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Hi Ale, good question!
It’s usually out of respect for the culture and traditions that a person grows up with. We should keep in mind that Kabbalah and religion are two separate things. Let’s put a few things into perspective to understand this:
Kabbalah is the method of correcting our egoistic nature and thereby revealing the Creator, the general force of love and bestowal. The first one to actualize this was Adam. His name gives us a hint at this since Adam comes from the Hebrew word “Dome”, meaning “similar to”. He was not the first one alive, but rather the first one to reveal the Creator by becoming similar to this quality of bestowal.
This wisdom gets passed on ward from Adam until Abraham who adapted it to the people of his generation and made the wisdom more practical. Abraham put together a large group of Babylonians who were interested in actualizing this method. These people later on became the Israeli nation. The word Israel comes from the Hebrew words “Yashar” “El” meaning straight to God. These are the people who had an active point in the heart in those days and were interested in revealing the Creator.
These people greatly succeeded in this method. The peak of their success was symbolized in the building of the first and second temple, which reflected the level of unity and bestowal they were able to reach. At a certain point, they lost the spiritual connection between them (the destruction of the 2nd temple) and what remained was just these external symbols of their connection.
At this point the wisdom of Kabbalah became concealed. People still had the holy books, Torah and etc, but they did not know how to use them. Since the Torah is written in the language of roots and branches. Meaning it uses words of our world to describe spiritual phenomena. But if a person does not have this spiritual connection through which he can see this, then he thinks this book is talking about this world, history, morals, commandments, etc. From this emerges the Jewish religion.
From all the above we see that Kabbalah itself is not connected to any religion and that the modern religions came out due to the concealment of Kabbalah. At the same time, Kabbalah is not against religions. In fact we have millions of students worldwide, from many different backgrounds and religions. Many of them do choose to maintain their religion or to perform certain religious customs while studying Kabbalah and there is nothing wrong with that. Just like with any other science, a person can be religious and also be a chemist or physicist. Likewise a person can be religious and also study the science of Kabbalah. Baal HaSulam writes that even after the full spiritual correction people can still keep their religions.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2008/10/religions-place-in-our-lives/
Albert @ KabU
By the way, if you want to ask this question to Tony directly, you can do so at the live Q/A event. The next one is on November 14 at 1 PM eastern time. Check out this link for more details: https://kabuconnect.com/live/
Hi Louis,
No. That excerpt is talking about the path we undergo. There is me, the path I go through, and the end goal of that path. Underlying all these things is the law of equivalence of form. Which means that in order for me to reach that end goal, I need to become similar to it. In other words, the path I go through is the means by which I correct myself and become similar to the Creator until I reach complete adhesion with Him. This is why later on in that article, he writes that these 3 things ultimately become as one.
We’ll learn more about this law in the upcoming lessons. In the meantime, check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2013/04/everything-is-attained-by-the-equivalence-of-form/
Albert @ KabU
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
