Who Will Pave The Way To The Creator?

here.jpg A question I received: How do you tell if a person is ready to study Kabbalah or if it’s too early or potentially harmful for him yet?

My Answer: A person’s own desires will show him his path, as it is written, “Let a person study where his heart desires.” Therefore, Kabbalah never lures people in; it actually even pushes them away to determine if their heart’s desire is genuine.

Even when a person feels that he is finding all the answers in Kabbalah, it still doesn’t mean that he is in fact studying Kabbalah. Most people join our studies not exactly understanding why they have chosen to do so, similar to how in our world most people live by “whatever happens, happens.”

Such a person participates in the studies and even succeeds in acquiring knowledge. However, this knowledge is external because he doesn’t aspire internally to change his likeness to that of the Creator. And that is about 99% of the people coming to study Kabbalah. While they do carry out the intense job of correction, only a limited number of them have a persistent internal concern about the question regarding the goal – the precision and execution in attaining it.

Therefore, even those who engage in Kabbalah with a question about the meaning of life often remain entrenched as others in facing normal life challenges. They might even settle for religious observance or secular dogmas.

No matter who comes to study Kabbalah, we need to understand that the pyramid of desires in people is structured this way and therefore, it’s enough to have a limited number of people attain unification with the Creator. They will pave the way to Him for the others.

Would Someone Finally Tell Me What The Zohar Is All About?

power balance.jpg I receive many questions about studying The Zohar from old-time students as well as total beginners. People write, “We used to understand what we were studying. Talmud Eser Sefirot and “Introduction to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” (Pticha) gave us knowledge about the structure of the universe. Articles about the group made us think about unity and the goal that the group has to reach. Baal HaSulam’s articles explained Kabbalah’s connection to other sciences and its attitude to religion, philosophy, and freedom of will. It was clear that these articles dealt with the structure of the external society as well as man’s inner structure, which are questions related to psychology. But what the heck are we studying in The Book of Zohar?”

These questions indicate the wrong attitude to the study because everything must eventually unite into one. For example, the group is a collection of souls that have to unite together. It only seems to our vision and sensations that there are different, foreign souls and desires around us, and that we want to attach them to us in order to see the true picture.

It is impossible to study Kabbalah theoretically; this wisdom can only be attained practically. This is the whole point of studying the science of Kabbalah: it is intended for revealing the Creator to the creatures in this world.

The Creator (Bo-reh) means “Come and See” – come experience the quality of bestowal by revealing it inside you, by going from “love for the neighbor” to “love for the Creator.” The true perception of reality is when reality is no longer divided into “myself and others,” but everyone is united together into one whole. But how can we attain this unity and perception if we are still unable to feel all the souls as one man with one heart, to unite them with the Creator, and to feel this whole world inside us? How can we discover and understand it?

All of this has to be done to us by the Upper Light. The Light must bring us to the state where “There is none else besides Him” and “He is Good that does Good,” despite anything that happens to us. These two forms of concealment have to come together and unite; we just don’t know how to make it happen.

This is exactly our purpose when we start studying The Zohar: we have to desire for it to reveal the true reality to us, for the Creator to become revealed to the creation here and now, for the desire to be revealed together with the Light in it! In addition, we have to add a bit of sensitivity, concern, and fear to this approach. Each one of us should ask himself: Am I doing everything that has been allotted to me? Am I making the required amount of efforts that I am supposed to? This, in turn, depends on our sensation of the spiritual goal’s importance and a constant inner concern about it. Then we are guaranteed success.

The Other Side Of Life

mutual.jpg You are leading a double life, but you don’t even suspect it. You are sleeping, unconscious with respect to the other reality, which is governed by bestowal instead of reception. Do you want to discover it? Do you want to wake up? If so, then the science of Kabbalah is here to tell you about the other side of the double life you are now living.

When this new life is revealed to you, it is so powerful that your entire life of the past turns into a dream, as if it was not real. Your present life is short and temporary, but you can gradually reveal a new awareness by virtue of a means that the Kabbalists have given to us.

