Question: How did the first teachers of the wisdom of Kabbalah receive this knowledge? Where is its origin? People think that Kabbalah is something close to magic, and many myths surround it.

Answer: Adam was the first Kabbalist who lived 5772 years ago. He was the first of all of humankind who discovered that an integral system of nature exists and it is possible to reveal it.

People had lived before him, but he was the first man in history who had questions: “What do I live for? What is the secret of life? Where is its source?” He wrote a book about this; it reached our days and is called The Secret Angel (Raziel HaMalach). An angel is a force. The “secret angel” means the “hidden force.” It is a small book, a few dozen pages.

The next book was written by Abraham around 3700 years ago and is called The Book of Creation (Sefer Yetzira). This book explains for the first time in a systematic form, the “Sefirot,” the 32 forces that descend to us and are connected among themselves.

At the same time, several Kabbalists together wrote one more Kabbalistic book, The Great Midrash (Midrash HaGadol), which means explanation or commentary. Many more books were created after that, until the greatest Kabbalistic book appeared, The Book of Zohar, which was written around 2000 years ago.

After that, plenty of books were written, up to the time of the Ari who lived in the 16th century. The Ari’s main book was The Tree of Life (Etz Chaim), which talks about Sefirot and worlds and is full of drawings and diagrams.

From the immense number of books that appeared after it, the most important for us are the books of Baal HaSulam, written in the 20th century.

All these books were not known to the general public. They were mentioned only occasionally, as though “leaked.” This formed a mysterious aura around Kabbalah as if it involves mysticism, secret forces, performing miracles, and predicting the future through Tarot cards. In reality, this is not related to Kabbalah at all!

Of course, Kabbalah uses symbols, diagrams, graphs, drawings, and Gematria (the numerical value of words). Kabbalah studies the soul and its stages of growth. But there is nothing mystical in it. I would say that it is simply the physics of the upper dimension.

Kabbalah is not associated with religion and any mystical practices. It is a science for people who want to know. Naturally, they have to work on and correct themselves. I would compare this with tuning a radio which is surrounded with many radio waves of various frequencies. If I tune the radio and create the wave that corresponds to the wave existing outside it, I receive that external wave and can hear the signal.

The science of Kabbalah helps us create these waves inside ourselves, and we begin to sense the force existing outside us, perceive, and study it. We develop the inner sense of hearing and inner sense of sight. The inner sense of hearing is called the degree of Bina (Sefira Bina), and the inner sense of sight is called the degree of Hochma (Sefira Hochma).
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From the Lecture in Rome 5/20/2011

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Writings of Rabash, “What Is the Torah Called the Middle Line in the Work”
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The Book of Zohar – Selected, Chapter, “Truma (Donation),” “The Watchman Says ‘Morning Comes,'” Item 100, Lesson 5
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Talmud Eser Sefirot Vol. 1, Chapter 9, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Item 33, Lesson 24
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Writings of Rabash, Dargot HaSulam, “The Matter of the Mind Controlling the Heart”
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The Book of Zohar, Chapter “Truma” (Donation), Item 75: One who wishes to set out to the road should rise while it is still night, watch by observing the hour on the east side, and see in a vision the letters that strike the firmament, one going up, the other going down. This is the sparkling of the letters with which the heaven and earth were created.

Of course, all these phenomena take place within us, within each person, and we have to look for and recognize them inside ourselves. We are talking about the connection between us, its kinds and nature. This is how Kabbalists talk about it. After all, there is nothing else.

Ultimately, we reveal the perfect network of connection between us called Malchut of Infinity and on the way, see it partially, in various forms. Consequently, when we reach the final correction, there are no more forms. Everything is dissolved in the white Light. As it is written, “He and His Name are one.”

However, for the time being, there are all kinds of forms, properties, worlds, and concealments hiding perfection from us, which we reveal once again through the structure of all these worlds. Concealment was created from above downward; from below upward, revelation takes place by the same steps, in the same worlds.

That is why we should try to imagine the entire text in the connection between us: what it talks about and about what forms of connection.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/31/2011, The Zohar

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Question: During the reading of The Zohar, I feel very strong disturbances and hardly feel the text itself. How can I overcome this obstacle?

Answer: Everything depends on the persistence in one’s thoughts. During my life, I have talked to many people suffering from serious illnesses. They fathom their illnesses in great details and are familiar with all the medical terms known only to the specialists in this area. Why? Their lives depend on that. The desire to survive forced people to learn the causes of their illnesses and to seek remedies and various methods of treatment.

