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Hi,
The Book of Job comes to mind when Mr. Tony mentions the path of pain. Does it give a holistic view on how God shows his love by testing us? I really love this story(it helped me to understand how much material things do not matter) because: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” I really want to understand Him properly. Please correct me if I am wrong.
Hi Anthie,
Yes, you can say that the story from the book of Job is an example of the path of pain, that we are constantly being pushed by sufferings towards the purpose of creation. But if instead of waiting for the sufferings to push us, we start to aspire towards that purpose by ourselves, then we don’t need those sufferings anymore.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: http://laitman.com/2011/01/lets-go-with-the-light/
Albert @ KabU
1. What does Shay refer to on p. 228
2. and what is NRNHY up to Yechida mean on p. 229. in Walking the path of truth?
3. Can you give an example of a spiritual object and their acts? From p.112 of Attaining the worlds beyond
4. I don’t understand how we can know the purpose of the Creator. We are too limited. Can you explain?
Thank you
P
Hi Esther,
1. Shay is referring to the number 310. In the Gematria of the Hebrew letters, it’s the written form of the number 310. So for that article, you can replace the word Shay with the number 310.
Check out this article for more details: The Ties between Letters, Words, and Numbers
http://www.kabbalah.info/eng/content/view/frame/60270?/eng/content/view/full/60270&main
2. Kabbalah is the method by which we correct our egoistic nature. There are 5 levels to the ego. Corresponding to each level is a light which corrects that level and fulfills it with the pleasure of bestowal. NRNHY is an acronym for the lights. It stands for “Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya, Yechida.” Yechida is the highest form of light.
3. This is referring to the law of roots and branches. Every object in our world has a corresponding spiritual root. Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2009/09/the-law-of-roots-and-branches-the-most-imporant-law-in-kabbalah/
The Law Of Roots And Branches – The Most Important Law In Kabbalah
4. You’re right, we are limited. As a science, Kabbalah is quite aware of our limitations and works precisely within these limits. This is why Kabbalah divides our research of the Creator into two parts.
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/2017/11/the-concept-of-god-in-kabbalah/
Albert @ KabU
Thank you for your answers. There’s a lot to learn!
In regards to the gematria, it says Elohim is 86 like nature. What does the word Adonoi mean?
Also, regarding the language of roots and branches. I find it easier to think of the roots more like a seed that contains the essence of everything the tree will become. In this way I can feel my direct connection to the spiritual world better than thinking of roots which are already developed parts of the tree. Can you comment?
Thank you very much
Hi Esther,
Adonai translates to “my lord”. There are a lot of different interesting connections in the gematria of the words, like the one you mentioned about Elohim. We’ll learn the important ones together throughout the course.
Regarding the roots and branches they are like cause and effect. The root is the cause and effect we see in our world, the branch.
It’s like watching TV. Let’s say I’m watching a TV show and want to change something in the show. I can start yelling at the show or even turn it off, or go to sleep or make a thousand other actions, but ultimately it will not change the show itself. In order to make any change, I would need to go to the source. In this case maybe contact the director or something.
This is how our world works. That we’re on the level of branches, like that end result of a TV show that was already made. And in order to make any change, we need to go to the roots.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2013/09/from-root-to-branch/
Albert @ KabU
Tony says that we should look at occurrences based on our experience (the tsunami). does not this make one “selfish”? we do not look at things with empathy and look at things based on OUR TRUTH?
Hi Elizabeth,
We learn that “a judge has only what his eyes can see”. Meaning that Kabbalah is a very practical down to earth method. We shouldn’t live in the clouds, rather we should work practically with what we are experiencing every moment of our lives. Furthermore, just like when a person is sick and goes to a doctor, he doesn’t lie to the doctor about how he feel. Likewise in Kabbalah, we shouldn’t lie to ourselves about how we feel the world.
As for being selfish, that is okay. After all, we were all created as egoists on purpose. It’s precisely thanks to the ego that we can rise to high spiritual degrees. In Kabbalah, the ego is not a bad force but rather a partner that helps us to advance. Meaning we don’t eliminate our ego, we rise above it. It turns into a type of hill or mountain that we rise above. In other words, the greater the ego, the further up we can climb, and the greater the spiritual level we can achieve. On the other hand if we eliminate the ego, then the spiritual level we can achieve is relatively tiny.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2011/02/the-worse-the-better/
Furthermore, since our very nature is egoistic, we can’t fight the ego directly. We need help to rise above the ego. This help comes to us from the force of the light. All of the corrections are performed on us by the light. Our work is only to extract more and more of this light, especially during the Kabbalistic studies, and it does all the rest.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: http://laitman.com/2013/02/sunbathing-in-the-rays-of-the-reforming-light/
Albert @ KabU
Hi Elizabeth,
If you’re trying to connect with others then you don’t need to focus on yourself. Essentially each one of us is perfect. We don’t need to change anything about ourselves.
Just picture that all of humanity is part of a single system. Like a 8 billion piece jigsaw puzzle. In a jigsaw puzzle, you wouldn’t start cutting off pieces or recoloring the pieces to make them fit. Likewise with us. Each piece of the puzzle (each person) is perfect by itself and does not require any correction. The only problem is knowing where each piece fits in with all the other pieces.
We’ll learn about this more practically in the more advanced semesters when everyone will get their own Kabbalah group with whom they can put all these things into practice. In the meantime, check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2014/05/puzzle-adam-harishon/
Albert @ KabU
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