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Kabbalah is a practical methodology that allows us to go beyond our five senses and attain the general law of the universe. The short course in the systematic knowledge of Kabbalah will give you a deep understanding of the world in your material and spiritual progress.

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Question: Can we bring harm to the world by studying the wisdom of Kabbalah like the harm caused by the egoistic use of external science?

Answer: Through discovery of Kabbalah it’s impossible to do any harm because there is a natural filter that transfers only good influence from us to the upper world, to the system of forces that manage reality. Bad influence can never go there.

But when the time comes that you must have a good influence on that system and you don’t,  then you have a bad influence on it, not directly, but indirectly. You don’t damage the system willingly, and don’t even know it.

But this is speaking only about your lack of correction. You cannot intentionally cause destruction in the higher system. Deliberately you can only correct. You cannot add your efforts to provide a good influence, but a bad influence is impossible.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/09/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: What is the spiritual source of the daily Kabbalah lesson that is held from three until six in the morning?

Answer: It is in order to get up with the thought about the Creator and immediately create a connection with Him because He further determines all of your workday during which you need to maintain the same connection that you built in the morning lesson for all of the realities of this life.

Question: Why do we begin to study specifically at three o’clock and not at 2:40 or some other time?

Answer: In principle it is necessary to begin to study at midnight, but midnight is not 12 o’clock at night as we usually think it is. It is necessary to divide the night into two halves, and this is also a time that varies. So it is necessary to begin studying at midnight.

Question: Why don’t we use the lesson form that was organized as customary in the time of Abraham? He would invite people to a table, give them food and drink, and give a lesson.

Answer: It is said that he had a tent and he would call everyone there. The tent stood along the road and merchants would pass by, all sorts of passing traders, and they would come to him to rest and drink tea. At the same time, he would tell them about his teaching.
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Recommendation for how to work at the time of reading The Book of Zohar: I read along together with everyone and I listen. But in the beginning I don’t listen to the reader, I don’t want to hear and think about the text. I think only about adherence with the group and adherence with the Creator, wanting the Upper Light to hold me all the time and increase my state of adherence more and more.

If I succeed in holding a few minutes in this state, I allow myself to begin to start listening. I keep bobbing all the time, like a buoy on water, constantly checking myself: Am I listening, more or less, seeing the letters or not? But the main thing is to “float” all the time, to be in adhesion.

To the degree that I can add my impressions from the text here (suppose that it touches me because I have already gone through similar states), then I allow myself to combine the text with adhesion. And if not, then even though I don’t hear it at all, the main thing is that my thoughts will always remain correct.

That is, first of all we all want to remain in adhesion with the upper power, in mutual Arvut, in connection, and the Creator strengthens and adheres us together. And as much as possible, we add to this what The Book describes. The Zohar talks about all kinds of changes, all the kinds of guiding routes, roads, paths: capillaries, cells, body parts of this entire system of unification; it explains how it works, how it acts. To the degree that I am also ready to be in this, I do this, and if not, then I don’t.

We want to feel ourselves under a shower of Ohr Makif (Surrounding Light) or in a sea of Ohr Makif, in the depths of this sea so that it will influence us all the time. The closer we join together, the stronger its influence. We need to feel that we are in a sea of Upper Light and that the words of The Zohar pierce us. To the degree that we are prepared to combine them to intentions and to our state of connection, we make it possible for them to enter into our feelings and intellect. And to the degree that they disturb us and distract us from connection, we don’t allow them to enter into us.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/2/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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From the The Book of Zohar, “The Donkey Driver,” Item 109: All the righteous stand in the lower Garden of Eden, clothed in precious adornments, similar in quality and form to those which they wore in this world, meaning in the same form as people in this world and according to man’s actions in this world. They stand there and fly away through the air, ascend to the Assembly in the Supernal Garden of Eden, fly there and bathe in the dew of the pure river of Apharsemon (persimmon), then come down and fly below in the lower Garden of Eden.

Question: Up to now I have not understood what the benefit of reading from The Book of Zohar is, I perceive it as abstract and it doesn’t awaken any emotion in me and my thoughts about the connection between us are not at all connected to what we are reading.

Answer: Suppose that I checked the temperature and found out that my body requires more heat, otherwise it will get cold and will not be ready to maintain normal metabolism. In order to warm my body they suggest that I light an oven. The oven requires heating material, etc. What is the connection between cutting down trees or laying a gas pipeline and the metabolism of my body? If we ask a little child, he will tell you that it’s not necessary to cut down trees or drill and produce oil. Who needs that black liquid?

The fact is that you are like that child and you don’t see the connection between things. But the Kabbalist sages say that there is definitely a link between what we read in The Zohar and the connection between us. In the example of the fuel, there is a direct connection since they are involved only with external causes. And here this is talking about your soul that you want to correct. The Book talks about the most internal phenomena that are taking place within it.

When you on the lowest level, you make some efforts just to sit in the lesson and listen to my voice that you hate at the moment. You want to sleep and instead of this you must sit and listen to all of these explanations that you don’t understand. But if you invest the smallest effort, obligating yourself to read and to listen, then what you read and hear is happening inside of you. But these phenomena are happening in the highest states and levels connected to the world of Infinity.

