Opening The Zohar – 06.13.10
Posted on June 13th, 2010
The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “The Donkey Driver,” Item 112
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “The Donkey Driver,” Item 112
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We should be very grateful to the Creator for concealment. Without it, we would remain animals, constantly chasing after pleasures that have been revealed to them.
Concealment helps me stay in the darkness, even though it’s unpleasant, I build myself through the concealment. That’s why it’s impossible to see whether we advance correctly or if our actions will be rewarded. The reward is to walk in concealment attempting to perform actions of bestowal. The best reward is not seeing a reward for this.
Otherwise, we won’t come out of the Creator’s rule. Only in concealment can we seemingly not be subject to Him. He watches us, yet gives us an opportunity to reveal Him and the greatness of His actions in the concealment that has been formed after the restriction in the World of Infinity.
We don’t’ ask about revelation. That would mean that a person, motivated by his natural aspiration, wants to return to the beastly state. Knowing is the worst thing that could happen to us. If we acquire knowledge after “faith above reason,” we then reveal the new knowledge in the properties of bestowal and not reception. This is already Divine knowledge.
However, we first have to perform a restriction, to pass to the other side, and reveal the new knowledge there and not before.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/13/10, The Zohar
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Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot, Item 58: With this we understand the words of our sages: that one who repents from fear is rewarded with his sins becoming mistakes. …the sins one makes extend to him from the reception of Providence through double concealment, namely concealment within concealment….
One concealment means that he believes in the Providence of reward and punishment. Yet, because of the accumulation of suffering, he sometimes comes to thoughts of transgression.
Why did a person make a mistake? It’s because he didn’t see that he was at fault. Yet he wasn’t even supposed to see it, was he? Our entire work amounts to acquiring a new vision by faith above reason. Thus, at the beginning, we do not perceive spirituality so that later we could see it in the light of bestowal. Spirituality cannot be seen in the egoistic light.
Nobody concealed spirituality or fenced it off from us. We hide it from ourselves by our egoistic desire. That’s why we start perceiving spirituality only by rising above our egoism. It’s similar to me facing a wall, a barrier. By rising above it, I can have a glimpse of what lies beyond it.
This is how we can picture to ourselves what faith above reason is. While I’m “within reason,” below the barrier, I cannot see the spiritual world. My organs of perception are different; meanwhile, I have to start perceiving the reality in the desires to bestow. When the Reflected Light shines upon me, it reveals to me the spiritual reality, which I can see in this Light.
That’s why naturally I erred and committed crimes while not seeing spirituality. How could I not have erred? However, why aren’t they called “transgressions”? That’s because thanks to revealing and correcting my mistakes, I corrected myself. In this way, I reached the degree of “repentance from fear,” that is, I built the screen for bestowing in order to bestow.
I learned from my mistakes for it’s impossible to correct anything until one reveals the entire evil of egoistic desire. This is called identifying a mistake. By correcting a certain measure of the mistake that has been revealed to me, I perform a commandment.
Hence, upon completing one’s repentance, one corrects all of his mistakes. It’s precisely because of them and thanks to them that he reaches bestowal. All of these errors were the result of concealment.
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/13/10, Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot
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How do we build a spiritual vessel from the point in the heart of every person, which is contained in his egoism? How do we elevate this point from the egoistic heart to the outside? How do we make it more important than all our egoistic desires and become concerned only with what happens in this point of spiritual aspiration?
To achieve this, we need the influence of the environment. We first have to lead our points in the heart to freedom from egoism, to the outside, and then to unify them. Their unification is crucial. The points in the heart are the means of connection among us; in this connection, we will feel the Creator. The stronger it will be, the more Light will be revealed in it.
This connection resembles an electrical resistor since we resist and do not wish to unite with each other. But, if we nonetheless unite, we feel how the Light begins to ooze through this resistance. The Upper Light influences, warms it up, and I feel the manifestation of the Creator in it.
In other words, I do not destroy my ego as practiced by different “spiritual” methods which tear a person away from reality. I use my ego and precisely through the ego, I reach attainment. Thus “the higher a person rises, the more his egoism grows.”
