I have to reveal a single reality, and in order to do this I need to find within myself the means that will help me accomplish it. Instilled within me are all the necessary forces to assist: the Creator, the creation, myself, the world, the friends, people, the teacher, the books, Rabbi Shimon and his group, Moshe, and the Torah, which is the program of the universe.

My “big” soul is the collection of these forces within a system of incredible vitality. I am standing before this big soul like a little child. It is mine, but I have to acquire and reveal it, to learn and activate it – all to the extent that I am able to do it correctly. It seems corrupted to me, although this actually isn’t so. It’s just that the current me is corrupted and this is why I see it this way. I need to correct myself and my attitude towards it.

Kabbalists explain to us how to burst open and uncover our own qualities, broaden the horizons of perception and feeling, and in doing so, to reveal this big soul in our desire.

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The Book of Zohar was concealed from people for a long time. Only a few chosen souls (Kabbalists) used it and passed it from one to another, forming a lineage.

The book was revealed to outsiders when the widow of the Kabbalist Moshe De Leon sold it along with other books belonging to her husband. That is when Kabbalists began to forbid its study and created rigid restrictions to repel people from it. In the meantime, they continued studying this book in order to correct their souls, and they also taught other disciples who had a point in their hearts. If, however, a person lacked a point in the heart and didn’t strive to reveal spirituality, then he was banned from opening this book.

Today humanity as a whole has reached a stage of development where The Book of Zohar can be opened by anyone; there is no danger in doing so. First of all, this is due to Baal HaSulam’s “Sulam” Commentary on The Zohar, and secondly, because of the current level of the souls’ development. Human egoism has become so boorish, aggressive and corporeal that if a person doesn’t have a point in the heart, he won’t be interested in The Book of Zohar.

Without a doubt, this book is the only resource capable of correcting the soul. We still don’t fully understand what a wonderful tool it is. We don’t feel even a single word of it and don’t use the Light that is supposed to reach us when we read this book. We are not yet connected to this functional system; we simply read the words without understanding their meaning.

When we understand what kind of system it is, connect to it and start using it, then The Book of Zohar will turn out to become the Malchut of the World of Infinity for us. Just like an embryo, we will enter the spiritual uterus that will become our world, and we will continue to grow by ascending from one world to another until reaching Malchut of the World of Infinity. That’s what The Book of Zohar means – it is a gradual revelation that works in this manner.

We don’t understand what a sacred book it is. It is truly a device for revealing the Upper Light!

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Just by reading The Zohar, we will reach the right sensation and the necessary demand. Why is that?

On one hand, we learn that if we don’t aim precisely at the source of the Light, if we don’t enter this ray and unite with everyone else so as to attain a collective desire, then we will not be successful. And that is correct, for that is the condition. But on the other hand, while we study and exert efforts, and go through different states, in the meantime the Light works us over and influences us.

We can accelerate time by “sanctification,” and this is best. However, in any case and in any state, even if a housewife is tending to her chores at home or washing the dishes (in Hebrew, dishes are also called “Kelim”) while listening to our Kabbalah TV channel  or The Zohar broadcast on the internet, she also tends to her spiritual Kelim.

That is how this book works. All we need is patience!

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A question I received: The Zohar evokes very powerful inner experiences, revealing the whole picture to me. But the moment I try to think about the unification of all souls, everything suddenly disappears and I am no longer able to keep my attention on the text. What should I do?

My Answer: Imagine that on your way to the Creator you’re passing through a filter or mechanism called the assembly of all souls, Malchut of the World of Atzilut. Otherwise you will not be able to unite with the Creator, with Zeir Anpin. You can only do it by passing through this system of souls, and that means absolutely all the souls that were created and then broken, and that now exist in Malchut of the World of Infinity in their uncorrected form.

If you want to reach Zeir Anpin, the Creator, you have to pass through this filter, this entire mechanism called the assembly of the souls of Israel, which is a union of all those who “aspire directly to the Creator.” In addition, you have to desire to unite them; you have to want to be that very Malchut of the World of Atzilut that unites with Zeir Anpin.

You do not exist unless you can connect all the souls within you, unless you can envision how the whole world is inside of you and how you take all of it to the Creator in order to bring all the souls into adhesion with Him. This is the picture you must see within yourself.

