As we rise from the point of this world (the lowest point where the sensation of spirituality fades) to the uppermost point of the World of Infinity (where everything is corrected and revealed), we all go through the same stages. However, everyone goes through them according to the root of his or her soul or “according to their taste.”

In our world, we all feel one common world with the same senses. However, our qualities exist in a unique combination in every single person. Therefore, the picture of the world that arises in each person is also completely unique. It depends on the individual combination of his qualities that come from the root of his soul.

Nevertheless, we all climb the same rungs of the same spiritual ladder. Thus, there is one science for all concerning the revelation of a higher life: the science of Kabbalah. It explains to each person how he has to advance.

Everything we read about in The Zohar concerns our advanced states which everyone will have to go through. To the extent that we desire to feel them, we draw the force (the Light or Ohr Makif) from these degrees, and it develops us. As much as we exert our “baby” effort, we grow, develop, and ascend.

It is essential for us to rouse the influence of our advanced states upon us. Therefore, the second and much more important aspect in our approach to reading The Book of Zohar is to understand that ascent implies unification. We climb a “pyramid” or a “cone” to the extent that we unite in our points in the heart.

Therefore, all 125 degrees of the ladder from our world to complete perfection are 125 degrees of unification of desires until they merge completely in the quality of absolute bestowal. This means that the more we unite, the higher we rise, and to the extent that we connect, the quality of bestowal (the Creator) is revealed between us. As much as we are able to unite, we reveal the measure of unification between us, and this determines the measure of revelation of the quality of bestowal or the Creator.

Therefore, when we read The Book of Zohar, we wish to be in this state, and we await its manifestation within us and between us.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/12/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: How To Unite All The Pyramids Into One
Laitman.com Post: Stem Cells Of The Soul
Kabbalah Insights: Pyramid

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Zohar - No Comments →

When we read The Book of Zohar, we should visualize being in a system or a mechanism to which my point in the heart, my spiritual gene (Reshimo) that desires to reach its practical realization, adheres. My further development, the impact of the system on me, depends on this adhesion.

I stand opposite to this enormous system. If I don’t tune into it correctly, I will not be able to get it to work on me. It will still affect me, but solely through suffering and pain which doesn’t count as it is the natural way of development. However, I have a chance to plug into this system through my personal, inner effort.

First of all, I have to try to understand what “oneness” or “connection” is. I should also realize that the connection with the system occurs inasmuch as I am connected with the friends. There is a basic law: If I am connected with the friends to 10%, I am connected with the spiritual system to 10% as well. If I am connected with them to 80%, I am also connected with the system to 80%.

There is no other way to plug into the spiritual system for me. The greater our inner effort is to become one, to annul our individual material baggage, and to unite in our points in the heart (the only part of us that belongs in the spiritual system), the sooner we will unite to the degree of our oneness in our points in the heart.

This is the very first preparatory stage. We must demand the strength to unite from the spiritual system since obstacles constantly urge us to escape. The system has to hand us the “glue,” the Light that Reforms that will connect us. It has to clothe us as one whole body and hold us together.

Later, indeed, it will start “gluing” us at my request as if we were thousands of droplets of water merging into one enormous drop. Like in a hologram, there aren’t big and small elements in it, but everyone contains the entire picture. In this one collective wholeness, everyone loses his independence. In this way, the Light makes us one.

Now, as we become a single point, the intention to merge with The Book of Zohar itself is emerging within me. What I am reading right now, all these properties, I wish to find between us. All of the characters The Zohar is talking about are types of connections between us, and they exist at each spiritual level. This is why the story always repeats itself at each spiritual degree. The entire Torah is present in any spiritual state. And it doesn’t matter what is read or in what sequence; you can read the Torah from any page.

So now I wish to see all the relationships described in The Zohar in the connection between the thousands of points in the heart. I wish to start perceiving the connection between us in unison with the flow of the text of The Zohar. In this way, I start to reveal the story in its true form and eventually reach the state when I read and immediately realize the content within myself.

