The desire to enjoy in and of itself is no obstacle for the union of the Creator and the creature. The only thing standing in the way is the desire’s egoistic form, which is opposite to the Creator. However, the desire itself is the perfect material for the reception of Light.

If I want to catch a radio wave, I don’t need to be the wave myself; I simply need my matter to attain the same quality as the wave. The matter itself is no hindrance; on the contrary, it is the foundation in which I reveal the wave. I only have to make this matter similar to the radio wave’s quality, and then within my matter I will catch its influence. In other words, I will perceive the form of the wave that I am capable of.

If it weren’t for my desire to enjoy, I would never be able to know and feel the Creator. How could I perceive Him if He’s the Creator, an entity that exists outside of me? For that I would need to accept Him within and feel Him within me, and that’s only possible inside my matter, by receiving His form.

I would never be able to feel Him outside of my matter because I am the creature and as such I only feel what is inside of me. However, my matter doesn’t hinder me; quite the opposite, I perceive the Light within my matter. I am like a radio receiver – although it’s made of metal, plastic, and silicone, it is able to catch the radio wave because it can reconstruct that wave’s form within itself. Therefore, I should focus on my matter, but only my intention, because the intention is the form.

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When we read The Book of Zohar, we not only try to imagine our inner desires and qualities behind all the words, we also try to see that one Upper Force whose presence permeates all these inner definitions. This Upper Force desires that we reveal it in this manner.

There are three dimensions here:

1.    Me – the one who feels, reads, and understands these words in a simple way;
2.    The words which I wish to imagine in the form of my inner forces and qualities;
3.    The Upper Force which conceals itself behind these forces, and which I attempt to penetrate trying to interpret them correctly.

As Baal HaSulam says in the article, “Thou Hast Hemmed Me In Behind and Before,” regardless of whether a person is in the state of revelation or concealment and throughout everything he feels and imagines, all of his efforts are aimed at revealing one single force – the Creator. This is the force that is constantly governing us.

However, He desires to be revealed by me through my efforts to become similar to Him, meaning according to the similarity of qualities. This is why He acts in this manner.

Therefore, The Book of Zohar is a collection of exercises which, starting from the very first word, we need to carry out continuously. We then begin to perceive all these words on the sensory level rather than with the mind, making it not as difficult to penetrate. The text begins to become clearer for us through the forms and combinations of letters, and we do not need to “think” about this.

This is the same way that a little child learns. He does not think about why things are called this or that in particular or why he imagines and recognizes them in such a manner. This is clear to him. We are the same in this regard. However, in addition to the fact that we try to recognize some inner quality of ours behind every word, we also need to see the goal behind it – that same force which supports us, thereby giving us an opportunity to reveal it.

This is much like an adult playing with a child. The Creator plays with us this way as well. He gives us certain exercises and how successfully we perform them depends upon us. The system exists. The law is established and cannot be violated.

Therefore, we need to try to see that single force – the Creator, through all the words that we read in The Book of Zohar. And although we are reading about different forces which are foreign, opposite to one another, good and evil, we need to recognize the only force that exists behind them: a force that is good and does good, which controls everything only to our benefit, in order to draw us closer to the goal.

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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Bo (Come Unto Pharaoh),” Item 90
The Zohar is a guide to unity. I am one, the Creator is one, and together we become as one whole.
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“Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 125, Lesson 54
A Partzuf cannot alter its states and ascend up the spiritual levels independently. For this to happen, it needs help, a force from Above, to make the ascent happen.
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“Introduction to the Book of Zohar,” Item 11, Lesson 6
The more spiritual desires I acquire, the greater my soul becomes and the more Light it receives.
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We have to read The Zohar over and over until the Light begins to influence us. At first people feel very inspired when reading The Zohar, and this feeling lasts for the first month or two. During this period they do not understand anything yet, but they become very inspired by whatever is happening.

Then this feeling disappears and everything begins to appear dull. When you read The Zohar, you start feeling this way very fast. All of a sudden we have nothing to hold on to in the text, and we simply read it with the understanding that this is what we need to be doing even while we feel indifferent to the material, it seems “tasteless,” and even repulsive.

The reason we feel this way is because we are being revealed an additional egoistic desire which aggravates the connections between us. The Zohar shines upon us to the extent that we connect with one another. At the very beginning we are given a connection of the points in the heart. As we begin to read The Zohar using the initial connection that was given to us, our points in the heart awaken and desire to reveal something new and unknown. The name itself, “The Zohar,” inspires us.

As we begin to read, the Surrounding Light shines upon us and helps us to raise the points in the heart above our regular egoism, leaving it beneath. This is why in the beginning we feel a connection between us and an aspiration towards a common spiritual goal. All of this happens because of the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif) which comes and creates this state for us.

But a month or two later, our egoistic desire grows due to the Light’s influence. On one hand, the Light causes us to be inspired, but on the other hand, our egoism becomes bigger and because of this, every person feels heavy within, as if there is a force pulling him down. There is only one thing we can do to save ourselves: increase the connection between all of us. Nothing else can help.