We don’t fully realize that we are dependent on our understanding of the “disease,” on the search for its cure. I shouldn’t rely on anyone else; I have to invest all of my effort into finding the cause of my illness, the remedy appropriate for my condition so that finally this remedy takes effect.

If people really feel danger, this forces them to learn how to save themselves. You are saying: “I hardly feel anything…” True, you do not feel the “disease.” Thus, the group has to work harder on you, and you should try to be persistent in your thoughts and pray that you will be shown from Above that we are talking about you.

The abyss between the world of Infinity and your current state can be seen in this obvious demonstration that The Zohar is now showing within you. Imagine this: If you were corrected now, you would feel the world of Infinity, the entire Zohar would be revealed within you, and you would see everything. To sense this, you lack only the vessels of perception, the corrected desires. At least realize what is happening.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/24/2011, The Zohar

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Question: What is so special about the Torah that even The Book of Zohar is just a commentary on it?

Answer: The records that Moses made on parchment are the earthly expression, through material symbols, of spiritual actions of Light on desire. Moses wrote down everything he taught his students in a book. Over the course of 40 years of wandering in the desert, they wrote down the whole Torah, going through the entire process in record, as well as in bodies, and in spirituality. This is the entire path from the Egyptian exile (earthly and spiritual), through the desert (earthly and spiritual), and into the land of Israel (earthly and spiritual). All of this came true in the connection between the root and the branch. Moses expressed this entire process in this concrete, symbolic form.

The Zohar expresses the same process on a different level, in a different form because the general desire to enjoy that the Creator created had by that time advanced several steps forward and was perfected by the influence of the Light. Therefore, this desire, which went through ascents and descents, the destruction of the First and Second Temple, the exile, and then reached the last breakage before the last exile, had to be given the method that is appropriate for the end of the exile, for our time.

That is why The Book of Zohar was written, whose authors were the successors of many generations of Kabbalists, starting from Abraham until the destruction of the Temple. Rabbi Shimon was the student of Rabbi Akiva, who revealed a great Light, and therefore he was able to express this in The Book of Zohar.

The Torah itself is divided into two parts: oral and written. This comes from the difference between Zeir Anpin and Malchut. Zeir Anpin of the world of Atzilut is the “oral Torah,” while Malchut of the world of Atzilut is the “written Torah.”

The Torah is the revelation of Light. The Light that comes to Malchut contains everything that is necessary for changing Malchut. But this Light still hasn’t come true in practice, and is therefore called “the oral Torah.” For now this is work with the screens.

Under the influence of the same Light in Malchut, inner changes take place and are impressed in Malchut, this is called “the written Torah.” This is talking only about actions of the Light in the desires from the beginning of creation and until its end. That’s because there is nothing in existence besides desires.

Among these desires some feel that they exist by themselves, separate from all the others. This is us. These desires contain qualities that can help them on the path of correction. And that is why we receive a sensation of lacking, our own lack of correction, the realization of evil. This is how we perceive ourselves.

These are exactly the desires that need to be given “the Torah”—the instructions explaining how they can participate in their own corrections out of their own free choice, how they can attract the Light by wishing to become corrected faster, instead of waiting for the Light to come and shake them up.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/29/11, Shamati
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Question: On one of the lessons I heard you say that when we read The Book of Zohar, a kind of flow arises that connects us. How do we join this flow, despite the various disturbances that awaken during the lesson?

Answer: This happens gradually. You must get used to it, to exert a certain amount of effort, to discover how to approach the text, how to connect it to yourself, to the state in the group, to the world; to learn where you get confused and where you don’t.

You must unify yourself and the Torah in one. Then, to the extent of your desire to connect to the Torah which speaks of your inner state, you begin to receive the Inner Light contained in it, which influences you, allowing you to see within the system it describes.

This happens in the process of the study, when the Light (the Creator) teaches you. If you try to move straight toward the goal, as much as you can, to use the group and the study correctly, if you’re ready to relinquish your egoistic aspirations and plans at least a little, then the Torah teaches you—the subsequent spiritual states are revealed in you.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/31/2011, The Zohar

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Question: The Book of Zohar is full of stories and earthly images. Why are they so important if all they do is confuse and take us away from the correct intention?

Answer: Everything that a person existing in sanctity (the will to bestow) says proceeds from his attaining, sensing, and existing in the will to bestow, and does not simply come to his mind. Because his will to receive has become “sanctified,” meaning that it has acquired the property of bestowal and exists in it, this is the quality he feels.

That’s why he perceives a certain expression of the Creator within him and expresses it in such a form. He does not produce these images himself, nor do they simply appear in his mind. Rather, the form of the Creator that has revealed itself inside him arouses a certain image, the picture that he then describes to us.

