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What’s the difference between Mysticism and Hidden science? I’d say that Kabbalah = Jewish Mysticism = Jewish Hidden science
Hi Bernardin, good question!
I cannot comment on how others define this word, but when we use the word mysticism, we are referring to something mystical, something removed from reality, something that does not follow the laws of nature. So when we make the distinction that Kabbalah is not mysticism, this is because Kabbalah is very much so grounded into nature. Kabbalah researches nature and the laws of nature using a very strict scientific method: “a judge has only what his eyes can see” and “what we do not attain we do not call by name”. Even our knowledge of the upper force, of the Creator, is limited to our research tools, meaning the desire. And whatever does not enter into this desire, we cannot research or talk about. For these reasons, it’s more accurate to classify Kabbalah as a science.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2011/06/a-science-about-the-world/
As for Judaism, 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
Hi Mira,
Adam Kadmon is a part of the system of worlds. While Adam HaRishon is the active part within this system. Similar to how you have planet Earth and you have people or those that inhabit the planet.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2014/05/the-human-is-the-innermost-part-in-the-system-of-worlds/
Albert @ KabU
I just wanted a little clarification on a few terms. So Adam Harishon is the creature that the creator made, or the soul/vessel that was shattered into 600,000 pieces initially? And then is Shechinah the collective soul as it exists in this world in it’s shattered form?
Hi Inbar,
Adam Harishon refers to the creature in the worlds of BYA. As it corrects itself, it rises to Malchut of the world of Atzilut to the state of Shechina, the state where the Creator dwells and is revealed inside of this corrected form.
We’ll learn more about these things in the more advanced lessons that deal with the technical structure of the upper worlds.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Kelly,
Yes, this is reflected in the size of the human population. As the ego grows, the soul is fragmented accordingly so that our common egoism is divided between us, making the work of correcting the ego easier for all of us.
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
Is my understanding correct that according to Kaballah, the creator created the humans to be selfish and driven by ego but also gave us free will and choice to go against that nature to bestow the goodness and love on to others? And as long as we are not following this formula we suffer and feel empty in our lives?
What does Kaballah say about our souls when we are back in between lives? Do souls experience the need to fill themselves or the vessel with fulfilled desires or the only desire it has is to be more like the creator?
Hi Olga,
1. Yes, you can say that. But keep in mind that we don’t have the strength to go against our egoistic nature. The best we can do is to try to rise above it. And by doing so, we evoke the light to help us to realize those efforts.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2012/03/building-blocks-of-the-first-spiritual-degree/
2. Kabbalah defines a soul as the corrected form of our nature: the desire to received with the intention to bestow. But since we are not yet corrected, we don’t have this thing called the soul. What we have is a soul in potential. This is our points in the hearts. As long as we have not yet fully corrected ourselves, this same point continues to reincarnate again and again until it gets fully realized.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2015/06/what-happens-to-the-soul-after-death/
Albert @ KabU
Hi Albert,
I bought the books. Any recommended reading to be prepared for next week lesson?
Also, I received an email with links for the Q&A and Zoom, but I didn’t see it on time. Does it happen every Sunday at 1 pm Eastern or was it only this week! So sad I missed it.
Thank you,
L
Hi Loyda,
Each week has its own recommended reading materials. Here’s the link for week 1 recommended reading.
It’s also recommended to just read through from beginning to end the books Kabbalah Revealed and then Attaining the Worlds Beyond.
For the live Zoom, check out the live page link for details and recordings.
Albert @ KabU
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