Question: What should I do if during the reading of The Book of Zohar I cannot focus on the text as I am bombarded by all kinds of irrelevant thoughts and images of past events?

Answer: Before a person undertakes studying, he must try to see it as more important than everything taking place on the outside. All that occurred yesterday and today, and that will happen tomorrow is nothing compared to studying because right now, I am getting in touch with the upper force that arranges my entire life for me, and I ask for it even egoistically, on the corporeal level.

Hence, it’s worth it for me to be focused on reading The Zohar and stay in contact with the upper force since I depend on it. It’s a purely selfish, external approach; nevertheless, it works.

When you experience various foreign thoughts during the reading, at that point, they are obstacles related to your ego. They are obstacles on the path, and you are supposed to work with them.

However, the narrative itself shouldn’t worry me. First of all, I must remember that everything The Zohar describes is taking place only within me. Even though I don’t understand a word of it, it doesn’t matter. I need to strive to find them within.

The key is that I experience them as external images, while I must see them within. And it makes no difference what exactly that is. What’s really important is to move from external observation to the internal one and correct the flaw in your sight.
[43864]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/24/2011, The Book of Zohar

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Question: You said that man is nothing but a sensation and a mind, while whatever is happening around him is beyond his control and he merely observes the result. If so, what does it mean to look for what The Zohar describes within?

Answer: Right now, I am reading or listening to The Zohar. As I go along, I picture all sorts of images in my mind: angels, people, and landscapes.

Why do I perceive this as an external image, instead of responding to it in my feelings and thoughts, immediately switching to seeing it within myself? It’s because I am uncorrected and my will to feel pleasure, my ego, splits my perceptions into internal and external ones. It shows me this flawed picture, whereby everything that The Zohar describes is seemingly happening on the outside, not inside of me.

But on the outside, there is nothing at all. All reality is within me. Why, then, do I experience it as external? It’s because I cannot unify all of reality with myself yet; I don’t view it as my vital part. Why is this so? It’s because I relate to it egoistically, dividing all of its parts into internal ones, which are more important to me, and external ones, which are less important, totally meaningless, or ignored by me. Such is my egoistic, flawed form of perception. What do I do then?

This is what I should be telling myself:

1. The Zohar talks solely about my internal states and properties, and except for what is happening within me right now, there is nothing else. A person is a small world, and everything is in it.
2. Everything I see as taking place on the outside is determined exclusively by my own flawed perception. If I correct myself, I will see everything within instead.

In other words, the discrepancy between what I imagine while reading The Zohar as something happening outside of me and what I would be able to perceive as occurring within me demonstrates my flawed perceptions. Hence, I must strive to seek the correct form of perception inside, pray and plead for it to arise in me.

This is what we call to attain the content. As it is written in Baal HaSulam’s “Introduction to The Study of Ten Sefirot,” Item 155, “Although they do not understand what they are learning, through the yearning and the great desire to understand what they are learning, they awaken upon themselves the Lights that surround their souls.” I aspire to see this image in its authentic form and gradually draw it closer.
[43852]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/24/2011, The Book of Zohar

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The Book of Zohar, Chapter “Mishpatim (Ordinances),” Item 561: Even to the verse, “And I will send an angel before you,” …Moses did not reply at once. Rather, when it is written, “If Your presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here,” he replied this to what is written, “My presence will go and I will give you rest.”

A person has to look within himself for all these properties described in The Zohar: Who Moses is, who an angel is, who the Creator is, what all of these inanimate objects, plants, animals, and people are, and how they exist and live inside a person. You must try to find it within, make an effort to move from the external picture appearing in front of us to inner contemplation of where inside me are all these qualities, forces, and desires. These efforts are very important.

In this way, I correct my egoistic perception that makes me think that something happens outside, not inside. Then, I turn precisely to my inner properties and “implant” the Torah in myself, desiring to recognize it in its true place. That’s why we must constantly try to interpret what’s written in The Zohar as our properties.
[43855]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/24/2011, The Book of Zohar

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Before reading The Book of Zohar, we have to prepare ourselves so that this reading benefits us. The Zohar talks about the correction of the soul, that is, about the correction of the connection between us. Thus, while reading The Zohar, we should strive to realize in us the corrected states described in the text. This means that we desire to reveal what The Zohar talks about.

Revelation isn’t understanding in the mind. How can I understand what I have never seen? It’s possible to see only on the condition that new models of sensation form within me because vision is a sensation in our desires, the vessels of reception. A sensation may occur only when my specific internal state matches that described in The Zohar.

