Question: The treasures mentioned in the article “Lock and Key” are the pleasures of connection with the Creator for which palaces are necessary, that is, great desires. Why does it turn out that initially we have no desire to reveal these treasures?

Answer: We are born in such a way that we do not need these desires. We will not feel anything special about them even if we reveal them. Just like if you give a baby gold coins, they mean nothing to him.

Comment: But I think many would want connection with the Creator if it is a treasure.

My Response: It depends on what conditions. Since the connection with the Creator can only be built on the equivalence of qualities, it turns out that we must acquire the same qualities as the Creator. This is bestowal, love, mutual assistance, and so on. They are the qualities of the Creator.

We, as a rule, do not have these qualities. Therefore, we do not feel Him, we do not feel a desire for Him, and as soon as there is any opportunity to aim for this, we immediately turn away from it and run away.
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From KabTV’s “Introduction to The Book of Zohar” 5/21/23

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The expansion of the light, that is, the pleasure itself, and its departure from our desire make the vessel fit for its task. This means that as long as the vessel has not been separated from its light, it is included in the light and is annulled within it like a candle before a torch… Observe closely, for this is most profound (Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”).

Tasting, trying, the light in the desire is necessary in order for the desire to take a form of the quality of light to fill this perception. Only then will it be possible to work with the desire to receive this light, to strive toward it.

Question: Why did Baal HaSulam write the “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” as one of the prefaces to the study of The Book of Zohar? Does The Book of Zohar also talk about this?

Answer: Certainly. After all, without studying the basics and formulas of how our world is built, it is impossible to understand The Book of Zohar. Not at all.

All of Kabbalah speaks about how light emanates from the Creator, reaches the creation, and fills the  creation that delights in this light.
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From KabTV’s “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” 5/14/23

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Within those gates there is one lock and one narrow place, in which to insert that key. It is neither inscribed nor apparent, but only according to the inscription of the key, who do not know in the narrow place, but only in that key (Introduction of The Book of Zohar, Chapter “Lock and Key,” Item 44).

Question: The key is probably some kind of access to hidden knowledge, right? How can I discover inside myself where to insert this key?

Answer: You do not act mechanically as if dissecting something within yourself, but sensually, understanding that you need to change some qualities so that in the end the qualities of Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet, Netzach, Hod, and Yesod relocate among themselves, the key enters Malchut and opens all of nature to you.

Question: How can a person discover this lock and key within himself?

Answer: If he studies Kabbalah, he begins to feel his connection with the concealed, and eventually comes to the conclusion that he needs to attain it. This is the purpose of his existence. Therefore, he goes toward this. There is no other way.
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From KabTV’s “Introduction of The Book of Zohar” 5/21/23

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There are gates that were made for concealing, made to block the lights. They are fifty, carved into four directions, and they became forty-nine gates, since one gate has no side and it is unknown where it is, above or below. For this reason, that gate remained hidden (Introduction of The Book of Zohar, Chapter “Lock and Key”).

We must reach the state of complete revelation of the Creator, which means that the creation acquires all His qualities.

All the qualities of the Creator are 49 gates. And the last, 50^th is the most fundamental gate. We must reveal it, and then, once we enter the upper palace of the Creator, we will see, learn, feel, and discover for ourselves what He is, the laws of His nature, and everything that happens in the entire universe regardless of the distances between its various parts. All this will be in us, in our capabilities.

50 gates symbolize the structure of our desire, which consists of five parts of 10 Sefirot each.

We cannot open the 50^th gate ourselves. The Creator does it. By the way, the Creator opens all the other gates, but we personally have nothing to do with the last one.

By revealing the 49 gates within himself, a person is in relative connection with the Creator, and in the 50^th gate, an absolutely complete connection with Him is accomplished. This is their characteristic.
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From KabTV’s “Introduction of The Book of Zohar” 5/21/23

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But in the essay, Beresheet, it was said that that hidden, holy one engraved a carving in his intestines, in Bina (Introduction to The Book of Zohar, Article “Lock and Key”).

The Creator is the uppermost degree, Keter, who is concealed from the lower ones because they cannot attain Him. Keter is their last, most corrected state.

The Creator is concealed behind numerous degrees so that by ascending to them, dressing onto them, the lower ones, that is, people in our world, we can gradually reveal Him, understand Him, and come closer to Him.

Thus, the first three Sefirot: Keter, Hochma, and Bina are the Creator’s thought. They are like the head (Rosh) of the Partzuf. We do not attain this thought.

We attain only the actions of the Creator through the six Sefirot of Zeir Anpin (Hessed, Gevurah, Tiferet, Netzach, Hod, and Yesod), which influence Malchut.
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From KabTV’s “Introduction of The Book of Zohar” 5/21/23

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Rabbi Hiya and Rabbi Yosi (two sages) were walking along the way. When they arrived at a certain field, Rabbi Hiya said to Rabbi Yosi, “Your saying Barah Sheet, which is implied in Beresheet, is so indeed, since the six upper days, which are only VAK de Bina, impart upon the Torah, ZA, and not more. The others, GAR de Bina, are hidden (Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai (Rashbi), Zohar for All, “Lock and Key”).

