Chabad claims world's chief Kabbalist is their dead messiah Schneerson
20 things about Kabbalah that everyone needs to know
We have prepared for you 20 main questions that are most often asked by people far from Judaism, having heard the words "kabbalah" and "kabbalist". They are answered by writer and journalist from Safed Esther Kay, author of the book "At the Origins of the Lurian Kabbalah"...
1. KABBALAH IS NOT A SCIENCE!
Kabbalah, as a theory, actually looks quite scientific and you can draw schemes for a long time, trying to squeeze Creation, Compression, Concealment, Line, Light, Vessels, their division into them... But Kabbalah is not exhausted by theory. The word itself means "acceptance, receipt" - that means, we accept and receive from someone. Kabbalah is a part of the Torah. Kabbalah is not a science!
2. AND WHO WAS THE FIRST KABBALIST?
The first Kabbalist was Adam, the first man on earth. Knowing the essence of the created, he gave names to different creatures, and he did very well. In the word "nahash" you can hear the hissing of a snake, in the word "arye" - a lion's roar, in the word "beema" - a bohemian (animal)... And so, while he was giving names, he paid attention to the fact that everyone has a couple, and he doesn't. It seemed suspicious to him somehow. He was given a couple, a wife, and since then the number of Kabbalists has increased.
3. HOW DOES KABBALAH VIEW ORIGINAL SIN?
Kabbalah considers sin as an inaccurate hit on target. That is, we could maintain a closer relationship with the Almighty, but preferred to withdraw and feel autonomy. The sin committed by Eve was associated with her desire to invade the territory of the forbidden and even there to make a revolution, extracting sparks of holiness through repentance. She was punished, but in Kabbalah the concept of punishment is a lother. This is a purification of consciousness, it is a blessing, not a punishment in the sense of "get what you deserve".
4. HOW DOES THE INSPIRED TEACHING OF KABBALAH RELATE WITH THE DRY LETTER OF THE LAW?
Kabbalah emphasizes love, while Jewish law (Galakha) serves as an expression of the aspect of Fear and Awe. These are the two wings with which we fly to the Creator. There are psalms of David, in which the first letters of the word KABBALAH and GALAH are "highlighted". There is a special reflection - meditation - to merge these two aspects.
It's like a regular camera and a digital one. Galakha (in the end) is simple, it cuts the shoulder. Kabbalah is complex, thin, voluminous, multidimensional, modular. Rabbis' decisions are usually made according to Galakha, but there were cases when the Kabbalistic interpretation was taken into account.
5. WHO IS THE CHIEF KABBALIST NOW?
For us, it's our Rebbe. All his answers, nuances, preferences, customs are imbued with Kabbalah. The Khabadniks establish prohibitions on Passover like no one else, because of Kabbalah. They don't sleep in sukkah - because of Kabbalah. They don't drink water on the plane during a 12-hour flight to Sukkot - because of the Kabbalah. Many small Kabbalistic details - like astral threads - permeate the existence of a khabadnik. There are many subtleties in prayer - everything is kept according to the Kabbalah. Meat with special kashrut - again Kabbalah. Kabbalists sleep, walk, and eat with special devices. Here, in KHABAD, you take care of yourself, and you don't call yourself a Kabbalist.
6. CREATION OF THE WORLD - REAL DAYS OR SOME OTHER DAYS, NOT 24 HOURS A DAY?
If the first Saturday of peace were not an ordinary Saturday in a simple sense, then we would not keep it now as a territory in time "from now to this day". Since Saturday was real, all days were the same. The Almighty unfolded the pictures of the creation of the world in six normal days.
7. WHAT HAPPENED BEFORE THAT?
Other worlds. They did not have a length in time, but in dignity they preceded our world.
8. WHERE DID THE MONKEYS COME FROM?
Monkeys, according to the midrash, are a degraded species of people, those who participated in the construction of the Tower of Babel. Rabbi Chaim Vital writes that the monkey in its development occupies an intermediate place between animals and humans. "Just as there are intermediate links between mineral nature and flora (corals and stones that grow and multiply), between the plant world and the animal (a dog described in the Talmud, whose navel grows from the ground and if you cut it, it will die)... There is also an intermediate stage between the category of animal and man, and this is the monkey. And between the Creator and the created one stands a righteous man like Abraham." Until now, the words of r. Haima Vital.
9. WHY DOES THE SINGER MADONNA TEACH KABBALAH?
She has a high soul, and she wants to correct her existence. But those who teach her present it with an "export" type of this doctrine, and it does not come to the observance of the commandments, does not get to the point.
