The right intention is the most important thing we need while reading The Book of Zohar. If a person leaves the intention, then the book does not work on him. There are many sayings and Kabbalistic articles on this topic, but in short Baal HaSulam writes the following.

The Creator deliberately created our ego, which divides between us. If we ascend above our ego and unite with one another, then the ego itself remains. We do not work on it, but only connect among us above it. Then the entire power and resistance of our ego, which obstructs us from connecting with each other, turns into the might of our unity.

That is how a resistor (resistance) works in an electrical circuit. When we let an electric current through it, then precisely this resistance is where we create the pressure that turns on an engine or any electrical device.

We need this resistance so that in opposition to it we could let the force of our unity through it. Then the might of our unity which we receive, reveals the spiritual world to us.

If we did not have this resistance between us, the way it was at the beginning of creation when we were all connected together directly, then we would remain on the same level – we would not perceive ourselves.

However, precisely because the resistance formed between us, which is our ego that separates us, and now we begin to unite, the might we receive by letting the force of our unity pass through the resistance, is what reveals the spiritual world to us. Then we ascend up 125 levels of our unity, against egoism, until we extract the entire infinite might from this common resistance.

The Book of Zohar holds precisely the Light that can give us the force to overcome the resistance, to unite with one another and inside the connection between us to reveal the entire spiritual dimension. Therein lies our work with The Book of Zohar.
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From the 4th lesson at the WE! Convention on 4/1/11

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The name Baal HaSulam means “Owner of the Ladder” in Hebrew. He received this name because of the title of the “Sulam (Ladder) Commentary on the Book of Zohar” which he wrote.

As he says, the revelation of this book, as well as the fact that he was able to create a commentary on the entire Book of Zohar is a sign that the generation is already worthy of correction, the revelation of spirituality to the masses, and with the dissemination of The Book of Zohar the whole world will come closer to correction.

When Baal HaSulam published The Zohar with the Sulam Commentary, his students walked around the streets carrying volumes of this book, going to different places in an attempt to disseminate it. It was very difficult. People were afraid of The Book of Zohar because there were rumors that this book is very special, that is has enormous power, and is able to bring benefit as well as harm.

Only in our time, 60 or 70 years after the Sulam Commentary was created, we are presenting The Zohar to the world in an adapted form that makes it accessible for the wide masses so that everyone could read it and enjoy it.
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From the 4th lesson at the WE! Convention on 4/1/11

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We are being given an example of how the world can change. A half a million people gather at the main square of a nation’s capital and demand a new government. Their protest causes the government to collapse. Could anyone believe this would be possible? After all, this is above logic!

This is a very good example of what can happen to any government. If this happened with the dictatorships in East Africa or in Asia, then it can certainly occur in Europe and in the US. It merely seems to us that is won’t come to pass.

Currently our nature is revealing a new means for social change, and it will lead to a great deal of turbulence. We think: How could people switch from an egoistic consumer society, such as it is in the US, to a society based on equal distribution? The government can’t do it because it is tied down by obligations toward everyone that supports it. It has to provide them with the promised standard of living and therefore can’t change itself or its life philosophy.

But when a half a million people come out to protest, a government collapses. It’s not due to the lack of power because the dictators have enough power to destroy the protestors with a couple of bombs. However, they’re unable to do so because nature has already changed, the society has evolved, and the times are different. There’re things a person can’t do not even knowing why.

This is how it happens and hence great changes are awaiting us.
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From Lesson 2, WE! Convention 4/2/2011

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Letters in spirituality are a system of correction, a template that has to gradually clothe us, lending us its shape. Like in typography, they print their outlines onto us, in the right order and correct combination of all the necessary elements.

At the end we will assume the same shape as the upper Light in Infinity. The spiritual imprint of the letters lies on the matter of our desire, until it becomes similar to the Light.

The system of correction formed as a result of the breaking in the worlds, and that’s why it contains all types of combinations of Bina and Malchut, which we have to adopt. This system was deliberately built in order to adapt to the correction of souls.

And then the soul Adam HaRishon broke so that the letters, meaning our corrected forms, would become equivalent to our uncorrected matter. Now the Light can come through the letters and clothe in various forms that we are able to take.

This mechanism is the universal basis for all corrections in all the worlds, including ours. If we want to act properly, if we delve into the depth, seeking to find the right way, we will eventually come to this exact system which somewhat resembles the higher system of correction. This is the way we’re built, and we don’t have the opportunity to conceive something other than this.

This is a good indication of whether we are acting in the right direction, whether we understand the true flaw and the means of its correction. Even during the very first steps we can check ourselves against this system.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/16/2010, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar”

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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

Only the Light in the Torah Reforms the Person

How one can achieve complete equivalence of form, so all one’s actions are to give to others, while man’s very essence is only to receive for oneself? By nature, we are unable to do even the smallest thing to benefit others. Instead, when we give to others, we are compelled to expect that in the end, we will receive a worthwhile reward. If one as much as doubts the reward, one will refrain from acting [since the reward compels him to perform an act to benefit oneself]. Thus, how can one’s every action be only to bestow upon others and not at all for oneself?

Indeed, I admit that this is a very difficult thing. One cannot change the nature of one’s own creation, which is only to receive for oneself, much less invert one’s nature from one extreme to the other, meaning to not receive anything for oneself, but rather act only to bestow.

Yet, this is why the Creator gave us Torah [as the method of correction so that with its help we could learn] … to bestow contentment upon the Creator. Had it not been for the engagement in Torah [for His sake]… and not to benefit ourselves, there would have been no tactic in the world that could help us invert our nature.
– Baal HaSulam, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”
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Even to study Einstein’s theory or quantum physics, we need a new approach with another kind of math and other phenomena. The principle applies all the more so to the spiritual world, where we need additional sensory organs and our standard five senses and our mind, which operates by the same scheme, are insufficient.

