“Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “The Seventh Commandment,” Item 225: In the Merkava [chariot/structure] of the throne, the face of a lion is on the right and the face of the ox is on the left. The ox is called “a whole [Tam] ox” since in the Merkava of the throne there is an inscription of the covenant.

Question: Is it possible to create a dictionary of spiritual terms appropriate for our level, which would explain the different words from The Zohar, like “ox,” “structure” “(Merkava),” “lion,” “serpent,” and so on? This would help to replace the words that remind us of physical images with spiritual forces according to their definition while reading. Is this a correct approach to studying The Zohar?

Answer: Everything depends upon the way we agree to speak between us. When we have a common perception, we speak according to this sensation. When we do not perceive the events in the same way but understand them (a lower level than perception), we, let us say, speak using scientific terms and formulas.

This excerpt of The Zohar uses words like “ox,” “donkey,” “throne,” and so on. If we were to replace them with forces, we would need to specify the kind of force it is, from which Sefira or property it comes. While here, one word is used to refer to the same force, for example, “ox” or “whole ox.” This language is more concise because it relies on your understanding to what it refers.

This only refers to the Lights and Kelim (desires) because we have nothing else about which to speak. How can I convey to you the connection of the Lights and Kelim in a specific form? Should I draw it for you in a graph? Play a tune? Give you a formula? Describe the image of this world that results from their connection? How can I explain to you the exact spiritual state, the combination of the Light and the Kli, about which I am speaking?

This is why Kabbalists have found four languages to describe the upper system of governance of our world: the language of Tanach, Hagaddot (Legends), Kabbalah, and Halachot (Talmud), and they use them to convey their attainments to us. These languages are mixed in The Zohar.

The Zohar itself is mainly written with the language of the Talmud (Midrash), even though it also uses a little of the language of the Tanach or the Legends, and Baal HaSulam adds the language of Kabbalah to it. And when they are parallel, you can more or less keep the correct direction of thought.

But how can languages help you if you do not have spiritual attainment and you do not perceive to what the text is referring? Nothing can help you! You only need to think about receiving more influence in order to begin to perceive.

It works the same way in our world: You can tell me anything you want, but if I have never experienced it, whatever you are telling me is dead to me, or in the best case scenario, I might be able to imagine it through an analogy to something with which I am already familiar.

But if I do not know anything about the spiritual world, there are no tales that can help me. For this reason, our entire study comes down to striving to perceive these spiritual notions, to want our eyes to open.
[35591]

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/17/2011, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar”

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Writings of Rabash, Dargot HaSulam “The Still and the Vegetative”
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Seventh Commandment,” Item 225, Lesson 1
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag “The Freedom,” Lesson 14
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The Zohar, “Ki Tissa [When You Take],” Item 31: “As a lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.” The Creator wished to make Israel similar to what is above, so there would be one lily in the earth [in Israel] that is like the lily above, Malchut. And the fragrant lily, better than all the lilies in the world is only one who has grown among the thorns. This one smells as it should.

Thorns become revealed to a person to the degree he is able to overcome them. If he correctly prepares all of the inclinations, all the forces present and operating between him and the environment, if he can continually awaken and raise the importance of the Creator, unity, and love for the neighbor as himself above everything that surfaces in his thoughts and desires, then he makes the right analysis and “blunts the teeth” of the evil inclination.

Rabash writes, “When you answer egoism, ‘blunt its teeth.’” This means that you shouldn’t argue with it, but should use force and overcome it. I reveal the environment, which lies between myself and others, egoistically, looking for a chance to use my connection with it, to get as much as I can out of them.

Looking at reality from a material perspective, I see everything outside of me, instead of inside myself. I do not think that I am the one responsible for the distance, the hatred, and the repulsion that become revealed. All of this appears external to me and not my own. I don’t think that these are my Kelim, my perception of realty, my vision, or the revelation of the upper reality inside of me.

Therefore, I must give myself “a blow to the teeth” over and over again in order to correct my attitude to the picture that is depicted before my eyes. In this picture I am separated from the neighbor by a distance that does not seem like my own corrupted desires (Kelim) to me. Instead if seems like something foreign, something I have to reject.

But I act on the contrary: I blunt the force of this illusion with my analysis since I understand that everything becoming revealed to me is myself. And I do not correct my soul unless I attribute to myself the whole world, all of reality, all of the people, all of the souls, and all the levels in general—the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking degrees. I have to treat them all as an inseparable part of me.

Then I see that the perception of reality, love for the creatures, and the revelation of the Creator lie in the same thoughts and desires that determine my attitude to the neighbor, to that which is outside. In reality there is nothing beyond desire. And when I feel that this desire comes out of me toward others, I have to “strike it in the teeth” the right way. That is how I turn it into a connecting link between myself and the other part of me. The neighbor will become a part of me and the Creator will become mine. That is how I will include all of reality inside of me, and thereby the breaking will be corrected.

Then, in that same place, in the same desires and thoughts that stood between myself and the neighbor, I will begin to feel the Light’s presence, the quality of bestowal and love.
[35497]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/16/11, Writings of Rabash

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The initial picture that appears before a beginner who reads The Book of Zohar is very disorderly. He gets confused, not understanding what kind of language it is using exactly—the language of Kabbalah, or talking through the Lights, Kelim, and Partzufim, or in the language of stories.

Often the same paragraph in The Zohar uses a mixture of languages. For example, on one hand it is talking about Adam, Eve, the snake and so on. On the other hand it is talking about Malchut and Zeir Anpin and how they unite, attaining ZAT or GAR of Bina. That’s because the same sin and its correction which is described in the Torah can be described in four languages—those of Tanach, Halachot, Hagadot (stories), and Kabbalah. However, a person does not connect all of this together yet.

