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Hi & thank you for taking questions.
If Kabbalists don’t discuss their attainments, how do we know this is not all a product of human imagination? Forgive the crude comparison – but look at scientology for example. That is a system that has people ascend through levels to attain otherwise-secret knowledge at each one that they can’t discuss with anyone. Yet ex-scientologists have come out and said it’s all nonsense.
Cults around the world use the same tactic & it works because people who are seeking meaning in their life are vulnerable. Any system that has people ascend through levels to gain otherwise-secret knowledge which they can’t talk about (and is therefore non-verifiable) is a common pattern throughout human history. How do you know Kabbalah is any different?
If Kabbalah was truly a science and not a belief pattern, then why can’t anything about the upper levels be discussed? (The answer that discussing attainment will induce envy in others and cause you to lose the attainment is consistent with a belief system and not a science).
This is not meant to be inflammatory -please don’t take it as such. Thanks for taking questions.
Hi Megan, great questions!
I think there’s some misunderstanding here. We discuss everything that we’re learning about. We even have workshops between us to discuss these things, reflection forums, etc. But we don’t share our personal revelations (for the reasons I talked about in a previous post below).
Furthermore, even if a person would reveal his personal revelations, it would not be a verification of anything. Just picture that a person comes up to me and says “Hey, I’ve studied Kabbalah and reached the 25th spiritual degree from it”. Is that proof that this system works? No, I would simply be accepting his words on faith, like any other blind belief. Verification means that I experience what we’re learning about from the Kabbalists on myself.
The Kabbalists are the scientists of Kabbalah. Everything we know is based on their research. This is similar to how other sciences work. The Kabbalists are those researchers that have performed a certain experiment and reached a certain result: the correction of our nature, the revelation of the Creator, the force of bestowal, etc. So if we are to replicate their experiment, to follow their procedures we should reach the same results.
But if a person is not yet on the degree of a Kabbalist, how does he relate to everything he’s learning? Like to any other science. For example, when I read a physics textbook, I see different formulas and experiments that research our reality. If I’m reading this textbook in 8th grade, then I have no choice but to accept the things written there since they come from a credible source. If I’m reading this textbook in college, I’m already given some tools with which I can measure and verify some of these things for myself. And yet there are some concepts that are so advanced, that I have no way to verify them until I become a physicist myself and get access to all the tools that will help me research these things.
Same with us here. There are some things I can verify for myself even when I’m just starting in the fundamentals of this wisdom, and then there are things that I can verify only when I myself have reached spiritual attainment.
Albert @ KabU
What is a polite but effective response to Jewish friends who insist it is inappropriate for gentiles to learn about Kabbalah?
Hi Aoife,
In general, it’s not recommended to talk about Kabbalah with those that are not on the path. It’s impossible for a person without an active point in the heart to understand these things. It just leads to unnecessary arguments which ultimately harms both them and you.
It harms them because we naturally try to justify ourselves, to prove our path to them, or even to force our path onto them, which violates the rule that “there is no coercion in spirituality”. It’s like forcing a 5 year old to do something sexual, which they are clearly not ready for. It’s an extreme example, but you understand how such things can mess a person up for life. Likewise when we try to force this path onto others that are not ready for it, it can mess them up spiritually for a whole lifetime.
Or these arguments can harm you. When we argue with someone, on a subconscious level, our opinions begin to mix. Their doubts will become your doubts. And your desire for spirituality, the most precious thing that there is in life, will weaken more and more. So the best thing to do when outside of the spiritual environment is to act normal, just like everyone else. And when speaking with people outside the path, talk about the normal everyday life and not about Kabbalah or spirituality.
And if you think someone is interested in Kabbalah, instead of arguing or going into any explanations, simply give them one of the beginner books as a present or send them a link to the course. This is the safest approach.
Albert @ KabU
Hello,
I’m not an expert in eastern teachings, so I cannot comment on that. But in general, most spiritual methods, religions, philosophies, and even sciences in one way or another stem from the wisdom of Kabbalah. Either as a stepping stone for a person to develop through until his point in the heart awakens (such as many eastern traditions), or from an attempt to copy and implement this wisdom (like what early philosophers tried to do, which later on turned into modern sciences), or as a side effect of the concealment of this wisdom (which is how the modern religions and spiritual paths emerged).
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2008/11/the-origin-and-purpose-of-eastern-teachings/
Albert @ KabU
If the purpose of Kabbalah is to unite the whole of humanity in order to over come our Ego – why don’t Jews evangelize like Christians and Islam?
Hi Nicole,
1. I’m not an expert on religions or Judaism, so I cannot comment on that. But we need keep in mind that Kabbalah and religion are two separate things. Let’s put a few things into perspective to understand this:
Kabbalah is the method for 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 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 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/
2. There is a rule in Kabbalah that “there is no coercion in spirituality”. So unless someone has a desire for this, you cannot force it onto them. Although we do disseminate Kabbalah and the need for uniting humanity to the whole world, we do so in a very light way so as not to breach the above law of no coercion.
Furthermore, we need to keep in mind that ultimately it’s not we ourselves that will awaken humanity with our own egoistic strength. Rather it’s the Creator that does this work. We only spread this information on a large scale, as if to plant the seed in humanity, but we’re not the ones to finish this work. In everything we do there, we need to leave room for the light to finish the job. We’ll learn more about this in the more advanced lessons.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Albert –
So Kabbalah is a sect of Judaism but not targeted at Jewish people specifically, part of its aims is to support Israel as a nation for Kabbalists to be in; live and build the environment needed for connection and the rebuilding of the new Temple; the latter will be a sign of the stronger connection amongst the one soul. Am I inaccurate about any of the above?
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