Why does the spiritual reality turn out to be more intense than the current one? It’s because it is eternal, harmonious, and perfect. We just have to reveal a connection with that reality while living our current life. We have to reveal a new desire, similar to how this might happen in a dream, as if you are sleeping and then suddenly you wake up because a powerful desire emerges, like an a alarm clock ringing.

We are all sleeping in this world, but suddenly we feel a yearning for a new reality. If we want to awaken, we will receive the means to do it. But why can’t we wake up by ourselves? It’s because we have to understand, build, and create the new reality in order to learn all of its finest details starting from scratch. Then we won’t be “sneaking” into this reality like a tiny worm that crawls somewhere it isn’t supposed to. We won’t be connecting to it from below, but will bring all of it inside us. We will encompass it all within us and will thereby become equal to the Creator, the force that governs there.

It’s Never Too Late To Read The Zohar

Heb5 A question I received: Is order important when reading The Book of Zohar? What if I’ve only joined the study recently? Should I read everything you’ve studied up to this point?

My Answer: First of all, it makes no difference which part of The Book of Zohar we are reading. It is written: “There is no time in the Torah.” So it doesn’t matter where you start reading: from the middle, end, or beginning.

It also doesn’t matter how much you understand or don’t understand, or whether you’ve joined the study just now and this is your very first lesson, or you’ve been studying a long time. You may join the study from the very beginning or be tuning in midway through the lesson, when half of the material has already been covered.

Everything we study are processes that take place in Bina, Zeir Anpin, and Malchut (AHP), where all the Upper Forces are located above Bina. That is to say, Bina is the Upper Forces’ relation toward us; Zeir Anpin is a system that conducts the forces of Bina to us along the three lines, and Malchut receives these three lines. We connect to Malchut and work on our connection to Zeir Anpin in order to connect to Bina.

The picture remains the same at all times – Bina, Zeir Anpin, and Malchut. There is nothing else. Therefore, no matter what Kabbalistic text you read, be it chapters of the Torah or parts of The Book of Zohar, the text invariably talks about the same thing – the correction of the soul in the system of AHP, ZAT de Atzilut.

This is why you will see a great deal of repetitions in The Zohar, which are all different descriptions of how the Light affects the soul. We do not know why the authors of The Zohar wrote it the way they did and why they chose those specific words and sequence of words. But they did it naturally; their writings reflect the correct actions of the Lights upon the desire as the soul ascends upward.

The Four Stages Of Attainment

historynow Children are a great example for us to follow because they have infinite energy and aspiration to learn about this world. They don’t tire of playing the same game a hundred times over, and they don’t care about anything; the most important thing to them is to do something all the time, even without thinking. The mind comes after the feelings.

Likewise, once you enter the spiritual world, you will understand everything. However, if you try to understand it first, you won’t be able to because the mind cannot precede the feelings.

Mental attainment is the last degree after all the sensual feelings have been attained:

  • Stage 0 (Behina Shoresh) is when I just begin to feel something.
  • Stage 1 (Behina Alef) is when I began to understand a little.
  • Stage 2 (Behina Bet) is when I learn of the reason for everything – that it all comes from the Creator.
  • Stage 3 (Behina Gimel) is when I become similar to Him and understand what kind of a relationship exists between us.
  • Stage 4 (Behina Dalet) is when I know, understand, and feel all the reasons and consequences; I then attain His mind.

Our development occurs according to these four stages, but it starts with feeling something for the first time. Until we feel something, the mind will only get in our way because we will be using the egoistic mind of this world.

Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 01.12.10

The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Shmini (On The Eighth Day),” Item 33, Lesson 2
While a person is asleep, the only thing he can do on his own is to desire to awaken.
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“Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 118, Lesson 48
After the breaking of the vessels, the creation recreates the image of the Creator within itself by connecting the broken pieces into a picture that is similar to Him.
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Preface to the Book of Zohar,” Item 40, Lesson 15
No individual has the strength to advance. However, we have the force of desire, which we can and must share with each other.
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