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I have some questions:
1) What happened with the destruction of the temple, two thousand years ago, that broke that connection of humanity and started all the religions? Was it the fact that the arc was hidden?
2) In the description of the worlds, Assiyah above the barrier, the Maschom. But I thought this world was, the physical world, was Assiyah or Malchut? I’m I wrong? Or our world is a level, a lower level, of Assiyah?
3) The new methods developed after 1995, when Kabbalah was disclosed, are not written in the language of roots and branches, are they? What language is that?
4) With this material, we could reach the first step of the sulam, right? After that, we will start to use roots and branches?
Hi Flavio, great questions!
1. The temple symbolized the level of love and connection that this group was able to achieve at that time. When a bigger level of egoism was revealed, they were unable to maintain that level of love and connection. As a result of that, the corporeal temple, the symbol of their love and connection, wound up getting destroyed.
Baal HaSulam writes about this in “Letter 60”, here’s an excerpt:
“this is what our sages meant when they asked about the ruin of the Second Temple, that there was no idolatry there and they were proficient in Torah, so why was it ruined? They said it was for unfounded hatred.”
Keep in mind that the growth of egoism is not a bad thing, but rather a sign of progress. It’s like with exercise, when you master a 5 pound weight, in order to keep progressing, you need to add resistance by going up to a 10 pound weight, etc. Likewise the process of correction works according to the rule of “from light to heavy”. Meaning first the lighter, less egoistic souls reach their correction. They become as the pioneers that start this whole process. And only later on we focus on the heavier, coarser, more egoistic desires.
The people in the days of Abraham were less egoistic and therefore started this whole process. After they corrected the egoism on their level, it opened the door for the rest of the world, the carriers of the heavier, more egoistic desires, to reach their correction.
But the rest of the world was not yet ready for this correction. For this reason Kabbalah had to be temporarily concealed and the people who previously succeeded in this method needed to be scattered throughout the whole world. Then in the process of them integrating with the rest of the world, they sped up the development of the rest of the world to this final state of correction.
So we can see from this whole process that it’s not that something bad happened, on the contrary, those pioneers that started this process finished the correction on their level and then received their next challenge.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2008/08/building-the-third-temple/
2. The concept of “this world” is not talking about planet Earth. “This world” is a spiritual concept relating to the feeling of being disconnected from spirituality. In other words, in order to be in the state of “this world” you first need to discover that there is such a thing as spirituality and then discover that you’re disconnected from it. So it’s not a given that we’re all in that state. In fact, most of the inhabitants of planet Earth don’t have such a feeling, so it does not apply to them.
As for planet Earth or the corporeal world, Kabbalists typically don’t talk about it. Our world is below the ladder of spiritual degrees. Kabbalists call it “the imaginary world”. Since once we correct ourselves, relative to that corrected state this life would appear as nothing more than a dream.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: http://laitman.com/2010/11/this-life-is-a-dream/
3. It depends on which writings you’re referring to. The writings of Baal HaSulam such as the Study of the Ten Sefirot and the Sulam Commentary to the Book of Zohar are written in the language of Kabbalah (roots and branches). Whereas the writings of Rabash are written more in the style of our inner work.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2015/11/the-great-kabbalists-and-their-works/
4. We need both the writings of Baal HaSulam and Rabash to reach the first step of the ladder. But the main thing is not the writings themselves but the light that we extract from those texts. It’s ultimately the light that makes all of the changes and corrections on us. Our work is only to extract more and more of it, especially during the Kabbalistic studies.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2013/02/sunbathing-in-the-rays-of-the-reforming-light/
Albert @ KabU
I don’t understand who is the being that descended the 125 steps and is supposed to ascend the same 125 steps back to its origin. I also don’t understand why this apparent nonsense is necessary.
