Fundamentals of Kabbalah – 07.10.11
Posted on July 10th, 2011
When reading The Zohar, we need to keep the intention and imagine a sensory picture instead of the words. Our sensory picture has to include the following two components:
1. Happiness from embracing the Torah, something very exalted, which we are not yet in the condition to appreciate;
2. The desire, the need, to really connect, merge with it.
This is why I need to experience happiness from respecting the Torah and realizing the importance of the goal to which we are connected. And I also have to feel the desire to become worthy of all of these qualities of bestowal so that they become clothed in me, in my spiritual vessel, and I really become the bestowing one, radiating the Light.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/5/2011, Shamati #5
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 1, “Table of Questions and Answers for the Meaning of the Words,” Question 43: What is separation?
Two degrees without any Hishtavut Tzura [equivalence of form] on any side are regarded as completely separated from one another.
Our desires are like two circles: They can coincide completely, superimposing on each other and thus becoming one circle. Or they can overlap and be partially one inside the other. Or they can come in contact with one another with one point, their common desire.
Total separation means that we don’t have a single common quality or desire. That is to say, the first is not similar to the second in any way and we do not attain any form of bestowal with one another that would allow us to be one inside the other.
If I don’t take a single desire from you in order to bestow to you, and you don’t take a single desire from me in order to bestow to me, then we do not touch each other and are completely separated.
If at least one desire to bestow to one another appears between us, then there is already contact between us. And if there are several desires like that, then we are already partially one inside the other: I am inside your desires and you are inside mine.
That is how we advance until you take my desires and I take all of yours, and through them we bestow to one another: I give everything to you and you – to me. This is called adhesion.
These definitions from Talmud Eser Sefirot are unusually important. Memorize them mechanically, because that is useful as well. Later, by perceiving them on the level of feelings and intellect, try to gradually unite the mind and the feeling.
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/27/11, Talmud Eser Sefirot
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Question: When you simplify The Book of Zohar, aren’t you afraid of ruining it?
Answer: No, I’m not afraid because I know for sure that I’m ruining it! The text of Zohar for the People is compiled from the original text of The Book of Zohar and the Sulam Commentary, weaved together and simplified.
Therefore, it is definitely ruined compared to the source. Many words (such as Behina and others) that underline precision, were removed from the sentences in order to make the text easier. The resulting text is coarser, less precise, but more concrete.
We had to take this plunge in order to bring The Zohar’s text closer to an average person’s level of reading and understanding. Of course, this kind of text does not replace the source under any circumstances. It is intended for mass reading of The Book of Zohar.
Some study Kabbalah as mechanics, some study Kabbalah as a wisdom, some study Kabbalah to memorize things, some study Kabbalah to write books, some study Kabbalah to teach—but some study Kabbalah in order to change. Under the influence of the upper Light that descends upon a person in the process of reading The Book of Zohar, one starts feeling the upper world, and then, from the sensations, he begins to understand it. This is the real study of Kabbalah. And the book Zohar for the People is intended for these kinds of people.
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At the end of “The Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 156, Baal HaSulam writes that adopting the right definitions is of primary and paramount importance in the study of Kabbalah. They must be at our disposal, placed in our mind as if on book shelves so that I can pick out the right term without even thinking how I need to understand, to feel, and to picture the meaning concealed behind each word in the text.
Otherwise, I will be confusing myself and generating in myself the wrong impression and perception, which doesn’t correspond to the truth. This is a very important key to studying the wisdom of Kabbalah. If you do not correctly decipher what is written, you will become completely confused.
We are not studying for the purpose of getting to know how many angels there are in the sky and what their names are, and we are not memorizing which spiritual objects (Partzufim) exist somewhere out there. We need to apprehend that everything that has been written about is inside of us, inside our soul, which we have not revealed yet.
Let this spiritual system be concealed from us for now, but it is inside of us and not somewhere out there. We are not talking about angels in the sky, but about man’s inner forces. Everything is inside man, and there is nothing else besides him. It only seems to us that other people exist around us, but in reality, all of them are parts of myself. That is why the phrase of “love thy neighbor as thyself” seems to be speaking about another person until you come to understand that this is actually you, yourself, and everything belongs to you.
