[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Joseph,

Yes, you can say that. But keep in mind that 600,000 is less of a quantitative number and more of a qualitative number. It represents the strength of the spiritual desire after it’s been fully corrected. So essentially all of humanity is included in this number.

Check out this blog post to see how this number is derived: https://laitman.com/2010/09/love-and-hatred-of-600000-souls/

Albert @ KabU

[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Branden,

Friend (Haver in Hebrew) comes from the word connection (Hibur in Hebrew). So when we say “friend” in Kabbalah, we’re not talking about our corporeal acquaintances & buddies, but specifically the Kabbalistic group in which people are aspiring towards a spiritual connection within which we reveal the Creator.

As for your corporeal acquaintances, it’s not my place to tell you what to do there. But in general, I wouldn’t recommend to make big changes in your corporeal life. I would recommend to simply set aside some time to regularly return to the source of the light, meaning the Kabbalistic lessons, books, videos, etc. From that you’ll begin to relate to everything else in life in a very balanced way.

And of course remember that “there is no coercion in spirituality”. So don’t pressure anyone to engage in spirituality if they are not ripe for it.

Albert @ KabU

[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Dyrk,

There is something to that, but these are 2 separate things. On the one hand, we do need to place ourselves under the influence of the spiritual environment and allow it to guide us. On the other hand, a very big and important part of our development are questions and answers. Researching and trying to resolve our own questions as well as hearing the questions of our fellow students is an important part of our development. So don’t be shy, if you have a question, ask it.

Alternatively, you can also try to find the answer to your questions by yourself first, by looking it up on Rav Laitman’s blog (https://laitman.com/blog). And if you don’t find it, you can ask us on the forums.

Albert @ KabU

[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Dyrk,
You can say that, but in practice we need to follow the rule that “a judge has only what his eyes can see”. Meaning that our “truth”, our reality is what we feel. And what we feel is relative to our level of development.

For example, the reality for an embryo is the womb inside the mother. This is its entire world. Once the embryo is born, reality turns into that baby’s room. A little older the child’s entire reality is the borders of his house, and etc.

It’s the same with us. Our reality right now is what we experience within the desire to receive pleasure. What about the soul? The soul is the state when we correct the desire to receive to operate in the direction of bestowal. That corrected desire is called the soul. Since we don’t yet have this corrected desire, we don’t yet have this thing called a soul. And so we don’t experience that reality yet. In other words, until we correct ourselves, our truth is what we experience within the egoistic desire. And only once we correct ourselves, will we reveal a different truth.

Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2015/06/what-happens-to-the-soul-after-death/

Albert @ KabU

[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Nemo, great questions!

1. We are constantly guided. This is called “there is none else besides Him”. Meaning that all of life is a simply a game between myself and the Creator. And although I see many different forces acting in the world, as well as something that seemingly stems from myself, my own thoughts, and desires, this is still all coming from Him.

But this does not mean that we can reach correction in a passive way, as this would violate the rule that “there is no coercion in spirituality”. So despite everything coming from Him, we still need to find our place of freedom in which we can develop in this system.

We’ll learn more about these things in the next semester, in the meantime, check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2017/12/there-is-none-else-besides-him/

2. As we’ll learn in the upcoming lesson on the perception of reality, we experience all of reality within our desire to receive pleasure. If this desire is not yet corrected, then we feel this corporeal world. If it is corrected, then within the corrected desire, we feel the spiritual world.

This is also why Kabbalists call the corporeal world the “imaginary world”. Since after we correct ourselves, relative to that corrected state this life would appear as nothing more than a dream.

Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2017/05/what-is-the-soul-4/

Albert @ KabU

[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Euler, great questions!

1. Kabbalah is not a belief system, rather it’s a science based on the research of the Kabbalists. As a science, there are clear limits to what we can and cannot research about this thing called the Creator. Kabbalah divides our research of the Creator into two parts.

The first is His essence (atzmuto in Hebrew). This is He Himself, His point of view, the Creator as an entity separate from the Created beings. We’re incapable of researching this part of the Creator simply because our research tools are not built in such a way that we can grasp such things. Perhaps after we finish the process of correction, we’ll discover additional research tools through which we’ll be able to research these things, but until then we limit ourselves and don’t talk about this part of the Creator because we cannot properly research it.

The other part of the Creator is called Bo-Re (Hebrew for Come (Bo) and See (Re)). This is the part of the Creator that we can research and reveal. How do we research this? Through the desire. When we take a part of our desire to receive and correct it in the direction of bestowal, in that corrected desire, we reveal a certain phenomenon, we call this phenomenon the Creator. This is why there are many names for the Creator (in Hebrew), since every time we correct a different part of the desire, we reveal a different aspect of this thing called the Creator.

So all of our understanding of this thing called the Creator (and any spiritual phenomena) is based on what we reveal within the corrected desire. But whatever exists outside of the corrected desire, whatever we don’t grasp, perceive or attain within the desire, whatever is beyond our tools of research, we don’t talk about. We need to keep these limits in mind in order to stay within the realm of science and not venture off into religion or philosophy.

Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2017/11/the-concept-of-god-in-kabbalah/

2. 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.

And although we spend a lot of time “studying” in Kabbalah. But the goal of the study is not to acquire knowledge, rather the goal is to extract the reforming light. It’s ultimately the force of the light that gradually corrects us until we become similar to spirituality and begin to attain it in practice.

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

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