TORONTO (Sunday, 13 May): In a lecture aimed at the students of the ARI Online Education Center course, Rav Michael Laitman, PhD lectured on the essence and the purpose of Kabbalah, its role in human evolution and specifically in the world today (aired live on Kabbalah TV’s Live Stream).

As Rav Laitman motioned to open the lecture with the first sentences of Baal HaSulam’s article The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah, he quickly detoured, stating in a lot simpler words “What is it?” then proceeding to give his modern version of Baal HaSulam’s definition in the article:

Definition of Kabbalah:
“The wisdom of Kabbalah is the revelation of nature’s laws that are systematically arranged before us so as to bring us to the recognition of the Creator.” —Rav Laitman (from the lecture)

Rav Laitman continued the lecture with a discussion of how nature arranges life on the still, vegetative, animate and speaking degrees of nature, how a person living in this world perceives evolution through this arrangement, and how we develop through these degrees in order to achieve blissful, eternal life, perfectly balanced with nature.

The following quote by Rav Laitman (from the lecture) defines Kabbalah’s approach to the state we are being led to, and the ultimatum that Kabbalah states nature is placing before humanity in our era:

Kabbalah on Balance with Nature:
“Balance with nature is expressed in the wisdom of Kabbalah by the words ‘equivalence of form.’ In other words, nature’s form is in giving everything, and man wants to receive everything, and thus our nature is opposite from nature in general. We therefore have to bring man to the degree of the Giver, to equalize with it. In the wisdom of Kabbalah, the degree of the Giver is called ‘equivalence of form’ or Dvekut (adhesion).

This is how, in the wisdom of Kabbalah, we define the final goal that we should reach. If we achieve it, we will have an eternal, perfect and tranquil life, as is nature itself. If we do not achieve it, nature will constantly pressure us until we completely improve and correct ourselves.”

The rest of the lecture was a Q&A session between Rav Laitman and the ARI Online Education Center students, questions dealing with how we should relate to violence, the role of religion in humanity’s evolution, how we should relate to Kabbalistic books, as well as many other questions.

Follow the links for the full lecture:
Rav Michael Laitman, PhD, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah.” Lecture presented at the Toronto Bnei Baruch Education Center (13 May, 2007):
wmv video | mp3 audio (86 min)

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God answers only those who have given their full measure of exertion and have done all they could to correct themselves by themselves.
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Rav Michael Laitman, PhD describes the terms “Tikkun” (Correction) and “prayer” in Kabbalah, how one relates to another, and what the purpose of prayer is in Kabbalah.

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FEykDoaTHg]

What is the Essence of Kabbalah? 04:31
Kabbalah has been clouded in confusion, legend, myth & misrepresentation because authentic Kabbalah has been hidden for thousands of years … until today!

Transcript of “What is the Essence of Kabbalah”:
Well, there has been a lot of confusion, legend myth & misrepresentation surrounding the true nature of Kabbalah because it’s been shrouded in mystery for thousands of years, and it’s called the Hidden Science for 3 reasons.

1. In the past Kabbalists taught only a few worthy, highly developed people in each generation who already possessed inner qualities not developed in humanity as a whole until recently. These qualities allowed them to understand and use it correctly. So it was purposely hidden by the Kabbalists.

2. All Kabbalistic books are written using words that seem to refer to things and people but in fact not a single word in any Kabbalistic book is talking about the physical world, and if you don’t learn how to read these books from a Kabbalist in the authentic teaching lineage, you simply can’t understand them. No matter how bright you are, you’ll end up with a product of your imagination and nothing more.

3. Kabbalah reveals the purpose and nature of this system we call life, and unless a person has a powerfully real and serious need to ask this very question, they can’t hear the answer, even if it’s shouted at them. But today people all over the world are seeking out Kabbalah.

So let’s clear up the misunderstanding. First lets look at what Kabbalah is not. It’s not and has nothing to do with…

religion,
magick,
mysticism,
witchcraft,
divination,
cults,
healings,
meditation,
self-help,
philosophy,
theory,
parapsychology,
ESP,
telepathy,
clairvoyance,
new age,
psychokinesis,
superstition,
dream interpretation,
phrenology,
tarot cards,
mantra’s,
yoga,
red strings,
holy water,
blessings,
Judaism,
Islam,
Christianity,
Buddhism,
Hinduism,
Sufism, or anyism,
past life regressions,
holistic medicine,
numerology,
faith healing,
aromatherapy,
secret societies,
reiki,
hypnosis,
channeling,
transmutation,
phrenology,
astrology,
astral travel or projection,
lucid dreaming,
spiritualism,
communicating with the dead,
out of body experiences,
magnetism,
voodoo,
freemasonry,
theosophy,
reflexology,
UFOs,
creationism,
fanaticism,
or any other belief…

…although many of the above mentioned have borrowed and misinterpreted the principles of Kabbalah over the years.

So now, what is it really?

Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag defines Kabbalah this way:

This wisdom is no more and no less than a sequence of roots, which hang down by way of cause and effect, in fixed, determined rules, weaving into a single, exalted goal described as “the revelation of His Godliness to His creatures in this world.” *

Which means there is an upper force and then there are governing forces that descend from this upper force and bring about our existence in this world. We’re familiar with physical forces, such as gravity, electromagnetism and the power of thought. But there are forces of a higher order that act while remaining hidden from us. Just like we know the effects of electricity, but can’t see it and don’t we don’t really know what it is.

