Question: How can I think about the correction that The Book of Zohar brings us if I feel negative emotions such as hatred?

Answer: Prayer is whatever the heart feels. If there is hatred in my heart now, then this is my prayer, “I want to hurt my enemy.”

In order to correctly use the force that’s hidden in The Book of Zohar while reading it together in a group, I must first prepare my heart so it will desire the same thing the Creator desires. In reality, the Creator responds to every prayer, meaning the desires in our heart. That is why our world is so bad!

However, on the other hand, it is written that He responds only to the prayer that has gone through “the gate of tears.” So does He really respond to every desire, even the whim of a baby or the machinations of a villain?

Yes, say the Kabbalists who have revealed the system of our relationships with Him. A thief who has set his sights on some object, or a criminal who goes out “on the prowl” and is ready to kill someone, also desire to succeed and their prayer is also accepted. After all, we are talking about the desire of Malchut of the World of Atzilut, and everything beneath it, including our world, belongs to it.

Why, then, do we say that the desire can ascend into Malchut, or it can not ascend? The matter is that we draw a division into two types of desires:

– Some aspire in the same direction as the Creator’s will. Then they unite with the upper desire and are perceived as abundance from Above.

– Some do not match the Creator’s will. They also evoke the same response from Above as the positive desires, but are perceived by the negative desires negatively, as a negative reaction. This corrects a person, leading him down a lengthy, difficult path of suffering instead of the short, easy path where his desires coincide with the Creator’s desires.

That is why it is best for us to prepare for the right prayer and to use it when turning to The Book of Zohar. A person cannot sit at the lesson without any desires. One way or another, he desires something, and if his desire has been prepared ahead of time and aspires in the right direction, then he advances easily and quickly while reading The Zohar.

Besides, we have to remember that we are in the group, which helps us to strengthen our prayer. Thus, if a person’s thoughts are not aimed at the goal, then he takes an adversarial position in relation to the group and feels what seems like a negative reaction from Above even more.

Therefore, our entire work amounts to preparing for the lesson, that is, for reading The Zohar and other Kabbalistic books. Once we are at the lesson, it is difficult to change anything because a person’s heart is already tuned to a specific desire.

That’s why it is so important what thoughts I have when going to sleep and how I prepare for the lesson in the morning. These minutes play the decisive role. And we shouldn’t forget about the physical preparation so the body won’t fall into slumber.

Rabash writes the following in Article 36 in Writings of Rabash:
It is written, “He who hears the prayer.” Why does it say “the prayer” in the singular tense? Doesn’t the Creator hear all prayers? The matter is that we have to raise just one prayer: to restore the Shechina from the dust.

To pray for the restoration of the Shechina from the dust means to desire the revelation of the Creator, the quality of bestowal and love for the neighbor inside me in order to become similar to the Creator in this regard. If we all aim our efforts in one direction, then we are knocking on the gate that will definitely open.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/7/10, The Zohar

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Sometimes there are states, when a student thinks that he is smarter than the Teacher, that he understands something better, and that he can have his own opinion about inner work. He simply forgets that “the mistakes of sages are constructive, while the creations of the young are destructive.” It seems to a student that he is right from the rational point of view, and the Teacher is wrong about many things, or maybe he is just insufficiently informed.

However, the spiritual differs from the material, and a person who exists in the spiritual cannot be wrong. Furthermore, even if today it seems to you that the Teacher is wrong, this is not the case in perspective. This can be likened to how a child thinks that a tailor is ruining the fabric by cutting it into pieces. However, one who understands that it should turn into clothing thinks: “What can you do? He’s a child!”

A person who wishes to advance needs to proceed with faith above reason in spite of seeing mistakes in the Teacher’s actions since the whole nature is split into degrees, and one who is situated on a higher degree is likely to act correctly. And the evident mistakes of the Teacher are your own mistakes!

Therefore, we need faith. Faith means that I am working with the mind of the Upper One rather than with my own mind. I annul myself before him and accept what comes to me with joy. It may seem incorrect to me on my degree, but when I rise to a higher degree, I will reveal that it is the truth.

Everything depends on whether a person is ready to accept it. While it strengthens some because they understand that it is a good sign and they need to agree with the Upper governance, others cannot cope with their egoism and become more distant from the path and the goal. It is said about this: “Where the righteous go forward, the wicked go back.”

It is impossible to pass to a higher degree if I don’t accept it with faith above reason in relation to the teacher and the group. I accept everything they have and cancel myself, which is called being “Hafetz Hesed,” not desiring anything for yourself; this is the first correction.

