Kabbalah - a Jewish Doctrine - Essay Example

Kabbalah - a Jewish Doctrine INTRODUCTION It has been a usual practice for scientists around the world to study the fundamental laws of nature, the natural behavior of human beings, and the existence of human beings around the globe since ages. However, in present times, scientists around the world understanding and recognizing the fact that the more they develop their research in this matter, the more complex picture of the world comes into the view. Although science has revolutionized our world upside down, yet there are certain limitations beyond which the development seizes to occur. For example, scientific measurements and mathematical calculations cannot obtain the measurement of soul of the human beings and not even the basic stimuli for their different actions. Had it be under their control, they would have been capable of controlling the people mindset according to their wishes. However, since they cannot even interpret the most fundamental perceptions of human being, the human beings are still not aware of the reason of their existence in this world. Kabbalah responds to this basic query, and shows the complete guidelines that result in utter satisfaction and everlasting contentment. It makes the human beings to get the accession of the necessary notion of the spiritual kingdom, the sixth sense, improving the way human beings live in this world. In specific, this paper will now attempt to discuss and analyze some of the significant aspects of Kabbalah – a Jewish Doctrine. KABBALAH’S ESSENCE What is Kabbalah Kabbalah is one of the oldest educations that encompass numerous languages and various kinds of expressive reflections. This includes the language of different stories that the Bible utilizes and the language of rules, which Talmud utilizes. Even the Kabbalah has its own language; it utilizes different drafting and drawings, formulae, and matrices. Kabbalah uses hardcore mathematical principles to show spiritual process (Dosick, pp. 23-25). Music is also a medium to express and convey spiritual feelings. Although the human beings are unaware of the music, the older Kabbalists used to compose, but they have the knowledge that music used to exist at that time and the Kabbalists utilized it to express sensations relative to the spiritual world. The newest Kabbalistic music is the only music known to human beings at present, and that belongs to Rabbi Ye-Huda Ashlag and one of his sons, Rabbi Baruch Ashlag (Warner, pp. 31-36). Music has this upper hand over context that everyone can listen to it, even if the person is unable to decipher anything about Kabbalah at all. History The history of Kabbalah and that of the world extracts their detail from the same source in the same manner however; the only difference that exits is the Kabbalah interprets the history of the world through the eyes of spirit. A very famous Kabbalist said the same thing ages ago. According to him, the best example of Kabbalah is what happened to Abraham. The world was in dark, seeking guidance from idols and then Abraham through his deep pondering realized that there is only one Creator of this universe (Mathers, pp. 98-111). After this ultimate discovery, he understood that life’s sacred truth is now open to his eyes and then, he wasted no time in letting the world know about it. He formulated a brand new methodology in this regard, which is still under practice and the world knows it by the wisdom of Kabbalah. The heart of this world famous uncovering holds its basis on the fact the whole universe experience an obliging force of love, attachment, selflessness, and altruism. Bible uses the word Creator for this obliging force. People who think that Abraham discovery was merely a happening are wrong, as it was the destiny to counter the evil forces of that time and after that, and to guide people towards the love, light, and wisdom. Abraham faced their ruler, Nimrod, and showed with the help of divine light that his methodology is hundred percent accurate and practical (Laitman, pp. 33-39). As the usual practice, Nimrod decided not to accept the teachings of Abraham and tried to kill Abraham. Abraham ran for his life in the nook of corner of this world and then he reached the place known as the Land of Israel. He suffered many difficulties there, but at last Abraham’s labor bore, fruit and some of the locals accepted his teachings. His follower helped him to spread the word even more and took his message from place to place. Bible calls these followers in collective as the nation of Israel. This nation then had one thing intersecting to each person, and that was urging for the Creator. The second step towards Kabbalah was the writing and conciliation of the book of Zohar. It came into existence just after the exile of people of Israel. There were two main pillars of the second stage namely, Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai (Rashbi) and The Holy Ari (Rabbi Isaac Luria) (Mathers, pp. 40-44). The second stage varies from the first stage in the sense that the second stage was the period of elusive development and insidious growth. The methodology of guiding and unifying the people did undergo more nourishment and refinement at that time within small groups. In the beginning of 1990; s the third and the final step of humankind’s spiritual development started. There was a forecasting and prediction by Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag, author of the Sulam (Ladder) commentary on The Book of Zohar, it stated that the last step would