From you to the world of Infinity there is a thread, a conduit through which you get some kind of energy. The moment when you show at least a small awakening from below, not sleeping in the classroom, you don’t sleep for the entire lesson, rather you try to hear to some degree, and then this transfer is already beginning to work. And all of the levels are in it, including those about which we read in The Book of Zohar, but they are very high. And they are activated by your small desire that you can awaken now.

Suppose that you are ready to look with only “half an eye,” from half of a dream and your brain is 99% asleep. But this is not important, for in spite of all this, you awaken the desire and the conduit begins to work. Even though this conduit is sealed, at least something is passing through it. And thanks to that small amount that passes, all of the levels about which you are reading in The Book of Zohar begin to work. You look at us with quarter of your eye open and are connected to the reading with one percent of your mind; this is not important, for on the higher levels there is a Light that is much stronger and the greatest desire. And you activate them and obligate them to work.

So I am ready to tolerate those who are just about asleep in the lesson because they still have some small desire. And in the meantime they are not aware that they are activating all of the high levels that are described in The Book of Zohar.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/25/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: What delights the Creator more: holding a workshop with friends or reading The Book of Zohar together?

Answer: In the workshop, together with the friends, we clarify in our mind and heart our deficiencies and our vessels. We awaken and activate them, so we have to discuss, feel, and turn them around in different directions. So the workshop is good and beneficial for our inner work. During the half-hour workshop, a person has many thoughts and he delves into himself trying things one way or another, knowing and not knowing. A workshop is the preparation of our vessel, our desire, as if we dig into ourselves, clarifying what we have inside, what happens to us in there.

But while reading The Book of Zohar, we have to feel a deficiency, on the one hand, and wholeness on the other hand. During this time we are in the source of the Light of Infinity, and through our connection with it, we have to feel that we are whole. But at the same time, we have to feel a deficiency because we haven’t managed to use the Infinite Light correctly. This means that we should feel these two things at the same time.

In order to discover all the Light of The Zohar, we have to go through all the phases: Ibur (conception), Yenika (suckling), Mochin (maturity), and the whole ladder of spiritual levels; only then will we be able to understand what The Zohar says. The authors of The Zohar attained all the 125 levels and it is from this height that they wrote The Book. They didn’t write it from the first, second, third, fiftieth, or seventieth level while they were advancing towards the 125^th level. First they attained all the 125 levels, and only then did they write everything from this height.

Even when they write about levels that are lower than the 125^th level, they look at them and write about them from the height of the 125^th level. It is like a schoolteacher who teaches a first grader what 1+1+ 2 is. There is a great difference between the way he understands this and the way he explains it to his student. First, they ascended to the 125^th level and then they wrote about the lower levels.

So even while reading articles that refer to the impure forces (Klipot) or the lowest level, we still receive the Light of Infinity through them. This is actually the height from which they wrote The Book of Zohar. So it doesn’t matter if we study a short passage on a lower level.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/25/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: What is the right intention we should have when we open The Book of Zohar?

Answer: The Book of Zohar was written as a result of the connection between souls and so it operates and influences us in the right way if we connect. Even if I read it by myself, it will affect me by pushing me to connect. But it is impossible to understand this book unless you are connected with other people.

It isn’t just an intellectual understanding, but a revelation.  I feel how I overcome my ego and begin to feel the others in my connection with others. I feel new powers and new attributes in the connection with others, and so I discover the upper world.

The Book of Zohar gives me the feeling of the others by revealing a force field of love and bestowal between us which is the spiritual world. This is the right outcome that we should expect from studying The Book of Zohar.
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From the World Zohar Week “World Zohar Convention,” Day One 2/5/14, Lesson 1

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The Book of Zohar says that its purpose is to lead the entire world out of the exile and bring us to deliverance. Interestingly, when we studied Kabbalistic texts in the past, we didn’t tune ourselves to The Book of Zohar. We studied The Study of the Ten Sefirot, “The Book of Life,” “The Gate-House of Intentions,” articles and letters written by Kabbalists, in short a lot of texts. On the other hand, The Book of Zohar looked great, but we did not feel it or feel particularly concerned about it.

It is not an accident! It’s said that The Book of Zohar will reveal itself to our generation when the process of final correction begins. Humanity went through a lot of suffering before discovering that there is The Book of Zohar and that its mission is to help us; now, we cannot abide without it.

We need a lot of time to develop internally and to be able to access The Book. One comes to the wisdom of Kabbalah, explores numerous sources, and only afterwards discovers that The Book of Zohar possesses a huge power and unusual possibilities that come with different clarifications and are accompanied by a new sensual and rational background. The Zohar is a book that encompasses everything there is. It’s not an easy discovery!

Many of our friends sleep during The Zohar lessons since they don’t feel any connection with it. In the course of time, they will be able to sense in the lines that they read various forms of bestowal and receiving, the correlation of the Lights and vessels, and will learn to connect them together: the Kabbalistic language of branches, the language of Tanakh and Agadah. Everything of which The Book of Zohar is comprised has to be regarded as one whole. It talks about the details of perception using different languages.

