What is Kabbalah and what is NOT Kabbalah???

What is Kabbalah?

"Although its origins are rooted in deep antiquity, from the time of ancient Babylon, the wisdom of Kabbalah has remained virtually hidden from humanity since it appeared more than four thousand years ago. To this very day, only a few know what Kabbalah really is.

For millennia, humanity was offered a wide variety of things under the name “Kabbalah”: spells, curses, and even miracles - all except for the method of Kabbalah itself. For over four thousand years, common understanding of Kabbalah has been cluttered with misconceptions and misinterpretations.

Therefore, first and foremost, the wisdom of Kabbalah needs to be made clear. Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) provides the following definition in his article "The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah":

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, interweaving to a single, exalted goal described as, “the revelation of His Godliness to His creatures in this world.”

In simpler words, there is an upper, all-inclusive force, or “the Creator,” controlling everything in reality. All the world’s forces descend from this comprehensive force. Some of these forces are familiar to us, such as gravity or electricity, while there are forces of a higher order that act while remaining hidden to us.

Kabbalah holds the map or the knowledge of how these hidden forces are structured, and the laws by which they influence us. It teaches us (through books such as The Zohar and other means) how to develop a sense of these forces, and finally, discover their only purpose – to bring us to the revelation of the Creator, the all-inclusive law of nature, while living in this world."

What is NOT Kabbalah?

10 Myths About Kabbalah

Myth #1: Kabbalah is a religion.

Fact: Kabbalah is a science - the physics of the overall reality. It is a wisdom that reveals the comprehensive reality that is normally hidden from our senses.

Myth #2: Kabbalah is connected to red strings and holy water.

Fact: There is no connection. Red strings, holy water and other products are a lucrative commercial invention created in the past two decades.

Myth #3: Kabbalah is reserved for a minority of persons and only men over 40 years of age are allowed to learn it.

Fact: During the exile Kabbalah was only studied by a few select individuals. However, since the time of the Ari (the 16th century), it is available to all.

Myth #4: Kabbalah deals with magic.

Fact: Kabbalah does not deal with magic or any other sorcery; rather, it deals with a pragmatic investigation of reality.

Myth #5: Kabbalah is a sect.

Fact: Kabbalah is a wisdom and a science open to every person without any restrictions.

Myth #6: Kabbalah is related to “New Age” and is a trend - a passing phenomenon.

Fact: Kabbalah is humanity’s oldest wisdom. Its beginnings were approximately 5,000 years ago.

Myth #7: Kabbalah is related to tarot cards, astrology and numerology.

Fact: Tarot cards, astrology and numerology, in their mystical practice, have been mistakenly associated with Kabbalah.

Myth #8: There are amulets in Kabbalah.

Fact: In our world, there are no physical objects that bear any spiritual contents. Amulets can only help a person as a psychological support.

Myth #9: Kabbalah involves meditation.

Fact: Kabbalah does not involve meditation. Meditation is another element that was connected to the word “Kabbalah” amid its confusion in the last few centuries by non-Kabbalists.

Myth #10: One needs to have studied the Torah and Talmud prior to approaching Kabbalah books.

Fact: Without Kabbalah, one cannot understand the spiritual meaning of these texts, and is stuck with thinking that they refer to physical events and actions.




Resource: www.kabbalah.info

I study Kabbalah at the
Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Education and Research Institute

What is meant in Kabbalah by "Feel that you are smaller than your friends"?

Concerning the Importance of Friends
Rav Baruch Shalom HaLevi Ashlag

Concerning the importance of the friends in the society and how to appreciate them, meaning with which kind of importance everyone should regard his friend. Common sense dictates that if one regards one’s friend as being at a lower degree than one’s own, then he will want to teach him how to behave more virtuously than the qualities he has. Hence, he cannot be his friend; he can take the friend as a student, but not as a friend.


And if one sees one’s friend as being at a higher degree than his own, and sees that he can acquire good qualities from him, then he can be his Rav, but not his friend.

This means that precisely when one sees one’s friend as being at an equal degree to one’s own, one can accept the other as a friend and bond with him. This is so because a friend means that they are both in the same state. This is what common sense dictates. In other words, they have the same views and thus decide to bond. Then, both of them act towards the goal that they both wish to achieve.

