The Zohar talks only about the desire and what takes place within it. My friends are also my desires; they are aspirations to connect with each other and with me in order to reveal the Creator. The desires that work against that are called my enemies.

This is how I divide all reality. There is no such thing as “this world” or “the world to come,” but only one desire. We have to get used to these definitions and stop seeing the world in other ways. We have to get rid of the habit that we have from birth – seeing the world as a structure that exists outside us. We have to feel that we have had enough of that false perception and we want to return to the truth. We don’t want to live in this illusion anymore.

I want to understand my desire and reveal the force that operates within it. This force is attained through its actions. This is why The Zohar explains how my desires are connected with each other and how they influence one another. By learning what’s going on between my desires, I begin to understand this force.

This force cannot be revealed on its own, but only through its actions inside the desires. For example, how do we recognize a magnet? We do it by seeing how it moves pieces of metal. In order to identify it, you have to be smart and understand the sequence of cause and effect. If you show it to a child, he’ll think that you are performing miracles.

We perceive phenomena through cause and effect, through the reaction of matter as well as the consequences. We can’t see an electric current, but only the resulting effect, such as a moving or rotating object. Thus, we only perceive the manifestations of something, but cannot grasp the essence, even if it’s our own essence. This is why The Zohar explains all phenomena to us inside the general desire.

The problem is that Kabbalists do not have words at their disposal other than the words that belong to this world; that is why they use the language of branches. They use words that describe things in this world to depict things in the spiritual realm. It’s a true blessing that this language exists, as it allows us to enter spirituality independently and voluntarily, by learning to understand it from the outside in.

How can we find out about spirituality if we are on the outside and we don’t know or understand anything about it? In relation to spirituality, I am like a newborn. The difference is that a baby develops instinctively, pushed ahead by nature (the Creator), whereas we have to ask Him to give us the strength to advance towards Him. Yet, by doing so, we exercise our freedom of will – the freedom to become similar to the Creator.

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