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Hi Niklas,
Where is it coming from? We learned in the first lesson Kabbalah Revealed 2 that “there is none else besides Him”. Meaning that everything we experience we need to see it as coming from Him.
Regarding the constraints, KabU (in one form or another) has been around for close to 15 years. From all this experience, we saw that if we don’t set clear limits for the students, they either burn out or don’t properly absorb the fundamental materials. So it’s good that we have these limits in place.
It’s also good that you find a normal balance in life, to work, take care of your family, health, etc. The more we progress, the more we’ll see that the corporeal world was not created redundantly. But rather it’s a very important extension of our spiritual work. It’s specifically thanks to the corporeal life, which seemingly pulls us away from spirituality, that we will get an even stronger desire for spirituality.
It’s just like when lifting weights. If you just lift a 1 pound weight all the time, your muscles wont grow much. So you need to add some resistance, some more weight to get more results. Same with us. Our initial desire for spirituality is like that 1 pound weight. It wont get us very far into spirituality. So in order to grow our desire, the Creator adds some weight and resistance to it by giving us this corporeal world. This is why in addition to the spiritual work that we do here, it’s important that we also arrange our lives in the normal way: work, family, health, etc. All these things will help us to build a stronger desire for spirituality.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Niklas,
1. We had some recent site upgrades which caused some notifications to stop working. So it’s possible that few questions slipped through the radar. But in general, the instructors are very meticulous about answering every question. If something was not answered, it’s good to bring it to our attention, through Melody and the support team, so we can take care of it.
2. Regarding forum participation, it’s good to read other students questions. This is a good way to connect to them, to their desire. As for answering their questions, it’s better to leave that to the instructors. But it does not mean you have to be completely silent, there are other forms of interactions, besides answering questions, that are beneficial. Like showing warmth to each other and supporting each other throughout the path.
3/4. It’s good that you have this sensitivity that your actions might harm your fellow students. In general, we shouldn’t make any impulsive actions towards other students. This will usually cause harm. But if we measure our actions and make them out of love, then generally this will minimize or even completely eliminate any harm from our ego. And doing things out of love means that we don’t take our desire into consideration, but the other person’s desire.
It’s just like how we relate to our children. For example, let’s say that I love steak. I want to share my steak with everyone, even my 3 month old baby. But I know that the baby is not yet ready for this. So if I feed it the steak, I’ll ultimately be harming it. Likewise with our interaction with other students. If we act towards them not out of our own desire, but out of their desire, out of what they are ready for, then our actions won’t cause them any harm.
Regarding the Q/A with Julian, we’re still not doing practical work in a group. We’re in the preliminary stages where most of our work is on absorbing the materials. Similar to when a baby is born, the first few months it’s mostly passively just observing the world. And then when it gets older, it begins to react more and interact more with the world. So it’s perfectly fine for you to join the Q/A session with Julian.
5. Hearing other student’s questions is an important part of our spiritual work. Even in our lessons with Rav Laitman, he dedicates a lot of each lesson to the student’s Q/A. Through this process we integrate into one another, feel closer to each other, and also grow our own desire for spirituality. So I would recommend to read the Q/A forums regularly.
As for reading Kabbalah for the Student, that’s also good. Keep in mind that it can be very confusing if you misinterpret the basic terms. So if you have any questions from what you read there, feel free to post them in the general forums and we’ll clarify them.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Hadil,
Authentic Kabbalah has been concealed for the past 2000 years, so naturally there are a lot of misconceptions associated with it. Just picture a 2000 year old game of telephone… Essentially Kabbalah is the method by which we correct our egoistic nature. As a result of this correction, we become similar to the Creator, the general force of love and bestowal. As a result of becoming similar to Him, we reveal this force of love in practice, in our lives. That’s it. So there is nothing really here to be scared about.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Etienne,
Everyone will receive their own Kabbalah group in the advanced semester. Until then, it’s important to properly go through the fundamental semesters (Kabbalah Revealed 1 & 2) and intermediate semesters (Kabbalah in Action & Kabbalah Experience), otherwise we’ll lack the proper foundation for that work.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Ale, good question!
In general, it’s not recommended to talk about spirituality with others that are not on the path. It’s impossible for a person without an active point in the heart to understand these things. It just leads to unnecessary arguments which ultimately harms both them and us.
It harms them because we naturally try to justify ourselves, to prove our path to them, or even to force our path onto them, which violates the rule that “there is no coercion in spirituality”. It’s like forcing a 5 year old to do something sexual, which they are clearly not ready for. It’s an extreme example, but you understand how such things can mess a person up for life. Likewise when we try to force this path onto others that are not ready for it, it can mess them up spiritually for a whole lifetime.
Or these arguments can harms us, since our opinions on spirituality will mix with their opinions and our desire for spirituality, the most precious thing we have in life, will weaken more and more. So the best thing to do when outside of the spiritual environment is to act normal, just like everyone else. And when speaking with people outside the path, talk about the normal everyday life and not about spirituality.
And if you think someone is interested in spirituality, instead of arguing or going into any explanations, simply give them one of the beginner books as a present or send them a link to the course. This is the safest approach.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2008/11/only-people-with-the-point-in-the-heart-can-feel-that-kabbalah-is-the-salvation/
Albert @ KabU
Hi Jeff,
Kabbalah and religion are two separate things, so I cannot comment on the religious observations of the Mitzvot. In general, regarding connecting to the Creator, we learn that the process goes “from the love of the created beings to the love of the Creator”. Meaning that if we want to reach a connection with the Creator, we can do so only through our connection with other people. This is why R. Akiva said that love your friend as yourself “is a great rule (klal) in the Torah”. The word rule (klal in Hebrew), also means general, all encompassing. In other words, this is the all encompassing rule that summarizes all of our work. We’ll learn more about this and how to practice it in the more advanced semesters.
Albert @ KabU