However, where is that point of realization? It is in the connection between us. Through this connection, I discover a totally new world with new sensations and desires. I submerge myself deeper and deeper in another dimension in order to uncover this system together with the others and the Creator. I taste each word with my own senses, and this is what is called the Torah of Life.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/12/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Ladder Leading To The Creator
Laitman.com Post: The House For The Creator
Laitman.com Post: We Are Infinities Joined In A Circle

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Zohar - No Comments →

Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, “Preparation for the Reception of Torah”
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYechi (And Jacob Lived in the Land of Egypt),” Item 282
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Rav Yehuda Ashlag, Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 6, Part 15, Item 89
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, “Preparation for Selichot”
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →

Everything that The Zohar and the wisdom of Kabbalah talk about are forms or types of the connection between us. The Creator or the Upper Light has no form; we cannot feel Him. The types and forms of connection of bestowal and love between us by being equivalent to the Light, give the Light form, color, and gradations of qualities. I can distinguish and “pick up” the Light in my own qualities to the extent that they are similar to Him.

Therefore, whatever we read about in The Zohar always refers to types of connection between souls. We reveal the Light according to the forms of connection that manifest between us. Otherwise the Light is impossible to “pick up” (reveal). “There is no Light” if I don’t paint it with different colors. The Light that comes to me should necessarily be colored as the seven colors of the rainbow. Without this, I, as a created being, will not see it; I will be unable to sense or perceive it.

Suppose that there is a prism to which simple white light is directed. As it is refracted through it, it separates into the seven colors of the rainbow, from red to violet.

This is what is done by Zeir Anpin of the World of Atzilut: It brings the Light of Bina from above, breaking it down into seven colors. And I, Malchut, act the opposite way (through the screen): I gather all these lights/colors together, bring them back (Ohr Hozer, the Reflected Light) into the “prism,” which results in one Light.

I don’t feel the simple, white Light which comes to me since it has no color. However, I gather all seven colors that come from Zeir Anpin into Malchut in me and feel the initial simple Light. Malchut is called the “gathering” since it gathers together and incorporates all seven Sefirot of Zeir Anpin.

By making itself similar to this “prism” that splits white Light into seven colors, Malchut once again achieves white Light. This is how it feels or imagines this Light. It does not receive white Light, but by making itself similar to it, it can achieve it and merge with it, according to the rule of “I will know You from Your actions” (MiMaaseicha Ikarnucha).

From 613 actions, our corrections, we build an “image” of the Creator. After all, the Creator does not have an image; we create it from our qualities.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/8/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Between Bina And Malchut
Laitman.com Post: The House For The Creator
Laitman.com Post: Find Yourself In The Upper Dimension

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Perception, Zohar - 2 Comments →

Here is a simple intention to have while reading The Book of Zohar:

1. I connect to every letter and word, and they enter me like a medical infusion that is administered drop by drop, which I perceive as “the elixir of life.”

I go from one word to the next, not knowing what hides behind each one. Yet I am convinced that word after word, like drop after drop, this “elixir of life” gradually pours into me.

2. If I am able to hold on to this thought at all times, then without really delving into the text but through the text or inside it, I allow myself to discern the Creator and my attitude to Him.

The text is what happens to a person, and the intention is a person’s connection to the Creator. At first we hold on to the intention, and then through it we try to reach the Creator, the One from whom we hear and from whom we receive. The text is the state of my desires which I want to attain.

If a person is also able to imagine that right now he really hears the text of The Zohar from the mouth of the Creator, that the Creator passes this knowledge to him, telling him about his own higher states, then this is one of the best ways to connect to the Creator. This is called “Hearing or studying the Torah from the mouth of the Creator.”

3. If we try to unite our intentions together while reading The Zohar, then deep down, inside our joint efforts, we will feel that The Zohar talks precisely about this.

The Torah describes only how we should unite together, in what degree, form, and manner. Therefore, the text of The Book of Zohar is not separate from the intention. It does not exist by itself, but talks only about realizing the intention.

From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/12/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Expect To Be Healed By The Zohar
Laitman.com Post: A Thin Bridge Into The Spiritual World
Laitman.com Post: Open The Door To The Creator!

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Prayer and Intention, Torah, Zohar - No Comments →

When I read the text of The Zohar, it’s not good if the text conceals the purpose of reading from me. I must constantly check: What exactly do I desire by reading it?

