Hevruta - Following Lesson 28. The Role of a ‘Teacher’ in the Wisdom of Kabbalah - Fundamentals of Kabbalah 2025/2026

Hevruta - Following Lesson 28

PART I: The Role of a ‘Teacher’ in the Wisdom of Kabbalah

"The language of the Kabbalists is a language in the full sense of the word: very precise, both in terms of root and branch and concerning cause and consequence. It has the unique merit of being able to express subtle details in this language without any limits. Also, through it, it is possible to approach the desired matter directly, without the need to connect it with what precedes it or follows it.

However, despite all the sublime merits that you find in it, there is a great drawback in it, that it is difficult to attain. It is almost impossible to attain it except from a Kabbalist sage and from a sage one who understands with his own mind. This means that even one who understands the rest of the degrees from below upward and from above downward with his own mind will still not understand anything in this language until he receives it from a sage who has already received the language from his teacher face to face."

-- Baal HaSulam "The Teaching of the Kabbalah and Its Essence"

🎥 We will begin by watching a talk with Rav Dr. Michael Laitman on the three essential factors of spiritual development: the teacher, the group, and the original Kabbalistic sources.

Video "Kabbalah Basics: The Three Factors of Spiritual Development >>

01 Three Factors of Spiritual Development

Spiritual development is based on three essential factors: the teacher, a group of like-minded people, and the original sources. Each of these factors has a unique role. Together, they create the conditions necessary for true spiritual growth.

The teacher provides direction and a living connection to the spiritual path. The group gives a person the environment in which spiritual qualities can be developed. The original sources connect the student to the authentic wisdom and the spiritual force contained within it.

Questions for Discussion

Why are the original sources alone usually not enough for spiritual development, without a teacher and a group?
How do you understand the connection between these three factors? Can any of them truly exist independently of the others?

02 Who Is a Teacher in Kabbalah?

A Kabbalah teacher is not the same as an ordinary teacher. An ordinary teacher gives knowledge, explains ideas, and may serve as an example in practical life. A Kabbalist, however, is someone who is in our world while also being connected to a higher spiritual degree.

This means that he has a living sensation of the spiritual reality he teaches about. Kabbalah studies what cannot be perceived by the ordinary senses. A Kabbalist has an additional sense, a spiritual sense, through which he perceives the higher world.

For this reason, the role of the teacher is not limited to passing on information. The teacher is a "conductor of the upper light". Through him, the student receives an influence from a higher level of reality, called the Creator.

The student may not yet feel this spiritual reality directly. At first, he receives only words, explanations, texts, and impressions. But over time, through the teacher, he begins to absorb an attitude toward the spiritual concepts and forces that the teacher speaks about.

Question for Discussion

What is the essential difference between a Kabbalist teacher and an ordinary teacher?

03 How to Choose a Teacher

Choosing a teacher begins with a clear understanding of one’s goal. If a person wants to study Kabbalah, he must look for someone who truly teaches the wisdom of Kabbalah: the wisdom of attaining the higher force, the system of higher governance, and the laws by which reality is guided.

The next question is: from whom did this teacher receive his knowledge? In Kabbalah, the transmission of knowledge must be clear. A teacher should be connected to a recognized Kabbalist, meaning that his knowledge comes through a reliable spiritual lineage.

Another important criterion is that the teacher teaches from the original sources, not from his own imagination or personal opinions. The student should check whether the teaching is based on authentic Kabbalistic texts.

After these main criteria have been checked, a person may listen to his inner feeling. He may ask himself: whose language is closer to me? Whose style can I understand? Who awakens in me a clearer connection to the goal? This is not about egoistic preference, but about natural compatibility between the student and the teacher.

Changing a teacher may sometimes be justified. However, a person must carefully examine his reason. Is he leaving because he no longer wants to make effort, or because he truly cannot continue advancing with this teacher? The answer requires honesty.

Questions for Discussion

Why is the origin of the teacher’s knowledge, his "spiritual lineage", so important?
Why is it important that the teacher teaches from the original sources?
How can a person distinguish an inner sense of compatibility from an egoistic preference?
When is changing one’s teacher justified, and when is it not?

04 The Connection Between Teacher and Student

The teacher is a conductor of higher energy to the student. This connection does not disappear even when the teacher has many students.

The main point is not whether the teacher personally knows every student. What matters is the student’s inner attitude. If a person considers himself a student and inwardly strives toward the teacher, he establishes a living connection through him with the higher force.