The ultimate comprehensive force—the Creator—is the sum of all of the world’s forces and the highest level in the line of higher governing forces.

This upper force gave birth to five upper worlds and a barrier separating them from our world.

The science of Kabbalah doesn’t study our world and the people in it, the way traditional science does. It investigates everything that exists beyond that barrier.

There is nothing other than forces descending from above in accordance with precise laws. These laws, as Ashlag writes, are fixed, absolute and everywhere. Ultimately, they’re all directed so that we can reveal the governing force of nature even while we exist in this world.

Click here to view this video at Kabbalah TV

* Quote taken from Ashlag, Yehuda. “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah.”

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From today’s daily lesson:

In today’s lesson on Talmud Eser Sefirot (The Study of the Ten Sefirot), Rav Laitman defined “spirituality” and “soul” in relation to a student’s question (19:00).

Student:What’s the difference between the 6,000 years and the 600,000 souls? Does it have the same weight?

Rav Laitman: You think about spirituality as if it’s defined and deterministic like corporeality: “Here is a cup, so I call it ‘a cup,’ and there is a book, so I call it ‘a book’… and ‘a soul is a soul’”…

There is no such thing in spirituality.

Spirituality is only the interweaving of forces and nothing else.

You’re a building engineer and have bricks on the mind (laughter). Ask a person who works with computers if he or she can define what’s inside the computer. Ask this person what matter he/she’s dealing with… It’s evasive. Where is matter within the computer? There’s RAM and different memories being burned, the existence of movements and connections of things creating different forms out of themselves… this is how it is in spirituality.

Spirituality is a multitude of different forces and vectors, connecting among themselves, creating new forms time after time until they reach their initial form—the adhesion of the creature with the Creator. This has been preplanned and already exists in the Rosh (mind), because the end of the action is in its initial thought. Moreover, we need to reach this.

Until we do reach this, all these forces and vectors operate in the billions—an infinity of forms and connections among them.

Where is the soul in this picture? Time after time, consciously and unconsciously, and in each and every one of us, there is a renewal. We live this renewal of these forces; we sense and live in a part of it, and there is a part we don’t sense.

You are a multitude of forces, interconnecting and operating, but what do you perceive out of this magnificent totality? You only perceive a very small, primitive stratum, and this is what you call “I am Gaby,” “I am Michael,” “he is Nesse” and so on. We name and sense ourselves like this.

Internally, however, each and every one of us is a soul. What is the soul? It is the entire Kli (vessel/receptacle) of Infinity and we have to find out how this Kli is adhered to its Creator.

In the meantime, I discover something tiny, false and opposite called “a dream.” The sages who have reached this vision say about it “I have seen an opposite world.”

We don’t feel anything of this great reality. It’s like you have a great big balloon. This balloon is you adhered to the Creator. You only feel a spot on this balloon, and you call this spot yourself, your life and your world. Within this balloon are a constantly renewing interconnection, circulation and revolution of forces. And at each moment, at each second, you can define this as a new soul, a different soul. There is a unique connection between these forces, in their resemblance to their Creator, in their fulfillment and absence of fulfillment. There is no such thing as a defined soul.

You may tell me: “Maybe you’re right, but I read in the book Shaar HaGilgulim (The Gate of Reincarnations) different stories about the soul coming from one person who was a merchant, and later on to another person who was righteous, and then to a third person who was a thief, and a fourth person who was something and someone else…” So is a soul something defined in a person or not? We thus need to understand these stories, because this Hollywood-like storytelling version is far from understanding what is really written there. So for the time being, you can take that in each and every stage there is a change, a new soul. And so it is written “each day a man is a new man.”

Rav Michael Laitman, PhD in the lesson of Talmud Eser Sefirot (The Study of the Ten Sefirot), Volume 6, Part 16 (May 3, 2007): wmv video | mp3 audio (38 min)

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From today’s daily lesson:

What is Ego?

Student: What is the ego? Can you define it?
Rav Laitman: The ego is what I feel as self-relaxation, a void, a deficiency, a desire… it’s a socket or a depression in me that’s filled. I feel the filling of that absence as pleasure.
• There’s a deficiency which is filled.
• The sensation of deficiency is called “pain.”
• The sensation of the deficiency’s filling is called “pleasure.”
There are four definitions: deficiency, fulfillment, pain/suffering, pleasure. (50:13)

What is Shame?

Rav Laitman: There is shame above the ego and shame within the ego.
“I’m ashamed. I stole, and everything was fine but now I got caught. Oh, how people will talk about me, it’ll be in the paper and all kinds of places… so I’m ashamed. Am I ashamed because I stole? No. I’m ashamed because I was caught.” –That’s shame below the Machsom (barrier).

Shame above the Machsom is from—“Am I giving? Do I love?”—and the shame is in the discovery that I’m not like this way in every way. It is shame from a lack of bestowal. (55:50)

Rav Michael Laitman, PhD in the lesson on Baal HaSulam’s article “The Revelation of Godliness (Matan Torah)” (April 29, 2007) wmv video | mp3 audio (59 min)

• What is “the Machsom” (“the barrier”)?

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