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Hi Katel,
I would not call it a scam. I would say that we are given different tools based on our level of development. It’s like when we educate our children. We give a 5 year old a toy car and a 25 year old a real car. The toy car is exactly what the 5 year old needs in order to grow and develop. If I was to give a 5 year old the real car, it would not do him any good. On the contrary, it could harm him.
It’s the same with religion. It’s a tool that was NECESSARY when humanity was on a certain level of development. So we should not look down on it. Furthermore, it could be that a person still feels a need for religion even while studying Kabbalah. And there is nothing wrong with that. It’s 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.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Amani, great questions!
Kabbalah is a science based on the research of the Kabbalists. As a science, there are clear limits to what we can and cannot research. One such limit is that we’re unable to research what happened before the thought of Creation, before Creation. This is because our current research tools are incapable of grasping such things, so we’re unable to research them.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2017/01/why-did-the-creator-create-people/
Another limitation is in how we research the Creator. Kabbalah divides our research of the Creator into two parts.
The first is His essence (atzmuto in Hebrew). This is He Himself, His point of view, the Creator as an entity separate from the Created beings. We’re incapable of researching this part of the Creator again because our research tools are not built in such a way that we can grasp such things. Perhaps after we finish the process of correction, we’ll discover additional research tools through which we’ll be able to research these things, but until then we limit ourselves and don’t talk about this part of the Creator because we cannot properly research it.
The other part of the Creator is called Bo-Re (Hebrew for Come (Bo) and See (Re)). This is the part of the Creator that we can research and reveal. How do we research this? Through the desire. When we take a part of our desire to receive and correct it in the direction of bestowal, in that corrected desire, we reveal a certain phenomenon, we call this phenomenon the Creator. This is why there are many names for the Creator (in Hebrew), since every time we correct a different part of the desire, we reveal a different aspect of this thing called the Creator.
So all of our understanding of this thing called the Creator (and any spiritual phenomena) is based on what we reveal within the corrected desire. But whatever exists outside of the corrected desire, whatever we don’t grasp, perceive or attain within the desire, whatever is beyond our tools of research, we don’t talk about. We need to keep these limits in mind in order to stay within the realm of science and not venture off into religion or philosophy.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2017/11/the-concept-of-god-in-kabbalah/
Albert @ KabU
Hi Abe,
All of humanity are part of a single system called the common soul of Adam HaRishon. It’s like we’re all cells within a single body. The only thing that was broken in this spiritual system are the connections between us. This is the only thing that we need to correct.
Although it may seem like there are two doors or at times even thousands of potential doors that can lead us to spirituality, in truth there is only one door. There is only one thing we need to focus our intention on. To reconnect that shattered soul.
We’ll learn about this in the more advanced lessons. In the meantime, check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: http://laitman.com/2014/05/puzzle-adam-harishon/
Albert @ KabU
Hi Javier,
I’m not an expert in other methods, so I don’t know how others define this word. But when we use the word mysticism, we are referring to something mystical, something removed from reality, something that does not follow the laws of nature.
So when we make the distinction that Kabbalah is not mysticism, this is because Kabbalah is very much so grounded into nature. Kabbalah researches nature and the laws of nature using a very strict scientific method: “a judge has only what his eyes can see” and “what we do not attain we do not call by name”. Even our knowledge of the upper force, of the Creator, is limited to our research tools, meaning the desire. And whatever does not enter into this desire, we cannot research or talk about. For these reasons, it’s more accurate to classify Kabbalah as a science.
As for living in ecstatic joy, if this was the case, we would never develop in life. We are all egoists. The more we develop, the more of the ego we reveal. If we had nothing but ecstatic joy, we would have no drive to continue our development and would agree to remain within our ego our entire lives.
Furthermore, development is always based on two opposite states. Just like in nature: hot/cold, up/down, positive/negative, attraction/rejection, etc. Nothing exists in one state. Spiritual development is also built on advancing between two opposite states. It’s just like walking left foot, right foot, left, right, etc. So if we ever remain within one state, even a seemingly good one, then we’re not advancing spiritually.
There are other differences as well, but we’ll learn about these things gradually throughout the different lessons.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Tamar, great questions!
The student/teacher relationship remains for so long because everything that we learn from our teachers, gets passed down to us in a chain. It’s like when water trickles down a staircase. It goes from the top step, to the next step, to the next, etc, until it reaches the bottom step. In other words, this chain, this structure will always remain. Everything we get, we will always get from our teacher. And everything our teacher will get, he will always get from his teacher, etc. Even if the teacher passes away, this chain will always remain. And this chain goes all the way back to the very first Kabbalist.
Check out these blog posts from Rav Laitman for more details:
https://laitman.com/2019/02/the-ladder-of-attainment-is-constant/
https://laitman.com/2017/01/receiving-light-through-the-teacher/
And yes, at a certain point a student becomes a teacher for the next generation to pass this wisdom onward. But this does not necessarily mean to teach in a frontal way, because there are many different means by which we can share this wisdom with others. We’ll learn about these things in the more advanced semesters.
As for teachers of Kabbalah being not like us, it depends. On the animate level, they are exactly like us. So much so, that even during the pandemic, our teacher also went under lock-down, just like everyone else. His animate (animalistic) body is no different than any one of us.
So what is different about a Kabbalist? It’s not in their animalistic bodies, but rather in their soul. A Kabbalist has corrected his egoistic desires, at least to some extent, and has converted them to operate in the direction of love and bestowal. In that corrected desire (called a soul), a Kabbalist reveals different levels of spirituality.
Can we measure these things? If we are on the level of a Kabbalist, we can measure these differences in the desires in an extremely precise way. But if we are still not, if we still only exist on the level of this egoistic world, then we still lack the tools to objectively measure these things.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2017/05/what-is-the-soul-4/
Albert @ KabU
P.S. This is the reflection forum, please post future questions to the question forum.
Hi Amani,
It’s normal to not understand these things. This is why the Kabbalists tell us “it’s not the wise that learns”. Meaning we’re not learning this material simply to acquire knowledge, to store it in some box in our brains. After all, If knowledge was the path to spirituality, then a supercomputer loaded with all of the Kabbalistic texts would be the most spiritual being in the world. Obviously this is not the case.
So why do we spend so much time studying if not to gain knowledge? Because through the study, we draw the force of the light. This force is what makes all the internal changes, clarifications, corrections that need to be made. After we extract enough light and correct ourselves to a certain degree, then we won’t just intellectually philosophize about spirituality, but we will begin to feel it in practice. And only out of that feeling will we begin to truly understand it.
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