In earlier generations, groups were smaller, and the connection between teacher and student was often personal and close. Today, many students may be physically distant from the teacher and may not be personally known to him. Still, the inner connection can exist. It depends on the student’s aspiration, attitude, and desire to receive direction from the teacher.

Questions for Discussion

How can a spiritual connection with the teacher exist if the teacher does not personally know the student?
What does the student’s "inner movement" toward the teacher mean in practice?
Why is the student’s attitude toward the teacher so important?

05 Communication Between Teacher and Student: The Teacher Lowers Himself, the Student Elevates Him

In Kabbalah, there is a unique principle in the relationship between teacher and student. The teacher intentionally lowers himself in the eyes of the students, while the student must work to elevate the teacher in his own eyes.

This principle is very different from what we usually see in the world. In many traditions or systems, the teacher appears outwardly great, impressive, and elevated. In Kabbalah, the teacher may intentionally show ordinary human weaknesses or limitations. This gives the student room for inner work.

When the student sees the teacher as ordinary or flawed, he is faced with a choice. Will he judge the teacher according to his external eyes, or will he rise above this perception and value the teacher according to the spiritual goal and the spiritual connection he represents?

This work creates freedom of choice. If the teacher appeared perfect and impressive, the student would naturally respect him. But when the teacher appears simple, weak, or ordinary, the student must build the importance of the teacher by himself. This inner effort becomes part of the student’s spiritual growth.

For the teacher, lowering himself is also spiritually beneficial. It helps him grow, and it gives the students the opportunity to do their own work.

Questions for Discussion

Why does the teacher intentionally lower himself in the eyes of the students?
Why is this useful for the teacher and also a test for the student?
How is this principle connected to freedom of choice in Kabbalah?

06 The Original Sources and Their Commentaries

The main body of Kabbalistic sources includes Sefer Yetzirah, the Tanakh, the Babylonian Talmud, the Mishnah, the Zohar, and the writings of the Ari. However, for contemporary students, the most relevant sources are the writings of Baal HaSulam, especially his commentaries on the Ari and the Zohar, and the writings of Rabash, especially his articles on spiritual work in the group.

A commentary in Kabbalah is not merely an explanation or simplification of a difficult text. In ordinary study, a commentary may help the reader understand ideas intellectually. In Kabbalah, however, only someone who has attained the spiritual level of the source can truly comment on it.

Such a commentary contains more than words. The author places an additional spiritual force into the text. This force acts on the reader and brings him closer to the attainment of the higher forces described in the source.

This is why the study of Kabbalistic sources is meaningful even when the student does not fully understand the text. The purpose is not only intellectual understanding. The purpose is to draw the influence of the spiritual force contained in the authentic sources, so that it gradually changes the student’s nature.

Letters and words in Kabbalah are also not ordinary signs. They express combinations of spiritual forces. As a person advances, he begins to understand the inner meaning of the letters, words, and structures of the text. They become a language that describes the interaction of forces in the spiritual world.

Questions for Discussion

How is commentary in Kabbalah different from commentary in ordinary science or literature?
If a student does not yet understand what he is reading, why is studying the original sources still important?
What is the connection between letters, spiritual forces, and attainment of the higher world?
Why are the writings of Baal HaSulam and Rabash especially important for contemporary study?

PART II: STUDY, THE GROUP, AND THE CREATOR

[Preparation for Lesson 29]

07 Free Time and Study

Kabbalah does not set a fixed minimum number of hours that every person must study. Instead, it gives a clear principle: a person should dedicate his free time to the attainment of the Creator.

"Free time" means the time that remains after what is necessary for ordinary life: sleep, work, family responsibilities, food, health, and other physical needs. Kabbalah does not require a person to leave ordinary life. On the contrary, a person is expected to work, care for his family, and live responsibly in this world.

At the same time, the way a person uses his free time reveals what is most important to him. In Kabbalistic terms, the physical life of eating, sleeping, working, and maintaining the body belongs to the "animal" level. The part of a person that seeks the Creator, the purpose of life, and spiritual attainment is called the "human" level.

Therefore, the question is not simply how many hours a person studies. The real question is: what does he do with the time that is truly free? Does he use it to develop the human part within him?

This approach does not contradict joy or enjoyment of life. In Kabbalah, true enjoyment comes from attaining the greatness of the Creator and understanding the system through which a person rises to His degree.

Questions for Discussion

Why does Kabbalah speak about "free time" rather than setting a fixed number of study hours?
What does the way a person uses his free time reveal about his inner priorities?

08 Studying Kabbalistic Terms

In Kabbalah, it is not enough to memorize terms as if they were foreign words. To "know" a Kabbalistic term means to attain its inner meaning.