From the very lowest to the very top degree, you should always advance by acquiring the level of “Hafetz Hessed” in regard to the Upper degree. This is called advancing with faith above knowledge.

Joy is a sign of faith! You are “happy with your lot,” and you wish only to agree with the teacher, the group, and the Creator: nothing more! You are happy because you are in consent with them, which means that you have reached correction and can go on to a higher degree. Your egoism has calmed down, and now you need to receive additional obstacles in order to correct them and receive the Light of Hochma in them, and this is already much more difficult.

Now you need to begin to bestow instead of just agreeing with the teacher and the group; you need to work with their desire instead of your own. Your desire should serve their desires, and they are always opposite! We need to go through a few inner overturns in our egoism! Therefore, the extent of faith in the teacher determines the height of the student’s degree.
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From a lesson 11/26/10, Shamati

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Question: You explained that the text we read in Talmud Eser Sefirot and The Book of Zohar describes the forces of connection between us. Can you give me an example of this connection?

Answer: If you were in spirituality, then you would actually reveal everything you read about in the book. You would reveal the forces of connection among us, including their might, character, how they operate, and how they unite together into the net connecting us.

You would participate in the net of these forces and its work, in the illumination of the Shechina. You would see how much you are able to take an active part in it, how much you can add to it yourself. While reading the text, you would see how this entire net behaves.

However, if you do not live inside spiritual attainment, it is impossible to convey this to you. Baal HaSulam writes in his poem, “Whatever your eyes will see, you will see it and no other.”

As long as you do not feel spirituality, you have to read these texts hoping that it will become revealed to you. We read the Kabbalistic texts in the quality of Segula (a miraculous quality), and not in the form of facts.

For example, suppose I am blind and I am listening to a physics professor tell me about optical laws. He tells me how a ray of light splits into several colors. Yet, I am just hearing about it. I do not understand what he is talking about, but only hear that these phenomena exist.

I can keep studying this way my entire life, without understanding what it is talking about. However, if I make special efforts and begin to feel the phenomena I heard about, then they become my life. This is called “Taste and see how good the Creator is.” You have to taste it – to receive these Lights and feel their taste.

The real science of Kabbalah begins only after you have this sensation.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/6/10, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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The studying of the wisdom of Kabbalah is founded on Segula, meaning the drawing of the Light that Reforms. The entire Torah, the method of correction, is designated for this. This is why it says: “I created the evil inclination, and I created the Torah as a spice.”

The Torah is regarded as a “spice” for a reason. It never replaces desire but “spices” it up with intention thereby readying it for consumption. In the same fashion, a dish is spiced; otherwise, it wouldn’t be edible. A dab of spices finishes it off.

Therefore, regardless of what text we are studying, our intentions must not change. Kabbalists wrote their books while being in spiritual attainment. However, we haven’t entered the spiritual world yet and cannot directly use their instructions as a guide in the Upper reality. At this stage, while reading, we are expected to hope, to anticipate a “miracle.” Let my eyes open so I may see what I am reading about for myself.

It will occur only if my aspiration is correct. Everything depends on what I demand from the studies and how closely my expectations match the force lain in the Kabbalistic texts. It will respond only if I keep aiming at it and wish for it to arrive and endow me with the property of bestowal. Then, I will rise above my egoism and experience true closeness with the other souls, together with whom we will reveal the Creator.

Such an intention is, indeed, aimed at the realization of the method. Thereby, I do utilize it as prescribed, which is regarded as “studying the Torah.” After all, I anticipate the arrival of the Light that Reforms like a rooster that is preparing to greet the dawn. If, however, I am contemplating egoistic rewards, I resemble a bat that doesn’t need light at all.

This work needn’t be despised either. It isn’t desirable, of course, but it still leads to the goal, only through the dark, by making a loop, through jungles of problems, until after numerous incarnations a person arrives at the question of purpose.

Therefore, darkness radiated by the Torah also helps somewhat. Baal HaSulam writes that we don’t always move ahead in the correct intentions and sometimes act like bats.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/2/10, The Zohar, Introduction, Article “The Buds”

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Question: Why did we start studying Part 8 of Talmud Eser Sefirot (The Study of the Ten Sefirot) instead of The Book of Zohar?

Answer: First of all, we are continuing to study The Zohar daily during the morning lesson, but only for forty five minutes instead of ninety minutes as before.

