October 22, 2024
September 24, 2014 at 7:30 pm · Filed under Articles, Books
Why the Books of Kabbalah Are Essential for Spiritual Development
Kabbalistic books are not like ordinary books we buy in a bookstore, or like the ones we study in university. They are not even like the ones we study from in Yeshivot (rabbinical colleges). The special thing about the genuine books of Kabbalah is that reading them improves the readers, makes them feel something new, and helps them to develop their sixth sense. It is with that sixth sense that a person begins to discover spirituality, to see what is beyond our world. With it, he or she begins to see the forces behind the objects of our world.
Kabbalah Gives a Person Tools to Benefit Themselves and Others
The minute we are able to go beyond this outer shell before us, we will begin to feel the forces that control our reality. Then we will be able to connect with those forces, influence them, see what exactly we are doing right and what we’re doing wrong. With this understanding in hand, we will discover how we should behave in order to match ourselves with a supreme and mighty force that surrounds the entire reality. This way we will be able to live consciously in a better world for all of us.
I do not mean to say that Kabbalah teaches us how to improve our lives at the expense of others. On the contrary: the contact with the upper world teaches us how to refrain from hurting others, how to attain the true desire to give. The laws of the upper worlds are the only laws that exist in reality; they raise humanity to the degree of MAN. We currently have no contact with them, and because of that we break them and thus inflict harm on others and ourselves.
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July 31, 2014 at 7:30 pm · Filed under Books
1. Disclosing a Portion: The Inner Mechanics of the Torah
The Pentateuch, or The Five Books of Moses, is a fascinating odyssey of a nation in the making. Yet, underneath the tales that reveal human nature at its zenith and at its nadir lies an ocean of wisdom that, if uncovered, can alter reality itself. Dr. Michael Laitman’s Disclosing a Portion: the inner mechanics of the Torah uncovers some of that wisdom in a manner none other has done before.
Throughout the year, each week observant Jews read a different portion of the Pentateuch (which they refer to as the “Torah”). Each portion deals with a different topic, and is titled according to the first word, or words, in the portion.
As you read through the portions, you will discover that each of the protagonists in the stories we’ve known for so long is not a myth, but a living force within. These forces direct and determine your path in life, and when you come to know them, you come to know your true self. Take your time to delve into the text, and portion by portion you will find new meanings that will enrich and empower you as you become the happy, confident person that you dream of being.
Pre-Order Your Copy of Disclosing a Portion Here »
2. A Sage’s Fruit: Letters of Baal HaSulam
The greatest Kabbalist of the 20th century, Rav Yehuda Leib Halevi Ashlag, who wrote the Sulam (Ladder) commentary on The Book of Zohar, had very few students. A prolific writer, he spent almost all of his time at his desk, so the students that he did have were precious. When spending time away from home and from his students, Rav Yehuda Ashlag would write elaborate letters to provide them with guidance and encouragement. Today these letters offer a window into the special relationships cultivated between the great teacher and his devoted students.
A Sage’s Fruit: letters of Baal HaSulam is a compilation of those letters, which are now being presented to English speaking readership for the first time. The unique style and tone that Rav Ashlag uses in his letters offer inspiration and guidance to any seeker of spiritual advancement. The nature of this book is such that it changes a person. Regardless of how many times one may read the text, it constantly takes on new forms, as if reading it for the very first time. Now that these letters have been revealed, it is unclear how we could perceive spiritual advancement without them.
Pre-Order Your Copy of A Sage’s Fruit Here »
3. Women, Relationships & Kabbalah
Rav Michael Laitman’s words have been carefully compiled into this book according to topics that help a woman to find answers to questions along the path of her spiritual development. She will find answers to questions concerning love, relationships, family, children, the group, unity, dissemination, the nature and role of a woman, her inner work, and the correction of her soul.
“…Our corrected relationships in this world reflect the underlying structure and goal of nature, and once a person feels the need to be in harmony with this goal, their relations become the medium by which they can measure their progress.
Pre-Order Your Copy of Women, Relationships and Kabbalah Here »
July 30, 2014 at 7:30 pm · Filed under Articles, Books
The Mystery of Reincarnation Explained
In each generation, the same souls that existed in previous generations reappear. They are clothed in new bodies, evolve, and become more sensitive and receptive to sublime and complex spiritual knowledge. Thus, people who lived thousands of years ago had the same souls as our own but are more developed today, bringing technological and spiritual progress to our world.
Any progress in humankind is the result of souls rising to a higher degree, after having gained experience in previous lives. Each soul that comes to our world begins its life with the experiences it has accumulated in the previous life. Hence, the soul goes through a process of accumulating knowledge, spiritual attainments, and worldly sensations, leaving it with memories we call Reshimot (records or reminiscences).
Of all the souls that have come down to our world from previous generations, only a few have wished to evolve into the spiritual realms. However, in our time, many have done so. We are much more advanced than our ancestors. It is easier for us to absorb new information and live it, because we are born prepared to absorb this information. Hence, each new piece of data is completely natural for us.
