The Confrontation Between Two Movements

Question: Some time after the expulsion of Jews from Spain, spiritual movements began to flourish in Safed, and Kabbalistic knowledge among the masses began to spread.

But then the rapid dissemination of the new movement caused a response and resistance. Spiritual teachers of the traditional Lithuanian school began to oppose the spread of this knowledge with boycotts, slander to authorities, and physical extermination.

How does one explain this? Why did the teaching of the Ari, which should have already been embodied in humanity, suddenly fail and the fall began again?

Answer: This is not a failure, but a natural development of the method of correction, which cannot go by only one line. It goes precisely by two lines and is realized between them, in the third one.

As a result, it turned out that the Kabbalah of the Baal Shem Tov is the same Kabbalah of the Ari, which was understood by the masses. He organized a Cheder, that is, a place for classes. He recruited talented young people into his group, completely regardless of their status. And then large groups of students and leaders of Hasidic movements were formed from his students. They were especially popular among the Jewish population of Ukraine, Belarus, and Eastern Europe where their own schools were organized.

But at the same time, another school, which was founded by the Vilna Gaon appeared. He believed that people should be taught gradually, and only those who had achieved great knowledge in the Talmud, in a simple study of the Torah.

In his opinion, studying Kabbalah should be spread not among ordinary people, but among the elite to whom the spiritual worlds and other predestinations of humanity can be explained only after they had seriously mastered the “dry” Torah.

Question: Kabbalah speaks of love for one’s neighbor in its simplest, earthly form. What could be the danger of studying Kabbalah?

Answer: The fact is that when you simply talk about love for your neighbor, by that you let a person think that if he treats others correctly, then nothing else is needed. Therefore, there is some lightheadedness in the understanding of “love for one’s neighbor.”

This is how a movement was formed in Hasidism that if you love another person and seem to treat him correctly, then this is enough. Nothing more is needed, and you are already fulfilling your predestination.

And the Vilna Gaon claimed: “No, it is necessary to seriously study the Torah, the Babylonian Talmud, and carefully keep all the laws. Only after that one can study Kabbalah.”

Therefore, in the introduction to his great work, The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Baal HaSulam pays much attention to this. At the very beginning, he asks the question: “Is it really necessary to fully know all the great laws of fulfilling the Torah in our world and only after that study Kabbalah?

“Or is it enough to do it in parallel? Or even, perhaps, is it not at all necessary to know and obey all the laws so scrupulously? Because the Creator requires us to correct our hearts more than to fill our heads with all kinds of laws.”

So here we are in a state of great ideological contradiction. And it is very serious because it speaks of the method of the soul’s correction. Should it be taught to children from the age of thirteen or even earlier? Or maybe, it can be explained to women as well? Or only to great experts on the Babylonian Talmud?

This ideological contradiction was a necessary process and was brewing by itself.
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From KabTV’s “Systematic Analysis of the Development of the People of Israel” 8/5/19

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Question: What is the difference between orthodox people for whom there is nothing other than God and people who engage in studying the wisdom of Kabbalah for whom “There is none else besides Him?”

Answer: The difference is very simple; these two types of people are completely dissimilar. First, the wisdom of Kabbalah is not a faith or a religion. It engages in faith, but does not obligate anyone to believe. Instead, it calls for a person to reveal the Creator.

A religious person says, “I believe!”

“Why do you believe?”

“I was told to believe and it was explained to me, and so I believe what I was told.”

“Okay, that is your business.”

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, on the other hand, faith means knowledge, attainment, feeling, sensation. It is not what we call faith in our world, when I don’t know whether something is true or not, but I accept it and live as if it is so. Who can prove it? No one. Is it true or not? There are as many views as there are people.

There is thus no connection between the wisdom of Kabbalah and religion. On the contrary, the wisdom of Kabbalah is completely unrelated to religion. It is aimed only at revelation, at knowing and feeling, not at things someone tells us about. There is a huge difference.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 11/24/20

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Hasidism: Touching the Spiritual Truths

Question: The Hasidic movement appeared in the third decade of the 18th century and was founded by the Baal Shem Tov. The approach of the Hasidic teachers allowed ordinary people to touch spiritual truths. If earlier only sages studied them, now ordinary people could do so as well.

What was so special about the teachings of Baal Shem Tov that they captured the hearts of so many people to such an extent?

Answer:  The Baal Shem Tov followed the path of the Ari and explained in a simpler language, close to the people, how to act and connect with each other in order to achieve the revelation of the Creator.

He set a very practical goal: to explain to any person who is in absolute ignorance about what kind of world he exists in, what states he passes through, why the Torah is needed, and why people exist.

