Rabbi Aba said, “Let us open the doors of Torah, for now is the time and the hour for our ways to be corrected” (Zohar for All, The Donkey Driver).

The characters of the article “The Donkey Driver” are walking along the road and trying to find the Creator in a conversation among themselves.

To open the doors of the Torah means the desire to receive a small illumination from above, from heaven, so that in this they would feel the upper force.

“Now is the time for our ways to be corrected” suggests that they are as if coming out of one state and moving into another. This is their way.

The correction lies in them, they should begin correcting themselves by studying, reading, and disputing.

At the same time, they correct their egoistic desires and adjust them in such a way as to feel the Creator between them.
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From KabTV’s “Introduction of The Book of Zohar” 9/3/23

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The article “The Donkey Driver” begins with a description of how two wise men, who are related, walk to a third wise man, and all sorts of stories happen to them along the way. This is how the articles in The Book of Zohar often begin.

As a rule, they speak allegorically about what is inside a person. At the same time, each character plays a special trait in a person. Thus, the sages seem to be walking along the road to the Creator gradually revealing Him.

In addition, they are also revealed to each other through dialogue: what will happen to them, what they will achieve, how the Creator is perceived, and so on.

The road always symbolizes the path to the Creator. And related souls are like forces inside one person.

That is, when a Kabbalist reads the sources, he sees that these are certain qualities or forces within him. And since they are harmoniously connected with each other, therefore, kinship ties are mentioned.
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From KabTV’s “Preface to The Book of Zohar” 9/3/23

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Question: In the article “The Donkey Driver,” the driver intervenes in the conversation of the sages, asks them questions, and explains the wisdom they do not know about. How can it be that, while seemingly at a level below them, he explains the wisdom of the Torah to them?

Answer: When you read an article for the first time, it really looks strange and you do not understand what it means.

The fact is that it seems to us that the donkey driver has to serve the donkeys and their bags. Yet, the people he takes with him are big scientists and rich people who travel from place to place.

But the driver does not think they are special. In our world, we are connected with each other, but we do not understand the purpose of other people and their spiritual value. Gradually they reveal themselves to us, and we begin to understand that we were wrong by not appreciating them and by treating them disdainfully. First we had to somehow change ourselves.

It shows how we can reach a state where we begin to understand that we are dealing with the Creator, with His manifestations. From this moment onward, our path begins to straighten.
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From KabTV’s “Introduction of The Book of Zohar” 9/3/23

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It is all one, for He and His name are one, as it is written, “That they may know that You alone, Your name is ‘the Lord’” (Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book of Zohar,” “Two Points“).

This is about the fact that even through opposing qualities, egoistic ones that are seemingly unpleasant, the uniqueness of the Creator and His greatness is still attained.

Question: What does “He and His name are one” mean?

Answer: He is the Creator, and His name is His manifestation in all creations. Everything we see is merely a manifestation of the Creator within us.

Ultimately, through everything that exists within us, no matter how negative and opposing our qualities may be, we attain the Creator and reveal that His manifestation is an expression of love and bestowal.

Question: In the end, all of humanity and each one of us in every moment in time—in the past, in the future, and in all the states that humanity has gone through—will discover that even in His most negative actions, there was a manifestation of love and bestowal?

Answer: Absolutely! Complete, singular, and unified! And what seemed negative to us was because our qualities were opposite to His.
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From KabTV’s “Introduction of The Book of Zohar” 8/6/23

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First, the world was created with the quality of judgment; He saw that the world could not exist, and associated it with the quality of mercy (Baal HaSulam, Introduction to The Book of Zohar, “Two Points“).

Our world exists in a combination of the attributes of judgment and mercy, but mostly within various constraints. We cannot simply enjoy things; we are constantly pursued by various sufferings. All of this is the attribute of judgment.

In Kabbalistic terms, the attribute of judgment is the desire to receive. However, the world could not exist if everyone only wanted to receive for themselves. There must still be some attribute of bestowal, and only then can interaction occur.

In other words, even if people give to each other with the intention of benefiting themselves, there is still some connection between them. We see from history that humanity developed only through collaboration, which is the fundamental attribute that transformed us from animals into humans. This is the manifestation of mercy in our world.
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From KabTV’s “Introduction of The Book of Zohar” 8/6/23

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There are two points, one concealed, (hidden), and one disclosed. And because they are not separated, they are called first, meaning only one and not two (Baal HaSulam, Introduction of The Book of Zohar, “Two Points”).

The two points represent the beginning and the end of the universe. Both points are connected to each other since the end of the world is laid at the very beginning and the beginning is laid at the end.

