Fundamentals of Kabbalah – 11.11.12
Posted on November 11th, 2012
A Virtual Lesson on Fundamentals of Kabbalah
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A Virtual Lesson on Fundamentals of Kabbalah
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Question: In our world there are laws that we must abide by. How can I check my intention practically to see whether it is egoistic or whether it is the right intention?
Answer: How can I practically check my intention and advance? You are right, the most important thing is the intention, but you won’t be able to advance by yourself, I don’t know of any person who could study the wisdom of Kabbalah by himself. You will have to connect to us. Without a group, a teacher, friends, and assistance, you will simply waste a lot of time. So for a start, read the material for beginners. But if you are really interested and if you are about how I can change my intention, that is a high level and it already quite serious.
It is simply a waste of efforts and you are confusing yourself by that and will need much more time in order to come out of this confusion. You should connect to us. We are prepared for any situation, in any language, English Georgian, Russian, Hebrew, whichever language you want. Our books are published in 27 languages.
[92297]
From the Georgia Convention 11/5/12, Lesson 1
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Question: What was the role of Kabbalists before the revelation of Kabbalah in our day? Or was it simply the transfer of information from one generation to the next?
Answer: The role of Kabbalists was to develop Kabbalah further and further in each generation down to our time. There was no other use in practice. There were different Kabbalists in each generation who had to continue developing it in their generation.
A Kabbalist is a person who is interested in the system of management of our world: why, what for, and how to work with it. He reveals this system, studies it, and describes it based on the level that he is at.
A Kabbalist of the next generation is on a different level than the Kabbalist of the past one. Just like all other people, he evolves with other needs according to which he develops Kabbalah further. That is, the development of humanity and Kabbalah are parallel, until people begin to need it, and then Kabbalah is revealed.
[92312]
From the Georgia Convention 11/05/12, Lesson 1
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Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam (The Rungs of the Ladder), Volume I, Article 12, “What is Torah and the Work in the Way of the Creator”: It turns out that a person has to make great efforts before he begins to study, so that his study will bear fruit and good results, this means that the study should bring him the Light of the Torah, that can reform him.
First we must develop the right desire, in fact, it is indispensible. A person reaches the wisdom of Kabbalah only with a “point in the heart,” which has no direction yet. He doesn’t know where he has arrived or where he is, like a drop of semen in the womb. In this case, it is the group that plays the role of the womb, and it has to “format” a person, to give him a form, and to exert influence. We shouldn’t wait for him to act correctly. We should be careful if he “shows off,” since the show should be the group’s show.
There are those who come full of energy and begin to work, for them it is really a positive approach, but it is definitely not in the right direction. And were can he find it? From his egoistic actions? A person hasn’t even had the chance to discover the evil inclination yet and is still on a lower degree.
So the group should gently control a new student in order to give him the right form, the right direction And when a person feels that “reins and a bridle” are placed on him, he is obliged to accept it since he has no other choice. The group must control everyone.
The friends must look for the evil inclination and the lack of connection. We yearn for connection; we clarify to what extent our qualitative and quantitative parameters are correct; whether it suits our requirements and satisfies us, until we discover the Creator’s form in the connection.
We go through the levels of Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya and Yechida on each of the 125 degrees. In search for connection, we discover a deficiency and draw the Light that Reforms during the study. Thus the study becomes purposeful and I constantly check myself not according to how much I understand or not, or how interesting it is or not. This has nothing to do with what we do, the study is a time of healing, a time of clarification, a time of drawing the Light of correction. All this is in accordance with our deficiency, which we discover during the preparation for the lesson, we discover it during the friends’ meetings and in our collective actions and then we come to the lesson with the demand for the Light that Reforms.
In this demand we are different from the rest of the world. People feel that they are righteous; they don’t demand the Light that Reforms; they are satisfied with what they do, like all those who don’t even think about it. We need to constantly assess ourselves according to the deficiency for the Light and the Light itself.
When I first came to Rabash, I asked him after a couple of months: “What is the main thing about working with the book? Where is the essence of our world during the morning lesson described?” Then he showed me item 17 in the “Introduction to TES,” where it says: “And so a person who studies is committed before he studies to strengthen his faith in the Creator and His Providence in reward and punishment” since this is important. Our only work is to prepare the desire for change through the exertion in the group. On the whole we discover that we cannot do that and it is only there that we should perform the correction. With this recognition, we reach the study again.
Thus while we study we discover a deficiency and on the other hand we are corrected and healed.
So accordingly “a person should make great efforts before he begins to study.” And if in the meantime we don’t attain the right results, then we should check whether we come to study with the right intention. Otherwise we study in order to acquire knowledge from a certain book instead of drawing the Light as is required from the Torah.
So there is “wisdom” and there is “Torah.” And a person who simply wants to know what is written in the book deals with wisdom, and a person who looks for correction and who wants to change himself deals with the Torah, with the true method. This is the whole difference…
[92067]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/4/12
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It says that the temple was destroyed because the children of Israel didn’t bless the Torah first. They studied the Torah without a blessing. What does that mean?
There are blessings in the Siddur, for example: “Blessed are You Lord, the giver of the Torah.” But what is the Torah? It is a means for correcting the evil inclination. It says: “I have created the evil inclination; I have created the Torah as a spice.”
