Question: What do we have to do so The Zohar will find its way into the deepest recesses of the heart, into our desires and thoughts?

Answer: Open your heart. Nothing else is needed. The most important thing is not to despair and not to relax, and to make efforts precisely when the going gets rough. The article “Donkey Driver” in the Introduction of The Zohar is exactly the place where it explains that when you are walking along and your “donkey” (in Hebrew “donkey” is “Hamor,” originating from the word “Homer,” matter, the will to enjoy) can no longer carry its burden, you are sent a “donkey driver” that helps your “donkey” to ascend.

This driver stings the “donkey” with a sharp stick and it’s unpleasant. However, it makes you move forward. Therefore, if you agree to have a driver like that, you will receive him. But you have to ask for these “stings.”

Question: I know how to ask for good things, but how can I ask for the “stings” of the donkey driver?

Answer: If I don’t identify myself with my ego and want to be liberated from it, then I think the opposite: The more “stings” it receives, the more able I am to distance myself from it, to run away from it and ascend above it.

These “stings” do not wound me, but my ego. If I separate and detach from it, then we are separated by a distance and I therefore do not feel the “sting” that passes over it. The sting comes only in order for me to part with my ego. Then I don’t perceive these blows as happening to me, but to my “Pharaoh,” and in the meantime I ascend.
[32291]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/9/11, The Zohar

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Question: How do we achieve “a plea from the depth of the heart”?

Answer: Depth is when from our present state, we dive into more internal, exalted states, where our interconnection gets enhanced, until “one heart” is formed. This is what the “depth of the heart” is since in spirituality, each more inner degree is the more exalted one.

If in our work we strive to get to the “depth of the heart,” we have to find oneness there. And it isn’t just some desirable supplement, but rather a Kli (vessel), our correction. Nothing else is up to us since fulfillment, according to the law of equivalence of form, will unfold in the Kli to the degree that the Kli corresponds to it.

Therefore, we should think solely about unity. It depends on mutual agreement of the group and provides a positive effect even if it lasts for just a little while. Since habit becomes a second nature, it is worth making a deal that everyone will think about unity for a certain period of time during the day.

In our world, any phenomenon eventually declines and expires because the notion of time affects it. Since we haven’t yet reached a state where time doesn’t influence us, it is advisable to make an effort to hold an unbroken thought of unity for a few hours a day, to the extent that everybody will feel how everything is up to him since all the others are already connected.

As a result, he will unveil new phenomena which will be approaching the Light; it is quite possible. It is very likely that while at it, a person will discover resentment, reluctance, and inability to bond. At the same time, a person can feel that with the help of some external force, he is able to rise above himself and unite, as if rising above matter. If this force comes to surface, he will feel it for sure.

Inside the matter (desire to receive), he can do nothing. But since he desperately wants to ascend and unify with the others, he feels that there has to be a certain force which can help him. Passing through the chain of revelations and sensations, a person feels where and what has to happen. He understands the causes of the events and uncovers them step by step.

Our nature, Pharaoh, sits in us not allowing us to unite. In order to rise above it, we need strength, and we have to ask for it all the time. As a result of these revelations, we will want to turn to the Creator to build a connection in us. The first degree of such network is called exodus from Egypt.
[32205]
From the Talk “Questions about Unity” 12/31/2010

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Question: What were the final efforts you made before the Creator answered you? What did you do before passing the Machsom?

Answer: The question is incorrect because this happens unexpectedly. What works is the sum of all the different efforts, some of which you do not even suspect are there. Only later, when you sort out the “accumulated collection” do you start to understand that everything you went through was necessary for you to attain what you just attained.

However, as long as the end result of all the efforts is not revealed to you, you do not know how much is left. That is why it is impossible to say that some specific effort brought you to completion.

Question: What was special about your efforts?

Answer: I think nothing besides patience, persistence, and consistency (of course, with the background of worries and everything related to them). Baal HaSulam writes about this in the famous example in Item 133 of “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot“: “And only the heroes among them, whose patience endured, defeated the guards and opened the gate. And they were instantly awarded seeing the King’s face….”

Who is a hero? It’s a person who had enough patience, who did everything possible not to veer off the path.
[32263]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/9/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: On one hand, you say that the Torah is not a historic narrative, but on the other, you refer to our forefather Abraham as a real person who started disseminating Kabbalah at a certain point in life. So, is Abraham an actual person from history or some special force?

Answer: The Torah describes to us the path of spiritual development of a soul, any soul. Moreover, everything described in it also manifests at the level of our world once, according to the principle: “The spiritual root must manifest in corporeal consequence.” For this reason, all these spiritual degrees have also manifested in our world in specific people and events.