Kabbalistic terms need to be known by memory, meaning that you need to be attached to their true spiritual meaning and not to imagine it in your current perception. When I come across words like “sun,” “moon,” “up,” “down,” “entering,” and “leaving” of the Light, all of the most technical terms, and even the ones that are barely related to this world, I still need to check myself as to whether I am keeping to the right definitions. This will eliminate 99% of all confusion and mistakes.
Furthermore, I will not need a lot of long explanations if I adopt the correct definitions. That is why it is so important to study the appendices to each chapter of The Study of the Ten Sefirot: “Table of Questions and Answers for the Meaning of the Words.” This is even more important than studying the main text of the book.
Even though we cannot remember all of these definitions yet, to understand and to feel them, we at least we need to look at how these spiritual definitions differ from those inside of us because we usually already have a certain material picture about each of the words and concepts.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/20/2011, Talmud Eser Sefirot
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Question: Can we use the reading of The Book of Zohar to correct very difficult conditions in which many people in the world find themselves today? The wisdom of Kabbalah has been revealed, and everybody may read The Zohar. Would it help a person who does not feel the need for the group, studying, and understanding?
Answer: We have to realize that in reality, the use of the wisdom of Kabbalah is effective only if a person wants to advance towards correction. We see that time passes until people who come to study the wisdom of Kabbalah join the group and begin to understand and hear what is going on. These are very slow, internal, stage-by-stage changes in a person.
Hence, we need to understand that “Segula,” “a special effect of the Light,” starts much earlier than a person realizes that he or she is under its influence. The Light that Reforms works on him or her like on a baby who does not know yet how he is developing, for what, or to where he should advance. He is attracted by an interesting game and plays with his toys; this is our environment.
We are in the group, and this is our environment. There are people who do not have a group, but it does not matter. The key is that in some way they use the means of attracting the Light that Reforms: The Book of Zohar, the works of Baal HaSulam, Rabash’s articles and letters, Kabbalistic music, songs.
Thus, reading The Book of Zohar in any condition, even if a person is not thinking yet about the group and unity, but wants to improve his life, still helps. If the entire world has already entered the stage of development whereby we must achieve unity among us, then any use of the sources that bring the correcting Light is beneficial.
Not everybody has to sit together with us and thousands of people around the world during our morning lessons. We also have to awaken people who have no connection with us, who have never heard that one should study for the sake of unity among people. Baal HaSulam says that we have entered the period of the Messiah, and the entire humankind must advance in this direction.
Hence, it is desirable for a person to be connected with the primary sources even without any intentions.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/22/2011, The Zohar
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Question: What happens “behind the scenes” of my actions when during the reading of The Book of Zohar I make repeated efforts to return to the intention, but they seem futile to me?
Answer: Your efforts determine your qualities of perception, your sensitivity, and then you make the revelation. Everything is in front of you, but your lack of sensitivity does not allow you to reveal the system of connection between the souls that The Zohar tells you about. Your efforts and prayer build the instruments of perception inside of you in order to feel that picture.
Question: I repeatedly keep trying to build my intention anew, but it seems like I make the same efforts and feel the same thing I did a week ago, as if nothing changed….
Answer: Suppose I am among musicians. Looking at them, I see how they listen to every sound and discern the combination of different sounds, and I see how important this is to them. As I look at them, I learn about how to treat sounds. Then, as a result of my efforts, I become more sensitive and begin feeling them.
Then I ask the musicians questions and they explain things to me, but I don’t understand their explanations. “A fourth,” “a fifth,” “glissando, “forte”—these words don’t say anything to me, just like the unintelligible terminology in The Book of Zohar.
But I want to learn them! That is why I try to become a bit more sensitive to them and to feel them. Then, because we are in a special system, according to my efforts, desire, and aspiration, I begin to feel. That is how a child develops as well: He wants to become big and is always running around, never tiring and researching everything around.
