Entries in the 'Kabbalah Study' Category

Kabbalistic Terms: “Masach“

laitman_234Masach (screen) represents the anti-egoistic force that a person gains with the help of the upper light.

A person, as if, puts on a screen on his desire and then can work with it in the opposite direction and act kindly toward others and the Creator. He is then able to work for bestowal without receiving any pleasure for his own sake.

Question: What is the problem with receiving for your own sake?

Answer: By this you separate from the Creator, you stop feeling the upper world and limit yourself only to the sensation of our world.

Remark: But this is how the Creator created us.

My Response: He created us such that from this state we would rise to Him, return to the state of merging with Him.

Question: Why was this even hidden? Why haven’t the sages taught this for the past thousand years?

Answer: In order to create the illusion of freewill in a person.

Remark: But if I were taught this at school, I would know that I do not have freedom of choice.

My Response: You cannot accept these things in your childhood and have them exist in you automatically. You must desire them yourself.

There were generations when people were taught this from a young age and they had no problems. But these were the first generations. And now, with our enormous selfishness, we must begin our journey long before the Machsom, before the manifestation of the Creator, before we understand where we are and whom we are dealing with. This is a part of our correction.
[264909]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 6/17/19

Related Material:
How Does The Screen Appear?
The Screen Is Your Contribution To The Spiritual Reality
The Screen Is Maximum Equivalence To The Giver

Kabbalah Is Not A Religion, But A Science

laitman_214Comment: Many people look at Kabbalah as a religion. Others consider it a sect.

My Response: This means that they simply do not know anything about Kabbalah. Kabbalah is a science, not a religion. First, anyone and everyone can study it regardless of their origin. My students, who are representatives of different nations, live on all continents. If you take a look at our morning lesson, you will see people of all nationalities.

Secondly, Kabbalah does not force a person to perform any religious actions. Kabbalists have no fetishes, sacred objects, or rites. It is simply the attainment of a higher sphere of our world and nothing else. Nothing else!

When you comprehend it, you begin to feel eternity, perfection, the mutual inclusion of all in everything. You begin to change your worldview, your attitude to the world. This methodology shapes you, it makes you a different person.
[264458]
From KabTV’s program “Meetings with Kabbalah: Victoria Bonya,” 3/29/20

Related Material:
Why Isn’t Kabbalah A Leading World Religion?
Why Isn’t The Wisdom Of Kabbalah Considered A Religion?
Key Difference Between Kabbalah And Religion

Kabbalistic Terms: “Soul”

laitman_626Question: Where did the term “soul” come from?

Answer: The term “soul” comes from the word “Neshama.” There are five states of the desire in Kabbalah similar to the Creator: Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya, and Yechida.

Nefesh, Ruach, and Neshama are states that we can reach and constantly stay in. The highest of them is Neshama. Therefore, this is the name of our spiritual part.

In addition, there are also states called Haya and Yechida. But these are supplemental, temporary additions to the state of the soul.
[264782]
From KabYV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 6/17/19

Related Material:
A Soul And Its Substance
A Vessel For The Soul
A Person Is Not Born With A Soul

Kabbalistic Terms: “Gmar Tikkun”

Laitman_013.02Gmar Tikkun is the complete, final correction of egoism into bestowal and love when we turn the ego into the opposite quality.

Here, the science of Kabbalah comes to our aid. With the help of this methodology, the upper light affects the egoistic desire gradually raising it to new desires: to bestowal, love, and connection with others. This is a serious change of our essence into its opposite.

Question: Can we say that this is a change from an egocentric perception of the world to a holistic perception of the world?

Answer: Of course.
[264598]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 6/17/19

Related Material:
Final Correction
The End Of Creation
When Will The End Of Correction Take Place?

Kabbalistic Terms: “MAN,” “Machsom”

Laitman_177.06MAN is an acronym for Mei Nukvin (female waters). A woman in Kabbalah is always associated with desire, a man with bestowal. A woman is a desire to receive, a man is a desire to give. Therefore, female waters means the rise of desire from the bottom up to the Creator. Moreover, they encourage the Creator to begin creation, correction, and fulfillment of these desires. In this case, requests from the bottom up are called prayer or MAN.

