There is an ancient connection between Kabbalah and philosophy. Philosophy seems to be the foundation of all the sciences. There were no separate sciences a thousand years ago such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, geography, and astronomy. A scientist did everything and was even a doctor at the same time.

This general knowledge was called philosophy which translates as “love of wisdom,” knowledge. Johann Reuchlin, a famous philosopher of the sixteenth century wrote, ”My teacher Pythagoras, the father of philosophy, took his teaching from Kabbalists … he was the first who translated the word Kabbalah, unknown to his contemporaries, to the Greek word philosophy.”

The connection between Kabbalah and philosophy, and all the sciences in general is very deep. Really, science is already a part of the revelation of the Creator, His actions, which are not just revealed through the sensations of the body, but through the mechanism in us which is called “man” and already pertains to the human degree, even though this is still a person of this world, nevertheless.

Before its connection to Kabbalah, ancient science was developing on the animate degree. It was only after Kabbalah became revealed to the first man, Adam HaRishon, and developed for twenty generations until Abraham and on, as it revealed the Creator’s actions, that the modern science of this world could appear upon this foundation.

We as though do not see a connection between the one and the other. After all, regular science is built on the basis of the human mind and sensations, an egoistic desire to receive pleasure where we reveal the world, and seems to be disconnected from Kabbalah and the spiritual world. However, in reality, this is not the way it is because it examines the same actions of the Creator, which only become revealed in a different, egoistic matter.

These are the Creator’s actions which point to the connection between the parts of reality. For this reason, even the regular, natural sciences are also a sort of a revelation of the Creator, only on our earthly level.

This is because nothing but the Creator exists in the universe, and everything that we reveal are His actions. Only we can reveal Him in our egoistic desire, and then this is called natural sciences. We can also reveal Him in the desire to bestow, and then this is called Kabbalah.

However, it is revelation of the Creator in both cases. The Creator is one, and He does not divide in two. It is we, the researchers, who divide Him this way, depending on the desires where we perceive Him.

From the Creator’s side there are no separation; all the divisions happen in relation to us. This is how we get the eternal problem of how one thing connects to another and how they influence each another.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/27/2011, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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1. We are egoists and hence individualists, meaning that we think and comprehend only in a digital form. An analog thinking is whole, unified, and general; only the Creator possesses it. But He is approaching us, and thus we feel crises, resulting from the incompatibility between His and our models of existence (thinking, understanding, decision making, and behavior).

We do not have any other choice but to reach similarity between our systems, meaning to adapt ourselves to an analog system of existence. This means that we have to sense ourselves as one whole, as one man with one heart (desire), and love the other as thyself.

2. We can envision our future in the form of analog or discrete models. Our current state is egoistic and hence discrete, while the corrected one is analog, general. We have to build an analog system within ourselves from a discrete one. This model has to be both indirect and direct.

A direct analog system: We build it physically; we create the model of oneness of our future state in the form of conventions, gatherings of friends, by setting up child and adult study groups, and so on.

An indirect analog system: It is a mathematical system; we create something imaginary.

A digital (discrete) model is our step-by-step approach to the desirable, corrected final state by climbing the steps of the spiritual ladder. The size of a quantization step is dictated to everyone and to all from Above. That is, discontinuity is determined not by us, but by the manifestation of the new Reshimot (informational genes) in us.

It is determined from Above, by preserving the connection between a discrete step and the analog attainment of its result, meaning by considering the preservation and transfer of the information from a discrete step to an analog form of unity. In other words, the height of a step (its value) is defined by the opportunity to annul oneself before the upper one and the group in order to receive the strength to climb a degree.

3. A discrete form (digital) is pulse-like; changes happen in a leap-like fashion, in a form of a step curve. In our egoistic world, a discrete form is more comfortable, understandable for a visual calculation, registration, transfer, and remembering than an analog one, and it also rules out a subjective miscalculation of the reading.

Similarly, in atoms everything is quantized: The states change in a pulse-like manner. The information transfer in a living (vegetative or animate) world also occurs through discrete forms of chemical substances, macromolecules, which consist of thousands of atoms. It all results in qualitatively new features.

4. Provisional diagrams of the signals of  transition from one state to another:

A – a signal is continuous (analog) both in terms of time and states;
B – a signal is discontinuous (pulse-like), discrete both in terms of time and states;
C – a signal is continuous in terms of states and discrete in terms of time;
D – a discrete signal, both in terms of states and time.
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Question: During the lesson on The Book of Zohar, millions of viewers look at strange letters, hear strange words, and expect something they can’t define. Is this what you call a scientific method?