We need to use all the possible methods, even artificial ones, to renew this connection. If we increase this connection even slightly, then we will be able to rise above the burdening of the heart and our egoism because we will return to the connected system of creation.

We are receiving a revelation of our lack of correction and being shown how much we are separated from everyone else. When I try to oppose this separation, then the impression and inspiration from The Zohar immediately comes back. It works instantaneously! As soon as you begin to experience a feeling of heaviness, you should immediately do something to strengthen your connection with others. For example, start thinking about how much you want to unite with them and to become closer to them in order to connect your souls. This small, forced action is enough for you to immediately begin to feel the Light’s increased influence and for the to heaviness to disappear. You will then feel the same inspiration and excitement that The Zohar gave you during the first lessons.

This is how it works. You have to put all the necessary effort into it; you do not get any “discounts” in this regard. The effort lies in trying to unite among ourselves until we cry out for the Surrounding Light to come to us because only the Light can give us the inspiration and the feeling of how great The Zohar is. Then this text will suddenly come to life for us.

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All of our work happens in the “dark,” after we were together and felt unity and inspiration. Now that we have gone our separate ways, every group and every person have to attain the same joy, inspiration, and power that we reached at the Congress with our joint efforts.

If we do so, then by the time we meet at The Zohar Convention 2010 we will arrive there with the force that we realized after our last meeting by ascending above all the “sinners” that become revealed in us. If we are always inspired from the time of our last Congress to the next one (which has never happened yet), then we will really be prepared for the next Congress.

We must now make efforts to feel the same elevation as we felt during the Congress. Otherwise, all our work will go to waste. Now is our chance to ascend. At the Congress we were influenced by the environment; every person influenced everyone else. This is why each of us felt elevated; it was an “awakening from Above.” Now, in order to grow, we have to absorb all of that influence like a grain planted inside the earth.

Now is exactly the time each of us must do this! Each of us received everything from the others, but only potentially, rather than practically. The Congress is a time of giving, and now, between the Congresses, is the time of our reception when we have to absorb everything inside us, process it, and grow.

This constitutes our spiritual work. Instead of falling, each of us must stay at the same elevation as took place during the Congress. Do whatever you need to – dance from morning till night, or cry over not being able to do more. But the most important thing is to make efforts. Otherwise you won’t actualize what you have been given.

The joy we feel inside now must be much greater because it is the true joy of attainment. If we make several successful attempts, we will have the right inner preparation for entering the spiritual world. It will enable us to understand, assimilate, and live through the necessary spiritual degrees within us.

Granted, these aren’t yet the real spiritual degrees, but ascents by the power of an “awakening from Above” followed by us duplicating it with our own efforts, by an “awakening from below.” The breaks between the Congresses and a Congress are similar to the weekdays and Saturday. It’s like day and night, where all our work of preparing our desire takes place at night. When we correct our egoistic desires and give them the intention of bestowal, we reveal the same state as day.

The only thing that changes is one’s attitude; one then feels that it’s day. But nothing changes on the outside.

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A question I received: We have just completed a Congress with tens of thousands of participants all over the world who wanted to unite. What were we missing to make the jump to the next spiritual level?

My Answer: We revealed that there are many people all over the world studying together with us, who we didn’t even know about. However, quantity is not the only thing that’s important. We also have to reach a correct, powerful connection. In the meantime every person still has his own idea of unity, but we already have a good, powerful base for creating it.

Now everything depends on how much every person will be able to understand and feel that:

1. The Creator created just one common desire,

2. It was deliberately arranged that we, the parts of the common desire, do not feel our connection as one inseparable whole in Malchut of the World of Infinity. On the contrary, being in this world we feel the broken Malchut, where we don’t even feel our souls but live in an imaginary reality which is nothing like the real one.

In actuality, all of reality is spiritual and we are now in an unconscious state. We perceive the lack of spiritual consciousness as our world and as us in it. Therefore, we must all understand that everything we see now is a fog, our shared fantasy, and we have to make efforts to return to the true reality. The true reality is founded only on our desire to feel our unity, our mutual inclusion into one another and of all of us together.

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Preparation For The Lesson
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Bo (Come Unto Pharaoh),” Item 68
The Book of Zohar is written in a way that gives us the opportunity to apply efforts. We have to discover what the book is talking about within us.
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“Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 125, Lesson 53
The system of the spiritual worlds is the corrected part of my desires which I have to match with my qualities. The system is ready to accept me; the rest is up to me.
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“Introduction to the Book of Zohar,” Item 9, Lesson 5
The law of equivalence of form states that any occurrence can be felt only by touching the same “string” within me and generating the same frequency.
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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.

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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.

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Mega-Congress, Lesson #4
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The Book of Zohar, Chapter “Come Unto Pharaoh“, Item 57
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