The Zohar, Chapter “VaYeshev (And Jacob Sat),” Item 114: There is not a person in the world who does not taste the taste of death at night, and the spirit of impurity is over the body. Because the holy soul has parted from man, the spirit of impurity is over that body and it is defiled.

This means that a person had a screen, the Light of Unity, the Light of Adhesion, and the quality of bestowal reigned inside him. But then everything disappeared. The Partzuf was emptied; all the Light came out of it. This could happen for an external reason or an inner reason, such as when a person’s inner will to enjoy grows and new Reshimot begin to surface in him.

That is when a new, uncorrected desire awakens in him and reigns over him. A person submits to it, and guided by this desire begins to think about his life, about self-gratification and how to fulfill this desire.

Only if he prepared ahead of time for this darkness, for the night, the state when his desires rule over him, then he is able to gather all the forces that enable him to view the darkness as a means to ascend to a new level. Then he makes a true request upward, to Abba ve Ima, asking them to take care of him (this is called “adhesion at midnight”).

From midnight onward, he begins the corrections. A person begins to correct the entire additional desire to enjoy, which he had received and in which he felt the taste of death. But now he sweetens it.

This means that a person advances toward the morning, when he receives from Above the Light that Reforms, the first quality of bestowal. And then the dawn comes. A person begins to feel Light in his state, since he has acquired a screen over his previous desire to enjoy and he is now in the quality of bestowal.

This is why it had been necessary for him to experience the taste of death.

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A question I received: During lessons on Talmud Eser Sefirot or Ptiha (the article, “Introduction to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”), do I have to imagine that everything we read is within me in the same way as when we read The Zohar?

My Answer: It’s good to identify with the text and to want to sense it from within yourself. However, while reading The Book of Zohar, the approach and the system that are built into this text embed themselves into us and show us the shapes, pictures, and sequences through which we enter spirituality. On the other hand, Talmud Eser Sefirot works in a different way. Nevertheless, if while reading Talmud Eser Sefirot, a person is able to begin imagining internal actions that are harmonious with his desires or opposed to them, if he starts sensing that the things described in Talmud Eser Sefirot are talking about him, then it will impact him no less than The Zohar.

We have to understand how all of this works and to imagine that the will to enjoy was created, then it wanted to “receive for the sake of bestowal,” and then it broke. What happened to this desire after it lost its screen, and how do all five components of this desire now behave? How does it empty itself of the Light? It doesn’t want to lose the Light, but the Light goes away because the forces of concealment act from Above. The desire’s evil egoistic powers repel the Light.

All of this is talking about me. For example, inside of my corrected Galgalta ve Eynaim, I refuse the Light and place a screen (concealment) between myself and the Light. Thus I remain face to face with the Creator; I connect only with Him, but I don’t receive from Him since I refuse the Light. Thus, I stay with Him since I possess the power to resist my will to enjoy. However, my connection with the Creator (the Light of Hassadim) is very weak.

While I study, I have to imagine all these processes: how my screen disappears, how the Light goes away from me, how I want to resist my egoism and retain the power of bestowal, yet it disappears because my egoistic desire is bigger than my altruistic desire. I cannot cope with my desire because the connection between the desire and the pleasure is bigger than my power of resistance. I have to place resistance between two poles (plus and minus), but my resistance is so small that it burns out. A short circuit occurs and as a result of it, I burn. So, what can I do if I am no longer suitable for receiving the Light?

If a person imagines spiritual states in this way, he will want to read the text over and over again. Instead of perceiving the text as dry technical details about something that happens up above, he will see it as occurrences happening within him here and now.

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The Zohar: Many are the ills that Jacob suffered so as to not cling to the evil inclination. And how many ills do righteous suffer in this world, ills over ills and pains over pains to purify them for the next world?

The revelation of the evil inclination is necessary, because otherwise, how can a person advance? The state of being “righteous” is a state of immobility. It’s when one feels that he doesn’t need anything, that everything is in perfect order, and whatever happens is for the best. However, a person cannot advance while feeling this way.

