Question: Why do you often refuse to answer questions on the actual text of The Zohar?

Answer: What’s the point of answering? A person who attains it receives the answer on his own. But a person who does not attain it has to work on attaining it.

An answer to a question that is perceived by our earthy mind leaves us on the level of this material world, calming us down with false understanding. But this is not a real answer and does not help us. After all, in that case a person does not try to acquire a connection with the Torah, with the Light that corrects him, but wishes to attain wisdom, and that is opposite to our path.

Of course, we have to know the material a little bit in order to be slightly connected to it at least externally, like small children who come in touch with something in our world without understanding it yet. However, we shouldn’t receive answers that extinguish our desire to attain. After all, we are reading the text for the sake of attainment. When we attain it, then we will receive the answer. And that will be the true answer.

Therefore, there’s practically nothing to ask about the actual text of The Zohar, about the names, titles, forces, and angels. What’s the point of it? Who understands it? Who will give you an answer as long as you haven’t revealed it inside you?

Therefore, our entire study is only for the sake of revealing Kelim, vessels, or desires in which everything we study will be revealed.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/7/11, The Zohar

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Kabbalists differ from one another in their degrees of development, their degrees of understanding and attainment. Naturally, this is also related to the types of souls that come down to our world in every generation.

In in his prophecy, Baal HaSulam writes that the Creator said to him: “’Take this sword in your hand….’” Essentially, this sword is a sign that the Creator has given him the power to correct the enormous human disharmony. “’Good things will happen through you, for until now, I had no such faithful man as you….’”

In one of his letters, Baal HaSulam writes that the Ari is a great Kabbalist who has revealed the method of correction to us. We are unable to appreciate their true height. For example, according to Baal HaSulam, Rabbi Akiva was naturally higher than Rashbi. However, Rashbi has revealed more to us than Rabbi Akiva, and he is more valuable in our eyes because we receive more from his instruction.

Likewise, the Ari is also extremely great and important for us. He developed the method of our correction because his soul pertains to the Messiah’s type, the son of Joseph (Mashiach ben Josef). Baal HaSulam writes that since then, there has not been a single person who was able to fully understand the method of the Ari. There have been many sages, but Baal HaSulam was the first one to merit receiving the soul of the Ari.

This does not depend on the person’s strengths, wisdom, or even his efforts in studying. This is activated by the inner purpose evoked by the system of souls, and this is why Baal HaSulam says that he simply merited it, while many others before him did not.

We do not understand this. We only see that one way or another, every person in the world has his own destiny which is referred to as his “luck,” his root. We need to be happy that we have received instruction from a person who was the new incarnation of the soul of the Ari in order to give us the method of correction in modern times.

This is why we use the works of Baal HaSulam. When you prepare for the lesson, it is very important to feel that you are about to study the primary source, the highest and most authentic source.

Even though we do not understand the spiritual world, it sometimes seems to us like someone has gotten lucky in the corporeal world, like someone has gotten ahead by chance. Success takes a lot of strength and effort for some, and fortune seems to be smiling on others.

According to Kabbalah, we understand that this comes from the root of one’s soul. This is why meriting a teacher like Baal HaSulam is a reason for great joy and a basis for assurance. We receive help from a special soul that works as a medium for the Creator to influence us and for us to connect with Him.

In the end, we receive strength from Above through the entire system of corrected souls, and we make sure to pass it on to the uncorrected souls, to every person who has not yet found contact with the force that corrects and fulfills us.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/28/2011, Writings of Rabash

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As we advance on the spiritual path and go through different states, we are like babies because we do not know how to develop or what happens to us, and we get confused. This is what happens to small children: They are ready to accept anything you tell them since how could they know the truth? They are completely in your power.

In the spiritual world we go through the same “infantile” states. So what remains for us to do? After we make great efforts to understand anything through reason and the right organization of our work, as in any science, we must realize that in Kabbalah a scientist is a person who has developed spiritual qualities of perception to feel the world he is setting out to research.

