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I wonder if you can give me some guidance. When I began my Kabbalah journey I was fired with enthusiasm, however I now find it really difficult to study. I find that when I read a book or watch a video I am unable to remember anything! However I still feel drawn to Kabbalah, I feel as if I should be doing more and working harder but am unable to find the will to do so.
In your experience is this reluctance to study common and how should I approach my studies in future?
Hi Paul,
Spiritual advancement happens specifically from the ups AND downs. It’s just like the EKG chart that measures the heart. If there are ups and downs, the heart is beating, the body is alive. If it flatlines, the body dies.
Likewise in our spiritual work, our advancement is composed of many ups and downs. But if we’re in the same state for a long period of time, then we stop advancing and are spiritually dead.
So what you are experiencing is normal. You should see it as a sign of advancement, like a child that graduated first grade and is now given second grade work. The second grade work is harder and more challenging, so the child is confused, maybe even sees this work as a punishment, but that’s not correct. It’s because he finished the first grade that now he’s given a greater challenge in second grade so he can continue to grow and develop.
Likewise with us, every down state is a necessary challenge for our spiritual growth. This is why we go through many states on the spiritual path, many ups, downs, and everything in between. But the main thing is to just keep going, to keep placing yourself under the influence of the light, especially during the Kabbalistic studies (lessons, videos, Q/A forums, books, etc), and it will balance everything out.
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
was a special ed teacher for many years. Many of those years i was with students who were intellectually delayed I have been thinking how they can be expected to attain Equivalence of Form with the Creator given their intellectual capabilities But I think I know . If the attainment is love,, then they are already there. they exude love for all creatures. Am I looking at this correctly or is there more involved?
Hi Sally,
We learn that “there is no coercion in spirituality”, meaning that in order to study Kabbalah, a person needs to have a desire for it.
So regardless of any of their life circumstances, if a person does not have an active point in the heart, it’s a sign that they are not yet ripe for this type of work.
How will the rest of the world receive an awakened point in the heart?
That already depends on us. That is because all of humanity is part of a single system, within this singular system, there is a certain order of corrections that need to take place. It’s like building a large jigsaw puzzle. First you start with all the corner pieces, and only then do you gradually work your way to the center. It’s the same with our spiritual work. There are those that are awakened to this work earlier and those that are awakened to it later. Those that received awakened points in the hearts are like those corner pieces of the puzzle that need to start the whole process. Later on, due to their good work, they pave the way for the rest of the world to join this process.
So ultimately, whether a person receives a point in the heart now or later depends on their place in the system, which is called the root of one’s soul.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2010/10/the-root-of-the-soul/
Albert @ KabU
At the end of the fragment of the text recommended “Perception of Reality,” pp. 100-118 we are introduced to the concept of Reshimo “…because the present Reshimo exhausted itself, making the next Reshimo in line “want” to make itself known.” – How can we acknowledge when this new state spirituarily or next step happens?
And if “When a new desire comes along, it actually isn’t new. It is a desire that has already been in us, whose memory has been recorded in the data bank of our souls—the Reshimot.” This means that the desire was before our birth or in previous lifes?
So, how can we better reach our next Reshimo?
Hi Tamar,
The reshimot are our spiritual genes. Just like when we investigate our corporeal genes, we reveal our entire ancestry, where we came from, as well as the reasons for our inclinations, tendencies, etc. Similarly, the reshimot are our spiritual genes. They are all the states that we have gone through and all the states that we will need to go through in the future.
In other words, they detail the process we need to undergo starting from the initial thought of creation all the way until the end of correction. Essentially our entire path of development is preset in these reshimot. So all the forms we need to evolve through and all the desires that will awaken in us is also preset there. The only choice we have is in the pace we go through it. It’s like all of life is one big strip of film or a movie reel. Every new moment is a new frame, a new reshimot is shown to us. And we cannot change the movie at all, but only to fast forward or go one frame at a time.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2010/07/the-whole-world-is-inside-the-reshimo/
Albert @ KabU
Good morning,
I am curious if anything at all is ever hidden from the creator? More specifically, does he already know if we will choose to return to him willingly or unwillingly?
Hi Zori,
We cannot speak from the Creator’s point of view because that’s not something we attain.
In general, 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 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
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