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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Igrot,” “Letter 17”
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The Book of Zohar — Introduction
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 6, Part 15
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Writings of Baal HaSulam “Peace in the World“
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The Book of Zohar — Introduction
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 1, Part 1
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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Peace”
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Writings of Rabash “Shlavei HaSulam,” “Article 28”
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 6, Part 15
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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Peace in the World,” Lesson 2
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The Book of Zohar, Weekly Torah Portion, “Va’ Etchanan,” Selected Excerpts
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Writings of Rabash, “Shlavei HaSulam,” “You Stand Today, All of You“
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The Book of Zohar — Introduction, “On the Night of the Bride,” Item 129, Lesson 45
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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Peace in the World,” Lesson 1
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The Book of Zohar, Introduction, “The Donkey Driver,” Paragraph 85: Rabbi Elazar and Rabbi Aba dismounted from their donkeys and kissed him. They said, “So great is your wisdom, and yet you drive donkeys behind us! Who are you, then?” He replied to them: “Do not ask me who I am, but let us go on and study the Torah. Each of us will speak his wisdom so as to illuminate our path.
The donkey driver is the “Surrounding Light,” the Light that Reforms. What is the difference between it and the Light that is discovered later? The Surrounding Light becomes “Inner Light.” When it is discovered, then it will be clear that this is, for example, the Light of Yechida, and until then we don’t know what level we are approaching, who our guide is.
The donkey driver is that Surrounding Light that takes us across the density of our desire of our “donkeys” from level to level.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/23/13, The Zohar
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Shamati #2, “Divinity in Exile“
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The Book of Zohar — Introduction, “On the Night of the Bride,” Item 126, Lesson 44
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Writings of Rabash “Shlavei HaSulam,” “What Is, Anyone Who Mourns for Jerusalem Is Rewarded with Seeing Its Joy, in the Work“
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Exerting yourself like “an ox to the burden and a donkey to the load” means working without feeling any taste in the work. I read The Book of Zohar because the doctor says that it works like a drug that will help me recover. Usually it is unpleasant and quite difficult. It is in contrast to my bodily desires and it isn’t to my taste, but the doctor has prescribed it and so I do it.
I don’t wish to feel pleasure in my mind and heart by reading The Zohar. Although reading The Zohar brings me joy, I am not glad because I seem to understand, to feel, and to follow the plot like in an adventure book, following the journeys of the great sages like following the great explorers of new lands and continents. I am glad only because I accept this reading as a medicine.
It isn’t the reading itself that brings me joy but the process I go through. First, I follow the orders of the sages, which means that I bow before them. Second, I have heard that it brings the Creator joy and pleasure. Finally, I correct myself that way and come closer to the Creator!
If you delve into the text, it means that you operate in your desire to receive by trying to fill it somehow by your egoistic heart and mind. Thus, you rob the intensity of your study, the intensity of the state. However, eventually, things will turn the other way and there will come a time when you suddenly understand that you have nothing. This egoistic sorrow will make you understand that you have been studying the wrong way.
This approach isn’t 100% accurate since how can I try to understand what The Book of Zohar is about with my corporeal mind? If you are a scientist, you study this world with the tools that you have, with your emotions and your mind, trying to understand it in your mind. This is how science operates in this world and it is called “reason.”
However, the spiritual world is on a different level. It is in a dimension where your emotions and your mind have no control of anything. You cannot even imagine what it is like. It is on a totally different frequency. It is as if you receive a frequency of 100 kilo hertz while someone else works on a frequency of 100 mega hertz. These are totally different frequencies; one is long, and the other is short. They cannot communicate and cannot generate any common forms.
How can you speak about a world that you cannot perceive? What can you hold onto? Nothing! However, you were given books that you don’t understand at all and cannot understand. You will not understand anything unless you reach the level of the book. This level of quality is achieved by changing all of your senses and your mind. Everything is changed in you, and you receive new emotions and mind, instead of the old ones. Before that you have no connection with the book called “Torah,” except for its unique quality.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 7/02/13, The Zohar
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Question: What should the correct intention be when we read The Book of Zohar? Should it be permanent or variable?
Answer: As a rule, it is desirable to maintain a permanent intention when one envisages oneself as being united with others, having one common desire and sharing one joint aspiration. Within this integrated desire, aspiration, one reveals the entirety of internal attributes of one’s relationships with others to the extent of the level of their connectedness and their chance to divulge all possible forms of the connection through the mutual bestowal that The Book of Zohar writes about.
After all, with the help of various metaphors and through the Kabbalistic terminology (such as “Havakuk, Atik, Hamnuna-Saba…”) The Zohar explains to us the details of attainment that are associated with our connection. There is nothing besides it.
At some point, there was one spiritual vessel, kli, a solid ten Sefirot that had no dissimilarities among them. After shattering, we began distinguishing among various alien parts that now are separated and distanced from one another and that try to reconnect. We discover numerous types of connection. The Zohar tells us about the types of connection. There is not a single word in The Book that describes anything but this.
Therefore, by attempting to connect with the group, the Creator, and spirituality, we tend to reveal what particular forms of connection there are, how they manifest themselves, and what they represent. Maybe, we’ll manage to disclose at least some of these connections… This is what is called “the intention.”
In other words, in our effort to unite, we tend to reveal what the right forms of connection among us are. Then, we figure out their names—“Havakuk, Rabbi Hamnuna-Saba…” —it doesn’t matter which ones. Besides, it’s not that important what particular words or letters we look at since behind them we should be distinguishing just the attributes, the ways they connect with each other, why exactly these particular letters, words, or titles are used.
We won’t look at words or letters, but rather at the properties and internal aspects of their connection. Why are these connections so important to us? The answer is: Connections among detached parts allow us to attain spirituality (the Creator.) Through them, we start revealing one force. This is what gives us the ultimate delight: the attainment.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/3/13, The Book of Zohar – “Introduction”
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All the Kabbalah books are called the books of the Torah since they were written by people who attained spirituality and are beyond the Machsom (barrier) that separates us from the spiritual world. The only thing you need from these books is the unique quality in them.
A unique quality means that all your current attributes, your emotions, your mind, your quickness, and your intelligence, all your human attributes, have nothing to do with spiritual attainment and, therefore, are useless here. You can be the most foolish or most clever, but it is totally irrelevant. You can study all day like a fool, not understanding a word and not even knowing the language they were written in, but it makes no difference, and it is just like knowing the whole book by heart.
There is only one thing that can help you: if you use this book as a unique quality. A unique quality is the special connection that you can establish with these pages. However, how do you operate any forces through these pages? You don’t know. It is because you don’t know yourself. You don’t know what these pages are. You don’t know the upper system. However, the moment you perceive the text as a unique quality, you operate a certain system that you don’t know.
Then, the system begins to operate on you! However, it has nothing to do with your emotions or your mind. You can cry or laugh as you read and it means nothing. All you must do is operate the unique quality that is in this book. It is a special condition that connects you to some upper force.
You don’t know what this force is, where it is concealed, or how it operates on you and influences you. You simply use it as a unique quality. You don’t have to know anything except for the term “unique quality.”
Even if you study everything that is written here by heart, it will not bring you any closer to spirituality. On the contrary, it only will push you backward. As it is written, “The view of landlords is opposite from the view of Torah.” Wisdom without intention doesn’t help a person advance in spirituality since it has no unique quality. This is the reason that we don’t judge by the quantity of knowledge, but rather operate “above reason” by trying to draw the force that is above our emotions and our mind.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 7/02/13, The Zohar
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