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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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

1. Adam Kadmon,
2. Atzilut,
3. Beria,
4. Yetzira, and
5. 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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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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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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There are 2 Forms of Spiritual Development

The Creator creates the desire, which is a given constant. It rises from below, within us, and surfaces in various intensities. The aim, however, is to change the desire from a corrupted wish to receive for the self alone to a corrected desire to receive for the sake of the Creator. Even an ordinary person, one who is not a Kabbalist, can raise MAN through thoughts, desires, and aims, because there is always a desire in his or her mind to receive from the Creator, though he or she may not even recognize the Creator’s existence.

We must turn to the upper force and approach Him. The very nearness is enough. The Creator’s light, which draws us all toward Him, is, to the creatures, the one and only law of creation. This gravitating force first affects the Jews, and then the rest of the nations. The force awakens us, through pain, to make us approach Him. When a person fails to want the Creator independently, he or she is pushed to it by pain. We will be at ease only if we avoid this force before it acts on us, by drawing ourselves toward the Creator of our own accord. This is called progress in the “path of light,” as opposed to progress in the “path of pain.”

How a Person Attains Adhesion with the Properties of the Concealed Spiritual Reality

Our situation depends solely on how we relate to the upper force that pulls us toward it. It is not a question of politics, and attempts to please our enemies will not do us any good either. Our situation depends not on our willingness to practice the regular Mitzvot (precepts), because the Creator wants the heart, not a mechanical act. We must attain the spiritual degrees of the precepts, meaning to keep the law of creation in the spirit. It is impossible to keep a spiritual law as though it were a mechanical law, because to truly keep a spiritual law means to equalize with it, to be inside it, and to be identical with it. The Creator and the entire spiritual world are a single giving force. Humans must come to resemble it, meaning correct all their desires to be used only for bestowal upon the Creator, just as all the Creator’s desire is to bestow goodness upon humans.

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