“Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “Rabbi Shimon’s Exit from the Cave,” Item 186: And that light stands from the heaven to the earth and illuminates the entire world until Atik Yomin, meaning Keter, arrives and properly sits on the throne, meaning until the end of correction. And that light is entirely included in your home, meaning in his daughter, since the daughter of Rabbi Pinhas was the wife of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, and from the light that was included in your home, a small and thin light comes out, which is Rabbi Elazar, his daughter’s son. He comes out and illuminates the entire world, happy are you.

There is a system called “the worlds.” The souls are hanging on it like fruit on the tree. There is a connection between the worlds (”tree”) and the souls (“fruit”), between the fruit themselves, meaning the souls, and between the parts of the tree, meaning Sefirot. They are all connected together, and all of them are merely Kelim (desires) and the Lights.

Likewise, all the characters described in The Book of Zohar: Rabbi Shimon, Rabbi Pinhas, Elazar, and the daughter of Rabbi Pinhas are the illuminations within the Kelim, tied together by certain connections. This is why The Zohar calls them by names of familial relationships, such as “grandfather,” “father,” “son,” “daughter,” or “wife” depending on who it is talking about.

However, all of this is related only to Kelim or the Lights. The Lights are most important. The illumination which emanates from one place to another is called “Rabbi Shimon,” “Rabbi Elazar,” or “Rabbi Pinhas.”
[34797]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/8/2011, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar”

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When the question about the purpose of life (the point in the heart) arises in a person, Kabbalah turns to him or her and says: “If you change your attitude to the Light, you will reveal the system of 125 degrees of the Light, of the property of bestowal.” The transformations you will have to undergo relative to the Light are regarded as “Mishpatim” (laws). The states you are passing through are called life cycles (Gilgulim). The property you reside in at each of the states is called a soul. In other words, we are talking about the incarnation of the soul.

The weekly chapter “Mishpatim” (laws, judicial rulings) was written in a very comprehensive manner. It demonstrates to us all of the cycles that we have to go through over the course of 125 spiritual degrees to the end of correction, by advancing from the states the most distant from the Creator to the most exalted degrees that are closest to Him. Therefore, it is titled “Mishpatim (Laws),” where you must be your own prosecutor and judge, and no one else!

The Torah appeals to you: “Appoint judges and officers in all your gates.” At each gate leading to the Creator, you have to conduct a trial and rule upon a verdict to know who and what you are, how you sort your desires, with which of them you advance, and which you put aside for now.

We don’t work with “Ha Lev ha Even,” our “stony heart”; neither do we work with the “slave.” A slave must only assist, must only be present during the evolution but make no decisions; there is a master over him, the “Rosh” (head), and the former cancels himself before the master and advances thereby.

Everything is within a person who is a small world. That is why there have to be a maid and a mistress, a slave and a master, a widow, a wealthy, and a poor, all of whom are desires of our souls, and all of which unfold simultaneously. You don’t move on from one level to another, transferring from the state called “slave” to the state “master,” “Cohen (priest),” and so on. At each new step, you are comprised of all desires at once, each of which is in a certain condition. “A person is a small world” means that in each state, you contain everything there is.

I do not evaluate and verify my desires with the book: “This desire isn’t quite good; I have to fix it. But this one needs enhancing, so let me ‘tune it up.’” Rather, I analyze each desire relative to the Light.

I have to draw the Light on the right so that it would affect my desires. It is written: “In Your Light we will see the Light.” Under the influence of the Light, I examine myself and demand for the Light to return and reform me. And when I see that all corrections are complete, meaning the trial is over and I merit fulfillment, then the Light returns for the third time.

With the first coming of Light, I get to know my evil.
With the second coming of the Light, I get reformed.
With the third coming of the Light, I become fulfilled.