Hi Ismar,
We learn that all of humanity is part of a single system, like cells within a single body. So the being that descended those 125 steps is the collective body to which we all belong. In the process of descending, this body gradually loses the feeling that it’s all connected until the point of our world, where we feel completely alien to every other person in the world.
We learn about all these things because reconnecting this shattered system is the main spiritual correction that we need to perform.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2014/05/puzzle-adam-harishon/
Albert @ KabU
Hi Leighton, good question!
The language of roots and branches is a type of code that uses words of our world to describe spiritual phenomena. It’s similar to how binary code works in computers. To us it seems just like a bunch of zeros and ones, but a computer can properly decipher those things and display what those zeros and ones represent.
Likewise with the language of roots and branches, if we’re not in spirituality, Kabbalistic writings seem to us like stories talking about our world. But for Kabbalists, those that are able to decipher these words, they can reveal the spiritual phenomena behind them.
Check out these blog posts from Rav Laitman for more details:
https://laitman.com/2013/09/from-root-to-branch/
https://laitman.com/2010/12/the-spiritual-decoder/
Albert @ KabU
hi!
if the Kabbalah is written in branches of root how does one prevent wrong interpretations of the books?Thanks!
Hi Juan, good question!
We cannot prevent such things. We can only teach people how to properly relate to these books. But even then, relating to the books correctly does not mean that this person will be able to interpret them correctly. This is because the language of root and branches is not something you learn but rather something that comes with spiritual attainment. Without spiritual attainment, we cannot truly understand these things.
It’s like a blind person that is trying to study colors. He can learn the wavelengths behind each one, the different feelings they all evoke, but ultimately he will never truly understand colors. But if this blind person was to undergo an operation and gain his sense of sight, how easy and simple it would be to teach him colors. We would simply point to it and say “this is red”.
It’s the same with the language of roots and branches. It’s currently impossible for us to truly grasp these things. But once we gain our “spiritual sight” we would pick these things up very easily and naturally. And only then can we properly interpret what is written in the Kabbalistic books.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2011/02/why-do-we-need-the-language-of-branches/
Albert @ KabU
In 2009 I developed an infection which has triggered chronic illness. I have been living with this for a long time. This has led me to ask questions like why is there such suffering in the world? If there is a source, a creator who wishes to bestow pleasure, why is there immense suffering?
If the purpose of life is the correction of how to receive that pleasure, then how does chronic illness, physical pain and suffering serve in that final goal? And how can I use the condition of my illness to make that progress for the benefit of us all?
Hi Teike,
The pleasure we know of is not the pleasure set for us to receive in the purpose of creation. The pleasure resides in a different vessel and the vessel we were born with doesn’t know anything about the pleasure in being like the Creator.
The answer to why does it help is the same for any suffering we ever encounter – to point us in the correct direction. If it was up to the body, “just give me the pleasure and leave me alone”, but the Creator isn’t interested in pleasing the body – this temporary animal body that knows 80 years on this planet. He’s interested in raising His creation to a higher level, an eternal level above time and above space – above life and above death – above corporeal suffering and into a different dimension where only you and Him exist together and nothing else.
If we were fascinated only in pleasing ourselves, we’d have no idea what it means to be like the Creator, to share His quality. This is why we have to rise above this paradigm and into something that is against our nature. For us it’s suffering but from His perspective, He’s trying to give us something we’re not able to receive and this is His suffering. The moment we can begin to work with all His actions and all His stimuli as something completely purposeful and directed towards a very specific goal – this is the moment all the “suffering” is mitigated and sweetened since we see without it, we would have had no chance of reaching Him.
Now, these are all just nice words but they don’t make me feel any better. I understand, but He can’t just give us the gift. We have to build the right receptacle to receive the gift. This is on us. This is the desire – the Kli. Certainly, we don’t have it in our own power to do it ourselves, but the desire for it, the need for it is what He hears. If we can aim all our yearning in the right direction, a very precise direction in quality, then this is what evokes a response.
Wishing you the best on the journey,
Chris
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