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.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/24/2011, 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.

The Importance of the Intention during the Study

During the practice of  the Torah, every person must..set his mind and heart to reveal the Creator [the property of bestowal and love]. And any person is fit for it, as it is written: “You labored and did not find, do not believe.” …Thus, one needs nothing in this matter except the labor alone.
– Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 97

There is a wonderful remedy to those who engage in the wisdom of Kabbalah. Although they do not understand what they are learning, through the great desire to understand, they awaken upon themselves the Lights that surround their souls.
– Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 155
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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?
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/25/11, Shamati

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Question: What corrections did the Kabbalists of the past perform for us?

Answer: Baal HaSulam writes in “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 11: The sages of the Talmud have made the path of Torah easier for us than the sages of the Mishnah. This is because …they have provided us with a new means instead of the penance presented in the above-mentioned Mishnah, Avot: the “Light in the Torah.” It bears sufficient power to reform a person….”

Why did the sages of the Talmud replaced the path of asceticism (“live on bread and water, sleep on the ground, lead a meager life, and exert in the Torah”) only with the study of the Torah? It’s because they corrected the network of connection between them. This general system of souls already contains the souls that act in it, and we can avail ourselves of their help.

After the breaking, the broken souls exist in the general system of souls. And although in the diagram we depict them as if scattered in a sphere, the system has a strict hierarchy which existed in the world of Nekudim before the breaking. The souls break and fall down following the same hierarchy: each one according to its level of Aviut (the thickness of desire), meaning that the souls with a bigger Aviut fall lower.

This system contains special souls, thousands of Kabbalists who are bonded together by a special connection. This resembles a skeleton of the spiritual system.

Reading their manuscripts, we evoke the illumination from the network of connection that they have built between themselves. This illumination corrects us, and we can avoid the path of suffering and deprivation which people followed in the past, without awakening the Light, but rather subjecting themselves to suffering so that it would help them destroy their ego.

We can’t follow this path. We are weak and unable to fight our ego directly. We can do it by awakening the already existing network of connection. We as though rest in the hands of the Kabbalists of the past, as a newborn baby in the hands of a caring mother, and they look after us.

We connect with their manuscripts, especially The Book of Zohar, the texts of the ARI and Baal HaSulam, and receive from there the Light, the care of these great souls.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/2011, The Book of Zohar

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Question: What does it mean that each of Rabbi Shimon’s nine students represented a separate Sefira? Can Kabbalists like that exist in our time as well?

Answer: The ten Kabbalists who made it possible to write The Book of Zohar are the ten main Sefirot. Each of them, by attaining the root of his soul, understood that he belongs to one of their main ten Sefirot, and then their inner unification produced such an enormous force that they could fully reveal the upper Light and “splash it out” on us. That is why this book is called “The Zohar,” according to the name of the Light that shines in the upper part of the world of Atzilut (GAR de Atzilut).

I don’t think that today we need Kabbalists of such high stature. They have already revealed everything, have illuminated the entire system of souls, and then all the other Kabbalists joined the same system. This produced an entire corrected net of souls inside of the common system of souls, which are not corrected yet.

Now, if we want to correct ourselves, then it’s enough for us to read The Book of Zohar and as much as we can, with all our might, to try to join its authors, their souls, as well as the Kabbalists who follow them. They became the corrected part in the common system of souls, and if we want to join them, then we will be able to use all of the Lights and forces that operate in their mutual unification. That is how we will be able to use the Light of The Book of Zohar.

Essentially, we have already received everything! There already exists a corrected system of souls inside of the system that still hasn’t corrected itself. We have the book at our disposal and all of the science of Kabbalah in general, which we study by the method of Baal HaSulam. This is enough for us!

It’s clear that there will still be new revelations, we will explain everything more and will better understand what is written in this book. But from above we have already received everything in order to complete our correction.

