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Hi,
so I didn’t know where to post these questions, but since these questions arose in week 5 I thought I post them here.
1. What does “death” mean in Kabbalah, exactly?
When we say “death is not real” or “death is only in the corporeal picture,” what is the exact spiritual definition of death? And how should a student relate to physical death without turning it into either mysticism or denial of corporeal reality?
2) What does “incarnation / gilgul” refer to: bodies, states, or both?
When we speak about gilgulim (reincarnations), do we mean:
(a) a literal sequence of human lives,
(b) spiritual “incarnations” as changes of states/levels in the desire and intention,
or (c) both, but in a root/branch relationship?If both: what is the correct way to understand the connection between spiritual state-transitions and biological birth/death?
3) What are Reshimot “remaining in the system” — what does that mean operationally?
So it’s said that when a person dies, Reshimot remain in the system and correction continues later.What does “remain in the system” mean in technical terms?
Are Reshimot stored in the general soul / spiritual network, and later awaken in another person’s desire?
What does it not mean (e.g., not “memories travel,” not “personality transfers”)?
Basically: what is the clearest, least-misleading way to imagine “Reshimot persist” without turning it into fantasy metaphysics?
4) What exactly persists from “my work” if individuality doesn’t continue?
Kabbalah says that nothing personal continues (no memory/identity), but corrected qualities remain in the general soul.What exactly counts as a “corrected quality” that remains?
How does that contribution integrate into the collective kli?
Is it correct to say: “the system becomes more corrected in that portion, and later awakenings build on it,” even though there’s no personal continuity?5) Numbers and scope: how do 613/620, 125 degrees, and “many people” fit together?
I get confused combining the “numbers language” with the fact there are billions of people and many generations.
When we say 613/620 corrections, is that structure describing the general kli (a universal map), or does it apply “per person”?
How do the 125 degrees relate to those corrections?
How should we understand “some awaken earlier, some later,” without imagining “8 billion × 620” as if each body has a totally separate checklist?
I’m basically asking: what is the correct model for the relationship between general structure (613/620, 125 degrees) and many human lives/awakenings inside one system?6) How does life and interaction look in a corrected system where individuality is transparent rather than possessive?
In Kabbalah we say that the final corrected state (Gmar Tikkun) is not about individual souls, identities, or narratives, but about the correction of the general soul (Adam HaRishon), where personal ownership, “my story,” and egoic selfhood dissolve, while function, relation, awareness, and participation remain.
I understand that the correction is not about the physical form (human bodies specifically), but about desire and intention—so theoretically, the form expressing the general soul could be any sentient vessel. What matters is not who exists, but how the connection operates.
So my question specifically is…
How do conflict, disagreement, or difference function when there is no egoic drama or personal ownership?
How does choice still exist if there is no “my interest” versus “your interest,” but only bestowal?
What replaces narrative identity (“this is mine,” “this is who I am”) while still allowing differentiation and function?
How do beings relate to one another when connection itself is the pleasure and not the fulfillment of a personal lack?
In other words, how does a corrected collective actually operate—not as an abstract ideal, but as a living system—once the illusion of separate selves is gone but awareness and relation remain?Kyro,
I copied your questions and answered them below:1. What does “death” mean in Kabbalah, exactly?
When we say “death is not real” or “death is only in the corporeal picture,” what is the exact spiritual definition of death? And how should a student relate to physical death without turning it into either mysticism or denial of corporeal reality?
A: A quote from Rav Laitman, “The spiritual reality operates according to different patterns that we see in our world. There is no cycle of life, death, and life in the spiritual reality as we understand it physically. Biological life, the physical protein body that we know in our world, has no connection to spirituality. It might live and die, but that has nothing to do with the spiritual process. We have no perception in spiritual matter, nor is it tied in any way to the physical.”
