The Book of Zohar — Introduction: “The Letters by Rabbi Amnon Saba,” Item 29, Lesson 4
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Talmud Eser Sefirot 3, Part 8, Item 8, Lesson 12
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Baal HaSulam, “Beit Shaar HaKavanot,” Item 81
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag “A Handmaid that is Heir to Her Mistress,” Lesson 7
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It is dangerous to study The Book of Zohar with a desire that is not ripe yet, meaning a desire that still hasn’t exhausted itself in this world. This kind of desire still doesn’t understand that there is nothing to be done in this world other than to ascend from it to the world of correction.
A person can only reveal Kabbalah if he looks for the meaning of life and has to find what to live for. However, if he still does not have this question, then he begins to interpret Kabbalah egoistically and to adapt it to his own benefit, deceiving himself by thinking that he is correcting himself. He starts selling it and using it as a weapon for his ego. Instead of using it against egoism, he uses it to conquer things for the ego, and that’s how he turns it from the elixir of life into a deadly poison for himself and for others.
That is why Kabbalists feared revealing the science of Kabbalah and invented many prohibitions, such as first reaching the age of 40, the need to first learn the whole Torah, as well as total observance of the commandments. They even scared people off by saying that you can go crazy. All of this was done because egoism was still undergoing the process of its development.
The Book of Zohar itself states that it is destined to be revealed only at the end of days. Then this wisdom would be revealed for the correction of the world, which is now ready for correction. That is when Kabbalists come out, telling us that the time has come!
That is why Rabbi Shimon cried about how to write The Book of Zohar in such a way that even if it were to become revealed at the wrong time, it wouldn’t cause harm. This is why he wrote it with the help of Rabbi Abba in a special, secret code. We read The Book of Zohar without understanding where Rabbi Shimon is concealed behind Rabbi Abba, who wept so much about the revelation of the great secret.
Rabbi Shimon used Rabbi Abba as a "shield," an external shell, an opportunity to write in a concealed manner. A person can reveal the secret that was hidden by Rabbi Shimon only on the condition that he penetrates inside Rabbi Abba’s protective shell. Then he can accept Rabbi Shimon’s secret message, but he is unable to read it before that time.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/14/10, “A Handmaid that is Heir to Her Mistress”
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When turning to a Kabbalistic text, especially The Book of Zohar, we must realize the importance of spiritual attainment. After all, at the end of the day this is the only thing we want: not knowledge or scholastics, and not general knowledge of the material, but only pure attainment, which signifies that a person has revealed the Creator. This is the criterion by which we value things.
On the path to attainment the operating law is the law of equivalence of form, which does not make any compromises. On one hand, a person fully and entirely depends on the influence of the Upper Force. Nothing else can help him; he needs only help from Above. Whoever understands this builds the right attitude.
The Torah talks about this when describing the Egyptian exile: “The sons of Israel cried out from the work and their cry rose to the Creator.” In other words, they firmly knew that they will never attain anything by themselves.
On the other hand, spiritual progress is always built on the combination of opposites. Therefore, we also have to participate in the process ourselves. As a result, we make great efforts while at the same time being sure that only a “miracle from the heavens” will lead us out of the land of Egypt into the land of Israel.
It is necessary to reach despair from one’s own ability, and a person should not run away from this feeling. In addition, one must be confident that there will be help from Above and ceaselessly demand it with all of one’s strength.
A person must find himself in the state of the sons of Israel who cried out from the work. That’s when everything inside him along with the external environment fuses into one whole and creates these conditions, bringing him significantly closer to the exit from Egypt.
Therefore, we must try to correctly imagine ourselves in this point. This is where we perform all the necessary actions and later we don’t run away from the despair, but on the contrary, we transfer the entire force of our despair to a cry, a demand for correction.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/14/10, The Zohar
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Question: What should every person’s concern be at the lesson: The purity of his own spiritual work or just unity?
Answer: It’s not enough to be schematically concerned about unity in general. As Baal HaSulam writes, we have to build the unity of Israel, the Torah, and the Creator.
We are in a state where every person and all of us together decide everything. Every person adds his “penny” to the group’s common desire and from it receives the right aspiration to prayer. Then his personal prayer once again pours into the unity of the common prayer.
The individual work always combines with the common work: A person completes the whole, and also completes himself with the whole. As a result we form a single prayer, about which it is written, “The sons of Israel cried out from the work.”
In order to achieve this, the goal must be extremely important to us so that we wouldn’t trade it for any “achievements” or theoretical knowledge. We are not satisfied by the calming rhythm of the daily routine because at the current rate we can keep “advancing” for another thousand years. We are not satisfied by success in dissemination because this is obviously just a means. No matter how great our achievements are, we cannot consider them the goal of our lives, not even a temporary, intermediate one.
We cannot calm ourselves by the results of our work and efforts, hoping that they will do the job with time. Instead, a person must immediately shift his gaze to the most important thing and place the true goal in front of him: the revelation of the quality of the Creator, the quality of bestowal inside him. We should demand this unequivocally and tirelessly. Any break harms the person and his connection with the Creator. Therefore, this is where the common prayer is necessary, which is able to be constant.
We have to understand that it takes very great efforts to enter the spiritual world, but they are not so difficult to make in the group and depend only on our agreement.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/14/10, The Zohar
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The Book of Zohar — Introduction: “The Letters by Rabbi Amnon Saba,” Item 27, Lesson 3
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Talmud Eser Sefirot 3, Part 8, Item 3, Lesson 11
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Baal HaSulam, “Beit Shaar HaKavanot,” Item 79
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag “A Handmaid that is Heir to Her Mistress,” Lesson 6
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I always have to look for the most comfortable means that will help me feel inspired as fast as possible by the importance of the goal. This will enable me to aspire to the “place” or the “drop of unity” where I eventually hope to reveal the Creator. In this regard, everything depends on my current state. Various Reshimot are constantly surfacing in me. As a rule, I start to build the intention from an unconscious, vague, and “dry” state, without a drop of feeling and reason.
