- This topic has 1,055 replies, 406 voices, and was last updated 1 day, 11 hours ago by
.
- Replies
Hi. What is the meaning of Assiyah? because the end of this word is also the beginning of the expression of the divine name, which I find very interesting. Many famous prophets also had Jah/yah in their names, I love this it is so interesting
Hi Chris,
Assiyah (עשיה) means action.
See my post below for more details about the names of the spiritual worlds.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Chris,
The word Assiyah by itself means action. What you’re referring to is the ×™×” which is a part of this word, but more specifically it’s a part of the tetragrammaton, which is one of the names of the Creator.
But what is a name of the Creator? What does that even mean? How can we assign a name to Him?
Keep in mind that Kabbalah is a science with clear limits of what we can and cannot study. Kabbalah differentiate two parts to the Creator.
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 simply 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
Thank you. Bo-Re. I have never heard this before. Is that the וה part of the tetragrammaton? It makes sense because come and see is like what He said to Moses when he questioned Him and the writing says He gave him 2 examples, the staff and the leprous white hand, He proves Himself. This is so interesting, it is exactly what I need at the correct time
Hi Chris,
These are just 4 letters (yod hey vav hey), there is nothing to translate there. Keep in mind that in general these things are not translated because we don’t get anything from the translation. These things need to be felt. How do we feel them? Each time we correct our egoistic desires, within the corrected desire we reveal a certain spiritual phenomena. Only after we reveal that phenomena will we understand it. And since there are 4 levels of coarseness to our egoistic desires, corresponding to each level, there are 4 letters in the tetragrammaton. We’ll learn more about this in the upcoming lesson dealing with the structure of the upper world.
Albert @ KabU
Hello.
On the topic of forbidden amulets and trinkets…
Is it considered idolatry to think, that a crystal from deep inside the earth, would have any healing properties?
Thank you 🙂
Hi Rune, good question!
In general, people define idolatry as worshiping anything other than the Creator. But in Kabbalah, it has a different and more internal meaning. Idolatry in Kabbalah means that a person serves himself, his ego, instead of serving the Creator, the general force of love and bestowal. So everything we do to serve our ego is considered idolatry.
Here’s an excerpt from Rav Laitman’s words on this topic:
“At first Abraham himself made idols, meaning he taught people to worship egoistic desires for money, honor, knowledge. All our activities in this world are called making idols, idol worship, since we work for our egoism”.
As for amulets and such things, these things are not forbidden but rather they have nothing to do with spirituality, there no spiritual forces within such things. They only benefit us in a purely psychological way, similar to how the placebo effect works.
Albert @ KabU
Hi there,
Is there anyone presently, that has completed all the 125 steps and returned/achieved spiritual attainment?
Hi Lucy, good question!
A Kabbalist by definition is a person that has already attained spirituality, at least to a certain degree. Even the first out 125 degrees is also a certain level of spiritual attainment. There were many such Kabbalists throughout the generations. As for those that reached the state of the final correction, meaning completed all 125 degrees, the only example that we have is the group of Rabbi Shimon which 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.
For more details about the Kabbalists, check out this blog post from Rav Laitman:Â https://laitman.com/2015/11/the-great-kabbalists-and-their-works/
Albert @ KabU
Hello again,
Chapter2 of Attaining the Worlds Beyond talks about different paths, the Right which is the Providence of of the Creator regardless of our actions. The second is the Left path which is the Providence of the Creator as regards to our actions and the third is the middle path. Can you clarify further about each path and how we can know that which path we are on
Hi Ludumo,
On the one hand there is “none else besides Him”. Meaning that there is a single force behind ALL of reality. EVERYTHING comes from Him and I have no say in this whatsoever. On the other hand there is “if i’m not for me, then who is?” Meaning that EVERYTHING is in my hands and EVERYTHING depends on me, on which actions I will perform throughout the day.
We are working between these two extremes. But we shouldn’t fall into one extreme or the other, we need to learn how to combine these two things together. We’ll learn how to do this practically in the more advanced lessons, in the meantime, check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2014/10/if-i-am-not-for-myself-then-no-one-will-help-me/
Albert @ KabU
Hello
For a long time I have had three desires in me:
The first, is to become one of the greatest filmmakers in existence.
The second is to invent technologies which will be to the benefit of mankind and all of nature.
The third is to see a world where all people from all different backgrounds live in harmony with each other. A world where Humanity has developed mentally and spiritually to the point that wars, starvation, and evil acts are a thing of the past.
My question is….if connection with the Creator is the only Worthy goal, does that mean that I must now forget all these other desires I have had. In as much as I want to live in harmony with the Creator, in as much as I want to reach equivalence of form with him, does that mean I must let go of my dreams and focus only on this particular goal?
Hi Ludumo, great question!
No, we don’t need to forget our dreams or fight with our desires. We only need to work on making the desire for spirituality the most important thing. Then naturally the rest of our desires will fall into place. For example, it’s like with an artist that is so involved in his art, that he fulfills all the rest of his desires out of necessity so he can quickly return to his passion. Same with us, when spirituality is the most important desire, then we will be able to properly relate to all the rest of our corporeal desires in a balanced way.
Regarding the first two desires you mentioned, keep in mind that Kabbalists are not monks, they don’t eliminate their desire or disconnect themselves from the corporeal life to live on some mountain top. Rather, Kabbalists continue to live on the level of this world throughout the entire spiritual ladder. So they continue to live in the normal way: to work in their profession, to take care of their family, health, etc.
As for the 3rd desire, this is actually directly connected to a person’s spiritual work. We’ll learn in the upcoming lesson on the perception of reality that everything outside of me is nothing more than a reflection of my own uncorrected egoistic state. As long as I’m not corrected, I will see in front of me a bad world, wars, suffering, starvation, etc. And when I correct myself, the external world will appear corrected as well. It’s like I have these dirty glasses through which I see the whole world as dirty. The moment I clean my own glasses, I’ll look at the same world, but now it’s clean and perfect. In other words, we don’t need to become humanitarians or make any corrections in the external world, we only need to correct ourselves, and then we’ll see this correction reflected in the world.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: http://laitman.com/2014/04/in-neutral-gear/
Albert @ KabU
In Kabbalah For The Student, Rav Laitman writes, “…attainments or degrees of prophecy and Holy Spirit.” What is the Holy Spirit he is referring to?
Hi Miryam,
I think you’re referring to the article “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah” which was written by Baal HaSulam.
Regarding the holy spirit (Ruach ha Kodesh, in Hebrew) that he mentions there, Kodesh (holy) is referring to the quality of bestowal. Our nature is the opposite, the desire to receive pleasure. We correct this nature to operate in the direction of bestowal thanks to the light. The light is both the force that corrects this nature and it’s also the spiritual fulfillment we feel within the corrected desire to bestow. There are 5 levels of desire that we need to correct. Corresponding to each level is a certain light that corrects it and fulfills it (Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya, Yechida). The light that we receive from the 2nd level of bestowal is called Ruach ha Kodesh.
In other words, it’s one of the illuminations of light that we receive in order to correct ourselves. Or if we already corrected ourselves, then it’s the fulfillment that we receive in order to bestow.
It’s good that you asked and it’s good to redefine these things from the typical connotations of these words to their proper Kabbalistic definitions so we don’t start picturing all sorts of “spirits” and other such things when hearing these words.
Albert @ KabU
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.