Forum Replies Created
- Replies
Hi Sudhi,
1. Internally we should try to see how everything in life comes to us from a single benevolent force. This is called “there is none else besides Him” and that He is the “good that does good”. But this is our internal work. It does not cancel out any of the work we need to do in life in order to take care of all of our problems in the normal way that we would go about taking care of them. Meaning that if I’m sick, I still must go to a doctor. If I lose my job, I need to go job hunting. If someone is hurting me, I need to call the police, etc. Externally we need to take care of all of our problems in the normal way.
We’ll learn more about this in the upcoming semester. In the meantime, check out this blog post from Rav Laitman: https://laitman.com/2017/12/there-is-none-else-besides-him/
2. We learn that “necessities are neither praised nor condemned”. Meaning that taking care of our necessities to live a normal life is not considered egoistic. It’s perfectly fine to do that.
Albert @ KabU
Hi J,
We’re in a process of development in a perfect integral system. There is nothing redundant in this system. Even the smallest blade of grass has a reason to exist and is part of the purpose of creation. All the more so all the levels of development that humanity is going through. Baal HaSulam writes about it in the article “Peace in the World”, here’s an excerpt:
“Because any observation of the work of Creation is enough to teach us about the greatness and perfection of its Operator and Creator. Therefore, we must understand and be very careful when casting a flaw in any item of Creation, saying it is redundant and superfluous, as that would be slander about its Operator.”
So what is the purpose of the long path of suffering that humanity has undergone? It’s in order for a person to gradually reach the state called “the recognition of evil”. The recognition of evil is that we recognize that it’s not the Creator who is the source of our suffering. He’s the good that does good and only sends us good. Rather, all of the suffering we experience is because of our uncorrected egoism. We need this process to reach this recognition and eventually even be willing to come out of our egoistic state. Only after humanity has realized that it’s sick with egoism, is it relevant to present it with the cure: the wisdom of Kabbalah, the method of correction of man’s egoism.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2015/08/the-sinking-of-science-the-past-pride-of-humanity/
Albert @ KabU
Hi Rahul, great questions!
1) The temple symbolized the level of love and connection that this group was able to achieve at that time. When a bigger level of egoism was revealed, they were unable to maintain that level of love and connection. As a result of that, the corporeal temple, the symbol of their love and connection, wound up getting destroyed.
Baal HaSulam writes about this in “Letter 60”, here’s an excerpt:
“this is what our sages meant when they asked about the ruin of the Second Temple, that there was no idolatry there and they were proficient in Torah, so why was it ruined? They said it was for unfounded hatred.”
2) The general level of egoism grew. But this is not a bad thing, but rather a sign of progress. It’s like with exercise, when you master a 5 pound weight, in order to keep progressing, you need to add resistance by going up to a 10 pound weight, etc. Likewise the process of correction works according to the rule of “from light to heavy”. Meaning first the lighter, less egoistic souls reach their correction. They become as the pioneers that start this whole process. And only later on we focus on the heavier, coarser, more egoistic desires.
The people in the days of Abraham were less egoistic and therefore started this whole process. After they corrected the egoism on their level, it opened the door for the rest of the world, the carriers of the heavier, more egoistic desires, to reach their correction.
But the rest of the world was not yet ready for this correction. For this reason Kabbalah had to be temporarily concealed and the people who previously succeeded in this method needed to be scattered throughout the whole world. Then in the process of them integrating with the rest of the world, they sped up the development of the rest of the world to this final state of correction.
So we can see from this whole process that it’s not that something bad happened, on the contrary, those pioneers that started this process finished the correction on their level and then received their next challenge.
3) Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2008/08/building-the-third-temple/
Albert @ KabU
Hi Katel,
There are 4 levels in nature. Still, vegetative, animate, and speaking. Within each level, there are 4 sub levels: the still of the still, the vegetative of the still, the animate of the still, the speaking of the still, etc. Humanity as a whole is currently found on the speaking sub-degree of the animate level. Meaning we have not yet reached the true speaking degree, which is a spiritual degree.
As for global transformation, yes you can say it depends on the spreading of the wisdom of Kabbalah to the world. Baal HaSulam writes about it in the article “The Shofar of the Messiah“. Here’s an excerpt:
“In my assessment, we are in a generation that is standing at the very threshold of redemption, if we only know how to spread the wisdom of the hidden to the masses.”
Albert @ KabU
Hi Katel,
Yes, it is customary to pay a tithe and it does go directly to the “Priests and Levites” as you wrote. In previous generations, they were the ones tasked with educating the nation. So in our days, all of the tithe money that gets collected by us is used only for the purpose of the dissemination of the wisdom of Kabbalah to the world. You can find some general information about the tithe (or maaser in Hebrew) on the donations page: https://www.kabbalah.info/engkab/what-is-kabbalah/nadonations
We’ll learn about the spiritual meaning behind tithing in the more advanced semesters.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Aaron,
Yes, you can say that.
As for reading TES, when we study it together with Rav Laitman, we generally first read the section with the Ari’s words twice and then we read Baal HaSulam’s commentaries for those words one time.
Keep in mind that more important than reading it, is setting your intention before you even read it. What result do you want to attain from this reading? The closer that intention is to spirituality, the more we extract the force of the light from these books. As a result of that, the light will begin to gradually influence us and correct us until we ourselves will begin to feel spirituality.
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
