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Lori here in reading “Then and Now” the excerpt
To a Kabbalist, the term, “Creator,” does not sig- nify a supernatural, distinct entity, but the next degree that a human being should reach when pursuing higher knowledge. The Hebrew word for Creator is Boreh, and contains two words: Bo (come) and Re’eh (see). Thus, the word, “Creator,” is a personal invitation to experience the spiritual world.
How can the Creator not be a “distinct” entity and yet offer a “personal” invitation to experience? To me those two words are in direct contradiction of each other. explain or elaborate please Thanks
Hi Lori,
Kabbalah divides our research of the Creator into two parts:
The first is His essence (atzmuto in Hebrew). This is He Himself, His point of view, the Creator as an entity separate from the Created beings. We’re incapable of researching this part of the Creator because our research tools are not built in such a way that we can grasp such things. Perhaps after we finish the process of correction, we’ll discover additional research tools through which we’ll be able to research these things, but until then we limit ourselves and don’t talk about this part of the Creator because we cannot properly research it.
The other part of the Creator is called Bo-Re (Hebrew for Come (Bo) and See (Re)). This is the part of the Creator that we can research and reveal. How do we research this? Through the desire. When we take a part of our desire to receive and correct it in the direction of bestowal, in that corrected desire, we reveal a certain phenomenon, we call this phenomenon the Creator. This is why there are many names for the Creator (in Hebrew), since every time we correct a different part of the desire, we reveal a different aspect of this thing called the Creator.
So all of our understanding of this thing called the Creator (and any spiritual phenomena) is based on what we reveal within the corrected desire. But whatever exists outside of the corrected desire, whatever we don’t grasp, perceive or attain within the desire, whatever is beyond our tools of research, we don’t talk about. We need to keep these limits in mind in order to stay within the realm of science and not venture off into religion or philosophy.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2011/12/the-holy-names-of-bestowal/
Albert @ KabU
Are there other spiritual beings other than the creator when navigating the spiritual world? If so how can we be sure, of what energies we are interacting with
Hi Rich,
There is only one spiritual being, one thing that the Creator created, and we’re all parts of it, like cells within a single body.
We’ll learn this in depth in the upcoming lessons, in the meantime check out this blog post from Rav Laitman: https://laitman.com/2014/05/puzzle-adam-harishon/
Albert @ KabU
In the video – ‘what is Kabbalah’ the instructor, Gilad Sheer shares a study where researches found we are exposed to 400,000,000,000 b/s of data but can only process 2000 b/s.
Can you cite the research source for this?
Toda in advanceHi Erez,
I’m not sure which particular study he was referencing, but here’s a general study which cites a few other studies that reached similar conclusions: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5034293/#b2
Albert @ KabU
Hi Dan,
The Kabbalists call our material world 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/
Albert @ KabU
I wanted to ask, what the names of the worlds mean and what they are? I’de like to know, I’m still having a hard time trying to understand them.
Hi Rigo,
The 5 spiritual worlds are not place like we think, but rather levels of concealment. World (Olam in Hebrew) comes from the word Concealment (ha-alama). So the 5 worlds are 5 levels of concealment between us, the desire to receive, and the Creator the general force of love and bestowal. To the extent that we correct our own opposite, egoistic nature, for it to also operate in the direction of bestowal, to that extent we reveal these worlds, these higher qualities.
Regarding the order and meaning of each world:
First is Adam Kadmon (primordial Man) this is the first form of the desire to receive that became similar to the Creator, but it operates in a different way then the rest of the system, so it’s called primordial.
Atzilut (from the Hebrew words etz lo: at his place, in his possession). This is the place where the Creator exists, meaning the pure desire to bestow.
Beria (creation), comes from the Hebrew word Bar, meaning outside of. Meaning that it’s already a distinct degree of remoteness from the quality of bestowal.
Yetzira (creation), also means creation but this time it stems from the Hebrew word yetzer, inclination. Meaning there is already an inclination of its own to the Creator.
Assiya (action), this completes the action of creating the desire to receive.
Keep in mind that we usually don’t translate these words when we use them in the lessons. A lot of times it’s better to use the Hebrew word instead of being confused by the translation.
Albert @ KabU
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