Our animate sensations are limited, but which way are we to expand them? We must develop the point in the heart into a new dimension. Then, next to the familiar human being of this world, a new creature will emerge.

We already have its root within us. Now we only need to draw the upper Light, a special energy which will cultivate this seed, this spiritual gene, into an additional human being whom we will call man. Kabbalists also call this a soul.

When we identify ourselves with it, from its qualities, continuously changing as a result of our work, we will begin to attain the world pertaining to this new creature, deliberately developed by us in order to investigate the upper one with its help. It will be called our soul existing in the spiritual world.

And this additional human being can continue developing gradually until it spans the entire universe. It possesses unlimited sensory organs, desires, and opportunities!

We are born animals, and the expansion of our sensory spectrum is limited to telescopes, eyeglasses, and the like because our mind does not change but works precisely according to its nature. That is why we still pertain to the animate level, whereas “man” is the spiritual entity that we will build beside ourselves. In it, our entire perception may change.

It will change so greatly that from state to state, from one spiritual degree to another, we won’t even recognize ourselves or our world which will suddenly be revealed to us! Each time we will suddenly become somebody else, not the same as even a moment ago, unable to recognize the world around us, for everything will be brand new!

Indeed, as opposed to this world, all my senses—the mind and the heart—will be changing. They won’t simply grow; rather, they will completely replace the system of coordinates, the entire perception, to the extent that whoever is at a lower degree cannot possibly understand the upper one.

Just as here we work with our senses so as to reveal nature, the same principle applies in spirituality, and it is also called a “natural science,” except here nature is lower, corporeal, whereas there it is higher, spiritual. But the scientific method remains the same.

Obviously, the scientists of this world won’t accept this because they work only in their five corporeal senses, and so they will not consider it a science. Naturally, if someone is limited by some tiny sphere of perception, only willing to accept that and nothing else, there’s no use in arguing.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/28/2010, “Body and Soul”

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Question: If I only see my desires, how can it be that I notice desires that I don’t want to detect whatsoever?

Answer: If we only saw the desires we want to see, we wouldn’t be able to reveal the truth. I develop only because our reality divides into good and evil, truth and falsehood, me and others, me and the group, enemies and friends. In essence, this division into opposite qualities stems from the Light and desire.

The Light is the quality of bestowal, the Creator, good that does good, and His complete oppositeness is the point of desire to receive for oneself, for one’s own pleasure. As these two opposite qualities, which are the only elements existing in nature, interact and exert influence over one another, the desire accumulates different impressions.

These impressions are called “worlds,” and all that exists in the spiritual forces and in our corporeal world originates from this tiny point created by the Light. This point received an impression from its oppositeness to the Light, and it is this point that we must return to its opposite state called a “drop of unity.”
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From the Introductory Lecture Series 11/23/2010, Perception of Reality

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We need to stay focused on one thought: unity between us. We are learning everything from nature since there is nothing artificial in Kabbalah. Kabbalists are research physicists of the upper world. They revealed its laws and tell us what’s happening to us.

They reveal that in the spiritual world we are all connected, only not through physical bodies but through inner connections. In this material world each one of us has a spark of this connection, a small desire for spirituality.

Each person’s desire for spirituality is placed within his ego, and for this reason it’s called “the point in the heart.” This point is surrounded by the dark egoistic heart, and hence I don’t feel that my spark wants to connect to any other sparks.

If we could see into the spiritual world, the spiritual degrees, we would discover that all of our sparks are connected together and become one general Kli or desire. On an even higher spiritual degree, these sparks are even more connected, and instead of the Light of Nefesh, the soul is filled with the Light of Ruach. On an even higher degree, they are connected even more, and therefore attain the Light of Neshama, and so on.

There is nothing but the connection of these sparks that already exist in us! This is why the wisdom of Kabbalah addresses them in particular. Our thoughts should be focused only on how to connect our desires for spirituality. If we succeed even to a small extent, we will reach the revelation of the Creator to His creatures.

You must understand that those escaping from Egypt were no better than us. This is an escape from egoism, from Pharaoh, in the darkness and uncertainty, together with women, children, the elderly, and the slaves. This is our state exactly, and there is no such person who isn’t right for this. This is possible achieve.

Everything depends only on our efforts. After all, the only free action we can make is to get inspired by the environment.

I’m responsible for my environment. Only I can awaken it, not the Creator. If we develop a desire to connect to everyone and receive the influence of the environment, it would do the job! “We shall do and we shall hear”!
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From Lesson 1, World Kabbalah Convention 11/09/10

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Question: If in the spiritual world the entire reality is within me, it means that I’m the only thing that exists. This is scary to me since no one wants to be alone in the world.

Answer: Don’t worry, we’re inside of you! In the spiritual world I discover that the entire creation is inside of me, but this doesn’t prevent others from feeling the same because every single person consists of everyone.

This is why I am called Adam (man), similar (Domeh) to the Creator, and that’s how you and all our friends feel. If you start receiving the forces of connection as your own, you start perceiving your friends as integral parts of you. This is much bigger than your present state because it is specifically now that you’re alone: You are surrounded by egoists who are absolutely indifferent to you.

And with our spiritual advancement and mutual inclusion into each other, everyone feels that the whole world filled by the Creator is with them. The Creator has to fill the gaps between us so that we become as one whole in our thoughts, desires, and intentions. Then you’re not alone!
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From the lesson on Weekly Torah Portion 11/12/2010

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