A Guide to the Hidden Wisdom of Kabbalah Third Edition A Guide to the Hidden Wisdom of Kabbalah Third Edition LAITMAN KABBALAH PUBLISHERS Rav Michael Laitman, PhD A GUIDE To THE HIDDEN WISDoM of KABBALAH Copyright © 2008 by MICHAEL LAITMAN All rights reserved Published by Laitman Kabbalah Publishers www.kabbalah.info Contents IntroDuCtIon .....................................................................11 PArt I - KAbbALAH FACts AnD FALLACIes ......................15 Chapter 1: out in the open ............................................................. 17 Chapter 2: Some Basics .....................................................................23 Chapter 3: Reality Check .................................................................30 Chapter 4: The History of Desires ....................................................40 Chapter 5: Kabbalah—Its History and VIPs ......................................49 Chapter 6: Baal HaSulam ..................................................................59 PArt II - beFore tHere WAs tIme ................................... 65 Chapter 7: Down and Up the Ladder ...............................................67 Chapter 8: Setting the Stage for Man ................................................80 Chapter 9: Unlocking the Language of Kabbalah ................................... 91 Chapter 10: When Letters and Words Add Up ..............................103 Chapter 11: Body and Soul ............................................................. 115 Chapter 12: Becoming a Kabbalah Student ...................................126 Chapter 13: Let the Music Speak ....................................................139 PArt III - KAbbALAH toDAy .............................................145 Chapter 14: In the Global Era ......................................................... 147 Chapter 15: Diagnosis Is Half the Cure ..........................................159 Chapter 16: Correction Starts with Me ........................................... 171 Chapter 17: All Together Now .........................................................183 APPenDIx .............................................................................193 DetAILeD tAbLe oF Contents IntroDuCtIon ...............................................................................11 What You’ll find in This Book .................................................................... 12 Sidebars ......................................................................................................... 13 PArt I - KAbbALAH FACts AnD FALLACIes ................................15 CHAPTER 1: oUT IN THE oPEN ........................................................... 17 In the Spotlight ........................................................................................ 17 from Small Groups to Mass Exposure ................................................ 18 Breaking the Iron Wall ........................................................................ 19 Kabbalah—because Now We Need It ....................................................... 19 The Right Wisdom for it’s Time .........................................................20 Kabbalah with Anything .......................................................................... 21 CHAPTER 2: SoME BASICS .....................................................................23 The Truth about Reality ..........................................................................23 To Receive—Discover the force of Giving ............................................... 24 Reality as an Embroidery .....................................................................25 The Latent Sense .................................................................................25 The Creator Has to Give; We Have to Receive ....................................... 27 Selfish to the Core ............................................................................... 27 The Most Egoistic Desire: to Be an Altruist ........................................28 CHAPTER 3: REALITY CHECK ..............................................................30 Is This All there Is? .................................................................................. 31 Beyond the five Senses ........................................................................ 31 Across the Barrier ................................................................................33 The only Reality Is Within .................................................................34 In Search of freedom ..............................................................................34 fake freedom .......................................................................................36 The Pleasure and Pain Principle ..........................................................36 four factors (Layers) of our Makeup ..................................................... 37 CHAPTER 4: THE HISToRY of DESIRES .............................................40 five Levels of Desires ............................................................................... 41 The Recognition of Evil and the Revelation of Good ............................ 41 feeling Good, then Better ...................................................................43 A Win, Win Situation .........................................................................44 When Sex, Power, and Knowledge Don’t Do It for Me .......................... 45 The Point in the Heart ........................................................................45 Zooming on the “Why” ...........................................................................46 Coupling with the Creator ..................................................................46 CHAPTER 5: KABBALAH—ITS HISToRY AND VIPS............................ 49 from the first Thought to the first Man ................................................49 Adam ........................................................................................................ 51 Abraham ..................................................................................................52 Moses .......................................................................................................53 Rashbi (Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai) ......................................................... 54 In the Cave ...........................................................................................55 Early Reappearance ..............................................................................56 Rabbi Isaac Luria (The Ari) .....................................................................56 A Method that Suits Its Time .............................................................. 57 CHAPTER 6: BAAL HASULAM ................................................................59 The Goal of Kabbalah .............................................................................60 What Kabbalah Books Do for You, and What They Don’t ............... 60 Roots—from Top to Bottom ................................................................. 61 The Great Commentator .........................................................................62 Call of the Hour ..................................................................................63 PArt II - beFore tHere WAs tIme ..............................................65 CHAPTER 7: DoWN AND UP THE LADDER ....................................... 67 The five-Rung Ladder .............................................................................68 five Phases or five Sefirot ...................................................................69 The Screen (and the Unlikely Example) ..................................................70 5×5×5 ....................................................................................................... 71 The fifth Level and the Barrier ...........................................................73 The Start of the Climb ............................................................................75 Towards a Common Soul ....................................................................75 Up the Ladder .......................................................................................... 76 Back to the future ............................................................................... 76 What Goes Around Comes Around .......................................................78 CHAPTER 8: SETTING THE STAGE foR MAN ....................................80 five Worlds, and None Real ....................................................................80 At the Top of the Ladder ......................................................................... 81 Equal but opposite..............................................................................82 A Short Story of Creation ...................................................................82 for Your Pleasure only ............................................................................84 The Construction Workers..................................................................86 Adam and Eve Are Born (and Dropped) ................................................86 Tricked into Sinning ............................................................................ 87 Sin—the Way out of Evil .........................................................................88 Tiny Gold Coins ..................................................................................89 CHAPTER 9: UNLoCKING THE LANGUAGE of KABBALAH ............... 91 Like Roots and Branches .........................................................................92 The Same but opposite .......................................................................93 The Hidden Meaning of the Bible .......................................................... 94 Behind the Monitor .................................................................................95 The Apple Story ...................................................................................95 Abraham—between Egypt and Israel ...................................................96 Moses’ Tug-of-War with Pharaoh ......................................................... 