[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Jonathan, great questions!

Kabbalah is the method by which we correct our egoistic nature. There is nothing really unsafe about studying authentic Kabbalah. Although we do go through many ups and down on the spiritual path. This is normal. The important thing is to just keep going, to keep placing yourself under the influence of the light and it’ll balance everything out.

So the best thing is to set aside some time to regularly return to the Kabbalistic sources, weekly lessons, videos, books, etc. Such habits of returning to the source of the light will help us get through all of the different ups and downs on the path. Aside from that, we should continue to live our normal lives. Maintaining a normal corporeal life is an important part of this balance.

Albert @ KabU

[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Philip,

I cannot answer you in this way because you’re mixing together a few different concepts. First we need to understand the concept of perception of reality. As we learned in the lesson on the perception of reality, our perception is entirely subjective. We see the world through the lens of our egoistic nature. In other words, the entire external world is nothing more than a reflection of my own uncorrected egoistic state. If I’m not corrected, I see in front of me a bad world, full of suffering. If I correct myself, I’ll look at the same world, but now it’s perfect. It’s like I have these dirty glasses through which I see the whole world as dirty. The moment I clean my own glasses, I’ll look at the same world, but now it’s clean and perfect.

Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: http://laitman.com/2014/04/in-neutral-gear/

What about the holocaust and all such atrocities that took place in the external world? Once we correct ourselves, we will see that the previous reality that we saw through the lens of our ego was nothing more than a dream. This is called “we were as dreamers”.

Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: http://laitman.com/2010/11/this-life-is-a-dream/

Albert @ KabU

[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Ann,

It exists in the state of perfection as it was created. The shattering and our current disconnected reality is like a dream or a game which helps us to develop. But once we finish our development on this level, we will reveal the true reality, and see that we were there all along.

Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2010/11/this-life-is-a-dream/

Albert @ KabU

[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Felix, good question!

There have been many Kabbalistic books written throughout the generation, including Sefer Yetzirah, but in our days, we focus mainly on the writings of Baal HaSulam and Rabash, since their books contain the light that is most suitable to correct the level of egoism of our generation.

Let’s put a few things into perspective to understand this: Kabbalah is the method by which we correct our egoistic nature and as a result, we become similar to and reveal the Creator, the general force of love and bestowal. Egoism grows from generation to generation. As such, the method for its correction needs to be adapted to the level of egoism that is found within each generation.

For example it’s like in medicine, if a person has a headache he can just drink a tylenol and that’s enough to fix him. But if it’s not just a little headache but something cancerous, then that tylenol won’t do anything for him but he needs a completely different regime to heal himself. This is why Kabbalah gets adapted in each generation to the level of egoism that is currently found in that generation.

So although there have been many Kabbalists from the past generations and they have left behind many books, we usually don’t focus on them. In our days we mainly learn from the writings of Baal HaSulam and Rabash, since their writings contains the light that is most suitable to correct the egoism that is found in our generation.

Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details on Baal HaSulam and Rabash: https://laitman.com/2015/11/the-great-kabbalists-and-their-works/

Albert @ KabU

[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Ali,

There are not abstract numbers, they are very precise measurements. As a person attains spirituality, he begins to research it, and discovers all these numbers from his research. But what exactly is he researching, what is spirituality?

Essentially we’re always talking about a desire. Our current reality is based on our current nature, the desire to receive. Spirituality on the other hand operates according to a different desire, that of pure bestowal. The different numbers are just a different way to divide up that spiritual desire. This desire can be divided into 613 parts, or 620 parts, or 600,000 pieces, or 125 degrees, or even 10 sefirot.

It’s just like how we can study a person based on his behavior, or based on his anatomy, or based on his external appearance, or his internal chemistry. Ultimately we’re studying the same person, but from different angles. Same with these different divisions, they are all talking about the same spiritual desire but from different angles or a different scale.

So if we are describing the desire as 613 parts, then we’re talking about the number of corrections that need to be placed over the desire. This number is further divided into 248 desires of bestowing in order to bestow and 365 desires that operate on receiving in order to bestow. We’ll learn about this in detail in the more advanced lessons on KabU that deal with the structure of the upper worlds.

The number 125 comes from the structure of the upper worlds. This structure is just a division of the spiritual desire that we need to correct into sefirot, partzufim, and worlds.

The most basic division of the desire is 1 Sefira. 5 Sefirot compose 1 partzuf. 5 Partzufim compose 1 world. There are 5 worlds in total. So 5 worlds each with 5 partzufim each with 5 sefirot equals 125 (5x5x5) steps on the spiritual ladder. This number symbolizes the gap, the delta, between our nature and the Creator’s nature.

Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2010/11/numbers-indicate-quality-not-quantity/

Albert @ KabU

[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Philip,

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 “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 and we will continue to see others suffering more and more in life. But if we correct our nature to be similar to the Creator’s nature, we will reveal the true reality in which only goodness exists and that our previous egoistic state was nothing more than a dream.

In other words, all those “bad” situations are invitations for us to correct our egoistic nature and thereby to come closer to the Creator.

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

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