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Hi Sue,
It depends on the context. Here’s a few excerpts from that same chapter:
On page 100 he writes:
“Faith – the power that gives an individual confidence in the possibility of attaining a spiritual life, coming alive after being spiritually dead. The more clearly we realize that we are spiritually dead, the more strongly we feel a need for faith.”
On page 101 he writes:
When we gain confidence in our own altruistic strength, we can gradually begin to experience pleasure for the sake of the Creator, for by so doing we are pleasing the Creator. Since it is the Creator’s Will to bestow pleasure on us, this congruity of wishes brings the Giver and the receiver closer together.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Milos,
Just like a PC cannot just reprogram itself to run as a Mac, we too cannot just correct our own nature. So it’s the light that corrects us. Our work is only to extract 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
Hi Milos, great question!
By ourselves, each one of us would give up a long time ago. But if we’re connected to a strong spiritual environment, then we can tap into an endless source of energy to do spiritual work.
It’s just like with the example of going to the gym and lifting weights. Naturally this is something extremely painful and unpleasant. But when we’re under a good influence of the gym environment, have friends that value such things, read lots of articles about staying healthy etc, we begin to enjoy these things. And what was previously a painful activity turns into something pleasurable. So it all depends on the influence of the environment.
For now, your spiritual environment consists mostly of these different KabU forums, weekly lessons, live sessions, etc. But in the more advanced semesters, everyone will receive their own virtual Kabbalah group with whom they can put these things into practice.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2012/10/bestowal-should-become-fashionable/
Albert @ KabU
Hi Zachary,
If that date was truly significant, then every single person born on that date would have the same inclination towards the Creator. But that’s obviously not what we see in practice.
In practice, everything depends on the desire called the point in the heart. If a person received such a desire, then regardless of when that person was born, what gender, background, etc, that person will aspire to actualize that desire and reveal the Creator.
But we need to keep in mind that “there is no coercion in spirituality”. So the point in the heart does not guarantee our success, as that would be coercion. Instead, it means that in potential, we have the possibility to come closer to Him. But this is just in potential, whether or not you actually succeed on the spiritual path depends on you.
It’s like someone handed you a very special seed that you can potentially grow into a big tree. If you plant that seed in fertile ground, then it’ll get all the right nutrients and grow. If you plant it in the desert, nothing will come out of it.
Likewise with your point in the heart. If you place it into a good spiritual environment, it will grow and flourish until you attain spirituality. If not, then no. It’s all in your hands.
We’ll learn more about the importance of “planting ourselves” in a good spiritual environment in the next semester.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Lucky,
Although we point to 1995 as to when Kabbalah became revealed, technically the prohibition was lifted much earlier, from the time of the Ari. He was the one to make a very special correction within the entire spiritual system, after which its not only possible, but a must to openly disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah in order to help the whole world reach its correction.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details on the Ari: https://laitman.com/2010/08/the-ari-rav-isaac-luria-the-godly-man/
So why do we say 1995? Let’s put a few things into perspective:
Kabbalah is the method of correction of our egoistic nature, thereby revealing the Creator, the general force of love and bestowal. Why was it necessary to conceal such a wisdom? Because egoism was still not yet fully developed. For example: if you compare Kabbalah to a medicine that can cure a rare disease, obviously you can’t take the medicine before you’re diagnosed with the disease, but once the disease actually manifests, you can take the medicine and be cured of it.
It’s just like the 5 stages development of a disease within a person. First a person is healthy. Then he is sick, but he does not feel it. Then the disease spreads to the point that he starts to feel pain and symptoms of the disease. This then pushes him to go to a doctor to get diagnosed and find the cure, and etc.
2000 years ago, egoism was still on a very low level, there was no need to correct it. Starting from the days of the Ari, egoism already grew to a certain extent (and technically the prohibition on Kabbalah ended there), but humanity still didn’t feel sick, on the contrary the ego was the main driving force of all of our development. Then from around 1995 egoism peaked and began to show itself as bad, like a cancer that begins to kill the host body. This is the peak at which there was a true need for the cure. Which in essence is what the Kabbalists have been waiting for all these years, for the desire, for egoism to fully ripen.
Albert @ KabU