Question: It is said that the world was created by the letter “Bet – ״ב with which the Torah begins—Bereshit. In this letter, two lines are connected: the upper and lower. What do they mean?

Answer: The upper line is the line of Keter, which is completely bestowing. The lower line is Malchut, which only receives. Both lines interconnected symbolize the beginning and the end of creation. As a result, they must match their properties of receiving and bestowing so that everything turns into a circle.

Question: Baal HaSulam writes that the top point in the letter “Bet” is called mercy, and the bottom one is judgment. What is it about?

Answer: Mercy is a property of the Creator, the highest property, bestowal. Judgment is the property of receiving, the property of Malchut. That is, there is a connection between the upper and lower lines, which they should pass through themselves.

Therefore, our work is to understand the bottom line from the top line and to understand the top line from the bottom line and connect them together so that there are no contradictions between them, so that each property in them supports the opposite property in the other line, and thus the program of creation would be fulfilled in its entirety.
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From KabTV’s “Introduction of The Book of Zohar” 8/6/23

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The “Introduction of The Book of Zohar” says that there is no greater pleasure than resolving contradictions because each contradiction contains an amazing opportunity to reveal a special degree of attainment of the Creator.

This means that if, when revealing contradictions, a person wants to overcome them with his inner qualities, then he approaches the state where he sees the common in all the diversity and contradiction of objects and phenomena. It is the realization of unity that is perfection.

Question: Suppose a person sees some kind of catastrophe and contradictions arise in him regarding the way the Creator governs the world. He cannot justify the Creator. After some time, is it suddenly revealed to him that it was for his own good, that the Creator had good intentions because this moves him forward?

Answer: Yes. The removal of contradictions is the reason for attaining perfection. At the same time, the greater the contradiction, the greater the pleasure afterward.

The Kabbalist constantly lives in such contradictions. At first, he does not justify the Creator when seeing a paradox in what is happening, and then he understands that all this was for his own advancement.
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From KabTV’s “Introduction of The Book of Zohar” 8/6/23

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This is why the forces of separation are called “locks,” since they block the gates of approaching and drive us away from the Creator (“Two Points,” Introduction to The Book of Zohar).

Question: What are these properties that distance us from the Creator?

Answer: Everything that we do not yet attain as the sum of all our efforts and everything that we do not yet attain as unity is manifested within us in the form of all kinds of contradictory properties and mutual rejection from each other only in order for us to understand the law of manifestation of properties and come to a state when all these properties will complement each other and not contradict each other.

Then we will reveal unity, that is, the property of the Creator, which is manifested literally in the entire creation.
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From KabTV’s “Introduction to The Book of Zohar” 8/6/23

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Question: The chapter “Two Points” in The Book of Zohar starts with “Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”

What does the beginning of wisdom mean? What kind of wisdom are we talking about? And why is fear considered wisdom?

Answer: The point is that when a person awakens some attitude toward the Creator based on awe of Him, it is the inception of human wisdom. From this point onward, a person can develop in this direction.

The Creator is an upper force that manifests itself in relation to people as a quality of love and bestowal. Therefore, in order to achieve a connection with the Creator, a person must acquire the same qualities of trepidation toward bestowal and connection. Then a person can advance.

Wisdom is the accurate perception of the Creator, the correct connection with Him, and the right understanding of His actions in relation to us humans. And the first step toward this wisdom, in order to establish proper contact with Him, should be awe of the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “Introduction of The Book of Zohar” 8/6/23

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The thought of creation is to delight His creations, and no pleasure is perceived by the created being while he must be separated from the Creator. Moreover, we learn that the Creator craves to dwell in the lower ones (Introduction of The Book of Zohar, “Two Points”).

Question: If the Creator desires so much to dwell in the lower ones, that is, to delight them, then what is the problem? Why are we not receiving pleasure?

Answer: The problem is that the lower ones should acquire the same desires and the same qualities as the Creator. Then He will be able to dwell in them according to the law of equivalence of qualities.

Comment: On the other hand, people in our world receive pleasure during their lifetime and are not connected to the Creator.

My Response: These are not the pleasures that The Book of Zohar is speaking about. It speaks about upper pleasures. The upper ones mean that you are connected with the whole universe, galaxies, and everything that can be. These are qualitatively different pleasures.

In spirituality, we receive pleasure from attaining the inner system of the universe, how everything is connected, mutually complements each other, and leads everything to unity and perfection.
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From KabTV’s “Introduction of The Book of Zohar” 8/6/23

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