That’s why we have to use these stories and connect with them. And if we do not understand them just yet, we will eventually. Take my word for it. Furthermore, you will reach the same degree of attainment, and the same story, pictures, images, and expressions will suddenly appear inside of you.

This is why Kabbalists understand each other. We don’t understand them, but the more you connect to what they are saying, the more you understand them.

It’s not a coincidence that in the Hasidic tradition, if a Rabbi’s note contains errors, you have to bless them because if he wrote it that way, to you it is a sign of holiness. This follows from the fact that a person who is in sanctity cannot make a mistake. It seems to you that he has made a mistake because you are uncorrected. And this is called faith above reason.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/30/2011, The Zohar

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Question: Where is the Light that Reforms: in the Torah or in my bestowal to the friends?

Answer: You receive the Light that Reforms from your effort to connect with your friends. We exist in a perfect, corrected system. The upper Light, the Light of Infinity, reigns over this system. How can you awaken this Light of Infinity to act upon you? You try to connect to the corrected system.

What is it? In what model is it presented to you? It’s in the group. To the extent that you connect with the group, in the connection between you, according to your efforts, the Light, the Torah, the force of bestowal, awakens. This force influences you and turns you, as well, into a bestowing part of the corrected system so that the Torah, this correcting Light, begins to fill you.

Question: Then how is the text we are reading connected to this?

Answer: In the text, you read about the corrected states in the connection between you and your friends. Just now, we were reading a passage from The Zohar. Where do I have to reveal everything that I have read about? I have to reveal this in my connection with the friends, in my aspiration to unite with them. Then, I will reveal all the properties, Sefirot, Partzufim, and the worlds in the connection between us.

Now, there are 125 degrees between you and me. Had I made such an inner change within myself whereby I connect with you with my heart and soul, in my mind and desires, I would have reached my personal final correction (Gmar Tikkun). Approaching you, bestowing to you, and accepting your desire as mine, I would have gone through all 125 degrees. I would have revealed the worlds between us, ascents and descents, in the relationship between me and my friends.

As soon as I unite with a friend, at least one of them, I finish my work. You don’t have to unite with millions, or billions, or the Creator because this is the same thing. If I cancel my desire to enjoy and can accept a friend’s desire as mine, it’s done!

That is why we read The Book of Zohar which describes various states that I reveal in the form of connection or separation between us, between me and the other—all the worlds (concealments) and separations are there.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/30/2011, The Zohar

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Writings of Rabash, Letter 22
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The Book of Zohar – Selected, Chapter, “Truma (Donation),” “Three Colors in a Flame,” Item 61, Lesson 4
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Talmud Eser Sefirot Vol. 1, Part 1 “Histaklut Pnimit,” Item 31, Lesson 23
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Baal HaSulam “The Peace,” Lesson 3
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The entire wisdom of Kabbalah came to us from The Book of Zohar and the works of the Ari. If it were not for Baal HaSulam, we would not be able to study. The Book of Zohar is full of allegories and stories understandable only to a person who is on the same spiritual degree and can decipher these clues.

As for the Ari, he himself never wrote anything; he only talked. All his works are written by the Ari’s disciple Chaim Vital and the entire multi-volume collection of essays is based on what the Ari said over one and a half years. His group existed only for a short time; he taught it and then passed away.

By various ways, this material went to various people who compiled books from it. One part of the records was kept in some secret place; the other was buried in Chaim Vital’s grave and retrieved later, when the grave was opened. The third part was handed down the generations and passed through many people, and who knows what they have done with it.

The Ari talked about the whole system in general, and if a person doesn’t have the complete works and cannot understand the material well, he cannot compile it correctly. That’s why, although these records were collected by Kabbalists, much was missing, and the accurate sequence couldn’t be kept.

Therefore, Baal HaSulam added his commentaries to the Ari’s works so that we could follow a natural progression from simple to increasingly complex and, studying in the correct form, understand the Ari’s writings. We wouldn’t be able to comprehend anything without it. In Kabbalah, this is very dangerous because it you don’t understand what is being described, you fantasize about anything.

So, we have to appreciate the great work that Baal HaSulam has accomplished: We would have achieved nothing without it. Sometimes people ask me: “If there are so many other Kabbalists, why don’t we study their works?” But we don’t have anybody else to learn from because all of them wrote from their high degrees, for example, such Kabbalists as the Vilna Gaon or Ramchal. We can’t base our studies on their works because Kabbalists didn’t interpret them for ordinary people like us so that we could understand, use, and realize them on ourselves.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/27/2011, “General Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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