You do not exist in Malchut unless you want to unite with the other souls. Malchut is not your desire for fulfillment, but the desire to unite with the other souls, which you currently feel as distant from you and separated. However, the more you feel these souls in spite of everything and the more you want to unite with them, the more real becomes your existence in Malchut.

Malchut of the world of Atzilut is the result of your efforts to unite with the other souls; it is your joint desire together with everyone. When receiving the Torah, all the people had to unite as “one man with one heart” in order to unite with the Creator. That shared, central point for us all, the point wherein we unite with the Creator, is called Malchut of the World of Atzilut. Otherwise you are nowhere to be found in this picture.

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The five spiritual worlds are degrees of concealment between us and the World of Infinity which we have to overcome. Hiding behind them is the force of bestowal and love, which is currently concealed from us. We have to reveal it by attaining equivalence of form with this Force of bestowal and love, called the “Creator.”

How can we acquire at least some measure of equivalence to Him? We have to hope that The Book of Zohar will reveal a quality inside us that is similar to our corrected state, the Creator, Malchut of Infinity, Zeir Anpin, or the Light. We have to expect that the book will affect us in such a way that the quality of bestowal and love will emerge in us. This is, in fact, why we read The Book of Zohar. Otherwise, there would be no reason for us to even open it.

A question I received: So do we continue to work with The Book of Zohar on all 125 degrees?

My Answer: Definitely. Baal HaSulam writes this in “Preface to the Book of Zohar.” He explains that The Book of Zohar is written from an elevation of 125 spiritual degrees. Therefore, it affects us from that elevation, from the World of Infinity, and it corrects us on all the degrees until we reach the end of correction.

Therefore, this book is our guide on the path from the now and until the end of correction.

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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYeshev (And Jacob Sat),” Item 74
While reading The Zohar, one should try as much as possible to disconnect from the reality we see before us in everyday life.
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“Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 104, Lesson 42
The occurrences of the spiritual world that are described by Kabbalists take place within me at this very moment, as opposed to somewhere above.
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“Preface to the Book of Zohar,” Item 31, Lesson 9
It’s not an accident that my reality is split into inner and outer. This division helps me find the right approach to the world: me and the creation, division and unity.
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A question I received: You said that when we study The Book of Zohar, it is necessary to follow two conditions:

1. I have to think about wishing to unite with other souls,
2. I should desire to see myself participating in all the actions described in this book.

How does Malchut of the World of Atzilut establish a connection with Zeir Anpin of the World of Atzilut? Do these two conditions also apply to it?

My Answer: Malchut does not exist unless we tune into it under the above conditions. Nothing exists except Infinity; there are no degrees and no worlds. But as soon as I perform an action that has equivalence of form with the Creator, or stated differently, as soon as I become similar to the Creator in the slightest measure, matching Him with the smallest ten Sefirot, this action immediately builds a ladder of degrees. This ladder is a relationship between me – the point comprised of ten Sefirot, and the Creator – the World of Infinity. [Read more →]

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A question I received: How can I find the inner qualities that The Zohar describes if I don’t understand any of it and can’t connect to it?

My Answer: We are like babies who don’t know what kind of world they exist in, but are in the loving hands of their mother and relatives who provide them with everything necessary for their growth. A baby just has to desire to grow up, and nature helps by providing him with this desire.

In our world, meaning on the animate level, this desire exists in babies naturally. Even on the still and vegetative levels, as well as the animate level, which includes a person’s physical development in this world, there is a natural desire to grow. However, if we want to grow on the human level – in spirituality, then the desire has to come from us.

Development happens naturally on the still, vegetative and animate levels of nature. Thus far, we – the people in this world – have developed on all these levels, and our desire has also developed on the same levels throughout all of history. But now we have to ascend to the “speaking” or “human” level. The human level means that we have to develop and attain the goal on our own. Based on all our bodily desires (for food, sex and family) and our social desires (for wealth, fame, power and knowledge), we have to develop our own aspiration to spirituality. We start with a point in the heart, but then we have to continuously push it to develop using the help of our environment.

