[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Shel,

Is this really his view?
Not necessarily. It’s like when we educate our kids. Sometimes we want to reinforce a certain behavior, so we smile and show them a happy face. Sometimes we want to teach them that a certain behavior has bad consequences, so we show them a sad or upset face. Are we actually happy or sad when we show them those faces, not necessarily. But if we have to show them a happy or sad face to teach them something, we do.

This is why I pointed out in my previous explanation that this wisdom gets adapted in different ways towards those with active points in the heart and those without them. And that article was geared more towards those without active points in the heart, so it’s written in a style that will have the strongest influence on that level of desire.

If such articles confuse you, I would recommend avoiding them for now and focusing more on the things we are studying here. Once you have a stronger foundation, you’ll better understand those types of articles as well. Similar to how as kids, we don’t always understand our parents’ attitude towards us and everything they do in order to educate us. But when we grow up and become parents ourselves, we’ll be able to understand them and what it takes to educate a child.

Albert @ KabU

[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Scott, great question!

There is only force acting upon us every moment: the Creator. This is called “there is none else besides Him”. Meaning that EVERYTHING in life comes to us directly from Him. Every moment, thought, desire, life event, EVERYTHING.

Sometimes we feel as if he’s attracting us to Him, by giving us a point in the heart which resonates with what we’re learning. And sometimes we feel Him as rejecting us, by giving us more obstacles in life which pull us away from what we’re learning. But both this and that are coming to us from Him. It’s a type of game that He’s playing with us, like a flirt.

This game is made up of many different states, many ups, down, and everything in between. But the main thing is to just keep going, to just keep placing yourself under the influence of the spiritual light, and the light will balance all these states out. The best way to do this is to just set aside some time to regularly return to the Kabbalistic writings, weekly lessons, videos, books, etc. Such a habit of regularly returning to the source of the light will help you throughout your entire spiritual development.

We’ll learn more about all these things in the more advanced lessons. In the meantime, check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: http://laitman.com/2017/12/there-is-none-else-besides-him/

Albert @ KabU

[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Sean,

Knowing Hebrew is helpful, but you don’t really need to learn Hebrew to study Kabbalah. All of our materials are professionally translated to English and many other languages.

But does the translation pass the full spiritual meaning? No. Hebrew is a language built for passing spiritual meaning, not just the meaning of the words, but every single letter and shape of the letter is a code for a spiritual state. So any translation is good but it will never give you 100% of the true spiritual meaning, it’s impossible.

So how big is the loss? For a person who is not yet in spirituality, the loss is very very small, even minuscule. In fact we have thousands of students worldwide studying with us on a daily basis, in a language other than Hebrew. Whenever Rav Laitman visits these groups, he always remarks how there is no difference in the spiritual advancement between these students and the students in front of him (all Hebrew speakers) that he studies with daily. This is because spirituality does not depend on knowledge but only on the desire. If we build the right desire for spirituality, we will feel it, if not, then no.

If you want an in depth explanation of the significance of the Hebrew language, check out this article. The ties between letters, words, and numbers:

http://www.kabbalah.info/eng/content/view/frame/60270?/eng/content/view/full/60270&main

Albert @ KabU

[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi John, great questions!

An angel is force of nature. So the force of gravity you can call the angel of gravity. But these are forces that are programmed to act a certain way, without any free will. And just as you don’t attribute any intelligence/consciousness or even an image to the force of gravity, you shouldn’t attribute any to the forces called angels. To avoid confusion you can even replace the word angel in your vocabulary with the word force.

Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: http://laitman.com/2010/05/why-do-angels-have-wings/

Albert @ KabU

[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Peter,

I don’t see a conflict. Essentially Kabbalists are also trying to reach love. Except at some point, they discovered a roadblock, a barrier that stops them from truly loving others: the ego. So in order to reach true love, we need to first correct our egoistic nature. This is essentially what Kabbalah helps us to do. It’s a practical scientific method by which we can correct our ego. As a result of this correction, we’ll reach the ultimate state of love, meaning to love everything and everyone the way the Creator loves us. Through this correction, we become similar to Him and reveal Him in practice in our lives. This is the essence of the wisdom of Kabbalah.

Albert @ KabU

[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Todd,

Yes, you can say that each degree contains 613 desires. This is because spirituality is a state of wholeness. Every degree has everything within it. From that point of view, 613 becomes less of a quantitative number and move of a qualitative description of a whole state.

Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2010/11/numbers-indicate-quality-not-quantity/

Keep in mind that in practice, we don’t work according to some kind of list of desires, but simply with whatever is being awakened in the moment.

Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2015/09/compliance-with-the-613-mitzvot-commandments/

Also keep in mind that the 613 desires that we are learning about are spiritual desires, meaning desires that we don’t yet have. This is similar to how a single cell in a body only has some basic desires. But when that cell is part of a greater body, it reveals there higher desires which are impossible for the individual cell to have: desires for money, honor, power, etc. Same with us, until we integrate with the general body of Adam HaRishon, we don’t reveal or understand these 613 spiritual desires.

Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2008/12/all-you-need-to-know-about-the-613-desires/

Albert @ KabU

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