Local Meeting #40 - Continuing the Tens Course and "The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah" - Fundamentals of Kabbalah 2024/2025

In the first part of the local meeting, we will be returning to:

"The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah"

Along with new additions in video clips from lessons of Rav Dr. Michael Laitman.

In the second part, we will continue a central theme in the "Tens Course" on Wednesday:

Annulment

Local Meeting

"The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah"

This week we continue on both the "Tens Course" and reading from Baal HaSulam's clarifications around "The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah" article.

As we've mentioned before, Baal HaSulam wrote extensively in order to assist students attain the purpose of creation - reaching equivalence of form with the qualities of the Creator (love and bestowal). This week we continue "The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah" article.

In the local meeting, we will read some excerpts from the article and then try to understand what is going on in the text, followed by another reading and discussions on the topics together.

We also have extra clips from Rav Dr. Michael Laitman as important clarifications of the article.

In addition, we will do workshops on the topic of the "Tens Course".

"The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah"

Rav Yehuda Ashlag, Baal HaSulam

The Corporeal Terms and the Physical Names in Books of Kabbalah

Any reasonable person will understand that when dealing with spiritual matters, much less with Godliness, we have no words or letters with which to contemplate. This is because our whole vocabulary is but combinations of the letters of our senses and imagination, and how can they assist where there are neither imagination nor senses?

Even if we take the subtlest word that can be used in such matters, meaning the word “upper light,” or even “simple light,” it is still imaginary and borrowed from the sunlight or a candlelight, or a light of contentment one feels upon resolving some doubt. How can we use them in spiritual matters and Godly ways? They offer the examiner nothing more than falsehood and deceit.

It is particularly so where one needs to find some rationale in these words to help one in the negotiations customary in the research of the wisdom. Here the sage must use rigorously accurate definitions for the eyes of the readers.

Should the sage fail with but a single unsuccessful word, he will confuse and mislead the readers. They will not understand at all what he says before and after it, and everything connected to that word, as is known to anyone who examines books of wisdom.

Thus, one should wonder how it is possible for Kabbalists to use false words to explain the interconnections in this wisdom. Also, it is known that there is no definition through a false name, for the lie has no legs and no stance.

Indeed, here you must first know the “law of root and branch” by which the worlds relate to one another.

The Law of Root and Branch by Which the Worlds Are Related

Kabbalists have found that the form of the four worlds named Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya, beginning with the first, highest world, called Atzilut, down to this corporeal, tangible world, called Assiya, is exactly the same in every item and event. This means that everything that eventuates and occurs in the first world is found unchanged in the next world, below it, too. It is likewise in all the worlds that follow it, down to this tangible world.

There is no difference between them, but only a difference of degree perceived in the substance of the elements of reality in each and every world. The substance of the elements of reality in the first, uppermost world, is finer than in all the ones below it. And the substance of the elements of reality in the second world is thicker than in the first world, but finer than all that is of a lower degree.

This continues similarly down to this world before us, whose substance of the elements of its reality is coarser and darker than in all the worlds preceding it. However, the shapes and elements of reality and all their occurrences come unchanged and equal in every world, both in quantity and quality.

They compared it to the conduct of a seal and its imprint: All the shapes in the seal are perfectly transferred in every detail and intricacy to its imprinted object. So it is with the worlds: Each lower world is an imprint of the world above it. Hence, all the forms in the higher world are meticulously copied, in both quantity and quality, to the lower world.

Thus, there is not an element of reality or an occurrence of reality in a lower world that you will not find its likeness in the world above it, as identical as two drops in a pond. And they are called “root and branch.” That means that the item in the lower world is deemed a branch of its pattern found in the higher world, which is the root of the lower element, as this is where that item in the lower world has been imprinted and made to be.

That was the intention of our sages when they said, “You have not a blade of grass below that has not a fortune and a guard above that strike it and tell it, ‘Grow’!” (Omissions of The Zohar, p 251a [source in Hebrew], Beresheet Rabbah, Chapter 10). It follows that the root, called “fortune,” compels it to grow and assume its attribute in quantity and quality, as with the seal and its imprint. This is the law of root and branch that applies to every detail and occurrence in reality, in every single world, in relation to the world above it.

Open Discussion

In your own words, what have we learnt about accuracy and authenticity?

What helps you set your goal toward the purpose of studying Kabbalah?

From this week’s lesson, what would you like to understand more deeply?

Questions from students

In what way is the approach of Kabbalah different from a scientific study of human emotion?

