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Dear Instructors,
Re. Baal HaSulam, “Matan Torah” [The Giving of the Torah], Item 7Each new area of learning is uncharted territory for me, requiring both research and deep reflection before I can make these truths my own.
I find myself struggling with the concept of shame. I understand that it is central to spiritual progress, but if I’m brutally honest, I don’t feel any shame at all. Instead, I feel anger toward the Creator for hurling me down into a place of filth, a place I don’t believe I deserve to be. At the same time, I’m also angry at my ego, recognizing how it has control over me. Yet, I don’t feel shame; rather, I feel pity—pity for myself and for everyone in the world, caught in the slimy grip of the ego and suffering beyond belief.
Adding to this is my lack of understanding about the fall of man and the Tree of Knowledge. I don’t fully grasp how humanity came to this state in the first place, and this feels like a critical missing piece of the puzzle for me. Without understanding the root of this fall, it’s hard to see how shame fits into the broader picture of spiritual development.
As I re-watch the morning lesson, I see so many students asking pertinent and advanced questions about shame. Their clarity and depth only highlight the muddle I find myself in on this topic, leaving me even more uncertain about where I stand.
With so much tragedy and loss in the world, it’s almost unbearable and the thought of being shameful turns my stomach because, as I see it, we’re all trapped in this mess together here on planet Earth.
I hesitated to bring this question to Rav directly, but I feel compelled to seek guidance.
Thank you,
Lyndon S.Shame is actually a good thing here, if one can honestly feel it. That’s not simple. It means, first of all, deeply identifying that all comes from the Creator, the “Good That Does Only Good to the Good and the Bad.” Since that is the reality that we don’t yet see, everyone will come to feel it, soon or later. And then, comes the shame. Then, there’s an appropriate, spiritual response to the Shame, which is why it’s a good thing. The focus though should be None Besides Him, Good that Does Good, and gratitude to Him. The shame is a natural upshot.
Hi Gianni and thank you, In reply.
I’m trying to see the world through the idea that “He is the good that does good.” But then I switch on the television or listen to the radio, and the harsh reality of the world hits me. Then I remind myself, “There’s none else beside Him,” but everything seems to implode within me. I end up feeling like I’m caught in an irreconcilable paradox—a tangle of opposing thoughts that leave me in a mess- ‘there’s only the creator and all this mess were in’.
If such a power truly is eternal and sits on the throne of creation, then surely it is by His hand that all this tragedy occurs. And so, I find myself asking, “How can He truly be the good that does good?”
I feel like I’m frozen in a block of ice, unable to move forward. Even getting to the point of truly seeing Him as the good that does good—or feeling the slightest flicker of shame— feels like it would be a huge step forward but i can’t and right now, I’m just stuck, caught in this muddle, unable to reconcile the contradictions.
Thanks, Lyndon S.
What is Gatehouse of Intentions for? I think I only seen it read once in the morning lesson and that was on a holiday.
Baal HaSulam was once asked to write a Kabbalistic prayer book (by someone who did not follow the path of Kabbalah, but was interested in the prayer book the Kabbalist might write). Well, he wrote this introduction and never got to writing the prayer book itself. But it gives an impression of what a Kabbalistic prayer book might be like. It’s about the intentions, and for real intentions you need attainment of th spiritual world. So, all you can do in the meantime is simple prayers and actions to draw the Reforming Light, to draw closer to that.
Hi Gianni,
What are the four introductions that Baal Hasulam wrote to the book of Zohar? What order should they be read in? How well does a person need to know them before reading the book of Zohar with your ten? What is the value in reading the Zohar if the four introductions are not understood?
Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah
Introduction to the Book of Zohar
Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot
Introduction to the Ladder Commentary
And I can already tell you that even a shallow proficiency in these requires a long time; not just in time, but in the Upper Light working on us so that we can understand. In other words, before the Zohar, we have our work cut out for us in the writings of Rabash and the other writings of Baal HaSulam. But you can study Zohar for All a bit, and we do it usually once a day in the broadcast from Petach Tikva.
Hi Gianni,
One must always work with joy. Ok, but does one must show that joy, somehow? Can people sense if that person has joy? Usually, we can tell if someone has joy or not… but in this context I am not sure.
