Entries in the 'Kabbalah Study' Category

Gradual Development of the Desire

548.03It is impossible for the will to receive to appear in any essence, except in four phases, which are the four letters of HaVaYaH (Baal HaSulam, The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Part 1, Inner Observation, Chapter 6).

Question: Why did the Creator create the desire to receive—creation—not at once but precisely through four phases of development?

Answer: The fact is that the Creator wanted the creation to be able to somehow generate itself, control itself, react to external influences, and even learn from previous or future generations.

It is impossible to create a creation in one go because in order to continue to develop it must be changing in its foundation. So from generation to generation it will constantly grow

If it were to be in a static state, it could be created with a single action. But this is a gradual process because creation must evolve all the time.
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From KabTV’s “The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES)” 8/14/22

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Awakening to a New State

237Comment: In everyday life, a person studies for 20 years while a Kabbalist studies all his life.

My Response: Learning is an endless process of absorption, absorbing the material and realizing it. This is an eternal process.

There is not much difference between the science of Kabbalah and all other sciences; it is just that Kabbalah recounts where everything comes from, which is something that other sciences explain partially based on what they have accumulated.

Question: When teaching people Kabbalah, how can one make it beneficial for a person to delve into the material all the time, to search all the time?

Answer: He must feel that Kabbalah speaks about his world, about a force that, as if, through a shell, a sphere, governs all of humanity, the entire universe, and him. It takes him from one state to another, induces thoughts and feelings in him like he is in a very interesting dream called “this world,” “this life.”

It is only necessary to present him the material in an interesting way, intrigue him, and show that he can wake up. He can see himself and everyone else sleeping from the outside because it only seems to them that they were born, live, and die. It is necessary to show that this is happening inside a person, in this dream of his, but in fact he should wake up to a completely different state.

It will happen. I am sure, I am an optimist.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. As Much as Required” 6/13/14

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The Process of Changing the Desire

548.01For this reason, any expanding light consists of four phases in the impression on the vessel (Baal HaSulam, The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Part 1, “Inner Observation,” Chapter 6, Item 24).

Question: Where did the four phases come from if there were only two discernments in the light?

Answer: Yes, but we always receive four from two discernments. The second one comes out from the first, then this second, which wants to be like the previous one, makes a third one from itself, and the third, which wishes to implement this change, becomes the fourth one. This is where it ends.

This is HaVaYaH, the four-letter name of the Creator Yod-Hey-Vav-Hey. This is the way He is manifested. And only the very last stage is considered creation.
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From KabTV’s “The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES)” 1/1/23

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Aviut (Coarseness) Is the Gradation of Desires

509Any light that expands from Him instantly consists of two discernments: The first discernment is the expanding light itself, before the form of “desire to enjoy” appears in it. The second discernment is after the form of “desire to enjoy” appears in it, at which time it becomes coarser and somewhat darker due to the acquisition of disparity of form (Baal HaSulam, The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Part 1, “Inner Observation,” Chapter 6, Item 24).

Aviut is what distinguishes the creation from the Creator. Creation feels its difference from the Creator; this quality is called Aviut, that is, something that obscures the light of the Creator and feels the difference from Him.

In our world, this is manifested as the coarseness of desire. There are desires that are coarser or purer. The gradation of these desires is called Aviut.
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From KabTV’s “The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES)” 1/1/23

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According to Kabbalistic Sources

961.2Comment: There is a notion in the classification of cults that if you begin to doubt the teachings of the group because the promised success does not come, then you should always blame yourself since you supposedly do not work on yourself enough or have little faith.

My Response: Yes, this really is so. Why not if everything depends on you? Everything that we study, we take from true Kabbalistic sources. In accordance with the recommendations of Kabbalists, we form a group, activities, daily routine, way of life, and dissemination.

If people have some claims against us, then let them turn to these sources and begin to criticize them. I can tell them where all this is written. Literally against each of their accusations or statements, I can show what is written in the Kabbalistic books. We are just trying to follow these instructions.

So, their claims are not against me, but against our sources, against those great Kabbalists who attained the upper world, described it, and gave us the entire Kabbalah, the entire Torah. Because the Torah is the outer part of Kabbalah. And Kabbalah is the inner part of the Torah. Therefore, Kabbalah is called: Torat Emet  – True Torah.

This means that they have a problem not with us, not with me, and, in general, not with the group, but the problem of self-identification, with understanding who they are. In fact, they exist in this world in order to advance themselves somewhere, correct, find the source of life, the purpose of creation, and go toward it.

I do not think my answers about the difference between Kabbalah and a cult will help someone, because people opposed to us are obliged to prove to themselves that they are right. Time will convince them differently, or rather the blows of fate. We are approaching this. That is why it is said: “What the mind does not do, time does.” The same will happen to them.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Kabbalah about Cults” 12/18/13

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Criticism from the Outside

961.1Comment: Criticism from the outside is considered an additional proof of the righteousness of the group is purported to be a defining factor of cults.

My Response: I do not think this is correct. Criticism from the outside is the natural criticism of people who do not understand what we are dealing with.

I think that we should not pay attention to criticism. Personally, it does not put me out of temper and does not set me against the critic. I do not disrespect him. There are even philosophers who come out against me. I do not perceive their words as criticism at all.

You can criticize when you understand the subject, when you have a clear opinion about it from the point of view of the knowledge of this subject. What if they do not know it? That is, they themselves have not attained it. Even so there are disputes among Kabbalists because this is science and this is the disclosure of a certain part of the universe—gradual, stepwise, to a bigger and bigger extent. There are Kabbalists who have revealed more and those who have revealed less, like scientists in our world.

