The Zohar tells us about the “next world” and “this world,” but do not think that it is talking about our material world. The Zohar does not say even one word about the physical bodies and what we feel in this world. Everything that happens to us is not taken into account at all in the spiritual.

Everything that happens in the desire to receive for one’s own sake on the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature is not described in Kabbalah because it is not subject to correction. Only the relationships between people need to be corrected to unification with each other and with the Creator. When The Zohar refers to “this world” or seemingly physical actions and people, it is referring to different types of desires in a person.

Kabbalah engages only in correction of desires. The Creator created a desire, and He wishes to bring it into equivalence with Him. Meanwhile, our physical body is merely our perception of this desire’s existence.

The whole still, vegetative, and animate nature of this world is the most external form of the same desire, which is not subject to correction. In our world there is nothing to correct! The greatest Kabbalist and the most common citizen are made of the same flesh. We can perform organ transplants from one to the other. There is nothing sacred or faulty in these bodies; both of them will die.

Everything starts from the spiritual desire where there is impurity, an intention for one’s own sake against the Creator, and sanctity, a desire for bestowal for the Creator’s sake. However, we are only talking about the desire, not the material body.

It is like placing a special filter in front of me, which holds back the matter of this world and leaves only spiritual matter, the desire for bestowal, in the open. We study the science of Kabbalah, meaning study about those desires that must be brought to equivalence with the Creator, and the other desires will vanish.

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Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, “What is the Difference in the Creator’s Work Between the Collective and the Particular ”
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYechi (And Jacob Lived in the Land of Egypt),” Item 245
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 6, Part 15, Item 85
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Yahrtzeit Rabash — Baal HaSulam, Letter 38
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It is essential to understand that everything we read in The Zohar takes place within our connection. Our connection produces (gives birth to) “space,” a new dimension where the Creator will be revealed. In fact, this space in itself doesn’t exist. But if every one of us, with his point in the heart, yearns for connection with the others, our collective efforts construct this space, the network between us, for the revelation of the property of bestowal: the Creator.

This space can be regarded as the group. People constantly ask: “Where is spirituality: upward, downward, or somewhere on the side?” It is said in a prayer: “Where is the place of His Greatness?” It is no-where; it doesn’t have a place. You have to build this place from your relationship with the others. Together, you are constructing spiritual space and in it, you find the Creator.

Moreover, the Creator Himself is regarded as “the place” because we feel Him in the “place” that we create for Him. The Creator exists beyond any space. You yourselves have to build it: one collective and corrected desire similar to the Creator in the property of bestowal where the Creator will be revealed.

He can be revealed only in this way, in the equivalence of form, meaning in the place suitable for Him which is the very same property of bestowal. None else is possible. This place is the Temple, the House of the Creator, the desire of Malchut that has acquired the properties of Bina. This is why it is named Beit HaMikdash, the Sanctified House. Malchut is the house and sanctity is Bina’s property of bestowal.

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

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The Zohar, Chapter “VeYechi (And Jacob Lived),” Item 244: For the next world, it is written, “For as the days of a tree shall be the days of My people.” “As the days of the tree” means the tree of life.” At the same time, it is written, “Death shall be swallowed up forever,” for there are no changes and no death in the tree of life.

This passage talks about the situation when a person is at the threshold of making a decision, a choice between good and evil, in Klipat Noga. All this system derives from the following: On one hand, the Creator forbids Adam to eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, but on the other, He sends Adam a “woman” who tempts him to sin by tasting the forbidden fruit.

The two opposites co-exist. As for us, we shouldn’t get confused and feel the split in our perception. Rather, we have to realize that the very disagreements present in each state where the Creator is shown as two-faced and having two different attitudes to us are designated to place us in a predicament where we won’t be able to discern what to do and will be forced to need Him.

This is what is called Klipat Noga, the point of our freedom. This freedom appears at this specific point, where two attitudes of the Creator, good and bad (as it were), come together and make it impossible to tell them apart and remove their conflict, other than by appealing to Him for help.

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

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Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, “Letter 67”
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYechi (And Jacob Lived in the Land of Egypt),” Item 218
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 6, Part 15, Item 115
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Rabash, Dargot Sulam, “Rosh Hashanah”
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Malchut wants to become similar to Bina and achieves this through Zeir Anpin (ZA). ZA is a model for her. Her being able to become similar to ZA indicates her ability to be similar to Bina.

The same applies to us. If I want to become like the Creator, I have to enter the group, become its integral part, participate together with everyone, influence everyone, and receive their influence in return. In such a mixing, in the connection between us, I acquire a new form of unification with others. Then the form that clothes me resembles the Creator.

In other words, if I clothe the group onto myself as if it were a garment, I, thus, am similar to the Creator.

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

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Question: Does every person need to experience all of the states described in The Zohar?