Therefore, when approaching the study, we have to think about the Light that corrects us. This will enable us to enter the sensation, and then also to enter the understanding of the world that becomes revealed to us. First we feel it and then we understand what we feel.

This can be seen with babies: First they only feel “good” or “bad,” and nothing besides that. Later they start to understand what this depends on, how to come closer to the good and avoid the bad, and so forth.

Sensations come first, with sensations being specific fulfillments inside the desire. But in order to be fulfilled, the desire has to change under the influence of the Light, going from reception to bestowal. To this degree it will begin feeling spiritual fulfillment, fulfillment by the quality of bestowal, fulfillment by bestowing.

Therefore, it is forbidden for us to regret the fact that we do not understand the material we study or the ways of our work. A person who thinks he understands anything is a fool. A person who is proud of knowing, understanding, and perceiving, and who leaves the lesson full of energy, understanding, and pride, is the one that has to realize how low he is in that state because there is no prayer or request in his heart, and therefore no progress.

Precisely when a person experiences lack of fulfillment, a feeling of his own insignificance, total lack of understanding or feeling, and confusion, when he is in a total fog and does not understand what is happening to him, that is when he is in the best possible state for the upper Light to influence him. These moments come to us only at times. At first we don’t like them very much, but later we begin to value them.

So what do we have to prepare before the study? It is the desire for change. By changing our sensations we will understand where we are and what is happening. But first we must feel and be in the spiritual state, meaning to live in actions of bestowal.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/3/11, The Zohar

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Question: How do we allocate our time correctly? How much time should we devote to family, circulation, and the study?

Answer: It’s impossible to determine an exact amount. Everybody allocates their time according to their possibilities and desire.

History gives us an example of a student who studied for one day. This actually was his name, Bar Bi Yoma (a student for one day). He was a peasant and worked in the fields. It took him three months to journey from his home to Jerusalem to study the Torah for one day, and then he walked back home for another three months. In honor of this person, there is a tradition to study the Torah on one special day of the year.

Everything depends on how much time a person has. Our lessons and programs are available on a TV Channel and the Internet site 24 hours a day; moreover, we have study centers all over the country.

A serious study really bears fruit. And if one has a chance, he or she can listen to our lessons during the commute or when other opportunities present themselves. However, only a course of study can arrange the principles of Kabbalah into an orderly system, and there is no substitute for it.
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From the Introductory Lecture Series 1/4/2011, “What Does the Wisdom of Kabbalah Revolve Around”

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The Zohar, Introduction, “General Explanations for All Fourteen Commandments and How They Divide Into the Seven Days of ‘Creation’,” Item 1: …Rabbi Shimon explains the fourteen Mitzvot, which include all 613 Mitzvot, as the seven days of creation include 7,000 years. This is why he divided them into seven days of creation and tied each to its ascribed day. And since they include all 613 Mitzvot, it is worthwhile exerting to keep each day.

What does it mean to observe a commandment (Mitzva)? How do I even know what that commandment is? And what can I do now if I don’t even know what it is talking about?

Nevertheless, I have to read this text with the intention that it will correct me. After all, for now we don’t even know how to connect to the text or extract the spiritual action from it so it would become an instruction manual for us, the Torah, because “Torah” comes from the word “Oraa,” instructions. For it is written, “A man’s soul shall teach him.”

When each of us will have a soul instead of its embryo or spiritual spark, then inside of our soul we will reveal various phenomena. These phenomena will become “my book,” “my Torah,” my revelation, according to the instruction to write the Torah on one’s heart, where the heart refers to all of a person’s desires.
From them we will find out how to advance, how to take the next steps, and will take them inside of us. That is exactly how we will perform various actions inside of us according to the instruction manual.

But for now we are looking at the instruction manual without realizing what the instructions are saying. We do not know what it is talking about because we do not feel what each of them is talking about inside of us, where various parts of our soul are, and what connection between them is.