10. IS THE ESSENCE OF KABBALAH THE FULFILLMENT OF THE COMMANDMENTS?
Yes, plus a deep understanding of what exactly each commandment "turns" and projects in the higher worlds. After all, the word "kabbala" is also "akbala", that is, projection, parallel, correspondence. We think that a man's beard is just a beard, and in the "sefirot" system it turns out that it is 13 attributes of mercy. In the same way, the organs of the body are "decomposed", projecting onto the "sefirot" system. As soon as the fulfillment of the commandments attracted all the light into the body - and the body is a vessel for light - this is the end of the task of this creation. If all the vessels are cleared and all the light is attracted, the purpose of Creation as a whole is completed. The repository of souls - "Knesset Israel" - is the source from which souls come from when they descend into the bodies.
11. IS THE STORAGE OF SOULS AN ABSTRACTION?
In all Kabbalah books, we find a reference to such concepts as light from the level of Adam's head or Adam's nose, ear, mouth, chest or Adam's heels. It's very confusing if you don't initially imagine a single whole image of a man - Adam - like, say, an hourglass in the form of a human figure. And each grain of sand, falling out of the "clock", symbolizes in this metaphor the soul that has descended from a certain level. This is a characteristic of the initial level of the soul. The higher her initial position in Adam's "body", the stronger her potential. And the further fate can throw it deep into the "clipot" (unclean shells). The souls of Abraham, Ruth, David came by the "bargaining" of the Almighty with the antipode of holiness, Satan. Having agreed to lower these high souls very low into the "clipot", the Almighty as it were "bypased" the opposition of the oppositionist and gave these souls the opportunity to come into the world.
12. IS REINCARNATION A FICTION OR THE TRUTH? CAN I FIND OUT ABOUT MY PAST "GILGULIM"?
"Gilgul" means "circle", that is, the soul sometimes has to go through a new circle of wandering around the world. The word "reincarnation" comes from the Latin "karne", which means "meat, flesh", that is, the soul comes into this world again and again in different material incarnations. Sometimes it is necessary not to live a whole life, but only to participate in some fragment, and then it is "ibur nashama" (joining someone's soul temporarily). For example, Nadav and Aviu came to help Pinhas in the episode with the Kozby bat Zur tent.
Reincarnation is not a fantasy. Its purpose is to correct those aspects of the soul that have not yet been purified. To tell anyone today about his past incarnations is, as a rule, speculation, because our world by definition is a world of concealment and concealment. This information can only be provided for practical use in terms of the Torah, the commandments. For example, ARI revealed Rabbi Chaim Vital his past incarnations, as it was necessary to help the student achieve deep concentration in a very short time.
13. WHAT DID HE REVEAL TO HIM?
ARI explained that the soul of Rabbi Chaim is connected with the root of Cain. She descended into this world many times and every time she corrected something in her past. Itro is Cain, his nickname - a-Keni - speaks of this, in particular. He gave Moses ("gilgul" of Abel) his daughter as a wife. Then, the same soul came as Rahav. Next, she came into the world as Hever ha-Keni, the husband of the famous Yaeli. Hever is the same letters as Rahav. Next, Yael came as the high priest of Eli (again, the permutation of the letters of the name). Rahav became a Khan. Hana was dominated by the male aspect, it was difficult for her to conceive. Eli gave her a blessing, with it came the feminine principle to her, since Eli was exactly the feminine principle. In her song, Hana mentions Rahav with a hint: "Rehav pi al oiwai" (open my mouth to swallow the enemies). These and other incarnations were revealed by the ARI for a specific purpose. The theory of reincarnation, however, was hidden from the general public for a long time. Kabbalah was considered a dangerous thing.
14. WHY WAS KABBALAH CONSIDERED A DANGEROUS MATTER?
Because a person tends to be interested not in what is necessary and useful, but what is tasty and unhealthy. He will be able to penetrate the mysteries of Being, but will forget about his simplest duties. RAMAK in chapter 6 of the book "Attracting Light" writes about it: "Tho those who look at the stars, but do not see the abyss under their feet."
It was said that a kabbalah student would not live to see an old age. These restrictions have been lifted only in recent centuries thanks to the promise of Rabbi Chaim Vital - "Whoever will study my books will not experience negative consequences".
15. KABBALAH AND ASTROLOGY - IS THERE A CONNECTION BETWEEN THEM?
Kabbalah cannot fail to take into account the rigid conditionality of this material world according to the principle of subordination to the "senior in rank", or - in Hasidic philosophy "seder a-ishtalshelut". If it is known that some factors ("harmei a-shamaim" - simply put, stars, planets, comets) - will have a negative impact, then why, knowing this, climb on the horn? And Kabbalah, of course, knows about these factors. "Bnei Issachar" is a book about the constellations of the Zodiac. However, you have to take it calmly, Jews have never made tararam out of stars. Rabbi Chaim Vital was associated with the planet Mars, which means bloodshed. In one of the incarnations, he was a "moel" who made a mistake when circumcising a child, which had deplorable consequences. What does it mean? Absolutely nothing. A person can know his nature. But the question is what he does with this information next. A horoscope is an attempt to get something for nothing, it's a forbidden thing, it's a weakness of the heart.
