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Hi David, good question!
Yes, you can say that we’re destined for the spiritual path. This follows the saying that the Creator puts man’s hand on the good fate and says “choose this for yourself”. Meaning that He awakened your point in the heart which brought you to a spiritual environment in which you can nourish it. There was no choice in this matter. But after that, whether you strengthen yourself on that spiritual path or not, that is up to you. We’ll learn about these things in the more advanced lessons.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Caroline, great questions!
1. 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/
2. Nothing is lost. If we don’t finish this work in this lifetime, we continue it in the next. Kabbalists compare the process of life and death of the corporeal body as to changing shirts: at the end of the day, we drop our dirty shirt into the hamper and in the morning put on a clean one. So we don’t lose anything, but continue the next time around until we reach the final correction.
3. You are correct that the final correction involves all of humanity. But waiting will not speed up this process. This is because we’re all part of one system. In this system, we don’t choose when to be awakened, but rather there is a certain order of corrections that needs to take place, and each one receives a spiritual awakening when it’s his turn for correction.
It’s similar to building a house. There is a certain order in which you need to build it. I’m not an expert on house building, but for the sake of the example, let’s say first you dig the foundation, then pour the concrete, lay the beams, etc, and only at the very end do you paint the house. Meaning that there is no point in even taking out the paintbrush before you finish all of the preliminary stages.
Likewise with us. Those that were awakened to this work first are like the foundation of the house while the rest of the world belongs to the later stages. So until those with awakened points in the hearts complete their correction, there is no point in even awakening the rest of the world for their correction. So we don’t need to wait for humanity to wake up, we need to finish our correction, and this will wake them up.
As to how long it will take humanity to correct itself, judging by the speed at which information travels and the rate at which changes take place in our days, this could easily be done within a short period of time.
4. Kabbalah only deals with our desire for spirituality. Regarding the desires of our animalistic bodies, Kabbalah does not deal with these things. Our corporeal desires don’t have any relation to spirituality, so each person can arrange these desires however is most comfortable for them (of course within the context of the law and without harming others).
So in practice we don’t work on restricting our corporeal desires, we only work on making the desire for spirituality the most important thing. Then naturally the rest of our desires will fall into place. For example, it’s like with an artist that is so involved in his art, that he fulfills all the rest of his desires out of necessity so he can quickly return to his passion. Same with us, when spirituality is the most important desire, then we will be able to properly relate to all the rest of our corporeal desires in a balanced way.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Jessica, great question!
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.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: http://laitman.com/2013/02/sunbathing-in-the-rays-of-the-reforming-light/
Furthermore, experiencing spirituality does not depend on our knowledge. Although we spend a lot of time studying, the goal is not to acquire knowledge, but through the study to draw the reforming light which gradually corrects us. It’s thanks to this correction that we become similar to the Creator and by becoming similar to Him, we reveal spirituality in practice. All of this follows the law of equivalence of form.
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
Hi Paul, great question!
The most common barrier is finding the right balance between our corporeal lives and our spiritual aspirations. Without a good balance in our corporeal lives, we won’t be able to advance in spirituality either. This is called “no flour, no Torah – no Torah, no flour”. Meaning a Kabbalist continues to exist on the level of this world throughout the entire spiritual ladder. So I cannot just turn into a monk and disconnect from this life and only focus on spirituality. On the other hand, if I only focus on corporeality, then I’m no different than an animal. So the important thing is to find the right balance between the two: to take care of all of one’s normal necessities: to work, take care of the family, health, etc (this is called flour) and to set aside some time on a regular basis to focus on spirituality (this is called Torah).
Albert @ KabU
Hi Jovan, good question!
There are different levels of spiritual corrections: there is my own personal correction and there is the general correction of the entire world. A Kabbalist is someone that has corrected himself, even on the minimal level of 1/125 degrees, and has thereby attained the corresponding level of spirituality. There have been many Kabbalists throughout the generations who attained various degrees of spirituality. But as for the full and final correction, that state is possible only when all of humanity becomes corrected.
The only example that we have of a Kabbalistic group that reached that state of the full correction is the group of Rabbi Shimon that wrote the book of Zohar. They were the pioneers that had to reach this state in order to pave the way for the rest of us.
Albert @ KabU
