This is what Rabbi Elazar would pray and say when he fasted, “It is revealed and known before You, Hashem, my Elohim and the Elohim of my fathers, that I have offered up before You my fat and blood, and I have seethed them with the heat of the weakness of my body” (The Zohar, Shemot: Verse 368).

There is a big difference whether I read these words from the prayer book or something happens inside of me and I explode from within in my yearning for the Creator with such words.

These feelings were created inside me, formed into words and phrases. I may not even know this language. I do not know how it happens, but this is the result of my efforts to make my desires similar to the light and connect them with the light.

Light and desires produce this reaction in the soul, they are recognized in my brain, the brain transmits instructions to the organs of speech, and I pronounce them without knowing where these words came from!

This is the way the real prayer should be, when everything comes from within, when from the connection of lights and Kelim, from the deepest foundations of creation, light and desire, the filling of desire with light, the whole TANTA (complete Kli – Taamim, Nekudot, Tagin, Otiot) is gradually built until they are expressed by the speech apparatus.

It is clear that Rabbi Elazar did not read this prayer according to the prayer book, but while he was in this state, about which he spoke to the Creator.

Before the Second Temple was ruined, the people of Israel were in connection with the Creator, in the qualities of bestowal and love, and their prayer was the feeling in their heart—desire. It is said: “What is prayer? The work in the heart.”

But the sages of the Great Assembly (Knesset HaGadol), knowing about the imminent fall into egoism, meaning the concealment of the Creator from everyone, compiled a collection of prayers for us, states to which a person must come.

They called it “Siddur“—the order of spiritual states that we must go through within ourselves, in our heart (desire).

But since we are not capable of such a thing in times of exile, the absence of connection with the light, with the Creator, when the upper force is concealed, we mechanically read the words from the prayer book, and someone may be trying to imagine what it would mean in spirituality.

Only the light, when we are studying Kabbalah, will evoke in us feelings, thoughts, sensations, words, and phrases of our prayer as work in the heart, and not in the speech apparatus.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/22/10, The Book of Zohar, Shemot (Exodus)

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Question: How can we who are so small suddenly move the worlds? You said that when a little child just gives a cry, his mother immediately runs up to him and does whatever he wants.

Answer: Yes, the smallest is the strongest.

Question: Even those who are just starting their advancement?

Answer: But they are doing it! They want to get in touch with the Creator. Yes, they are the strongest.

Even though they do not understand anything, like a baby who is lying in a cradle and screaming. The baby does not even realize that he is crying—he is just in pain, and this is a natural scream. He does not realize that in this way one can call a mother who will come and give him something. He has no understanding of the chain of actions he invokes. He is screaming because it is a natural reaction to what is happening to him.

Question: Can we say that someone who is trying to read, for example, the Torah or Kabbalistic sources, begins to give this cry?

Answer: Yes, of course. But not just to read, especially the Torah. The Torah will not help here. One needs either The Book of Zohar or some other Kabbalistic books.

Comment: But I mean not the external principle of reading, but the internal one—the search for oneself, the search for what is inside me.

My Response: No, besides this, a book that can evoke the upper light most brightly is needed. The Book of Zohar is the most effective one.

Question: That is, your advice is to read without understanding?

Answer: That is my advice because I went through this with Rabash. That is my advice because this is how it works. We used to read The Book of Zohar for only half an hour in the evening before going to bed. And it was just reading without any comments.

There were 20 people sitting around the table with Rabash at the head, and for half an hour we took turns reading: the first one, then the second, the third, and so on. So, we read a page or two, and went home. This is how the day ended.

But when Rabash and I studied alone on trips, in personal conversations or lessons, there was a different attitude. We came to the park, walked around, and then sat down on a bench. I pulled out a book, and we discussed the book or just talked for about two hours. After that, we again walked around and went home. And so it was for 12 years.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/12/10

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Comment: The Book of Zohar was written at the intersection of the analog system beginning to move to the digital one. This language should be close to us in our time.

My Response: Baal HaSulam wrote an addition to The Book of Zohar, called HaSulam, which means the ladder. There, in parallel with the sensory, fable-like description, with hints and all kinds of images, Baal HaSulam describes everything in digitized form, that is, step-by-step.

