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Hi Dyrk,
Will vs Desire: As a rule of thumb, when the English words get confusing, it’s best to look at the Hebrew originals from which these things get translated. Both will to receive and desire to receive come from the Hebrew words: רצון לקבל – ratzon lekabel. So they are the same and used interchangeably.
1. Yes, we only change the intention. The desire to receive will always remain the same desire to receive, but it’ll be used in order to bestow. Meaning receiving with the intention to bestow. Check out the guest & host analogy in Chapter 3 of Attaining the Worlds Beyond for more details on that: http://www.kabbalah.info/eng/content/view/frame/4180?/eng/content/view/full/4180&main
2&3. Kabbalah only deals with our desire for spirituality. Regarding the desires of our animalistic bodies, Kabbalah does not deal with these things. Our corporeal desires don’t have any relation to spirituality, so each person can arrange these desires however is most comfortable for them (of course within the context of the law and without harming others). As for the desire for spirituality, this is possible to fulfill only within a group of others with the same goal. We’ll learn more about these things in the more advanced lessons.
As for our corporeal desires, we don’t need to suppress or sacrifice them. We only need to work on making the desire for spirituality the most important thing. Then naturally the rest of our desires will fall into place. For example, it’s like with an artist that is so involved in his art, that he fulfills all the rest of his desires out of necessity so he can quickly return to his passion. Same with us, when spirituality is the most important desire, then we will be able to properly relate to all the rest of our corporeal desires in a balanced way.
4. Usually when we first reach Kabbalah, we lose taste in all the pleasures in life that we couldn’t care less if the world burned down, all we want is to fulfill our point in the heart. Later on, these other desires will begin to intensify more and more, and we will derive even greater pleasures from these things than before. These desires will begin to obscure our point in the heart and give us room to grow spiritually, meaning to make that point in the heart even more important than all these basic things. But these are already advanced stages of our development which we’ll learn about in the more advanced semesters.
5. Yes, you can say that. It’s important to note that Kabbalists are not monks. They don’t abstain from receiving pleasures. They don’t disconnect themselves from the corporeal world. Rather they continue to exist on the level of this world throughout the entire spiritual ladder of development.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Esther,
1 / 3. What we experience in life is dictated by the root of our soul. Meaning our place in the common system of Adam HaRishon. That place determines everything each one of us needs to go through in order to reach their correction.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details:Â https://laitman.com/2010/10/the-root-of-the-soul/
2. Kabbalah does not deal with this. If a person has a mental illness, he needs to go to a doctor and take care of it in the normal way that people take care of such things in our world.
4. The spiritual work we do in the Kabbalistic group is the foundation. It’s like we’re building here a certain nucleus. Once we build that nucleus, we will be able to add to it wider and wider circles of the world, until we’ll come to include the whole world in that connection. But this is gradual work. Until we build that nucleus, we have nothing with which to do any spiritual work towards the rest of the world. We’ll learn more about this in the more advanced lessons.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Maricor,
We learn that there was a shattering in the system of Adam HaRishon. This is the network of connections between us. This was the only thing that got corrupted in the entire system so this is the only thing we need to correct. This means that our entire work is to restore the connections between us. That’s it.
In other words, correction is not in me, rather, correction is in my connection to others. Just picture that all of humanity is part of an 8 billion piece jigsaw piece. Each piece by itself is perfect. We don’t need to recolor or cut of any parts. The only thing we need to do is find where each piece fits relative to all the other pieces.
We’ll learn how to do this practically in the more advanced lessons. In the meantime, check out this blog post from Rav Laitman:Â Â http://laitman.com/2014/05/puzzle-adam-harishon/
Albert @ KabU
Hi Denise,
That is normal. Each one of us is hardwired differently. There are those that are more inclined to feel things and there are those that are more inclined towards trying to understand things. The important thing is to just keep going. To keep placing yourself under the influence of the light and it’ll balance everything out and make all the necessary corrections on us.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details:Â http://laitman.com/2013/02/sunbathing-in-the-rays-of-the-reforming-light/
Albert @ KabU
Hi Eliyahu,
We learn that “there is no coercion in spirituality”. Meaning that no one can perform the correction on your behalf. But if someone performs their correction, it makes it easier for others to make their correction. Just picture that all of humanity is part of a 8 billion piece jigsaw puzzle. Each person is responsible for his own piece. Meaning that I cannot place someone else’s piece, but if I find where my piece fits, it makes it easier for others to find where their piece fits.
Regarding seeing the corrections, as we learned in the lesson on the perception of reality, the entire external world is nothing more than a reflection of my uncorrected egoistic state. Meaning that I don’t experience some objective reality, but I experience something through the lens of my ego. Furthermore, to the extent that I correct this ego, to that extent the external reality will change as well. It’s like I have these dirty glasses through which I see the whole world as being dirty. The moment I clean my own glasses (correct myself) then I’ll look at the same world, but now it’s clean and perfect.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: http://laitman.com/2014/04/in-neutral-gear/
Albert @ KabU
Hi Attila,
The Kabbalists tell us “no flour, no Torah – no Torah, no flour”. Meaning a Kabbalist continues to exist on the level of this world throughout the entire spiritual ladder. So I cannot just turn into a monk and disconnect from this life and only focus on spirituality. On the other hand, if I only focus on corporeality, then I’m no different than an animal. So the important thing is to find the right balance between the two: to take care of all of one’s normal necessities: to work, take care of the family, health, etc (this is called flour) and to set aside some time to focus on spirituality (this is called Torah).
As for incorporating the teachings, keep in mind that the spiritual work of bestowal that Kabbalah is talking about is first of all internal. And secondly, if there is an external expression to this inner work, then it’s done only within this safe environment that we call the Kabbalistic group. With the rest of the world, we need to act normal, just like everyone else.
Albert @ KabU