We can express various notions in different languages of this world; however, they all are about one sensation, one phenomenon. In The Zohar many languages are closely intertwined. There are numerous ways of presenting the material. The reader has to be educated and prepared; one has to sense the reality that is described in The Book, no matter what language is used there to depict it.

Similar to when we use words of foreign origin in our speech, there are Greek and Latin words in The Book of Zohar. At that time, these languages were very widespread and common. The authors of The Book of Zohar were not at all reluctant to use them. They could have used Gematria values, Hebrew or Aramaic equivalents, but they chose not to do so.

It means that if we learn at least a little bit of the languages that are used in The Book of Zohar, meaning that if we become more knowledgeable of the styles and forms of presenting the materials that are described in The Book, we’ll be exposed to many additional sensations to those previously experienced. We’ll see what its “multilingualism” is caused by: Every word or phrase in The Book of Zohar whether Gematria, the language of Sefirot, concepts of Tanakh, or terms of Halacha (the collective body of Jewish religious laws) reflects the spiritual essence.

When I turn on a Halacha radio station, I listen to things that are very clear to me from my prior experience: Halacha speaks about a preparation of our vessels,desires, about the ways of working with egoistic desires at the inanimate, vegetative, animate, and speaking levels. This work is regulated by a set of laws named “Halacha.” It outlines a correct treatment of vessels, the order of their correction, and ways to ascend to a speaking level.

After all, this level gives expression to everything. We work internally with inanimate, vegetative, and animate desires, with the desires that correspond to our level and also with the desires of our neighbors. This is how preparation of all four steps happens. This is where an expansive and rich language of Halacha derives from; no other language is more precise than the one of Halacha.

However, let’s return to The Book of Zohar: Its authors and readers find the iridescent, multilingual sound of the book habitual and clear. It’s similar to using well-known foreign words in our speech. Habit is all there is.

Baal HaSulam writes that the language of Kabbalah includes everything. I hope that soon we will be able to understand that The Book of Zohar embraces the entire complex of notions and languages, includes all imaginable components, and delivers the “cure” to us in the best possible way.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lessons 1/8/14, Lesson on the Topic: “Preparation for the Convention”

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar“, Item 23: It turns out that once dressed in a human body, it (the soul) generates needs and desires and ideas to satisfy its desire to bestow to the fullest, meaning to bestow contentment upon its Maker, according to the size of its desire.

Question: On one hand it says that we should be guided only by what we see, but on the other hand, we have to detach from the ordinary corporeal terms”body” and “soul,” so how we can integrate the two things?

Answer: I see the corporeal world in which I live now. We study about it in universities and not in Kabbalah lessons. We, on the other hand, study about something that is above that, the spiritual reality. It is not before my eyes, and I am supposed to acquire a new sight in order to see it. I don’t need corporeal eyes for that but spiritual ones.

Kabbalists tell us that just like the corporeal body, there is also a spiritual body, and it is bestowal. The life in it is the Light that fills it. The spiritual body is actually the Returning Light (Ohr Hozer) and we feel the body according to its measure.

I am attracted to bestowal upon others according to the level of the Returning Light, and bestowal upon the other is my soul. This is exactly where it is, in others, and not in the flesh that lives and dies. We need the flesh only for the time in which I have to annul my desire to receive. Then the need for the corporeal body disappears. When I attain the first spiritual level, I understand that it has nothing to do with the body. I was simply given such conditions in which I can exist before the revelation. This state is essential in order to enter the spiritual world. It’s the area where I fulfill the preconditions.

It’s as if I stand in front of a door and I am told: “You can enter only if you have a ticket. Don’t you have a ticket? So go to work and buy a ticket and then you can enter.” So I work in this world in order to buy a ticket for the spiritual reality and during the lessons we speak about what happens behind the door.

Question: So in what way are we different from the philosophers who seem to say the same thing?

Answer: First, we are right in that we don’t wish, like them, to indulge into fantasies like they do; we understand that we must actually feel and see what we speak about firsthand. This is a healthy approach that protects against making mistakes and delivers a clear scientific framework.

Philosophers are mistaken in the fact that they speak about things which they don’t feel that are beyond their perception and is devoid of any factual basis. And they are comfortable with this situation: first, because they are being paid for it and second, because they want to have something to do with “spirituality.”

In principle, a person reaches for a certain “spiritual bridgehead” but without working on himself. This is the reason that Kabbalists hate philosophy. There is a philosopher in each of us because we would also like to enter spirituality without effort and we love to bring up different unfounded theories.

At the same time, we have to explain everything: “Although I sometimes feel like philosophizing, it is merely my ego.” The truth is that we cannot actually discuss the spiritual world before we attain it, it is said: “We cannot know by name or word anything that we don’t attain.”

We reject the philosophical approach and hate the philosophers in us although it’s impossible to do it without them, because everyone includes the whole world in him. So we only speak about what happens in our hearts.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/12/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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