One Dollar Or A Thousand?

Comment: Your teacher Rabash would give the following example about faith above reason: A friend borrowed a $1,000 from you and then returned an envelope with a single dollar. Upon seeing this, you must supplement with faith that the full amount is there

My Response: If you open the envelope and see that he gave you one dollar, then this is faith within reason.

If you check and find one dollar there, but consider it as $1,000, this is faith above reason.
If you do not check at all, trusting his word that the full amount is there, then it is faith below reason.

A person is told something, he lives his life believing it, prays, does what he has been taught. This is called “performing commandments out of habit.”

Question: Can those with faith within reason be called atheists?

Answer: Yes. For them, the whole world is based on knowledge. They take nothing in faith.

Question: So, Kabbalah is distinct because you can research and verify everything. But first, must you accept it as an axiom?

Answer: You check it for yourself so that you rise higher despite your knowledge. Thus, you are connected to the next, higher degree.

Question: Is knowledge necessary in Kabbalah? In the old days before studying Kabbalah, people had to study the seven sciences.

Answer: This was necessary before because layers of the soul from past centuries, past generations, would get corrected this way. In our times, this is no longer necessary.

Comment: We see how much Baal HaSulam wrote about his studying philosophy and psychology.

My Response: Naturally, because the whole of creation, which is the desire to enjoy, had to be fully realized. To do so, it was necessary to relate in various ways to your desire—the matter of creation. There was even a period when, in order to rise above matter, you had to torture yourself: sleep on the ground, eat the simplest food, dress in rags, etc.

In general, Kabbalists have gone through different periods in the ways of understanding the upper world, the correction of desires.
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From KabTV’s “Foundations of Kabbalah,” 4/1/19