First and foremost, I desire for the reading of The Book of Zohar to reveal my illness: egoism, and then to heal it by helping me acquire the quality of bestowal instead of it. I want to acquire unity with others who aspire to the same goal. This is called the intention before the study.

After preparing the intention or the reason why I read The Book of Zohar, I can then start to read it. If I am consistently able to maintain the intention, then I can allow myself to also listen to the text and its meaning.

This is similar to a sick person who is in a critical state: He reads a medical book only in order to find the remedy. Nothing else interests him! He doesn’t care about the style of the text or the details of the story. He only looks for the remedy (the elixir of life: the Light)!

Therefore, first and foremost we must have the right intention, and after that we can listen to the details about what The Zohar narrates. There is nothing more important than receiving the “medical procedure” because we don’t understand any of the actual story until we enter that state ourselves.

Why then did the authors of The Zohar write all of these stories for us? It was in order for us to make efforts to keep the intention. Only after that, to the extent it is possible, can we allow ourselves to listen to the story while desiring to reveal it through the intention. We have to realize that we are not living these states and don’t understand the text, but we do desire to reveal it and aspire to be inside the state that is being described. Then we can understand the text and connect to it.

My primary desire is to attain the spiritual quality through the right attitude to The Book of Zohar. After that I can pay attention to the text and be sure that I will understand it correctly. This is called “desiring to attain what you study,” as written in Item 155 of “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot.”

The text of The Zohar is the place where I perform my inner work and make the inner discernments regarding where I am. First I must have an intention in relation to the goal, and then a sensation in relation to the text.

We have to feel the depths of the layers of attainment. This is called “Engaging in the Torah and the Commandments,” and “Studying the Torah.”

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/12/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Zohar Is The Link To The Upper Force
Laitman.com Post: The Strongest Medicine: Drops Of Fortune
Laitman.com Post: Reveal The Zohar Within Yourself

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Prayer and Intention, Torah, Zohar - 1 Comment →

The wisdom of Kabbalah speaks about my ascent to an Upper dimension. What does “ascent” mean? The Kabbalists say: “You exist in an Upper dimension but do not feel it. You have to reveal yourself existing in it.”

I exist in two dimensions. One is at the level of “this world,” where I reside in my physical body. The other is in an Upper dimension, where I exist in my spiritual body. This spiritual body, a desire to bestow, is concealed from me, and I know nothing about it. Opposite to it, there is the Upper Force called “the Creator.”

Opposite to my corporeal body, there is Nature. In the reality of “this world” I feel bad, which pushes me to uncover the Upper reality, my existence as “the Soul and the Creator” instead of “the Body and Nature.”

Kabbalists say that I have to discover the Upper dimension because that is where the governing forces reach me, and I along with my entire future depend on them. If I ascend, then I find out why I exist, who I am, and what happens to me. I reveal the meaning of my life and how to change everything for the better. These questions push me toward the Upper dimension.

When I start reading The Zohar, The Study of the Ten Sefirot, and the articles of Baal HaSulam and Rabash, I discover that they are talking about this Upper dimension. Conversely, if a person thinks that they are speaking of our world, then this view of the Kabbalistic texts is incorrect. This means that the reader makes an idol of the entire Torah by engaging in idolatry, and then it is forbidden for him to open these books. The reason being, instead of learning about the qualities of the Creator (loving  the other as you love yourself), such a person becomes an even greater egoist by thinking that the Torah teaches him how to perform rituals.

All “holy” books speak about the quality of sanctity (bestowal) and the Upper World (the acts of bestowal), whereas all ordinary books speak about the quality of reception and this world. Therefore, when I open a holy book, I yearn to enter the state of the author. He explains to me how to reach bestowal, never speaking of this world. After all, looking from above, this world is an illusion, “Olam HaMedume” (the imaginary world).

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/7/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Light Through The Cracks In The Wall
Laitman.com Post: A New Year: A New Step On The Spiritual Ladder
Laitman.com Post: The Zohar Is The Link To The Upper Force

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Perception, Zohar - No Comments →

Question: During The Zohar lessons, you reveal very subtle, concealed, and secret things so to speak.

