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In the lineage of Kabbalah has every teacher going all the way back to the time of Abraham ascended each of the 125 steps into a whole experience of creation?
Hi Jovan, good question!
There are different levels of spiritual corrections: there is my own personal correction and there is the general correction of the entire world. A Kabbalist is someone that has corrected himself, even on the minimal level of 1/125 degrees, and has thereby attained the corresponding level of spirituality. There have been many Kabbalists throughout the generations who attained various degrees of spirituality. But as for the full and final correction, that state is possible only when all of humanity becomes corrected.
The only example that we have of a Kabbalistic group that reached that state of the full correction is the group of Rabbi Shimon that wrote the book of Zohar. They were the pioneers that had to reach this state in order to pave the way for the rest of us.
Albert @ KabU
I like what I am finding, but have one difficulty. The law that as soon as a desire is met it no longer satisfies does not apply in my experience. If I want something and I get it, I continue to enjoy the satisfaction of having it for as long as I keep it. As this is fundamental to your explanation, I feel I need to address it as it is the only part that is not true for me in my experience. I am not just referring to one instance, but to a continuous experience throughout my life.
Hi John,
Thanks for your feedback. I think food is a good example to help us understand this concept. For example, I love cheesecake, but how much pleasure can I possibly derive from eating it? After one slice of it, I’m in heaven. The second slice is still good. The third slice will already be a bit much. On the fourth slice, instead of pleasure, I’m already feeling pain and nausea. The fifth slice might already push me to throw up…
So we see our enjoyment is very limited to begin with. This is where Kabbalah (which is Hebrew for reception) comes along and teaches us how to receive in a spiritual way.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: http://laitman.com/2010/03/kabbalah-is-a-patent-for-infinite-pleasure/
Albert @ KabU
Thank you for your reply Albert, but you have missed the point of the question. Certainly the body can have a satiety sense that tells it when it has eaten enough food for the moment. But when I bought I new colour large screen TV a friend at the time said ‘within a week it will just be the TV’ He was wrong. Every time I used it, I was aware of enjoying using it, and when I was not using it, I was enjoying the fact that I had it. It never did become ‘just the TV’. So I am saying that what you are teaching is not true in my experience, even though I would like to believe it. When my desires are satisfied I continue to enjoy the satisfaction of the desire. I would appreciate it if you can apply your mind to this for me.
Regards
John
Good evening! I enjoyed lesson one and am thankful for it.
My question is:
What is the most common barrier a new student faces on their journey to grab hold of the “1st rung of the ladder” on their ascent back up?
Thank you!
Hi Paul, great question!
The most common barrier is finding the right balance between our corporeal lives and our spiritual aspirations. Without a good balance in our corporeal lives, we won’t be able to advance in spirituality either. This is called “no flour, no Torah – no Torah, no flour”. Meaning a Kabbalist continues to exist on the level of this world throughout the entire spiritual ladder. So I cannot just turn into a monk and disconnect from this life and only focus on spirituality. On the other hand, if I only focus on corporeality, then I’m no different than an animal. So the important thing is to find the right balance between the two: to take care of all of one’s normal necessities: to work, take care of the family, health, etc (this is called flour) and to set aside some time on a regular basis to focus on spirituality (this is called Torah).
Albert @ KabU
Hello,
Im loving what I’m learning about Kabbalah here and in the YouTubes.
As a Christian I am curious what Kabbalists think about Jesus.
Do they consider Jesus a prophet? Or God?
Did Jesus teach Kabbalah?
Thank you
Hi RDB, great questions!
Kabbalistic writings don’t talk about Jesus. So we could speculate one way or another, but these would just be speculations. We should keep in mind that Kabbalah is a science. Kabbalah only deals with the correction of our egoistic nature and the revelation of the Creator. It has no connection to faith, religion, or religious leaders.
But ultimately these things are not so opposed. Both talk about the importance of loving others as yourself. Kabbalah goes even further and gives us a method to actualize loving others to such an extent that we can reveal in our lives the Creator, the general force of love and bestowal.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Jensen, good question!
We learn that nature is a perfect integral system. In an integral system, there are no parts that are more or less important, but rather everyone is equal and everyone is important. If even a single part is missing, then the whole system is incomplete.
Meaning the purpose of creation will be attained by EVERYONE. And if even one person is missing, then we have not yet attained the entire purpose of creation. It’s like a 8 billion piece jigsaw puzzle, where if even 1 piece is missing, the entire puzzle is incomplete.
So no one will be left behind, we will all reach the goal. The only difference is that there are those that are awakened to this work earlier and those that are awakened to it later. This is because there is a certain order of corrections that need to take place. It’s like building a large jigsaw puzzle. First you start with all the corner pieces, and only then do you gradually work your way to the center. So those that received awakened points in the hearts are like those corner pieces of the puzzle that need to start the whole process. Later on, due to their good work, they pave the way for the rest of the world to join this process.
Albert @ KabU
My question is regarding the lineage of Qabalah. Some say that the true Qabalah was stolen from the ancient jewish hebrews and that the qabalah that is taught today is not authentic and is in fact a bastardised version. Some make reference to kazarians, zionists who brought forward their own interpretation of sacred qabalah after stealing this sacred knowledge. I aware from my own reading that Quabalah was taught orally from master to student only so that the purity of the wisdom was translated in its original state. What are your thoughts?
Hi Yvonne, good question!
Authentic Kabbalah has been concealed for the past 2000 years, so naturally there are a lot of misconceptions associated with it. Just picture a 2000 year old game of telephone… Essentially Kabbalah is the method by which we correct our egoistic nature. As a result of this correction, we become similar to the Creator, the general force of love and bestowal. As a result of becoming similar to Him, we reveal this force of love in practice, in our lives.
The first one to actualize this was Adam (about 5800 years ago). 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 on ward 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, philosophy, or the myriad of spiritual methods out there. Check out these blog posts from Rav Laitman for more details:
Albert @ KabU
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