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Hi Cat,
Our nature is the will to receive pleasure. Meaning that we’re constantly calculating how to get more pleasure and less pain. This calculation permeates everything that we do. Every single action, either consciously or unconsciously, is motivated by chasing pleasure and avoiding pain.
Baal HaSulam writes about this in the article The Freedom, here’s an excerpt:
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Pleasure and Pain
However, when we examine the acts of an individual, we will find them compulsory. He is compelled to do them and has no freedom of choice. In a sense, he is like a stew cooking on a stove; it has no choice but to cook, since Providence has harnessed life with two chains: pleasure and pain.The living creatures have no freedom of choice—to choose pain or reject pleasure. And man’s advantage over animals is that man can aim at a remote goal, meaning agree to a certain amount of current pain, out of choice of future benefit or pleasure to be attained after some time.
But in fact, there is no more than a seemingly commercial calculation here, where the future benefit or pleasure seems preferable and advantageous to the agony they are suffering from the pain they have agreed to assume presently. There is only a matter of deduction here—where they deduct the pain and suffering from the anticipated pleasure, and there remains some surplus.
Thus, only the pleasure is extended. And so it sometimes happens that we are tormented because the pleasure we received is not the surplus we had hoped for compared to the agony we suffered. Hence, we are in deficit, just as are merchants.
And when all is said and done, there is no difference here between man and animal. And if this is the case, there is no free choice whatsoever, but a pulling force drawing them toward any passing pleasure and rejecting them from painful circumstances. And Providence leads them to every place it chooses by means of these two forces without asking their opinion in the matter.
Moreover, even determining the type of pleasure and benefit are entirely out of one’s own free choice, but follows the will of others, as they want, and not he. For example: I sit, I dress, I speak, and I eat. I do all these not because I want to sit that way, or talk that way, or dress that way, or eat that way, but because others want me to sit, dress, talk, and eat that way. It all follows the desire and fancy of society, and not my own free will.
Furthermore, in most cases, I do all these against my will. For I would be more comfortable behaving simply, without any burden. But I am chained with iron shackles, in all my movements, to the fancies and manners of others, which make up the society.
So tell me, where is my freedom of will? On the other hand, if we assume that the will has no freedom, and we are all like machines operating and creating through external forces, which force them to act this way, it means that we are all incarcerated in the prison of Providence, which, using these two chains, pleasure and pain, pushes and pulls us to its will, to where it sees fit.
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Link to the article The Freedom: https://kabbalahmedia.info/sources/4AtF9tGS
Albert @ KabU
Hello,
600,000 is less of a quantitative number and more of a qualitative number. It represents the strength of the spiritual desire after it’s been fully corrected. So essentially all of humanity is included in this number.
Check out this blog post to see how this number is derived: https://laitman.com/2010/09/love-and-hatred-of-600000-souls/
How will all of humanity reach their correction? Gradually each one will receive an awakening, just like you and I did, and then they will start working on their spiritual correction. But receiving an awakening does not depend on them, but on us. This is because there is a certain order of corrections that need to take place in the system. It’s like building a large jigsaw puzzle. First you start with all the corner pieces, and only then do you gradually work your way to the center. So those that received awakened points in the hearts are like those corner pieces of the puzzle that need to start the whole process. Later on, due to their good work, they pave the way for the rest of the world to join this process.
As for the past Kabbalists, they did perform their correction, but it does not take away from the work that we need to do. 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.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Laurel,
We learn that all of humanity is part of one single system, like cells within a single body. So naturally what one experiences influences EVERYONE else. And if I reach a correction, this same correction influences everyone. But I don’t actually correct the other person, rather I correct my part that is found within everyone.
It’s like a hologram where the big image is made up of identical smaller copies of that image. So if there is a flaw in one of the smaller images, that same flaw is found in every piece. And if you correct that flaw in the small piece, it’s reflected in the whole image.
So if I correct myself, I correct my part of this general picture. That is called reaching one’s individual final correction. But each one will still need to correct their part of the general picture. And when everyone corrects their part, then we reach the final correction of the whole world.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2017/04/the-fractality-of-nature/
Albert @ KabU
Hi Prashant,
There is a good glossary in the back of Kabbalah for the Student. But in truth, you would benefit much more if you created your own personal Kabbalah dictionary. Every time you hear a new word, you can just write it down with its definition in a notebook or a spreadsheet of your own. In this gradual way, you’ll pick up all the basic terms throughout the course.
Albert @ KabU
KFS Glossary: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tL9BiL7s58tof9M4on_aDZTLS6iw8xe1/view?usp=sharing
Hello,
Yes, it’s possible. Keep in mind that if you live in a country where studying Kabbalah puts your life at risk, then it’s better not to study it. All the rest can be worked out.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Terry, great questions!
1. The base 5 stems from the 4 phases (and root phase) of direct light. This is essentially the blueprint of reality that repeats itself on all of the different levels of reality. Check out the chart in the back of Kabbalah for the student for more examples: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZMKAG9VpJehF4anqSBT-RcG4ZqJf6B09/view?usp=sharing
We will learn about this process in detail in the upcoming lessons.
2. The 5 spiritual worlds are not places like we think, but rather levels of concealment. World (Olam in Hebrew) comes from the word Concealment (ha-alama). So the 5 worlds are 5 levels of concealment between us, the desire to receive, and the Creator the general force of love and bestowal. To the extent that we correct our own opposite, egoistic nature, for it to also operate in the direction of bestowal, to that extent we reveal these worlds, these higher qualities.
All of this follows the law of equivalence of form. Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: http://laitman.com/2013/04/everything-is-attained-by-the-equivalence-of-form/
Albert @ KabU