Answer: They are secret and undisclosed to our senses because we are too coarse and can’t detect them. That’s all there is to it! It doesn’t mean that these things represent some kind of secret. They only seem like a mystery since I don’t see or feel them.

I have to sharpen my perception and make it more precise, capable of sensing more subtle gradation of properties. As a result, I will suddenly start sensing a very different, true picture of reality at a higher “resolution.” In order to do this, we have to bring our perception to the quality called “bestowal.” Once we feel it, we will feel the Upper World.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/7/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Concealment Is For Our Own Good
Laitman.com Post: Visions Or The Spiritual World
Laitman.com Post: A Guide To The Book Of Zohar: “We Were Like In A Dream”

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Q&A, Zohar - No Comments →

The Zohar, Chapter “VaYechi (And Jacob Lived),” Item 210: Come and see how important are the works of the Holy King. In the deeds that are done below, they tie them with the high things above, in their root, since anything below in this world has its root above in the upper worlds. And when they are taken down and worked with, the act above awakens corresponding to them, in the roots in the upper worlds.

“Above” and “below” refer to Bina and Malchut. If we think that “Above” refers to some abstract place in spirituality while “below” alludes to a place in our world, that is incorrect. After all, the science of Kabbalah does not speak of our world whatsoever. It does not concern itself with man in our world or actions which we perform here. The science of Kabbalah alludes only to actions in the desire which we can perform in similarity to the Upper Force, in bestowal.

Therefore, “the work of the Creator” means to learn from Him how He performs actions and to perform the same actions in our desire. Herein lies our work. We study this and ask the Creator for the ability, the strength, and a model of how to do it (from NHY [Netzah, Hod, Yesod], AHP [Awzen, Hotem, Peh] of the Upper One in the lower one).

Our entire work is the connection between Malchut and Bina where Malchut wants to learn the qualities of bestowal from Bina and, in response, receive the strength and realize it so as to become similar to Bina. That is why Malchut is called the lower world and Bina is the Upper World. All the actions to correct Malchut (the creature or the souls) are made only in the World of Atzilut. The souls which wish to unite rise precisely into Malchut of the World of Atzilut.

Therefore, wherever The Zohar speaks of the lower and Upper worlds pertains to what takes place between Malchut and Bina of the World of Atzilut,

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Similarity To The Creator
Laitman.com Post: The Point Of Salvation
Laitman.com Post: The Seal From Above

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Zohar - No Comments →

Question: Why did Kabbalists intentionally confuse us by using “earthly” words in their books as if they were talking about our material world?

Answer: It is because only out of confusion do we realize the truth. Without confusion, you will never get to understand it. Kabbalists wrote so many books because we need to arrive at revelation from its oppositeness: from the desire to receive pleasure to the desire to bestow.

There is a huge gap between them. We think that it’s enough to modify “plus” into “minus,” but, in fact, it is not that easy. All our thoughts and desires are interconnected, and we have to go through this entire perplexity. Any “confusion” represents a question that we have to resolve. And to come up with a question means already being half way to revelation or even more.

Therefore, every state that we go through in darkness being weak and helpless is an absolute necessity for us. I have no idea how to reach the truth without going through mistakes and deceitful perceptions that are repulsive to my senses and unclear to my mind. However, I grow because of them. This is the only way that we can combine “plus and minus,” or the Creator’s desire to bestow with the creature’s desire to receive: to go through a system of exile, concealment, and complete bewilderment.

When I look back, I see that each moment of my path is irrevocable. If I get rid of even one instant, nothing will look clear to me any more, and there will be no perfection at the end. We won’t be able to recognize or reveal it.

That is why everything that happens to us is indispensable. It was impossible to write The Zohar any other way. A person cannot progress without making mistakes. We have to become conscious of something that is opposite to the truth.

How do we teach our children? We confuse them and allow them to make mistakes so that they learn from them and won’t make them in real life. This is the difference between advancement through affliction and through the science of Kabbalah.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Collective Life Of Light And Desire
Laitman.com Post: Giving Is Life Receiving Is Death
Laitman.com Post: The Sweet Taste Of Truth

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Zohar - No Comments →