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Hello.
This first lesson was wonderful, thank you.
Prior to beginning the course, I contacted Chabad, as I was curious about their opinion on the teaching of Kabbalah to non-Jews, as well as their thoughts on Dr Laitman and B’nei Baruch.
As expected, they did not have a positive view of Dr Laitman or what they referred to as “pop Kabbalah”.
While I generally hold Chabad in high regard, I was disappointed and a bit confused with their attitude.
I would appreciate it very much if you could shed some light on why such negative views persist.
Thank you.
Hi James,
It’s not my place to comment on such things. We need to remember that “there is no coercion in spirituality”. So even if I disagree with the views of other organizations, it’s not my place to fight them or attract anyone to ourselves. No one has the right to coerce others into studying Kabbalah. It’s ultimately the person himself that must feel these things out and find the path that is most suitable for his development. This follows the saying that “one studies only where one’s heart desires”.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Mikael,
Kabbalists are scientists. As such, everything they discovered is from their research. But unlike regular scientists that research our egoistic world, Kabbalists research the upper reality which operates according to the laws of bestowal. In order to research this reality we must first correct our egoistic nature and become similar to these qualities of bestowal. By becoming similar to them, we reveal spirituality in practice, in our lives. This is just like how a radio can pick up an external wave, when we tune the internal frequency of the radio to that wave.
This is how Abraham and even those before Abraham discovered what they discovered. Take Adam for example, he was the first one to actualize this. 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 and research the Creator by becoming similar to this quality of bestowal. All of this follows the law of equivalence of form.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2011/06/kabbalah-without-a-trace-of-mysticism/
Albert @ KabU
I thought i had watched this course in the past and recalled that there was something in the course called the “principle of equivalence” which in some fashion meant that the goal of the path for a human being is to become equivalent to god. I was not able to find it in skimming through this course now. Is there a different course in which it is discussed? or is it in this course, but i missed it when i skimmed the course?
Hi Danny,
Yes, the law of equivalence of form will be covered in lesson 5. Here are some more details about it from Rav Laitman’s blog: https://laitman.com/2013/04/everything-is-attained-by-the-equivalence-of-form/
Albert @ KabU
If it is wrong to use amulets to control upper forces for shallow personal gain, is there ever a good reason to try to control upper forces (roots)? What reasons? And how to do this?
Hi Sylvania,
I’m not sure what you mean by upper forces, but when we use such terms in Kabbalah, upper is referring to higher and higher levels of bestowal. While lower is referring to greater levels of egoism. The only way we can come into contact with the upper force, is in our aspiration to become like it, to imitate its qualities of love and bestowal. As such, it’s impossible to use the upper force for egoistic reasons. Any aspiration for personal gain is diametrically opposed to the upper force and will automatically disconnect us from it. All of this follows the law of equivalence of form.
Check out these blog posts from Rav Laitman for more details:
https://laitman.com/2015/09/where-is-the-upper-world/
https://laitman.com/2013/04/everything-is-attained-by-the-equivalence-of-form/
Albert @ KabU
Thank you Albert for answers to my questions and others.
One other area I would need clarification is “egoism”
From week one lesson, it appears to me that God made/created man to be “egoistic” in order words a nature to receive for himself.
My questions;
1 is ego or egoism the breath of life that God breathed into man, or the spirit of God in man?
2; Is egoism a character trait like any other traits which man can develop and express at will?
3: Is there a chance that God created man perfect in his “own image” that is, without egoism but man out of his own desire and volition created egoistic nature into his being?
Thank you once again.
Hi Christian,
I would break it down like this:
Our nature is the desire to receive pleasure. It simply means that every calculation we make is to chase pleasure or avoid pain. This is similar to how any other animal functions. By itself, there is nothing wrong with this nature, it’s simply the program by which we function and preserve ourselves.
Egoism is when this program begins to be used in a way that harms others. Not only do I want to receive pleasure, but I want to receive it at the expense of others, at their detriment. This is the corporeal ego.
There is also a spiritual ego. Spiritual egoism is everything that stands in the way of our connection with the Creator. Normal people don’t have a spiritual ego. This is only something that we discover after doing some serious spiritual work.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2010/10/true-evil/
For the most part, when we speak of egoism in Kabbalah, we’re referring to the spiritual ego, which separates us from the Creator. This quality was purposely ingrained in us in order to help us to develop. Since without separating from Him, we would not feel ourselves as existing or having any free choice in this whole process.
Furthermore, as we develop, our relation to egoism will also change. At times we will hate it for separating us from the Creator. At times we will appreciate it for helping us to develop to higher spiritual levels. And at times we will even see it as the Creator in disguise, playing a game with us. So it depends on our level of development.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2011/02/the-worse-the-better/
Albert @ KabU
My clinical practice grant me the opportunity of seeing heartbeat of baby/babies who is/are about to be born into this world at an early stage of 6 weeks and less after conception(on ultrasound scan)
The questions in my heart are:
1: At what time does the soul or ego enters the baby’s physical body?
2: Are all souls reincarnate? If yes, why is the world’s human population continuously increasing
3 Are the creative spirit still creating new souls?
Thank you in anticipation of your answers as well as guidance.
Hi Christian, great questions!
There are different levels to this thing called a soul. In the beginning, we all have an animalistic soul, meaning a certain force that enlivens our animalistic body, similar to any other animal. But the human level of the soul is not something we have by default, but rather something that we acquire by correcting our egoistic nature. In other words, each one of us has a human soul in potential which we call the point in the heart. If we correct that point, out of it, we can build the full level of the soul. If not, that same potential continues to reincarnate again and again until it gets corrected.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2015/06/what-happens-to-the-soul-after-death/
As well as this article from the book The Kabbalah Experience.
As for the population, we’re all part of a single system, like cells within a single body. This body was initially shattered into 600,000 parts but it continues to fragment as necessary in order to divide the common egoistic load and thereby make it easier to correct.
Rav Laitman writes about it in one of his blog posts:
“600,000 is the number of initial fragments, but after that they are fragmented again into whatever number is necessary for the optimal correction in each generation – so that each fragment will have as much egoism as it’s able to correct. Therefore, to the degree that egoism grows, the world’s population grows as well.”
Albert @ KabU
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