This is why our approach to the study of the Torah has to be based on two aspects: On one hand, we study our history. All these people, such as Adam HaRishon, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and so on, really lived at different times. But on the other, the fact that all these historic events really took place does not matter to us. More important is the fact that this refers to the inner properties of our souls. When we begin correcting ourselves, we reveal these properties, forces, and states called “Abraham,” “Egypt,” “Isaac,” and so on within us.

Question cont.: Are these forces present in every person?

Answer: Absolutely in everyone.

Question cont.: So what is “Abraham?”

Answer: It is the property of bestowal, Hesed, the right line. The property of “Hesed” in man is called “Abraham,” while the property of “Gevura” “Isaac.” “Tifferet” is “Jacob”; “Yesod” is “Joseph” in the state of Katnut (the small state) or “Israel” in the state of Gadlut (adulthood), and so on.

Question cont.: Does this mean that I suddenly begin to feel Abraham within me during the process of my spiritual development?

Answer: You feel the property called “Abraham” within you. You stop connecting the text of the Torah with actual people and events. Instead, you begin to feel these actions happening within you, you reveal your inner properties and changes behind all the historic characters. This is how you read The Zohar, the Torah, and all the other holy books.

Looking at the words: “First God created heaven and earth,” you understand that this refers to Bina and Malchut, and God or Elokim is the general force. You feel all these properties!

Question cont.: What does this feeling give me?

Answer: You experience the entire Torah internally. You correct yourself in such a way that you begin to perceive the tale you are reading as happening within you. And this goes on until you “finish the entire Torah,” that is, attain your individual final correction by completely correcting your soul.
[32198]
From a TV Program “Ask the Kabbalist” No. 186, 7/7/2010

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Question: If the spiritual system operates by the principle of “the lower one awakens the upper one,” does our transformation depend on the desires of the new generation, our children?

Answer: We depend on everybody and must pass our knowledge of the wisdom of Kabbalah (or at least some of it, as much as we ourselves understand) to everyone. Our current state obligates the entire world to awaken the upper Partzuf, the system of the upper governance.

We are witnessing how the world is haunted by global disasters, and everybody feels helpless not knowing what the next day will bring. All of this is due to the fact that we must begin studying what the upper system wants us to do and how we can motivate it correctly instead of just screaming about it and trying to get even with one another, or demanding the impossible from nature.

We are approaching a state when the upper governance will demand from all of humanity a conscious response, when all of us together will appeal to this force of nature, the Upper Force, in full understanding what action is required of us and what plea must come from us.

Obviously, we are unable to achieve anything on our own. But “He who makes peace in the Upper World will make peace upon us.” The Upper One can bring us to perfection and peace here, between us. We have to at least ask for it first. And only afterwards, from this collective “Lo Lishma” (not for Her name) of all humanity, we will come to “Lishma (for Her Name).”
[31976]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/6/2011, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Question: You said that in order to build ourselves we have to use two forces: reception and bestowal. What if instead of two forces, I have only one, the force of reception?

Answer: You have both of these forces except that you don’t wish to use the second one! We start ascending from below, from “zero” of bestowal, until we have covered 125 spiritual degrees and acquire absolute bestowal. But “zero” of bestowal doesn’t mean you don’t have it; you simply don’t employ this force you possess.

We can’t say that something doesn’t exist in the universe; this force doesn’t register only in you, in your perception. And the confirmation of the fact that it does exist is that it can unfold in you in the next instant, only to disappear yet again. This is regarded as a “zero.” In reality, however, it doesn’t exist; it can be so solely in man’s perception.

You have free will to evoke the force of bestowal from this zero. In order to do so you are given an environment comprised of the teacher, group, and the books. Start utilizing it to work on your zero of bestowal and it will be a zero no more.

After all, you can evoke the force of bestowal only when you relate to someone else who also desires to experience it. So start building such relations; don’t get locked in your own self! What other way is there to unveil bestowal?

The force of reception is concentrated within one person, but it takes two to keep the force of bestowal so that it can work in between the two. Therein lies the major difference between the egoistic and altruistic choices: In your ego, you are alone, but to bestow, you need the right environment. Otherwise, where will you actualize it? Where will you find this force and confirm that you indeed possess it?

Therefore, as soon a spiritual spark awakens in a person and calls for development of the soul, he or she is immediately brought to a group and instructed: “Choose it!” This is where the real free will is exercised: in choosing the correct environment.
[32008]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/6/2011, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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Question: Is it possible to find one’s bearings in the upper world without knowing all these terms that The Zohar is using? Does knowing the upper world depend on understanding the terms?

Answer: It doesn’t matter in which language a person is reading The Zohar at the moment: a totally unfamiliar one, the language of branches, or any other. All these languages are not for us just yet. I don’t know what is being described.

If I am not familiar with some phenomenon, object, type of fulfillment, forces, spiritual states, or outcomes, and if I haven’t attained the spiritual state itself, you can describe it to me in thousands of words—it will not help me. What do these names and words matter to me then if I haven’t attained them?