Precisely the misfortunes that come to us become the “engine of progress.” We need to see them as forms of help which leads exactly to the desired effect.

Yet, everything depends on one’s preparation. If a person prepares himself correctly for revealing the “wicked” (various negative desires, weakness, and confusion), then he is able to accept them as goodness. Having acquired experience, a person sees that as he searches for the way out of these descents, he becomes smarter and stronger, and thus rises above his present state. This is why a person is taken out of the state of righteousness and is confused by foreign thoughts and desires; it’s because this gives him material for advancement.

We need to change our attitude to what happens. It is very important to perceive all the interferences as help on the way to the goal. After all, they force us to ask for the forces that will provide us with support and help in time of trouble. The group, the dissemination, the studies, and a proper schedule are the means that will force us to become stronger and to gather strength, instead of stagnating in the still waters of our own righteousness.

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The greatest question facing us is how to obtain a desire for spiritual development, a desire to become similar to the Creator? How can we desire to become “givers”? Kabbalists answer that the best way to develop spiritually is through a means called “the group.”

Natural relationships with people in our environment (including feelings of envy, hatred, love, rejection, and the aspiration for power) can help us to acquire a greater desire for spiritual development. We can simply absorb the desire for spirituality from our friends. In fact, we will desire this despite the fact that it contradicts our own desire, because envy and other “negative” feelings toward others will make us desire this even more.

We are all part of a spiritual system where we are connected as one whole. Therefore, even if the society that surrounds me desires something unnatural and even harmful to me, I will also desire this involuntarily, in spite of my own nature. This happens because we were once connected, and this connection between us still remains. Therefore, I am influenced by others because at some time in the past I received my spiritual life from others, or through them.

This net of connection between us still exists now. I am connected to all other people, but I just don’t feel this connection and therefore there is no flow of life and Light in this net. However, if all of the other people begin to extol spirituality, then even though it is repulsive to me, even though I hate the thought of it and could think of nothing worse than to give to others and love them, I will still be influenced by them against my will. As a result, I will desire this state, which seems unnatural and contrary to my own nature, because there is an inner connection between us that has existed since the beginning of creation.

This desire that I receive from the right environment will, in fact, be the aspiration which I need in order to activate the system which controls and develops me. Therefore, if our friends feel that they do not feel The Book of Zohar, that they are unable to connect to this means of spiritual development, this is a sign that they lack the desire for it. Even though it seems to them that they have a desire for spirituality, it is just another type of egoistic desire.

And the reason they lack a desire to develop spiritually is that they cannot unite. This is what prevents them from receiving the strength and the desire for spiritual development from the group. Thus, the whole group and every person in particular have to work on this.

Initially, no one has a desire for spiritual development, for the quality of bestowal and love. Only the right environment can impose this on us. Our only freedom of will is to receive this desire from the group; this is our only chance to become human. The group should work on providing all the friends in the whole world an awakening for spiritual development, for bestowal and love.

On the other hand, we have to understand that this depends on every person, on every person’s ability to annul himself in order to receive this common desire for spirituality. This desire is present only in the group and can be received only from it.

This brings us to the most important point: that we have The Book of Zohar before us, as well as a ready-made system comprised of the group, the books, the teacher, as well as translations to other languages, television, and the internet. All we have to do is put our inner effort into one point, which is called “freedom of will.” In other words, we have to make efforts to unite with the group in order to receive the force of development from it.

Rabbi Yose ben Kisma said that if a person doesn’t have this force of development, then none of the forces of The Book of Zohar will affect him.

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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYeshev (And Jacob Sat),” Item 106
The Book Of Zohar is the door into myself. I have to search within me for everything it speaks of.
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“Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 108, Lesson 43
For the lower ones, the division is a step back, whereas for the Upper Ones it is a step forward because it leads to the final correction.
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“Preface to The Book of Zohar,” Item 34, Lesson 10
The picture of the external reality is a part of my inner world.
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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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