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Hi Orah,
There is no official course at the moment. All of the Hebrew that we need for studying Kabbalah we will gradually learn together throughout this course. For more details about the importance 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
I have more than one please forgive me. You say kabbalist, what makes a person a kabbalist? You gave the example of Abraham teaching the men kabbalah. How do you know he was teaching that to them? Did they know they were kabbalists? Did they know that the words they were using were representations of something of another world? The 125 steps…where did the knowledge come from that it is that many? I should probably get those books lol
Hi Blue,
1) A Kabbalist is someone that has corrected his/her egoistic desire into the desire to bestow (at least to some extent). As a result of this correction, a Kabbalist reveals the Creator, the general force of love and bestowal, while they are alive in this world.
2) Regarding Abraham, we know of his work through the writings of Rambam.
3) If a person corrects himself, he attains spirituality, he feels it tangibly. It’s impossible not to know that one has spiritual attainment.
4) Yes, the Kabbalists used the language of roots and branches on purpose in order to convey spiritual phenomena. For those that are in spiritual attainment, this is very clear. For those that are not, these writings seem to them like some kind of stories, history, morals, etc.
5) The number 125 comes from the structure of the upper worlds. This structure is just a division of the spiritual desire that we need to correct into sefirot, partzufim, and worlds.
The most basic division of the desire is 1 Sefira. 5 Sefirot compose 1 partzuf. 5 Partzufim compose 1 world. There are 5 worlds in total. So 5 worlds each with 5 partzufim each with 5 sefirot equals 125 (5x5x5) steps on the spiritual ladder, or in other words corrections that need to be performed on the desire.
In the book Kabbalah for the Student, there’s an article called Foreword to the Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah (http://www.kabbalah.info/eng/content/view/full/64187) which lists these 125 steps in the language of sefirot/partzufim/olamot(worlds). For now, these are just technical terms for us, but in the future lessons we’ll dive deeper into these things and learn how to feel and experience them.
In simpler words, the 125 steps represents the difference between us and the Creator. The Creator is a desire to bestow and we are the desire to receive. Adapting our desire to receive to work in order to bestow takes 125 steps. So to the extent that we correct our nature, make it similar to the Creator’s nature, to that extent we’re “climbing” this ladder.
In other words, ascending or descending this ladder is not a physical action, but rather depends on how much we’re similar to the Creator’s quality of bestowal (ascending) or less similar to it and more egoistic (descending).
All of this operates according to 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
Hello,
I am so glad that I can ask questions and get answers from real people. I’ve been watching videos and reading books and honestly it’s so confusing. In the video (week 1 here on KabU) the instructor said something about Machsom. What’s the best way to cross that border and start feeling spiritual worlds? Study in a group the teaching of 10 sefirot? There has to be a structure step by step, is that correct? Or each individual person achiees perception of reality at a different time? Thanks! 🙂
Hi Aaron, great questions!
Spirituality works according to laws. The main law in spirituality is the law of equivalence of form. Meaning that in order to cross that barrier, we need to become similar to the spiritual qualities of love and bestowal that reside there.
It’s similar to how a radio works. That we just need to tune the inner frequency of the radio to match the external wave. Once we tune in to the wave that we want, we right away hear the music that is on that wave. Likewise with us, once we tune ourselves in the direction of bestowal, we will reveal the spiritual world.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: http://laitman.com/2013/04/everything-is-attained-by-the-equivalence-of-form/
And yes, we do this work by studying together in a Kabbalistic group. This is what we’ll be doing in a systemic way throughout the courses on KabU and especially in the advanced semester.
Until then, we’re still in the fundamentals, learning the foundation needed to do this type of work. The best thing you can do for your spiritual advancement now, is to set aside some time to regularly return to the Kabbalistic sources, weekly lessons, videos, books, etc. Such a habit of regularly returning to the source of the light will help you throughout your entire spiritual development.
Albert @ KabU
Hello ,
While I pursue learning Kabbalah here with you, can I still follow the spiritual teachings from my own culture or will there be any conflict of teachings?
Hi Sudhi,
It’s up to you to decide, but if you want to succeed in Kabbalah (or in any spiritual practice really) you should practice it without mixing other things into it. Otherwise it’s like following two different GPS systems. One leads you to the goal through the west highway, while the other through the east highway. If you follow both, you’ll just wind up going in circles.
Albert @ KabU
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