Question: If I read the text while listening to The Zohar, I cannot concentrate on prayer. What is better: to read or to pray?

Answer: It is better if you do both, but you cannot accomplish it at once. It takes a long time. It is similar to working with some novel device or entering a new society. Initially, we don’t know anything about them. We start exploring their behavioral patterns and reactions to the environment and eventually analyze the initial data and our impressions; we figure out what impacts this mechanism and what doesn’t.

Gradually, we begin to sense the nuances of the system; we learn how it reacts to external factors. It doesn’t matter whether it is a human society, a family, a person, or a machine. All systems react to external influences.

When we study the upper system: Aba ve Ima, ZON, worlds of BYA, and Atzilut, we gradually start assigning our own properties to them under the influence of the surrounding Light. We can tell the difference between Aba ve Ima (Father and Mother) and ZON, which occupies a position that is lower than Aba ve Ima or the worlds of BYA; we distinguish between right and left lines, and recognize Arich Anpin with its “brain partitions” and “hidden intelligence.”

We begin sensing definitions. It’s as if we know people that belong to a certain group or as if we connect a familiar person with a concrete sensation:  pleasant or unpleasant, intimidating or not.

When we get to know The Zohar and other Kabbalistic books, we link Kabbalistic notions of internal and external nature with our own sensations. Thus, we begin to assemble all images into one picture, no matter what we read:  a weekly chapter of the Torah, “Study of the Ten Sefirot,” or The Book of Zohar, which is written in an allegorical language. We start collecting all images into one picture.

It’s about the upper system to which we belong and its influence upon us. It doesn’t matter what time and place we are talking about: Egyptian slavery, wandering in the desert (as described in the Torah), shattering of the worlds, or correction described in the “Study of the Ten Sefirot.”

Not only do we start to understand that all sources talk about parallel events, only using different languages; we also begin to connect them to ourselves. First, we thought that everything was outside of us and that some upper system was somewhere else, whereas we are here in this world.  But later, our self-vision starts to differ and we recognize that everything is within us and about us. The whole Torah is instruction (Orah) that helps us enter the authentic system in order to avoid the state of unconsciousness and keep us away from the condition of living without any clue of where we really are. This is how a person gradually advances.

When we open The Zohar or any other Kabbalistic book (The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Tanakh, Midrash, or Psalms), it depends only on the person and his in-depth sensation that all these sources speak about him, the Creator, and the buffer that connects them together, that is, the world, humankind, the group, and our teachers, the great Kabbalists, the authors of the books that connect us with spirituality.

Then, it doesn’t matter what “language” we are using and what style we cling to; all that matters is whether we have enough time and a suitable place for authentic actions. We feel that we stand across from the system that facilitates revelation of the Creator to us. This system is both external and internal and the Creator stays inside of it until “Israel” (the people), the Torah, and the Creator connect into one whole as all of us always strove to attain.

It will come gradually.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/26/12, The Zohar

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Writings of Rabash “Love of Friends”
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The Book of Zohar – Selected Chapter “Beresheet (Genesis),” “A Prayer for the Poor,” (Start with: “Yet, she still has some correction”), Item 187, Lesson 53
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Preface to the Book of Zohar, Item 26, Lesson 14
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Question: If I like to hear The Zohar read in Hebrew, should I do that or should I listen to the translation?

Answer: Yes, and no. If it helps a person understand Hebrew better, then it is worthwhile. However, if you stay on the same level, then no, because eventually, while reading The Zohar we advance through the PARDES in the reverse order. I go through the different stories from the secret (Sod) to the allegoric literature (Drush) then to the hint (Remez) and to the literal meaning (Pshat).

At first I really don’t understand what it is about. Then in Drush, I begin to understand that it is about certain attributes in the general vessel, which is broken and which must be revealed in this way. The style that is used to tell this is Drush and Remez, and in the meantime I don’t distinguish between them. Afterward I begin to advance and then instead of Drush and Remez, I begin to see the network of connections among us more clearly.

In the article “The Four Worlds,” Baal HaSulam writes what the four worlds are: Assiya, Yetzira, Beria, and Atzilut: the revelation of matter, the revelation of the action, and the revelation of the operator.

We advance in reading The Book of Zohar until we begin to see that it is only about the connection among us: to what extent it reaches correction thanks to the revelation of the Creator in it, where the deficiency that comes from us is, where the correction is, and how they operate together like oncoming waves that come and go. And so time after time, the network among us is gradually revealed, in all its different manners.

All this refers only about the mutual connection between us, which is built, expanded, and revealed thanks to the revelation of the power of bestowal, the Creator. It fills the void between us and thus, He is revealed. Our bestowal and His revelation appear as one whole.

Therefore, before I come to look at this picture, I feel the difficulties in discovering it that start from the Sod, which is the beginning of the PARDES.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/31/12, The Zohar

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Question: What is the upper root of the black letters? From where does their force derive?

Answer: From the tip of the Yod (the 10th letter in the Hebrew alphabet). The Ari wrote in a poem:

Behold that before the emanations were emanated and the creatures were created,

The Upper Simple Light had filled the whole existence.

And there was no vacancy, such as an empty air, a hollow,

But all was filled with that Simple, Boundless Light.

And there was no such part as head, or end,

But everything was One, Simple Light, balanced evenly and equally,

And it was called “the Light of Ein Sof (Infinity).”

And when upon His simple will, came the desire to create the worlds and emanate the emanations….

And then the desire to receive was revealed, something that was opposed to the Light.

