Question: What is the use of studying The Book of Zohar if I discover that I am merely trying to run away from my earthly problems?

Answer: A person studying The Zohar does not have any earthly problems besides one: to unite with the friends to such a degree that the upper Light will become revealed inside of the connection between them. All the problems come only from the lack of Light. There is no other source and no other solution.

A person can fuss about and try to correct this state using all the possible earthly means, and he will discover that he seems to have corrected it, but instead of correcting it, even worse problems arose, and everything became much worse. Why is that?

That’s because he thought that he could overcome the previous problems alone, but maybe now, when greater troubles came crashing down on him, he will no longer think that he will overcome them alone and perhaps he will turn to the right solution. And if that doesn’t help, then he will be sent even greater problems until his cup of suffering overflows and he will see “the hand of God” in it, like Pharaoh’s sages did.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/8/11, The Zohar

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When reading The Book of Zohar, we have to see the Light in it that corrects us and returns us to the source. But what has to be returned to the source? I have to place something “beneath” the Light. The Light shines, but do we have the desire that we want to correct? This is what we have to be concerned with.

The desire has to be suitable for being corrected by the Light. If the desire does not correspond to it, then the Light still influences it, but in that case we feel bad to the extent of our desire’s difference from the Light. This remains so until we make our desire suitable for correction.

That’s why there is a rule, “Make your desire like His” and then “He will make your desire like His,” like the desire to bestow and love.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/8/11, The Zohar

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Question: What does “There is none else besides Him” mean? And how do people with the point in the heart, without the point in the heart, and the religious masses attain Him?

Answer: People existing in our world can relate to the whole of reality just as to the environment in which they live, similar to all living beings. Besides that, people can have an additional relationship to their life that animals do not have. If a person was taught to believe in the upper force, this relationship can be either good or evil. If you are good, the upper force will be good to you, and if you are bad, it will be evil to you. This force wants you to be good and thus sends challenges to you. It treats you with kindness if you behave well. So, it is worth being good.

What does it mean to be “good” in the eyes of the upper force? Here, people have invented various systems to the point of sacrificing their own children and annihilating infidels in religious wars. Coming from their ego, people created for themselves all kinds of relations to this upper force.

Baal HaSulam explains the origin of religions and beliefs in his article “The Peace.” In essence, religions are a system for the development of humans, advancing them to spirituality. Those layers of desires to enjoy which are not able to aspire to the Creator move ahead with the help of religions. People know one thing only: There is the upper force, and we are in a certain system of relationship with it: If I am good, it is kind; if I am bad, it is evil.

Then, the sole problem is to define the desires of this upper force. Every religion has its own view on this matter, and each considers itself the right one. And here is all the difference between the religions: how to worship this upper force, how to fulfill its desires so we can live comfortably in this world and in the future world. They seem to work in front of this upper force like in front of the lord, the king: “How can we fulfill Him so He is pleased with us?”

Thus, there are three types of people:

1. Entirely secular with an animal’s attitude towards reality
2. Religious who worship the upper force, trying to find the ways to please it
3. Kabbalists

Kabbalists say that this upper force, the Creator, has no relations with you personally. Even if you say that there is none else besides Him, the good who does good, it is an all-embracing power.

Everything depends on me, and He has no personal relationship with me. Everything is determined by the measure of my transformation in simple, constant, unchangeable existing Light, as it is said: “I did not change my HaVaYaH,” “the Law was given and cannot be transgressed.”

This means that the Creator has no personal relationship with me, has no calculations with respect to me, nothing! I simply feel that He does. But I perceive a computer just the same way. Let’s say, I was working on the computer yesterday and got angry with it in earnest, was ready to smash it with a hammer. Was it its fault? It is a gadget made of steel and plastic.

However, since I work with it, I transfer my personal qualities onto it, think of its behavior as good or bad, and fume at it: “Look what it has done to me!” Similarly, I get angry with a car if something happens to it.

These are fundamental things inherent in our nature. This is not funny at all. Our belief in the power of nature, which treats me kindly or unkindly, stems from here. What do we tell a child when he hits himself on a table? “Hit it back; it has hurt you!” And if it is not a table, but something more abstract, large and all-encompassing, we speak in a different way: “Treat Him well, and He will do you good.” Faith starts from here.

We don’t understand yet that if we are not at the point of truth, we don’t work with anything. We merely work against the law of nature, as “the law was given and cannot be transgressed.” The Creator doesn’t change. Thus, whether I am good or bad, it affects only me. I don’t do to the Creator either good or bad; I don’t touch Him.

When I say that He is happy for me or I make Him sad, it is I who says this. I just perceive this in my senses. If so, what or who makes me change? My ego? It means that I do this only with the purpose of feeling good. Nothing else obliges me! Or maybe the environment, threatening me with punishment, forces me to change?

If this is our attitude towards the entire, perfect reality, no one can force me to change. It can happen only by faith above reason! Why do I exist in this broken, false reality? I want to build from it an independent attitude towards this force, “the good who does good,” the only existing one. What does “an independent attitude” mean? It means that I relate to this force without any personal goal, and it doesn’t know, understand, or sense anything from me. What do I base my work on? “He hangs the Earth upon nothing,” which is called “ten Sefirot Blima (concealing).”