Question: Is that the MAN (manna) mentioned in the desert?

Answer: This is the MAN (manna), which the Torah says that every morning people picked up and fed on it.

Question: Very often in Kabbalah the term Machsom [barrier] is used. What does it mean?

Answer: Machsom is a state that a person must go through along the path from the sensation of only our world to the sensation of the upper world. In other words, this is the borderline between ours and the spiritual world, a kind of psychological barrier.
[264849]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 6/17/19

Related Material:
What Are MAN And MAD?
The Machsom Is A Psychological Barrier
Machsom Is A Psychological Barrier

Kabbalistic Terms: “Upper World,” “Spiritual Attainment”

laitman_261Question: Why is the spiritual world called “upper”?

Answer: We call it the upper because it is above our properties. Our properties are the properties of receiving, and therefore, we are very dependent on our egoistic desires and their fulfillment.

And the upper world, these are properties that consist of the desire to give, fulfill, love, and nourish others. Since they (the properties) are independent, free in their essence, they are called upper.

In addition, they are closer to the Creator in their attributes. He is absolute bestowal and love. And therefore, everything that is closer to Him, we define as above us, i.e., closer to the root cause.

Question: Speaking of the upper world, we often call it spiritual. What does the word “spiritual” mean?

Answer: The upper world is called spiritual because it is not material.

Question: Is there a difference between the terms “spiritual world” and “upper world”?

Answer: No, these are common, unspecified names.

Question: What is spiritual attainment?

Answer: The comprehension of nature in the quality of bestowal, equal to the Creator, is called spiritual attainment.
[264544]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 6/17/19

Related Material:
Kabbalistic Terms: “Aviut”
Kabbalistic Terms: “Shattering Of The Kelim”
What Is Spiritual Attainment?

Blitz Of Kabbalah Tips – 2/2/20

laitman_294.2Question: Does the point in the heart awaken by itself or does anyone help it?

Answer: The point in the heart awakens by itself when a serious attraction to the attainment of the upper world, to one’s fate, and to the system of the upper providence is revealed in a person. Questions such as, “What is happening to me and how does the world go round?” stem from the point in the heart.

Question: Are there any specific signs according to which we can be certain that the point in the heart has been revealed?

Answer: The revelation of the point in the heart and its opening are expressed by a person’s attraction to the attainment of the meaning of life. It is when he is not satisfied by watching a movie or by reading a novel or so on, but by attaining the meaning of life more seriously.

If a person must really know what he is living for and if he doesn’t there is no meaning to his life, that is the point in the heart.

Question: Corporeal sciences have evolved over time. Hunger has forced man to observe the vegetative world and to explore it, and this is how botany developed. Diseases and the ways of healing them led to the development of medicine. Building houses and establishing useful mechanisms led to the development of mechanics, and this led to the development of physics.

Does the same process take place in the wisdom of Kabbalah? Do we attain this knowledge by our exertion and our experience and does it develop together with us?

Answer: Of course. This is how we have revealed the wisdom of Kabbalah throughout all this time, as a result of our great desire to attain the world in which we live.
[261511]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 2/2/20

Related Material:
Blitz of Kabbalah Tips – 1/26/20
Blitz Of Kabbalah Tips – 1/12/20
Blitz Of Kabbalah Tips – 1/5/20

Seeds Of Exile, Part 1

laitman_747.03The Confrontation Between the Maccabees and the Hellenists

Question: What was the ideological conflict between the Maccabees and the Hellenistic Jews?

Answer: The opposition was that the Maccabees were in favor of uniting the people under one common principle so that all were like brothers who felt the inner unity of each other.

And the Hellenists were for proclaiming each person free, independent, not worshipping the one God, i.e., the one force, nature, and, accordingly, the one uniting principle. Each person chose from a large host of gods to worship, as in ancient times when people worshiped trees, stones, celestial forces, stars, etc.

