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Hi Curtis,
Essentially he is asking the question that if there is but a singular goal of creation, why are there so many different systems in creation? And he gives the example of a small animal whose only goal is to live long enough to procreate, but if you zoom into their anatomy, you also find a huge, complex system. So just like that small animal needs all those systems in order to carry out its goal, likewise, we too need all of these huge systems of Partzufim, Sefirot, and Worlds in order to help us reach the purpose of creation.
As for different words meaning the same thing, like with the example of the body, you can just say that the body is made up of cells and that would be correct. But we see that science does not stop there, but calls one grouping of cells a heart, and another grouping of cells a brain, etc. It’s all referring to cells, but the specific names help us to zoom in and talk about specific parts of the body.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Hans,
613 is the number of corrections that need to be placed over the spiritual 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 how this number is derived in the more advanced lessons on KabU that deal with the structure of the upper worlds.
See my reply below to Helen for more details.
Hi Philip,
Those books were written by Kabbalists, so for sure each one of them is priceless. But whether they will have the same effect on a person as the writings of Baal HaSulam and Rabash, I cannot say. The writings of Baal HaSulam and Rabash were written specifically for our generation, so they would of course have the strongest effect on us, on the level of egoism that we’re working with.
See my reply 375236 to Rade below for more details.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Philip,
First, we need to understand what is the ego that we’re talking about.
Our nature is the desire to receive pleasure. It simply means that every calculation we make is to chase pleasure or avoid pain. This is similar to how any other animal functions. By itself, there is nothing wrong with this nature, it’s simply the program by which we function and preserve ourselves.
Egoism is when this program begins to be used in a way that harms others. Not only do I want to receive pleasure, but I want to receive it at the expense of others, at their detriment. This is the corporeal ego.
There is also a spiritual ego. Spiritual egoism is everything that stands in the way of our connection with the Creator. Normal people don’t have a spiritual ego. This is only something that we discover after doing some serious spiritual work.
We’ll learn how to work practically with the spiritual ego in the more advanced semesters. In the meantime, check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2010/10/true-evil/
Albert @ KabU
Hi Philip,
No, we don’t work on growing the ego. Our aspirations should always be towards something positive, towards acquiring the Creator’s qualities of love and bestowal. If as a result of that work we reveal our opposite egoistic nature, that’s fine. But that’s a side effect and not something we aspire for directly.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Alexander,
Yes, you can say that the general level of egoism has truly peaked in our days. But it’s not in order to get rid of it, rather it’s in order to use it to ascend spiritually. In Kabbalah, we don’t work on eradicating egoism, but only on rising above it. This is because we cannot attain high levels of spirituality without the ego. In fact the more we advance, the more our egoistic desires grow. They turn into a type of mountain that we climb over. The bigger the desires, the higher we can climb, and the higher the spiritual degree that we can attain. On the other hand, if we were to eliminate our egoistic desires, then accordingly, we would only be able to attain a tiny degree of spiritual attainment.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2011/02/the-worse-the-better/
Albert @ KabU
