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What Kabbalah think ” self- sacrifice”
It is a kind of love ( I think ) but also it hurt.
You are devoting something for good but you do not feel pressure from it, just feel sacrifice and pain.
Is it something wrong ?
Hi Miho,
You can say that bestowal is a type of self-sacrifice. Whether it hurts or not, whether we find it pleasurable or not, that depends.
For example, when a mother gives birth and takes care of her baby, is it painful or not? It could be, but usually the mother feels her role as being so important and feels so much love towards the baby, that it more than compensates for her self sacrifice.
Or another example, when a bodybuilder lifts a huge weight in the gym, is that painful or not? It could be, but it could also be that the bodybuilder enjoys the whole process, especially when the gym environment encourages him and respects him.
In other words, all these things are relative. Kabbalists tell us that the main thing is the importance of the goal which we get from the environment around us. So if we build for ourselves a strong spiritual environment, then we wont feel the process of spiritual development as something painful, but on the contrary, we’ll gladly run towards it and enjoy the entire process.
We’ll learn more about this in the next semester, 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
Hi Kabu Instructors,
To move closer to the creator are we required to follow , as Jews do, the ” The 613 ways of the Torah” ( 613 Mitvah and 7 Mitzot De Rabanan = 620 ) ?? rules /commandments ?
These are mentioned as a sort of precursor to gaining spirituality ?
The text ( Kabbalah for the Student – Pg 228 & 229) goes on to talk about the 620 names of god ” the whole of the Torah are the names of God ” ….are these the same ?
A wee bit confused as they seem to be very different …one is a thing and one is a concept ??? or is this the Kabbalists not actually talking about physical objects but spiritual concepts?ie there was a statement ?? about Kabbalists never referring to events or objects in the corporeal world.
(apologies unsure exactly where …i think in one of the many video lectures Ive watched)
thank you
MollyHi Molly,
Moving closer to the Creator works according to the law of equivalence of form. Meaning that in order to come closer to Him, we need to become similar to Him. He is the pure quality of love and bestowal, while our nature is the complete opposite, pure reception or egoism. The process of correcting our nature to make it resemble Him is called Torah & Mitzvot.
Torah comes from the Hebrew word Ohr (Hebrew for “light”). So when Kabbalists use the word Torah, they are not referring to the physical book, but rather to the light. This is a special force that we can extract, especially through the Kabbalistic studies, in order to correct our egoistic nature.
As for the Mitzvot, when Kabbalists use the word Mitzvot (plural of Mitzvah) they are not referring to the corporeal commandments that a religious person performs with his hands and feet. But rather the Mitzvot are the internal processes by which we draw the light and correct the egoistic desires.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2010/11/spice-up-your-desire/
As for the 620 names of the Creator, our egoistic desire can be broken down into 620 parts, every time we correct a part of the desire, 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.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2011/12/the-holy-names-of-bestowal/
Albert @ KabU
In order to match our intentions to the one of spiritual world we need to know what is the intention of the spiritual world … my question is how do I know or discover the intention of the spiritual world in any aspect of my spiritual reality in order for me to be sure that my intentions align with the spiritual world
Hi Bobby,
The spiritual world is composed of higher and higher levels of bestowal. But since bestowal is opposite to our nature, we don’t really have the ability to set such intentions. The best that we can do is just to try. When we try to have such aspirations, especially during the Kabbalistic studies or while doing spiritual work in the Kabbalistic group, these things evoke the light to work on us and gradually correct our aspirations. Then what started as a mere aspiration or even a game gradually becomes reality. And it’s all thanks to the light, we ourselves are powerless to correct ourselves with our own strength.
Check out these blog posts from Rav Laitman for more details: http://laitman.com/2013/02/sunbathing-in-the-rays-of-the-reforming-light/
https://laitman.com/2012/03/building-blocks-of-the-first-spiritual-degree/
Albert @ KabU
Is it correct to say that as a practice one should get used to seeing good and evil in life as a way for the creator to bring us closer to him ?
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