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Hi Chris,
Sorry, there’s a bug in the forum links. It’s being worked out now. In the meantime, you can find the post by going to the 2nd page of this forum. It’s the very last post there.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Beth,
Kabbalists view life and death in a completely different way. Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for an example: https://laitman.com/2013/06/life-and-death-in-the-eyes-of-a-kabbalist/
But regardless of how Kabbalah views these things, don’t think that Kabbalists are against us following our traditions. Quite the opposite. Kabbalists write that even after the full spiritual correction, a person can keep their religious customs and traditions.
In other words, it’s encouraged to maintain your traditions even while studying Kabbalah. So if there are certain customs and traditions that your family is used to doing, if these things are not harmful to others, then by all means, keep doing them.
As for the spiritual corrections that we talk about in Kabbalah, these things have nothing to do with the actions we perform with our hands and feet, but rather these are internal corrections, corrections of our intention. We’ll learn more about this in the upcoming lessons.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Katie,
He’s saying that this is a misconception, that there are no preliminary requirements. Baal HaSulam wrote about it in one of his letters:
“I shall tell you that in the past, it was necessary to obtain all seven secular teachings and undergo terrible self-torments prior to attaining the Creator. Yet, not many were rewarded with the Creator’s favor. But since we have been rewarded with the teachings of the Ari and the work of the Baal Shem Tov, it is truly within everyone’s reach, and no further preparation is required.”Â
In other words, in our days, there is no need for any preliminary wisdoms. The only condition to studying Kabbalah in our days is the desire to do so. If a person has such a desire, called the point in the heart, then this entire wisdom is open before them. If not, then no. This follows the rule that “there is no coercion in spirituality”.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Nancy,
In the next semester, we’ll learn the importance of the spiritual environment. Essentially our entire work in Kabbalah boils down to strengthening our spiritual environment. In other words, we don’t focus on ourselves, on our own strength to overcome, etc. Rather, we focus only on our connection to the spiritual environment. And everything else, all of the good thoughts, actions, that we perform, this is a result of our connection with the spiritual environment.
This is similar to how a seed by itself is powerless to do anything. Everything depends on where you plant that seed. Once you plant it, the results are already dictated by the environment in which you plant it. Same with us. By ourselves, each one of us is powerless to do anything against his own egoistic nature. So our entire work is on planting ourselves in a good spiritual environment and the rest is a result of that action. We’ll learn more about this in the upcoming lessons (KR2, Lesson 2).
Albert @ KabU
Hi Rachel,
That’s a good question. If you didn’t get your answer from the lesson 1 video, feel free to post it in the questions forum.
Albert @ KabU
Yes, but keep in mind that in Kabbalah we don’t need to focus on our desires, on growing them, or anything like that. Our entire focus is always on the positive side of things: on our aspiration to acquire the spiritual qualities of love, bestowal, connection, etc. As a result and only as a result of that, we will see that our desires, our ego will grow and develop to the necessary levels. But again, this is only a side effect, this is not something we need to focus on.
See my reply to Miryam in the week 3 questions forum for more details.
Albert @ KabU