This gives a huge advantage to The Book of Zohar because from this moment onward it becomes suitable for practical use for the new generation. It did not remain in the state in which it was written 2,000 years ago when it could only be used by great Kabbalists.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Languages ​​of the Zohar, Talmud and Torah” 10/16/13

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Everyone knows that The Book of Zohar is special. This is the only Book that can lead man into the spiritual world. It has become famous because of its unique purpose, and humanity treats it in a special way.

A man is born into this world without knowing anything about it. Nature has prepared a very strange entrance into the world for him, nothing is explained to him in advance, and sensations, memory, or mind are not transmitted to him from his father or mother or from previous generations.

He is born as a piece of flesh and begins to receive impressions from this world: heat, cold, light, darkness, sounds, noise, and silence.

At first, he does not feel anything at all. Gradually, he begins to react to sounds, light, and then to the attitude of his mother, to some actions upon him, and he laughs or cries. He begins to explore the world, seeks to find out what surrounds him and gets acquainted with his body. This is how he grows.

It is amazing that a couple of days after its birth an animal cub knows everything and can survive in this world on its own, and a human baby is not capable of anything without the care of adults. Besides, if it is left in the forest, it becomes the same as the animals around it.

The whole development of a child in our world takes place on the basis of the impressions he receives and examples and behavior patterns that exist in the world and that adults show and explain to him.

There is music for children, toys, playgrounds with sandboxes and slides, various construction sets and games, all so that children learn to break, assemble, and disassemble, and distinguish colors and sounds. All this exists for the development of man in order to prepare him for life in our world.

Parents and an environment are ready to provide the child with everything so that he grows up befitting his generation and the world in which he lives. Instinctively, we are created in such a way that we want to give the child everything there is in us. Otherwise, he will not be ready for life.

Such upbringing is natural, it comes from our nature, and we cannot destroy it. We cannot stuff a person with information by connecting him directly to a computer and filling him with encyclopedic knowledge.

We cannot fill him with education and knowledge immediately after birth and develop sensations, reactions, and sensitivity in him; only gradually, step-by-step, to the extent that he accumulates impressions, does he himself take the form of an individual.

It takes the first 20 years of a person’s life and even more. And as adults, we also continue to learn and develop, and when we come of age, we regret that we did not know something earlier.

A similar process of development takes place with us at our birth and formation in the upper world. The only difference is that I exist in this world, and it really interferes with me!

But I also need a spiritual father and mother, an environment, toys, education, upbringing, and explanation. And if I do not get examples, I will not be ready for the spiritual world, it will not open up to me, and I will not recognize it.

Just as a person cannot exist in our world without information about it, so his soul cannot exist in the upper world without information about it. Moreover, the knowledge of the upper world is a feeling of life in it (Baal HaSulam, “Body and Soul”).

Imagine that if a newborn baby were left lying in a crib and not provided with anything other than what is necessary for his existence. He would remain a piece of flesh.

We will not be able to develop if we do not receive new, varied impressions. We may not understand them, just as a baby does not understand them, but we are first filled with all sorts of external influences and impressions, and in this way we grow.

The same is true in spirituality. We must fill ourselves with various external influences that come from the spiritual world. But they do not exist in our world!

It is exactly this “external” influence that The Book of Zohar has on us. And that is why this Book is special. If a person reads or listens to this Book, regardless of his understanding, the Book fills him with various impressions of the unknown upper world. No other Book has such an impact on a person.

Gradually, as we study The Book of Zohar, we will receive impressions from it, accumulate them, and they will penetrate us, and will take care of our advancement.

Of course, we will accompany reading The Book of Zohar with small explanations in order to give a person some connection with its narrative.

But in fact, a person can read it even without any explanations with only the desire to understand, like a child with widely open eyes wants to attain the world and to know everything because nature does not allow him to remain at rest for a minute.

If we open our senses, heart, and mind just to absorb everything from this book, like a baby absorbing the world with enthusiastic eyes, we will move forward.

