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Thanks very much for this video. I noticed the pentateuch referred to as Kabbalistic texts. My question is therefore if it might help students of Kabbalah to learn to read the original texts in Hebrew?
Hi Kirstin,
Knowing Hebrew is helpful, but you don’t really need to learn Hebrew to study Kabbalah. All of our materials are professionally translated to English and many other languages.
But does the translation pass the full spiritual meaning? No. Hebrew is a language built for passing spiritual meaning, not just the meaning of the words, but every single letter and shape of the letter is a code for a spiritual state. So any translation is good but it will never give you 100% of the true spiritual meaning, it’s impossible.
So how big is the loss? For a person who is not yet in spirituality, the loss is very very small, even minuscule. In fact we have thousands of students worldwide studying with us on a daily basis, in a language other than Hebrew. Whenever Rav Laitman visits these groups, he always remarks how there is no difference in the spiritual advancement between these students and the students in front of him (all Hebrew speakers) that he studies with daily. This is because spirituality does not depend on knowledge but only on the desire. If we build the right desire for spirituality, we will feel it, if not, then no.
If you want an in depth explanation of the significance of the Hebrew language, check out this article. The ties between letters, words, and numbers:
http://www.kabbalah.info/eng/content/view/frame/60270?/eng/content/view/full/60270&main
Albert @ KabU
Hi Kirstin,
From my own experience, it took me about 3 years of daily learning and practice to reach a level in which the Hebrew became useful. So I personally wouldn’t recommend it to everyone. But if you do choose to learn Hebrew, the main thing is not so much the program you use, but
1) Not to lose the desire. After all many many people start learning a language and only a handful succeed. So you need to look for ways to constantly reignite your desire to learn it.
2) In whatever learning program you choose, put all the new words you learn there into a flashcard program (like Anki) and rehearse it periodically. This way you can amass a very large vocabulary and won’t forget anything you learn.
Good Luck!
Albert @ KabU
I watch and listened this video again and again. even more than a year. I saw the upper world which has 5 levels and consists of 125 steps or degrees to return to our root. my question is these 5 world and 125 steps discovered by who? practically or ideally? if man back to root and get total reality, what is his benefits? what is his knowledge? how he make balance with the blow world?
Hi Demilew,
Practically discovering the 125 steps works according to the law of equivalence of form. Meaning that in order to discover those steps, we need to become similar to them, to those greater and greater degrees of love and bestowal that are found there. So to the extent that we correct our egoistic nature towards the direction of love and bestowal, to that extent we discover those 125 steps.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2013/04/everything-is-attained-by-the-equivalence-of-form/
Fully reconnecting to that root is the purpose of our lives. All of life is designed in such a way that will push us in that direction. Our choice is whether we want to reach that goal consciously and willingly, or unconsciously and unwillingly, through blows and suffering. So the benefit of aspiring to that goal consciously, is that we can avoid the path of blows and suffering, and develop in a much more pleasant way.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2011/01/lets-go-with-the-light/
As for balance, a Kabbalist continues to exist on the level of this world throughout the entire spiritual ladder of degrees. As such, we need to continue to take care of all of our necessities in the normal way: to work, take care of the family, health, etc. In addition to that, we also need to set aside some time to regularly return to the Kabbalistic studies. This is the balance we should aspire to reach. We’ll learn how to implement this practically in the more advanced lessons.
Albert @ KabU
Furthermore to another learners question of Kabbalah not being a religion or mysticism – on googling I see — The earliest roots of Kabbala are traced to Merkava mysticism – in which case who adapted it and for what reason – why do you think there was a need to diverge from Merkava?
Hi Matthew,
Authentic Kabbalah has been around for about 5800 years, but it’s been concealed for the past 2,000 years, so people don’t really know what it’s all about. Just picture a 2,000 year old game of telephone and all the distortions that would spring up as a result.
So I cannot vouch for the information you would find out about it on Google. If you have any questions about the materials that are presented here, feel free to ask and I’ll be happy to clarify them.
Albert @ KabU
How does kabbalah relate to religion in sense of feeling? I have always felt an attraction to the jewish religion and a deep relation to the land of Israel. When i am turning almost 50 only now my familiy background shows that I have jewish background. I want to learn to understand that connection more
Hi Koriander,
Kabbalah and Judaism are two separate things. Let’s put a few things into perspective to understand this:
Kabbalah is the method of correcting our egoistic nature and thereby revealing the Creator, the general force of love and bestowal. The first one to actualize this was Adam. 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 the Creator by becoming similar to this quality of bestowal.
This wisdom gets passed onward from Adam until Abraham who adapted it to the people of his generation and made the wisdom more practical. Abraham put together a large group of Babylonians who were interested in actualizing this method. These people later on became the Israeli nation. The word Israel comes from the Hebrew words “Yashar” “El” meaning straight to God. These are the people who had an active point in the heart in those days and were interested in revealing the Creator.
These people greatly succeeded in this method. The peak of their success was symbolized in the building of the first and second temple, which reflected the level of unity and bestowal they were able to reach. At a certain point, they lost the spiritual connection between them (the destruction of the 2nd temple) and what remained was just these external symbols of their connection.
At this point the wisdom of Kabbalah became concealed. People still had the holy books, Torah and etc, but they did not know how to use them. Since the Torah is written in the language of roots and branches. Meaning it uses words of our world to describe spiritual phenomena. But if a person does not have this spiritual connection through which he can see this, then he thinks this book is talking about this world, history, morals, commandments, etc. From this emerges the Jewish religion.
From all the above we see that Kabbalah itself is not connected to any religion and that the modern religions came out due to the concealment of Kabbalah. At the same time, Kabbalah is not against religions. In fact we have millions of students worldwide, from many different backgrounds and religions. Many of them do choose to maintain their religion or to perform certain religious customs while studying Kabbalah and there is nothing wrong with that. Just like with any other science, a person can be religious and also be a chemist or physicist. Likewise a person can be religious and also study the science of Kabbalah. Baal HaSulam writes that even after the full spiritual correction people can still keep their religions.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2015/12/the-wisdom-of-kabbalah-and-the-other-religions/
Albert @ KabU
Why is it that at times when I go to study kabbalah, I get hit with this sense of apathy or lack of motivation? How does one overcome such feelings of distance from the creator, where studying kabbalah seems futile sometimes?
Hi Ben,
Spiritual advancement happens specifically from the ups AND downs. It’s just like the EKG chart that measures the heart. If there are ups and downs, the heart is beating, the body is alive. If it flatlines, the body dies.
Likewise in our spiritual work, our advancement is composed of many ups and downs. But if we’re in the same state for a long period of time, then we stop advancing and are spiritually dead.
So what you are experiencing is normal. We go through many states on the spiritual path. Many ups, downs, and everything in between. The main thing is to just keep going, to keep placing yourself under the influence of the light, especially during the Kabbalistic studies (lessons, videos, Q/A forums, books, etc), and it will balance everything out.
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
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