It is like two like-minded friends who are doing some business together, so this business will bring them profits. In that state, they feel that they have equal powers. But should one of them feel that he is more competent than the other, he will not want to accept him as an equal partner. Instead, they would create a proportional partnership according to the strength and qualities that one has over the other. In that state, the partnership is a thirty-three or twenty-five percent partnership, and it cannot be said that they are equal in the business.

But with love of friends, when friends bond to create unity among themselves, it explicitly means that they are equals. This is called "unity." For example, if they do business together and say that the profits will not be distributed equally, is this called "unity"? Clearly, a business of love of friends should be when all the profits and possessions that the love of friends yields will be equally controlled by them. They should not hide or conceal from one another, but everything will be with love, friendship, truthfulness, and peace.

But in the essay, "A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar," it is written, "The measure of the greatness comes under two conditions: 1) to always listen and receive the appreciation of society, to the extent of their greatness; 2) the environment should be great, as it is written, ‘In the multitude of people is the king’s glory.’"


To accept the first condition, each student must feel that he is the smallest among all the friends, and then he will be able to receive the appreciation of the greatness from everyone. This is so because the greater one cannot receive from the smaller one, much less be impressed by his words. Only the lower one is impressed by the appreciation of the greater one.

And for the second condition, each student must extol each friend’s merit as though he were the greatest in the generation. Then the environment will affect him as a great environment should, since quality is more important than quantity.

It follows that in the matter of love of friends, they help each other, meaning it is enough for everyone to regard his friend as being of the same degree as his own. But because everyone should learn from his friends, there is the issue of Rav and disciple. For this reason, he should consider the friend as greater than himself.

But how can one consider one’s friend as greater than himself, when he can see that his own merits are greater than his friend’s, that he is more talented and has better natural qualities? There are two ways to understand this:


1.He is going with faith above reason: once he has chosen him as a friend, he appreciates him above reason.
2.This is more natural—within reason. If he has decided to accept the other as a friend, and works on himself to love him, than it is natural with love to see only good things. And even though there are bad things in one’s friend, he cannot see them, as it is written, "love covers all transgressions."

We can see that a person may see faults in his neighbor’s children, but not in his own children. And when someone mentions some faults in his children, he immediately resists his friend and begins to declare his children’s merits.

And the question is, which is the truth? After all, there are merits to his children, and hence he is upset when others speak of his children. The thing is this, as I had heard it from my father: Indeed, each person has advantages and disadvantages. And both the neighbor and the father are saying the truth. But the neighbor does not treat the other’s children like a father to his children, since he does not have the same love for the children as the father does.

Hence, when he considers the other’s children, he sees only the children’s faults, since this gives him more pleasure. This is because he can show that he is more virtuous than the other because his own children are better. For this reason, he sees only the other’s faults. What he is seeing is true, but he sees only things he enjoys.

But the father, too, sees only the truth, except he regards only the good things that his children have. He does not see his children’s faults, since it gives him no pleasure. Hence, he is saying the truth about what he sees in his children. And because he regards only the things that can please him, he sees only the virtues.

It turns out that if one has love of friends, the law in love is that you want to see the friends’ merits and not their faults. Hence, if one sees some fault in one’s friend, it is not a sign that his friend is at fault, but that the fault is in him, meaning that because he flawed the love of friends, he sees faults in his friend.

Therefore, now he should not see to his friend’s correction. Rather, he himself needs correction. It follows from all the above that he should not care for the correction of his friend’s faults, which he sees in his friend, but he himself needs to correct the flaw he has created in the love of friends. And when he corrects himself, he will see only his friend’s merits and not his faults."

Read the entire article here

Laitman blog | Be Your Own "Donkey Driver"

Be Your Own "Donkey Driver"
By Rav Michael Laitman
Posted: 22 Aug 2010 12:01 PM PDT

I use the word “Stimulator” to call the system that we must now build because it comes from the Greek word “Stimulus,” meaning a sharp, pointed stick used to poke donkeys in order to keep them moving. Our “donkey” (“Hamor” in Hebrew) is our egoistic desire (“Homer”) which only understands the language of a “stick.” Yet, instead of driving this “donkey” by painful poking, we want to awaken the human being in us who looks ahead and yearns for the future on his own. We need a stimulus, but a positive one. We need to be driven by “lovesickness,” the desire to attain this state. This should be the only force driving us ahead, instead of corporeal pain pushing us from behind.

