Entries in the 'Zohar' Category

Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 02.03.12

Writings of RabashLove 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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A Long Way From Secrets To Simplicity

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: 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 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/31/12, The Zohar

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The Upper Root Of The Letters

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: 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 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/1/12, The Zohar

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“I Am Black And Beautiful”

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe 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 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/1/12, The Zohar

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Hastening Time

Dr. Michael LaitmanReading 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 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/1/12, The Zohar

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 02.01.12

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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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 02.01.12

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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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 01.31.12

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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Do Not Turn Your Back To The Creator

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: 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 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/29/12, The Zohar

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Tell Me How You See The Group And I’ll Tell You Who You Are

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Where should each of us start to create our own environment?

Answer: Start from the need to evoke inspiration and to impress everyone by your desire to create the environment. Try to spur them without words that we should all yearn to create an environment that will oblige us, change us, and bring us closer so that we will connect. This is a must. Without such a society, without the right connections among us, there is nowhere that spirituality can be revealed. Spirituality is revealed only in the connection among us.

The form of the connection among us is the form of the spiritual world, the form of the level a person is on. The moment it influences me and I want to discover it, the level of the connection will depend on me. In the same group there are those who see it on level 50 and there are those who see it on level 5 and others can see it as absolutely perfect, in Gmar Tikkun (Final Correction).

Spiritual reality doesn’t have a predetermined form; it all depends on a person. This is why I need the environment so much, so that it will oblige me to treat it correctly. That’s all we need.

Actually, when I see that it is corrected, I see that it has always been that way, and I only lacked the desire to discover this, I lacked the sensitivity. Now too we are in a group and in an environment that is in Gmar Tikkun, in the world of Infinity. But it doesn’t spur me to discover that. By evoking the friends, I create an effect that helps me discover that they are absolutely corrected.

As a result of this cycle, which comes back to me, I correct myself. This is called to pray, to judge myself, how do I return to the right attitude through the environment. We have to give it a lot of thought because it all begins and ends here.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/20/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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