Q: You write that the study of the Kabbalah accelerates the advancement of man’s soul in its journey toward the spiritual. But that acceleration is certainly accompanied by an over-compression of events. In other words, what man should experience in hundreds of years he’ll experience in a few decades. But how strongly?
Moreover, he who studies and attains should contain within him the agony of the whole world, and he should expand his emotional vessels in order to absorb every desire. So what then, is the advantage of Kabbalah?
A: I don’t think that I can accurately convey to you the advantages, but:
-
There is no other way to attain the Upper World, but the Kabbalah. It is therefore called “The Path of Kabbalah.” You speak of another way - "The Path of Pain." This is not a path, but rather a state where a person temporarily weakens and abandons the vigorous progress of the Kabbalah. One waits on the side of the road, so to speak, before agony prods further movement to return to the path of Kabbalah and persist with it.
-
The Path of Pain is not another way to advance; it is not even a way, but merely a temporary state until such time as one “gets wiser.” It is only called “a path” for purposes of clarity.
-
Through the Kabbalah a person reduces pain and can foresee them. The pain itself is the correction. But a Kabbalist replaces the unnecessary pains, which one gets in order to grow wiser and take the path of Kabbalah, with pains of love for the Creator. Mankind doesn’t need the pains of the flesh, but through studying, we can receive only the goal-oriented pains that stem from a most vital need. We don’t need to suffer from petty things before we understand what we should actually yearn for.
-
Through a special preparation, we may possibly accelerate our ability to sense, analyze, correct and digest the pains of the desire to enjoy. As a result, these go by so quickly that we immediately use them in the opposite way, meaning we turn desires that were meant to give us pleasure into a basis for desires to please the Creator.
A great part of the Kabbalist’s journey is spent in the worlds of ABYA (Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, Assiya), where the Kabbalist gradually turns intended and unintended sins into virtues, and thus justifies the works of the Creator and His guidance. In these worlds, the system makes it possible to shorten the process significantly.