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Hi Jerry,
It’s like you said, I’m not an expert on religions. I cannot comment on such things. In general, Kabbalah is a science dealing with the correction of our nature and the revelation of the Creator, the force of bestowal. It has no connection to faith, religion, or religious leaders. But ultimately these things are not so opposed. Both talk about the importance of loving others as yourself. Kabbalah goes even further and gives us a method to actualize loving others to such an extent that we can reveal in our lives the Creator, the general force of love and bestowal.
As for religions, 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.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Ludumo,
Balance is very important. There is a saying “no flour no Torah, no Torah no flour”. Meaning we cannot just focus on spirituality and disregard our necessities. We need to continue to work, take care of our family, health, etc. On the other hand, we cannot just focus entirely on our corporeal life without considering the spiritual goal, then we are no different than animals. So we need to work on maintaining the right balance between the two. To take care of our necessities and also to dedicate some time to spirituality, to return to the Kabbalistic texts, videos, lesson materials, etc. This is the balance that we should strive for.
Beyond that, we should keep in mind that spiritual work is inner work, on the level of our thoughts and desires. Meaning that we don’t need to make big changes in our corporeal life. We don’t need to become monks and disconnect from the corporeal life. We continue to exist on the level of this world throughout the entire spiritual ladder. So we must continue to live physically and to take care of our normal necessities: work, family, health, etc, together with our spiritual development.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Ludumo,
The intention is concealed. So we cannot judge anyone’s intention. This is why Kabbalah is called the concealed wisdom, because it deals with what is inside of a person. But we don’t know what is happening inside someone else. So each person can only judge himself. He has no way to properly gauge what is going on inside someone else.
Furthermore, we learn in the lesson on the perception of reality, that the entire external reality is nothing more than a reflection of our own uncorrected egoistic state. Meaning that to the extent that I’m not corrected, I see in front of me a bad, egoistic world, full of suffering. And to the extent that I correct this ego, to that extent the external reality will change as well. It’s like I have these dirty glasses through which I see the whole world as being dirty. The moment I clean my own glasses (correct myself) then 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/
As for our actions in the physical world, the most important one of our actions is in choosing to place ourselves under the influence of a spiritual environment. There is a certain level of freedom specifically in that. We’ll learn about this in depth in the next semester when we’ll study the topic of freedom.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Omoregie Peter,
It’s not so much that Kabbalists hid it, but more so that humanity was not yet ready for it. It’s just like what we do with our kids, we don’t talk to a 2 year old about death, sexuality, and etc. We wait for them to mature until they are able to properly hear about such things. Likewise with us. The Kabbalists wanted nothing more than to share this wisdom with the world, but the world was not yet ripe for it. So they waited until humanity developed more.
Furthermore, even if this wisdom is revealed, until a person is in a special phase of his development where his point in the heart awakens, he’s incapable of hearing these things. We can see this on ourselves. If Kabbalah was already revealed in 1995, why did it take me so many years to find it? Why am I only starting to learn about this in 2021? It’s because of the desire. If a person does not have this desire for spirituality called the point in the heart, then you can literally place this wisdom right in front of him and he won’t see anything special about it or feel any need for pursuing it. If on the other hand this desire is awakened within a person, then even if he has never heard of Kabbalah, he will somehow just gravitate towards it, like a magnet that is pulling him to the right place. He will find it even in the most isolated places on earth, even in prison. So everything depends on the ripeness of the desire.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Ludumo,
He means that the action is not so important, rather it’s the intention behind that action that counts. For example, I can donate a million dollars, but what is my intention for doing such an action? Maybe it’s to feel pride or to show off. Or maybe it’s because I would feel bad or guilty if I didn’t do so. If so, then even if the action is one of bestowal, the intention is still one of reception. So that whole action turns into an action of reception.
The importance of the intention is most clearly illustrated in the guest & host analogy. Check out chapter 3 of Attaining the Worlds Beyond for more details.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Melinda,
The 5 spiritual worlds are not place like we think, but rather levels of concealment. World (Olam in Hebrew) comes from the word Concealment (ha-alama). So the 5 worlds are 5 levels of concealment between us, the desire to receive, and the Creator the general force of love and bestowal. To the extent that we correct our own opposite, egoistic nature, for it to also operate in the direction of bestowal, to that extent we reveal these worlds, these higher qualities.
Regarding the order and meaning of each world:
First is Adam Kadmon (primordial Man) this is the first form of the desire to receive that became similar to the Creator, but it operates in a different way then the rest of the system, so it’s called primordial.
Atzilut (from the words etz lo: at his place, in his possession). This is the place where the Creator exists, meaning the pure desire to bestow.
Beria (creation), comes from the word Bar, meaning outside of. Meaning that it’s already a distinct degree of remoteness from the quality of bestowal.
Yetzira (creation), also means creation but this time it stems from the word yetzer, inclination. Meaning there is already an inclination of its own to the Creator.
Assiya (action), this completes the action of creating the desire to receive.
Keep in mind that we usually don’t translate these words when we use them in the lessons. A lot of times it’s better to use the Hebrew word instead of being confused by the translation.
Albert @ KabU