Nevertheless, to the degree he advances, inside his more corrected Kli or desire, he will understand how to translate things from one language to another. He can then use the language of Tanach or Halachot to explain the things written in the language of Sefirot. The language of stories is deeper, and therefore it is more difficult to explain things in it.

He can go from one language to another, from one expression to another. That’s because in essence he expresses his inner sensations or how thoughts and desires which used to be opposite now unite inside of him.

This is the only thing we express. I don’t need a language, letters, or anything! I have feelings (sensations in the desire) and the mind. Previously they were driven by hatred, whereas now I transfer them to unity and love. We do not have anything more than that. All that we do is reveal the disunity and the breaking, and by correcting them we attain the implementation of love.

However, it is possible to talk about this using words of four languages, and besides, instead of explaining it with words, it’s also possible to just feel it inside. That is why a person who attains spirituality doesn’t care what language it is written in. He shifts between languages since for him this is all the same thing.

It’s the same as how an experienced musician looking at notes hears the melody that these notes play inside of him, or how a professional chef looks at a recipe and already experiences the taste of the dish.
[35511]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/16/11, The Zohar

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Question: All of reality is the Light and the Kli, the Creator and the creation, myself and the neighbor. Then why does The Zohar seem so complicated and confusing?

Answer: The Zohar seems complicated and confusing to us because we haven’t attained the unified picture. To us, “myself” and “the world,” my desires and thoughts, the forces operating in this entire reality, and all the things filling it seem separated from one another, broken. Therefore, this force of the breaking gives me an extremely complicated and confusing picture. It’s all because I do not see it in unity and the division brings me confusion.

To the extent we can see all of these details of perception united together, not in our mind since that won’t help, but rather in our feelings, and to the degree we desire to connect all of these things together—me, the neighbor, the Creator, the studies, the group, the environment, and everything that exists—that is how much Light these efforts will bring me. The Light will in turn cause me to see a more unified picture, all of whose elements will start to slightly unite.

All wisdom comes from the unification of all these opposites which begin to support each other and be interconnected. The more distant and opposite all of these details of the picture of reality used to be, which I now see as united together, supporting and complementing one another, the deeper I attain the plan of creation, the program of creation, the process we go through.

From all these opposites I begin to live, to feel this incredible wisdom, to unite the upper governance into one, and to relate it to the single force. All of this happens as a result of the Light’s influence on my broken desires and thoughts when I want for the Light to connect them into one.
[35514]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/16/11, The Zohar

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Writings of Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, “What Is a True Act of Kindness in the Work”
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The Book of Zohar — Introduction: “The Sixth Commandment,” Item 219, Lesson 1
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Talmud Eser Sefirot 3, Part 8, Item 80, Lesson 47
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Lesson 3
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Question: For thousands of years, the method of Kabbalah has been drafted by special people, Kabbalists. Today, we spread it among the masses. Aren’t we thereby losing the depth of this wisdom?

Answer: We definitely are. But we have to do it anyway. We are the ones through whom it flows to the others.

Your parents, for instance (with all due respect), were regular people, not holy saints. They brought you into this world and gave you an education at their level. We do the same.

Obviously, by spreading Kabbalah among the masses, we “corrupt” it. It is what we call lowering the spiritual degrees which descend from the world of Infinity. Nevertheless, we have no choice. Can a child receive an entire science all at once? No, we have to give him a simplified version, well adjusted to his level. No matter what I may explain, show, or feed him, everything has to fit his present state.

The model for it is the text of The Zohar for All. We took Baal HaSulam’s commentary on The Book of Zohar and removed all supplementary materials from it which are not related to the main idea. However, in fact, they are necessary as well. Baal HaSulam didn’t do anything in vain. Yet, at the present stage, it prevents us and, even more so, our vast audience from approaching The Zohar.

When I opened the first book in my life, I saw the words written in huge letters, “MOTHER, HOME, SUN.” So, we have to provide people with information they are able to digest. Later on, as they learn, they will ascend to the higher degrees.

The spiritual ladder does “corrupt” the upper Light which gets greatly reduced as it descends to the lower degrees. This is its nature since; otherwise, the lower ones wouldn’t be able to absorb even a drop of Light.
[35063]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/11/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Writings of Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, “What Is A Lily Amongst the Thorns in the Work”
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The Book of Zohar — Introduction: “The Fourth Commandment,” Item 213, Lesson 3
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Talmud Eser Sefirot 3, Part 8, Item 79, Lesson 46
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Lesson 2
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“Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “The Fourth Commandment,” Item 212: It is written, “And let them be Me’orot [lights],” with the letters of Ohr [light] Mavet [death], since the Klipa follows the brain. The brain is light, and the other side is death….

When this light departs from there, the letters of separation, Mavet, unite. When not making the unification in the place of AVI, but in the place of ZON below, the light departs from there because AVI are promptly separated from their Zivug and the light stops. Then the word Ohr comes out of the word Me’orot and the letters of Mavet join. This is so because after the elicitation of the light from the word Me’orot, the word death remains there because the letters of Ohr have already departed from the word and they no longer separate the letters of Mavet.

This implies to the sin of that primordial serpent, which connected below in the place of ZON, and hence separated above for AVI because their Zivug stopped because of it and has brought death to the world.

From this we see how short the distance between life and death is, how instantly it turns life into death. Everything depends on whether or not a person discerns within himself the presence of the Creator. If the Creator is present and He is above, it is life, and if not, death.
[35298]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/14/2011, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar”

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Writings of Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, “What Is Your Wisdom and Cleverness in the Eyes of the Nations in the Work”
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Lesson 1
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