Forum Replies Created
- Replies
Hi Sharon,
Kabbalists are experts on human egoism. After all, they pioneered Kabbalah, the method of correction of human egoism.
From their research, the Kabbalists discovered that in order to reach the purpose of creation, we need a large ego. The ego is like a tall mountain thanks to which we can climb higher and higher. So the more that humanity advances, the more the ego will grow. And by correcting that large ego, the higher the spiritual degree we will achieve.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2011/02/the-worse-the-better/
Albert @ KabU
Hi Asahd,
They do it out of respect for the culture and traditions they grew up with. We should keep in mind that Kabbalah and religion 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
Hi Shel,
These are good questions, thank you for bringing them up.
1. Sorry for the linking issue, the developers are still working out the kinks in the forum links, it does not always work for me either. But here’s a link if someone wants to read the full article: https://www.kabbalah.info/net/2022-was-bad-2023-will-be-no-better/
2. We all develop at different rates, as such, the dissemination of the wisdom of Kabbalah gets adapted to the different levels of development of humanity. Those with active points in the heart have a desire to study Kabbalah. They learn it in a more direct way, like we do on KabU. Those without active points in the heart have all sorts of other media channels through which this wisdom is brought down to a level that they can understand.
This article was written for a wider audience, those without active points in the heart. Meaning such people are not looking for the meaning of life, they don’t have a need or foundation to understand our inner spiritual work. They simply feel bad in life and are looking for a logical explanation for why and what to do. This is why this article was written in such a way.
3. Why does it have such a negative tone? Because the situation in the world is indeed dire. It’s like the world is sick with cancer and Rav Laitman is the doctor that diagnosed it. As difficult as it is for a doctor to tell a person that they have cancer, it’s still the truth and the right thing to do.
4. Regarding things being bad and will continue to be bad, this is correct. All the bad things in the world stem from our uncorrected egoistic nature. As long as we don’t correct that egoistic nature, we should not expect things to get better. On the contrary, life will indeed only get worse and worse.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2011/06/how-can-we-justify-the-creator/
5. As for the world being a reflection of our uncorrected internal world, that is correct. But trying to see that the external world is our reflection is our inner work. It should not stop us from carrying out any of the normal actions that we need to carry out in the external world. If I’m sick, I still go to the doctor. If someone is trying to hurt me, I still need to stop them, call the cops, sue them, etc. If the world is heading towards destruction, the Kabbalists still need to warn them and teach them how to correct the situation.
I think I largely answered your concerns with the above five points, let me know if something is still unclear.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Michael,
Not quiet. Religion has a different goal than what we learn about in Kabbalah. So a religious environment wont help us to actualize Kabbalah. The type of environment that we need to actualize what we learn in Kabbalah is a spiritual environment consisting of those with active points in the heart that are on the spiritual path together with us.
For those interested in continuing with KabU, in the advanced semesters of KabU, everyone will receive their own Kabbalistic group with whom they can put all these things into practice.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Ariel,
We’ll learn about the history of Kabbalah throughout the course. But yes, these are the pillars of the Wisdom of Kabbalah. After the Ari and Baal Shem Tov come Baal HaSulam and Rabash. They continued the work of the Kabbalists before them and adapted the Wisdom of Kabbalah to our generation.
We’ll learn more about them throughout the course, but in the meantime, checkout this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2015/11/the-great-kabbalists-and-their-works/
Albert @ KabU
Hi Lora,
It is possible but it’s not recommended right now. As beginners on the spiritual path, we don’t want to confuse ourselves with the countless desires that awaken in us. Instead we focus all of our spiritual work on our desire for spirituality, on connecting with other points in the heart on the spiritual path together with us. This is the foundation of all of our spiritual work.
And in the more advanced stages of our spiritual development, we’ll learn how to measure all the rest of our desires relative to our desire for spirituality. We’ll begin to see how the rest of our desires can help or take away from the spiritual connection that we are building here.
We’ll learn about this in the more advanced lessons.
Albert @ KabU
