May 17, 2012
Archive for Definitions
June 13, 2007 at 10:02 am · Filed under Definitions
This World (Olam HaZeh, Heb.) n.
1. The sum total of sensations that a person receives through the five senses.
Source: The Perception of the World
2. The lowest level of entirely egoistic desire.
Source: The Perception of the World
3. The feeling of extreme remoteness from the original cause, of absolute inability of even minimal contact with it, while realizing its existence and longing to reveal it entirely.
Source: The Language of Kabbalah: Fundamentals of Terminology
4. Where the “desire to receive” reaches its final development and receives completely separated from the light.
Source: Pticha—Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, item 2
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June 8, 2007 at 9:43 am · Filed under Definitions
The origin of the name “Babel” is the word Balal (Hebrew: confused, mixed), named after the confusion of the tongues (Genesis 11:9): “Therefore was the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth; and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.”
Click here to view this definition in Kabbalah Today issue 4
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June 3, 2007 at 2:17 pm · Filed under Daily Lessons, Definitions, Talmud Eser Sefirot
From Today’s Daily Lesson:
Student: It’s unclear how the Partzufim of BYA receive the Light of Hochma. Baal HaSulam doesn’t explain it.
Rav Laitman: That’s right. Baal HaSulam doesn’t explain it nor does he intend to. This is the problem: We think that Talmud Eser Sefirot (The Study of the Ten Sefirot) is an explanation of the Ari (Rabbi Isaac Luria).
Baal HaSulam doesn’t explain the Ari at all. He wants to direct us in how to study the Ari to reach the goal: to correct ourselves and then to discover what the Ari discusses in our Kelim (vessels/tools/receptacles), because you will never know otherwise.
It is literally impossible to bring you a picture of what is happening in the world of Atzilut. If he does explain, sometimes, that some things happen somehow by different technical actions, he also doesn’t intend to give a technical explanation so that you will learn that the will to receive and the will to bestow need to be in mutual bestowal to one another, that the Upper Light will correct the will to receive, and so on and so forth.
Why would he explain spirituality? It’s impossible to depict. At the end of it all, Baal HaSulam strives so that you will direct yourself toward revelation by the explanation. This is his entire hope; that you will reach him by your own corrections, and then you’ll discover what is being discussed.
If your Kli (vessel/tool/receptacle) is not on a degree that is written here, in the same state as the world of Beria, Yetzira or Atzilut, then you won’t understand what is written, in each and every sentence. So you have to be brought. His entire trouble is to bring you there. Not to simply “blah blah” talk about it. It’s not a world where I can tell you about a certain state, a certain place and you depict it and imagine it to yourself…
This is how it is in our world, however, in the spiritual world you’re incapable of imagining it. It’s the opposite; it’s not worthwhile for you to imagine it, because all these imaginations give you satisfaction. Therefore, he has completely no intention of bringing you any knowledge—only Ohr Makif (Surrounding Light), as he mentions in item 155 of “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot.”
Rav Michael Laitman, PhD in the lesson on Talmud Eser Sefirot (The Study of the Ten Sefirot), Volume 6, Part 16, item 107: wmv video | mp3 audio (55 min)
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May 28, 2007 at 11:55 am · Filed under Articles, Definitions, Envy, Honor, Humanity, Lust, Perception of Reality
If we could turn this outbreak of desires into an outbreak of desires for spirituality, then these desires would be the best thing that ever happened to humanity. Since we are currently not doing it, they are the worst thing that ever happened to us.
Click here to read full article
“Envy, lust, and honor bring a man out of the world” (Mishnah, Avot 4:21), Kabbalah explains that this declaration made by the Mishnah sages isn’t meant in a bad way. On the contrary, it means that if you know how to work with these desires, they will elevate you beyond your present reality, your present world, and let you into the spiritual world.
Click here to read full article
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May 15, 2007 at 12:01 pm · Filed under Definitions, Evolution, Lectures, Quotes, What is Kabbalah?
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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