[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Poli, great questions!

Our desire is egoistic by nature. True altruism does not exist on the level of our world. Bestowal is the Creator’s nature. While our nature is that of pure reception. So it’s impossible for us to truly bestow. At best we can perform more and more covert actions of reception. For example, I go to the store and I give them my money, but obviously I want something in return. It’s the same with all of our actions of bestowal in corporeality. Either I do it to receive pleasure directly or indirectly from fame, honor, money, or even the pride of knowing that no one knows about this action, or even avoiding pain or guilt is also part of this same calculation.

So real bestowal, above any calculations for receiving for oneself, does not exist in our world. Real bestowal is purely the Creator’s quality. If we want to acquire such a quality, we first need to correct our nature. This is done by the force of the light we evoke through the Kabbalistic studies. This light begins to work on us, even if we don’t have the true desire to bestow. Even if we’re just like little kids, pretending to be spiritual grown ups. It takes this aspiration of ours and corrects it little by little, building in us a true desire for spirituality, for the spiritual qualities of love and bestowal.

Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: http://laitman.com/2013/02/sunbathing-in-the-rays-of-the-reforming-light/

Regarding levels 0-4, this is talking about the size of the desire and not whether it’s egoistic or altruistic. And yes there is a connection between the size of the desire and the spiritual level that we attain. The bigger the desire, the higher the spiritual degree we attain when we correct it. Which is why in Kabbalah we don’t work on eliminating the ego, but only on rising above it.

Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2011/02/the-worse-the-better/

Albert @ KabU

[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Richard,

Kabbalah does not hold the monopoly over spirituality. It’s not claiming to be the one and only method. The Wisdom of Kabbalah is the accumulation of thousands of years of experience from people practically trying to reach spirituality, what worked, what didn’t, etc. It’s not a must to use it, but as you can imagine, it’s a lot faster and easier with it.

As for becoming like the Creator, this is not something we can do with our own strength. This is because the Creator is the pure quality of bestowal, while our nature is the complete opposite, pure reception, or egoism. Just like a PC cannot just reprogram itself to run as a Mac, we too cannot just change our own nature with our own strength, it’s impossible. We need help to make this change.

This help comes to us from the light, a special force that helps us to correct our nature. All of the clarifications, changes, and corrections we undergo is thanks to this light. Our work is only to extract more and more of this light, especially during the Kabbalistic studies, and it does all the rest. And although we spend a lot of time studying, the goal is not to acquire knowledge, but through the study to draw the reforming light.

Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: http://laitman.com/2013/02/sunbathing-in-the-rays-of-the-reforming-light/

As for the difference between the fundamentals and the advanced courses, in the advanced courses we will be doing the same work of extracting the light, but we will be doing so together in a Kabbalistic group. When we do this work together, the amount of light we can extract from the studies is exponentially greater. We’ll learn more about these things in the future lessons.

Albert @ KabU

[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Ralitza,

1. Each one contains all of them.

2. The 613 desires are spiritual desires that we don’t yet have. Similar to how a single cell in a body only has some basic desires. But when that cell is part of a greater body, it reveals there higher desires which are impossible for the individual cell to have: desires for money, honor, power, etc. Same with us, until we integrate with the general body of Adam HaRishon, we don’t reveal or understand these 613 spiritual desires.

Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2008/12/all-you-need-to-know-about-the-613-desires/

As for how we work with the 613 desires in practice, we don’t work according to some pre-made list, but simply with whatever is being awakened at the moment.

Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2015/09/compliance-with-the-613-mitzvot-commandments/

Albert @ KabU

[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Gelaye,

There is no time in spirituality. Reaching it does not depend on hours of study or acquisition of knowledge, but rather it works according to laws. One of these laws is that “there is no light without a kli (vessel)”. Meaning that if we don’t have the vessel (desire) we have nothing with which to get the light (the fulfillment for that desire).

In other words, everything depends on us, if we build the right desire for spirituality, we will right away reveal it. If not, then even if a few more thousands of years pass by, we will still not reveal it. This is called “there is no coercion in spirituality”. Meaning if we don’t want it, we will not receive it.

And although we spend a lot of time studying, the goal is not to acquire knowledge, but through the study to draw the light, a special force that helps us to build the right desire. Meaning we don’t need to be super strong, wise, or talented in order to succeed in Kabbalah, all we need is to extract more and more of this light and it does all the rest.

Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: http://laitman.com/2013/02/sunbathing-in-the-rays-of-the-reforming-light/

Albert @ KabU

[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Linda, great question!

We learn that the Creator is the pure quality of love and bestowal. Every single moment He sends us nothing but goodness. This is called “there is none else besides Him” and “He is the good that does good”. But why don’t we sense this goodness? It’s because we’re opposite to Him. Our opposite egoistic nature inverts this goodness into something bad. It’s like multiplying numbers: a positive times a negative, equals negative.

So as long as we remain within this egoistic nature, we will continue to suffer more and more in life. But if we correct our nature to be similar to the Creator’s nature, then we will reveal the true reality in which only goodness exists and our previous egoistic state would appear as nothing more than a dream.

We’ll learn more about this in the next semester, in the meantime, check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2011/06/how-can-we-justify-the-creator/

Albert @ KabU

[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Pooya, good question!

Everything that we achieve is in accordance with the law of equivalence of form. Meaning that in order to reveal something, we need to become similar to it. It’s just like a radio receiver that can catch different external frequencies by matching them on the inside.

So in order to reveal our life’s source, in order to reveal the Creator, we need to become similar to Him, to His qualities of love and bestowal. We’ll learn more about these things in depth in the upcoming lessons, in the meantime, check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: http://laitman.com/2013/04/everything-is-attained-by-the-equivalence-of-form/

Albert @ KabU

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