Question: Why do we read The Book of Zohar?

Answer: We use it as means of spiritual advancement of the group.

First of all, the acquired desire manifests itself in the form of a certain group of people. Individual broken desires appear to each other in physical form and, because of this, are able to establish an initial connection between themselves. They gather in a group and study The Book of Zohar.

At the same time, the broken desire seems to strive for something above it. A joint study of a higher degree under the guidance of a teacher, given everyone’s correct participation, brings changes to the friends. They try to acquire the vessels of a straight line, then the surrounding light in the vessels of the circle around them is ready to enter them. But for now, it comes from the circles to the voids of their desires from afar, in the form of surrounding light, until they take a straight form.

This, in fact, is the purpose of studying. Then, in the corrected vessels, they will be able to study the same texts and the same lights that have turned from external to internal and have passed from vessels of circles to vessels of a straight line.

Thus, The Book of Zohar is a special tool we use without knowing exactly how it affects us. But it doesn’t matter, it still works.

Question: Why is The Zohar more powerful than The Torah in this sense?

Answer: The Book of Zohar has a stronger effect than the Torah because it is written in a style and form that is dictated by the period following the destruction of the Temple.

Previously, the people of Israel were at the height of Mochin de Haya, their personal end of correction, and then fell from it into concealment. As a result, Kabbalists are in a broken state among everyone and at the same time rise above all. This difference between the two “ends” of reality, between the world of infinity and our world, has opened up in them.

The sons of Israel fell to the bottom, into the heaviest egoism, while the Kabbalists of Rabbi Shimon’s group were at the top. As a result, the gap, the rift between them, the nation ran from negative infinity to positive infinity.

After that, throughout exile until its very end, the vessels of the people of Israel should mix with all the others and bring spiritual sparks into them.

The Torah is another matter. Moses wrote the Pentateuch at the height of final correction. He himself was above all, but the people were not in the same state. After all, they had just come out of Egypt, and Egypt is not yet a breakage.

In Egypt you only reveal your small degree rather than the entire breakage, in the course of which sanctity enters into defilement, “rattling” it and allowing for the correction of flaws, “expanding by leaps and bounds.” So, since the people had not yet reached such states, Moses could not reveal or express in the Pentateuch all the processes of correction. He reflected only what had happened up until then.

In general, each level includes all the others. The individual and the whole are equal. Therefore, the Torah of course, contains everything, but in such a form that it is impossible to use in its entirety for the correction of souls. You cannot extract light from the Pentateuch that returns broken souls to the source because the exodus from Egypt occurred before the present breakage.

In ancient Babylon, only a small part of it was revealed, which made it possible to unite the GAR, “forefathers ” to weigh their hearts down and, upon leaving Egypt, produce “sons” from them, the tribes of Israel. Then, followed the era of the two Temples and the last exile.

Thus, The Book of Zohar was written from completely different polar states with a maximum difference between the height of 125 degrees and the final breakage of the sons of Israel. Let’s not delve into the details or the spiritual circumstances of that era; what is important to know is that this book corresponds perfectly to what lies in nature.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/19/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar“

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Question: You say that there are my inner desires that I consider to be outside of me. But I see a certain picture of the world outside. How should I relate this picture to desires?

Answer: In no case should you start doing this! When you cross the road, do not think that the cars passing by are inside you and all this is a game of imagination. No!

This is why Kabbalists wrote The Book of Zohar, which is a special book. Any textbook contains exercises alongside explanations. The Book of Zohar, however, is a collection of exercises.

While reading this book, you should always imagine that everything written in it is inside you and search within yourself for all these desires and qualities.

My reading of The Book of Zohar consists in imagining everything described in it as the world inside me. Only through this will the correct perception of reality eventually naturally come to me. In the meantime, we are only reading The Book of Zohar and we really want to feel and understand it within ourselves.

The Zohar talks about Cohens and Levites, about Aaron and Moses, about the Creator and creation, about qualities, about Sefirot and Partzufim, about the donkey and the bull, and it doesn’t matter about what else. Instead, I imagine only my inner qualities and nothing else besides them.

There is no me, my body, or the world; there is nothing; everything has disappeared. And what does exist? My desire and a book that describes to me what exists in me inside the desire. It just uses such names and titles that confuse me because they evoke feelings in me from this imaginary world.

I have left this world; I do not want to think about it, and now I am as if suspended in air and represent only desire. Yet these names remind me of our world.

Then, by my efforts to imagine only my inner desires and qualities instead of these names, I attract to myself the light that returns to the source, the surrounding light.

