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On suffering. I was pondering on this in the Zohar: “spilling seed is more severe than all sins, since he defiles his soul in the world and the world to come and he does not see the glory of the Shichenah” -Zohar Vyeshev
I know some Rabbis say that absolute “holiness” is required to study Kabbalah.
But we also hear that Kabbalah has nothing to do with morality.1) So are man and wife required to try for procreation every time they are “together”?
2) Would people who come to the Wisdom of Kabbalah “suffer” less if they knew this?
3) What is Teshuva for this if any? Is what some of the Rabbis say on Teshuva for this applicable today?
*this is asked with the utmost respect as I know it is a sensitive subject
I find myself coming back to this book often. I have fallen asleep several times reading it because I couldn’t put it down.
*I thought your post was excellent. The analogy and graphic really deepened the understanding.
The Way of Kabbalah (from the Book: “Attaining the Worlds Beyond” chapter 13, page 139)
by Rav Dr. Michael Laitman
The way of Kabbalah is a long, difficult period of re-evaluating one’s goals in life, of reassessing the self, clearly defining the direction of one’s desires, truthfully assessing the motivating forces of one’s actions, attempting to overcome the desires of the body and the demands of reason, as well as completely grasping the power of one’s egoism. The way of Kabbalah is, at the same time, a hard, prolonged period of suffering to search to satisfy one’s desires; it is a period of disappointment that one is unable to find genuine “focus” of one’s aspirations; it is the time of realizing that the only escape from the ultimate source of suffering (egoism) is the shift to altruistic thoughts, which will exclude any thoughts about the self, and will gradually lead to thoughts about the Creator. The latter will, in turn, bring about such pleasant feelings of serenity that one will not want to think about anything else.
Only after we have passed through all the stages of initial spiritual development—the way of Kabbalah—do we begin to perceive the Upper Light—the Light of Kabbalah—which shines more and more strongly upon us as we ascend the steps of the spiritual ladder that lead to our ultimate merging with the Creator.
*I chose this passage because it reminds me of where we all started, where we are at, and where we are headed. I feel it is a great summary for achieving the ultimate goal.
(John)
