The Zohar, Chapter “BeHukotai (In My Statues),” Item 5: Balak was wise. In his deeds he was the greatest of the wizards, greater than Balaam. I learned that everything that one wishes for in this world in the work of the Creator, he should awaken with an act below. This is so because with the act below, the act above is awakened….

It appears as though we depend on the desire from Above, for the Light to awaken us. However, when we begin to work below, we bring the awakening from Above.

Concerning the “awakening from below” and “awakening from Above,” it is written, “I am the first and I am the last.” This means that all is done by the Creator. It’s obvious that everything begins with the Creator; however, it is necessary for us to become involved in the process. At the beginning of one’s spiritual work and at the very end, a person receives help from Above, but everything else depends on him.

This is exactly the place where we usually become lost. When a person is at the lowest point of his fall, he is unable to climb out of it by himself, about this it is written, “A prisoner cannot liberate himself from the prison.” But if he is thrown the end of a life-line, then the rest depends on him (he has to grab it himself). He is accountable as to whether or not he has used the opportunity correctly.

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The Zohar, Chapter “Chayei Sarah (The Life of Sarah),” Item 220: …‘I said that you are all angels and sons of God,’ meaning upon the reception of the Torah. And since you damaged yourselves, meaning sinned, you will indeed die as humans. Hence, that evil serpent that darkened the world cannot govern anyone who engages in the Torah.

Because we study Kabbalah, the Upper Light holds us up like a magnet, while the serpent, the egoistic desire that takes life from us, remains below, and is unable to rule over us. Man rises above his animate life and does not even feel it. We only need a desire for the Light to change us while we are reading The Zohar.

Kabbalah is a wisdom that explains everything that happens in our world and our entire path, but if we want to rise above it, we need a force to raise us to a higher degree. Our mind and our feelings will not help us; we must acquire a new development from the higher degree. We are unable to understand what it is like to live in spirituality, just like a rock is unable to think like a plant and a dog or a cat is unable to understand what it is like to be human; it is the same thing. This is why we need the Upper Force to make this change within us. And we will acquire it from The Zohar.

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A question I received: By studying The Book of Zohar, will I learn how to obtain a connection with global nature?

My Answer: No, you will not learn anything. However, you will rouse a certain force onto yourself, and this force will influence you, change you, and connect all the different qualities in you to equivalence to nature. To the extent that you become an integral part of nature, make yourself similar to it, and unite with it, you will also understand everything.

Understanding comes after everything, as a result of all the changes and unifications that you achieve. However, by merely reading The Book of Zohar, you will not understand anything. You need to read The Zohar with the intention for it to make you an integral part of nature, to make you in oneness with all of reality.

To the extent that you unite with it, you will begin to feel that you are part of one whole, and from this sensation you will already begin to understand. This is called attainment, the last stage, which you achieve as a result of the unification. This unification with nature is called “adhesion with the Creator.”

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The Book of Zohar — Selections, Chapter “VaYaera (And The Lord Appeared),” Item 67
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The Zohar, Chapter “Chayei Sarah (The Life of Sarah),” Item 41: Such are the ways of the Creator. If He gives wealth to a person, it is to nourish the world and to do His commandments. If he does not do it, but takes pride in his wealth, he will be struck in it, as it is written, “Wealth kept for its owner is to his hurt.”

…Similarly, when the Creator gave them of the beauty of the superior good of Adam ha Rishon, He gave it to them to keep His commandments and to do His will. They did not do it, but were proud; they were struck in that same beauty with which they were blessed.

Therefore, a person that cries, “Why does the Creator treat me this way?” has to understand that a person himself is provoking the harm. We are the ones who cause our own blows by not correctly using the opportunities that the Creator gives us in order to rise. We stumble on these very opportunities, fall down, then we essentially beat ourselves. This is what The Zohar tells us, “They were struck in that same beauty with which they were blessed.”

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Preparation to the Lesson
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Shamati #34: “The Profit of The Land”
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“Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 36
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The Book of Zohar — Selections, Chapter “VaYaera (And The Lord Appeared),” Item 61
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