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Hi Stephen,
Spirituality means becoming similar to the Creator, to His qualities of love and bestowal. Opposite to spirituality is egoism. To the extent that the ego grows, it makes us go further and further away from spirituality. Our generation marks the peak growth of egoism. Which on one hand makes us the furthest from spirituality. But on the other hand, it makes us the most suitable for studying Kabbalah, which is the method for correcting egoism. So it’s not just that the restrictions were loosened, but rather, now that egoism has peaked, it’s the perfect time to open up Kabbalah to the world.
It’s just like in medicine: if a person does not feel sick, he should not be drinking any medicine. But once he does feel sick, he can take the medicine and heal himself. Likewise with us, before egoism peaked, Kabbalah was hidden from the world. But now that it’s fully revealed, the Kabbalists opened it up for everyone to use and heal themselves of egoism.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Ilya, great question!
Preparation means that we examine ourselves, our intentions, our reason for connecting to the lesson. We ask ourselves questions like: what do we want to get out of the lesson? How can we extract the maximum amount of light from the lesson? How do we warm up our heart in order to really feel what the Kabbalists are trying to pass to us? And so forth.
Everyone needs to find what works best to prepare themselves for the lesson. Some people read the book Shamati as preparation. Some read the lesson materials that will be covered in that lesson. Some listen to a certain Kabbalah clip that really touches their heart. Sometimes we have workshops before lessons. Everyone needs to find their own way to get ready for the lesson. The more prepared we come to the lesson, the more light we can extract, and the faster we develop spiritually. So everything really depends on the preparation.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2013/02/sunbathing-in-the-rays-of-the-reforming-light/
And also the Intentions from the Heart audio book. It’s a good starting point for finding what works best for your preparation.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Lana,
It does not feel right because we bring all sorts of previous values and notions of these words into Kabbalah. We think that a sin is something bad, something that makes us feel guilty, something that we can avoid, etc. Kabbalah does not define it in this way. Rather, the Kabbalistic definition of sin is closer to a mistake. And mistakes are not bad, but rather the natural process by which we grow and develop. Similar to how kids have a tendency to break a toy in order to learn how it works.
Likewise in our spiritual work. There is a saying that “there is no righteous man on earth who does good and does not sin” and “a person does not keep a commandment if he has not failed in it first”. Meaning that it’s impossible to advance without first making such mistakes. Just like it’s impossible to walk only on one foot, but rather there is an alternating motion to walking: left, right, left, right, left, right, etc. Likewise in our spiritual work: we reveal the ego, we correct it, we reveal the ego, we correct it. And this process repeats itself until we correct our egoistic nature on all 125 degrees.
We’ll learn how to do this work practically in the more advanced lessons. In the meantime, check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2010/05/there-are-no-sins-in-this-world/
Albert @ KabU
Hi Martin,
It depends on the situation. In our days, given that a systematic approach to studying Kabbalah exists, then of course that is the preferable way.
As for being in attainment in order to teach, that also depends. For example, we see in our world that in order to teach kindergarten a person does not need to be a Ph.D professor or a great scientist, etc. Such credentials might even make that person less suitable to teach kindergarten.
It’s the same with teaching beginners, being in attainment might make a person more distant from the audience and thereby less suitable to teach them. We see this from the example of Baal HaSulam, who asked to be lowered from his degree, in order to be able to pass this wisdom to more people.
So for us, in order to teach beginners, it’s more important to be a good instructor, one who knows how to pass the basics in a way that people would want to hear them. In a way that does not reject people from Kabbalah, which can ultimately cause harm to both the person and the instructor. We’ll learn about the proper way to disseminate Kabbalah in the more advanced semesters.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Jarrett,
We go through many ups and down on the spiritual path. The main thing is to just keep going, to keep placing yourself under the influence of the light, especially during the Kabbalistic studies and readings, and the light will balance everything out.
As for the news, there was a time when Kabbalists, like Rabash, would regularly listen to the news (not anything political or opinionated, but strictly the news). Such a process would help them feel the world and build a relationship with the Creator. In our days though, the news channels have been turned into means of brainwashing. Because of that, Kabbalists don’t listen to the news in our days.
Check out this clip from Rav Laitman for more details: https://kabbalahmedia.info/lessons/cu/2HNYS0Sb?sstart=52m43s&send=54m39s&mediaType=video&shareLang=en
Albert @ KabU
Hi Julia,
Angel is a general term. It can refer to any of the four levels, including humans, when we have still not developed our free will. Check out this excerpt from Rav Laitman’s blog:
“All the forces of our world, (the forces clothed in matter that we can perceive) are also angels. Even the still, vegetative and animate levels of nature, man included, are angels, because they are completely controlled by the Creator. So who isn’t an angel? Only a Kabbalist, because he becomes independent, a Man (Adam, one who is similar to the Creator), one who is independent from the Creator. A Kabbalist isn’t just one of the Creator’s forces or messengers, and hence, a Kabbalist is not an angel.”
As for the corresponding levels, it depends on the level of desire that is being described. There are many such levels and sub levels. Check out the diagram in the back of Kabbalah for the students which lists a few of these levels of desires. We’ll learn more about them in the future lessons.
Albert @ KabU