As a result, there was a huge difference between them in their ideology, behavior, and attitude toward each other. In principle, the Hellenists existed each by himself. Their state was held only by bayonets, despite the fact that later they were guided by reasonable methods borrowed from the Jews after the conquest of Israel.
[263696]
From KabTV’s “Systematic Analysis of the Development of the People of Israel” 7/8/19

Related Material:
Exile And Redemption
What Did The Maccabees Fight Against?
The Miracle Of Hanukkah, Part 2 – The Miracle Must Happen!

Kabbalah Is The Physics Of The Upper World

laitman_214Question: As soon as my egoism gets bigger and the influence of the light diminishes, I find myself in descent. And vice versa, when the light covers my egoism, the ascent happens. Is this like physics?

Answer: Certainly, this is physics! But we don’t want to take it into account. We give ourselves up to our feelings. And in general, this is an absolute reality. Kabbalah has everything: formulas, graphs, and diagrams. Kabbalah is the foundation of all other sciences, the qualities and actions of nature.

Question: Does this mean that it is possible to look at the still, vegetative, and animate nature, take all the laws from there, and simply apply them to human society? And that is the right thing to do?

Answer: Relatively, but not everything! Because the still, vegetative, and animate levels are our animate part, and our human part is attained by the science of Kabbalah.

Comment: In physics, there are clear laws of interaction between physical bodies in the universe. And in the human society there are no clear laws of our communication. People don’t even know how to interact with each other properly.

My Response: Unfortunately, there is no such science in our world that addresses the level of Man (Adam).

Question: Maybe there is some kind of universal law?

Answer: Universal law, of course there is one, but it is studied only in Kabbalah. It is the law of the correct interaction of people and their relationship to the still, vegetative, and animate nature and the Creator. It consists in the fact that a person must rise above his egoism and work not only with a negative force, but also with a positive one at the same time.

Our egoism is a negative force. It presses us and pushes us only toward grabbing everything that exists from this world. And the science of Kabbalah explains in what way it is possible to compensate it with the quality of bestowal, for both forces to be equal and compensate each other. Then we will be in balance. This we need to achieve.
[261950]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 3/27/19

Related Material:
Quantum Physics And Kabbalah
Quantum Uncertainty Of An Uncorrected Soul
The Union Between Kabbalah And Quantum Physics

From Babylon To Rome, Part 6

167Turning Kabbalah into Philosophy

Comment: German humanist Johann Reuchlin, in his book On the Art of Kabbalah writes: “Nevertheless, the superiority of Pythagoras did not come from the Greeks, but again from the Jews. After long wanderings, he brought home something worthy of admiration, and was the first to rename ‘Kabbalah’ into ‘Philosophy’—a Greek word previously unknown.”

There are many facts that confirm that the ancient Greeks learned from the sages of the First and Second Temples. You can tell that the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle are permeated with their ideas.

My Response: Greek scholars did not hide it. Communication was quite easy in those days. Today, there are many civilizational barriers.

Although there seems to be a connection between modern universities; nevertheless, internal egoism repels one scientist from another. In ancient times, learning from each other was generally accepted. Therefore, many philosophers and scientists learned from the Jews during the time of the prophets, meaning in the time of the First Temple.

Comment: The Rabbi of Sochaczew wrote: “The Greek science of philosophy, derived from the writings of King Solomon, emerged after the destruction of the First Temple. However, these writings were corrupted with additions, omissions and replacements to such an extent that false knowledge got mixed into it. But, one way or another, the basis of the science is good although parts of evil got mixed in with it.”

The modern day Kabbalist of the 20th century Baal HaSulam similarly writes: “Sages of Kabbalah observe philosophical theology and complain that they have stolen the upper shell from their wisdom, which Plato and his Greek predecessors had acquired while studying with the disciples of the prophets in Israel. They have stolen basic elements from the wisdom of Israel and wore a cloak that is not their own.”

My Response: The truth is that the ancient Greeks acquired the general approach to cosmology from Kabbalah and proceeded to derive their own conclusions from it.
[260967]
From KabTV’s “Systematic Analysis of the Development of the People of Israel, Part 6,” 7/8/19

Related Material:
From Babylon To Rome, Part 5
From Babylon To Rome, Part 4
From Babylon To Rome, Part 3