We wonder: How can children watch the same cartoon or listen to the same story a thousand times over? However, it’s a thousand times to us because we don’t develop any longer. But a child lives in that story. When he listens to the tale about Little Red Riding Hood today, to him this is a completely new story, not like yesterday. You look at him and think, “Fine, I’ll tell him the story. Let him sit quietly, calm down, and enjoy it….” But he hears this story anew every time! And even though he also knows it by heart, when he repeats it together with you, he relives it all over again. It’s similar to how you have to eat today even though you ate yesterday. That’s what happens to him too!
Therefore, our entire work is to develop the sensitivity to acquire new qualities of perception.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/23/11, The Zohar
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Question: If it is so important to know the exact meaning of Kabbalistic terms (so much so that we are supposed to write them down on the index cards and learn them by heart), why did you used to say that we study TES (The Study of the Ten Sefirot) not in order to understand it intellectually, but rather to draw the Surrounding Light that works as a “miraculous,” hidden force?
Answer: We study Kabbalistic terms not in order to grasp them intellectually, but to get closer to the authentic meaning of the text.
When I am reading about what is “higher” or “lower” in the spiritual world and compare it with what is considered “higher and lower” in the corporeal sense, it supplies me with an impression of how far I still am from the truth. It leads me to the recognition of my evil, of my mistake. And this feeling reforms my qualities, awakens my desire to change and to draw the upper force that will reform me.
After all, if with my external mind I understand that my definitions of what is described in the book are incorrect (for instance, “the Light,” “the Creator,” “the sun,” “a circle”), the bitterness caused by the gap between me and the truth grows. And this pain becomes a prayer. This kind of studying is not meant for the intellect.
We measure not by the mind, but by our properties. The correct learning of the definitions leads to the desire to be present in them, instead of understanding them in abstract terms!
This means that I myself desire to be transformed so that these terms would describe me, so that they would become my model and my language. I want to hear “higher-lower” and understand that it is higher or lower in terms of the importance with regards to bestowal, whereas the “right and left” refers to the Light of Hochma (Wisdom) or the Light of Hassadim (Mercy).
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/20/2011, Talmud Eser Sefirot
Question: On one hand, all our work lies in correcting the connection between a person and a fellow human being. On the other, the correction is done through The Book of Zohar. How can I tie it all together?
Answer: Correction results from the Light concealed in the texts written by Kabbalists. Yet it happens on the condition that we desire to perceive and comprehend the reality they describe so that all that is written in these texts would clothe in us and we would be in the same system of relationships between us.
It implies the connection between all souls to such an extent that we reach unity, become a unified system: Malchut of Infinity. If I strive to achieve unity as in “love your neighbor as yourself,” if I desire this, then The Book of Zohar starts talking about me.
As a result, I receive the force of correction from The Book of Zohar and gradually advance by reading it. In fact, the book itself contains nothing, but by reading it and wishing to be in this system, I draw the power of the force field that does reside in Malchut of Infinity—and thereby I reach this system.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/20/2011, The Zohar
The goal of creation is to acquire the quality of bestowal, and through it to attain adhesion with the Creator. We exist in the opposite quality, in the intention to receive for our own sake.
In order to correct our intention from reception to bestowal, we have to attract upon us the Light that reforms, that brings us back to the source, the Creator. This Light is on a higher level than we are, and it continually corrects us, raising us to higher levels of bestowal and love.
The Light comes to us during the time when we unite together in our hearts, in our desires, the intentions to become corrected, and when we study the same corrected system that the Kabbalists tell us about. By studying this system and wishing for the description in these texts to happen to us, to become revealed between us, we thereby attract the same Light that is inside of it on the levels of the proper connection between the creatures. Then we correct our connection and enter the same states that the book tells us about. And this means that the book becomes revealed.
The book with the strongest influence on the reader, with the greatest capability to bring him to the corrected state, to bestowal and love, is The Book of Zohar. Therefore, while reading this book, let’s desire to feel all of us together so that inside of the right connection between us we would reveal the general quality of bestowal, the One who is good and does good, the Creator who is revealed to the creatures.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/19/11, The Zohar
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