Answer: It is written, “Every man has to write the Torah.” This means that a person gradually needs to reveal all of his or her qualities or desires in their initial egoistic form and, to the extent of their revelation, correct them by changing the intention from “for myself” to “for the sake of others or the Creator.” Thereby a person builds a new vessel that has a screen and Ohr Hochma that fills it.

The revelation of the broken Kli means that a person clothes into a certain type of a sinner as described in the Torah. With the consequent correction of this state, he clothes into a righteous man from the Torah. A person has to assume these images and forms time after time, alternating between clothing into a sinner and a righteous man, both of which are presented to him by the Torah.

It is like an imprint of models that already exist in you. It is as if you were walking in darkness with a projector and alternate between shedding light onto a sinner that has clothed in you and a righteous man on the opposite end. In this way, you go from image to image every time. You must go through all of them! This is because the entire Torah consists of states that you experience, beginning with Adam: the first revelation of evil in you and the first contact with the Creator.

Man begins with experiencing the sensation of his egoism in contradiction to the Creator. The entire Torah only speaks about these consecutive clothings into different roles that you play like in theater and according to a script given to you. You clothe into different figures, but you are the only one playing this multitude of roles.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/10, The Zohar

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Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, “Matter of Enika ve Ibur (Suckling and Conception)”
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYechi (And Jacob Lived in the Land of Egypt),” Item 210
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 6, Part 15, Item 62
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Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, “What is the Matter of Being A Head or A Tail in the Work”
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The Zohar, Chapter "VeYechi (And Jacob Lived)," Item 193: In regards to the rest of the wicked of the world, it does not say, “And the thing which he did was evil in the eyes of the Lord,” but here it is written, “And Er, the firstborn of Judah, was wicked.” What he did was wicked in the eyes of the Creator because it is written, “And he spilled it on the ground.”

The ladder of the spiritual degrees by which we ascend from our world to the World of Infinity consists of 125 degrees (states), which themselves are divided into a multitude of different states. Each state consists of a vessel and the Light in it.

Hence, based on what’s written in the Torah, if I am at the degree of "Er," I perform an action called "he spilled it on the ground." And if I’m at the degree of Jacob, then, according to this degree, I form the three lines.

Therefore, when we read The Zohar we need to realize that in a given state a person enacts an image called Moses or Aaron, Abraham or Pharaoh, Bilam or Balak and performs actions inherent in each of them. These images refer to a person’s inner states which he has to undergo, receiving an impression from his "evil inclination" and the Light that Reforms. The sum total of these images and acquired forms is later accumulated into a general image of similarity to the Creator.

All the righteous and the wicked unite in it with all the voids (vessels) coming from the states of the wicked and all the corrections and fillings with bestowal from the states of the righteous. And thereby a person rises in Infinity.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/10, The Zohar

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The Book of Zohar is being revealed now because it is a source of strength which can carry out all the corrections and advance us. Just as a train or a car cannot move without electricity or gas, we cannot advance without The Book of Zohar which gives us energy, “fuel” for advancement.

In addition, The Zohar reveals to us where we are situated, who we are, where we are advancing, and for what purpose. It reveals the whole path to us. In essence, it is the Light that illuminates the whole space that surrounds us in order for us to see where we are. The Zohar is the Light that gives us an opportunity to feel in our minds and hearts who we are and what we represent, how we are arranged, how we sense, think, and make decisions. It is the Light that illuminates the goal to us so that we understand to where we are advancing, with what speed, what is happening, and what to do.

The Zohar is the Light that gives strength, the Light that corrects us, and the Light that advances us on the path. It does everything. However, we need to rouse this Light and it’s not easy. After we rouse it, there’s nothing more to do because it knows how to arrange and carry out everything. We merely need to rouse it.

We think that the science of Kabbalah demands some impossible effort from us. However, the entire work is actually in our hands. After all, the Light needs to come and influence us. This Light is called Surrounding Light since it cannot clothe a person directly, clearly, and openly. It does this indirectly and we only feel the results of its actions but not it itself.

Under what condition is the Light drawn? It is drawn according to law of equivalence of form or the law of equality: The Light comes to the extent that I desire to become similar to it. How do I perform this action in order to become similar to it? Something that is called the group has been placed before me, and initially I hate it. In the same manner that I am opposite to the Light, I am also opposite to this Kli (the spiritual vessel) called a “group.”

To the extent that I try to unite with the group, to enter it, the Light affects me to the same exact degree. I am situated below, “under the group,” and it is on top, “above the group.” It turns out that I work on uniting with the friends, and to the extent that we unite the Light influences and corrects us. It unites us and the Light (the Creator) is revealed in our unification.

If this is the case, then everything is in my hands. The Light waits for me to perform this effort. I cannot unite with others; I merely need to desire this and to exert effort. Then it will happen.

Therefore, before we read The Book of Zohar, the strongest source of Surrounding Light, I need to think about the fact that I must unite with others, thereby preparing the vessel (Kli) for the Light that will glue it together and be revealed in it. After all, the Light is revealed only in the unification, in the place of the former breaking.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/3/10, The Zohar

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