The Light is bestowal and love. And suddenly, within bestowal and love something black begins to appear to differentiate from bestowal and love. Actually, it is a small drop, something that isn’t similar to Light, something distinct from it, that was created in it, and it precisely is called “creature.” Everything else developed from it. All the rest was consequently determined by this tiny difference from the Light, which began to develop due to the Light, and it began to feel itself and become familiar with its oppositeness to the Light.

And then we speak about the fourth level in the phases of Direct Light, about Ein Sof (infinity), the restrictions and the continuation of the development of the creature. But actually nothing changes: There remains that same small difference from the Light. The only thing that grows in it is the feeling to what extent it is opposite the Light. But by itself, it is just slightly different from the Light.

Therefore, the Creator only created the tip of the Yod, and all the rest developed from this point. This is the root of the letters.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/1/12, The Zohar

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The Book of Zohar, Chapter “Beresheet (Genesis),” Item 183: Darkness is the black in the Torah, the ink in her letters. Light is the white in the Torah, the parchments on which the letters are written. When the light clothes in darkness, it is written about the Torah, “I am black and beautiful.” When the light—the white in the Torah—departs there, the Torah says, “Do not see me that I am swarthy.”

By the form of the book, black letters on a white background, we see that it is the black color that conveys all the information to us. Although we may say the opposite: If we enter the attribute of bestowal into the white Light of the background of the book, we study the white part in contrast to the black—not black on a white background, but white in which there are small black voids.

Therefore, two things were said about the Torah: “Don’t see me that I am dark” and “I am black and beautiful.” On one hand, there is the Light, the attribute of bestowal and on the other hand, there is the desire, the vessel, the attribute of receiving. Therefore we are in a state of ups and downs when we feel and study the white in contrast to the black and vice versa.

This is a study in which one completes the other, and thus enables us to see not in our desire, not in the attribute of receiving, but rather from the perception of the upper, from the attribute of bestowal. When we are in our own desire, we act from our letters, from the darkness on the white Light’s background. But if we are incorporated in the upper, like Galgalta ve Eynaim and AHP, we learn from the Light of Ein Sof because then we are incorporated in it, and learn the white Light that is in the books and not the black.

Thus we learn one attribute in contrast to another, until they complete one another and the letters complete the white background and the white completes the black part of the letters. The letters don’t disappear, but the whole Torah turns fully into Light, as it says: “the night will glow like daytime.”
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/1/12, The Zohar

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Reading The Book of Zohar helps us hasten time. If I need to develop for 5-10 years, then reading The Zohar can bring about these changes in me in several lessons or even less.

This is the difference between the level of the animate and the level of the speaking, although the two cannot be compared. No matter how much a beast wants to, no matter how much it jumps, no matter what it does—in its entire lifetime, it will not be able to perform one action that is similar to a human or even a small child. This is the difference in the levels of development.

Therefore, if we read The Zohar and don’t think about the actions that the Light can perform on us, our development will be very slow and may even be negative because in any case, the Light performs changes in us.

But if we add the right intention, then the reforming Light develops us from self-love to love of others, to resembling and becoming equal to the Light, and we reach the opening of the eyes.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/1/12, The Zohar

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Writings of Rabash, “Concerning the Importance of Friends”
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The Book of Zohar – Selected Chapter “Beresheet (Genesis),” “A Prayer for the Poor,” Item 184, Lesson 52
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 6, (Start with: “The same occurred in the creation of Partzuf BON“), Item 23, Lesson 15
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“Introduction to the Study of Ten Sefirot,” Item 75, Lesson 35
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Preparation to the Lesson
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Writings of Rabash, Dargot HaSulam, “The Virtue of the Little”
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The Book of Zohar – Selected Chapter “Beresheet (Genesis),” “Let Us Make Man,” (Start with: “It was said above”), Item 183, Lesson 51
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 6, Item 23, Lesson 14
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“Introduction to the Study of Ten Sefirot,” Item 74, Lesson 34
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Preparation to the Lesson
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Writings of Rabash, Dargot HaSulam, “The Main Thing That We’re Lacking”
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The Book of Zohar – Selected Chapter “Beresheet (Genesis),” “Let Us Make Man,” Item 179, Lesson 50
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 6, (Start with: “The third Behina of the Nekudim“), Item 20, Lesson 13
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“Introduction to the Study of Ten Sefirot,” Item 69, Lesson 33
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Question: What does the Creator want through The Book of Zohar?

Answer: The Creator does not want anything. He wants what you want. He is constantly in the law of absolute bestowal. And Reshimot (informational genes) are awakened in you all the time and reveal to you how much you are opposite to this total property of bestowal that is ruling over the world.

The stronger the Reshimot will open in you, the more you will feel opposed to this law, this force, in various forms. From day to day, your world will appear to you much worse from any side.

Do you want to stay in it? Stay. Do you want to move out of your misery? Advance! Do you want to do something with yourself? Do. Use this power for good. How? If you strive for it, then you will discover its greater impact on you. If you do not strive, you will not discover.

The Creator is unchangeable. By your aspiration, you will be able to draw more help, more power from Him. And if you do not long for Him, if you turn your back to Him, you will reveal something different.

The Creator does not want anything. We just say: “His desire is to bring pleasure to the creatures” because we think that His desire is the same as ours, that it operates and performs. It does operate and perform, but in an unchanged form. And that is why, in contrast to our world, it is a static state, when everything depends on you. All changes depend on you.

Reshimot are revealed only to you so you feel changes; it is not He who is changing every moment. The Creator does not change; the Light is in absolute rest. The creature wanted to perform the first restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph) and has done it; the second restriction, please do! The Creator agrees, but nothing more. The creature does everything. We just relate in our earthly language that the Creator acts in everything.

Thus, if you want to change something, you should not forget that it is we who change,.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/29/12, The Zohar

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