How is it possible to bless the Torah? Only if there is such a deficiency when my initial inclination is revealed as evil. I feel that my desires are evil; I have to correct them, I can’t bear them. This is called the revelation of the true evil, when I cannot agree to it, when I have to get rid of it, to get it out of me as something that is very harmful.
Then I discover the means that can get these evil desires out of me, a special instrument that is called the Torah. It turns out that there is a special method for studying, a special book, special conditions, and all this is called the Torah. It isn’t the title of the book that says “Torah,” not the number of people, and not the place of study, but simply the fact that in answer to all my actions there comes a special force that changes the force that is inside me. It is because the desire to receive is actually the force by which I identify the evil and I want it to become good, as it says: “Since the Light in it reforms.”
So I determine that my desire to receive is the evil inclination and decide that I must make it good. What is “good?” It can only be the opposite of my current desire; there are no other options. Thus the concept of the Torah symbolizes my efforts, the group I work in, the books I study from, the teacher who teaches me this method. On the whole they are the ones who summon that force from Above that corrects me. “From Above,” since the force of correction is higher than me and stronger than the current force. Thus I acquire it and heal myself from the evil, which becomes good.
But if I study without this preparation, the Torah becomes the “potion of death” for me. In this case, I reach self-fulfillment by a long and difficult path. Along this path the Light also operates on me, but from its posterior and not in the desire that dresses and not in the desire that is dressed. I reach the recognition that I don’t discover evil the way I should, I don’t recognize the poison in it. This, of course, also leads me in the right direction, but along a long indirect path of sufferings.
So if a person is not in the direction of recognizing the evil, he is in “exile.” And when he recognizes the need to correct the evil in him, which means the desire to receive, he feels that he is under the domination of Pharaoh. The deeper this feeling is, the more he wants to get rid of the evil, which means to get out of “exile.” Then he uses the Torah correctly in order to draw the Light that changes the desire in him, which enables him to use the desire not for his own good but for the good of others. Thus the Light reforms him and changes him to the good.
As long as we don’t want to exit our desire to receive and enter the desire to bestow, from evil to the good, it isn’t considered exile. We don’t even feel that it is exile. Only the need for a means to turn the desire to receive into a desire to bestow indicates that we are ready to leave the exile. The exodus itself is that we begin to use the Torah correctly.
This is what we have to aim at while reading The Book of Zohar: Do we open it with the right deficiency? If not, then we don’t bless this action, but simply follow a timetable. This is a wrong and undesirable approach. We have to think about it the whole day before the lesson, to add the discernments that stem from different states, from the desire to receive that dominates us, into one picture. We want to ascend above it towards the friends, towards the Creator.
Then we will have something to bless in the morning lesson since we want to receive “the water of life” from the study, the healing force, and this means that we are truly studying the Torah.
[91966]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/01/12, The Zohar
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Question: You always say that The Book of Zohar can sometimes be a cure and sometimes poison, what does that mean?
Answer: Kabbalists describe this dilemma by using the allegory of choosing between the elixir of life and the potion of death, or by bringing the example of the rooster and the bat. Everything depends on a person’s intention: Is it the urge for the goal that drives him? This doesn’t mean that by opening a Kabbalah book he necessarily has to focus himself on the true goal because otherwise he will receive the potion of death. It is impossible to demand such things. So the Creator gives a person the right intentions, just like a baby who is under the full supervision of a grown up.
Even if a person comes to study without any basic knowledge and thinks about anything he feels like, it isn’t actually he who thinks and who is operating. From Above he is provided with constant supervision and care. If you could see this from the side, you would see that a person is like a newborn baby, that he has nothing of his own. It is simply a system, a “body” that functions according to a plan. He is equipped with everything that he needs, absorbing and emitting what he has to and thus grows. At this point a person has no freewill and no discernments.
Gradually, however, he grows and begins to move independently. At first he doesn’t feel responsible for what is going on, but later he begins to consciously perceive something and to shout intentionally at something, etc. Gradually he begins to understand what is good and what is bad and under which circumstances he feels good or bad. Accordingly he is played with and shown what he does correctly and what he doesn’t.
There are those who hear better and there are those who hear less, it depends on your innate attributes and on your upbringing. Generally speaking, it is about a huge system called Shechina that takes care of every one and brings everyone to the end of correction.
So, I cannot tell you when a Kabbalah book gives life and when it brings death. First a person is taught all this and after several years he understands that only in a group can he fulfill himself and move on from a corporeal connection with the friends to an internal, spiritual connection.
And then it his choice to reach for the opening of the spiritual network between the friends. It may be concealed from them, but he wants to reveal it. This means that he is attracted to life since this network is totally filled with bestowal.
[91015]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/23/12, The Zohar
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Question: At today’s lesson you said that during the 24 hour day there is definitely someone on Earth who is studying Kabbalah. Why is it so important?
Answer: This is very important. We see it.
There was a great Kabbalist in the 16th century, Ramhal, who had a group in Padua, Italy. We have notes from the members of this group and their diaries. They studied in sequence so the studies would not stop. Each subgroup studied for 5-6 hours, and the rest of the people went home, to work, or to sleep. Thus the cycle of their studies never stopped. This is important when you feel that you are working constantly for the same goal. Even when you are absent others are working instead of you. It gives a special effect.
This helps all of us and this is very important because there are always people in the world who are studying according to our system.
[90659]
From the Virtual Lesson 10/14/12
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