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Hi Francois,
1. 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 onward 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/2015/12/the-wisdom-of-kabbalah-and-the-other-religions/
2. Reward and punishment (and other such terms) have a completely different meaning in Kabbalah. In Kabbalah, reward and punishment is not relative to our ego, but the opposite, relative to our rising above the ego. So reward is being able to come closer to the Creator, to bestow like Him, whereas punishment is being unable to bestow like Him, being stuck within our ego.
3. 620 and 125, these are precise numbers because Kabbalah is a science. These numbers are derived from the Kabbalist’s research of the spiritual world.
4. The Kabbalists tell us that “there is no coercion in spirituality”. So spiritual development is indeed voluntary.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Robert,
Each moment is a new reshimo.
As for perception of reality, we see the world through the lens of our ego. As we correct the ego, we’ll begin to see a completely different reality outside of ourselves. 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: https://laitman.com/2014/04/in-neutral-gear/
Albert @ KabU
Hi Robert,
Our job is not to research the reshimo, but rather to speed them up. Think of the reshimo like one big movie reel. All the states we went through and all our futures states are already programmed into that movie. Our job is only be active in this process and speed up the rate at which the reshimo change.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2010/07/the-whole-world-is-inside-the-reshimo/
Albert @ KabU
Hi Robert,
In practice, we don’t work according to some list of desires, but only according to whatever desire is awakened at the moment. Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2015/09/compliance-with-the-613-mitzvot-commandments/
Also check out my reply below to Helen.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Erik,
Regarding fate, the purpose of creation is to bring everyone into complete adhesion with the Creator. This purpose is preset, we cannot change that at all. Meaning that at some point in our development, each and every single person will reach that state. The only choice we have in the matter is the path we take to get there: whether by the path of light of the path of suffering.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2011/01/lets-go-with-the-light/
Regarding free will, choosing to be influenced by the spiritual environment is how we reach freedom in practice.
It’s like with a seed, what happens to the seed depends entirely on where you plant that seed. If you plant it in fertile soil, it’ll get the right nutrients to grow and develop. If you just keep it on your shelf, nothing will come out of it. Likewise with us. Our entire spiritual future depends on which spiritual environment we plant ourselves in. Even our good thoughts and actions are a result of placing ourselves in the spiritual environment. Meaning that the work of attributing everything to the Creator is a RESULT of placing ourselves in the spiritual environment.
We’ll learn about this in depth in the next semester, in the meantime, here’s a quote on the topic from Baal HaSulam’s article “The Freedom”:
“However, there is freedom for the will to initially choose such an environment, such books, and such guides that impart to him good concepts. If one does not do that, but is willing to enter any environment that appears to him and read any book that falls into his hands, he is bound to fall into a bad environment or waste his time on worthless books, which are abundant and easier to come by. In consequence, he will be forced into foul concepts that make him sin and condemn. He will certainly be punished, not because of his evil thoughts or deeds, in which he has no choice, but because he did not choose to be in a good environment, for in that there is definitely a choice.
Therefore, he who strives to continually choose a better environment is worthy of praise and reward. But here, too, it is not because of his good thoughts and deeds, which come to him without his choice, but because of his effort to acquire a good environment, which brings him these good thoughts and deeds.”
Albert @ KabU
Hi Nika,
1. We learn that “there is no coercion in spirituality”. If a person wants to leave, we cannot stop them.
2. The course does not promise to get us to any particular state. Rather, by taking the course, we learn about such states. And whether we actually reach it in practice or not depends on whether we ourselves put in the necessary efforts to reach that state.
Albert @ KabU