Therefore there is discrepancy among them, disputes, and so on. I do understand this. There are some very interesting fights going on there. There are entire books devoted to how each of them perceives the unfolding universe and why. But they discuss it pointedly. Why do I perceive things differently from you? What is the problem? Why are we built in the way that we perceive the same thing differently?

There are different types of souls. Some of them relate to direct light, others to surrounding light, and so on. And it is precisely in their clash, in the process of clarification, that an even greater elevation of both of them takes place. They zealously argue among themselves, but these are people who are in the same attainment, in the same world, they have what to talk about, they understand each other, and their clarifications are very serious.

And what is there to talk about here? If I am reading a novel and crying, or watching a movie on TV and laughing, and a cat is sitting next to me, how can he participate in this? Not in any way. He is only moving his ear toward the sounds I am making and thinking: “What is the matter with the master? I wish he would sit quietly and doze.”

It’s the same with those who criticize. You irritate them with your studies of Kabbalah. They feel that there is something in you that you can explain everything and that your predictions come true, although you are not a fortune teller. Long before the crisis I said that it would come. And when it started I said that it would not end. But they shouted: “The crisis will be over in a year or two.” And now they are silent and do not contradict me.

But who is pleased when you predict such bad events? Moreover, nothing will change because of your predictions.

Everything can change only due to our intensified dissemination, and there is no point in just talking. There will be still more critics. Still more people will slander us, that we, so to say, hate everyone because we are talking badly about the future when we say: “We ourselves are to blame for what is happening.” And so on.

That is, people will of course defend themselves; this is their natural reaction. That is life.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Kabbalah about Cults” 12/18/13

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What Is the Difference between the Torah and The Book of Zohar?

137Question: What is the major difference between the Torah and The Book of Zohar?

Answer: It is only in the style, form of presentation, and absoluteness of the Torah. What is written in it is absolute. There are a lot of expressions in The Book of Zohar that can be misinterpreted.

The Zohar is generally incomplete in itself. Initially, it included about thirty volumes. To date only a small part of it has been found, which means, it is incomplete, fragmentary and cannot claim to be like the Torah.

But in terms of the power of its presentation, The Zohar affects us much more than the Torah.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Zohar against the Torah” 1/21/12

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For Peace and Friendship

943Comment: According to the classification of cults, “The group fills all your time with assignments, selling books or newspapers, recruiting new members, attending courses, and meditation.”

My Response: Kabbalists do not recruit anyone. On the contrary, we believe that everything should be absolutely open. We do not pull people to us, but disseminate our knowledge outside. A person can watch our classes on television and on the Internet; we are open to everyone more than any other organization.

A closed organization is, first of all, a characteristic of a cult. We are not like that. A person can come or leave, marry, get divorced, or change jobs or professions. We have African Americans, Chinese, Europeans, South Americans, Native Americans, and other peoples.

We have branches in Germany, Holland, France, South and North America, and so on. There is not a single country, including most of the Arab countries, in which we do not have our students.

What cult can you talk about when it is open to everyone?! We openly show it and bring it to the widest broadcast.

Comment: But it also says,”the group fills all your time with tasks.”

My Response: If you are in a group, then you have to devote some free time to dissemination because the world depends on it.

The world has no other method of salvation, but only through the correction of human nature from egoistic to altruistic, from hatred to love. I think it is clear to everyone.

Every person in the world should make time to work on themselves and pull others to the same correction. Otherwise, what are we going to do? Sit and wait for even more blows on the head? No, we are for peace and friendship.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Kabbalah about Cults” 12/18/13

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Mandatory Condition

543.02Now that we have been rewarded with all the above, we will have some understanding of His uniqueness, that His thoughts are not our thoughts, and all the abundance of matters and forms we perceive in this reality before us is united in Him in a single thought, being the thought of creation to delight His creations (Baal HaSulam, The Study of the Ten Sefirot, “Inner Observation,” Chapter 5, Item 22).

Question: It is written that the Creator has only one thought—to delight us. Why is it so difficult to see this in our daily life?

Baal HaSulam writes that if, at the end of a person’s life, you weigh how much that person enjoyed and how much he suffered, then he would not want to be born at all because we are always at a loss. On one hand the Creator has a purpose and a thought to fulfill us, but on the other hand we do not feel this. Why?

Answer: It is because no one wants to listen to the Creator; no one wants to follow His advice.

The Creator says a very simple thing: You can reach absolute enjoyment, fulfillment, knowledge, or anything, only on the condition that you love your neighbor.

Once you have reached love for your neighbor, that is it; you are already connected with the Creator and you are already enjoying. But where do you see people who, upon hearing this, would immediately begin to aspire for such a state?

Comment: They just do not understand what it is.

My Response: What do you mean by they do not understand? It is very simple. Can you imagine being loved? Do the same to others. “No, anything but that!”

Comment: Basically, yes. It is hard.

My Response: I would say it is impossible. But this is a mandatory condition.
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From KabTV’s “The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES)” 12/18/22

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How Can One Become a Member of a Kabbalistic Group?

938.04Comment: There is a strange postulate in the classification of cults: “You must become a member of the group immediately.”

My Response: No, absolutely not. In our community, before joining a group a person studies on campus for at least six months, participates with us in congresses, in joint meals, but not in a group.

After he graduates from the campus, he becomes a member of what is called the young group—young not by age but by the number of classes. People study there for two or three more years.

Before a person settles in our group, several years pass. No one drags him there. Why? So that he leaves tomorrow? On the contrary, it is better for him to settle first and only then—if he really realizes that this is his path—to come to us.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Kabbalah about Cults” 12/18/13

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