And it does not matter whether a person has a brilliant mind or it is difficult for him to learn, whether he is lazy or agile, rational or sensitive, everyone will receive the development most favorable for him.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/23/09, The Book of Zohar “Noah”

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When The Book of Zohar was hidden from people, which was from the time of its writing in the 2^nd century until its revelation in the 13^th century, no one called it hidden; they did not know about it at all!

Today anyone in the world can freely buy The Book of Zohar and read it. So why is it called a secret, hidden?

This Book has everything. The Zohar can reveal to us this world and the upper worlds in all their fullness. It is written at the height of all 125 levels of attainment of the entire universe and tells us about our entire path.

The only problem is how this book is closed, closed by the person himself who is not able to concentrate or to tune in correctly to see what is happening in the book.

The reader himself, of course, is not able to put himself in front of the text like he can with any other reading. He gets entangled in it, sees in it images of our world, history and geography, physiology and anatomy. He connects concepts, objects, and actions with his earthly understanding.

Imagine an electrical device with a lot of wires and parts that you connect incorrectly. Will you ever be able to put it into action? Of course not!

The problem is that everything is in front of us, but we cannot reveal it; we are not able to correctly use either ourselves or this system, which we combine in ourselves incorrectly. We do not have a correct approach to The Zohar.

A person must constantly—before and during reading—learn to tune himself to a new focus, understanding, and vision, and move forward in this step by step, slowly.

Attunement is obligatory because if he simply opens The Zohar and starts reading, he will only get confused and then it will be very difficult for him to correct this confusion and return to the beginning.

Therefore the whole difficulty lies in correctly entering The Book of Zohar.

That is why The Book of Zohar is accompanied by materials on tuning our instrument of perception: the soul!
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/21/09, “Preface to The Book of Zohar”

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In each of us there are desires of all levels of development: inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human.

At the human level, within us, there are desires of all types of people that we see in our world.

But in fact, this is not the world, this is me. Therefore, there are robbers, liars, good people, righteous people, wise men, and fools within me. This is all me.

It only seems to me that this vast world exists, but in fact, it is only a representation of my inner desires and qualities. They are depicted to me in the form of inanimate, vegetative, animate, or human images in my four levels of desire.

Depending on how I see the world, I can understand how I am corrupted or corrected, good or bad. Meaning, which of my desires I should correct.

If I correct my attitude to the world, I correct myself. It is by seeing the world outside of myself, I much better understand what is evil and egoistic within me and how to achieve good and bestowal toward what seems external to me.

Conversely, by correcting myself, I see that the whole world gets better.

There is no world; it just seems to me that all this exists, like on the cinema screen.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/23/09, The Book of Zohar “VaYishlach (And Jacob Sent)”

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The Zohar tells us about what is happening in the spiritual world, about the actions of the bestowal of creation; therefore, we cannot understand it since we are not yet able to perform such actions!

We are in our egoistic desire and know only how to receive fulfillment and pleasure and how to act in order to achieve this pleasure. And the actions that The Zohar speaks about seem to be described in some incomprehensible language, like a secret code, as if it is about something unreal: either in the language of Kabbalah, in terms of the Sefirot, Partzufim, the worlds, or as some kind of allegory where the sun, moon, mountains, people, and animals act like in a fairy tale.

None of us understand it, nor do we feel it, because we are not in the property (nature) of bestowal, but are in the property (nature) of receiving.

If we were to receive the higher, spiritual properties of bestowal and love instead of our earthly egoistic properties, we would immediately understand what The Zohar tells us, and along with its reading we would reveal the higher world. Moreover, it will be not like in an adventure novel in fantasy, but rather in reality!

However, since there are still no spiritual properties in me, what is described in The Zohar is unreal. That is why our reading of The Zohar is called “Segula,” a special technique! What is it?

We read and try to call upon ourselves forces from that world, the level that is spoken of in the Book. Even if I do not understand the text, but I want to change and I want to feel it, it “shines” on me with a “light that returns to the source” (Ohr Makif, or surrounding light).

