Can You Taste The Zohar?

taste A question I received: You spoke of two types of inner searching while reading The Book of Zohar. One is more rational, where we look within ourselves for what it says. The other type of search is sensory where we attempt to feel everything it says. However, as I’m trying to sense something, I find that I don’t feel anything. I’m trying to find something within myself, but have found nothing. What should I do?

My Answer: Keep searching. You should desire to find within you all that The Zohar talks about. All of it is within you, including the Creator, man, animals, fish, the world, hills, mountains, trees, crocodiles, and it doesn’t matter what else.

There isn’t a single word that describes anything outside of you. Why is that? Every word consists of letters, with the letters being desires or vessels of reception – Kelim, which are ordered in accordance with the Lights. This is what you should desire to feel.

The desire is represented by a word, but it already exists. You should desire to know this word and feel it, to actually be within the letters, which are desires filled with Light. Each word is a model or a connection between you and the Creator, the Upper Light. You have to desire to sense this model within you and to find: where is it?

It’s similar to how when you read the word “lemon,” you might immediately start sensing the taste of lemon in your mouth. Well, you should desire to feel everything you read in The Book of Zohar the same way, without additional contemplation.

We experience feelings that are common for us all; for example, every person in the world will feel the same when he hears the word “lemon.” We can talk to scientists and they will explain why we feel the taste of lemon and what its chemical ingredients are. But when we ask Kabbalists, they will tell us what “lemon” means from the point of view of Kabbalah. If we ask a housewife, she will tell us how to make use of a lemon in preparing food. But in any case, everybody has a common understanding of what a lemon is.

Similarly, when we read The Book of Zohar, we should primarily desire to reach a common sensation. That is how we will attain a deeper, more detailed revelation as we proceed through all four stages and investigate the roots. But all of this has to be revealed naturally, meaning, by our aspiration for the Light. The Light will, in turn, influence our desire and uncover the root of our sensations, or why we feel the way we do.

After the sensations, you begin to reveal your intellect. Then you can say that when you hear the word “lemon,” the sound wave of this word reaches your ear’s membrane and goes to your brain, where it is compared to the information that is stored in your memory. This, in turn, triggers a certain signal and as a result you really sense a slice of lemon on the tip of your tongue.

In the wisdom of Kabbalah, however, understanding is the outcome of the advancement of our desires rather than the result of a learning process, as it happens in this world.

Reveal The Universe Inside Your Soul

All the Prophets Wrote About Us A question I received: While reading the names and titles in The Book of Zohar, should we find their spiritual definitions, which each of us is going through at this moment, or it it a common standard which we need to find between us?

My Answer: The Zohar is talking about our internality. It tells us what is happening inside us, and each of us includes everything within.

The Zohar describes the structure of our soul, as well as how to discern it and reveal everything taking place in it. The entire World of Infinity, the Creator, and all of reality exist inside the soul. We have to reveal all of this there, inside our soul.

Baal HaSulam writes that The Book of Zohar includes all 125 degrees and its narration leads us all the way until the end of correction. It’s not important where you are located on the spiritual ladder; this book is always good for every person along the entire path.

Lessons From The 2010 World Mega-Congress

Mega-Congress, Lesson #4
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The Book of Zohar, Chapter “Come Unto Pharaoh“, Item 57
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Turning A Negative Into A Positive

clip_image001When we begin the path of Kabbalah, we gradually come to realize that our perception of reality is divided into an inner world and an outer world, where the outer or external world seems foreign to us. Therefore, we don’t look at it with loving eyes and don’t see it as wonderful in every way, like a mother looks at her child, for instance.

In reality, however, it is to our benefit that we were created with this dual perception which allows us to treat our egoism as something foreign. Due to it we come to know the mistakes and corruptions associated with our egoism and suddenly recognize that it is all within us. It is really a wonder when we realize that all of the evil we see outside of ourselves is in fact our own, because it allows us to redirect our focus from trying to correct the outside, to wanting instead to correct ourselves.

This dual perception originates from the initial opposition between the point of creation which emerged “out of nothing” and the Light. This opposition forces our perception to split into two parts – internal and external. In other words, we see ourselves from the outside (as if it is not us) and then absorb everything inside ourselves. But when we acknowledge that the hatred and evil perceived as outside of ourselves is indeed our own, we connect it to the tiniest spark of our soul (the point in the heart), and the result is a corrected Kli.

It is similar to photo developing, which turns a negative into a positive. Nothing else is needed except changing our outlook, and by this we begin to see everything in what is called “the Reflected Light.”

Our perception is built using sounds, flavors, visual images, scents, and all of our other bodily sensors. Moreover, our perception also defines the levels of our desire for food, sex, money, power, and knowledge. These are “outer fulfillments” which we have to reveal within ourselves. Therefore the same principle can be applied not only to our Kelim, but also to the Lights. Right now this is difficult to understand, but as we begin to sense spirituality, we can feel the world in this way and then everything becomes clear.