownership, “my story,” and egoic selfhood dissolve, while function, relation, awareness, and participation remain.
I understand that the correction is not about the physical form (human bodies specifically), but about desire and intention—so theoretically, the form expressing the general soul could be any sentient vessel. What matters is not who exists, but how the connection operates.
So my question specifically is…
How do conflict, disagreement, or difference function when there is no egoic drama or personal ownership?
How does choice still exist if there is no “my interest” versus “your interest,” but only bestowal?
What replaces narrative identity (“this is mine,” “this is who I am”) while still allowing differentiation and function?
How do beings relate to one another when connection itself is the pleasure and not the fulfillment of a personal lack?
In other words, how does a corrected collective actually operate—not as an abstract ideal, but as a living system—once the illusion of separate selves is gone but awareness and relation remain?A: Read the long article by Baal HaSulam called The Writings of the Last Generation, I think this will help you a lot.
Good luck. Take your time, take good notes and as an exercise, try to allow Baal HaSulam’s model of the world wash over you while you are reading, as if you are visiting a foreign country and want to experience new foods, new people and not to judge it all compared to how you grew up, but to see what life in the place he is writing about.
https://kabbalahmedia.info/en/sources/oIrPpKn2Seth@KabU
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