Because something has been bugging me since Unity Day and the movie about Rav. At one moment, he said that he still has to force himself to get up and go to the morning lesson, and he still doesn’t like that, and it is a burden to him, or something in that context. I felt really bad at that point…
But on the other hand, in everything we study, the emphasis is on the joy, if there is no joy we are doing something wrong, and all those things I am sure you know much better than me.
Can you please guide my thoughts here?
Thank you in advance!
I perceived that documentary differently than you did. A Kabbalist has a way in the work of going Above Reason, but you nevertheless have to go above reason on each new degree. And there is joy that you can go above reason.
Yes, we have to always be in joy, but it could be a serious joy and not giggling like a baby all the time. It also depends on the degree: I might be in great joy throwing some 100 pound weights up over my head, but I’m focused in that, and can’t quite giggle with you right now.
Yes, I am sure that everyone perceived it differently. And I am also not referring to infantile giggling all the time, that was never my thing really. I am talking about the joy that one feels inside so intense that it leads to deep gratitude and humbleness. When you feel your heart so open that it can swallow the world. When you don’t think of yourself at all or what will happen to you next or what happened in the past, when past and future disappear. And you’d more cry with joy than giggle.
In that state, you cannot say that you are forcing yourself to do anything, or you feel a burden because there is no you in that kind of joy because all you can feel is love and mercy.
Or maybe the Kabbalists talk about a different kind of joy?
Hi, reading in the Zohar, I got some questions about the spiritual structures and their properties, as I am not not sure if I understood or interpreted in any way correctly:
1. Would it be correct to say there is a differentiation of the forces into paternal (Hochma), maternal (Bina) and children (Zeir Anpin- son, Malchut-daughter)? And does the interaction between these structures correspondingly show up as branches in human relationships as well, or is this solely a spiritual structure?
2. I understood, that in the way Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin and Malchut interact, there is a way of transferring the light Ohr Hochma from Hochma to Bina to Zeir Anpin and Malchut, as well as from Zeir Anpin to Malchut ( Panim be Panim) but also a way of blocking this transfer in Achor be Achor. This is raising quite a few question… are both process PBP and ABA natural processings of light, equally needed, or is PBP the „altruistic“ way of the light being processed, and ABA the „egoistic“ way, so that PBP would be a desired state and ABA be a less developed state? And again is there in terms of branches a corresponding process in how humans relate to each other, thus PBP leading to pleasure and ABA to suffering?
3. Could Bina be considered the primary „maternal force“ , as it is completely devoted to bestowal and to the Light of Mercy? As as it says Bina is relating to Zeir Anpin as to a „son“ and to Malchut as to a daughter, is this why Bina can deliberately fall into Zeir Anpin to correct him and why Malchut can ascend above Bina and why ZON can raise a prayer MAN to Bina ewoking the desire to bestow in Bina? Because, just thinking from a human perspective, thatś what a mother would do…
4. And then, would Hochma be considered a primary „paternal force“, linked to the Light of Wisdom, and is this what is giving strength to the Partzufim and thus can change their state from Katnut (small) to Gadlut (big)?1) These are spiritual structures. But in our world you see the branches.
2) These are all desirable, spiritual states.
3) The spiritual world isn’t “like” our life and psychology; ours is the way it is because in accordance with spiritual roots, we feel good, and out of alignment with the root, we feel unpleasantness.
4) The Light to the lower ones is always through AB-SAG. Bina receives the correct deficiency from the lower ones, and with that, she can turn to Hochma, who turns to his Upper Partzuf, and so on.
Hi, could I have some guidance?
‘For Her sake’, and ‘For Her name’ both translate as Lishma. ‘For Her sake’ has always felt slightly out of reach to me – a bit ‘in the head’ – but ‘For Her name’ says to glorify the Creator in everything you do. There may be a more nuanced meaning in For Her sake, and it even feels odd to be asking a question that hinges on language, but I would appreciate your thoughts.
Lishma translates literally to ‘for her name.’ We can say more generally, ‘for her sake.’ In the end, the important thing is the intention to bestow, to the Creator, through his vessel, which is the friends in the group. What Lishma really is, Baal HaSulam says, is not for the human mind to understand. It’s something wildly alien that it’s useless to try to imagine.
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