Everyone’s Place Is in Union With the Creator, and You Don’t Have to Follow Religious Observances to Get There
Two questions I received on Kabbalah and religion:
Question: I converted to Judaism five years ago, after an entire lifetime of studying and searching. Over the past several years I have been very devoted to Torah and its pardes. Now I have a dangerous question as a consequence of your lessons. When Bore Olam says: “my thoughts are not your thoughts,” and a sage says that the Torah is Bore Olam’s wisdom (that is His thoughts), does it mean that those Jews who observed Judaism over the last several thousand years understood everything incorrectly, and in reality, my search brought me to the wrong place?
My Answer: Without a doubt, you’re not in a perfect situation, and your place, just like everyone else’s place, is in the union with the Creator. If you search for this place, you’ll find Him.
Question: Were such great Kabbalists as Rav Baruch Ashlag, Moshe Cordovero, and others religious? And why do you wear a skullcap?
My Answer: It is not a question of faith. When Kabbalah refers to faith, it speaks of the perception of the Creator, the property of Bina, bestowal, which becomes revealed in us through the study of Kabbalah. I respect religious observances because they are my people’s cultural traditions. I understand that by observing them, I am not correcting my soul in any way, and that I observe only the framework within which my people lived over the entire course of history. Religious observances are not required in the study of Kabbalah.
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Article: The Difference Between Kabbalah and Religion
Lesson: The Difference Between Kabbalah and Religion [01:51:45]
Lesson: The Difference Between Kabbalah and Religion [01:51:45]
Lesson: The Difference Between Kabbalah and Religion (Transcript)
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The human population is growing every day and has done so for thousands of years. Yet, you state in Basic Concepts in Kabbalah that there are a “limited amount of souls” that exist and are reborn. What then is the explanation for all this population growth?Thank you!
“Religious observances are not required in the study of Kabbalah.”except that in yeshivas you are told you have to have 40 years of gemara learning before you can learn kabala……….
my question is about a relation between name and destiny? to change name may help to change your destiny? i have learned there are some letters which make people to fall in his/ her life. is it right?
Hi Dan,
I have the answer to your question –
From the book “The Kabbalah Experience”
Prerequisites
Q: Do I have to study the Pentecost and the other scriptures before I begin to study Kabbalah?
A: You don’t have to study anything before you begin to study Kabbalah, because Kabbalah is “contact with the Creator.” A person who wants to study Kabbalah is like an infant emerging wet and naked from its mother’s womb. What would an infant need to know at that point? When we want to learn about the Upper World, we do not need anything that we learned in this world, because it is the Upper World we wish to enter.
In order to be interested in Kabbalah, you don’t need any preconditions other than finding the right sources of information.
The link to this is – http://www.kabbalah.info/eng/content/view/full/37403#a3
It can be found less than halfway down under the title “Prerequisites”