We have to invoke just one kind of suffering inside us, the question, “Why haven’t I attained unity with the Creator yet? Why am I not in awe of Him?” The first stage in returning to the Creator is “repentance from fear,” which occurs when I put forth efforts to cultivate an inner sensation of awe regarding the spiritual goal, the Creator, and bestowal, instead of running ahead because I fear painful blows that come after me. That is how I change my motivation or Stimulus.

If I run ahead motivated by the strikes (fears about things in this world or punishment in the world to come) then I am not returning to the Creator. In fact, this is how humanity has advanced naturally for thousands of years, but it isn’t spiritual evolution. It is the evolution of desire where we replace an unpleasant state of existence with a new, hopefully better one.

Yet, returning to the Creator is described as “Tshuva (return of) Hey to Vav,” which means that I invoke my own inner fear of not having the quality of bestowal and love. But what can I do if in actuality I am not concerned about this and feel no fear? Where can I get it? The answer is only from the environment!

If the environment paints a picture for me that makes me realize how horrible my condition is and, at the same time, that there is something incredibly wonderful awaiting me, then I will strive toward it. This is the correct, spiritual stimulus that enables us to advance. This way of advancing is correct because it is voluntary, and we therefore make this entire process an “awakening from below.”

However, if I don’t arrange an environment that instills this yearning for advancement in me making me run because I fear that I haven’t attained this goal yet and terrible misfortunes are following me because of it, I will never move into the next moment! In fact, I won’t move one bit.

That is why we need a “stimulator” and a positive one!

Visit Michael Laitman's blog here

Lessons in Kabbalistic work | The proper fear

Rav Baruch Shalom HaLevi Ashlag

Love of Friends
Article No 6, 1984

". . . Yet, to acquire faith, fear must come first, as it is related in the introduction to the Zohar: “Fear is a commandment that contains all the commandments in the Torah, since it is the gate to faith in Him. According to the awakening of one’s fear (in His guidance), so one believes in His guidance.” It ends there: “The fear is lest he will lessen the giving of contentment to his Maker.” This means that the fear that one should have with regard to the Creator is that perhaps he will not be able to give contentment to the Creator, and not that fear will concern one’s own benefit. It follows that the gate to faith is fear; it is impossible to reach faith by any other way.

In order to acquire fear, meaning the fear that he might not be able to give contentment to his Maker, one must first desire and yearn to bestow. Afterwards, one can say that there is room for the fear that he might not be able to sustain the fear. However, one is usually afraid perhaps his self-love will not be complete, and he does not concern himself with not being able to bestow upon the Creator. . . "

". . . Hence, the primary basis upon which the building of sanctity can be erected is the rule of “Love thy friend.” By that, one can acquire the need to bestow contentment upon the Creator. After that, there can be fear, meaning fear of perhaps not being able to give contentment to the Creator. When actually past that gate of fear, he can come to faith, because faith is the vessel for instillment of Divinity, as it is explained in several places.

We thus find that there are three rules before us: The first rule is that of Rabbi Akiva, being “Love thy friend as thyself.” Prior to that, there is nothing that provides a person with the fuel enabling him to modify his situation even a bit, as this is the only way to exit from self-love toward love of man, and feeling that self-love is a bad thing.

Now we come to the second rule, which is the fear. Without fear, there is no room for faith, as Baal HaSulam says.

Finally, we come to the third rule, which is faith. After all the above-mentioned three rules have been acquired, one comes to sense the purpose of creation, which is to do good to His creations. . . "


Entire article is found here

Destiny of the Children of Wonder Revealed | a poem by Timothy Simmons

Destiny of the Children of Wonder Revealed

Open wide the other side
And bear your naked soul to it
Step through the cascading wall of fire
And fret not for the burning of the flesh

Invisible footprints will guide you
To the door way made of light
And there you will enter
And be filled with the mother’s undying love

You will know wholeness
And your armor shall not crack in battle
The arrows and spears of your earthly enemies
Shall become like rose petals that shower you with Nature’s grace

You shall sit with those who love
And you shall be loved
And you shall speak love
And you shall know love
And there shall be no end to the love

Waking to the rays of the fathering Sun
You shall shine like a jewel in the crown
For all the world to see but not to be seen
Your worries will be few your burdens ever so light.

The fears of this world shall not find you
Fearful of heart
But bold in spirit and
Hearty in your happiness

Ye are children of the wind
Carried by the gentle breeze
From the lowest of the lows to the highest of highs
No matter the shape of things to come
Your Spirit shall always swoop only to shift and rise.

A Poem By Timothy Simmons