Kabbalah and Philosophy

Lesson 2

What is out there?

• 'Me' and what happens to me - the actions of the Creator
• How do our senses function?
• Will we ever be able to come out of the 'shell'?
• Can a feeling be proven?
• Why didn't the 'point in the heart' develop in philosophers?

What is the difference between wanting to be similar in attributes to the Creator and researching His deeds?

The deeds of the Creator are actually what we are made up of, and all that happens both in us and to us. These are things we can study. So I may only be able to sense a small part of myself, but whatever it is that I sense I am able to research. On the other hand, anything that is outside of me that I can not sense, I am not able to comprehend, investigate or discuss. These things outside of me are simply abstract imagination. I sense and interpret these things using my inner perceptions, which is certainly not a true perception. Why does it have to be this way?

It is this way as besides the Creator and the created being there is nothing. There is something called the Creator, and all that emanates from Him is the created being. There is no transition in between them. In other words, within the Creator exists the created being, and that created being - us, can attain equality of form with the Creator. In the area where I exist I have levels of attainment, which are called "worlds" (from root to four (Dalet)). These are actually part of my system; they are the degree of freedom that I have over my senses, and the diminishing quality of light that I am able to receive at this level.

This means that my senses are not that sharp, their level of sharpness or clarity is called "worlds". I am able to gradually feel more and more until I feel my entirety, both myself and what I receive from the Creator.
Whatever I attain, can research and comprehend is only what I receive from Him. I can never attain Him. What I can do is reach equality of form, a state in which I would have inner attributes that are equal to what is outside of me (i.e., the Creator). Only to the degree of equality of form can I say that what happens with me happens with Him. "From your deeds" means that from the way He acts on me I get to know His actions, I reach their depth. I feel them in my core very clearly and know that they come from Him and I can adapt myself to Him. "From your deeds we have known you" means that He is probably like this or that. We are still however limited by what is perceived in our senses.

Does this mean that it is impossible to assess the reality outside?

We can never sense what is outside. What do we call 'outside'? There is no sense which works 'outside' of me. I am now located inside the Creator, and except for what enters my body and my senses, I do not feel anything. Vision is what occurs inside. Hearing is what occurs inside. What is it that I hear with my sense? Whatever enters and presses against my ear drum. Beyond that ear drum I have some nerve, some mechanism that transfers the information to my brain and the brain begins to investigate, what can it be? What is it similar to? Why is the response of my ear drum now similar to that which presses on it? There is actually no connection with the actual thing pressing on the ear drum.

It is like a screen. In all of the senses there are screens, both in a spiritual vessel and in a corporeal vessel. Each and every vessel receives impressions from its own stimulation, not from what enters it as nothing enters from the outside. The same applies to vision. At the edge of our eye we have nerves that are excited by light particles, photons, and exert chemical particles as a result. In short, the entire process is completely internal. The same goes for touch. If we apply anesthetic to these senses then we would feel as if there is nothing outside. We could amplify them by using certain techniques, such as inserting some component into our brain, but in spite of all we can never break out of ourselves.
That is why anything I build, whatever I do, and the way in which I sense my surroundings, is the way that I am constructed to sense it through my responses.
I never know what is outside of me, even now in this world. The Creator is infinity, but how do I grasp it? I only grasp what I am able to grasp. When I expand my vision through an additional sense (like a different software that is in order to bestow), then I too only investigate my own responses to something outside of me, that is, the Creator. This is how we are made; we will never be able to get out of this shell. It is a vessel that was created from above to below, as we learn in the four Behinot of direct light, from above to below. We are the receivers, whether it is in order to receive or in order to bestow doesn't matter, that is what is in the vessel and nothing else.

Even someone who still has not attained, and who studies Kabbalah discusses philosophical issues.

Even someone who arrives to the study of Kabbalah, who still doesn't sense anything, who hasn't yet acquired the sixth sense, talks philosophically. He or she talks about issues that he or she does not grasp. A person is allowed to do this only in the condition that he or she does not build upon it some science or philosophy of his or her own. Rather the person should involve him or herself in the study of Kabbalah in order to attract the upper light that will build a vessel in him or her. This vessel inside of the person will be in equal form to that of the Creator, so that the person can apprehend correctly what the Creator sends him or her.

