Writings of Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, “He Who Has Not Made An Effort On Shabbat Eve, What Will He Eat on Shabbat”
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The Book of Zohar — Introduction: “Yitro (Jethro),” Item 62, Lesson 3
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Talmud Eser Sefirot 3, Part 8, Item 43, Lesson 25
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Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy,” Lesson 6
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The Zohar, Introduction, Article “Yitro (Jethro)”: The Zohar explains the order of the emanation of the Partzufim of Atzilut: Atik, AA, AVI, and ZA, how the source of everything, the Masach of Malchut of Midat ha Din, uses Partzuf Atik, operates in AA to conceal the Hochma there… Afterwards, it explains VAK de ZA concerning six curtains, and the embroidered curtain, GAR de ZA.

The authors of The Book of Zohar revealed the order of relationships between them and inside the connection among each other they revealed Partzufim, worlds, qualities, and inner discernments. All of this is present between a person and others.

When a person sees others as connected together, it is called “the World of Infinity.” If he sees them as connected partially, it is called Partzufim that are above him. That is how they speak to each other, revealing every quality and calling it “Rabbi Yossi, Rabbi Hiya, Rabbi Elazar, Rabbi Shimon,” as well as various pictures of nature.

All of these are states that our souls go through in the process of their correction. I know from my personal experience how difficult it is for a person to depict a very simple picture in his imagination: that there is nothing besides the separated souls. Their total division is perceived by them as our world. Their partial unification, the inclusion of the desires into one another by the principle “Love your neighbor as yourself” creates the sensation of the Upper World in the souls.

Their total unity is perceived by the souls as the World of Infinity: unbounded, unlimited unity, and accordingly, total fulfillment by Light.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/2/11, The Zohar

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We read The Zohar with the Sulam Commentary where the source text, The Book of Zohar itself, written in the language of Talmud, and Baal HaSulam’s commentary, written in the language of Kabbalah, interweave with one another like threads in a tapestry. We receive the text in a ready-made form with these two languages intermixed with each other. But when you read or listen to it, it’s as if two pictures or two screens arise before you like on a computer — the inner and the outer.

On the outer screen you read the text in the language of the Talmud, while on the inner one it is talking about spiritual qualities and actions in the terminology of Kabbalah. These two screens gradually start to unite as one for you, and that helps you to start bringing the observation of the outer picture of the world closer to the inner observation.

You read The Zohar and it helps you start perceiving the outer reality as happening inside you. Gradually this influences you and you suddenly begin relating to the world the same way as well.

It’s as if you go through a cloud and find the true reality, the authentic perception of reality. And The Zohar accompanies you.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/30/10, The Zohar

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Writings of Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, “Above Reason in Divine Service”
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The Book of Zohar — Introduction: “Yitro (Jethro),” Item 32, Lesson 2
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Talmud Eser Sefirot 3, Part 8, Item 42, Lesson 24
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Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy,” Lesson 5
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Question: Where is our freedom of choice when reading The Zohar?

Answer: We read The Zohar to realize our freedom of choice. Otherwise, there is no need either in The Zohar or in the entire wisdom of Kabbalah. Why do I need it? Is it to know the number of angels in the sky? What difference would it make if I counted them by name? I still wouldn’t know what “skies” or “angels” are, or I would draw them with wings.

For this reason, I approach the reading of The Zohar, the study of the wisdom of Kabbalah, work in the group, and the entire spiritual work in order to realize my free will, in order to receive the miraculous remedy, Segula, through all these means.

The book before me is a certain artificial device that connects me with the spiritual world of which I am neither aware nor have any idea about its properties. However, Kabbalists say that I have a certain “adapter” that can connect me with an unknown world.

Let’s say that there is a notion of a “micro world” in quantum physics, a world of elementary particles. Even though I live among them, I do not feel them, but physicists say that it is possible to create an instrument which will help you attain this world and begin to perceive it. This is why they are building different devices, such as (elementary) particle accelerators.

This way, there are tools that help us perceive the inner world of particles that are concealed from the world we presently feel. We can attain a world where we are not able to perceive anything because our senses do not operate in its range.

The wisdom of Kabbalah also gives me a tool, the reading of The Zohar, which can help me attain the concealed spiritual world, and it works! Just use it.

However, by using the tool in Kabbalah, you are the one who changes, and this tool transforms into your inner instrument. In contrast, the scientists who study earthly sciences do not change. They only perfect their tools and make them more powerful. For this reason, whatever they are doing is called the external world, outside of man.

In Kabbalah, we work with the inner world because thereby we change our nature. And at the same time, we suddenly begin to perceive phenomena that previously were completely outside of our sensations.

We do not improve the sensitivity we already have, as do musicians who perceive sounds much better than we do, or artists who perceive colors much better. Kabbalah helps us attain a state where properties that we previously did not have develop within us.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/29/10, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “You Are Partners With Me”

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Question: I don’t understand Hebrew just yet, so what should I do when we are reading The Zohar? Should I look at the letters or just listen to the text?

Answer: All languages but Hebrew are meant for communication in this world. Hebrew, on the other hand, is not a spoken language but a record of spiritual actions from ZAT de Bina (its seven lower Sefirot), Zeir Anpin, and Malchut on the matter of Malchut. The symbols describe these spiritual actions.

So look at the text before you as a sequence of commands in a computer program: It is simply a record of spiritual properties, forces, and actions that you must carry out within yourself. This is how I view Hebrew. I don’t treat it as a literary language used to make text flow smoothly, as in other languages.

While you don’t usually look at the letters and combinations when reading the Kabbalistic texts, you still look inside the word and its inner meaning. You look at the symbol since each letter is always a symbol.

