[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Robin,

Thanks for sharing your concerns, hopefully this will clarify them:

1. Kabbalah does not hold the monopoly over spirituality. It’s not claiming to be the one and only method. The Wisdom of Kabbalah is the accumulation of thousands of years of experience from people practically trying to reach spirituality, what worked, what didn’t, etc. It’s not a must to use it, but as you can imagine, it’s a lot faster and easier with it.

2. Furthermore, I’m not an expert in other methods, so I cannot comment on what they do or teach there. Ultimately, there is no coercion in spirituality, so it’s up to each person to choose the path that best suits them.

3. And regardless of which path a person chooses for himself, whether here or in another place, it’s highly discouraged to mix methods. If we want to succeed in Kabbalah (or in any spiritual practice really) we should practice it without mixing other things into it. Otherwise it’s like following two different GPS systems. One leads you to the goal through the west highway, while the other through the east highway. If we follow both, we’ll just wind up going in circles.

4. As for the teachers and books, there have been many Kabbalists and Kabbalistic books written throughout the generations, but we don’t really study them directly in our days. In our days we mainly study from the writings of Baal HaSulam and Rabash. This is because egoism grows from generation to generation, so Kabbalah, the method for its correction, needs to get adapted in each generation for that level of egoism. 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 were many different Kabbalists and Kabbalistic books throughout the generations, nowadays 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: https://laitman.com/2015/11/the-great-kabbalists-and-their-works/

Albert @ KabU

[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Heather, great questions!

1. The 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.

This is similar to how a bodybuilder that masters a five pound weight moves on to ten pounds. That ten pounds is much more challenging and he cannot do as many reps as before, but this is nonetheless considered progress and advancement.

2. Yes, there are intermediary spiritual degrees. Overall, the spiritual ladder consists of 125 steps. But it’s hard for us to grasp this structure with our current egoistic mind because spirituality is built on a completely different integral quality. For example, if we are to focus on one degree, and zoom into that degree, we’ll find there 10 sub-degrees. If we zoom into those sub-degrees, there are 10 more sub-degrees for each degree, and so forth.

Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2009/10/how-do-you-calculate-infinity/

3. Overall we’re all advancing in the same direction, but each individual has a different path to get there because each one has a different root of the soul. This root dictates the unique process each one needs to undergo to reach their correction.

Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2010/10/the-root-of-the-soul/

4. As we develop spiritually and begin to reveal the reality outside of our ego, our attitude to life and death will change.

Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2013/06/life-and-death-in-the-eyes-of-a-kabbalist/

Albert @ KabU

[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Johanna,

Yes, evil does serve a purpose. There is rule that “there is no light without a kli (vessel)”, meaning that there is no fulfillment, without a lack. This is similar to how we cannot enjoy food without feeling hungry.

Likewise in spirituality, the light cannot correct us, if we don’t reveal something that needs correction. So the evil is meant to be discovered more and more, so that we have more and more need for the light.

But it doesn’t mean that we should be digging within ourselves looking for the evil. 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 evil nature, that’s fine. But that’s a side effect and not something we aspire for directly.

We’ll learn how to do this practically in the more advanced semesters. In the meantime, check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2011/02/the-worse-the-better/

Albert @ KabU

[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Juule,

I’m not sure, you can ask the tech support using the help button in the bottom right corner.

But I wouldn’t stress it, it’s just a way to keep students engaged. If you went through a good chunk of the materials you should have access to the next semester.

Albert @ KabU

[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Milos,

All the bad things we see in the world stem from our egoistic nature. The Creator on the other hand is devoid of any egoism, so only goodness can come from Him.

As for the Creator loving a person so much, is it really so? After all, the Kabbalists tell us “the Creator hates the bodies”. So what is love? Does the Creator love us? Why then do we see so much suffering in our lives?

All of these things need to be clarified in order to really answer that question.

Check out these blog posts from Rav Laitman for more details:

https://laitman.com/2011/06/love-is-a-two-way-street/

https://laitman.com/2011/06/how-can-we-justify-the-creator/

Albert @ KabU

[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Milos,

The 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.

This is similar to how a bodybuilder that masters a five pound weight moves on to ten pounds. That ten pounds is much more challenging and he cannot do as many reps as before, but this is nonetheless considered progress and advancement.

Albert @ KabU

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