When we read The Book of Zohar, we constantly deal with Partzufim of the World of Atzilut, from which the Upper Governance originates: Arich Anpin (AA), Aba Ve Ima (AVI), Yeshsut, and ZON. Therefore, we must gain an understanding of how they are arranged, what constitutes the hierarchy and relation between them, and what program they are carrying out.

Hence, we need to study Part 8 of TES (Talmud Eser Sefirot), which is the major part of The Study of Ten Sefirot, essentially describing the World of Atzilut. Without it, we cannot even come close to The Zohar.

Indeed, the more a person knows, the more he understands and acknowledges that in reality he knows nothing, which better enables him to determine his prayer, not a baby’s cry, but a clearly analyzed request. Besides, if we study TES with the same intention that we apply to The Book of Zohar, it affects us and performs the same work in terms of our correction.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/2/10, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Question: What should I do if the intention you give us before the lesson is gone the next instant?

Answer: There is nothing you can do; we have to keep renewing intentions! I lay the direction, and you have to stick to it. If you do, it means you are following me.

This is the reason you come to the lesson. It’s not to exercise your mind digging through the text! The essence of your work is not in using your brain but in making an effort to hold the intention.

You have to keep yourself on the course and follow me. I cannot keep reminding you about it each second, which would mean dragging you by force. Write it down for yourself and later try to cling to this thought. And it doesn’t matter how much of the text you will hear; the key is to work on keeping the intention. Intention is that very “magic force” (Segula) that reveals to you what The Zohar is describing.

If your intention reaches the required degree, you can understand The Zohar even in a language you are unfamiliar with; you can reveal it and start living in the Upper World, receive new organs of perception, that is, enter spirituality yourself. And it has nothing to do with intellectual guesses. A new sense has to emerge in you. Therefore, you have to exert your own effort aimed specifically at this and wait for the Light to descend and reform you with a specific action.

I can’t do it for you. I can only help and remind you, but not more. Therefore, it is written in “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar” and other texts that one needs to cleave to the teacher. This is exactly what we are talking about.

Hence, you must keep holding on to the guideline I provide in the beginning of the lesson and build it up. This constitutes our common work.

Every day for three hours of the lesson, you must remain in the same intention but make it more precise, sharpening it up bit by bit, day by day. You have to do it so that it won’t disappear but will get more and more clear, brief, and articulate, that is, more discerned.

Write it down; I am giving you a hint that will always bring you back on track. If you got lost, ask yourself: “What will become of me?!” That’s it: If you have an ache, you don’t need anything else.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/25/10, The Zohar

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"A judge has nothing more than what his eyes see." This is a very strict law that must be observed very precisely. We cannot follow even the very best advice unless it comes from our own corrections, our similarity to the Light.

Also inside yourself you must ask at all times: "Who am I hearing now? A person who lives inside his own fantasies, or one who looks at things as they really are and knows his exact place, not jumping any higher?"

Then I don’t perceive the things I hear from Kabbalists as laws or even advice, but as "Segula," a miraculous means. I want it to influence me and change me! Once I change, I will then see the truth.

"A judge has nothing more than what his eyes see," meaning that I will actually hold the fulfillment in my "hands," in my Kelim of reception, and I will "see it with my eyes," meaning inside the Light of Hochma. That’s when I will be able to act!

Until that happens, you can memorize the entire Torah by heart and it will do no good; yet the Torah can work as a "miraculous means" or a "spice." You will be able to correct and use your egoism only to the extent you can add this "spice" to your egoism.

Then you will see exactly which desires you can use and to what extent, or how deeply (with which Aviut). This approach, first and foremost, requires correction.

A completely different approach to teaching follows from this, namely, that we have nothing to say to a student. We can only awaken him so he absorbs as much Light that Reforms as possible. It is impossible to give him ready-made behavioral models, but only "miraculous means": the need to unite in the group among friends, and then to wait for him to change on his own.

If this doesn’t affect a student, if he does not change and does not accept the teacher’s advice, then nothing can be done about it. It is impossible to coercively give him exercises that are above his level, but only to the degree he has corrected himself and understood that he has to make the calculation, change, and then start to act.

This greatly restricts the teacher’s possibilities when teaching a student compared to our world, regardless of whether the student is an adult or a child.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/29/10, "Body and Soul"

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Question: What should I do if at The Zohar lesson I feel like I am just wasting my time? Should I try to overcome this by faith above reason and suppress this sensation?

Answer: There are studies on human life showing that out of 70 years that we have to live, we spend 30 years sleeping, another 10 years eating, 5 years washing and doing an enormous amount of other things until at the end, after accounting for all these years, we have about one free day left – so what will you do during that day? You’ll probably sleep through it….

