The Zohar, Chapter “Metzorah (The Leper),” Item 8: When the morning comes, all the armies and camps above praise the Creator.

Morning is a state where a person values the quality of bestowal. It is when one understands, knows, and feels that bestowal is the greatest thing possible.

Prior to that, love, bestowal, and connection with others appear as darkness because a person does not feel any benefit from them. He thinks, “What will I gain from this? It’s pointless, so why should I do it?” It seems tasteless to him.

However, if a person persistently continues to study and work in the group, then he is influenced by the Light that Reforms. This is called “working at night.”

This is followed by a new state: the quality of bestowal, the intention of giving. When this intention awakens in a person, it means morning has arrived.

Therefore, it is all talking about our inner states, rather than any external changes.

Then, several gates open to all sides (to the right and to the left), and Abraham’s gate, Hesed [mercy] opens in the assembly of Israel, Malchut, to summon all the people in the world to enjoy the Hassadim [mercies].

This is where we begin – kindness, Hassadim. How does a person achieve the state of morning? First he corrects himself through the quality of Hesed (mercy), and then he sees the Light of morning – the Light of Hassadim. Therefore, the morning prayer is called “Abraham.”

It is written, “And Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba,” since Malchut is called Beersheba, and Abraham planted the tree of Hesed [mercy] in it.

All the changes that we see, such as day and night, the sun and the moon, occur only in regard to the person. Through our inner processes we awaken these forces one after another or all of them together, and in this manner we feel the passing of time.

“The sun comes up” means that a person is able to reveal the Light of Hochma which is clothed into the Light of Hassadim. If one is able to reveal only the Light of Hassadim, it is still morning, but before the sunrise. If one cannot reveal even the Light of Hassadim through his desires, it is called night.

We are situated in an infinite ocean of the Light of Hochma, but we don’t have the desires of bestowal, Hassadim, and thus we cannot reveal any Light.

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Rabbi Nachman from Breslov said, “Many tears are shed over The Book of Zohar until a person becomes worthy of understanding.” When thinking about the corrected desire, I should imagine that it is all mine. There are no other people; they are all, in fact, inside me. They are all me! Therefore, when I read The Zohar I should imagine that everything happens inside me. I read about mountains, summits, a stream flowing out of the Garden of Eden, top or bottom, corporeality or spirituality, Pharaoh, Moses, Abraham, men and women who get married and give birth to children; but all of this happens inside me, in my desires. There is nothing else.

In this manner I am being told about the different phenomena taking place inside my desire. The Zohar tells me about what happens inside me, in this entire, enormous vessel of desire which consists of everyone. Nothing exists outside of it; the whole reality is in me.

So where is the Creator? He is also inside me! If I can attain a feeling of unity, bestowal, and love between all His parts within this desire, it will mean that I have revealed the Creator. The Creator is called “Bo-Re” – “come and see.” This happens in the desire, where the Light is situated. The Light is perceived only in the desire.

The more you try to change your vision in this manner, the easier it will become. We simply need to take off the glasses through which we see our world and begin to look from a different point of view. Then we will suddenly reveal that reality is actually completely different from what we are used to. We only need to remove the regular picture of the world that blocks it.

The Zohar is deliberately written in a language that seems to speak about our world, as if it tells us about a family, such as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, or about a nation that comes out of Egypt, and other things. It explains this to us purposefully, so we would switch from focusing on this world, our customary perception, to another type of focus that is more internal. Then we will see that everything happens inside us.

A person is a small world. Understanding this is the condition for understanding spirituality.

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The Zohar, Chapter “Miketz (At The End),” Item 84: In all the places of judgment over the other nations, it is for the good. For “Masa” (prophecy) [also] means “burden”; it is a burden for the Creator – the good of the nations-idol worshipers. And when their judgment is passed, He removes from Himself the burden He had suffered due to them.

And hence when “Masa” (prophecy) is spoken of them, it is for the good.