It turns out that the Baal Shem Tov gave ordinary people life. He explained to them how to live correctly and that behind every inner movement of a person in mind and feelings is a huge force that is correcting the world. Therefore, every person who treats the world like that is engaged in correcting it.
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From KabTV’s “Systematic Analysis of the Development of the People of Israel” 8/5/19

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The Ari’s Contribution to the Development of Kabbalah:

Question: It is considered that since the time of the Ari, the period of correction of humanity began because he empirically derived a method that could be used by everyone. What is this method?

Answer: It is about uniting people. The Ari organized a group of students and he taught them the structure of the upper worlds and he explained the methods of their functioning and the development of a common desire in the group, which is yearning more and more for similarity with the Creator. He presented all of this as necessary spiritual steps.

He raised the teaching of Kabbalah from the corporeal to the spiritual level using what is called “the language of branches,” in which we call something by corporeal names, but in fact, we do not mean any material forms of objects and phenomena but only our spiritual qualities.

Gradually, people began understanding that Kabbalah does not belong to our world at all. Moreover, our world is an illusory world that appears to exist only in our perception. In general, this is a whole system of views, a science that is available for everyone. The Ari outlined it very specifically.

In principle, the Ari invented a new language that explained the interaction of light and Kli. A Kli is a desire that includes everything there is in the world. The only thing that this desire feels is light.

It is the interaction of light and desire, the Creator and creation, that the Ari fully described in his books.
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From KabTV’s “Systematic Analysis of the Development of the People of Israel” 5/8/19

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What is the benefit of Kabbalistic knowledge?

Question: What is the benefit of Kabbalistic knowledge for humanity? What is so special about it?

Answer: The fact is that Kabbalistic knowledge is necessary for people who are interested in the meaning of life, for what purpose it was given to them. After all, a person, unlike an animal, sometimes asks himself: “What should I do?” and begins to seek the meaning of life. “Where did I come from?” “Why am I here?” “Where do I go after I leave this world?”

If such questions torment a person, then he can no longer abandon the desire to attain them. The rest of life becomes as mere support for existence, which does not make sense since life is finite. What is the point of supporting it if in the end you do not achieve some higher predestination?

This is how certain people who have a “point in the heart,” that is, a desire that urges them to know the meaning of life, feel. They strive for this and tell everyone else who also want to attain the essence of existence.
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From KabTV’s “Systematic Analysis of the Development of the People of Israel” 8/5/19

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Disagreements Between Two Movements in the Jewish People

Comment: Over the past few centuries, confrontation within the Jewish people has been very strong, in particular between Lithuanian Jews and Hasidim, the Vilna Gaon and The Baal Shem Tov.

The reason for their disagreement was a different point of view on the dissemination of Kabbalah within their own people and all the rest.

My Response: The Vilna Gaon was a great Kabbalist, but he opposed dissemination of Kabbalah among his people.

The Baal Shem Tov, on the contrary, believed that it was necessary to spread Kabbalah, to educate Kabbalist disciples, and to pass information about the spiritual world to everyone. Therefore, Hasidism originated from The Baal Shem Tov, whereby each child was taught about the spiritual worlds, unity, and the purpose of the existence of the people of Israel.

And the disciples of the Vilna Gaon engaged in Kabbalah only as a small group of people. As a result, the emphasis in their activities was placed purely on the formal fulfillment of the commandments.

The confrontation between these two groups continues to this day, although today it is external, informal. But at that time it was a serious war.

Question: Didn’t they understand that their disagreements lead them to disunity and alienate them from the Creator?

Answer: It is difficult for us to say something about these people. These are two different approaches to Kabbalah that manifest within the Kabbalists themselves. But the fact that they could not establish a connection between them led to great persecutions. And all this is felt to this day.

Comment: Our contemporary Baal HaSulam writes that it is only due to the spread of Kabbalah among the masses that we will be liberated, both each one and all of humanity. But if you look into the history of the development of humanity, almost everything repeats itself.

My Response: No. The time is different now. Today humanity is rapidly moving toward revealing itself as falling into egoism, which does allow simply settling down, enjoying life, and correctly using all the achievements of humanity.

Thus, a favorable environment arises for revealing the meaning of life. This question, which urgently requires an answer, appears in every person in our generation. And the answer is generally nowhere to be found except in Kabbalah.
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From KabTV’s “Systematic Analysis of the Development of the People of Israel” 7/29/19

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Question: What does egoism mean?

Answer: Selfishness is self-love. It’s not such love as when I think about simply being, but when I love myself beyond what is necessary for existence.

Question: But if the Creator sends me all thoughts, then what is my egoism?

Answer: Naturally the Creator sends you selfish thoughts. He does not hide it. He says: “I created selfishness.” And then He adds: “And I gave a technique for correcting it.”