In short, in this physical world death is a very real phenomenon and there should be absolutely no confusion about that. If you squash a mosquito, so it was alive and now it is not alive. That is plain and simple. However as we begin to relate to our spiritual reality we understand that all of the phenomenon of this world are not objective and fixed, rather they are a result of our perception and that beyond this perception that is built according to my limited will to receive, there is much more, much much more to reality.2) What does “incarnation / gilgul” refer to: bodies, states, or both?
When we speak about gilgulim (reincarnations), do we mean:
(a) a literal sequence of human lives,
(b) spiritual “incarnations” as changes of states/levels in the desire and intention,
or (c) both, but in a root/branch relationship?If both: what is the correct way to understand the connection between spiritual state-transitions and biological birth/death?
A: You have many good questions, but to answer each of these questions neatly in a way that you can neatly fold the answer and put them in your pocket so know you now it won’t help. I will try to answer you but you must know that in the wisdom of kabbalah it is not learning some knowledge that changes the person, but the effort to bridge the gaps between opposites, the efforts that you make there build the inner system and there your soul will teach you. Then you will understand these things. Spiritual answers don’t enter the ear. At the end of the day all of matter is mostly empty space, but what good does that do to know, if I hit a wall it hurts, but really, I never touch the wall, my electric forces are repelled from the electric forces of the wall.
The kabbalists are talking about spiritual transformations and and even when we say the same same souls that were there at the flood were the same souls there with Abraham in Babylon and at the Exodus from Egypt, in spirituality there is no time it is all cause and effect, for us it all feels like time, but that is so we can determine where we are and where the goal is.3) What are Reshimot “remaining in the system” — what does that mean operationally?
So it’s said that when a person dies, Reshimot remain in the system and correction continues later.What does “remain in the system” mean in technical terms?
Are Reshimot stored in the general soul / spiritual network, and later awaken in another person’s desire?
What does it not mean (e.g., not “memories travel,” not “personality transfers”)?
Basically: what is the clearest, least-misleading way to imagine “Reshimot persist” without turning it into fantasy metaphysics?
A: The Upper Light was concealed through many worlds until it built Malchut and then there was many other stages until the first restriction and the complete concealment. All of that cascading down, which we call 125 degrees (5 worlds x 5 partzufim x 5 sefirot) is the exact same process that we must ascend. Exactly. As the light descended so to speak, it left records, reshimot at each step, we will learn about this process in great technical detail later how the light enters the kli and exits the kli and leaves reshimot behind each time, and our spiritual work is to ascend back up that ladder according to the same degrees that the light descended.
4) What exactly persists from “my work” if individuality doesn’t continue?
Kabbalah says that nothing personal continues (no memory/identity), but corrected qualities remain in the general soul.What exactly counts as a “corrected quality” that remains?
How does that contribution integrate into the collective kli?
Is it correct to say: “the system becomes more corrected in that portion, and later awakenings build on it,” even though there’s no personal continuity?A: Your inquisitiveness isn’t going anywhere, your taste for food or clothes, what will change. Only that you will not be a separate cell from the entire body of Adam HaRishon, instead all of our qualities will complement all of the others.
5) Numbers and scope: how do 613/620, 125 degrees, and “many people” fit together?
I get confused combining the “numbers language” with the fact there are billions of people and many generations.
When we say 613/620 corrections, is that structure describing the general kli (a universal map), or does it apply “per person”?
How do the 125 degrees relate to those corrections?
How should we understand “some awaken earlier, some later,” without imagining “8 billion × 620” as if each body has a totally separate checklist?
I’m basically asking: what is the correct model for the relationship between general structure (613/620, 125 degrees) and many human lives/awakenings inside one system?A: All of these numbers refer to qualitative measurements, not quantitative measurements. The population expands and contracts according to the development of the one soul. That same soul differentiates as the created being comes to know itself.
6) How does life and interaction look in a corrected system where individuality is transparent rather than possessive?
In Kabbalah we say that the final corrected state (Gmar Tikkun) is not about individual souls, identities, or narratives, but about the correction of the general soul (Adam HaRishon), where personal ownership, “my story,” and egoic selfhood dissolve, while function, relation, awareness, and participation remain.
