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Hi Louis,
I’m not an expert in other methods, so I cannot comment on what they do or teach there. In general, Kabbalah was concealed because humanity as a whole was not ready for it. Let’s put this into perspective:
Kabbalah is the method of correction of our egoistic nature, thereby revealing the Creator, the general force of love and bestowal. Why was it necessary to conceal such a wisdom? Because egoism was still not yet fully developed. For example: if you compare Kabbalah to a medicine that can cure a rare disease, obviously you can’t take the medicine before you’re diagnosed with the disease, but once the disease actually manifests, you can take the medicine and be cured of it.
It’s just like the 5 stages development of a disease within a person. First a person is healthy. Then he is sick, but he does not feel it. Then the disease spreads to the point that he starts to feel pain and symptoms of the disease. This then pushes him to go to a doctor to get diagnosed and find the cure, and etc.
2000 years ago, egoism was still on a very low level, there was no need to correct it. Starting from the days of the Ari, egoism already grew to a certain extent (and technically the prohibition on Kabbalah ended there), but humanity still didn’t feel sick, on the contrary the ego was the main driving force of all of our development. Then from around 1995 egoism peaked and began to show itself as bad, like a cancer that begins to kill the host body. This is the peak at which there was a true need for the cure. Which in essence is what the Kabbalists have been waiting for all these years, for the desire, for egoism to fully ripen.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Maria,
We’re here to learn, so don’t worry, it’s not a silly question. These are all good, legitimate questions and concerns.
As for the heart, we’re not speaking about our physical bodily hearts. After all, a person can undergo a heart transplant but will still remain the same person. Heart in Kabbalah refers to all of our desires: desires for food, sex, family, money, honor, knowledge, etc. Among all of these desires is a single desire, a single point, which yearns for something higher than this life. That desire is called the point in the heart. Everyone has this desire, but for some it’s more active and for others less.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2017/05/what-is-the-soul-4/
Albert @ KabU
Hi Adamski,
You can say it’s both the intention and perception. When we try to see everything as coming from one source, that “there is none else besides Him”, then we naturally react differently to the situation. Likewise when we try to change our intention, then we accept the situation as a means to bestow and also look at it differently.
We’ll learn about these things in the more advanced lessons. In the meantime, check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: http://laitman.com/2017/12/there-is-none-else-besides-him/
Albert @ KabU
Hi Jeff, great question!
The 125 steps represents the difference between us and the Creator. The Creator is a desire to bestow and we are the desire to receive. Adapting our desire to receive to work in order to bestow takes 125 steps. Meaning that to the extent that we correct our nature, make it similar to the Creator’s nature, to that extent we’re “climbing” this ladder.
All of this works according to the law of equivalence of form. Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2013/04/everything-is-attained-by-the-equivalence-of-form/
As for the order, yes there is an order to these corrections which we cannot skip over. Every step is an important part of our development. If it was possible to skip a step, we would be incapable of reaching that ultimate degree of wholeness and perfection.
As for going backwards, there is a rule that “one is raised in holiness and never lowered.” So we never go backwards. It’s possible that we receive an additional challenge that belongs to a higher degree and that challenge can feel like we’re going backwards, but it’s still a step forward. Similar to how a bodybuilder that masters a 5 lb weights moves on to 10 lbs. That 10 lbs is much more challenging and he cannot do as many reps as before, but this is nonetheless considered progress and advancement.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Ric, great questions!
1. The light does not change. This rule is called “I have not changed my HaVaYaH”. Meaning the light is the same light, it never changes. We change, meaning our desires change, and accordingly we feel the light differently. It’s similar to how electricity is the same electricity but based on what appliance we plug in, we have different uses and results from it. Plug in a heater and you’ll produce warmth, plug in an AC and you’ll get cool air, etc.
So in the descent of the 5 worlds, the desire becomes coarser, more egoistic, as a result it begins to feel the light differently. But the light itself never changes.
2. Thoughts by their very nature are not corporeal, they are not tangible. We feel them inside of ourselves, but we don’t even know where they are coming from. We learn in Kabbalah that our thoughts are the results of our desires. They help us to actualize our desires. Check out the article Shamati 153 for more details: https://kabbalahmedia.info/en/sources/4GW5T0i5?language=en
Furthermore, we feel all of life in our desires. If our desires are still uncorrected, egoistic, then we feel this corporeal world. If our desires are corrected, then within those corrected desires we feel the spiritual world. Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2017/05/what-is-the-soul-4/
3. Time is a sensation within our desire to receive pleasure. If there are no changes in the desire, we would not feel time passing at all. In spirituality, time is not measured by the passing of seconds but rather by the changes that take place over the desire. So if there are no changes in the desire, then time stands still. This is why the Kabbalists say that “there is no time in spirituality”.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2014/06/what-is-time/
Albert @ KabU
Here’s a google translate of the above question:
“My question is about the language of branches and roots, from what I understand it is a kind of coded language for conveying an understandable message about the objects and phenomena existing in the spiritual worlds, for this the Kabbalist masters used a specific vocabulary to describe them , so we managed to develop this vocabulary to be able to understand the message they are conveying, especially in Zhorar’s book.”
Hi Claudio, good question.
Studying definitions is not enough to penetrate this code. This is because the language of root and branches is not something you learn but rather something that comes with spiritual attainment. Without spiritual attainment, we cannot truly understand these things. It’s like a blind person that is trying to study colors. He can learn the wavelengths behind each one, the different feelings they all evoke, but ultimately he will never truly understand colors. But if this blind person was to undergo an operation and gain his sense of sight, how easy and simple it would be to teach him colors. We would simply point to it and say “this is red”.
It’s the same with the language of roots and branches. It’s currently impossible for us to truly grasp these things. But once we gain our “spiritual sight” we would pick these things up very easily and naturally.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2009/09/the-law-of-roots-and-branches-the-most-imporant-law-in-kabbalah/
The Law Of Roots And Branches – The Most Important Law In Kabbalah
Albert @ KabU