Hebrew has so much data, information hidden within the language, that it’s impossible to reflect it in a translation. After all, the sequence of letters of the text describes the Sefirot, the order of actions. How can that be recorded in another language?

In each letter we should see a symbol of some spiritual property or action that it signifies.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/30/10, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar, Article “Yitro (Jethro)”

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The Book of Zohar affects a person in a special way: It’s enough for a person to read, listen, and desire to be connected, even virtually, with the group; all of this, even in a small degree, to the extent that life allows a person to free himself for this book, The Zohar immediately starts developing the spiritual organ of perception in him. As it occurs, a person begins to experience changes, stages of development.

The Book of Zohar just needs to be read. It would be good to publish selected pieces in a pocket-sized format so that a person could read it anywhere. In truth, there isn’t a more effective means for advancement than this book.

The Book of Psalms doesn’t help to advance a person spiritually. Humanity has been reading it for thousands of years. People are simply pacifying themselves.

This doesn’t in any way diminish the value of the Book of Psalms, written at the degree of the complete Malchut. After all, King David represents Malchut, the entire creation. Like all other “holy” books written by those who have attained the Creator, they carry His Light within.

However, as Baal HaSulam explains in the “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” the Light that Reforms that builds the property of bestowal within us is closer and more effective for us if it comes from The Book of Zohar. The Light in The Zohar is the most powerful.

Obviously, reading The Zohar must go hand in hand with studying the articles of Baal HaSulam and Rabash and The Study of the Ten Sefirot. Yet, The Book of Zohar should fill all of a person’s free time.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/30/10, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar, Article “Yitro (Jethro)”

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The Book of Zohar, Introduction, Article “You Are Partners with Me,” Item 65: …for the righteous, who have already been completed in the upper brightness, constantly going and becoming new heaven and earth, as it is written, “Righteous go from strength to strength.”

Question: How do the righteous create this continuous renewal?

Answer: They are constantly trying to support each other. A person who holds the spiritual intention is constantly thinking only of others who are also supporting the same system.

What does it mean that we penetrate into a more inner screen, into a more internal picture of reality? If I am there, does it mean that I join an unchangeable system, and there is nothing more for me to do? No, I join a system which I support, wanting to see it this way, to realize it in this way.

On the one hand, I say that the greatest people of the generation are in it; everyone is in the right intention. The minute I join it, I am sure that I am in mutual guarantee. Everything depends on me. As soon as I add my “lepta” (the smallest coin in Ancient Greece), everything will immediately settle and be fine.

On the other hand, I must be concerned about everyone supporting this system so that everyone will be in it, will realize this connection, as if I am the only one upon whom everything depends, and I “sentence myself and the whole world to a scale of merit.”

Furthermore, there are mutual actions here. From one side, I connect with others, and they are in the state of Final Correction (Gmar Tikkun). From the other, in order to be together with them, I am obliged to be concerned about and take care of them as if they did not have anything and I support them, and their whole correction depends on me.

What is it for? All of this is for me, for the correction of my Kli (vessel) since my desire consists of everyone else. This is called “interconnection.” I include (connect) everyone within me. If I want them to include (connect) me within them, I have to consist of them.

It is necessary to try to feel these concepts. It will not help to simply memorize them in my head as it will escape me in a second.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/28/10, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar, Article “You Are Partners with Me”

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Explanation of the Article, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Lesson 10
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag “The Freedom,” Lesson 11
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Question: Can I use my imagination to picture the future corrected state?

Answer: That depends on what we imagine to ourselves at the future degree. To portray it mechanically, we make drawings.

It is possible to put all the conditions of the future degree into some table, to list all the technical particulars of these states: desires, screens, levels of Aviut, entrance and exit of Lights, the Surrounding and Inner Lights, the degree’s division into a multitude of internal and external systems in the Second Restriction.

But, ultimately, we come to the same spiritual discernments recorded by Kabbalists so as to describe to one another the technical details that need to be carried out in order to feel what they wish to convey. Suppose I give you a sheet of musical notes; that is, I convey to you some sort of data. Can you do anything with it? No. You must first perceive it as external information and then carry out the internal counterpart. If you read music, you’ll be able to sing it, and then you will know what I intended to convey by it.

Kabbalists do exactly the same by passing to you technical data. Carry them out in your soul and you will receive all they had intended. That is how you will know what they’re talking about.

The transfer of information through the Internet works the same way. I draw a picture on the computer screen or import photos from a camera, save the images in a particular format, and send you this information via a communication channel. You receive these technical data and use a decoder to once more transfer them into an image on your screen.

That is also how Kabbalists keep in contact with one another. They have attained a spiritual picture, recorded it, and passed it to us, except we’re missing the “decoder” to turn this information into that same picture. We read about it but don’t have any way to imagine what they’re talking about. To us it all seems like fantasy.

We are unable to decipher and extract the meaning of any of the four languages used by Kabbalists to describe to us the spiritual world (the languages of Tanach, Halacha, Hagaddah, and Kabbalah). But what is it that Kabbalists tell us? Use these texts as a “miraculous remedy” (Segula). What is Segula? If you want to attain revelation and somehow understand that the revelation is only possible in the quality of bestowal, you will see yourself and the whole world in love and bestowal to one another, in mutual guarantee, like one man with one heart.

If you aspire to this picture, you’ll begin to draw closer to the correct decoding of these texts. It will influence you, and, ultimately, the same spiritual “decoder” will be revealed in you. That is why we read The Book of Zohar.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/28/10, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar, Article “You Are Partners with Me”

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