Why then do Kabbalists write all these texts for us? They do so in order for us to not focus on the words themselves, but rather to strive to attain these spiritual states. Without attainment, none of these words has value. You may play with them as you please: It’s as if you toss them into a box, mix them up, and put them together however you wish.

If we don’t attain, all these texts are merely a Segula (a miraculous remedy) provided that you employ them as such. If not, you only entangle yourself. Therefore, we look at The Zohar’s text only inasmuch as we are able to think about its “miraculous property” during the reading. That is the key.

The Zohar does have chapters which are very difficult to focus on. I read about various faces and facial features, or palm lines, all of which really confuse me. But this is also good since I exert more effort in order to recognize spiritual properties behind these words.

Therefore, we must see in the text of The Zohar only its “miraculous force.” And the more entangled we get with it, the stronger it should encourage us to cleave to this “miraculous force” and demand the Light that Reforms so it will bring us attainment. After all, “Anything we do not attain, we do not define by a name and a word.” We won’t understand a word, and no name will ring a bell.
[31967]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/6/2011, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “Yitro (Jethro)”

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Question: When the connection between us becomes revealed, does it only happen within me or inside the entire group?

Answer: This is an individual revelation of a person in a group. But his friends do not reveal whatever has been revealed to him. This depends on everyone’s individual work.

For example, if one of our friends discovers that he is now ready to connect with his heart and soul with all of us, all the sparks that exist in us from the breaking, then he will immediately reveal the common force called the Creator, which operates in the entire universe. But if we are not on the same level of connection between us or a level higher, we will not feel his presence there.

It is the same in our world: One can hide himself from others by not giving any spiritual information about him.
[31985]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 01/5/11, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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Question: Sometimes you say that we only need to cleave to the Creator, and sometimes that the key is to unify with the group.

Answer: Your path to the Creator lies through the group, the medium by which you come to Him; otherwise, there is nothing to discuss. For example, I am told that I have to go to Jerusalem, but they don’t tell me how I am supposed to do get there: by train, bus, car, on a donkey, or by foot.

So do we say: “You have to merge with the Creator.” But when you hear this, you should automatically understand that without unifying with the group, you won’t find the Creator.

In fact, you can unveil Him only as a form clothed in matter. And where is this matter? It is in your mutual connection. In the place where you will first find hatred, you will later discover unity regarded as the Creator.
[31982]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/5/11, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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Question: In his article "The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy," Baal HaSulam writes: “Even when science reaches its ultimate development, we will still have to regard only the tangible reality.” What “ultimate development” is science destined to reach?

Answer: Science will develop to such a condition when it will merge with the wisdom of Kabbalah and become part of the same movement. In fact, our world is set to ascend and clothe the upper world, having become its indispensable part and included in it along with all our actions and efforts exerted even in the matter of the corporeal world.

Nothing disappears without a trace since everything belongs to one universe, one reality. Therefore, sciences will also merge and join in the wisdom of Kabbalah as its integral part. The wisdom of Kabbalah involves all of creation, and all sciences of our world will be engaged in it.

They are already part of it, and it only seems that they exist separate from it. After all, all laws of our world are the same very laws that govern the spiritual world, though only imprinted in our egoistic matter. If matter works with the intention to receive “for self gratification” at the level of Malchut de Malchut of the world of Assiya, then it results in the corresponding laws.

In the spiritual world, intention “for myself” pertains to the Klipot, the impure forces, where such are the spiritual laws. Here, they come out as material laws, and there is no awareness of the fact that they are based on the intention to receive “for self gratification.”

If we achieve the final corrected state (Gmar Tikkun), then all of this corporeal world is gradually cancelled and dissolves. We sense it less and less, and more of its parts abandon our perception.

We begin to realize how transient and temporary everything is. It is similar to how matter gets transformed from one state to another, when its forms return to their initial state: from “tangible states” of hard matter they become liquid, and then, not a very tangible state, gas, and finally, into a completely intangible one, a zero or a void.

All of this occurs in our sensations, our perception. And if our perception changes, there is no room for ordinary physics which essentially deals only with still matter, while biology, zoology, and medicine study the vegetative and animate levels of nature.

None of our sciences rise above these levels: still, vegetative, and animate. At the human level, there is no “science” any longer in the strict sense of this world; there is merely a recording process of accumulated observations of life and facts as in psychology and psychiatry.

To the extent that this world abandons our sensations at the still-vegetative-animate degrees, these planes will start to “fold up,” by ascending and getting included in the human degree. We will no longer practice these sciences since we will stop feeling these phenomena and counting them as real in the form we see them today.

This entire reality exists solely in relation to us. If all our attributes and sensory organs get transformed, meaning that reality as we experience it right now in these organs of perception changes, then what science can deal with an absent reality? Everything is relative.
[31887]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/5/10, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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