Gradually, I come to such perception of reality that I don’t make any personal calculations, like I make today. I just want to learn from this force its property, become similar to Him. This is my reward. I need no result, neither for the force, nor for myself; I desire only to become like Him, as it is said: “The reward for a commandment is to know the One who commands.”

These are very subtle concepts that are impossible to explain. A person who has no point in the heart will never be impressed by this or understand what is hidden behind. “For whom do I work then? If there is nobody but me who would receive my work and, as a result, treat me differently, it means that I work against the wall, against the void. Then, what do these words mean: “The book is open, and the hand is writing,” “sentences himself and the world to a scale of merit?”

All these words are intended to bring us closer to the ideal, which is called “faith above reason.” There, you don’t have any calculations that you can imagine. You have no one to address. You can make calculations only with the one who has desire, strength, and action. “There is none else besides Him” and “the good who does good” implies that He doesn’t act from the other side. We talk about our actions: changes of states, reactions, but He doesn’t have anything. If so, it’s as if He doesn’t act. He doesn’t seem live if He doesn’t change. This is how it appears to us.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/26/2011, Shamati No. 1

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Question: The world group contains a great desire that we can work with, but how do we penetrate within?

Answer: We are still lacking mutual guarantee. That’s the problem. Everyone has a desire, but we still don’t feel total interconnection, when any hole in the common boat sinks it to the bottom. Obviously, the Creator is helping us with it since we can’t plug all the holes ourselves. It is written: “Turn to Me, and I will repay.” However, later on, He will pass this work down do us, and we will repay Him the debt.

Hence, we lack the sensation of interdependency, the necessity to care for everyone. I am supposed to feel concerned and worried about everyone staying unified, as a mother cares for her children’s health and well-being. Caring in a person’s heart will help others and return to him amplified manifold.

After all, the group is a very powerful amplifier. In response to my caring, the friends envelop me in it. The more I contribute to the group, the more the group enhances my attitude and returns it to me manifold. I aim my thoughts at the friends yet again, adding my contribution to what I have received from them.

How do I work on this desire? I fall half way. The Creator trips me, and all of the sudden, having the group back me up with such a wonderful and powerful desire, I start ignoring my wealth. After all, I received such a burning inspiration from the friends that there is no more room for my personal effort. Where am I then, if everything comes from them?

Therefore, in order for me to put my share in, I am given a descent. Out of necessity, I start climbing up as if I am trying to get out of a hole; I fall and keep climbing up again until I reach the surface. Once more, I put forth my effort into the friends.

It’s hard to keep trying since it’s all gone as if I hadn’t gotten anything from them in the first place. What has caused this “reboot?” The point is that I have ascended to a new degree. Now I start at a zero on it, but it’s the zero degree of the new level, a higher one than my previous state.

Obviously, it is first presented to me as an even greater darkness. There are even more obstacles and egoism at this new level since I rose higher, to my more powerful, uncorrected desires. Thus, I continue on my spiritual path.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/21/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Working in the group, I receive from it a strong desire. I crave to break free from egoism, but what can I do? Desire in itself is capable of nothing. Even more than that, such a desire, however powerful, is selfish.

I don’t want bestowal per se, but the profit that it promises. That means that I am under the yoke of Pharaoh. I have a very strong desire to give within the desire to receive: I’m looking forward to profit from bestowal.

As a consequence, the discrepancy, the gap, the polarity, the conflict of interest, inside of me is growing. I want to bestow in order to fill my egoistic desire. After all, bestowal makes me eternal, perfect, boundless, unfettered, immune to any crisis. Forget about tsunamis and stock market crashes; everything is wonderful! Who wouldn’t want it? My ego wants it, voraciously.

Yet, it’s incapable of it. Then the upper force comes and breaks through my "black hole," allowing me to escape. In fact, although you can describe it as an escape, by and large, I am not running anywhere. I stay in the same place, but suddenly, I feel myself free from egoism, from the desire to receive. That’s it.

Suddenly, it turns out that the black hole no longer contains the light inside; it becomes transparent. Everything flows through it now, and it channels all sorts of influences from other dimensions, which I call by different names: the Light of Nefesh, the Light of Ruach, and so on. Thus, we advance.

What’s essential for us is to cross the boundary, to begin the renewal (Hidush). In Hebrew, it’s called Rosh Hódesh, the beginning of the month. Our renewal is to attain our first attribute of bestowal with the help of the upper force.

To do it, however, we need to invite action from the upper force, and for that, we first need to unite. Let it be an egoistic unity; it doesn’t matter whether it’s successful or not. Only when we build the right environment, the wind of spiritual change will blow among us.
[41143]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/21/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Baal HaSulam, “All Who Suffer for the Public”
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The Book of Zohar – Selected, Chapter, “Mishpatim, ‘The Grandfather,’” Item 299
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 1, Part 1, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Lesson 9
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Baal HaSulam, “The Nation,” “The Individual and the Nation”
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