Question: What do we have to do so The Zohar will find its way into the deepest recesses of the heart, into our desires and thoughts?

Answer: Open your heart. Nothing else is needed. The most important thing is not to despair and not to relax, and to make efforts precisely when the going gets rough. The article “Donkey Driver” in the Introduction of The Zohar is exactly the place where it explains that when you are walking along and your “donkey” (in Hebrew “donkey” is “Hamor,” originating from the word “Homer,” matter, the will to enjoy) can no longer carry its burden, you are sent a “donkey driver” that helps your “donkey” to ascend.

This driver stings the “donkey” with a sharp stick and it’s unpleasant. However, it makes you move forward. Therefore, if you agree to have a driver like that, you will receive him. But you have to ask for these “stings.”

Question: I know how to ask for good things, but how can I ask for the “stings” of the donkey driver?

Answer: If I don’t identify myself with my ego and want to be liberated from it, then I think the opposite: The more “stings” it receives, the more able I am to distance myself from it, to run away from it and ascend above it.

These “stings” do not wound me, but my ego. If I separate and detach from it, then we are separated by a distance and I therefore do not feel the “sting” that passes over it. The sting comes only in order for me to part with my ego. Then I don’t perceive these blows as happening to me, but to my “Pharaoh,” and in the meantime I ascend.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/9/11, The Zohar

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