This force acts on me and will reveal new properties in me, the properties of bestowal that are written about in The Zohar. After all, it is written entirely in the nature of bestowal, not of receiving, and only according to the nature of bestowal can one understand what is written there.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/29/10, Shamati “To Understand the Words of The Holy Zohar“

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In the Introduction to The Book of Zohar, Baal HaSulam writes that although it seems to us that everything is happening before our eyes, it is clear to anyone with reason that all these pictures exist solely inside our brain.

Only when we manage to achieve such an understanding will we begin to gradually approach what the science of Kabbalah speaks about. Therefore, The Book of Zohar is hidden from us, and we do not know how to open it and read it. After all, the key to its understanding is the correct perception of reality.

The Book of Zohar must be approached only through internal concepts by imagining everything told in it within oneself, all the definitions, sounds, worlds, spiritual objects, souls, mutual relations, and especially the parameters of perception of reality: world-year-soul, above time, movement, and space.

If we perceive the text as unfolding into a scheme of relationships of forces and properties within us, then we will gradually reveal ever deeper inner states in ourselves. Then it will become clear to us that this external reality does not exist, no matter how real it may seem to us, that it exists externally and is not subject to us.

It is only now that I am under the delusion that it is not me who creates this reality, but it itself unfolds in front of me, it existed even before my birth and will remain after my death. We must try to change all these views until we begin to understand what The Book of Zohar wants to explain to us.

The entrance to The Book of Zohar, the key to it, lies precisely in the transfer of everything into oneself according to the principle “Man…comprises the entire world.” Therefore, it is possible to understand whether I am studying correctly by the extent to which I expect to feel and reveal all my future inside myself.
[8249]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/10/10, The Book of Zohar “VaYechi”

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Question: What signs indicate our progress in reading The Book of Zohar and in spiritual work in general?

Answer: The most obvious and strong sign of progress in reading The Book of Zohar is a feeling of greater need for connection with others.

Another sign is that I feel that for some reason that The Zohar attracts me sometimes more and sometimes less, but in any case, I feel that it is good for me to be near this Book, to read it, or to listen to it.

I feel that there is a force in this Book that connects me with life. There is such an effect in it.

Even if a person does not attain, does not understand, and does not know what The Book of Zohar is talking about, he still feels that this Book, as Baal HaSulam says in the article “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar,” is like a rope that the Creator threw to the created beings here in this world.

Holding on to the end of this rope, we will be able to rise to Him.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/10/10, The Book of Zohar “Ki Tissa (When You Take)”

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The main thing in reading The Book of Zohar is the intention. After all, by reading this Book, we attract the greatest light, if we are able to do it.

In everything written by Kabbalists, there is no stronger light than in The Book of Zohar. That is why it gained such fame and popularity, and at the same time throughout history, it was hidden, and so many things happened to it.

Only now it is revealed because it is a source of light that returns to its origin. Therefore, it does not matter what exactly we read in The Book of Zohar, because in any case, we do not understand a single word correctly. But we want to penetrate into the same picture, to feel it, and not to understand it; it is not given to us to understand it with our earthly mind. We strive to enter it, to open it up.

After all, we are talking about Kabbalists who have revealed the spiritual world and told us about what they discovered there, like in an adventure novel about travelers discovering new lands and islands.

This is how Kabbalists tell us about what is happening in spirituality. They describe what inner tools they reveal it with, and at the same time talk about what they see and feel. That is, they talk about the actions they perform and what they reveal as a result of these actions.

We look, read, listen, and do not understand anything, but we aspire to feel these states ourselves, to live in them. Like children who read books about exciting adventures and experience the adventure together with the heroes, all this was only in our imagination.

Here we enter the spiritual world for real and feel it even more strongly than we perceive ourselves in this world now. It is our current perception of this world that is the most distorted and clouded compared to everything else.

In spirituality there is amazing clarity and transparency that is impossible to imagine, there is the deepest understanding of all events and the forces behind them, the causes and effects, the source of everything that happens, and the connections between everything that exists.

This is what we should strive for when reading The Book of Zohar—to stop being old men, but feel like young children, carried away by a book about exciting adventures.
[32110]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/7/11, The Book of Zohar “Tzav (Command)”

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