initiate in the year of 1995. Now it is as clear as the crystal that in order to change the world around them for something better, the human beings first need to change themselves (Samuel, pp. 56-63). Teachers Over the ages, many of the profoundly written books have appeared on the topic of Kabbalah. Out of the ocean the four pearls deserves the most significance. Rabbi Akiva is a source of aspiration and a role model. After the departure of Rabbi Akiva, another beautiful personality Rabbi Shimmon Bar-Yochai (Rashbi) appeared on the face of earth who presented the Book of Zohar. After the long time delay of fourteen centuries, Rabbi Isaac Luria (The Holy Ari) came to this world in order to continue the wisdom of Kabbalah (Laitman, pp. -39). The last one is the series is Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam), who has return the most significant book of The Study of the Ten Sefirot in the history of Kabbalah. CONCEPTS Spiritual World The purpose of creation was to endorse an urging to receive delight. This desire’s evolution consists of four phases. The creature guide system of desires is the root for existence of everything in this world. Spiritual means the thing, which is not for the human being but only for the creator, when the consequence of any deed does not match with the one who acted. This world is the lowest and the farthest stage of spirituality for a Kabbalist. In this condition, there are some natural forces that works for the human beings, our selfish nature does not let us do anything which is helpful to the world but not for human beings. Kabbalists call it the state of Pharaoh. The egoistic nature of human being does not allow them to sense the nobility in any cause. The counterforce for the state of Pharaoh that releases human being from the world of egotism is the state of Moses (Laitman, pp. 354-373). Light There is only one light in this whole universe and it seems different in several forms of the creature in different part of the world at different instants of time. It depends on the creature’s capability to absorb the light. The misconception that light is outside the creature is vague and illogical. Light is the feeling of Creator by its creation, the presence of Creator in anything makes it feel good and vice versa (Dosick, pp. 39-44). Death The feeling of life or death starts with entrance to the spiritual realm, and not belongs to the death or life of the physical body of human beings. Death happens when the feeling of creature is gone for the creature and vice versa is the life. The existing state is more devastating because in this state, the human beings never had any sensations of their Creator. Kabbalah is the process that guides us how to get an eternal life (Laitman, pp. 376). The first degree of spiritual realm is realization of the fact that death is distancing from Creator and life is nearing towards him. Creature should seek help to obtain this degree of spirituality. The Sefirots Sefirots are the assigns imparted to the creature to sense the existence of the Creator. This is the reason behind the mastery impressions of Sefirot as it shows the assigns of the Creators. These are the assigns of Creator, which He wants to see in His creature in order to let them feel His existence. Humankind acquires the assigns of Creator with the help of Sefirot, his own attributes. This is similar to the condition where we know about a person through his assigns and responses in different situation. Sefirot is the way to achieve Creator’s nearness in the manner desired by the Creator. The Creator rests in humankind’s soul. A person feels complete through following the attributes of Sefirot as Creator comes in His soul. Righteous & Evil Like the two sides of a picture, every spiritual degree has two basic contrary parts, one is what we call righteous, and the other is evil. If a person has attributes as demanded by the creator, is a righteous person and if a person denies the presence of Creator and has the opposite attributes as that of Sefirot is an evil. The dweller of the world of Assiya is an evil while the dweller of the world of Yetzira is righteous (Laitman, pp. 379-80). Someone who has acquired any spiritual state in the spiritual realm is righteous while some on who is negligent of the concept of spirituality is an evil. Heaven & Hell Paradise is the state of perfection, everlasting joy, and ultimate pleasure. A man acquires this state when he has submitted his will to that of the Creator. The creatures that have an urge and desire the nearness of the Creator obtain this state (Laitman, pp. 384). This implies to the fact the man would deserve heaven if he adhere himself to the Creator, he develops the attributes that can make him most near to the Creator. Hell is the feeling of disgrace and dishonor. The only feeling in this world that a person’s ego cannot bear is the feeling of hell as it brings shame and dishonor to the person; it disgraces the soul and thoroughly countermands it. The feeling of hell makes the humankind to sense the upper status of the one and only Creator (Laitman, pp. 383). Death expresses the fact that the human beings are at lowest position in this world and nowhere to be seen in spiritual world. Hell is the place for people who are evildoers. Other Religions There is such thing as Kabbalah in other religions because the wisdom and mathematical model of Kabbalah does not hold its basis on any religion, but science. The knowledge and wisdom of Kabbalah develops the desire for knowledge and nearness of Creator, it deepens