97 The (Classic Happy-end) Story of Esther ............................................98 The Zohar—Not without Attainment ......................................................99 The Donkey Driver ............................................................................ 100 The Night of the Bride ...................................................................... 101 The Beginning of the Last Generation .................................................. 101 The Study of the Ten Sefirot ............................................................. 102 CHAPTER 10: WHEN LETTERS AND WoRDS ADD UP .................. 103 The Ties between Letters, Words, and Numbers .................................. 104 A Map of Spirituality ......................................................................... 104 Dots and Lines ................................................................................... 106 Black on White .................................................................................. 106 Letters and Worlds ............................................................................ 108 ones, Tens, Hundreds, and Beyond ................................................. 110 If God = Nature, and Nature = Desire, then… ...................................111 The Building-Blocks of Life ................................................................... 112 Abraham Took It Personally (and so can you) .................................. 113 Discover Your Root,Discover Your Name ..............................................114 CHAPTER 11: BoDY AND SoUL .......................................................... 115 Your Body—a Container for Your Soul ...................................................116 Recycle until You’re Ripe and Ready......................................................116 Why the Repeated Appearances?. .......................................................117 The Seed of the Soul ..........................................................................117 Where and What Is a Soul? ....................................................................118 A Shirt for the Soul ........................................................................... 119 No Time in Spirituality...................................................................... 120 Some Q&A’s .......................................................................................... 120 Who Was I? ........................................................................................ 120 Can We Identify People from the Past? ............................................. 121 Can I Reincarnate as an Animal? ...................................................... 122 How Many Times do I Have to Reincarnate? .................................... 122 Can I Remember Past Lives? .............................................................. 123 What Remains of Past Lives? ............................................................. 123 How Can I Positively Affect My Next Life? ....................................... 124 CHAPTER 12: BECoMING A KABBALAH STUDENT ...................... 126 Everyday Is an open-House Day ........................................................... 127 Studying with the Right Intention .................................................... 128 No Coercion in Spirituality ............................................................... 129 No Hermits ........................................................................................ 129 The Trinity of Kabbalah ........................................................................ 131 Books: our Spiritual Tour Guides .................................................... 131 Texts in the Language of the Branches .............................................. 132 Books that Help You Reach Your Goal ............................................. 133 finding the Right Teacher ..................................................................... 134 Let Your Heart Decide ....................................................................... 134 Group Study...........................................................................................135 Joint Desires .......................................................................................136 Letting the Light flow into You ........................................................ 136 Long Distance Kabbalah Study ............................................................. 137 CHAPTER 13: LET THE MUSIC SPEAK ............................................... 139 Not by Words Alone ..............................................................................139 Music—Touches where Texts Can Not............................................... 140 Bathing in Light ..................................................................................141 Melodies of the World to Come. ........................................................... 142 Tuning Your Inner Instrument ......................................................... 142 Spiritual Harmony ............................................................................. 143 PArt III - KAbbALAH toDAy ....................................................... 145 CHAPTER 14: IN THE GLoBAL ERA .....................................................147 our Big Blue Marble ............................................................................. 148 Through Thick and Through Thin ................................................... 148 Assuming Responsibility .................................................................... 148 As one Unit .......................................................................................... 149 The Time of Togetherness ................................................................. 151 Little Me in You Little You in Me ......................................................... 151 Saving ourselves … and Everything Else ...............................................153 Spirit over Matter ...............................................................................154 on the Desire-Sequence ........................................................................ 154 Desires Running Rampant ................................................................155 Technology Broke Its Promise ...........................................................155 A Great Potential ...................................................................................156 Wishing for the King’s Daughter’s Hand ..........................................156 Selfish to the Core ............................................................................. 157 How to Start the Change ...................................................................158 CHAPTER 15: DIAGNoSIS IS HALf THE CURE ................................ 159 Understanding Nature ........................................................................... 160 To Give or Not to Give ...................................................................... 160 Nature’s Bedrock ................................................................................161 What You See Is Who You Are ............................................................. 162 More for Me and Less for You ............................................................... 163 The Necessity of Luxuries .................................................................. 164 Why “Disguised” Desires fail us ....................................................... 166 A Harmonious Pyramid ......................................................................... 167 Spirituality: a Uniquely Human Desire ............................................. 167 The Point of This World ................................................................... 169 CHAPTER 16: CoRRECTIoN STARTS WITH ME ...............................171 Discovering the Unified Structure......................................................... 172 Living in a Creatorless Boat............................................................... 172 Salvation in Bonding of Egoists .........................................................174 A Chain of Souls ................................................................................... 175 Through His Eyes ...............................................................................177 My Egoism Is My own Bane ............................................................. 178 All Grown Up .................................................................................... 179 Two Ways Up ......................................................................................... 179 Take the Short Way, It’s Quick and Easy .......................................... 180 CHAPTER 17: ALL ToGETHER NoW .................................................. 183 The Height of Creation ......................................................................... 183 A Domino Effect ............................................................................... 184 Let’s Agree on Giving ........................................................................ 186 The Power in the Appreciation of Society ......................................... 186 Denounce Egoism and Extol Altruism ............................................. 187 Understanding Babel’s Tower ................................................................ 189 Enhanced Perception ............................................................................. 190 Beyond Life and Death ...................................................................... 191 APPenDIx .......................................................................................193 Glossary ....................................................................................................... 195 further Reading .......................................................................................... 201 About Bnei Baruch ..................................................................................... 210