It is impossible to change our desire to enjoy without feeling pressure and a burdening of the heart. As times grow increasingly difficult, we see that the world listens more and is now ready to hear the advice of the Kabbalists. In fact, this applies to each one of us as well.

The science of Kabbalah enables us to employ the remedy capable of forestalling the blows. It allows us to take the good path – Achishena, instead of the path of suffering – Beito. (In Hebrew Achishena means “accelerating time,” and Beito means “in due time.”)

Yet either way, by the path of good or by the path of suffering, the correction of the desire to enjoy occurs through pressure and restrictions, until we decide that we must change it. As a result, we wait for the Light that Reforms, since the only thing that can correct our egoistic desire in the first place is the Light that created it.

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A question I received: I don’t understand why I have to know about all these minute details that The Zohar describes if I’m unable to penetrate the text so deeply anyway.

My Answer: The Zohar is an entire system, and you exist inside it as though in a spider web or a net. This is the system of the universe which contains all the creatures, and all of it is the Creator.

When we read The Zohar, we desire to unite in order to elicit the influence of this system upon us, so it will begin to work on us and make us active parts of it. Then we will be able to independently understand, act, and move forward.

The Zohar tells us about this system and how it works in its entirety. Of course, you still don’t realize how deep and multi-faceted it is; you reveal only what is vital for you at every moment of your development.

Actually, we are reading the remains of the original Book of Zohar, which was 20 or 30 times bigger than the text that has reached us. And don’t forget that this was all written almost 2000 years ago.

Imagine that one of the authors of The Zohar now came to us and gave us a lesson. We would understand him because he would be speaking the same language as what we are now studying. He would be telling us the same things we now want to learn. But it would be coming from a person who lived a very long time ago. Just think: Would anything like it be possible in any other situation? Can you imagine any other situation where people desire to meet an ancient ancestor in order to learn from him, where they are jealous of his moral and spiritual level and are able to understand him; they desire to hear him, they accept him, and they speak to him in the same language about the same things?

This is possible because the system they describe is real, global, and eternal. We exist inside it, but each of us reveals it to the degree he is able to feel it. We feel as if we are going from light to darkness, and at first it seems like we can’t see anything in the dark. But once you are there for a few minutes, you start to gradually discern more and more things within the darkness. And then you see that you don’t even need the light anymore; you don’t even have to turn it on. There is a slight glow, and it’s enough for you.

When you first enter spiritual darkness, you feel lost. But with a little bit more unity and a bit more influence of the text upon you, you will begin to feel where you are. Instead of your current perception of this world, you will begin to feel that there are different forces operating all around you. They influence us and we are connected to them. The air will thicken and make room for the spiritual world.

All you have to do is keep going.

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A question I received: How will The Zohar study at The Zohar Convention 2010 differ from what I am now watching on the computer screen?

My Answer: The Upper System descends to our world, where we perceive ourselves inside bodies, separated from one another by distance. Why can’t we just be in the souls, in the spiritual world? Why do we also need this world, the lowest of all the worlds?

This world is necessary because while we are in it, spiritually separated from one another, we can physically reduce the distance between us and thereby bring about spiritual closeness. In the spiritual world we are separated by spiritual distance, which can only be overcome by truly correcting one’s desire.

However, I can perform a correction in this world by coming to the Congress and being next to you. When I pay money to attend the Congress, to have the physical closeness, it helps me to carry out a spiritual correction. This is, in fact, the only reason our world exists; otherwise, there would be no need for it. It is a special reality where our material actions can help us to begin making spiritual actions.

You can turn on an engine by twisting a knob, and it will work. But how can you turn on the engine of love and bestowal if you’re an egoist? You can do it by physically coming closer to another person while thinking of a spiritual reward. If I try to come into contact with others who have the same goal as me, then by physically uniting with them, I can “turn on” the “spiritual engine.” This is how I set the Upper System in motion, which corrects me.

