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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Baal HaSulam, “The Teaching of the Kabbalah and Its Essence”: This is the source of Rav Baal Shem Tov’s mistake: he interpreted the Guide for the Perplexed according to the wisdom of Kabbalah… Of course, the Guide for the Perplexed did not refer at all to what Rav Baal Shem Tov interpreted, and he did not see how…

Question: Does it mean that Kabbalists make mistakes?

Answer: Of course they do; the same as scientists do. As an example, I can mention the world-renowned Stephen Hawking who publicly admitted his mistake several years ago. His confession makes him really great. He said: “You believed me, but I was wrong.” My teacher, Rabash, made notes on book margins; then he crossed them out and wrote “Wrong!” on top of them, and then made new comments over and over again.

It’s a science, a researcher’s study. A Kabbalist is a person who develops his vessels,desires, to the extent that he starts perceiving the Divine. Kabbalists divulge the upper world to the degree their vessels are advanced. If they have not completed certain stages, their vision of some phenomena is quite remote and it’s possible that they make mistakes. Things that are closer to them are clearer, whereas things that are farther are blurred and vague.

A Kabbalist is a researcher. For example in his book, Gatehouse of Intentions, Baal HaSulam seriously criticizes Rashash (Rabbi Shalom Sharabi) , who was a great Kabbalist. Yet, he failed to reveal and understand some things. I have no ability to judge at a level this high, but possibly Rashash didn’t realize what exactly he was overlooking. It happens.

There is a hidden part in the wisdom of Kabbalah that is still vague. Many issues are intentionally veiled because of some specific conditions. At very high levels (mainly in the world of Atzilut) these things are very numerous, same as in any other science.

We have to understand that we do not directly attain the Creator, but rather we know Him from His actions to the degree of our correspondence to and similarity with Him. Only at the end of correction “everybody will know Him, from the least of them unto the greatest of them…;” then, “nobody will teach one’s neighbor.” When all vessels will be corrected, we will fully reveal Him. However, even at this point, our revelation of Him will be limited to the desire He made.

One way or the other, our vessels will be filled to the degree of their correctness. The Upper Light is in a state of absolute tranquility. The power of bestowal rules the world. The rest depends on us. If you know how to use it, please do so! If you can’t, then don’t. You should not artificially apply superfluous “initiative” or “enterprise” to the upper force. You should get rid of these stereotypes.

There is a good force that does good to both the virtuous and wicked. It’s ready to act in accordance with the properties of each of us. There is a potential, a “rope” that we can pull on, a “socket” that we can use. Unless we are connected to it, we won’t know what it is exactly.

Let’s say you turn on your oven. You will come to the conclusion that a socket that is connected to it is a “heating force.” If we plug a refrigerator into the same socket, it will turn into a “freezing force.” So, is it warming or cooling? Neither: We are the ones who warm or cool.

Let’s summarize what we should always keep in mind:

1. Kabbalah is a science.
2. A Kabbalist is a researcher who conducts empirical studies and reveals the Creator from His actions.
3. The Goal of the Creator is to have everybody know Him.
4. “Faith” is not a blind belief, but the power of bestowal. The degree of our attainment always matches the level of our faith. If we don’t expand our faith, we will achieve nothing.
5. The Creator is absolutely good and does good. The absolute never changes. We are the ones who change.

This approach has to be utterly clear. However, humanity refuses to hear this information since it means that it’s we who have started working. It obligates us to modify ourselves instead of altering Him. We cannot “toss a coin” and wait for a positive reaction from Above. It’s all about actual self-restructuring.

However, the current epoch forces us to acknowledge and clarify the path that we have already traversed. People are changing, even religions are rapidly transforming. Humanity is growing.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/9/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Baal HaSulam, Article, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”: We can see that all the interpretations of The Book of Zohar before ours did not clarify as much as ten percent of the difficult places in The Zohar. And in the little they did clarify, their words are almost as vague as the words of The Zohar itself.

As Baal HaSulam writes in “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot” in paragraph 155, the books of Kabbalah were written for those who already had spiritual attainment or wanted to acquire attainment. For these people, these books are like a means for advancement; it is possible to attract the Light that Reforms with them.