Question: Where does the root of the need for comfort come from?

Answer: From the same egoism. Selfishness does not want any difficulties. They are a waste of calories, mental and physical strength; it does not appeal to any living organism since any living creature seeks a state of rest. And mechanical objects gravitate to this.

Question: What will happen to places like Las Vegas that  are built only to receive worldly pleasures?

Answer: In principle, there is nothing wrong with that. If I do not harm others, and at the same time do not cause them hatred, then all these toys can be completely harmless.

As children constantly play games, so adults play the same games. Only adults are interested in playing with each other for money, so that there is some excitement.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 5/10/20

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is the significance of gematria?“

Gematria is a person’s or soul’s particular internal state, which consists of a spiritual desire (called a “Kli” [“vessel”]) and spiritual light (called “Ohr”) that fills the desire.

It is a way of recording a definitive state of the soul. The totality of all feelings, perceptions, states, memories and intentions that the soul undergoes can be expressed by means of letters or letter sequences known as “Gematria.”

Since ancient times, Kabbalists, i.e., people who attain a soul and increase their closeness with life’s causal force of love and bestowal, known in Kabbalah as “the Creator,” have recorded information about the spiritual states they experience, and all such records are known as Gematria.

In other words, when we attain the soul, we perceive through a new sense called a “screen” (“Masach”), an intention that equalizes between the Creator’s light (“Ohr”) and the desire (“Kli”) of the created being. Gematria thus becomes an expression in our world of what we perceive with the screen.

What, then, is the significance of Gematria, i.e., recording spiritual states in our world?

The significance is that by reading the letter sequences and words, we do not simply read stories, fables, parables or any other corporeal information, but we shift from one spiritual desire to the next, discovering our soul, i.e., our increasing closeness with the Creator, through the changing letters and their sequences.

Every letter in Gematria is a spiritual symbol, and every word is a matrix. It is like a encrypted secret code where every word, letter, sequence of letters and words, and every word’s root, stems from the relationship between the light, the Creator’s quality, and the vessel, the soul.

The more we approach Gematria with the intent of attaining our soul, the more we will sense the harmony registered in the connection of the forces of nature that are expressed through its letters.

Kabbalists created the Hebrew language to express their spiritual attainments, and in addition to the 22 Hebrew letters, there are expressive points, called “TANTA” (“Taamim, Nekudot, Tagin, Otiot”), which express the letters’ connections and developments.

The 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet break down into:

9 letters from Bina;
9 letters from Zeir Anpin;
4 letters from Malchut, and
5 more letters at the ends of words.
The 5 letters at the ends of words symbolize the positioning on the Parsa. The exit of the light builds the expressive points (TANTA) that disappear. Vowels are nearly never used. They are just hinted at.

Ultimately, the significance of Gematria, the words, letters and their sequences, is that it contains the revelation of the Creator to the created beings, and by reading it, we can attract such an influence upon ourselves, drawing us closer to the discovery of our soul’s connection with its Creator.

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Question: How are the particular and the general connected? If some kind of bacteria that produces oxygen molecules without knowing it has affected our lives so much, then how can each of us affect all of nature?

Answer: I cannot say anything about oxygen molecules. I only know that absolutely all of nature comes from one source and continues its development. Therefore, whatever new forms appear in nature, they are manifested in the fullest mutual connection with each other.

Although we do not feel this and cannot yet discover and investigate, all of nature is absolutely integral, and there is not a single part of it that suddenly begins to develop by itself.

Question: Thanks to some bacteria that lived for, say, two weeks and produced oxygen, thousands of people live today. Is it possible to assume that the meaning of existence of each of us is to give life to some super-being? Or is everyone’s life important?

Answer: The life of each of us is important because we are parts of this super-being, which is called the “soul.” It is one for all of us.
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From KabTV’s “The Post-Coronavirus Era,” 4/30/20

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All the articles in Shamati are very easy to read, are seemingly quite clear, and can be processed analytically. It is not a problem at all for a rational person.

We need to understand not the presentation of the article, but their internal meaning, which means to feel, to see, to hear, to understand, to sense the powers that are described in them. This is what a person needs to yearn for. A person who delves into these articles sees that he is actually very far from what they say. It is because he doesn’t feel the actual material. He doesn’t experience these attributes, and doesn’t see these powers around him since they are not in the dimension we exist on.

Question: So what is the point of reading these articles?

Answer: By reading these articles we begin to realize that there is something above us, and how it can be connected to us. The yearning for reaching the internal meaning of Kabbalistic texts leads and draws us onward to spiritual objects. It awakens spiritual powers in us that gradually change us and create new attributes in us in which we already begin to feel what the article is talking about.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 12/8/19

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