Question: How can there be a dispute between Kabbalists?

Answer: A Kabbalist is someone who is in the spiritual world and feels the spiritual. You are asking how they can perceive things differently? In exactly the same way as in our world.

There are so many scholars in this world who have disputes among themselves! One sees reality one way, another sees it another way. It is not that they see reality differently, but rather that their opinions diverge regarding the laws by which this reality behaves. It is a somewhat hidden thing, yet also somewhat revealed.

Let’s say we see some phenomenon. You think that the source of this phenomenon is such-and-such, and that is why it manifests itself in this way before us. However, what manifests itself before our eyes, we see the same way. But neither you nor I see what lies behind it.

These are already higher levels. It is quite possible that this is not even the next level but two hundred levels higher. We see reality as it is in our world, but the reason for what we see may be two hundred levels higher than what we have comprehended. And then we begin to reason: “Is it this way or that way?”

This dispute was between Baal HaSulam and Rashash. Baal HaSulam writes a little about it at the end of the book “The Gates of Intentions.” But what he writes is only a small fraction of the picture. This dispute is very fundamental for them, but not so much for us, because Rashash is truly a saint. What he achieved is holy, divine words for us.

But what he points to as the reasons for what he sees is actually two hundred steps higher. And since he has not yet reached that level, Baal HaSulam does not agree with him, because Baal HaSulam has achieved more and writes from the level he has attained. In his opinion, Rashash is not mistaken in what he presents to him as a fact. The facts are correct, but when he speaks about the reasons for what is happening, he is mistaken.

It is like in our world: there are two physicists whose debates are endless because they are discussing a cause that is hidden and may be very high and very far away. That is why there are many disagreements and differences of opinion among the Kabbalists.

And this is fair, for they are merely researchers. They study the Creator’s actions, and to the extent that they can align themselves with those actions, they comprehend them; to the extent that they cannot align themselves with them, they do not comprehend them. But the causes are always higher than what they comprehend. Moreover, they may also be mistaken in their interpretation of the causes, since it is impossible to give names to what has not been comprehended.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/10/26, Rabash, “What Is the Gift that a Person Asks of the Creator?”

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