December 26, 2024
Archive for September, 2014
September 19, 2014 at 7:30 pm · Filed under Articles, Books, Crisis
Look How Much Our World Is in Crisis Today
An overview of the state of humanity in our time yields a sullen picture, one that could aptly be named “a crisis.”1 It seems that in all areas of life—personal, familial, national, and international—we are faced with escalating situations to which there are no solutions in sight.
Depression is soaring, followed by an increasing escape to drugs and alcohol. The family unit is disintegrating; domestic violence, alienation, and divorce are perpetually increasing; social polarization widens; and corruption in the government has become daily news. War and terrorism have become globally commonplace; social decline, natural disasters—all those and more have become a daily reality to many.
Thus, uncertainty and insecurity increase. While past leaders could make long-term plans for humankind and determine their short-term actions accordingly, today they cannot outline clear policies for the continuation of our existence.
Are Today’s Enormous Crises Unsolvable?
In and of themselves, crises are not negative. Humanity has been in crises before; and every time they have produced more highly evolved states. A crisis in one field leads to the rising of new fields. But today the situation seems essentially different: collapse is happening in almost every field of life and almost simultaneously.
This escalating crisis is even more perplexing in view of the achievements of science and technology, which have provided us the means to make our lives much more comfortable and easier than ever before. It seems that time and space have shrunk and that the world is truly becoming a small village.
Theoretically, science should have provided us a sheltered world, one where we could live peacefully and safely without a care in the world. Many thinkers, supporting modernization, were certain that industrialization and progress would place humanity on the brink of a secure and bountiful era.
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September 18, 2014 at 7:30 pm · Filed under Articles, Books, What is Kabbalah?
Why Kabbalah Was Hidden Until Now
For 2,000 years, the study of Kabbalah was forbidden to women and men under age forty, and there was a reason for this restriction. In fact, all the books of Kabbalah, including the Torah (the Pentateuch), were written only for our time, when everyone needs to practice the science of Kabbalah. What we should all do now is open the Kabbalah books and begin to learn how to attain the upper world.
What Kabbalah Is and Isn’t
Kabbalists have expressed their frustration at the fact that we are still not using the study of Kabbalah as a springboard for the attainment of the upper worlds, since that is the one key to the gate of spirituality, the knowledge and the understanding of the wisdom of the upper world, which means eternal life, happiness, wholeness, and bounty for all humankind
Kabbalah is a science with clear and concise laws that must be studied. It has no connection with charms and blessings and other things that are done in its name, originating in the time Kabbalah was concealed from people and ascribed magical forces. The books of Kabbalah clearly explain what steps we need to take to acquire that knowledge.
The special thing about genuine books of Kabbalah is that they are suitable for all and contain the connection between the soul of the person who is studying them and the upper worlds, from which that person’s soul originates. The books direct us to develop in our own unique way, according to our inner structure and the root of our souls. This is much like the way a person chooses a profession in our world— according to personal character and the inclination of his or her heart.
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September 17, 2014 at 7:30 pm · Filed under Articles, Books
Did You Know There Are 125 Degrees of Spiritual Attainment?
Our task is to attain the highest degree in our advancement toward the Creator. That is the purpose of creation. The ladder between the Creator and us consists of 125 degrees or steps, also called desires. Each desire constitutes a complete and separate degree and is different in each stage of development. However, our own world does not constitute a degree of spiritual desire and is therefore excluded from the count of the 125 degrees. The 125 degrees begin only one step above our world, starting with the first degree of the spiritual world, and so on until the end of the 125th degree. What characterizes a higher degree is a greater desire to give and be altruistic.
The range of spiritual degrees is also divided into five worlds: the worlds of
- Adam Kadmon,
- Atzilut,
- Beria,
- Yetzira, and
- Assiya.
Each of these worlds is also comprised of five Partzufim, and each Partzuf is divided into five Sefirot. Thus, the entire structure consists of 125 degrees (5 by 5 by 5). The worlds, the Partzufim, and the Sefirot define desires, their power, and spiritual degrees in ascending order.
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September 16, 2014 at 7:30 pm · Filed under Articles, Books, Perception of Reality
How to Influence Reality to Get the Best Result
Kabbalah explains which attributes we must acquire to research reality correctly and helps us acquire the spiritual attributes with which we can influence the world. Kabbalah exposes us to the entire reality and explains its laws; it teaches us how we can influence the system of creation positively and get the best result in return. The method of our bestowal upon the surroundings is called the “Kavana” (intention).
The further humanity evolves without fitting into the ultimate reality meant for it, the further the world submerges into a state of suffering and uncertainty. Therefore, in our current situation, Kabbalah is becoming a practical must.
The wisdom of Kabbalah is the discovery of the laws and the collective mechanism of reality. To a person living in our world, this is called the revelation of the Creator to His crea- tures. The revelation gives us the ability to approach the useful and stay away from the harmful and to know the reason for the good and as well as the bad.
The purpose of the study of Kabbalah and its implementation is to attain the best possible results for humanity. The goal is simple: to attain happiness and peace both in the body and outside it, to attain eternity and wholeness.
Gaining the Ability to Research the Depths of Reality
The wisdom of Kabbalah also teaches us to manage the collective mechanism of creation in which our universe is but a tiny particle. Just as scientists study the phenomena and the laws of this world perceived by and apparent to all, so the Kabbalist scientists research the reality that is not perceived by our five senses and its laws.
We badly need this research because we are the only active beings in the whole of creation. Using the ordinary means at our disposal, we can only expose a tiny fraction of the surrounding reality, whereas the science of Kabbalah gives us the opportunity to study the entire reality, the entire system of creation, and to operate it.
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September 15, 2014 at 7:30 pm · Filed under Articles, Books, Perception of Reality
Why Your Perception Is Limited
The evolution of humankind on an egoistic basis (for myself alone) caused the creation of a deep chasm between the moral level of humanity and the technological level it reached. That is exactly what Plato and Aristotle feared when they prohibited the study of sciences to those of unworthy moral standards.
There is not a shadow of a doubt that there is a connection between the moral degree of a person, meaning their intentions, and their scientific ability. Without the intent to discover the Creator and understand the purpose of creation, scientific studies only reveal a certain aspect of the laws of reality and how they work in our narrow world. After all, we study reality from an egoistic perspective, and therefore we perceive only certain connections out of all the details of our surrounding reality.
Each law acts in all the realms of creation, in this world and in the spiritual world. But we can see its full range of operation only if we too are in a realm that encircles the whole of creation. For that we must be compatible with the attributes of the realm we want to encircle—altruistic attributes of giving, the attributes of the degrees of the upper worlds.
How Your Internal Properties Dictate What You See and Feel
We do not change nature on our own. The attributes of nature never change, and there is also no change in the interconnections between the forces of nature. But nature looks different according to the attributes of its researcher. Nature shows a different aspect, not a different law, and we understand only what we perceive and feel through our five senses. Hence, our feeling is forever personal and subjective.
Because all people have a common nature, we perceive the world in the same way at first. Nature remains unchanged, but when we change ourselves, we feel that nature’s laws operate differently on us. We change the way we are exposed to the laws of nature. That is why Malachi says, “I the Lord do not change” (3:6). It is indeed surprising that we can change the things around us, when in fact nothing really changes but ourselves. We feel as though nature changes because of the change within.
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