It will be significantly harder for you to unite with others on the next degree. It seems that it should be the opposite since you have already done this work. But suddenly you will begin to feel, “Who did I get involved with? Who are these people?” This means that the real work has begun.
The more resistance there is among you, the higher you can rise and the greater the Light that you can reveal. Instead of the Light of Nefesh (a minor Light that fills a small, few watt “light bulb”), you unite despite of a huge resistance (R2 instead of R1) and reveal the Light of Ruach, which is billions of times greater than the Light of Nefesh. It’s like a small light compared to a huge fire.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/11/10, Shamati #50
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A question I received: If I sense everything that happens in my regular life from “within,” is it a sign of my advancement as a result of reading of The Zohar?
My Answer: No. There is no such thing as “regular life” when you read The Book of Zohar. I have an embryo of the soul, the point in the heart, through which I stay within the Upper system that The Zohar describes.
How can I sensibly and rationally connect all these properties (the three lines, ascents and descents, and spiritual actions) with this tiny point in which there is nothing? This is exactly what I am striving for. How can I stay with them, sense them, and experience them at the level of ZON in the World of Atzilut?
I don’t expect anything from this world (from myself or my group friends) in the way that I perceive them or the entire world within my five senses. Why do I need it? This world doesn’t exist; I only imagine it within my ego (the desire to receive). If I climb to a higher degree of bestowal and “faith above reason,” I’ll perceive everything in a totally different way.
I have no desire to deal with this world. All I want is to rise and merge with the Upper One! However, I exercise a realistic approach and I don’t abandon this world. But I study The Book of Zohar as well as the rest of the wisdom of Kabbalah in order to reveal the Upper reality rather than to pull it down into this world. It will never happen. Never will the spiritual world clothe into the material one.
On the contrary, our material world will rise to its roots: the spiritual world. Through this material world I’ll eventually see the Upper World, but first I have to perceive spirituality. That’s why I have to detach myself from all my worldly possessions since at this point I am learning about perfection, spirituality, and the Creator.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/10/10, The Zohar
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The Zohar, Chapter “VaYigash (Then Judah Approached),” Item 120: …Also, it is written, “I will go down to Egypt with you,” meaning that Divinity went down to exile with him, and wherever Israel exiled, Divinity exiled with them.
It wouldn’t be an exile otherwise. Exile means that you feel concealment. You feel that spirituality (the Creator) exists, yet you sense His reverse side. It shines to you in a way that allows you to feel the Creator’s presence, but in a concealed form. That is when it is called exile.
If your sensation of the Creator’s concealment is absent, this is not exile. As far as you’re concerned He simply doesn’t exist, meaning you exist at a level below spirituality. Exile is a spiritual sensation which is above the level of our world. Therefore, we cannot say that people in this world are in exile.
However, if you know that something spiritual ought to be here, if you have that feeling or are somehow familiar with what is concealed, then you are in exile. This is a connection that shines via its reverse side, in a black light instead of white. It follows that “Israel in Egypt” is a spiritual degree. They have a Light, a special illumination, so they are not detached from spirituality. Whereas we are “like mortal beasts” if we have no sensation of exile.
Today, as we read The Zohar, we gradually awaken from our beastly existence, and the reality of our exile is slowly becoming apparent. It is no small feat to ascend to the level of exile. For that you need to truly feel the concealment, the striving (desire) for the spiritual world, to discern from the darkness Who it is that is concealed from you, and how you can grab onto Him.
Exile is a spiritual degree which is the reverse side of the same degree of revelation. The sensation and work of this reverse side is part of the Creator’s work.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/9/10, The Zohar
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYetze (And Jacob Went Out),” Item 34
In order to gain maximum benefit from The Book of Zohar we must prepare to be one man with one heart during our studies.
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, “Preface to the Sulam Commentary,” Item 67
A “person” is one who combines the left and the right line: the created desire to receive pleasure and the Creator’s desire that’s aimed at bestowal.
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot, Item 54
Spiritual trepidation is not fear of falling into egoistic intention, but a fear of not being able to bestow, regardless of a great desire.
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Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, Article “Make Yourself a Rav and Buy Yourself a Friend – 2,” Lesson 1
“Buy yourself a friend” means invest in him all that’s the best in you, only so, that he would want to unite with you.
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