From Baal HaSulam, “The Teaching of Kabbalah and Its Essence”: What is the wisdom of Kabbalah? As a whole, the wisdom of Kabbalah concerns the revelation of Godliness, arranged on its path in all its aspects—those that have emerged in the worlds and those that are destined to be revealed, and in all the manners that can ever appear in the worlds, to the end of time.
There are many definitions for the wisdom of Kabbalah, but they all come down to the fact that it teaches a person how to reveal the upper force, the one force of nature. It is called one because it includes all the other forces of nature within it. It is the general force that includes all of nature together with everything that exists within it.
The wisdom of Kabbalah reveals the general system to a person, the general force in all the different manners and influences that it has on what is under its control.
We must distinguish between the part of the force that belongs to us that we can reveal, and the part that doesn’t belong to us. We don’t even know what else is going on in another reality that isn’t ours.
This means that the wisdom of Kabbalah is a practical wisdom like physics, chemistry and all the natural sciences, and it can therefore help us discover only what is accessible to us. We cannot imagine, or call by name, a reality that we cannot feel.
We can understand the fact that the upper force also exists externally to us and that we cannot feel it using our senses. But our attainment is only what is and can be dressed in our vessels, in our senses.
The wisdom of Kabbalah develops new senses within us in addition to the five corporeal senses we were born with: sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. We can call these five senses animate, since they belong to the animate level in which our physical body exists.
But we can also develop new senses in addition to them, which are called: Keter, Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin, and Malchut. These senses don’t work in the form of receiving and absorbing, but in the form of giving.
The force of bestowal doesn’t belong to us at all and we cannot perceive it, but we can develop in us such an attribute to receive it from above. It is then we will have a second force, a force of bestowal in addition to the force of receiving.
The force of bestowal is actually the upper force. We acquire this upper force of bestowal from the Creator and are then given the ability to work with two forces. We can resemble the Creator by using the force of bestowal, and then we can understand, feel, and begin to discover reality in the attribute of bestowal. This is the goal of the wisdom of Kabbalah.
We then rise above the still, vegetative, and animate levels in which we have developed in this world and transcend to a new level that is called the next world. We begin to perceive the new reality of the next world in the attribute of bestowal to the extent that we acquire it.
This opportunity is given to people who are attracted to it. Eventually, all of humanity has to reach this state, which is called “you shall see your world during your lifetime.” Then a person will be able to perceive and feel, in his senses, everything that happens in the whole reality.
This is the reason that Baal HaSulam says that “as a whole, the wisdom of Kabbalah concerns the revelation of Godliness,” the upper force of bestowal which sustains all of nature, “arranged on its path in all its aspects—those that have emerged in the worlds and those that are destined to be revealed, and in all the manners that can ever appear in the worlds, to the end of time.”
Therefore anyone who receives just a touch and an attraction to such a revelation can reveal all of reality in every way and by every possible means, above time, motion, place, and above all the limitations. It is because the force of bestowal is limitless.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/12/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam
[149476]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/12/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam
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