With these efforts, I begin to open my point in the heart, my desire, the embryo of the soul, and to expand and grow it. I suddenly begin to distinguish in it certain qualities that The Zohar talks about and the connections between them.

It takes time. But after a few months of such training, I begin to feel a sensory response to every word written in The Zohar: “Aaron,” “Temple,” and so on.

Out of the complete lack of knowledge and feelings, as if out of a fog, some things suddenly begin to clear up; I begin to feel the connection between them and to understand what they are.

From one point I begin to reveal the whole desire in which all these parts exist in some kind of relationship.

This is how I reveal the complete creation, really created by the Creator, and not this illusory picture that is being depicted in me now that obscures the true reality for me. Eventually this false picture disappears completely.

Therefore the entire Book of Zohar is a collection of exercises to determine for each word written in it the corresponding quality within myself.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/15/10, The Book of Zohar “Shmini”

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The Book of Zohar has been revealed only in our days because in our development we have passed the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels and have reached the human level (human— Adam, from the word “Edomeh,” similar to the Creator).

Therefore, today we feel crisis, helplessness, despair, and disappointment in our lives.

That is why The Book of Zohar is revealed so that we can carry out our correction, meaning, reach the same system of connection between us as in Malchut of infinity where we are all connected together as one whole.

The first stage of correction is called “do not do to the other what is hateful to you.” This is the level of Hafetz Hesed (one who wishes nothing for oneself), return out of fear (trepidation).

The second stage of correction is even higher, at the level of love your neighbor as yourself, return out of love, or receiving for the sake of bestowal.

We have to make these two corrections and both of them are implemented in relations between people.

After all, the Creator is revealed in our corrected relationships to the extent of our love and bestowal to our neighbor or as it is said: “From the love of the other to the love of the Creator.”

Not a single correction can be made other than by its implementation in a group of Kabbalists, that is, those who wish to reach the level of human.

In their relations with each other, they build the system of Malchut of infinity and wish to feel in it the light of infinity, the Creator.

The Book of Zohar should give us strength, desire, and inner attainments for this.

Therefore, while reading The Zohar, one should try to keep the intention that we are all one and that our points in the heart, desires for spirituality, unite together and from these common desires we build our spiritual vessel, Shechina, or Malchut of infinity, in which we will feel Creator.

We must feel together, like the authors of The Zohar, the group of Rabbi Shimon, and try to imagine what the Book speaks about within this system of connections between us.

After all, The Zohar speaks only about the connection between us, although it describes it in all sorts of forms and images, supposedly of this world, it is only about the forces of our soul.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/21/10, The Book of Zohar “Shemot”

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Question: What is the benefit of studying The Book of Zohar nowadays? Is it necessary to study it in order to reach spirituality?

Answer: Yes, now the time has come to study The Zohar. I have been waiting for this for a long time because we needed preparation.

Now we have reached a state where a large mass of people in the world are already able to climb the spiritual ladder (the commentary on The Zohar is called “Sulam” – Ladder).

Therefore, we all begin to study The Zohar together. Anyone who joins us in studying it and can annul himself like a baby in order to study with us will be able to enter the sensation of what The Zohar addresses.

One cannot study The Zohar with the mind. The Zohar addresses a person’s heart and develops its feelings so that it begins to feel two qualities: bestowal and reception. It is not by chance that Baal HaSulam called his commentary on The Zohar “Sulam” (Ladder).

It is impossible to study The Zohar alone, but only in a group. It was written in this way by a group of Kabbalists in complete unity of ten souls.

The 10 Kabbalists who wrote The Zohar formed a spiritual vessel of the 10 main Sefirot. Each of them represented one Sefira, a special force, from a complete vessel (Kli) created by the Creator. Therefore, if we aim to become this complete vessel, we will be able to receive this message from them, and it will influence us.

If we try to study The Zohar in a group, we will quickly feel how the force hidden in The Zohar connects us. Only to the extent of our connection, will we be able to receive their message and understand it, meaning to feel it, because the heart understands, which means the desires that are organized to understand the spiritual message.

It is impossible to attain The Zohar with a dry mind. We need a group that has gone through a long preparatory path where people have already despaired reaching spirituality in other ways, have freed themselves from delusions, clarified many things for themselves, and are ready to annul themselves and understand that alone with their own forces, they can achieve nothing. They are ready to start studying The Zohar and become incorporated in it.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/19/09, Writings of Baal Sulam, Letter 45

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In The Zohar, just like in the Torah, there is no requirement to read necessarily in order; you can open the book anywhere you want!

It is like Psalms; you open somewhere, on any verse, and you read it. You can even start from the middle.