Answer: First, a regular person lives according his instincts and understands everything naturally. This is how he was taught in his parents’ home.

Second, a person who studied the sciences of this world knows how to relate to nature based on scientific knowledge he obtained. This is an engineering approach. For instance, a mechanic, an electrician, or a specialist in any other area received appropriate education, can do manual or intellectual work, has a set of tools for the job, and thereby forms his attitude toward nature.

He isn’t allowed to work with something unfamiliar, but only after his knowledge and experience have been checked is he accepted to a job in a specific field. Suppose a person studied mechanics and now can repair engines or more complex devices. He uses the acquired knowledge in his work, but he is more or less aware of what he is dealing with.

Third, a scientist is a person who discovers something which was previously unknown, phenomena that couldn’t be predicted in advance. Sometimes, he may feel, guess, and be prompted about something, but he has no clear internal definitions for it. This is what we call discovering new phenomena in nature.

At this point, a question arises: How can I find new phenomena? I need to tune myself to them, but what does “to them” mean if they are new? Should I anticipate certain results, discoveries, and events that may take place, or should I not?

Hence, science has two parts. There is theory where hypotheses are made and are later explored through research. Thereby, new phenomena are revealed. This is the major part of science which is built on the examination of the ideas scientists have regarding expected discoveries. Without this, it is impossible to advance.

However, there are also scientists who search in complete darkness. They have no preliminary theories, hypotheses, and ideas about possible findings. Kabbalah is a science, and we utilize it in all the above-mentioned forms: as regular people, the specialists who study it, and as scientists who in some way can visualize phenomena that may be.

Herein lies a problem: In all our studies, beginning with regular people as in our world and up to great scientists who don’t know where they are going and what they will find in nature, and at all of these levels in the science of Kabbalah, there is an unpredictable part you know nothing about.

What is unknown? You don’t know which property, what phenomenon you actually will find within because you don’t have this property. You can’t even imagine it.

After all, you will discover it in the Kli (vessel) of perception that you build, while the phenomenon is the vessel itself. You can’t pre-experience what exactly will unfold within you since you have never felt it before, don’t possess any intuition, and can’t even guess at it. It is a new Kli. The impression, the sensation, is totally new.

This is how we advance in the wisdom of Kabbalah. Even in something small and simple, there is nothing that we might know in advance. Therefore, our approach when we read The Book of Zohar is correct. I expect the Light that Reforms to come and reform my Kelim, my desires. For example, I can’t see anything without my glasses. There is something before me, but I need a device to see it. I put my glasses on and see something new.

Hence, while reading The Book of Zohar and looking at the “dead” letters and text that doesn’t make any sense to us, we must approach it as scientists of the highest degree who are about to discover something unprecedented to them.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/15/2011, The Book of Zohar

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Question: If Kabbalah is the basis of all the sciences, then should we first give a child knowledge of this science and only then start teaching him all the other sciences?

Answer: At first a child has to get acquainted with his world. However, from a young age, from about six years or even earlier, it is possible to start explaining the notions of the science of Kabbalah to him.

Children can perceive this wisdom parallel to the sciences of our world just as naturally as they are easily able to remember several languages. In the same way, we can explain these two languages of perception of reality to them: inner and outer. They will easily learn this and it will become part of the foundation of their perception like a habit ingrained from childhood.

The explanation has to be that there are two forces in the world. And everything we see with our material eyes are pictures emerging inside our senses as a result of the interaction between these two forces. Then the child will be able to understand the inner essence of every phenomenon he observes.

Every object, such as a table, chair, a person, a car, or a plane can ultimately be laid out as a combination of these two forces: reception and bestowal, and it is possible to discern why this special combination of these two forces creates precisely this image of the material object inside of us. Then he will understand what he can receive from it and how he can use it in order to attain certain material or spiritual acquisitions. That’s because he will know that object’s place in all of reality, and that is very important.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/21/11, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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The science of Kabbalah talks about the spiritual world and the forces operating in nature. These forces influence the matter of our world, creating various images in it, which results in an entire universe with everything filling it: still objects, vegetation, animals, and people. But we see all of this on the screen in the reverse part of our brain, and that is why it seems to us that this is in front of us. That is how we imagine reality.

