Chapter 11. Concepts in Kabbalah

Tell me, is God a personality?..

Everyone ascribes a meaning to his own to life and death, to Light, to the soul etc. How does Kabbalah interpret them?..

Are the Light of the Creator, which Kabbalah speaks off, and the Light that is referred to in the first day of the creation of the world, the same?..

How do you discern between corporeal and spiritual? I read that the spiritual is the “nature of the giver,” which is outside our world. Why can we not say that the spiritual is a part of our world?..

What is Gimatria and how does it work?..

Baal HaSulam writes that one acquires desires to give by repentance, and then becomes qualified to receive pleasure from the Creator. What, then, is repentance for a Kabbalist?..

Is there really such a thing as death? What is the meaning of the words of the Zohar, when it says that “only the chosen will attain life in the next world”? What about the rest of humanity? What does man ultimately risk?..

Is the word, “pleasure,” that Kabbalists use in their books really about delight and pleasure as we understand it, or does it have a different meaning altogether, and they only call it that for convenience?..

What is completeness, and how can we feel it?..

How does the screen create new spiritual objects?..

How many worlds separate the soul from the Light?..

What and where is the world of “Ein Sof”? You write that a “world” is also every phase of Malchut, of the souls, the collective vessel. Is Malchut a Sefira or a world? Is creation Malchut? And what are all the upper Sefirot?..

The world, in and of itself, is something limiting, inhibitory. How then does Malchut of the infinite evolve through the souls?..

Which Light fills Malchut - is it one Light or five Lights?..

What do the Sefirot in the books of Kabbalah describe?..

When you said that everything moves from up downward, from the root to Malchut, I understood that it is Malchut that is in all the other attributes and the whole flow is going upward. But from what I read, it seems that the flow should be toward the middle, inside, to the root phase, which is within man. Does “up” mean “inside?”...

If a vessel is designed to receive Light, what is the meaning of a “giving vessel,” and how can the “will to receive” give?..

There is Light that fills the desire to enjoy, meaning the vessel, and there is a Light that corrects it. It is the Light that gives the vessel the intent “for the Creator” and builds the screen over the desire. These two Lights act completely differently on the vessel: the Light that corrects is called “the Light of correction of creation,” while the Light that fills it is called “the Light of the purpose of creation”...

Despite all the explanations, there is something I still don’t understand: is the vessel a desire, or an aim? Is there something that does not let the Light inside the vessel, but only creates an opening, without which the Light cannot enter?..

What is the love of man in the spiritual sense?..

The term “ Bina” is derived from the Hebrew word for understanding. Does that mean that Bina is one of the rational attributes?..

What are the 6,000 years that are mentioned in the books of Kabbalah?..

What is a Jew?..

Why is everything in our world divided into seven, ten or twelve?..

Why is Zeir Anpin divided by six parts instead of the ordinary five? What is the purpose of Yesod?..

What is that spiritual object called a “soul”?..

What is an awakening from below? Is there anyone who can act independently beside the Creator?..

What is the Messiah from the perspective of a Kabbalist?..

What is confidence and how can we attain it?..

Whom can I regard as my friend?..

What is humbleness from the perspective of the Creator?..

Can you please explain who is righteous and who is evil?..

Who is righteous and what is the meaning of the saying, “the righteous inherit the land”?..

Is it true that the human and corporeal conceptions of good and bad correspond to spiritual laws? If not, then what is the source of the good deeds in our world?..

What is the function of evil in our world?..

What is the system of reward and punishment in Kabbalah?..

Ejaculation is a sin, and so is getting drunk. Is every act performed in order to please yourself a sin?..

What is the end of the world in Kabbalah?..

Are we in hell?..

Please describe paradise...

What is happiness?..

Does one feel the process of crossing the barrier? If so, is this feeling continuous or temporary? I mean, can we tell ourselves with certainty that we are already THERE?..

Could you please explain the titles of two books: “The Tree of Life” and “The Inner Reflection”? Does “The Tree of Life” mean life in its general sense organic life, the force giving and supporting life, or life as being opposed to death, as not being? How can one briefly characterize the process of “The Inner Reflection”? What or who is the object of this reflection (watching, observing, contemplating)?..