The main thing when reading holy books (written by those who attained the Creator from the quality of holiness, bestowal, the quality of Bina) is not what to read or what to read about, the main intention is what do you want to achieve by reading?

It is because you anyway read about the upper world, which you do not feel and do not understand.

The Zohar is the highest source of all the holy books. This is the most powerful source of upper light, the light of correction. It is like an infusion to a patient, it is the medicine that you take.

So, what do you want to achieve by taking this medicine? What does it mean for you to be healthy? The power of The Book of Zohar can become for you both a life-giving elixir of life and a deadly poison, one of the two!

Therefore, before opening the Book, you should think, feel, adjust yourself, prepare, and look for what are you going to get out of it now?

You are going to receive a medicine whose symbol is a snake. Its poison may really be poison or it may be a cure for all diseases.

So before opening The Book of Zohar, we must stock up on right intention and not to take a deadly poison but a life-saving elixir of life.

If people study the Torah without the right intention, then it becomes dry and lifeless. This is especially dangerous if we are before such a huge source of power as The Book of Zohar.

And it is not by chance that it was hidden from ordinary people for so long, but was revealed to Kabbalists.

A Kabbalist (that is, a person who has achieved the right desire) somehow always found this book from someone, through someone; in some way it was sent to him from above and brought him to where he could find it.

But it was not revealed to other people because we were previously unable to arm ourselves with the right intention. Therefore, The Zohar could only bring us harm.

And today, we open The Book of Zohar with the intention that it will bring us good, that it will become a source of life, and, God forbid, not turn into a deadly poison.

After all, there is such a powerful force in The Zohar that you need to be careful to open it only together, only with the right attitude.

And that is why it has revealed itself in our time; it gives us wonderful opportunities. And we want to offer it to all the people.

But everyone should know that only the right intention during the study of The Zohar turns it into the elixir of life.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/31/10 The Book of Zohar “VaYechi”

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When reading The Zohar, it is essential by all possible means and most importantly in your thoughts, to clarify for yourself that now you are entering the office where you will ask and you will receive, but on condition that your request is correct.

It is desirable for a person to perceive that he is given the opportunity to enter and say only one phrase. And if with this phrase you fail to awaken the one in this office, on whom your whole fate depends, then you lose this opportunity and you will not get another one.

If a person stays in such a sensation, even if he gets opportunities again and again, it can somehow help him.

That is why, it is necessary to know:

1. All the changes that we should first of all desire are the changes in the direction of bestowal and love for your neighbor and from them to love for the Creator.
2. These changes are realized in us only by an upper force that can influence us and make them; only on condition that we desire them, as much as we can desire, from the lowest level toward the highest. After all, we do not yet understand these changes and do not want them one hundred percent because these changes are toward bestowal and love for your neighbor. But as much as I am given and with all my might I strive. I must believe that if my request will be correct, immediately these changes will come true and will be realized in me.

Therefore, we must form such a picture for ourselves in which we are constantly present, and while reading The Book of Zohar we should stay on the edge of the request, prayer, worship, or plea so that even if we do not reach the true request, then due to this plea, as in the prayer before the prayer, we hope that our request will take the right form; meaning, I do not know how to ask Him, so I ask Him to help me to know how to ask.

I can’t tell Him, “I am asking, but I don’t know how and You do it!” No, it will not work that way. He cannot do this, my request must be correct in any case, because otherwise I have nowhere to receive a correction.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/4/12, The Book of Zohar “Bereshit”

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Reading The Zohar, we come across some definitions that we do not understand. Gradually we will get to know them, but in fact, this is not even that important.

You can compare it with a little child who sees a lot of unknown things around him and faces something new all the time.

He does not ever know why it is necessary, but purely instinctively, artlessly, and without knowing how. he gets acquainted with the world.

Similarly, there is no need to be afraid that we do not understand something in what we read and that we do not know how one is connected with the other.

We just need to listen, to be in touch with the text, and to burn with the desire to understand, as it is the only way to know the world, both our world and the spiritual one.

When we read the Torah later, we will see where all these images came from and why one name is mentioned after another and all sorts of quotes.

We will already understand what spiritual actions and qualities we are talking about, what force acts at what stage—Joseph, Jacob, Abraham, or Moses.

The Zohar and in general the entire wisdom of Kabbalah refers to these inner forces that are within us. Gradually we begin to get acquainted with our qualities.

As they develop, we get the opportunity to work with them, organize them correctly, and use them.

After all, the measure of a person’s life force in spirituality is measured by how familiar this world is to him, by his capabilities, and his level of knowledge.