To do this, we need the group because only it can give us the desire to develop the point in the heart. Armed with this desire, we begin to read The Book of Zohar together with the group. While we read, we have to desire to develop, where “development” means finding our future state or sensation in The Book of Zohar. This is the only thing we are looking for now.

Besides this, all we have to do is wait. Therefore, just desire to grow, like a baby who naturally wants to become an adult. See if you can calm him down, convince him not to grow, or not to desire and demand it. You’ll find that it is impossible to stop him because nature pushes him to develop with an insurmountable force. That is how tirelessly we must work in spirituality. We must always be searching within ourselves, and we must never calm down and never stop changing. Then we will indeed grow up. This is the only condition and the only thing required of us.

The system exists, but we have to set it in motion with our desire, our inner aspiration. Without this inner pressure coming from us, that system will not influence us. That is to say, it will influence us through suffering, in order to awaken us, but we won’t advance an inch this way, by means of suffering sent to us from Above. We can only advance by means of our own desire, which comes from below, from us.

We may be receiving perpetual difficulties and problems, yet be stuck in the same place because these problems are insufficient for us to desire to unite with the correct group and to acquire a desire to develop. Despite the difficulties, we will be standing in the same place. By themselves, the difficulties are not a sign of development, but on the contrary, a sign that we have not made a single step forward yet.

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The world we perceive was not given to us by accident. It follows from nature, which includes two opposite forms: the Creator and the creation. When we begin to ascend, we are given this world in order to help us become similar to the Creator and eliminate the difference between the point of creation, “existence from nothingness” and the Creator, or the difference between the Kli and the Light. This world is a state perceived by the point of creation, which is separated from the Creator and opposite to Him.

In order to lead us to “the other side of the screen,” to take us from one picture to another, we were given a means called The Book of Zohar. It is a means that takes us from a state of disunity to a state of unity. This is why we are given the state we now perceive and the state we have to reach, as well as all the levels and stages that we have to go through on this path, and the means – The Book of Zohar, which tells us about the connection between the two worlds, about how one world clothes into the other. None of these things are accidental.

We have to make efforts in order to use this means, The Book of Zohar, to change ourselves. The more this book will become revealed to us, the more it will change us. Thus, we will continuously move forward, advancing from our current sensation of a black point that reveals its own nature and attains its opposition to the Light.

All of reality exists inside this point of creation, or rather, reality exists relative to this point’s perception. This point contains all the worlds and all the changes; everything is inside it. In addition, this point does not change in relation to the Creator that created it; in relation to Him it is always in the corrected, best possible state. It is the only existing point of creation, which He created from nothing (Yesh Mi Ein).

When we read The Zohar, we have to realize that we are not looking at a book, but a special mechanism that bridges our two states – the current state where we are separated from the Creator, can only feel ourselves, and are locked in a black point, and the future, higher state where we are united with Him. Using a special language or program, The Zohar shows us what actions and inner changes we can make in order to restructure ourselves within and be able to receive the Light that is outside of us for now.

Then our inner structure will be similar to the Light, the Creator. At the same time, we will always remain comprised of the matter called “the will to receive,” or “existence from nothingness.”

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If I look at myself from the side, as an unbiased psychologist, I begin to see how the Creator controls me. From this perspective I can respond to things more correctly, assume control over myself, set a goal, and make use of all my resources to achieve it.

I must always try to see what is controlling me and how I am being controlled. Sometimes I am dominated by overwhelming desires, and I simply lose my head and surrender. I forget that these desires have taken over me and that they are not me.

Still, I must remain my own judge and struggle for an opportunity to continue to push spiritually. But if I am to succeed, I must find an additional force, one that lies beyond the plane of corporeal desires; this force can only be received from the right environment.

Here is me with my physical desires, and there’s the environment with human desires for money, fame, power and knowledge. In order to advance spiritually I have to get out of this circle and connect to another kind of force – one of spiritual origin.

I have a point in the heart, but that is not enough. I need the group, the study, the books, and the teacher because they will give me that great force that I need in order to lift me out of all these corporeal desires and push me into the spiritual world.

It is not my plan to neglect these desires. I have to use them as a basis, and then, together with the help coming from this new force, I will be able to set the right course. This is how my point in the heart, which awakened within the rest of my desires, helps me to find a new environment – a new world. Therefore, without this environment, I would be left with nothing.

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