So why do the interpretations and explanations matter to us? Why did Baal HaSulam write the Sulam commentary to The Book of Zohar?

The Sulam commentary helps us to rise to the text of The Book of Zohar in order to use it and get the Light that Reforms from there. First it is necessary to approach, to come close, to rise to this book, and then you derive benefit from it and enjoyment from it and receive the correcting Light that Reforms from it. After that I rise again, come close to it, and again receive the Light that Reforms from it. And that is how it is throughout the 125 levels.

This is to say, there are 125 levels in The Book of Zohar, and the Sulam commentary also has 125 levels that make it possible for me to rise to the level of The Book of Zohar and to use it according to its mission, to attract the Light that Reforms and correct myself. It is as if I am climbing up a ladder in a library to going from tier to tier getting a new edition of the same book each time.

Consequently, the Sulam commentary is not just an explanation for the book. Hence the name because “Sulam” means ladder. Therefore by involvement with The Book of Zohar and this commentary together, I can use the language of Kabbalah and the language of Midrash, “the language of the branches,” that make it possible for me to come close to the text and to yearn to activate what he describes there and attain what is latent there.

I don’t imagine a Garden of Eden with souls floating there, rather I know that it is talking about my inner world, about how I am linked to a group, how I describe to myself the picture of the spiritual state that comes into being within my desire to receive through rejection and reduction of the reflected Light.

Therefore the book must prepare us for the correct comprehension of what they wrote. And from the start it was clear that The Book of Zohar not only had to be hidden until our day but also it had to receive an addition that would make it possible for our generation to use it in order to take the Light that Reforms out from it.

Without the Sulam commentary we would not have the possibility of taking the Light that Reforms out from this book. And in fact, for a thousand years after the discovery of The Book of Zohar, we could not truly use it until the time arrived to submit it to the people. And so Baal HaSulam came and gave his commentary to it, which is used as a “ladder” through which we have the possibility of rising to every level of the 125 levels of spiritual attainment.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/23/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: I have no desire to simplify the wisdom of Kabbalah for the framework of distribution to the masses. I want to be involved with a dry methodical science and to pass it on in a form like this. This concerns me very much. With what could this be connected?

Answer: This is due to the fact that you don’t understand how much the wisdom of Kabbalah is a practical science. All of the calculations and sketches are good only when you see clear and precise actions behind them: How humanity will ascend to the level of the Creator, reveal himself to the next world, to the next dimension, for itself.

When this truly will begin to be shown to you practically, and the wisdom of Kabbalah is an absolutely practical science, then you won’t have any contradictions and opposition between it and the work with the masses. This is work, just like taking care of a newborn, when you feed it and clean up after it, feed it and clean up after it all the time. And you do so for many months, until it becomes a small person.

Initially this work seems to you to be miserable, unpleasant, repulsive, and even unnecessary. But this will pass.

To the degree that you yourself enter into the science of Kabbalah, you will feel more and more how much it is impossible to advance forward without attainment, and all this calculation will be empty, it will not replace discovery of the upper world. The upper world can be discovered only when you act in mutual participation with the friends and through them with the Creator, and simultaneously descend with this down to the masses of society.
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From the Moscow Virtual Convention “Unity Without Boundaries” Day One 12/13/13, Lesson 1

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Question: We are going to have an international convention soon in which we will celebrate the publication of The Book of Zohar adapted to the new generation. What does this mean?

Answer: By working with this book we are aware, understand, and feel that we have a source of power that belongs to the upper nature, to the force that manages everything to the smallest detail, to the smallest cell, to the last atom. The Book of Zohar has a special quality that allows us to connect to this force and to be inspired by it. Thus we will be able to understand and feel it and work according to it.

We have no other key or connecting channel, other than The Book of Zohar. All the other Kabbalah books were actually written so that we would approach the main book and use it correctly. So we celebrate the publication of Zohar For All.

We have to understand that we are on the verge of a new era, moving on to a level of a new development. We have to disseminate this book all over the world, and produce many other supplementary materials that will serve to bring people closer to it.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/17/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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