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The Torah is no mere historical text or a collection of laws. It is an instruction manual for the optimal form of connection between people, a guide that teaches us how to achieve balance with the forces of nature and ultimately reveal the Creator—the upper force of love, bestowal, and connection—within our relations. In short, the Torah is a system that leads us to spiritual attainment.
The Torah first appeared over 3,000 years ago. Initially, it was written as a single word, without divisions between letters, and later it became structured into the five books. Additional texts, such as the Prophets and the Writings, were compiled over time. These books contain coded messages written by those who had spiritual attainment, guiding future generations to achieve the same level of connection with the upper force.
However, there were many other texts written throughout history that did not become part of the Tanakh. Some of these were discovered in the Qumran Caves in 1947. While these scrolls provide historical insight, they were not written by those who had attained the Creator. The sages of the Great Assembly determined which writings held true spiritual wisdom, i.e., which were written from a state of spiritual attainment, and those are the texts that were preserved within the Torah.
The division between the written and oral Torah is also significant. The written Torah refers to texts that were recorded and passed down as structured writings. The oral Torah, however, was transmitted directly from teacher to student through inner attainment, beyond words. It is not simply a spoken tradition but a transfer of spiritual perception, something that cannot be captured in letters alone. The oral Torah is the knowledge that one acquires through their own spiritual growth, guided by a teacher who has already attained those states.
At its core, the Torah is not about laws and commandments in the conventional sense. Rather, the Torah is encapsulated in the phrase, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” This is not a moral directive, as many think. It is the fundamental law of the entire system of nature. Just as atoms and molecules form higher structures through mutual connection, so too must humanity connect with attitudes of love in the connections. When people unite in a bond of bestowal and love, they create a vessel in which the Creator can become revealed.
The complexity of the Torah is necessary because achieving this connection is not straightforward. Humanity is not instinctively drawn to unity in the way that nature’s elements are. Instead, we must apply ourselves to this goal, overcoming egoistic forces that drive us apart. This is why the Torah contains thousands of pages of commentary and explanation. It is not enough to simply say “love your neighbor as yourself.” We need to learn how to approach such a law, understand our own nature, the nature outside of us, and the precise methodology required to realize this law and acquire the nature of love and bestowal above our own nature.
The Zohar, written around 2,000 years ago, is one of the greatest commentaries on the Torah. However, without spiritual attainment, even The Zohar remains closed to a person. The Torah is written in the language of branches, the description of spiritual states using images from our corporeal world. To understand the Torah, we need to develop inner spiritual perception. This is why Kabbalists throughout history have provided explanations to help students approach these writings in a way that lets them attain the spiritual reality through their study.
Over time, the need for additional explanations arose as generations drifted further away from spiritual perception. The Mishnah, Talmud, and later Kabbalistic writings served to adapt the wisdom to each era, letting people gradually reconnect with spirituality through the Torah. Without such explanations, the five books of the Torah would appear as mere historical narratives, when in reality, they describe the process of a soul’s ascent to the Creator.
The Torah is not about external observance but about internal transformation. It instructs us on how to shift from an egoistic perception of reality—where we seek only personal benefit—to an altruistic perception, where we act for the sake of others and for the sake of the Creator. Such a shift requires a structured environment comprising of texts that describe the spiritual world and process, the support of others in a group or what Kabbalah calls a “ten,” i.e., others who have been granted a desire to spiritually ascend and who can support each other’s spiritual growth, and also a spiritually-attained teacher who can guide students through the stages of spiritual development.
One of the biggest challenges regarding the Torah is that people misunderstand what it is truly about and for. They view it as a book of commandments, stories, or historical accounts rather than a guide on how to change our egoistic intention to its altruistic opposite, thereby attaining the Creator’s very quality of love and bestowal and discovering the Creator. This misunderstanding leads to a world where people move further away from the Torah’s intended purpose. However, those who sincerely seek the truth will be led to the wisdom of Kabbalah, which opens the Torah’s deeper meaning.
The Torah is an instruction manual for building positive connections of love and bestowal among people, which leads to the revelation of the Creator. Those who wish to understand the Torah’s deeper meaning need to study it through the lens of the wisdom of Kabbalah, which if studied correctly, guides its students to the aforementioned goals. At the end of it all, when humanity learns to live by the law of “love your neighbor as yourself,” we will fully realize what the Torah was given for.
Based on the video “Reception of the Torah – Spiritual States with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.” Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
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