The more we learn and feel, the more significant will be our spiritual life, the degree of our consciousness and existence. This is how we will move forward.
[6879]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/5/09, The Book of Zohar “Noah”

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Who was The Zohar written for?“

The Zohar was written for people who want to reach life’s peak, the purpose of creation, and strive to change their intention from our inborn egoistic one—reception for personal benefit alone—to one where we bestow, love and positively connect to others.

The Zohar provides the force, called “light,” which makes it possible to invert our intention in such a way, and discover the positive force dwelling in nature within our corrected intention.

Therefore, The Zohar, like the entire Torah, can be either the elixir of life or the potion of death. If we wish to study The Zohar, then we should check our intention for approaching it.

If we wish to change our intention by drawing the light that we can attract through reading The Zohar, then with the help of its study, The Zohar—a commentary on Five Books of Torah—becomes an elixir of life, as it is written, “I [the Creator] created the evil inclination [human egoism] and I gave the Torah for its correction because the light in it returns to the source.”

If we do not strive for an intention to bestow, that is, to return to the source, but our egoistic desires motivate our study of The Zohar i.e. to be fulfilled and to set other goals for ourselves, called “idolatry,” then our study turns into the potion of death and distances us from the purpose of creation.

Therefore, we should take care and remember that while reading The Zohar, we should prepare our intention in order to be granted the positive force of nature: love, bestowal and connection.

Based on the Daily Kabbalah Lesson with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on May 27, 2010 on “The Book of Zohar: VaIkra.” Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Comment: It happens that after a lesson on the The Study Of The Ten Sefirot a student would say: “I have been sitting in a lesson on TES for two hours and I do not feel anything, although I try very hard.”

My Response: You cannot do anything. He may sit for two more hours or two more years. It is not going to go away that easily. Until the property of bestowal appears in him, he will not feel TES.

Comment: When we started to study The Zohar, there was a feeling that an unusual thing was being revealed to us. At least people thought so.

My Response: Because they thought that now all sorts of miracles would be revealed to them, the heavens would open, something theatrical and divine would happen.

But it turned out that The Zohar speaks of what a person who opens himself understands. After all, a person himself needs to open up for this. If this does not happen, The Zohar remains a hidden book. That is why it is said to be a secret. And how to open it? Open yourself up, and then you will see that to the extent that this happens, it opens up in you.

Comment: But people felt it as some kind of internal vibration.

My Response: It is just some “childish” excitement. That is all. Pure human impression.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Proper Application of Effort“ 4/20/13

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Question: There are several stories around The Book of Zohar. Which of them is reliable?

Answer: It is unknown. Since this Book was hidden for a long time, I do not believe in any assumptions, except for what real Kabbalists say: the Ari and Baal HaSulam.

Rabbi Shimon is buried on Mount Meron. This is what it is. I know only one thing: Rabash went to the grave of Rabbi Shimon, and I felt from him how high he rises, adhering to the source.

He never went anywhere else: not to the Wailing Wall or the graves of Rambam, Ramchal, or Rabbi Akiva; only Rabbi Shimon. For him, it was just recumbency.

Question: Rabbi Shimon was Rabbi Akiva’s student. At what age did he begin to study with him?

Answer: At that time they used to begin at a very early age. In principle, he studied all his life, but I do not know at what age he began. As a rule, children began to seriously study the Torah from the age of three. This is what is written in The Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot, as well as in the scriptures, that a man is obliged to teach his son the properties of bestowal from the age of three.

Comment: I have heard two versions of how Rabbi Shimon became Rabbi Akiva’s student. The first is that he had outstanding abilities still in early childhood. The second is that he came to study when he had already married, and Rabbi Akiva did not want to accept him. Then Rabbi Shimon began to allegedly threaten him that he would tell the Romans about his studies of the Torah, and then he accepted him.

My Response: Personally, I have not read about it and I do not even want to read about it. What difference does it make to me? We are talking about a person’s inner attainment.

I do not look at this world in its animal shells. What difference does it make what is happening in them?! I look at this world only from the point of view of the forces that govern it and determine everything. Why should I look at something that makes no sense and does not exist on its own?

Comment: But these stories are told to the students of Kabbalah when they are taken on a tour of Mount Meron.

My Response: They are told this in order to draw people to a more internal study. What can you do? A person should be gradually drawn to attainment. Start teaching quantum physics to beginners and tell them that there is no time, no distance, no movement, that everything is eternity, infinity. Try to explain the quantum world to them. How many people in the world understand it at all? And spirituality is even higher.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Zohar – Myths and Legends“ 4/14/13

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