this desire as well. This concept of Kabbalah is totally about awareness of one self and acquirement the adherence of the Creator. The basic purpose of Kabbalah is not to unify the religions of the world, as it does not inter link any of the other religions. Kabbalah is the science that deals with studies of necessary core of humankind, this world, and the world above, the universe, and linking everything to the Creator. The result of this science is the face that through Kabbalah the humankind desires to become like the creator. Nevertheless, religions are the set of rituals and worldly prayers that is necessary to facilitate them during their life of world and after that, but nothing in spiritual context. KABBALAH’S STRUCTURE Kabbalah’s Wisdom The only real law is the height of the utmost delight that the human beings extract from their Creator. The basis of all other laws of Kabbalah is the actual illustrations relating to it. Every real thing happening in this world is execution of this law. Everything in this world at any given instant is under the motivation of the force that stimulates humankind to touch the state of everlasting pleasure; this includes the overwhelming of creation’s heart with the brightness of their Creator (Laitman, pp. 54-83). To the creation, the Creator is as magnetic as the force of gravity; Creator is at the origin of this universe. Firstly, He drives the souls to reach five worlds away from Him, where the farthest place is this world. Moreover, in the second step, He begins to attract the human beings towards Him. The humankind senses this phenomenon as mandatory; this process involves torments and discomforts of every form. It is the essence of Kabbalah wisdom that human beings understands their own selves in every possible manner, in order to obtain the nearness of Creator and most imperative notion is that they don’t require the tormenting force for that. The students of Kabbalah gains more spiritual power and cognition until they reach the point to the vicinity of Creator speedily and in a very easy manner. This helps in reducing their sufferings, depression, and distress. Mathematical Structure Kabbalah shares a composite mathematical system. Most of the times, it involves Gimatria, however statistical table, complex relational equalities and inequalities, and formulae makes up the mathematical part of Kabbalah as well. The sequence involved in it is similar to those of math with the coordination of some Hebrew alphabets (Laitman, pp. 54-83). The learning of Kabbalah does not involve the spiritual concepts and practices but the mathematical influences as well. Students can only feel the influence or result of any of their action only if they have complete knowledge about what they are going to perform. The people who can redo the process from its core are only the people who can transmit these sensations through an utterly different language or medium. This makes the wisdom of Kabbalah accurate enough to provide guidance for spiritual practices. Prayer A prayer is an urging or wishes that one sense in his heart. Whatever the human being asks of the creator is a prayer. Kabbalah guides the human beings how to synchronize one’s heart for right prayers that would guide to the sensations of the Creator (Laitman, pp. 310-311). CONCLUSION Studying Kabbalah is one of the most amazing things and it brings force of extreme power even to the people who do not have belief in it. In the studies of Kabbalah, it is not primarily important to understand everything but to seek the understanding of everything one learns. This bears wonderful fruits, as then there would be a sensation of light within the heart of that person. This light would help and heal the depression, sadness, distresses, pains, and all the evil from the heart of the humankind. If the human beings do not acquire this spiritual state, their torments would continuously increase until a point comes where the person would realize the root cause of these problems and return to his Creator (Laitman, pp. 313-350). It is the basic requirement of the soul to have its heart overwhelmed with the light it had before coming to the world. The soul of the man came into existence in the world of Ein Sof. Then it comes to the physical body of the human beings after travelling through five other worlds. The basic law pertaining to this system is that of selflessness and it would remain forever no matter if we acknowledge it, act upon it, idealize it, and understand it or not. Refusing this universal law, would cause devastating effect, tormenting times, and painful events for the people who are not following it. It is only the wisdom of Kabbalah, which allows us to understand the nature of the law, and sheds the guidance on how to follow it in order to achieve eternal bliss. Conclusively, the paper has discussed some of the significant aspects of Kabbalah Doctrine. It is an expectation that the paper will be beneficial for students, teachers, and professionals in better understanding of the topic. Works Cited Dosick, Wayne D. 20 Minute Kabbalah. Waterside Publishing, 2008. Laitman, Michael. Kabbalah, Science and the Meaning of Life. Laitman Kabbalah Publishers, 2006. Laitman, Michael. The Kabbalah Experience. Laitman Kabbalah Publishers, 2005. Laitman, Rav. Basic Concepts in Kabbalah. Laitman Kabbalah Publishers, 2006. Mathers, S. L. M. The Kabbalah. Watkins, 2006. Samuel, Gabriella. The Kabbalah Handbook. Jeremy P. Tarcher, 2007. Warner, Charles Dudley. Library of the World’s Best Literature. BiblioBazaar, 2008. Read More