Kabbalah is studied in a group. And every person in the world who feels that he has to correct his soul and aspires to reveal why he exists, where the root of his life is and its reason, will eventually find his way into the same net—into one of our groups. There he will begin to reveal what we are doing and how to reveal the root of the soul, how to reveal the spiritual system in which we exist, although we are there in an unconscious state for now. So how can we come to realize this system?

When we come to the group and start studying, then at first we see people in front of us. But then, after we have studied for some time, we begin to understand that these are not people, but an internal connecting net that unites us.

For now this system is dysfunctional, but we are trying to reveal a certain connection in it, looking for a force that could correct us, make us one person with one heart, bring us to love for the neighbor, mutual guarantee, and mutual unification.

This mutual aspiration toward one another in order to reveal the connection between us in the unity of hearts brings us to the sensation of that net. We feel that it exists. We suddenly begin to feel that it is present. And then, inside of this connecting system, we see ourselves and all of the great Kabbalists that enter this net as its corrected elements and support it, conducting Light inside of this system, nourishing it by the Light of unification, love, and mutual participation among all its elements.

It doesn’t matter how we sit together: physically or virtually. The most important thing is that we feel together and want to become part of the same system, to join the Kabbalists. And if we read The Book of Zohar, then we pull nourishment, force, understanding, and spiritual sensation from these souls, from that corrected net, just like children pull it out of adults. This enables us to become part of that system ourselves and attain mutuality, connection, and concessions, canceling ourselves and uniting with everyone.
From the program about Lag B’Omer on 5/17/2011

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In order to receive the Light that reforms, the force that will make us similar to the upper force, the Creator, and that will return us to the source of goodness and abundance so we would become just as good, bestowing, and loving, we have to place ourselves in the right conditions.

How can I prove to myself and prepare myself to make the right request from the upper Light so it would influence me? Only through the environment. I don’t have any opportunity in our world to prove that I want to become bestowing and good unless I organize the right connection with the environment to the best of my ability.

That is why before and during the lesson, especially while reading The Book of Zohar, every one of us must constantly feel that he has an unceasing connection with others, that he is in a net of connection where he loses himself and only feels everyone together. He must try to feel with all his might that he does not have his own “I,” but there is only “WE.” This is called the assembly of the souls of Israel (Knesset Israel)—the unification of all those who aspire to reveal the Creator.

If they unite together in order to reveal Him, that means the broken souls desire to unite together and ascend through their request for unification to Malchut of the world of Atzilut. Malchut of the world of Atzilut takes these desires, which aspire to unite and make mutual efforts to unite, and raises this request to Zeir Anpin. He, in turn, works on this request, corrects them, and then all who participate in it acquire the force of mutual bestowal and begin to feel closer, more connected together. Thus, gradually, step by step, very slowly they reveal the net of connection between them. When this net attains its first realization, we begin to feel that we are on the first degree of the spiritual ladder.

Therefore, while reading The Book of Zohar we must constantly aspire only toward unity among us so inside of it we would reveal the form of our connection called “the Creator.” After all, the Creator is the form of connection among us.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/11, The Zohar

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Question: At the beginning of the lesson on The Book of Zohar, I understand and get inspired by your words about intention. But the moment we start reading The Zohar, I’m beset by a multitude of foreign thoughts, and I fail to re-establish the right intention. What should I do?

Answer: Regret it! A person gradually develops a need to sense the material. Indeed, we are talking about an opportunity to perceive spirituality. Our desires (vessels) are our sensations, yearnings.

If a person doesn’t yet have a desire to discover the upper one, the force of bestowal, on the basis of the lower one, the force of reception, by way of the lower one becoming similar to the upper one in its properties, he or she doesn’t yet get inspired by a constant spiritual quest.

You can’t help it, just regret it as much as you can. And the group has to stimulate the unwavering, right intention during the study.

Only those moments during which a person remembers about the intention are regarded as the study of the Torah (Kabbalah), the Light of which reforms. If one sums up all these moments, he can count how many minutes during his life he studied the Torah…. But whatever reason doesn’t do, time will. Gradually, it will come.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/2011, The Zohar

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Question: During the reading of The Zohar, is it enough to aspire only toward unity?