We aren’t expected to unite our hearts, since it’s obvious that we are egoists. It suffices for us to make physical efforts to draw closer to one another, in order to turn on the engine of the spiritual system. It then shines upon us with the Light of Correction, making us similar to the Creator.

The Light of Correction comes to us in response to our actions. It travels through us and begins to raise us. All of the descent of the worlds from above downwards took place only to enable you to turn on the spiritual system even while being at the lowest point – this world. You can do it yourself, independent of the Upper Level, through your material actions.

This is exactly what we do by coming to the Congress.

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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Tazria (When A Woman Delivers),” Item 26
The Zohar is an active system in which all souls exist. Through our common plea, each person reveals what’s necessary for him.
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“Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 161, Lesson 65
Everything depends on the lower level. The smallest spiritual act on our part evokes great Lights in all the systems of the spiritual world.
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“Introduction to the Book of Zohar,” Item 38, Lesson 17
Animalistic love gives me pleasure, whereas real love gives pleasure to the one I love.
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Tazria (When A Woman Delivers),” Item 15
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In spirituality, “mutual inclusion” is an action that is carried out by a force that comes from the Creator. Although our qualities tune into each other, the mutual inclusion does not happen outside of us since it is impossible to accomplish on our level. I cannot take two qualities and fuse them together in one plate here on the table before me. I need to raise them to the source where they can unite into one whole in the Creator. I can work on their mutual inclusion there.

My desire to include these qualities is here in this world. However, in order to create their mutual inclusion, I need to raise them to the root (Keter) of the given degree and connect to the place where they exist as one whole. This is not a material unification where a few atoms unite into one molecule and create a compound through a chemical reaction.

In spiritual unification, nothing remains from the right and the left lines. The middle line is a completely new entity. It does not consist partially of the left line and partially of the right. Rather, mutual inclusion produces a new quality that supersedes the qualities of which it is made.

The desire to enjoy (which connects to the screen) and the Reflected Light (the intention to work for the sake of bestowal) are depicted as a desire below and a screen above (the intention to bestow), as if the intention and the desire exist separately. They are depicted as if these are two separate components rather than one whole.

However, this explanation is only provided in this manner when using the terms of our world. In the spiritual world, the intention and the desire are forced to be completely inseparable, intertwined, and merged inside one another. The intention can completely change a desire by using it for the sake of reception or for the sake of bestowal.

Therefore, the work we do on the “third day” lies in merging with one another and creating one common body. Each person does the inner work of uniting his qualities from the right and the left sides into one whole in the middle line, tuning in to the Creator as a result. After all, the source of all these opposite things is situated in Him, where they all exist in unity. This is why on the third day, upon ascending to the Creator, a spiritual quality opposite to the Creator was revealed, which is the spiritual death of desires such as Shachem.

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The Zohar is the name of the Light that comes from the head of Arich Anpin, which is the state of the end of correction. The Zohar was composed by ten great Kabbalists who represent the ten main Sefirot, the complete HaVaYah. This is the original Upper System which descended to a particular level, and later, Baal HaSulam brought it even closer to us. As a result, we have a connection with the highest state. All of this was done for us.

Talmud Eser Sefirot is a special book. However, it is written in a form that distracts our mind so much that we cannot bring our feelings into it. Perhaps after reading The Zohar, we will be able to begin to read Talmud Eser Sefirot properly. The Zohar addresses our feelings and the Sulam Commentary addresses our minds. Together, they stir us in both of these directions and we are unable to resist it.

The Zohar is a revelation of the Upper System where you are allowed to press the buttons controlling everything. Even though you don’t know what buttons you are pressing, the system translates them into the proper influences. The Upper Degree (or a Kabbalist) understands what you want. He doesn’t give you what you are asking for, but what you really need. He acts in accordance with your inner need. For this reason, The Book of Zohar is the most special book of all the books of Kabbalah.

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