[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Sarah,

Kabbalah does not deal with morals. Kabbalah helps a person change on the inside. Not just our external actions, but our ingrained nature changes from operating in the direction of reception to the direction of bestowal.

Furthermore, Kabbalah and Judaism are two separate things. Let’s put a few things into perspective to understand this:

Kabbalah is the method of correcting our egoistic nature and thereby revealing the Creator, the general force of love and bestowal. The first one to actualize this was Adam. 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 the Creator by becoming similar to this quality of bestowal.

This wisdom gets passed on ward from Adam until Abraham who adapted it to the people of his generation and made the wisdom more practical. Abraham put together a large group of Babylonians who were interested in actualizing this method. These people later on became the Israeli nation. The word Israel comes from the Hebrew words “Yashar” “El” meaning straight to God. These are the people who had an active point in the heart in those days and were interested in revealing the Creator.

These people greatly succeeded in this method. The peak of their success was symbolized in the building of the first and second temple, which reflected the level of unity and bestowal they were able to reach. At a certain point, they lost the spiritual connection between them (the destruction of the 2nd temple) and what remained was just these external symbols of their connection.

At this point the wisdom of Kabbalah became concealed. People still had the holy books, Torah and etc, but they did not know how to use them. Since the Torah is written in the language of roots and branches. Meaning it uses words of our world to describe spiritual phenomena. But if a person does not have this spiritual connection through which he can see this, then he thinks this book is talking about this world, history, morals, commandments, etc. From this emerges the Jewish religion.

From all the above we see that Kabbalah itself is not connected to any religion and that the modern religions came out due to the concealment of Kabbalah. At the same time, Kabbalah is not against religions. In fact we have millions of students worldwide, from many different backgrounds and religions. Many of them do choose to maintain their religion or to perform certain religious customs while studying Kabbalah and there is nothing wrong with that. Just like with any other science, a person can be religious and also be a chemist or physicist. Likewise a person can be religious and also study the science of Kabbalah. Baal HaSulam writes that even after the full spiritual correction people can still keep their religions.

Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2015/12/the-wisdom-of-kabbalah-and-the-other-religions/

Albert @ KabU

[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Phil,

If you have time to spare, then go for it. If not, I would recommend to prioritize this course since it’s a prerequisite for the graduate level courses in which you’ll begin to practically apply the wisdom of Kabbalah.

Albert @ KabU

[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Loria, great questions!

1. We all have a point in the heart. This is our desire for spirituality. If this desire is ripe, it begins to push and pull us to the place where we can realize it. If it’s not yet ripe, then we agree to bury ourselves in all sorts of other engagements in life.

Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2008/11/only-people-with-the-point-in-the-heart-can-feel-that-kabbalah-is-the-salvation/

2. Yes, the system of nature in which we exist is constantly influencing us, even if we’re unaware of it or not developed enough to recognize it. It’s just like the laws of nature in our world, if a person is unaware of these laws, it does not mean that they stop applying to that person. For example, if a child was to walk off a cliff or stick a knife into an electrical socket, gravity and electricity will still operate on them, even if they don’t understand how those things work.

As for the teachers being our guides, yes, you can say that. Essentially all the great Kabbalists that preceded us paved the way for us to also be able to attain what they attained.

Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2015/11/the-great-kabbalists-and-their-works/

Albert @ KabU

[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Jiao,

I’m not an expert in philosophy, so I cannot comment on that. In general, Kabbalah is not philosophy. See my reply 314540 to Phil below for more details:

314540

Albert @ KabU

[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Phil,

Kabbalah is not philosophy. It’s a practical scientific method by which we can correct our egoistic nature. As a result of this correction, we become similar to the Creator. As a result of becoming similar to Him, we reveal Him in practice in our lives. This follows the law of equivalence of form.

Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2013/04/everything-is-attained-by-the-equivalence-of-form/

As for Kabbalah’s relation to philosophy, essentially Kabbalah preceded philosophy. Before the destruction of the second temple, people from all over the world traveled to Israel to learn from the sages there. So the early philosophers learned directly from the Kabbalists during that time. Later on, they tried to copy the Kabbalistic method. From their unsuccessful attempt to copy it emerged philosophy.

Check out these blog posts from Rav Laitman for more details:

https://laitman.com/2011/01/kabbalah-and-other-sciences-philosophy-and-religion/

https://laitman.com/2012/12/philosophy-a-building-without-a-foundation/

Albert @ KabU

[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Phil,

It’s closer to contemplation and reflection.

Keep in mind that in Kabbalah “it’s not the wise that learns”. Meaning we’re not learning this material simply to acquire knowledge, to store it in some box in our brains. After all, If knowledge was the path to spirituality, then a supercomputer loaded with all of the Kabbalistic texts would be the most spiritual being in the world. Obviously this is not the case.

So why do we spend so much time studying if not to gain knowledge? Because through the study, we draw the force of the light. This force is what makes all the internal changes, clarifications, corrections that need to be made. After we extract enough light and correct ourselves to a certain degree, then we won’t just intellectually philosophize about spirituality, but we will begin to feel it in practice. And only out of that feeling will we begin to truly understand it.

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

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