Answer: No, it isn’t. Baal HaSulam writes in “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 155, that a person who wants to reveal is eager to attain what he is studying and draws the Light that surrounds his soul onto himself. The Light comes to the degree of his aspiration.

“To strive to attain” means that I try to perform the actions described in the Torah within myself. The Torah is a manual, an instruction (“Torah” derives from Horaa, instruction, and Ohr, Light) for how I should correct myself by drawing the Light that affects me while I study this manual.

While reading this instruction, I try to discern within myself the states that it describes. This text is written in an unusual way, corporeal language talking about the spiritual world, so that under all these concealments, I would find and see what it is trying to tell me, what all my inner properties and desires are about.

I must uncover and learn what they are. I want to apply them in practice. I want the Light, the upper force, to elevate me above my will to receive pleasure so that I may start working with this matter instead of being chained in it, without even feeling and identifying myself with it.

I want to separate myself from it and study it from aside. Then, I can attempt to build one or another form from it, like a child who is making a tower from building blocks. I will be able to watch and examine what is going on with me. At that point, I will have a force that will allow me to work with my still matter. Then, I will acquire forces to work on my vegetative form of the will to receive, followed by the animate, and so on, until I recreate myself as human. To accomplish this task, I have to ascend to the degree of the upper Light.

Yet, this is the way we advance, yearning and desiring to know how to work. This aspiration to know how to find within myself these inner properties and how to work with them is vital. Where it is up to me, I want to be the master of my actions. It is as if I collate my desires and then tell the Creator: “Now, connect, correct them!”

However, I have to bring them to correction, to seemingly connect them, and when the Light comes and corrects them, it does occur. This means that I ask, and the Creator fulfills; I demand, and the Creator carries it out. He and I are partners.

Therefore, it is our duty to try to understand the Torah, The Zohar. However, after the Light has affected me, I also come to a state where I am able to see, feel, and understand all that is being described.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/15/2011, The Zohar

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Question: During the past few weeks of reading The Book of Zohar, I’ve been very focused on the internal, spiritual work. Suddenly, I can’t stay with it even for ten seconds. What can I do when something like this occurs?

Answer: Try to stay with it for fifteen seconds. I don’t have any other advice. There are times, especially when someone is just beginning to study the wisdom of Kabbalah, when a person is unable to work on himself yet. He hasn’t accumulated sufficient experience and doesn’t know how to deceive his ego.

Try to draw something next to a passage from The Zohar, highlight and underline, meaning work with the text, albeit mechanically at times, if you can’t do anything else. Sometimes, a person may be completely disconnected from spirituality. During such states, he can connect to it only by working with the text, processing it purely mechanically, by moving the commas around, breaking it into sub-headings, messing the text up, or organizing it.

No matter what a person is going to do with it, even if it’s just reading the letters, the key is to keep reading it. He should know that he is confusing himself thereby in order to keep reading, and that’s work.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/15/2011, The Zohar

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Question: When I read your books, I feel the revelation of a new world. However, as soon as I shut them, I remember only myself. How can I keep the sensation which I had while reading the books?

Answer: You don’t need to remember anything, but rather to forget, and it’s wonderful that you do! After all, if you do not forget, you act according to what I wrote in the books, according to my mind and feeling. If you read a lot, repeat what you already read, and still forget, you accumulate your inner sensations. You need to do that, and this is your accomplishment.

The more you forget the better. A person has to come out of the lesson and remember nothing because the wisdom of Kabbalah is not like other sciences of our world that require memorizing. When I study at a university, I have to remember some knowledge and then demonstrate it at the exam. In Kabbalah, the exam tests what I have built within myself as a result of what I read and heard.

Therefore, I strongly recommend that everyone has a full set of our books. Read them at home, while commuting on a bus or train, during a lunch break, every time when you have an opportunity to open a book. Through it you connect with the spiritual root.
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From Lesson 8, WE! Convention 4/3/2011

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