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I’ve been reading Kabbalah For The Student from the start and it very much seems to be for people with a clear picture of Judaism. It leaves me a bit baffled as my knowledge isn’t in this area. However, from the recommended reading for this week and from that excerpt on the 3 discernments, could you give a clearer definition to exactly what it is implying. I interpret it as a yearning to be as one with the Creator, making sure to do your daily tasks with the correct intention (Mitvah) but what is the 3rd aspect. Also, can you clarify the abbreviation NRNHY please?
Hi Anthony,
1. There are three recommended books for this course. Kabbalah Revealed and Attaining the Worlds Beyond are there to give you a solid foundation in the Wisdom of Kabbalah. Besides the recommended readings, it’s good to read through these books from beginning to end a few times.
Kabbalah for the Student on the other hand is a textbook of primary sources. This is an advanced level book which we’ll be studying from throughout our entire spiritual development. It can be a bit challenging for us without the proper foundation of the previous two books. So for now, it’s best to just stick with reading the recommended reading materials in that book. After you get a good foundation, you can read through that one as well. And in the more advanced phases, we’ll study articles in that book together and in greater depth.
2. Regarding Judaism, Kabbalah and Judaism are two separate things, so knowledge of Judaism is not necessary to study Kabbalah.
3. In the article Walking the Path of Truth, Baal HaSulam writes to us about three components in our work: Israel, Torah, and the Creator.
Israel is me, my point in the heart, my desire to actualize myself, to reach spirituality. Torah comes from the Hebrew word Ohr, meaning light. So when Kabbalists us the word Torah they are not referring to the book but rather to the system through which we draw the light that corrects us. The Creator is our root to which we want to return.
He writes that these three components need to be present and equal, otherwise I deviate from the spiritual path. Meaning if I’m just thinking about the Creator, without working with the system called Torah in order to correct myself, then I’m deviating from the path. Also if I’m just working on correcting myself without aiming my work to the Creator, this too is a deviation.
Only when all three of these things are used equally, then we are truly progressing and the light works on us in the most optimal way. It’s like I have a rifle, the rifle scope, and the target. My job is to align the rifle through the scope towards the target. In this way I’m certain to hit the mark.
4. NRNHY is an acronym for Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya, Yechida. These are the names of the lights that enter into the spiritual desire. There are five of them because there are five levels of the spiritual desire. Each level of desire has a corresponding light that enters it.
Albert @ KabU
I feel like this path from the ‘basics’ is not true for everyone. I have from a very young age have had a desire for knowledge, way before a desire for sex. Also, I have never had a desire for power or fame. So, I doubt I’m the only person who’s desires don’t follow this view…..I also don’t see a desire for sex and food and shelter as basic and animalistic. It’s hard for me to want to learn more when I feel like my desires are being judged as lesser or greater or needing to be fixed. Human beings need food and shelter to live….m
Hi Kelti,
They described the desires in general. But since each person is unique, each one of us has a different arrangement of these desires.
Regarding being judged, Kabbalah is a science, not a religion. Just like when we learn about the physics of our world, no one is judging us there, likewise when we’re learning Kabbalah, which is essentially the physics of the spiritual world, no one is judging us there as well.
As for the correction of our desires, spirituality works according to laws. The main law of spirituality is the law of equivalence of form. It means that if we want to reveal spirituality, we need to become similar to it, to the qualities of pure love and bestowal that reside there. This is just like how a radio can pick up an external wave, when we tune the internal frequency of the radio to that wave. So if we tune our desires in the direction of bestowal, then we will become similar to spirituality and reveal it in practice, in our lives. This is essentially what we’re learning how to do.
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
No question at the moment, just an observation. I love the idea of trying to see and understand the Creator’s intent behind every situation in life, knowing that the Creator is all good and only wants the best for us. It’s simultaneously so simple but also so profound and life-changing. Thank you for so beautifully illustrating this vital point.
I’ve always had a feeling… a full glass that’s always been full has no idea of how it would feel empty, yet to KNOW all there is it’s intrigued to empty itself to know how emptiness feels, and how it feels to be filled again. And I felt I was one of those drops spilled by the glass and my game was to find my way up that steep wall to get back in there. A video game without instructions where one discovers one has attained a new level only AFTER it happened. Yet even if one dies, the levels are never set back, one always starts where one was no matter how lot one feels… Then I found KabU and I feel I was almost right in my life long feelings… Quite profound, filling, yet making me so hungry for more I feel like I’m really starving now. The Creator sure poked me in every step I lived so I would be as hungry as possible once I got to all of you. I’d want to say I’m pissed, but truth is, with my new eyes, I see how profoundly grateful I truly am to be “late” to the game! Thank you so much!
how to understand below statement? still not sure why 3 states depends on each other.
“When you examine the above three states, you will find that one completely necessitates the other, in a way that if one were to be canceled, the others would be canceled, too.
If, for example, the third state—the inversion of the form of reception to the form of bestowal—had not materialized, it is certain that the first state in Ein Sof would never have been able to emerge, since the wholeness materialized there only because the future third state was already there, as though it is the present. All the wholeness that was depicted there in that state is like a reflection from the future into the present. But if the future could be canceled, there would not be any present. Thus, the third state necessitates the existence of the first state.”
Hi Helen,
The Creator created creation in a state of perfection. If it was possible to cancel any of the three states, it would cancel the perfection of creation.
If for example you cancel the first or third state and we’re just in the second state, it means the perfect Creator created something imperfect.
If you cancel the second state and we remain in the first state, then we remain in an unconscious state, which by itself is also not perfect.
But since creation is perfect, there is no chance to cancel any of these states, meaning each and every one of us must necessarily reach that third state of complete perfection. If so, where then is our freedom in this system? Baal HaSulam continues that article by explaining that since the end goal is set, our freedom is only in the path we take to get there, whether by the path of light or the path of suffering. That’s the main takeaway from the three state model, if you understand that, you’re good.
Check out these blog posts from Rav Laitman for more details:
https://laitman.com/2014/01/from-perfection-to-perfection/
http://laitman.com/2011/01/lets-go-with-the-light/
Albert @ KabU
thank you for the reply. you mentioned “The Creator created creation in a state of perfection”, then you mentioned “If you cancel the second state and we remain in the first state, then we remain in an unconscious state, which by itself is also not perfect.” so is it perfect or not perfect? if not perfect, then he didn’t create something perfect, if perfect, then he didn’t need anything else to make it more perfect?
why didn’t creator create us in the perfect state with consciousness? to begin with the state 3? if not possible, then there is something not possible for the creator? if he choose to be, why? so we get to have free will and he wants us to choose him via free will rather than create us choosing him automatically? if so, I see this makes sense. but still, is the stage 1 perfect or not perfect?
Yes, those are exactly the questions Rav Laitman addresses in that blog post: https://laitman.com/2014/01/from-perfection-to-perfection/
I have no questions actually. But what I can see is that the more i learn these things the more miserable I am becoming because I just realise how blind am I…
If I knew all these before it would be easier for me not to fall into meaningless life.. maybe.
anyway, im very grateful for all these lessons.Hi Magdalena,
The healthiest attitude towards the past is to say “there is none else besides Him” and that we went through exactly what we needed to go through. The more we develop, the more we’ll see that nothing happens in a meaningless way, but rather everything was prearranged in the perfect way for our development.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2018/03/is-it-worthwhile-for-an-older-person-to-study-kabbalah/
Albert @ KabU
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