Why does Kabbalah talk about feelings of love in such a dry language of Partzufim and worlds?

How does a person “acquire a spiritual degree”?

In what way is the approach of Kabbalah different from a scientific study of human emotion?

The approach of chemistry, for example—attaching an electrode to the brain or dripping a substance so that a person will feel love or hate—speaks about the causes on a level different from the person’s actual feeling. There is a world, meaning the relation of a person as he relates to something outside himself, like a chemist. And there is a world in which the person relates to himself, where the actions are taking place, and in this way he observes the world.

That same chemist—before the experiment he conducts, during it, and after it—actions are also being performed upon him. It only depends on how he perceives the world: there he exists, and that is the world he expresses. But even though he regards the experiment as something outside himself, he too is inside an experiment.

Why does Kabbalah talk about feelings of love in such a dry language of Partzufim and worlds?

Kabbalah doesn’t want to talk about the feeling itself, but about what causes the feeling. And if a person wants to try these actions on himself, he moves from the level of experiment, to the results of it, and finally to the level of feeling.

In Kabbalah, you actually want the actions to work on you. And if you want that, you can bring them onto yourself. You copy them, apply them, act them out on yourself. Then you feel both the action and the result. It’s like rising from the level of action to the level of feeling. You live in feelings, in desires—not just in the actions themselves.

But the actions Kabbalah talks about aren’t dry either. It depends on whether you put emotion into them or not. These descriptions—Phase Aleph, Phase Bet, screen, lights, Reshimot in different states—are like musical notes. A musician feels the music through the notes and can sing or cry just by reading them. But someone who doesn’t know how to read music only sees little dots with tails, without feeling anything.

It’s all a matter of language. So you can’t really say the books of the Kabbalists are written in a dry way—it’s just that they don’t speak to us. There’s a gap between them and us. For an ordinary person, reading about a certain screen or a certain measure of light sounds like just more technical details. But for a Kabbalist, who lives on the level of feelings, those descriptions are something completely different. And even more so, because those feelings aren’t about himself, but about connection with the Creator—where they grow endlessly stronger.

How does a person “acquire a spiritual degree”?

“Acquiring a degree” means each time you get a clearer understanding of the relationship between a person and the Creator. How does this happen? The Creator gives a person certain conditions—that’s called “from Above to below.” And then, with free choice, the person works within those conditions and discovers his attitude toward the Creator, similar to how the Creator relates to him. That process is what we call “acquiring degrees” or “climbing the ladder.”

It’s a lot like human relationships. Imagine you realize someone is important to you, but the relationship between you is completely broken and needs fixing. You have no choice but to try to improve it. So you start thinking of ways to do that, step by step, slowly, with different tricks and efforts, direct and indirect, trying to get closer.

Each time you move closer, the other person might push you away or respond in some way - and that makes you change too. But you can’t stop; you have to keep trying. And what does the other person really want? Maybe, like in this world, he doesn’t want you at all, so he keeps rejecting you and putting obstacles in your way. Or maybe he does want you, but he wants you to invest effort to reach him, so that later the connection will be precious to you and you won’t just throw it away.

When a person invests effort toward the Creator, he’s putting his labor into that connection. That place he invested in becomes his. It becomes valuable to him, and in that way he “acquires” it. Through this, he gains understanding, perception, and thoughts of the Creator.

Reaching these degrees of relationship between the Creator and the created being only comes through a lot of effort—and it has to be this way. That’s why the will to receive was created, because it resists this connection. And a person has to find special ways to overcome that resistance. There’s nothing else in the world we resist like this—only the connection with the Creator.

The will to receive is built and structured in such a way that it opposes only this. In everything else a person does, the will to receive agrees. Only when it comes to moving toward the Creator—it doesn’t agree. That’s where the Creator shows the person his place of effort, what’s called “free choice.” That’s where a person’s destiny for good lies, and it’s as if the Creator says: “Here—strengthen yourself.” But this is the hardest thing. And it’s the only thing that’s truly hard.

With all the other actions of the will to receive, a person can find support—from society, from within himself—because there’s always some kind of profit. But not when it comes to connection with the Creator. It’s like you can turn around 360 degrees freely, but in one direction you hit resistance. In all the others you find supporters, benefits, justifications. Only in this one thing—connecting to the Creator—there’s resistance. That’s how we’re made.

Clips

Tens Course - Lesson #12

Annulment

Workshop questions

1) In your own words, what is annulment according to the wisdom of Kabbalah?

2) What's important when wanting to annul in a Kabbalistic group?

See You Next Week!