I understand that the correction is not about the physical form (human bodies specifically), but about desire and intention—so theoretically, the form expressing the general soul could be any sentient vessel. What matters is not who exists, but how the connection operates.
So my question specifically is…
How do conflict, disagreement, or difference function when there is no egoic drama or personal ownership?
How does choice still exist if there is no “my interest” versus “your interest,” but only bestowal?
What replaces narrative identity (“this is mine,” “this is who I am”) while still allowing differentiation and function?
How do beings relate to one another when connection itself is the pleasure and not the fulfillment of a personal lack?
In other words, how does a corrected collective actually operate—not as an abstract ideal, but as a living system—once the illusion of separate selves is gone but awareness and relation remain?A: Read the long article by Baal HaSulam called The Writings of the Last Generation, I think this will help you a lot.
Good luck. Take your time, take good notes and as an exercise, try to allow Baal HaSulam’s model of the world wash over you while you are reading, as if you are visiting a foreign country and want to experience new foods, new people and not to judge it all compared to how you grew up, but to see what life in the place he is writing about.
https://kabbalahmedia.info/en/sources/oIrPpKn2Seth@KabU
hi
what is the best way to practice in your heart to love your neighbor as yourself. I work with people all day as a therapist so I understand how to have positive regard for others, but I can’t say “I love them” what would be the best strategy to actually have this feeling in my heart–authentically?Yvette,
After the self study classes you will have the opportunity to work practically with other students like yourself and there we will do exercises to apply these things.
Now we can imagine what it means and try, but certainly we are not trying to do this just regularly in the street or at work with people who don’t know what inner process we are engaged in, people would think we were crazy or take advantage of us.
Seth@KabU
György,
It depends on who you ask.
I grew up in the 1980’s and all of the songs were about love. When I grew up, I googled some of those people…almost all of them were divorced 2 or three times!!!
Unfortunately my generation listened to them about what is “love”.
On the other hand, the kabbalist is talking about a force that comes from the Creator that is 100% giving without expecting anything in return, we can call it unconditional giving, but it is much more. How can a child understand the love of his parent. Multiply that by infinity….there is no way for us to comprehend what is the love of the Creator toward us, however, we can detect our own nature which is 100% that everything we do we do so that we personally will benefit and we can begin to imagine that somewhow, with some additional force given from Above that we will be able to do something, to bestow upon others without my ego involved, to be somehow like the Creator, to feel what He feels, free, unbounded, eternal, fulfilled.
Seth@KabU
Hi, I have been struggling to achieve
Simple things for days last week. I did try
to force and the result was that I lost time
and money. When I woke up from this state
Of complete fog, I realised how much not accepting facts leads to struggles.
in fact I don’t know if I am tested to see if I am giving up to easily (if I self sabotage my project when it becomes complicated), or if it’s just that the creator wants to redirect me on the right path for me ?
Second question:
How can I apply what I learn in my daily life: should I pray for the creator to give me clarity? Should I be aware of my intentions before saying or doing something?
Thank youBasma,
For simple things in life, you need to be like a regular person. If you don’t pay the bill on time, you will get late fees. There is nothing spiritual about that. It is like if you spill milk in the kitchen then the kitchen is dirty. If you don’t clean it up then it is dirty and smelly. And then it will become more and more rotten, until you decide to clean it or live with rotten milk in your kitchen.
This is not corporeal. This is the same for all animals. Look at how much time a cat takes to groom himself or how much time a bird takes to make a nest. Every creature has to take care of the regular, simple life things, you can talk about self sabotage and other things, but gravity does not wait for anyone.
Now regarding spirituality, always pray, when the milk spills, when the milk doesn’t spill, when you are early and when you are late, always talk to the Creator like He is your best friend and tell Him that you want Him to guide you, to help you, to open up your spiritual eyes to see where He wants you to go, try to speak to Him more and more.
Good luck!
Seth@KabU
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