How the Concealment of Kabbalah and Reincarnation are Related
Kabbalah books tend to be revealed and concealed intermittently. They can be hidden for several generations, reappear, and then be lost again. It happens this way so that humanity can go through certain “corrections” (Tikkunim). Generally speaking, these books exist throughout the history of humankind to correct humanity and assure its development. All these books will be known to everyone in the future. The Zohar and the books of the prophets state that in our final days, all humanity will use these books as manuals for attaining the upper worlds, and people will have happy, eternal, and complete lives.
Souls of great Kabbalists go through special cycles. They do not appear in our world in every generation but, like the books, only in special ones. The soul of the first man incarnated later on in Abraham the Patriarch, Moses, Rabbi Shimon Bar- Yochai, the Holy Ari, and, in our days, Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag.
Such a soul comes only during special times, when it is meant to influence and correct the entire human race.
The Story of the Reincarnation of a Very Special Soul: The Ari
In the 16th century, the time of the Middle Ages and barbarism, a child was born in Jerusalem. Later in his life he received the name the Holy Ari. He absorbed the entire Kabbalistic knowledge since the first man and processed it and phrased it in such a way that all the generations following him could receive their spiritual nourishment from his books.
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July 29, 2014 at 7:30 pm · Filed under Articles, Books
Why The Book of Zohar Is So Important for Your Spirituality
Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai (Rashbi) was the author of The Book of Zohar, which was written in the second century CE. It is the most important work of Kabbalah and considered to be its primary and most fundamental textbook. Rashbi lived between the Talmudic period and that of The Zohar and is regarded as a great researcher of both human nature and the upper world. He is also among the most important sages of the Talmud (his name is mentioned there some four thousand times). He was proficient in the languages of both the Talmud and Kabbalah, and he used both of them to describe the upper system of management, how the events of the present and the future are made to happen there—all the innovations and transformations—and how they come down from there to our world and manifest themselves in the clothing of this world.
The Zohar explains which actions influence the rest of the world from here below. Rashbi was the first Kabbalist to describe the reactions that we get from above for our thoughts. He described how they operate in the upper world and thus affect the unfolding of future events that are to descend to us. The Zohar is crucial to us because it encircles all the possible circumstances throughout human history.
The Unique Circumstances Behind the Writing of The Zohar
Before Rashbi began to write The Zohar, he established around him a group of disciples, where the soul of each disciple corresponded to a certain spiritual degree in the upper world. There were nine students, and he was the tenth. Together they formed one collective soul, corresponding to the complete structure in the spiritual world called the Eser (ten) Sefirot.
Thus, although Rashbi is the author of the book, each and every one of the students represents one of the attributes of the spiritual world he describes. He built a sort of prism, through which the simple upper light descends to our world and divides into ten parts, which are then divided into ten inner Sefirot. Their story is in fact a description of how those ten spiritual properties or forces come upon our world and lead it and how each person can use these forces for his or her own benefit and for others.
Why The Zohar Is Often Misunderstood
Rashbi said he could not have written the book by himself. He was supposed to write the book for the last generations and, in the meantime, conceal it so that it would only be revealed in the 16th century. To write this book in such a way that the intermediary generations would pass it by, he used his disciple Rabbi Abba. Rabbi Abba began writing the book while hearing and studying it from his teacher, but he wrote it in such a way that those who read it perceive only the outermost layer of the book.
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July 25, 2014 at 7:30 pm · Filed under Articles, Books
Can Kabbalah Give Me Spirituality?
Because of our ability to absorb various pictures and impressions of the world around us, we can describe what we feel in this lifetime and create books from our experiences. But Kabbalah books describe what a person who experiences both the physical world and the upper, spiritual world at the same time feels, something that others do not perceive.
Such is the uniqueness of the books of Kabbalah. They describe things an ordinary person cannot feel, though they are attainable. A Kabbalist is not just a person who feels the upper world, but someone who can describe emotions in a clear language so that anyone can understand them. Thus, by studying these books, we will be able to nurture the missing senses inside us, the ones with which we will be able to feel the upper world to the point where we can see our past and future lives. After all, “there is no time in spirituality.” Through Kabbalah, we can all attain the sensation of the eternal upper world and live willingly in both worlds at once.
Why are the Books of Kabbalah Special?
There is a special force in books of Kabbalah: any person who studies them under the right guidance can attain the spiritual degree of the author. That is why it is crucial that we know which books to study. There are many books of Kabbalah, written in various styles and forms and written by Kabbalists at various degrees of attainment. We now know which of the books are the ones that help us enter the spiritual world and which of them direct us like a guidebook intended for a person lost in a foreign country.
Get Rid of Your Past Conception of What Spirituality Is
There are several ways to describe the spiritual worlds. The spiritual world and our own world are parallel. Everything in the spiritual world comes down to ours. All the events originate in the upper world. They descend from it to ours and clothe the suitable objects of this world very accurately.
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