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“I’ve heard you talk about working with a group of people, sometimes referred to as a group of ten, for study and spiritual work. Is this connected in any way to the traditional Jewish concept of a minyan? Why is this number significant in Kabbalah? And along with that, do Kabbalists generally keep kosher and observe other Jewish traditions, or is the focus more on the inner, spiritual aspects?”
MP
Hi Michael,
The number ten is significant in Kabbalah because it’s based on the 10 sefirot. A group of ten is essentially the smallest spiritual unit. This is similar to how our body needs a certain amount of organs for there to be life within it, likewise our spiritual body needs a group of ten for there to be spiritual life within it. And yes the group of ten is called a minyan.
As for keeping kosher and other observations, in Kabbalah we learn about the spiritual roots behind of all these things. There are those that choose to observe these things in corporeality as well, but it’s not mandatory.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2014/11/the-only-ritual-of-the-kabbalist/
Albert @ KabU
Is the desire to receive help from God, the key to convert our will into one of bestowal? And how so?
Hi Dominique,
Yes, you can say that. Essentially our very nature is egoistic. Just like a PC cannot reprogram itself to run as a Mac, we too cannot just change our own nature. We need help to make that change. This help comes to us from the light. The light is a special force that has the ability to change our nature. All our work boils down to extracting more and more of the light, especially during the Kabbalistic studies, and it does all the rest.
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
What is the significance of the number 600,000 with regards to the shattering of Adam Kadmon’s soul?
Hi Dominique,
600,000 is less of a quantitative number and more of a qualitative number. It represents the strength of the spiritual desire after it has been fully corrected. So essentially all of humanity is included in this number.
Check out this blog post to see how this number is derived: https://laitman.com/2010/09/love-and-hatred-of-600000-souls/
Albert @ KabU
I feel a little confused by this new perception of reality that Kabbalah teaches and which is very different from the world as I imagined it.
Humanity in its evolution has a constantly growing ego in total contradiction with the unreserved gift that is the creator.
My question is how can the ego growing in me bring me closer to the creator, given that there is a total opposition of form?
Thank you
Hi Guy,
You are correct that the growing ego by itself indeed causes further and further disparity of form with the Creator. It’s only by correcting the ego that we come closer to the Creator. And the bigger the ego that we correct, the closer we get to the Creator.
This is why in Kabbalah we don’t work on eradicating the ego, but on correcting it. The more we advance, the more our egoistic desires grow. They turn into a type of mountain that we climb over. The bigger the desires, the higher we can climb, and the higher the spiritual degree that we can attain. On the other hand, if we were to eliminate our egoistic desires, then accordingly, we would only be able to attain a tiny degree of spiritual attainment.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2011/02/the-worse-the-better/
Albert @ KabU
I’m not sure I’d describe our inborn nature as ‘egoistic’. I say this because our inborn nature is vastly greater than our ego at any point in our development. In Jungian terms, the self is far greater than the ego. Our ego is simply what we experience our self as being, and yes, it has ideas of what’s good for itself that never really coincide with our self’s intrinsic self-interest. And even our self-interest doesn’t entirely coincide with what our self is purposed for – procreation for example. Sex is purposed at our species level of existence, for procreation, and our self-interest is subordinated to that. Our sexual desires have nothing to do really with self-interest, but with our species-interest. They capture us so to speak, through their pleasurableness, so that we enjoy them and feel that they’re goods. They are, but not for ourselves as selves, but as selves of our kind which we naturally love. When we love our children, we’re already called upon to include them in our self-interest, and we teach them to do the same, especially if they have siblings. So the principle of self-transcendence is there all the way through, even at the most basic level of socio-biological existence.
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