Thus, when we transition from one state to the next, we undergo three sub-states after which we complete correction of one degree and move on to the next. It means that I completed my Gilgul (incarnation, life cycle), my work with a set of desires that get revealed to me at a certain spiritual degree.
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From the Lesson on Weekly Torah Portion 1/26/2011

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Writings of Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, “What Is A Man and What Is A Beast in the Work”
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The Book of Zohar — Introduction: “Torah and Prayer,”  Item 190, Lesson 3
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“Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “Rejoicing in Holidays and Not Giving to the Poor,” Item 176: Then the angels of the upper one said before Him, “Lord of the world, Here is so and so, who ate and was full and could do mercy to the poor, but gave them nothing.” In other words, even the high angels, Hesed and Tzedakah, and all those who agreed to creation, began to slander it….

The Zohar speaks of the reality which we do not perceive. And if a person does perceive it, it is forbidden for him to pull into it the familiar images, pictures, details of perception, interpretations, and clarifications of this world.

Right now I’m reading the text of The Zohar. The correct interpretation of it is unclear, incomprehensible for me; hence, I don’t understand a thing. I am not at all present in that world. If you can sense what The Zohar talks about, in its reality, it means that you understand it, otherwise not.

I don’t know what the words “do mercy,” “alms,” “the poor,” or “angels” mean. I don’t know anything! There are a multitude of notions here, and I’m not familiar with any of them.

So what do I want? I want the Light that Reforms! And nothing else! First and foremost I desire correction! When my vision and hearing will be corrected, I will find out what is being described. And then The Zohar will turn into an instructions manual for me, like the entire Torah (in Hebrew, it means “Oraa,” instruction). For the time being, we read The Zohar only as a Segula (miraculous property).

And if instead of the words “do mercy” written here I think of charity, it’s forgery. There is no greater mistake than pulling the upper world down to the level of the lower world.

Does The Zohar talk about any charitable actions in this world? Surely not! It describes the intentions, actions in the intention for the sake of bestowal that for now we are incapable of. Unless the Light comes and endows me with this ability, I won’t find out what The Zohar talks about.
[34602]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/6/2011, “Introduction of the Book of Zohar”

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“Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “Rejoicing in Holidays and Not Giving to the Poor,” Item 175: It was said that on holidays, the Creator comes to see His broken Kelim. This is because on good days, when one keeps the Mitzvot of the joy of a good day, due to all the abundance that the Creator gives him, the Creator goes to see His broken Kelim, by which man is given an opportunity to engage in Mitzvot in Lo Lishma [not only for the sake of bestowal, but also for personal profit so as to reach complete bestowal].

In this article The Zohar talks about us having to use our properties in any situation in order to elevate it to adhesion. You have to assemble a correct structure out of everything at your disposal and to identify your broken Kelim (vessels) as well as your corrected state, to the extent that you can imagine them correctly inside the group. Whether a state is corrected or corrupted depends on your attitude toward the group: the current one and the desired one.

My current attitude toward the group is as follows: I’m an egoist and want everyone to be exclusively at my service. This is a current state. And the desired one is when I see myself as serving the group, friends, reaching adhesion with them, and incorporating myself into them.

The discrepancy between these degrees is the place of my work. When, after all my efforts, I realize that I am unable to accomplish anything, I cry out, scream, ask the Creator, the Upper Force, the Upper Light that created all this reality, to correct its act. He did it, whereas I revealed what He has created. And now I demand correction.

Then the correction occurs. In what? It is in that I sense myself in adhesion with the environment, the group. Then, in this adhesion I also reveal my connection with the Creator, with the force that has corrupted and then, due to my plea, corrected the state and for this reason dwells with me in it.

And if on the contrary, I do not utilize my faculties, properties, conditions, and everything that becomes disclosed to me correctly, it means that I am negligent of everything that the Creator has prepared for me. And then there comes the time described as: “The Creator comes to see His broken Kelim,” which He has broken purposefully, in order to give us the opportunity to discover our independence.