All of our involvement with the wisdom of Kabbalah is in order to receive the actions of the Creator, and to sense them correctly according to the amount to which we correct ourselves. Once we will correct our entire "area", when around the vessel there will be a screen in order to bestow, then we will bestow back upon the Creator all of his abundance. When we will do that then we will "know you by your deeds" and be just like Him. From this we will understand who He is, and this understanding will also be inside of us.

So the entire study of Kabbalah is not about treating our investigations philosophically, because that would not give us anything. The entire study is in order to change our senses.

Humanity has developed towards philosophy and science because it did not have anywhere else to go. Since the beginning, the nations of the world did not have the Torah or the point in the heart. It is only towards the end of the twentieth century that it developed. Without the point in the heart (such as Abraham in whom it began), and without the reception of the Torah (which was received partially by Abraham and entirely by Moses), what does man know? He has a bit more intellect than a beast. A beast doesn't think about why it is living, but man does. Out of this came all of humanity's knowledge and high education. But they could not arrive at the Kabbalah, which is clear, because there was no inner lacking or vessel for the development of the point in the heart.
It wasn't possible for a point in the heart to form in them because it has to develop as a result of long development, lasting thousands of years. It is only now that humanity is beginning to ask "what is the meaning of our lives?"- although still not very seriously.

It is as if philosophy blocks spirituality.

Philosophy does not block spirituality. Philosophy, I would say, is one of the mistakes of humanity, which advances on the path of suffering during thousands of years towards the goal of creation.

Is it possible to prove that the Kabbalists actually sensed anything or is it an axiom?

Whoever senses - senses, and whoever doesn't - doesn't. You may believe them or you may not, it doesn't matter. They are not coming to you saying "we sense". They are not philosophers or men of religion who want to draw people after them, saying "we see; we have vision! We prophesize in pictures, come to us!" No! On the contrary, Kabbalists don't want anyone. It is just that now, when we have a lack which approaches the extent of that which they had when they began their investigations of the spiritual world, we come to them, and ask them questions.

How is it possible to prove to someone who doesn't see or sense something, something which another does see and sense? He or she is lacking a sense, so how is it possible to explain anything to him or her without that sense?

I remember that we wrote some music and right by us was laying a big cat, 10 maybe 15kg. The cat was laying next to me, and I was singing and some one was playing and writing the notes. We were laughing, crying, screaming or happy, all sorts of excitement that left me exhausted after two hours. This cat just lay there and nothing was happening to it, maybe it turned its ear a little once in a while as if we were bothering it but that's it.

This is an example, but we are also at the same level like beasts. The human part that is in me, not spirituality, but that which is a bit above the beast is called "man of this world". In this part I am already so different from the beast that I can not explain anything to it. Can I explain to it why I cry? So even more so, how is it possible to explain spirituality to someone who has never ever touched the spiritual world? What would you say? So the Kabbalists write all sorts of books and people imagine whatever they can imagine out of their own experience.

The philosophers also began their inquiries from the question about what man lives for, so why hasn't the point in the heart revealed itself in them?

The philosophers began their investigations from the questions "what does man live for?" "What is the purpose of our lives?" So why hasn't the point in the heart reveal itself in them? This is because the point in the heart is not revealed through intellectual desire. It is revealed because it is revealed. Meaning that it comes first, and only once it is already active in a person, the person is pushed to inquire. Only then, once the person develops the point in the heart, his or her inquiries will be spiritual. If a person is researching not out of the point in the heart, those are corporeal inquiries.

Philosophers (like Spinoza for example) have also dealt with the issues of love and emotions.

Love and emotions that philosophers have dealt with do not belong in spirituality, in Kabbalah. So love is Kabbalah? The essence of life is actually the subject of philosophy, which is according to the name - "philosophy".