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Hello,
I was wondering what really makes kabbalah different from beliefs, religions and self help classes. I have seen people find what they where searching for in different ways I know people that grew up in a family lines of witches and christians. They have that lets call it the (ah ha) moment and stick with it. On the other hand i am one of those that cant seem to find it. I hope this question is acceptable for this section. I’m not sure what else to ask at the moment. Thank you and have a good day.
Hi Edward,
It all depends on the point in the heart. If it has already awakened in a person, that desire will push and pull him to a place where he will feel that he can realize it. If not, then a person is content with all sorts of other methods and things in life.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2008/11/only-people-with-the-point-in-the-heart-can-feel-that-kabbalah-is-the-salvation/
As for what makes Kabbalah different? Kabbalah is a practical method by which we can correct our egoistic nature. As a result of this correction we become similar to the Creator. As a result of becoming similar to Him, we reveal Him in practice, in our lives. Meaning that it’s a scientific method, it’s not based on faith, it’s not something that we verify only after we die, etc. We reveal the results of this practice here and now.
All of this follows the law of equivalence of form. Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2013/04/everything-is-attained-by-the-equivalence-of-form/
Albert @ KabU
I have a christian mindset on what god is.Somehow I believe that idol worship and worshiping false gods is wrong. How come they worshiped pagan gods like Greek, Egyptian, Mesopotamian gods in the higher realms. what exactly were they worshiping.
Hi Jonathan,
I’m not a historian, so I cannot comment on that. But in general, throughout the Kabbalistic study, our views on these things will gradually change. Even what we once considered idol worship will change. From that initial view that people were as if bowing to statues and forces, to the Kabbalistic viewpoint of idol worship which is bowing to our own egoism. In that regard, every single one of us starts out as an idol worshiper until we correct our egoistic nature. We’ll learn more about this in the upcoming lessons.
As for the concept of God in Kabbalah, check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2017/11/the-concept-of-god-in-kabbalah/
Albert @ KabU
Hello,
Thank you for the lesson.
What occurred that caused the fall and ultimate destruction of the temple?
How do we avoid such a fate agin?Hi Jonathan, good question!
The general level of egoism grew. But this 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/
Albert @ KabU
If we consider two persons, one with a huge ego revealed, and another with a small ego revealed (like Abraham), would their spiritual ascending paths differ? Would a person with smaller ego revealed skip some lower spiritual worlds in the ascending process? Meaning that maybe Abraham started ascending into e.g. the world Briah, while someone with the huge ego revealed would need to start ascending from Assiah? Would it be correct to put it this way?
Hi Julia,
No, we cannot skip any of the degrees, otherwise we will never reach wholeness and perfection. It’s like a child that misses out on a key developmental stage.
In general, our spiritual work goes “from light to heavy”. It’s similar to weight lifting, a person does not start with lifting 1000 pounds, each one starts with let’s say 1 pound. After they master that, they can increase the resistance. Similarly with our spiritual work, each one starts the spiritual correction with the lightest desires. Only after correcting those, do they begin to reveal more egoistic desires to work on. And the bigger the desires that we correct, the higher up we climb spiritually. But it’s a linear process, we cannot just jump directly to the big desires.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Natalia, good question!
Destiny means that the final point is already preset in the purpose of creation. We have no way out of it. The path there is also set. The only choice we have is the pace at which we go through that path: whether we go through it consciously and willingly or whether we wait for the sufferings to build up and push us forward.
We’ll learn more about this in the upcoming lessons. In the meantime, check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2011/01/lets-go-with-the-light/
Albert @ KabU
Hi,
I have a number of questions linked to what I’ve read this first week:
1) Since in ancient times, people communicated without the need for words, and therefore we lived in unity around the world, does this mean that the knowledge of Kabbalah was known across the globe, too? Or did the discovery of this knowledge happen after the “fall of the tower of Babel”?
2) If the desire degree of 1 is when we started to oppose ourselves to Nature and impose our will on the world, while 0 = level where we were all united, which is what we’re trying to get back to, does this mean that we, who are now at level 4, are technically trying to get back to 0? Are these levels then cyclical instead of linear?
3) If Adam (aka Domeh) means ‘similar’ to the Creator, then why did the Creator separate Eve from Adam? Is this a similar analogy to the myth of Eros and Psyche?
4) It is stated at some point that anyone who becomes altruistic will also receive omniscience, or total recall and total knowledge. Is there an equivalence here to the concept of the Akashic Field?
Thank you in advance for your help!
Hi Alessa, great questions!
1. It means that people were relatively undeveloped, that they had a small level of egoism, similar to animals. If you look at ants or bees, they also live in unity, but this is not a spiritual level of unity. Spiritual unity means that there is a huge ego that is separating us from each other and despite that ego, we extract the Creator’s force to help us to unite with each other. That huge ego is a necessary condition to reveal higher levels of spirituality. It’s like a mountain, the bigger the ego, the higher up we can climb in spirituality. Whereas the previous generations had a tiny ego, so even if they were united, this unity could only generate a tiny level of spirituality.
2. We are not trying to get back to zero, we don’t eradicate our ego, we correct it.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2010/10/true-evil/
3. Everything that we go through is for our further development. Adam in that original story is like that small level of egoism that I wrote about earlier. That level of ego is not enough to fulfill the entire purpose of creation. A much greater ego is required. How can we reach such a large level of egoism? For that Adam was given Eve, who got “tricked” by the snake into eating that apple, etc. It’s not a trick, rather this entire process was precisely planned and programmed into creation in order to help us to further grow and develop.
It’s similar to how we help our kids to grow. We don’t just give them a completed jigsaw puzzle. Rather we take it and break it down into many pieces. Then in the process of them putting it all together, they grow and develop.
If you’re interesting in learning how to properly decipher the stories in the Torah, check out the books: Disclosing a Portion or The Secrets of the Eternal Book.
4. I’m not an expert in any other teaching or method, so I cannot comment on that.
Albert @ KabU
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