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What is Kabbalah?
Misconceptions of Kabbalah – Magic
We are continuing to post responses to the “Misconceptions of Kabbalah” competition…
ENTRY SENT BY JANNET: My encounter with Kabbalah was when I went to the library and out of curiosity borrowed the book entitled “Qabbalah Magic.” It told of what magic you can achieve and things you can acquire by performing all these rituals. However I didn’t finish the book as I felt it wasn’t what I was looking for.
Myth: Kabbalah Is All About Magic
FROM THE BOOK: It is a common mistake for people to think that Kabbalah deals with fortune telling, revelations of the past, and the study of the present. The definition of Kabbalah is the revelation of the Creator to people in this world today, not after death. Perhaps some draw this parallel as a result of the perception of secrecy that surrounds Kabbalah.
Either way, Kabbalah has no connection to magic. In fact, Kabbalah forbids fortune telling or any attempt to find out about the destiny of the physical body. The body is temporary, negligible, and, thus, insignificant. It is not worthy of attention beyond the question of how it serves the soul.
pp. 55/6 in The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Kabbalah by Rav Michael Laitman, PhD and Collin Canright.
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Kabbalistic Definitions: “This World”
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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VIDEO: The Difference Between Kabbalah and Religion
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4t20Q1WSxb0]
The Difference Between Kabbalah and Religion 03:26
Kabbalah is not religion. Revelation of the spiritual world (in Kabbalah) and belief in a spiritual world (in religion) are two separate issues. Rav Michael Laitman, PhD discusses the difference between Kabbalah and religion in this interview with European MTV host Eden Harel.
Click here to view the video at Kabbalah TV
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The Master Plan
Kabbalists refer to the designer of the Master Plan as ‘the Creator,’ and to the Plan itself as ‘The Thought of Creation.’ When Kabbalists talk about Nature or Nature’s laws, they are talking about the Creator.
Thousands of years ago, people couldn’t hide from Nature’s elements as they do today; they couldn’t avoid its hardships as we do in our “manmade” world. And most important, the fear of Nature, and at the same time, the closeness to it, urged many to search for and discover Nature’s plan for them, and coincidentally, for all of us.
Those pioneers in Nature’s research wanted to know if Nature actually had a goal, and if so, what humanity’s role might be in this Master Plan. Those individuals who received the highest level of knowledge, that of the Master Plan, are known as “Kabbalists.”
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