That’s why I ask you: What fills up your life so much that you feel sorry wasting your time on The Zohar lesson? Just think about how you live in this world for 70 years and then die, whereas here you have the opportunity to reveal eternal life. So perhaps it’s worthwhile to work for it a little.

You can persuade yourself and lie to yourself as much as you want; anything to stay in touch with this source. When a person comes to Kabbalah he first imagines something imaginary and unreal. However, we understand that the world to come is the quality of bestowal in which the Creator becomes revealed.

That’s when we acquire attainment and understanding of the Upper World. If you have attained this in your Kelim, that means it is yours and it doesn’t matter whether you are alive or your biological body has died.

The animate body was given for you to start with and to accompany you so that by starting with it you will be able to attain spirituality. Once you attain it, it means you have won, and if you haven’t attained it, you will receive another chance to do it later on.

Therefore, if the Creator has given you this opportunity and you are already sitting in the group reading Kabbalistic books, that means from now on the problem is only inside you. So don’t miss this opportunity!

Alternatively, you can decide that you do not agree with the Creator and go back to your regular life: “The shop is open and anyone can come in and borrow, but the Hand writes….”
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From the lesson on 11/25/10, The Zohar

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Question: People often ask me what is Kabbalah and I try to explain its essence and purpose. In response many people admit, “Yeah, I also feel that way. Yeah, I know what you’re talking about.” So does this mean they have a point in the heart? How do the people who have this point differ from other people who are also looking for something?

Answer: The point in the heart is a part of the Creator. When it becomes revealed in you, you hear a “call sign” calling you to Him.

We recognize the point in the heart when it brings a person to the science of Kabbalah, to the place or the net where all our points come from. Kabbalah is not the books, but the wisdom and the program of the common system. Kabbalah books bring you the force of this program and you use it to enact the first spiritual impulse.

In reality you have never left this “system of governance.” You are always inside it, connected to others, and your common body is alive. It is Malchut of the World of Infinity, which really exists, although you do not feel how you belong to it.

Instead of feeling its main window, you feel yourself as being in a completely different “window.” You are in the same place, but you perceive a different world, devoid of the common interconnection. There are two windows: one is the natural, correct, true, and deep one, and the other is virtual. Right now my screen is occupied by our illusory world, but alongside it there is also an inner screen where we are all in the state of Infinity. This is what the Kabbalists talk about.

I aspire to it with my point in the heart, wanting to go from the virtual screen to the real one, to the place where I am connected to everyone. If my point really has awakened, I find myself in the group. I open up books that talk about this inner screen, and while reading them I evoke Light from there that begins to advance me.

However, if a person does not care about Kabbalistic books and unity in the group, if he does not feel the inner need for this, then he does not have a point in the heart. He imagines all sorts of things and looks for spirituality in India, or in different religions and faiths, in meditation, in New Age, and so on. In contrast to this, a person with a point in the heart is unable to leave the path any longer. He can “take a break” due to various problems, but he will never exchange his point for anything else.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/22/10, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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Question: How should we attune ourselves while we read the books that reveal the “physics” of the spiritual world: Beit Shaar HaKavanot (The Gates Of Intention) or TES (The Study of The Ten Sefirot)?

Answer: My primary task is to make myself similar to the Creator, to ascend to Him. Therefore, I need to repeat His actions and attitudes: If the Creator treats the group as “Good that does Good,” this means I should treat it with the same kind of goodness.

This is why I first need to take care of my attitude towards the friends, which is given to me as work so that we will become one whole in unity and love. If I achieve this state, I begin to treat them like the Creator does, and to this extent I begin to feel the Creator. After all, we become close with Him according to the law of equivalence of form, and we feel each other. In this manner, I reach adhesion with Him. This is the only thing we should think about.

And it’s enough to just look into a book and listen, as long as it is a genuine, true primary source. You might not even know the language, that’s irrelevant; you won’t understand anything anyway.

You only need to remember that now you are receiving the medicine that should heal you! It should reveal an additional sense in you, and then you will feel the spiritual world and understand without words since the sensation cannot be expressed in words. No words are necessary in order to feel. Words are needed only in order to tell someone else about it, but within the sensation itself, there are no words.

And one should wait for a spiritual sensation to open up within him without any words. This is what the real science of Kabbalah is: It helps you reach this perception!
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/18/10, Beit Shaar HaKavanot

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