The Reason for Studying Kabbalah In a Nutshell
If we cannot feel the upper world, it appears to us as though we and the world have our own existence, and we cannot see how much we ourselves and the world we live in are controlled from above. This is the reason we feel that our surroundings are hostile and not a means to rush us back to our root.
Before the soul descends to the body, it is a small point in its root. From there, the soul descends to our world, clothed in a body, and loses contact with its root. It can return to its root only if it annuls the bodily desires for worldly pleasures. There are, all and all, 620 desires in the body. By correcting them, the soul returns to its root, where it receives 620 times more pleasures than it had before its descent.
People who have crossed this road and accomplished this correction are called Kabbalists. They live in our world and in the spiritual root simultaneously. They tell us how to rise in degrees that climb from this world back to our spiritual root. When we read their explanations, we attract the illumination of the upper light that pulls us forward.
How a Kabbalist Operates for Everyone’s Benefit
All through the generations, Kabbalists have helped humanity advance to its goal: the purpose of creation. But that help was mostly secretive, “behind the scenes.” Today, however, because the desire for spirituality has already developed in millions, the Kabbalists clearly state that the help of the entire population is necessary to draw the spiritual light by the study of the wisdom of Kabbalah.
Kabbalists are in direct contact with spirituality, but they are also supported in their work by people. They raise people’s desires to the spiritual world in such a way that they gather within them all the suffering of the collective society, and then raise it to the upper world. The Kabbalist receives bounty and light from the upper world, which descends on the people and shines on their lives in this world.
Unveiling the True Purpose of Human Suffering
Though most people do feel pain, they are unaware of its purpose. If they could see what the feeling of pain creates in them, as Kabbalists do, they would not want to get rid of it, but only to correct it. A Kabbalist can actually feel the suffering of the public, but adds purpose to the suffering, and this way corrects it in the root.
Suffering is an unfulfilled need for spirituality. It is the reason for all the ailments in the world. The collective population feels pain in the form of suffering in our world—disease, poverty, and loss—while the Kabbalist transcends it to suffering, which stems from a lack of spiritual completeness.
We do not know the system of creation, and thus we use it incorrectly. It is as though a person must learn to manipulate a complex machine with many electronic, mechanic, hormonal, and nervous systems, as well as many other unknown systems that cannot be known or felt. That person presses the buttons before learning how to operate this machine.
The Kabbalists urge us to study to know how to operate the machine. We have to operate this machine, and that is the sole purpose for which we were created. That is precisely why we were given the freedom of choice, unlike the other creatures, to search the guidance of the Creator and justify it.
Are You Advancing Towards Your Life’s Purpose in a Good or Bad Way?
Leading creation is only possible when there is freedom of choice. If we do not participate in this leadership and do not realize the possibility to use our freedom of choice, and if we want to live like all other animals, then nature, meaning creation, continues to evolve by the same law that independently leads all of humankind and the universe to the goal. In this law, which brings all living things to the purpose of creation, to the best and most comfortable situation, there are two active forces: Judgment (Din) and Mercy (Rachamim).
It is our choice whether to advance to the purpose of creation independently, with the soft power of mercy, or leave things to nature, to the harsh force of judgment. In the end, what we must choose is whether to study Kabbalah, advance consciously to the goal, or not study and advance unconsciously, not knowing what is ahead of us. Only in that will we find our freedom.
This choice concerns all of us because our society is built like a pyramid. We complement each other’s acts in the attempt to understand providence. Although the correction begins at the top, the preparation for it begins at the bottom, and if there is no willingness for correction below, it will be impossible to do anything above.
The conscious leadership of the world is intended for a chosen few, but the public has its own weight and can make a difference, though in a different way, through the study of the Kabbalah. As soon as it begins to ask about the surrounding world, it begins to change the world for the better.
Kabbalah: The Method that Changes Destructive Thoughts & Intentions to Positive Ones
Rabbi Akiva said that the entire Torah is comprised of one law: “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” Twenty-four thousand of his disciples, who were taught to follow that law, still developed unfounded hatred for one another. And when the corruption of unfounded hatred appeared, when they only had the will to receive for themselves, it was called the ruin of the Temple—first came the spiritual ruin and then the physical ruin that resulted from it. Anything that happens in our universe is a result of events that occur in the upper world and concatenate to ours.
Kabbalists had foreseen the ruin of the Temple, and today they are trying to convince people to choose life, because they see a future catastrophe in spirituality. People believe that an evil thought can kill. Science also has learned that if a person with bad intentions approaches a plant, even though he or she may water the plant, ostensibly acting positively toward it, the plant will react to the negative attitude. That attitude can even be measured by how negative the reaction of the plant was, how much it was afraid and rejected that person.
Science now begins to realize that our thoughts, not our actions, have the most powerful influence on the world. The wisdom of Kabbalah can help us change out thoughts, intentions in order to prevent that future catastrophe, and reach the purpose of creation through the different and pleasant path.
“Warning: Are You Really Fulfilling Your Life’s Purpose?” is based on the book, Awakening to Kabbalah: The Guiding Light of Spiritual Fulfillment by Dr. Michael Laitman.
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