Question: What is written here is not about history but about the inner development of a person. What is the meaning of “the path”? Why is emphasis placed specifically on the fact that sages approached a field and not, for example, a forest? What is the mystery of all these terms?

Answer: What is described in The Book of Zohar indeed resembles our life. We must cross the field and find our path in it. It is good when there is someone else walking with us on the road, a traveling companion with whom we can discuss our path, unite, and try to clarify our goal whether we are going in the right direction, and so on.

Therefore, the article “Lock and Key” describes a phenomenon that is quite common in our life, when we want to do something and we have a traveling companion with whom by talking together we come to a certain conclusion of what should we do in order not to make mistakes on the path of life.

The road symbolizes the path that we go through in life. And the field is a place of work where a person puts in efforts to choose his direction and find the right path that would lead him to the purpose of life.
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From KabTV’s “Introduction to The Book of Zohar” 5/21/23

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Rabbi Hiya said to Rabbi Yosi, “Your saying Barah Sheet, which is implied in Beresheet, is so indeed, since the six upper days, which are only VAK de Bina, impart upon the Torah, ZA, and not more” (Zohar for All, “Lock and Key”).

Question: “In the beginning (Beresheet)” is how the Torah begins. The sources say that the Torah is Zeir Anpin. It is one of the ten Sefirot, which includes six more. What does “created six” mean?

Answer: The entire nature that the Creator created is under His control and created by Him from six parts: Hessed, Gevurah, Tifferet, Netzach, Hod, and Yessod. The Creator himself represents His influence on nature through the three upper Sefirot: Keter, Hochma, and Bina. Then the other six Sefirot follow.

Malchut is the last, seventh Sefira. That is, through six Sefirot the Creator creates the last, seventh, in which His entire plan is manifested. Practically, this is what the chapter “Lock and Key” speaks about in the introduction of The Book of Zohar.

Question: What does it mean that the Torah is Zeir Anpin?

Answer: Zeir Anpin is the central part of the system of nature which receives everything from above and transmits it down to its components: inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human nature. Therefore, it is considered that the entire nature is Zeir Anpin.
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From Kab TV’s “Introduction of The Book of Zohar” 5/21/23

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is hidden in The Zohar?“
The Zohar hides nature’s secrets from us in a way where we start understanding that such secrets are unattainable, that nature’s “control room” is hidden from us.

Nature controls our every movement, thought and desire. We exist in an incredibly limited range of perception, one that constantly presses on us, and we fail to understand why everything unfolds specifically the way that it does. This is the concealment we live in.

There is, however, a way to open our doors of perception and disclose nature’s complete picture beyond our limited vantage points.

If we draw closer to nature by emulating its qualities of love, bestowal and connection, then we eventually start disclosing nature’s forces, plans and also various miraculous phenomena. As such, we come to feel and understand nature by becoming like it.

That is what The Zohar teaches us.

Based on KabTV’s “Introduction of The Book of Zohar” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on May 21, 2023. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Question: Many things are hidden from us, i.e., the potential of man himself, our future, divine governance, the governance of nature, etc. Which concealment is the most important for us?

Answer: The general force of nature, which is called the Creator, is hidden from us. It includes everything and draws everything there is in nature, all parts of it (inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human) to some goal.

We would like to find out where our part is, what our fate is, but unfortunately it is not yet possible to reveal this.

We reveal a little from here, a little from there, but, in principle, the more we do it, the more we realize that something very grandiose, general, and integral is hidden from us, and we ourselves are not in it.
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From KabTV’s “Preface to The Book of Zohar” 5/21/23

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The common soul is the only thing that was created in the universe and it has only one quality—the quality of bestowal and love.

To the extent that I can adapt to the common soul by acquiring at least a small quality of bestowal and love, I connect with it and contact is established between us. If I cannot do this, then I feel like all the people in our world that are disconnected from it do not understand what kind of shell they exist within. They do not feel this system.

But this is how it should be at the beginning. For thousands of years we have evolved to come to despair and the feeling that there is nothing in our lives, nothing shines ahead, and daily conditions shake us, threaten us, and demand that we understand the reason for our existence.

Animalistic fear, necessity, and hopelessness lead people to start demanding this contact: where is it, how, what for, why, and what are we doing here?

And then The Book of Zohar comes to meet them; it opens and says: “I am the system. By reading me, by being included in me, you connect to the general spiritual system and finally begin to feel what kind of world you live in. After all, you do not feel the world in which you exist.”
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. What is a Book” 4/4/11

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