This can be achieved only if I ascend to the degree of the giver as The Zohar requires. How is this possible? It’s possible if I connect with the environment, in relation to which I can express the extent of my bestowal. Thus, even before we open The Book of Zohar, we have to strive to join together in such a state, on such a level, with such a force that is suitable for the revelation of The Zohar in the connection between us.

To the extent one cancels himself and we connect together in mutual bestowal and guarantee, to the same extent we can achieve the condition in which we’ll feel what The Zohar talks about, at least to the smallest degree. All this depends on the force of unity between us that has to be at the level of the first spiritual degree. Then, we will feel what The Zohar relates to us.

Baal HaSulam writes about this in the “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 155: A person striving to know what he studies draws upon himself the Light that Reforms. In essence, all our work is to aspire to be in this state, to sense it. Thus, we are required only to have the desire to feel the need for revelation.
[43858]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/24/2011, The Book of Zohar

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Question: What is the shame that is considered to be some kind of creation?

Answer: Shame is what differentiates a human from an ape. It stems from a sense of the difference between the giver and the receiver. After that, everything depends only on the causes of the situations in which I feel myself as a giver or receiver, and according to this, I sense either perfection or shame. Shame is the opposite of perfection.

Forget everything with which you associate the word “shame” in this world. It’s totally different. It’s a sensation of separation between the giver and the receiver in spirituality. Real shame is a spiritual feeling, and material shame is always possible to mute, to hide in some way.

Real shame comes only on the condition that I feel the Creator as giving and loving, and myself as blaming, cursing Him, and desiring to steal from Him. In short, everything is the other way around! To the extent that we reveal ourselves as standing one against the other, I feel shame, and it compels me to cover myself, my egoism, and begin its correction.

Thus, shame is a particularly useful feeling for correction. That’s why it’s revealed on the condition that a person is able to correct himself. Otherwise, there’s no need. It makes no sense to shame a cat for drinking somebody else’s milk and to appeal to its conscience. The cat wouldn’t feel any shame. It can feel only that it was beaten for its action and will be afraid to repeat it next time. This means that the animal will be ruled by the fear of suffering not by shame.

Shame comes as a result of development when you sense a higher degree: how perfect it is in comparison with you, how much it loves you, and how opposite your relation to it is. And you can do nothing with yourself.

To feel this gap, a person is required to have inner intelligence, not merely the material mind and emotions. Everything depends on how much he appreciates this property of bestowal, and not in relation to himself. After all, he may feel like a baby who isn’t ashamed to receive from his mother.

Moreover, it’s only when he rises above the state of a baby with its mother and wants to feel independent. If he lacks this freedom, he feels shame. A slave who doesn’t yearn for freedom doesn’t feel shame because he belongs to his master. The one who wants to grow to be a free person starts to feel shame immediately and thus comes to freedom.
[43871]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/24/2011, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Writings of Rabash, Igrot Letter 37
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The Book of Zohar – Selected, Chapter, “Truma (Donation),” “A Persimmon and a Sedan Chair,” Item 20, Lesson 2
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Talmud Eser Sefirot Vol. 1, Part 1 “Histaklut Pnimit,” Lesson 20
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Explanation of the Article, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 5, Lesson 4
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Shamati #25: Regarding things that come from the heart, enter the heart. …The thing is that when one hears the words of his teacher, he immediately agrees with his teacher, and resolves to observe the words of his teacher with his heart and soul. But afterwards, when he comes out to the world [to a different environment], he sees, covets, and is infected by the multitude of desires roaming the world, and he and his mind, his heart, and his will are annulled before the majority.

…He mingles with their desires and he is led like sheep to the slaughter. He has no choice; he is compelled to think, want, crave, and demand everything that the majority demands. In that case there is only one counsel then, to cling to his teacher and to the books [on the internal level]. This is called “[Being nourished] from the mouth of books and from the mouth of authors.”

A person who is born and lives in this material world develops in an environment that’s far away from spirituality, and obviously he cannot understand anything on the spiritual path. Even if he has an aspiration to spirituality, this point is immersed in the egoistic desire, which is surrounded by the egoistic society. Therefore, it does not have any chance of developing correctly.

Only a person who makes his way into the right environment merits spiritual development. This is an environment which has a teacher and a group that carries out the teacher’s advice. Besides, this group must study the authentic Kabbalistic sources, but this is already a result of how they accept the guidance of their teacher.

Therefore, the bottom line is that the group’s development depends on the teacher, the Rav (which means “big”). To the degree the students are able to cancel their opinion to his opinion, that is how they will develop. That’s because the spiritual environment is based on the teacher’s opinion, thought, and method, as well as the recognition of the teacher’s authority.

