Ask anything about week 2 lesson and materials and get an answer from a senior Kabbalah instructor.

[Tony Kosinec- KabU Instructor]

Ask anything about week 2 lesson and materials and get an answer from a senior Kabbalah instructor.

[Al]

Last week’s topic was “none else beside Him”. This week we learn that there is some little point of free choice we have. If every one of our perceptions and thoughts comes from above, from the creator, how is free will possible at all. It’s a paradox to me.

[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Al,

There is none else besides Him does not mean that we have no free choice. It means that we are in a closed system with absolute forces and laws. We cannot change these laws, but we can consciously work on putting ourselves under their influence in order to speed up our development.

That is our place of freedom. How do we do this? How do we put ourselves under the influence of these forces and laws even stronger? By choosing/building for ourselves a strong spiritual environment.

See my reply 357064 to Leyah below for more details.

Albert @ KabU

[Al]

It makes perfect sense to me, that it is the choice of environment that gives me the biggest leverage for the smallest amount of willpower. It’s where my free choice can make the biggest difference. How I understand what Tony says in the video, though, is that there is no free will at all, except in the choice of environment. If that’s how it is, I can’t make sense of where that free will comes from. I mean, why do I choose one environment over the other? Because of the conditions in my previous environment. Looking at it that way, it’s an endless chain of cause and effect.

So it’s not about free will vs. no free will, but about effective vs ineffective use of will? That way, it would make sense to me.

Thank you for your quick response!

[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Al,

You’re right that our initial choice of the spiritual environment is not up to us. This follows the saying that: the Creator puts man’s hand on the good fate and says “choose this for yourself”. Meaning He awakened your point in the heart and brought it to a good spiritual environment in which you can nourish it. After that the rest is up to you.

So what needs to happen for me to start actualizing my free will here? After all, the point in the heart is seemingly forcing me to be here. If so, then this desire needs to be taken away from me little by little, and there I begin to reveal more and more the place of my freedom.

This is similar to how we teach a child to ride a bike. First the parent holds the child completely. Then as the child learns to pedal and balance himself, the parent lets go a little, then a little more and a little more, until the child continue to pedal without the parent holding him at all.

So we too need to learn to continue to do this work even when that initial desire for spirituality begins to disappear or when the ego grows and begins to pull us into many different directions. When that happens, we’ll feel a need for mutual work in the group, the spiritual environment. On one hand when I fall into my ego, they need to pull me out, and on the other hand I need to help pull others out when they fall. This is why Kabbalists have always studied in groups (physical or virtual).

We will learn more about this in the more advanced semesters on KabU, where you’ll receive your own Kabbalah group with whom you can practice these things.

Albert @ KabU

[Al]

Now I see the logic behind it. Thanks for the thorough explanation.

[N/a]

Hi.  My name is George.  I’m from Melbourne, Australia.

My first question is this:  If I do not have free will, if all my thoughts, desires and actions are orchestrated by the Creator, notwithstanding the altruistic intention behind these events, can we attribute the current war in the middle east, or of the many murders and rapes that take place each day around the world to the Creator?  Quite honestly, at what point do we take responsibility for our own actions?

My second question is this:  If the Creator is this universal force of benevolence and love is, therefore, the governing principal of the universe, then how is it possible for love to be true without free will, particularly given there cannot be any coercion in spirituality (given the Creator is incapable of asking for anything from His act of giving)?

Thanks.

[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi George,

1. We learn from the Kabbalists that every single moment comes to us directly from the Creator, this is called “there is none else besides Him”. Furthermore, they also say that He is the “good that does good”. Meaning that every moment He is sending us nothing but goodness. But why then don’t we see this in our world? Why do we see so much suffering and wars in the world?

This is because our world is governed by our egoistic nature. This egoistic nature is opposite to the Creator’s nature. Because of that, it inverts the Creator’s goodness into something bad. It’s just like multiplying numbers: a positive times a negative equals negative.

So as long as we remain within this egoistic nature, we will continue to see and feel more suffering and horrors in the world. But if we correct our nature to be similar to the Creator’s nature, then we will reveal the true reality in which only goodness exists, and our previous egoistic state would appear as nothing more than a dream.

Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2011/06/how-can-we-justify-the-creator/

2. I’m not sure I fully understand the question, but we do have a certain measure of freedom, which is in choosing the environment that will influence us. See my reply 357064 to Leyah below for more details.

Albert @ KabU

[N/a]

Thank you Albert!

[Leyah Lynette Evol]

Shalom Seth

Would I be correct in framing the message in this vid as follows:

Level one – The four elements that make up man (fire / earth / air / water) with a sprinkling of stardust of course. 🙂

Level two – The parts of me I’m born with, gender, personality, weaknesses and strengths.

Level three – The environment I’m born in, country, city/ town, parents, school, peers etc.

Level four – Whom I choose to associate with and how I choose to perceive my experiences and how/ where I choose to nourish my Soul.

[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Leyah,

It depends on the context, but yes you can say that.

The main takeaway from this lesson is that every moment we’re under fixed deterministic laws which we have no direct control over. Like placing a seed in a ground and the seed is completely powerless to do anything about what happens to it.

But, we do have the choice of WHERE to place that seed. If we place it in the desert, nothing will come out of it. If we place in a good nourishing environment, then that seed can grow and develop properly.

Likewise with our spiritual work, if we place ourselves under the influence of a good spiritual environment, then we can get the proper nourishment to develop spiritually. Essentially our entire spiritual life depends not on our own strength and willpower, but on our choice of the spiritual environment. Everything else is a result of that choice.

Baal HaSulam writes about it in the article “The Freedom”. Here’s an excerpt:

“However, there is freedom for the will to initially choose such an environment, such books, and such guides that impart to him good concepts. If one does not do that, but is willing to enter any environment that appears to him and read any book that falls into his hands, he is bound to fall into a bad environment or waste his time on worthless books, which are abundant and easier to come by. In consequence, he will be forced into foul concepts that make him sin and condemn. He will certainly be punished, not because of his evil thoughts or deeds, in which he has no choice, but because he did not choose to be in a good environment, for in that there is definitely a choice.

Therefore, he who strives to continually choose a better environment is worthy of praise and reward. But here, too, it is not because of his good thoughts and deeds, which come to him without his choice, but because of his effort to acquire a good environment, which brings him these good thoughts and deeds.”

We’ll learn how to do this practically in the advanced semesters, in the meantime check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2012/10/bestowal-should-become-fashionable/

Albert @ KabU

[Loyda]

I like the part about our ignorance.  I truly, really, seriously don’t know anything and understand nothing. The more aware I become, the more I see the business of this world as fake. I am becoming cynical about everything. I feel everybody is trying to sell me stuff or trying to convince of something. Is this normal or is it me going crazy given the current state of the world?

[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Loyda,

It’s normal. We go through many states on the spiritual path. Many ups and downs, cloudy states and states of great insight, and everything in between. The main thing is to just keep going, to keep placing yourself under the influence of the light, especially during the Kabbalistic lessons, and it will balance everything out.

Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2013/02/sunbathing-in-the-rays-of-the-reforming-light/

Albert @ KabU

[Tammy Ardoin]

I don’t not have a question but I wanted to share the gratitude I have for the message In the video: Free Will The four factors. By the end of the video I was in tears(Joyful tears) at realizing the creator brought me here to the proper environment to learn from all you wonderful Souls❤️
Thank you all so very much for offering these teachings to each of us to aid in each of our development to correct the collective Soul!
May Hashim always bless each of you!

[Loyda]

Very helpful. Thanks!

[Mira]

Hello Albert,

Where does the number 600,000 come from? I read the blog post from Rav. Laitman: laitman.com/2010/09/love-and-hatred-of-600000-souls/

But I didn’t undersunderstand what is the meaning of Zeir Anpir  and Arich Anpir?

Many thanks,

Mira

[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Mira,

The Creator created a single desire to receive pleasure. In the process of correction, this desire gets partitioned 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.

Zeir Anpin and Arich Anpin are two different partzufim, referring to two different parts of the desire. The main takeaway from the 600,000 blog post should be that 600,000 is not a quantitative number, but a qualitative one. It represents the strength of the spiritual desire after it has been fully corrected.

As for the technical differences between the sefirot, partzufim, worlds, etc, in the advanced semesters, there is a whole course dedicated to that, where we’ll learn these things in depth. In the meantime check out the article: Foreword to the Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah for more details.

Albert @ KabU

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