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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
Hi Peter,
We learn from the Kabbalists that every single moment comes to us directly from the Creator, this is called “there is none else besides Him”. Furthermore, they also say that He is the “good that does good”. Meaning that every moment He is sending us nothing but goodness. Why then don’t we see this in our world? Why don’t we feel everything that is happening as something good?
This is because our world is governed by our egoistic nature. This egoistic nature is opposite to the Creator’s nature. Because of that, it inverts the Creator’s goodness into something bad. It’s just like multiplying numbers, a positive times a negative equals negative.
So as long as we remain within this egoistic nature, we will continue to see and feel more suffering and horrors in the world. But if we correct our nature to be similar to the Creator’s nature, we will reveal the true reality in which only goodness exists and that our previous egoistic state was nothing more than a dream.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2011/06/how-can-we-justify-the-creator/
Albert @ KabU
Hi Maria,
We’re still in the fundamentals learning about this concept of freedom, the actual point of freedom is still ahead of us.
There is a saying that the Creator puts man’s hand on the good fate and says “choose this for yourself”. Meaning He awakened your point in the heart and brought it to a good spiritual environment in which you can nourish it, but after that the rest is up to you.
But if the point in the heart is forcing me to be here, what needs to happen for me to start actualizing my free will? This desire then needs to be taken away from me little by little, and there I begin to reveal more and more the place of my freedom.
This is similar to how we teach a child to ride a bike. First the parent holds the child completely. Then as the child learns to pedal and balance himself, the parent lets go a little, then a little more and a little more, until the child continue to pedal without the parent holding him at all.
So we too need to learn to continue to do this work even when that initial desire for spirituality begins to disappear or when the ego grows and begins to pull us into many different directions. Here there is already a need for mutual work in the group, the spiritual environment. On one hand when I fall into my ego, they need to pull me out, and on the other hand I need to help pull others out when they fall. This is why Kabbalists have always studied in groups (physical or virtual).
We will learn more about this in the more advanced semesters on KabU, where you’ll receive your own Kabbalah group with whom you can practice these things.
Albert @ KabU