That is why the science of Kabbalah is separated from this entire false picture, even though this picture is what helps us to attain the depth of creation, its intentions, and the Creator’s character. Yet in essence, the science of Kabbalah teaches us how to go from this external picture to the inner, true state where only two forces remain—the force of the Creator and the force of creation.

Of course, each of them divides into many more parts, particular forces and actions. But in essence it is talking only about forces: the will to receive, the will to enjoy, and what happens between them. This makes up all science.

If a science talks about the interaction of these two fundamental forces, then we have the science of Kabbalah. And if it talks about various results from them on different levels of matter—still, vegetative, animate, and human, then we have the sciences of this world.

Of course, these sciences are true because they give us knowledge about the external behavior through which the action of these two inner forces is expressed. But these sciences are very limited and we can only rely on them within the boundaries of our narrow world.

It turns out that the science of Kabbalah, which explains the two fundamental forces operating in nature, is the basis for all other sciences. And that does not include just the natural sciences that study nature and the external world, such as physics, chemistry, biology, and zoology, but also those belonging to man directly, such as music, dance, and art.

All of this is also part of the “seven fundamental external sciences” because it gives us knowledge about man’s abilities to perceive and sense his world.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/21/11, “Introduction to the book Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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You can tell me about a thousand interesting things that are going on, but I don’t accept them as real if I don’t see and know them for myself. Help me get to know and feel these things. I’ll be ready to listen only if you are going to expand my organs of perception and not my imagination.

If you want to give me a telescope or a microscope, I’m willing to accept them. I’m ready to develop a new sensory organ, but only if it remains within the realm of my rational and critical analysis.

This is the kind of scientific and realistic approach that Kabbalah talks about. However, thousands of years ago, an “error” occurred: The Kabbalists taught the future Greek philosophers the correct scientific approach, but these students stepped outside of it. They didn’t want to go against their egoism and use the science of Kabbalah for their own correction. They thought that they could examine the world without correcting themselves. This led to the development of philosophy.

This doesn’t only pertain to ancient Greece. This is a simple human approach. Almost anyone will say: “Why should I correct myself when I understand everything!” But this is impossible. First, one must reveal the state he’s in. Then, only in this degree, is he allowed to discuss it.

Religion is also based on this approach in the sense that it doesn’t require self-correction. You carry out some action, and all is well. You believe that you’ve established a connection with the Creator. This is called spiritual exile. It’s the “spiritual” form of existence without any real sensation of it. Thus, it is said in regard to this period: “We were like in a dream.”

Kabbalah calls upon people to return to the proper way of approaching reality, to go from philosophy to science, from religion to love and bestowal, and toward obtaining a new organ of perception by which a person will see everything for himself.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/2/2011, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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Question: When a person is convinced that he can feel the Creator, is there a way to test whether this is a real sensation or a religious fantasy?

Answer: One must not try to convince a person that what he is feeling is not real. After all, you cannot put your head on his shoulders.

Let us say that you really know something, and he does not, but he incorrectly imagines something. If you were to pressure him and try to convince him that you are right, then instead of the image he was previously imagining, he will receive a new image from you. However, it will also be an imaginary image, even if to you this is an obvious fact and the truth (although this is also questionable). Once it goes over to him, it merely will become a new fantasy.

This is why Kabbalah does not allow this. One should not get himself involved with trying to convince people otherwise, even more so because your truth also changes all the time. When you rise from one degree to another, all your previous knowledge fundamentally changes.

You constantly experience polar states as you are thrown from side to side until you cross the Machsom (the barrier separating us from spirituality). It is written: “Do not trust yourself until the day you die (meaning the death of your egoism).”

This is why you should not be changing anyone’s mind. We only explain to people how helpless we all are in the given situation, and we encourage them to genuinely examine things, to have a sane approach. This is considered to be a direct attitude: We have five senses, so let us only rely on them.

However, it is written that it is possible to acquire additional senses. Once we develop them from a scientific, sane, and logical approach, without taking anyone’s word for it, and discover another reality, then we will begin to examine it. We will then begin to understand it and acquire new knowledge, once again based on the same principle: “A judge has only what his eyes can see,” on the basis of a real sensation.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/2/2011, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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Question: If imagination interferes with a scientific approach and leads to religion and philosophy, then how can there be imagination that helps with scientific research?