Therefore, we must only ask and pray to reveal the inner structure of our soul: Where are these desires in the states that are being described, what exactly is the book talking about, and what actions does it describe which we must perform inside of us?

The intention to desire and to attain this is the right intention, which Baal HaSulam describes in Item 155 of “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot”: …through the yearning and the great desire to understand what they are learning, they awaken upon themselves the Lights that surround their souls.”
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/28/11, The Zohar

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Question: Is “Segula” (the “miraculous force”) a foundation for the integral upbringing?

Answer: Segula is the basis to start with since the spiritual world is opposite to our world, and thus, is completely detached from it. The spiritual world has no connection with anything corporeal. There is nothing you can do with the spiritual world: neither draw forces from it, nor affect it. Neither cards, nor “miracles,” nor red strings will help you bridge the total gap between the worlds.

A contact by way of which you can evoke spiritual impact upon yourself is formed only by tying yourself correctly to the teacher, the Kabbalistic text, and the group on the condition that you are using them to develop in yourself the intention, the vital need, and the understanding of what exactly you desire to receive from the studies.

And then, by studying with a true teacher, the right group, and authentic Kabbalistic books, you actualize your intention. And if it isn’t for that, nothing will help you. If there were no Segula in this world for us, man would remain a beast.

That is why it is so important for us to assess what these three components should be: the teacher, the books, and the group and how they must affect me together in a mutual guarantee. All of this is focused on the necessity to attain spirituality. And spirituality can be attained due to the study which contains a hidden force. This force has to work on me if I appeal to it.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/23/2011, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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Question: What do I do if I am feeling everything is great, if I don’t have a desire to rise to a more exalted state?

Answer: Let’s take a convention, for example, after which we felt a descent, it was an opportunity to reach an authentic plea, a cry, a prayer. It may be that we need more such actions. Think about it before going to bed and when you get up to attend a lesson, ask yourself: “What for? Why? How?”

Kabbalists suggest that we should take lesson preparation very seriously and take hours if necessary. Preparation is more than the lesson itself. The Light doesn’t require much time; a person doesn’t need to study all day long; one or two hours is enough. If during the day a person keeps building the intention and preparing himself for the encounter with the Light, then what matters occurs in mere minutes.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/23/2011, Writings of Rabash

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We must change in order to attain the Creator since we attain Him in new vessels of perception, in new desires. Obviously, the desires themselves are not new, but they connect within us in a new way.

We have the desire to receive pleasure and the desire to bestow. In order to reveal the Creator, we must create such a connection between these desires within ourselves that would enable us to recognize Him. The Creator has 125 consecutive forms of revelation, when He reveals Himself to us closer and closer, sharper and sharper. It is 125 degrees, along which we ascend and become able to see and feel Him more and more.

How do we find the Creator? As soon as we create a connection between our desire to receive pleasure and the desire to bestow, where the will to bestow would rule over the will to receive at the first spiritual degree by giving it a form similar to the Creator, we instantly see the Creator through these desires and their unity.

In other words, I must create within me a common property between the desire to enjoy and the desire to bestow so that it becomes identical, equal, and adequate to the Creator at the first, the smallest degree of His revelation. In that case, I will see, understand, and feel Him.

In our world, there are various phenomena as well. To understand them, I have to become more intelligent, acquire additional sense, and study some more. Then, I will start sensing what is going on, in what way, and what these phenomena are.

The same happens in the wisdom of Kabbalah. In order to arouse a merger, a mutual permeation of the desire to receive and the desire to bestow in each of us at the first spiritual degree and further on, at all 125 degrees, I need the Light which would make this change in me. I, myself, am unable to perform it since while I am at the lowest degree; I do not have the slightest idea of what I must become at the next one, like a baby that doesn’t know how it will look when it is one year old.