If I do not perform these corrections in what becomes revealed to me, I as though come into a “fight” with Him, and He teaches me what I have to do in an undesirable way. This is how we educate a child who does not want to listen.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/6/2011, “Introduction of the Book of Zohar”

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Writings of Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, “What Is He Who Does Not Have Children in the Work”
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The Book of Zohar — Introduction: “Torah and Prayer,”  Item 184, Lesson 2
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The Book of Zohar — Introduction: “Mitzvot Torah,”  Item 189, Lesson 1
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The Book of Zohar — Introduction: “Torah and Prayer,”  Item 180, Lesson 1
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The weekly Torah portion “Truma” (Offering) is not talking about our false reality in this illusory world, which we perceive in our desire. Why is it illusory? It is because we have been given this form of our unconscious state where it seems to us that we exist.

There are movies showing how everyone sleeps a deep, somnambulant sleep and everything takes place in the dream. This is the state we are in today because we are separated from the true reality. Our reality is a kind of dream, which is why it is written, “We were like in a dream.”

It seems to us that we exist in reality, like the horse driver who went to heaven and to compensate for the suffering he endured, he received the reality he had in the earthly world: a wife, children, a home, a carriage, and a good horse. This means that a person receives what he desires. It says in The Book of Zohar that a person in the world to come is asked, “What did you want?” Of course, no one asks anyone about anything and nothing of the sort takes place, but in the end a person receives what he aspired to.

The same is true in our reality. Right now we exist in an imaginary world, but when we start independently building the true reality, we have to build it the way it says in this Torah portion. When I work on my desire, if I gradually transform my egoistic intention into the intention of bestowal, then I attain a new Kli in which I reveal a new reality. I build the Tabernacle and in the process I reveal the spiritual world more and more, until it becomes fully revealed.
[#34528]
From the lesson on the weekly Torah portion on 2/4/11

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"Introduction of The Book of Zohar," Article “The Donkey Driver,” Item 85: Rabbi Elazar and Rabbi Aba came down from their donkeys and kissed the donkey driver. They said, “What is all that wisdom that is under your hand, while you are driving our donkeys? Who are you?” He told them, “Ask not who I am, but I and you shall walk and engage in Torah, and each shall say words of wisdom to illuminate the way.”

Question: Is “the donkey driver,” the one who drives from behind, a necessary step on our path, or can he also walk in front of the donkey?

Answer: This changes in accordance with man’s attitude. In the beginning he goes in front, and his “donkey” goes behind. And then he understands that he advances through his “donkey” and not on his own, and this entire path consists of transferring the “donkey” from one degree to another with the help of the point of "human" within him. Then the “donkey” becomes important.

A person can easily master this path since “human” is a point of Bina, a point in the heart. If this point is not in him, it can easily rise since it came down specifically to take all the ego, the “donkey,” Malchut, the desire to receive pleasure, and transfer it up.

This is why what matters is not the two people, the sages walking along the road that The Zohar describes, but the “donkey” with its entire load. And if so, then "the donkey driver" is important. These two sages are merely a point trying to attain the goal. Granted, it is important, and this is man’s entire free will, the beginning of the work that he agrees with and its direction. But the realization of this work only happens through the “driver.”

If they don’t employ the Torah (the Light that Reforms) to acquire a connection with the upper force which descended to lead their ego up, they do not correct themselves, their path, and they do not ascend. In other words, they study the Torah on the same “donkey,” with its entire heavy load, with the help of the “donkey driver.”

It turns out that the “donkey driver” teaches them how to walk, where to approach and how. He becomes specifically the teacher of the sages, and not of the “donkey.” And this is why they can rise.

This is the mutual inclusion of Bina and Malchut. At first I think that what matters most is these two sages (the "human" within me that needs to rise). Then I begin to notice that this "human" is only needed to bring the “donkey” from the foot of the mountain towards the Creator’s palace.

Then I understand that what matters most is the “donkey driver,” and he must help me lead the “donkey.” Consequently I realize that I need the “donkey driver” so he would teach me.

This is how their roles and the importance of each one of them change. But at the end everything joins together: You go on the “donkey,” the “donkey” goes on you, and everything works out.
[32399]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/10/2011, "Introduction of The Book of Zohar," Article "The Donkey Driver"

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