A necessary condition for the student is to constantly check who and what determines his opinion. After all, he is under the influence of two forces and must always decide that the teacher’s opinion has greater force than his own opinion. And if he does not feel any struggle and resistance, it means he does not perform this verification at all and instead thinks that everything is fine just the way it is.

Sometimes a student goes against his teacher’s opinion and thinks that he has a better understanding of how he should act from the point of view of his logic and reason. That is, he does not annul himself. But nullifying oneself means that he goes against his desire, against his logic.

If he endures in this resistance, it means he chooses the spiritual path and progresses on it. But if there is no opposition and inner struggle, then a question arises: Maybe he does not even understand that he is always following his own opinion, all the while thinking that he is advancing correctly?
[43949]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/25/11, Shamati

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The Zohar, Chapter “Truma (Donation),” Item 4: … Jacob, who was whole, brought love in both worlds, meaning he married the two sisters, Leah and Rachel, the two worlds, Bina and Malchut.

Question: Which of my inner desires are called sisters?

Answer: A person contains the still, vegetative, animate, and human levels of desire. The entire world that I see is my desire, divided into many particular desires, each of which forms a certain earthly image in my perception.

We “see” our desires. We look inside ourselves, into our desire that is divided into parts, the objects of the world. We see the world in three dimensions, as if we are looking through 3-D glasses. And we don’t even feel that we are in this virtual reality because we don’t have anything to compare our sensation to. That is why it seems to us that we exist in the authentic world.

That is, we perceive something inside our desire, but it seems like we see it outside, in front of us. However, if besides this world, we would see a different reality, then we would discover that the reality of this world is relative. Parts of my desire depict images of inanimate objects, plants, animals, and people. However, these are not people who appear before me in this world, but my desire on the human level, which divides into many parts and I see each part of my desire in the form of an image of some person.

I also have desires on the animate level and therefore I see different animals in this world. Moreover, there are desires that are present in me now, as well as ones that were present in the past or that will surface in the future. This is why I see a developing world, extinct kinds of animals, or new species that suddenly appear in front of me. This means they surface in my consciousness and disappear. And the same thing happens on the still and vegetative levels.

There is no world. These are just my sensations inside of my desires when certain Reshimot (informational genes) come to the surface, replacing others, and by perceiving the realization of my Reshimot in this way, I feel that I live in them—in essence, that I live in the world. This is an internal movie that is projected to me by the constant Light, which awakens Reshimot that replace one another.

In the process of the Reshimot’s development (where a Reshimo [singular form of Reshimot] is an informational record in my memory), a part of them depends on my willingness to process new Reshimot, while part of the Reshimot awaken on their own. This entire process of development, which happens by itself, is called “Beito” (in due time). But if I want to accelerate it and am able to, this path of development is called Ahishena (accelerating time).

However, in any case we are only talking about Reshimot that awaken in me, which I perceive as the world, myself, and the entire process of development.
[43960]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/25/11, The Zohar

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Correcting The Flaw In Your Sight
“This World” Is Not “Our World”
Untwist The Chain of Reshimot

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Question: In “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” Baal HaSulam writes that the will to receive in all its variations was initially included in the Thought of Creation. What does this mean?

Answer: It means that there is nothing new in the world. We merely reveal or discover what already exists. All the forms are initially included in desire; all the Lights are already present in the Light.

So what is new here? What will be born between them is Man. He will appear on the border, yearning to make the right connection between the Lights and the vessels.

But until then he needs them to be different, concealed. He will connect them himself at every degree: a bit of desire followed by a bit of Light, and again and again. It is precisely man who determines the form of their unification so that their union serves bestowal.

I take desire (as much as I can) and the Light (whatever is needed for correction), and through my efforts I create a correlation between them which ensures reception for the sake of bestowal. This is the form that will become the form of Man, comprising the vessel and the Light, the two origins: “existence from existence” and “existence from absence.” This is how man forms himself.

It follows that the great variety of the Lights and vessels is included in the original design. However, their correct connection, which is Man’s form, is not predetermined. Every time we must verify this form and demand that it be actualized.
[43877]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/24/2011, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Shamati #25 “Things That Come From The Heart”
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The Book of Zohar – Selected, Chapter, “Truma (Donations),” “Who Is She Who Looks Forth Like the Dawn,” Item 1, Lesson 1
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Talmud Eser Sefirot Vol. 1, Part 1 “Histaklut Pnimit,” Lesson 19
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Explanation of the Article, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 4, Lesson 3
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