Faith And Knowledge

Question: In Kabbalah, what is faith and what is knowledge?

Answer: Faith in Kabbalah is the quality of bestowal, the ability to rise above my egoism, when, contrary to the ego, which demands of me: “Receive, take!”, I can rise above this desire to receive, take, and grab, i.e., not to work with my egoistic desires to fill myself with any kind of pleasure.

In other words, I cut back on my desires. The desires remain, but I restrict them, I am above them. We call such an action “faith above reason”. Reason is called my egoistic desires, because in them I receive and feel myself, my greatness, confidence, and tastes.

Question: Are these my natural desires, feelings, and emotions?

Answer: Yes. They are all called tastes or knowledge. These are our basic desires: food, sex, family, money, power, and knowledge. Moreover, knowledge is the greatest egoistic desire. After them comes faith, when I rise above all these desires and I work with them not to fill them, but to rise above them.

Question: Why did the sages call it faith?

Answer: Because this is the quality of bestowal—the property of Bina, compared to the property of receiving, Malchut.

Question: Is this a quality that I do not feel in my natural desires and so I must believe in it?

Answer: No. This is a quality that is acquired gradually under the influence of the upper force—an upper light. It has nothing to do with faith in our world when I worship someone or something with my eyes closed and accept on faith, everything they tell me. Here (in faith above knowledge) I set for myself what I want to believe in and what I want to value in comparison with what my egoism values. That is, this faith raises me above my egoism. According to what level of egoism I can rise above, I am in faith.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 4/11/20