A term in Kabbalah points to a spiritual force, action, state, or relationship. Every word, and even every letter, expresses a combination of forces. In this sense, a word is like an information package. It contains a whole structure of spiritual meaning.

A beginner cannot yet attain the full inner meaning of these terms. Still, it is useful to learn their basic definitions and to consult Baal HaSulam’s dictionary. For example, when reading about a "screen", a student should at least know that it refers to an anti-egoistic quality or force. This gives the student a correct direction and helps him avoid materializing spiritual concepts.

At the same time, the student should understand that the simple definition is only the beginning. The true meaning of a term is revealed through inner attainment. As a person develops spiritually, the words gradually become connected to real inner states and forces.

Therefore, the study of Kabbalistic terms has two levels: understanding the basic meaning and aspiring to the inner meaning.

Questions for Discussion

How is Kabbalistic knowledge of a term different from ordinary memorization?
Why is it useful for beginners to study definitions, even if they do not yet attain the inner meaning?
How can a student study both the simple meaning and the inner meaning while reading a text?

09 What Is a Group and Why Is It Needed?

A group is not simply a collection of people. From the Kabbalistic point of view, a group is a gathering of egoistic forces that are willing to rise above their egoism in order to build between them a network of forces similar to the Creator.

The main quality of the Creator is bestowal. This quality cannot be realized by a person alone. It can appear only in relation to others. A person cannot truly practice bestowal toward stones, plants, or abstract ideas. The quality of bestowal becomes real in the connection between people who are working toward the same spiritual goal.

For this reason, the group is not a secondary tool. It is a necessary condition for spiritual development. The Creator is revealed precisely in the corrected connection between the friends.

To enter the group means to work on becoming equal with the friends and even lower than them. This does not mean humiliation in the ordinary sense. It means annulling one’s egoistic self-importance in order to receive the influence of the group and the upper light that works through it.

When a person annuls himself before the group, he becomes able to receive from the friends the importance of the goal, the desire for connection, and the strength to advance.

Questions for Discussion

Why can the quality of bestowal be revealed only in a group?
How does the group increase a person’s desire for spiritual advancement?

10 How the Creator Evaluates a Person

In Kabbalah, the Creator does not evaluate a person as a separate individual disconnected from others. A person is measured according to the extent to which he becomes included in the group and contributes to its unity.

The Creator’s personal relation to a person does exist, but it always passes through the group. A person receives spiritual influence according to his connection with the friends and according to his effort to unite them in similarity to the Creator.

The minimal spiritual unit is the ten. The quality of bestowal cannot be fully realized in something smaller than this structure. A ten is a small model of the corrected spiritual system. In it, different desires can work together in order to become as one.

To be "dissolved" in the group means to stop feeling oneself as separate and more important than others. It means wanting to serve the connection between the friends. This does not erase the person. On the contrary, it allows the true human level in him to develop.

Question for Discussion

Why does the Creator not relate to a person as a separate, isolated individual?

11 How to See the Signs of the Creator Through the Group

In life, a person experiences many events: difficulties at work, problems in relationships, loss, confusion, or other challenges. It is natural to ask, "What does the Creator want to tell me through this?"

However, Kabbalah teaches that we should not try to interpret every life event as a direct personal message from the Creator. Reality is an interconnected system. What happens to one person may be connected to many other people, many systems, and the entire system of souls. We cannot calculate these connections from our current level.

Therefore, the main question is not: "What does the Creator want to tell me?" The better question is: "What do I want to tell the Creator?" In other words, how do I respond? Do I move forward toward connection, bestowal, and the goal, regardless of what happens?

The language of the Creator is revealed through the group. A person begins to recognize the Creator’s signs through his relationship with the friends: how he relates to them, how they relate to him, and what is revealed in the connection between them.

The group becomes the place where a person can decipher the Creator’s attitude. Through the work with the friends, he begins to understand how the Creator guides him, what He awakens in him, and how he should respond.

This is why the next stages of study focus on the group. Through the communication with the friends, a person gradually learns the language of communication with the Creator.

Questions for Discussion

Why should a person not look for a direct personal message in every difficulty of life?
How does the question "What do I want to tell the Creator?" change a person’s attitude toward life?

Conclusion

This lesson presents the foundation for practical spiritual work. The teacher connects the student to the path. The original sources bring the influence of the upper light. The group provides the place where the quality of bestowal can actually be practiced and revealed.

From this point onward, the main focus becomes the group: how to build it, how to enter it correctly, how to relate to the friends, and how, through this connection, to begin recognizing the language of the Creator.