16. DREAMS AND KABBALAH - WHAT CAN YOU SAY ABOUT IT?
Kabbalah deals with dreams seriously, only when they are bad dreams and you need to fix the situation. It uses methods that we know as the principles of positive thinking. It is suggested to tell the dream to a friend who should verbally interpret this dream for good. Verbally - because words are still more closely related to materialization than dreams and thoughts. The key phrase is: "Halma tava hazita" in Aramaic, that is, "You had a good dream". In Kabbalah books, various "kavanots" are superimposed on this phrase - that is, meditative efforts to attract the letters of the Divine Name. And thus the root of the negative dream is corrected.
The dreams that Rabbi Chaim Vital writes about in his book "Hesionot" ("Visions") are amazing prophetic dreams-ciphers, and it describes the process of descent, when after a high discovery you are gradually lowered into more and more lowlying worlds until you are returned back to ours. This description of it is so realistic, as if it refers to the 21st century, not to the end of the 16th.
17. ARE PULSE DE NURA AND OTHER KABBALISTIC MEANS OF GETTING RID OF ENEMIES?
Are you hinting at the "removal" of Nasser (1970) and Stalin (1953)? Yes, it happened with the use of esoteric means. If the Jews have some secret weapon against their enemies, isn't it better if it remains secret? Let's not be like the Israeli media, which spread important information that could lead to victory, if it remains a secret.
18. WAS THE FOUNDER OF CHRISTIANITY RELATED TO KABBALAH?
He used forbidden methods. His motives are not yet fully clear. In any case, he was the son of the Jewish people, and he had probably already done all the stages of repentance "in the other world". Representatives of the so-called "Judeo-Christian ethics" see him as a prophet, a popularizer of the ideas of the Torah and Kabbalah. Well, there are a lot of popularizers, but the result is important. From Christianity we see the result that rivers of Jewish blood have flowed out.
Jewish wisdom was adopted by the peoples of the world, but have they stopped being anti-Semites? And why does the word "Semite" not imply that the Arabs are also the sons of Shem, and therefore the Semites? Why anti-Semitic is anti-Jewish? There is so much elementary ignorance in the world that until we get to Kabbalah, it would be nice to just interpret the basic terms. Then it will be possible to approach Kabbalah with cleaner hands...
19. HOW IS THE CONCEPT OF THE MESSIAH COVERED IN KABBALAH?
Very broadly and deeply, this is the key concept of all Judaism in general, this is the purpose of the Creation of the worlds. Six millennia are given to fully lead the world to a new track, to a new reality. Each millennium has its own characteristics. Weekdays of the week - there are also six of them - lead us to Saturday. During this time, the names of G-ga "BAN", "MA" and "SAG" are highlighted twice. Finally, it's the turn of the name "AB". Saturday is another level. Its influence begins with the environment, gradually dominating more and more and covering all layers of Being. This is also reflected in the change of planets by day of the week.
The magic seven is visible in everything - in music, in colors, and in astronomy. It is projected from the seven Sefirots - the emotional qualities of the Almighty. And the Messiah corresponds to the disclosure of the last Sphyra - Malchut, the realization of the royal attribute.
Hence the idea that the seventh Lubavitch Rebbe is Moshiach, the Messiah.
You can say, not everyone believes in Saturday. Friday or Sunday is more important for someone...
However, note that both in time and in space, the daughter religions that originated from Judaism are crowded to the Jewish authentic point of the original truth. In space, there is a dispute for Jerusalem (the point from which the elements for the creation of the first man, Adam, were taken). In time - there are attempts to "sting" the Sabbath, to stick on both sides to its original sanctity. It is clear that in this way they are trying to suck everything they can out of Judaism. This is ordinary vampirism. As for the Indian Vedas, who continue the tradition of Abraham, it says - "Whoe who rests on the seventh day will live happily ever after".
20. DO YOU STILL PLAN TO PUBLISH BOOKS ON KABBALAH?
Yes, it would be good to translate into Russian fragments from "Kitway a-ARI", relevant to the general public, giving inspiration for the fulfillment of the commandments - whether it's the seven commandments for all people or 613 for the Jews - because Kabbalah is very inspiring. She is the soul of the Torah.