Life And Death, Part 9

Do Kabbalist fear death?

Question: What is the correct attitude to death?

Answer: I think that the best attitude is to not think about death but, rather, believe that we exist infinitely, eternally. We must make sure that we attain this eternity and infinity, at least partially, in this life, in our corporeal state.

After all, during our life we exist in order to reveal bestowal and love as a means for attaining eternity, perfection, and the Creator, the upper force that controls all of it. Our advancement should consist of this.

In thinking about animalistic life and death, check yourself, do you really care about this? If you do, then you are not yet seriously aspiring for spiritual qualities. When you are engaged in spirituality you absolutely do not care about anything that happens to your body, whether it is alive or not. You exist and want to exist in the quality of bestowal and love.

Question: Does a Kabbalist care about his protein body? Through it, one contacts other people who are not yet in spirituality. If he did not have this body, he would not be able to communicate with his students.

Answer: Yes, he takes care of the body but in a minimal sense, which is called “the necessary and sufficient” condition.

Question: Does a Kabbalist think about what will happen to his students and to his family after his death?

Answer: Family is a usual corporeal concern. Students, however, are a completely different thing. He has to prepare them so that they will remain with a good reserve of knowledge and methodology. It is necessary to organize a lab-like environment so they can test themselves and advance.

Question: Does it mean that a Kabbalist has a fear of death but not in an egoistic sense?

Answer: It is not the fear of death but a desire to leave behind a world that is maximally directed at the goal of creation, and in no other way.

What else can you leave? There is nothing else. We are approaching the state where a person begins to understand that the only way to leave something behind is in the form of good deeds. These good deeds are recorded on his or her account and are one’s major gain in life.

Question: As far as I understand the good deeds are to bring other people to the revelation of the Creator. Are there any other good deeds you can do with respect to another person?

Answer: There is nothing else: only to bring others closer to the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 1/14/19