[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Jonah,

Freedom means rising above our egoistic nature. As we learned in this week’s lesson, we do this by building for ourselves a strong spiritual environment.

Baal HaSulam talks about this in the article, the Freedom. He writes: “Harut (carved) on the tables”; do not pronounce it Harut (carved), but rather Herut (freedom), to show that they are liberated from the angel of death.

Throughout the article he explains how our current egoistic nature is that angel of death. Meaning although we are technically alive and surviving, relative to spirituality, our life is considered death. True life is within a completely different nature, that of bestowal. In order to reach freedom from our current nature, we need to choose and build a spiritual environment for ourselves which will influence us with the importance of acquiring the quality of bestowal.

For this reason, the Kabbalists equate our main freedom in life in choosing to be influenced by a spiritual environment. Not just any environment, but specifically a spiritual environment, since only through the spiritual environment can we get the importance of coming out of our egoistic nature and only through that environment can we draw the light that can help us to actualize this.

In the more advanced lessons, we’ll learn how to build this type of spiritual environment, 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

[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Manuela,

The corrections that we learn about in Kabbalah are internal corrections, on the level of our thoughts and desires.

As for the physical level, there we need to operate according to the rules of the physical world. So if someone is trying to harm me, I need to stop them, defend myself, turn to the cops, etc. If I’m sick, I need to go to the doctor and take some medicine. If I lose my job, I need to go job hunting, etc. We need to take care of our physical problems in the way that is customary in our world.

So internally, we must ascribe everything that we’re going through to the Creator, to “none else besides Him”. But this is our internal work. It does not cancel out any of the normal actions that we need to do in life in order to deal with our problems in the regular way.

Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2010/10/dont-ask-for-the-death-to-the-wicked/

As for serial killers and the like, we see all of these atrocities through the lens of our egoistic nature. It’s like I have these dirty glasses through which I see the whole world as dirty. The moment I clean my own glasses, I’ll look at the same world, but now it’s clean and perfect. So when we correct ourselves, we’ll reveal the true reality in which only goodness exists, and that our previous egoistic perception was nothing more than a dream.

Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2010/11/this-life-is-a-dream/

Albert @ KabU

[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi James,

It’s not my place to comment on such things. We need to remember that “there is no coercion in spirituality”. So even if I disagree with the views of other organizations, it’s not my place to fight them or attract anyone to ourselves. No one has the right to coerce others into studying Kabbalah. It’s ultimately the person himself that must feel these things out and find the path that is most suitable for his development. This follows the saying that “one studies only where one’s heart desires”.

Albert @ KabU

[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Michael,

Connecting with other points in the heart in order to reveal the Creator in that connection is mutual work. It cannot happen by chance and it cannot happen with those that are not actively aspiring to that goal. Otherwise it would violate the rule that “there is no coercion in spirituality”. This is why we focus all of our spiritual work in the Kabbalistic group, with others who are doing this spiritual work with us and aspiring to the same goal. With the rest of the world, we should just act normal there, just like everyone else.

Albert @ KabU

[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Mikael,

Kabbalists are scientists. As such, everything they discovered is from their research. But unlike regular scientists that research our egoistic world, Kabbalists research the upper reality which operates according to the laws of bestowal. In order to research this reality we must first correct our egoistic nature and become similar to these qualities of bestowal. By becoming similar to them, we reveal spirituality in practice, in our lives. This is just like how a radio can pick up an external wave, when we tune the internal frequency of the radio to that wave.

This is how Abraham and even those before Abraham discovered what they discovered. Take Adam for example, he was the first one to actualize this. His name gives us a hint at this since Adam comes from the Hebrew word “Dome”, meaning “similar to”. He was not the first one alive, but rather the first one to reveal and research the Creator by becoming similar to this quality of bestowal. All of this follows the law of equivalence of form.

Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2011/06/kabbalah-without-a-trace-of-mysticism/

Albert @ KabU

[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Zachary,

Spirituality works according to the law of equivalence of form. Meaning that to the extent that we become similar to spirituality, to our upper spiritual roots, to that extent we reveal it in practice. Spirituality is built upon the structure of the ten sefirot. Even if two people start aspiring to resemble that structure, it’s a start. This follows the saying that the “minimum plural is two”, meaning that two people are already a group that can advance spiritually. But if we really want to speed up our development, ideally, we would study in a group of ten, since that structure comes closer to resembling the upper roots of the ten sefirot.

Furthermore, connecting in a group of ten gives us a fuller perception of spirituality. It’s like the difference between existing in our world with all of our organs intact vs missing some parts of our body, like our arms and legs. Yes, technically, we would be alive, but in a very limited way.

Beyond that, it’s also much easier to do spiritual work in a bigger group, rather than with another person. For example, if nine other people agree on a certain topic, it’s MUCH easier for me to go along with them, even if I initially disagree. If this same situation was in a smaller group, like with only two people, it would be much harder for me to concede my opinion and follow the opinion of another person.

We’ll learn more about these things in the advanced semesters of KabU, where everyone will receive their own virtual Kabbalah group with whom they can put these things into practice.

In the meantime, check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for a little taste of some of the spiritual work that we’ll be doing in tens: https://laitman.com/2013/05/a-whole-group-of-ten/

Albert @ KabU

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