Answer: The imagination that helps us is not an abstract form separated from matter, but a form of the upper one clothing onto us. Every informational gene, Reshimo, has two parts: information about “today’s” desire (Reshimo de Aviut) and information about “tomorrow’s” Light (Reshimo de Hitlabshut).

For example, there are a couple of Reshimot, Gimel de Aviut/Dalet de Hitlabshut, “3/4.” When I realize Reshimo “3,” I will be able to receive the form of the upper one from the degree “4” within it, and this is referred to as creative fantasy. I do not receive it for realization, but only as an example.

Reshimo de Hitlabshut suggests a new future form to us because it is always a degree higher than our current state. These are “memories” that have stayed with us from the expansion of steps from Above downward, and now we can ascend because of them.

Man operates like a machine. If we have these informational genes, Reshimot, then we are able to work due to them, but if we do not have them, we can’t. If one’s entire memory were erased, he would not consciously know how to move a finger. Have you seen the helpless behavior of newborns? They are not able to make even the smallest conscious move.

Everything only comes from Reshimot, and if I am able to correctly realize my desire (Reshimo de Aviut) on my degree, then I will be able to receive the degree of the upper one which clothes onto me (Reshimo de Hitlabshut) as an example. The fantasy helps us work on this basis.

This is not an empty fantasy that has no grounds to it, but a real form which is meant to manifest.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/2/2011, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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Question: In regular science I study its terminology and formulas, and gradually I start to understand the laws by which reality operates. But why is it that I don’t understand anything when studying the science of Kabbalah?

Answer: First of all, you can study and somehow discuss what is written, and imagine the laws of Kabbalah even though it does not talk about our world and you do not really see them. But you do not need anything more than that. If you aspire to this form of bestowal, this is enough in order for you to start changing yourself.

The science of Kabbalah is used completely differently than the sciences of our world. When you study a triangle in geometry, you do not become a triangle! But in Kabbalah when you study Partzuf ZON, you turn into Partzuf ZON. You aspire to it and from it you attract that Light that changes you. This is the entire difference! You take on the same form that you read about.

You develop and advance along the line connecting you with your root of the soul in the world of Infinity, and all your future forms and states are already fixed. You attract Light upon yourself from these future states, and that Light influences you, making you advance.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/15/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: I understand the explanation that the world is becoming global and we all need to unite. This is a very scientific conclusion. But I don’t understand where the force that actualizes the unity comes from, what is the surrounding Light? This already sounds like mysticism.

Answer: Books explaining the structure of the upper world (Talmud Eser Sefirot) are not mysticism, but a strict science in which there are two operating forces: Light and desire, or bestowal and reception. All the formulas are derived from these two forces, just like in math which has a dual conception: from 0 and 1, or like in physics which always examines two forces and their interaction.

The science of Kabbalah is the same and it provides a foundation for the entire attainment of reality and for all other sciences that describe this reality. I do not see anything mystical about it.

I agree that it is written in a language that is not very customary or clear to the modern person, yet its conclusions are clear, scientific, and logical. We are confused by the text because we do not know how to interpret it correctly. But in essence it is talking only about the will to enjoy which takes on the form of bestowal, and then it is called a spiritual “body,” Partzuf.

Desire is matter. For example, in our world there are different kinds of matter: still, vegetative, animate, and speaking. All of them are also the desire to enjoy, which takes on different external forms depending on its type, and as a result we see many kinds of plants and animals.

The same desire to enjoy operates in the spiritual world. However, in our world it takes on all sorts of egoistic forms, whereas in the spiritual world it assumes the forms of bestowal rather than reception. That is why we cannot recognize them right now since we do not have the kind of vision to see in the Light of bestowal. Thus, we do not discern these images.

You now attain yourself and others through the desire to absorb inside of yourself, to receive. All of your vision is based on this. That is why you see precisely this kind of world around you—all sorts of forms of reception in the desire to enjoy. We reveal all of these forms, study them, and based on that we build science.

However, there exists a different form of desire—bestowal, when you radiate outside of yourself. When the desire begins working this way, it also takes on different forms: still, vegetative, animate, and speaking, which are all the possible levels of bestowal, the combination of different forces of bestowal operating on it.

The science of Kabbalah studies precisely these forms. Kabbalists who have attained the quality of bestowal, each according to his level, write to us about their observations just like other scientists write about the forms of reception in this world. So there are the sciences of this world, which are about our earthly nature, and there is the science about the nature of bestowal called “Kabbalah.”
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/15/11, Writings of Rabash

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