This is why we are given the studies. We must sit and learn from the authentic sources, and the most powerful source from which to draw the Light is The Book of Zohar. When we study this book together, it is regarded as “faith above reason” if while doing so, everyone thinks about how he will unify with the others. This is because in the connection between us, we create the Creator’s form, the correct pairing between the will to receive and the will to bestow so that the desire to bestow rules over the desire to receive, thereby giving it the right form.

If I wish for it to occur during the studies, it is sufficient. There isn’t a greater commandment, and there is nothing more vital. In that case, I draw the Light so that it would align these desires for me.

It is the Light that performs it. I don’t need to know anything else. So does a small child wish to grow, and that’s why he runs, plays, and does whatever he may. So do I, like a child, do whatever it takes only to get the Light to come, reform me, and bring me back to the source, to the Creator.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/18/2011, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar”

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The study of Kabbalah holds a special quality. The Light, meaning the force of correction contained in Kabbalistic books, brings a person back to the source.

The Light is the inner essence of the method, and that is why the science of Kabbalah is called the inner part of the Torah. When we study it, we awaken the inner Light concealed in the study, in the group, and in our interconnection. This force really builds the connection between us, bringing desirable changes to every person. As a result, the intention of bestowal comes to replace the egoistic intention above all of one’s desires.

Together with the group, a person constantly thinks about the state he is in during the preparation to the study, and during the study itself he demands changes by means of the Light that Reforms. This is all he needs. Only this kind of preparation touches on his free choice, the only free action in his life in this world and on the entire ladder of the spiritual degrees.

Therefore, it is best to focus on this as much as possible, talk about this with yourself as much as possible, and thus discern all of the details so they become clearer and more heartfelt. That is how they will finally enable us to detach from words and shift to feelings and inner understanding. Then all of this will live inside of us as an extremely important foundation of being, the only thing we should care for. Everything else will come along of its own accord.

Then I will see that my entire life and the entire life of the world revolve around this axis in order to bring everyone to this decisive moment—each person in conformity with the root of his soul, more or less powerfully. The Creator’s goal is to bring every person to this point.

No matter what I received at birth or what I have attained thus far, this was given to me from Above. However, now, being in the group, I have to elevate the importance of the goal—bestowal and unity with the Creator. This is done by means of studying in the right environment where I demand the Light, the “miraculous quality.” If a person does not stop thinking about this, then he realizes his life as efficiently as possible.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/24/11, Writings of Rabash

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The only thing we can take from our study is to turn it into a “miraculous quality” (Segula), to attract “the Light that Reforms” to us. That is why we choose to study the books recommended to us by Kabbalists, the people who have already realized their correction, have attained the revelation of the Creator, adhesion with Him, the upper attainment, and have returned to the root of their soul.

That is to say, they carried out their task, which is incumbent on every person in this world, and attained their finally corrected state, Gmar Tikkun, the world of Infinity, unity with the Creator. That is why we listen to their instructions, and what they advise us is to study only the Kabbalistic books because they contain the Light that Reforms.

The Light contained in other books that also speak about the spiritual world (such as Torah, Mishnah, and Talmud) is insufficiently powerful to return our souls to the source. That does not mean they do not have spirituality! They were all written by great Kabbalists who had spiritual attainment, but these books are not intended to give us the force of correction. That is why we use them only as a small addition, while the entire study is based on The Book of Zohar with Baal HaSulam’s commentaries, as well as Talmud Eser Sefirot.

These are precisely the books that bring us the surrounding Light that is most suitable for the souls of our generation and have the force to correct us. A person who studies these books is called a sage or “a student of a sage” (Talmid Hacham) because he learns from the Creator (a sage) about the quality of bestowal. That person is “wise of heart” because he wants to correct his “heart,” his will to enjoy in order to turn it into a vessel for the Light of Hochma.

That is how we regard our study, group, teacher, dissemination, and our entire lives, so all of it will turn into a means to acquire this “miraculous force” (Segula), the Light that Reforms. This is the only thing we should think about from morning to night and from night to morning! After all, a person’s entire success in life depends on this Light.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/23/11, “Introduction to the book Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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