Thus, I have to awaken from this “stupor” so I burn up with such a strong desire that if I don’t reveal at this very moment what the Kabbalistic book is telling me about that “death is better” than this life without upper attainment.
We have to look for and use everything that can excite and touch us. Sometimes the group helps, reminding me about unity, mutual guarantee, and responsibility. Sometimes I am inspired by thoughts about the Creator as a wonderful, exalted goal. Sometimes I am excited by the action itself and the work to unite with friends in spite of the disturbances. It is necessary to look for means that will make me have an inextricable spiritual demand while reading the Kabbalistic texts at the lesson.
The approach to these texts has to be balanced. In principle I have reason to complain. On one hand, if I don’t understand anything at all, then I don’t have anything to latch on to. On the other hand, when I start to pay attention to the content, I feed the mind and lose the intention.
That’s why Baal HaSulam writes the following in “Letter 17”: “It’s best for you to hold on to the goal and aspire to the directions of the Host. After all, one who does not know the ways of the Host and the directions of Host, meaning the secrets of the Torah, how will he serve Him? This is the surest guarantee of the middle line out of the three.”
We aspire to understand what we have to to do, asking, “Give us the mind, give us the forces, direct us, explain it to us, show it through example so we would act correctly.” You can demand all of this from the Creator the way a child demands it from an adult. From the child’s end only a desire is necessary, while the adults provide him with all that is necessary. I collect this desire in the group, from my friends. Therein lies my free choice.
From Above I receive everything I need on the spiritual path, besides the demand, which I have to develop on my own. It will come only when I get inspired from the environment by the greatness of the goal. Then the inspiration will break out of the heart and I will aspire to the directions of the Host with all of my strength in order to learn to serve Him.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/13/10, The Zohar
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“Introduction from The Book of Zohar,” Article “Who Created These,” Item 8: And there is another one, below, called MA. What is the connection between one and the other? The first one, called MI, is hidden. There is a question in him. Since man questioned and researched, to look and to know from degree to degree through the end of all the degrees, the Malchut, once he has arrived there, he is MA [which means “what” in Hebrew], meaning “What did you know?” “What did you observe?” “What did you research?” After all, everything is as concealed as before.
This is an example of how the upper one arouses the questions in the lower one by clothing in it. Where there arise no questions, you are not clothed onto the upper one, and hence you have no questions. It is GAR de Bina where everything is Hafetz Hesed (one who wishes nothing for himself). Hafetz Hesed has no question; he is loyal and that’s it.
Below that level, in ZAT de Bina, the questions arise: Why? What for? What is worthwhile, and what is not? These are all questions that could awaken in the lower one in order to be answered. That is why it is called “the end of the sky”: One can ascend there, reveal it. This is YESHSUT, our upper home.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/10/10, “Introduction from The Book of Zohar,” Article “Who Created These”
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Questions: What does the “weekly Torah portion” mean in terms of one’s inner development?
Answer: A weekly portion is a part of our spiritual path, which starts and ends at a certain spiritual degree. It summarizes our progress at a given state. And then a new portion starts: a new turn, renewal of the upper mechanism that acts upon us and is called Zeir Anpin of the world of Atzilut.
A week or seven days is the seven Sefirot of Zeir Anpin, HGT-NHY-M, which get renewed again and again on each degree. From Zeir Anpin, we receive a certain portion of the Light and with it, correct ourselves. This means that we have performed a weekly correction and cannot do anything on the last day, Saturday.
Everything that gets corrected during the six days goes from the six Sefirot of Zeir Anpin (HGT-NHY) into Malchut.
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From the Lesson on the Weekly Torah Portion 12/9/10
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The Upper One is only waiting for a reaction from us. Portions of Light come from the Upper One to the lower one (to every one of us), demanding the right reaction from us in response. The Upper One knows exactly what is happening to the lower one and what state the lower one is in because He forms this state for the lower one.
Of course, the Upper One knows what the lower one is ready to do. He arranged all of the external and inner conditions for the lower one to ensure him free choice, leaving the lower one just one thing that is unclear and unknown to the lower one – the middle third of Tifferet (Klipat Noga). Precisely in this state the lower one has to form the middle line on his own.
If in response to the Upper One’s influence, the lower one correctly builds the middle line, this means he becomes worthy. Then he really shifts himself and the whole world (all of the environment that the Upper One has formed for him at this moment) toward good.
Therefore, the only thing required of the lower one when he feels a lack (Hissaron) is to turn to the Upper One in order to receive the component he lacks in order to shift himself and the whole world to good. The lower one lacks knowledge, sensation, and later the ability to make a decision. He must receive all of this from the Upper One.
The Upper One leaves the lower one Klipat Noga in order for him to desire to turn to Him and receive what he lacks. If the lower one is ready to receive this supplement for Klipat Noga, then he receives it. This is the additional force of bestowal that he acquires on the current degree, which enables him to rise to the next level.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/13/10, The Zohar
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The Book of Zohar — Introduction: “The Letters by Rabbi Amnon Saba,” Item 24, Lesson 2
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Baal HaSulam, “Beit Shaar HaKavanot,” Item 78
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag “A Handmaid that is Heir to Her Mistress,” Lesson 5
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